The Latest from Boing Boing

Posted: 21 Apr 2009 03:02 AM PDT

Here's an hilarious video in which Seth Godin enumerates the essential broken-ness of many contemporary things, and takes a stab at explaining why all this broken junk continues to exist.

This is broken

Previously:

Honeywell email ad from the dawn of time -- Boing Boing Gadgets

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 10:44 PM PDT

Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Joel's found this smashing ad for Honeywell electronic mail from the dawn of time. I think that around the time this ad ran, I was still riding my bicycle around the Honeywell parking garage around the corner from our house in suburban Toronto. I remember thinking at the time that Honeywell must make something to do with beekeeping.

Ad: Honeywell's Electronic Mail

Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets

Norwegian P2P downloaders buy more music

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 10:34 PM PDT

Researchers at the BI Norwegian School of Management conducted a study that concluded that downloading infringing copies of music strongly correlates buying above-average amounts of music. The music industry says that this doesn't prove that downloading from P2P entices people to buy music, and you know what? I think they're kind of right.

The Norwegian study closely matches the findings from a Canadian study a few years ago. Both studies show that people who download a lot buy a lot of music -- and other research and interviews I've conducted suggest that downloading a lot of music is also correlated with doing other music-related stuff, like attending concerts, making mixes for friends, playing music, recording music, and so on.

There's a simple explanation for this: if you really love music, you do lots of music-related things. If you're in the 20 percent of fans that buys 80 percent of records, you're probably in the 20 percent of downloaders that download 80 percent of music, the 20 percent of concertgoers that buy 80 percent of the tickets, and so on. The moral is that music superfans love music and structure their lives around it.

Which means that when the music industry targets "the worst offenders" in its legal campaigns against downloaders, the people they're attacking are the ones who are spending the most on music.

Now, does this mean that downloads end up interfering with sales of music, or not? My guess is that it's a little of both. As Tim O'Reilly wrote, Piracy is Progressive Taxation. Obscure acts probably get more sales than they lose. Modestly well-known acts probably lose and gain about the same. Very famous performers probably lose a little. This has been the conclusion in the quantitative studies in music and books to date, and it makes sense to me.

Unsurprisingly, BI found that those between 15 and 20 are more likely to buy music via paid download than on a physical CD, though most still purchased at least one CD in the last six months. However, when it comes to P2P, it seems that those who wave the pirate flag are the most click-happy on services like the iTunes Store and Amazon MP3. BI said that those who said they download illegal music for "free" bought ten times as much legal music as those who never download music illegally. "The most surprising is that the proportion of paid download is so high," the Google-translated Audun Molde from the Norwegian School of Management told Aftenposten.

Study: pirates biggest music buyers. Labels: yeah, right

Can't see the video? Click here

Anonymous declares war on copyright enforcers, demands more lawsuits against P2P services

Posted: 21 Apr 2009 04:25 AM PDT

Anonymous, having driven the Church of Scientology into bankruptcy, has now declared war on the entertainment industry -- apparently, they're upset that the record companies aren't suing enough P2P sites:

We have been watching you. We are focusing all our eyes on your multiple organizations. As you are watching this video we are currently planning our next attack. You have already angered us greatly and now, all you can do is pray that we will show mercy. We will strike from every possible direction. You will not know who we are or what our next move will be. We have no central leader, no government, nobody to tell us what to do. We operate on the principles of free speech and anonymity. The very principles which the verdict against the pirate bay dot org is threatening to destroy. And this is why we attack. Because deep down we know that together, as a unit, we can ban together and defeat you, the great oppressor, who has been present since the dawn of man.
It is true that by using file sharing networks we may be committing a crime. But there is no crime greater than favoring one company over another in the corrupt eyes of the law. The founders of thepiratebay.org are awaiting their jail sentence and the founders of isohunt.com and btjunkie.org are living free with no worries from the law. We strike because we know that it is not about legality, it is not about lawlessness, it is not about going against your principles, as you obviously have none. It is about Justice, true justice that only a member of our organization can see. And believe me, we are many. And we will all carry out Justice that the rest of the world will not.

Message to Anti-Piracy (Thanks, Judge!)

Burroughs on Cut-Ups (Historic Audio Remixed to Fanciful Video Visuals)

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 07:41 PM PDT

Matti Niinimäki says, "I have always liked the voice of William S. Burroughs and I've always wanted to do something with the Origin and Theory of the Tape Cut-Ups clip. Now I have. Also includes a cut-up example by Brion Gysin." Cut-Ups (video, on Vimeo, thanks Richard Metzger)

Previously:

High School Teacher Recounts "Sexting" Ordeal That Ruined His Career

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 07:25 PM PDT

danah boyd tweet-points to this "chilling story of educator in a sexting mess," and says "We should all be horrified by the prosectors' obsession with 'sexting'." Ting-Yi Oei, the Virginia high school teacher in question, is male. All charges against him have since been thrown out of court. But as in the case with Julie Amero, that final acquittal doesn't erase the personal and professional damage caused -- nor does it make up for the reckless tech-stupidity of prosecutors and school officials involved in the case.

Ting-Yi Oei's "sexting" witchhunt story begins about a year ago, when a fellow teacher told him about a rumor that some teens at the school were texting naked self-portraits around to one another.

I called a student I thought likely to have such a picture into my office. In the presence of the school's safety and security official, he quickly admitted that he did. He pulled out his phone and showed us an image of the torso of a woman wearing underpants, with her arms crossed over her breasts. Her head was not in the picture. The 17-year-old student claimed not to know who the young woman was or who had sent him the photo.
I immediately took the picture to the principal, who instructed me to transfer it to my office computer in case we needed it later. Being unfamiliar with camera features on cellphones, I asked the school's technology resource teacher for help, but he didn't have an immediate solution. The student then said that he could text the picture to my cellphone. That left the problem of getting it to my computer, whereupon the boy said that I could send the picture to my school e-mail address.

In hindsight, of course, he could have sent it directly to my computer himself. But it never occurred to me that my actions could be regarded as suspect: I was conducting a legitimate school investigation with children's welfare in mind, and I did so in the presence and with the full knowledge of other school officials.

I interviewed more students with the security specialist, but we found no more pictures and were unable to identify the woman in the photo. We concluded that she probably wasn't a student at the school. I reported our findings to the principal and assumed that the matter was closed.

I left the building quickly that day -- the start of spring break -- to join my wife, Diane, at a doctor's office to discuss her upcoming surgery for a potentially malignant tumor. I told her about the sexting photo, but we had other things on our minds. When I returned to school two days after break ended, I confronted a new problem: The boy with the photo on his cell was now in trouble for having pulled a girl's pants down in class (another teen phenomenon known as "flagging"). I informed his mother that I was suspending him, and in the discussion I also told her about the earlier incident. She was outraged that I hadn't reported it to her at the time. She called me at home that night at 10 p.m. and again at 7 a.m. the next morning, agitated and demanding that the suspension be revoked and threatening to involve an attorney. I told her as calmly as I could that the suspension was for the deliberate act of pulling down the girl's pants. A couple of days later, after an appeal hearing with the principal and me, she shouted at me, "I'll see you in court!"

The story quickly takes a turn for the surreal. Soon, the teacher who claims he sought only to protect the kids he taught was himself charged with possession of child pornography. Read the rest of the saga here: My Students. My Cellphone. My Ordeal. (Washington Post)

Can't see the video? Click here

SF Bay Area: Pop-Up Magazine Live!

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 06:10 PM PDT

This Wednesday night will be the first-ever Pop-Up Magazine, a live performance/reading featuring more than a dozen writers, editors, designers, photographers and filmmakers who contribute to publications like Wired, The New Yorker, NY Times Magazine, This American Life, The Atlantic Monthly, and Harper's. Come watch features, mini-features, Q&A's, essays, lit reviews, photos, and more from folks like Michael Pollan, the Kitchen Sisters, Joshua Davis, Larry Sultan, Todd Lappin and me...

I've been given the unofficial "Gallagher/Carrot Top slot." What that means: I'll be reviewing and demoing gadgets.

Tickets are already sold out (wow!). BUT, if you register via email, you'll be the first to know about the next Pop-Up, and you'll also be put on the waiting list in case any seats do open up for Wed., April 22nd, 7:00 pm at the Brava Theater.

If you're there, do come say hi after!

HOWTO make a $300 high-speed book scanner

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 04:33 PM PDT

Daniel Reetz posted an Instructable about making your high-speed book scanner from trash and cheap cameras. His version is only around $300. I don't think I'd make one myself, but I'd love for some generous maker to install one at my local public library! From Instructables:

Digital books change the landscape . After suffering through scanning many of my old, rare, and government issue books, I decided to create a book scanner that anybody could make, for around $300. And that's what this instructable is all about. A greener future with more books rather than fewer books. More access to information, rather than less access to information. And maybe, years from now, a reformed publishing/distribution model (but I'm not holding my breath...).

I've built two of these things now, and this instructable covers the best parts of both of them. You can build a book scanner using only hand tools plus a drill. I realized that not everyone is comfortable with using all the different hand tools you might need to make it. So I scanned a book on using hand tools that should answer all your questions. ;)

DIY High-Speed Book Scanner from Trash and Cheap Cameras

"Your business card is CRAP!"

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 03:25 PM PDT

This gentleman is very proud of his $4 business card.

Yes, yes, it sure is impressive, but I just want to know the name of the song that starts playing at 1:08. (via Mt. Holly Mayor' Office)

Can't see the video? Click here

Palindromic video

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 02:37 PM PDT

If, after watching this video, you want to see it played backwards, don't bother. You already did! (Via The Agitator)

Michael Kontopoulos' sculptures that almost tip themselves over

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 02:31 PM PDT

Michael Kontopoulos made these wooden sculptures that hit themselves with a hammer and almost tip over. He calls it "a system of sculptures that is constantly on the brink of collapse. My intention was to capture and sustain the exact moment of impending catastrophe and endlessly repeat it." (via bangocibumbumpuluj)

Columbine anniversary and videogames

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 02:08 PM PDT

Ten years ago today, Columbine High School students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered their campus armed to the teeth and killed 12 students and one teacher, and wounded 23 other people. Then they killed themselves. In the hysteria following the tragedy, many people attempted to blame video games for the violence. A decade later, Youth Radio's Noah Nelson looks at whether the correlation between video games and violence correlation is still all the rage. From Youth Radio:

"What we've found is that violent crime has decreased dramatically starting in 1996 while video games sales have soared. More than doubling last year," said Dan Hewitt, a spokesman for the Entertainment Software Association the trade association for the video game industry. He cites a report that contrasts the Department of Justice numbers on violent crime and sales figures for games. Hewitt contends that "if there was some type of causal connection between video games and real life violence that the rate of real lifer violence would actually be going up, but actually the opposite is true."

(Dr. Karen Sternheimer, a professor of Sociology at USC and the author of "It's Not the Media: The Truth About Pop Culture's Influence on Children") says that because a game is "interactive it seems like logically that it could cause some kind of casual effect." She notes that the decline in the rate of violence "is most notable in youth, especially juveniles." While the data and the perceived connection don't agree, the perception remains "compelling because it's really easy for us to understand." The professor points to Dave Cullen's recent book on Columbine that paints a picture of Klebold and Harris as "not just everyday kids who played video games, and just kind of became crazy from too many video games. These were seriously disturbed individuals. We make a really big mistake when we overlook issues like that."

In many ways what happened at Columbine High is a kind of prologue to the wave of violence that has shocked the country in recent weeks. A wave that adds weight to Professor Sternheimer's assertion that "we don't just have a health care crisis-- we have a mental health care crisis in this country."

"Legacy Of Change: Gaming After Columbine"

Can't see the video? Click here

Hawaii82 plays "In Your Hawaiian Way" on ukulele

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 02:08 PM PDT

Via Ukulele Hunt: Hawaii82 plays "In Your Hawaiian Way" on ukulele. As Al says: "Whenever you start learning an instrument there comes a point where it starts to feel natural and you begin to make music. I love seeing this very moment on YouTube."

Previously:

Hugo Voters' Packet: practically every Hugo-nominated work as a free download for WorldCon attendees

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 01:58 PM PDT

John Scalzi, supermensch, has pulled together a "Hugo Voters' Packet" for attendees to this year's World Science Fiction Convention (attendance in which entitles you to a vote on the Hugo Awards). The packet is a download containing nearly every work that's nominated for the Hugos as well as writing samples from people who are up in categories like "Best Fan Writer." It's huge, and you have to be a registered WorldCon attendee to get it, and it is slathered in awesomesauce.

The 2009 Hugo Voters Packet: Now Live

David Byrne booking the stage at Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 01:53 PM PDT

David Byrne is in charge of booking acts for the stage at the The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee this June -- he's packing it with the heavy rotation acts from his personal playlist, like a four-day trip through Byrne's musical influences. Yee-haw!

David Byrne has assembled a number of performers for the first artist-curated stage in the eight-year history of the Bonnaroo Music and Art Festival. On the evening of Friday, June 12 Byrne, who is performing the "Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno," will host his recent collaborators Santigold and the Dirty Projectors, singer/songwriter and founder of Righteous Babe Records Ani DiFranco, former Polyphonic Spree member and Beggar's Banquet recording artist St. Vincent and up-and-coming multi-instrumental all-female Norwegian alt/folk band Katzenjammer.
"We've been interested in inviting artists to play a curatorial role in Bonnaroo for some time now," according to Bonnaroo co-founder and producer Ashley Capps. "David was the logical choice for us and we were thrilled that he agreed. His love for music of all kinds and his passion for sharing that music make him the ultimate musical guide."
Byrne adds "this was an easy one. I basically reeled off a list of what I was listening too recently or who I had seen live recently and Ashley and Co did the rest. It's not like these folks need me to introduce them to a wider audience, at least I don't think they do...I'm just thrilled they'll be added to the festival lineup"

David Byrne First Artist to Curate Stage! (Thanks, Krista!)

New book of previously unpublished Mark Twain essays

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 09:41 PM PDT

Who is Mark Twain? from Flash Rosenberg on Vimeo.

Julia from HarperStudio sez, "We're publishing a book of previously unpublished pieces by Mark Twain called WHO IS MARK TWAIN? (UK, US) and Flash Rosenberg illustrated a section read by John Lithgow."

Who is Mark Twain, Harper Studio

Buy Who is Mark Twain?, UK

Buy Who is Mark Twain?, US

(Thanks, Julia!)

Old computers sing Queen

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 02:54 PM PDT

Last week, Joel thrilled us with a laser cutter performing the Super Mario Bros. theme. Today, Offworld's Brandon presents an array of vintage computer gear, including a TI-99/4a and HP ScanJet 3C, singing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Dig the video over at Boing Boing Offworld. "Video: Retro computers sing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody"

Least favorite plant: asparagus fern

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 02:22 PM PDT

My friends Kelly and Erik of the Homegrown Evolution blog and authors of the terrific how-to book Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City just wrote a very funny post about a plant they can't stand: the asparagus fern.

Read the entire entry, but here are a couple of good bits:

"When I saw a vendor at a farmer's market selling potted Asparagus setaceus, I felt like I was witnessing a crack dealer in an elementary school lunchroom."
and...
Even if you could eat the shoots, you would have the world's smallest side dish. Breed a one inch tall pig and you could make tiny pork chops to go along with your buttered Asparagus setaceus.

Least favorite plant: asparagus fern

Pedal powered electricity generator

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 01:24 PM PDT

The Professor would be proud of David Butcher of San Jose, California. He built his first pedal generator prototype in 1976. Every morning, he spends 45 minutes on the stationary bicycle generator to charge up a bank of salvaged batteries. Having mastered the machine, Butcher now sells plans so you can build your own. The cost of the parts is around $230, he says, or much less if you recycle an old bike. If you're interested in learning more, Butcher hangs out in a videochat room when he's pedaling away every morning. Apparently, he cranks out 1.8 kilowatt-hours a month. Of course, er, YMMV. Butcher has videos demonstrating the generator directly powering a blender (video above), washing machine, and breadmaker. His bike blender was even featured on a recent episode of MAKE: TV. From Butcher's site:

My pedal generator is in the garage, hooked up through the Trace C12 controller in my Micro Solar Energy System to a recycled battery pack from my Sparrow Electric Car. I work out in the early morning, and it's dark. It would be pointless to use as much energy to light the workout area as I generated with the workout, so I light the area with the 12 volt LED Bar Light I put together several years ago. It uses white LED's to light the workout area. They require almost no power, so virtually everything I generate ends up in the batteries.

The San Francisco Chronicle profiled Butcher last year. Butcher digs alternative power tech in general, having installed solar panels on his roof and X10 modules throughout his house for intelligent control of appliances and other devices. From the SF Chronicle:

Butcher, who lives alone after a divorce, traces his environmental leanings to the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, which marred miles of coastline with 200,000 gallons of crude oil. Butcher was 14 at the time and witnessed it firsthand. He built his first pedal generator when he was in his early 20s.

"I was always interested in alternative energy and solar in particular," he says. "I was living in Portland, Ore., where solar is not as much of an option. So I thought, 'What else could I do?'

"I'd been on a swim team for years and I was in pretty good shape, and I thought there must be a way to get some power going."

Butcher's prototype bicycle was chain-driven and featured a welded steel frame. Today's version, with its simplified drivetrain and bolted frame, can be assembled with basic hand tools.

When he took up his pedaling regimen two years ago, Butcher tipped the scales at 180 pounds. Today, at age 53, he weighs a lean 150 and possesses a pair of legs that wouldn't look out of place on the Olympic cycling squad. Butcher's pedaling has become so efficient that he has pretty much abandoned his car (electric, incidentally) in favor of bicycling, reducing his carbon footprint still further.

David Butcher: Pedal Powered Generator (via BB Gadgets)

"Stationary bike designed to create electricity" (San Francisco Chronicle)

Previously:

Being a Parasite Vector Isn't All Puppies and Unicorns

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 01:22 PM PDT

Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

Short, but zippy, fact I found out this morning, while researching a piece on mosquitoes and malaria.

I've always sort of wondered what the interaction between mosquito and parasite is like. I've often seen the relationship described in a way that implies mosquitoes are ignorant of the larger human drama playing out in their digestive tract--as though they're basically just a parasite Fed-Ex. Sure, you're getting some bad news, but that's not really the mosquito's problem.

Turns out, though, there's some fairly decent evidence that, while not really being in the mortal danger we humans are, mosquitoes infected with malaria parasites aren't exactly the picture of insecty good health, either. I've spent most of the day talking to researchers at the Imperial College in London, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the University of California Mosquito Research Program. They say that, while still controversial, there seem to be a least a couple of ways malaria bites the proboscis that feeds it.

First, infected female mosquitoes lay fewer eggs than their healthy sisters.

Second, it looks like infected mosquitoes might have trouble sucking blood. Gregory Lanzaro, Ph.D., director of the UC Mosquito Research Program, says there's been some research showing that malaria damages mosquito salivary glands, basically keeping the host from slurping down a full meal. Chronically un-satiated, the mosquito would end up having to bite more victims to get a proper dinner. That's good news for malaria, which needs a human habitat in order to grow up and reproduce. A mosquito that eats from more people is a mosquito that gives malaria a better chance of not ending up like a parasitic Peter Pan. Or, to look at it from our perspective, a mosquito that's carrying malaria is a mosquito that's more bitey and, thus, more likely to spread malaria to more people.

The mosquito POV? Probably a lot like being on a diet. Forever. Is it time to eat again yet?

Medical wax models in Mexico City

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 11:24 AM PDT

Over at Morbid Anatomy, Joanna has word of a pathological wax model exhibition at the Palacio de la Escuela de Medicina in Mexico City. Some of the images are NSFW and also NSFFaint-of-heart.

Artist Paul Laffoley named Guggenheim Fellow

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 10:48 AM PDT

Visionary artist Paul Laffoley, whose psychotronic work is informed by fringe science, the occult, cyborganic architecture, eccentric engineering, and forgotten histories, has been awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for Creative Arts. Congratulations, Paul! This has been a long time coming. Seen above, "Geochronmechane: The Time Machine from the Earth" (1990), Paul Laffoley (Kent Gallery), Paul Laffoley (Guggenheim) (Thanks, Richard Metzger!)

Previously:

XKCD: The book

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 10:32 AM PDT

Three cheers for Randall "XKCD" Munroe! Not only has he just announced his first book of collected toons, he got a fabulous write up in the NYT about it as well. Randall's one of the most consistently funny -- and sweet -- geeks on the web, and every day he tops himself in finding new ways to be made of awesome.

The print xkcd book is not being published through a traditional company but rather by breadpig -- which was created by Alexis Ohanian, one of the founders of the social-news Web site reddit. The site has sold high-concept merchandise like refrigerator magnets or T-shirts, but never a book. (Its profits go to the charity Room to Read.)
"We never made any projection -- 10,000 seems like a good run," Mr. Ohanian said, adding that this lack of research "is laughable from the perspective of anyone who knows the book industry. It's what makes sense."
The book -- with the working title "xkcd," though Mr. Ohanian says it may carry a subtitle like "a book of romance, sarcasm, math and language" -- will not initially be sold in bookstores, and probably never in the big chains. Instead, it will be sold through the xkcd Web site.

When Pixels Find New Life on Real Paper (Thanks, Dave!)

Previously:

Matchbox Mountain sculpture on eBay

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 10:27 AM PDT

The 1984 sculpture in this video was located in the San Francisco FAO Schwartz's window for a couple of years. It's now for sale on eBay with a starting bid of $4500. The maker says, "I'll include alot of matchbox and hotwheel vehicles(some of which i've retrofitted with head and tail lights." Matchbox Mountain (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!)

Can't see the video? Click here

Jill Sylvia's cut ledger sculptures

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 10:15 AM PDT

Jill Sylvia creates insanely detailed and gorgeous sculptures from hand-cut ledger paper. (Thanks, Greg Long!)

Pucker Up

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 11:38 AM PDT

It looks like I'll be spending another couple of weeks here at Boing Boing, which certainly leaves me feeling celebratory. In honor of the boundless excitement currently coursing through my veins, I thought I'd bring you some fun facts about one of the most iconic party pics in history--Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous VJ Day kiss photo.

Who's That Girl? Nobody Knows.
On August 14, 1945, thousands of men and women flocked to New York City's Times Square to celebrate the allied victory over Japan. There was, by all accounts, a lot of semi-anonymous lip-locking going on, but it's these two people--a sailor and a nurse--who smooched at just the right moment and became larger than life.

In his autobiography, photographer Eisenstaedt writes that he followed a sailor through the crowd, watching as the man kissed just about anything that moved and wore a skirt. When the sailor hit on a nurse who was wearing a pleasantly contrasting white outfit, Eisenstaedt took the shot...but failed to get either of their names written down.

To date, more than a dozen men, and at least three women, have claimed to be the kissers. Of the men, my favorite is George Mendonca, a Rhode Island fisherman, and World War II navy recruit, who claims he grabbed the strange nurse and kissed her right in front of his girlfriend. In fact, Mendonca says his girlfriend (now his wife) is visible in the background of the shot.

The Raw Deal
Amazingly, Eisenstaedt isn't the only one to blame for the fact that we have no idea who the kissers are. Photog Victor Jorgensen actually took the same scene from a slightly different angle...and also forgot to get the subjects' names. To be fair, though, it's hard to hate on Jorgensen, as dude seriously got the shaft. Although his version was the one that ran in the next day's New York Times, Jorgensen never got the glory (or the royalty checks) that Eisenstaedt enjoyed. Why? At the time, Jorgensen was working as a military photographer and didn't own the rights to his work. In fact, that's Jorgensen's shot I've posted here. It's in the public domain. Eisenstaedt's version, significantly, is not.

Everything Looks Better With Sharp Angles
Eisenstaedt's VJ kiss photo is one of many famous pictures that artist Mike Stimpson has recreated in Lego pieces. Check out his Web site for square-shouldered, claw-handed versions of everything from the D-Day landings, to John Lennon's bed-in for peace, to the National Geographic Afghan girl.

Still feeling frisky? The May/June issue of mental_floss (due in stores asap) has an article I wrote about 10 of history's most important kisses.

Photo from the National Archives, via pingnews photo service.

Speaking of Bacon: Canadian Bacon graffitti (or is it "radon?", and bacon bracelet.

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 01:45 PM PDT

That recent bacon/fire/science/death-themed Boing Boing Video episode sparked a lot of delicious incoming blog suggestions. Two are here.

Above, roguetoronto.com shares this snapshot of bacon graffitti and says, "Took this under the College Street bridge here in Toronto. The photo is untouched, straight off my Xacticam. This is Canadian BACON, spray-bombed to perfection. I think that it is quite old by the state of the chipped paint."

And at left, a stylish bacon bracelet spotted on Etsy, via via cnet. Sadly: sold out right now. (thanks, Mark Kleiman)

Update: That Etsy seller has a new bacon bracelet. ~~AND: The graffitti may say "radon," now that I think of it. BACON IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER~~. No, it really does say "bacon." Thanks commenters!

Can't see the video? Click here

Recently on Boing Boing Video

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 03:00 PM PDT

RSS feed for new episodes here, YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video.

Recently on Boing Boing Video: bacon and animated childhood fantasies.

Above, we learned how to fashion a thermic lance from prosciutto, "an engineering-grade form of bacon," capable of cutting steel. Also, a vegan version of this lethal device fashioned from cucumbers and breadsticks. PopSci columnist Theo Gray invented the device, and as the YouTube editors who spotlighted this episode said, "Fire plus bacon equals delicious, delicious thermodynamics." There's more madness like this in Theo's new book, MAD SCIENCE, which I blogged about here. Original video blog post is here. You can download an MP4 here.

Also last week, we debuted another animated short from the PSST! 3 Film series -- OMAR / HOT PURSUIT / SEARCH. Like the previous shorts we've featured from PSST! project, this one's the result of a collaboration between three teams of animators. In this one: part 1, A Victorian-sepia-dream in which a child fishes for kite-creatures in the sky, and is lifted on an incredible aerial adventure. Part 2, a Google Maps bad guy car chase drama interlude, with cops and robbers. Part 3, A child creates the magical superflat universe of which he dreams. Original video blog post is here. And an MP4 Download is here.

(Special thanks to BBV's video hosting provider, Episodic.)

Artist Gary Taxali talks about the elderly woman on a train in India who put her feet in his lap

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 08:22 AM PDT

I enjoyed this video interview with the wonderful artist Gary Taxali describing an experience he had in India.

Here's another video about his art, illustrations, and toys. He discusses how he was inspired to become an artist after finding some illustrated Indian textbooks his parents had.

Gary has a new show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in NYC, called Hindi Love Song.

200904200819

Revealed! Where babies come from!

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 08:08 AM PDT

Click to play

In this startling time-lapse video, we see life's wonder unfold as a brave couple bare the entire process of making a baby, from fertilization to gestation to birth. Science!

Como Hacer un Bebe | How to make a baby (Thanks, Elmar!)