So when Yuki entered graduate school and began communicating with American scholars over e-mail, he was often confused by their use of emoticons such as smiley faces :) and sad faces, or :(.

'It took some time before I finally understood that they were faces,' he wrote in an e-mail. In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;). 'After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles,' he said.

I know all about getting into hot water from trying to talk about the biological possibilities of Bigfoot’s sexual activity, from a scientific point of view. In my “Sex and the Single Sasquatch” writings and lectures for years, I’ve seen what people do when they want to misread what you’re saying and a sense of humor. So let me be crystal clear. This film goes way beyond a realistic discussion of the biological parameters of Bigfoot sexuality. After all, The Geek is a porn film and thus a human creation from a male human’s imagination, apparently. It is not a Bigfoot documentary.

On his Flight404 blog, Robert Hodgins says:

I set up a Processing driven webcam outside my kitchen window to view the nesting and maternal instincts of the common city pigeon. Here you can see the fruit of that labor. Oh, and I stuck a fez on her head too.

View the LIVE pigeon cam here. View the LIVE pigeon cam with dynamically added fez here.

Or if you are impatient or if its night time in San Francisco or if the pigeon landed on the cam and moved it while I was away or the feed stops working, you can see a short timelapse video here.

I've ordered a copy of the book, and I'm really looking forward to reading it. For six years, Gutkind followed a group of Carnegie Mellon roboticists around, while they developed human movement and artificial decision-making capabilities for robots. Here's a snip from the Publisher's Weekly review:

"The machines he encountered came in a variety of shapes and sizes, from dog-shaped toys programmed to play soccer to a Hummer equipped with sensors that enable it to drive itself. As that Hummer indicates, the institute's research isn't confined to the lab: Gutkind follows his roboticists to abandoned mine shafts and the northern edges of Chile, where they use the world's driest desert to test machines developed to find signs of life on the surface of Mars.

Gutkind's reporting captures the individual quirks of the scientists—like one researcher who only shaves on Sundays to save time during the week for his research..."

Here's the Daily Show clip: Video Link.

Gutkind was also recently interviewed by the BBC's Jason Margolis for "Robot Report." Link.

And he was the subject of an article titled "A Life of Observation," written by Eric Parker for the website Fresno Famous. Link.

(Thanks, Dory Adams!)

The glowing image of a cartoon figure with raised finger inspired a series of bizarre mistakes and ill-conceived actions by authorities over terrorism fears.

The accused apologized (why didn't the mayor, for wasting so much taxpayer money on this?), and between the two of them, they have already completed 140 hours of community service (they painted a mural for a local hospital). In case you don't remember...

The resolution marked the final chapter in a bizarre misunderstanding that began Jan. 31 after the two men had installed about 40 battery-powered light screens on highway ramps, bridges, storefronts, and other structures in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville as part of an advertising campaign for a Cartoon Network television show and movie. When the devices were discovered that day, bomb squads rushed to remove and disable them, shutting down major roadways and subway lines and snarling the commute for thousands.

Two things strike me as interesting in the press coverage around the dropped charges. One, they...

were to be paid $300 apiece by a New York marketing firm for installing the signs

Second, if the courts have ruled that the devices were not hoaxes, does that make 'em real?

And finally,

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and other public officials have stood by their decision to shut down Interstate 93 north at the height of the scare and to deploy bomb and antiterrorism squads.

"I hope the message goes out to all guerrilla marketers who plan on doing business in Boston that we take the public safety of those who live and work here very seriously," Menino said yesterday in a statement.

Link to Boston Globe article.

Previously on BoingBoing:

See also: Book pick: "Full Revelations of a Professional Rat Catcher" (1898)

Update: JP points out that Project Gutenberg has the full text of this online.

Technology and the Internet are changing democracy in America. Personal Democracy Forum is a hub for the exciting conversation underway between political professionals, technologists, and anyone else invigorated by the remarkable potential of technology to engage citizens in the democratic process.

A glib and flippant tone dominates "Where's My Jetpack?" but I get the feeling a more serious book is struggling to extricate itself from Wilson's arch and camp approach (something compounded by Richard Horne's kitschy retrofuturist illustrations). The research is top-notch and fascinating. Some of the best material here entails a sort of archaeology of stillborn or prematurely abandoned futures. In the 1960s, for instance, concerted attempts were made to build living environments at the bottom of the ocean, in the form of the U.S. Navy's Sealab program. But instead of aquadome cities nestling on the ocean floor and a massive exodus of pioneers emigrating to settle the briny depths, all that remains today of the dream is a solitary subaquatic hotel, the Jules Undersea Lodge, located just off Key Largo, Fla. Other science fiction staples that made a tantalizingly brief appearance decades ago but never caught on, for reasons either practical or cultural, include the jetpack (the energy required for blast-off generates dangerous levels of heat) and Smell-O-Vision. The latter idea was mooted fictionally in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel, "Brave New World," in which the "feelies" stimulated one's tactile and olfactory sense as well as sight and sound. The idea was actually attempted a couple of times in the early '60s, but both times tanked in the marketplace.

Another classic futuristic idea made real is "cultured meat," i.e., animal protein grown in the laboratory, where, Wilson reports, it is repeatedly stretched as a surrogate for physical exercise, in order to give it the texture of a living, active organism. This grotesque technology was memorably anticipated in Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth's 1952 novel "The Space Merchants," a corporate dystopia of the 21st century in which peon workers hack slices off a gigantic blob of animate but nonsentient poultry breast called Chicken Little. But in our nonfictional 21st century, the idea languishes in the laboratory thanks to consumer resistance. Our cultural biases reject cultured meat as gross, unnatural, an abomination. Indeed, popular taste is trending the opposite way, toward the organic, the uncaged, the nonprocessed.

Asked to design a fitting repository for a client’s valuable collection of J.R.R. Tolkien manuscripts and artifacts, architect Peter Archer went to the source—the fantasy novels that describe the abodes of the diminutive Hobbits.

In this interview we discuss hoboes, the comic strip Gordo, he previous job at a hotel chain call center, the awesomeness of Jack Kirby, Golden Books, how he creates those $20 postcard drawings, and many other topics.

MP3 link | Podcast feed | Subscribe via iTunes | Previous Get Illuminated shows

At a concurrency of 40,000 people, Second Life’s gears begin to grind a bit. My inworld sojourn last night was truncated by the teleport system failing, which, admittedly, kind of prevents people from circulating around the grid. I was stuck in Toxian City, along with about twenty other people. That said, someone just told me that concurrency has cleared 42,000, and things are still working, if slowly.

And I’m tripping from place to place, and seeing nothing but abandoned buildings wherever I go.

I start jumping to clubs. The Velvet, in Iron Fist, is empty. I find three miserable naked men in a sex club looking for a mistress to savage their little avatars. A vast vampire-themed club with not even the undead laying around. A space station that feels like it’s re-enacting the final days of Mir, all the service modules undocked and waiting to be deorbited. A massive replica of a STAR TREK Starfleet vessel with all hands missing, shipwrecked seven hundred meters up. A Zen temple chill-out zone with not a devotee to be seen. Again and again I teleport, like Gully Foyle in the last pages of THE STARS MY DESTINATION, and, for a while there I wish that I, like he, had bombs to scatter. But there’s no one here to receive them.

One presumes the CNN International employee who typed this title *meant* to say, "Blair resigns," but perhaps they know something the rest of us do not. Link 1, Link 2.

He went to work for Hughes and after some military contracts fell through, worked on the predecessor to the laser, the maser, which concentrated microwaves, not light. He made a five-pound maser that could do the work of a two-ton one. He told his bosses he wanted to make a laser, but they were wary of discouraging reports from other laboratories and said no.

They wanted him to work on computers, or “something useful,” his wife said. But he threatened to quit and build a laser in his garage.

So the Hughes executives gave him nine months, $50,000 and an assistant. The assistant was Charles Asawa, who had the idea of illuminating the ruby with a photographic flash, rather than with the movie projector lamp first used.

After Dr. Maiman succeeded, a news release predicted that doctors would use lasers to focus on a single human cell. For the rest of his life, Dr. Maiman insisted on emphasizing the laser’s healing possibilities, even as the public was riveted on the new “death ray.”

Above: "People being watched."

For sale on eBay today (bidding is around $550 right now) -- the diaries of FBI Special Agent Max H. Roder (1892-1988), who covered narcotics investigations throughout the entirety of his 34-year career. He filled 28 journals with daily notes, and is said to have done this so he could recall details if he had to testify in court.

A number of things boggle the mind here -- these diaries contain the names and addresses of real people, though one might reasonably presume most of those people have either perished or moved on to other places. Also, note one of the names above... Snip from auction description:

It appears the New York City cases were mainly targeted again Italian Americans in Little Italy. You'll be amazed how many people smoked opium in NYC. A lost practice in today's world. Agent worked out of Room 615 at 90 Church St and later 633 Broadway NYC.

The problem with this link is that the South China Morning Post is a subscription-only site. However, this article in today's paper is exactly the type of thing you give coverage to and cries out to be exposed to the world. In brief, a man posted a link to a website that had "porn" in a web forum. He was tracked by his IP address, arrested, pled guilty and fined HK$5,000, roughly US$650.

This is coming hard on the heels of the appeals trial for the only man in the entire world to receive a jail sentence for posting Bit Torrent seeds.

I've written about these two things briefly in my blog: Link, and Link. Here is an excerpt from the newspaper article:

He went to the Sci-Fi shelf—and had another shock. I, Robot was there, but not the forgettable action movie with Will Smith—this was older, and the credits said “written by Harlan Ellison.” But Ellison’s adaptation of the Isaac Asimov book had never been produced, though it had been published in book form. “Must be some bootleg student production,” he muttered, and he didn’t recognize the name of the production company. But—but—it said “winner of the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.” That had to be a student director’s little joke, straight-facedly absurd box copy, as if this were a film from some alternate reality. Worth watching, certainly, though again, he couldn’t imagine how he’d never heard of this. Maybe it had been done by someone local. He took it to the counter and offered his credit card.

BoingBoing reader Daniel Geduld says,

I recently watched a BBC documentary on compulsive hoarders. Far from normal collectors, compulsive hoarders fill their homes with almost anything. Some have very specific obsessions, for example a man in the UK who filled his house with bicycle parts. Most are men and most are over 50. It is a severe form of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Although that documentary is not available online, I did find this eight-minute trailer for an upcoming documentary about a woman with this disorder. A woman's mother is an obsessive collector of other peoples' refuse and has filled her house with junk to the point that she can no longer sleep inside.

The producers of this documentary claim that there are a million compulsive hoarders in the U.S. alone. How many of your neighbors, the ones who always seem to have junk on their lawns, are compulsive hoarders? Unfortunately, in many cases, they are not diagnosed until their bodies have been found inside their hoarde.

One of the most famous cases of compulsive hoarding was the two Collyer Brothers who were discovered dead in their apartment when one brother was buried by junk, killing him. The other brother at that point needed constant care and so died of dehydration and malnutrition.

Here is a wikipedia article about the Collyers: Link.

Reader comment: Jed Silverman says,

ChildrenOfHoarders.com has some videos, many stories, and most importantly info resources where children and relatives of hoarders can get help to help their loved ones.

One could revisit the 1960s cosmonaut fantasy designs of Pierre Cardin and André Courrèges — as did so many contemporary designers in their futuristic spring 2007 collections. But Philippe Starck, the French designer who is consulting as art director for Richard Branson’s development of Virgin Galactic spacecraft, said that one of his original proposals was for future space explorers to travel naked.

“The whole style of the rocket on the inside, the clothes and accessories, I have tried to make the most immaterial as possible,” said Mr. Starck, describing his vision for interiors that evoke a cloudlike feeling. Material is vulgar, he said. Only the vision of space is important. “The style is dematerialization,” he said.

Sanchez:I think I'm having an overdose. and so is my wife.
911: Overdose of what?
Sanchez: Marijuana...
Sanchez: We made brownies. and I think we're dead. I really do...
Sanchez: Time is going by really, really, really slow...
Sanchez: What's the score in the Red Wings game?
911: I've got no clue, i don't watch the Red Wings.
Sanchez: I just wanted to make sure this isn't some kind of hallucination I'm having.

The research arm of the government's anti-terror fight is looking to for someone to build "a rugged, reliable, and compact system for canine handlers to collect human scent for future use to track a specified target."

There are similar systems around today, the group notes.  But they're "too large and fragile to be used in an operational environment."  TSWG wants a handheld, rugged device to do the job, instead.  And the group has laid an exhaustive set of criteria for any contractor looking to build the thing...

Reader comment: dalvenjah says,

The East German Stasi secret police did something similar. (This link was the first to pop up in a google search) They would collect cloths with the scents of their targets for their dogs, sometimes during torture, other times by breaking into a house and stealing the dirty underwear.

Of course, the TSWG is not doing this for totalitarian or creepy old man purposes at all...

RU: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about your upcoming case.

KH: (Laughs) Which one? I've got three of them open at the moment. There's a motion to correct an injunction the Riverside court was not permitted to issue; a bankruptcy case that has got tangled up recently with O.J. Simpson's; and this extradition business in Arizona. That last one requires the California governor to sign an extradition warrant, and there's been enough complaints to him about it that I don't think he's going to do it. (ed: He did, on May 1)

RU: It's weird to hear O.J. Simpson's name come up. I don't suppose you can talk any more about your connection with OJ. There could be a book contract in there for you -- the book industry loves OJ!

KH: Well, I can give you a quick thing. It turns out that that the lawyer for the other side in a bankruptcy case involving my bank worked against OJ Simpson -- I think it was for the Goldbergs. So he asked for a delay in my case.

RU: We will contemplate all aspects of your possible connections with the OJ case over the coming weeks and months and maybe get back to it. "If the e-Meter doesn't fit, you must acquit" or something.

We therefore have decided to end our art and alternative energy endeavers here in the City of Berkeley and move to a new location.

We come to this conclusion with tremendous sadness and loss, as the open collaborative space we have built here has become a deeply vibrant art/tech skunkworks, continually churning out heroic creativity in the arts as well as very needed innovation in DIY, open source, alternative energy endeavors. We have undertaken these activities as a community collaboration, and used our creative and innovative work as an civic engine for generating meaningful community for many. The results have been tremendous, vastly exceeding any expectations we had when we started this 6 years ago.

"I came to this crossing at Ffynongain and there was like a metal gate, which looked like just a normal farmers' gate with a red circle on it

"I thought it was a dead end at first and then there was a little sign saying, if the light is green, open the gates and drive through.

"So I opened the gate, drove forward, closed the gate behind me and then went to go and open the gate in front of me.

"Then I heard this train and I noticed train tracks.

Reader comments:

Gerard says:

Those face exercisers are tragically wrong headed. Botox, in contrast, actually does reduce wrinkles and it does so by paralyzing facial muscles not strengthening them.

That mouth gadget actually works! I admit, I love gadgets, but this is one that I have continued to use for the past 2 years. It firmed my jawline, raised my cheeks, I got a firmer mouth, etc etc. Seriously, it works.

"There's a lot of people who don't want it their backyard, and that's certainly understandable," Mark Hendricks, a university spokesman, said today.

"It's a controversial project, there's no doubt about it."

University officials said they would look for other possible sites for the project.

As concerns grow that terrorists might attack a major American city with a nuclear bomb, a high-level group of government and military officials has been quietly preparing an emergency survival program that would include the building of bomb shelters, steps to prevent panicked evacuations and the possible suspension of some civil liberties.

Many experts say the likelihood of al Qaeda or some other terrorist group producing a working nuclear weapon with illicitly obtained weapons-grade fuel is not large, but such a strike would be far more lethal, frightening and disruptive than the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Not only could the numbers killed and wounded be far higher, but the explosion could, experts say, ignite widespread fires, shut down most transportation, halt much economic activity and cause a possible disintegration of government order.

The efforts to prepare a detailed blueprint for survival took a step forward last month when senior government and military officials and other experts, organized by a joint Stanford-Harvard program called the Preventive Defense Project, met behind closed doors in Washington for a day-long workshop.

Reader comment: Andrew Fischer says,

I thought you and your readers would like to know that not everything is in the planning stage. Terre Haute, IN will be the site of a massive dry run of a nuclear attack response. In a massive military operation involving 3,000 individuals and 2.6 million pounds of equipment the military is going to simulate a response to a 10 kiloton nuclear device detonating in Indianapolis, IN.

More information here: Link.

In today's climate you can't even question the MSM/GOP's position on terrorism without being labeled as un-American. You're either for whatever the MSM/GOP says, or you are a terrorist yourself.

We aren't having any frank public discussions about what to do in the event of another large attack. And even if we try, any dissenting point of view is silenced.

If we the governed don't talk now about the impact on our civil liberties, the economy, transportation, food, law, etc. that another terrorist attack will have, then we are doomed to be at the mercy of the decisions of those who are in power. And right now, our government is playing right into the terrorists' hands by operating on a fear-based agenda.

coffee shop locator
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pancakes
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grateful palate
eggstreme hangover cure

plus...
brekkie zen 2005

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

The Walking Dead is the story of a band of survivors after a zombie plague, led by an ex-cop whose wife and son are with him. In Volume 5, some of the characters had been captured by a savage band of survivors who pit-fought the zombies -- and in volume six, they take their revenge. This is some of the most gruesome comic stuff I've ever read, so much so that I had to look away.

I can't wait for the next collection to come out -- this is great stuff. Link to Volume 6, Link to Volume 5, Link to Volume 4, Link to Volume 3, Link to Volume 2, Link to Volume 1

See also: Walking Dead: scary, engrossing zombie comic

Update: Mike sez, "For those of us unlucky enough to only have a single rope in our house Mother Earth News published an article on how to fold a hammock back in 1984. It only requires 24 feet of rope, wide blanket, and a tiny bit of faith you won't fall on your head."

Pedicabs need a big bell -- all the momentum they are riding on is hard to stop quickly. These guys in Suzhou had a cool set of bells using a old gear to more than one bell, which were struck by an armature in the center turned by the rotation of the front wheel It made a great big ring!

The world's oceans were the platform for the first great era of globalization over a century ago. While the 20th century was dominated by exploitation of the land and air, over the next few decades, a convergence of economic, climatological and technological forces will bring the oceans back to the forefront as a new frontier for human activity. From new sources of energy and nutritious food to limitless biodiversity and potential settlement sites the ocean is the last great unexploited frontier on earth. This blog is a window into that future, and seeks to encourage discussion about how humanity can create a future on and in the seas in ways that ensure economic and ecological sustainability.

Pakistan's Nuclear Regulatory Authority played down the significance of the ads. "No radioactive source has been stolen, lost or missed," spokesman Zaheer Ayub Baig told news@nature.com via e-mail. Baig says that the newspaper ads were simply meant to warn citizens about old medical and industrial sources that may have been lost before the founding of the nation a half-century ago. He adds that in coming weeks, advertisements will also appear in regional and English-language papers.

Well, it's a theory.

Media Rights Technologies (MRT) and BlueBeat.com have issued cease and desist letters to both companies and to Adobe Systems Inc (nasdaq: ADBE - news - people ) and Real Networks -- which produce the Adobe Flash Player and Real Player respectively -- for actively avoiding their X1 SeCure Recording Control, which they said is an effective copyright protection system.

MRT and Bluebeat said the failure to use an available copyright protection solution contravenes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which prohibits the manufacture of any product or technology designed to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a copyrighted work or protects the rights of copyright owners.

They said a failure to comply with the cease and desist order could result in in a federal court injunction and/or the imposition of statutory damages of 200-2,500 usd per product distributed or sold.

Update: Clint sez, "The hosting site describes this video as: 'This is a tool-assisted speedrun of the probably most famous Super Mario Bros Hack.' Tool-assisted means that the player didn't play the game normally; the most common tool-assist slows the game down to a fraction of normal game speed, allowing for perfect jumps and a much more deliberate play than the intended 'jumpduckjumpjumprunjumpjump-ohno-ohno!' This is more like having a really powerful cheat code running while you play."

In 1988, psychologist Fritz Strack of the University of Würzburg, Germany, asked two groups of people to judge how funny they found some cartoons. In one group, each person held a pencil between their teeth without it touching their lips, which forced a smile. The other group were asked to hold the pencil with their lips (not using their teeth), forcing a frown.

The results revealed that people experience the emotion associated with their expressions. Those with a forced smile felt happier, and found the cartoons funnier than those who were forced to frown...

Anthropologists and psychologists have long been interested in superstitions. One of the key categories of superstitious thinking is the "law of contagion", which says that when an object has been in contact with someone, it somehow acquires their "essence". Psychologist Paul Rozin and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have investigated how common such thinking is today.

They asked people to rate how they would feel about wearing a nice, soft, blue jumper that had been freshly laundered - but previously worn by someone else. As they varied the fictitious previous wearers of the jumper, it became clear how strongly people follow the age-old belief in magical contagion.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the volunteers were unhappiest about wearing the jumper if they were told it had previously belonged to a serial killer. On the whole they would rather have worn a sweater that had been dropped in dog faeces and not washed - raising genuine health concerns - than a laundered sweater that had been worn by a mass murderer.

Even in the 21st century, we are far from being the rational creatures that we like to think we are, as a final part of the experiment made dismayingly clear. When asked to imagine that the laundered sweater had been worn by someone who had contracted HIV through a blood transfusion, most people once again said they wouldn't wear it.

"And if you were to eat steak at the computer, you'd probably drop some on the floor."

"I don't know about that..."

"Dude, I've seen you eat." Yes, the dog calls me "dude." There may be obedience classes in her future.

"All right, we'll allow the possibility."

"Therefore, it's possible that you dropped steak on the floor. And according to Everett's Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, that means that you did drop steak on the floor. Which means I just need to find it."

"Well, technically, what the Many Worlds interpreation says is that there's some branch of the unitarily evolving wavefunction of the universe in which I dropped steak on the floor."

Update: Kevin sez, "Bizzare fact. The Everett of "Many Worlds" is the father of Mr E off of the Eels (popular beat combo)." That's so cool. I love the Eels. Every single track off Daisies of the Galaxy is in my top-ranked playlist.

Update: Tyler sez, "I read your post about the Han Solo shaped chocolate bars, and it reminded me of another Instructables. My best friend made an Instructable on how to create a Han Solo 'En-Queso'd In Carbonite'."

The Lancaster Ladies Watch Camera was brought into Bonhams by a gentleman whose grandfather had owned it originally. He was a cabinetmaker at the Birmingham-based firm J. Lancaster & Son, probably working on the many wooden cameras sold by the company. The vendor, consigning several watches to one of Bonhams’ sales, noticed that among his collection was what looked like an ordinary nickel-plated pocket watch case when closed – but when he opened it he discovered that it actually contained a tiny camera inside.

Today on the NPR program "Day to Day," the conclusion of a two-part series (part 1 here) I filed on "Mingering Mike," the imaginary soul superstar whose work is chronicled in a new book.

- - - - - -

LISTEN:
NPR: "The Search for Mingering Mike" Link to segment audio (Real/Win), and MP3s of two songs recorded 30 years ago by Mingering Mike, in his basement. Direct MP3 Link. Or, listen in the "Xeni Tech" podcast (subscribe via iTunes here). NPR "Xeni Tech" archives here.

- - - - - -

Excerpt of NPR transcript:

While rummaging through record bins at a flea market, vintage vinyl collector Dori Hadar found what looked like a vast trove of recordings by an R&B great from the late '60s and early '70s.

But a closer look revealed the whole thing was fake. They were all cardboard discs with hand-drawn grooves, inside elaborately illustrated covers.

Dori shared the cover art with fellow collectors on message boards at the "crate-digging" forums on Soul Strut. The fictitious soul superstar Mingering Mike became Internet-famous, and Dori made it his mission to track this mysterious artist down.

Dori works as a criminal investigator by day, so he used those skills to keep trying to locate whoever was behind all those obsessively crafted cardboard fantasy records.

He left word with one of Mike's relatives.

"I called my relatives," the man known as Mingering Mike now recalls, "And they just happened to say, 'Someone came and left their phone number.' So I called."

Mike was suspicious, but agreed to meet Dori and another record-collector friend.

"He and Frank came to the door and said, 'I have some items that belong to you,'" Mike remembers. "I said, 'My babies, you have my babies?'"

Other voices you'll hear in this piece, music journalist Neil Strauss, and historian Gerald Early, of the University of Washington, St. Louis.

Book: Mingering Mike: The Amazing Career of an Imaginary Soul Superstar.

Mingering Mike online (home-recorded audio, and scans of some of his album covers):
website, Myspace.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Nicole recognized the amazing beauty found in the embroidery done on a turn of the century handkerchief lost in some grandma's drawer. She marveled at the technique and realized that embroidery done today was never of this quality. It became her mission to bring back the refinement of this embroidery style and add it to shirts that would be in fashion today. To counterbalance the elegance and antiquity of the embroidery, she adds the playful charm of a dirty saying embroidered into every shirt.

Recently I was at an airport that had a self-serve "Mailsafe Express" kiosk which (for a fee, of course) lets you safely divest yourself of potentially unsafe materials while ensuring you're eventually reunited with them.

Want your Bic lighter mailed back to you? That'll be $45.00, please.

Oh, and just in case the entire security process wasn't humiliating enough, a video camera embedded in the kiosk records the entire transaction for your "safety." (As if you hadn't just passed through a security check that x-rayed, metal-detected and spectrum-analyzed everything in your possession.)

This kiosk was located after the security checkpoint, which means by the time you encounter it you basically have no choice but to cough up the dough to use it, or surrender your contraband to the TSA.

While the book is beautifully produced and entertaining, it really doesn't contain any risky projects that the title and nostalgic design suggest. I can't blame them -- the authors and publisher would open themselves up to lawsuits if they included potentially dangerous projects in the book.

The trouble is, an awful lot of exciting projects carry an element of risk. Things that explode, burn, fly, and make loud noises are great fun. Safety precautions are necessary whenever you experiment with anything that is capable of quickly releasing a lot of energy. Because many people don't bother with goggles, gloves, grounding, and other safety measures, today's book publishers are reluctant to publish books that have potentially unsafe projects in them.

But "dangerous" books are available, if you want them. Some are reprints of old books now in the public domain, others can be picked up used or downloaded on P2P networks, and some are still being published today by brave authors and publishers.

Here are a few of my favorites:

The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It (1890)

Dangerous projects include: War kites with broken glass on the strings, mole-trapping techniques, hot air balloons with fireworks, blow guns, and a spring shot-gun ("Although the shot cast from the tube will have sufficient force to stun a small bird, it will not injure the specimen by making ugly holes in the skin and staining the feathers with blood.")

Almost 120 years old, The American Boy's Handy Book offers a glimpse of what life was like (or what boys of that era fantasized about) in the late 19th century. Children in those days wanted to emulate Lewis and Clarke, pioneers, trappers, and settlers -- people who could be airdropped naked into the wilderness with nothing but a buck knife and a coonskin cap, and six months later be whittling happily in a rocking chair on the front porch of their newly-built log cabin, a curl of smoke rising from the chimney, and a half dozen rabbits waiting to be collected from snares and added to the stewpot simmering over the fire.

The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments (1960)

Dangerous projects include: making chlorine, ammonia, hydrogen, and ethanol.

The book is long out of print, and used copies are very expensive (Amazon.com has used copies for over $100). Of course, in today's litigious environment, no major publisher would dare republish a book that had actual chemistry experiments in it, for fear getting sued. I have long wanted to own a copy of The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. I sort of forgot about it, but recently a friend emailed me a page he had scanned from a copy he owns. It prompted me to search for a sub-$100 copy. I got lucky and found a $0 copy, thanks to BitTorrent. Here's a link to the torrent file for a nice scan of the 112 page book.

The book is an example of everything great about vintage children's science books. Once you lay your eyes on it, you will come to the sad realization that our society has slipped backwards in at least three important ways: 1. The writing quality in old kids' science books was better; 2. The design and illustration was more thoughtful and skillful; 3. Children in the old days were allowed and encouraged to experiment with mildly risky but extremely rewarding activities. Today's children, on the other hand, are mollycoddled to the point of turning them into unhappy ignoramuses.

Whoosh Boom Splat: The Garage Warrior's Guide to Building Projectile Shooters (2007) and Backyard Ballistics (2001), by William Gurstelle

Dangerous projects include: potato cannons, catapults, fire kites, and tennis ball mortars.

William Gurstelle is a friend of mine, and a contributing editor to MAKE magazine. (Here's a funny video he made to promote Whoosh Boom Splat). Recently, MAKE magazine decided to kill a story because we deemed the project (a high-voltage "lifter") to be unsafe. MAKE invited its technical advisory board to weigh in on the subject of safety, and William's comments are worth excerpting here:

This is a question — about publishing information that could hurt, injure, or kill if misunderstood — that I've spent a long time considering.

Several years ago I published a book called Backyard Ballistics which explained, among other things, how to build a device that shoots projectiles at high velocities. Am I worried that someone might goof up and get hurt? Of course. Is that a reason not to publish information -— that someone, anyone could make a mistake?

True story: a couple of years ago, a young adult in Texas built a spud gun and went out in the swamp. He spent all day collecting bullfrogs, tossing them down the barrel of his spud gun and shooting them into froggy goo on the other side of the swamp. But on the last occasion, his gun misfired. Against every warning and caveat possible, he looked down the barrel of the gun, and as you probably guessed, took a fair-sized bullfrog between the eyes with unfortunate results. (Google it for details.)

Point is, just because someone could make a mistake with the information you're providing, it doesn't mean the magazine is liable, morally or legally. Unless it's incorrect.

But if the info is correct, that is, it has been thoroughly vetted, can be clearly explained, and contains plenty of warnings of the magnitude of the consequences of error, well then, I say go for it. I don't know the first thing about high-voltage power supplies, so I can't tell how complete the MAKE explanation is, but if complete and thorough information can be provided, then go for it. Nanny State be damned.

Legal disclaimer: But as Dennis Miller says, that's just my opinion; I could be wrong.

Even if you aren't planning on tackling the projects in these books, they make for interesting reading.

Reader comment:

Richard says: "Just read your boingboing post and felt you should include this book: Manual Of Formulas; Recipes, Methods and Secret Processes, if not in your post, at least in your collection, originally published by Popular Science Magazine Publishing Co in 1932. It has since been republished and is an entertaining read. Has things like illuminous paint recipes/ make up / fireworks/ floor polishes etc. Huge disclaimer when it was republished given that it was a different time and health and safety was not high on the priority list."

Thailand's National Legislative Assembly approved a controversial law this week which could seriously effect how Thailand's internet users use the web. The main effect of the bill is to outlaw any attempt at bypassing government censors to access any of the thousands of sites that have been censored due to their moral or political purposes.

This single law could put Thailand in the same category as China and Burma with regards to censorship and the lack of a democratic right for free speech. (...)

This was on the cards but I was shocked at the speed it was passed.

This has SERIOUS consequences for anyone using the internet, blogging or posting anything "someone" deems offensive. To be honest it makes the life of a blogger impossible now, something I always feared.

It certainly does. The Evil Mad Scientists have some key realizations about making junkfood in a fab: sugar is cheap, precision isn't important, and hot air guns are cheaper fusers than lasers. This looks totally build-able.

Our design goals were (1) a low cost design leveraging recycled components (2) large printable volume emphasized over high resolution, and (3) ability to use low-cost printing media including granulated sugar. We are extremely pleased to be able to report that it has been a success: Our three dimensional fabricator is now fully operational and we have used it to print several large, low-resolution, objects out of pure sugar.

The outfit included an infant sleeper and a bib that read, "You think I'm cute? You should see my aunt."

Following up on yesterday's BB post about David McRaney's sociological analysis of LOLcats, image macros, and invisible cheezborgahs, Internet knowitall Simon Spero says:

McRaney's recent article [McRaney 2007],whilst interesting from the syntactics perspective, fails to cite the relevant literature, and as a result does not satisfactorily align his work to the central research questions within the field.

The methodology applied in [Spero 2007] uses a Description Logic approach to the begin the process of unifying the emergent ontology of lolcats with the rules of cuteness heuristically determined in Frost's definitive and ongoing survey [Frost 2005].

Our study revealed several strengths and weaknesses inherent in a pure Description Logic approach. Although it was trivial to dervive a solution to the lolcat/cheezeburger hypothesis (lolcat can has multiple cheezeburger), other classifications are not expressible without the use of more powerful formalisms.

For example, due to monotonicity constraints, it is not possible to encode the knowledge that, whilst by by default things that look like Hitler are not cute, a kitten that looked like hitler, wrapped in a burrito, with its paw up, might be a CuteThing. Also, without the use of higher order reasoning capabilities, it is non-trivial to describe the set of things accompanied by smaller versions of themselves.

[McRaney 2007] David McRaney, L337 Katz0rz, 1 J. Am Soc. Macrologists available at [Link] (2007)

[Spero 2007] Simon Spero, Loltology - I saw ur mom on teh sermantic webz, 1 LJ. Am. Lolbrarian. Assoc (2007) available at [Link].

[Frost 2007] Meg Frost, The Rules of Cuteness, J Cuteology (2005-2007, ongoing) available at [Link]

The design of the book is gorgeous, lovely line-art illustrations and papercraft models that look to be a hell of a lot of fun to assemble. I read this book in bed, but I kept wanting to get up and clear the dining room table to glue together its models. Link

The technological Singularity -- what Ken Macleod called "The Rapture of the Nerds" -- is the moment at which it is possible to make a computer that is as smart as a human, and then smarter. The idea is that we will irrevocably change as a species at that moment.

The Singularity Institute has put up full videos and audio from the Summit now -- there's some great stuff here. Link (Thanks, Tyler!)

What got me back interested was The New York Times' story in December 2005. (Editor's note: The Times reported that the government had been secretly monitoring Americans' phone calls and e-mails that crossed the nation's border since shortly after 9/11 without getting approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA.)

The president admitted the program existed, but only admitted that part which had been exposed -- and he avoided talking about the part that wasn't, which was the internet.

The administration sent officials out to defend the program, including (Vice President) Dick Cheney, and they said they didn't think they had to obey FISA.... This was the defense of the indefensible. So I decided if they are going to perpetuate this fraud then I'm going to blow their cover.

This is one of a number of compounds recently found in marsupials, such as koalas, that have exciting medical applications. Young wallabies don't develop an immune system until 100 days after birth, yet they typically manage to avoid infection. This compound is part of the reason why, say Australian scientists.

(Creative Commons licensed wallaby pic ganked from Shayan's Flickr stream)

After a year long fight with her "cancer bug," Ava Jaymes Cipriani (above, right) passed away on April 17th from the effects of Stage 4 neuroblastoma, which strikes 1 in 400,000 children. Flanked by an impressive line-up of artists, apparel company 70*7 launches its A Wish for Ava series to assist with the enormous costs of Ava's cancer treatments. 70*7 will donate $15 from the sale of every Limited Edition t-shirt to www.awishforava.com.

Josh Cole, co-founder and Creative Director of 70*7 said, "...We want to honor her life by offering what we do to help with the out-of-pocket burden on her parents, Ally and Larry... This is simply an 'actions speak louder' way for us to put our money where our heart is."

Each design is printed on seventy highest quality cotton tees and sold on their website. And when they're gone, they're gone. Artists in the series are Kathie Olivas, El Maz, Matt Sharp, Amy Sol, H, 5QR47CH and Adrian Pina. Designs by H and Kathie Olivas are available for purchase on the website. The Olivas art will also be on a Special Limited Edition hoodie and kid's tee, available soon exclusively at Monkeyhouse Toys in Silverlake.

Mark has painted a guitar for the Six-String Masterpieces Art Guitar Auction benefitting "Little Kids Rock", an organization committed to bringing free musical instruments and music education to public school children.

Online Bidding for the auction is available as well as a benefit concert and final live auction at the House of Blues in Hollywood, CA on May 17, 2007. Please direct all inquiries to the auction organizers.

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Many Ryden links

But something as pure as a kittah with an invisible sammich -- I don't know, when you overanalyze anything that simple and funny, does it vanish like a bucket in tha night?

What happens to a meme deferred? Does it dry up like a harbl in the sun? Or does it fester like a cheezburger -- and then run?

Link. (thanks, Cayden)

Previousleh on BB:

Turns out there's a lot of BoingBoing readers in the neighborhood near the Griffith Park fire that destroyed 800+ acres in LA yesterday (previous BB post). A number of you wrote in to share what you witnessed.

This rare poster is the only one we know of and we believe of Australian issue. Text at top reads "And Me With Out A Pro[phylactic]! Be Sly VD Is High." Great art depicts Donald Duck in an Australian soldier's uniform while behind him is an attractive woman in a tight slinky dress lying in wait behind a large plant. Donald has an exasperated look on his face as he is without a prophylactic. At the lower right is insignia "4MCD," we believe to be for the Fourth Medical Corps Division. Art is signed "Cyril Jones."

"Spamtrap" is an interactive installation piece the prints, shreds and blacklists spam email. It interacts with spammers by monitoring several email addresses I have created specifically to lure in spam. I do not use these email addresses for any other communication. I post individual email addresses on websites and online bulletin boards that cause them to be harvested by spambots and then to start receiving spam.

Because I know that all email sent to these email addresses are spam, I have set the installation to print and then shred each email as it arrives. Simultaneously the installation is feeding spam blacklists on the web with information gathered from all the received spam. This in turn helps to feed spam filtering systems across the web that are working to reduce the amount of spam we all receive.

The installation uses a Pentium II computer connected to a wireless network, personal printer, personal shredder, aluminum rails, Spamtrap email addresses, automatic printing software, email client software, antivirus software, and a SpamCop user account. The paper is recycled after the spam email has been shredded.

Thanks to the discovery of unusual creatures on Earth, such as “extremophile” bacteria adapted to the extreme heat of underwater thermal vents, most astrobiologists accept the possibility that life-forms on other planets could have unfamiliar appearances or adaptations. However, most still envision microbes filled with water and carbon-based, or organic, molecules. It’s not unreasonable, says David Grinspoon, astrobiology curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and formerly NASA’s principal investigator for exobiology research. He points out that such compounds have been detected in practically every corner of the universe that has been examined.

However, he and other researchers now suggest that an element other than carbon may serve as the backbone for molecules essential to life-forms on other planets. One proposed substitute is silicon, which occupies a place on the periodic table directly under carbon. Vertical rows on the table represent an element’s most basic behavior, so carbon and silicon’s close positions suggest that one can be swapped for another to form molecules with similar characteristics, says Grinspoon...

The probes that search for life on other planets use technology that can detect a range of chemicals beyond water and organic molecules. The trick is to devise experimental protocols that do not destroy or miss signs of possible life...

Zsa zsa slapped a cop
who pulled her over in La-La land.
She left a booboo on his face
From all the bling-bling on her hand.

Dance the cha cha
Or the can can
Shake your pom pom
To Duran Duran...

Choo choo goes the train.
Vroom-vroom goes the Corvette.
Oh no, this is my worst rhyme of all.
Now they’ll never link to me from boingboing.net.

Shown here: Studio Yumi's Mischief Monster.

See entries | Order a 4" tall blank Vimobot

Found amongst a co-worker's collection of connectors we came across this Disney Sound Converter, complete with Mouse Ears. Done in shiny chrome, with what looks like a Parallel port, and phone jack. Is this the control device for Walt's Cryo-tube?

Chime in if you know what this really is.

It's a sign that says "You and I altogether do afforest the bodyguard!". Maybe they intended to say "Together we can take care of the plants", or something like that. I took the photo last week in Shenzhen, China, and posted it to my blog, on O Estado de S. Paulo, a major Brazilian daily (in Portuguese).

Longtime readers of BoingBoing will recall a post from 2004 about "Mingering Mike," the soul-funk legend of the 1960s and 70s who released over 50 records in just 10 years. Only -- well, they were fake cardboard records, discovered in a flea market bin by a vinyl soul junkie named Dori Hadar.

Today and tomorrow, NPR is airing a two-part series I filed with the story of Mingering Mike. We learn how he came to be reunited with his "children" -- those 4,000 songs and countless fantasy LPs -- and just who this prolific, self-styled genius is.

The story is also documented in a new book filled with album cover scans, hand-scrawled lyrics (one on an empty box of Pampers!), and sweet old photos: Mingering Mike: The Amazing Career of an Imaginary Soul Superstar.

- - - - - -

LISTEN:
NPR: "Mingering Mike: Digging Up a Long-Lost Star" Link to archived audio (Real/Win). Direct MP3 Link. Or, listen in the "Xeni Tech" podcast (subscribe via iTunes here). NPR "Xeni Tech" archives here.

- - - - - -

Dori Hadar is addicted to old soul and R&B music on old vinyl records. On weekends, he scours second-hand stores and junk markets to expand his collection.

On one expedition he happened on a treasure trove of albums by Mingering Mike, a soul superstar of the 1960s and 70s who released over 50 records in just 10 years.

Dori discovered Mike's releases while flipping through record crates fresh off the truck at a local flea market.

The find was a giant surprise because Hadar — who pays for his vinyl habit with a job as a criminal investigator in Washington, D.C. — had never before heard of the prolific Mingering Mike.

But they weren't real records at all. They were meticulously crafted cardboard creations, with vinyl grooves hand-drawn on the cut-out disc, and elaborate illustrated record jackets, with hand-lettering and ink portraits of the artist. They were even pretend-shrinkwrapped. Plastic wrap was taped over the covers, with pencil-drawn logos for the imaginary record labels that released them.

Dori bought what he could and rushed off to work. Later, he scanned some of the album jackets, to share with fellow vinyl junkies on the soul record Internet forum, Soul Strut.

Can Mingering Mike Stevens Really Sing!, read one album title. There was an imaginary sickle cell anemia benefit record, soundtracks for made-up movies like You Only Know What They Tell You, and a Bruce Lee style funk action concept album: Brother of the Dragon.

There were song titles like "Underwear Drying at My Front Door," "I'd Like to Teach the World (to Eat Like Me)" and "Sometimes I Get So Hungry I Can Eat a Light Bulb (or a Chair, or Even My Hair)."

On another LP, the track list reads like a diary: "She's Not a One-Guy Girl," "Come on Back," "Frustrations of an Angry Young Man" and, finally, "That's the Way Love Is."

"I'm very concern [sic] with the growing rates of suicide, threats killings, alcohalism [sic], addicts, prostitutes, fake's, frauds, high cost of living, high cost for being sick, death arrangements, child education, adult education, poverty, prejudice, bigatry [sic], the war -— and the success of this album," Mike wrote in one fantasy liner note.

Word spread fast. "Everyone on the forum just had to know more," recalled Hadar. "All of a sudden, Mingering Mike was a star."

Millions wanted to see these fantasy album covers for themselves. But, just as soon as the images had appeared, they vanished.

Hadar had taken them offline after thinking about how personal the material was. Since he didn't know how to reach Mingering Mike, he couldn't ask permission to share his obsessive musings with the rest of the world.

"If someone found a diary that belonged to me, how would I feel if they just published it on the internet?" Hadar asked.

Who was Mingering Mike? Was he still alive? Had he thrown this stuff away? Was it stolen from him? Hadar wasn't the only one who just had to know.

At the urging of e-mailers, and using his criminal investigator skills, Hadar went to work tracking Mingering Mike down.

The mystery of Mingering Mike continues when part two of this story airs Thursday.

- - - - - - - - - -

Mingering Mike online (home-recorded audio, and scans of some of his album covers):
website, Myspace.

I first heard of the 23 enigma from William S Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, Nova Express, etc. According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very day, Clark’s ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was another captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.

Burroughs began collecting odd 23s after this gruesome synchronicity, and after 1965 I also began collecting them...

In conception, Mom and Dad each contribute 23 chromosomes to the fœtus. DNA, the carrier of the genetic information, has bonding irregularities every 23rd Angstrom. Aleister Crowley, in his Cabalistic Dictionary, defines 23 as the number of “life” or “a thread”, hauntingly suggestive of the DNA life-script. On the other hand, 23 has many links with termination: in telegraphers’ code, 23 means “bust” or “break the line”, and Hexagram 23 in I Ching means “breaking apart”. Sidney Carton is the 23rd man guillotined in the old stage productions of A Tale of Two Cities. (A few lexicographers believe this is the origin of the mysterious slang expression “23 Skiddoo!”.)

Some people are clusters of bloody synchronicities in 23. Burroughs discovered that the bootlegger “Dutch Schultz” (real name: Arthur Flegenheimer) had Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll assassinated on 23rd Street in New York when Coll was 23 years old. Schultz himself was assassinated on 23 October. Looking further into the Dutch Schultz case, I found that Charlie Workman, the man convicted of shooting Schultz, served 23 years of a life sentence and was then paroled.

This issue has a bunch of electronics projects that anyone can make, even if they don't know the business end of a soldering iron. Here are some highlights:

• Making a home electronics workshop -- everything you need to get yourself started in hobby electronics
• Fun circuits you can make with the 555 timer chip
• Make a pair of digital dice
• Easy ways to automate your house
• Making sandals from an old tire
• Experience altered states of consciousness with the Brain Machine
• Build a device to help you have lucid dreams
• Make a self-contained ecosystem in a Mason jar
• Learn how to use an oscilloscope
• Make a vibrobot out of a mint tin (as seen on cover)
• Design a workbench using Google's SketchUp
• Make a guitar amp enhancer from a thrift store desk
• Outfit your bike with solar power GPS
• Build a powerful laser from a DVD burner
• Construct a sidewalk speed gun

In addition to these projects we have many features and profiles about makers and the cool things they make. If you subscribe now using the promo code SUMMER, you'll get one free issue. Link

According to court records, Wiley has stolen a car, kicked a state trooper and attacked his wife headfirst. He is awaiting trial on separate drug and illegal-driving charges. He faces up to five years in prison.

"He is one of the best drivers I've ever seen in my life, " said Lee Michie, a longtime acquaintance. "But he's the worst person I've ever met."

From TED curator Chris Anderson:

In Washington DC this morning, the first big step in that dream came true. Five major scientific institutions, backed by a $50m funding commitment led by the MacArthur Foundation, announced the launch of a global effort to launch the Encyclopedia. Ed Wilson described today's announcement as a dream come true.

...

Please take two minutes (and it is literally two minutes) [It's four minutes, but well worth watching -- Mark] right now to watch this video. It does a spectacular job of explaining the purpose and vision behind the Encylopedia.

She needed no time to choose her words. "Do you know how old art is, Senator?"

"As old as man, I suppose. In fact, it may be part of the definition."

"Good answer," she said. " Remember that. But for all present-day intents and purposes, you might as well say that art is a little over 15,600 years old. That's the age of the oldest surviving artwork, the cave paintings at Lascaux. Doubtless the cave-painters sang, and danced, and even told stories--but these arts left no record more durable than the memory of a man. Perhaps it was the story tellers who next learned how to preserve their art. Countless more generations would pass before a workable method of musical notation was devised and standardized. Dancers only learned in the last few centuries how to leave even the most rudimentary record of their art.

Wednesday, May 16th, 7PM

Variety Children’s Charity
The Variety Preview Room
582 Market St. @ Montgomery
1st floor of The Hobart Bldg.

They fight crime.

Of course.

The artwork in this one is just fabulous -- muddy watercolors streaked with savage tentacle-beasts and shambling horrors from nether-hells. Templesmith draws good gore, too.

The first collected volume was a hoot -- I'm looking forward to reading this one for a long time. Link

Four or five years ago, I started attending WIPO meetings at the UN, fighting to kill this treaty. At the time, we couldn't get any of the tech companies whose asses were on the line to sign onto a letter or show up. Most of them were in Hollywood already, supporting the made-in-the-USA version, the Broadcast Flag.

What a difference half a decade makes: now the same tech companies and telcos have figured out that selling out to Hollywood doesn't make them rich, it makes them into the love slaves of a pack of technophobic plutocrats who honestly believe that it's both possible and desirable to make computers worse at copying.

Device regulation unacceptable. The Non-paper’s call for global legal rules that would regulate the ‘making available’ of ‘devices capable of decrypting an encrypted broadcast’ would presumably require wholesale regulation of general purpose computers and other devices, and have significant harmful consequences for the technology industry generally. Moreover, many in our group have serious concerns that the technological protection measure and rights management rules set forth in the Non-paper will have the practical impact of stifling technical innovation and limiting otherwise lawful, beneficial uses of broadcast and cablecast content by the public.

See also:
Public hearing on Broadcast Treaty in DC, May 9
US Senate: Broadcast Treaty subverts copyright!
WIPO anti-podcasting treaty refuses to die
America to US gov't: kill the Broadcast Treaty!

You'll remember the internet going a bit gaga over the Stephen Fry Talking Clock a couple of months ago? Ever a sucker for Wodehousian wit in the mornings, I ordered one, but really wanted the actual samples so I could use them on my computer for a wake-up playlist. I contacted the clock's makers to suggest it, then talked them through how they might sell the samples ethically, with CC-licensing, and no DRM.

And they've gone and done it, as well as providing twenty free samples (in both Good Morning, Sir and Good Morning, Madam flavours), also CC licensed and DRM free.

Update: Mark sez, "I conducted a video interview with Open Source Cinema founder Brett Gaylor for flasher.com and you can find it at the suggested link. He's a good talker and he outlines his project and the ideas behind in detail."

1. It's OK to be First
Many lenders search for loans that are close to being filled. But don't be afraid to be among the first bidders. "If you don't bid, the listing may wind up being overlooked, despite its merits," says Boon.

2. Focus on the Numbers
"Don't get sucked into storytelling," says Boon. "You will see very interesting things, but ultimately you will have to make rational choices based on the numbers."

3. Go Beyond Credit Reports
Ask for relevant information if it's not already in the borrower's profile. For example, if someone has an eBay store, and wants capital to buy more xBox 360s, ask for their eBay ID and check their seller rating.

See also:
Does microcredit help the developing world
Wireless phone ladies of Bangladesh, revisited

So now, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing him on behalf of the YouTube user who posted the clip. This is the latest EFF suit against DMCA abusers, having already vanquished serial troll Michael Crook and electoral fraudsters Diebold, and now chasing down the self-actualization nuts at Landmark, and Viacom, the megabully that sent 100,000 takedown notices to YouTube.

Be sure to check out the video -- Amazing Randi is absolutely brilliant in it. I'll have to check the spoons the next time I'm at EFF and make sure that Geller hasn't bent them with his mind in a wanton act of vengeance-by-cutlery. Link

See also:
Uri Geller misusing DMCA to remove critical YouTube videos?
Classic video clip: "Psychic" Uri Geller busted on the Tonight Show!
Reality-TV human baby giveaway, pissed-off Uri Geller claims trademark breach
Amazing Randi's Million Dollar woo-woo challenge
The Amazing Randi's amazing site
Podcast of Amazing Randi's science-skeptics conference with Penn Jillette

Update: Brian sez, "Yesterday Uri Geller tried to threaten me 'anonymously' via email but included an attachment easily traced to him."

The mechanical man, brazen-lunged creature of dreadful portent is among us! A few years from now you may rub elbows with him in the subway, turn out in the street to let him pass upon his ruthless way, or even, if you are a malefactor, find yourself pinioned in his grip of cold steel and compelled with unreasoning inflexibility toward a place of confinement.

What can the mechanical man do? Plenty! He can walk, and he can talk. He can stand, sit, bow, and otherwise comport himself after the fashion of a human being. But he can do more than that. He can shake hands and breathe, telephone, operate practically any electrical device, and perform any number of duties advantageous to mankind.

Travelling recently on Air France to British Columbia I was sitting in seat 9C but asked by the flight attendant to move to 5D. After my trip I returned home with Delta Airlines sitting in seat 6B. The plane landed at 7 AM, my wife picked me up in the car and we went via the A8 route to our apartment at 7C Rillington Place. Flights can be tiring due to jet lag.

As a 33 year old I am actually in A1 condition and find that my cure is to take a 2B pencil which I purchased recently at the E7 stationery store in East London and write. This helps my concentration although my doctor has advised me to take Cholecalciferol as a Vitamin D3 supplement to assist me. My colleague has found that playing any game from EA games helps him. He has found that being jet lagged has helped him get to level 11 in one of their platform games.

5:06pm: Helicopters are circling overhead where I am right now, not too far from an ongoing 200+ acre fire in Griffith Park, a little bit east of the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles. Flames are still live, and there's talk of arson an arson suspect in custody.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Swingsha. Bear in mind that this was shot from a number of miles away, over the hill, in Burbank. You can see the fire/smoke plumes from just about anywhere in LA right now.

LATIMES blog has good updates.

It started as a small brush fire in the park, at about 120pm. I could see the smoke plume all the way from the NPR studios in Culver City a few hours ago. Driving from there towards this site, north on Western through Koreatown (a few miles away), I could see very large flames and clumps of black and brown smoke above the chaparral hills. It's huge. And it's crazy hot (100 F), gusty-windy, and dry out today, unseasonably so.

Humans have been evacuated from the LA Zoo and the Autry Museum (both inside the park), but I understand the more fragile critters inside the zoo (about 1,000 of 'em!) are instead staying put, under protection. No word on the ponies and the carousel, and the teeny tiny steam engine ride.

The guys at blogging.la have a number of related items up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

BoingBoing pal Michael P. points to more photos on Flickr, and says,

We must go free the animals at the zoo NOW.

(Thanks also, Ape Lad and others)

UPDATE: Sean Bonner just called, out riding around the area on his bicycle -- he's roaming near the fire site, phonecamming what he encounters: Flickr stream, and one of the shots is below.

And eecue just uploaded this HDR shot...

UPDATE, 745pm: OK, there are a hell of a lot more helicopters, flying even lower and more frequently now. I guess some of these are news choppers, but some may be first responders, too? All I can hear are sirens and roaring helicopters overhead. I think we're about a quarter mile or less from the center of the burn area (though not in any immediate path of harm). They're saying it's 20-25% under control now. The numbers don't feel too comforting at the moment.

The power is out in much of our neighborhood now. Our DSL has been down for a while, and I'm using my EVDO card to blog this.

7:53: Someone just called me from a few blocks away via mobile, even closer to the burn site, and says the fire is coming closer to where we are, moving down the hill, towards houses, spreading out and covering an even larger area. The hills are glowing red, much ash in the air, heavy smoke smell. Lots of people in the streets looking up at the burn. Small planes circling. We're packing up a few essentials now, just in case the wind gets super hinky and we receive an evacuation order.

Local TV news is reporting the fire was started by a golfer who tossed a cigarette aside while playing golf in the course nearby.

8:30pm: Friend shot this photo a few blocks away, an hour ago. The air is extremely thick with smoke and ash. More homes now without power, increasingly. Officers going door to door instructing people of mandatory evacuation orders a few blocks way. All the newscasts I'm watching are covering the immediate area outside our house, which is weird. Windows and doors all closed here, neighbors doing the same. Sky overhead at night now is dark orange-red, hills look like lava flowing down. Hot Santa Ana winds, gusty, fast, from the northwest. I've lived here for years, through many fires, never seen anything this big.

8:50pm: Cops shutting down Los Feliz boulevard (big street here) now, to minimize incoming traffic from gawkers. Unclear if the shutdown order will make it more difficult to get out. Police on bullhorns giving mandatory evacuation orders about 5 blocks from here. They're closing more streets by the minute, and placing evacuees in a nearby high school shelter.

9:01pm: They're describing the fire's movement as having "exploded" over the past hour. No homes burned yet, but lots in imminent danger, and evacuations under way. 250 acres burned now. Landmark "Dante's View" destroyed, bird refuge in immediate danger. "Deer and coyotes here are running for their lives," a councilman at the burn site is saying on local news right now. Some animals who live in the park are running into the street now.

9:08pm: Cops going door to door evacuating people nearby now. Fire appears to be spreading via embers? New spots of burn now, burn area obviously growing, even from our distance. Guy on TV: "How did the firefighters not see this coming and plan for contingency? It's moved all over the place now."

9:19pm: 300 acres estimated burned now. Here's a cameraphone video shot a few blocks away, at 7:55pm, by M.D. Video Link.

9:45pm: Now, 600 acres burned -- several times what was estimated an hour ago. Winds close to the fire are very hot and very strong now, which may be Venturi effect.

Outside my window, it looks like a giant SRL show on the hill. Big flame tornado shapes reaching up into the sky.

We're packing stuff up now. Homes close to us are being given evacuation orders and we might need to get out if things change once again for the worse. Ash and live embers are floating in the air, eyes burn, throat itchy when you step outside.

Policeman on TV saying lots of homeless people who live inside the park, up in the chaparral hills, are evacuating onto the street.

Electricity outages and mobile phone problems are resulting from the destruction of (or damage to) towers inside the park.

Lots more videos now at Blogging.la, and more updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Reader comment: David says,

Hey, I live a mile under the fire. We've been watching the new flare up for the past few hours. Thought I'd share photos from it: Link. This is also where the Greek Theatre is as well -- and we think its gone!

A friend of mine works in the zoo as security most days. After I read the article here I called him to find out what was up, and he said he was posted on one of the ridges above the zoo keeping watch. He sent me several videos of the helicopters flying back and forth, and you can see the bright flames coming over the crest of the next hill over. They're not very good (exceptionally small) but you can definitely see the flames. He's off work now, and the zoo is out of danger (when the wind changed, I think that is when it headed towards the homes) but he noted when driving out that the homes that had already been evacuated? Had also already been *looted*! Where the heck was LAPD? I'm hoping he'll be able to get the videos up, but he's had a pretty long day and the zoo will apparently be trying to open tomorrow as scheduled.

Here's a Flickr set shot this morning in the wasteland that the fire made of the hills above Commonwealth Canyon. What's creepy is the huge number of suddenly-exposed beer empties that people hucked into the brush figuring, "Nobody will ever spot these." Link to Flickr set, and related blogging.la post is here: Link.

For the geek artists (and engineers) in the audience, the mechanisms that render the art might be as interesting, and maybe as poignant, as the art itself. Alberto used the Make Controller, an iconic object of the current anyone-can-play high-tech/DIY craze, "canvases" gridded off like geeky graph paper, beautifully printed on Komatex/Sintra, an expanded PVC material popular in robotics, peristaltic pumps that look like they were lifted from an OR, and paint-laden "carboys" suspended from the ceiling, that look like they might be from the recovery room. Gorgeous little robot carts complete the tech, with precision-machined gears and rack and pinion drive mechanics, stepper motors, and segmented cable guides that look both serpentine and like something from a LEGO Mindstorms set. As the gallery's curator, Andrea Pollan, so perfectly put it: It's "Frankenstein lab meets Walter Reed hospital room."

We like natural peanut butter, but hate the initial stirring mess. The minute you put a spatula in, the oil overflows and is everywhere. This stirrer seals the jar, and with a few quick turns the peanut butter is completely mixed and there is zero mess. Easy to use: you put the lid on, insert the stirrer and turn the knob. The gasket on the hole where you put the stirrer even cleans it off when you are done! My husband actually sneaks in a new jar of peanut butter so that he can mix it up before I get to. -- Sessalee Hensley

Stockholm professor David Katz assembled his Psychological Atlas in 1948, pulling together classic and curious images from the history of myth and psychology. This is an amazing, bizarre collection that blurs the distinction between what we consider science and pseudo-science. Among the images are classic visual and perceptual illusions; comparisons of the facial expressions of meat-eaters and vegetarians; artworks by blind people; visualizations of personality "types"; chiromancy; and conditioned reflexes in action. Art students visiting our library home in on this book.

It's free for download from Prelinger Library at the Internet Archive. HINT: Click the "FTP" link to access the original scanned-page .jpgs in highest res.

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Many more Rick Prelinger treasures
• Crap Hound -- seminal clipart zine -- is back!
• Crap Hound No. 6 - clip art magnificence

Your post today about the history of tiny handwriting reminded me of the German writer Robert Walser who (somewhat) famously wrote in a "microscript." The link I've sent y'all is a flickr image of Walser's microscript of his. Tough going for Walser's translators, but well worth the effort ...

Re: your post yesterday titled McRaw McChicken McServed at McMcDonalds. I am the gal who got the raw deal and took the pictures.

But while I truly appreciate spreading my story, the “original story” was actually on my blog which has been going since 2002.

On the fast food blog you linked to, now there are many who are calling the whole thing a hoax – even people claiming to be former McDonald’s employees. The person calling me “worse than Hitler” is my personal fave. Feeling like Buzz Aldrin finding a videotape, I uploaded my original receipt to flickr last night.

My original post is here

Today I gave my thoughts on the whole thing/response to the conspiracy theories here.

I love Boing Boing.

Yours sincerely,

Susie Felber

Reader comment: William Gunn says,

There's no evidence meth is flavored to appeal to children, and there's no masking the taste.

On the contrary, there's an established tradition of drug dealers coloring and styling their wares, as a brief look at http://www.ecstasydata.org/ will make evident. The purpose of this is to create a reputation for a certain "brand" of drug, allowing a dealer to promote his product over the other guys.

"Pink champagne" meth(with residual red dye from sudafed tablets) is one such brand and has been around forever. The rumor that "the pink stuff is the good stuff" is almost certainly the inspiration for this. Also, amphetamines are about the most vile thing you could ever taste, and a pinch of Kool-Aid isn't going to change this.

I found the article on pop rocks combined with meth-amphetamine very interesting (what an odd combination?) I must say though, I felt a slight cringe when reading the first sentence "In an effort to sell more meth to children"

And I mean no offense by this, it would be a lot easier to sell candy to children then clandestinely produced powder, but really I cant see anything else that this implies that it was an effort to sell "to children"

There are several things that seem logical to me, for one wouldn't pop rocks look a lot less inconspicuous then a white powder? Drug dealers and smugglers have been using techniques like this for years to smuggle drugs. We've all heard of heroin lolipops, but of course those were not intended to actually be eaten as lolipops, just for smuggling.

I installed Ubuntu on two of the donated PCs at my library yesterday. It took less than an hour. In fact, if I hadn’t been making the little movie at the same time [with my laptop and my little Canon digital Elph; I don’t have a video camera] it would have taken me even less time. Ubuntu comes bundled with a lot of the popular Open Source software titles like OpenOffice, Gimp and Firefox. The Calef Library has two Windows PCs already so if people need specific software that doesn’t run on Ubuntu, they can use those. I’d like to get them a Mac as well and then they can be the only library (to my knowledge) that is triple platform in the entire state of Vermont.

Windows Media Player is a kind of lockware that takes over your computer and prevents you from seeing and using some of the files on your hard drive. It's against the law to make a Windows Media Player device or program without Microsoft's permission, and Microsoft won't let you use its technology in open source players.

The BBC has announced that it will make its programming available through a short-term window using Windows Media technology, which means that British people will have to license American software to watch British TV. British open source programmers can't make their own players for BBC programming and share them with their neighbours.

This will have no impact on the unauthorized copying of British TV. The BBC broadcasts all of its shows "in the clear," so that any video-tuner can record them and share them, copy them, and so on. All this means is that Internet TV won't be as good as broadcast TV -- and that Brits who watch it anyway will get locked into Microsoft's proprietary software (and Brits who download from P2P services will go on being exposed to legal liability for watching telly).

A public call for comments found that more than 80 percent of respondents objected to the use of DRM and particularly Microsoft's DRM in BBC programming. The BBC's Trustees ignored this and gave the BBC permission to sell out the license-payers to Microsoft.

The hiring of a Microsoft exec whose remit has been to promote Microsoft's proprietary anti-user technology to work on the BBC's Internet player strategy is just another nail in the BBC's coffin. The 21st century doesn't need a "public service broadcaster" whose idea of public service is forcing you to buy your technology from a monopolist and preventing you from exercising your legal rights under copyright.

The appointment of a Microsoft executive to a key position at the BBC is significant. The newly created post of controller of the Future Media and Technology Group positions him as a potential successor to Ashley Highfield, who has done so much to promote new media within the corporation over the last six years. He has placed the iPlayer project at the centre of its online strategy. It is also likely to play a significant role in the commercial plans of BBC Worldwide.

See also:
BBC Trustees agree to let BBC infect Britain with DRM
BBC techies talk DRM
BBC tries DRM-free distribution
BBC Creative Archive launches, without DRM

"No, you won't spend any time in jail, but you'll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don't want to pay a $10,000 bond for the 'right' to treat their customers like criminals."

1894 C.E.: Miniature book collector George Salomon of Paris disperses his seven-hundred-title collection, a library that reportedly ìcould be carried in a moderate-sized portmanteau. His spirit lives on today in the Miniature Book Society, an organization whose interests extend only to printed works three inches or smaller. (Pocket Library of Lilliputian Folio Books, London, 1801. Courtesy of The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana)

Scottish scientists were developing a pill that will simultaneously boost women's sex drive and decrease their weight. When the pill was given to monkeys, said the scientists, females displayed their feelings via "rump presentation and tail wagging" and males through tongue-flicking and eyebrow-raising. A 68-year-old grandmother in England was the runner-up for "txt laureate" for writing a love poem to her husband. "O hart tht sorz," she wrote, "My luv adorz, He mAks me liv, He mAks me giv, Myslf 2 him, As my luv porz." Guests at a wedding in Patna, India, decided that the groom had arrived too drunk and had the bride marry his brother instead, and a farmer in eastern India beheaded one of his workers with a sword for failing to milk his cows. Four thousand Filipina mothers in Manila tried to break the world record for simultaneous breastfeeding.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued 150 yoga-related copyrights, 134 patents on yoga accessories, and 2,315 yoga trademarks. There's big money in those pretzel twists and contortions - $3 billion a year in America alone. It's a mystery to most Indians that anybody can make that much money from the teaching of a knowledge that is not supposed to be bought or sold like sausages.

The Indian government is not laughing. It has set up a task force that is cataloging traditional knowledge, including ayurvedic remedies and hundreds of yoga poses, to protect them from being pirated and copyrighted by foreign hucksters. The data will be translated from ancient Sanskrit and Tamil texts, stored digitally, and available in five international languages, so that patent offices in other countries can see that yoga didn't originate in a San Francisco commune.

It is worth noting that the people in the forefront of the patenting of traditional Indian wisdom are Indians, mostly overseas. We know a business opportunity when we see one and have exported generations of gurus skilled in peddling enlightenment for a buck. But as Indians, they ought to know that the very idea of patenting knowledge is a gross violation of the tradition of yoga.

See also:
New twist in Bikram Yoga copyright feuds
Hot, sweaty, scandalous: Bikram yoga copyright clash
Open Source Yoga advocates fight "Atom Bomb Balls" Bikram
LA says "Atom Bomb Balls" Choudry's yoga studio violates safety laws

The long-awaited episode #12 of the Boing Boing Boing podcast is out! Sorry about the long delay since episode #11, but these homemade audio krafts take many fortnights for our tree-dwelling legion of squirrel-helpers to fashion from acorn husks and pine needles! Please direct complaints to our customer service manager!

In podcast episode #12, we talk with DJ and independent music producer/publisher Michael Donaldson, also known as Q-Burns Abstract Message (Website | MySpace | Amazon link to buy CDs).

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LISTEN TO BOINGBOINGBOING #12:
Podcast Feed, Subscribe via iTunes, Archive.org, Listen at Odeo, Direct MP3 url, iTunes link to this episode.

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ABOUT OUR GUEST:

In the realm of dance music, there are few producers that thrive on blurring the boundary between eclectic experimenter and populist ass-shaker as much as Q-Burns Abstract Message. Equally comfortable covering Krautrock legends Faust or dropping his favorite chunky house grooves into the mix, Q-BAM—known to his parents as Michael Donaldson—is indeed the rare auteur. Whether globetrotting as a DJ, co-running the Eighth Dimension Records label, remixing artists like Rabbit in the Moon, Fila Brazillia and Mazi & Collete, or recording his own original productions, Donaldson is all about the coaxing the maximum soul out of the machine.

Based in Orlando since the early-’90s, the former record shop owner and college radio DJ has spent the past two decades developing a sound that is obsessively devoted to the funk. His animated, vodka-soaked DJ sets have won audiences for the well-traveled Donaldson from 
San Francisco to (literally) Siberia, and landed him primo opening slots for GusGus, Chemical Brothers and Meat Beat Manifesto.

EARTH-SHATTERING QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS EPISODE
(total duration -- 38:20)

How did Michael Donaldson end up going from major label artist to DRM-free DIY? Hint: it's all about chance, and it had to do with an ill-advised album title, and 9/11. (section begins at 17:41)

What is up with the internet fracas over "swiping" allegations surrounding artist Todd Goldman (previous BoingBoing posts). When exactly does inspiration, remixing, or borrowing become creative theft? (section begins at 00:27)

What is the dealio with Arnold Schwarzenegger and that curious photo EULA? (BB post) (section begins at 08:20)

Why did the mayor of Boston ban BoingBoing over boobies? (BB post) (section begins at 13:00).

What cool things might we experience at the Maker's Faire on May 19-20 in San Mateo, CA? (BB post). (section begins at 11:09)

What do cutups have to do with creativity, and why is a copy of the epic William Burroughs/Brion Gysin tome, The Third Mind, worth paying $200 for if you can find it? (section begins at 27:47)

Where did Q-Burns get his stage name? (section begins at 34:27)

What was New Wave Theater, and is it true that the show's murdered host Peter Ivers wrote and performed "In Heaven Everything Is Fine," in David Lynch's classic nightmare film, Eraserhead? Oh, the hell with it, yes. (section begins at 36:25)

MUSIC:
The tune you hear in this podcast is by Q-Burns Abstract Message -- his remix of "Angel Soup" by Cold Hands, recently released on vinyl and digital via Blunted Funk Records. Listen to the whole thing here.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER IMPERSONATOR:
In this podcast episode, you'll hear the voice of Matt Plumb, who won Mark's BoingBoing Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation voicemail contest.

TECH NOTES:
We recorded this podcast as a Skype conference call, and captured it with AudioHijack. The audio was later edited in Apple's Garage Band, after some help from Levelator.

PREVIOUS EPISODES OF BOINGBOINGBOING:
1 (Mr. Jalopy, master craphound), 3 (Gareth Branwyn, cyberculture writer), 4 (Chris Anderson, WIRED editor-in-chief), 5 (George Dyson, tech historian), 6 (Steven Johnson, author), 7 (John Hodgman, humorist and PC), 8 (Merlin Mann, productivity guru), 9 (Matt Haughey, MeFi), 10 (Bonnie Burton, Lucasfilm), 11 (Noah Shachtman, defense tech reporter).

[Link to larger image.]

In a massive campaign that recalls the socialist engineering of an earlier era, the Chinese government has relocated some 250,000 Tibetans - nearly one-tenth of the population - from scattered rural hamlets to new "socialist villages," ordering them to build new housing largely at their own expense and without their consent.

The government calls the year-old project the "comfortable housing program," and its stated aim is to present a more modern face for this ancient region, which China has controlled since 1950.

It claims that the new housing on main roads, sometimes only a mile from previous homes, will enable small farmers and herders to have access to schools and jobs, as well as better health care and hygiene.

But the broader aim seems to be remaking Tibet - a region with its own culture, language and religious traditions - in order to have firmer political control over its population. It comes as China prepares for an influx of millions of tourists in the run-up to next year's Summer Olympic Games.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Copyright is a global problem -- the US has exported its worst laws to countries all over the world. In Russia, they've just agreed to implement the DMCA and then some; they're going to license and police-inspect their CD and DVD presses (so much for freedom of the press, guess Glasnost had to end sometime). The iCommons movement is global in scope -- in fact, it's the most widespread, credible and effective global organization working for copyright reform.

The iSummits are incredibly useful to the movement. Last year in Rio, the group adopted two resolutions, one condemning the WIPO Broadcast Treaty (which is now on life-support and is widely expected to kick the bucket), the other condemning the use of DRM for Creative Commons licensed works. These two powerful messages have reverberated all year long, and all around the planet.

But these things are expensive. I'm going to Dubrovnik, and I hope to see many of the activists I met last year. I've just donated $250 to the scholarship fund to make that happen. It's tax-deductible, and it's good value for money: these summits are crucial to the long-term health of free culture around the world. Link

Good lord, has it come to this? That was my first thought upon getting off the plane here in Seattle, and seeing CNN - f*cking CNN! - running clips of David Hasselhoff reverse puking a Wendy's Steakhouse Double Melt in a crowded airport during high rush hour (6 pm).

Yes, it has come to this. Why am I, defender of all things Internet (see my views on NBC making the Va Tech material available), offended by seeing on CNN what I can freely see on the Internet? This may not be in any way insightful, and I'm sure someone has put it far more elegantly, but it comes down to this one simple insight: What I see on the Internet, I *choose* to see, and in particular, I choose to see it *privately* - in other words, I see it by choice. But when I'm walking with 1000 other souls through a public thoroughfare, and a poor, sick, f*cked up man is losing his dignity on CNN, well, it strikes me the standards are different.

Reader comment: Brett Burton says,

Just read your post about the Hasselhoff puking clip. ...Am I the only one sees what's really going on here?!! This is an obvious frameup perpetrated by Michael Knight's old enemy, the evil doppelganger Garthe Knight!

Someone needs to get K.I.T.T. out of storage and back on the street so we can find where Michael is being held prisoner!

Just saw your post on The Hoff's spectacle being broadcast wide on CNN. I am following up on the reader comment from Brett Burton who says 'Someone needs to get K.I.T.T. out of storage and back on the street so we can find where Michael is being held prisoner!'

We found KITT. He's no longer in storage, he does miss Michael and apparently still has very strong feelings for him. Irina gets the scoop.

Hasbro is launching a new edition of The Game of Life called Twists and Turns that will replace play money with a Visa-branded card. Matt Collins, Hasbro's vice president of marketing, said of the switch, "When we started to design a completely new edition of the popular game, we knew it was also time to reflect the way people choose to pay and be paid - and replacing cash with Visa was an obvious choice."

They also changed the goal of the game from accumulating the most money to earning the most "life points." Supposedly this a combination of wealth and life experiences, but it's not hard to see parallels between "life points" and the reward points and airlines miles offered by certain credit cards.

COMFORT-LOVING Bill Porter, East St. Louis, 111., handy man, takes no chances on having to get up for anything once he’s settled in his easy chair. For the chair, which Porter designed and built, is equipped with seventeen convenient accessories, including a radio, bookcase, electric fan, shoe-shining and pipe-smoking equipment, and compartments for food and beverages. A pull on a “gearshift” lever lowers the back, converting the chair into a bed.

These days, Aadil openly advertises two packages for transplant patients at steep discounts to the brokered rate: $14,000 for the first transplant, $16,000 for people who need a second organ after the first has failed.

"You do not have to worry about the donor. We shall provide a live donor arranged through a humanitarian organization, which has hundreds," said Abdul Waheed Sheikh, CEO of Aadil Hospital in an e-mail interview with Wired News.

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D) has introduced a bill to ban diacetyl use by 2010. The chemical is an artificial butter flavoring most commonly used in microwave popcorn. Numerous study have found links between the chemical used by flavor workers and a rare disease called bronchiolitis obliterans. For those of you who aren’t 2000 yr old Romans, that means that the bronchioles and some of the smaller bronchi are obliterated by masses made up of fiberous tissue. It’s like sticking marbles into the networks of tubes in your lung that connect fresh air to the alveoli, the little sacs where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged with the blood. As you Romans can imagine, that’s haud sanus. According to the WaPo, flavoring manufacturers have paid out more than $100 million due to health lawsuits. An excellent case study and background to this whole mess can be found at Defending Science.

I read this last night -- what I loved about it was the broadly construed notion of "player." Cooper doesn't just get people who play games for the fun of it, but also an old-school MUD developer (his "avatar" is a block of text from his game), several gold-farmers and miscellaneous other cheats; game developers and models for in-game avatars, and so on. The breadth of gamers interviewed by Cooper is really awe-inspiring: rich and poor, western and Asian, able-bodied and disabled, young and old. It's not all terminally shy, heavyset guys playing skinny little women (though there are some of those) -- Cooper has plenty of people who defy the stereotypes, too. The net effect is to demonstrate the common cause between all the players, no matter what their background: they are all living virtual lives.

Also: it doesn't hurt that these are beautifully shot portrait photos. Link, Link to thumbnail gallery of photos 1, Link to thumbnail gallery of photos 2