I got to try the coolest bathtub in the universe this week -- it's a Kohler "infinity edge" Sok tub. The design has two tubs, one nesting inside the other. You fill the inner tub with water right to the edge, then climb in. The water you displaces sloshes into the outer tub, and supplies water to gentle jets at the base of the tub, which pump it back in, so that there's a continuous waterfall of water over the edge of the inner tub into the outer. It's amazing -- so totally liberating to fill the tub right to the brim and happily splash away, overflowing it, knowing that this tub is designed to overflow. I immediately resolved to buy one someday, then checked out the price -- a cool ten grand -- and realized that someday might be a long, long way away. Link

Following up on a fascinating eye-tracking study that showed that men's gaze fixates on any visible crotches (male, female, human or animal) in photos, another eye-tracking study explores the differences between how artists and non-artists see the world:

Stine Vogt and Svein Magnussen showed 16 pictures including these two to trained artists and non-artists (psychologists) enrolled in Norway's top graduate programs in their respective disciplines, using eye-tracking cameras and software to monitor where they looked. The viewers were unaware of the purpose of the test -- they were told the study was about pupil size and response to pictures. In the first phase of the experiment, viewers simply looked at each picture in random order, and in the second phase, they were asked to view the pictures again, but to concentrate in order to remember them.

Vogt and Magnussen defined key areas of each picture -- small regions around focal objects such as human bodies or faces. This graph shows how often artists and non-artists looked at these areas:

Link (via Kottke)

See also: Men stare at crotches

Pi day (3.14etc) was celebrated by mathophiles around the world earlier this week. Above, Stanford hottie Lauren Elizabeth O'Neal throws down the intergalactic math posse sign. She's wearing a "Cherry Pi" t-shirt designed by dieselsweeties creator R. Stevens.

"My dorm room number is 314, so I really couldn't resist," she explained. "Plus I decided it would be prudent to invent a pi gang symbol."

Previously on BoingBoing:

Happy 3/14 -- Pi Day!

MAKE article about "antigravity" lifter killed (Mark)

700 sets of 700 drawings (Mark)

Kidnapped "Nun Bun" Resurfaces in Seattle (Xeni)

Time makes Reagan cry with Photoshop, interview (Mark)

Guatemala: Photos from indigenous protest of Bush visit (Xeni)

NPR: Google to purge some data to protect privacy (Xeni)

Pierre Matter's biomech-steampunk sculptures (Pesco)

Michael Crook apologizes to internet for DMCA abuse (Xeni)

SRL and Greg Leyh's Taser Cannon renamed after C&D (Pesco)

Squirrel menace posts: part 1, part 2 (Mark)

Alternate soundtrack to old '70s PSA for union workers (Mark)

Viacom: privacy-hating hypocrites (Cory)

BoingBoingBoing podcast 11: Noah Shachtman, Danger Room (all of us)

Boing Boing portrait: our obsessions, illustrated (Cory)

Kim sez, "Mitch Bainwol and Cary Sherman of RIAA try to explain why they are suing students with a new article in Inside Higher Education."

Yet this is about far more than the size of a particular slice of the pie. This is about a generation of music fans. College students used to be the music industry’s best customers. Now, finding a record store still in business anywhere near a campus is a difficult assignment at best. It’s not just the loss of current sales that concerns us, but the habits formed in college that will stay with these students for a lifetime. This is a teachable moment — an opportunity to educate these particular students about the importance of music in their lives and the importance of respecting and valuing music as intellectual property.

Hilarious: the people who created sex, drugs and rock and roll, who glorified thug life and guns, are suddenly all concerned with the moral character of America's teens. That's about as credible as the idea that they're really worried about musicians' fortunes.

Link (Thanks, Kim!)

BGroobs sez, "At SXSW, David Byrne gave a presentation in which he details his predictions for the future of the music industry: digital downloads will be the norm, and labels will either be reduced to marketing firms or will focus only on megastars. Oh, and the article drops this little nugget: '[Bryne] said he buys most of his music online via eMusic, or obtains it illegally, due to the file constraints on files sold on iTunes.'"

Byrne is incredibly smart about this stuff -- and he's also the most talented versatile artist of his generation. About tho-thirds of my favorite music was written, performed or published by him.

While conceding the marketing costs in the digital era won't be cheap, Byrne noted that sites like YouTube offer more possibilities to artists than MTV. He called up a YouTube video of a man standing in a cavern. ``Nobody is telling you have to make a million dollar video,'' Byrne said. ``You can make it like this guy -- stand in a dangerous place and everyone will watch.''

But first, he said, labels will have to remove their digital rights management (DRM) copyright-control technology. He said he buys most of his music online via eMusic, or obtains it illegally, due to the file constraints on files sold on iTunes. Byrne predicated that once DRM is removed, iTunes will no longer ``have a monopoly,'' and labels will be better prepared to deal with Web sales.

Link (Thanks, BGroobs!)

Tim Biskup is having a "mini show" in Tokyo and will be selling a Virus Glow Bog Pollard, along with a Glow Big Pollard.

Tim & his pal Bwana Spoons will be in Tokyo for a mini-art show and exclusive vinyl figure release party at Thrash-Out, the flagship store for boutique figure line Gargamel. Tim's "Mini-Dragamel" and Bwana's "Killer" figures are being produced as a set in a special clear-pink color-way (sorry, no pictures, yet). The set will be limited to 100 of each figure. Also available will be two different exclusive GLOW-IN-THE-DARK versions of Tim's Big Pollard figure. One is limited to 100. The other is limited to only 25!

(If someone is going to the opening at Thrash-Out please buy a Pollard for me.) Link

One of my favorite MAKE projects never made it into the magazine (I'm editor-in-chief of MAKE). It was a how-to piece for making a small object that levitates using a high-voltage power source.

After the article had been laid out and we were getting ready to close the issue (Vol. 9), we sent the article around to the members of MAKE's technical advisory board. Based on their feedback about the potential hazards of the project, we killed the story.

On the MAKE website, we're running an article about the project that includes the comments from our tech advisory board. It's fascinating reading.

What's more important: empowering readers to take control of technology, or protecting them from the risks? A spirited discussion between MAKE's editors and technical advisory board ultimately led us to cancel publication of the high-voltage "Lifter" project in Volume 09.

The piece was written by John MacNeill, a well-known illustrator whose work appears frequently in publications such as Popular Science. MacNeill is also a "lifter" hobbyist who has made several of the mysterious levitating devices, and the how-to project he submitted was excellent. We were very excited to run it. However, MAKE's technical advisory board, consisting of engineers, how-to book authors, and researchers, deemed the project to be unsafe, due to the project's high voltage conducted across exposed wires in a flying object. Would strong warnings suffice, or did we need a full primer on high voltage? We also worried about recommending reuse of a TV tube (CRT) as a power supply, due to the dangers of capacitance discharge, and the unknown voltage and current. But even with a store-bought DC power supply, could the current of 0.4 milliamps be deadly? (Probably not.) Would the current-limiting knob protect makers? (Probably so.) Was the project too tempting for inexperienced teens? Isn't it MAKE's mission to empower people to handle technology? And, having established an email thread of world-class makers questioning safety, what about legal liability?

Link

The fine folks who drew illustrations for John Hodgman's "700 Hobo Names" are now branching out. The plan is to come up with 700 categories, each of which will contain 700 illustrations.

So far: 700 Zombies, 700 Pirates, 700 Underwear Clad Vigilante Mutants, 700 Bunnies, 700 Unicorns, and 700 Robots.

Fun! (shown here: El Zombrero -- zombie No. 396, by Mark Van Olmen) Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Videos of hoboes being drawn by Ape Lad
• John Hodgman's hobo mosaic
• 700 imaginary hobo names
• 700 Hoboes project takes off

Eduardo says:

All this money was stashed in a house in Mexico City, presumably a drug lord's.

The house was guarded by seven people.

Link

Enjoy Lockwasher's photo gallery of heads from his collection of vintage robot toys. Link (Via Dark Roasted Blend)

Debbie Grossman interviewed illustrator Tim O'Brien about how he created the Iron Eyes Cody style tear running down President Reagan's cheek in the latest issue of Time.

Me: Did you end up doing it in Photoshop?

Tim: You want me to give away trade secrets here [laughs]? It has to be extremely transparent. It’s a formula. A tear is a formula. It has to conform to an anatomy of the face. When they were doing it, it looked like it was dripping on the magazine.

Me: So how’d you do it?

Tim: I drew it with the lasso. I have a Wacom tablet, and I just draw on the source image. I draw a selection in I the shape that I want. There’s all kinds of wrinkles on Reagan’s face. I go into the crevice and out of the crevice. If you conform to it well, the trail is believable.

Me: Some people say that it doesn’t look fake enough, but I think it’s obvious.

Tim: It’s a pretty big tear. The only thing that could do that in reality is Karo syrup.

Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Time makes Reagan cry with Photoshop

Adam Fields says,

Some are claiming that clickstream data is readily available for sale from many ISPs.

They say that the data is anonymized, but if you have any online presence, it's extremely likely that your clickstream skews heavily towards your own stuff, and probable that urls you visit will have your username in them.

I've also got a post up explaining this: Link.

Jason Cosper says,

The 3rd installment of BarCamp LA is coming up next weekend (March 24th & 25th) at Little Radio Warehouse in Downtown LA. For those folks who've never been to a BarCamp before, it's a completely free conference (with meals, snacks and beer) where the schedule is open for the attendees to give presentaions on topics they are passionate about. Want to talk about Microformats or web frameworks? Great! Is teaching folks yoga or how to mod their Wii more your speed? That's awesome too!

As with most 2 day BarCamp type events, everyone's encouraged to stay overnight - so bring your sleeping bag and your laptop - if they're so inclined for a geekfest that's guaranteed to last until the wee hours of the morning at the very least.

Link

Here is a series of ads from Amnesty International (in Spanish) asking why prolific American serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Pee Wee Gaskins received due process, but Guantánamo detainees have not. All three ads are made to look as if they were written in blood.

Half a century before the Walkman, portable music came in the form of beautiful devices like this Mikiphone, approximately the size of a chunky pocket watch. BB pal Gareth Branwyn has more over at Street Tech.
Link

BB reader Mike Leavitt says,

This is an entry for an art contest hosted by the Seattle Times, with the disgusting and adorable Easter candy, Peeps.

Anna Nicole was sculpted completely in the yellow marshmellow candy (along with her "baby"), and Photoshopped into the "Peeple" magazine cover.

Link

montage-a-google

nysoundmap

tree

phylotaxis

5 ways to mix rip + mash

many eyes

Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!).

BoingBoing pal John Parres writes,

Mars "has enough water ice at its south pole to blanket the entire planet in more than 30 feet of water if everything thawed out."

I don't know about you but it certainly makes me wonder what things, if any, have grown and evolved within over the billions of years of warming melting /cooling freezing.

Link to Space.com article, and Link to a larger version of the image above:

This radar map shows the thickness of the south polar layered deposits of Mars (purple represents the thinnest areas and red the thickest). The dark circle is the area poleward of 87 degrees south latitude, where MARSIS can’t collect radar data. Credit: NASA/JPL/ASI/ESA/University of Rome/MOLA Science Team/USGS

BED Online Magazine posts this photo of a fantastically 70s bed that integrates a TV and stereo into the headboard.
Link (via BornRich)

Previously on BB:
• LapDawg: cool, in-bed laptop holder for lazy slackers Link
• Work from bed with the Ergopod Link
• Creepy bed doubles as safe room Link
• Murphy Bed converts from a computer desk Link
• Bed: whole top lifts up to expose tons of storage Link
• Bed that subsumes an entire bedroom's worth of furniture Link

The current issue of Air & Space magazine surveys the essential tools carried by astronauts on spacewalks to build the International Space Station. For example, the device here isn't a ray gun but rather a Pistol Grip Tool. From Air & Space:

The main tool used by spacewalkers is this 21st century hand-drill, built by Swales Aerospace Inc. Designed for use in the thick-gloved hands of spacewalkers, it features a pistol-style handle and large information screen. Astronauts can program the speed and torque, and the settings show up on the screen. The torque can range from less than 1 to 38 foot-pounds of force, and the drill can run at anywhere between 5 and 60 rotations per minute. According to NASA, this is the first hand-held electronic power tool to include all the features of a cabinet-mounted tool, courtesy of the configurable design.

A rechargeable battery slots into the handle like the clip of a handgun. Its metal hydride batteries can hold more charge at extreme temperatures—perfect for the cycles of shadow and sunlight the station experiences in orbit. The body is made of a durable, glass-infused plastic called Lexan. But you won’t see it; the whole thing is covered with aluminum tape for durability. NASA began developing the requirements for the three-pound tool in 1993 to make repairing the Hubble Space Telescope easier. It was first used in space in 1997. Engineers are not eager to design another one—the pistol-grip tool is modular so improvements can be added later.

Link

I Make Projects posted plans for "giving yourself a sixth sense for wireless networks" through a small wearable device. It's made from a cannibalized Wi-Fi detector, microcontroller, vibrating motor, and a bit of custom electronics. From the project description:

This project is for a small electronic unit that allows the user to sense the presence and relative signal strength of wireless hotspots. It can be worn as a pendant or carried in a pocket. It is "always on" and communicates the presence and signal strength of an in-range hotspot by way of sequences of pulses - like a heartbeat you can feel. The stronger and faster the "heartbeat", the stronger the wireless signal detected.

Link (via MAKE: Blog)

BoingBoing reader Jim McAnally says,

Here's an article about the "world-famous" Nun Bun which was stolen/kidnapped about two years ago. The Nun Bun is a cinnamon roll that has a strong resemblence to Mother Teresa. The REAL Mother Teresa sued the local coffee shop to C&D selling Nun Bun memorabilia.

A question: You know, this isn't necessarily Nun Bun Number One, after two years on the Run. How could pastry authentication be Done? That thing's worth a Ton.

UPDATE: Jackson S. O'Brien says:

I'm the manager of the Coffee shop in Nashville that the Nun Bun comes from. I started frequenting the shop after the miracle baking, eventually got hired there and now I run the place (my immediate superior is the guy who discovered the bun).

I wanted to thank you for covering this story, I read Boingboing more frequently than I read the Tennessean, and this is the first photo that's surfaced of the bun that isn't taken from the same angle as the photo that's on our website (and thus isn't an obvious photoshop forgery). There are those among our regulars and staff that seem to think that the thief destroyed it or possibly (god forbid) ate it. It'll be good to tell people that it probably still exists.

Also, you mentioned the C&D letter, and this is something that I feel the need to explain (lest we look like heartless bastards for selling merch against Mother Theresa's express wishes). Mother Theresa had a flat out policy against anyone selling merchandise with her name on it, in as much, she specifically asked us not to sell merch with the name "Mother Theresa Miracle Nun Bun", in as much, we changed it to "Nun Bun", which she was fine with.

We like to think that she actually was tickled by the bun itself, as when she was passing on her duties to her successor in Calcutta, her successor expressed worry that she wouldn't be as universally beloved as Mother Theresa, to which she responded "Don't worry about it, just have them bake something that looks like you, they'll love you"

Thanks again for the link.

Laura says,

I grew up in Limburg, a catholic part of the Netherlands, where they have a speciality called 'nonnenvotten', meaning 'nuns bums' as in asses or behinds. They're made of mostly flour, butter and sirup, and they make for sticky fingers.

Kurt Opsahl of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says,

Last week, the Department of Justice Inspector General's office released a damning report documenting the FBI abusing its powers under the PATRIOT Act and violating the law to collect Americans' telephone, Internet, financial, credit, and other personal records about Americans without judicial approval.

It appears that not everyone at the DOJ got the memo. The DOJ's Life and Liberty website, a site dedicated to defending the honor of the PATRIOT Act during the re-authorization process last spring, still reads as if nothing has changed. Take a trip through the looking glass and remember what used to be the mantra supporting PATRIOT: no documented evidence of abuse.

Link

Mike Hulsebus says:

"The first new-look issue, on newsstands tomorrow, features what appears to be a photo of Ronald Reagan with a fat tear sliding down his cheek, illustrating the cover story, "How the Right Went Wrong." A somewhat cryptic credit in small type on the (revamped!) table of contents describes the image this way: "Photograph by David Hume Kennerly. Tear by Tim O'Brien." Nowhere does it specifically state that the cover is a photo illustration—in other words, that it's Photoshopped."

Link

Following up on an earlier BB post, "Amazing human beatbox guy on French "American Idol" (video)," here are more human beatboxen.

Video Link to a soulful, subterranean performance of "In the Air Tonight" (DMX or Phil Collins, take your pick) by a bunch of very talented guys on what I believe is the Paris metro. A few of them sing in harmony, and others are doing vocalized "human beatbox" percussion (Thanks, Farai Chideya!)

UPDATE: HornCologne says,

Ho! That "Concert Sauvage" oh-so-spontaneous gig in the Paris Metro (with at least three cameras!) was by an actual group - "Naturally 7" - they seem to be based in Germany (and I saw them once on an educational TV program for kids here in Germany), but they sure do sing in 'Merkin! One more link to their webness: Link.

Oscar Bartos says,

Here's the "real" video for their Phil Collins cover: Link.

BB reader Thomas says, "Here's our Belgian beatboxing pride and he honestly kicks all the previous ones' collective asses :D" Video Link.

Jared says,

Lord of the Yum Yum outbeats all of the human beatboxers with style as well as complexity. See him live, it's a treat!

castewar says,

It's funny you should post that clip of Joseph on French Idol. I've been doing a little poking around and pondering lately, and I feel that Beatboxing is about to explode into the mainstream. There are a couple of solid reasons why and I'd like to share them...

Click on any of the photos in this post to view a larger (900 px wide) version.
(image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4).

Allen Sullivan, a photojournalist currently working in Guatemala (allen @ allensullivan.com) who shot these images, says:

These images were made in Tecpán, Guatemala on Monday, March 12. US President Bush, Guatemala President Oscar Berger and their entourages visited the nearby Mayan historical site, Iximché, while Bush was on his Latin American tour.

I was working with Marc Lacey, a New York Times writer, the previous week on a story about child labor in Guatemala. On the day of Bush's visit, I decided to head to Tecpán instead of Guatemala City because I knew there would be protests there, too, and I wanted something that said "Guatemala" more than another riotous metropolis like those in his previous stops.

My assistant and I had little trouble getting there, even though they were closing the road to Tecpán well before Bush arrived. The police here seem to have much more respect for the press than some I've encountered in the US. Marc tried to head to Guatemala City, but got tied up in crazy roadblocks and traffic. He turned around to join me in Tecpán.

I've covered heated demonstrations before in the US, but this was my initiation to doing so in Guatemala. I had a few reservations about how I would be perceived by the demonstrators. Turns out I had no trouble at all from them, the police or the army. Oddly, a Brazilian photographer did get a bit of trouble from the crowd, but I'm not sure exactly why.

All in all the demonstrations were peaceful, but of course boisterous at times. They were made up of indigenous groups, farmers co-ops, and various others with mostly leftist leanings. A local boy told me he'd never seen any of them in Tecpán; seems they mostly came from other parts of the country. They tried to get past the police blocks at times by taking back routes, but to no avail. It was half protest, half party.

The "high point" for the demonstrators was when Bush's motorcade speed down through the road to Tecpán. Slogans yelled, fingers flipped, signs waved, etc., but no violence. Forty-five minutes of rest and the motorcade returned the other way, the fingers and shouts again. Not long after, everyone dispersed. I heard two people were arrested near the site itself, but otherwise I know of no incidents. Protests are quite common here and sort of expected.

It was said that some Mayan priests were going to "cleanse" Iximché after the presidents' visit, but I hung out there for a while and didn't see anything like that.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Xeni's NPR series "Guatemala: Unearthing the Future"

Xeni's notes from the road in Guatemala

Mayan priests to "purge" Iximche after Bush's visit

More BB posts about Guatemala

Reader comment: ScottG in NYC says,

Here are some photos of post-Bush Mayan cleansing ceremony pix via Yahoo News/AP/Reuters: Link.

"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is quoted as saying in a recently-released Pentagon transcript from a military hearing at Guantanamo.

"For those who would like to confirm," Mohammed continues, "there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."

In an Editor and Publisher interview today, Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger says the paper previously reported his suspected involvement in Pearl's murder...

"Several years ago, we reported that he had told U.S. authorities that he was the one, so it is no surprise," Steiger said. "That doesn't make it any less horrific."

But he also said that Mohammed's confession must be taken with at least some skepticism. "We don't know the circumstance of what he is saying," Steiger said. "You don't know what might be boasting, what might be coercion."

Indeed, he confessed to a suspiciously long string of terrorist attacks and other crimes.

via this Romenesko post.

On the newly-redesigned Wired News site today, this powerful lead story by Luke O'Brien:

Early one Sunday morning in 2002, a phone rings in Yu Ling's Beijing duplex. She's cleaning upstairs; her son is asleep, while downstairs, her husband, Wang Xiaoning, is on the computer. Wang writes about politics, anonymously e-mailing his online e-journals to a group of Yahoo users. He's been having problems with his Yahoo service recently. He thinks it's a technical issue. This is the day he learns he's wrong.

Wang picks up the phone: "Yes?"

"Are you home?" asks the unfamiliar voice on the other end.

"Yes."

The line goes dead.

Moments later, government agents swarm through the front door -- 10 of them, some in uniform, some not. They take Wang away. They take his computers and disks. They shove an official notice into Yu's hands, tell her to keep quiet, and leave. This is how it's done in China. This is how the internet police grab you.

Five years later, Yu, 55, sits in the dining room of a small house in Fairfax and weeps softly. She is a slight woman -- 100 pounds and barely 5 feet tall in slippers. Her eyes betray her exhaustion; but she is determined, too. She carries a thick stack of notes with her, and she has scrawled more on her left hand.

"Yahoo betrayed my husband and deprived him of freedom," Yu says through a translator, her voice trembling. "Yahoo must learn its lesson."

Link to "Yahoo betrayed my husband."

Image (courtesy Yu Ling / via Wired News): "Yu Ling and her husband Wang Xiaoning are shown in a 1978 family photo. Wang was arrested in 2002 for using a Yahoo Groups account to advocate for open elections, a multi-party system and separation of powers in the Chinese government."

Previous posts on BoingBoing:

Jailed Chinese dissident's wife to sue Yahoo for ratting out her husband

Yahoo rats out Chinese reporter to Beijing, writer gets 10 years in jail

China: gov to expand "Great 'Net Firewall," censor web even more

Report: Yahoo helped jail another Chinese 'net dissident, Li Zhi

Journalism school won't return Yahoo's controversial $1M grant

Report: Yahoo implicated in 3rd China dissident case

Yahoo could stay in China and stop sending its users to jail

Harsh words for US tech firms from House at China 'net hearings

Report: verdict confirms Yahoo helped jail China dissident #2

Xeni's LAT op-ed: war, blogs, news, and profit.

Amnesty Int'l. confronts Yahoo over jailed Chinese reporter

NPR "Xeni Tech": Yahoo may have aided in jailing of second China writer

Tech firms blasted over China policies on Capitol Hill

HK lawmaker: Yahoo unit had role in Shi Tao's jailing

Chinese activist to Jerry Yang: You are helping to maintain an evil system

For today's edition of the NPR News program "Day to Day," I filed a report on Google's announcement that it will "anonymize" some search-related user data by stripping IP addresses from records after 18 to 24 months. The search company previously kept log data for as long as the data was deemed useful. The new policy will make it more difficult to connect search activity with individual users after that period ends. For today's story, I spoke with Peter Fleischer, Privacy Counsel-Europe for Google. He co-wrote the announcement posted yesterday on the official Google Blog. I also spoke with Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who says that while the announcement is good news, Google and other search companies can and should do more to ensure that user privacy rights are protected worldwide. Here's the EFF's statement.

- - - - - -
LISTEN:
Link to archived audio (Real/Win) and transcript. Or, listen to this report as an MP3 in the "Xeni Tech" podcast (subscribe via iTunes here). And here's a direct MP3 link for today's story.

Archive of previous NPR "Xeni Tech" features, with narrated image slideshows and transcripts, here. (Special thanks to NPR News producer Nihar Patel!)

Today's report references an earlier "NPR: Xeni Tech" report from January, 2006: Bush Administration Seeks Google Search Records.

- - - - - -

See also Ryan Singel's coverage of the Google announcement at Wired News, and Ryan has another interesting related post today -- Google searches will be used in a murder case:

New Jersey authorities are prosecuting the wife of a murdered man for allegedly killing him with the heldp of prescription drugs prescribed by her then-lover and are using internet logs of searches from her own computer to prove she was the murderer, according to a story in New Jersey's Daily Record. 

While the prosecution did not seem to subpoena search engines, the story was published on the same day Google announced it was changing its data retention policy in order to protect users's privacy.

Link.

- - - - - -

Previously on BoingBoing:

Google will purge some user data to better protect privacy

DoJ search requests: Google said no; Yahoo, AOL, MSN yes.

NPR "Xeni Tech" - Google ices CNET over privacy story

Show us the data, MSN, Yahoo, AOL!

Google blocking privacy technology

More archived BoingBoing posts about Google and privacy

Reader comment: James says,

I noticed today that I didn't get a domain cookie from google after signing out of gmail today: Link

. The FAQ google linked too doesn't say much about how they're changing the cookie. Any word on that? Maybe it was a fluke?

Karl Elliott says,

I started using http://www.blackboxsearch.com/ shortly after Google lost its battle with the US Feds last year. It searches Google, Yahoo, or MSN via a web-proxy; thus anonymizing one's searches. The site is ad-free and stable.

It's fun to watch these reverse videos of elaborate sandcastles exploding.

Here we go again! For the second year in a row, "Sand Blasters: The Extreme Sand Sculpting Championship" brings a one-of-a-kind competition to Travel Channel. Paired off into teams of two, 16 of the best sand sculptors from across America dig in to picturesque Pacific Beach in San Diego, California, for the chance to win their share of $15,000 in prize money. But there's one obstacle standing in their way... Explosions! Over the course of this intense two-day competition, five of the eight sculptures are randomly selected for complete destruction by a Hollywood pyrotechnics crew. The ill-fated blast victims then have the remaining time to create another world-class work of art in order to contend for the title of Sand Blasters 2007 Extreme Sand Sculpting Champions.

Link

BB pal Vann Hall just turned me on to the amazing biomechanical steampunk sculptures of French artist Pierre Matter.
Link to image gallery at It's Knuttz, Link to artist page at Opera Gallery, Link to French Wikipedia entry

Previously on BB:
• Homebrew mechanical steampunk lion Link
• Steampunk rayguns Link
• Steampunk robotics Link
• Giger museum panorama Link

Mark says:

This is a video of the famous card manipulator and magician, John Scarne, who was also my great uncle. I think the video was made in the 1950's and is about card manipulation and gambling cheats. The video narration and background music remind me of an elementary school documentary.

Link

Anna Clifford was busted for drunk driving in Mephis, Tennessee. I dig her 18-inch mohawk. From the Daily Mail:

Police spokesman Sergeant Vince Higgins said: "We have to take the mugshot picture as the person looks at the time of the arrest, so we needed to make sure we got all her hair in.

"When we pulled her over she had been driving with her sunroof open to allow room for her hair. I don’t know what she'd do if it rained."

Link (Thanks, Dave Gill!)

Piran Café has posted photos of his collection of old zines, which includes a copy of bOING bOING No. 2, from January 1990. I think I printed 200 copies of it. I wonder how many are left? Link (Thanks, Rex!)

An anti-nudity activist in Norway is doing the world a favor by covering up the naughty bits on public statues throughout the capital city, Oslo.

Norwegians awoke today to find that a midnight marauder had censored the sculptures scattered through Oslo's Vigeland Sculpture Park. With the exception of one lone figure, every scrap of nipple, crotch or posterior was covered with black strips of paper, no matter the size nor position of the statue. The unknown assailant left an explanatory note behind: "There is too much nudity in newspapers and magazines, so here on the bridge the limit has been reached!"

You know, the insidious thing about nudity is that not one of us is safe. Beneath our clothes, deep down, we are all, every one of us, nude.

Link

The Paleo-Future blog has a short clip from the Disney TV special Mars and Beyond that depicts incredibly weird plants that might have lived on Mars. The entire episode is included on the highly recommended "Walt Disney Treasures - Tomorrowland: Disney in Space and Beyond" 2 DVD set. I reviewed it here.

Link

Korean start-up Xtive claims that they've developed a subliminal audio sequence that can help cure videogame "addiction." They suggest that game companies integrate the system into game machines so it can be triggered it after a preset period of time. From The Korea Times:

``We incorporated messages into an acoustic sound wave telling gamers to stop playing. The messages are told 10,000 to 20,000 times per second,’’ Xtive President Yun Yun-hae said.

``Game users can’t recognize the sounds. But their subconscious is aware of them and the chances are high they will quit playing,’’ the 35-year-old Yun said. ``Tests tell us the sounds work...’’ Xtive applied for a domestic patent for the phonogram and is looking to take advantage of the technology in other sectors.

``We can easily change the messages. In this sense, the potential for this technology is exponential,’’ Yun said.

Link (Thanks, Sean Ness!)

Mary Masterman, 17, took first place in the Intel Science Talent Search this year. She built a working spectrograph, a tool used to characterize molecules, for $300. Commercial spectrographs cost more than three times that amount. For her maker ingenuity, Masterman won a $100,000 college scholarship. From the New York Times:

“The most challenging part was trying to get it to work,” said Mary, who said she hoped to attend Stanford or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“I had to keep coming up with creative ways to adjust or change something,” she said. “It took three months to build and another three months before it actually functioned properly.”

Mary said she chose to build a spectrograph because of its many applications in forensics, medicine and artwork analysis.

Link

Previously on BB:
• Intel 2006 science fair semifinalist photos Link
• Science fair project on dangers of BB guns rejected Link

UPDATE: Mary Masterman's Web site is here.

Q Celsius tires contain retractable studs for icy roads that are deployable via remote control. Manufacturers Qtires (reference to Q from James Bond?) have posted an animated video showing how the tires apparently work. From the FAQ:

The technology enables air pressure from the main chamber of the tire to expand a secondary chamber, which lifts the studs above the surface of the tread. When road conditions no longer require studs, the air pressure is released to atmosphere and the studs retract below the tread face.

Link (via New Scientist)

IBN reports that just last week in Delhi, air traffic radar spotted "two unidentified flying objects over Delhi moving northwest to south between 0930 hours and 1000 hours." Woooo. Link to story, with this video of the flying saucery things whizzing over the airport. (Thanks, Sameer Pitalwalla)

Reader comment: Ed says,

I was poking about on scribd.com late last night, wading through various documents. When I saw your boingboing post today about UFOs in India, it struck a chord. Here's the URL of the piece on scribd that resonated with your post: Link.

Apparently, the aliens have landed, built a base in a "forbidden zone" (Ladakh valley, in the Himalayas), and are broadcasting to the locals!

According to this document, the aliens appear to be friendly and can make black and white televisions show colour pictures, and are using local "emmisaries" to communicate with people in India, Pakistan and China.

The plot thickens, methinks ...

I just finished listening to the 3-CD Allen Ginsberg Audio Collection -- I was mostly interested in the classics like Howl and Kaddish, Pull My Daisy and Don't Grow Old, but the poem that totaly took me away was "Put Down Your Cigarette Rag," a poetic song that can make me laugh, dance, and sing along even after about 20 listens. It's also totally stuck in my head and I find myself singing it under my breath as I walk down the street. Here's a video of Ginsberg performing the piece on the AllenGinsberg.org site:

Communism's flopped
Let's help the Soviet millions
Sell 'em our Coffin-Nails
& make a couple billions
Big Bucks Big Bucks bucks bucks
bucks bucks smoke smoke smoke smoke
smoke Bucks smoke bucks Dope bucks big
Dope Bucks Dig Big Dope Bucks Big Dope
Bucks dont smoke big dope bucks
Dig big Pig dope bucks

Nine billion bucks a year
a Southern Industry
Buys Senator Jesse Fear who pushes Tobacco subsidy
In the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Dope smokes dope smokes dont smoke dont smoke
Cloak cloak cloak room cloak & dagger
smoke room cloak room dope cloak
cloak room dope cloak room dope dont smoke

Quicktime Link, Words

Robert Pearlman of the excellent space ephemera site collectspace.com writes,

Adorning the entranceway to the U.S. Destiny Laboratory on the International Space Station have been two pennants: one for the Army and one that reads "Go Navy, Beat Army." The pair are not the first pennants to fly in space: hundreds of flags and banners championing colleges, societies and even sports teams have been carried to orbit by the space shuttle.

Now, NASA wants a pennant of its own and is turning to grade school students to design it.

In partnership with Mad Science and AOL's Kids Service KOL, NASA is hosting a contest for 6 to 12 year olds to create pennants that celebrate either of two themes: the upcoming STS-118 shuttle mission including the flight of the first educator astronaut Barbara Morgan or the Vision for Space Exploration, NASA's plans to send humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

The winning design will fly with Morgan on-board shuttle Endeavour when she launches this summer. The winner will be awarded a trip to the STS-118 launch with his/her parent or guardian, while runner-ups will receive a signed picture of the STS-118 shuttle crew and an online NASA game will use their pennant design.

Link. In case you didn't notice, the space-dudes in that photo are FLOATING.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Stuff stashed on the Space Shuttle

Astronaut chops off her hair in space for charity

Cabel tells the detailed story of the new Katamari Damacy tees:

When you read translated interviews with Takahashi in the American press, you get the impression that he brashly hates everything. In reality, this is only partially true. He's actually pretty shy person, and you quickly realize it's not "I hate everything", but honest, thoughtful opinion — his vision is so specific, and many things don't live up to his expectations and their potential. What also doesn't come across in the press is his dry sense of humor and mischievousness — his critiques are generally said with a sly smile and a laugh, as if he knows he's being marginally ridiculous by admitting, for example, that he didn't really like Mother 3.

That's not to say I have him fully figured out. We know he has a low tolerance for anyone who takes the "safe road". So, you'd think he'd be a huge fan of the convention-shunning Nintendo Wii system, right? Wrong! He's currently playing the GameCube version of Twilight Princess, intentionally avoiding the Wii version! Why? Who knows! The lesson? Takahashi will keep you guessing, but in a good way: you'll be suprised, confused, and delighted, just like when you play his games.

Link (Thanks, John!)

See also:
Katamari Damacy phone-pouch Katamari Damacy checks
Katamari Damacy earmuffs
Handmade magnetic wooly Katamari
Katamari Damacy radio-controlled toys
Katamari Damacy Hallowe'en costume
Katamari Damacy glass beads fundraiser
Hand-embroidered Katamari Damacy patch
Katamari crochet patterns
Katamari Damacy fans in costume
Katamari Damacy fan-cake of extraordinary coolth
Katamari Damacy nerd pride tee
Katamari Damacy homemade models
Katamari Damacy reenactment in Play-Doh
Katamari Damacy made from paper
Handmade yarn Katamari Damacy hats
Katamari Damacy hand-puppet
Official Katamari Damacy shirts
Katamari sushi
Katamari Damacy crocheted Little Prince rug
Wooly magnetic Katamaries for sale on Etsy

On the Freakonomics blog, Stephen Dubner (co-author of the wonderful Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything) digs into the pricing on generic drugs and finds that the main-street pharmacies mark up their offerings by 975 percent!

Even once you factor in the cost of buying a membership at Costco and Sam’s Club, the price differences were astounding. Here are the prices he found at Houston stores for 90 tablets of generic Prozac:

Walgreens: $117

Eckerd: $115

CVS: $115

Sam’s Club: $15

Costco: $12

Those aren’t typos. Walgreens charges $117 for a bottle of the same pills for which Costco charges $12.

Link

See also:
Freakonomics quiz: Who is Celebrity X?
Freaknomics on Jane Siberry's pay-what-you-want music store
Monkeys taught to use money

Check out this fascinating history of the Soviet edition of Alice in Wonderland:

An official responsible for non-Soviet socialist literature was leafing through the list of books recently published in the countries of the "people's democracy," as the Eastern European satellite states were called back then, when he stumbled upon the Bulgarian publication of a book about a girl called Alice. Thinking it was a Bulgarian book, he ordered a Russian translation to be done and published in Sofia for future importing into the Soviet Union (this was a standard procedure for such publications, which were sponsored by Soviet money). The Bulgarians were surprised, and it took some effort and persuading to find someone to translate the book from English and not from Bulgarian.

That translator happened to be Nina Demurova, a university instructor of English and translation who had long been fascinated by Carroll. Thus, the first postwar Russian version of "Alice" appeared in 1967 in Sofia, with illustrations by Bulgarian artist Petar Chuklev; Nina Demurova translated the bulk of the text, while the poems were flamboyantly translated by Dina Orlovskaya. It turned out that Demurova, a relative unknown at the time, had unwittingly outmaneuvered several famous translators who were fighting for the right to translate "Alice" at prestigious children's publishing houses in Moscow. (There's also a persistent urban legend that Demurova is actually Bulgarian.)

Link (via Making Light)

John Battelle makes a modest proposal on his blog -- Microsoft and Yahoo should team up to take on Google.

For example, it lets Yahoo and Microsoft focus on what they are good at. For Yahoo, that's digital lifestyle applications and services and the CPM ad revenues that come with them; for Microsoft, it's Windows and Office (and MSN, I guess....). Despite the packaged goods mentality displayed by the "well, we're done with Vista, now we can focus on search" approach, the initial response to Vista is proof enough Ballmer & co. might want to keep its engineers focused on the product that drives the majority of your revenues - Windows. And little birdies all over the Valley tell me folks at Yahoo are tired of the search-driven fire drills there, they want to get back to the cool stuff like Pipes....

A second and substantial reason to do this is to stop trying to kill each other in the race to catch Google. Separately, neither company is going to catch Google anytime soon. Why not work together, combine resources, and give the world what it really wants - a legitimate answer to Mountain View?

The company might work like this. Because Yahoo is further along with Panama and YPN than Microsoft is with AdCenter, Yahoo gets more credit in the JV for that asset class. Microsoft, because it has more cash, funds the lions share of the JV. Should each company also toss in organic search? To be discussed, but not necessarily required.

Google makes wonderful stuff; just think how much more wonderful their products could be if someone was seriously competing with them. Link

Here's the story in Google's own words, on the Google Blog: Link. Here's the log retention FAQ: PDF Link.

And here's a snip from the AP item:

Google Inc. is adopting new privacy measures to make it more difficult to connect online search requests with the people making them - a move it believes could prevent showdowns with the government over the often sensitive data.

Under revisions announced late Wednesday, Google promised to wrap a cloak of anonymity around the vast amounts of information that the Mountain View-based company regularly collects about its millions of users around the world.

Google believes it can provide more assurances of privacy by removing key pieces of identifying information from its system every 18 to 24 months. The timetable is designed to comply with a hodgepodge of laws around the world that dictate how long search engines are supposed to retain user information.

Authorities still could demand to review personal information before Google purges it or take legal action seeking to force the company to keep the data beyond the new time limits.

Nevertheless, Google's additional safeguards mark the first time that a major Internet search engine has spelled out precisely how long it will hold onto data that can reveal intimate details about a person's Web surfing habits.

Link. Ryan Singel at Wired: 27bStroke6 has an extensive post on the story here.

Reader comment: quickie says,

This is hardly good news. Which country requires google to save usage data? Google could just keep the connection data and discard/anonymize to usage data instantly.

Colm MacCarthaigh says,

Google's action is certainly to be applauded and welcomed, and hopefully sets an example that many will follow. Somewhat ironically though, European governments may soon be requiring Google to do the opposite. Google servers (including Google search and gmail servers) and Google's European headquarters are located in Ireland. Digital Rights Ireland is presently engaged in a legal battle to overturn the EU directive and Irish legislation which would require service providers (potentially including gmail and google talk) to store this data (and more) for 3 years. As ever, support is needed and welcome.

A California judge has dismissed charges against ex HP Chairman Patricia Dunn in the HP pretexting scandal.

The three other remaining defendants--former HP attorney Kevin Hunsaker; private detective Ronald DeLia; and Matthew DePante of data-brokering company Action Research Group--pleaded no contest to a count of fraudulent wire communications at Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Jose, Calif., the state attorney general's office said in a statement. The trio will be required to complete 96 hours of community service by September 12; the court said it will dismiss the case against them if that condition is satisfied.

Dunn, for her part, did not enter a plea. (...) The charges were a direct response to the brouhaha last year in which HP executives admitted that outside investigators had used a technique called "pretexting," or posing as someone else to obtain phone records of reporters and board members suspected of involvement in press leaks. Then-board Chairman Dunn, who spearheaded the investigation, said she had been unaware of the technique's use and called it "embarrassing."

Link to CNet's account, here's the New York Times piece.

Earlier today, the office of California's attorney general had released a statement saying Dunn would plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of fraudulent wire communications, but the office later issued a retraction. (Thanks, M.E.!)

Snip from losanjealous:

In a rare instance of us supporting The Man, Austin P.D. hauls off a guerrilla marketing posterer for Microsoft Zune on 6th St. at SXSW. I am not sure I heard everything clearly, but I think he said: “We’ll have none of your advertising for your DRM’d crippleware’d crappy MP3 player littering our town.”

Link.