From BB reader Cody Klingbeil.

Mark sez, "The Dutch reality show about the woman choosing who would get her kidney is apparently a hoax."

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- A Dutch reality television show in which a supposedly dying woman had to pick one of three contestants to whom she would donate a kidney was revealed as an elaborate hoax on Friday.

Link (Thanks, Mark!)

See also: Organ donor TV: reality show for would-be kidney recipients

A Michigan man was arrested by police for accessing a coffee shop's public Wi-Fi hotspot. He was charged with a felony and faced up to 5 years in jail, but he took an offer of "paying a $400 fine, doing 40 hours of community service and staying on probation for six months."

The coffee shop owner said she was surprised by the arrest of 39-year-old Sam Peterson, who is a toolmaker, volunteer firefighter, and secretary of a bagpipe club. "He could have just come in the cafe, even if he didn't have any money, I would let him get on it," said the owner. Before the arrest, Peterson had no criminal record.

In the article about the incident, Sparta police chief Andrew Milanowski and Kent County assistant prosecuting attorney Lynn Hopkins come off as brittle, badly-programmed automatons.

"I was sitting there reading my e-mail and he came up and stuck his head inside my window and asked me who I was spying on," Peterson told FOXNews.com.

Someone from a nearby barbershop had called cops after seeing Peterson's car pull up every day and sit in front of the coffee shop without anybody getting out.

"I just curiously asked him, 'Where are you getting the Internet connection?', you know," Sparta Police Chief Andrew Milanowski said. "And he said, 'From the café.'"

Milanowski ruled out Peterson as a possible stalker of the attractive local hairdresser, but still felt that a law might have been broken.

"We came back and we looked up the laws and we figured if we found one and thought, 'Well, let's run it by the prosecutor's office and see what they want to do,'" Milanowski said.

A few weeks later Peterson said he received a letter from the Kent County prosecutor's office saying that he faced a felony charge of fraudulent access to computer networks and that a request had been made for an arrest warrant.

Link (Thanks, Alasdairs!)

A high-school math teacher in Indiana is suing two high school students who made a movie about a teddy bear that attacks a teacher.

This happened after the school expelled the students, and the students sued the school. The court awarded the students $69,000 and made the school expunge the suspension and expulsion records.

(Here's a trailer for the film, called "The Teddy Bear Master.")

The lawsuit claims the film mocked the teacher's appearance and mannerisms by portraying a math instructor named "Mr. Clevenger." It also contains "graphic depictions of violence" and the eventual murder of Clevenger and his wife, Christine, the lawsuit said.

"The defendants intentionally created the 'Teddy Bear Master' and intentionally used the plaintiff's name in such a way that would provoke a reasonably foreseeable emotional disturbance or trauma," the lawsuit states.

An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said the lawsuit is without merit.

"It's not true that they were murdered in the movie," she said. "It was literally stuffed animals being manipulated by the boys, walking around going 'yeoo http://www' and talking in funny voices, very juvenile."

Link (Thanks, Charles!)

BB reader Ross says,

This Google link is supposedly, according to this article (see #6), a close-up view of a well-known homeless man in San Jose who was killed earlier this month in a scuffle over his dog.

If true, this whole Street View thing is getting stranger by the minute. Can anyone substantiate this rumor?

Previous BB posts on Google Street View:

NYT on BB on Google Street View

Google Maps is spying on my cat, says freaked out BB reader

Google Maps zoom: here's the device and vehicle behind it

Google Maps zoom feature inspires neologism

Google Maps Zoom and kitty on perch: the inevitable LOLcatting

(posted from the road in central america / xeni)

Reader comment: Gene Cowan of San Jose, CA says,

Regarding the homeless man captured by Google's street view cameras: Yes, that is Cornelius, who was a gregarious, friendly homeless man here in San Jose. He had a dog, who was the target of some kind of attack, and when Cornelius attempted to defend the dog, he was killed by some freak. In the era of the internet, no one is forgotten, evidently.

Kristofer says,

I can vouch for the unfortunate picture from Google Street View of the now deceased homeless man in San Jose. I work in downtown San Jose, and the guy was really well known. He would sit there with his dog all day - hours and hours. I didn't ever speak with him, but I knew who he was. The URL is a video "Remembering Cornelius" where people reflect on his life. You can see his picture in there and match it up with the Google Street View.

Steve Cooley says,

This is a gallery down the street from our gallery, and their billboard shows the date range that this batch of google photos was taken. Dec. 1 - Jan. 20... Just an additional piece to the puzzle... so they've obviously been sitting on this photo data for a while.

(Click on thumbnails for enlargement) The results of our contest to win a copy of Gama-Go's new book, Limited Edition: The Art and Design of Gama-Go, are in. As you may recall, the challenge was to draw or paint a picture on your hand and send us a photo. Our four talented winners are (in order of photo appearance): Sadie Smith, Rikki B, What What, and Hugh. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest! (We'll hold another contest soon, so if you didn't win this time, don't be disappointed.)

Tomorrow, San Francisco's Asian Art Museum opens their huge retrospective on Tezuka Osamu (1928-1989), the pioneering master of manga who created Astro Boy and so, so much more. The exhibition features 200 works, including original art, covers, posters, anime, and adult manga. (Seen here, the slip-case design for Teskuka's Metropolis (Metoroporisu), a 1949 manga starring inspired by a photo of the robot Maria from Fritz Lang's film.) For those unable to see this show at its only US venue, the (Flash) site has a ton of information, including a series of video podcasts celebrating the artist.
Link

UPDATE: Scott De Las Casas writes:

Growing up I was a huge fan of Tezuka's Tatsuo Yoshida's Speed Racer, while my sister preferred (Tezuka's) Kimba the White Lion, another anime classic by "the god of manga." USA Today has a first look at the the Wachowskis's Brothers SPEED RACER adaptation, including an exclusive premiere of the Mach 5. It appears that the movie will be true to the spirit of series, although based on the synopsis I'll withhold celebrating until I see it. Now if only we could get Carroll Ballard (Duma, Fly Away Home, The Black Stallion) to make a live-action Kimba movie... Link

Darren says: "Link goes to a news report on the 'Regal Guest Response System', a pager system given to a random patron in 114 US cinemas (here's the media release). The patron's device has four buttons on it:

1. Sound

2. Picture

3. Piracy

4. Other disturbance

"When they press the button, a staff member is alerted and responds accordingly. Presumably #3 sends a call directly to the MPAA bat phone.

"That's hilarious corporation-oriented design, eh? Surely the moviegoer's number one complaint is noisy neighbours, and yet it's bundled under 'other disturbance'. Where’s my button for ‘the guy next to me reeks’ or ‘I paid $11 for this jackalope turd?’" Link

Here's a PDF of a "graffiti report card" that you can fill out and place next to graffiti in your neighborhood. Brandon Thomas Baunach, the creator of the report card explains:

It’s a project I started a couple of months ago after seeing my neighborhood (The Mission District of San Francisco) receive an amazing amount of ugly, large, and talentless graffiti. I wanted a way to combat the ugly graffiti while at the same time give praise to the talented graffiti writers who I feel make the streets more beautiful. It occurred to me, that many of our local taggers don’t realize how ugly and talentless their graffiti is, so I wanted to give them some feedback.

Link

Gabriela sez,

Today, the Sunlight Foundation launched a new Web site and a new contest that will award $500 for the first video capturing Senator Mitch McConnell on record answering (or refusing to answer) who is blocking passage of legislation that would require senators to file their campaign finance reports electronically.

This contest is part of Sunlight's new campaign that asks, "What's McConnell Hiding?" through a billboard alongside I-65 in Louisville, Kentucky that points readers to the www.whatsmcconnellhiding.com site.

Whatsmcconnellhiding.com prompts citizens to take action to promote transparency in the Senate by advocating for the passage of the Senate Campaign Disparity Act (S. 223).

Link (Thanks, Gabriela!)

This video seems to depict a cute child solving a Rubik's Cube in less than two minutes.
Link (Thanks, Jennifer Lum!)

Previously on BB:
• Michel Gondry "solves" Rubik's Cube with his feet Link
• Rubik's Cube solved in 11.13 seconds Link
• Rubik's Cube folk art Link

Five-minute video about a rural Chinese man who taught himself how to make cool little walking robots out of scrap. Link (Thanks, Stella!)

As LOLCats go, this one is pretty spesh. Schroedinger's LOLCat indeed. (via AccordionGuy)

Update: Rob sez, "That lolcat belongs to Kevin Steele of Mackerel fame!"

Update 2: Dan sez, "Just wanted to give you a link to the Flickr page of my lolcat, which gives due credit to those where credit is due."

See also:
LOLCODE: LOLCats meet programming
LOLPresidents photoshopping challenge
Where LOLCats come from
Massive cache of kittah pix (aka LOLcats, cat macros)
Pedantic overanalyzer sucks all the fun out of LOLcats
Pedantic overanalysis of LOLcats not pedantic enough, says blowhard
LOLtrek
Cat macros hijacked by heartless homosexuals
Oh, how I love the gebril macros!

The single most frequently asked question I get is, "Does giving away ebooks of your novels sell books, or does it hurt your sales?" It's a really hard question to answer, since to do a controlled experiment, I'd have to go back in time and re-release my books without their Creative Commons licenses and compare the sales.

Now Tim O'Reilly, publisher and founder of tech-book giant O'Reilly Media, has posted a tremendous case study on a book that was available as a free download as well as available in stores. The case study isn't iron-clad proof that giving away books sells books, but it's the best evidence I've seen to date.

The quick answer from this experiment is that we saw no definitive correlation, but there is little sign that the free downloads hurt sales. More than 180,000 copies were downloaded from Jeremy's mirror (which is one of five!), yet the book has still been quite successful, selling almost 19,000 copies in a year and a half. This is quite good for a technical book these days -- the book comes in at #23 on our lifetime-to-date sales list for the "class of 2005" (books published in 2005) despite being released at the end of September. You might argue that the book would have done even better without the downloads, especially given the success of asterisk and the importance of VoIP. But it's also the case that the book is far and away the bestseller in the category, far outperforming books on the same subject from other publishers.

Meanwhile, we saw a huge spike in downloads starting at the beginning of this year, but didn't see a corresponding drop in print book sales, other than the continued slow erosion that's typical of books in print (especially one that's heading towards a second edition.) However, we did see the book's first fall from grace, dropping from an average run rate of about a thousand copies a month to about six hundred back in March 2006 coming at about the same time that we start showing the free downloads, but we're not sure whether or not that is just because we don't have earlier download data -- the book should have been available online sooner after publication even though Jeremy didn't start his mirror till March. (Next time we do a book available for free download, we'll be careful to collect accurate data from the start of the project.)

Link

Italy's National Research Council reports that the air in Rome contains trace amounts of cocaine and cannabis. Nicotine, caffeine, and other chemicals were also detected. The concentration of cocaine, .1 nanograpms per cubic meter, was far below the legal limit for air toxins, but they are still worried about it. From the Associated Press:

"The highest concentrations of cocaine were found in the center of Rome and especially in the area of the University of La Sapienza," said Dr. Angelo Cecinato, who led the investigation.

Researchers can't say for sure why the high concentrations were registered in those locations, but Cecinato stressed that the findings didn't necessarily mean that cocaine and cannabis are more heavily used there.

Link to AP article, Link to Italian language press release

Previously on BB:
• Peed-out Prozac detectable in UK water-supply Link

Several years ago, river guide Steve Currey had chartered a Russian Nuclear icebreaker ship to travel into the center of the Earth via a legendary hole in the Arctic Ocean. Currey died before the trip could take place but now fringe scientist Brooks Agnew has revived the plan. From the National Post:

This time next year, Kentucky based physicist and futurist Brooks Agnew hopes to board the commercially owned Russian icebreaker Yamal in the port of Murmansk, and to sail into the polar sea just beyond Canada's Arctic islands...

Mr. Agnew is the latest in a long line of people to peddle the nutty, yet persistent, theory that humans live on the surface of a hollow planet, in which two undiscovered openings, near the North and South poles, connect the outer Earth with an interior realm...

While he insists the journey has a genuine scientific purpose, Mr. Agnew also says the expedition will include several experts in meditation, mythology and UFOs, as well as a team of documentary filmmakers...

If the polar opening isn't there, the voyage "will still make an outstanding documentary," he promises.

Link (Thanks, Greg Benjamin!)

Previously on BB:
• See for yourself that the Earth isn't flat... it's hollow. Link
• Hollow Earthers' favorite experiment analyzed Link

The inaugural edition of BarCampSanDiego takes place this weekend. And because it's in lovely, warm San Diego, they're not joking about the "camp" part. Link. (thanks to everyone who suggested)

Here's a first-person account of the media turmoil in Venezuela by Rodrigo L. Arcaya, a 36-year-old Venezuelan who owns a web development company in Caracas. His bio describes him as "an iconoclastic, anti-authoritarian opponent of excess state power." On 10zenmonkeys.

BB reader carlosCCS in Venezuela says,

The homepage of Ipostel, the Venezuelan postal service has been defaced, and supposedly hacked by a group that claims to support the recently closed down TV station RCTV. A logo of the defunct TV Station is shown in full flair.

The new homepage reads something that roughly translates to: "Chavez, I will fuck up all your websites" and the credits goes to a hacker by the name of Söad. It also claims to be the ninth attack, "of the many to come". Last December many local government websites were defaced by a hacker group by replacing the homepage with many homoerotic photoshopped images that involved Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

BB reader Sofia says,

"El Observador" which is the name of one of the oldest newscast shows and that was part of the prgramming of the now defunct RCTV, is now showing all its emissions: Morning, Noon and Nightly newscasts via a recently created youtube channel.

Although internet penetration in Veneuzela is not as big as to consider this a fair alternative is the sign of a strong showing of forcefully fight for democracy, since the newscast is in no way financed with advertisement and yet it costs as much to produce as a full fledged regular airwaves broadcast production. YouTube Link.

TIME has an interesting piece here: Link. Here's a bunch of video from the protests: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3 Link 4 Link 5, Link 6. Wikipedia has an evolving article about the RCTV stuff here.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Venezuela's TV crisis, continued: Chavez to sue CNN in world court?

Venezuela: Chavez to shut down a second TV station

Venezuelan media crackdown: the other POV

Venezuelan media crackdown: TV anchors sign off, mouths shut

Reader comment: Raduga Nine points to a google video link for a Venezuela-related documentary film blogged here in an earlier post:

[Here is a video link for] this astounding documentary about the failed April 2002 coup in that country. It really provides an excellent background to the media war that has surrounded Chavez from the start.

The filmmakers follow Chavez around and have some interesting conversations with him inside the presidential palace before, during and after the military coup, in which he was physically plucked from the presidential palace by revolting members of the military, who (according to interviews in the film) were backed by the right-wing owners of the major private media channels. This is one of the most memorable documentaries I've ever seen -- and current events make it all but essential!

We've featured the incredible artisan Kaden Harris several times on BB. He makes exquisitely-crafted "antiques from a parallel universe," from desktop guillotines to mindwarping machines (image left) to insanely intricate smoking devices (image below) that would be right at home on Jules Verne's Nautilus. He sells his creations via his Eccentric Genius Web site, but he's not sure what people actually want to buy. So he's written the request below of BB readers. Please don't email me with your responses, but post them on the QuickTopic board instead! Kaden says:

My drawing board is overfull of stuff that's through R&D and waiting to be fabricated, but it's all stuff that either resonates really strongly with my personal tastes, or stuff that has grown around a specific scrapyard archaeology artifact that happened to catch my eye (I have about 3 tons of scrapyard brass scattered around Eccentric Manors...inspiration is kinda hard to avoid). Knowing my personal tastes is one thing; knowing what my marketplace likes is entirely another, and due to my *close* personal relationship with my raw material inventory, it's kinda hard to step back and view things with an unbiased eye.

So waddaya think I oughta build? Whatever it is, it has to actually function: I look on bricolage as a waste of perfectly good components. I build mechanisms...purposeful things. Anything less is an insult to the mojo of the componentry.

Link to discussion board, Link to Eccentric Genius

Previously on BB:
• Dangerous Things on your desk Link
• Retro bong designed and built in 11 minutes Link

Miguel Helft at the New York Times did an interesting piece about the blog-drama over Google Street View's launch, and profiled the woman who sent BoingBoing that wild image of her tabby cat Monty hanging out in the window. Some internet meanies called her a luddite, others a "poor deluded cat owner," but...

For Mary Kalin-Casey, it was never about her cat.

Ms. Kalin-Casey, who manages an apartment building here with her husband, John Casey, was a bit shaken when she tried a new feature in Google’s map service called Street View. She typed in her address and the screen showed a street-level view of her building. As she zoomed in, she could see Monty, her cat, sitting on a perch in the living room window of her second-floor apartment.

“The issue that I have ultimately is about where you draw the line between taking public photos and zooming in on people’s lives,” Ms. Kalin-Casey said in an interview Thursday on the front steps of the building. “The next step might be seeing books on my shelf. If the government was doing this, people would be outraged.”

Her husband quickly added, “It’s like peeping.”

Ms. Kalin-Casey first shared her concerns about the service in an e-mail message to the blog Boing Boing on Wednesday. Since then, the Web has been buzzing about the privacy implications of Street View — with varying degrees of seriousness. Several sites have been asking users to submit interesting images captured by the Google service, which offers panoramic views of miles of streets around San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Miami and Denver.

Link. (Thanks Chris Kimbell) Image: Jim Wilson for the NYT.

Previously:

Google Maps is spying on my cat, says freaked out BB reader

Google Maps zoom: here's the device and vehicle behind it

Google Maps zoom feature inspires neologism

Google Street View: was this one of Google's vehicles?

(posted from the road in central america / xeni)

Also, I swapped a few emails with Ms. Kalin-Casey on the day that entry went live, and forwarded to her some of the funny/mean-spirited responses calling her a privacy nutball or a cat psycho. She wrote back:

I was a little surprised at the follow-up bb-reader response labeling my concerns as paranoid and delusional. It seemed to be written somewhat tongue in cheek, so I presume it was meant to be a funny rebuttal. My post was never actually about the cat, which I thought should be obvious, especially to the bb crowd.

The question is, where do we draw the line between public and private? Obviously, the picture of Monty isn’t very good, but who’s to say whether tomorrow, Google’s camera’s won’t be a lot better, giving clearer pictures and more detail? I’ve already seen one post online where the poster’s only complaint about Google pics is that the pictures aren’t sharp enough. (He wasn’t commenting on my pic, but on a picture of his own home.)

The opposing argument claims that what’s visible from the street is public. By opening my windows for some much-needed light and air, am I granting permission for my living room to be broadcast worldwide? I don’t think I am. I think if I open my windows, my neighbors and passers by might see the cat in the window. That’s substantially different to me than realizing that everyone in the world can potentially see into my home.

It’s my feeling that we should know what kind of monitoring we’re subject to and when. Stores, airports, intersections, museums —there are security cameras everywhere. We’ve all seen overhead satellite photos for mapping purposes, but when does helpful mapping recon morph into home surveillance? When does it move from a grainy picture of the cat to a high-res image where you can see small details in my apartment? When do I have to choose between sunlight and unseen threats to privacy? It’s one thing to be monitored on the public streets of London. I think it’s another to wonder if, right now, someone or something is taking my picture through my living room window. Maybe that is paranoid, but it’s hardly delusional. After all, it’s already happened.

Yesterday, I posted a photo of one of the vehicles used by Immersive Media, a contractor that provided some of the imaging services for Google's new "Street View" thing. But Immersive Media apparently did not do all of the imaging, and I'm told that Google did some themselves (or perhaps with other contractors). BB reader Ben says,

I snapped this picture back in March. It shows 4 Nikon DLSRs with wide angle lenses mounted to the top of a car. Google Street View vehicle, or... something else? Link.

Here's the intersection in Google Street View.

Previous BB posts on Google Street View:

Google Maps is spying on my cat, says freaked out BB reader

Google Maps zoom: here's the device and vehicle behind it

Google Maps zoom feature inspires neologism

Google Maps Zoom and kitty on perch: the inevitable LOLcatting

Reader comment: Chris Genetti says,

I'd like to comment that it would be a thing of beauty if Google's Street-view team decided to map out Pittsuburgh in early July...

...July 5-8 (and presumably the fourth and ninth), 2007 is the slated date for Anthrocon, the world's largest furry convention. If Google Maps started showing up with a bunch of fursuiters (not quite underwear perverts but close.. sort of) and pointy-eared and fluffy-tailed furry fans wandering the streets, I think I would buy Google a cake and thank them for being awesome.

'Course, there's always the Midwest Furfest near Chicago held in November, and various other cons in Cali, Atlanta, etc. ;)

Jon says,

I noticed that unlike in other areas on Google Street View, you cannot look up or down in that intersection. It would make sense given the camera setup seen in that picture. However, the traffic in your picture looks a lot heavier that what is visible in streetview, but I wouldn't be suprised if they made multiple runs to get better pictures of areas that came out bad.

Brian Aker says,

More possible Google Van Shots? While out for lunch yesterday I spotted one of these possible google vans parked in a drive way. So I took a bunch of photos :) One question that has come up, is what is the box labeled "SICK"? The other two boxes are pretty easily identified as cameras or a GPS unit. Link.

Streetviewr says,

Follow up to your story this morning on the vehicle Google is using to take shots for Street View - this passed me on the way in to work this morning: JPEG 1, JPEG 2. I think it's the one since it looks like a similar vehicle to the one someone spotted here. Be interesting to see if images from their side ever appear on the site.

Joshua McFarren says,

Regarding the Google van "Sick" box, Pretty sure thats a laser range-finder. Saw these on a NOVA episode. Almost all the vehicles entered in the DARPA Grand Challenge had multiples of these boxes.

I've posted here before that I love seeing where creative people work: mechanics' garages, artist's studios, scientists' labs, writers' offices. The folks at Dark Horse Comics apparently do too! In July, they're publishing a beautiful hardcover book called "The Artist Within: Portraits of Cartoonist, Comic Book Artists, Animators, and Others." Inside are Greg Preston's striking photos of some of my favorite artists--Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Robert Crumb, Frank Miller, Adrian Tomine, Coop, Los Bros Hernandez, Peter Bagge, Art Spiegelman, and dozens of others--in their natural habitats. The book features 100 photographs, 100 illustrations, and brief profiles of the subjects and their work. The Artist Within is filled with intimate glimpses of people who have entertained me for years, many of them decades, but most of whom I've never met. It's a delight to put faces with the names and a real treat to finally see where the magic happens.

Link to buy the book, Link to a flipbook preview

Here's an updated post, apols for the error: Link.

Love this 1970s promo for a TV news cast, "Catch 5!" Psychedelic dancing silhouettes and Chuck Mangione style horn playing -- what more could you ask for? Makes me nostalgic for Buffalo 29's "Get to Know Us" bumpers from my boyhood. Link (via A Whole Lotta Nothing)

Greg sez, "In an effort to better educate people about the problems of DRM, the fellows down at GrooveShark have started a visual analogies group, "DRM is like..." Highlights include a bike that can only be ridden on special roads and crayons that don't draw in color."

DRM is absurd. Visual analogies help in explaining why DRM is bad. Help us educate the public by adding pictures to this group to help explain the downfalls of DRM.

Link (Thanks, Greg!)