These tiny Austrian 2mm pinfire guns look to be exquisitely engineered. From the video description:

Originally made by Austrian watchmakers as decorative pocket watch chain fobs or as cufflinks, these miniature pinfire pistols are now prized collector's items. These are some from my own collection dating from 1904 to the 1970's. All of them fire 2mm blank pinfire cartridges. The revolvers are the world's smallest working double action blank firing pistols. They measure just 38mm in length and are smaller than the famous Swiss Mini Gun which measures 55mm.

(via MAKE)

Researchers from the Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory at the University of Tokyo presented this incredible video of a high-speed robotic hand at the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. The laboratory's Web site has many more videos related to this project, called Sensor Fusion. Sensor Fusion: High Speed Robots

"And now, a dramatic reading of a real break up letter from a real person."

Dramatic reading of a break-up letter (via Sean Bonner)

Kids in the Hall superfan Tavie sez,

The Kids in the Hall are shooting their new miniseries for CBC, Death Comes to Town, in North Bay, Ontario.

As their official online presence cheerleader and resident of the US with no access to CBC, I thought it important that they get their asses online and use social media to its fullest. If the show has no buzz, how will a US network pick it up and let ME see it? It's all about me.

After some poking and prodding by his most annoying fan, Mark McKinney has at last started posting production notes at their Facebook page. The page was originally set up by a fan, but has been handed over to the guys to post official photos, videos and hilarious status updates,

Their willingness to let their fans drag them to the 21st century, kicking-and-screaming, makes me love them long time. I'm co-admin along with a fan named Jen. Any status updates by one of us will have our names in front - otherwise, it comes directly from the keyboard and fevered brain of Mark McKinney, the Chicken Lady herself. Check out the photo he posted of himself in full feathered regalia, it's fucking sweet.

Kids in the Hall (Thanks, Tavie!)

Canadian Member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party and former frontman for the awesome punk band L'Etranger Charlie Angus sez,

I saw your comments on the Toronto town hall copyright forum [ed: in which the NDP was threatened with expulsion for handing out fliers calling for a moderate new copyright law that balanced public rights with the rights of copyright holders]. The fallout has been very bizarre. A copyright lobbyist with the American federation of Musicians is circulating an online e-mail demanding the NDP apologize for our "disgusting" position on balanced copyright.

The attack was caused by Olivia Chow handing out an interview I did with EXCLAIM Magazine on how copyright changes could benefit independent Canadian bands. Exclaim did the interview with me because of my background with DIY bands.

Seems to me the interview is consistent with what the NDP have always said on this file -- we want artists to be able to benefit from the massive stream of information being traded but we don't want average citizens turned into criminals. Here's Michael Geist's blog on the attack on us.

I was elected to participate in discussions about public policy. I have never heard of a lobbyist group demand an apology for speaking out about a totally botched piece of legislation like Bill C-61. If they spent less time running e-mail attacks and more time speaking with the various players they might realize that the NDP position has been balanced and consistent from the beginning.

As for a public recanting to satisfy the C-61 lobby ? Sorry, dude....it ain't happening.

At last week's Canadian copyright town hall meeting in Toronto -- the one where the speaker-roster was overwhelming stacked with representatives from giant entertainment conglomerates -- security guards prevented the Canadian Federation of Students from distributing literature by the doors that advocated for more liberal copyright rules. They also stopped a Member of Parliament from one of the opposition parties from distributing flyers.

The Canadian Federation of Students has issued a press release disclosing a disturbing incident just prior to last night's townhall in Toronto. CFS says that students attempted to distribute a flyer outlining the organization's position on fair copyright outside the townhall. The students involved were approached by private security guards who threatened to remove them from the hotel if they continued to do so. The CFS decided to distribute the flyers specifically because of the limited number of speaking slots and the fear that they would not be called upon to speak (they were not). It is hard to understand how distributing relevant materials outside a public, government-run townhall is viewed as grounds for ejection. As the chair of CFS-Ontario notes, "it is ironic that while students are concerned that new legislation may allow copyright owners to lock up information, the government is locking up its own consultations."

Update: NDP MP Olivia Chow reports that she faced the same threats when she tried to distribute documents outlining Charlie Angus' position on copyright.

Why Did Security Guards Stop CFS From Distributing Flyers at the Copyright Town Hall?

David Byrne describes his experiences using the Kindle DX while on tour: nice device, crappy DRM, not worth it.

Here's where the rub is. This machine only reads Kindle files and PDFs. And nothing else out there reads Kindle files. It can read other types of files -- Word DOCs, MOBI, TXT etc. -- but you have to go through Amazon via email, where they're converted for a small charge, then sent directly to your Kindle. And, you can't share a book with your friends, even if they too have a Kindle. No doubt, as with MP3 and iTunes, book publishers would only agree to this system if people couldn't share their purchases. As we know, Apple has relented on this, and has taken DRM off many of their music files. But which ones? How do you know? Years from now, having gone through a few computers, your music collection is unplayable except for the files without DRM. Well, same with these books -- if you migrate to a different tablet (the forthcoming Apple one we hear so much about, for example), you are fucked. All the unread books in your Kindle library are stuck on what will eventually become antiquated technology.

There are other e-book formats out there (EPub is being touted as a cross-platform format, but still, ugh, with DRM)...We're linked now, which is how we use these things that represent our inner selves -- as social connectors. Take that ability away, the ability to exchange stuff that represents us, and I'll bet some of the "value" of these kinds of e-books goes too... the social interconnectedness value, not the dollar value.

08.25.09: The Kindle Experience

Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-128 mission is set to lift off within minutes of the time of this blog post. My suggestion: space out to Soma FM's Mission Control channel in one browser tab (or on iTunes or your player of choice) while you watch Miles O'Brien hosting live coverage of the launch on SpaceFlightNow.com, embedded after the jump. Follow Miles on Twitter here, and SpaceFlightNow here. I'll also be following @Astro_Jose = Mexican-American astronaut José Hernández, who tweets from space en Español (!!!).

Image (via NASA): "Seated are Commander Rick Sturckow (right) and Pilot Kevin Ford. From the left (standing) are mission specialists José Hernández, John "Danny" Olivas, Nicole Stott, European Space Agency's Christer Fuglesang and Patrick Forrester." Godspeed, all.

(Ed. Note: The Boing Boing Video site includes a guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. We'll post roundups here on the motherBoing.)

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More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com

Over at The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy website, Electronic Frontier Foundation Legal Director Cindy Cohn writes about the so-called Presidential Surveillance Program, the "still-shadowy set of programs that spy on Americans in America without any probable cause or warrant." The EFF, as regular BB readers know, has fought this program for several years now -- in 2006, it filed suit against AT&T for providing the NSA with direct access to its database of communications records. Snip from Cohn's essay:

While the details are unknown, credible evidence indicates that billions of everyday communications of ordinary Americans are swept up by government computers and run through a process that includes both data-mining and review of content, to try to figure out whether any of us were involved in illegal or terrorist-related activity. That means that even the most personal and private of our electronic communications - between doctors and patients, between husbands and wives, or between children and parents - are subject to review by computer algorithms programmed by government bureaucrats or by the bureaucrats themselves.

It's a bizarre turn of events, these unwarranted general searches. Our country was founded on the rejection of "general warrants" - pieces of paper that gave the Executive (then the King) unchecked power to search colonial Americans without cause. The Fourth Amendment was adopted in part to stop these "hated writs" and to make sure that searches of the papers of Americans required a probable cause showing to a court. The warrantless surveillance program returns us to the policies of King George III only with a digital boost. It subjects a huge number our daily digital papers to threshold surveillance, then adding subsequent, more intrusive warrantless surveillance if faceless government computers and bureaucrats determine that our communications or communications patterns merit further scrutiny.

Both Yoo and Hayden draw from a similar bag of tricks to defend the surveillance programs, including claims that there was a "gap" between our domestic surveillance and our foreign intelligence surveillance.

Lawless Surveillance, Warrantless Rationales (via Rebecca McKinnon)

This week, we learned that the Obama administration will continue the Bush administration's practice of relocating war-on-terror detainees to other countries for offshore imprisonment and interrogation, with promises that their treatment will now be more closely monitored to ensure that they are not tortured. Human rights advocates condemn the decision as an extension of a program that creates conditions in which abuse is likely to flourish with impunity. U.S. Says Rendition to Continue, but With More Oversight (NYT).

The news came on the same day the ACLU released documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request which detail acts of torture committed against detainees held by the United States, domestically and in overseas "black sites."

In related news, the ACLU is protesting an agreement between the US and Britain which may lead to hacker Gary McKinnon being extradited to the US, after he penetrated the defenses of poorly secured US Government computers. According to reports, McKinnon suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, and has testified that he was searching for evidence of extra-terrestrials and UFO activity.

Rejoice! Automated and unsolicited phone calls in which businesses try to push products on consumers will soon be punishable by fines of up to $16,000 per call, according to the US Federal Trade Commission.

Calls from politicians, public service announcements and "informational" calls will be exempt from the new rule. A call alerting a traveler that his or her flight has been delayed would still be allowed, for example. Banks, telephone carriers and most charitable organizations are also excluded from the ban, the FTC says. The FTC asks people to report questionable robocalls by visiting its complaint Web site or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP.

(thanks, Chief Fulfiller of Needs)

Well, this little viral number didn't take long to become the stuff of screaming Drudge sirens. So, over at CNET, Declan McCullagh wrote about an update to a cybersecurity bill that first circulated this spring. In his interpretation of the bill (which I haven't read in entirety, full disclosure), Declan says the bill gives the White House new power to unplug private-sector computers from the Internet in the case of national emergency. Snip:

[Critics of the earlier bill are] not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet (CNET).

Commenting on this article, ZDNET's Sam Diaz argues that the White House is not equipped to hold the keys (where are these magical keys, btw?). "The argument that the government is ill-equipped and shouldn't be trusted with the such far-reaching power is no joke."

At the Atlantic, Mark Armbinder counters that Skepticism [is] Warranted -- But Nuance Needed.

A few things to keep in mind. One: the president already has the authority to shut down parts of the Internet in emergencies.

I enjoyed this NPR profile of extreme DIYer Tim Anderson, who writes our "Heirloom Technology" column for Make.

Do-It-Yourself Guru who Makes Treasures From Trash

The Men Who Stare At Goats is UK journalist Jon Ronson's terrific, absurd, scary, and funny nonfiction book about the United States military's weird experiments with psychic spying, "Jedi" powers, subliminal sound weapons, and, er, the ability to kill an animal just by looking at it (hence the title). The book is coming to the big screen November 6 in the form of a dark comedy starring Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, and Jeff Bridges. What fun!

"The Men Who Stare At Goats" movie trailer (Thanks, Jason Tester!)
Buy "The Men Who Stare At Goats" book

In 1991, after having been paroled, convicted kidnapper and rapist Phillip Garrido snatched an 11 year old girl named Jaycee Dugard off the street. He kept her captive for 18 years, repeatedly raped her, and fathered two children from those rapes. Jaycee gave birth to the first child when she was 14. There may be additional child victims. And investigators are now also looking for clues that could link Garrido with a series of 10 unsolved murders nearby, in which prostitutes were sexually violated before they were killed.

Garrido maintained a blogspot blog which amounts to a disturbing look inside the internal thought process of a monster. That blog includes numerous postings about an electronic invention he wished to patent, that allowed him to "control sound" using his "mental powers." Snip:

This document is to affirm that I Phillip Garrido have clearly demonstrated the ability to control sound with my mind and have developed a device for others to witness this phenomena. by using a sound generator to provide the sound, and a headphone amplification system, ( a device to focuc your hearing so as to increase the sensitivity of what one is listening to) I have produced a set of voices by effectively controlling the sound to pronounce words through my own mental powers.

His brother told the press today that Garrido did a lot of LSD when younger. Phillip Garrido believes that having children with the child he abducted and raped cured him of pedophilia. Blogging under the user name THEMANWHOSPOKEWITHHISMIND, Garrido wrote,

This all began by God removing a problem from my shoulders that behavioral scientist believe is not possible to remove. since then my life has seen major improvements allowing me to stand here today a free man.

His crazy hallucinations about controlling sound and controlling human thought and will are not at all unrelated to his crimes. Garrido housed his victims in a series of makeshift tents and soundproofed shelters in his back yard, in such a way that neighbors, according to several reports, "never heard a thing."

Despite Garrido's careful schemes to "control sound" and control the behavior and visibility of his captives, at least one neighbor did suspect something, and contacted authorities. The police came to Garrido's property, and didn't go in the back yard to check.

The deputy determined that no crime had been committed even though he did not enter or ask to enter the backyard, the sheriff said.

I wonder how many other opportunities were missed before an unnamed female campus security officer at UC Berkeley started the chain of events that would lead to Dugard's freedom, and that of her two children. Update: The officer's name is Ally Jacobs.

Here's the Megan's Law database entry for Phillip Garrido. (Tip: want to totally creep yourself out, and/or protect your family? Search the database for entries located near your home or place of work).

Yesterday, he gave a lengthy, rambling phone interview with a local TV station. You can listen to the whole interview with Garrido here. It is chilling. Snip from transcript:

"It's a disgusting thing that took place with me in the beginning. But I turned my life completely around (...) What's kept me busy the last several years is I've completely turned my life around. And you're going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, the victim - you wait.

If you take this a step at a time, you're going to fall over backwards and in the end, you're going to find the most powerful heart-warming story."

May he rot in hell.

BB commenter Mojave adds,

An interesting little side note to this story is that [his] van was captured on googlestreetview as it left the house of horrors. I think even calling the guy a monster is too nice. Gives monsters a bad name.

And other BB commenters note that related images taken by the Google Street View van on that same day seem to show that Garrido's van may have followed the Google van with interest.

Poster artist Ward Sutton did a great 12-panel comic strip review of the film Died Young, Stayed Pretty, a documentary film by Eileen Yaghoobian about show posters that opened at the IFC Film Center in NYC July 17. (Here's a trailer for the film.)

Tour dates for screenings can be found here.

Ward Sutton Makes the Case for Posters as Art (Or Junk)

I wish I could have gone to Maker Faire Africa! It was held in Ghana's capital, Accra a couple of weeks ago. Paul Karikari's "electric cream heater" is interesting -- you stir aluminum shavings and aluminum powder into some kind of cream and it heats up. (Thanks, Daniel!)

One of my favorite San Francisco attractions is the Musée Mécanique, a delightful old-timey penny arcade packed with arcade machines, automatons, mechanical musicboxes, and other fantastic contraptions of yesteryear. Morbid Anatomy's Joanna Ebenstein digs the place too. She's taken a great series of photos there and created terrific animated gifs from some of them. Morbid Anatomy: Musée Mécanique

Cigar Box Nation founder Shane Speal has posted four great videos to teach you how to play your 3-string cigar box guitar. Above, how to play leads (blues and Middle Eastern) on one string.

Shane Speal's cigar box guitar lessons

A police office in St. Paul, Minnesota is under investigation for feeding Pop-Tarts to gorillas during an unauthorized after-hours tour of the Como Zoo. The cop was caught on CCTV. From MyFox Twin Cities:

Surveillance video captured the incident last January, around 2 a.m., when two zoo security guards snuck four to eight people into the zoo. Among the unauthorized visitors, was an off-duty St. Paul Cop.

The Como Zoo isn't sure if the gorillas actually ate the Pop-Tarts or not. Regardless, the gorillas appear to be doing just fine.

"Cop Investigated for Feeding Gorillas Pop-Tarts?"

MIT researchers are designing a school small robotic fish that could be used to explore underwater spots difficult for humans to reach. For example, they could act as remote sensors, traveling through oil pipes or shipwrecks, or collecting environmental data. The 5 to 8-inch long prototypes, made from soft polymers, mimic real fish that swim by tensing and relaxing muscles to produce a vibration in their bodies. From MIT News Office:

"With these polymers, you can specify stiffness in different sections, rather than building a robot with discrete sections," says (mechanical engineering professor Kamal) Youcef-Toumi. "This philosophy can be used for more than just fish" - for example, in robotic prosthetic limbs... Later this fall, the researchers plan to expand their research to more complex locomotion and test some new prototype robotic salamanders and manta rays. "The fish were a proof of concept application, but we are hoping to apply this idea to other forms of locomotion, so the methodology will be useful for mobile robotics research - land, air and underwater - as well," said (grad student Pablo) Valdivia Y Alvarado.

"Robots swim with the fishes"

For my latest essay on GOOD, I profile the Global Lives Project, a volunteer effort to create an online video library of human life experiences. From GOOD:

Rumi Nagashima, 22, navigates Tokyo in her wheelchair on the way to a girl scout meeting where she’s the troop leader. In Ngawle Village, Malawi, Edith Kapuka, 13, is playing ball with her school friends before walking a trail to her small hut. Across the world in San Francisco, James Bullock, 57, steers his cable car up San Francisco’s steep hills. And you? You’re in the middle of it all. An array of video projectors immerses you in a day in the life of everyday people around the world. Look left, and there’s Israel Feliciano, 23, a hip-hop singer in a favela of São Paulo, Brazil. Behind you is Muttu Kumar, 18, a postcard vendor hawking his wares in Hampi, India. This is an installation of the Global Lives Project, a volunteer effort originally launched to “record 24 hours in the lives of ten people that roughly represent the diversity our planet’s population.”

Think Globally, Record Locally

A reader writes, "The second of two Canadian copyright townhalls was held last night in Toronto and it was clear from the beginning that the recording industry stacked the deck. Four Warner Music executives spoke, two from Sony Music, one Universal Music, along with multiple music industry lawyers, spokespeople, and collectives. Given that there were a limited number of seats, packing the room meant that many alternative views were excluded from participating. Time to speak out now on copyright - two weeks left in the consultation and the industry is ready to overrun the process unless Canadians take the time to have their voice heard at sites like speakoutoncopyright.ca, digitalagenda.ca or ccer.ca."

With just over two weeks left in the consultation, there should be no doubt that the lobby groups will be engaging in a major effort to push for their DMCA-style reforms. The calls for three-strikes and you're out, notice and takedown, DMCA anti-circumvention legislation, and no flexible fair dealing will only get louder. Now is the time for Canadians - many of whom could not get a seat at the townhall since it was filled by industry reps just days after the consultation launch - to speak out. Don't wait - send in your comments today and encourage others to do the same.

The Toronto Music Industry Town Hall

Sam sez, "This is a Google map that tracks all the events from issue 1 to 64 of the Walking Dead comic. The comic actually takes place in the real world and this map has markers for everything that has happened and where it happened, complete with references to the comic and images. "

Map (Thanks, Sam!)

The repentant former KKK leader Johnny Lee Clary explains how Reverend Wade Watts, an NAACP leader, disarmed him by being cool, funny and brave, engaging in some first-rate psy-ops. Be sure to listen through to the end for the chicken story.

Former Ku Klux Klan leader Johnny Lee Clary (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Last month I blogged about Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim, a glorious, gritty revenge novel from hell, tinged with Aleister Crowley, Tom Waits and Raymond Chandler. Sandman Slim, AKA Stark, is one of Los Angeles's magicians, and 11 years ago, his fellow magicians sent him to hell because they were jealous of his power. He's spent the past 11 years fighting in Hell's gladiator pits and working as an assassin for one of Hell's Dukes, but now he has escaped to Earth and is on a quest to hunt down and execute his betrayers.

I've just finished listening to the unabridged, 10-hour audiobook of Sandman Slim, which is available on a single MP3 CD without DRM from Brilliance Audio. The reading is performed by Macleod Andrews, who does the narration in a perfect whiskey voice that's 80 percent Tom Waits, 20 percent Clint Eastwood. The performance and production are marvellous, a great interpretive reading that really brought the novel to life for me. I also love that I could get it without having to suffer through either DRM through one of the audiobook download stores or through ripping ten CDs' worth of material, which is how I normally get my audiobooks onto my computer.

Sandman Slim Audiobook MP3 CD

WAHHA GO GO is a mechanical Japanese laughing robot that uses a flywheel and bellows; the accompanying text says something like, "Moving the bellows with the rotation of the flywheel energy in the wind 'artificial vocal'. Rashitsutsu the 'Pitch' 'formant' "amount of air flow' to control the machine like a human laugh."

WAHHA GO GO (via JWZ)

Art Donovan from the Oxford University Museum of the History of Science sez, "I have been given the great honor of curating the world's very first Museum Exhibition of Steampunk Art. Seventeen artists from seven countries- The Steampunk creators that you know best. Opening October 13, 2009 and running continually through February 21, 2010. The Museum Director, Dr, Jim Bennett has scheduled events, art competitions and lectures through the exhibition."

Steampunk Art @ Oxford (Thanks, Art!)

Flickr user Claire_issa uploaded pictures of these stupendous Where the Wild Things Are cupcakes that she made for her roommate, noting, "These are texas-sized snickerdoodle cupcakes. For frosting and decorations I used chocolate ganache (Moishe), canned vanilla frosting (Max), sprinkles, store-bought gumpaste eyes, and fondant colored tinted by hand."

Now that is love.

Where the Wild Things Are cupcakes (via Neatorama)

In Scientific American, Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. sum up a paper they've recently published in Psychological Review that argues for depression as a pro-survival adaptation that allows for a kind of intense, isolated problem-solving introspection that, when combined with analytical techniques similar to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, resolves complex troubles:

Analysis requires a lot of uninterrupted thought, and depression coordinates many changes in the body to help people analyze their problems without getting distracted. In a region of the brain known as the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), neurons must fire continuously for people to avoid being distracted. But this is very energetically demanding for VLPFC neurons, just as a car's engine eats up fuel when going up a mountain road. Moreover, continuous firing can cause neurons to break down, just as the car's engine is more likely to break down when stressed. Studies of depression in rats show that the 5HT1A receptor is involved in supplying neurons with the fuel they need to fire, as well as preventing them from breaking down. These important processes allow depressive rumination to continue uninterrupted with minimal neuronal damage, which may explain why the 5HT1A receptor is so evolutionarily important.

Many other symptoms of depression make sense in light of the idea that analysis must be uninterrupted. The desire for social isolation, for instance, helps the depressed person avoid situations that would require thinking about other things. Similarly, the inability to derive pleasure from sex or other activities prevents the depressed person from engaging in activities that could distract him or her from the problem. Even the loss of appetite often seen in depression could be viewed as promoting analysis because chewing and other oral activity interferes with the brain's ability to process information.

But is there any evidence that depression is useful in analyzing complex problems? For one thing, if depressive rumination were harmful, as most clinicians and researchers assume, then bouts of depression should be slower to resolve when people are given interventions that encourage rumination, such as having them write about their strongest thoughts and feelings. However, the opposite appears to be true. Several studies have found that expressive writing promotes quicker resolution of depression, and they suggest that this is because depressed people gain insight into their problems.

Depression's Evolutionary Roots (via Neatorama)

YA author Scott Westerfeld's next novel is Leviathan, a remarkable YA steampunk adventure story that pits Darwinists (the English side, with their evolved war-machines created by splicing and dicing various animals' genomes to make zeppelins) against the Machinists (the German side, who use enormous, precision-made, steam-driven mecha and the like) in an alternate WWI.

The book is fantastic -- I read an early galley some months ago, and my full review is going up on Oct 6 when the book comes out -- but even better is the unabridged audiobook, read aloud by Alan Cumming. Simon and Shuster audio have just released the first chapter as a free stream, and I'm enjoying it immensely.

Chapter 1 of Leviathan, Read Aloud!

Here is an interesting video documentary about the carnivorous pitcher plant. Of course, a new species of pitcher plant recently discovered on Mount Victoria in the Philippines made headlines as a "rat-eating plant," but that was apparently bullshit. While pitcher plants do sometimes nab small rodents, as in this other delightful clip, the researchers who found the new species in the Philippines have never observed any rodents inside its pitchers. The giant pitcher plant, Nepenthes attenboroughii, was named in honor of celebrity naturalist Sir David Attenborough, narrator of the above video. (Thanks, Mark Pescovitz!)

(Ed. Note: The Boing Boing Video site includes a guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. We'll post roundups here on the motherBoing.)

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More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com

Here is Alan Moore's tribute to bOING bOING patron saint Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007), delivered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in March 2007. (Thanks, Chris Arkenberg!)

Carla and I had a nice time at the 2009 San Francisco Zine Fest on Sunday. This week and next, I'm sharing some of the photos I took of the zinesters who came to sell their comics and zines. I'll post a new photo each day.

This is Doctor Popular, a professional yo-yoist and cartoonist. I bought a couple of "24-hour" comic books from him, which are 24-page comic books that were created in 24 consecutive hours. My favorite is Robots Don't Know Anything about Twitter. Doc Pop made the comic by tweeting "Robots don't know anything about..." and used the answers that his friends tweeted back as the panels for the comic. Fun!

I don't know if he sold out of the print version of Robots Don't Know Anything about Twitter, as it had a print run of 100 copies (each cover was hand colored!), but he is giving it away as a free PDF. What a swell guy that Doc is.

Previous San Francisco Zine Fest photos:

Sean Logic and his zine, The Great MySpace Swindle

Hellen Jo and Calvin Wong

Amy Martin

OMFG. So, over at Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger has a very scary/funny post about an extreme right-wing African-American media personality many are calling "the Black Glenn Beck." In the clip above, he seems to be inciting white people to start a race war, using talking points from white supremacist organizations. "White people are being kicked around, having their rights kicked to the curb, having their tax dollars fund prostitution... y'all gonna push these white folk 'til they can't take it no more?"

Richard says:

His favorite thing to call the President, however, is “the long-legged Mack Daddy.” Manning also hates Michelle Obama, has called her ugly, a slut and has even suggested she visit the same plastic surgeon as Michael Jackson. Manning’s Trinity of Hell is comprised of Obama, Oprah Winfrey and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. It should probably come as no surprise that he’s been a guest on Sean Hannity’s Fox News and radio shows.

Manning is proud to call himself an extreme right winger and is beloved of birthers, survivalists, Obama haters, the NRA and other assorted wingnuts. On his five days a week, three hours per day talk show, which he co-produces with his wife, he does bizarre and extremely unfunny “mock interviews” with Fidel Castro, prays fervently for Bristol Palin and he even had “author” Lawrence W Sinclair (“Brother Lawrence” as Manning calls him) of Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder? infamy on as a guest.

THE BLACK GLENN BECK: THE HON. JAMES DAVID MANNING, PHD (Dangerous Minds)

Will sends us "a site of avowed atheists who will, for a nominal fee, look after your pet when you have taken in the rapture."

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you've received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.

We are currently active in 20 states and growing. Our representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral / ethical with no criminal background, have the ability and desire to rescue your pet and the means to retrieve them and ensure their care for your pet's natural life.

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA (Thanks, Will!)

I recently purchased a signed William S. Burroughs art print on eBay. Turns out, the seller, Bruce Webb, is a researcher, collector, and dealer of art and artifacts related to fraternal organizations and secret societies! He also has a gallery in Waxahachie, Texas, where Burroughs exhibited before he died. Webb has a deep interest in "old handmade items such as painted or repaired objects, fraternal lodge items, carnival banners, tramp art, memory jugs, quilts, and just killer oddball stuff." In fact, the current Webb Gallery show is "Art of the Secret Society," which runs until November 8. I love when a simple eBay purchase opens up a portal into another weird micro-universe of fascinating people and things.
Webb Gallery

Thinking about dimensions other than the three we're used to can rattle one's mind. That's why it's usually left to stoned conversationalists and theoretical physicists. To help the rest of us navigate flatland, fractal landscapes, and hyperspace, New Scientist put together a concise and fun tour titled "Beyond Space and Time." From New Scientist (spacetime curvature illustration from Wikimedia Commons):

What is a dimension?

The most intuitive description is the oldest one: the number of dimensions a system possesses is the number of independent directions you or anything else can move in. Up and down count as only one dimension because up-ness and down-ness are two sides of the same coin: the further up you go, the less down you are. The same connection exists between left and right, and forwards and backwards, but not between up and right, down and backwards, and so on. Thus, the geometers of Ancient Greece recognised, we live in a three-dimensional world.

So far, so simple, but then things start to unravel. Our place in the cosmos is defined as much by time as it is by space. As long ago as the late 18th century, the Frenchmen Jean le Rond d'Alembert and Joseph-Louis Lagrange recognised that the mathematical language needed to address time was very similar to that which described space. Time, the mathematicians of the day rapidly came to agree, was a fourth dimension.

That opened the floodgates. Once untethered from its origins in physical space, the concept of a dimension began to lose its focus. It came to be used as a general term to describe the number of independent coordinates or variables needed to determine the state of any object.

"Beyond space and time: Fractals, hyperspace and more"

Alek O. Komarnitsky says

My wife works at an Adventure Travel company, and due to a very fortunate set of circumstances (plus her encouragement and willingness to watch the kids), I was able to go on a 19-day expedition voyage to the Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica.

The amazing wildlife and spectacular scenery provides a "target rich environment" that is a photographer's ultimate fantasy.

In addition to that summary page, there are sub-pages for each day with pictures of (literally) millions of penguins and other wildlife, more icebergs than you can imagine, a Google Map of our voyage, and more.

I was incredibly lucky to be able to do this phenomenal experience and am back to being a boring middle-aged suburban Dad, making school lunches for the kids, playing baseball with 'em, etc. 

Photos from trip to Falklands & South Georgia Islands and Antarctica

A prized moon rock belonging to the Dutch national museum has turned out to be, er, petrified wood. The rock's provenance goes back to 1969, when William Drees, the late prime minister of the Netherlands, received it as a gift from former US ambassador J. William Middendorf. The precious stone worthless rock was presented to the prime minister during a visit by the Apollo 11 astronauts shortly after the first moon landing. From the Associated Press:

Middendorf, who lives in Rhode Island, told Dutch NOS news that he had gotten it from the U.S. State Department, but couldn't recall the exact details.

The U.S. Embassy in the Hague said it was investigating the matter.

The museum had vetted the moon rock early on by checking with NASA, (Rijksmuseum spokeswoman Xandra) van Gelder said.

She said the space agency told the museum then that it was possible the country had received a rock: NASA gave moon rocks to more than 100 countries in the early 1970s, but those were from later missions.

Researchers from Amsterdam's Free University said they could see at a glance the rock was not from the moon.

"It's a nondescript, pretty-much-worthless stone," Geologist Frank Beunk said in an article published by the museum.

"Prized 'moon rock' in Dutch national museum is a fake"

Simon Simpkins of Pontefract, West Yorkshire became angry with a shop manager who sold him "pornographic" candy.

"The lemon and lime are locked in what appears to be a carnal encounter," Mr. Simpkins told a reporter for The Daily Mail. "The lime, whom I assume to be the gentleman in this coupling, has a particularly lurid expression on his face."

The green gentleman appears on other flavors of Haribo MAOAM sour candies, too, including cherry, as shown here.

Father's fury over children's 'pornographic' sweet wrappers

A young chimp is impressed by magic tricks. (Via Bits and Pieces)

In 1975 Rodney Davies met Kathleen "Johnny" Symonds, who had been Aleister Crowley's (AKA "The Great Beast 666" and "The Wickedest Man on Earth") landlady during the last months of his life in 1947. Here's his entertaining piece about it.

Crowley brought with him some special gold coins, which he claimed had magic powers and was anxious about keeping safe, and a 'box of (I Ching) sticks'. He made frequent use of the latter. 'When he had an appointment for the dentist, for instance, he threw the sticks in the air. And once he called me and said, "Phone the dentist immediately! The sticks have told me not to go." The dentist was very amazed.'

The Great Beast soon settled into a regular daily routine. At nine each morning the housekeeper Miss Clarke took him his breakfast, and at ten, if the weather was fine, he would take a stroll in the garden, where Johnny kept some beautiful plump white rabbits, which he nicknamed 'The Chrysanthemums' and would love to watch. When the sun shone he would often sit with his hands held heavenwards.

Crowley then spent most of the rest of the day sleeping in his room, where he also took his other meals. His favourite snack was sardines sprinkled with curry powder. He roused himself as darkness fell, and sat up all night either writing letters, reading or indulging in his heroin drug habit.

'He had a ration of heroin which was allowed him,' Mrs Symonds said. 'It used to come down from a chemist called Heppel's in London. But the police knew about it. I've often watched him stick a needle in his arm. He didn't mind.'

...

According to Johnny, Aleister Crowley was an easy-going, trouble-free resident, who not only spent much of his time in his room, but who rubbed along well with the other visitors and with her and her husband. Indeed, her feelings about him were entirely positive: 'I liked him,' she said. 'He was great fun.'

The last days of Aleister Crowley (Via Further: Strange Attractor & beyond)

Michael Geist sez,

The Canadian copyright consultation has one of its biggest days today with a major town hall in Toronto, a roundtable hours before, and increased media coverage. The consultation has attracted growing attention in recent weeks as the chart on submissions below demonstrates. There are now over 3,000 submissions with the overwhelming majority of them speaking out against Bill C-61, anti-circumvention rules, and for stronger fair dealing.

However, it now appears that the government has effectively been altering some of the submissions. This issue has arisen because of the large number of Canadians that have chosen to use the CCER submission form service.

Every Canadian who takes the time to speak out - whether a single paragraph, a long essay, or a form letter - deserves to have their voice count as a submission. Obviously any modified letter should be posted in its original form and I would argue that the same is true for a submission based on a form letter.

Regardless of the approach taken, there are just over two weeks to join the thousands of Canadians who have spoken out. Canadians need to speak out on copyright today!

Government May Be Altering Copyright Submissions Without Consent (Thanks, Michael!)

Jesus Diaz looks at the $1.92m fine Jammie Thomas faces for downloading 1700 songs and compares it to the penalties for other crimes in America (valuing jail time at $50,233, the median US household income in 2007):

• Child abduction: Fine of $25,000 and up to three years in prison, which can be accounted as $50,233 per year (that was the median household income in 2007, probably down because of the economic crisis). Total: $175,699.

• Steal the CDs: A total of $275,000, $52,500 fine for the CDs.

• Steal a lawnmower from your neighbour: A total of $375,000.

• Burn someone's house while playing The Doors: Another $375,000.

• Stalk a Gizmodo editor (yes, you know who you are): A Class 4 felony that will result in just $175,000.

• Start a dogfighting ring: $50,000.

• Murder someone on the second degree, a Class 1 felony: $778,495, which accounts for a $25,000 fine and four to 15 years in prison.

Second Degree Murder and Six Other Crimes Cheaper than Pirating Music (via O'Reilly Radar)

War Powers is the seventh collection of Brian Wood's ground-breaking war-comic DMZ, which tells the tale of a civil war in America that turns Manhattan into a free-fire zone trapped between US and rebel troops and mercenaries from Trustwell, a thinly veiled version of Blackwater or Halliburton. The story follows Matty Roth, who begins as an intern for a cable-news network, trapped in the DMZ after the newschopper is shot down, but who becomes the only truly independent journalist in Manhattan.

Only now, Matty's independence is crumbling. Under the influence of Parco Delgado -- a charismatic gang-leader who wins a surprise victory in an NYC election that was meant to give legitimacy to the USA's hand-picked Paul Bremmer figure -- Matty now finds himself playing the role of political operator, putting his ethics and his life on the line in the service of something he clearly hopes is justice.

As with previous volumes, War Powers grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and didn't let go until I turned the last page. Brian Wood is exploring the place where journalism and advocacy intersect (or collide), and in so doing, he is holding up an important mirror on our own times.

DMZ is my favorite graphic novel since Transmetropolitan, a relentless adventure story, a sharp political allegory, and a damned good read.

DMZ Vol. 7: War Powers

Previous collections: Vol 1: On the Ground, Vol 2: Body of a Journalist, Vol 3: Public Works, Vol 4: Friendly Fire, Vol 5: The Hidden War, Vol 6: Blood in the Game, Vol 7: War Powers

Is Apple's upgraded OS totally awesome, yawn-worthy, or a bit of both?

Find out what reviewers at the NYT, WSJ, Gizmodo, Wired and others think, over at BBG.

photo by Tambako

Ikea's corporate structure is insanely complicated. It is technically owned by a Dutch charitable nonprofit -- a strategy that allows the group to pay 3.5% tax on annual profits of €553m. However, the charity itself appears to do almost no charitable giving. Most of the money disappears into generic line-items like "other operating charges" which it refuses to explain.

In 2004, the last year that the INGKA Holding group filed accounts, the company reported profits of €1.4 billion on sales of €12.8 billion, a margin of nearly 11 percent. Because INGKA Holding is owned by the nonprofit INGKA Foundation, none of this profit is taxed. The foundation's nonprofit status also means that the Kamprad family cannot reap these profits directly, but the Kamprads do collect a portion of IKEA sales profits through the franchising relationship between INGKA Holding and Inter IKEA Systems.

Inter IKEA Systems collected €631 million of franchise fees in 2004, but reported pre-tax profits of only €225 million in 2004. One of the major pre-tax expenses that Inter IKEA systems reported was €590 million of "other operating charges." IKEA has refused to explain these charges, but Inter IKEA Systems appears to make large payments to I.I. Holding, another Luxembourg-registered group that, according to The Economist, "is almost certain to be controlled by the Kamprad family." I.I. Holding made a profit of €328 million in 2004.

In 2004, the Inter IKEA group of companies and I.I. Holding reported combined profits of €553m and paid €19m in taxes, or approximately 3.5 percent.[22]

The Berne Declaration, a non-profit organization in Switzerland that promotes corporate responsibility, has formally criticized IKEA for its tax avoidance strategies. In 2007, the Berne Declaration nominated IKEA for one of its Public Eye "awards," which highlight corporate irresponsibility and are announced during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.[24]

Corporate structure