When I moved to LA in summer 2006, I discovered that my neighborhood sported the best comics store I'd ever shopped: Secret Headquarters, a small, neat, welcoming boutique that focuses more on art and comics than vinyl toys. The staff picks were always perfect for me -- every time I walked in that place, I left with three or four graphic novels that knocked my socks off.

Now, Caroline sez, "Secret Headquarters is my favorite comic book store too! They've been nominated on MyFox Los Angeles' 2007 hot list--let's give them our support!" Link

Tornado Potatoes -- new street-food from South Korea. It's a spiral-cut potato, deep fried and dusted with tangy cheezy powder. Yes, it's unhealthy, but the Koreans have a long way to go if they're going to bridge the US-Korean junk-food gap -- hello, deep-fried Coca-Cola! Get that potato some whipped mayo and maybe some rat-poison (or plutonium) and we'll be in business. Link (via Neatorama)

Zend PHP Con is coming to San Francisco Oct 8-11, a kind of gathering of the tribes for PHP hackers from all over the world. I'm giving one of the keynotes, along with Joel "on Software" Spolsky. Hope to see you there! Link

A group of Star Wars trufans in New York meets regularly at a dance-studio to practice their lightsaber "fighting" -- doing yoga, meditation and then lightsaber choreography.

"The thing is, when you hold a lightsaber, you want to use it!" says General Sun as he flips the switch on his lightsaber. It powers up with the signature hum of voltage, like an electric razor on mescaline, and the tube radiates solid white. "So the new ones have the noise chip, and they're thicker," he says. "They're made for dueling." Behind him, the other customers glance nervously at the growing circle of swordsmen and their blades.

"The nerd element of being a Jedi is pretty obvious," Cyran Oghma says. "We're all huge nerds. But it's more than that, more than Star Wars. If you base yourself on a character who has high personal ethics and a high level of skill and confidence, there is no way that's not going to influence who you really are."

Link (Thanks, Bonnie!)

Today on the brilliant nerdy webcomic xkcd: a trenchant and very funny commentary on online sexism, especially as practiced in the techier corners of the net. Link

See also:
Cory Doctorow cosplayers at the XKCD picnic
Geeky comic strip uses Cory as the punchline
Geeky comic about chess and roller-coasters
Xkcd fans bring chess-sets on roller-coasters
Nerd humor about Katamari Damacy
Bloggin' 'bout my generation
Pi joke
Funny map of online communities in the style of a D&D map
Sarcastic comic about computational linguistics (and emo kids)
Where LOLCats come from
Ironic Internet malapropism grid

This artwork by infamous Beat author, artist, and firearm enthusiast William S. Burroughs is currently listed for a live auction on eBay. Titled "Eight Bullets," the piece consists of, er, eight bullets. The spent bullets don't appear to be mounted and the work doesn't seem to be signed. It's part of a large Phillips de Pury & Company auction in New York City of items from avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson's loft. Absentee bidding on these bullets starts at $200 and the estimated selling price is $300 to $500. Link to eBay auction, Link to Phillips de Pury lot page

Klassic Komix Klub Vol 3 -- Johnny Ryan's hideous, sickening, revolting, vile, lewd, obscene, nauseating, puerile, infantile, distasteful, foul, nasty, vomitous, loathsome, offensive, appalling, outrageous, objectionable, shocking, horrifying, scandalous, monstrous, unspeakable, shameful, vile, odious, obnoxious, detestable, hateful, contemptible, despicable, deplorable, and abominable comic book -- is now available!

Klassic Komix Klub #3 —- the spanking-new sequel to Klassic Komix Klub #2, published in Spring 2007 —- is a limited edition comic recently self-published by Johnny. KKK #3 collects 24 highly scatological, not-for-the-squeamish classic literature parody strips into one gorgeous package, wrapped up in a display-worthy three-color letterpress printed (on fancy paper with bright inks) wraparound cover produced by Buenaventura Press. Only 200 copies were produced and we have limited quantities available. Each copy is signed and numbered. Various inks and papers were used, the pic above shows samples of what you might receive. Please note that Johnny's last few parody books sold out extremely fast; also these are not available in stores. Only $10.

Link

Pie & Hammer has a scan of an entrance exam for MIT. Link (Thanks, Lily!)

An Austrian provincial judge refused today to declare that Matthew Hiast Pan, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, is a person. Now, animal rights activists intend to take the case to the country's Supreme Court. According to the Association Against Animal Factories, "personhood" is the only way to make sure that Pan, who previously lived in a now-bankrupt shelter, doesn't end up under nasty ownership outside of Austria. From the Associated Press:

The Association Against Animal Factories says it's not trying to get Pan declared a human, but rather a person, which would give some legal status. Otherwise, he is legally a thing.

"The question is: Are chimps things without interests, or persons with interests?" Balluch said.

"A large section of the public does see chimps as beings with interests," he said. "We are looking forward to hear what the high court has to say on this fundamental question."

Link (Thanks, Xeni!)

Seen here is a Google Earth image of US Navy barracks in Coronado, California. The US Navy has now budgeted $600,000 to cover up the swastika shape through the installation of solar panels and various landscape modifications. They were encouraged to do the modifications by several parties, including US Rep Susan Davis, Anti-Defamation League regional director Morris Casuto, and radio talk show host Dave vonKleist.

Navy officials say the shape of the buildings, designed by local architect John Mock, was not noted until after the groundbreaking in 1967 -- and since it was not visible from the ground, a decision was made not to make any changes...

"I don't ascribe any intentionally evil motives to this," Casuto said, referring to the design. "It just happened. The Navy has been very good about recognizing the problem. The issue is over."

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

The kids in my daughter's preschool were asked to describe their current feelings and why they felt that way. I enjoyed their answers, so I took photos and uploaded them to Flickr. Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• "What happens to people when they get old?"
• Tio Nacho soap
• The Farm

A new scientific study on rats suggests that low to moderate drinking of alcohol may actually improve memory. The researchers at the University of Auckland and Ohio State University studied how giving alcohol to genetically-engineered rats affected a particular neuronal receptor that's essential to memory. From Scientific American:

According to (University of Auckland researcher Maggie) Kalev, it is hard to relate the alcohol the rats consumed to human quantities, but "based on their blood alcohol levels, the 2.5 percent ethanol diet was equivalent to a level of consumption that does not exceed [the] legal driving limit. This may be approximately one to two drinks per day for some people or two to three for others, depending upon their size, metabolism or genetic background..."

Among the normal rats, the animals that consumed moderate amounts of alcohol fared better on both tests compared with the teetotalers. Rats on a heavy alcohol diet did not do well on object recognition (and, in fact, showed signs of neurotoxicity), but they performed better than their normal brethren on the emotional memory task.

"People often drink to 'drown sorrows,'" Kalev says. "Our results suggest that this could actually paradoxically promote traumatic memories and lead to further drinking, contributing to the development of alcoholism."

Link

"What do an executed prisoner from Texas, a former UN official and an eccentric Cornish aristocrat have in common? They've all had their death masks made by sculptor and Alabama 3 member Nick Reynolds." Link. (image above: Linda Nylind/Guardian UK)

Smoking weed during a brain scan is harder than it sounds: Link (Wired Science).

A roundup of corporate workplace surveillance techniques. Yes, your boss is spying on you. Link (Popular Mechanics)

Here are some surprisingly lifelike rat and fish shoes: Link. Here is a discussion of trippy-ass shoes with backward heels: Link. (manolo the shoeblogger)

What better new weapon to fight AIDS/HIV in Ethiopia than coffee-flavored condoms: Link, here's the organization that produces them: Link (EthioBlog).

About.com sexuality guide Cory Silverberg says, "Last year I read on BoingBoing about comedian Cathy Carlson who was denied a trademark for her "You Cum Like A Girl" t-shirts: Link. I've blogged about the sad ending to this tale here (she appealed and lost). Link."

REDRUM cupcakes made in honor of Stephen King's 60th birthday. Link.

I was listening to old Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan records the other night while working (sort of) on my laptop, and idly searched for "qawalli" on Flickr in a moment of procrastination. Flickr led me to these lovely photos taken by Akshay Mahajan of qawalli musicians at a mosque in his hometown of Mumbai, India. I especially love this shot of the Sufi singer's personal effects, and the black and white shot below. Akshay has a post about the scene he shot, here: Link. More about the music here.

(Thanks, Siege, sabrina, Emeka Okafor, Manolo, Instapundit)!

A salt lick looks beautiful after cows lick it many times. Here's a link to an art show auction of salt licks, with cash prizes for the best salt licks. All proceeds will go to the Parkinson Center of Oregon at OSHU. Link (Thanks, Garth!)

Wagner James Au has a writeup and pictures from a recent "in-world" labor protest that took place in Second Life. The company in question: IBM. The aggrieved: 1850 avatars, including some bananas and triangles. Link.

Previously:

Strikers picket IBM in Second Life

BB reader Brian Corcoran says,

VBS.TV recently did a story on Scopolamine, a substance commonly referred to as "Devils Breath" in Colombia, where it is a common street drug.

This stuff is as close to pure evil as it gets, a tiny amount of the powder administered to the victim causes one of two effects, a) death, or b) complete loss of free will. Criminals are usually hoping for the latter, as it enables them to tell victims to empty their bank accounts, give away their car, perform sex acts, basically whatever the criminal dictates.

This is where Scopolamine has got its reputation as the "zombie drug", victims appear completely sober and rational, but they're really just automatons.

Video Link to VBS.tv story, which documents contributor Ryan Duffy's scopolamine investigation in 9 parts (Flash 9 required). Here's a CNN followup piece.

I'm more familiar with the non-street variety of scopolamine used in much smaller doses as a anti-motion sickness remedy, by prescription in the USA. It's half of a legal drug cocktail known as "ScopeDex" (Scopolamine + Dexedrine), sometimes taken by astronauts and those in training to prevent nausea and vomiting in altered gravity environments (for instance, on "vomit comet" flights). When I flew on an inaugural Zero-G flight for press and celebs a few years ago, ScopeDex was recommended as one way to avoid puking during the flight. I didn't take it, because anything that comes from jimson weed (and other datura relatives) has gotta be evil in my book. But others who've done zero gravity flights (with NASA and otherwise) teased me for passing it up, and joked that scopedex was like a "legal speedball," not to be missed.

Scopolamine recently popped up in the news as a treatment for bipolar disorder and depression: Link. The drug also has history as a sort of truth serum administered in interrogation environments -- it was used by the CIA in the 1960s, during the MKULTRA program. Woohoo, good times!

Harry shot a short video of a wooden plank attached to a very high cliff on the windy top of Huashan mountain in China. Link

I very much like these cakes of soap in the shape of immature humans' hands. A bag of them will set you back $20.

Creep everyone out in your guest bathroom. Each soap is shaped like a little hand! The soaps range from 1/2” to 2”.

You will get at least 10 hands (at least/about 100 grams of soap). This soap is made from goat’s milk and vegetable glycerin with a light scent. Your hands come packaged in a pretty bag…all ready for gifting to a friend with dirty paws!

Link

If there were ever a perfect example of why America needs wireless network neutrality, this is it. And FWIW, I'd feel the same way if the messages in question were anti-abortion.

Verizon Wireless last week rejected a request last week from the abortion rights group NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) to send txts over the Verizon network to subscribers who chose to receive them.

SMS "call to action" messages are a common tactic in the US and elsewhere for political and social advocacy groups, and Verizon's network is often used in this manner, as are all the other major US carriers. Txting isn't just for pro-choicers or lefties, either: conservative groups and the Republican National Committee do this too.

Anyway -- Verizon denied NARAL's request, saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text-messages. After much outcry over the last couple of days, Verizon has now reversed its decision. Snip from NYT story by Adam Liptak:

“The decision to not allow text messaging on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect, and we have fixed the process that led to this isolated incident,” Jeffrey Nelson, a company spokesman, said in a statement.

“It was an incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy,” Mr. Nelson said. “That policy, developed before text messaging protections such as spam filters adequately protected customers from unwanted messages, was designed to ward against communications such as anonymous hate messaging and adult materials sent to children.”

Verizon's Nelson goes on to say that the company is "neutral" on the issue of abortion, and it was the topic of abortion in general that raised the red flag.

Whatever. Verizon's decision, whether the result of an isolated goof or not, should be a cause for concern for anyone who values free speech -- online and otherwise.

More from the NYT piece:

“Even as dramatic as the adoption of text messaging for political communication has been in the United States, we’ve been quite slow compared to the rest of the world,” said James E. Katz, the director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University. “It’s important in political campaigns and political protests, and it has affected the outcomes of elections.”

Timothy Wu, a law professor at Columbia, said it was possible to find analogies to Verizon’s decision abroad. “Another entity that controls mass text messages is the Chinese government,” Professor Wu said.

Read the whole article, there's some fascinating history in here about Western Union blocking "unsavory" messages back in the telegraph days.

Link. Here's an AP account: Link.

Endpapers are the inside covers and facing pages of books. Today, endpapers are almost always blank. But our more sophisticated forebears made good use of endpapers by adding thematic illustrations to them. Amy Crehore alerted me to this nice gallery of endpapers. (Shown here: The Junior Instructor, Book 1 reprinted in 1962 but originally from 1923.) Link

This 1951 photograph of a purported Yeti footprint was auctioned off at Christie's London for £3,500. Eric Earle Shipton took the photograph in the Himalayas. From the lot description:

'In 1951 Sen Tensing, Shipton, and I descended from the Menlung La ... at about 16,000-17,000 feet we came across a whole series of footprints in the snow, on the lower part of the glacier. There seemed to be two groups, one rather indistinct in outline leading on to the surrounding snowfields. The others were much more distinct with, in places, a markedly individual imprint etched in the 2- to 4-inch covering of snow. We had no means of measuring so after examining them Shipton took four photographs: two of the indistinct prints with myself, my footprints, and rucsac beside them for comparison; the other two photographs were of one of the most detailed and distinct group of prints, with my ice axe for scale, and a second one with my booted foot. The footprint was about the same length as my boot, and I take a size 42 continental, or 8½ British, which is about 12 to 13 inches long. The print was nearly twice as broad as my boot (3 to 4 inches) and had clear-cut edges in the crystalline snow on a base of firm snow ice. There was the definite imprint of a big toe that was broader and shorter than the other rather indistinct toes, of which there seemed to be four or five. We followed these tracks for some way down the easy glacier and noticed that whenever a narrow 6-inch-wide crevasse was crossed there seemed to be claw marks in the snow at the end of the toe imprints. ... Two days later we were joined by Murray and Bourdillon, who, after visiting the Nangpa La ... had followed our route into the Menlung Basin. All tracks had been deformed by the sun and wind.' (Michael Ward, 'Everest 1951: the footprints attributed to the Yeti -- myth and reality', Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, 8, 29-32 (1997)).

Link to Christie's lot, Link to Metro article Link

UPDATE: Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman has more on this story both before and after the auction.

Nate sez, "I've been a fan of eMusic's DRM-free tunes for some time, but I'm really impressed with their launch of a new download manager called 'eMusic Remote' for their store. It's all open-source, built on a core of Firefox to integrate the eMusic web store. Not only is it open-source, but it's been released for been launched for Linux, Windows and OSX all at the same time. It works as a standalone and it also integrates with iTunes, which solves the problem of having to maintain a separate library for your new downloads. Incidentally, the lead coder on the project was a guy by the name of Mel Reyes who wrote a book called 'Hacking Firefox: More than 150 Hacks & Mods' and a author of about a dozen add-ons for Firefox." Link (Thanks, Nate!)

If that Furries vs. Klingons bowling tournament ever happens, this might come in handy for the after-party! Not new, but full of instructional goodness. Snip:

A Klingon woman expects to be wooed with poetry, but the male should be prepared to duck. She will roar and fling heavy objects. Once the male has made some progress, she will claw at him. When she is prepared to mate, she will bite him on the face.

(...)Lesson Three: yIn DayajmeH 'oy' yISIQ To understand life, endure pain. For Klingons, pain is a spiritual test, and it can also be a celebration of life. Biting is an important part of Klingon mating, and a broken clavicle on the wedding night is considered a blessing upon the marriage.

Link, written by Spiletta 42. Sorta NSFW but mostly because you will be laughing too hard to be productive for the rest of the day.

Oh, and rrrrowr, the hottie in that photo can bite my face ANY TIME. (Thanks, Clayton Cubitt!)

These Mpion MP3 players include ion-emitting acne-zappers, so you can get rid of your zits by rubbing your walkman all over your face. Alas, it's only 128MB. Japanese Link Google Translate Link (via Geekologie)

Noah Shachtman of Wired "Danger Room" blog says,

The military often blocks websites for the oddest and most obscure of reasons. But this has to be one of the strangest digital blockades to date. The Army is choking off web and e-mail traffic with all companies who rely on Time Warner's servers for their online presence.

Link. One Army spokesperson later explained that the block of Time Warner internet services, including Road Runner (above), was in response to a security breach -- but the details still sound weird.

On Boing Boing Gadgets, our Joel has spotted these concept kitchen-knives that integrate "commonly-used kitchen utensils into the unused portions of standard chef's and paring knives." Super-smart! Link, Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets

Ridley Scott's final retake on Blade Runner, the influential 1982 film adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", will be released to select theaters in October followed by a DVD in December. The 1992 "director's cut," was a triumph of future noir, a film that stands the test of time more than almost any other science fiction movie. In the new issue of Wired, Ted Greenwald interviews Scott about this rev, titled Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Wired.com posted the interview that ran in the magazine, along with the full transcript and the audio of the original conversation. From the interview:

Wired: How did you decide to tell a 21st-century story in a 1940s style?
Scott: Well, people want a comfortable preconception about what they're seeing. It's a bit like 20 years of Westerns and, now, 45 years of cop movies. People are comfortable with the roles. Even though every nook and cranny has been explored, they'll still sit through endless variations on cops and bad guys, right? In this instance, I was doing a cop and a different bad guy. And to justify the creation of the bad guy, i.e., replication, it had to be in the future....

It's the same as trying to do a monster movie. You know, Alien is a C film elevated to an A film, honestly, by a great monster. In this instance, my special effect was the world. That's why I put together people like [industrial designer] Syd Mead who were actually serious futurists. The big test is saying, Draw me a car in 30 years' time, without it looking like bad science fiction. Or, Draw me an electric iron that will be pressing shirts in 20 years without it looking silly. I wanted the world to be futuristic and yet feel — not familiar, because it won't be — but feel authentic. One of the hardest sets to design was the kitchen. It's easy to fantasize about Tyrell's giant neo-Egyptianesque boardroom, but imagining a bathroom and kitchen in those times, that's tricky. Nevertheless, fascinating. I love the problem.

Link

This clip of giraffes fighting (basically, bashing their bodies against one another) was shot on safari in Tanzania. It gets pretty vicious. Link (via Neatorama)