Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels, this beautiful street-sign logo from Belgrade, Serbia, warning drivers of kids crossing -- but doing so with positively Scott McCloud-esque frame-bursting infographic goodness. Link

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is hiring a new webmaster. Opportunities to do this kind of geek work don't come up very often, and EFF is an amazing place to work, as I can personally attest.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an Internet civil liberties nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, is seeking a full-time webmaster to start immediately. This person will be responsible for managing content and building web features on eff.org, and helping to build and maintain EFF's web initiatives and campaigns.

The environment is fast-paced; the work is cutting-edge. A love of technology and familiarity with related civil liberties issues is a must.

Link

This Instructables teaches you how to make a nifty round Captain America shield out of a barbecue grill (ironically, the grill is probably made in China!). Link (Thanks, Amy!)

Antigua has won the right to pirate $21 million worth of US copyrights in the World Trade Court, because the US violated the World Trade Organization agreement when it banned Antiguan Internet casinos. The US was an extremely aggressive promoter of the WTO around the world, leaning on countries to drop trade protections that gave their own industries advantages over US competitors -- and now the US is being held to the same standard, hoist on its own petard.

By pressing its claim, trade lawyers said, Antigua could set a precedent for other countries to sue the United States for unfair trade practices, potentially opening the door to electronic piracy and other dubious practices around the world.

Still, carrying out the ruling will prove difficult, the lawyers say.

"Even if Antigua goes ahead with an act of piracy or the refusal to allow the registration of a trademark, the question still remains of how much that act is worth," said Brendan McGivern, a trade lawyer with White & Case in Geneva.

"The Antiguans could say that's worth $50,000, and then the U.S. might say that's worth $5 million." He predicted that "the U.S. is going to dog them on every step of the way."

Link (Thanks, Lee and Robbo!)

The incredible artist Robert Williams -- outlaw hot rodder, underground comix pioneer, and father of "Lowbrow Art" -- has a shiny new Web site. It's Flash, but it's gorgeous. Seen here, "In the Pavillion of the Red Clown." Link

The Washington Post reports today that the FBI is launching a $1 billion project to build the world's largest database of individuals' physical characteristics. The effort would give the American government unprecedented abilities to ID people here and overseas. Snip:

Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.

"Bigger. Faster. Better. That's the bottom line," said Thomas E. Bush III , assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, which operates the database from its headquarters in the Appalachian foothills.

Link

Here's George W. Bush's marvelous cover of REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." George's vocal stylings remind me of his father's excellent collaboration with Emergency Broadcast Network, the 1991 cover of "We Will Rock You." Link to "End of the World," Link to "We Will Rock You." (Thanks, Vann Hall and David Fox!)

Scott Beale blogs,

“IM IN UR MANGER KILLING UR SAVIOR” is hilarious animated short about three nerds who turn a nativity scene into a LARP battle. It was hand created over a year by Ben Levin and Matt Burnett of the animation studio For Tax Reasons.

Link

My friend Dale Dougherty (editor and publisher of Maker Media) sent this to me for Boing Boing. He writes:

I just completed two plus hours of training in the prevention of sexual harassment. Thanks to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's flirtatious ways in his he-man days, California has a law (AB 1825) that "requires employers with more than 50 people to provide 2 hours of training and education to all supervisory employees." (Learning to spell 'harassment' correctly is a challenge itself - one 'r', not two, and two 's's; pronunciation is another issue.)

So I'm able to meet this requirement by taking an online course that teaches about "protected characteristics" and other terms. "Real-world" legal cases are presented throughout. At times, I thought I was reading Aesop's Fables, but with the "moral" of the story presented as multiple choice. Most of the lessons have the tone of a humorless teacher: "Employees should never use email or any business communication system to send or receive rumors or gossip, or to make disparaging or defamatory remarks about anyone." I felt like a student in the back of class wanting to say: "yeah, that never happens."

So I was surprised to read that the subject of one of these fables was Koko the Gorilla.

Case Study: Gorilla Suit

Kendra was a research associate for The Gorilla Foundation. As part of her duties, Kendra helped care for Koko, the sign-language talking gorilla.

Using sign language, Koko is able to communicate with humans. Over the years, Koko has repeatedly requested that female human visitors display their breasts to her. In fact, certain of Koko's hand movements were interpreted as a "demand" by Koko to see exposed human nipples.

Accordingly, when Koko made the signs about Kendra, Koko's primary caregiver instructed Kendra to expose her breasts to Koko as a way to bond with the great ape.

Although Kendra used to regularly dress in front of the pet parrot that lived in the Foundation's women's locker room, Kendra is uncomfortable with Koko's "demand."

This scenario is based on a 2005 case called Keller v. The Gorilla Foundation. Could Kendra complain that she was sexually harassed?

* No, because Kendra exposed herself to the Foundation's parrot and Koko wanted Kendra do the same thing.

* Probably not, because Koko is not a human.

* Only if she first "signs" to Koko that she will not indulge Koko's request.

* Yes, and the Foundation was required to take effective action to stop the harassment from continuing.

You can't make this stuff up, especially the detail about the pet parrot. David Pescovitz wrote about "Koko's Nipple Fetish" in 2005 on BoingBoing, citing the story in the San Francisco Chronicle. Now it has made itself into state-mandated training materials.

Note: I don't mean to make light of sexual harassment but, honestly, I don't work with gorillas.

The government of Iceland is asking US authorities why an Icelandic tourist who'd flown to NYC to shop and hang out over the holidays was held in shackles before being deported from the US:

The woman, Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, 33, was arrested Sunday [December 9] when she arrived at JFK airport in New York because she had overstayed a U.S. visa more than 10 years earlier.

Lillendahl, 33, had planned to shop and sightsee with friends, but endured instead what she has claimed was the most humiliating experience of her life.

She contended she was interrogated at JFK airport for two days, during which she was not allowed to call relatives. She said she was denied food and drink for part of the time, and was photographed and fingerprinted.

On Monday, Lillendahl claimed, her hands and feet were chained and she was moved to a prison in New Jersey, where she was kept in a cell, interrogated further and denied access to a phone.

Link. (via Ned Sublette)

Saxtor says "The URL is to a PDF of the front page of the 12/14/2007 Lewiston Tribune (Idaho). Above the fold appeared a photograph of Michael Millhouse, painting a sign on the window of a business. But below the fold, he appeared again, in a still taken from a convenience store where a wallet containing $600 was lifted. Due to his size, and the fact that he was wearing the same clothes, he was easily identified and caught."

Link to PDF of front page | Supplemental article from Spokane, WA's Spokesman Review

Ruben Fleischer directed this music video for "Pro Nails," by Kid Sister, featuring Kanye West. The liberal use of breakdancing fingernails makes it excellent. Via this Antville post. (Thanks, Susannah Breslin!)

Jon says: A ten year old boy who was raised by wolves has escaped from a Moscow clinic. He bites and snarls and acts all crazy, just like you'd expect a boy raised by wolves to act. And man, has he got some of the coolest toenails I've ever seen.

The boy moves around with his legs half bent, said Tvoi Den newspaper. "He was running with wolves and searching for food with them."

Villagers found this "wild creature" in a lair made of leaves and sticks in freezing temperatures and told the police who named him Lyokha, though his real identity is not known.

Link

I get an awful lot of books sent to me every week, and I can't begin to read them all. Here are a few that stood out:

Link Get a Hobby!: 101 All-Consuming Diversions for Any Lifestyle, by Tina Barseghian.

I like to dabble with things I know nothing about, and Get a Hobby! is full of ideas I've never considered. African violet cultivation, ant farming, balloon twisting, beekeeping, bell ringing, bike customizing, bonsai, coffee roasting, composting, deejaying, docenting, dumpster diving, falconry, gilding, ikebana, mushroom hunting, seed trading, topiary, treasure hunting, and whittling are just a few of the hobbies Barseghian covers.

Only two pages are devoted to each hobby, so this shouldn't be considered an in-depth how-to guide. It's more of an introduction to the hobbies, with pointers to resources and an occasional sample project.

A Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My, by Tove Jansson

I don't know how this book ended up on my shelf. It just appeared one day when I was looking for something to read to my 4-year-old daughter. It's an English translation of an odyssey undertaken by a hippo-like creature named Moomin and two girls, Mymble and Little My. The art is a strange delight and the pages have holes cut in them to add a nonlinear twist to the story. Whoever gave me this book -- thank you!

Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters: Defending the Earth with Ultraman and Godzilla, by August Ragone

Eiji Tsuburaya the Japanese special effects director for the classic Japanese monster movies like Godzilla, Ultraman. This biographyis packed with hundreds of photos, film stills, and concept drawings. This hardcover edition is beautifully designed. I'm not a huge fan of Japanese monster movies, but this book might turn me into one.

The Subgenius Psychlopaedia of Slack: The Bobliographon, edited by Rev. Ivan Stang

Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) once told me that the Church of the SubGenius was not a joke. I agree. It's the only religion I can take seriously. There are deep truths buried in the pages of this zine-like book of high-weirdness, false conspiracies, idiot synchronicities, and tales of the mystic supersalesman, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs. SubGenius ministers include: Pee-wee Herman, David Byrne, Mark Mothersbaugh, Penn Jillette, Robert Anton Wilson, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, and me.

Millions of Muslim faithful will make their pilgrimage to Mecca soon for the Hajj. This year, they'll have Wi-Fi:

Thanks to Aptilo Networks and Tropos Networks, after the estimated three million pilgrims walk seven times counter-clockwise around the Kaaba and kiss (or simply point at) the sacred Black Stone, they can then MapQuest directions to Muzdalifah and perhaps IM a friend or give them a call using VoWi-Fi, so they can meet up and gather the pebbles they will need to perform the ritual of Stoning the Devil at Mina. Pilgrims can also access the streaming video at the official Ministry of Hajj web site, which sagely warns (in English), "Be peaceful, orderly, and kind. No crushing.

Link to Wi-Fiplanet.com item.

Incidentally, on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's website for the Ministry of Hajj, there's one page titled "How modern technology has been employed to facilitate the Hajj." Snip:

A sophisticated broadcasting network has been installed to cope with the requirements of the Hajj. The safety and comfort of the Hajjis has become a major concern for the authorities, necessitated by their sheer volume in recent years. The newly laid floor tiles were made of specially developed heat-resistant marble, and to further ensure the comfort of worshippers the whole structure is cooled by one of the world's largest air-conditioning units.

Tim asks: "Does ANYONE understand this offer? I showed it to several college-educated people, and not one of them had any idea what item had to be purchased, or what the customer could expect to receive." Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Poorly thought-out label: Hershey's (non) chocolate milk
• Silly shipping label for wine
• Bad info-graphic: Ikea shopping hours chart

DrO says: "A team of scientists led by the University of East Anglia, Norwich, has discovered the existence of 'grandparent' helpers in the Seychelles warbler -- the first time this behavior, which rarely occurs except in humans, has been observed in birds."

The study found that dominant females can be deposed from their breeding position by younger relatives. While some deposed females may then leave to live out a solitary life, a large proportion will stay to help these related females (often daughters) to reproduce.

“Because the subordinate females are helping to raise offspring they are related to, they are helping to produce more birds and increasing the spread of their genes,” said Dr Richardson.

“For those birds prevented from breeding because of a lack of suitable habitat, this is an effective strategy. They are helping their daughters to raise their grandchildren by helping to protect and provision these offspring. This has never been seen in birds.”

Dr Richardson added: “It is important because it provides a case that may reflect what happens in humans and gives us a way of looking at what pressures are creating these ‘grandparent’ helpers.

Link

pork
unified theory
flowchart
of the month
placemat
bacon cheese baconburger
soap
chocolate chip cookies
ice cream

Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Does our hair and fingernails keep growing after we die? Do we only use 10% of our brains? Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine debunked a collection of medical myths that are familiar to all of us, even though there's no scientific evidence to support the claim. They published their results in the current issue of the scientific journal BMJ. From the paper:

Physicians understand that practicing good medicine requires the constant acquisition of new knowledge, though they often assume their existing medical beliefs do not need re-examination. These medical myths are a light hearted reminder that we can be wrong and need to question what other falsehoods we unwittingly propagate as we practice medicine. We generated a list of common medical or medicine related beliefs espoused by physicians and the general public, based on statements we had heard endorsed on multiple occasions and thought were true or might be true. We selected seven for critical review:

• People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day
• We use only 10% of our brains
• Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death
• Shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, or coarser
• Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight
• Eating turkey makes people especially drowsy
• Mobile phones create considerable electromagnetic interference in hospitals.

Link

Today's Boing Boing tv episode:

Nobody can get enough of maniacally marauding, soused Santas with permanently erect middle fingers. That's why we're posting part 2 of Boing Boing tv's breaking! news! coverage! of this year's Santarchy / Santacon hijinks from Los Angeles.

Link to BBtv video and comments. Previously: Santarchy part 1.

Five years ago, Dave Winer made a "long bet" with New York Times executive Martin Nisenholtz: "In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times' Web site."

Five years later, Rogers Cadenhead has done the math and concludes that blogs are edging out the Times (but that other mainstream media outlets are beating both of them -- thanks to the NYT having squandered the golden years of cheap googlejuice acquisition by erecting a registration and paywall on their content, causing them to fall behind less well-known, but more readily linked news-sources).

Most interesting of all is that Wikipedia (only a year old in 2002) is clobbering both of them -- more proof that the future is weirder than we can know. In 2002, it seemed like the two choices were "amateurs you trust" or "unbiased, accurate, and coherent" information from an "authoritative source." In reality, the third, unforeseen choice was "a horde of nameless, faceless amateurs who are not required to prove expertise in the subjects they cover."

Whenever someone asks you which of two futures you think is more likely, your best bet is always "none of the above." Link (via Kottke)

It's been a little more than two months since we launched Boing Boing tv, and we've decided that producing a daily internet show just isn't enough. Meet BBtv vlogs!

OK, seriously: starting today, we'll be releasing these additional videoblog segments in addition to the every-weekday Boing Boing tv episodes. All of it will be offered in the same RSS feed. The vlogs won't be every single day all the time, but we're going to have fun with them.

What's the difference? The BBtv vlogs will be casual, conversational stuff we mostly tape ourselves, wherever we are. They'll feature Boing Boing editors talking about things, people, ideas, places, technologies we're fascinated by. They're more like video diaries, I guess? Only less emo, no ranting about your YouTube enemies, and ffs no dance contests.

So, imagine Pesco talking with one of those artists he blogs about, or Cory wandering around in Tokyo with a handheld camera pointing out cool stuff he's seeing that day, or Joel Johnson from Boing Boing Gadgets talking about about little infrared controlled helicopters or retro-tech radios -- oh hey, wait! That's the vlog episode we're publishing today, our very first.

And Joel, if you have never seen him speak before, is quite a funny guy. His video diary stylee is sort of like HSN meets America's Funniest Home Videos meets Slackers*.

Oh, and: check out the fresh opening animation created by BBtv editor Laura Lopez!

-- Xeni Jardin

(* thanks for the ganked line, Jolon!)

Today in my continuing series of photos from my travels, Patrick Nielsen Hayden's 2007 Hugo Award for Best Editor, on proud display at Tor Books in the Flatiron Building in Manhattan. I've fondled a lot of Hugos in my day, but this Ultraman one -- given out at the first-ever Japanese Worldcon in Yokohama -- is easily the coolest one EVAR. See also my gallery of photos from the ceremony. Link

Today's xkcd webcomic nails the writer's strike in one: I don't miss sitcoms, but I can barely parse the presidential nomination campaigns without Jon Stewart and the Daily Show. Those cats should break their Viacom contracts, do a startup and start webcasting -- they'd make a mint. Link

See also: Daily Show writer explains writers' strike -- if digital content isn't worth anything, how come Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion?

Artist Adam Wallacavage makes these gorgeous, tentacled "Pulsatilla" chandeliers -- presently on exhibit at New York's Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Link (via JWZ)

I love this idea of this Cablet, a carpet designed by Paul Kogelnig with built-in conduit for passing your cables through, keeping them off the floor. I've just set up a new office and I'm not at all happy about the wires crisscrossing the floor around my desk. Link (via Gizmodo)

Robbo sez,

ThinkFilm is releasing Alex Gibney's documentary "Taxi To The Dark Side" and submitted a poster for MPAA approval which featured a photo of two soldiers leading away a handcuffed and hooded man. The MPAA rejected it as being "not suitable for audiences of all ages".

The hypocrisy of this, in the face of posters for horror/slasher flicks like "Saw" and "Hostel", is astounding. Censorship pure and simple.

The photo used in the proposed poster is derived from an actual photograph which the army also tried to censor. The MPAA has also rejected a one-sheet for Roadside Attractions "The Road To Guantanamo" which featured a hooded man hanging by his wrists from handcuffs.

MPAA message? Torture for entertainment is suitable for all ages. Torture examined in a documentary is not.

ThinkFilm is appealing.

Link

See also:
This Film is Not Rated - must-see doc about MPAA ratings

A reader writes, "The Recording Industry Association of America wants to communicate with TV news audiences. The company I work for just distributed this video package nationwide to TV News Stations. It already aired in Dallas and one network and one major news gathering service have requested tapes. This thing could be all over the news this week. The video you see was preceded by graphics which told stations who paid for the content and named the spokesman. This is how the RIAA and other organizations get their news out in order to influence consumers." Link

The new Monorails just arrived at Disneyland and man, they are h4wt! Be sure to check out the OC Register's gallery of these massive beasts being transported and craned into place.

The first new monorail car in two decades slid onto the Disneyland track on Thursday as the theme park prepares for guests to ride it starting in late February.

Link (Thanks, Justin!)

(Image: New monorail arrives at Disneyland, downsized and cropped, original by Paul Hiffmeyer, Disney)

Carol Medenhall of Dibble, OK received two tickets: one for allowing her goats to be seen mating in her yard, and another for allowing her goats to be seen relieving themselves in her yard.

City law said it is illegal for any two animals to have sex in public within Dibble city limits.

It's also against law for them to relieve themselves in public even if the animal is fenced in on private land.

Link

At Etsy, cOveTableCuriOsitIEs is selling this beautiful 1920s label from a product called Bed Bug Murder. As the label says, "Bed Bugs are Terrible." It's just $10 and there's only one for sale.
Link (via Seven Deadly Sinners)

Next time a disaster strikes in Texas, evacuees will be subject to a "criminal background check" to determine which bus to board, reports the Houston Chronicle.

The idea, according to Jack Colley [the state's emergency management director], is to keep sex offenders and others who may be wanted by police off the same buses used by the most vulnerable during an evacuation: the elderly, disabled residents and children.

"This will allow us to help them evacuate," Colley said of sex offenders and others wanted for crimes. "We're not going to leave anyone."

Though the intent is to make sure vulnerable evacuees aren't victimized, Colley acknowledged that culling sex offenders and other criminals from a herd of evacuees during a potentially chaotic evacuation comes with plenty of challenges.

"We'll be able to do it," he said of the task, declining to be more specific about the process because of safety concerns.

Earlier this month, it was announced AT&T Inc. has contracted with the Texas Governor's Division of Emergency Management to provide electronic wristbands for those residents wanting them, before they board an evacuation bus.

The wristbands would be scanned by emergency management officials and the person's name would be added to a bus boarding log. That person's name and their bus information would be sent wirelessly to the University of Texas Center for Space Research data center.

Link

Yesterday, I stopped by the GAMA-GO world headquarters where co-founder Chris Edmundson presented me with this fine holiday gift. It's a set of fake breasts that he purchased, oddly enough, at a dollar store in San Francisco. Each breast is essentially a heavy-duty balloon with a built in compressed air cartridge. Squeezing the cartridge causes the breast to inflate. The back of the breast is outfitted with double-stick tape to secure it to your person. They're available, at least in our fair city, from Daiso, a large Japan-based chain of hyakkin (100 yen shops) with outlets in the United States. Apparently, some sort of bird's beak-styled product for the groin area was also on sale. Interesting choice in stock for "Japan's No. 1 ranking livingware supplier." Click the photos for a better look. Thanks, Chris!

Previously on BB:
• Boing Boing hoodie by GAMA-GO! Link