These Dr Who mobile-phone charms blink and spin around when your phone rings. Comes in Dalek or Tardis models. A great way to silence your ringer and still get your calls. Link (via Red Ferret)

These downloadable PDFs for a papercraft AT-AT model are insanely detailed and amazing. One thing I never understood about the AT-ATs: if they've got AT-ATs, why do they need the Death Star? After all, the AT-ATs make it clear that when the Empire finds the Rebels, they can handily kick their asses. A Death Star is like a giant, inaccurate, indiscriminate AT-AT. The Empire doesn't have a firepower problem: the Empire has an intelligence problem. It can't locate the Rebels. The Death Star won't improve their intelligence-gathering. Using the Death Star to kill Rebels is like nuking Iraq. Link (Thanks, Rene!)

Update: Dave sez, "The same site has a bunch more papercraft patterns to download including a sweet looking Delorean."

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Bonnie Burton from Lucasfilm says,

Can't make it to the biggest Star Wars convention on the planet this week? Fire up your lightsaber and take a look at the official starwars.com blog coverage of Celebration IV in Los Angeles, CA.

From Wednesday through Monday thousands of Star Wars fans converge to the Los Angeles Convention Center in costume to watch all 6 films, see R2-D2 Builders in action, belly dancing Princess Leias in metal bikinis and more!

For an ongoing photos of the event all week long, visit our photo blog on Flickr: Link.

Image: C3PO in Legos, photo by Pete Vilmur.

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Snip from ABC News blog "The Blotter":

The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

Link, and don't miss the classy comments on that post, calling ABC News "traders to the United States" (sic) for having reported what should come as no surprise to anyone already aware that the US and Ahmadinejad are not BFF. Ryan Singel has more over at the Wired News blog Threat Level: Link. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney slammed ABC today for the report: Link to AP story.

Reader comment: Patrick Nielsen Hayden says,

Kevin Drum makes a very good case that it's all just theater: Link 1, Link 2

Andrew de Geofroy says,

I, for one, am glad to see ABC make this report about the CIA's possible role in Iran (and BoingBoing bringing attention to it). As a journalist and journalism student who understands that the role of the media should be another check and balance on the government (it's called the fourth branch of government for a reason), and as a person who believes Bush is "leading" this country in the wrong direction, I think this kind of reporting is important.

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) The meeting is actually part of the Wall Street Journal's "D" conference, and the session will be moderated by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Surprise! News of the meeting broke in the WSJ. Snip from item by John Shinal:

For more than two decades, Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Steve Jobs and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates have sparred over the issues that were crucial to the development of the technology industry. Issues such as whether it is wiser for a company to partner or build everything itself. Or the primacy of software versus hardware in personal computers. Or which is more important: how easy it is to use a product or what it can do once you figure out how?

This jousting over big ideas, sometimes friendly but often not, has always been from a distance. Until now.

Although Gates made a famous phone call to Jobs in 1997 and the two shared a stage briefly at a 1983 Apple promotional event, the two industry icons have never had a public conversation.

So when they sit down next Wednesday for a 75-minute joint interview in front of a gathering of tech executives, their long history and competing philosophies should make for an interesting - if not history-making - discussion.

Link to WSJ item (sub required), and here's the WSJ/D press release (not much difference from the item in the WSJ, which amounts to a promotional announcement, too). The "D" conference takes place at Aviara resort, north of San Diego.

Reader comment: Colin Nekritz says this isn't the first time. Given that fact, it seems kind of tacky for a Dow Jones/WSJ reporter to describe this meeting -- organized by the WSJ, taking place at a WSJ conference, promoted on the WSJ's own editorial pages -- as "historic."

Steve and Bill sat down at the All Things Digital WSJ executive conference in 2005 and chatted. It wasn't official per se but they had a nice conversation.

When I worked for Adobe in the 90s I had the, well, wouldn't call it privilege, to talk to both of them. Though they're rivals they actually have quite a bit of respect for each other, did ask them about the other and both got these wry smiles. Though not first hand info, scuttlebutt was they do talk a couple times a year, and not about geek stuff, simply they know each other and have since the dawn of computers. Think about it, these two old war horses pretty much have the entire planet's technological industry in the palms of both of their hands, arguably both are responsible for the fact PCs are so prevalent today. (My personal take being a Linux/Mac person is basically Jobs invented everything, Gates copies it then marketed his cheap imitation to the masses).

You can see they do get along actually fairly well, check out the pics here: Link

Jason Chatfield says,

Going from the photos, Here's what I think was discussed at the dinner: Link.

If I ever do my own Todd Lappin-style urban camouflage vehicle mod, I want to call it Centrifugal Absorption Reciprocating, Inc. Link

When I was in New York earlier this week, I spotted this giant inflatable rat facing a building undergoing repair or renovation. The truck parked next to it was marked SCABHUNTER III. I'm guessing the Rat was involved in a labor dispute. I wonder if SCABHUNTER's I and II also travel with giant inflatable vermin? (Another Scabhunter rat photo on Flickr here, and a delightful Scabhunter gorilla here!)

Reader comment:

Supreme Commander, Shadow Government says:

It's kinda funny that you sometimes stop noticing bizarre things when you see them all the time...

The Giant Inflatable Rat has been has been around scab-busting in NYC and up and down the East Coast for well over 10 years...the rats are used by a bunch of different unions whenever they have labor disputes...

Check out the article on the Huge NYC Rats.

And yes, if you find the Scab-Hunter mobile, you find the Rat.

Kelcey says:

The giant inflatable rat is a mainstay at any labor related strike or protest in NYC. Link

It's a historic day for the nation that currently calls itself Serbia. Today the special court for war crimes in Belgrade declared the assassins of Zoran Djindjic guilty.

The killers of our late prime minister Zoran Djindjic (1952 - 2003) are guilty of first case murder, guilty of attempting to kill democracy and destroy the dignity of a country. All of the notorious Zemun Gang -- those accused in the courtroom, anyway -- got between 30 and 40 years of prison from tough-minded judge Nata Masarevic. This means a life sentence for them, practically speaking. The guilty parties abandoned the court room in anger and defiance, together with their numerous relatives and political supporters.

In front of the court the Zemun gangsters made violent threats and created incidents with the press while waiting for the jury and other VIPs to clear the area. There was also a street presence from various local political parties and NGOs, some with banners saying IT IS NOT YET OVER... Because they are looking for the unknown parties who gave the orders to Zemun group, who are the organized crime wing of the local secret police.

Here's part of a page from a 1950s-era copy of Felix the Cat that has the fun-loving feline dosing folks with an aerosol drug that makes them enjoy a comic book even when "there are no laughs in it." Link

By the way, the new issue of Craig Yoe's cartoon history magazine, Arf Forum, is out, and it's full of comic art treasures. Craig is also the editor of the promisingly titled forthcoming book, Clean Cartoonists' Dirty Drawings, with a spicy cover by Superman creator Joe Shuster.

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Sexiest Nancy panel ever?
• Felix vs Kit Cat: cartoon character and wall clock scratch it out in court

A new Saatchi & Saatchi ad campaign for Dr. Martens boots features dead punks Kurt Cobain, Joe Strummer, Joey Ramone, and Sid Vicious. That's dumb. Don't they realize that Kurt and Joey are better known for wearing Chuck Taylors Converse?
Link (Thanks, Dave Gill!)

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) PBS "NOW" new media producer Joel Schwartzberg says,

On Friday, May 25 at 8:30 pm (check local listings), NOW travels to Kenya to investigate an enterprising idea: franchising not burger and donut shops, but health services and drugs in rural Africa. American businessmen are teaming with African entrepreneurs to spread for-profit clinics around the country in the hopes of providing quality, affordable medical care to even Kenya’s poorest people. But can they overcome obstacles like extreme poverty, corruption, cheaper fraudulent services, and long distances to establish a sustained solution to a chronic problem?

“If we had as many franchise outlets delivering health care in developing countries as Subway has sandwich shops, we've estimated that we could serve about 120 million people a year,” Businessman Scott Hillstrom, who conceived the idea, told NOW’s David Brancaccio.

This is part of a new beat on NOW and NOW Online called “Enterprising Ideas” that focuses on innovative solutions to social problems around the world. For the next two years, NOW will devote time to examining how people are applying business skills toward a new kind of bottom line: making the world a better place.

Link to video preview (on YouTube, which is a first for these guys), and Link to website launching Friday which will include "more innovator stories, tools and tips for starting new programs and a contest to find a social entrepreneur for special NOW coverage."

Consumerist's Meghann Marco sez, "This is about my good friend Phil Villarreal, film critic for the Arizona Daily Star. His DS was banned from the film critic's screening of Pirates of the Caribbean... for piracy concerns. Never mind that the DS doesn't have a camera."

Weirdly, they did allow non-camera-equipped cell phones in - which I discovered during my lengthy argument with the security guy - meaning I could have brought my DS if I said it was a cell phone. Unfortunately this didn't occur to me until I was hunched over my Subaru's passenger window, waving goodbye to my little patience-maker as I abandoned it to the 300 degree heat of my car interior. (I have no games on my cell phone because I'm a snob who can't stand dumbed-down mobile games).

Link (Thanks, Meghann!)

Attaboy has posted a few pages from the forthcoming issue of my favorite art magazine, Hi-Fructose. It just keeps getting better and better.

The critically acclaimed under the counter culture art magazine Hi-Fructose returns this summer.

Featuring: cover artist Amy Sol, the awe inspiring art and interview with James Jean, the undisclosed locations of Mars-1, the beautiful paintings of Lori Earley, the punch drunk art of Brendan Danielsson and the ever curious bipeds of Travis Louie.

Multi-Page Exposes on: Pars Kid, The Murals of Aaron Noble, the Packaging Tape Baby Street installations of Mark Jenkins, Friends With You's Rainbow Valley, Josh Keyes, Designer Vinyl, and much more yet to be revealed!

Hi-Fructose is co published and edited by artists Annie Owens and Attaboy.

Vol. 5 ships at the end of June.

Link

This year, I had the immense privilege and pleasure of teaching an undergraduate course at the University of Southern California called PWNED: Everyone on Campus is a Copyright Criminal. The class was open to anyone on or off campus, and we podcasted the lectures. The students edited a class blog and were expected to improve Wikipedia posts relevant to the class. For the end of semester, each student turned in a final project that related the course material to their lives and major areas of study.

From the class discussions and one-on-ones, I knew I had a really amazing bunch on my hands, but I was absolutely gobsmacked by the incredible quality of the final projects. From founding a record label to conducting public polls to writing guidelines for journalists to interviews and classroom materials, my students did me better than proud.

I encouraged my students to do work that would be of use to the world at large. I hate the idea of the usual college final paper, which the student doesn't want to write, the prof doesn't want to read and no one else wants to ever see. Instead, I challenged them to produce useful work that the world could benefit from, and they met and exceeded the challenge.

I've invited those students who want to share their work to post about it on the class blog. Click through below for a guide to the projects.

Chinese Gold Farmers is a documentary film-in-progress about people in Asia who earn their living creating in-game wealth and selling it to wealthy players. This is a subject I've been fascinated by for years -- my story Anda's Game is about a union drive among gold-farmers -- and it's great to see it getting some deeper attention. The site for the film has some preliminary information and a frustratingly tiny trailer video.

Xiaobai started working in a gold farm serving Korean gamers in 2002. For the past four years, he traveled around China and worked in several gold farms. After being a gaming vagabond for so long, he finally established his own gold farm with a friend in Jinhua. His gold farm is growing into an enterprise famous for power leveling (raising the level of customers’ virtual characters) in World of Warcraft. He has to deal with government officials, brokers, customers from all over the world, and a volatile body of employees...

Changmao was a member of a gang in a small town called Lishui. Some residents in Lishui say that the town feels a lot safer even since the emergence of gold farms and there are less unemployed youngsters wondering around and looking for fights. He started working in a gold farm one year ago. Now he is persuading other gang members to join him to fight virtual enemies...

Link (via Freakonomics)

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Ape Lad has a couple of amazing new $20 illustrations up (he should add a few zeros!).

"In Spanish, 'Mona Lisa' means 'pretty little monkey girl,'" he writes. Link.

Don't want to get all pedantic on anyone's business, but I think that translation is probably not accurate (though my Spanish is clunky). Still love the drawing anyway. "Mono," male noun, is monkey, and "lisa" can mean "flat," or "smooth." Smooth ladymonkey?

Anyway -- equally astounding, Hellmonkey: Link. (Thanks, Holy Mac)

Previous BB posts about Ape Lad:

Get Illuminated podcast #9 -- Adam "Ape Lad" Koford

Ape Lad draws Jackhammer Jill as a hobo

Videos of hoboes being drawn by Ape Lad

Cory as an Ape Lad robo-hobo

Reader comment: Bill Shamam says:

It's been done already (about 35 years ago) by my friend Rick: Link. Thanks for a great site.. been reading for years!

Update from Holy Mac again:

To be fair to apelad, he was only drawing what was named for him: Link.

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) R. Stevens of Diesel Sweeties fame says,

Have you been following the story about the super clear tiny UFO in California? It's been around for a few weeks on the radio, but seems to finally catching some blog traction! Even if it's fake, it's a neat picture!

Link to blog account which includes links to a Flickr stream with more pix. Image: "May 16, 2007, in Capitola, California. Image © 2007 by rajman1977 at flickr.com."

Reader comment: Mike Rundle says,

Hey Xeni, here's another site with similar-looking UFO pictures taken by someone else: Link.

And Nicholas Chatfield-Taylor says,

In regards to the supposed UFO in California: The markings on the UFO in this photo seem similar to the markings on Megatron's face from the new Transformers movie.

Chris Wells says,

You may also want to link to the specific flickr account the second set of images came from, and particularly this image which has a lot of discussion on the matter.

Aaron says,

I thought I'd point out the similarity of the writing on the underside of the UFO's "wings" to the Japanese katakana alphabet (used to write foreign words and onomatopoeia). Some of the glyphs are straight from katakana, some are reversed, and some appear to be two glyphs superimposed. This wouldn't be the first time the Science Fiction community has borrowed katakana, see the Matrix's digital rain: Link.

courtenay says,

notice that most of the commenters on that flickr page do NOT have any flickr photos .. looks like some kind of sock puppet/astroturf action.

Ryan sez, "Toronto City Councillor Howard Moscoe is fed up with a decision to re-name a Toronto street after a living politician, MP Judy Sgro. Naming streets after living politicians is in contravention to Toronto's street naming policy, so Mosocoe figures the move must be blatant electioneering. He's suggesting the city come clean on its intent -- and 're'-re-name the street 'Re-Elect Judy Sgro Ave.'" Link (Thanks, Ryan!)

An anonymous source sez, "That is supposed to be a sign up page for people to organize house parties and events in support of Live Earth, the big climate crisis concerts. Look how just any connection at all with the music industry turns a standard online organizing tactic into a night mare of DMCA/EULA/Terms and Conditions hell! Amazing."

* The term “Live Earth” is not available for your use as part of your program identity or title. It can be used in descriptions of the event itself (example: Come see the Live Earth concerts, broadcast on big screens in Hyde Park).
* All events using this info should have their own title and identity, clearly separate and independent from Live Earth (example: Save the Planet Toronto). You cannot use the term “Friends of Live Earth” in your program title or lead messaging.
* No one from your organizing team can claim to speak on behalf of Live Earth, act as a representative of Live Earth, or represent your event as a Live Earth event.
* “Friends of Live Earth” cannot, directly through visual or other communications, be linked with any organization, including sponsors/broadcasters of your event. “Friends of Live Earth” should only be used as a supporting message.
* The contents of this kit should be used to supplement an existing or independently created event, apart from Live Earth.
* No events using this kit will be considered official Live Earth events, with any associated official or legal links.

And this is just the preamble! The EULA goes on for eight screens' worth of evil, controlling lawyerese bullshit.

Even when the music industry tries to do good, they do evil. What a disaster. Link

I've just started reading Powers, a long-running, gigantic comic series about police officers who investigate crimes committed by and against caped crusaders, underwear perverts and superheros. I finished volume 1, "Who Killed Retro Girl?" last night and was absolutely charmed. The storyline was great, the characters sappy and fun, and best of all were the layouts, which are expressive, cinematic and surprising. I recently chatted with comics dude Jordan Crane at a party and he started talking about the visual grammar of page layout, and it was a real epiphany for me. The layouts in Powers manage to pull off a kind of visual poetry that makes the story all the sweeter. Link to Vol. 1 (Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4, Vol 5, Vol 6, Vol 7, Vol 8, Vol 9, Vol 10, Vol 11) (Thanks, Chris!)

Update: Geoff sez, "newsarama.com offers Powers for free - and it's legal, too. Here's how it works: each weekday, Newsarama puts up a page from Powers, which is then archived in much the way a webcomic would be. The entire first volume is already available, and now they're in the middle of the second."

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Microsoft is "developing software that could accurately guess your name, age, gender and potentially even your location, by analysing telltale patterns in your web browsing history," according to an item in New Scientist: Link. (thanks, Chris)

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Snip from a Wired feature by Clive Thompson:

Hasan Elahi whips out his Samsung Pocket PC phone and shows me how he's keeping himself out of Guantanamo. He swivels the camera lens around and snaps a picture of the Manhattan Starbucks where we're dinking coffee. Then he squints and pecks at the phone's touchscreen. "OK! It's uploading now," says the cheery, 35-year-old artist and Rutgers professor, whose bleached-blond hair complements his fluorescent-green pants. "It'll go public in a few seconds. "Sure enough, a moment later the shot appears on the front page of his Web site, TrackingTransience.net.

There are already tons of pictures there. Elahi will post about a hundred today — the rooms he sat in, the food he ate, the coffees he ordered. Poke around his site and you'll find more than 20,000 images stretching back three years. Elahi has documented nearly every waking hour of his life during that time. He posts copies of every debit card transaction, so you can see what he bought, where, and when. A GPS device in his pocket reports his real-time physical location on a map .

Elahi's site is the perfect alibi. Or an audacious art project. Or both. The Bangladeshi-born American says the US government mistakenly listed him on its terrorist watch list — and once you're on, it's hard to get off. To convince the Feds of his innocence, Elahi has made his life an open book. Whenever they want, officials can go to his site and see where he is and what he's doing. Indeed, his server logs show hits from the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense, and the Executive Office of the President, among others.

Link to "The Visible Man: An FBI Target Puts His Whole Life Online," in Wired. Illustration by Ronald Kurniawan.

Submitted by BB reader Korrupt -- who wrote about an interesting connection here, to the movie Freeze Frame. "It's a strange coincidence that the movie was released in the same year as Elahi started his self surveillance."

Reader comment: Patrick says,

Your story on boingboing regarding the man who photoblogs his every move in order to convince the FBI he is innocent of whatever crimes they suspect him of reminded me of this story - traffic wardens in the UK are now wearing video cameras to record their every encounter should such material be useful for the courts. How long before we are all doing this? Link. Love the blog.

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Here's a first for NASA, if I'm not mistaken -- snip from announcement:

NASA Ames Center Director Dr. Pete Worden's speech at the International Space Development Conference will be given live from Second Life by his avatar, on NASA's own CoLab island. Join us this Saturday, May 26th at 8am SLT as Dr. Worden talks about the importance of small satellites, collaborative science, and how virtual worlds will enable us to "all go" to space.

Link (Thanks, Sam Coniglio)

The OpenNet Initiative, which studies Internet blocking around the world, has launched its site, with a search engine to help you see which URLs are blocked in what country, country profiles detailing each nation's Internet censorship, and interactive global maps of net-censorship. Link (via EFF Deep Links)

High-seas piracy still flourishes, and it doesn't have beads braided into its beard, either. Real life pirates use grenade-launchers and speed boats to hijack cruise ships and cargo freighters. Here's a piece on the piracy hotspots of the world.

Even though the global numbers for piracy is declining, there's one area that incidents are growing: Bangladesh. In 2006 they recorded a staggering 33 incidents (22 successful, 11 attempted) making Chittagong the "world's most dangerous port." There have been 47 reports since January of 2006 alone. In 2003, pirates killed 14 fishermen in the Bay of Bengal waters outside of Chittagong, stealing $50,000 USD worth of fish and further making this dangerous port a pivotal area for piracy.

Link (via Digg)

Why are Europeans getting taller, while Americans (historically the tallest people in the world) are not? A paper in Social Science Quarterly by a team of Princeton/Munich scholars says that the difference is social security and socialized medicine:

"We surmise that the health systems and high degree of social security in Europe provide better conditions for growth than the American health system, despite the fact that the system costs twice as much," said study co-author John Komlos from the University of Munich in a statement. "There are also indications that American diets are deficient in several areas."

From the Colonial times until roughly the 1970s, Americans were the tallest people in the world. But then, growth stagnated while Europeans spent the second half of the 20th century growing like weeds. Now, the average Dutchman is six centimeters taller than the average American -- "almost an exact reversal of the relationship in the middle of the 19th century," Komlos says.

Link (via Wonderland)

I've been trying to cut down on snacking, eat more slowly, and generally limit my caloric intake -- normally, I eat like a vacuum, cleaning my plate in 30 seconds flat -- and I've been really keenly watching my appetite based on how fast I eat and what I eat. I think that the secret is to get to a point where you're just not hungry. This report from Digestive Disease Week is therefore pretty interesting: it turns out that eating a fatty soup before a meal can reduce your appetite.

For the study, investigators recruited 12 lean and 12 obese healthy subjects and invited each group to the lab for two sessions (eating both fatty soup and protein soup with the same number of calories and volume). Each session consisted of a 30-minute baseline of soup consumption, a 20-minute post-soup period, an "all you can eat" pizza meal, and a 60-minute post-meal period. Electrogastrogram (a test recording the electrical activity of the stomach, EGG) and electrocardiogram (a similar test recording electrical activity of the heart, ECG) were recorded during each session. Food intake was assessed by the caloric count of the consumed pizza. Several symptoms, including satiety, appetite and nausea, were rated at different times of the study. In a second study, subjects were given the soup appetizer and then taken to an "all-you-can-eat" pizza buffet together in a social setting.

When compared with the protein soup, the fatty soup significantly reduced the amount of caloric intake with the following meal in both lean (962.0 vs. 1,188.5 calories) and obese (1,331.9 vs. 1,544.6 calories) subjects. A similar reduction in caloric intake was noted in lean subjects eating in the social setting (1,555 vs. 1,825 calories), except that significantly more food was consumed in social sessions compared with the lab setting.

Link

The Nosefrida is a suction straw for clearing snot out of your kids' nostrils. Put the rubber hose up your kid's nose, then suck on the other end (keep track of which end you use for what). A filter stops the gunk and germs from ending up in your mouth. Link (via OhGizmo)

Operation Phoenix Records hosts the Punk Zine Archive, with full scans of Maximumrocknroll, Flipside, Suburban Voice, and HeartattaCk. These are probably pretty resistant to OCR conversion, so someone should really retype them to make them full-text-searchable. Link (via MeFi)

Metin Seven sends us this vivid anti-Iraq-war illustration he recently completed for a client, called "Crystal Globe." Link

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Great White Snark says,

Howdy. Last month, I found myself incensed by your coverage of the Death Star cake. I applaud all pastry-tributes to Star Wars, but didn't see why this one merited any special attention. My Mom, being the part-time cake artisan and gracious lady that she is, agreed to create a cake based on the likeness of Max Rebo (from Jabba the Hutt's palace band)... which allows me to say, "Now THAT'S a Star Wars cake." Hope you like it.

Link to a Star Wars cake that was created in response to Cory's Death Star birthday cake post on BoingBoing, April 13, 2007.

DEATH STAR CAKE RESPONDS: Cass, the BB reader who submitted the Death Star cake (and I defend the righteousness of that lovely, chocolatey cake) writes,

I saw this post and was a little surprised anybody would say that.. Ruth made a cake for a co-worker, it wasn't a pissing contest. i think her cake was great, and the humor of it being red velvet inside is even better- somebody who has no formal cake-decorating training gets more credit than somebody who makes cakes for a living (at least in my mind) even if the cake is slightly wonky. besides, a red velvet cake with actual frosting on it is going to taste way better than that nasty fondant stuff. i think it was lame to rain on Ruth's parade simply because somebody could do it "better".

honestly, even if if was a cake mix and some store brand frosting, i'd vote for ruth's cake, theres a charm in having something made by a friend for you and it's much more special than making it an exact replica. besides, until "snark" can make the cake themselves, and not make their mom do it, they have no right to say Ruth's cake looked like a " Large, pre-historic ball of turd with a dent in the side."

Let a thousand Star Wars cakes be baked, and henceforth let no one speak ill of the Death Star on this blog. Cass adds,

It wasnt my cake. Ijust think it was a little mean spirited of that guy to go and be like "my cake is better, neener neener."

And you are right, Cass. There will be no more besmirching of fanpastries on this blog.

BB reader Cementtruck says,

In response to Xeni's recent post regarding Great White Snark's cake, this is my Star Wars tribute cake. There will be another one of a different theme in October (Son's Birthday): Link.

MAX REBO CAKE TEAM REPLIES: Main screen turn on! We get signal! Great White Snark says:

Just wanted to tell Cass to consider Ruth's honor intact. As I said in my note to you and in my blog, I applaud her efforts, but occasionally I indulge in a bit of hyperbole. For instance, of course Ruth's cake looks better than a turd (I'm just really bad at analogies and commonly resort to poo jokes), and my Mom is a cake artisan as much as she's a cook and a gardener... it's just one of her many hobbies.

Perhaps I will attempt to make a cake myself. I'll entitle the post, "Now that's a cake that ended up looking like roadkill. Whoops."

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) "Airport screeners at six of the nation's busiest airports are testing out handheld explosive detectors designed by ICx Technologies to check sealed bottles of liquids for explosives," writes Ryan Singel at Wired's Threat Level blog.

Don't expect the War on Moisture to end any time soon, though -- TSA Chief Technology Officer Mike Golden says, "Though we do not anticipate changes to the liquid ban in the near future, this flexible and accurate new technology gives an important additional tool to our security officers."

Full post here: Link.

Good to know all those dangerous liquids intercepted at airport screening stations are still being carefully disposed of... in trash cans right inside those airport screening stations. Of course, some of that HAZMAT is now being used to fuel the War on Homeless.

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Following up on yesterday's link to a surreal short film by Jim Henson, here's an even earlier classic by the man who would become best known as creator of the Muppets.

Jim Henson's The Cube (1969) is about a guy who finds himself trapped inside a 4 x 4 cube. Other people come inside to visit, but he can't seem to leave with them, even if those characters invite him out. Snip from dialogue:

Professor: Excuse me, I know this is a bad time but I just wanted to congratulate you and shake your hand.

The Man in the Cube: Oh? On what?

Professor: Well, as I interpret what you're doing here, this is all a very complex discussion of Reality versus Illusion. The perfect subject for the television medium!

The Man in the Cube: What do you mean, television?

Professor: Well, this is a television play.

The Man in the Cube: What?

Professor: Oh, you don't believe that?

The Man in the Cube: Of course not!

Professor: I should have thought you'd want to. After all, there's only one other possible explanation.

The Man in the Cube: Which is?

Professor: Hallucination. That you are altogether insane.

[Ed note: Or, that it's a YouTube play.] Video Link, here's a better quality link, more about the short on IMDB. (Thanks, Zack Lara, and Randy Perry)

Previously on BB:

Experimental, surrealist Jim Henson work from the 1970s

Reader comment: Marc in Barcelona, Spain says:

Hey Xeni, I'm a boingboing.net maniac! Your blog is great. I wanted to add my 2 cents into that story about Jim Henson you just posted. There's a film from the famous Spanish surrealist-Director "Luis Buñuel" called "El Angel Exterminador".

I suspect Jim Henson took the idea from that film.

The plot summary from IMDB :

"After a lavish dinner party, the guests find themselves mysteriously unable to leave the room... and over the next few days all the elaborate pretenses and facades that they've built up by virtue of their position in society collapse completely as they become reduced to living like animals... "

I've watched it and it's an excellent movie. I strongly recommend it to you.