The 2008 Nebula Awards were announced last night in LA:

Best Novel: Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
Best Novella: "The Spacetime Pool" by Catherine Asaro
Best Novelette: "Pride and Prometheus" by John Kessel
Best Short Story: "Trophy Wives" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Script: WALL-E Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter
Andre Norton Award: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau S. Wilce Solstice Award: Kate Wilhelm, A.J. Budrys and Martin H. Greenberg.
SFWA Service Award: Victoria Strauss
Bradbury Award: Joss Whedon
Grand Master Award: Harry Harrison
Author Emerita: M.J. Engh

Congrats to all the winners!

(Yup, I didn't win -- win some, lose some! Honor just to be nominated. All that stuff. But a giant, heartfelt thanks to Wil Wheaton for attending on my behalf, and to all the writers who nominated and voted for Little Brother!)

2008 Nebula Awards

When The Pirate Bay was ordered shut down by the Swedish courts because it linked to infringing torrents on the Internet, many people pointed out that Google links to whole mountains' -- whole planets' -- worth of infringing stuff. Now, to make the point, comes The Pirate Google, a Google mashup that finds torrent files: "The intention of this site is to demonstrate the double standard that was exemplified in the recent Pirate Bay Trial. Sites such as Google offer much the same functionality as The Pirate Bay and other Bit Torrent sites but are not targeted by media conglomerates such as the IFPI as they have the political and legal clout to defend themselves unlike these small independent sites."

The Pirate Google (via Everything is Miscellaneous)

Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

I know, I know. The recession blows. The job you may soon lose* is stressful and unpleasant. And beards are more popular these days. But before you abandon your fast-paced lifestyle for a quieter, more-cow-filled one, I recommend consulting my book, Be Amazing. There are a few things you need to think about.

1) Can You Tell the Difference Between Amish and Mennonite?
You're never going to endear yourself to your new neighbors if you can't tell 'em apart from their theological cousins down the road. Historically the older of the two sects, Mennonites believed in plain, unadorned living and adult baptism, making them not all that different from the other Christian groups that popped up in Germany and Switzerland in the 17th century. But, around 1693, one of their members, a guy named Jakob Amman, started to get a little rowdy. Amman traveled around the countryside preaching a more hard-line version of Mennonism that called for, among other things, a return to traditional clothing, avoidance of worldly grooming trends like moustaches, mandatory un-cut beards, and the public shunning of excommunicated church members. Taking their name from Amman's, his new followers called themselves "Amish."

Over the next few hundred years, both groups did their fair share of theological off-shooting. Today, there are numerous sub-groups of both Mennonite and Amish, making it difficult to pin them down with generalities. However, in most cases, the easiest way to tell the two apart is to look for a family car--most Mennonites drive them, most Amish don't. But, just because they enjoy a faster mode of travel doesn't mean the Mennonites are ostentatious about their automobiles. In fact, it's common practice to cover any Detroit-installed chrome with black paint, just to let the world know they aren't trying to be flashy.

2) Do You Know the Best Place to Move?
Obviously, your city digs will have to go, but contrary to popular belief, the geographic epicenter of Amish life is not Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Turns out, several counties in east-central Ohio are actually home to the largest Amish community in the world--population 29,000, and growing. Each Amish family has an average of 7 children, so their numbers have seemingly doubled every 20 years since outsiders started keeping records in the 1940s.

3) Can You Find Where the In-Crowd Hangs Out?
Earn your dirt-road cred by taking a shopping trip to Spector's. This department store in Middlefield, Ohio caters to Amish customers. Since 1937, they've dealt in things like quilting supplies, fabric, and the other necessities of Amish life that can't be easily made on the farm. And with several locations around the state, it may well be the world's first Amish-centric chain store.

4) Will You Be Able to Buy a Farm?
It's harder than it sounds. There are two things working against you. First, that whole population growth issue means that every generation sees even more young men in need of a farm of their own. The other problem, however, comes from the outside. Across the country, the rural areas the Amish inhabit are rapidly becoming exurbs, and what was once farmland is being sold to make way for subdivisions and Wal-Marts--making raw land, even when it is available, prohibitively expensive. In Lancaster County, for instance, 100 acres cost as much as $1 million in 2007. Things may be a bit easier now, though, what with the bursting of the real-estate bubble. So, if you can get your hands on some good farmland, do be ready to build a lot of barns. You probably already know that Amish construct their own, and their neighbors', in massive 24-hour barn raising parties. But, because many Amish groups don't believe in using "worldly" devices like lightning rods, those hand-built barns often end up having to be re-hand-built.

The Electric Amish really are a band, and you should listen to their music.

*ETA: Thanks for the heads-up on my grammar brain-fart. It's Saturday. My brain takes the day off today.

Media scholar Henry Jenkins and Babylon 5 creator Joe Straczynski are doing a double-header at MIT on May 22, and it's open to the public. Sounds like a hell of a way to spend an evening.

Previously known best for his role as the creator of the cult science fiction series Babylon 5 and its various spin-off films and series. Straczynski wrote 92 out of the 110 Babylon 5 episodes, notably including an unbroken 59-episode run through all of the third and fourth seasons, and all but one episode of the fifth season.

His early television writing career spans from work on He-Man, She-Ra, and The Real Ghostbusters through to The New Twilight Zone and Murder She Wrote. He followed up Babylon 5 with the science fiction series Jeremiah.

Straczysnki also enjoys continued success as a comic book writer, working on established superhero franchises, such as The Amazing Spider-Man, Supreme Power and Thor, as well as his own original series, such as Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, The Twelve, and The Book of Lost Souls. He is also a journalist, publishing over 500 articles in such periodicals as the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Writer's Digest Magazine, and TIME Inc.

He was one of the first television producers to actively engage his fan community online and has consistently explored the interface between digital media and other storytelling platforms.

2009 Speaker: J. Michael Straczynski (Thanks, Andrew!)

One of the policemen who participated in the assaults on the London G20 protesters had earlier posted to his facebook that he couldn't "wait to bash some long haired hippys."

The police officer's profile page on social networking site Facebook contained a message apparently written by Pc Ward at 2017 BST on 1 April.

It stated: "Rob Ward can't wait to bash some long haired hippys up @ the G20."

Twenty minutes later another Facebook user posted a reply that said: "Dats bad but good in da same way lol [laugh out loud]."

Pc 'eager to hit G20 protesters'

The Intellectual Property Colloquium, a podcast for lawyers, has a one-hour show up about the reasons that DRM is the most reviled consumer technology in the market today. It includes interviews with Ed Felten and Randy Picker, testimony from the FTC's DRM hearings, and is hosted by UCLA Law's Doug Lichtman. Fascinating listening that makes a good stab at unpicking the tech and the law of DRM.

Everyone Hates DRM

MP3 download

(via EFF Deep Links)

Mary sez, "The Diamonds of Metro Valley is a DIY feature film, made almost entirely on green screen, with full scale people and small-scale, hand-made models, sets costumes, props etc. We completed special effects in After Effects shot-by-shot. The plot of DMV is inspired by diamond heist films of the 1970's, but with an added tinge of the retro-futuristic. Some exciting sequences include a twelve inch robot growing to the height of a three story building, numerous gun-battles and explosions, and a thirteen minute car chase created with model cars on a green screen conveyor belt, composited with live action. It's taken us almost 4 years from start to finish, as each scene in DMV has multiple design and digital effects elements, but we think this effectively contributes to the unique look of the project. We expect to be done in a couple months. The site has our trailer, a synopsis and some info on the main characters. "

The Diamonds of Metro Valley (Thanks, Mary!)

I just received a curious and lovely new book, titled Mushroom Magick, by artist Arik Roper. It's a collection of Roper's paintings of various species of hallucinogenic mushrooms. BB pal Erik Davis contributed an essay and famed mycologist Gary Lincoff provided notes on the various kinds of 'shrooms pictured in the book. From the book description:

For centuries hallucinogenic mushrooms have participated in a sublime relationship with humankind, thanks to their psychoactive chemicals that shift and modify the human mind. Arik Roper's exquisite painted portraits of magic mushrooms illustrate more than 90 of the known hallucinogenic species from around the world. He captures their powerful auras, adding to a tradition of Mushroom art that stretches back more than 400 years.

Mushroom Magick (Amazon)
Mushroom Magick sample pages (Abrams Books)

David Zax of Seed magazine wrote a piece about social scientist Ben Ho who is applying what he knows about behavioral economics to climate change, and how people might be "tricked" into reducing their carbon footprints.

Residents of a community were shown how their energy use measured up against the communal average. If they consumed more than the average, most reduced energy in the months ahead. If households saw that they consumed less energy than their peers, however, their energy use actually rose, except when the frugal households were given the merest of rewards: a smiley face on their bill.

Can we trick ourselves into saving ourselves?

I like this slideshow of a runaway bull in a china shop supermarket. Apparently, the animal was relatively well-behaved, demolishing just some produce displays before heading back out the door. "'On the hoof' shopping Irish style" (BBC News)

Two men attempted to carjack Ted Mazetier, 84, of Tacoma, Washington. So he beat the crap out of them. Very Gran Torino. From KOMO NEWS:

Mazetier was driving down South Proctor Street Wednesday night when he spotted a car on the curb and two guys standing nearby. He thought they needed help, so he stopped...

"When I opened the door, he started toward me and I kicked him in the balls," he said.

When the other man charged, Mazetier put his feet up and kicked him in the belly.

"He kind of bent a little and went down. And I went around the guy and I'm in the street, and I'm waving for cars to stop and, you know, help."

The two men fled, not having gotten whatever they were looking for.

"Don't you mess with grandpa, sonny" (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)

Derek Erdman made this fine painting titled "Fortunate Teens Party With Morrissey, 1994." Here's Erdman's background on the piece:

There is a seldom told story that Morrissey's tour bus broke down in small town Ohio in the autumn of 1994. A full day was necessary for the repairs to be completed and Morrissey and his band delighted local teenaged fans by stopping by a house party to drink beer and smoke marijuana. "It was the time of my life," remarks Tamara Marshall, who was hosting the party. "My parents were out of town and I was told not to have a party, but once Morrissey showed up I knew I wasn't going to be a secret for long." When asked what she remembered most about Morrissey's visit, Tamara answered, "He didn't like Rolling Rock beer".

Fortunate Teens Party With Morrissey, 1994 (Thanks, Richard Metzger!)

Lisa Gold, the amazing researcher who helped Neal Stephenson get the details right in the Baroque Trilogy, is conducting a "Research for Writers" seminar in Seattle:

Research is an important part of the creative process for writers of fiction and nonfiction. Research can help with inspiration, storytelling and world building whether you are writing about the past, present or future, about life on earth or an imaginary world. The instructor will share advice about research, discuss the kinds of research writers may need to do and help students find useful sources of information in print, on the Web, in libraries and in unexpected places.

You can still register for my Research for Writers class

From the Bob Basset steampunk art collective in the Ukraine, their latest creation: a stunning black leather pilot mask. I own one of their masks and it is a goddamned thing of beauty.

Black Pilot Leather Mask. Маска Чёрный Пилот.

Remember the urgent raids British cops conducted two weeks ago after the names of potential terrorists leaked when a top official got out of a cab, holding a top secret memo that the newspapers photographed and published?

Remember how this publication had the potential to tip off these scary terrorists about their impending arrests?

Turns out that the police didn't find any evidence, though they held the men for 13 days. Then they let them go.

All of 12 men arrested over a suspected bomb plot in the UK have now been released without charge by police.

Eleven of the men have been transferred to the custody of the UK Borders Agency and now face possible deportation.

The Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to press charges or hold them any longer.

The Muslim Council of Britain said the government behaved "very dishonourably" over the treatment of the men should admit it had made a mistake.

No charges after anti-terror raid (via Schneier)

Richard Simmons flips out. Warning: this video contains cussin', and large doses of a sometimes-scantily-clad Richard Simmons (Thanks, Richard Metzger).

In this episode of Make: Talk, we'll be joined by Nathan Seidle, the founder of SparkFun, a hobbyist electronics company, which recently held an autonomous vehicle competition. We'll also present some news from the world of making, and our favorite tricks, tips, and tools of the week. Be sure to call in for prizes that we'll award during the program! The number is (646) 915-8698.

Below is the show player, where you can listen to the live program on Friday, and to past episodes.

Make: Talk on BlogTalkRadio

Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein are two of my favorite tweeters, and they've just written The Twitter Book, a pleasingly-designed 240-page guide to making the most out of Twitter. The hard copy won't be out for a little while, but you can buy the PDF right now for $15.99. As Cory says on the cover blurb, "This book delivers a bunch of sensible, down-to-earth material on using and enjoying Twitter.: I couldn't agree more.

This colorful guide will teach you everything you need to know to quickly become a Twitter power user, including strategies and tactics for using Twitter's 140-character messages as a serious--and effective--way to boost your business. Co-written by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein, widely followed and highly respected Twitterers, the practical information in The Twitter Book is presented in a fun, full-color format that's packed with helpful examples and clear explanations.

The Twitter Book, by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein

Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

My friends' 3-year-old son, Will, asks, "Do cockroaches have a penis?" This turns out to be a surprisingly difficult question to answer.

First off, most basic sources will just try to give you some fluffy answer about how to tell a boy cockroach from a girl cockroach, which doesn't have anything to do with penises (or lack thereof) at all. In fact, apparently, the easiest way to sex your cockroach is to count the number of of segments on the underside of its abdomen, according to roach expert Joseph Kunkel, a biology professor at the University of Mass., Amherst. Girls have more segments. Boys have fewer

Second, there appears to have been a lot more research done on female cockroach reproductive anatomy. And for good reason: It is more noticeably freaky. Female cockroaches carry their fertilized eggs around in these pod-like sacks called ootheca. Some cockroaches will tote the ootheca around attached to their bodies until the babies hatch. Other species, however, simply drop the ootheca off in some hidden corner, where the babies can incubate safely while you beat their mothers to death with a shoe. Stumble upon enough ootheca in the basement, and its liable to be the first thing you take to the lab.

But, while useful, this information does not answer the young man's question. For that, I had to turn to Cockroaches, a 2007 book by William J. Bell, Louis Marcus Roth, Christine A. Nalepa, and (yes) Edward O. Wilson. Their description of the male cockroach junk helpfully explained why I'd been getting so much confusing (and conflicting) information from other sources. To wit:

A number of intromittent structures in the male cockroach have been called a penis ... Although these structures may be associated with the ejaculatory duct ... penis-like organs function in some capacity other than to convey sperm directly

So there you have it. Cockroaches: They have no penis. But they do have a lot of things that are frequently called a "penis". Many of these bits and pieces seem to actually be used for cockblocking, so to speak. Let me explain. Instead of the familiar-to-us method of copulation, male cockroaches produce a hard, little packet full of sperm, called a spermatophore, which they transfer into their favorite gal. But, unless it's her first time around the block, there's a decent chance that somebody else's spermatophore is already in there. A male cockroach has a better chance of passing on his genes if he can get rid of the competing sperm. Whether hooked, whip-like, barbed or spiny, those not!penis structures are likely used by male cockroaches to clear out rival spermatophores, according to the august authors of Cockroaches, the book.

Beach-bunny cockroaches provided by kthypryn.

Here's the latest Klockwerks newsletter from mad sculptor Roger Wood, a clockmaker/assembage sculptor who's branching out into glorious lamps. Roger loaned me a hall full of his clocks for my wedding and they absolutely made the night.

Klockwerks

Barnaby Ward, illustrator of the excellent Sixteen Miles to Merricks, says:

I recently started a Twitter feed to help document my work process. I'm very particular about what I put on my blog, so I figured a Twitter account would be a great way to post sketches, studies and work-in-progress shots from personal and non NDA projects. It's not quite at the tutorial stage, but if you're interested in seeing how I develop my work in photoshop, you can see the progress here.

Steve Lodefink just shared with me the photos of his first cigar box guitar. What a beaut! Here's the headstock, here's the body.

(MP4 Download here). Update: BB commenter Squeevy astutely suggests regarding this particular episode, "For best viewing (and association with what is going on) I suggest using stereo headphones and not laptop speakers or computer speakers."

Today's Boing Boing Video episode is an ambient piece by animator/filmmaker Bob Jaroc and the band Plaid.

"War Dialer," which references phone phreaking and early proto-hackery through a non-narrative, droning flow of sound and speech-babble, was originally created as an 8-channel audio-only installation in a bandstand on Brighton seafront as part of the Sonic Sea Air project, ten years ago.

Jaroc says, "Plaid and i began to use it as a visual piece around the time we started to play surround sound gigs, as it served as a good visual and sonic introduction to the idea that the images on screen were related to the spacial audio."

I suggest replaying the piece in the background a few times, and droning out to it while you work.

Music taken from Plaid's Greedy Baby album, which you can buy here.

RSS feed for new episodes here, 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.

A quote from the person who put this video up on YouTube: "This is a spot from Argentina which includes a transgender woman. It talks about tolerance and teaches us that all people are the same even if they are straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender."

(Thanks, Tara McGinley and Richard Metzger).

The music, design, and wildness of this commercial for Scrabble are all first rate. So much fun! More here. (via Drawn!)

Recently Offworld has gone crafty with new guest blogger Tiff Chow digging up LucasArts inspired amigurumi for both Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max, which also led us to home-stitched LittleBigPlanet Sack-people based on Space Channel 5 and 60s cereal mascot Fruit Brute (!), and Anna the Red debuts her most adorable bento yet making The Behemoth's Castle Crashers fully edible.

We've also gone arty with Hellen Jo and Calvin Wong's faux-NES-manuals for their recent Giant Robot art show game, Ben Ross's delightful Yeti Knight adventure game tumblr, and an LA exhibition opening Saturday with 40 designers and illustrators showing Street Fighter inspired art.

We also listened to (and downloaded sheet music for) the entirety of World of Goo's original soundtrack for solo piano and a chiptune sampler EP for an Ubuntu Linux release party.

And we saw an attempt to bring CRT imperfections back into razor sharp Atari 2600 emulation, heard about the playful destruction coming to the newly announced Lego Rock Band, saw PopCap favorite Peggle officially integrated into World of Warcraft, and finally, played Effing Hail, a new indie browser game that makes a game of cleanly illustrated textbook infographics (pictured).

Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

Push away those vile stereotypes. Llamas are more than mere walking sweaters or Internet meme fodder. For one thing, they jump high enough to warrant a competitive circuit. They also make excellent guard animals for smaller beasts, such as alpaca or sheep. (No, really. Guard llamas. My aunt and uncle have one on their highly productive alpaca farm*.) Plus, they're also supposed to make a pretty good meat source. Llama meat was the first jerky; or charqui, as the Inca called it.

Back in 2006, scientists working with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory announced another area of llama expertise: Fighting in the War on Terror.

Llama blood may one day be able to help soldiers, scientists and city officials set up an early-warning system against the tiniest weapons of terror--biological agents like anthrax and smallpox. Authorities have long worried that, were these diseases to get loose, it would be difficult to know anything was wrong until innocent people started dying. Llama blood might provide a better detection method.

How? Antibodies, the tiny molecules that float around in the bloodstreams of people and almost all animals. Antibodies keep a sort of "memory" of all the diseases, allergens and other foreign invaders your body has come into contact with. If the same infiltrator shows up again, the antibodies can match it up with their stored records and immediately know how to fight it.
For a while now, scientists have used genetically altered antibodies to help ID and treat specific diseases. But these techniques always ran into a common problem: Antibodies were just too delicate to be of much use outside a lab or hospital setting. Enter the llama.

According to news stories about the research, llamas have extraordinarily tough and hardy antibodies, capable of sustaining exposure to temperatures as high as 200 degrees F. This discovery gave the researchers the idea to develop sensors, based on llama antibodies, that could be distributed to soldiers in a war, or around cities back home. Modified to be specifically on the lookout for likely-to-be-weaponized diseases, these sensors could pick up signs of a biochemical attack before victims started arriving at the hospital.

I wrote about this research in Be Amazing, back in early 2007. Since then, I haven't seen much more on whether or not these efforts have been successful. If the Internet Hivemind has any input or updates, I'd love to hear about them.

Michael Rogalski did not harm any llamas in the making of this illustration.

*Production on alpaca farm measured in bales of cuteness.

I've you've never read The Perry Bible Fellowship webcomic, now's the time to start. Dark Horse recently published a giant omnibus of material from Nicholas Gurewitch's PBF, The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack, and it's a concentrated dose of the kind of dark, twisted humor that makes you bark with laughter and look away at the same time.

Gurewitch's comedy is solidly in the "unexpected turn of events" school, the surprise in the final panel that contains as much surrealism, malignancy and social commentary as it does humor. This is complemented by Gurewitch's visual style, which veers from the simplistic and cartoonish to incredibly detailed line art that's like something out of Tony Millionaire.

Last year, Gurewitch had a huge success with the first collection of his strip, The Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories, which pre-sold three print runs before its ship date (!), so it's no surprise that Dark Horse would reprise the collection this year.

Be warned, though: the Almanack duplicates all the material in the Colonel Sweeto collection, though it's twice as long, including many strips that were omitted from Sweeto, including a number that were too racy, gross, unfunny or weird for the newspaper syndicate, as well as sketches and interviews.

Here's what I'd do if I already owned Colonel Sweeto: I'd get this one anyway and give the Sweeto to someone who needed a good mind-blowing. Both books are very handsomely made (Dark Horse does a quality product) and both are the kind of funny that's worth having around.

The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack

I wonder what the "your business card is crap" guy would have to say about these, because his fancy card has just been pwned by these awesome meat cards.

We start with 100% beef jerky, and SEAR your contact information into it with a 150 WATT CO2 LASER.

Screw die-cutting. Forget about foil, popups, or UV spot lamination. THESE business cards have two ingredients:

MEAT AND LASERS.

Unlike other business cards, MEAT CARDS will retain value after the econopocalypse. Hoard and barter your calorie-rich, life-sustaining cards.

Meat cards

Stephen Worth says:

When people of the past envisioned what the inhabitants of other planets might be like, they conceived of gods and spirits who lived lives like those of the heroes and villains found in fables and ancient myths. Around the turn of the 20th century, mankind's conception of the world underwent a huge shift. Advances in technology were occurring at an unprecedented rate. These changes affected the way people lived their lives and the way they thought about their place in the universe. People began to think there might be no limit to the number of amazing changes technology was going to bring to them in the next hundred years.

They were right.

Today at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, I posted an article on how visionary animators like Ward Kimball and Walt Disney were responsible for putting a man on the moon. Yes, we have Walt to thank for our space program! The post contains a complete illustrated article by the father of modern space art, Chesley Bonestell, and clips from Disney's landmark TV program, "Mars and Beyond." Enjoy!

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Our Dreams of the Future

I didn't know there was a real life inspiration for the Amy Sedaris's character Jerri Blank in Strangers with Candy. Here's Florrie Fisher talking to high school students about drug addiction. (via Save vs. Death)

From Rock Cookie Bottom. (Via Andrew Sullivan)

Gareth Branwyn says: "In this adafruit video, Limor demonstrates how to set up Xbee modules to wirelessly control both standard-type and latching relays."

Comcast (a BB sponsor) is holding a contest in which you design your own virtual apartment in "Comcast Town." They invited Boing Boing to judge but, even more fun, they asked us to suggest some Boing Boing furniture that people could use to decorate their pads! Above is the living room I designed. (I'm obviously not eligible to win. Sniff, sniff.) Notice the steampunk computer, carnivorous plant, and Flying Spaghetti Monster statue. I think the illustrator did a terrific job. In fact, I wish it was my real living room! The grand prize winning design gets a real-world room remodel, 40-inch HDTV, a new laptop, and a digital phone. I'm just helping select the ten finalists -- then it's up to The People. Comcast Town (Flash site)

Bette Calman is a yoga instructor at age 83. She teaches as many as 11 classes a week and has no plans to retire. From News.com.au:

"Even a basic posture, or just going to a window and breathing deeply, can have big benefits."

It's that spirit that has made Mrs Calman a legend. The author of three yoga books was a pioneer of the regime in Australia in the 1950s, ran yoga centres interstate for 33 years and made regular TV appearances in the 70s.

"Yoga instructor Bette Calman still going strong at 83" (Thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Andrea Wachner sent an erotic dancer, named Cricket, to impersonate her at her ten year high school reunion. The dancer wore a hidden ear piece to stay in communication with Wachner. A film crew was on the scene pretending to film a documentary about artists, including Wachner. Of course, they were really documenting Wachner's brilliant prank. When she posted clips to YouTube, some of her classmates weren't too happy they'd been duped. Now Wachner has a manager shopping her story as a reality show or feature film. From ABC News:

Cricket told the reunion attendees that she'd had reconstructive surgery and also suffered from amnesia. It wasn't completely unbelievable, because some had already heard that the real-life Wachner was in an accident after high school -- her car was totaled and she had been injured, but she had never suffered from amnesia.

Most of them had not seen or talked to Wachner since high school, but many found her new profession suspect: Cricket as Andrea said she was working as a stripper to help pay her graduate school tuition.

Daniel Wolowicz, 32, who had been an acquaintance of Wachner's in high school, said he was immediately suspicious.

"She was just so different. You have to understand the community we had come from," he said. "Everyone was questioning who this person was.

"I had asked her a very specific question about seeing her at a bat mitzvah when I was 15 years old," he said. When Cricket answered his question correctly, Wolowicz said he assumed it was Andrea or "someone else who had been given a lot of information."

It would be awhile, however, before he learned the full truth.

As the night progressed the drinks flowed, and Cricket, always outgoing, was getting ready for the climax of the evening: a striptease performed to what Cricket described as "one of the worst songs of the '90s," Lisa Loeb's "Stay."

"Stripper Impersonates High School Alum: Classmates Learn About Reunion Prank on YouTube" (Thanks, Gil Kaufman!)

Jim Leftwich says: "Musical remixing of the news by brothers Michael and Andrew Gregory. The Katie Couric part (at about 1:20, above) is pretty awesome."

Here's another episode of Auto-Tune the News.

Boing Boing Video (formerly Boing Boing TV) has been selected as a nominee for the 13th Annual Webby Awards in three categories, and has been selected as an Official Honoree in a fourth category.

Huge, heartfelt, and humble thanks to everyone who made this possible, all contributors, cast, crew, and partners, past and present.

In this blog post (above, below, and after the jump) we've embedded the highlights reels we submitted to the Webby Award judges for consideration.

Above, TECHNOLOGY (Download MP4 here), and below, VARIETY (Download MP4 here).

After the jump, WEIRD/EXPERIMENTAL (Download MP4 here), and BEST HOST ( Download MP4 here).

The Webby Award recipients are selected by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, but the online public chooses the Webby People's Voice Award. Online voting for that award is under way, and ends April 30.

If you dig the work we've done over the past couple of years in original video content, I hope you'll consider voting for Boing Boing Video here.

RSS feed for new episodes here, 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.

(Snapshots from the BBV Throbbing Gristle shoot by Chris Cooper).

Boing Boing Video and Richard Metzger shot an interview with art-damage/industrial music godfathers Throbbing Gristle in Los Angeles. They're on a limited tour of the USA, with a show tonight in San Francisco, and dates scheduled in Chicago and Brooklyn (info on dates, venues, and tickets here).

The resulting BB Video is yet to come, but I wanted to share some notes, photos, and ephemera from the experience.

Metzger is a super-mega-otaku fan of TG, and covered their legacy extensively through Disinfo publications and video releases. My knowledge is nowhere near as comprehensive as his (he's even stumped TG members with knowledge of early songs they've forgotten!). But I have been fascinated with them since I was a teenager, when a friend in a punk squat loaned me a beer-stained copy of V. Vale's 1983 RE/Search book about industrial culture.

When I phoned TG's manager Paul Smith on Monday to ask for permission to shoot for Boing Boing Video, I explained that I believed TG were the cultural ancestors for much of the "mutant" culture we explore here on Boing Boing. Sappy but sincere. Without their early experiments in nihilistic machine song we would not have "industrial music." The projects that split off when TG first disbanded -- Chris And Cosey, Coil, Psychic TV -- only expanded their cultural footprint. Countless acts owe them a huge genetic debt -- everyone from Einsturzende Neubauten to Skinny Puppy to NIN to Aphex Twin to Radiohead to every other act you're likely to type in the comments.

COUM Transmissions, the experimental performance art collective which preceded Throbbing Gristle, was responsible for legendary shock-events so extreme, they'd make Tubgirl, Goatse, and the Two Girls with One Cup blush.

The TG show we witnessed (and shot for BBV) this week reflects less of that shock, anger, and taboo-bombing, and was almost entirely instrumental. More moody, doom-y, Faustian. But the physically overwhelming sounds "took the meat off the bones," as Metzger put it. And it was fucking amazing.

Tuesday night's performance was a reprise of a live, improvised soundtrack TG composed for the 1980 Derek Jarman film In the Shadow of the Sun (you can watch a snip of the original version here).

"These people are the wreckers of civilisation", said conservative Member of Parliment Nicholas Fairbairn back in 1976. He was talking about Throbbing Gristle. During the BBV interview, we talked about what it's like to go from being "wreckers" of culture to being celebrated as cultural heroes. We talked about Twitter and Flickr. Gen asked what the difference is between blogs and websites, and announced s/he'd recently acquired her first Blackberry.

Ruth has some snapshots of the shoot and the soundcheck here. TG member Chris Carter is on Twitter here, and his photos are on Flickr here -- don't miss this incredible photoset of historic "lost and found" TG photos. TG member Cosey Fanni Tutti is on Twitter here. Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is here. And Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson is here.

Some archival interviews I've been reading and re-reading, as we edit the interview: This one with Cosey, about her art and her explorations of the sex trade (for her, one and the same). And this amazing interview purportedly from 1978, by an Australian reporter for NME, which was apparently never published in NME. This article in Artlurker by Federico Nessi. And this review of a box set in Artforum.

Thee Boing Boing Video episode(s) are "coum-ing" soon.

(Special thanks to Richard Metzger, to Boing Boing Video's production crew, and friends who helped along the way: Ehrich Blackhound, Ruth Waytz, Chris Cooper, Jason Louv, Suzan Jones, and Greg Chong, to name a few. Very special thanks to Paul Smith, and to the members of Throbbing Gristle).

A naked man at the Coachella festival didn't want to put on his clothes, so the police wrestled him to the ground and tasered him multiple times. The crowd, who didn't seem to mind the naked wizard, booed the police, and called them names. Thanks to Tracy Anderson for videotaping the event. (Video shows nudity.)

Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

It is not as simple as merely being able to count to three paces. Take it from Edward Sackville, Earl of Dorset; a duelist who followed every fine tradition that accompanied killing someone over a bruised ego, came away a winner (i.e., alive), and still managed to end up with a bit of egg on his face.

First: Get Embroiled in a Love Triangle
Lord Edward Bruce loved Venetia Stanley. But so did Edward Sackville. This being 1613, the disagreement quickly turned to impassioned slapping, which was, of course, an invitation to duel to the death.

Second: Evade the Wrath of Frustratingly Anti-Duelist Political Leaders
Besides commissioning a translation of the Bible, England's King James I is also well-known for disliking the "barbaric" traditions of dueling. (Progressive leader, or pansy worried about losing? You be the judge.) In fact, he banned duels in England during his reign, so when Lord Bruce and the Earl of Dorset wanted to fight, they had to take the grudge match overseas. Naturally, they chose Holland.

Third: Die With Dignity
It is a shame pay-per-view was not around in those days, because the fight turned out to be pretty evenly matched, with both men severely wounding each other. Finally, though, the Earl managed to stab Bruce straight through...twice. After that, Bruce was pretty much done for, and the fight broke up so both sides could seek medical attention. But, while the Earl was busy with his wounds, Bruce's doctor attacked him from behind. This was not looked upon kindly by either contestant. At the time, doctors were thought of as little better than maids, and Bruce couldn't bear being avenged by someone so low on the social totem pole. From his deathbed, he demanded that the "rascal" doctor halt the attack and, thus, died honorably...if somewhat pointlessly.

Fourth: Survive, But Wonder Whether Perhaps You Missed a Step Somewhere
Victorious, the Earl of Dorset headed back to England to claim is lady love ... Only to find out that, while he and Bruce had been busy paying attention to each other, Venetia Stanley had gone off and married somebody else.

You can read about three other noteworthy historical duels--involving, respectively, two high-class ladies; the founder of the Royal Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; and George W. Bush--in my book, Be Amazing

Shed friendly artist Elena Thomas asks, "I am an artist currently working on a shed project which involves me covering sheds with fabric. do you have a shed that you want covered?"

Do you want your shed covered in Fabric? (Thanks, Uncle Wilco!)

Glyn sez,

Against widespread dissent and controversy MEPs in the European Parliament voted this morning to allow copyright term extension to pass a first reading.

4 out of the 7 main groups (ALDE, GREENS/EFA, NGL, IND/ DEM) together with a cross party platform of MEPs voted to reject the proposal. Internal opposition threatened the group positions of the two largest parties (PSE and EPP) as several national delegations and key MEPS also joined the fight to reject. We understand that, in total, 222 voted in favour of rejection, 370 against. The final vote was 317 in favour, 178 against, 37 abstentions. A key amendment to ensure benefits accrued only to performers was also rejected.

The proposal now moves forward to the Council of Ministers where it is currently blocked by member states. The fundamental problems remain: how to include a workable use-it-or-lose it clause; agreeing to deliver real benefits to the vast majority of performers; how to avoid breaking the respect necessary for a functioning IP system by simply taking money from the pockets of consumers.

Discussions on the proposal will be held in the Council of Ministers and you can find out how to contact your government's relevant IP body here. (We understand the blocking minority is currently made up of Slovenia, Portugal, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Slovakia, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, Romania).

Parliament buckles: copyright extension goes through to Council of Ministers

Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

Researchers at Seoul National University in South Korea have successfully made transgenic puppies, according to New Scientist. The baby beagles carry a gene normally found in sea anemones, which means....yes....these fuzzy-wuzzy little puppykins glow in the dark. Thank you, science.

What, you may ask, is the point of a glow-in-the-dark dog? Er, well, this seems to be the point where everybody starts shuffling their feet and staring awkwardly up at the ceiling. One member of the research team says the experiment is basically just a proof-of-concept. What they really want to do is make transgenic dogs that could serve as research models for human disease. But while the other scientists interviewed in the article seem to agree that glowing puppies are a pretty damn awesome accomplishment, they're less convinced on any near-term practical applications of the technology.

New Scientist quotes Greg Barsh, a geneticist at Stanford University who studies dogs as models of human disease:

"I do not know of specific situations where the ability to produce transgenic dogs represents an immediate experimental opportunity,"

And Nathan Sutter, a dog geneticist at Cornell says it's not on his horizon at all, partly because of the expense of making and caring for the dogs...but also because the public still isn't really ready to accept that transgenic puppies won't someday rise up and kill us all.

Oh, well. They're still cute as all get out and way nifty. Go take a look. New Scientist has both "lights on" and "lights off" pictures.

BTW, this team is tangentially related to the guy who turned out to have faked a lot of human cell cloning data. But New Scientist says these puppies (and the cloned dog that came before them) are legit.

• Cute, pink puffy speakers -- for those who speak Chinese

• A day with the email-only Peek Pronto

• Star Wars cupcakes that look a little chewy

• Glowing Swarovski crystals in mesh sacks make awe$ome lamps

• A rig that lets you hang your guitar in the closet (where it belongs)

• An hour with Griffin's TuneFlex AUX

• Summer to do: build a tiny house, finally

• Did you know you can now stream Nova on PBS.com?

• Earth Day alert: "Wasting money on a gadget I don't need just doesn't seem smart."

• LEDs that make your home glow like a Virgin-Atlantic cabin.

A video showing a member of the United Arab Emirates' royal family torturing a man with whips, electrocution and a nail-spiked board has been released. The Minister of the Interior (one of the torturer's brothers) reviewed the recording and concluded "all rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the Police Department."

A man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim's arms and legs, and later holding him down as the Sheikh pours salt on the man's wounds and then drives over him with his Mercedes SUV.

In a statement to ABC News, the UAE Ministry of the Interior said it had reviewed the tape and acknowledged the involvement of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother of the country's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed.

ABC News Exclusive: Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh (via Digg)

AWARE, a 25-year-old Singaporean women's right organization, recently found itself in turmoil after a coup orchestrated by conservative fundamentalist Christians who signed up in large numbers just before the annual general meeting, then elected a new executive that immediately purged the organization of all its traditional leadership down to the subcommittee chairs.

AWARE held its annual general meeting (AGM) on 28 March 2009. There were over 100 people present. Of them, about 80 had only joined the organisation between January and March, one to three months before the meeting. Nine out of 12 executive committee (EXCO) places, including four Office Bearer positions, went to newcomers, who were voted in by wide majorities. There are wide-ranging suspicions that this "leadership grab" has been orchestrated by a well-organised group who do not share AWARE's values and who are seeking to use the name and the resources of a well-respected institution to further their own agenda. These concerns have been expressed not only by onlookers, but by older members of Aware...

# The new president, Josie Lau and 5 other Exco members belong to the same church, Church of Our Saviour. Given this, it is very likely, in our view, that they have acted in concert to take over AWARE. We do not know why as they have refused to disclose their reasons to either members of AWARE or to the press and this makes us even more worried. They, or persons whom they have been associated with, have written homophobic letters to the press. While that is their personal conviction to which they are entitled, we do not want AWARE to be made into a vehicle for any hidden agenda.

# Josie Lau, was in charge of the DBS Charity Drive in support of Focus On The Family, US-based Christian organisation that is opposed to abortion and equal rights for sexual minorities. This created a controversy last year which was well-documented.

# 160 members, including former AWARE committee members and founder members, petitioned for an extraordinary general meeting to consider a vote of no confidence in the New Exco on the basis that the New Exco has not acted and is not acting in the best interest of AWARE; does not appreciate or share the values of AWARE and does not have the requisite experience of carrying out AWARE's work or is otherwise inadequate to further AWARE's objectives. An EGM will be held on 2 May 2009.

WHAT HAPPENED (via IZ Reloaded)

According to Swedish National Radio, the judge in the Pirate Bay trial is a board member for a copyright industry lobbying group, and this conflict of interest may result in a mistrial. The Swedish article has been translated into English on Freeform 101 by a Dane, and is a little rough:

There are different types of ____ ('jäv', translation help needed). The most obvious case is if a judge is related to one of the inflicted parties. This is not the case here. But the concept of _____ ('delikatessjäv', translation help needed) exists, and that means that you as a judge must not have any reason to be deemed partial.

"But I do not think that I can be deemed partial because of these engagements," says Tomas Norström, judge in The Pirate Bay trial.

How do you explain that several law experts disagree with you?

"You will have to ask them that yourselv. Every time I am presented with a count, I access if I see myself as partial. That I have not in this case," says Tomas Norström.

But it does not matter what the judges thinks himself. This thinks Erik Bylander, associate professor in law practice at the Gothenburg Business College.

"Regardless of the judge's viewpoint, it can seem highly questionable. In a high profile lawsuit such as this one, I am _____ ('förvåna', translation help needed) that the court has not been more careful," he says.

The Pirate Bay trial invalid?

Rättegången kan tas om (Thanks, ChristianVillum and Zacqary!)

Mark sez,

Bookarmy.com is a London-based start-up aiming to be the last.fm of books â€" and we're gathering steam on our mission to link every book and every author on earth.

A month into public beta, the site's already throwing up some curious connections. Neil Gaiman and Lewis Caroll? Ray Bradbury and George Orwell? Charles Stross and Fyodor Dostoevsky? Anything goes: Bookarmy recommendations are generated by members themselves, who can mix and match similar reads from a full bibliographic database. The site also give readers space to host online libraries of their favourite books -- and compares their tastes to refine its recommendations.

Big-name authors already active on Bookarmy include 'Alchemist' author Paulo Coelho and 'Jumper' scribe Steven Gould. Publisher HarperCollins recently took a stake in the business, which should mean not just bags of multimedia on the way but potentially access to all manner of great content as the ebook revolution gathers pace!

Book Army (Thanks, Mark!)