Have you noticed that most airports feature the same restaurants? It's not an accident. The people who run these chains have organized themselves to be good at dealing with municipal organizations. Same thing goes for design firms, creative firms, accountants etc. that deal with large corporations.

How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck (via Sociological Images)

"These people made an enormous contribution to the outcome of World War Two, the 20th century and freedom in the West," said Simon Greenish, director of the Bletchley Park Trust.

"After many years of having to keep their critical wartime work top secret, it is tremendous that this contribution has finally achieved recognition."

Heroes of Bletchley included Tommy Flowers, who built one of the world's first programmable computers, Colossus, largely using his own funds, and Dr Alan Turing, who designed the bombe cryptanalysis machines.

Flowers received an MBE and an award of £1,000 for his work while Turing was arrested for homosexuality in 1952 and committed suicide shortly afterwards, having received no official recognition for his work in his lifetime.

The regions of the brain that become active during mind wandering belong to two important networks. One is known as the executive control system. Located mainly in the front of the brain, these regions exert a top-down influence on our conscious and unconscious thought, directing the brain's activity toward important goals. The other regions belong to another network called the default network. In 2001 a group led by neuroscientist Marcus Raichle at Washington University discovered that this network was more active when people were simply sitting idly in a brain scanner than when they were asked to perform a particular task. The default network also becomes active during certain kinds of self-referential thinking, such as reflecting on personal experiences or picturing yourself in the future.

The fact that both of these important brain networks become active together suggests that mind wandering is not useless mental static. Instead, Schooler proposes, mind wandering allows us to work through some important thinking. Our brains process information to reach goals, but some of those goals are immediate while others are distant. Somehow we have evolved a way to switch between handling the here and now and contemplating long-term objectives. It may be no coincidence that most of the thoughts that people have during mind wandering have to do with the future.

Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry.

From "Eye of the Beholder" by Anton Kusters:

I'm in the front seat, riding with Soichiro in his car on his way to Shinjuku. "One cuts off one's finger to make a point", Soichiro explains while driving. "Usually to show the sincerity of an apology after doing something wrong."

"You cut off a single digit of your own finger in a ceremonial way, while facing your boss, and then you present the severed finger on a folded napkin to him. It reinforces the power of your apology. It shows that you're serious about what you're saying."

Somehow, i don't feel like questioning that.

"Eye of the Beholder," "Meet Soichiro," "As Light Shines on Thy Thigh." (Image credit: Anton Kusters. Via This Isn't Happiness.)

Desert Sexy is a group survey that explores the concept of the influence and context of the California low desert, which appears in art, music, film, etc. Besides the amazing photographs, paintings and sculptures from 12 incredible artists, we are also lucky enough to have low desert legends Yawning Man play a special live set at the opening reception! It's absolutely free and open to the public.

More info about the show here. Opening reception: Saturday, July 11, 2009, 6-8PM (but will go later), The Constant Gallery. Featured artists: Lisa K. Blatt, Scott Bowering, Joel Kyack, Mario Lalli, Anthony Lepore, Logan/The Date Farmers, Joey Morris, Keith Patrick, Robert Stone, Peter Sutherland, Tony Tornay, and Stephen Walters.

More exclusive photos from the installation, which apparently includes some neat old arcade game hulls, after the jump.

♦ Image above, from an extensive Boston Globe photo-essay which contains some graphic content: "An ethnic Uighur woman looks out the window of an apartment one day after Han Chinese mobs attacked the compound in Urumqi, China on Wednesday, July 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)"

♦ From China's state mouthpiece, People's Daily, calls to "punish Facebook" (I'm visualizing stern, uniformed Communist party officials publicly spanking Zuckerberg). Snip: "Over 90 percent of (...) netizens said that 'Xinjiang independence' activists, carrying out this type of 'online activity' severely violates China's national interests and agreed that Facebook should immediately shut down the 'Xinjiang independence" online group."

♦ Xinhua would like you to know that everything is "normal again" in the capital city of Urumqi, and that people are happily wandering the streets in search of watermelon, kebabs, and eggplant.

♦ Reuters: "Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Friday genocide was being committed in China's northwest province of Xinjiang and called on Chinese authorities to intervene to prevent more deaths."

♦ CSM on China's savvier media strategy: "Taking a cue from Western PR tactics, Beijing moved away from trying to block coverage altogether - and was benefited by doing so."

♦ A report filed nearly 10 years ago by Rebecca MacKinnon, then CNN's Beijing bureau chief: "Rumblings of discontent among ethnic Muslims on China's Asian frontier"

♦ NYT reports the crackdown now extends to mosques: "Chinese authorities banned prayer gatherings at mosques here on Friday, the principal day of prayer for Muslims, as security officials tried to prevent further ethnic violence in the Xinjiang region."

(most links in this post via Rebecca MacKinnon)

During the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, an incident occured in which hundreds or thousands of Taliban POWs were killed by a warlord supported by the US.

Bush administration officials repeatedly thwarted efforts to investigate the mass killing, according to American officials and human rights groups. The warlord responsible, Abdul Rashid Dostum (shown above while campaigning for president in 2004), still retains a high position within the Afghan government. How (and if) the Obama administration will deal with ongoing calls for an investigation remains to be seen. Snip from NYT article today by James Risen:

American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation -- sought by officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department, the Red Cross and other human rights groups -- because the warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001, several officials said. They said the United States also worried about undermining the American-supported Karzai government, in which General Dostum has served as a defense official.

"At the White House, nobody said 'no' to an investigation, but nobody ever said 'yes,' either," said Pierre Prosper, the former war crimes ambassador for the United States. "The first reaction of everybody there was 'Oh, this is a sensitive issue. This is a touchy issue politically.' " It is not clear how -- or if -- the Obama administration will address the issue. But in recent weeks, State Department officials have quietly tried to thwart General Dostum's reappointment as military chief of staff to the president, according to several senior officials, and suggested that the administration may not be hostile to an inquiry.

Incidentally: Wikipedia says Mr. Dostum is also known as "Heavy D, and D-Diddy," and links to a subscribers-only National Geographic article as proof.

The Stanford Radiology 3D Imaging Laboratory uses computed tomography and Magnetic Resonance imaging data to create three-dimensional images of the human body. Individual CT and MR scans of the body are taken around a single axis that are stacked and rendered using complex computer algorithms to create a three-dimensional volume of data. The images produced from this data can be manipulated on-screen to provide doctors with unique interior perspectives of the human body for diagnosing and treating patients. Each month the lab produces nearly 20,000 images.

The report, mandated by Congress, provides context to information that has been leaked in press accounts and buttressed by congressional testimony and in books authored by former officials involved in the surveillance effort.

The report notes that several members of Congress -- including then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Nancy Pelosi -- were briefed on the program on October 25, 2001, and a total of 17 times before the program became public in 2005.

Among other things, the report also cites a Justice Department conclusion that "it was extraordinary and inappropriate that a single DOJ attorney, John Yoo, was relied upon to conduct the initial legal assessment of the (surveillance program)."

Hey, did we mention that Yoo is still employed at UC Berkeley?

Awesomecon, a gathering for fans of Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, comes to San Diego on July 25. Snip from the event announcement:

WHAT IS AWESOMECON??! Awesomecon is an outdoor extravaganza where awesome fans can celebrate with Tim & Eric!! Meet the creators of Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and their special guests DJ Douggpound, David Liebe Hart, Richard Dunn, James Quall and many more! There will be karaoke, games, a costume contest, a trivia contest AANNDDD one lucky ultimate fan will win a wave runner ride with Tim & Eric! vrroooom vrooom.

So warm up your singing pipes, brush up on your Awesome Show trivia, pick out your best character costume and join us for our favorite outdoor summer tradition! See ya there!!!!

Default brain settings may lead to daydreaming and mind-wandering, but the network also conducts serious business. Neuroscientists still hotly debate the network’s exact functions, however. Among its jobs may be running life simulations, providing a sense of self and maintaining crucial connections between brain cells. A few researchers doubt the network is anything special at all.

But evidence suggests that a malfunctioning default network is involved in diseases and disorders as diverse as Alzheimer’s disease, autism, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, Tourette syndrome, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Despite its laid-back name, which neuroscientist Marcus Raichle coined in a 2001 paper, the default mode network is one of the hardest-working systems in the brain. It was discovered accidentally by researchers watching the activity of brains at work on various tasks.

Neuroscientists use PET (short for positron emission tomography) and functional MRI scanners to image and gauge brain activity. To tell which areas of the brain become more active during a mental task, scientists compare brain activity during the task with activity when the person is at rest, either with eyes closed or while staring at a dot or cross. Raichle, of Washington University in St. Louis, and others saw that every time a person engaged in a mental activity such as memorizing a list of words, a collection of brain regions consistently decreased activity compared with their resting levels. Only when people recall autobiographical memories or imagine alternative situations is the network more active than it is at rest, scientists have since found. (In this context, “rest” refers to a state in which the brain is not engaged in a mental task but is still monitoring the body and the world around it.) Raichle hypothesized that the network is more active when the brain is at rest and has to dial back its activity to let people concentrate on specific tasks.

The year was 1953 and if you were a woman, a night on the town meant either squeezing into a girdle or slipping on a garter belt. Formal dress dictated that females wear such intimate, and often uncomfortable, articles of clothing. How else could you hold up your nylons?

Allen Gant Sr., then running textile company Glen Raven Mills, was inspired by his wife’s lament. “How would it be if we made a pair of panties and fastened the stockings to it?” he asked Ethel. She stitched some crude garments together, tried them on, and handed the products to her husband. “You got to figure out how to do this,” she said. Allen brought his wife’s experiment into the office, and with the help of his colleagues Arthur Rogers, J. O. Austin, and Irvin Combs, developed what they later called “Panti-Legs.” Their product—the world’s first commercial pantyhose—began lining department store shelves in 1959.

“It was wonderful,” a 74-year-old Ethel Gant told the Associated Press 30 years later. “Most people my age loved them from the very beginning and couldn’t wait to get a hold of them. I don’t think we’ve ever changed our minds,” she said.

Allen Gant Sr. had at least one satisfied customer, but the panty-stocking combo did not grab most women’s attentions at first. Though the convenience of not having to wear a girdle or garter belt was a plus, what helped pantyhose take hold was the rise of the miniskirt in the mid-1960s.

For the fashion-conscious woman looking to wear a skirt shorter than stockings are long, pantyhose were the perfect fit. When iconic models such as Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy donned their mini skirts, demand for pantyhose exploded and women flocked to the stores for pairs of their own.

"I've been here year after year," Talley said. "There are teens who tell me things they could never take to their parents, and they could never afford to schedule a $100 session with me..."

A clinical psychologist by training - she previously worked with veterans services and at a drug rehabilitation clinic in San Francisco - she uses her skills as a counselor, herbalist and Wiccan healer to solve her clients' problems, which often have to do with money or sex, she said.

"There have been a lot of requests for money charms in the last year," Talley said. "A lot of people have asked me to put a glamour on a loan application or other paperwork, so when other people read it, it will look good to them."

Occasionally, she'll receive requests to perform black magic - but Talley always tells those clients she's not that kind of witch.

While they appreciate Talley's unique talents, Marin Farmers Market representatives insist she take part in the same application process as every other vendor at the Fairfax market. It's that process, Spilger said, that lets customers know what they see at the market is what they'll get.

Related: These folks are trying to preserve "Nikola Tesla's last and only existing laboratory, in Shoreham, NY (USA) [as] a science and technology center and museum." Apparently, AGFA wants to buy the space and turn it into a corporate center. The Tesla Science Center project solicits your support and donations to protect the site as a historic landmark. (thanks, Evelyn)

The Taser X3 has its own Facebook page and, worst of all, it Twitters. Presumably the agency were briefed to come up with something cute and non-threatening. Evidently they decided that the X3's image should come across less as Arnold Schwarzenegger and more as Paris Hilton, judging from these tweets:

"Check out my color screen. Like a Tele-Tubby ... only a little more intense!"

"Just out of the solar radiation box. Tanning bed for TASER's... 3 months of Arizona summer sun radiation. Check that one off!"

"Never thought I'd get so excited about the feel of a safety switch. But wait until you feel it - smooooooth."

Don't miss the breathing, pulsing, utterly over-the-top Taser X3 online ad campaign.

(Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.)

It was a return-to-classics kind of day on Offworld, with Bethesda releasing their early first-person/open-world RPG Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall as a free download, and with the revivification of both Team17's classic Amiga shooter Alien Breed as a fully 3D affair, and the former FASA designers at Smith & Tinker giving MechWarrior a fantastic looking full reboot for PC and Xbox 360.

Elsewhere we started to take our first look at the weird worlds of Galactic Arms Race, a self-described 'space Diablo' with a twist: all of the weapons in the game are designed by AI and are evolving over time based on the aggregate behavior of all the game's players, with some spectacular and unexpected results; and got a guide to the rest of this summer's Xbox Live Arcade releases.

Finally, we bought our own custom Left 4 Dead Sackboys from the crocheter himself (above), saw Fangamer go all Anderson and release a browsable version of their fan-made Mother 3 guide for free, and our 'one shots' for the day: a plush member of Rhythm Heaven's Glee Club, and Cooking Mama, and Cooking Samus, and Cooking Zelda, and Cooking Lara...

A while back, I received an email from Rob Walker, a friend, the author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, and the guy who writes the "Consumed" column for the New York Times Magazine. With a friend of his, Joshua Glenn, who wrote Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance, he was working on a new project: Significant Objects.

The idea is this:

A talented, creative writer invents a story about an object. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should -- according to our hypothesis -- acquire not merely subjective but objective value. How to test our theory? Via eBay!

Each writer, Rob explained, would choose from a variety of "junk" objects bought by the curators at garage sales and thrift stores. A smiling mug. A Sanka ashtray. A JFK bust. Then, we would write a short story about the object. Whatever we liked. A fiction. Thereby, at least as I saw it, imbuing this seeming "worthless" object with a greater value, sentimental or otherwise. The story and a photo of the object would be posted on the website and put up for auction on eBay. Readers would be invited to bid on the item. If they won the auction, they would win the object and a printout of the story. No one would be "deceived" into believing the stories about the objects were true, as their fictional relationship would be made clear, and the proceeds of the auction would go to the author, who would retain the rights to the story. Or, as Rob puts it: "Voila! An unremarkable, castoff thingamajig has suddenly become a 'significant' object!"

I chose the All-American Official Necking Team button that you see here. The story I wrote about it has bits of truth and fiction mixed together. My paternal grandfather did die on the IRT and my father was a tall man, but I am not a boy and, so far as I know, my father was never on a "necking team."

After he had passed away, my mother and I had stood over the dining room table upon which sat a large box that contained what was left of him. Cremains, the man had called them. My father, I had longed to correct him. Thankfully, my mother had been willing to share what remained of him with me, his only son. My father was a skyscraper of a man -- six-foot-five, Ozymandias hands, a brooding forehead -- a great man, really -- and so, he had left a great deal of himself behind.

Other writers with story objects include Luc Sante, Ben Greenman, Stewart O'Nan, Kurt Anderson, and there's one coming from Boing Boing's own Mark Frauenfelder.

Check out Significant Objects here, read about the project here, and see all the items on eBay here. You can read my story here and bid on it here. More coverage here: The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The New Yorker.

• LSD-discoverer Albert Hofmann wrote a letter to Steve Jobs asking him how/why LSD was useful to him. What else did Hofmann say?

• Rob reviewed the HTC Touch Pro 2. Check out the verdict.

• Steven reviewed Garmin's ultra-thin nüvi 1490T GPS unit.

• Joel reviewed the Mophie Juice Pack Air battery case for the iPhone.

• An art installation with enormous solar-powered flowers.

• A beautiful vintage world clock from 1975.

• Core77 made a bicycle. Expensive, but attractive.

• College students built a PDA-powered rig that accurately measure muscle strength.

• Joel posted a video review of the Vita-Mix 5200. Check out his mug and his mesh cap.

• Greenpeace released its annual report rating several major electronics manufacturers. How'd Apple do? What about Nintendo? Find out!

• Samsung filed a patent for a butterfly-like cell phone built with "doped polysilicon."

• If a Leatherman multi-tool doesn't have a knife, is it still a Leatherman? Hmmmm...

• We discovered a toy called the "Fighting Cock" &mdash and we're going to give one away to one lucky reader! Discuss all this and more at BBG.

3. It is well known in the legal community that Michael Robb, Esquire, wears shoes with holes in the soles when he is in trial.

4. Upon reasonable belief, Plaintiff believes that Mr. Robb wears these shoes as a ruse to impress the jury and make them believe that Mr. Robb is humble and simple without sophistication. . . .

6. Part of this strategy is to present Mr. Robb and his client as modest individuals who are so frugal that Mr. Robb has to wear shoes with holes in the soles. Mr. Robb is known to stand at sidebar with one foot crossed casually beside the other so that the holes in his shoes are readily apparent to the jury . . . .

7. Then, during argument and throughout the case Mr. Robb throws out statements like "I'm just a simple lawyer" with the obvious suggestion that Plaintiff's counsel and the Plaintiff are not as sincere and down to earth as Mr. Robb.

8. Mr. Robb should be required to wear shoes without holes in the soles at trial to avoid the unfair prejudice suggested by this conduct.

(Image: funeral for a pair of shoes 2, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from marco annunziata's Flickr stream)

"Landlords seem to be recession-proof at this point," he says. "They're just keeping their prices up."

Currently, Glassman figures he's getting a good deal at $235,000 a year. But landlord Yoram Birenzweig, VP of Pinedale Properties, says the true market value at 256 Queen West is $100 a square foot - which my calculator tells me is $400,000 a year.

That's not what he's demanding Glassman pay, but even if they split the difference, it's all too much for Pages.

Glassman keeps stressing his relationship with Birenzweig is genial and that he's not getting screwed over.

"It's life," he says. "He appreciates what we're doing, [but] for him, if you can, you should make more money," he says.

Pages bookstore going down

(Image: Matthew Kim)