I've just finished "I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!" Paul Karasik's anthology of comics by Fletcher Hanks.

Fletcher Hanks is a mysterious and obscure figure in comics history, the creator of WWII-era strips like "Stardust the Super Wizard" and "Fantomah: Mystery Woman of the Jungle." These strips were beyond terrible, filled with a kind of idiotic energy. Each panel tops the previous panel for freakish goofiness, each strip surpasses the previous strip for mind-croggling ham-fistedness.

Hanks's characters have seemingly unlimited powers (and extremely quirky anatomy), and yet they always seem to turn up after some racial bad guy (these heroes fight Kurds, "slant eyes" and shylock-looking Jews, among others) kills thousands of people. Then they tear them apart limb from limb in bloody revenge.

Here's a typical plotline: Stardust, the Super Wizard, uses his interplanetary eye to spy on "Master-Mind" Destructo, who is "wising up" his troops with their plans for a gigantic "take over" (all scare quotes are per the original). They are going to pull off a scientific grift, starting with the USA. Destructo has an oxygen-destroying ray that he's going to use on every big shot in America, suffocating them all at the same time. The Destructo mob uses astounding efficiency to conceal vials of oxygen-destroying rays all over the world. They release the rays using a radio-cabin on a pine-clad mountain. The president, cabinet, and congress keel over. So do all newspaper and magazine editors, the FBI, secret service, bankers, industrial leaders, doctors, Army and Navy officers, enlisted men, police, etc. Panic sets in.

Stardust bursts out of space, lighting up Destructo's radio cabin. He demolishes the radio with a supersolar disintegrating ray, then releases a powerful counteracting ray throughout the country. The president and a few others are saved.

Destructo conceals himself in a hollow pine tree. Stardust splits the tree in twain and transfixes Destructo with a superiority beam. Then he applies his transforming ray, growing Destructo's head to an enormous size. The giant head absorbs Destructo's body (Destructo: "Stop it!").

Now Stardust takes Destructo's head to the space pocket of living death, where the headless headhunter dwells (Stardust: "He's the hugest giant in the universe!"). He bowls Destructo's head into the pocket. The headless headhunter catches the head and places it atop his shoulders, whence it is absorbed into the giant's body.

Now Stardust uses an attractor ray to round up the rest of Destructo's gang. He converts them all into one person, then destroys gravity around the one person, and applies a revolving speed ray. They spin up and off into space. Then Startdust disappears. (Bystander: "He certainly saved America from an awful fate!")

They're all like this. After the fifth or sixth one, I entered an altered state of consciousness. I scored this book off the recommended table at LA's Secret Headquarters comic shop, and Dave, the proprietor, assured me I'd never read anything like it. He was right. (He's not the only one -- on the back cover, Kurt Vonnegut testifies: "The recovery from oblivion of these treasures is in itself a major work of art.")

He also told me not to miss Paul Karasik's afterword, and he was especially right about that. The afterword is in the form of a Hanks-esque comic, in which Karasik hunts down Hanks's son and interviews him. It turns out that his son, a flying ace, was totally estranged from his father, an abusive alcoholic, and that they'd burned all his art except for one piece. He didn't even know his father had written these comics.

Karasik's maintaining an excellent Fletcher Hanks website with some examples of Hanks's artwork -- especially noteworthy is the page of interviews Karasik has conducted about Hanks's work. Link

Hypertalented artisan Kaden Harris, creator of antiques from a parallel universe, just completed construction on this incredible hypnodisk machine for me. This particular device is called The Focus Engine. Click on the image to see the exquisite detail. I cannot wait until it arrives so I can put it through its paces, or rather it can put me through mine. When I close my eyes and step into my dream house, every fixture is a Kaden Harris original.
Link

Previously on BB:
• Dangerous Things on your desk Link
• Tell the Eccentric Genius what to build Link
• Retro bong designed and built in 11 minutes Link

I appear as a minor character in this delightful short-short sf story from Derrik's Short Science Fiction Stories blog:

June 2015
Gucci is announcing their line of DRM-free clothes today. These threads can be worn an infinite number of times, anytime of the year. If you happen to have multiple closets, these DRM-free clothes can be moved to and from your different closets.

Some privacy concerns have arisen from these new clothes. It seems that Gucci embeds your full user name onto the tag of whatever article of clothing is bought DRM-free. Some say this is to identify the clothes, should knock offs start to arise in the black market.

Current presidential candidate for the American Pirate Party, Cory Doctorow, has this to say, "Technology giveth, technology taketh away. Just as radio destroyed the vaudeville paradigm and the internet destroyed the old record industry, nano-fabs are turning the design and clothing market on its head. They (Design companies) should be creating a service model for their designers, instead of suing high school girls."

Link

The Neuros community just released a major cool new feature for the OSD: playback of any YouTube video on your SD or HD TV set, along with keyword searching and other YouTube features.

The Neuros OSD is a sweet little Linux-based set-top box that can record from any device (cable box, game console, DVD player, etc) and can play back Internet video from USB drives, memory cards, your local area network and what have you. The best part is that the whole thing is open source, and Neuros owners are encouraged to come up with cool new features for it and distribute them. Other manufacturers threaten to sue you when you do this.

I love my OSD -- and I love that it is designed to make my life better, not to turn me into the "business model" for some net-hating entertainment giant. I'm not your countable eyeball! I'm a human being! Link

See also:
Neuros OSD: a set-top box that treats you like an owner
Open PVR from Neuros: cash money to owners who hack it
Neuros to AppleTV hackers: hack our set-top box!

Kevin's grandmother received this rejection letter from Walt Disney Productions in 1938, telling her that she wasn't welcome at animator training school because she was a girl. The sting seems to have been mitigated somewhat by the excellent stationery they sent the note on. Link (Thanks, Kevin!)

See also:
1938 Disney cartoon tryout book
Disney, 1939: No woman animators allowed

Update: Glen sez, "This guy blogged about the Disney Studios Artist's Tryout Book that was released in 1938: 'All inking and painting of celluloids, and all tracing done in the Studio is perfomed exclusively by a large staff of girls known as Inkers and Painters... This is the only department in the Disney Studio open to women artists.'"

Update 2: danah boyd sez, "During my sophomore year at Brown (1997), I attended SIGGRAPH. There was an Imagineering booth where Disney was doing recruiting. I approached and asked if there were internships available, but the recruiter told me that there were no internships available for artists. I responded by saying that I was a developer and that I wanted to code. The response I received was, 'but you're a girl.'

"I walked away stunned and midway out of the convention hall, I ran into my advisor (Andy van Dam) and relayed this story. He turned beet red and ran off to 'make things right.' Not 15 minutes later, I saw the recruiter at Disney stomping out of the hall. I found out later he was fired. "

Podcasting legend Mur Lafferty has just launched "Earth," the third series in her "Heaven" podiobook. I was privileged to have Mur as a writing student at the Viable Paradise workshop last year (applications for this year's workshop are due on the 30th!), and I was impressed by her writing. Turns out, she's also a great performer, creating engaging, funny, and engrossing podcast-native fiction.

Heaven is a series of existential stories that recount the afterlives of two friends who die at the final trump on Earth, and are carried to heaven, then hell, and now -- Earth again. The characters are extremely likable, their problems engaging, and the scenarios are inventive, strange and compelling.

Podiobooks are free audiobooks, delivered as weekly podcasts to your podcatcher. Podiobooks creates a unique feed for you, starting with the first episode, so that it doesn't matter when the book started podcasting, you get to begin with part one. They solicit donations to pay the authors and their staff. There's plenty of great stuff there to enjoy, and Lafferty's books are a great entree to the concept. Link

See also:
Mur Lafferty's Heaven: free audiobook of existential comedy
Eastern Standard Tribe is a podiobook (and banned in Boston!)
Anthology of podcast sf stories launches

Rev. Keith A. Gordon has been reviewing old issues of bOING bOING, the print zine that Carla and I started in 1988.

With issue #6 bOING bOING continues to grow both in size and stature, this issue including an interview with Robert Anton Wilson (by Antero Alli), Rudy Rucker on James Gleick's Chaos: The Software, an interview with comic artist Daniel Clowes and some high-falutin' high-tech articles about subjects that are still miles above my head (and, believe it or not, I have an above-average IQ...allegedly). Still, it was always good to see bOING bOING on the newstand, if only because their coverage of new media (books, zines, software) was second to none and always satisfied this young man's craving for fresh sources of information.

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #6
• 1991, no month given
• B&W, 48-pages (including covers, spot color)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Robert Anton Wilson (prophet)
Daniel Clowes (cartoonist)
Brigitte Mars (herbalist)
"Passport To Invisible Utopia"
"Confessions In A Drug-Free Zone"
"Accessing Alternity With Consciousness Technology"
--> also reader mail, book & zine reviews

Volume: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Note: PDFs of Volumes 1 and 2 of bOING bOING are available for $2 each.

RU Sirius has a great interview with blogger Josh Wolf, who was jailed for 228 days for refusing to comply with a government order to turn over video he'd shot of a G8 protest in San Francisco.

RU: The big mainstream media question is "Can bloggers be journalists?" In fact, you wrote an essay with that name. And I think the counter-argument would be that nearly everyone could become a blogger, and then everyone would be protected from giving evidence. So a group could conspire to break laws and members who blog could be protected. Karl Rove could become a journalist and make the same kind of claim!

JOSH: That argument's flawed, because if you are involved in a criminal activity, you don't have to testify because you're protected by the Fifth Amendment.

RU: Good point!

JOSH: But it's true that in Grand Juries they like to get rid of the Fifth Amendment. They say, "Here's a waiver. You no longer have the Fifth Amendment." But I've been reading the Constitution over and over again, and I can't find any section on giving waivers to the Fifth Amendment. And consider the First Amendment -- freedom of speech. Why doesn't that include freedom of silence? Why does the freedom to speak not include the freedom not to speak? And so, yes -- journalists should be protected in order to protect the act of journalism. But in a larger context, why do we have coercive custody to force people to testify? I mean, it's really a form of very low-grade torture -- we're going to hold you in custody until you break down and speak.

Link | MP3 of full interview

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Josh Wolf on Colbert Report
• Free Josh Wolf: update on jailed San Francisco video-blogger
• Josh Wolf remains in jail, dad starts "nonstop" vigil
• Vlogger Josh Wolf breaks jail time record for subpoena refusal
• Videoblogger Josh Wolf returns to prison today
• Court rejects Josh Wolf's appeal, return to prison possible
• Josh Wolf released on bail from SF Bay Area jail

Salvador Dalí created this untitled painting in 1942 for the campaign against venereal disease.
Link (via V. Vale's RE/Search Newsletter)

Previously on BB:
• Salvador Dalí TV commercials Link
• Salvador Dalî on "What's My Line?" Link
• Dalî in Smithsonian Link

I have just one question about "The Baby Jesus" meat product: genetically engineered or transubstantiated?

Please note: "The Baby must dry several weeks before it is ready to be sold." Link

Three cheers for Tanya Anderson, a 42-year-old disabled mom who refused to sit quietly when the RIAA attempted to shake her down for money after accusing her of illegally downloading music. After the suit against her was dismissed with prejudice, she turned around and filed a 13-count civil suit against the RIAA and the major labels.

You may remember Andersen as the single mother who was accused of illegally downloaded music through peer to peer networks. After a two-year legal battle, she forced the RIAA to dismiss the case with prejudice. Now, with the help of the attorneys at Lybeck and Murphy, Andersen is turning this into a classic case of "hunter becoming the hunted" by suing for direct and punitive damages.

In addition to suing the RIAA, Andersen is targeting Atlantic Recording, Priority Records, Capital Records, UMG Recordings and BMG Music. She is also naming Media Sentry and RIAA’s Settlement Support Center as defendants. Andersen’s lawyers are hitting the defendants with the full power of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and federal and state RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Act), something that is often used against mafia and street gang members.

Link (Thanks, Steven!) Many more RIAA-related stories on Boing Boing here.

Hugh says My buddy G.J Echternkamp is one of the most talented people I know. He's worked with This American Life, among other shows, and his site includes links to his amazing documentary, Frank & Cindy, about his, um, eccentric parents, as well as to clips for his various short films. Link

Detail from a self-portrait drawn by Paris Hilton (presumably with a pigeon quill dipped in pruno) while serving time in a California jail. Who does she think she is with those anime-eyes, Angelyne? A Margaret Keane waif? Anyway, it's a gift for the guy who runs TMZ.com.

Link (via Defamer)

The NY Times has a fun article about guys who make beautiful, working replicas of internal combustion engines. Make magazine hosted these delightful makers at Maker Faire in May.

Downsizing may be a chilling concept nearly everywhere, but not in the workshop of George Luhrs, a machinist in Shoreham, N.Y., with an affinity for the very small. Mr Luhrs has built a single-cylinder engine you could lose in a pocketful of nickels and dimes.

The piston of Mr. Luhrs’s itsy-bitsy engine rides in a cylinder whose bore is just 1/8-inch across. The engine’s stroke — the distance that the piston travels up and down inside the cylinder — is only 5/32 of an inch. The spark plug? You could lay seven of them across the face of a dime and still see F.D.R. peeking through.

Link (Thanks, Coop!)

Blair says:

This is an article along the lines of the "Bong hits for Jesus" article. In this case a grade 10 honor student who vows no prior drug use has been suspended from a high-school in small town Saskatchewan, Canada and was forced to miss a final exam over his research paper that compared the harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. In his paper the student discussed that marijuana is the least harmful (healthwise). He was reprimanded for this accurate portrayal of the scientific evidence and cited as encouraging drug use.

Link

Reader comment:

Jack says:

I would be the last one to defend our radical-conservative Supreme Court, but it's worth noting that even the Bong Hits 4 Jesus opinion would protect this Canadian student (if he was in the US). SCOTUSBlog quotes Alito's controlling concurrence: "I join the opinion of the Court on the understanding that ... it provides no support for any restriction of speech that can plausibly be interpreted as commenting on any political or social issue, including speech on issues such as 'the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.' ... I regard [the regulation at issue in Bong Hits 4 Jesus] as standing at the far reaches of what the First Amendment permits." The Chief Justice's opinion appears to agree.

Composer, performer, actor, civil rights activist, McCarthyite commie-smear victim, and '30s-'40s sex symbol Josh White singing "John Henry" in 1941: Video Link.

There's a wonderful user group at YouTube with more rare, old-time soulful stuff like this (including some smokin' vintage gospel): Link to "The Real Blues Group."

Not really related: I've been playing and replaying this video all morning long. Ignore the bird b-roll if you will, but the sound quality's sweet, and it's such a beautiful song. This reminded me, and put the bug in my ear. (Thanks, Tim)

The CIA "Skeletons" file from the 1970s is now online. Snip:

The Central Intelligence Agency violated its charter for 25 years until revelations of illegal wiretapping, domestic surveillance, assassination plots, and human experimentation led to official investigations and reforms in the 1970s, according to declassified documents posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden announced today that the Agency is declassifying the full 693-page file amassed on CIA's illegal activities by order of then-CIA director James Schlesinger in 1973--the so-called "family jewels." Only a few dozen heavily-censored pages of this file have previously been declassified, although multiple Freedom of Information Act requests have been filed over the years for the documents. Gen. Hayden called the file "a glimpse of a very different time and a very different Agency."

Link (via Danger Room)

Update: Noah Shachtman tells BoingBoing,

I'm continuing to blog my way through the CIA "family jewels" -- and already turning up some crazy stuff. Think "behavioral drugs." And Nixon-era spies who were more reluctant to do widespread electronic surveillance than many of Bush's spooks. Link.

Previously:

CIA secret documents just declassified

University of Washington to students: Not only will we not shield you from RIAA lawsuits, we will track you down like the dogs you are, and serve you with the RIAA's legal papers. Link.

A haiku about the eminently fuckable iPhone: Link. Also, the rate plan details are out: Link.

Why yes, I *would* like to ride a rocket into space, then jump out of it and free-float to an Earth re-entry. Link.

Dramatic Chipmunk, make way for Dramatic Cow: Link. Needs ominous music.

Kobayashi, competitive eater, defeated by his own arthritic jaw. Ow. Link.

All you need to know about the Pile High Club is that it involves poop, and you do not want to be a member. Link 1, Link 2.

Cyclops gator tries to bite off golfer's arm at Florida golf course: Link.

Sketches from an "embedded artist" traveling with troops in Afghanistan, as shown on the top and bottom of this BoingBoing post: Link (via ArtThreat).

Scariest dude alive gets punked by 59-year-old man at Arby's (whoah, the photo): Link.

Urban happiness movement in Colombia: Hedonics, and changes to Bogota's transportation systems: Link to monster article, here's a shorter blog post about it.

Curb your child's thumb sucking with the power of acetone! Link.

(Thanks, tian, Doug, Josué, Greg Scavezze, Dustin, Jim Storch, Rob, Ape Lad, Derek)

Reader comment: Nathan Seven says,

Regarding "Scariest dude alive" -- The Smoking Gun has his mugshot: Link. Also, he's just got a bit of a tattoo problem- whereas this guy seems to have a few more: Link.

Miah says,

Re: "Why yes, I *would* like to ride a rocket into space, then jump out of it and free-float to an Earth re-entry" -- Joesph Kittinger (the first man in space) achieved this feat using a high altitude balloon in 1960.

Calpernia Addams says,

When I saw your "Creepy, interesting, and real" post from June 26 that included the criminal with the tattooed face, I immediately thought of Dion Milam (who someone commented/linked via The Smoking Gun). But in the vein of freaky face tattoos, don't miss the "Death Mask Guy" from bmezine post: Link

Following up on yesterday's Bong Hits 4 Jesus ruling in the supreme court, BoingBoing reader font9a says:

So let's try to come up with a list of drugs the supreme court deems worthy for Jesus to take, versus drugs the supreme court finds it illegal to take. Nevermind that Rehnquist was so high on morphine for 40 years of his life he doesn't get a chance to chime in.

Link.

Previously:

Paul Krassner on Supremes' "Bong hits 4 Jesus ruling"

Bong Hits 4 Jesus: high court ruling's implications for online speech

Reader comment: Oliver says,

Rehnquist was actually addicted to Placidyl, a non-barbiturate sedative; see Link and Link.

Ah, the smells of Burning Man: weed, incense, unwashed naked people -- and now, french fries. That new aroma wafting over the Black Rock desert this year comes from reclaimed biodiesel:

Burning Man is working on shifting our entire power generation load from regular old diesel fuel to clean, green biodiesel, thanks to a very dedicated effort by Mr. Blue of Recycle Camp and many others. It will be used to power things like the medical and fire outposts, rangers stations, BMIR, and other event operations. What does that mean in real terms? It means that 20,000 gallons of diesel that would have been coming from places like Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Iraq and other human rights holiday spots will instead be coming from old French fry vats and the like in nearby Reno, Nevada.

Link (thanks, Wayne Correia!)

Reader comment: Jay W. says,

There is project "Single Cell Solution" by "Dr. Friendly" that combines biodiesel with a "Algae Bar", a "Green Genesis Dome". Link.

Eben Bayer, 21, has invented an organic insulation formula with oyster mushroom spores as its main ingredient. The material, called Geensulate, also contains water, flour, and the mineral blend perlite. Bayer, who learned mushroom cultivation from his dad, and business partner Gavin McIntyre, 22, have been growing the material under their beds but hope to bring it to market in a year or so. Apparently, Greensulate's ability to resist heat flow is comparable to that of traditional fiberglass insulation. From the Associated Press:

Here's how it works: A mixture of water, mineral particles, starch and hydrogen peroxide are poured into 7-by-7-inch molds and then injected with living mushroom cells. The hydrogen peroxide is used to prevent the growth of other specimens within the material.

Placed in a dark environment, the cells start to grow, digesting the starch as food and sprouting thousands of root-like cellular strands. A week to two weeks later, a 1-inch-thick panel of insulation is fully grown. It's then dried to prevent fungal growth, making it unlikely to trigger mold and fungus allergies, according to Bayer. The finished product resembles a giant cracker in texture.

"It really allows for a myriad of uses," said McIntyre. He said they've envisioned modifying the product to make structural panels that could be grown and assembled onsite to produce sustainable homes.

Link

BoingBoing reader and cakemod aficionado Andrew Green says,

My wife and I baked a replica of Optimus Prime in cake form. Here are photos and videos: Link.

Sean Ganann from the promotional agency Anomaly (they were the guys behind the Virgin name-a-plane thing) tells BoingBoing:

One of the partners here at Anomaly is first in line for an iPhone at the NY Soho Apple store -- he's been waiting there all day.

The twist is that Johnny Vulkan's iPhone will go straight up on to eBay with the proceeds going to Keep A Child Alive, an organization that provides anti-retroviral treatment to children infected with AIDS in Africa. Some of our other clients have joined in with Jawbone adding two bluetooth headsets and Virgin America throwing two round trip tickets in the mix.

Link to Johnny Vulkan's flickr account with pix from the stunt, and here's more on the cause.

Update: Well now, here's another "first in line" guy, in another city, with a different mission: Link.

Four years ago, I posted about two guys I met, Zach Niles and Banker White, who had hung out in the Republic of Guinea jamming with musicians living in refugee camps there. Their friendship with one particular band of musicians from Sierra Leone, a group called the Refugee All Stars, eventually led to a documentary film. When I made the original post, Zach and Banker were trying to get enough money to finish their film, and they finally succeeded. Since then, the band has toured the United States, and the film, titled Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, has been screened all over the country. Tonight, it makes its TV premier on PBS. Check local listings for exact times.

From the synopsis:

The plight of the refugee in today’s war-torn world is captured in the African proverb, “When two elephants are fighting, the grass will suffer.” So it was in Sierra Leone from 1991-2002, where the government and various rebel factions carried out a brutal civil war in which the terrorizing of civilians — by killing, mutilation, rape, and forced conscription — was common practice on all sides. The war sent hundreds of thousands of ordinary Sierra Leoneans fleeing to refugee camps in the neighboring West African nation of the Republic of Guinea. That’s where the remarkable documentary Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars begins.

Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars are a band of six Sierra Leonean musicians who came together to form a band while living in a refugee camp in Guinea. Many of their family and friends were murdered in the war, leaving each of them with physical and emotional scars that may never heal. Despite the unimaginable horrors of civil war, they were saved and brought hope and happiness to their fellow refugees through their music.

Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars chronicles the band over three years, from Guinean refugee camps back to war-ravaged Sierra Leone, where they realize the dream of recording their first studio album. And so begins a musical phenomenon that is making the world hear the voices of West Africa’s refugees – through the film Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars have been able to launch an international musical career, while drawing the accolades of Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, Ice Cube (one of the executive producers of the film), and Joe Perry.

Through their unflinching spirit, their powerful stories of survival and their joyful music Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars celebrate the best that is in all of us. As violent conflicts multiply around the globe and the worldwide refugee crisis deepens, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars is a humanizing ode to all the innocent survivors of war whose brutal realities are often dismissed by surface mass media sound bytes.

Link (Thanks, Bill Bourdon!)

This video documents a rube goldberg machine that spans multiple storeys of a residential house, running from room to room, with transitions that include stairwalking slinkies, a computerized magnetic chess-set, and the piece de resistance, a cellphone that calls another phone elsewhere in the house, setting off a vibration ringer that triggers the next reaction. Must be seen to be believed. Link (Thanks, Richard!)

Many internet radio stations and conventional broadcasting networks that offer online audio streams are shutting down today in protest.

Organizers say the "Day of Silence" serves to focus attention on the recent, dramatic increase in royalty fees -- many webcasters say the cash hike will drive them offline.

Link to "Day of Silence" at Kurt Hanson's internet radio website. Link to savenetradio (here's their PDF about today's action: Link). Link to Washington Post article, Here's Soma FM's statement, here's di.fm, Pandora, pitchfork media, and a statement from Ruth Seymour at KCRW.(thanks Myles, Rob)

Here's Boing Boing pal by Paul Krassner's take on the recent Supreme Court ruling that limits free speech.

Bong Hits 4 Repression

The Supreme Court sucks so badly it turned itself inside out. An utterly outrageous 5-4 ruling has made it acceptable to suspend a high school student for an off-campus act like holding a 14-foot banner saying “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” That simple joke became a federal case ending with a dangerous precedent for suppressing free speech.

Chief Justice Roberts agreed with the school principal that “the banner would be interpreted by those viewing it as promoting illegal drug use, and that interpretation is plainly a reasonable one”--what a ton of bullshit!--and Justices Alito and Kennedy stated that their decision doesn’t address “political or social issues such as the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalized marijuana for medical use.”

So this is really about the war on pleasure. I once asked the late Peter McWilliams--leading activist in the medical marijuana movement who suffered from cancer and AIDS--“Would you agree with Dennis Peron, the co-author of Proposition 215 [California’s medical marijuana referendum], who says--not as a joke--that all use of marijuana is medical?”

“In the general sense that everything we do for our health--both curative and preventative--is medical, I’d agree,” he replied. “Even a perfectly healthy person who smokes pot once a month purely for its euphoric effects could be said to be doing so to prevent becoming ill, in the sense that people take vitamin C every day to prevent becoming ill, for I believe that euphoria is both healing and health-maintaining....

“While I was using marijuana to treat my nausea, I can’t tell you how much I missed getting high. Although I’d smoke it several times a day, the average high school student was getting high more times a month than I was. That’s because after the first month, I never got high, and I really enjoy marijuana’s high. Simply put, recreational marijuana you use to get high; medical marijuana you use to get by.”

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Paul Krassner on Secret Bullshit
• The Sopranos Meet The Hippies by Paul Krassner
• Boing Boing interviews Paul Krassner
• Paul Krassner on the parts they left out of the Abbie Hoffman movie
• Paul Krassner on RU Sirius Show
• Realist archive project

At left is a photo taken between 1955 and 1965 of Hoboro Island off the coast of Hiroshima. At right is a recent photo of the same island. Hoboro Island is quickly being eaten away by isopod crustaceans digging into the rock to deposit eggs.

From MSN-Mainichi Daily News:

"It's rare, even on a global scale, to hear of biological erosion that has proceeded on such a large scale and at such a rapid pace as to alter the landscape of an island," said Yuji Okimura, an emeritus professor at Hiroshima University.

According to land records of Hoboro Island compiled in 1928, the island was 120 meters long, and its highest point stood 21.9 meters above sea level. In a photo taken between about 1955 and 1965, the island had two rocky peaks, and vegetation was growing on the highest of the peaks.

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

The TV program Deep Sea Detectives recently investigated Scotland's Loch Ness to seek out Nessie. The program, parts of which are viewable on YouTube, featured some great archival footage of the coelacanth and the Loch, and an interview with BB's unofficial cryptozoologist-at-large, Loren Coleman. From the program description on The History Channel site:

Perhaps the world's most famous underwater mystery, reports of "Nessie" sightings have circulated for centuries.

Photos, film footage, sonar traces, and amazing new scientific discoveries all suggest that there just might be something lurking in the frigid waters of Scotland's Loch Ness.

These cold waters are hauntingly deep, drowning victims usually disappear without a trace and most divers refuse to enter. But not our intrepid team!

Join us as we delve into the darkness of Loch Ness and look for an aquatic lassie named Nessie, history's most celebrated cryptozoological creature.

Link

Last Passover, Craft/Make's Phil Torrone etched Spock's portrait into a sheet of matzoh with a laser-cutter (Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Spock, is a religious Jew). They should sell this stuff by the box come next spring. It'd make you the hit of the Seder.

I saw Phil and his cutter last weekend and got Tenniel's illustration of the Mad Hatter etched into my leather shoulder-bag and into the stickers on the lid of my laptop. Man, that was fun. I want one of these things. He'll etch pretty much anything you send to him, for a reasonable fee. Link

Red vs. Blue, the first and funniest long-running machinima series, is about to publish its grand finale, a 100th episode with a twist ending. Red vs. Blue has been running since April 1, 2003, a single hilarious storyline about the two rival armies in the video game Halo.

Having labored on the series for four years, Red vs. Blue creator Michael "Burnie" Burns, who remains the series' writer, editor, director and lead voice talent, wants to make sure fans aren't let down.

The 15-minute final episode will be "the biggest one we've ever done," says Burns, "but The Sopranos stole our ending, so we had to change it completely..."

"We didn't even know what machinima was," says Burns. "We played a ton of Halo at LAN parties because Xbox Live didn't exist yet. The humor of us yelling across the room led to Red vs. Blue.."

Link

A local artist and his pupils decorated the dishes of Amsterdam's "satellite city," an immigrant neighborhood. Link (via Neatorama)

Eliot Philips has put up a Flickr set of badges from hacker conventions. I've got a few of these myself! Link (via Neatorama)