Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic have run into a little trouble with the US immigration people. Because they are "internet people," their marriage has not left the kind of paper-trail that the authorities like to see, and now Jasmina is under threat of deportation. But there's a solution: if you've spent any time with Bruce and Jasmina since their marriage, you can swear out an affidavit to that effect and send it to Bruce before April 15, and save their asses. Bruce doesn't mention it, but other friends of mine who've been through the same thing have benefited from the production of photos of them together, like these two that I took, so you might send those on to Bruce, too.

Surprising news has just arrived for us at our American home address. Although we have been married for four years now, the American Immigration services can't find any paper trail for the two of us.

We have no joint bank account, no insurance accounts and no joint children. The authorities therefore suspect that our marriage is a phony "Green Card marriage," and they would like to have Jasmina deported from the USA.

This is not too entirely surprising a mistake, since we're an Internet couple. By our nature, we just don't generate much paper.

We use electronic banking. Bruce uses American banks, while Jasmina uses Serbian banks. Why would anyone want to make his or her alien spouse use an American or Serbian bank?

There's no reason for us to jointly speculate in American real-estate, since we each already own places to live. No sane European would ever want American health insurance. And so forth.

Like a lot of geek couples, we live out of our cellphones and laptops. Furniture, wedding china, massive home improvement loans: we don't even go there. We have a light material footprint that'll generally fit onto a couple of rollaboards.

We're nevertheless a genuine married couple. Any reasonable Internet person would recognize this fact in two minutes...

We must therefore implore your help. Have you ever witnessed the two of us hanging around together? Were you convinced that we're the real deal, spouse-wise? Do you have solemn, impressive, legal-looking letterhead? For instance, are you some kind of American federal agent yourself? Lord knows we know some.

If so, then, please -- write us a testament to that effect. It's meant for the American authorities, and will be using your own letterhead. Please tell them we are, indeed, a "bona fide marriage." You are talking to the "UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES" in Vermont, USA. Our lawyer will see to it that they get it.

Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic Request Your Moral Support

Our Immigration Lawyer Suggests This Template

Molly Wright Steenson continues her trailblazing research project into the secret history of the lost pneumatic "series of tubes" that presaged packet switching in many contexts, in this fascinating video'd presentation.

Molly Wright Steenson - A Series of Tubesvia Beyond the Beyond)

An anonymous reader writes,

This Italian news piece reports the latest uncostitutional boutade of PM Silvio Berlusconi, who actually declared "I am tempted to direct and strong actions against the media because of their disinformation about me". Translated from mafiaspeak (his ties with that organization have been widely documented in several trials, so this is no slander), this means: "I am going to sue the hell out of anybody not incensing me, and order their immediate firing just like I did a few years ago with journalistic legends like Indro Montanelli, Eugenio Scalfari and others".

But what is all the fuss about? Well, those evil media people - and yes, I am one of them - dared to report yet another series of diplomatical blunders by Berlusconi. I.e. shouting in presence of H.M. the Queen of England, who had to reprimand him; Ignoring the assembled world leaders to have a friendly chat on his mobile phone while the International press was watching; Claiming credit for the success of yesterday's G20 meeting after a very embarassing performance before his "not-so-peers"; Accusing America as the only responsible of the Italian crisis and requesting Barack Obama to "sort out the mess you made in my country", and the list goes on and on.

And... ready for the final straw? The Italian minister responsible for policing the Internet is none other than... a former showgirl and Berlusconi's mistress, with family ties in the local equivalent of the RIAA. Do you really want a piece of the Interweb in the manicured hands of such a person?

Berlusconi furioso con la stampa italiana "Mi calunniano, tentato da azioni dure"

It's upgrade time, mutants, which means that the system won't be publishing new comments for at least a few hours. Note that these are unsexy upgrades: if nothing outwardly changes, that means it worked!

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

And now for my promised video interview with Charles Hugh Smith, author of the new e-book, "Survival+."

Part 1: We discuss "Survival+" and the current economic crisis.
Part 2: We discuss why socialism in the USA is inevitable (and why this is a good thing), Karl Marx and more.
Part 3: More on socialism in America and Niall Ferguson calling for America to repudiate its debt in the pages of TIME magazine.
Part 4: Charles and I discuss Cory's BB post about squatters on his block and why it's important for culturally influential people to create feedback loops for humane and dignified solutions to the economic crisis.

Produced by Bradley Novicoff and Tara McGinley

I'd like to give a way huge, massive thank you to my longtime friend Jason Calacanis, the CEO of Mahalo and the hardest working person I have ever met in my entire life. He's a 5000 watt bulb, let me tell you people. It was Jason's kind offer of his brand new studio --it was actually more like a challenge than an offer, he dared me to do it!-- that allowed this to happen. The studio's newest toy, the fantastic Tri-caster, was still being set-up the day we recorded and we just winged it --next time I'll have a teleprompter!-- but I think it turned out pretty well and I'm happy to be able to give my good friend Charles Hugh Smith the kind of wide exposure that Boing Boing offers. I think it's important that people hear what he has to say. I'd also like to thank Jason Krute, Mahalo's studio manager, Tyler Crowley from Mahalo, Ryan Scott from Causecast and Kenny Chen, who edited the piece and who was such a big help in several ways. Thanks also to Charles' wife's cousin for the use of her Skype account and laptop!

An appreciation website is here. Snip from the show description:

This Thurm Glupston Show was recorded and cablecast live on Cablevision (of Greater Johnstown, Pennsylvania) Community Television (CCTV) in 1988. In this episode, Thurm Glupston interviews We'll Save You Man (in a surprise appearance); Woody B. Green, a man who can turn into a plant; Kitty Cologne, a cosmetologist/astrologist; and Russ Fink, a professional talk show filler. Fake commercials include: We'll Save You Supermarkets, Powerflex Bodybuilding Shampoo, and Memorial Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.

As with so many of the really good public access cable video clips I've blogged before, this find comes from the legendary curator of mutant talent, John Andrew Walsh.

Above, Hemp for Victory, a 13-minute film produced by the US government in the 1940s which urged citizens to grow hemp during the war. During this earlier era of American crisis, farmers and 4-H clubs were encouraged to cultivate industrial hemp, the non-intoxicating cousin of what I like to call cannabis gettabis stonerus. And now, during our current American crisis, this same "non-drug" cannabis strain is the subject of a new bill put forth by Congressmen Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA).

They and eight cosponsors, both Republican and Democrat, hope to legalize the plant so American farmers can begin supplying fibers for a wide array of products, with the overreaching goal of opening a new sector in American agriculture.

Anyway, back to the propaganda film. I think the world needs a post-econopocalyptic remix with a totally baked-out Cheech and Chong VO. (Via Ned's List)

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

The last time I was guest blogger here at Boing Boing, I innocently waded into a war of the words by doing a post on audiophile SACDs and DVD-A surround sound mixes of classic albums. But for those of you who care --not you haters-- I recently --not so innocently-- noticed that certain lovely people were putting up their own homemade DVD-A versions of four channel rips made from 70s quadraphonic 8-tracks, reel to reels and in rare cases, LPs on the various torrent trackers. Most of these mixes haven't been heard for years, by anyone and they're awesome!

It's a quadraphonic treasure trove out there, I tell you: Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark," and "Hissing of the Summer Lawns." Kraftwerk's "Autobahn"(!), "The Worst of the Jefferson Airplane" and "Volunteers" (which uses totally different takes from the stereo LP), Jeff Beck's "Wired." Black Sabbath's "Paranoid." "Band on the Run," "Venus and Mars Rock Show" and "Wall and Bridges" (mixed in quad, I am assuming, by Phil Spector --what would "#9 Dream" sound like in Quad? Heaven?). "Bitches Brew." "Aqualung." "Atom Heart Mother" and "Wish You Were Here." "Music from the Big Pink" and a King Biscuit Flower Hour recording of the Rolling Stones in 1973 in full glorious 4-channel surround with the audience in the rear speakers.

Here's a review of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" in quadraphonic sound. It's amazing to hear the way they mixed the automobile sounds pinging from speaker to speaker. You really feel like you're in traffic!

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

Right-wing foolish person connects Obama to Satan:

Plus there is this stupefying wingnut YouTube channel, Antichrist Obamanation, with various videos relating to things like is Obama the Antichrist, how you can prove Obama is the Antichrist using the "Bible Code," and how Obama is the head of the Illuminati/New World Order and a stealth Muslim. Tons of this stuff out there, "Obama = Antichrist" is practically a YouTube genre already.

Thanks Legba Carrefour!

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

While the Sex Pistols were regurgitating old Who and Chuck Berry riffs in London, and the Ramones were dumbing down the Beach Boys' sound in New York City, something truly weird was going on in San Francisco. Formed in 1977 by multi-instrumentalists, Blaine L. Reininger and Steven Brown (and later joined by Peter Principle and puppeteer/weirdo, Winston Tong) Tuxedomoon are a group that, like their singular Ralph Records label-mates, The Residents, fall into exactly one category, the category of Tuxedomoon. With a sonic aesthetic difficult to describe (electronic, erudite, evil, with lots of strings and a sleazy sax, if that helps) but once called the sound of "ectoplasmic formation" (any better?), Tuxedomoon never fit into the San Francisco punk scene, they were viewed as "too European." Not surprisingly, the band decamped to Rotterdam, then Brussels in the early 1980s where they were more warmly received. Since then, Tuxedomoon have rarely played in America --just five concerts-- and I can count myself as lucky enough to have attended one of them.

Tuxedomoon celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2007 with a box set, "77-o-7" consisting of a new album (Vapour Trails), a CD of the new album played live, a rarities disc and a nearly three-hour long DVD of their multi-media film works and performance documentation. A friend gave me this box set not that long ago and it absolutely floored me. I played it for weeks on end and the video material was a joy for a longtime fan to behold. There's also been a definitive 450-page book book written on the group titled "Music For Vagabonds: The Tuxedomoon Chronicles" by Isabelle Corbisier, that looks really great. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy.

Official Tuxedomoon website
Tuxedomoon on MySpace
"No Tears" video
Tuxedomoon on Glenn O'Brien's TV Party (note Debbie Harry cameo)
"Jinx" music video directed by Graeme Whifler
"Special Treatment for the Family Man" (about Harvey Milk's killer, Dan White)
"59 to 1" music video
"Desire" (with Jean-Michel Basquiat on spray-paint) from "Downtown '81"
"Jinx" live, 1979
"Nervous Guy" on TV Party
"Found Films" trailer
"Victims of the Dance" (a loft jam)
"The Stranger" (with Winston Tong)
Totally Wired: Simon Reynold's extensive email interview with Tuxedomoon's Steven Brown

Thanks Frank Alongi from Ryko!

Delicious founder Joshua Schachter says that URL shorteners like TinyURL are a bad idea, because they make the web more fragile, dependent on the shortener services as central points of failure. They also assist spammers, undermine googlejuice, and expose users to security vulnerabilities. I agree -- and I like Kottke's suggestion: "With respect to Twitter, I would like to see two things happen: 1) That they automatically unshorten all URLs except when the 140 character limit is necessary in SMS messages. 2) In cases where shortening is necessary, Twitter should automatically use a shortener of their own."

The transit's main problem with these systems is that a link that used to be transparent is now opaque and requires a lookup operation. From my past experience with Delicious, I know that a huge proportion of shortened links are just a disguise for spam, so examining the expanded URL is a necessary step. The transit has to hit every shortened link to get at the underlying link and hope that it doesn't get throttled. It also has to log and store every redirect it ever sees.

The publisher's problems are milder. It's possible that the redirection steps steals search juice — I don't know how search engines handle these kinds of redirects. It certainly makes it harder to track down links to the published site if the publisher ever needs to reach their authors. And the publisher may lose information about the source of its traffic.

But the biggest burden falls on the clicker, the person who follows the links. The extra layer of indirection slows down browsing with additional DNS lookups and server hits. A new and potentially unreliable middleman now sits between the link and its destination. And the long-term archivability of the hyperlink now depends on the health of a third party. The shortener may decide a link is a Terms Of Service violation and delete it. If the shortener accidentally erases a database, forgets to renew its domain, or just disappears, the link will break. If a top-level domain changes its policy on commercial use, the link will break. If the shortener gets hacked, every link becomes a potential phishing attack.

on url shorteners (via Kottke)

Instructables user Clide has created a business card that you can assemble into a papercraft catapault! "After seeing the business cards with gears a few months back (normal and planetary), I started thinking about what else could be made to fit in a business card. I wanted something unique and memorable that could represent me and my creativity. What I came up with was a business card that can convert into a rubber band powered desktop catapult."

Cardapult the Business Card Catapult (via Craft)

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

It looks like it was actually Thomas Jefferson who came up with the concept of "fictitious capital"!

Since the "Marx was Right!" post proved so darned popular, I thought I'd do a lil' bait and switch, but looky at what we have here:

Via Infectious Greed

This phenomenal 1970s commercial for Schaefer Beer features Edd Kalehoff, composer of The Price Is Right theme music, on the Moog synthesizer. (via Boing Boing Gadgets)

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

The Scene, a daily dance show that featured many national and local guests artists as well as many youngsters from the community. The show ran for a record twelve consecutive years from 1975 to 1987 and retired as one the most popular and successful shows in the history of WGPR-TV, Channel 62.

The Scene had a strong loyal following of viewers that grew to include city and suburb, white and black, the young and the young at heart. Nat Morris, executive producer and host, provided opportunities for unknown artists, launching many careers that went to national and international fame. The Scene paved the way for all the Detroit local entertainment TV shows that followed and had the impact on Detroit Black television in much the same way that Soul Train and Don Cornelius had on a national level."

Check out these moves:

The Scene website

Thanks Tara McGinley!

UPDATE:
Dodongo posted this in the comments, it simply must be seen to be believed!

Dose Nation spotted this gripping National Geographic Adventure article about a writer's trip to Peru to take Ayahuasca. And it was a trip. From National Geographic Adventure:

All at once, I willed myself to rise. I sailed up through the tunnel of fire, higher and higher until I broke through to a white light. All darkness immediately vanished. My body felt light, at peace. I floated among a beautiful spread of colors and patterns. Slowly my ayahuasca vision faded. I returned to my body, to where I lay in the hut, insects calling from the jungle.

"Welcome back," the shaman said.

The next morning, I discovered the impossible: The severe depression that had ruled my life since childhood had miraculously vanished.

Giant blue butterflies flutter clumsily past our canoe. Parrots flee higher into treetops. The deeper we go into the Amazon jungle, the more I realize I can't turn back. It has been a year since my last visit, and I'm here again in Peru traveling down the Río Aucayacu for more shamanistic healing. The truth is, I'm petrified to do it a second time around. But with shamanism—and with the drinking of ayahuasca in particular—I've learned that, for me, the worse the experience, the better the payoff.

Peru: Hell and Back

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

Clio-award winning Luden's cough drops commercial from 1967 with a Frank Zappa soundtrack.

The house Robert A Heinlein had built for himself and his wife in Colorado Springs is up for sale for a mere $650,000. Features "private wooded lot w/three cascading ponds."

1776 Mesa AV (via Scalzi)

Above, Perry "Peretz" Farrell on the Chabad Telethon, singing the classic "Oseh Shalom," via Beware of the Blog.

bird song
vintage song
smutty song
ice cream truck song
song origins
song mistakes
songs you used to love

Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Britain's crazy anti-terror laws lend themselves to being brought into action by any kook, something that's been borne out again recently after a jazz musician in Wales was subject to an armed terror-squad raid after a tipster told them they thought he was a terrorist (he has brown skin, a soundproofed recording studio, and drinks "ethnic" West Indian beverages).

Victor Frederick, 63, was arrested and strip-searched just yards from his home, just moments after his partner Andrea Heath and their daughter had infra-red sights trained at them and were told they would be shot if they moved.

No charges were ever brought against Mr Frederick...

But Mr Frederick, who has lived in Cardiff for 35 years and is originally from St Kitts in the West Indies, told how:

police confiscated apparently suspicious items, which included a video of boxer Muhammad Ali and a ceramic urn containing a traditional West Indian drink;

police interpreted soundproofing equipment and wiring from his musical studio as a potential sign of illicit activity;

he was followed by a police helicopter flying just above him more than two weeks after last month’s raid on his house in Holmesdale Road, Grangetown.

Terrified musician targeted in armed anti-terror raid (Thanks, Carl!)

Just in case you thought working in the games industry was OK now that Electronic Arts has (supposedly) cleaned up its act, Greg Costikyan has a scorching post about top game execs who celebrate "corporate culture" in which people are expected to work 60 hours a week:

Mike Capps, head of Epic, and a former member of the board of directors of the International Game Developers Association, during the IGDA Leadership Forum in late 08, spoke at a panel entitled Studio Heads on the Hot Seat, in which, among other things, he claimed that working 60+ hours was expected at Epic, that they purposefully hired people they anticipated would work those kinds of hours, that this had nothing to do with exploitation of talent by management but was instead a part of "corporate culture," and implied that the idea that people would work a mere 40 hours was kind of absurd.

Now, of course, the idea that a studio head, which Capps is, would have such notions is highly plausible; but he was, at the time, a board member of the IGDA, an organization the ostensible purpose of which is to support game developers. Not, you know, to support management dickheads.

Morever, the IGDA has for some years had a Quality of Life Committee, which strives to demonstrate that long hours are an unproductive use of employees, and that superior alternative to the exploitative conditions at many development studios exist. The simple fact (as demonstrated in its research, available at the link above) is that most game developers burn out within 5 years of entering the industry, because of the absurd hours (for, incidentally, lower pay than programmers, artists, producers, and Q/A people can command in other software and media ventures). (And for the youth reading this post, this is why you are an IDIOT to attend Digipen or Full Sail -- get a generalized CS or art degree, so you can get a job somewhere else when you get burned out on the industry. Do NOT get a degree that ties you to the medium for all time to come.)

Mothers, Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Game Developers (Thanks, Greg!)

Evgeny sez, "I've just put up a post about a new Russian game Stalin vs Martians. Check the trailer with the dancing Stalin screaming "I command you to dance!"

Mars attacks, Stalin reacts! (Thanks, Evgeny!)

A reader writes, "TheFourthVine's nine year old nephew, Z, wrote a survey that she encouraged her friends to take. However, when his mother went to the school's open house to take a photo of the end result, she couldn't as out of all the science projects Z hadn't been shown."

Except she couldn't. Because my nephew's project, alone among all of them, was not displayed. After much back and forth with various people, my sister learned that apparently some people were uncomfortable with his conclusions. Specifically the part where he said that what he really learned from this project was that some people don't want to be called boys or girls, and that those people need an "other" option. (And also that they tend to prefer blue to green.)

Follow up on Z's Science Project

Although I mentioned her in a previous post about "Jam," actress/writer Julia Davis deserves her own BB post, as I, in my office as "current Boing Boing guest blogger," do hereby decree...

Best known as the creator of "Nighty Night," Julia Davis's sense of humor is bleak, black and thoroughly uncomfortable. Although the New York Times described her series as "an English 'Curb Your Enthusiasm," Davis is willing to take far greater risks than Larry David ever would. David, at the end of the day still wants you to LIKE him, but Julia Davis, in her career-defining role as monstrously selfish beautician Jill Tyrell most definitely doesn't give a shit what you think about her! Inspired by Mike Leigh's classic teleplay "Abigail's Party," the plot of "Nighty Night" involves Jill's husband, Terry, being diagnosed with cancer. Although his prognosis isn't terminal, Jill behaves as if it is, and even tries to hasten his not-so-impending death with laxatives and prune juice, so she can get on with HER new life! With Terry held prisoner in the attic, Jill turns her amorous attentions to Don, a doctor who has just moved next door with his wheelchair-bound wife, Cathy.

Here is their first meeting. Jill dances to the song "Lavender" by Marillion(!):

Although "Nighty Night" did air on the Oxygen network, few Americans are aware of this groundbreaking, darkly comedic creation. You can get it on Amazon and Netflix has it for rental. Check it out, it's brilliant stuff from a unique comic mind (PS Speaking of unique comic minds, Julia Davis is the new mother of twins and the father is Julian Barrett from The Mighty Boosh!)

Nighty Night (BBC site)
Will "Nighty Night" change the sitcom forever?
Turning Glenn down (YouTube)
Julia Davis interview: 'I am drawn to extremes'
"Let's talk to the Tarot..." (YouTube)
"Injure for Friends" (HD YouTube clip from "Jam") A lonely woman goes to great lengths to make friends.
'Comedy is a safe place to let go'
"Human Remains" Wikipedia entry on the six-part BBC mockumentary series on marriage by Julia Davis and Rob Bryden
AD/BC: A Rock Opera (YouTube) Julia Davis & Matt Berry sing

This sign for a real estate and insurance company in San Francisco's Chinatown seems to be a fitting description of what real estate and insurance companies are trying to do right now. Truth squad: I'm guessing that "Hang On" means something entirely different in Chinese. Image link. (photo by Domini Anne)

Martin Lihs converted his Wii Remote into a "spraycan" for virtual graffiti. Brandon has the details and a video over at Boing Boing Offworld. WiiSpray virtual graffitti, stencils in motion

And I thought the nest of wires under my desk was bad. Over at BB Gadgets, Joel points us to "A gallery of 'electrical cabling gone wild.'"

Download the MP4 here. Flash video above, click "fullscren" icon inside player to view large. YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video.

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Today on Boing Boing Video, a yo-yo demonstration by world champion yo-yoer, game developer, "craft mogul," and nerdcore rapper Doctor Popular. This episode is an excerpt from our marathon live streaming coverage of the Game Developer Conference, during which "Doc Pop" graciously hung out with our crew and offered insight. We hope to bring you more of those conversations soon, particularly his thoughts on game development. He also creates comics based on internet memes and social network etiquette dilemmas, my favorite of which involves the social awkwardness of "unfollowing" someone on Twitter. Some of his "Memes in Real Life" internet arts are here. The guy's a genius, and his yo-yo-ing is nothing but hypnotic.

Scott Beale at Laughing Squid has a bunch of posts on the eclectic range of Doc Pop's work.

Previously:
* Hideo Kojima on Metal Gear Solid Touch (games)
* Jane McGonigal on Emotion, Gaming, and Dance.
* Jane McGonigal - Games Can Change the World.
* Jane McGonigal's Game Developers' Conference talk on Making Your Own Reality
* BBV @ GDC live stream archives, at Ustream.tv
* Boing Boing Video and Offworld.com Live at GDC09: offworld.com archive
* Boing Boing Video and Offworld.com Live at GDC09: boingboing.net archive

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David Byrne, Boing Boing hero, music legend, international art treasure, and patron saint of all that is wonderful in the universe, sends us these snapshots from the road. He says:

I've been enjoying the postings of terrorist alert, security and CCTV posters on Boing Boing. All Eyes On You was a lovely one!

here's one I saw on the road near Newcastle, where I performed the other night. love the "be taken down" in smaller type...I want one of these for my house!

DB
en route to Liverpool

I've uploaded them to flickr: one, two.

Recently on Offworld, Ragdoll Metaphysics columnist Jim Rossignol sat down with Introversion co-founder Chris Delay, to learn more about the foundation and growth of one of gaming's first most successful indies, how they managed to game the pirates by releasing fake torrents, and how their upcoming Subversion will procedurally model entire cities.

We also started voting on last month's contest to write a new legend for one of the cards in EA/Phenomic's real time strategy PC game BattleForge, so head over to have your say on that.

And, we rounded up the best of gaming's April Fools posts: World of Warcraft's Pimp Your Mount, Maxis's all-ASCII Spore rogue-like, Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear surprise, Wolfire's Small Tank, Microsoft's rhythm-yodeler Alpine Legend, and the Zeno Clash team's new Apple II point and click adventure.

Elsewhere, we saw thrift store paintings enhanced with giant katamari, a new art-project rhythm game that's all light and konga drumming, a papercraft version of Toshio Iwai and his Tenori-On (!!!), a chiptune remix played through a hacked VGA adapter, and the first sing-along video of PopCap's Plants Vs. Zombies.

Finally, we saw Hudson's slice of gaming history, the Shooting Watch, come to the iPhone, and their amazing video showing how tower defense games are like conveyor belt sushi, a Japanese meme based on a Goldeneye glitch, a new T-shirt where DaVinci does Mario, last year's promised WiiSpray virtual graffiti finally in motion, and, most wonderfully, LittleBigPlanet's (very) anatomically correct Sackboy.

This video of Inuit throat-singing by Kathy Keknek and Janet Aglukkaq was created as an application for the 2008 Arctic Winter Games. I'm entranced by the way their throats move as they sing. Woah.

Inuit Throat Singing: Kathy Keknek and Janet Aglukkaq (long) (via William Gibson)

John Joseph Adams sez, "My new anthology, Federations, is due out in a few weeks, and I've just launched the website for it. The website has three free stories on it, from current Hugo & Nebula finalist James Alan Gardner, Jeremiah Tolbert, and Genevieve Valentine. There are also several interviews with those authors and other authors in the book."

From Star Trek to Star Wars, and from Dune to Foundation, science fiction has a rich history of exploring the idea of vast interstellar societies, and the challenges facing those living in or trying to manage such societies.

The stories in Federations continue that tradition, and herein you would find a mix of all-new, original fiction, alongside selected reprints from authors whose work exemplifies what interstellar SF is capable of, including Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, George R. R. Martin, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Alastair Reynolds, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Silverberg, Harry Turtledove, and many more.

About the Anthology

Pre-order Federations

(Thanks, John!)

Rebecca from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "Does your company have to contend with the maze of laws dealing with user privacy and publishing user content? Want to do the right thing by the online community that gives your business value, and still fulfill your legal obligations? Check out EFF's Bootcamp on May 11 in San Francisco. It costs only $300 for a full-day of training."

Given that $300 won't buy you an hour of law-firm advice, this is a damned good deal.

EFF Bootcamp

Here's some disgraceful footage of London's cops beating the shit out of a group of peaceful G20 protestors who are holding their arms in the air, chanting, "This is not a riot." Look familiar? It's what the British cops did at the last Climate Camp, too. How much you want to bet that no one involved in the authoritarian response to these peaceful protestors pays any price, because they all offer the lame excuse that an entirely different group of protestors broke some windows at a bank in a different part of town?

Film Of Police Attack On G20 Climate Camp (Thanks, Whitey!)

This magnificent Ram's Head Coffee Table is from the 1970s. The heads are patinated brass. Alas, it is $5200.

Master hacker and lockpicker Barry Wels (who shot the photo above) has posted an account of a "penetration party," at which safes are made available for guys skilled in the fine art of lock-cracking to demonstrate and hone their skillz. I love all the photos he illustrated this account with -- these guys are as scary-smart as they are cool. Snip:

[S]afe opening is all about experience. The best safecrackers are the ones that have the most experience, or with the best connections to people who can tell you what the internals of the target safe most likely will look like. In previous events the strategy to open safes was to drill a hole on a strategical place in the safe. This sounds easier as it is, and I always admire the craftsmanship that is needed to pull it off. Just think about it: you need to picture what is inside the safe and then try to drill away the element that keeps the safe locked, or in case of a combination lock drill until you are inside the heart of the lock and set the code by looking into it with a scope. Being off by a millimeter can cause you big trouble, not to mention the glass plates that can set off ‘relockers’ if hit (shattered) by a drill. If this happens, the safe will lock up, and even the original key and combination will not open it anymore (a mechanism to win time, safes that have the relockers fired can take a looong time to open).

[A]t this event we tried to shift from drilling to picking and decoding safes. Just as with opening standard locks, there is nothing like opening a high security safe without a scratch. To do so requires the right tools, and Jord Knaap is becoming really good at making safe opening tools. His hand made Hobb’s picks are just as good, and sometimes better, as the stuff that is available commercially on the market. And Paul Crouwel was the first one to pick open a safe at the weekend. In about fifteen minutes the door of this monster safe swung open without a scratch. Later Paul tried his luck (skill) on another safe, but when it did not open in fifteen minutes decided to go for a smoke. When he came back, master lockpicker Julian Hardt was kind enough to have picked it open for him. Later that day Julian would repeat the job and pick open the lock on a heavy rosengrens safe.

About the safe opening weekend (next one in 1 month!) (Blackbag.nl, via Wayne's Friends list)

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger.

We constantly read about how network television is cutting back on expensive scripted dramas and sitcoms that can cost $5 million dollars an episode and up, in favor of more cheaply produced "reality TV" programming. Reality TV can still prove costly to produce, but it doesn't have to cost a lot to be entertaining...

Television development executives of the world who are reading this post, I call your attention to five minutes of sublime entertainment that was made for the cost of a single can of Diet Coke (literally). This is my pal Lenora Claire's new webshow, "doNUTS" (produced in affiliation with World of Wonder):

Given the choice between an episode of "Grey's Anatomy," "Rock of Love" or "Don't Forget the Lyrics" on one hand or a smart, sassy woman with bright red hair and ginormous breasts interviewing shitfaced donut eating drunks, on the other, what would YOU want to watch? Each episode of "doNUTS" will see the lovely Ms. Claire interviewing the colorful night owl denizens of the finest 24-hour donut emporiums in Los Angeles. This is primo TV! Are you television exec types out there paying attention? (I personally think Lenora should do a "Pee-wee's Playhouse" kind of thing, a "wink wink" semi-raunchy/semi-sweet, semi-ironic show for "the kids." Little kids just love her, you should see it. So do "the gays." They love her, too. Sign this woman up, she's a demographic-spanning star ready for her close-up!)

But "doNUTS" isn't the only notable thing Lenora's got on her plate these days. She's also a wildly popular Los Angeles-based art curator with red-carpet gallery events like her "Golden Girls Gone Wild" and Dolly Parton-themed group shows. Coming up is a Bettie Page exhibit with some very special surprises.

No matter where you turn, there she is. You might recognize her portrait by Marla Rutherford that is part of the current USA Network and Vanity Fair's "Character Project" advertising campaign.

She was also recently painted by the great Olivia.

And here she is eating glass. I think Tim and Eric should invite her on their show to do this.

Lenora Claire's MySpace page

Lenora Claire "Booty Baby" sculpture (NSFW)

doNUTS on YouTube

Glemie Dean Beasley, 69, hunts raccoons in Detroit and sells their pelts and meat. My old journalism school pal Charlie LeDuff profiles Beasley in today's Detroit News. All of Charlie's work is fantastic. From the feature (click image for full photo by Max Ortiz):

Beasley, a 69-year-old retired truck driver who modestly refers to himself as the Coon Man, supplements his Social Security check with the sale of raccoon carcasses that go for as much $12 and can serve up to four. The pelts, too, are good for coats and hats and fetch up to $10 a hide.

While economic times are tough across Michigan as its people slog through a difficult and protracted deindustrialization, Beasley remains upbeat.

Where one man sees a vacant lot, Beasley sees a buffet...

He procures the coons with the help of the hound dogs who chase the animal up a tree, where Beasley harvests them with a .22 caliber rifle. A true outdoorsman, Beasley refuses to disclose his hunting grounds.

"This city is going back to the wild," he says. "That's bad for people but that's good for me. I can catch wild rabbit and pheasant and coon in my backyard."

"To urban hunter, next meal is scampering by" (Thanks, Gabe Adiv!)

This UK TV commercial for the Wilkinson Sword Quattro for Women Bikini razor would probably stir up some serious controversy in the US. I think it's catchy and memorable. Wilkinson Sword: Mow the Lawn (Creativity Online, thanks Zoë Korstvedt!)

Hugh from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "EFF's Fred Von Lohmann asks whether President Obama broke any laws when he gave an iPod loaded with music and video to the Queen."

First, let's imagine that the President (or his staff) bought the 40 show tunes from the iTunes music store. Do you "own" the music that you buy from iTunes? The nearly 9,000 words of legalese to which you agree before buying don't answer that question (an oversight? I doubt it). Copyright owners have consistently argued in court that many digital products (even physical "promo" CDs!) are "licensed," not "owned," and therefore you're not entitled to resell them or give them away. (And the Amazon MP3 Store terms of service are even worse for consumers than iTunes -- those terms specifically purport to strip you of "ownership" and forbid any "redistribution.")

iPods, First Sale, President Obama, and the Queen of England (Thanks, Hugh!)

Download the MP4 here. Flash video above, click "fullscren" icon inside player to view large. YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video.

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Today on Boing Boing Video, another game-related feature we shot during the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco: a conversation with Konami CEO Hideo Kojima at the San Francisco Apple Store, about his latest creation -- Metal Gear Solid Touch for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Previously:
* Jane McGonigal on Emotion, Gaming, and Dance.
* Jane McGonigal - Games Can Change the World.
* Jane McGonigal's Game Developers' Conference talk on Making Your Own Reality
* BBV @ GDC live stream archives, at Ustream.tv
* Boing Boing Video and Offworld.com Live at GDC09: offworld.com archive
* Boing Boing Video and Offworld.com Live at GDC09: boingboing.net archive

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IFC.com is running a "Radiohead Fanatic Fortnight" contest, starting today, in which Radiohead fans have a shot at winning special collectors' packages of the band's first three albums -- Pablo Honey, The Bends, and OK Computer -- and 12 high-quality vinyl Radiohead EPs. Contest ends April 10th, 2009. Five runners up each receive a copy each of all three 2CD Collectors Edition packages of Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer. Above, video of Thom Yorke's performance on IFC's The Henry Rollins Show. Over the next two weeks, IFC.com will be featuring daily Radiohead videos and other content. Cool stuff.

I was just stumbling around in the ambient section of iTunes' radio listings, and found a radio station that plays nothing but recorded birdsongs. I think its' pretty wonderful. birdsongradio.com, embedded above.

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

Vivian Jackson, AKA "Yabby You" is one of the most fascinating artists of the "roots reggae" period of the early 1970s. Poverty stricken his entire life, Jackson was in ill-health as a result of living at and working in a garbage incinerator in Waterhouse, Jamaica since he was a young child. After a spell in the hospital, his legs by then crippled with arthritis, 17-year old Jackson was told that he could no longer return to his former job and moved to Kingston where he eked by precariously. Although a Rastafarian, Jackson did not believe in the divinity of Emperor Haile Selassie and his Christian beliefs were at odds with other Rastas he knew. He was given the nickname "Jesus Dread" as a result of his argumentative nature.

One night an ethereal song came to Jackson as he BS'd about religion with friends: "Like a strange ting, inside a-my thoughts --like an angel a-sing." Although his poverty slowed the recording process down, many top musicians (and master producer, King Tubby) were impressed with Jackson's unwavering passion that this song must be brought into the world, and volunteered their services. The results, "Conquering Lion" is a dark, brooding masterpiece of true religious fervor and a seminal reggae classic. In many ways, I see this song as a reggae equivalent to "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys. Listen to the way the voices are layered. No other Jamaican artist was doing anything even remotely similar at the time. Nor have any since.

Yabby You is still with us and he performs on occasion, standing with the help of crutches. "Conquering Lion" album was pressed in a run as small as 500 copies when it was first released in 1975. It took another 22 years before the LP was widely heard outside of Jamaica, with the deluxe 2 CD edition of "Jesus Dread (1972-1977)" featuring various "versions" of the song released by top UK reggae label, Blood and Fire. Now it's considered a classic.

"Conquering Lion" by Yabby You
Yabby You live
Lightning Flash (Weak Heart Drop) by Big Youth (a "version" of "Conquering Lion")
James Brown synch'd to "Conquering Lion" Dub mix
Yabby You's "Jesus Dread (1972-1977)" on an audio blog

New research suggests that playing first-person shooter vidgames can improve your vision. According to University of Rochester cognitive scientist Daphne Bavelier, the games exercise the "contrast sensitivity function," crucial for reading and nightvision. In the study, some gamers played Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty 2. Others played The Sims 2, but didn't experience the vision benefits. From National Geographic:

It may be that locating enemies and aiming accurately is a strenuous, strength-building workout for the eyes, (Bavelier) said.

Another possible reason is that the unpredictable, fast-changing environment of the typical action game requires players to constantly monitor entire landscapes and analyze optical data quickly.

Finally, Bavelier said, the games' rich payoff may also play a role.

"It's pleasing to be successful in your mission," she said. "When you combine rewards with these other [factors], then you get much more learning."

"Video Games Improve Vision, Study Says"

Video Link. Nothing too outrageously rare or new, but one of the funnier "misheard lyrics" videos I've LOLed through lately. "Oh baby, hoggify." If you have others you're particularly fond of, do dump them in the comments. Richard Metzger pointed me to one last week, a Clash Song which was actually about "Pac Man's Brother," I've lost the link but will update the post if I can find it again Here are the Clash's "White Riot" misheard lyrics, from Tara McGinley. (thanks, Earl Ruby, via Wayne's Friends List)

In celebration of this week's anniversary of the founding of Apple Computer, 20x200 issued this fabulous limited edition print depicting the original Apple 1 computer. The photo, by Mark Richards, comes from the fantastic book Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers featuring Richards's images and John Alderman's text. As with all 20x200 prints, there are 200 available for $20 with limited numbers of larger sizes costing more. Also available is Richards's portrait of IBM 360 Model 30 Tape Drives. Apple I print

Prax Sanchez of Colorado coughed up a nail that was stuck in his nose for three decades. It came out after he underwent a medical MRI. Of course, MRIs are essentially giant magnets which is why you have to remove any metal objects before entering the machine. From KKTV:

"When I went to lay down on the MRI machine, I had a real pain on my right side under my eye," said Sanchez...



It was over an inch long. Doctors say it could have been up his nose for 30 years.

"Once it's in the nasal cavity like that, a little membrane forms around it and it becomes a foreign object."

"Man Coughs Up Nail Stuck In His Nose For 30 Years"

The Beats: A Graphic History is everything a radical history should be: critical, admiring, quirky and apologetic. The Beats is largely written by Harvey Pekar and illustrated by Ed Piskor, with a concluding section of more critical, less biographical pieces written and illustrated by a variety of critics and artists, including Nancy J Peters, Tulu Kupferberg, Summer McClinton, Anne Timmons and others.

The opening section consists of Pekar's biographies of the canonical Beats, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, and then onto the less-celebrated members of the scene, including Rexroth, Ferlinghetti, LeRoi Jones, and so forth. These pieces are loving but harsh, sparing their subjects little sympathy for their misdeeds (which are many, ranging from murder and betrayal to vicious misogyny and naive, fleeting affairs with reactionary politics and mysticism). Pekar shows us that a mature person can admire the worthy deeds and art of historical heroes without glossing over their bad acts -- or throwing away their art with their sins.

The Beats of Pekar's work are often geniuses, are capable of great acts of charity and selflessness, and overcome great personal challenges with a great deal of style and perseverance. Pekar shows us where their character flaws took root, explains them -- and never excuses them. At the end of this section, I felt like I understood and appreciated the poetry and prose and music of these people better than I had beforehand.

But the last third of the book really puts it all into perspective. In this section a variety of writers take a much more critical run at the Beats. The best of these is Joyce Brabner's "Beatnik Chicks," a feminist critique of the Beats and a secret history of the women who made the scene without making history, sublimated in the service of the narrative of the tortured man-poet and his beautiful chela. Also fantastic is Jeffrey Lewis and Tuli Kupferberg's extraordinary history of The Fugs, one of the filthiest rock bands to ever levitate the Pentagon (both Lewis and Kupferberg were members of the band). The story told is engaging and wild, and the art is stellar.

From cover to cover, The Beats is a wonderful history of a complicated and misunderstood cultural movement -- its achievements, its place in history, its flaws and its brilliance. The graphic novel format is perfect for the subject -- straddling the line between respectability and disreputableness just as the Beats themselves did.

The Beats: A Graphic History

Publisher's site for The Beats

Lucas has licensed a killer line of inflatable Star Wars beach toys for the summer, including the long-awaited Death Star beachball, giant Millennium Falcon and Starfighter toys, and so on. There's also a trio of gigantic Star Wars kites -- TIE fighters, X-Wings, and the Falcon, natch.

Blow Up the Death Star! (via OhGizmo)