Josh Glenn says:

In this new Brainiac item I crack the lowbrow literary mystery, "What -- if anything -- does the awesome and influential Black Sabbath song 'Iron Man' have to do with the Marvel superhero? Or the Ted Hughes kiddie book, for that matter?" Having puzzled out the solution to this question, over which metalheads continue to wrangle nearly 40 years later, I offer a theory about what the 1970 antiwar song has to teach us today. Just in time for the new "Iron Man" movie!

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In a PBS interview CNN founder Ted Turner says if global warming continues people will cut out the middlemen and start eating each other to survive.

If steps aren't taken to stem global warming, "We'll be eight degrees hotter in 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow," Turner said during a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with PBS's Charlie Rose that aired Tuesday.

"Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals," said Turner, 69. "Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state — like Somalia or Sudan — and living conditions will be intolerable."

It's probably a good time to buy stock in Soylent Green. Link (Thanks, Scott!)

Design collective Friends With You and wonderful toy maker Strangeco created this delightful series of characters called Wish Come True. Like old-school Weebles, the toys rock back and forth. Each one also has a little bell chime inside. Unlike most designer toys, Wish Come True characters are safe for little kids 18 months and up. I know my two-year-old will dig them! Link to Strangeco, Link to Wish Come True video

This fossilized shit is the best evidence that humans were living in North America 14,000 years ago, a millennium before the Clovis people, long thought to be the first Americans. Researchers from the University of Oregon studied the coprolites, found the crap in a cave in Oregon's Cascade Range. After the discovery, scientists at the University of Copenhagen's Center for Ancient Genetics analyzed DNA retrieved from the fossilized feces. The research was published today in the journal Science. From the New York Times:

Few artifacts were found at the cave, the discovery team reported, which suggested that the occupants’ visits were brief...

The researchers reported that 14 coprolites from the cave sediments were identified as being from humans. The laboratory studies showed that six samples had genetic signatures associated with American Indians and not shared by other groups.

Link (Thanks, Robert Pescovitz!)

In this video, Lego minfigs teach human biochemistry. Apparently, it was a collaboration between Dragonfilms and Brighton University biology students.
Link (via easternblot)

Upper Playground artist Jeremy Fish created this Barry the Beaver toy. You twist the tree stump and Barry vibrates. It's available for $45 for Ningyoushi.com, an incredible online supplier of Japanese toys, action figures, and designer toys. Denise from Ningyoushi told me that the 5" tall Barry the Beaver is Fish's "response to those stiff vinyl figures in the designer toy market." Sure it is...
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On Tuesday, a man broke into a funeral parlor in Madrid Spain. When police arrived, he tried to hide by playing dead in a glass chamber used for viewings. The cops nabbed him anyway. From the Associated Press:

"The custom here is for dead people to be dressed in suits, in nice clothes that look presentable. This guy was in everyday clothes that were wrinkled and dirty," the police official said...

"He was trying to fake being dead, but he was breathing," she said.

Link (via Fortean Times)

National Geographic's award-nominated feature on China's "instant cities" is online. It's a fascinating feature about the massive coastal manufacturing towns that now house 140 million people who've moved from the countryside as part of the largest migration in human history. It's split across eight screens, and there's at least one jaw-dropper per screen.

From the airport, driving south along the coast, I started with hinges—a stretch of road where the vast majority of billboards advertised every possible variation of the piece of metal used to swing a door. A mile later, the ads shifted to electric plugs and adapters. Then I reached a neighborhood of electric switches, followed by fluorescent lightbulbs, then faucets.

Deeper in the province, the shrines became more elaborate. At Qiaotou, I stopped to admire the 20-foot-high (six meters) silver statue of a button with wings that had been erected by the town elders. Qiaotou's population is only 64,000, but 380 local factories produce more than 70 percent of the buttons for clothes made in China. In Wuyi, I asked some bystanders what the local product was. A man reached into his pocket and pulled out three playing cards—queens, all of them. The city manufactures more than one billion decks a year. Datang township makes one-third of the world's socks. Songxia produces 350 million umbrellas every year. Table tennis paddles come from Shangguan; Fenshui turns out pens; Xiaxie does jungle gyms. Forty percent of the world's neckties are made in Shengzhou.

Everything is sold in a town called Yiwu. For the Zhejiang pilgrim, that's the promised land—Yiwu's slogan is "a sea of commodities, a paradise for shoppers." Yiwu is in the middle of nowhere, a hundred miles (160 kilometers) from the coast, but traders come from all over the world to buy goods in bulk. There's a scarf district, a plastic bag market, an avenue where every shop sells elastic. If you're burned out on buttons, take a stroll down Binwang Zipper Professional Street. The China Yiwu International Trade City, a local mall, has more than 30,000 stalls—if you spend one minute at each shop, eight hours a day, you'll leave two months later. Yiwu attracts so many Middle Eastern traders that one neighborhood has become home to 23 large Arabic restaurants, as well as a Lebanese bakery. I ate dinner at Arbeer, a Kurdish joint, with a trader from northern Iraq. He was

Link (Thanks, Marilyn!)

Check out these adorable uniformed monkeys zipping along the streets of Thailand on tiny motorcycles.

UPDATE: Neatorama has more about this here. (Via Telstar Logistics)

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey

Notsambass says: "I have posted a flickr set of military graffiti in Kuwait."

Camp Buehring is a staging camp for US Forces located in an isolated area of Kuwait. Many units pass through here on the way to Iraq. This set consists of concrete blast barriers that have been painted (mostly) by the units passing through. Representations of the esprit de corps of our fine military units as they prepare for operations in Iraq. Themes vary but unit crests, mottoes, and history are important elements. Reserve and Guard units often focus on where they are from. The units mission is often a key element in the painting. Throw in a large dose of martial machismo and a little subversive humor (they are Americans after all) and you have barrier art. Mostly it says we were here.

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Previously on Boing Boing:
• Nuclear launch center "blast door" art

Adam Selvidge says: Apparently someone nicknamed "A-Bomb" forgot his briefcase on his car.

04/03/2008 12:35PM - At 11:40 a.m., an FSU parking attendant reported to FSU police that he had spotted a car with a suspicious package on the fourth floor of Parking Garage No. 1 on Woodward Avenue. FSU police responded immediately and found a white Izuzu car in the southeast corner of the fourth floor with a briefcase that displayed a message about a destructive device. FSU police set up a command post nearby, cordoned off the parking garage and the street, and evacuated the building. They also initiated the university’s Alert notification system. The Tallahassee Fire Department and the bomb squad are on scene. The bomb squad is currently assessing the briefcase.

04/03/2008 1:45PM - At 1:30 p.m., the FSU Police Department issued an “all clear” and said they had resolved the incident at Parking Garage No. 1. A local 17-year-old high school student returned to his car and accompanied police as they searched the briefcase that had aroused suspicion. There was nothing inside. He told them that a message that seemed to suggest a destructive device was inside was actually his nickname, “A-Bomb.” Officers allowed those who work in the building to return to their offices and held traffic so that drivers parked in the garage could quickly exit. Surrounding streets were cleared, and the campus returned to normal status.

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My friend Jennifer Brown scanned this fantastic photo shot by her neighbor of his desk, circa 1983. The Return of the Jedi promotional glass set from Burger King is a perfect touch. Link to bigger picture

A few weeks ago BB posted a link to instructions for modifying a camera to shock the user.

Well, it would appear that a 14 year old student decided to try it out. And took it to school. Where he was arrested. No way to know for sure if the student in question found the instructions through BB, but the timing is intriguing.

A school resource officer says the makeshift device was potentially capable of producing a 600-volt shock.

The student has been charged with possession of a dangerous weapon on school grounds, attempted assault and breach of peace.

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Lars Haeh says

The pedal powered Flintstones car covered earlier on boingboing makes its way to court in Toronto today. Their lawyer, from the legal department of the Canadian Automobile Association thinks they will win. The highway traffic act does not categorize vehicles powered by muscle, friction drive, or wind as being "motor vehicles" for the purposes of the law.

People can see the trial at old city hall courthouse, in courtroom "R" at 3:00PM today.

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Kim Pallister says Brad Fortner, Ryerson University's technology director, has a couple excellent blog posts about a recent debacle in which Creative Labs has issued a cease-and-desist to a 'Daniel_K', an enthusiastic customer who has written and released drivers for Creative Labs, fixing features that were broken in their own drivers, and also supporting operating systems they didn't have drivers for. Clearly, improving Creative Labs products is something best left NOT DONE.

The blogosphere has responded to Creative's VP of Communications by 'crowdripping' him a new one! Post 1 | Post 2

Design Observer has an article about "blast door" art, painted by the people who man nuclear launch control centers in the US.

Like the garish and cheeky illustrations etched across the noses of World War II aircraft, these images in launch control centers across the United States testify to the bravado of the men (and, from the mid-1980s onward, women) of what has been called "America's Underground Air Force." But they also reflect the sometimes surreal pressures faced by two-person missile crews on 24-hour duty alerts, waiting for a call to turn their missile launch keys and perhaps end civilization as we know it. "You're sitting there waiting for the message you hope never comes," says Tony Gatlin, who painted the Domino's homage as a young deputy flight commander at Delta One in 1989. "That's a pretty screwed up way of looking at the world."

Now an Air Force major and deputy director of staff with the 100th Air Refueling Wing, based at the Royal Air Force's Mildenhall Base, in England, Gatlin was struck by the similarity of Domino's delivery time and that of his missiles. "One went with the other kind of well," he deadpans. Gatlin's painting is one of only a few the public can see, following the transformation in 1999 of the Delta One control facility and the nearby Delta Nine missile silo into an historic site by the National Park Service (NPS). Under the terms of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the then-Soviet Union and the United States, many Minuteman missile sites have been deactivated or destroyed.

Link (Thanks, William!)

Venezuela president Hugo Chavez doesn't even realize he's wearing Mickey ears, but look at how happy he is. Maybe Rupert Sheldrake is onto something. Do you think the photographer was aware of the background when he/she shot the photo?Link

Scientist/pseudoscientist (take your pick) Rupert Sheldrake (wiki) was stabbed in the leg while giving a talk on "thought transference" at 10th International Conference on Science and Consciousness at the La Fonda Hotel in Sante Fe, NM. Witnesses said an attendee from Japan seemed to be upset with Sheldrake's remarks, prompting the attack.

David Edwards of Fresno, Calif., said Sheldrake had been talking about how thoughts can be transferred by staring into another's eyes. During the lecture in the main ballroom on La Fonda's second floor, an Asian man left the room and when he returned, he didn't take a seat but stood near the podium with his eyes closed like he was meditating, Edwards said.

The attack came when Sheldrake called for a break about 3 p.m. Edwards said he started to leave the room when he heard a commotion. By the time he looked back, he said, an Asian man was being held on the floor by four people while a fifth held a knife in a napkin. Mecham said the knife was a folding type that hunters typically use.

Edwards said Sheldrake had a 2- or 3-inch cut on the front of his left thigh, just above his kneecap, causing blood to spurt some 8 inches into the air as he lay on his back.

Link (Thanks, mpb!)

US banks are foreclosing on crappy, formerly overpriced sub-prime housing and then not taking title to it, in order to avoid the taxes. This could create suburban abandoned zones of boarded-up houses,where the local tax-base is depleted, undermining schools and services.

The local market conditions are what seems to determine the abandonment decision. In a region where the job and real estate market is doing anything better than "a little soft," I would surmise that abandonment makes no sense at all.

However, at a certain point, in a weaker region, with declining neighborhoods, certain lenders might make the decision to simply walkaway from a large swath of (potential) real estate holdings, on the simple basis that it might be cheaper to do so.

Link (Thanks, Jason!)

The Middlesex University Teaching Resources shop sells all manner of awesome science toys for kids of all ages. Right now the front door is selling highly light-scattering nano-material, paper made from elephant poo, elasticated balls in mesh bags, a wide variety of science exploration kits, a hydrogel that expands to form artificial snow and many other bits of assorted nift.

The material is a cast thermo-setting resin with extraordinary memory properties. Most polymers have some 'memory' but this one can be stretched by up to 200% and still remember its original condition.

When heated above 70°C, it softens, and can be shaped by stretching, bending, blowing etc. When cool it retains its new shape, but if the material is re-heated to 70°C, it reverts to its flat sheet condition.

Sheet size is approximately 3mm thick x 100mm x 150mm.

Link (Thanks, Yishay!)

Art-prankster Johannes Grenzfurthner of monochrom storms the front doors of various multinational corporations to ask employees (and random folk on the street) if they're aware that these companies have "corporate anthems." Yes, theme songs, sometimes official, sometimes unofficial, always painfully cheesy.

KPMG boasts a particularly heinous ditty, and while renditions sometimes pop up on YouTube, none can be quite so rich as the one we paid an Argentinian street musician $20 to sing. "KPMG, we're strong as can be -- a dream of power and energy!" Bet you $20 the song sticks in your brain longer than you'd like.

Johannes explains, "I told all of the would-be anthem singers that I was interviewing them for an Austrian economics journal called 'Wir kriegen euch' (We will get you, in German)."

Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion and downloadable video.

Link to previous Boing Boing tv episodes featuring Johannes and the monochrom crew.

Here's a kick-ass gallery of a NASA refurb/prep procedure for the Space Shuttle. KOMPRESSOR LIKE BIG MACHINES. Link (Thanks, Spider!)

Mur sez, "JC Hutchins brought us the killer podcast trilogy 7th Son, but after the novels were done, he invited eight authors from podcasting to write in his world. The audio anthology, called 7th Son, OBSIDIAN, comes out in May and features stories that follow random Americans through the nationwide 2 week blackout that happens in the trilogy. Authors contributing to the Obsidian audio project include Michael A. Stackpole, Scott Sigler, and Mur Lafferty. Right now he's started a video project, showing content submitted by fans and allowing viewers to call in and submit their own 'stories from the blackout' - inviting a new kind of video and audio fanfic in his world. "

THE NATIONWIDE BLACKOUT IS NOW … the violence and chaos are HERE … and YOU are a victim. Call the number in the video below and submit your story of horror and survival! Email your friends this blog post link, encourage them to call and share their “blackout experience!” 7th Son: OBSIDAN is coming….

(Recordings will be played in May, in the OBSIDIAN audio anthology, which chronicles the blackout.)

Link (Thanks, Mur!)

The ZZ Plural Z Alpha Douglas Adams fan club raises funds by selling "Beeblebears," two-headed, three-eyed, three-armed teddy bears fashioned in the likeness of Zaphod Beeblebrox. I bought one for the kid last week and she loves it in all its mutant splendor. Link

Bruce Schneier's latest Wired column examines the difference between feeling safe and secure and having security.

If we make security trade-offs based on the feeling of security rather than the reality, we choose security that makes us feel more secure over security that actually makes us more secure. And that's what governments, companies, family members and everyone else provide. Of course, there are two ways to make people feel more secure. The first is to make people actually more secure and hope they notice. The second is to make people feel more secure without making them actually more secure, and hope they don't notice.

The key here is whether we notice. The feeling and reality of security tend to converge when we take notice, and diverge when we don't. People notice when 1) there are enough positive and negative examples to draw a conclusion, and 2) there isn't too much emotion clouding the issue.

Both elements are important. If someone tries to convince us to spend money on a new type of home burglar alarm, we as society will know pretty quickly if he's got a clever security device or if he's a charlatan; we can monitor crime rates. But if that same person advocates a new national antiterrorism system, and there weren't any terrorist attacks before it was implemented, and there weren't any after it was implemented, how do we know if his system was effective?

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Microsoft's been hoist on its own petard in an Indian tax dispute. Microsoft argued that it should be exempt from paying a royalty tax on sales of its software, since the transaction was a sale, not a license, and so the money wasn't really a royalty. The clever Indian authorities noticed that every inch of Microsoft's packaging and presentation is plastered in license agreements sternly informing customers that they don't own Windows, that they're only licensing it, and furthermore, the license terms are onerous and must be obeyed.

This have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too approach to licensing and sales isn't unique to Microsoft. The musician T-Bone Burnett once explained to me that the standard record deal gives artists seven percent royalties on sales and fifty percent royalties on licenses. However, when artists get paid by their labels for iTunes downloads, they're only paid the seven percent sales royalty, despite the fact that the record companies keep telling courts, Congress and customers that a download is not a sale, it's only a license, and don't you dare try to resell your music, loan it, or give it away -- all stuff you're allowed to do with purchased goods.

So Microsoft uses the sales/license flip-flop to avoid its taxes, and the record companies use it to pocket six-sevenths of the money they owe artists for downloads. Link (via /.)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the expected Warner Music proposal to allow ISPs to pay a license fee in exchange for the unlimited right of their customers to download music, in any format, using any protocol. In a nutshell, the proposal is fair and works if ISPs can sign up voluntarily because they want to offer a "download all the music ever made" service; it's a problem if the ISPs are forced to pay a tax, whether or not they want to offer the service.

Voluntary for Music Fans. People who do not share music shouldn't have to pay for a license they don't need. After all, we don't have a "music tax on restaurants." Restaurants are free to experiment with no music, public domain music, or CC music, as they see fit. Internet users should have the same freedom. But this means that there will still be some enforcement against those who don't pay but keep downloading. That seems fair, and enforcement to get people to become paying subscribers will look very different from today's "mount a few heads on spikes to scare the rest" approach being used by the RIAA and MPAA.

Voluntary for Artists. Artists shouldn't be forced to participate if they don't want to. That said, the vast majority of creators and rightsholders will likely opt in, rather than opt to sue individual Internet users. After all, 99% of all songwriters are members of one of the three performing rights organizations (PROs) we have today. It sure beats having to find and sue every radio station every time it plays your song.

Not a Collecting Society, but Collecting Societies. Freedom of choice for artists only means something if they have options to choose among. Competition is critical to keeping collecting societies honest and transparent. If you compare the three PROs that service songwriters in the US to the unitary, government-backed collecting societies in the rest of the world, our system wins hands down on these fronts.

Voluntary for ISPs. There is no need to force ISPs to offer blanket sharing licenses to music fans. Some ISPs will voluntarily bundle the license with their offerings ("buy the all-you-can-eat music package for $5 more"), some ISPs may choose not to. Universities might choose to buy campus-wide licenses in bulk in order to stop the RIAA's college litigation campaign. Software companies like LimeWire might choose to bundle the license fee into their software, paid either by subscription fees or advertising. At the end of the day, it's the individual fan who needs the license, and she should have lots of ways to buy it.

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