WillS sez, "The Get Out Clause, an unsigned Manchester band who could not afford a camera crew for their video, 'performed' in front of a load of CCTV cameras, requested the footage from the camera operators under the Freedom of Information Act Data Protection Act and then stitched the results together for their music video." Link (Thanks, WillS!)

Andrew sez, "Just when you think plushy creations can't get more weird, here comes a macabre soft toy creator in the UK who recreates roadkill. Currently you can choose from Twitch the Racoon or Grind the Rabbit complete with toe tags, tyre marks and cute giblets spilling from their split innards. Other sick creations are in the pipeline." Link (Thanks, Andrew!)

A reader writes, "In preparation for the release of his newest book The Word of God, respected New Wave SF writer Thomas M. Disch (The Brave Little Toaster, Camp Concentration) has revealed himself to be God and is now taking questions from the faithful at his blog."

Dear G_d: Could you clarify the order of Creation? There are two different lists in Genesis, and people have died over interpretation. Please guide your humble flock.

PS: What did you do on the 8th Day?

The Aardvarks came first. Then the others, in alphabetical order. Except some of the really cute ones, like the panda, wheedled their way to the head of the line. And the zebra just stood there feeling this would be his lucky day.

Link

Behold, the prizewinning toilet-paper wedding dress, conceived of, designed, and modelled by Vicky Heir of Christchurch, NZ.

Expo manager Peta-Marie McLeod said the designers were allowed to use two four-packs of the double length Cottonsofts toilet tissue -- about 16 normal rolls -- to make their dresses.

Link (Thanks, Vikram!)

David sez, "Someone put a plastic bag over the camera cluster on one of Google's Street View cars, and the resulting imagery seems to have made it right through to Google Maps."

Of course, maybe the bag just blew over the cameras.

We can be quite sure this is a plastic bag too, because it actually says “plastic bag” on it. Unfortunately we’re not familiar enough with Alaskan plastic bags to tell you exactly what shop it’s from.

The saboteurs must have been extremely quick on their feet of course, as the bag appeared without any warning while the car was travelling at speed along College Road.

Link (Thanks, David!)

John Buckman from Magnatune sez,

I'm involved with a film project called "Iron Sky", which released a 2 1/2 minute teaser today: "In 1945 the Nazis fled to the moon. It's 2018, and now they're coming back"

What makes this interesting is that it's the second film by the people who made Star Wreck, which is the most successful feature-length Internet-distributed film of all time. Star Wreck was made by 3000 people, has been download 8 million times, is under a CC by-nd-nc license, and made good money both through DVD sales, and through an eventual deal with Universal.

My role in this is that I provided the seed funding for Iron Sky, and I'm head of the board of wreckamovie.com -- a collaborative film-making web site (also CC based), that was built from the Star Wreck experience (and is being used to make Iron Sky)

Link (Thanks, John!)

Emi Guner says: "Dear secret force of the universe, be it intelligent or just accident/chance or cause and effect, whatever you believe in, can we just agree that sometimes the best stuff in life is almost free, found in a veggie bag in your fridge.

"Unfortunately, my son castrated the poor thing with his teeth before I had a chance to make money off it." Link

Max Knight built this working, rideable "Walking Bike" for a magazine shoot -- don't miss the video of the bike in action. Link (via Make)

I don't often post about cats, but I'm impressed that Gato Island managed to find five (not one, but five) cats that bear a striking resemblance to Wilford Brimley. Link (via Digg)

Tor Books and Expanded Books produced a funny interview/trailer thing for John Scalzi and me in honor of our latest books -- he's bringing out a young adult novel in the Old Man's Warverse in August called Zoe's Tale that I've read a little from and it's dynamite! Link

The gem sweater bedazzlements and lyrical besnazzlements of "internet ceWEBrity" Leslie Hall have graced Boing Boing tv before -- but in today's episode, Ms. Hall submits an exclusive tour diary for BBtv viewers, a veritable world exclusive. "With these shoulderpads I have the strength to destroy, villages, homes, and crops," she warns. Her ladyfire is mighty, as all ye who gaze upon this video shall witness.

Ms. Hall was among the internet personalities who participated in the recent ROFLcon gathering in Cambridge, Mass. Her presence there among fellow internet memesters is documented in this Wired gallery, and in a photo set from Scott Beale of Laughing Squid. See also his short video of the Tron Guy talking about geek women. Which brings us back to the 26-year-old Ms. Hall, straight outta Iowa, believed by her many followers to be the fiercest gold-lame-wrapped geek woman on the planet.

Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion and downloadable video.

Related Boing Boing tv items:
* Leslie Hall: ceWEBrity, gem sweater diva, jammer of jams.
* Leslie Hall iPhone snaps, "Blame the Booty" remix - Boing Boing

The criminals who sell the Zeus malware have added an end-user license agreement to their "product," setting out a bunch of terms controlling how the criminals who buy their products may use it, and threatening dire technological reprisals for violations:

Symantec security researcher Liam OMurchu has details on this latest development. The help section of the latest version of the Zeus malware states that the client has no right to distribute Zeus in any business or commercial purpose not connected to the initial sale, cannot examine the source code of the product, has no right to use the product to control other botnets, and cannot send the product to anti-virus companies. The client does agree to "give the seller a fee for any update to the product that is not connected with errors in the work, as well as for adding additional functionality." Modern license agreements take a great deal of (deserved) fire for being absurdly draconian, but even the likes of Adobe and Microsoft don't claim that purchasing a version of their respective products locks the user into buying future editions.

It's obviously difficult for the manufacturers of an illegal product to threaten legal sanctions against an infringer, but the Zeus authors give it their best shot. According to the EULA, "In cases of violations of the agreement and being detected, the client loses any technical support. Moreover, the binary code of your bot will be immediately sent to antivirus companies." Frankly, "We'll blow your kneecaps off and feed them to you," might be a bit more effective as a threat, but I suppose it's a bit hard to carry out that threat over the Internet.

Link (via /.)

Radar asked Bill Geerhart to send follow-up notes to the serial killers he wrote in the late 1990s, posing as a 10-year-old. The killers promptly replied (both in 1998, and recently).

in the late '90s, pop-culture historian Bill Geerhart had a little too much time on his hands and a surfeit of stamps. So, for his own entertainment, the then-unemployed thirtysomething launched a letter-writing campaign to some of the most powerful and infamous figures in the country, posing as a curious 10-year-old named Billy.

As it turns out, no group hates to disappoint a child more than convicted killers, all of whom responded promptly to Billy's questions about dropping out of school. Their letters, published here for the first time, range from criminally insane to downright sensible, offering snapshots of the personalities behind some of America's most hideous crimes. Recently, Radar asked Billy to follow up with his mentors as a college student. Link

Gord says: Back again, for its (I believe) third run in Toronto, is the hilarious Evil Dead: The Musical. I recently saw these awesome street posters and wanted to share. Link

Boing Boing tv visits New York Comic Con, the largest comics convention on the Eastern seaboard, and we find games, geeks, and graphic novels galore. Our guide through the event's board game realms is Dr. Gregory Wilson, author and fantasy fiction professor at St. John's University of New York, who teaches us little-known tools for game quality evaluation. "You can tell this one is awesome because of the weight of the box -- it's probably about 15 pounds," he says as we pass one title. "This one takes two hours just to set up! Clear evidence that it, too, is awesome."

Part two of today's episode is a little alternate reality game of our own design -- we like to call it "Count the Cosplayer."

Link to Boing Boing tv post, with discussion and downloadable video.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

BONUS AWESOMENESS: In related news, Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City blog says: "I set up a small online quiz asking people to label unidentified visitors as either art fair or comic-con attendees. There are a few surprises in there, which keeps it interesting."

Everything2's Mikebert has posted a leet-speak Lord's Prayer that begins, "Our sysadmin, who chills in Heaven, feared be thy name."

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$33|) u$ 7h!5 |)@ÿ oǔR d@!£ÿ R0|\/|$.
f0rG!\/3 u$ 0ǔr n00b 3xP£017$ @$ \/\/3 f0rG!\/3 $©r!P7 | R3\/34£ t0 u$ |\|07 Ζ3R0 |)@ÿ \/u£|\|$, βu7 $A\/3 u$ fR0|\/| t3h RIAA.
f0r 7|-|!|\|3 i$ t3h |\|37\/\/0R|<, @|\|d t3h rm -rf*, @|\|d @££ 0ǔR β@$3 @r3 β3£0|\|G t0 j00, f0R3\/3R @|\|d 3\/3R.
4|\/|3|\|.

Link (via Making Light)

Michael built a Claude Shannon/Marvin Minsky "Ultimate Machine" -- flip a switch and a hand emerges and flips it off.

About 7 years ago I was reading an article on Claude Shannon and came across one of the funniest ideas I had ever heard. Claude, you see, was one of these incredibly brilliant engineers with an obviously great sense of humor. As I understand it, he, along with Marvin Minsky came up with an idea they called the "Ultimate Machine". Basically a plain box with a switch on the top. When you flip the switch, a hand comes out of the box and flips the switch off. Thats it.

Well, after reading the article, and laughing out loud, I decided that I HAD to build one of these boxes.

Link (via Make)

Artist Jenny Hart is a guest blogger on Dinosaurs and Robots, and she blogged this great video she worked on. She says it's a "a re-creation of Abbott and Costello's famous Who's On First? routine, recited by two actors completely unfamiliar with the sketch, using their natural speaking voices. Watching the finished version brings my mind to a halt."

Rob Cockerham and his brother Mike use a super-powerful magnifying toy (Eyeclops) to count the individual threads in some $40 Martha Stewart Collection 360 thread count pillowcases. They wanted to answer the questions, "Are there really 360 threads per square inch?" Link (See other How Much is Inside" experiments here.)

Filmmaker Andrew Filippone Jr. edited an episode of Charlie Rose to make it look like he's interviewing himself.

Something has happened to PBS favorite "Charlie Rose." The erudite conversations and sober intellectualism have been replaced by an absurd world where illogic, inane dialogues, and open hostility rule. The one-on-one interview between Charlie and his guest begins as usual but quickly goes awry, so much so that Charlie is warned that, somewhere, a man named "Steve" is "not happy." Though this seemingly random statement might confuse us, Charlie understands it for what it is -- a threat. But who is "Steve" and why is he angry? And why does the mere mention of his name stop Charlie cold? Using appropriated footage from a single episode of "Charlie Rose," filmmaker Andrew Filippone Jr. creates something both disturbing and farcical in "'Charlie Rose' by Samuel Beckett."

Link

This advertisement for an insurance company was put on the back of buses in Amsterdam. Link (Thanks Justin!)

Doctor Popular says:

Check out this pic taken of a Narnia banner on the side of a San Francisco MUNI bus.

I love the unfortunate [re:awesome] placement of one of the buses yellow reflectors over Prince Caspian’s face. Imagine this evil eye blinking on and off at you as the bus makes a turn. Can you say Scott Summers? I would love to see how the Chronicles of Narnia would deal with “the mutant problem”.

Link

Boing Boing tv presents a new installment of "Spam Theater," in which we bring to dramatic life actual, unadulterated spam emails we've received -- word for word, exactly what plopped in our in-box.

Today, a classic Romance Scam enticement from the fictional spamtress "Kseniya," written in mad heroine prose worthy of a Tennessee Williams play. Voiced by Xeni Jardin, who received the message.

In part two of today's episode, '80s electrobeats and word salad merge as one.

Link to Boing Boing tv post, with discussion, downloadable video, full text of the actual spam email from "Kseniya," and photo and video credits.

Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Joel takes note of Darkpony's latest, poignant drawing. Link, Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets

From Popular Science's short-lived "groovy" period, this November, 1970 article on constructing your own 12-sided "Meditator":

The fun, then, in making your personal Meditator, is double: First you create 11 pholages (only the access panel is left bare), then discover the unexpected cross-referencing when you wrap yourself in the assembled panels. Beyond that, you’ll be able to compare responses with your friends. And when you feel you’ve exhausted the potential of a given assembly, it’s easy to paste new pictures over the old.

I think you’ll be surprised by the new perspectives you’ll get toward the world about you, and your own part in it. I’ll soon be taking the Meditator with me (knocked down, it fits into a station wagon or sedan) on a college lecture tour as part of my demonstration of design technique. Teachers who have had an advance look at the - Meditator feel that—with changeable panels—it could be utilized in schools as a teaching environment. [Editor’s note: College groups interested in booking Isaacs to speak should write him in care of Popular Science. ] A breeze to build. When you go to the lumber yard for the 3/8″ plywood, see if they’ll saw the 4-by-8 panels in half for you. Four-foot squares are easier to handle.

Link

Marilyn sez, "Brian Sack of Banterist offered his services on eBay a few months ago to 'Drive Someone Crazy' with a series of postcards from Poland. Sack promised that 'These postcards will be rant-ravingly insane, yet they will be peppered with unmistakable personal details about the addressee. Details you will provide me.' The postcards would be signed illegibly. The postcards were written and sent and received, and the joke finally revealed to the recipient. Sack shares the postcards now on his site." Link

Auction: "I will send maddening postcards from Poland to the person of your choosing"

Ann VanderMeer has created this comprehensive analysis regarding which mythical beasts would and would not be kosher. This list could really come in handy under the right circumstances. Now, for bonus points, calculate the intersection of this list with a notional list of halal imaginary beasts.

Dragon - A: “No reptiles or amphibians.” EM: “No exceptions? What about if it chews its cud?” A: “Shut up.”

Encantado (dolphin-human shapeshifter) - EM: “Surely it’s kosher when it’s a dolphin.” A: “A dolphin is a mammal just like you. It has no scales, even though it has fins. Besides, what if it starts changing while you’re eating it?”

ET - A: “…..?” EM: “It had cloven hooves.” A: “It’s a humanoid.” EM: “It looked like a pile of dung. It seemed to chew cud. Would any alien be automatically un-kosher?” A: “I guess it really depends on the alien–like a plant?” EM: “An alien that comes down to Earth.” A: “No, because they wouldn’t be considered an animal.” EM: “What if they looked just like a cow, but with a brain?” A: “Cows have brains.” EM: “Arggh!” A: “But cows don’t travel to other planets using their brains.” EM: “My point exactly!” A: “Anything intelligent is not kosher.”

Headless Mule (fire-spewing, headless, spectral mule) - A: “No, because the mule itself, even if it weren’t fire-breathing, isn’t kosher. The fire doesn’t cleanse it.” EM: “But it’s self-cooking!”

Hippocamp (horse-fish) - A: “Unfortunately, the horse part makes it treyf, and a little bit of treyf makes everything treyf. So if you had 99 percent fish and one percent horse it would still be treyf.” EM: “And a really fucked up looking hippocamp!”

Link (via Making Light)

TC Studio's Knife Hooks are a limited-edition coat-hook that make your home or office look like it's frequented by a dagger-hurling magician. Also: the seller ships to Antarctica. Link (via Gizmodo)

Livejournal's Ceruleanst's produced a couple of passages' worth of Pulp Fiction, as written by William Shakespeare:

J: And know'st thou what the French name cottage pie?
V: Say they not cottage pie, in their own tongue?
J: But nay, their tongues, for speech and taste alike
Are strange to ours, with their own history:
Gaul knoweth not a cottage from a house.
V: What say they then, pray?
J: Hachis Parmentier.
V: Hachis Parmentier! What name they cream?
J: Cream is but cream, only they say le crème.
V: What do they name black pudding?
J: I know not;
I visited no inn it could be bought.

Link