An article on NewTV called "Hey TV Networks! This is How You Go Geek" sums up the best practices in geek TV shows from the recent past -- how nerd-friendly tube-fodder attracted and retained their audience, and makes a bunch of great suggestions for things no one's tried yet.

Costume Patterns: Go ahead. Laugh. Then go to Comic Con. Nerds love to dress up and they love accuracy. So make it easy for them. Offer up downloadable costume patterns that they can print out and make their own costumes with (and get on TV at the next major Con).

Link (via Wonderland)

Got $1.5 million lying around? You can buy this Titan Missile Silo and wait out the apocalypse. Not sure where the silo is, but the real estate agent (who wants a $10,000 "earnest money" escrow before he'll show it to you) has an Orange County 949 area code.

The Missile Base consists of 57 acres of real estate. The center secured portion of the property is protected by the original barbed-wire-topped chainlink fence. There is a paved road leading into the property with dual entry gates.

Above ground is the original 40 X 100 shop building, two concrete targeting structures, two manufactured homes, two 8 X 8 X 40 storage containers, and the silo tops of the three missile silos, two antenna silos, one entry portal and a few other misc structures.

Below ground is a huge complex consisting of 16 buildings and thousands of feet of connecting tunnels. The major underground structures are:

Three - 160' Tall Missile Silos
Three - 4 story Equipment Terminal Buildings
Three - Fuel Terminal Buildings
Two - 6 story Antenna Silos
One Air Intake/Filtration Building
One 100' diameter Control Dome Building
One 125' diameter Power Dome Building
One - 6 story Entry Portal Building
and a few other misc buildings and areas.

Link (via Futurismic)

Update: In the comments, the Good Reverend sez, "Not only is it for sale, but it's listed on eBay. It's part of the former Larsen Air Force Base in central Washington."

The fellow whose inked and un-shirted self-portrait flooded the web on Monday, after being uploaded unwittingly on a stolen laptop, has turned the pilfered Mac over to police in Victoria, BC, Canada. He says he's innocent, and authorities are still sorting through the case. Snip from Vancouver Sun story:

The tattooed man, whose photo has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times around the world and who suddenly found himself famous from Iceland to Brazil, walked into the Victoria police station with the stolen machine at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, said gt. Colin Brown. The man also contacted Global BC on Tuesday, telling the station he did not know the computer was stolen and that he had bought it from a friend who had bought it from someone else.

Link.

The guy's self-portrait has now been viewed more than 252,037 times on the original Flickr page, and heaven knows how many thousands or millions more times on blogs and other websites.

Dane Brown from Workspace (the "office 2.0" space from which this and other laptops were stolen) said Flickr dude was "known to police," and that while no charges were filed to date, the matter is "certainly under investigation."

In other news, he's been LOLled.(thanks, Pete Quily and many others!)

Previously on Boing Boing:

Guy uploads pix of self from stolen iMac

Kurt Opsahl of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says,

Today, Judge Ann Aiken of the Oregon Federal District Court ruled that two provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), "50 U.S.C. §§ 1804 and 1823, as amended by the Patriot Act, are unconstitutional because they violate the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution."

This case arose over warrantless surveillance of an innocent Oregon attorney who was falsely suspected of involvement with the Madrid train bombing based on a mistaken fingerprint identification.

The critical legal issue was that in the Patriot Act, Congress amended FISA to change the language from requiring "the purpose" of the search or surveillance be to obtain foreign intelligence information to only "a significant purpose" of the search or surveillance.

As EFF has previously explained in a case before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, a "long line of court of appeals decisions, before and after FISA, has held that surveillance may be conducted without a traditional warrant and probable cause only when foreign intelligence collection is the "primary purpose" of the surveillance," not merely a "significant purpose."

Link. The Seattle Times article here.

The entire text of the court's decision is here (PDF). This is the really churchy part, on pages 43-44:

For over 200 years, this Nation has adhered to the rule of law - with unparalleled success. A shift to a Nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill- advised. In this regard, the Supreme Court has cautioned:

The price of lawful public dissent must not be a dread of subjection to an unchecked surveillance power. Nor must the fear of unauthorized official eavesdropping deter vigorous citizen dissent and discussion of Government action in private conversation. For private dissent, no less than open public discourse, is essential to our free society.

Update: Daniel J. Solove has an analysis of the opinion here, very much worth reading: Link.

Who could forget these paintings of psychedelic cats from the Life Science Library book called The Mind? I loved studying them as a kid, and reading the story of the artist who painted them. According to the The Mind, Louis Wain was an artist who liked to paint cats, and as Wain's mental condition deteriorated, his cats became more and more abstract.

But the Mind Hacks blog says this is hogwash, according to a biography of Wain, by Rodney Dale called Louis Wain: The Man Who Drew Cats.

Assembling what little factual knowledge we have on [the] paintings, there is clear no justification for regarding them as more than samples of Louis Wain's art at different times. Wain experimented with patterns and cats, and even quite late in life was still producing conventional cat pictures, perhaps 10 years after his [supposedly] 'later' productions which are patterns rather than cats. All of which is to say no more than that the eight paintings were done at different times, which could be said of eight paintings by any artist!

Link

Joe Cunningham was on a sidewalk in Minneapolis when he witnessed a mugger trying to take a woman's purse. He managed to take a couple of photos with his digital camera and called the cops.

It happened very fast in front of me as I was out walking. He shoved her to the ground and they wrestled for her purse. She clung tight and I shouted I was calling the cops. He heard me and gave her bag two more hard yanks and then fled empty-handed into the street. I helped her up and over to the payphone. Once the call was made I sat with her while she waited for the police. Her name is Patricia Yellow Hammer. She was shook up but uninjured save for a scuffed thumb. To pass the time and take her mind off her troubles we had fun making some pictures of random people, and by the time the cops arrived she had her smile back.

Link (Thanks, Russell!)

Apartments.com is running a contest called "Possession Obsession," asking people to send self-made videos about their collections. I liked this one by a woman named Brenda who has a WWII-era pin-up collection.

I collect vintage pin-up art, and lots of things *inspired by* vintage pin-up art. Two minutes wasn't long enough to show my whole collection, which is well over 500 pieces, but I hope you like what I included.

Link

In 2004, University at Buffalo art professor Steve Kurtz, a member of Critical Art Ensemble, called police to his home after his wife died suddenly of a heart attack. When they arrived, the police stumbled upon some biology gear and harmless bacteria that Kurtz was using in an art project. The FBI was called in and visions of bioterror danced in their heads. In July 2004, Kurtz was indicted by a federal grand jury for mail and wire fraud. The situation has caused quite an uproar in the tech-art community. Filmmaker Lyn Hersman Leeson's latest movie, Strange Culture, is based on Kurtz's story and stars Tilda Swinton, Peter Coyote, Thomas Jay Ryan, Josh Kornbluth, and Kurtz himself. The case is expected to go to trial next summer. Over at 10 Zen Monkeys, RU Sirius interviews Kurtz about what went down and the legal insanity that has ensued. From the interview:

STEVE KURTZ: Three projects seemed to really bother law enforcement. Critical Art Ensemble was working on a biochemical defense kit against Monsanto’s Roundup Ready products for use by organic and traditional farmers. That was all confiscated.

We had a portable molecular biology lab that we were using to test food products labeled “organic” to see if they really were free of GMO contaminant. Or, when in Europe, to see if products not labeled as containing GMOs really had none. We'd finished the initiative in Europe and were about to launch here in the U.S. when the FBI confiscated all our equipment.

Finally, we were a preparing project on germ warfare and the theater of the absurd. We were planning to recreate some of the germ warfare experiments that were done in the '50s (which were so insane that they could only have been paid for with tax dollars). We had two strains of completely harmless bacteria that simulated the behavior of actual infectious diseases — plague and anthrax. To accompany these performances, we were in the middle of a manuscript on the militarization of civilian health agencies in the U.S. by the Bush administration.

Everything described was confiscated. We had to start from scratch on the project and the book. Happily, we did eventually do the experiments, and published the book — Marching Plague: Germ Warfare and Global Public Health.

RU: Would you say that originally, they authentically suspected they had found some sort of bioterror weapon, and once they realized they hadn't, they found other reasons to remain hostile?

SK: What I think they thought was that they had a situation, along with a vulnerable patsy, out of which they could manufacture a terrorism case. After all, the rewards that were heaped on the agents, prosecutors, and institutions that brought home the so-called “Lackawana Six sleeper cell” case — another railroad job — were witnessed by others in these agencies and noted. This made it too lucrative to pass up turning anything they could into “terrorism”.

They also had plenty of other reasons to be — and remain — hostile.

Link to 10 Zen Monkeys, Link to Strange Culture site, Link to Critical Art Ensemble defense fund

Previously on BB:
• Video of biotech artist awaiting trial Link
• Case against Steve Kurtz/Critical Art Ensemble continues Link
• Battling for bio art Link
• Art Attack Link

Nike is now selling a shoe designed for American Indians. The Air Native N7 will only be available through tribal wellness programs and tribal schools. From the Associated Press:

Nike designers and researchers looked at the feet of more than 200 people from more than 70 tribes nationwide and found that in general, American Indians have a much wider and taller foot than the average shoe accommodates. The average shoe width of men and women measured was three width sizes larger than the standard Nike shoe.

As a result, the Air Native is wider with a larger toe box. The shoe has fewer seams for irritation and a thicker sock liner for comfort.

The design features several "heritage callouts" as one product manager described it, including sunrise to sunset to sunrise patterns on the tongue and heel of the shoe. Feather designs adorn the inside and stars are on the sole to represent the night sky.

Link

Kevin Kelly reviews The Year of Living Biblically, about a guy who "recently spent a year trying to follow all 700 plus rules he found in the Bible. These rules ranged from the obvious Ten Commandments to the more obscure details of Old Testament laws, which ultra orthodox Jews might follow: leaving side hair uncut, dwelling in huts on certain holidays, strict dietary routines. To give some idea of the physical transformation he underwent, the book offers this photo."

From a Newsweek interview:

Q: Are you a more religious person as a result of this experiment?

A: Well, I don't want to give away the ending, but let's say I started the year as an agnostic, and now I am a reverent agnostic. Whether or not there is a God, I believe in sacredness. Rituals can be sacred, the Sabbath can be sacred however you choose to observe it.

Link

I just cracked open the new issue of Comic Art Annual, the gorgeous "mook" (magazine/book hybrid) edited by Todd Hignite and published by the artisans at Buenaventura Press. The reason I love Comic Art is that their coverage of this medium is incredibly deep but not "insidery" in the slightest. Instead, they share in the excitement of discovering obscure-yet-amazing cartoonists, hearing about contemporary artists' influences and obsessions, and reproducing rare strips, panels, and art for posterity. Each issue is like a course in comic art appreciation. The current issue, #9, includes Adrian "Optic Nerve" Tomine interviewing Gilbert "Love and Rockets" Hernandez, the evolution of Plainclothes (later "Dick") Tracy, Aline Kominsky-Crumb's "Why I Wrote Only About Myself," and much more. Shrinkwrapped with this issue is Ivan Brunetti's wonderful mini-book "Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice." Even if you don't think you dig comix, you will after reading this magazine. The Comic Art Web site features sample spreads to whet your appetite.
Link to Comic Art site, Link to buy Comic Art #9 (Thanks, Alvin Buenaventura!)

Previously on BB:
• Get Illuminated Podcast episode 8: Comic Art Magazine Link
• Horrorshow magazine, Illustration, and the future of Comic Art Link

Seen above is an X-ray of Shafique el-Fahkri, a 20-year-old student who was attacked outside of a Melbourne, Australia nightclub in January. During a brawl, another 20-year-old, Liam Peart, threw a metal-framed chair at Fahkri. The chair leg went through Fahkri's eye socket and down into his neck. Amazingly, Fahkri not only survived but did not lose his eye, which was pushed to the side by the chair leg. From The Age:

(Fahkri) told The Age yesterday that his eye remained very blurry, his body was weak and his neck was stiff after the incident. "I feel all right at the moment, actually, but I am too weak for work," he said in a raspy voice, a consequence of the chair leg passing through his throat.

But he holds no grudges against 20-year-old Liam Peart, who yesterday pleaded guilty to a charge of negligently causing serious injury on January 21.

"I forgive him, totally," Mr Fahkri said, a sentiment confirmed by Peart's barrister Duncan Allen, SC, in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Link (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

MAKE: founder/publisher Dale Dougherty attended Robodock 2007, the 10th Robodock Arts & Technology Festival that took place in Amsterdam last weekend. When he returned, Dale created a mesmerizing video slideshow of what he saw. Dale said Robodock was "enchanting." His photographs certainly convey that sensation. Link

Sara sez, "The New Zeland police have launched a wiki open at anyone wanting to edit and make suggestions to the Police Act as part of a wider revamp. New Zealand's current Police Act is nearly 50 years old. In March 2006 a review undertaken. Following this a new website wiki.policeact.govt.nz has been launched to allow people to suggest wording for the new Policing Act. It uses similar wiki technology to the popular user-generated site Wikipedia. The wiki version of the Policing Act will be viewed by New Zealand parliamentarians, before an official bill is introduced into Parliament."

NZ Police Superintendent Hamish McCardle, the officer in charge of developing the new act, said the initiative had already been described as a "new frontier of democracy".

"People are calling it 'extreme democracy' and perhaps it is," he said.

"It's a novel move but when it comes to the principles that go into policing, the person on the street has a good idea ... as they are a customer," he said.

"They've got the best idea about how they want to be policed."

Link (Thanks, Sara!)

Ken sez, "In China, the massively multiplayer online game King of the World has banned all accounts of men who play female characters, and is requiring players to validate their gender via webcam in order to play females. (I wonder if women can play male characters w/o validation). Aurora Technology, the maker of the game, apparently stipulates in the Terms of Service that only female gamers can play female characters in the game."

Shanda (Nasdaq: SNDA) subsidiary Aurora Technology has frozen game accounts of male players who chose to play female in-game characters in its in-house developed MMORPG King of the World, reports 17173. Aurora stipulates that onl1y female gamers can play female characters in the game, and it requires gamers who chose female characters to prove their biological sex with a webcam, according to the report.

Link (Thanks, Ken!)

Copyright lawyers from Harvard's Berkman Center have written an article in the Harvard Crimson excoriating the Harvard Coop bookstore for claiming that its prices are "intellectual property."

We're not sure what "intellectual property" right the Coop has in mind, but it's none that we recognize. Nor is it one that promotes the progress of science and useful arts, as copyright is intended to do. While intellectual property may have become the fashionable threat of late, even in the wake of the Recording Industry Association of America's mass litigation campaign the catch-phrase--and the law--has its limits.

Since the Coop's managers don't seem to have read the law books on their shelves, we'd like to offer them a little Copyright 101.

Link (Thanks, Wendy!)

See also:
Harvard Coop calls cops on students who wrote down textbook ISBNs
Harvard bookstore: Our prices are "property"

BoingBoing reader Bob says,

The world's toughest animal (see Boing Boing post from last year) has been sent into space. Tardigrades (aka Water Bears) can survive incredibly harsh conditions, including freezing to near absolute zero, extreme vacuum and radiation. Exposed to open space on the Russian FOTON M3 satellite, tardigrades are the first animals tested and perhaps the best candidate on earth for surviving space travel.

Link, Researchers' blog. Image: courtesy Willow Gabriel and Bob Goldstein.

BoingBoing buddy Gareth Branwyn of StreetTech says,

UK steampunk/macabre artist AlexCF continues to outdo himself. Each of his dusty, time-worn kits and cabinets of wonder get more ambitious and layered with staggering amounts of detail. His latest piece is called the Bio-Etheric Laboratory: Experiments in Reanimation. Amongst the familiar antique bottles, unnaturalist notebooks and field drawings, candles, antique labware, and other curious artifacts sits a severed ape forearm. An animatronic severed ape forearm. Appropriately, it's powered by a knife switch mounted on the case, so you can have hours of fun playing the modern Prometheus. And just in time for Halloween!

Link

Noah Shachtman of Wired News (who just got back from Iraq) says,

You might think your anonymous online rants are oh-so-clever.   But they'll give you away, too.  A federally-funded artificial intelligence lab is figuring out how to track people over the Internet, based on how they write.

The University of Arizona's ultra-ambitious "Dark Web" project "aims to systematically collect and analyze all terrorist-generated content on the Web," the National Science Foundation notes.  And that analysis, according to the Arizona Star, includes a program which "identif[ies] and track[s] individual authors by their writing styles."

Link

Artist Michael Sullivan is making a movie called “The Sex Life of Robots,” and he has a robot porn installation going on display at the Museum of Sex in NYC this week. Snip from Wired item by Dylan Tweney:

While making an animated war movie featuring armies of battling robots, filmmaker Michael Sullivan began to get a new idea: His film should feature non-stop robot sex.

The Sex Life of Robots centers around a robot baby and his mother scanning their home computer for porn. It shows -- in graphic detail -- the scenes of robot coitus that pop up on their screen. "It's supposed to be like a silent robot porno movie from another planet," Sullivan explains. Despite the subject matter, Sullivan's creation exhibits a high degree of artistry. His eye for detail gives his movies a gritty, industrialized atmosphere, as you can see in this preview Sex Life of Robots. Warning: the video is not safe for work (NSFW).

Link

The Department of Homeland Security has compiled a huge database of travelers -- including, perhaps, you. With these simple forms, you can request a copy of your own file -- and it's free (except for the photocopying charge).

The Department of Homeland Security already knows everything about your travel. Now, for the first time, The Identity Project makes it easy for you to request the unclassified parts of the dossier that the DHS has complied on you...

Are you prepared to find out for yourself the outrageous amount of personal information Homeland Security has been vacuuming-up on you?

Link (via Consumerist)

As feared, the military regime that controls Myanmar (Burma) has begun to forcefully crack down on peacefully protesting monks. While foreign journalists are banned, some photos of protests this week are showing up on Flickr, and protest video footage is available on news sites like Democratic Voice of Burma (based in Norway, run by Burmese expats, see Wikipedia).

Shown here, a shot uploaded to Flickr yesterday by "gmhembree" -- "A monk bleeds from his head where he was beaten during the clash with police. This is on U Thaung Po road, east of Shwedagon." More photos here, and a search for "Burma" plus "monk" yields more.

Snip from BBC item:

Several thousand Burmese monks and other protesters have begun new marches in Rangoon despite a bloody crackdown by police at the city's holiest shrine.

Police beat and arrested demonstrators at Shwedagon Pagoda and warning shots were fired at another site as a ninth day of marching got under way.

One march started for the city centre while another headed for the home of opposition head Aung San Suu Kyi. Police and troops are surrounding key Buddhist sites around the city. Analysts fear a repeat of the violence in 1988, when troops opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing thousands.

And (yesterday) BoingBoing reader Rick told us,

The Burma campaign's sources in Rangoon say soldiers have been ordered to shave their heads and 3,000 monks' robes have been bought so that the military could infiltrate the protesters, spark violence and the Junta can launch a crackdown.

Below, another snapshot of protests before the military attacked, by Flickr user racoles.

(Thanks, John Parres)