BB reader Sharon says,

Great fun! Over here in Israel, it seems that we're about to get our internet censored by the state, which will decide what's good for us! (unless we sign up specifically for uncensored internet and identify ourselves as deviant porn hounds!)

Link to Haaretz story.

Update: Here's more on the proposed law at Global Voices: Link (thanks, danah boyd!)

World of Warcraft has banned ads for "gold farmers" who sell virtual gold and artifacts for real money. The farmers have retailiated by slaying gnomes and arranging them on the ground to spell out the URLs of their gold-farms. Check out the video of it, complete with Benny Hill music. Link (via Wonderland)

A young British woman has created an AJAX-based Second Life client that runs in your browser, giving you a text-based view into the virtual world.

Katharine Berry, a student in the UK, has created an in-browser AJAX application that allows you to log into the virtual world of Second Life, but without all of the laggy graphics. This is a great way to pop in-world for a moment if you just want to chat with other residents, and as far as anybody else will be able to tell your avatar will look just fine (although mostly immobile).

Link, Link to AJAX client, Link to Katherine Berry's site (via Wonderland)

Last week night, Michael Moore appeared on Wolf Blitzer's CNN show, The Situation Room, to talk about his stirring new movie, Sicko. Blitzer opened the segment with a taped "debunking" that purported to show that Moore "fudged the facts" in the movie. Moore has posted a point-by-point rebuttal to the debunking, showing that CNN was just shilling for the HMOs (a significant advertiser to the network). He's calling on fans of the movie to write to CNN and demand an apology.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN: "(Moore says) the United States slipped to number 37 in the world's health care systems. It's true. ... Moore brings a group of patients, including 9/11 workers, to Cuba and marvels at their free treatment and quality of care. But hold on - that WHO list puts Cuba's health care system even lower than the United States, coming in at #39."

THE TRUTH:

* "But hold on?" 'SiCKO' clearly shows the WHO list, with the United States at number #37, and Cuba at #39. Right up on the screen in big five-foot letters. It's even in the trailer! CNN should have its reporter see his eye doctor. The movie isn't hiding from this fact. Just the opposite.

* The fact that the healthcare system in an impoverished nation crippled by our decades-old blockade (including medical supplies and drugs) ranks so closely to ours is more an indictment of the American system than the Cuban system.

* Although Cuba ranks lower overall than the United States, it still has a lower infant mortality rate and longer life span.

Link

See also:
BlueCross's internal talking points memo for Sicko
MoveOn needs help handing out action-fliers at Sicko screenings
Sicko inspires grassroots action in Dallas cinema
Moore's "Sicko" leaks onto P2P
Google to HMOs: pay us and we'll defuse "Sicko"
More on Google vs Sicko

Update: Many have written in to point out that the video of Moore taking Blitzer apart isn't on this page -- here's a youtube of it

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has received the first set of FBI documents detailing the misuse of the secret warrants called "National Security Letters." EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents and last week, they got the first chunk, 1,138 pages' worth.

# More than 350 pages describing investigative missteps that the FBI considered disclosing to the Intelligence Oversight Board, which receives reports on intelligence gathering activities that violate guidelines, laws, or presidential orders. (See Parts 4, 5, and 6 of the FOIA documents, all PDFs.) These pages detail numerous NSL-related blunders -- most often agents making typographical errors that resulted in receipt of information about the wrong people, and ISPs handing over too much (or wrong) data to the FBI. The Bureau usually did not refer these matters to the Intelligence Oversight Board, often chalking them up to administrative errors or third-party mistakes. The FBI also decided against opening internal investigations into many of the incidents.

The FOIA documents show, however, that several cases were forwarded to the Board between April 2005 and February 2007. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was copied on these referrals, despite congressional testimony in April 2005 that he was unaware of any civil liberties violations arising from the PATRIOT Act, and a March 2007 speech in which he claimed to be “upset” and "concerned" by the inspector general's findings.

# Copies of more than 60 "exigent letters" [PDF] sent by FBI headquarters to three telecomunications companies. The inspector general determined that the FBI's use of these short form letters, which cryptically asked for telephone records because of unspecified "exigent circumstances," circumvented the law and violated FBI guidelines and policies.

Link

Clay Shirky's latest essay on Andrew Keen, "Andrew Keen: Rescuing 'Luddite' from the Luddites," is a magnificent answer to Keen's badly researched book, Cult of the Amateur.

These days, you can't hardly click without running into a clip of Andrew Keen, a failed dotcom entrepreneur who has set out to make a fortune by telling people that the Internet sucks.

Keen's message is essentially that the old media did a great job, without any bias, of picking the "best" work (whatever that is) and making it popular. He says that Internet-driven systems for picking and popularizing work are bad for society, since letting just anyone get a say means that "non-authoritative" people will assume gatekeeper roles, and might choose inferior material. For example, these unwashed clickers might choose DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album over 'N'Sync's blockbuster LP Pubic Beardz.

Keen says that he loves technology, but doesn't want to see it used to tear down our old, fair, balanced, inclusive institutions. The new institutions -- blogs, Wikipedia, Digg, etc -- will be harder to navigate for "the masses," which means that only the techno-literate will get "good stuff," while everyone else will be stuck with kitten videos on YouTube.

Keen doesn't offer any evidence for the worthiness of the old system, nor does he give us any good reason to mistrust the new system (if it's so hard to find good stuff online, why are so many people switching off their TVs and switching on the Internet?).

More importantly, Keen's idea that he's "pro-technology" and "pro-authority" is nonsense. Pick one -- new technology overturns old authority. You can't have it both ways.

What the internet does is move data from point A to B, but what it is for is empowerment. Using the internet without putting new capabilities into the hands of its users (who are, by definition, amateurs in most things they can now do) would be like using a mechanical loom and not lowering the cost of buying a coat — possible, but utterly beside the point.

The internet’s output is data, but its product is freedom, lots and lots of freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, the freedom of an unprecedented number of people to say absolutely anything they like at any time, with the reasonable expectation that those utterances will be globally available, broadly discoverable at no cost, and preserved for far longer than most utterances are, and possibly forever.

Keen is right in understanding that this massive supply-side shock to freedom will destabilize and in some cases destroy a number of older social institutions. He is wrong in believing that there is some third way — lets deploy the internet, but not use it to increase the freedom of amateurs to do as they like.

Link

See also:
Clay Shirky defends the Internet
The internet is impurifying our precious bodily fluids, Mandrake

Groklaw has a great post explaining just how badly Microsoft shot itself in the foot when it set up Novell to grant licenses to the patents that Linux supposedly infringes upon. The idea was that Novell would give these licenses to its Linux customers, creating a climate of fear in corporate Linux users, who would worry that Microsoft might sue them for patent infringement.

The new version of the GPL turns this tactic on its head. It says that if you give any of your customers a license to a patent that pertains to GPLed software, you have to offer all Linux users the same terms. Now that Novell is giving out free licenses for Microsoft's patent portfolio to its customers, with Microsoft's blessing, it means that all Linux users get a free license to all Microsoft patents that cover Linux!

I think after reading all this, you can see why the company decided to try to scrape the Novell vouchers off of its shoes like toilet paper stuck to the bottom. But with the vouchers having no expiration dates, I really wonder if what they have done is enough. So when I read Microsoft's statement that it isn't bound by GPLv3, I'd call it hopeful optimism that the changes they've announced will help them retreat from what would inevitably have been a huge GPLv3 impact. I read it as saying, "*Now* we aren't bound, any more, because we stopped doing what we were doing that would have bound us."

But those pesky vouchers with no expiration date.... the saga is not yet over. So, let's just say, to be continued.

As for Microsoft's statement that they "remain committed to working with the open source community", I have to ask, how will that work, when the GPL is the dominant license chosen by the authors of the community's code? One can't help but wonder how well Microsoft understands the GPL even now. They have brilliant lawyers, no doubt about it, but they are not GPL specialists, and law is a profession of specialization, as you have just witnessed.

Link (via /.)

A four-story, 30,000-foot public bathroom recently opened in Chonggqing, China. The outside has a bizarre cartoony Egyptian facade while the inside holds more than 1,000 toilets of various designs. Apparently the city officials hope the giant bathroom is worthy of a Guinness World Record. From the Associated Press:

"We are spreading toilet culture. People can listen to gentle music and watch TV," said Lu Xiaoqing, an official with the Yangrenjie, or "Foreigners Street," tourist area where the bathroom is. "After they use the bathroom they will be very, very happy."

Link to AP article, Link to China Central TV video

Up until the 1960s or so, it was common for telephone numbers to start with two letters instead of numbers. Those letters were abbreviations for words, called telephone exchange names, and they enabled operators to distinguish between customers that had the same telephone number. Remember Glenn Miller's tune "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" (and Bugs Bunny's "TRansylvania 6-5000")? If you'd like to look up your old timey telephone exchange name, check out the Telephone EXchange Name Project where they're keeping this curious bit of telecom history alive.
Link (via Michael Leddy's Orange Crate Art)

Ellen says: Yesterday at an art show in Saratoga Springs, NY, my husband and I met Peter Luber. He does these amazing and funny sculptures inside old vacuum tubes. They're incredible to see in person. Link 1 | Link 2

David Moldawer found the complete "Fish Heads" music video by Barnes and Barnes from 1980. I didn't know Bill Paxton and Billy "You be dead now!" Mumy were involved it making it. What a wonderful little movie! Link

Here's a snip from John Markoff's NYT profile of David Ulevitch, the 25-year-old founder of OpenDNS.com. The service launched last year with a $2 million from ex-CNET-CEO Halsey Minor:

Mr. Ulevitch’s offer is quite simple. People who sign up for his service at OpenDNS.com are promised an easier way to locate Web pages and more protection from people who try to steal personal information from Web users. It can also block Web sites that offer pornography or other undesired material.

He does this by using the Domain Name System, or DNS, which is the phonebook for the Internet. Every Web site is assigned unique machine-readable numbers which are used to direct Internet traffic. Mr. Ulevitch inserts his service between a user’s computer and the broader Internet. When an Internet-connected computer or router is configured by adding OpenDNS.com’s two numbers — 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 — OpenDNS makes it possible to access Web sites faster.

His service will also correct standard spelling mistakes. For example, if a user types google.cm instead of google.com, OpenDNS will redirect the query to the correct Web page. OpenDNS also makes it possible for users to use the Web address query box of a Web browser in the same way users now use the search engine query box found in all modern Web browsers. Typing a search request into the regular Web address box on a computer that uses the OpenDNS service will return search results and related advertisements from Yahoo.

Link. David's also the guy behind the free DNS management system everydns.net, which I've used a number of times.

Image: Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Reader comment: Glenn Fleishman says,

I have a little bone to pick, but just a little one, with David Ulevitch. I have no complaints about what he's done with either DNS service, but John Markoff repeated David's contention that: "OpenDNS can also do a better job than an Internet service provider because its computers cache the most current address information."

This isn't inaccurate, but it's misleading. All ISPs and all DNS servers of any sensibility cache. What David apparently meant, however, is that ISPs and others don't intelligently cache information, leading to dumping or repeated retrievals of DNS data that could just have been kept on hand. That's certainly correct, but it's also something that could be solved through better DNS server software settings--something that there's no way to enforce externally by any party!

The secret to OpenDNS's quality, therefore, is due to their ability to control the intelligence of how they cache, and their ability to have the right number of servers to handle load. They may also replicate their cached data across servers, since it could be less expensive to synchronize their cached data than to query authoritative DNS server from each OpenDNS cluster around the world.

Since most ISPs don't care, they won't improve. Some ISPs even set their DNS servers to query too often or too seldom compared to the authoritative information provided in a DNS record.

Snip:

The City of Keizer is taking heat for installing a group of cement posts designed to protect pedestrians from cars, but which some say is a phallic symbol.

A total of 52 of the posts were installed at a busy intersection in Keizer and they are getting a lot of second glances. A number of residents have complained to the city that the posts resemble male genitalia.

"I can't disagree with that," said City Manager Chris Eppley. "They certainly did not turn out the way we anticipated."

Link to local TV news coverage with video.

BB reader Organ Leroy, who pointed us to this earthshattering news, adds:

BUT WAIT, here's the best part. Hoping to avoid the expense of tearing out and replacing the offending knobs, city officials are now considering adding a metal collar just below each head and joining the shafts together with chains. Because that de-sexualizes them completely.

How come everybody wanna keep it like the [city of] Keizer? We do not know.

Reader comment: abhik says,

Even though I'm wary of starting a BB meme on cock-like public structures, I have to send this link to the phallic water tower in nearby Ypsilanti, MI. It stands tall (147 feet) in the middle of the road, welcoming all to the town.

Mr_Staypuft says,

Here in Newcastle, Australia.. the sightseeing tower at Queens Wharf is known as "The Big Dick".

The people of Oregon obviously have a "size" issue.

Mike says,

Keizer could do as suggested and put rings and chains around all of their stylized penile bollards, or they could do what the Vatican did at St. Peters Cathedral and celebrate the the likeness of the bollard to the phallus, as seen in one of our honeymoon photos (sfw presumably).

juniorhansenjr says,

Prairie Penis! Yet another addition to the BB meme du jour. The State Capitol building in Lincoln, NE has long been known as the Penis of the Plains due to "city zoning rules that prevent any other building from rivaling it in height (440 feet), making it a landmark not only within the city but for the surrounding area." The 20 foot statue on top is actually sowing seed... nuff said. Link.

Ethan Kaplan says,

Fullerton, CA has had the penis stanchions installed for near 20 years. When I moved to Fullerton when I was 7, my mom laughed hysterically when we went downtown and I had to have her explain why. (click for larger jpeg)

Helio Miguel says,

The beautiful city of Recife, here in Brazil, has a giant concrete cock made by artist Francisco Brennand. Link, another.

David Emery says,

Ahead of the curve as always, back in the early '90s some San Francisco residents found an abandoned, phallus-shaped concrete traffic barrier in Golden Gate Park and consecrated it as a holy shrine to Shiva. City officials ordered it removed because, I kid you not, they felt it "overstepped the line between church and state." Link.

Dave Wells says,

The Florida State Capitol building is not only phallic, the House and Senate chambers provide testiculate components, as well. I never managed to snap a pic of the building during my time in Tallahassee but as usual, Wikipedia comes through in a pinch: Link.

alek traunic says,

I had just finished reading this article when I clicked over to BB to see what the latest was (linked from my local paper's "Can't Make this Up" section). I was surprised to see that there appears to be a flurry of complaints about recent civic erections. Link.

Michael F says,

Related to "Concrete Cocks"...Jonathan Ames wrote an essay for Slate about what he thought was the most phallic building in the world. A contest ensued. The winners have been announced. Link.

Kane says,

No meme on phallic structures is complete without a reference to the giant peach water tower in Gaffney, SC. It's located next to I85 and quietly moons everyone who passes!

charles kamm

This structure in Barcelona isn't really phallic but it's a little dildoish.

HitsHerMark says,

In the continuing saga of publicly viewable concrete "naughty bits", I submit to you (in the interest of fair play) the San Onofre "it's a titty bit nippley out here" Nuclear Generators. The lovely photos included on Southern CA Edison's site are nice and innocious. But when viewed from... Pretty much any other angle... Link.

O says,

My friend saw this lovely post at Sao Luis, Brazil and couldn't resist shooting a picture. He added a couple of coconuts for... er... subtlety. Link.

Ben says,

Here's a list of the most phallic buildings in the world that I found.

Clint says,

It must be noted that the phallus has been used throughout recorded history as a boundry marker: whether that is the ancient Greek herm or the taboo sticks that demarcated Polynesian sacred zones. The taboo was used particularly to protect Polynesian royalty. It is completely appropriate that the magic protects us poor pedestrians from the evil SUVs barreling down on us.

Cayden says,

Here in Michigan we have a historical marker for this water tower in Ypsilanti - home of Eastern Michigan University. Link.

Burris says,

Chicago's North Halsted district is unofficially known as "Boys Town." I do not think it is a coincidence that the area features quite prominent markers that are rather phallic. The bulge near the bottom is inscribed "North Halsted" and contains a light that illuminates the rainbow rings at night. Link.

Arthur says,

Regarding the ambiguous Oregon pedestrian protectors:

The Polish city of Rzeszów has a similar but sexually opposite symbol -- the Revolutionary Struggle Monument: 1, 2.

In 1997, local aldermen suggested the monument be dismantled. Nothing finally came of the idea, but the land on which the concrete genitals stand was finally sold to the Bernardine convent in 2006.

Johnny says,

Don't forget London's "Erotic Gherkin." Give one up for London's skyline, now with a twist. Link.

Anonymous says,

1000 De La Gauchetiere trumps "Concrete cocks terrorize Oregon town" as the most phallic building in the world. Note the 4 tiny scrotii! Link.

Min-Yang says,

St. Steven's church (Stevensdom) in Vienna actually has a penis and vagina on the pillars outside the main door. Thousands of tourists go in and out every day and never notice them (at least none did when I was there). 1, 2, 3.

Freddie Freelance says,

Not to be left out of the Faux Phallus race San Diego has it's own Colossus Cock in the works: Link. I'm surprised that no one's accused the pointed arches of the windows in the lower structure of being Labias.

Michael Clemens says,

this giant wooden cock is lying around in Heilbronn, Germany as a piece of art: 1, 2. (not my pics, but see this thing once a week). It's weired to see mums watching their kids riding this "thing"....

Lone Locust of the Apocalypse says,

This sculpture, entitled "Upstart 2" sits outside the Princeton University engineering building: Link. I was in the Princeton contingent of the 1993 March on Washington. It made our day when we saw basically the exact same sculpture (presumably the original "Upstart") on the parade route.

Bruce says,

I used to drive by this church on my way to school at DePauw University. Tools like Google Maps make the view a little bit more interesting. I wonder who decided to give the church giant nipples. Link.

richard schumacher says,

Article describes ancient Greek herma (phallic boundary markers).

Adam Rice says,

The Fuji Latex building in Tokyo is intentionally suggestive: Fuji Latex is a condom manufacturer.

Eric D. Smith says,

Knoxville, Tennessee's Sunsphere remains THE architectural phallis, as far as I'm concerned. 1, 2

Anonymous says,

I'm sure Cory, as a Torontonian, understands it not the size of the world's largest freestanding structure that matters .. its the placement of the world's largest retractible roof stadium that matters. , Freudian, start yer engines. Link.

Chris says,

In response to your "concrete cocks" post, the metal poles separating the streets from the sidewalks in Amsterdam (called Amsterdammertjes) have always looked phallic to me. Link. They're even marked with a "XXX"!

Steve Kaiser says,

Not a building, but there was some local debate about the symbolism of this sculpture when it was 'erected' in Appleton, Wisconsin about 20 years ago. Link.

Alder Yarrow says,

Another to add to your list. Like thousands of others I lived in the shadow of a great phallus (complete with resevoir tip) for four years at Stanford University. Link.

perruptor says,

The Chinese are making a claim for "World's largest penis": Link

Seth Steinberg says,

If you aren't totally bored with the concept, my favorite phallic parking barrier story dates from 1994 San Francisco. There were a number of articles, including some in the SFChronicle, but the easiest to find was a NYTimes AP story: Link

Cat

My family used to drive right past Rooster Rock when we went to Portland. When I was little, I was always confused about the name, because the rock looks nothing like a rooster! Later, my mom explained how that was the more polite name for Cock Rock, and then it all made sense. Amusingly enough, there's a clothing optional beach there.

jen says,

if you want more...at my alma mater Michigan Tech, we had the brick dick.

Neil

Surprised this one hasn't made it up yet, though the original post is about bollards and not skyscrapers, I know. The building is at the far right of this image. (Alternate)

Alejandro says,

If you google "torre entel" you will get the images of Santiago´s Iconic communications tower. Very concrete, very much cock-like, and very visible from far off. With all the antennas comming out of it, I think it deserves a write up by "steam punk phallic tower"

Kit Boyer says,

No picture I was able to find shows the small circular opening at the top of the dome that really gives the Aegon Tower that something extra in the Phallic feeling.

Chris says,

This high school in Minnesota was made into an experimental shape to 'foster learning' - two large "circles" that held classrooms with a "gym" jutting out to the left. It made maps of the school look rather hilarious. Here is the arial photo. Link.

Robert Duffy says,

From Dublin, Ohio, surely a distant cousin to Oregon's display: Link.

Luc says,

You can add this one also to your list. This is the top of the castle of Grignan, Provence, France, home of La Marquise de Sévigné. Have a good look at the row of scupltures at the top of the roof ...

Julia Johnson says,

The Hilton hotel in downtown Springfield Illinois. here's the image url: Link.

It's been 'erected' for a long ass time here and is one of the only buildings this big in the city. it is 30 stories and can be seen for miles.

Dan says,

To bring it back to bollards, (rather than those big public buildings that seem to suggest that some of the posters have a curious imagination, or curious anatomy) I'm surprised that nobody has yet mentioned - these Amsterdam posts - which are a damn sight more anatomically correct than any square pointy building.

They certainly made an impression on me when I first encountered them!

Bill says,

Okay, I'll play.

Here in Burlington, Vermont we have these granite sculptures of mushrooms all along the waterfront. Beneath them sit little gnomes. They are notoriously phallic. I found these photos on flickr.

Dinis Correia

Hello there, I was a bit surprised to read this - I'm from Lisbon, Portugal, and we have lots of cock-like cement posts all over the town.

Anyways, in Lisbon we do have *the* phallic sculpture. It was made in 1997 by João Cutileiro, a famous portugueses sculptor, and it's a monument to the Revolution of 25th April, the military coup d'état that changed the Portuguese regime from an authoritarian dictatorship to a liberal democracy. The best photo I could find on Flickr: Link.

Obviously, people were shocked - but it's still standing.

Ben Frazier says,

Okay, I'm in as well — this whole thing makes me think of a print ad for personal lubricant that has found its way into my inbox (in one of those CRAZY PICTURES!!!1! emails): Link.

James McDaniel says,

Seattle's infamous "penis building" the Seattle Municipal Tower.

Lisa Blair says,

My husband and I went on a trip to Rome, Italy, about 4 years ago. One of our stops while there, of course, was St. Peter's Basilica. This is a picture of one of the stanchions that line St. Peter's Square. We had a good laugh when we realized exactly what it looked like.

Kevin says,

Despite the architectural firm's denials, the Smurfit-Stone Building (made famous in the movie Adventures in Babysitting) on Michigan Ave. resembles a woman's pudenda to many. Even the architectural river tours tell a humorous anecdote claiming that the building was designed to resemble female genitals to bring balance to an exceedingly phallic skyline. Link.

Michael says,

When the Wachovia Center was new, it was often referred to as Winston-Salem, North Carolina's latest erection.

brenschluss

This isn't my photo (It's Adam Solomon's, under a Some Rights Reserved CC license), but look! It's a fountain at Columbia University. It's even spouting water! Sometimes I wonder how the architects got away with this one..

Jay Manifold says,

Kansas City has the Liberty Memorial, which in Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls becomes the Temple of the Great Inseminator. Appropriate image: Link.

Rob Walch says,

Here is another link in your on going story of phalic looking structures. This one from the heart of Inteligent design land. Link.

Noah Shachtman at Wired's "Danger Room" blog writes,

The Army is working on a $200 billion modernization program called Future Combat Systems, or FCS. The plan is to remake the entire force, pretty much from top to bottom -- how units are organized, how they communicate, how they attack enemies, and how they defend themselves.

FCS is modeled, in part, on the invasion and occupation of one particular country. Which one is it? I'll give you eleven choices -- and until Wednesday afternoon to vote. Then we'll reveal the right answer.

Link

Excuses, excuses. Watch Steorn's CEO explain why his perpetual motion gizmo, Orbo, failed to work as hoped when it was unveiled at a gallery in London last week. Wired's gadget lab has the video.

The poor guy is squirming, as you can see in the video below. I'm not going to say he's lying, but he's not very convincing either. It's a little suspicious that all six sets of bearings (two per machine) broke at the same time, and the two models not on display have been whisked off to who knows where. There is a lot of fluffy talk, along the lines of "not ruling out but not willing to commit", especially in reference to the promised release of videos and other material.

Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Huffington Post on Steorn's "free energy"
• Steorn's "free energy machine" to be unveiled today
• More on "free energy" company
• Company claims to have generator with more than 100% efficiency

Toto, manufacturers of talking Japanese toilets with wash-jets and blow-driers built in, are going to be outfitting a new generation of All Nippon Airways 787 jets.

OK, get those visions of Danny Deckchair out of your head, the combination bidet-toilets themselves don't have wings (if they did, you could call them "Always"), but they DO fly... aboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliners ordered by Japan's number 2 (no pun intended) airline, All Nippon Airways. ANA's CEO Mineo Yamamoto confirmed that the new jets will feature warm jets - of water, that is - in their restrooms. Yamamoto proudly stated that the washlets will "refresh the parts other airlines cannot reach"... Wouldn't that look great on a billboard?

Link (via Gizmodo)

Hugo-award-winning sf illustrator Frank Wu has just posted "GUIDOLON The Giant Space Chicken DIRECTOR'S CUT" -- "The long-awaited Director's Cut of GUIDOLON THE GIANT SPACE CHICKEN, about a Giant Space Chicken making a movie about a Giant Space Chicken." Like everything Wu does, it's cheerfully demented, funny as hell, and deeply weird. Link (Thanks, Frank!)

Blue Shield's Vice President of Corporate Communications, Capital BlueCross, Barclay Fitzpatrick, created this internal "talking points memo" for BlueCrossers who are trying to stem the bleeding from the wounds they suffer in Michael Moore's brilliant, must-see documentary, Sicko. Fitzpatrick's bottom line is: people are fat and lazy, and that makes it hard to run an HMO. Michael Moore was mean to us. He should be nicer. Some people don't hate HMOs.

1) The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) and the 39 Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are committed to improving the U.S. healthcare system for our nearly 100 million members through continuous innovation that reflects the ever-changing healthcare landscape and the needs of the consumer.

2) The Blues recognize the need for improvement of both the coverage and delivery of healthcare. But the divisive tone set forth by Michael Moore and his movie "Sicko" is not helpful. Positive change to our healthcare system can be best achieved through shared responsibility, not recrimination. To ensure Americans have access to the best healthcare that is both timely, efficient, and of high quality, requires the collective contribution of all stakeholders – consumers, providers, employers and the government.

Link (Thanks, Kent!)

See also:
MoveOn needs help handing out action-fliers at Sicko screenings
Sicko inspires grassroots action in Dallas cinema
Moore's "Sicko" leaks onto P2P
Google to HMOs: pay us and we'll defuse "Sicko"
More on Google vs Sicko

Update: Bob sez, "Blue Cross of Nevada owes my wife and I $17,000 that we will most likely never see. Indeed, Blue Cross of Nevada is so poorly looked upon that many hospitals in the Las Vegas area don't event accept the coverage. When someone like you, with a wide readership, can take them to task? Well, it really makes my day."

Update 2: A reader writes,

When I was working as a freelancer, I tried to get health insurance through BC/BS of Texas. They told me I didn't qualify because of my weight (I weighed 305 lbs at the time and was actually hoping to see a doctor because of it...) but said that they'd be happy to put me on a temporary, 6 month insurance - provided I didn't leave the state of Texas. Oh, there was a $1000 deductible too.

It sucked, but I got the insurance, because - hey, what if I got into a car crash?

A few months later, while I was "covered," I had a cancer scare.

Even if I could have afforded to see the doctor, I couldn't afford to have the cancer diagnosis come out with a positive result. The end decision? I didn't get my cancer screening until I finally landed a full-time job and got insurance through my employer. If I didn't have cancer, I wouldn't need to be treated for it. If I did have cancer, I couldn't afford to be treated for it.

So I waited until I was sure that a positive result meant I could afford to get it treated.

That was a full year later.

Turns out it was nothing, but I'm very lucky it wasn't!

Update 3: Mike sez, "I just wanted to point out that Blue Cross/Blue Shield is actually a collection of franchises. I don't know exactly how many companies make up the BCBSA, but each one is restricted to a given region, and their reputations and corporate structure vary widely. For instance, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is routinely listed in the 5 best plans in the country (unfortunately for them, Tufts and Harvard Pilgrim, their 2 biggest regional competitors, are often in the top 4), and is a non-profit with a $70 million/year charitable foundation. Capital Blue Cross only covers 21 counties in Pennsylvania, and it's officers do not speak for the Association "

Update 4: Biella sez, "Here is a blog link to my Blue Cross experience, which happens to be with Horizon (one of the ones noted in the memo/movie), and tells the story of the Public Relations director writing me within 2 hours of me criticizing them. I have yet to hear anything back, but an interesting tidbit."

MIT students are converting a Porsche 914 into an electric vehicle. A professor bought the car on eBay and donated it to research. The students hope to gain insight into the limitations of current battery technology and explore the practicality of advanced EV tech. They expect that the car, once completed, could reach 70 to 100 mph with 50 to 60 horsepower and travel 100 miles before recharging. From the MIT News Office:

The student project took off a year ago when Valence Technology, Inc., agreed to donate 18 high-tech rechargeable batteries valued at $2,030 each, plus a battery-management system. While today's electric cars generally operate on conventional lead-acid batteries, Valence provided its enabling lithium phosphate rechargeable batteries, which are lighter, last longer, charge up faster, have a longer lifetime and don't pose a safety risk...

To make the conversion, the students replaced the original engine with an electric motor, 12 of the batteries, the battery-management system, various relays and a controller that makes all the components work together. Things haven't always gone smoothly. "There's been a lot of adapting things that don't work as they're designed," said King. "We had to come up with some creative solutions."

Link

Neatorama posted the origins of several common symbols, reprinted from a book titled Uncle John's Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader.

Exclamation Point Origin: Like the question mark, the exclamation point was invented by stacking letters. The mark comes from the Latin word io, meaning "exclamation of joy." Written vertically, with the i above the o, it forms the exclamation point we use today.

Link

Maker Faire will descend on Austin on October 20-21 at the Travis County Fairgrounds. It's our first full-blown Maker Faire outside of the Bay Area and it's sure to be a DIY extravaganza of tech, science, art, craft, and family fun. Are you a maker or crafter who would like to show off your project at the Faire? The call for makers is now open with proposals due by midnight, August 15. Also, we'll be hosting a Maker Faire "audition" this Sunday, July 15, at Austin Children's Museum from 1pm to 5pm. To request a 15-minute post, email Maker Faire director Sherry Huss at sherry@oreilly.com. Link

Tart up your iPhone with these 320 x 480 crops of great works by legendary erotic photographer Steve Diet Goedde (produced on request by BB readers' popular demand -- evidently, a lot of Goedde fans read this blog). No full nudity here, just lovely, classic alt-cheesecake. Link.

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting feature about this weekend's first-ever iPhone Dev Camp, where people gathered "to develop web-based applications and optimize web sites for iPhone." Link to story.

BB reader Geoff says, "Here's a 'sad iPhone' wallaper in the style of the old school 'sad mac' error message! Link."

BB reader Franko says, "Speaking of iPhone wallpapers, Stephen Worth, the Director of the Hollywood Animation Archive, has posted some gorgeous wallpapers based on the art of N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, and many others. These are really well worth looking at, in my opinion." Link.

BB reader Paul Caron says, "Apple has announced that by the end of the month it will give its 18,000 full-time U.S. employees a free 8-gigabyte iPhone (retail price: $599). The tax angle? Apple will have to include the $599 on the employees' W-2s as taxable compensation, and the company will have to pay employment taxes on the amount as well." Link.

BB reader tonx says, "I just installed Google's Telekinesis, it's a remote desktop for iPhone. I can browse my desktop's file system and view images and documents. Playing media files seems to be in their plans... but this is a pretty awesome taste o whats to come! Here are screenshots."

Anonymous says, "Instead of spending hours in line for an iPhone, this guy decided to spend hours fitting his Motorla SLVR into an old NES controller. It seems he was able to fit everything in there and close it back up." Link.

William Gibson explains why science fiction is about the present (Cory)

Steorn's "free energy" machine: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. (Mark)

Laptop typewriter mod (Xeni)

Mostly NSFW iPhone wallpapers: Coop, and Clayton James Cubitt. Also, unicorns! (Mark, Xeni)

Itsy-bitsy electric generators uses ambient vibes for input (Mark)

The Woz interviewed by RU Sirius (Pesco)

Wide variety of freaks running for US president (Pesco)

Kid in Malawi homebrews a windmill generator (Cory)

iPhone + EFF + ATT + NSA = funny photo (Xeni)

Sicko inspires grassroots action in Dallas cinema (Cory)

What it takes to bring you Fiji water (Xeni)

TED talks videos (Mark)

Stasi smell museum (Cory)

iPhone hacktivation: 1, 2 (Xeni)

Sicko inspires grassroots action in Dallas cinema (Cory)

Teddy bears turned inside-out: photo book by Kent Rogowski (Xeni)

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

Image: Mark Ryden, Corkey Ascending to the Heavens, 1994, 36 x 54”, from this post by Pesco about a 10 year anniversary exhibition at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles.

James Coldwell, 49, disguised himself as a tree when he robbed a bank in Manchester, New Hampshire on Saturday. He had tree branches attached to his clothing and head with duct tape. Police nabbed him after surveillance video that played on TV news led to several anonymous tips of Coldwell's identity. This is according to the police captain whose real name is apparently Dick Tracy. From the New Hampshire Union Leader:

Coldwell was charged with one count of robbery after answering questions at the police station, Capt. Dick Tracy said...

"I think he was hoping the disguise would camouflage him enough that no one would recognize who he was," Tracy said.

Link (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

A new seven wonders of the world were announced on Friday. The wonders were selected by a global online and SMS poll conducted by a nonprofit called New7Wonders. The new list: Chichén Itzá, Mexico; Christ Redeemer, Brazil; The Great Wall, China; Machu Picchu, Peru; Petra, Jordan; The Roman Colloseum, Italy; The Taj Mahal, India.

From the Associated Press:

The seven beat out 14 other nominated landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, Easter Island in the Pacific, the Statue of Liberty, the Acropolis, Russia's Kremlin and Australia's Sydney Opera House.

The pyramids of Giza, the only surviving structures from the original seven wonders of the ancient world, were assured of retaining their status in addition to the new seven after indignant Egyptian officials said it was a disgrace they had to compete...

The traditional seven wonders were concentrated in the Mediterranean and Middle East. That list was derived from lists of marvels compiled by ancient Greek observers, the best known being Antipater of Sidon, a writer in the 2nd century B.C.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos lighthouse off Alexandria have all vanished.

Link to AP article, Link to New7Wonders.com (Thanks, Jennifer Lum!)

A gearhead jeweler is selling handmade rings shaped like car engines on eBay. From the item description:

My name is David Kauffung. I've loved anything to do with cars and engines my entire life. 15 years ago, I start dabbling in jewelry. Now I bring high performance engines to life in gold, silver, and brass hand crafted rings. I've also experimented with a copper / brass combination to give the effect of rose gold... I've hand crafted rings for Dale Earnhardt, Richard Childress, and Barry Grant. I've advertised these rings in Super Chevy Magazine, Chevy High Performance, and on the hit TV show Horsepower TV. Because of the complexity of the design (casting), these rings are precision made one at a time.

Link (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!)

Update: Charles "Modern Mechanix" Shopsin says that the engine rings would be well-complemented by this functioning (!) gas engine tie clip featured in the May, 1962 issue of Mechanix Illustrated. Link

The OpenMoko is a $300, Linux-based open smartphone. Unlike the iPhone, it doesn't come locked to any provider (and certainly not to the crooks at AT&T), it doesn't come with DRM, and it allows you to install any third party app you like, even if Steve Jobs worries that it might spoil your experience. It's still in "developer preview," but this might just be my next phone.

The Neo 1973 boasts the following hardware specifications

* 2.8" VGA TFT color display
* Touchscreen, usable with stylus or fingers
* 266MHz Samsung System on a Chip (SOC)
* USB 1.1, switchable between Client and Host (unpowered)
* Integrated AGPS
* 2.5G GSM – quad band, voice, CSD, GPRS
* Bluetooth 2.0
* Micro SD slot
* High Quality audio codec

Link (Thanks, Jeramia!)

Update: Gabriel sez, "The current version of the Neo1973 has built-in GPS too, and the mass-market unit that will ship in October will have wifi and accelerated graphics too."

Here's instructions for making a simple egg-gun. Cut the end off a caulking tube, stick a propane BBQ lighter up one end of it, let some gas build up behind the egg, then squeeze the trigger. The soft-boiled egg is propelled at high speed out of the tube, along with a satisfying jet of flame.

That is, if the thing doesn't explode in your hand, blinding you and taking three fingers off. Link (Thanks, Sophia!)

Dug sez, "Rob Ives at Flying Pig Animation Kits has created a *great* paper automaton kit of a T-Rex. When you turn the crank, the T-Rex snatches up a small paper caveman placed in front of it. Ingenious!" [Ed: if not entirely historically accurate!] Link (Thanks, Dug!)

The Millwall Brick is a serious truncheon made out of a carefully folded newspaper, invented by English football hooligans who were getting all their other weapons confiscated at matches.

Lots of people have pointed out that the TSA has embarked on a fool's errand by confiscating our liquids, multi-tools, lighters, matches, etc -- a lethal weapon can be improvised out of dental floss, a laptop battery, or a newspaper. And here's proof.

Say that tomorrow someone attacked a flight attendant and tried to get into a cockpit with a copy of the Wall Street Journal. Would the TSA ban newspapers on airplanes? How much longer are we going to let crazy people (terrorists and the TSA) drive our national policy?

Variants

The newspaper sheets can first be wetted with a liquid to add weight.

The blunt end can be wrapped with a shoelace or leather to increase its effectiveness.

The ends can be taped together and a string attached to the handle, enabling the user to swing the Millwall brick for faster action, similar to a meteor hammer.

A pencil, pen, or large nail can be driven from the first interior side near the middle perpendicularly through the first end so that that head of the nail securely rests against the first interior side. The nail may be secured in place by bringing the ends towards and adjacent to each other, effectively forming a crude nail bat.

Link (via Schneier)

During Spinal Tap's reunion performance of "Big Bottom" at Live Earth/Wembley Stadium, a metric assload of bass players from famous bands came up on stage and jammed along: The Beastie Boys, Metallica, Foo Fighters, Bloc Party, Madonna, etc. Link (via MeFi)