This 1962 high-school textbook, "When You Marry," is a long, mind-bendingly awful manual for marriage, including sticking to traditional gender roles, staying away from race-mixing, resisting communism and saving yourself for your wedding night.

Love, 1962 American High School Style (via Making Light)

A face mask with which to attract hungry, curious hummingbirds, $80 from heatstick.com. The masks do look silly, and the website is nothing if not homebaked. But if the maker's YouTube videos are to be believed, these contraptions do attract the little buggers and make for amazing eye-to-eye encounters with one of the most magical winged creatures on the planet. I'm kind of dying to try one out.

Using and enjoying the feeder is a two step process. The first is to acquaint the hummingbirds with the feeder. We set an old can of paint on a small shelf on the side of the barn and slipped the feeder onto the can. It wasn't long before the hummingbirds found it, and after a little searching, found the feeding station. Then we let them get familiar with the feeder for a few days. Finally we set a chair next to the shelf, removed the feeder from the can, slipped it on and waited. One never forgets the first time a hummingbird suddenly arrives at the feeder right in front of your eyes.

Video embedded above: "Chris Makes a New Friend" [YouTube]

Product: "Eye to Eye Wearable Hummingbird Feeder." The guy behind it lives in California's Humboldt County, and has invented some other neat earth-gadgety stuff, too, like the Veg-a-Lot growing shelter [heatstick.com].

(Thanks, Dean Putney!)

This week has seen a number of excellent and much publicized and high profile releases -- Rockstar's conversion of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars from DS to PSP and Gearbox's post-apocalyptic co-op sandbox shooter Borderlands -- but no game has eaten as much of my time this week than a downsized iPhone version of a rhythm favorite.

Rock Band [Harmonix/EA Mobile, iPhone]

EA Mobile's downsized port of Harmonix's rhythm-standard enters an App Store dominated by clones and competitors (the Tap Tap series chief among them), and what sets Rock Band apart from the rest is a subtle but massively important distinction. With Harmonix's access to a staggeringly large library of original masters, the iPhone game is able to do what none of the others can: make the music itself reactive to your play.

By comparison, Tap Tap plays as a transparent overlay on top of any given track: keep your hands away from the screen and the music cheerily plays on, unperturbed by your quiet failing. That Rock Band gives you its now embarrassingly too-familiar skronk on every missed note is key to sustaining the illusion that you're participating in the performance, even just by slapping a thumb onto a glass sheet.

Painter/sculptor Gregory Euclide starts his gorgeous diroamas by pouring blue resin onto the forest floor in Colorado. He then builds his lovely landscapes around that cast of nature. Euclide is showing his "Capture" series at Denver's David B. Smith Gallery until November 14. Video and more details after the jump.

The Work Office in New York City is a participatory performance art installation inspired by the Works Progress Administration of the Great Depression. Over the summer, the two administrators of The Work Office -- Katarina Jerinic and Naomi Miller -- interviewed, hired, and assigned creative types to do various, er, odd jobs, like reinterpretng a newspaper photograph, start an American tradition that you'd like to be preserved, or giving a concert for your houseplant. A week's wage is $23.50 and the paychecks are distributed at public parties/openings. Jerinic and Miller are currently seeking funds via Kickstarter to re-open The Work Office again soon. The Work Office (Thanks, Miss Heather Sparks!)

Elephant Toothpaste is the name of a classic chemistry experiment that's all about getting hydrogen peroxide to quickly break down into water and lots of oxygen. The result: Thick spirals of super-awesome foam.

There's lots of videos of this on the Internets, but I chose this one (despite the head-shakingly awkward co-host) because it demonstrates two versions of Elephant Toothpaste--one of which you can do at home with easily available materials. Fun!

As usual, if you've got a video you'd like to see on Saturday Morning Science Experiment, email me!

Thumbnail image courtesy Flickr user mauren veras, via CC.

A film that denies the link between HIV and AIDS is being screened in the UK by the Spectator, in the name of "spurring debate." The Spectator's editor, Fraser Nelson, describes his motivation: "It's one of these hugely emotive subjects, with a fairly strong and vociferous lobby saying that any open discussion is deplorable and tantamount to Aids denialism. Whenever any debate hits this level, I get deeply suspicious."

And here comes our Ben Goldacre, explaining why "deeply suspicious" (which, to my ears, is a foreshortened phrase whose entirety is "deeply suspicious that I might sell a crapload of newspapers through a reckless disregard for public safety and the truth") is deeply stupid and deeply dangerous:

Of course people will have some concerns. Despite international outcry, from 2000 to 2005 South Africa implemented policies based on the belief that HIV does not cause Aids, and declined to roll out adequate antiretroviral therapy. It has been estimated in two separate studies that around 350,000 people died unnecessarily in South African during this period. We should also remember that "teach the controversy" is a technique beloved of American creationists, and of antivaccination campaigners (with whom Fraser Nelson has also, oddly, flirted). These groups know that in our modern media, where truth is halfway between the two most extreme views, to insert doubt is to win.

But debate is also good. So what kind of debate will the Spectator be hosting? They advertise a panel of "leading medical authorities". There are four people on this panel. One is Lord Norman Fowler. He is not a "leading medical authority".

Charles Geshekter is a professor of African history from the University of Chicago, and is therefore also not a "leading medical authority". He says there is no AIDS epidemic in Africa, simply poverty, and that belief in the epidemic was a product of racism and "western sexual stereotypes". In fact he calls it "The Plague That Isn't", and was on President Thabo Mbeki's notorious Aids Advisory Panel in South Africa in 2000.

Aids denialism at the Spectator

Bonnie sez, "Star Wars artist Chris Trevas got hitched and had this glorious dead Tauntaun cake (complete with Luke Skywalker stuffed inside) made for the groom's cake at his wedding! The cake was made by Courtney Clark from Cake Nouveau of Food Network Challenge (and TLC Ultimate Cake-Off) fame!"

Dead Tauntaun Wedding Cake! (Thanks, Bonnie!)

My daughters and I have been fighting over my iPhone all night because we want to play DodgeDot, a new iPhone game that currently costs 99 cents. My friend and old school bOING bOING contributor Jim Leftwich co-created DodgeDot with his partner Steve Doss. He told me, "When I first thought the game up I was trying to come up with something that was a mix of the best qualities of classic and timeless games. Part skill, part strategy, part randomness, and something that was also calming and pleasant to look at."

The object is to drag colored dots of various sizes to matching colored rectangles around the perimeter of the screen. When dragging a dot you aren't allowed to bump into a dot or rectangle of a different color, or you will lose health or lives. There's more to it, of course, and the game becomes more challenging each level. The nice thing is that you can learn the rules pretty quickly by just playing it. My six-year-old caught on to the object of the game and its rules faster than I did.

DodgeDot works with the Jampaq Network (free, and accessible in the app), which gives players the ability to Follow and be Followed. Most importantly, it gives the game a new round each Sunday at midnight before Monday. All of the levels get new starting patterns (dot sizes, positions, and speeds), which really makes a huge difference in keeping the game fresh, and then we have new rankings for each Round," says Jim.

Now that my kids are in bed, I have it all to myself until morning.

DodgeDot | Follow on Twitter here

Eternally excellent Rachel Maddow allowed me to join her tonight (pretty much the only reason I own a TV now is to watch her show) for a discussion about John McCain's "Internet Freedom Act," also known as "The Great Telecom Reacharound of 2009."

Why is the former presidential candidate who once described himself as technologically "illiterate" suddenly so worried about the nerdy details of internet architecture? Follow the money.

A Sunlight Foundation Report released yesterday says McCain received more telecom lobbying money than any other senator, over the past two years. We ought to stop calling him the senator from Arizona and start calling him the senator from AT&T.

Video: McCain Pushes Agenda Against Web Freedom (The Rachel Maddow Show)

Huffington Post offers a selection of racist Halloween pet costumes. [via The Awl]

Watch Senator Al "Kick-Ass" Franken wipe up the floor with this health-care-lobby shill from the Hudson Institute who claimed that universal healthcare would increase medical bankruptcies. This is the perfect mix of being sensible and being devastatingly sarcastic, and I love him for it. Go Al!

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies

Troy had heard the reputation that the 555 California Building's security guards had for hassling photographers, so he tried out the experiment of photographing (legally) the building, and was met by potty-mouth security guards who threatened to break his "fucking camera" and punch him in the face. A rep from property managers Voranado Realty later apologized and said that this wasn't "typical of our security team."

No photography, they stated clearly. Why, we responded. Safety, they said.

I decided to challenge this statement and the older of the bunch (left) asked me if I wanted to be punched in the face. No, I replied, I have to go back to work and a black eye would make things awkward for me. He then asked me how I would feel if he broke my camera. I told him I would be bummed, but that I needed an upgrade and if he touched me or my camera I would seek monetary legal action to the extent of a brand new Canon 5D Mark II.

Shortly after, my internal voice of reason set in and I decided to leave. The conversation was going no where and a definition of "safety" was unable to be produced.

One of the security guards did give me a phone number to call for more information, which I called this morning. Strangely, the number has nothing to do with BofA or 555 California, but in fact belongs to a woman in Chinatown who had no idea what I was talking about.

If you're in San Francisco and want to go by 555 this weekend to get a photo, do drop by the comments on this post to let us know whether this is "typical" or not.

"I Will Break Your Fucking Camera"

Security expert Ben "OpenSSL" Laurie went into a Barclay's bank to transfer a large sum of money ("enough money to fund a small country") and discovered an incredibly lax, brittle security system that focused on meeting compliance requirements instead of keeping deposits safe. I'm in the process of switching from Barclay's to the Co-Op, after years of frustration, insane fees, and terrible service. The Co-Op has its own security issues (they won't let you use random passwords, instead forcing you to use much-more-easily hacked passwords that contain no repeated characters) but they're nowhere near as bad as Barclay's.

When I got there we sat down with a bank employee who asked me for my cash card. He stuck it into a PINsentry and asked me to type my PIN. On that evidence alone, we proceeded to transfer enough money to fund a small country. I find this a little scary. Anyway, when I reviewed the documentation, which I had to sign, it had a little box about ID verification, into which he'd typed "PIN xxxx + SRS" - "xxxx" was (part of?) the code from the PINsentry. I asked him what "SRS" meant and he explained it meant he'd checked my signature. In fact, he hadn't, but he proceeded to do so at that point, commenting that he already knew what my signature looked like, presumably to explain away why he hadn't done the check before...

Anyway, at this point my wife mentioned that we were rather expecting them to check ID and stuff, to which he responded in a way I feel sure was not authorised by the bank: "well, we used to be more secure but now the bank believes that PINs are the highest level of verification". I explained to him why I disagreed with the bank. He didn't argue with me.

Oh yes, the signature check? He wasn't even in the room when I signed. For all he knew I carefully copied it from a crib sheet. So, all that's standing between me and complete emptying of my bank account is my PIN. But hey, the only way anyone other than me could know that is if I told them, isn't it? So it would serve me right, obviously.

"We Used To Be More Secure"

Jon Taplin takes a close look at the small print from the gold merchants pimped on Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck's shows and discover a whopping 30-35 percent spread between their buy and sell rates.

Obviously all these new boiler room high pressure sales groups that used to be pushing sub-prime refinancings are now trying to convince the unsophisticated listeners of right wing talk that they better buy gold before the dollar becomes worthless because of Obama's reckless spending. But how do firms like Goldline make money? Well it's all there in the fine print of their sales agreement.

Goldline's "bid" is the price it pays to clients for a product. Goldline's "ask" is the price it charges clients for a product. Goldline has a price differential or "spread" between its bid (buy-back) and ask (selling) prices for precious metals, rare coins and rare currency...

The price of Goldline's semi-numisimatic and numismatic coins and currency include the bid/ask spread that ranges between 30% and 35%.

OMG! An average stock broker commission is 2% and these scammers are getting 35% off the top. Where is the FTC and the CFTC in investigating this fraud? Why are Limbaugh and Beck propagating this scam?

The Gold Scam Fear Merchants

Play This Thing reviews Brutal Mario, a Tarantino-esque Super Mario World hack that sounds like an incredible hoot to play:

This is obviously a labor of love, as the developer knows her stuff. This game is highly allusive and drops constant references to other works like its Gaiman's Sandman. Super Mario World is its core, but set pieces, backgrounds, and enemies from assorted titles and other Mario games all make appearances. These additions are far from being a cut-and-paste hodgepodge though, as they're carefully woven together to create an enthralling experience. The nod to Tarantino and Shinichiro Watanabe is duly earned. Instead of being a pure homage, though, the game throws constant curveballs at you. I played one level where the On/Off switch actually changed the enemies in the level, and another one that was fully destructible via Mario's fireballs. These subversive quirks are made all the more apparent because they're within the Super Mario World engine, something that is so well-known and played.

The boss battles are what this hack is best known for, and they're reason enough for a download. Bosses are typically the one shortcoming in the Mario franchise, but not here. There are dozens of encounters and they're all throwbacks to various 16-bit games. Oh, and they are a lot of fun too. There is the occasional level that drags a bit, but other than that Super Nintendo fans shouldn't pass this up.

Brutal Mario

Craig sez, "This post looks at an overlooked essay by Lewis Hyde, author of the cult-classic The Gift. 'Frames from the Framers: How America's Revolutionaries Imagined Intellectual Property' is fascinating--not only for its content, which ranges from John Adams to MP3s, but also for its [ed: tragic] reception: only 7 Google hits in the last year (and this for an essay published online under a CC license)."

Since 1983, when The Gift came out, Hyde has stayed busy, writing a second book, Trickster Makes This World, and various longer essays, the most recent of which is "Frames from the Framers: How America's Revolutionaries Imagined Intellectual Property." Starting with George Lakoff's idea that conservatives "frame" issues better than liberals, Hyde explains how "the entertainment industry has also been very good at framing its issues." The entertainment industry asserts that downloading an MP3 is the same thing as shoplifting shoes, and anyone who disagrees has to do so in and through their terms.

coverIn the rest of his essay, Hyde tries to describe an alternative: "the democracy frame" imagined by Jefferson, Madison, and Adams. Hyde begins at the beginning, tracing the previous "frames" for art and creativity--they're gifts from the gods, a God, a muse, and on down the line. But Hyde really gets going in the early modern period, when people started talking about intellectual property through "land" metaphors like the "commonwealth," the "estate," and "monopoly." Eventually, Hyde works in ideas like civic republicanism vs. commercial republicanism, feudal titles vs. allodial titles, and legal privileges vs. natural rights. It all ties in to the creative commons--it really does--and you should read the whole thing.

Framing the Issue: Copyright from John Adams to mp3s

Frames from the Framers: How America's Revolutionaries Imagined Intellectual Property

(Thanks, Craig!)

Tony sez, "The Sofanauts hosted a fascinating discussion, centered on the SF magazine, Asimov's. Guests included both Editor and Managing Editor, Sheila Williams and Brian Bieniowski. Writers, Jeff VanderMeer and Jeremy Tolbert also joined host Tony C Smith. Contrary to growing opinion in the SF community, things are not all doom and gloom for the magazine. Digital sales are up and new methods of delivery are being explored. Yet some things, like website and digital submissions continue to be touchy subjects. Don't miss this frank and engaging roundtable focusing on one of the most established magazines in SF!"

The Sofanauts No 30 The State of Asimov's Special (Thanks, Tony!)

The Internet Archaeology project is a wonderful collaboration between artists, designers, and tech-minded people around the world, started by an artist named Ryder Ripps in New York.

"Essentially we're going through older, overlooked websites and archiving content," says participant Stefan Moore, "But the main difference between this and archive.org is that here, there's a focus on showcasing what we find."

Old-school webhost Geocities will be shutting down later this month, so the site seems particularly timely right now.

"We just finished archiving and curating a bunch of geocities flash sites," says Stefan, "Check it out under the section marked 'webgrabs."

internetarchaeology.org and internetarchaeology.tumblr.com.

Now back to your regularly scheduled nifty, blinky things. Like these LED-enhanced false eyelashes designed by artist Soomi Park. They're hooked up to a motion sensor, so as you tilt your head in different directions, they turn on and off.

Thanks to Chris Tackett at Treehugger!

I was invited to show a piece in the Natural Resources show, produced by Bigshot Toyworks and Mike Burnett. My piece is above. Here are some of the other fine pieces in the show.

From Shoparooni:

We are super duper excited for the coming opening of "Natural Resources", an absolutely amazing group show featuring wooden DIY toys created by Mike Burnett & Bigshot Toyworks, and customized by over 40 artists!

The Shoparooni Annex will be the launch-pad for this amazing traveling show and the opening will also be the retail launch of the "Average Joe Schmoe" DIY wooden figures designed by Cleveland artist Mike Burnett and produced by Bigshot Toyworks.

Come check out some absolutely incredible custom figures by Lola, Chris Ryniak & Amanda Spayd, Mark Nagata, Sean Mahan, Ryan Bubnis, Brian Morris, Mark Frauenfelder, Le Merde, 64 Colors, Julie West, Martin Ontiveros, Mark Murphy, MAD, Jeremiah Ketner, Ken Keirns, and many many more!

The opening party will be Friday, November 6th starting at 7 PM. Some artists will be in attendance.

Natural Resources
Nov. 6th - Dec. 5th
Shoparooni
15813 Waterloo Road
Cleveland, Ohio

Our friend Jeff Diehl has a new blog called Spots Unknown that's devoted to "exploring & infiltrating the forgotten places, events, and histories of San Francisco." It's off to a promising start. The most recent post is about 1958 film footage of the city (shown above).

A film colorist at a local Chicago production house inherited a bunch of 16mm Kodachrome film shot in the late '50s by his grandparents. Cars driving down Lombard Street. The silhouette of the guy smoking the cigar in the window is classic. I also like the moody accompanying music.

Spots Unknown

Hello Kitty turned 35 this week, and to celebrate, a birthday party was held for her last night at Royal/T in Culver City, Calif. I took my daughters with me to the opening of "3 Apples: An Exhibition Celebrating 35 Years of Hello Kitty," expecting a quiet affair with madeleine cookies and chamomile tea. I was surprised to see the line around the block waiting to get into what turned out to be a booze-fueled celebrity bash.

There was an art show with works by Boing Boing favorites like Tim Biskup and Gary Baseman, lots of cosplay characters, go-go dancers, Hello Kitty themed maids serving drinks and snacks, a commemorative Hello Kitty Airstream travel trailer (which will be auctioned on eBay, check here for details), and lots of new Sanrio merchandise (my wife was fond of this dress).

The exhibition will run at Royal/T until November 15th.

Arrested Motion has more photos.

Boing Boing guestblogger Connie Choe is a health and culture writer by day and a professional kimchimonger by night.

This video about a young woman who suffers from dystonia and can only walk backwards is really interesting, but I offer it up with a sprinkling of disclaimers. 1. It's a clip from the evening news, so naturally it reeks of sensationalism. 2. This shouldn't necessarily discourage you from getting the flu vaccine. 3. Some numbskull tweaked about a second of this video so that it sounds like the reporter is saying this should discourage you from getting the flu vaccine.

If you want to explore some neurological case studies that represent patients as actual people, rather than as tragic spectacles, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks is a great read.

Boing Boing guestblogger Connie Choe is a health and culture writer by day and a professional kimchimonger by night.

Meet the AutoExec WM-01 Wheelmate Steering Wheel Desk Tray. This hunk o' plastic with a fancy name must be A) brilliant in its simplicity, or B) hopelessly dumb. But I can't quite decide which. Either way, the grab bag of serious sarcastic/ambiguous product reviews is enjoyable. One customer writes, "This has been a total lifesaver. It allows me to prop my sheet music against the wheel, allowing me to play the guitar with both hands while driving." Deadpan humor? Perhaps... or it might just be this guy.

(via Random Good Stuff)

I am digging these photographs of very large turbans -- perhaps for ceremonial occasions? -- worn by holy men of the Sikh faith in India. If someone is more familiar with their traditions than I, do pop in the comments and tell us more about what we're seeing.

"Check Out These Enormous Sikh Turbans" (urlesque, thanks Stephen Lenz!)

The title really says it all. Follow this link to see a metric crap-ton of fruit bats (the largest such gathering in the world) converge on a remote swamp in Zambia--an area only about the size of two or three soccer fields.

To take the shots, BBC camera crew had to swoop in on a powered hot-air balloon. Because there were so many bats that a helicopter couldn't fly. Oh. My. God.

The cellphone business is patented up to its eyeballs. Dumped at ground zero in the wasteland of owned ideas, newcomers typically have to pay as much as ten percent of sales to the old guard. Apple declined Nokia's invitations to give it money, and as a result is now the target of a lawsuit filed by the Finnish manufacturer.

Let's start this off with a quick clarification. When I say "LED light", I'm not talking about the nifty, little blinky things that are frequently part of the ingredients list in Make projects. I'm talking about the Big Show: An LED light that can replace the incandescent bulbs and/or CFLs you have lighting up your home right now. To do it right, you don't just need a single LED that works, you need an array of them...and you need them to produce enough light, and the right color of light, reliably enough that people can buy an LED bulb and know what they're getting into.That ain't easy. But it is getting easier.

LED lighting really is more than a toy. This is the library of the new Wit Hotel in Chicago. It's not lit entirely by LED, but lighting designers Lightswitch Architectural did use the technology in the coves around the ceiling and walls. Unfortunately, getting this look at home isn't as simple as it's often made out to be.

Trouble is, they're being oversold, like whoa. For about two-and-a-half years, I've been reporting on LED lighting for a trade magazine called Architectural SSL*. During that time, I've watched mainstream press and enviro blogs tout LEDs as the green energy miracle light. Often, with a level of enthusiasm seldom seen outside rooms full of puppies. Don't get me wrong. LEDs are pretty cool. There are places where they're useful now, and places they probably will be soon. But if you're just hearing about the awesome, you aren't getting the full story. And, as more LED products start showing up on store shelves, that really starts to matter.

Join me, won't you, as we put on our Sober Assessment Goggles and take a peek at the current state of light bulb of the tomorrow...

*The glamorous life of a freelance writer, everybody. That said, if you are thinking about freelance, I recommend convincing a trade magazine or two to love you. The work is steady, the pay is decent and the people are good. And that is a better situation than you'll get from a lot of things you could do to pay the bills. /unsolicitedwriteradvice

My friend Kristie Lu Stout, a CNN International anchor, visited a number of street hawker stalls in Seoul to sample a variety of treats, including honey strings mixed with nuts, a spiral cut fried potato on a stick, and this french-fry encrusted hot dog on a stick that Kristie photographed and posted to Twitter last week.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout goes on a street food safari

Image by zrim via Flickr

When I got a bag of chile peppers in our CSA delivery last week, I had a really hard time trying to figure out how to cook them. I tried putting them in pasta, but that turned out numbingly spicy. And then I remembered that chile peppers = togarashi in Japanese, and that they are a key ingredient in one of my all-time favorite spices — shichimi togarashi, a Japanese spice mix commonly found at home dinner tables and yakitori restaurants that is designed to enhance the natural flavors of high quality meat and veggies. For this week's Taste Test, I thought I'd share a simple recipe for shichimi and give you some tips on other ways to use it.

By subjecting nationalist toad Nick Griffin to the Two-Minute Hate, the U.K.'s media establishment turns a fool into a victim. His dismal performance on the BBC's Question Time would have been satisfying were it not for the hand-wringing hostility that turned it into a circus. Coming next to Britain's inane tabloids: Nazis portraying themselves as victims of oppression.

It's no wonder he smirks so much, when his presence induces demands that his political party be banned, his speech suppressed and his opinions abolished. These instincts represent everything his followers want Britain to become: perhaps the irony is not lost on him.

To paraphrase one noted humanitarian, a civilized society would either kill him or give him his bookings.

I'm a great fan of Bill Willingham's Fables comics and its numerous spinoffs (nutshell description: all fictional characters, legends, and fables are actually alive, always have been, and are living in secret exile in New York, having been chased out of Fableland by "The Adversary," a rapacious conqueror).

One of the most fun of these is the Jack books, which feature a set of parallel adventures of Jack -- as in "Spratt" and "and the Beanstalk" and many other tales. Jack is handsome, womanizing, preternaturally lucky and cheerfully amoral doofus of a fable who is forever incurring the wrath of the Fable establishment by violating their rules by, say, pursuing a career as a Hollywood executive (he fits right in in Tinseltown, naturally).

In Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Big Book of War , Jack finds himself heading the Fable/Librarian army against the vicious Bookburner, who would destroy all of fabledom for his own reasons. Jack takes this command with the help of his sidekick and pal The Pathetic Fallacy (AKA "Gary"), an immortal "Literal" who changes the world to suit his moods.

Jack is a terrible commander, but a very funny one, and he doesn't distinguish himself much as a general, but he does an admirable job of evincing yuks from the reader; and Willingham uses the story to make some really thought-provoking points about the dark and primal nature of stories and the danger and blood that lurks in their hearts.

The Big Book of War would probably stand alone reasonably well, but if you just read this volume, you're really missing out. The whole Fables canon deserves your attention (and will reward it handsomely). It is both gripping and thought-provoking; philosophically substantial and sparklingly funny. Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Big Book of War

Things look bad for the European Internet: "3 strikes" (the entertainment industry's proposal for a law that requires ISPs to disconnect whole households if one member is accused -- without evidence or trial -- of three copyright infringements) is gaining currency. Efforts to make 3-strikes illegal are being thwarted by the European bureaucracy in the EC.

The Pirate Party, which holds a seat in the European Parliament, proposed legislation that said, essentially, that no one could be disconnected from the Internet without a fair trial. When the proposal when to the European Commission (a group of powerful, unelected bureaucrats who have been heavily lobbied by the entertainment industry), they rewrote it so that disconnection can take place without trial or other due process.

On the national level, France's Constitutional Court have approved the latest version of the French 3-strikes rule, HADOPI, which has created a kind of grudging, joke oversight by the courts (before your family's Internet connection is taken away, a judge gives the order 1-2 minutes' worth of review, and you aren't entitled to counsel and the rules of evidence don't apply -- the NYT called it similar to "traffic court"). Under this rule, there is now a national list of French people who are not allowed to be connected to the Internet; providing them with connectivity is a crime.

The only bright light is that this will play very badly in the national elections coming up in many European jurisdictions; the Swedes, in particular, are likely to kick the hell out of the MPs who voted for criminal sanctions for downloading and replace them with Pirate Party candidates, Greens, and members of other parties with a liberal stance on copyright.

3-Strikes For Pirates Makes European Comeback Tour

The Cove, the provocative film that documented the hidden dolphin slaughters in Taiji, Japan, made its Japan debut at the Tokyo International Film Festival this week, and director Louie Psihoyos was there to bear witness to its unveiling. I talked to him just two hours after he got off the airplane from Narita on Thursday morning. Here's what he had to say about his experience in watching the film with the actual dolphin killers in the audience:

All the bad guys there, front row center. The mayor, the International Whaling Committee delegate, fishermen dressed up in suits...I couldn't have dreamed of a better screening. They had all come to Tokyo with their lawyers to see if there would be any kind of litigation against the film. The screening sold out within a few hours, so I offered to give them tickets. At one point, the mayor stormed out, and the IWC delegate held his head in his hands.

Update: Please note correct date -- Thu, Oct 29! Sorry!

My latest novel Makers comes out next week, and I'll be launching it in the UK with a signing on Friday night, Oct 30 Thu, Oct 29!, at Forbidden Planet London from 6-7. Forbidden Planet's happy to take your pre-orders for inscribed copies if you can't make it, and they'll cheerfully ship 'em wherever you are.

Forbidden Planet Megastore: Cory Doctorow signing Makers

I'll also be coming to Canada and the US next month for a quick book-tour, kicking off with a signing and reading at the Merril Collection in Toronto (Nov 12, 7pm, The Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation, and Fantasy, 239 College Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R5, +1 416 393-7748), and Bakka Books, the bookseller, is also glad to take orders for inscribed copies beforehand. I'll sign them all for shipping on the day.

After that, I'll be coming through NYC, NJ, Boston and Philadelphia -- details are still a little shaky, but if you drop me an email, I'll send you a mailout once I have them in hand.

Here's a little more about Makers, courtesy of Publishers Weekly: "In this tour de force, Doctorow (Little Brother) uses the contradictions of two overused SF themes--the decline and fall of America and the boundless optimism of open source/hacker culture--to draw one of the most brilliant reimaginings of the near future since cyberpunk wore out its mirror shades. Perry Gibbons and Lester Banks, typical brilliant geeks in a garage, are trash-hackers who find inspiration in the growing pile of technical junk. Attracting the attention of suits and smart reporter Suzanne Church, the duo soon get involved with cheap and easy 3D printing, a cure for obesity and crowd-sourced theme parks. The result is bitingly realistic and miraculously avoids cliché or predictability. While dates and details occasionally contradict one another, Doctorow's combination of business strategy, brilliant product ideas and laugh-out-loud moments of insight will keep readers powering through this quick-moving tale. (starred review)"

And, of course, I'll have a site up in a couple of days with free, CC-licensed downloads of the whole text.

Another fun spy gadget from Brando in Hong Kong:

- The FAKE Keychain Car Key Lock with REAL Security Video Record, Photo Record and Sound Record!
- Spy Camera, Audio Recording and Color Video Camcorder
- Support PC Web Camera
- Micro SD/TF Card Reader
- Dimension: 6.0 x 2.7 x 1.5 cm

Specifications:
- Pinhole Lens
- Image Resolution: 1600 x 1200 pixel
- Color Video Resolution: 640 x 480 pixel
- FPS: 29 frames per second
- Image file format: JPEG
- Video file format: AVI
- Audio file format: WAV
- Color Video and Audio
- Micro SD/TF Card Slot: Support SDHC format
- Rechargeable Li-ion battery

Fake car key is a spy video camera

Editorial illustrator and data visualizer Bryan Christie created this fantastic graphic of Mars missions. Higher res at imgur. (via Laughing Squid)

Ellen Kushner sez, "The Interstitial Arts Foundation is presenting 8 new original online stories - er, pieces of interstitial writing, a new one each week for the 8 weeks leading up to the November 3 publication of our new anthology, _Interfictions 2_ . So far we've ranged from F. Brett Cox's 'Nylon Seam,' Brett's 'tribute to Bettie Page fandom'complete with soundtrack (vocals & guitar, F. Brett Cox) to Ron Pasquariello's 'Chipper Dialogues' - a man & his mutt converse in haiku. This week, it's Kelly Cogswell's story-and-poem combo, 'For the Love of Carrots' and 'The Luxembourg Gardener.' Check out the Annex Page for a complete list of stories and authors. Interstitial art is found in the interstices of recognized category and genre. "

Annex (Thanks, Ellen!)

Gabriel Dishaw's "Junk Dunks" are sculptures of totemic Nike Airs made out of consumer garbage.

"Junk Dunk (Left)" (Thanks, Gareth!)

Rebecca from EFF sez, "The Yes Men prank -- they put out a press release and held a spoof news conference on Monday, claiming that the Chamber of Commerce had reversed its position and would stop lobbying against a climate bill currently in the Senate -- apparently hasn't embarrassed the Chamber of Commerce enough yet. Attorneys for the group have issued a takedown demand for the website connected to the prank, claiming copyright infringement. The demand ignores the parodic nature of the stunt (parody enjoys First Amendment protection) and may just serve to put the Yes Men's criticism in the news for one more day."

EFF: Chamber of Commerce Takes Aim at Yes Men (Thanks, Rebecca!)

Gary sez, "ABC News Online (Australia) is going to release footage (photos, video, audio, text) of Sunday's Brisbane Zombie Walk, under a CC license. Content will feature on ABC Pool, for users to create their own mashups/remixes etc. Not sure if this is an Australian first, but it's pretty rare for MSM to release content like this. ABC Pool is also seeking video/audio/text with a zombie theme, either real or imagined."

Project: The Dead Walk! (Thanks, Gary!)

Researchers studying the situational use of malt liquor and marijuana are employing an automated cell-phone calling system to collect data. The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system calls you, well if you're involved in the study that is, and asks a series of questions about what you're up to at the moment and, I guess, whether you're stoned, drunk, or have immediate plans to be. Health behavior specialist R. Lorraine Collins at the University of Buffalo came up with the system after using PDA-based approaches to data-gathering that she says put too much responsibility on the study participant. I'd imagine that if you're really lit, you may not remember (or bother) to input the who, what, when, and where later on. From the University of Buffalo:

(Collins) showed that, in what is known in the psychology research community as "ecological momentary assessment" (EMA) or "right here, right now" data collection, cell phones are more familiar to research participants and therefore training is easier; and that with IVR, data is stored instantly, removing any issues around the loss of information.

"This is an interesting and useful way to collect data," said Collins. "It eliminates the problems associated with study participants having to recall their behavior, and cell phones are ubiquitous with young people, who are our main targets in these studies. We capture their data right away. It's all computerized and stored immediately."

"Two New NIH grants Use Cell Phones to Collect Real-Time Data on Substance Use" (via Dose Nation)

Fershteh Ghazi (@iranbaan) tweets that Hamed Derakhshan, brother of jailed Iranian blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan, just said on @bbcpersian his brother has been held in solitary confinement for 10 months. Hoder was first arrested on November 1, 2008.

Yesterday, Hoder's father wrote a letter to Iran's judiciary to appeal for his son's release. That letter was published on the website of Salaam, a reformist newspaper from Iran. (both items via Cyrus Farivar).

In Tokyo today, Sony unveiled a 3D display that can be viewed from any direction. No glasses required, and several users can see the 3D images simultaneously from various angles. Snip:

The cylindrical display case is 27 cm tall with a base of 13 cm in diameter, and features a 96 by 128-pixel resolution that looks better than might be expected. The screen displays 3D objects including a cartoon character, car, globe, and people. Sony created these objects either in 3D on a computer or by taking photographs of them from various angles. The result is that the objects appear to have depth, and can be viewed from any angle on the horizontal plane by walking around the display screen.

Sony's keeping details under wraps, and hasn't explained how it works. We do know that it uses an LED light source, and that Sony claims it took about three years to develop the two demo models shown off today. The company has no immediate plans to commercialize the device, but a rep says they will develop versions with larger displays within the coming year.

More: physorg, Network World TV. (via @GreatDismal)

What you're looking at is the art of bacterial adaptation. It's beautiful. It should also make you a little uncomfortable, and a little hopeful. Part of a collaboration between Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob, of Tel-Aviv University, and Professor Herbert Levine of UCSDs National Science Foundation Frontier Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, these pictures are a visual representation of the way bacteria evolve to overcome life-threatening obstacles---like, say, hand gel. The art is also about the way bacteria fight back, which involves a form of communication. The researchers hope to use that skill against the bacteria to create a new generation of antibacterial weaponry.

While the colors and shading are artistic additions, the image templates are actual colonies of tens of billions of these microorganisms. The colony structures form as adaptive responses to laboratory-imposed stresses that mimic hostile environments faced in nature. They illustrate the coping strategies that bacteria have learned to employ, strategies that involve cooperation through communication. These selfsame strategies are used by the bacteria in their struggle to defeat our best antibiotics. Thus, if we understand the mechanisms behind the patterns, we can learn how to outsmart the bacteria - for example, by tampering with their communication - in our ongoing battle for our health.

The once controversial idea that bacteria cooperate to solve challenges has become commonplace, with the discovery of specific channels of communication between the cells and specific mechanisms facilitating the exchange of genetic information. Retrospectively, these capabilities should not have been seen as so surprising, as bacteria set the stage for all life on Earth and indeed invented most of the processes of biology. As we try to stay ahead of the disease-causing varieties of these versatile creatures, we must use our own intelligence to understand them.

See more by following the link to Prof. Ben-Jacob's site.

Dennis LeRoy, 62, of Proctor, Minnesota, pled guilty to driving his tricked-out, motorized easy chair while drunk. After leaving a bar where he had at least eight beers, LeRoy smashed his chair into a parked car. The chair features a lawnmower engine, built-in stereo, headlights, and some sharp pinstriping.
"Man pleads guilty to DWI in motorized La-Z-Boy" (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)

(Download MP4 video or Watch on YouTube, or view with subtitles on Dotsub).

Institute for the Future teamed up with Sun Microsystems and Boing Boing Video to co-host the Digital Open, an online tech expo for teens 17 and under around the world.

We're publishing an 8-part series of videos profiling the winners. Today, meet 16 year old Harry Lee of Melbourne Australia. He talks with us about his "Sneaky Card" game concept, which explores social interactions between people. He was inspired by ARG and indie projects like "Bite Me," by Gamelab, and Jane McGonigal's Top Secret Dance-Off, both of which we've covered previously on Boing Boing.

"I love index cards," says Harry, "And I was thinking -- hmm, how can I incorporate them into a project?" So he designed and printed these game cards, and "spread the seeds of sneakiness and espionage" into the unsuspecting pockets, math books, binders and bags and jackets of his schoolmates.

I tracked most of the cards and found, with much satisfaction, that a majority of them had been passed down at least three times. The most successful story is of the card passed from student to student three times before ending up in a math teacher's jacket. The teacher found it and gave it to another math teacher, who inserted it into a student's corrected test before giving it back to him. The card passed hands once again before I lost track of it.

Below, some sample cards in Harry's game. (Link to PDF). More after the jump.

Gaming blog UK Resistance has obtained several present-day photos of a depressingly bare, archaic video game arcade in Pyongyang. The person who took and submitted the photos chose to remain anonymous for safety reasons.

Speaking of North Korea, the current issue of The Paris Review has an amazing article by Barbara Demick about two young North Koreans who risked their lives to make a romantic relationship work.

Inside a North Korean arcade