Wallaby milk may hold the key to fighting superbugs. Of course:

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.

Link (via Futurismic)

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

Scott says:


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.

Link

From Mark Ryden's email list:

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.

Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Many Ryden links

Actually, this essay (with hot chart action!) on the sociology, etymology, and ecology of image macros and LOL[nouns] is interesting, and thoughtfully written. And the person who wrote it is by no means a pedant. I am making LOL!

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:

LOLtrek

Oh, how I love the gebril macros!

Massive cache of kittah pix (aka LOLcats, cat macros)

Reader comment: The Good Reverend says,

In response to Xeni's question about memes deferred: I'm pretty sure they a splode.

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.

Elliot Trinidad says:

Here's a batch of photos I took of the Hollywood fire. Taken from the next-highest elevation at Barnsdall Park, these are a much closer and direct look at the fire after sunset. I've been hearing a lot of reports of people simply sitting and hypnotically watching the fire from afar last night, no matter where they were in LA, and that's certainly something you'll see in the photos.

Dave Bullock wrote, late last night...

Here are some more HDR photos I took a few hours ago of the fire.

At midnight on the night of the fire, Melissa Snyder told us,

Went on a fire chase tonight and took these photos from the Hollywood sign lookout on Mulholland and the 5 freeway.

Lost Feeliz says,

The City of LA sent out warnings to residents today about displaced wildlife, who will likely be wandering in to our urban back yards now, in desperate search of food and water. Snip:

"It is important for L.A. City residents to understand that many wild animals will be displaced by the fire and may turn up in areas ... where wildlife has never been seen before," a department statement said. "These animals will be looking for water and may be seen drinking from garden ponds, pools and other water reservoirs."

Abiding Dude says,

Some people think that setting a bunch of goats -- with shepherds! -- loose in what's left of Griffith Park would be an eco-friendly way of keeping the brush down, to prevent future big fires like this. It's an interesting idea, but one of the arguments against the goats is that they could destroy native plants and upset what remains of the native ecosystem. Link. I for one welcome our new... oh forget it.

Sara says,

My friend the security guard from the zoo posted some videos on his youtube early this morning before heading off to another long day at work.

Over the weekend, I posted links to a bunch of stop-motion animations from Michael Mouris of milkfat.com. Michael lives in the fire area, and says today

I've posted a few new videos -- the latest is a quick little time lapse of the LA fire at Griffith Park, which happens to be right down the street! YouTube video link, Brightcove video link

Sarah El Ebiary, a student at Southwestern Law School, wrote earlier today,

On my 3am drive home after a long night of cramming for law school final exams, I had to get creative maneuvering my way home due to the road closures of Los Feliz Blvd west of Riverside Drive. (I live near Glendale and attend law school at Southwestern) I was also trying to see how close I could actually get to check on the fire and whether it ventured near my neighborhood. Seems like the fire has fully engorged the hills of Griffith Park and the flames are alive and well, nearly down to the area around 1-5S (northwest of the Griffith Park/Los Feliz Blvd exit).

Any word yet on the arson investigation? My law school muscles are itching to get a piece of that guy! CA Penal Code Section 451(c) Arson of a structure or forest land is a felony punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, four, or six years.

And I wrote a quick essay for NPR this morning about local ties to Griffith Park.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Hollywood is burning (yet again) - UPDATED, video.

More reader comments: Bridgitte says, this evening:

I'm a 2nd generation LA native (dad was born in and grew up in Beverly Hills, mom in Inglewood, me in the South Bay) who left the city in 1991. I left for a number of reasons, but the biggest one was watching the disrespect and destruction of the buildings, businesses and the intangible that made the city a magical place to be.

By the time i left, institutions like Tiny Naylors and the Starwood had been torn down and replaced by the likes of strip malls housing pizza delivery joints and manicure shops. Sounds superficial, but it was, to me, the beginning of the death of its charm and the dream that the sidewalks glittered.

Maybe I'm being a little over-dramatic, but 16 years later it still makes me sad every once in a while. I miss what it used to be.

The fire is echoing those feelings for me. And as I watch from the opposite coast sad to be losing something else that made LA the best place on the planet to have grown up, and keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't actually reach my friends' homes, I just wanted to say thanks for the great coverage. Sad as it is, in a strange way it's made me feel connected to the city again.

And Jacob Soboroff from LA Observed points us to a related video just posted on that local Los Angeles blog -- Griffith Park fire observed. Jacob says:

In the video I visit with Griffith Park-area City Councilman Tom LaBonge, LAPD Chief Bill Bratton, and LAFD Captain Carlos Calvillo. Also, see what it's like below a fire department chopper dumping tons of water.

Here's a rare piece of Disneyana up for auction:

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."

Link

Bill Shackelford says

"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.

Link

An article in the current issue of Air & Space suggests that life forms on other planets may be so incredibly weird that we'd have a hard time spotting them. In fact, ET microbes may not contain water or carbon-based molecules, chemicals associated with life, on this planet anyway. The article was spurred in part by news in January that the Viking space probe may have killed Martian microbes, if any existed, with the very tests it was using to search for them. From Air & Space:

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...

Link

David sez, "I'm no Dr. Suess, but I decided to try writing a poem full of as many reduplications as I could come up with (reduplications are words made from repeated words or syllables, like couscous, murmur, or bonbon). Being a reduplication, 'boingboing' made its way into a stanza."

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.

Link (Thanks, David!)

Mimoco, makers of nifty anthropomorphic USB memory keychain fobs, has invited people to enter designs for a "Vimobot" contest.

Shown here: Studio Yumi's Mischief Monster.

See entries | Order a 4" tall blank Vimobot

From XYHD.tv

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.

Link (Post your guess here. Please don't email me about it.)

Renato Cruz says:

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).

Link

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.

To promote NASA's plan to return to the moon, the space agency created a dramatic short video that plays just like the trailer for a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster. All that's missing is Don LaFontaine's voiceover.
Link to YouTube video, Link to NASA's Vision for Space Exploration

Fortean Times has republished a 1977 article by bOING bOING patron saint and contributor Robert Anton Wilson about the magickal, mystical number 23. Wilson, who died earlier this year, was fascinated with the number 23 and real or imagined synchronicities related to the digits. It was William S. Burroughs who turned Wilson on to the 23 engima that he went on to explore in both his fiction and non-fiction writings. From the Fortean Times article which appeared, of course, in the 23rd issue of the magazine:

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.

Link

Previously on BB:
• Robert Anton Wilson (RIP) Link
• Robert Anton Wilson university Link
• Link to many more BB posts about RAW Link
• Link to many BB posts about William S. Burroughs Link

A 24-year-old man in Cologne, Germany decapitated himself with a chainsaw after stabbing his father to death, according to an article in today's Deutsche Presse-Agentur. This news is on the heels of a Los Angeles Times report from yesterday that a man in La Habra decapitated a woman with a circular saw and then unsuccessfully attempted the same on himself but died anyway. Grisly and sad, yet curious. Link to DPA article, Link to LA Times article (via Fortean Times)

The artist Gould created this clever stop motion short film, titled Flâneur. The secret is not Photoshop but rather wheatpaste.
Link (Thanks, Lindsay Tiemeyer!)

MAKE Vol 10 is about to hit the stands. I just got my advance copy and am really excited about this one, and not just because my daughter and I are the cover models.

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

Michael Francis Wiley of Port Richey, Florida has no arms, only one leg, and is one of the "most accomplished traffic violators" in Pasco County, according to news reports. Yesterday, police chased Wiley, 40, in a "suspcious vehicle" but he managed to outrun them. Wiley steers with his shoulder stumps. A few years ago, he attempted to elude police in a green Corvette speeding along at 120 mph. He has such a terrible record that driving at all is a felony crime. From the St. Peterburg Times:

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."

Link (Thanks, Matt Croydon via Carlo Longino!)

At TED a couple of months ago, sociobiologist E.O. Wilson was presented with a TED Prize (along with war photographer James Nachtwey and Bill Clinton). During his acceptance speech, he was given the opportunity to articulate a "wish" for something. Wilson wished for funding to launch and sustain a project called "The Encyclopedia of Life." (See video here.) Today his wish came true.

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.

This reminds me a lot of Kevin Kelly's All Species Foundation, which ran out of funding around 2003. It was a TED-borne idea. Link

Jana Brevick made these wedding rings, which incorporate a set of male and female 8-pin serial jacks. Insert serial monogamy joke here. Link (Thanks, Moxie!)

Spider Robinson has posted his Hugo-winning 1983 story "Melancholy Elephants" to his website; it's a prescient look at the impact of perpetual copyright, penned "two years before the first Macintosh went on sale."

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.

Link (Thanks, Colin!)

I'm giving a reading with cyberpunk legend Rudy Rucker in San Francisco next Wednesday, as part of Terry Bisson's SFinSF series. We'll each read, then Terry moderates a discussion between us. Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, May 16th, 7PM

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

Link

Ben Templesmith's comic "Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse" walks a fine line between icky and funny, and it walks it very well. Wormwood is a tiny, sentient worm that pilots a rotting corpse (complete with inverted pentagram carved into its forehead) around, steering from his vantage-point in the corpse's right eye-socket. His sidekicks include a clanking mechanical steampunk android with a fetish for small arms and an ultra-violent stripper who can cause wings to burst forth from her back.

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

An incredibly broad and diverse coalition of tech companies, consumer groups, telcos and others have co-signed a paper urging the US government to reject the dread WIPO Broadcast Treaty. The Broadcast Treaty creates a new right for broadcasters to control who can copy the programs they transmit, even if the copyright belongs to someone else (and even if the copyright holder wants their programs to be copied, as with Creative Commons licensing.) The Treaty is bloodied and beaten, with support evaporating. The US's commitment to it is wavering badly and with pressure like this, it's not likely to survive for much longer.

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.

The coalition includes AMD, Intel, Google and HP, EFF and Creative Commons, the CEA and Tivo, Verizon, AT&T and USTelecom and many, many others. Remember, EFF is presently suing AT&T for $150 per customer per day for its role in the NSA illegal wiretapping crimes -- so think of how profound it is that they're in coalition here. PDF Link

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!

A Walt Disney World enthusiast has placed every ride, shop and restaurant in the park onto a Google Maps mashup! Link (via The Disney Blog)

Dave talked the manufacturers of the Stephen Fry Talking Clock into releasing their Stephen Fry samples as open, Creative Commons licensed clips:

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.

Link (Thanks, Dave!)

Jonathan sez, "Open Source Cinema is trying to put together a collaborative documentary about copyright in the digital age. They've travelled the world and have loads of raw footage available under creative commons which anybody can download, remix, and upload again! The script is also completely editable by users. The finished documentary is to be screened on the documentary channel and in many theaters. They need help, however: people, get editing!" Link

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."

Wired has a great sidebar on successful microlending (part of a longer piece on microcredit): ten tips for successful microlending. Microlending is the practice of using the Internet to group together with other people and offer loans to worthy individuals. Microlenders use message-boards to evaluate potential loans for reliability and worthiness. It's a way to make a little money and do some good at the same time. It's a system that's been widely used in the developing world, but which is still relatively new in the US.

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.

Link

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

Uri Geller -- the man who got rich "bending spoons with his mind" -- isn't just a con-artists, he's also a copyright abuser. He sent takedown notices to YouTube demanding that they remove an Amazing Randi video in which his gimmicks were debunked, but he didn't hold the copyright to the video.

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."

This syndicated story from 1928 warns of the promise and peril that will shortly arise due to the army of mechanical men that will rise from inventors' drawing boards and take over the world:

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.

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James has written an hilarious little story that uses all the digits in the "secret" AACS code, which has now been published 1.65 million times (and counting). He's challenged the world to come up with its own AACS "stories."

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.

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