Geoff sez, "The Academic Film Achive of North America's "Save a Film" inititative encourages people to sponsor the uploading of a rare film from our 6,000+ 16mm film archive to the Internet Archive for free public viewing. Subject areas include animation, art, documentary, and science. The site decribes how to navigate the AFA's chronological list of film shows from which to pick a film, and even offers a page of suggested films. Sponsorship is tax-deductable, and the sponsor gets credit on Internet Archive's site for helping to save this important element of cinematic history." Link (Thanks, Geoff!)

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and their pals animated several audio recordings of Alan Watts, an iconic philosopher and writer who turned scores of people on to Zen Buddhism.
Link (Thanks, Anthony Hall!)

Plastic God has made a series of plastic figurines of leaders who have made a lot of people miserable. The Saddam Hussein doll glows in the dark to indicate his posthumous status.

Plastic God’s Axis of Evil is a limited edition boxed set of 5” rotocast collectibles, featuring everyone’s favorite cast of current political icons: Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair, Kim Jong-il, George “W” Bush and Osama bin Laden. The dolls have 7 points of articulation and come packed together in a flip open window door box.

Link

In April, former Microsoft exec Charles Simonyi took the longest space tourist trip in history. He spent two weeks aboard the International Space Station, having traveled there aboard a Soyuz rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Simonyi documented his experiences in training, in space, and back on terra firm at his terrific site Charles In Space. (Image at right shows the view from his window in the descent capsule.)

Today, I had the opportunity to talk with Charles at Science Foo Camp, a mind-blowing "unconference" of scientists, big thinkers, and other people much smarter than I, hosted by O'Reilly Media, Nature Publishing, and Google. Charles is quite, er, down-to-Earth, but when he reminisced about his time in space his eyes lit up with wonder. His enthusiasm was infectious--this is the space age, and we are here to go! Sign me up! I hope you enjoy this brief audio interview with Charles Simonyi about his spaced-out adventure. (Music is "Theme from 2001" by The Ray McVay Roadshow, 1974).

[Browser-compatibility note: The audio link in this post appears as embedded Flash, and is brought to you by HP's iPaq 510 Voice Messenger. If your web reader doesn't allow you to access Flash, here's a direct MP3 Link. Enjoy!]

Andrew Macrae creates lovely text art on acid-free paper using a 1965 Olympia SG3 and a 1968 Hermes 3000 typewriter and colored ribbons. No Wite-Out, either! Impressive. Link (Thanks, Andrew!)

Update: Ben sez, "I thought it might interest you to know that he did the cover of my autobiography, Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth, which was published by Wheatland Press late last year. He won an award for the cover."

Bibliomulas are mules toting mini-libraries to remote communities in Venezuela in an effort to encourage reading. Sometimes, the mules also carry projectors and laptop computers. A BBC News reporter recently took a trip with the Bibliomulas through the foothills of the Andes. From the BBC News:

Anyone who was not out working the fields - tending the celery that is the main crop here - was waiting for our arrival. The 23 children at the little school were very excited.

"Bibilomu-u-u-u-las," they shouted as the bags of books were unstrapped. They dived in eagerly, keen to grab the best titles and within minutes were being read to by Christina and Juana, two of the project leaders.

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

Video and performance artist Amber Hawk Swanson ordered a life-sized, realistic sex doll made to look just like her, and named it Amber. The couple scampered off to Vegas and got married. "Their wedding video and other footage documenting their relationship will screen for the public this week," reports the Chicago Reader. Link. (Thanks, Susannah Breslin)

According to DefCon staff reports, NBC DATELINE producer Michelle Madigan attended this year's underground hacking conference in Las Vegas without identifying herself as press, and with a hidden camera tucked away in her purse -- hoping to catch conference attendees confessing to crimes in the presence of federal agents, a la "To Catch a Predator."

But the first rule of exploits, as anyone in the room worth their SSH could have told her, is -- don't get caught. Ms. Madigan was.

In this video, she departs Defcon 15, escorted by a phalanx of unfriendly jeering persons, having just being outed. Video Link.

One YouTube commentser jokes, "She was probably really easy to spot, since she was probably the only girl there." A bit of an overstatement, as the video was shot by a decidedly female DefCon attendee named Elizabeth Safran -- but the point's not entirely off. I mean, at least wear a hoodie or avoid shaving for a few days. (I kid, I kid! I kid because I love!)

Previously on BB:

Dateline NBC's DefCon mole has been outed

Update: Wired Threat Level blog has more.

According to DefCon staff, Madigan had told someone she wanted to out an undercover federal agent at DefCon. That person in turn warned DefCon about Madigan's plans. Federal law enforcement agents from FBI, DoD, United States Postal Inspection Service and other agencies regularly attend DefCon to gather intelligence on the latest techniques of hackers. DefCon holds an annual contest called Spot the Fed, in which attendees out people in the audience they think are undercover federal agents. The contest is good-natured, but the feds who get caught are generally ones who don't mind getting caught.

DefCon staff say that Madigan was asked four times -- two times on the phone and two times at the conference -- if she wanted to obtain press credentials, but she declined.

Link.

Citizen journalism evangelist Dan Gillmor writes in with word of the student projects from the News21 Initiative jointly held at at Berkeley, Northwestern, Columbia and USC. He says, "This year it's called 'Faces of Faith in America,' and includes all kinds of neat Web stuff in addition to traditional media production."

There are some pretty amazing interactive, Web-native multimedia presentations among the student work, including:

* Minorities Representing Majorities: a Google Maps mashup showing the 40 electoral districts where politicians who practice "minority faiths" (like Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism) serve as governmental representatives. The presentation includes video profiles of seven of these leaders.

* Magical Mystery Tour: A guided tour to the centers of "spiritual seekers" in California -- drag the lens over different sites, from Mount Shasta to Salvation Mountain and see videos of the seekers who come to them.

Data Road Trip: A national map of the statistical hotspots for crises and upwellings of faith and religion, including the Bronx, with the highest abortion rate in the nation; Arkansas, where the divorce rate is highest; and LA County, with the largest number of Hindu temples. Click on each for a smart mini-video documentary.

These student presentations are better than anything I've seen from "real" news agencies and could serve as a model for the future of interactive/online journalism.

Ben Burry has hooked up a Jabber bot to a copy of the old Infocom Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure game. Now you can play H2G2 over IM -- or over phone, if you have an IM-to-SMS gateway running! Link (via Games * Design * Art * Culture)

Billy, an intern at Instructables, made this gigantic match out of 15,000 match-heads, 30 ping pong balls, and a 96-inch long piece of 4x4 lumber. The ignition sequence -- lovingly documented in a series of videos on the Instructables page -- is a joyous conflagration. Link

This 1932 promo for the Petaluma Chicken industry must be seen to be believed. A jolly chef presides over a bevy of "farm girls" who crack hundreds of eggs, then climb into a giant skillet for an egg-cellent dance number. Link (Thanks, Jonathan!)

Vladimir Zimakov is an illustrator, book artist, designer, and printmaker who lives in the Los Angeles area. Many of his pieces are meant to illustrate books, but they really contain their own stories. His work oozes with mood and emotion. These two linoleum cut illustrations ("The Card Play" and "Danse Macabre") are for a classic novel titled Walpurgisnacht, by Gustav Meyrink (1868-1932).

From the project page:

This early 20'th century novel uses the city of Prague as the setting for a clash between German officialdom immured in the ancient castle, and a Czech revolution seething in the city below. History, myth, romance and political reality merge in this truly apocalyptic epic. Gustav Meyrink is an Austrian writer who is mostly known to the english-speaking world for his 1915 classic "The Golem".

Link (via Juxtapoz)

Stephen Wolfram, the creator of Mathematica and king-hell booster for cellular automata as a way of solving problems (and even creating space-time), has posted a fascinating rumination on what a bridge might look like if it were designed through evolutionary computing.

So what should the bridges of the future look like? Probably a lot less regular than today. Because I suspect the most robust structures will end up being ones with quite a lot of apparent randomness...

So we're going to end up being exposed to something really quite new. Something that exists in the abstract computational universe, but that we're "mining" for the very first time to create structures we want.

Link (Thanks, Kathryn!)

See also: Minneapolis bridge collapse: blog roundup
Wolfram blows Kurzweil's mind
Wolfram's giant book free online
Rucker's students do Wolfram simulations

Threat Level reports that Dateline NBC has sent an undercover mole with a hidden camera to the DefCon hacker conference. Dateline is hoping to get videos of hackers talking about crimes they committed.

DefCon says it was tipped off by their own mole at Dateline who sent them a pic of the undercover journalist who DefCon employees identified as producer Michelle Madigan.

DefCon, an annual underground hacking convention in Las Vegas, has a strict policy against filming conference attendees -- TV media outlets are barred from sweeping a room with their cameras and also have to get permission from any individuals before capturing them on film. All journalists covering DefCon sign an agreement upon registering for the conference that outlines the rules, but the DefCon organizers say the mole apparently registered as a regular attendee, thereby bypassing the legal agreement.

Before opening the show for business Friday, the DefCon goons announced to the crowd that there was a media mole among them. DefCon has been broadcasting her picture on the screens in conference rooms before each talk.

Link

Carl Malamud sez, "I'm delighted to report that the Smithsonian has approved a purchase of four-more hi-res scans of photos with a stated intended use of "upload to the Internet." The embedded copyright tags have been changed as well. In a related development, I got email from the Acting Secretary and another one from the Chief Information Officer. The Smithsonian has formed a pan-Institutional task force to re-examine their copyright policies and they'll be taking comment from members of the public this fall. Both great developments. A new broom does indeed sweep clean!" Link (Thanks, Carl!)

The excellent SFinSF reading series continues on August 15th at 7PM with Brian Herbert, Kevin Anderson, Richard Kadrey. These are free readings and panels by prominent science fiction authors, and this isn't one to miss. I'm halfway through Richard Kadrey's Butcher Bird, and it's incredible -- a seamless and savage blend of underground losers and dark mythology.

Please join us for authors BRIAN HERBERT (DUNE), KEVIN J. ANDERSON, AND RICHARD KADREY

Wednesday, August 15th, 7PM

reading. bar. discussing. signing. free admission.

Moderated by Terry Bisson

Variety Children’s Charity
The Variety Preview Room
1st floor of The Hobart Bldg.- entrance btwn. Quiznos & Citibank
582 Market St. @ Montgomery, San Francisco
BART/MUNI Montgomery Station is right outside the front door.
www.varietync.org

Cash bar opens at 6:00PM - soda, beer, wine & whiskey, with proceeds going to the authors and the Variety Childrens Charity. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-seated basis, so get there early! We attempt to seat everyone who arrives, but please be there by 7PM. When the house is full, it's full.

Link

Jesse sez, "The official Canadian Broadcasting Corporation blog ('Inside The CBC') has a story about a new CBC document that suggest CBC employees must seek permission from their superiors to create AND maintain blogs in which they are identifiable as CBC employees." This is a jaw-dropping policy for a public service news agency to develop -- requiring its employees to get permission to express their personal views is absolutely beyond the pale, especially for an institution nominally about freedom of expression. The policy applies to all CBC employees -- including janitors, and prohibits them from advocating for any group or cause, or expressing partisan opinions. I think you have to really squint at the Charter of Rights and Freedoms -- and Canadian labor law -- to make this legal. For starters, it can't possibly be legal to prohibit unionized CBC employees from advocating for their union.

To be clear, this policy applies only to personal blogs where the author identifies themselves as a CBC employee. But if you’re writing a truly transparent, personal blog, sometimes you want to talk about what your job is. It’s part of who we are. But now, if you do that, you apparently fall within the scope of this document.

Link (Thanks, Jesse!)

Webb Alert, the new daily Internet news roundup hosted by Morgan Webb promises to be a terrific five-minute Web video show.

They've added an RSS feed so you can subscribe and watch it on your iPod or on Miro.

Congratulations and best of luck, Morgan and Rob! Link

PCL Linkdump presents this wonderful magazine advertisement from the late '50s. Spencer gifts was selling REAL LIVE MEXICAN BURROS by mail.

REAL LIVE MEXICAN BURROS

The Gift of a Lifetime for Any Youngster

From South of the Border comes this soft-eyed gentle little pet of all Mexican children, and the hard-working friend of their parents... to make Christmas this year unforgettable for your youngster! You'll be the talk of the town! Everyone will want to pet your burro.

What years of pleasure this real, live Mexican burro will bring you and your children, Lovable, huggable, long-earred, extra tame, extremely intelligent. Friendly to other animals. Easily hitched to small cart. Economical to raise. Eats anything -- straw, hay, alfalfa, corn, oats, grass, bread, etc. Hardy, select specimens -- sound, well-fed, clean.

When fully grown at about 2 years, they stand about 43" high (size of a large dog) and weigh about 200 lbs. Live up to 25 years. Thrive in any climate.

Send check or money order for amount of Burro now. Burro will arrive about 5 weeks from time we recive your order, unless otherwise specified. Comes uncrated, with food and water for the journey, by Railway Express, collet, F.O.B. Laredo, Texas. You pay express charge of $20 to $40 on arrival. Mexican and U.S. duties already paid. Sorry, no exchanges or refunds. Dipped and U.S. Gov't inspected before shipping. Guaranteed live delivery in their natural born colors.

Baby -- For children up to 5 years (3 mos. old -- 38" high -- 50lbs) Female: $95 Male $85

Youngster -- For children up to 10 years (7 mos. to 1 yr. -- 40" high -- 100lbs) Female: $95 Male $85

Mother and Baby (Total weight about 200 lbs) Pair $175

Male and Female (For breeding) Pair $180

Female in Foal $155

Saddle -- Handmade in Mexico, genuine leather $75

Bridle -- $15

Also in the ad, "MESS LESS PET" -- a fake mouse; "the answer to anyone that wants a pet, but doesn't want the bother of a live one." 59 cents ppd. Link

Previously on Mad Professor:
• Another fine Mexican Import: Tio Nacho Soap

David Pogue passes along a good tip for iPhone users on his blog:

You know, of course, that in general, cellphone calls to other people who have the same carrier as you (like Verizon or AT&T) are free, right?

But how do you KNOW when somebody with the same carrier calls you? How do you know it’s safe to yak all day without using up any minutes?

“In the iPhone address book, change the ‘mobile’ label for the caller’s contact info to ‘AT&T mobile,’ and that’s what will show up on your phone when she or he calls. Once you make this change for one contact, ‘AT&T mobile’ will show up as a custom label option for any contact.”

Link

Police arrested three people after spotting a replica of the Bushnell Turtle, a submarine invented at the end of the 18th century, semi-submerged near the docked Queen Mary II in the New York City Harbor.

Police held (the sub's pilot Philip) Riley, and two other men, both from Rhode Island, for questioning. But there was no indication the trio meant any harm with the replica of the 1776 "Turtle submarine."

One of the Rhode Island men claimed he was descendant of David Bushnell, the inventor of the original one-man vessel that inspired the replica, police said.

The self-propelled submarine was escorted by police and Rey was issued a Coast Guard violation for operating an unsafe vehicle and violating the security zone around the Queen Mary II.

Link (Thanks, Jason Tester!)

UPDATE: Much more background on Duke Riley and his submarine, along with great photos, over at the New York Times City Room blog. Link And here's a feature titled "The Artist, His Sub and the Brooklyn Standoff" in the NYT's Art & Design section. Link Also, BB reader Brian Short points to this post at the Bald & Effective blog with a photo of a beautiful tattoo by Riley. Link Last but not least, here's Riley's site. Link

Here's an article from CRAFT Vol.2, written by Arwen O'Reilly -- How to make your own kombucha tea.

Kombucha is on its way to being the new "it" drink. This fermented tea is so popular that several brands are available at upscale grocery stores, and its Wikipedia entry has tripled in length since I first checked. I've heard the tea's culture -- which looks like a rubbery pancake -- called a "mother," "mushroom," "starter," and most accurately, a "scoby" ('symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts').


Whatever it is, kombucha is entering a renaissance after millennia of use in China and centuries in Eastern Europe, from whence all good fermented things come. Its loyal following claims health benefits of all ilk, citing vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and probiotic microorganisms present in the tea. I just like it because it tastes good (like a sweet-sour sparkling apple cider).

Link

Skull-A-Day is a project to create a new and cool skull every day, using a variety of materials. The creativity on display is hot -- I love the styro cup skull and the nail skull! Link (Thanks, Spencer!)

Former Black Flag frontman and inveterate ranter Henry Rollins did a serious tear on the systematic attacks on the Internet from government and corporations. The video is fantastic, profane and inspiring. Link (Thanks, Steve!)

And now an unpaid plug for Utopod, a kick-ass French-language sf podcast, from editors Lucas Moreno and and Marc Tiefenauer.

Utopod is a new podcast (or rather a literature podzine) that provides its listeners with readings of science fiction and fantasy short stories written by the best French-speaking authors of the moment, from Africa, America, Europe and elsewhere. It is the first such podcast ever in French, with high quality standards. It audio-published acclaimed writers such as Joël Champetier, Jean-Pierre Andrevon, Xavier Mauméjean and Ugo Bellagamba. You can listen to new episodes once every 2 or 3 weeks. Subscription is totally free and available through iTunes or through the site. It is very similar to Escape Pod and aims to make good literature available for everyone throughout the world. So even if you understand little or no French, don’t think twice about it: subscribe to utopod to support its two producers Marc Tiefenauer and Lucas Moreno, who work for free.

(click below for summaries of recent stories)

UC Santa Cruz researchers are developing a program that color codes phrases in Wikipedia according to "reliability" based on the the "reputation" of the writer. The software calculates a Wikipedian's reputation score by analyzing the individual's editing history. If the individual's previous contributions have stood the test of time without being edited, her reputation score is higher. Computer scientist Luca de Alfaro created a demonstration site with a few hundred Wikipedia pages colored according to the "trustworthiness" of the writer. From a press release:

The program works from a user's history of edits to calculate his or her reputation score. The trustworthiness of newly inserted text is computed as a function of the reputation of its author. As subsequent contributors vet the text, their own reputations contribute to the text's trustworthiness score. So an entry created by an unknown author can quickly gain (or lose) trust after a few known users have reviewed the pages.

A benefit of calculating author reputation in this way is that de Alfaro can test how well his reliability scores work. He does so by comparing users' reliability scores with how long their subsequent edits last on the site. So far, the program flags as suspect more than 80 percent of edits that turn out to be poor. It's not overly accusatory, either: 60 to 70 percent of the edits it flags do end up being quickly corrected by the Wikipedia community.

Link to press release, Link to Wikipedia trust coloring demo

An unnamed production person on Pushing Daisies, a new TV show, has admitted to deliberately leaking the show to his neighbor's kid, an inveterate uploader, in order to promote the show. Though this was done without the source's boss's approval, he says that it's understood that this is widely done by the studios on a don't ask, don't tell basis. All your TV has an interview with the leaker.

Q: So what made you decide to pass along the file? Was this your idea, or did your boss approve it?

A: MY boss? Oh, God no. I mean…look, I think a lot of people….it's a bit like the military's 'Don't' Ask Don't Tell' rule. I think a lot of people think in theory that getting a show out there ahead of time is a good idea. Especially a show (like "Pushing Daisies") that generally gets a lot of excitement from people after they watch it.

But it's not like anyone I know would admit to that while they're on the clock, and it's not even something you would bring up seriously as a suggestion.

Link (Thanks, Rick!)

Seen here, detail of an incredibly strange Renaissance painting inside the Church of San Pietro located in Montalcino, Italy. Painted by the artist Bonaventura Salimbeni (1567-16130), the artwork, titled "Glorification of the Eucharist," looks like the cover of a science fiction novel. Indeed, it's been nicknamed "Sputnik" based on the globe's similarity to a satellite. The church is in dire need of restoration and an international campaign is underway to raise funds to save it, and the painting inside. The organizers printed 1000 posters of the painting and are selling them for US$270 with proceeds going to the restoration funds. Link (via Fortean Times)

Felix Jung says,

I recently launched a project entitled "Astronaut," which is basically a visualization of my friend's song, with random Flickr photos dynamically appearing at set keyframes. The images I'm pulling in come from Flickr photos whose tags match the lyrics of the song.

Every viewing should be different, as the Flash piece pulls in a new set of images each time. I've seen a few breathtaking photo combinations; I've seen several humorous combinations as well, that end up subverting the song entirely. I think the neatest part of the project is its randomness and its fluctuation. This was a lot of fun to work on, and I hope you find it fun to watch.

Link.

Flickr user The Modern has posted this eerie set of photos from the installation of Ron Mueck's giant sculptures (a foetus and various huge adults) at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Link

See also:
Surrealiste!
Galley of Ron Mueck sculptures
Ron Mueck show in Edinburgh

Jeffrey Stephenson, a PC builder, designed and executed this incredible mantelpiece PC in a stained-wood cabinet. The cabinet is fronted by a vertically oriented LCD and the housing is modelled on an art-deco, 1931 Hammond Gregory clock. The net effect is of a mantelpiece painting that will display any image in your photo-library, or the live web. Stephenson has posted a detailed build-log from the project. Link (via Gizmodo)

The attendee badges at Defcon 15 can be programmed to display arbitrary words and phrases via their built-in LEDs using nothing but the on-board hardware -- once you figure out how to hack them.

I just got my wife's badge for Defcon (they're not giving out press badges 'till tomorrow) and it is totally and completely awesome. At first when I put the batteries in, the LEDs lit up and then nothing happened. I tried shorting a few pins together on the back to no avail and then by accident I figured out that the front has two buttons, which are the smiley skull and the dial. After pressing the buttons it scrolled some text about Defcon, and then I hit the buttons a few more times and saw POV, which stands for persistence of vision. I swung the badge around and saw the word defcon, just like the cool spoke POV kits. Then I pushed the buttons a few more times and it displayed: TEXT. I held both buttons at once and I was able to program in 15 characters of text using the buttons to navigate and pressing them both at once to select a letter. I choose: "EECUE[HEART]PENELOPER^" with the heart being an actual heart symbol. The badge offers a full upper and lowercase alphabet along with an assortment of symbols and punctuation. After adding the 15 characters the text began to scroll in a marquee fashion. This is the dopest badge ever. Hell yeah and way to go Defcon!

Link (Thanks, Dave!)

Drugnerd has a video about the arrest of Germs drummer Don Bolles. Police searched his van earlier this year and found a bottle of Dr. Bronner's liquid soap, which tested positive for the drug GHB.

This is the incredible true story of the Germ and Soap Company that teamed up to fight drug charges. David Bronner President of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps shows how natural soaps test positive for the date rape drug GHB using police field kits while detergent based fake soaps always test negative.

Link

Reader comment:

Stefan says:

Saw, last Saturday, a wonderful documentary called Dr. Bronner's Magical Soapbox.

It is about the Emil Bronner, the German emigrant behind the liquid soap that comes in bottles whose labels are packed with bizarre religious ranting. If you've never been in a health-food store or knew counter-culture types you may never have seen the stuff, but here's a sample:

Quote: "2nd, every body in God's tremendous Universe must eat or there is no body! To shine on, eat must even the sun, consuming every second 4 million metric ton! To shine on, eat must even the sun! Exceptions eternally? Absolute none!"

and

Quote: "8th: God's Eternal Discipline, save! 9th: Nine lives, self-reliant, brave! 10th: Dignity, beauty, relaxation, fun! 11th: Tenacity gets it done! 12th: Perfect sense of direction, ESP!"

"Doctor" Bronner was nuts. In fact, he was committed to an asylum in the late 40s. (In his delusional universe, it was a communist concentration camp.) He got away (when his sister checked him out for a few hours so they could have lunch) and left his kids behind (well, they were in orphanages and foster homes anyway) to go to California and start his soap company. Apparently, his work ethic was as strong as his desire to rant, and his liquid soap became a hit with counter-culture types.

Bronner's kids and their families eventually took over the business. They're an interesting bunch too; hard working and off-beat.

The digitally-shot movie is low budget but well crafted. It combines old documentary and interview footage, visits to the Dr. Bronner factory, and excerpts from old documents and letters. There are also comments from Dr. Bronner fans, interviewed at a health food trade show.

The real star of the show is Ralph Bronner, who is the company's goodwill ambassador. He's kind of nuts too, but in a really nice way. He travels around putting on a one-man tribute show to his dad, dispenses free samples of soap, and offers hugs. He is unworldly, saintly nice. Like a Health Store guru version of Mister Rogers.

Before cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, Russian scientists experimented with animals. We've blogged before about some of them, like the two doggies, but Drunk Russian Space Pig is somewhat less well known. They boozed him up "to relax him," as the story goes. Let it be known that we at BoingBoing do not condone the forced intoxication of animals in spaceflight, or cruelty to critters. But pork does pair nicely with a smooth merlot. Link 1, Link 2. Warning: may not be entirely true. My co-editor David Pescovitz says, "Many places online say that those shots are from the 2005 Russian mockumentary "First on the Moon." (Thanks, Cassaro)

Video -- 10 minute trailer for Orange Sunshine, an upcoming documentary about the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, a gang of outlaw bikers who dropped LSD and became acid evangelists and distributed great quantities of LSD to the world. Link (Via Bruce Eisner)

Video -- MAKE's Bre Pettis shows you how to make a purty silver ring from a 50-cent piece. Link

BBC article about anonymous person leaving cash-stuffed envelopes in public restrooms and mailboxes in Japan. "Also in the envelope were notes asking that the cash be used for 'ascetic training.'" Link (Via Japan Probe)

Video -- Keith Richards throwing a TV from a hotel balcony. Link

Online pharmacy spammer Christopher Smith sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Link

Boozed up LOLstronauts, from Ape Lad. The memes spiral endlessly here on BoingBoing, like light from so many control panel buttons merging in a floating glob of whisky and furball, just before your fuzzy head slams against the spacecraft roof, and you black out, bam!, into an endless, empty darkness, the darkness that is the vast and lonely heart of space. Burp.

Bonus: Stoned Cat-stronauts ask the important questions we're all afraid to ask. (thanks, Jacob)

hot lunch
lunchtime goldberg
jam sandwiches
p.b. loco
panini
earth sandwich
hobo soup
soupy george
potato salad
lunch studio

Image: lunchbox by Shag. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Want to show your support for the creepy newspeak word "homeland"? The Department of Homeland Security Store offers a wide variety of DHS and TSA schwag, including TSA pin-on badges (minimum order five pieces, government email address required), the discounted TSA holiday ornaments (government email also required -- can't have a civilian Xmas tree impersonating an official holiday tree!), a wide selection of meaningless corporate recognition plaques and certificates (FEMA too, but no "Heck of a job, ______!" plaques, alas), and, of course, DHS silver cufflinks, to communicate your general upper-crustiness as you testify about all those people you helped ship off to Syria. Link (Thanks, Porkophilic!)

Update: Adam sez, "I think that you missed the most important item in the DHS store (which of course requires a government email address to purchase...) The DHS Shot glass. Yes, you too could be the proud owner of a DHS shot glass if only you had a government email address. Which raises the question why, do DHS staff need branded shot glasses?"

This week on the Something Awful Photoshop Phriday contest -- freaky road signs. My favorite (natch) is this Katamari Damacy-inspired number. Link

Security expert Bruce Schneier has just posted the conclusion of his five-part interview with TSA chief Kip Hawley. Today, they talk about securing stuff that isn't airplanes, and ways of security airplanes without having to ensure that all the people on the airplane are good guys.

I regularly criticize overly specific security measures, because forcing the terrorists to make minor modifications in their tactics doesn't make us any safer. We've talked about specific airline threats, but what about airplanes as a specific threat? On the one hand, if we secure our airlines and the terrorists all decide instead to bomb shopping malls, we haven't improved our security very much. On the other hand, airplanes make particularly attractive targets for several reasons. One, they're considered national symbols. Two, they're a common and important travel vehicle, and are deeply embedded throughout our economy. Three, they travel to distant places where the terrorists are. And four, the failure mode is severe: a small bomb drops the plane out of the sky and kills everyone. I don't expect you to give back any of your budget, but when do we have "enough" airplane security as compared with the rest of our nation's infrastructure?

Link

See also:
TSA chief: facial twitches fight terrorism TSA chief: no-fly lists work, but it's a secret
TSA chief promises an eternity of unshoeing
Bruce Schneier interviews TSA head Kip Hawley

Len Peralta's new coloring book, "Monster By Mail Presents: AARGH! The Incredibly Ghoulish, Frighteningly Creepy Coloring Book Of Death" reminds me of my favorite monster stickers and coloring books from the Seventies -- scary in a Munsters-y kind of way. Judging from the volume of this kind of art at Comic-Con last week, it seems to me like there's some kind of revival underway. I heartily approve. The coloring book is $11.26 from Lulu or $6.25 as a PDF. Perfect rain-of- frogs-day fun for the little monsters in your castle. Link (via Neatorama)

Phillip Torrone made this great video about the stuff in the new issue of CRAFT vol. 4. (My wife, Carla Sinclair, is editor-in-chief) Link

Mick sez, "Carnegie Mellon University and The Mattress Factory sponsored a community-based robot art class called 'Robo250.' For the opening--final exam as wine and cheese art reception--a few of us (the students) decided to build robots entirely made of food so that they could be eaten at the reception. See the results (including a 5 minute how to make your own robot food sculpture) at MAYA's make site." Link (Thanks, Mick!)

Dan sez, "In my ongoing search for people more obsessed with Disneyland than I am, I found pictures of former teen idol Bobby Sherman standing in his backyard with his scratchbuilt, 1/5 scale model of Main Street, USA. Who knew he was such an Imaginerd?" Link (Thanks, Dan!)

Pam Samuelson is one of the most important copyright scholars in the world, someone respected by players on all sides of the debate, and she has just published a paper modestly entitled "Preliminary Thoughts on Copyright Reform." "Preliminary Thoughts" is a brisk and readable 16-page paper that traces the origin of the present, 200+ page copyright frankenstatute, a law that has been amended 20 times since it was codified in 1976, so that it can barely be understood by experts, let alone by laypeople. However, laypeople are ever-more under its jurisdiction, since practically everything we do on the Internet involves making copies.

So Pam wants to revisit copyright, redraft it from the start, refactoring it like a Wikipedia article that has grown too large and weird to be properly understood. This is a capital idea, and her very concrete suggestions set out both a plan of attack and a set of principles that would make copyright safe for the age of the Internet.

By focusing on these core elements of copyright, I do not mean to suggest that nothing but these elements should be in a model copyright law or principles document. Yet perhaps anything else nominated for inclusion in the model law or principles should have to be accompanied by a justification as to why it needs to be there, and why it should not be achieved through common law evolution of copyright law by judges or delegated to an administrative rule-making process.102

A model copyright law should also be written in plain English so ordinary people, and not just the high priests of copyright, can understand what it means and the normative reason that it should be part and parcel of the basic statutory framework.103 A model copyright law should also articulate the purposes that it seeks to achieve and offer some guidance about how competing interests should be balanced, perhaps through a series of comments on the model law or principles.104

PDF Link

Lisa Jo Rudy, the About.com guide to Autism, writes about recent studies that suggest autistic kids are especially attracted to Thomas Tank Engine.

The study suggests that children with autism are engaged by the simple emotions on the faces of the characters. I'm not buying it. In fact, MOST TV and toys intended for preschoolers is focused on simple emotions and exaggerated facial expressions and body language. You don't need an antiquated steam engine to show "I am sad" - it's in every "educational" show on the air.

My personal belief is that Thomas is especially interesting to kids with autism because (1) the trains do a great deal of falling, crashing, and smashing - something that appeals to our kids and is tough to fun on other PBS or Disney programs for preschoolers and (2) the toy trains line up beautifully, and our kids love to line things up. They can even be lined up according to color, something that can be very soothing to kids with autism.

Link

Reader comment:

David says:

My mother has worked with autistic children (along with other children with special needs) for over 15 years. She first told me that she spotted a connection between autistic children, especially non-verbal kids, and Thomas about five or six years ago. While the thought of lining toys up, etc. are all probably valid, my mother has always told a deeper, though anecdotal connection.

If you've ever been around a reasonably high-functioning, non-verbal autistic child, you can usually tell that their minds are up to something, but it's just about impossible to get them to externalize those thoughts in a way that most of us can understand--e.g words or even facial expressions. Thomas the Tank Engine characters may be happy, sad, or angry, but even though you hear what they "say," they never actively talk and their faces are still.

It's not exactly empirical evidence, but she has seen it in nearly every autistic child she has worked with.

Just a different angle... Not from personal experience, but I trust the source

Keep up the exemplary blogging and making.

Michael says:

I'm a long-time boingboing reader, and I have a fair bit of experience with this phenomenon.

The younger of my two sons, (8), is autistic and a Thomas the Tank Engine fan of epic proportions.

My wife and I have invested approximately 13 ba-friggin-jillion dollars (conservative estimate) in Thomas paraphernalia: Engines, VHS tapes, DVDs, wooden track, play-sets, train tables, birthday party supplies, stickers, clothing etc.

He is rather non-communicative, but definitely NOT non-talkative. Most of his speech consists of lines that he repeats from episodes of Thomas, as well as from a few other shows.

Thomas was also the prime motivation for him to teach himself how to read, how to type (touch-type, no less), and how to search and browse the internet.

Although Lisa Jo Rudy's experiences with autistic children are quite a bit broader than my own, I think that she may be a bit hasty in discounting the appeal of the emotions which the engines on the show display, and more specifically, HOW they are displayed.

HUGE DISCLAIMER:Bearing in mind that making broad statements concerning autism is not always the most well-advised of choices, especially for someone in my position (i.e. not a psychologist, therapist or special education teacher, only a parent) I'll limit my observations to my child alone.

The appeal of Thomas to my son is, I believe, multi-faceted in nature:

1) a large cast of readily recognizable characters. They are colorful, have unique shapes, and it's fun having their names committed to memory.

2) quite a bit of dialogue. This too is fun to memorize. One of Nicholas' favorite things to do is to recite long stretches of dialogue, and to have me repeat it back to him. Also, now that he's memorized every episode, they no longer contain surprises for him, and he anticipates every action and line of dialogue. When he was much younger, he used to enjoy turning light switches off and on. Now, he rewinds and replays certain parts of an episode. I believe these are behaviors which are based in the desire for predictability, and for the power to effect 100% predictable results.

3) the action of the shows is readily re-enactable with materials at hand, and when you do, it looks ALMOST EXACTLY like it does on the show.

4) the faces that the characters make when displaying emotions: The important difference between Thomas the Tank Engine, and almost every other show geared for children is the manner in which various emotions are evinced by the characters. The faces of the characters, owing to the way in which the show is produced (live-action and stop-action), are completely static and non-animated. There are no slow progressions from one emotion to another with these characters. They are either happy, or angry, or surprised, or tired, or scared, with no middle ground or in-between-ness.

Moreover, the emotional state of the character in question is usually reinforced by explicit statements from the narrator, i.e. "Thomas was surprised" or "Bill and Ben were angry", etc. For a very long time, Nicholas' repertoire of expressions (and the ones which he had me replicate for him on demand) were: happy, sad, and surprised. He and I have played this particular game countless hundreds of times, which is more than enough for me to be aware of the fact that this holds a special appeal to him.

Never trust robots. YouTube Link to Andrew Thompson's xlntawesomehilarious electropop "We're in Business." This is the greatest thing ever in the last 30 minutes of my life. Get the song: iTunes, lewisrecordings.com, myspace, and more myspace. (thanks Sean!)

Videos of talks from the TED's first conference in Africa are now online. "Africa: The Next Chapter" took place in Tanzania this June, and brought together a number of very interesting thinkers from around the continent, with counterparts from around the globe.

Above, faces from some of the newly uploaded videos this week:

* LEFT: Ghanaian economist George Ayittey talked about "Hippos" (older-generation, slow-thinking) versus "Cheetahs" ("a new breed of Africans"). His speech is a firey condemnation of corrupt leaders and the complacency that allows them to thrive. Video Link.

* CENTER: 19-year-old Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba, who built a an electricity-generating windmill from spare parts for his family at age 14. He created the generator from rough plans he found in a library book. Video Link.

* RIGHT: Ms. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former Finance Minister of Nigeria, who gave a talk about aid versus trade. Video Link.

Link. (Thanks, Emeka Okafor!)

Previously on BoingBoing:

Kid in Malawi homebrews a windmill generator

Deconstructing Vanity Fair's "Africa" issue

Cloth cult: "Why Congolese men rather starve to death than look cheap."

Femi Kuti: Don't pity Africa, visit it and trade with us

Stop trying to "save" Africa

China's humanitarian efforts in Africa

How to write about Africa

James Lileks is having a grand old time poking fun at old comic book covers in a new section of his website called "Funny Books: Dubious Moments in Comic History."

The POPular Teen-agers go the beach, where the sand is GRANular, then get on a tiny boat about seven feet long. After heading into the open waters with no training whatsoever, followed by birds who expect they will pick the corpses clean soon. They fish. A ”snicker-filled story” presumably follows. If you want to give yourself a headache, attempt to figure out the sequence of events that led to Honey Bunn holding Butch in a posture that defies gravity, the rules of the sea, and basic common sense.

Note that Butch appears to be afraid of tuna.

Link