Who needs a pierced-head knife-block, or a pierced voodoo doll knife-block, when you can have a man-in-mortal- terror-cowering- from-your-knives knife-block?

Inspired by the Sword Cabinet illusion beloved by magicians, this novel knife holder features a crouching figure behind glass. Slots on the top hold 5 knives of varying widths and lengths, from a paring knife to a chef's knife with 9" blade. Cabinet is MDF with a black finish. 7 ¼" W x 11 ¾"H x 4"D. Knives not included. Exlcusive to our company.

Link (via Cribcandy)

Terry sez, "TorrentFreak, a BitTorrent news blog, is sponsoring an anti-DRM t-shirt design contest. There are 46 designs, several of which are really great. The winner of the poll will be printed and sold by TorrentFreak." Link (Thanks, Terry!)

I've seen photos of the creepy Japanese robot programmed to act like a baby, but here are two videos guaranteed to give your the wubbies. It responds to a pinch on its clay colored thigh or cheek by rolling its eyes, flailing its limbs, and honking like a sick duck. Link

Jesse says:

Wow. A man buys a digital camera from CompUSA for $269, and when he gives it as a gift, he discovers that there's no camera in the box. When he tries to take it back, they blame it on him for not inspecting the box! Unfathomable.

Link

Reader comment:

Rjones says:

Here is another tale. I bought a printer from CompUSA. The Box was shrinkwrapped and I grabbed it and paid for it. I don't recall if it had the antitheft bungees on it or not.

Anyway, I got home opened the box, opened the shrinkwrap, and instead of the printer, in the box about the same approximate size and weight, was some VHS marketing video on starting your own Barbershop.

I took it back with my receipt, and told the returns clerk they may want to call a manager up for this. I showed them the 'printer' I had just bought. I told them that someone must have brought it back for a return earlier, and as it was shrinkwrapped, it was not inspected at the time of return. I just wanted to swap out for what I had purchased, and the exchange went fairly smoothly. I noticed that none of the other boxes were shrinkwrapped. They may have had those antitheft bungees, the tags that wrap around the box with cord. I asked if i could please inspect before I left with this exchange, I got a printer, and it works.

Shrinkwrap means NADA, any jerk with access to the wrap can scam.

Mumu bought a 100,000-volt pocket-sized taser as a gift for his wife. Because it uses just 3 AAA batteries, he thought he could give himself a test jolt without suffering too much. He was mistaken.

The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.

...Reasoning that a one-second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad....I decided to give myself a one-second burst just for the heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and ... HOLY MOTHER ..WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION...@!@$$!%!@*!!!

I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs. The cat was standing over me making meowing sounds I had never heard before, licking my face, undoubtedly thinking to herself, "Do it again, do it again!"

Update:

This might be bogus, as several readers pointed out (Thanks, all!). Here's what Snopes has to say about it. Link

Scientist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered a fungi that uses radioactivity to make its source of nourishment. The upshot? Spacemen will eat this fungus when they travel to other planets. Yum!

The ability of fungi to live off radiation could also prove useful to people: "Since ionizing radiation is prevalent in outer space, astronauts might be able to rely on fungi as an inexhaustible food source on long missions or for colonizing other planets," says Dr. Ekaterina Dadachova, associate professor of nuclear medicine and microbiology & immunology at Einstein and lead author of the study.

Link

Reader comment:

Jerm says:

This is the second time I've seen this study linked (slashdot was the first), and I feel compelled to mention that one of the fungi, C. neoformans, is far from edible. It causes pulmonary infections and meningitis in immunocompromised people (AIDS patients, etc.). Furthermore, saying it "eats" radiation is somewhat misleading. It implies we could use these fungi to detoxify a radiation contaminated area, and we could do no such thing. They appear to utilize the radiation in a way plants utilize solar radiation, which while cool, isn't quite "eating," in my book.

Cookie points to eight artists who will create incredibly interesting portraits of your child. My favorite is this example by Christine Shields, whose portraits cost $500 and up. From the Cookie post:

Before she starts a painting, San Francisco portraitist Christine Shields interviews parents to "pick up clues" about her subjects. Then she turns to photographs for inspiration. Shields figures out what aspect of the child's nature she wants to convey; she'll often have a beloved animal symbolically come to life in the portrait. The results are a compelling blend of strange and lovely, evoking both folk art and fairy tales.

Link

Bennett Hasleton of Peacfire says:

On April 14, 2007, I signed up for an AmeriTrade account using an e-mail address consisting of 16 random alphanumeric characters, which I never gave to anyone else. On May 15, I started receiving pump-and-dump stock spams sent to that e-mail address.

I was hardly the first person to discover that this happens. Almost all of the top hits in a Google search for "ameritrade spam" (search without the quotes) are from people with the same story: they used a unique address for each service that they sign up with, so they could tell if any company ever leaked their address to a spammer, and the address they gave to AmeriTrade started getting stock spam. (I don't actually do that with most companies where I create accounts. But after hearing all the AmeriTrade stories, I created an account with them in April just for the purpose of entering a unique e-mail address and seeing if it would get leaked.)

What I think is odd is that despite all the blog posts about this issue, as far as I can see it's never been covered in the "mainstream" Internet press. You would think that an ongoing security breach -- not just a one-time breakin, but an ongoing problem where even recent signups have their e-mail addresses compromised just like people who signed up two years ago -- would be a big deal when it involves a company the size of AmeriTrade, especially when they also store people's bank account information, social security numbers, etc.

I wrote about my AmeriTrade experiment at Slashdot.

If you decide to try this experiment yourself, you'd need a domain where you can create your own arbitrarily long e-mail address, then create an AmeriTrade account and give that e-mail address to them and nobody else. Note that when I signed up for my own AmeriTrade account, I had to give them my real social security number and other personal information, since they gave me a big scary warning that "federal law" required me to give correct information "in order to fight terrorism and money laundering activities". If my e-mail address got stolen, who knows if my other personal information got stolen along with it. So there's a certain amount of risk here if you want to try it yourself. Of course you don't *have* to try it yourself if you're interested in investigating the issue; most of the bloggers who wrote about this issue, sounded plenty pissed off and would probably be happy to talk to the press.

AmeriTrade, for their part, has been responding to people who complain by sending them this message, which contains this curious piece of advice: "Please be sure to delete any spam you might receive, then empty your e-mail's trash so that it's no longer kept there, either." Huh? What possible security-related reason could there be for that? It sounds suspiciously like saying, "Don't retain any independent evidence that we leaked your e-mail address."

Link

Reader comment:

A Boing Boing reader says:

I have had a similar experience after signing up for a newsletter from the Chicago Board of Trade. They have a daily newsletter that--like you--I signed up for with a brand new email address. Within a couple of weeks I was getting anywhere from 2 to 10 "trade suggestions" a day from various senders -- totally botted.

My suspicion is that the CBOT probably has no idea that they've allied themselves with spammers. What I mean is, they no doubt are aware of the relationship they have with whomever is doing the spamming, but just have no idea that they're doing the spamming.

I base this assumption in large part on the warehouse of circa 1981 tech sitting under the trade pit.

Anyway - thanks for the article. If you choose to post my comment, please leave it anonymous as I work in the industry for a CBOT member.

Monovita magazine has a nice profile of one of my favorite painters, Amy Crehore. (Shown here: "Wild Cat Fever.")

The garmentless women in Crehore’s paintings exude a lovely innocence with a hint of deviance. The distinction that sets this surrealist painter apart from her predecessors is that unlike the stiff, posed women present in art throughout the centuries, Crehore’s women are playful, socializing with various animals and pierrots.

“I guess I am hooked on painting nude women now. It’s an archetype of beauty and represents naturalness. It’s a classic motif throughout art history, yet most nudes were posed,” Crehore said. “My nudes are actually doing things, and they are imaginary. They are very comfortable without clothes. It’s hard to paint clothes anymore.”

Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• ArtNYC interview with Amy Crehore
• Amy Crehore's "Banana Eater" painting
• The art of Amy Crehore
• Interview with artist Amy Crehore

Chris sez,

The London Book Project is a free book exchange on a massive scale. Using the London Underground as a high speed distribution network, we aim to bring real literature to London's commuters. Scrap the freesheets - read a free book instead!

Over the next two weeks we'll be distributing thousands of second hand books across the tube and we want YOU to get involved. If you see one of our books, please pick it up! Then read it and replace with any book of your choice. Let's make the tube a giant, free library! Meanwhile, browse our website to find out more about the London Book Project and some alternative reporting about the world's most diverse capital city.

Link (Thanks, Chris!)

Andrew sez, "This is a Sesame Street / Do The Right Thing mash-up that has been made using Fisher-Price's classic line of Sesame Street "Little People" toys, recasting the film's roles with Sesame Street characters. It's really detailed with a lot of great gags for anyone who knows their Spike Lee and Sesame and pretty retro-cool if like me you played with these toys as a little kid."

Holy crap, this is teh awesome.

Link (Thanks, Andrew!)

Heavy runners lose toenails. I know, ew. But what if those toenails weren't lost -- what if they were repurposed, as a necklace? Link (via Ben Hammersley)

The BBC is holding a competition to suggest alternatives to the London 2012 Olympics logo (itself a uniquely horrible design). Hilariously, one entrant managed to smuggle a Goatse variant into the entrants.

It's actually not a bad choice, given that hosting an Olympics games is an experience much like being sodomized by a battering ram. The corrupt, bribe-taking International Olympics Committee are extraordinary bullies, inspiring Orwellian surveillance, taking brand-whoring to new lows, and demanding thought-control over the local populace. I'm moving back to London this September, but with any luck I'll be gone again by 2012.

Sean Stayte: "Here is my design for the Olympic logo. It is very simple and so memorable. The hands represent Britain pulling together to reveal the Olympics."

Link (Thanks to everyone who suggested this!)

Update: Chris sez, "Sadly, the BBC pulled the goatse Olympics logo pretty soon after your Boing Boing post on it, but I managed to get a screengrab in the nick of time. Sean Stayte, the genius who submitted it it, comments below: 'I'm surprised it got through in the first place.'"

The Los Angeles Times reports on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, where some former hippies-turned-homeowners aren't thrilled with the panhandling punks on the street. As Coop points out, there are some great quotes in here:

(Arthur) Evans, 64, says (the punks) should get help, clean up or go home...

"I used to be a hippie. I wore beads and grew my hair long," he said. "But my generation had something these kids do not: a standard of civilized behavior...."

"I'm sick of stepping over gangs of kids, only to be told 'Die, yuppie!' A lot of us were flower children, but we grew up," said Robert Shadoian, 58, a retired family therapist. "There are responsibilities in this world you have to meet. You can't be drugged out 24/7 and expect the world to take care of you."

(Carolyn) Mckenna said she was tired of being criticized for the "crime" of owning a home. "Haight-Ashbury is not synonymous with anarchy," she said. "It's not fair to homeowners with their entire net worth tied up here. I'd be disingenuous if I said I wasn't worried about property values."

Link

A Florida victim of RIAA lawsuits is striking back, accusing Universal Music Group of being extortionists:

In a new Tampa, Florida, case, UMG v. Del Cid, the defendant has filed the following five (5) counterclaims against the RIAA, under Florida, federal, and California law:

1. Trespass

2. Computer Fraud and Abuse (18 USC 1030)

3. Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices (Fla. Stat. 501.201)

4. Civil Extortion (CA Penal Code 519 & 523)

5. Civil Conspiracy involving (a) use of private investigators without license in violation of Fla. Stat. Chapter 493; (b) unauthorized access to a protected computer system, in interstate commerce, for the purpose of obtaining information in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030 (a)(2)(C); (c) extortion in violation of Ca. Penal Code §§ 519 and 523; and (d) knowingly collecting an unlawful consumer debt, and using abus[ive] means to do so, in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692a et seq. and Fla. Stat. § 559.72 et seq.

About time.

Link

Moleskine-enthusiast Paul Saffo was troubled by the fragility of his notebook's spines, so he took matters into his own hands. He collaborated with Steve Derricott, proprietor of Gfeller Casemakers, artisans of fine products for field scientists, to fashion a custom leather Moleskine cover. It looks like it fits like a glove. Paul says that Steve is open to making more if there's interest. From Paul's post:

A key part of the design is a slot in the back inside sleeve that affords unhindered use of the Moleskine’s ticket pocket and elastic strap. And the cover is made from a natural calfskin (normally used for pencil loops on Gfeller’s field cases) that like my original Gfeller belt bag, will absorb skin oils and darken over time to a rich mahogany patina.

It might take time to get a cover of your own, but it will be worth the wait, for the result is not merely protection for your Moleskine, but like the Moleskine itself, an heirloom in the making.

Link

Previously on BB:
• Le Moleskine blog Link
• Jim Woodring's pop-up Moleskine art Link

Annie Owens, co-founder of the fantastic art magazine Hi-Fructose, is also a great painter in her own right. (Seen here, "Traveler.") She and partner-in-crime-and-publishing Attaboy had a recent show together, titled Swarmy Weather, at Gallery at Screen Arts in St. Augustine, Florida. There's a Flickr set of photos from the show.
Link to Annie Owens Ouch Club, Link to Flickr set of Swarmy Weather exhibition (via Juxtapoz)

Previously on BB:
• Preview of Hi-Fructose Vol. 5 Link
• Attaboy's Too Many Robots! pilot Link
• Attaboy's new book of postcards Link

A new study suggests that there is a benefit to forgetting irrelevant or similar but less useful memories. According to Stanford University neuroscientist Brice Kuhl and his colleagues, suppressing certain memories reduces the cognitive load of remembering something else later on. Using fMRI to scan the brains of subjects as they performed memory tests, the researchers gained insight into the neural processing of competing memories. They published the results of the study in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience. From New Scientist:

"Whenever you’re engaging in remembering, the brain adapts. It’s constantly re-weighting memories," says Kuhl. "In this simple test, we see it reverse memory to weaken competing memories. This is something that probably happens a lot in the real world."

A good example is the confusion that arises when we change passwords on our computers or email accounts. We often mix up old and new passwords at first, but through repetition we develop a strong memory of the new password and forget the old one.

Link

Previously on BB:
• Naps improve declarative memory Link
• Better visual working memory stems from ignoring stuff Link
• Memory glasses Link

Loren Coleman looked into the background of Gordon Holmes, the individual who claims that he recently caught the Loch Ness Monster on video. What Loren found may cause some to question Holmes's credibility. From Cryptomundo:

It is with no disrespect that I compile for my readers the facts that Mr. Holmes has placed out there in cyberspace about himself. He has freely admitted that he has filmed fairies, seen apparent alien black cats, taken electrical spectrograms of what he thinks are large electric eels in Lake Morar, and has a “sort of medical condition…for visualising a sort of frame from a Dream whilst being conscious.” Now he’s getting publicity for filming Nessie. Whoa.

As I’ve mentioned before in print and in interviews, a videotape or photograph of a cryptid should never be analyzed without regard to looking into the background of the person that took the image or images.

Link

Previously on BB:
• Paula Zahn Now: Loren Coleman and Joe Nickell discuss Nessie video Link
• Is this Nessie on video? Link

Ray Bradbury has given a disappointing speech in which he claims that his inspirational novel Fahrenheit 451 has nothing to do with censorship -- as has long been held. Bradbury says that the book was intended as a jeremiad against television.

Fahrenheit 451 was seminal for me, the book that turned me into a believer in free speech, a cause I've devoted my life to. It's pretty heart-breaking to hear Bradbury repudiate the political subtext of the book.

On the other hand, I've had my own books subjected to critical scrutiny in which critics pointed out symbolisms and subtexts that I wasn't aware of when I was writing. These critics make good points, though, and I can't deny them with a straight face -- I think that there's a lot going on while writers write, and we're not always entirely conscious of all of it.

This, despite the fact that reviews, critiques and essays over the decades say that is precisely what it is all about. Even Bradbury’s authorized biographer, Sam Weller, in The Bradbury Chronicles, refers to Fahrenheit 451 as a book about censorship.

Bradbury, a man living in the creative and industrial center of reality TV and one-hour dramas, says it is, in fact, a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature.

“Television gives you the dates of Napoleon, but not who he was,” Bradbury says, summarizing TV’s content with a single word that he spits out as an epithet: “factoids.” He says this while sitting in a room dominated by a gigantic flat-panel television broadcasting the Fox News Channel, muted, factoids crawling across the bottom of the screen.

Link (via Monochrom)

Bradbury's Farewell Summer, a 50 year+ anticipated sequel to Dandelion Wine
Bradbury goes nuts over Fahrenheit 9/11 title

This business-card cutlery is made of polypropelene and punches out of a flat wallet card, turning into a nifty little fork and knife set. Link (via Make)

See also:
Business card that sprouts
Business-card converts to set of lockpicks
Cutlery made out of potato starch
Cutlery with wrenches on the end
Anti-terror cutlery for airline security theater
Moo Cards: Stunning kid-sized custom biz-cards with Flickr pix