Simple and striking DIY "soldier table" -- just line up your soldiers on a flat surface and cover with a sheet of glass. Link (via Cribcandy)

Update: Matthew sez, "The "toy soldier table" is very remenescent of the super-cool 'Floor' installation by Do-Ho Suh at the Indianapolis Museum of Art."

This is pretty tasty -- a standard IKEA kitchen converted to a scribbler's paradise by painting all the vertical surfaces with blackboard paint. Link (via Cribcandy)

Update: Gavin sez, "I could only be reminded of the wall I painted with magnetic paint leading into my kitchen. It's very entertaining, and it is a living scrapbook for everyone to enjoy!" Pic 1, Pic 2

Hobie just ordered new checks and needed to put something useful in the address field, so he added in the notorious AACS key! This is the storied integer that is used to break the copy-control system in HD-DVDs. The AACS licensing authority says that distributing this number is a crime. That's not working: 1.5 million pages on the Internet contain the key today. (Thanks, Hobie!)

Katie says: "From the BBC News website, this report highlights some of the ridiculous, yet common, reasons for UK visa refusal -- including 'planning a holiday for no particular purpose other than sightseeing.'"

The government goofballs who reject tourist visas for no good reason also delight in using confusing language to explain why tourist visas were rejected:

The provenance of the funds depicted is not evidenced allied to other financial commitments.

You have failed to complete pivotal areas of Section 6. P>I can only assess your mutual knowledge in a subjective context.

Link

Edward says:

There was a thread in a comic book chat room about two years ago that discussed the "Robin Corner Shock Pose" Its superbly funny. In a nutshell the late 50's and 60's Batman comics have Robin in the bottom left or right corner looking shocked at whatever is going on. This occurs on about 30 covers. Nearly exact same pose every time. Here's a link with the page showing a poster picture of the covers.

Link

Jamie says: "Stephan Orsak's experience reminded me of [Ray Bradbury's short story] "The Pedestrian."

"But you haven't explained for what purpose."

"I explained; for air, and to see, and just to walk."

"Have you done this often?"

"Every night for years."

The police car sat in the center of the street with its radio throat faintly humming.

"Well, Mr. Mead," it said.

"Is that all?" he asked politely.

"Yes," said the voice. "Here." There was a sigh, a pop. The back door of the police car sprang wide. "Get in."

"Wait a minute, I haven't done anything!"

"Get in."

(Illustration by Joe Mugnaini, who also did the covers for many other US Bradbury books) Link

Reader comment:

Nathaniel says:

On the general subject of "21st century turning out rather badly so far," I noticed that corpo-police-state super-macho riot-cop motifs, presented as dystopian in the '80s in for example "Robocop," reappeared years later in the filmed version of "I, Robot" -- as a comforting, familiar connection to the present! When Will Smith interrogates his robot suspect, the array of locked-and-loaded human SWATistas behind him don't seem to connote dystopianism but rather to remind and reassure us of the human power of self-determination and to offer a connection to our actual 21st century present reality. I thought it was interesting how culture has rotated itself around the Riot Cop as an icon, and normalized the security state.

In another, more recent and disturbing example, I just finished reading Hartwell's "Year's Best S.F. #4," from 1998, and while most of the stories in it are already dated, some surprisingly so, I was shocked at how relevant, how much MORE relevant, Swanwick's horror story "Radiant Doors" has recently become. Swanwick has seen something very important about the mass psychology of our new era, and saw it very early.

Here's a funny mashup of of presidential candidates as if they were competing on American Idol. (Shown here: Rudy Giuliani about to get her bosom nuzzled by Donald Trump) Link

Liz Bulkley, the host of "The Front Porch" on New Hampshire Public Radio interviewed me about Rule the Web today. It was a lot of fun, and she was not afraid to ask me some tough questions about the privacy implications of some of the sites I told her about.

No matter how much you may know about the internet, there's always something new out there that can make your online experience better. Tonight on the Front Porch, we talk with editor, blogger and tech expert Mark Frauenfelder about all the hidden gems the web has to offer. Mark is the founder of the popular technology blog Boing Boing, and he's the author of the new book Rule the Web.

You can listen to a recording of the program here. Link

Here's a video I made to promote my new book, Rule the Web: How To Do Anything and Everything on the Internet -- Better, Faster, Easier. Special thanks to Mr. Dork for agreeing to be in the video! Link

The wonderful art gallery/tech workshop called Machine Project in Los Angeles' Echo Park has two great events this weekend:

SEEING ANEW: A LECTURE BY TREVOR OAKES + RYAN OAKES
Co-hosted by The Institute For Figuring and Machine Project
7pm Sunday June 24, 2007
FREE

It is hard to believe there is anything new to be discovered about perspective drawing. But in 2004 twin artists Trevor and Ryan Oakes made a startling discovery about how to render perspectival images on the inner surface on a sphere. Their discovery is all the more intriguing in the light of recent controversy surrounding David Hockney's thesis about the use of spherical lenses in the making of perspective drawings in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

In their first public talk the Oakes will discuss their perspectival research and will demonstrate their unique spherical rendering technique. The lecture will include a historical account of other optical tools used to depict three-dimensional space - including the concave mirror-lens, the camera obscura, and the camera lucida - by way of introduction to their own method, which explores the interplay between the visual cortex and the human retina using pen and "concave paper."

The Institute For Figuring is a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science and mathematics.

Link

---------------------------

Build a Blubber Bot Robotic Blimp - Instructor Jed Berk
Saturday June 30th, 2007
10am - 4pm (w/ a break for lunch)

One-day workshop w/ materials included. $185
Enrollment is limited to 7 people.

Blubber Bots are DIY robotic species that navigate autonomously and intelligently. Blubber Bots float, dance, seek and sing. They are light-seeking helium-filled balloons that graze the landscape in search of light and cell-phone signals. If you make a call and wave your phone near a Blubber Bot, it will go into a flocking dance or sing you a special tune. They bellow sounds similar to a whale’s song and serenade you with melodies. When not being played with, they rest for awhile, awakening periodically and seeking attention.

Join us at Machine Project to build your very own Blubber Bot with inventor Jed Berk. Link

This is the funniest 5 second internet video ever. Maybe just the funniest internet video ever. Video Link. With all that gravitas, I think he must be Mr. Romance's pet or friend. (Thanks, Kent Nichols!)

Reader comments: Paul Berger says,

The star of "Dramatic Chipmunk" appears to be a Prairie Dog (Cynomys sp.) as opposed to a chipmunk (Tamias sp.). Either a great example of cross=species casting or a call to action for chipmunk-americans to stand up for their rights. Loved the video.

And warning, some readers claim to have experienced possible malware risks at the video link above. Rob says,

using Internet Explorer (I'd rather use FF, but...) and a pop up tries to con you into installing software (and I bet its not something nice).

This one is a bit different from what I've seen before: The pop up is in the same language as the version of IE you are using (when I used a danish IE the popup was in danish, and when I used an US IE the pop up was in English).

Using FF and your are as so often before; immune.

Anyhow: You might want to warn the readers of your great blog (or the poor sods like me, forced to use IE at work, where I really should not surf BoingBoing :o) or perhaps remove the link all together.

Liz Upton says,

The link you guys provided to the dramatic chipmunk (who is very splendid, but not a chipmunk - he's a prairie dog) is heaving with popups, prompts to download spyware and other nastiness. Here's a YouTube link to the same video, without the ads and popups.

Matt says,

I just thought you might enjoy our small friend in animated .gif form. (I didn't make it. I'm not sure who did, actually. I just found it on a message board.)

Link.

Rafael says,

Link to the "dramatic chipmunk" video but with dramatic subtitles, hilarious.

Chris F says,

After posting the animated .gif version of the dramatic chipmunk Xeni posted earlier, forum members from my website created a number of different versions. My favorite is the one with the monocle. Link.

Spike says:

Back when I was working at Cutler's Records in New Haven, CT in the late (or was it mid?) 1970's my manager Barry told me about these things and how they used to sell 'em like hot cakes back in the 50's. He wasn't the kind of guy to make shit up but I still found it kinda hard to believe that you could have a record player in your car. For some odd reason I was just thinking about it and managed to google up this article.

Link

Over at Wired's Threat Level blog, Ryan Singel writes:

A House Homeland Security subcommittee is holding a hearing [today] into security breaches, hacking and IT security failure at the Department of Homeland Security, that totaled more than 800 incidents in two years.

During that hearing, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) questioned congressional auditors about their report criticizing U.S. Visit, the IT system intended to keep track of foreigners entering and leaving the United States. Again, Ryan Singel blogs:

"What did you find regarding US Visit in terms of cyber security?," Logren asked. Keith A. Rhodes, the director of the Center for Technology and Engineering at the Government Accountability Office, seemed to be waiting for this one:

Security issues are pervasive. As matter of fact, i realize that there was earlier statement that our audit was a year old, but actually our audit started a year ago. As matter of fact, we curtailed our assessment since we kept getting more and more findings. If we continued to this day, we would still be finding problems. The problems are pervasive and systemic.

Actually, a lot could be fixed. Systems were out of date or misconfigured. A lot of them are zero cost fixes. I reiterate the systems are run by contractors.

"Was the US Visit database hacked?" Lofgren asked.

Rhodes hesitated and then said.

"I did not see controls in place that would prevent it and did not see defensive perimeter and detection systems in place to tell whether it had or had not been been hacked.

THREAT LEVEL needs not hestitate, since WIRED already found out through government sunshine litigation that US VISIT computers -- ostensibly not connected at all to the internet -- were hit by the Zotob virus, an infestation the government tried to cover-up.

Link.

Snip:

This is a solid-state Tesla coil. The primary runs at its resonant frequency in the 41 KHz range, and is modulated from the control unit in order to generate the tones you hear.

What's not immediately obvious in this video is how loud this is. Many people were covering their ears, dogs were barking. In the sections where the crowd is cheering and the coils is starting and stopping, you can hear the the crowd is drowned out by the coil when it's firing.

Video Link. (Thanks, Robert!)

Back in WWII, when the UK was being pounded by daily barrages of high-explosive, the government's message to the people was Keep Calm and Carry On. Not "ZOMG TERRISTS GONNA KILL US ALL ZOMG ZOMG ALERT LEVEL BLOODRED RUN RUN TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES MOISTURE BOMBS ZOMG!"

Now you can get it on a shirt, and remember a time when governments tried to keep us safe by making us secure, instead of scaring the shit out of us. Link (via Neatorama)

Hipster fashion designer Nigo of A Bathing Ape created this Batman hoodie that's expected to his stores next season. According to the "official bape" site, complementary footwear may also be released.
Link

UPDATE: Complex Magazine has a much better image of the Batman hoodie and also Bathing Ape's new Superman and Flash sweaters. Link (Thanks, Bucky!)

BoingBoing reader Pete Mortensen says,

My co-worker Isabel O'Meara booked a flight on Southwest a week ago and ended up with the most inappropriate confirmation code ever. It's CUNNTT. Swear to god. I've seen it in person. And she just blogged it, with a scan of the receipt in question here. Amazing customer service. Amazing.

Link.

Reader comment: Glenn Fleishman says,

The CUNNTT code reminded me of an anecdote from Nathaniel Borenstein's wonderful, out-of-print book Programming As If People Mattered. In it (I paraphrase from memory), he notes how a system that he was working on that generated random sequences of letters for some file data was producing dirty words that some executives were unhappy with. A group of developers are in a conference room, thinking about generating lists of dirty words and so forth when a snot-nosed intern says, "drop the vowels, use base 30 [10 numbers plus 20 letters], and you're all set."

Rizo says,

I used to work for a game company that made kids games for Nintendo DS. We had a cheat code system that used alpha-numeric characters, and these codes would randomly generate after each level you passed. The publisher complained that it was possible to get cuss words as codes at times.

We did the math and figured that the chances of getting a cuss word was about one in one BILLION, but in the eyes of the publisher this was too risky. So, we ended up replacing all vowels with happy faces and such. It wasn't a big deal, but it just amazed me how sensitive the game industry has gotten since the coffee-mod fiasco.

Ríona MacNamara says,

Unfortunately you can't see it clearly, but Cancun's airport code is CUN, and this is a photo of an airport vehicle painted with the code CUNT5: Link.

Keith Blackwell says,

Back in the day... early 90's, before the interwebs was really popular, I was a travel agent, using Sabre, which is/was (I'm not sure now) American Airlines' reservation system. Those confirmation codes are more commonly known, in the industry, as record locators. Pretty much anyone on the system could retrieve anybody's record by record locator. When I was bored, I would pull up random record locators, by typing in words of the correct length (I believe they were 6 or 8 chars long) Doing this, I found a number of records in which American Airlines employees would chat in the comments fields. I joined them and made some friends that way. The way it works is you would add some comments to the bottom of a record. Then you save the record, and others would add their comments. Unfortunately, if you put your comments in there, but someone else saved before you did, you would lose your changes and get a "SIMULTANEOUS CHANGES" alert. You would then reload it to see whatever changes someone else had added. It was kind of like having a shared text file. I also found a number of records where the American Airlines employees recorded the bizarre behavior of passengers and stuff. It was a good, fun way to kill time before the advent of email and internet. Back in the olde tyme Fax era.

Mike Ransom says,

I work as a programmer on an airline reservation system. There is a "dirty words" list that automatically blocks most of those insulting "PNR locators" whick contain rude words. It's obvious why this one got by, since the bad word is misspelled.

Gary says,

Your post reminded me of the Yamaha RY9 drum machine:

It had a simple display, only five characters available for text descriptions of sounds, patterns etc. Some of the sounds were for simple metronome like duties and were called Count1, Count2 etc. I think you can guess which letter Yamaha in their infinite wisdom dropped...

Just google'd it, the manual (with sounds listed in the appendix) is available here: PDF Link.

David Lindsey says,

Maybe not as good as that, but I had an AOL cd once which had the activation code: "cloaca-market". They used to use (they may still) word pairs pull from the dictionary, apparently.

Kim Moser says,

Back in 2003 I made a reservation over the phone with a very friendly Delta Airlines reservation agent who had a strong Jamaican accent. I give her my details, reserved a flight, and she read me my confirmation number very clearly: "RNIGGR." Needless to say, I didn't repeat it for confirmation.

Vern Stoltz says,

Back in 1988, I was taking a System Admin course for Prime Computers (remember them?)

The lady who sat next to me was a very outspoken, funny, and very fat woman. At one point the instructor was showing us the automatic password generator - he walked out the room for a moment, and us students were amusing ourselves, generating random words.

At one point, the woman next to me started laughing hysterically. I looked over, and saw the password that had been generated for her.

The password was 'FAT'

She composed herself to normal, and had lots of fun complaining to the the instructor about how their computers had personally insulted her.

Paul TS Lee says,

Your post reminded me of a the hoops we had to go through to deal with obscene/naughty words in the spell checker of a now defunct word processor app.

There were two real-world scenarios our team heard about: First, a high school principal who misspelled "high school principal" in a school newsletter and got the suggestion "asshole principal"; second, a young girl named Ashley, whose own name was not in our dictionary and so the spell checker suggested "Asshole". Both the principal and Ashley's parents sent irate comments to our support staff.

As we were working on a major rev of the product, we decided to tackle this issue. The first first solution was to just remove all the "bad" words from the main dictionaries. Of course, this meant that a document with correctly spelled obscene words (we envisioned Norman Mailer using our product) would have all of those flagged, which was deemed a poor alternative result, not to mention potentially forcing our users to fill their custom dictionaries with all those words. After much thought and debated, we finally decided on tweaking the spell checker code so that we could give it a list of words that it would never offer as suggestions. Therefore, the spell checker would properly ignore "asshole" as being correctly spelled, while "ashole/asshol/Ashley" would be flagged as as misspellings, but the suggestions would never include "asshole" itself.

After congratulating ourselves on solving the problem, we suddenly realized that we had to create the "correctly spelled obscenity" list, which were sent around the internal email system for review for completeness, appropriateness and much amusement. We had to decide whether words like "asswipe" or "shitfaced" should be included, or does the program only know the hyphenated versions. We had to deal with transatlantic slang: "fanny" and "bloody" in the UK vs. "fag" and "pissed" in the US. Then, our poor, internationalization team had to create localized lists of "bad" words for the 14 Roman based languages (including the two main variants each of Portuguese and Spanish).

I wonder if the airlines people didn't have an inkling of the how much work it'd take to avoid generating "CUNNTT" and decided that it was much easier (and cheaper) to apologize to offended passengers (and maybe offer a voucher).

SF greats Paul Park and Gregory Benford will speak at the next SF in SF event in San Francisco next Monday, June 25. I spoke at the one last month, with Rudy Rucker, and we had a great time. The events are emceed by Terry Bisson, a wonderful writer in his own right. Link

Here's a map of the USA where the states have been labelled with the names of countries with comparable GDPs -- California is the same size as France; Texas, Canada; New York, Brazil, and so on. Link (Thanks, Kevin!)

Update:Barry points to the original source of the map.

This is why God invented Flash. Best intro and soundtrack ever. Link. (Thanks, Clayton Cubitt!)

Reader comment: Shannon says,

Just a heads up: the incredibly kick-ass music from the "Mr. Romance" Flash animation you posted is from the equally kick-ass Evil Dead sequel, Army of Darkness.

michael says,

thank you so much for posting siege's link to mr. romance's flash site. sitting at work (i'm at a computer all day) i thought, "there HAS to be more mr. romance to go around." and then i found his myspace page. YES! this page also has some smooth r&b performed by mr. dunbar himself.

Dave Rattigan says,

There is a reason that Mr Romance soundtrack is so good - the opening motif is blatantly ripped off from Bernard Herrmann's legendary score for Cape Fear (used for both the 1962 and 1991 versions). Compare: Link.

Welp, this might prove to be interesting, or it might suck, I do not know. Fashion brand Diesel will webcast a runway show live from Florence tomorrow night, featuring "a futuristic world of bioluminescence, giant mechanic cephalopods, futuristic aquanauts, and mysterious galactic polips." Oh, how you tease us with the couture galactipolyps! Program starts at 930pm CET on June 21. Link, via Show Studio. (Thanks, Susannah Breslin!)

Some popular antibacterial hand gels, sponges, household cleaners, and even mattresses may actually contribute to the spawning of superbugs. From Scientific American:

Unlike (soap and other) traditional cleaners, antibacterial products leave surface residues, creating conditions that may foster the development of resistant bacteria, Levy notes. For example, after spraying and wiping an antibacterial cleaner over a kitchen counter, active chemicals linger behind and continue to kill bacteria, but not necessarily all of them.

When a bacterial population is placed under a stressor—such as an antibacterial chemical—a small subpopulation armed with special defense mechanisms can develop. These lineages survive and reproduce as their weaker relatives perish. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is the governing maxim here, as antibacterial chemicals select for bacteria that endure their presence...

As bacteria develop a tolerance for these compounds there is potential for also developing a tolerance for certain antibiotics.

Link

Ethan Zuckerman was among the attendees at the recent TED Global conference in Tanzania -- he did some great blogging from there. Here's his overview/summary/reaction of the conference: Link.

And here's an excerpt from another recent post by Ethan which explores, among other things, the current Africa-themed issue of Vanity Fair:

In his video interview about the issue, [Vanity Fair guest editor] Bono tells us what these twenty people had in common: “They’re passionate about Africa.” And most of them have highly recognizable faces, which never hurts when you’re trying to sell a glossy magazine to society matrons in Iowa. As Bono says, he was trying to “bring some sex appeal to wanting to change the world.” Well, Somali supermodel Iman helps with her attempts to climb out of her dress. And I do suspect that it would have been interesting to listen in on some of the conversations “depicted” on the cover - what do Chris Rock and Warren Buffett say to each other at a joint photo shoot anyway?

The message of the cover is that Africa is important and sexy because important and sexy people care about it and are willing to lend their “talent” and celebrity appeal to the “cause”. This tends to piss off my friends who are begging the world to think of Africa less as a cause and more as a continent, particularly as a continent open for business. How hard would it have been for Vanity Fair to pair some of these well-meaning celebrities with actual Africans working to build businesses, repair hospitals and save forests? Put Corniele Ewango on the cover and let Brad Pitt look up to him, an actual superhero, someone who has risked his life numerous times to preserve the forests of the eastern DRC. Put Madonna on the cover with William Kamkwamba, the remarkable Malawian youth who built a windmill to power his family’s house. (Wait, scratch that - she’d probably adopt him.)

Or throw this photo on the cover - here’s Bono talking to some of the young entrepreneurs that George Ayittey terms “the Cheetah Generation”. In the straw hat and badass shirt is Eric Osiakwan, one of the very fastest of the cheetahs, a young innovator who’s worked extremely hard to ensure that the submarine cables that connect the African internet to the North will actually bring down the cost of connectivity on the continent. Vanity Fair isn’t going to make Condoleeza Rice any more famous, but it would probably help Eric get more attention for his work.

But that’s not the point of the issue, as the table of contents makes clear. Genocide in Darfur, AIDS in Rwanda, Jeff Sachs’s attempt to raise $200 billion to transform villages, Madonna in Malawi. The only story in the online table of contents remotely connected to entrepreneurship is a slideshow about the airlines that serve as transport infrastructure for the DRC. It’s possible - and quite likely - that some of these stories are excellent and worth reading. But the overall picture is the one that so many Africans find themselves fighting - Africa as basket case.

More post-TED posts on Africa include Mental Acrobatics: Link ("Why TED Global Rocked"), and White African's overview of African bloggers at the conference: Link. (Thanks, Emeka! Photo by White African. )

Previously on BoingBoing:

How to write about Africa

Jean says: "A news story from the School Library Journal describes how threatening emails and phonecalls saying that the library's summer reading program was promoting "withcraft" and "drug use" led to the librarian decided to cancel the program to keep preschoolers safe from picketers and threatened violence."

The Pickens County Library System’s half-hour summer programs for middle and high school students were supposed to take a light-hearted look at the topics "Secrets and Spies: How to Keep a Secret by Writing in Code or Making Invisible Ink" and "What’s Your Sign?" Another program was to examine astrology, palmistry, and numerology; and others were to feature tarot cards, tie-dying t-shirts, how to make a Zen garden, and yoga.

Now the programs are cancelled in the wake of phone and e-mail threats from the community, believed to emanate from a single local Baptist church. The astrology program was labeled as "witchcraft" by callers, while the Zen garden and yoga programs were objected to as "promoting other religions." The t-shirts workshop? "Promotes the hippie culture and drug use," callers said.

"If you have an anonymous call of a bomb, what do you do?" asks Library Director Marguerite Keenan, explaining her decision to cancel the YA programs. "You clear the building, you close the building for the protection of the children. And that’s hugely sad."

Link

Microsoft has agreed to make changes to Vista's search utility after Google complained to the Justice Department that "Vista’s desktop search tool slowed down competing programs, including Google’s own free offering, and that it’s difficult for users to figure out how to turn off the Microsoft program."

Microsoft initially dismissed the allegations, saying regulators had reviewed the program before Vista launched. However, Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said in an interview last week that the company was willing to make changes if necessary.

Link (Thanks, Denis!)

Air & Space Smithsonian magazine visits Hat Creek, California, where several dozen new radio telescopes will soon start listening for the sounds of ET calling. The Allen Telescope Array, named for major funder and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will eventually consist of 350 telescopes dedicated to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). (I wrote about the project last year for UC Berkeley's Forefront magazine.) From Air & Space:

In the Cascade Mountains of northern California, within sight of Mt. Shasta’s snow-topped, 14,000-foot peak, lies the high valley of Hat Creek, where they say the fishing is good. People come here in the summer for a little R&R among the tall trees, away from modern technology and its discontents. Strange, then, that the valley should also be home to one of the most futuristic projects on the planet—the Allen Telescope Array, the first radio observatory built expressly for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. The late physicist Philip Morrison, one of the founding fathers of SETI, called the search “the archaeology of the future,” an attempt to learn whether civilizations more advanced than ours exist. Some might call that possibility unlikely. Then again, so may be the long-term survival of humanity. And we still hold hope in that. On this warm day in March, Jill Tarter is sitting at a desktop computer, studying sensitivity data from telescope 2H as it pans slowly across the sky. Outside, visible through the glass doors of this modest office/utility building, are 42 identical dish telescopes, each the size of an apple tree. Only 2H is moving. The orchard’s pattern appears random, with dishes facing all directions. In fact, the arrangement is as random as a computer program can make it.

Link

Previously on BB:
• Observing the SETI observatory Link

This stroller modded into an AT-AT Imperial Walker was spotted at the Star Wars Celebration IV last month in Los Angeles. Thingamababy is reverse engineering the build based on photos, but the father and baby's identities remain a mystery. If you think you know these two, post your comments on Thingamababy.
Link (via Daddy Types)

Italian artist Livio De Marchi creates sculptures of familiar objects out of wood, including the likes of the piece at left, titled "Shopping," and a perfect model of a Ferrari F50 that he drives around Venice's canals. (Ferrari photo by Barcroft Media.) Link to De Marchi's site, Link to Ferrari boat video (via Juxtapoz)


Previously on BB:
• Lee Stoetzel's wood chopper Link
• Lee Stoetzel: sculpture show in New York City Link

My guest on today's live call-in Rule the Web show (using the awesome BlogTalkRadio system) is David Moldawer, who was my editor on my book, Rule the Web: How To Do Anything and Everything on the Internet -- Better, Faster, Easier.

David is an assistant editor at St. Martin’s Press and the host of one of my favorite podcasts, "Moldawer in the Morning," a rogue punditry program, and a co-host of the "Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas," a podcast about classic science fiction books, television shows, and movies.

To listen to my show, visit BlogTalkRadio at 2pm Pacific Time and call David and me at (646) 915-8698. Link

Famed hot rodder and lowbrow art pioneer Robert Williams designed an absolutely amazing series of limited-edition Vans. These are my favorites. From an interview with Williams on the Vans site:

How long have you been wearing Vans?
I've been wearing Vans since about 1970 or '71. I just needed some funky sneakers so I wouldn't wear out my good shoes. Vans was kind of on the hip horizon and they were inexpensive. And at the time you could bring in a swatch of fabric and they would make shoes for you. I thought "What could be more California?" I was running around with surfers and what not, and Vans was the thing to wear.

Link

Previously on BB:
• Robert Williams West Coast book tour Link
• Great new Lowbrow art book: Pop Surrealism Link

Designed by Charles Trevelyan, the Titanic is a lacquered wood, cotton, and steel lamp inspired by the sunk ship. It's £259.00 from Hidden Art.
Link (via Sensory Impact)

David sez, "Susan Crawford urges the US to stop pussyfooting around and do what needs to be done: Restructure the Internet carriers so they allow competition, and separate the carriers of bits from the suppliers of content and services. This is how you get Net Neutrality that works."

Many Americans don’t have a choice of highspeed providers, and, as Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, Free Press, Media Access Project, and U.S. Public Interest Group recently told the FCC, “Americans pay 10 to 20 times as much [as people do in other countries] for far less service.” The duopoly is something like Shamu and Godzilla on hire for televised wrestling – giant beasts gently swatting at one another for the cameras. They aren’t competing, these giants. There is a clear failure in the market for highspeed internet access in this country...

Many other countries have taken a hard look at their communications policy and have understood that communications and economic growth are tightly intertwined. Economic growth is driven by new ideas creating ever-newer goods and services and new ways of making a living. We have never had an interactive communications platform like the internet before – it’s capable of producing enormously diverse ideas (in the form of new niches, new roles, and new understandings of information) and allowing them to be disseminated on a large scale. Universal highspeed access to the internet could trigger crucial economic growth that would benefit U.S. society as a whole.

Link (Thanks, David!)

Len sez, "For the summer, I'm drawing unbeliveably low cost zombies for all lovers of monster art. $20 gets you a zombie that you can then hang on your wall or let roam freely around your house to shamble around like a drunk. You also have an option to get a video of the monster or a t-shirt." Link (Thanks, Len!)

Back in March, I blogged the UK Open Rights Group's call for scrutineers to investigate irregularities in the use of electronic voting machines in Britain. Now, ORG has compiled the results of your observations and released a report. The news isn't good: evoting can't be trusted.

Becky Hogge, ORG's executive director, says:

ORG is releasing its report into the UK 3 May elections today, where both England and Scotland made heavy use of new electronic voting and counting technologies.

Our report represents observations of 25 volunteer election observers - some of whom count being national experts in computer security and usability as their day jobs.

Our conclusion is that we can have no confidence in the results declared for the ares we observed. We'll be delivering our findings to a roomful of MPs tonight in Westminster.

Link (Thanks, Becky!)

(Disclosure: I am proud to have co-founded the Open Rights Group, and I presently serve on its advisory board)