Boing Boing reader HallieDeCatherine says,

Ronald Jenkees is a video blogger who started a YouTube channel over a year ago.

He is a musical genius, coming correct with some bad-ass keyboarding skills on his Korg Triton and producing sick hip-hop beats on FL Studio. He has almost 6000 YouTube subscribers.

Funny thing is..... you can't really figure this guy out! He's a super geek who squints constantly and wears coke bottle glasses. He has a really soft voice and chuckles at himself as he spouts off self-defeating, lame-o, uber-geek comments.

Apparently he just released a new CD, but I have not listened.

Photographer and Boing Boing pal Bart Nagel shot this portrait of Steve Fossett last year at the millionaire adventurer's home in Carmel. The renowned aviator has gone missing after taking off in a small plane from a Nevada airstrip on Monday.

Nagel tells us:

He is such a nice man, not at all what you'd think of as an adventurer. Unpretentious and authentic.

He told us that his wife Peggy hated his explorations and never wanted to know when they were happening.

She must have been getting ready for a day like this for some time.

But Fossett has been in even tighter spots than this before -- and I will continue hoping for the best.

Our best wishes to Fossett's family, and we hope for the best, too.

Previously: Aviation adventurer Steve Fossett is missing

My latest column in Locus Magazine has just gone live. Called "Free(konomic) E-books," it's an attempt to enumerate the evidence that Creative Commons and other scheme for giving away free ebooks works to sell printed books. In my next column, I'l expain how Creative Commons works, and how science fiction writers can use it.

Many of us have assumed, a priori, that electronic books substitute for print books. While I don't have controlled, quantitative data to refute the proposition, I do have plenty of experience with this stuff, and all that experience leads me to believe that giving away my books is selling the hell out of them.

More importantly, the free e-book skeptics have no evidence to offer in support of their position -- just hand-waving and dark muttering about a mythological future when book-lovers give up their printed books for electronic book-readers (as opposed to the much more plausible future where book lovers go on buying their fetish objects and carry books around on their electronic devices).

Link

• Retro Selectro: Card Callmaker Ad (1973)

• Fun Level: Orange – Valve's Orange Box is coming October 12th

• If These Don't Emit, You Must Acquit – Epson's new PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 UB front-projector is have an MSRP of $2,700, making it the cheapest 1080p projector yet. (And retail will probably be cheaper.)

• Wii Runs – New Nintendo trademarks in Japan: "Wii Body Controller; Mii Contest Channel; Nintendo Magic; Wii Handle; Soma Bringer."

• Dial M for Metamucil – "Verizon Wireless offers new $30 senior citizen plan"

• Suck It Up, Out –Man breaks stylus in smartphone sheath. AT&T tells him his warranty is voided.

• Keeping the Ashes Stoked – "Microsoft says a Zune phone 'not unreasonable'"

• BioPro 190: At-Home Biodiesel Production

• The Future of Television: Two Girls Shooting Each Other with Tasers

• In the Year 2000: Bell Spaceplane Models

• Bukkake Simulator 3D: Love Death 2 Gameplay Video

• Quad Shelves by Nauris Kalinauskas

• Video: Overdrift: Stage 2 Teaser

• 1946 Mathis 333 3-Wheeled Car Prototype

• Doubles as Wings – I'm not sure how to embed this particular flash video of a disappearing door concept car, in which the door slides into the undercarriage, but it's cool, so here's a link.

• When Taste and Money Collide – Water "butts," or drainspout caps, shaped like bottoms and rectums. Horrible.

• Rolly Polyphonic – Sony's "Rolly" (roll-e) may be a music-playing "Wii on wheels," claims [Digital-Lifestyles.info]

• Two > Four – Jeff Atwood compares dual- and quad-core processing times. Dual is just about as good as quad for most desktop users.

• Flamebait – "According to research group iSuppli, the iPhone outsold all smartphones in the U.S. in July"

Studio Laurens van Wieringen, a Dutch interior design studio, made this beautiful landscape carpet that employs soft foam blocks of varying height and color to create a beautiful, walkable relief map. Link (via Cribcandy)

Stephen Hawking has written a kids' science fiction trilogy called George's Secret Key to the Universe, the first volume of which is to be published in 29 countries this year, with subsequent volumes coming once a year. His goal is to create a rigorously scientific work of sf that turns kids onto sf -- that's my kind of book! Hawking's co-writers are his daughter (who came up with the idea) and the French physicist Christophe Galfard, whose thesis was based on Hawking's work.

The trio wanted to "provide a modern vision of cosmology from the Big Bang to the present day," without presenting it as magic, Galfard said. "All of what we see (in the universe) corresponds exactly to what has happened already," he added.

The sole element of fiction in the book involves supercomputer that opens a door allowing George and his friends to travel into space aboard an asteroid.

"I don't know of any other book quite like George's Secret Key to the Universe," Hawking, 65, said. "I think we may be unique."

Link to George's Secret Key to the Universe, Link to Cosmos article (via Futurismic)

Right now, there are more than 70,000 people on the waiting list for a kidney transplant in the US alone. Sometimes, a family member will offer to donate a kidney to a relative. That's a really amazing thing to do. The problem is that one-third of the time, the match isn't right. But what if the donor, say, from one family, is a good match for the recipient in another family, and vice versa? According to Science News, researchers at the United States Naval Academy and Johns Hopkins University hope to address this with a mathematical method to "match up the maximum number of donors with recipients while simultaneously guaranteeing high compatibility in each case." The technique is based on graph theory, a way to model the relationship between pairs of objects. From Science News:

(US Naval Academy mathematician Sommer) Gentry expects that if there were a national registry in place for kidney matching, and if it used her team's method, then each month, about half the pairs in the registry would find a compatible match. Each year, 1,000–2,000 patients would get kidneys who currently would not.

By contrast, as of 2005, only 51 patients had ever received kidneys through a swap in which two incompatible pairs exchange donors to create compatible pairs. Gentry calculates that developing a national registry could save $750 million per year, because dialysis, the only alternative to transplantation, is very expensive.

Link

Famed aviation adventurer Steve Fossett was last seen flying a single-engine aircraft in Minden, Nevada. He is missing. Six Thirteen planes with aerial search teams are presently flying missions over the area. Link. During a press conference broadcast just now on CNN, a local aviation authority spokesperson referenced having obtained some sort of electronic data from Fossett and/or his craft, but no detail was given.

Steve Lodefink of Finkbuilt invited a bunch of artists to paint fishing lures for an online show called CRANKbait!

Artists include Amy Crehore, Wednesday Kirwan, Sandow Birk, Ape Lad, and Steve Lodefink.

I painted the one shown here. It's titled "Bumbleswine." Link

Article about late Ed Benedict, genius character designer for Hanna Barbera. Link

Video -- "When his only friend shuts off, Walter Robot is forced to trek into the unknown to find the true meaning of life on his lonely planet." Link

The Crucible's Michael Sturtz breaks land speed record (130.614 MPH) on his biodiesel-powered Die Moto machine. Link

Recipe for baking chocolate chip cookies on your dashboard, where temperature can reach 180 degrees F. (Best car freshener smell ever.) Link

Tomatoes in a dumpster. Link (More dumpster delectables here)

(Thanks, Charles and other Boing Boing readers!)

Jennifer Sutton, 23, recently visited her own heart at an exhibition in London. Sutton received a heart transplant and her original ticker is on display as part of the Wellcome Collection's educational exhibition The Heart.

From Alistair Strachan's Fortean Times blog:

As you might imagine, she found the experience very odd and moving. "Seeing my heart for the first time is an emotional and surreal experience. It caused me so much pain and turmoil when it was inside me. Seeing it sitting here is extremely bizarre and very strange. Finally I can see this odd looking lump of muscle that has given me so much upset. It's tremendous it has become an object of fascination and will get people thinking about the disease, heart transplants and organ donation."

Link

Boing Boing reader Matt says,

Over the Labor Day weekend, we went to Di Fara's Pizza for the best slice in New York City (probably the world). Well, you have to wait while each slice is hand-made to order, so I took my 14 month-old daughter to the 99 cent store next door to touch things for the duration.

On our way out of the store, we saw this gem: the "Benign Girl" Super Telephone. Chinese marketing at its best. How could there be any lead in a Benign Girl toy? And the package design was genius: The "Try Me Press Button" arrow that points to a non-existent button; that says the phone is "creative" and has "luxurious music."

Free batteries aren't just included, they come pre-corroded!

Link

California's senate passed a bill last week that bans the forced RFID tagging of humans (think: prisoners, employees, pedos out on the street who've done their time). The state senator who sponsored the bill described that scenario as the "the ultimate invasion of privacy." The bill is on its way to Governor Schwarzenegger's desk now; if it is signed into law, California would become the third state with such a ban on the books (along with Wisconsin and North Dakota).

Snip from Ars Technica post on this story:

Senate Bill 362 "would prohibit a person from requiring, coercing, or compelling any other individual to undergo the subcutaneous implanting of an identification device," and a similar version has already passed the state Assembly. Joseph Simitian, who came up with the idea, laments the fact that the RFID industry does not appear to find his idea a good one.

"I think it's unfortunate and regrettable that the industry hasn't come out in support of SB 362," he said in a statement after the bill passed the Senate. "I understand why we're having a robust debate about the privacy concerns related to RFID, but at the very least, we should be able to agree that the forced implanting of under-the-skin technology into human beings is just plain wrong. I'm deeply concerned that this isn't a given for the industry."

Link. Wired News has a related item here. (thanks Glyn)

Om Malik blogs:

Despite the best efforts of Earthlink (ENLK), Google (GOOG) and Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco MuniFi project is still stuck in neutral and going nowhere fast. For San Francisco residents, a new option has emerged: Sonic.net, a Santa Rosa, CA-based independent ISP that is using gear from Meraki Networks, a wireless hardware company based in Mountain View, Calif., and is trying to promote an ad-supported MuniFi model. (Its actually more like community wifi, and you can call it ComMuniFi.)

Link

You may not spot BoingBoing there (we're banned on the internet inside Dubai, last I heard), but you may spot these lovelies -- giant Imperial Stormtroopers and Aliens, steampunk style, in a shopping mall art gallery. Link (thanks hombrelobo!)

Update: hombrelobo says, "By the way, I am still in Dubai, and I can see BoingBoing perfectly ... is not blocked ... Twitter and Flickr are still blocked though."

This stately and elegant 1966 Cadillac S&S Landau Hearse is actually a 1:18 scale model. It can be yours for just $99 from the wonderful Pushin Daisies mortuary novelty shop. The creepy, interesting, and real online store is operated in Allenhurst, New Jersey by a licensed funeral director who doesn't take life, or death, too seriously. According to the site, all items are shipped in a coffin-shaped box. From the model hearse item description:

This beautiful model hearse is a rear loader and comes complete with an extending rear service table to help load the casket. As always each model comes complete with a removable wood grain casket as well as a seperate church truck for setting the casket on. Highly detailed inside & out! Available in 4 Colors. Black, White, Silver, and Maroon.

Link (Thanks, Jason Tester!)

Gary Taxali has a huge show opening this Thursday at Toronto's Magic Pony Gallery. It's Taxali's first Canadian solo show and features 60 new works, including collaborations with musicians Aimee Mann, Jad Fair, and Danko Jones. All of the pieces in the show, titled "Last Year's Winner," can be previewed on Taxali's Web site. Seen here at left, "Heed", enamel, oil and acrylic on aluminum, 20" x 20"; at right, "Artist of the Year", plaster, acrylic, 5'-1/4" high.

Link

The SF Gate has a funny article about the weird calls that come into the City of San Francisco's 311 information line.

Kyle Sutton is one of 50 or so customer service representatives, or CSRs, asking this question 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The free service launched in March not just to funnel 2,300 government phone numbers into a single line, but to give the city more of a service orientation. About 6,000 calls come in every day, and program director Ed Reiskin says 311 is on track to answer 2 million a year.

Officially, the purpose is to supply a handy route to non-emergency government services and information. Unofficially, it's a glimpse into the funny inner mind of the city.

"Hello, how long does it take to build a cable car?"

"There's cocaine all over my clothes! There's cocaine everywhere!"

"My roommate has been passed out for two days."

"There's pig balls on the street."

Link (Thanks, Chris!)

Craig sez, "I'd like to show-off some photographs I took in an abandoned train tunnel underneath Glasgow's botanic gardens. The reason I think it's newsworthy is that it's the easiest bit of urban exploring anyone is likely to do: it's one minute off the beaten path, no security and the gates blocking the way are handily bent." Link (Thanks, Craig!)

My latest Guardian column, "DRM Vendors Are Pushing the Impossible," has just gone live. It's intended to explain to non-technical people why DRM is impossible -- and why geeks aren't just being difficult when they roll their eyes and sputter whenever civilians ask them to make a working DRM.

The thing is that when they say that you can't travel than fast than the speed of light, they're talking about the fundamental principles of physics: it's impossible to get beyond lightspeed, even if science fiction movies help us conceptualise it.

In the same way, we can imagine building progressively better software locks for movies, music, ebooks, and software until we hit on one that even the wiliest hacker can't defeat. But, just like the physicists, the geeks who say that DRM can never reach this point are speaking about fundamental principles of information science. It's impossible to get that far.

Link, Link to all my Guardian columns

Fermantarium has a story about a new housing community in Colorado designed, in part, to make it easier for people to drink socially without having to drive somewhere.

Every Friday night, residents of the new urbanist community Bradburn Village in Westminster, Colorado gather for their weekly park party. Adults socialize over beer and wine while the kids play together. Bradburn is designed to encourage social interaction among neighbors, and judging by the packed park parties and the incredible number of social events here, it works.

Every home in Bradburn includes a large front porch--not just a token 2 foot concrete stoop. Garages are all in the back, and homes here also have very small setbacks (the distance between the house and the sidewalk, or front yard), meaning the porches sit right above the sidewalks. This means people sitting on their front porches easily see neighbors walking by, and they stop to talk, creating a community bond that is so elusive in most traditional suburban neighborhoods.

Link

Rene sez, "MI5 monitored socialist writer George Orwell for more than two decades, but did not believe he was a mainstream communist, records have revealed."

The Special Branch report said: "This man has advanced communist views and several of his Indian friends say that they have often seen him at communist meetings.

"He dresses in a bohemian fashion both at his office and in his leisure hours."

The MI5 officer rang the inspector in charge of the sergeant who wrote the report, to question what it meant.

From the call it emerged that Orwell - referred to in the documents by his real name Eric Blair - was thought to be an "unorthodox communist" who did not agree fully with Communist Party views.

Link (Thanks, Rene!

BB reader Wagner James Au tells us,

Remember that Second Life "mystery-documentary" Xeni blogged about last March? It was actually meant to air first on a European video site, but someone at the production company accidentally put it on YouTube. But the Boing Boing link caused a viewing deluge, and soon enough, Hollywood came calling. I just posted an interview with the director, Douglas Gayeton, who tells the story of what I'm calling the biggest SL-to-RL rights deal in the online world's four year history. (SL users retain the IP rights to their content.)

Link.

Boing Boing reader Xander says,

In 2005, the secretive and paranoid military government of Myanmar (Burma) decided to move the capital city from Yangon (the old British 'Rangoon') to an empty tract of farmland in the country's north.

Thousands of soldiers, government officials and regular citizens were packed up and moved to the new capital city, which was christened Naypyidaw. The government has never publicly explained the move. Most journalists, even Burmese ones, are banned from the city, and there are very few photos of the capital available online.

In July, my friend Austin and his fellow traveler Will became the first uninvited, non-diplomatic foreigners to stay overnight in Naypyidaw's hotel -- in effect, the first tourists. Austin's striking and beautiful photographs of the city can now be seen on his blog.

Link.

As blogged here yesterday:

While you were Burning / vacationing / spacing out offline this Labor Day weekend, many folks online were hit with invitations from a social networking service called Quechup that violates your address book, and abuses user trust by spamming all your contacts.

Now that people are coming back from the Labor Day holiday, expect a bunch of invites -- I've received a dozen just this morning. Delete 'em if you know what's good for you. Link to one of many first person accounts, Link to another. And another, and another (punch line: the spam blast created by Quechup caused Google to suspended that victim's Gmail account).

Update: via Howard Rheingold on Twitter, here's the corporate rep info for Quechup:

Quechup attorney, I am told: Loeb & Loeb LLP 345 Park Avenue New York, NY 10154-0037 Tel: (212) 407-4000Tel: (212) 407-4000 USA

Quechup parent corp, I'm told: iDate Corporation 6767 West Tropicana Ave. Suite 207, Las Vegas, NV 89103 Las Vegas, NV 89103