The Latest from Boing Boing

Rotting WWII junk in the jungles of Peleliu Posted: 12 Apr 2009 04:34 AM PDT Alex sez, "I recently had the chance to visit Peleliu island - a tiny 14 square miles of coral limestone in the middle of the Pacific. In 1944 it was the scene of one of the most ferocious battles in the Pacific War. Tons of the war stuff (tanks, guns, ruined buildings) lies out in the jungle, and I took a tour round, snapping some interesting photos and listening to stories (and weirdly, I discovered during writing the post that the battle was the origin of the phrase 'thousand yard stare')." Unlike previous battles in the Pacific, the Japanese didn't place the entire emphasis of their strategy on defending the beaches - they fortified the island, in particular a mountain called Umurbrogol. The Japanese riddled Umurbrogol with a huge network of caves and tunnels from which to operate (this image shows a plan of one complex). Once they had completed their work, they evacuated the civilians, and waited for the Americans. Below you scan see the entrance to one of the Japanese caves, and beneath that, a shot from inside, looking back to the entrance. The entrance itself probably isn't more than 3 or 4 foot high; inside the cave ceilings are slightly higher, although very uneven - but it's not a great place to be when, like me, you're 6 foot 2. It was a horrible place to spend 15 minutes, but caves like these were where the Japanese forces lived for the two month duration of the battle of Peleliu. Inside, you can still see discarded boots, bottles and bullets. Thousand Yard Stares: Ruins and Ghosts of the Battle of Peleliu, 1944, 2008 (Thanks, Alex!)

drmfree tag for items on Amazon Posted: 12 Apr 2009 04:27 AM PDT David Rothman sez, "Fed up with DRM, Stephen Windwalker and I are tagging our books "drmfree" (no quotes in the actual tag). We're both authors of newspaper-related novels among other works, and in a TeleRead.org post we're encouraging writers of all kinds to do the same at Amazon's Kindle Store and elsewhere. Care to join in, Cory? What's more, we suggest that readers tag DRMless books on their own, when they find them at stores. The suggested tagging standard is 'drmfree' without any hyphen to muck things up. One reason for the tag is to make it harder for Amazon to take away your Kindle books, as happened to a customer who supposedly returned too many NONbook items. With DRM, you simply cannot own books for real. Lessen the threat by buying 'drmfree' books when possible. Again--no quotes on the actual tag." I'm with David on this -- I wish I understood more about the DRM on the Kindle. I've been trying to find out for weeks, for example, what the story is with the "DRM-free" option for Kindle means -- is there a patent or contractual term that prohibits owners of Kindle DRM-free books from moving them to competing devices, or patents or other claims that prevents competitors from creating readers or converters for these books? And, what, exactly, what the mechanism by which Amazon removes the "read-aloud" feature to comply with requests from the Authors Guild's members? Is that a firmware update to the device? A flag in the file-format? If the former, can users refuse the updates? If the latter, what other flags are there, and does buying a DRM-free Kindle file mean that they can't be switched on for you? drmfree tag campaign starts on Amazon: Help identify safer-to-own books and other items! (Thanks, David!)

Machinima and copyright law conference at Stanford, Apr 24-25 Posted: 12 Apr 2009 04:20 AM PDT Lauren sez, PLAY MACHINIMA LAW DATE: April 24-25, 2009 LOCATION: Stanford Law School Register now. Machinima. ...It has been hailed as the art form of the 21st century. ...It is redefining music videos. ...And reinventing the videogame. ...It might be the future of cinema. But there's a catch: if you make machinima, you might be breaking the law. Or are you? Find out at Stanford University. "Play Machinima Law" from April 24-25, 2009. This two-day conference will cover key issues associated with player-generated, computer animated cinema that is based on 3D game and virtual world environments. Speakers include machinima artists/players, legal experts, commercial game developers, theorists, and more. Topics include: game art, game hacking, open source and "modding," player/consumer-driven innovation, cultural/technology studies, fan culture, legal and business issues, transgressive play, game preservation, and notions of collaborative co-creation drawn from virtual worlds and online games. Films will be shown throughout the conference, including: Douglas Grayeton's Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator and Joshua Diltz' Mercy of the Sea. REGISTER NOW: Play Machinima Law (Thanks, Lauren!)

Billboards versus the attention economy: critical essay from 1960 Posted: 12 Apr 2009 04:17 AM PDT Here's Howard Gossage's February 1960 Harpers essay, "How to Look at Billboards," in which he argues for the impending demise of billboard advertising due to zoning rules. Gossage, an advertising exec has some well-thought-through tactical advice for the paleo-adbusters of the 1960s: Do you see why it is a mistake to attack outdoor advertising on aesthetic grounds? The row then becomes a matter of comparative beauty and one can go on haggling about that forever. In a sense the garden clubs have led us down the garden path. For when the girls insist that they shall never see a billboard as lovely as a tree it then becomes legitimate to consider all the things a billboard is lovely as. There are quite a few: ramshackle barns, flophouses, poolrooms, cheap lodgings for ancient ladies with orange-tinted hair. Since the world is absolutely stiff with arguably uglier objects it may be some time before the billboards come down; presumably the last billboard will stand on top of the last shack. The other thing wrong with the aesthetic line of attack is its utter irrelevancy. It is like arguing that mice should be kept out of the kitchen because they don't match the Formica. What a billboard looks like has nothing to do with whether it ought to be there. Nor does the fact that it carries advertising have anything to do with it, either. It would be the same thing if it were devoted exclusively to reproductions of the old masters; just as the open range would have been the same thing if they had only run peacocks on it. The real question is: has outdoor advertising the right to exist at all? ... Outdoor advertising is peddling a commodity it does not own and without the owner's permission: your field of vision. Possibly you have never thought to consider your rights in the matter. Nations put the utmost importance on unintentional violations of their air space. The individual's air space is intentionally violated by billboards every day of the year. Got other citations to proto-manifestos about the attention economy? How to look at billboards (via Kottke) Previously: Billboard Liberation Front vs. ATT + NSA - Boing Boing Billboard Liberation Front and Wachovia Bank - Boing Boing Murakami takes graffitied Murakami billboard - Boing Boing Billboard alterations by "The Decapitator" - Boing Boing Billboard alterations by "The Decapitator" - Boing Boing Berkeley: Billboard Liberation Front at appropriation conference ... Ron English billboard mods in L.A. - Boing Boing Billboards measure decibel levels - Boing Boing Skullphone image inserted into ClearChannel digital billboard ads ... Can't see the video? Click here

Bizarre dog walking flyer Posted: 11 Apr 2009 01:51 PM PDT GAMA-GO's Greg Long snapped this photo of a flyer for a dog walking service in San Francisco. I agree that the artwork is rather odd. Click the image for the full flyer. Can't see the video? Click here

Smoking Smarties candy Posted: 11 Apr 2009 01:36 PM PDT Apparently an increasing number of young people enjoy "smoking" crushed Smarties candy. They inhale the candy dust into the mouth and then exhale, producing what looks like thick smoke. (Above is just one of many video demos on YouTube.) Guess what? It's generally a bad idea. From WCBS: Mark Shikowitz, a Long Island ear nose and throat specialist, treated a 9-year-old who had pieces of candy lodged in his nose. "He told his parents that he felt his nose was burning," Dr. Shikowitz said. The candy eventually dissolved, but Shikowitz said kids could also accidentally inhale the fine powder down the wrong pipe. "That irritation can cause you to cough, can cause you to laryngospasm, which is your voice box spasming and closing," Shikowitz said. If the sugar sits in the lungs or in the nasal cavity for a prolonged period of time it could cause an infection. "Any time you have a substance such as sugar in these areas, which are moist, it creates a terrific growth medium for bacteria," Shikowitz said. "Alarming Trend: Kids Literally Smoking CANDY" (via Dose Nation)

HOWTO Make a dogshit composter -- Boing Boing Gadgets Posted: 11 Apr 2009 05:24 AM PDT Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Lisa's written a fabulous tutorial on building your own dogshit composter -- something that'll bring up the Easter daisies a treat. This is Ruby's butt, a great source for fresh, fertile minpin poop. She eats pretty healthy food--broccoli, carrots, lean ground turkey, some California Naturals kibble, so I'm assuming her poop's made up of a lot of the same stuff too. My friend Christian, who famously composts his own (bigger) dogs' poop, clued me into the importance of red wiggler worms, so I decided to go to nearby Buena Vista Park to dig for some. People use them to compost human waste, too. If you're not into digging for worms, hardware stores sell things like septic starter or commercial fertilizer that can also do the trick. How to make a minpin poop compost bin: an illustrated guide Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets

Statebook: how UK gov't spooks see the Internet Posted: 11 Apr 2009 05:21 AM PDT Glyn sez, "Statebook is a spoof government site, providing examples of the types of information the UK government holds an an individual citizen. The site also shows what what new information the government want to collect, through new schemes, like the 'Intercept Modernisation Programme' which could even include amassing all of our Internet traffic data in a single government database." Statebook: A Place to Access Your Citizens' Information (Thanks, Glyn!)

Penguicon: the free software and science fiction con in southeast Michigan, May 1-3 Posted: 11 Apr 2009 05:19 AM PDT Matt sez, "The weekend of May 1 through 3, Penguicon brings together science fiction, open source software, and other geek interests in southeast Michigan. In its seventh year, the attendance target for the convention is one thousand, three hundred and thirty seven. Guests of Honor are ubergeek Wil Wheaton, alternate reality game creator Jane McGonigal, Rasmus Lerdorf of PHP, steampunk author Sarah Hoyt, and John 'maddog' Hall of Linux International. Hack of Honor is the Candyfab project that prints 3D models with sugar." I was a Guest of Honor at Penguicon some years ago and it was absolutely brilliant. What is Penguicon? Can't see the video? Click here

Manchester's streets to be patrolled by CCTV cars that film you picking your nose at the wheel and then send you a fine Posted: 11 Apr 2009 05:17 AM PDT Pete sez, "Seems that Manchester police in the UK have decided to deploy CCTV camera cars (in Smart cars) to keep a better eye on motorists at junctions etc. This is getting so completely crazy it's not true. I'm rereading Little Brother at the moment, and in the 9 months or so since I read it the first time I can't believe how much more realistic it's become." We've got these all over London -- I like to chase them through the streets with my camera. Anyone seen driving while distracted - eating at the wheel, playing with the radio or applying make-up for instance - is filmed by the cameras. Later, a letter is sent to the owner of the car, in many cases along with a fine. Anyone caught using their mobile will be asked to pay £60 and have three points added to their licence. Fines could also be handed out to anyone who is thought to be driving without due care and attention, or similar offences. CCTV cars snap distracted drivers (Thanks, Pete!)

Scambaiter takes on the "United Nation Money Laundering Association" Posted: 11 Apr 2009 05:17 AM PDT Rufus sez, "I got a 419 Scam email that was so funny I had to respond. It was from the UN Money Laundering Association of London, NY. I've posted the first of many absurd back and forth emails about Laundering Request Requisition Forms. My address is 123 Sillypants Way, I blamed my delays on being attacked by natives and they don't miss a beat." I am Mr. Rod Smith, a secretary from United Nation Money laundering Association here in London. We discovered that you needed a financial help and support to achieve your goals for establishing goods Business opoortunities like building of Factories, Estates, Hospitals or more other business opportunities that can yield much money here in europe. Here is the door open for you for laundering to any amount of money that you needed or desire to achieve your goals and expectations, because our main motives and aim is to make less priviledge and the rich once becomes more successful in life. Best Spam Ever - part 1 (Thanks, Rufus) Previously: Scamorama: book explains how to get into scambaiting as a hobby ... NPR "Xeni Tech": Scambaiters and Monty Python, 419-style - Boing Boing

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