The Latest from Boing Boing

NES built into a purse Posted: 06 May 2009 04:06 AM PDT Jeri Ellsworth created this remarkable Commodore-64-emulated-NES-in-a-handbag -- she's also the hacker who reverse-engineered the Commodore 64 and came up with the C64-on-a-chip design. Jeri's nifty Nintendo/C64 purse (via Neatorama)

Chief Army Chaplain in Afghanistan distributes local-language Bibles, orders congregation to convert locals Posted: 06 May 2009 04:07 AM PDT US Army chaplains in Afghanistan have called on American soldiers to spread the word of Jesus to Afghanistan. They're distributing Bibles printed in local languages, too -- though the Army subsequently confiscated a bunch of the Bibles and reprimanded some of the soldiers involved. In one recorded sermon, Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, the chief of the U.S. military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling Soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him". "The special forces guys -- they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says. "Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business." GIs Told to Bring Afghans to Jesus (Thanks, Bill!)

London cops catch and search a potential terrorist every three minutes Posted: 05 May 2009 07:37 PM PDT London's cops use their anti-terrorism powers to stop and search someone every three minutes, all day and all night. That's a lot of potential terrorists! I'm sure glad they've all been made to turn out their pockets and surrender their dignity. That'll show 'em! Stupid suicide bombers. The Metropolitan Police used section 44 of the Terrorism Act more than 170,000 times in 2008 to stop people in London. That compares to almost 72,000 anti-terror stop and searches carried out in the previous year. Of all the stops last year, only 65 led to arrests for terror offences, a success rate of just 0.035%. Note, they don't say that there were 65 convictions, or even 65 sustained charges, just 65 arrests. My guess is that the number of convictions in this case is approximately zero. Which would be a success rate of 0.000%. Capital sees rise in terror stops

Search Engine podcast cancelled, picked up by rival public broadcaster Posted: 05 May 2009 07:21 PM PDT Search Engine -- the most popular podcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and some of the best tech news reporting in the world -- has been cancelled by the CBC. Again. The good news? It's moved to TVOntario, the other public broadcaster in Ontario. "I could have argued about how great our numbers are or how cheap the show is to produce or how important our subject matter is, but ultimately there was no way for me to do that without essentially making the case that some other show should get axed instead," explains Jesse Brown who notes the decision was purely a financial one for CBC. Thankfully Brown met Miner while working on a story about Conservatives stealing TVO footage. "When I found out that his podcast wasn't going to be renewed, we quickly moved to bring it over to TVO. It all came together amazingly quickly. Everybody here is a big fan of Search Engine, so it was clear right away we wanted to have it, we just weren't sure how quickly we could dot every i, cross every t," says Miner of the deal that came together in an astonishingly quick day and a half. Search Engine restart (Thanks, Ben!) Previously: CBC's Search Engine back in podcast form - Boing Boing CBC listeners help broadcaster lobby for unblocking in China ... Save CBC Radio's "Search Engine" -- join the Facebook group ... Canada's DMCA: CBC radio's Search Engine on the demonstrations and ... Canadian Industry Minister lies about his Canadian DMCA on ... Cory's CBC radio column on Digital Lysenkoism - Boing Boing CBC radio show needs your input for question with Minister ... Who is the real Joey Chaos? - Boing Boing

Hat for hitting people Posted: 05 May 2009 07:18 PM PDT The Sap Cap is a "self-defense" hat with a lump of heavy metal sewn into it so you can doff your hat to your assailant and then drive his nose into his brainpan. Remember, though: any hat you don't know how to use belongs to your opponent. Also, the commenters on the sell-page say it makes a crummy hat. Sap Cap (via OhGizmo)

Cthulhu ski-mask Posted: 05 May 2009 07:14 PM PDT Typsie sez, "My buddy Frank's wife Dianna whipped up a Cthulhu ski mask for him to wear at a recent costume party, and we were all amazed at the sheer blinding awesomeness of it. It even has a mouth-hole so that you can be an Elder God and still kick back a brewski (as pictured). We're trying to convince her to make more and sell them on Etsy." I'd wear one on the slopes! Me and The Big Green C (Thanks, Typsie!)

Rampant boobies to reign at Disneyland! Posted: 05 May 2009 07:09 PM PDT Disneyland and Walt Disney World will no longer pay dedicated toplessness-checkers to examine the photos snapped of riders and displayed at the end of the ride. Not enough flashers these days, apparently. Disney confirmed Tuesday that it has reassigned employees at Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure who watched for breast-baring riders because "actual inappropriate behaviors by guests are rare." Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown says the changes took effect Sunday at Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, Space Mountain and California Screamin'. Riders are photographed on the attractions and can then buy souvenir copies. Some have exposed their breasts in hopes that the picture would make it onto a photo preview screen at the ride's exit. Disney Parks Stop Scans for Topless Riders (Thanks, Dan X!) Can't see the video? Click here

Silicone rescue tape -- "a reel of fanbelt" Posted: 05 May 2009 07:03 PM PDT Self-fusing silicone "rescue" tape sounds like some powerfully useful stuff -- permanently bonds to itself in one minute, creating a 700psi-rated, acid/solvent/oil-resistant seal. As the Red Ferret sez, "just think of it as a reel of spare fanbelt." Ever tried it? Post to the comments! RESCUE TAPE Self-Fusing Silicone Tape ~ BLACK (via Red Ferret)

Why people think it's OK to cheat a little bit Posted: 05 May 2009 05:31 PM PDT I've been having a lot of fun writing for CreditBloggers. My most recent entry is about Predictably Irrational author Dan Ariely's recent TED talk about his experiments to learn more about the psychology of cheating. Ariely decided to conduct a series of experiments to understand cheating. He gave test subjects a math quiz with 20 problems, and promised to give a dollar for each correct answer. The problems weren't hard to solve, but Ariely imposed a five-minute time limit, making it impossible for anyone to complete the test. After five minutes, Ariely collected the test from the volunteers, scored them, and paid them for their correct answers. On average, volunters solved four questions correctly. Next, he tempted people to cheat. He told a new group of test takers to score their own tests and tell Ariely how many questions they got correct. These volunteers reported, on average, that they solved seven questions. The interesting thing about this, says Ariely, was that the higher average wasn't because a few people cheated a lot; rather, it was because a lot of people cheated a little. Equally interesting was the fact that the amount of cheating didn't change when the reward for a correct question was increased or decreased; nor did it change when the chances of being caught cheating were increased or decreased. Dan Ariely: Why people think it's OK to cheat a little bit Here are my other posts: •Consumer Sentiment on the Rise (for now) •Afflicted with Allelomimesis -- Why People Behave as if They’re Broke When They’re Not •Half-empty supermarket shelves act like consumer magnets •Bringing Your Kids to the Supermarket is Hazardous to Your Wallet •The Allure of the "Near-Miss"

Liberal hunting permit Posted: 05 May 2009 02:09 PM PDT A few conservatives kindly pointed out that the entry about the Republican Clown College was not fair and balanced. So, in the interest of fairness and balance, here's a little light hearted conservative-made humor poking fun at liberals -- a "Liberal Hunting Permit." No Bag Limit - Tagging Not Required. May be used while under the influence of alcohol. May be used to Hunt Liberals at Gay Oride Parades, Democrat Conventions, Union Rallys, Handgun Control Meetings, News Media Association, Lesbian Luncheons, and Hollywood Functions. MAY HUNT DAY OR NIGHT WITH OR WITHOUT DOGS Liberal hunting permit

BB Video: ARPANET turns 40, and Vintage Computers in Slovenia Posted: 05 May 2009 12:47 PM PDT (Download this video in MP4.) This year marks the 40th anniversary of an important milestone in internet history -- the development and successful link of the first host-to-host internet connection. On April 7 1969, Steve Crocker of UCLA circulated around a memo entitled 'Request for Comments, the first of thousands of "RFCs" documenting the design of ARPANET and the Internet. A few months and many memos and experiments later, in October, 1969, Charley Kline at UCLA sent the first packets on ARPANET as he tried to connect to Stanford Research Institute. Below, a copy of the transmission log. Boing Boing Video is celebrating internet history in the months to come with a look back at the people, devices, and places that are part of our shared internet history. In today's episode of the show, we revisit an episode hosted by monochrom's Johannes Grenzfurthner, in which we explore the "Cyberpipe" museum of internet history in Slovenia, where computers and networking devices from those early years can be found. Cyberpipe is hosting related retro-tech exhibits throughout 2009. Closer to home for our viewers in the US, the Museum of Computer History in the San Francisco Bay Area offers a world-class repository of exhibits, and their website includes a helpful timeline of key events that led to today's web. 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. (Special thanks to Boing Boing's video hosting partner Episodic). Can't see the video? Click here

R.U. Sirius interviewed about his book, Everybody Must Get Stoned: Rock Stars on Drugs Posted: 05 May 2009 12:29 PM PDT Brobible interviewed author R.U Sirius about his excellent book, Everybody Must Get Stoned: Rock Stars on Drugs. You devote a whole chapter to The Beatles. Listening to "Sgt. Pepper's," we're not surprised, but were the mop-top lads from Liverpool toking up backstage with Ed Sullivan in the early days? R.U. Sirius: The Beatles were turned on to pot by Bob Dylan in the summer of '64, so they weren't getting stoned before the historic Ed Sullivan appearances and it's generally accepted that they didn't get high while touring until the last tour in 1966. They had a hilarious poolside trip with Peter Fonda and members of The Byrds on that tour. They did lots of speed pills and alcohol during their early days in Hamburg, Germany. They were pretty much a punk band in Germany, although no one used that label at the time. Which bands or musicians were the worst junkies and just couldn't survive without the stuff? R.U. Sirius: Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers were the world's biggest junkies. Some of your readers may not be familiar with them because they were never mainstream but they were hugely influential. Thunders came out of the New York Dolls. The Heartbreakers were huge in New York City in the late '70s and really influenced London Punk, particularly the Sex Pistols. They were going to call themselves The Junkies. From the Beatles to Sid Vicious, "Everybody Must Get Stoned" Previously: Rock Stars on Drugs - Boing Boing

Children's game from Spain has morbidly funny illustrations Posted: 05 May 2009 11:58 AM PDT Dave of Grain Edit says, "It's a Spanish board game for kids with some really bizarre images." Loto de Socorrismo: The Morbidly Funny Game for Kids

Harper's Weekly on Swine Flu Posted: 05 May 2009 11:13 AM PDT Lots of great stuff in the latest Harper's Weekly, including this paragraph about the swine flu hullabaloo: Swine flu, renamed under pork-lobby pressure to "influenza A (H1N1) virus, human," and referred to as "killer Mexican flu" by anti-immigration activists, had infected 985 people, or 0.0000145 percent of the world's population. Twenty countries reported infections; one death from the flu was confirmed in the United States; and 25 people had died in Mexico, where a cute five-year-old boy named Edgar Hernandez was presented to the media as "patient zero." Mexico shut down for five days to contain the illness, China began to quarantine Mexicans, and Vice President Joe Biden appeared on television and counseled U.S. citizens to avoid airplanes, subways, and classrooms, which led to protests by the travel industry. "I think the vice president misrepresented what the vice president wanted to say," explained Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Egypt, which has no cases of the flu, ordered all its pigs killed, especially slum pigs; police at Manshiyat Nasr slum fired tear gas and rubber bullets at rioting Coptic Christian pig farmers. Geneticists continued to sequence the flu's genes. "Atgaaggcaa tactagtagt tctgctatat," read the opening line of the segment-four hemagglutinin gene. "Acatttgcaa ccgcaaatgc agacacatta." Harper's Weekly on Swine Flu

Republican clown college photos Posted: 05 May 2009 10:47 AM PDT Hebiclens / WMxdesign used an image editing program to put clown makeup on the faces of prominent conservatives. I like the pastel color palette he used, as you don't often see it on clowns. RNC Clown College

The Geospatial Revolution Posted: 05 May 2009 10:26 AM PDT (Douglas Rushkoff is a guest blogger.) Just as in the original Renaissance, our world has gone map-crazy. But instead of simply marking off territory as national or corporate property, the maps of our era are as much about interrelationships and abstraction as place and territory. The Penn State GeoSpatial Revolution Project explores the way "the location of anything is becoming everything." There are some great opportunities here for cyber-cartographers and others to share and explore technologies and applications, and to extend both mapping and what is thought of as mapping. There's a great trailer on the site. If nothing else, this is a good way to introduce people to what it is we mean by "geospatial" or even "mapping" these days. We live in the Global Location Age. "Where am I?" is being replaced by, "Where am I in relation to everything else?" Penn State Public Broadcasting is developing the Geospatial Revolution Project, an integrated public media and outreach initiative about the world of digital mapping and how it is changing the way we think, behave, and interact. The project will feature a web-based serial release of eight video episodes—each telling an intriguing geospatial story. Overarching themes woven throughout the episodes will tie them together, and the episodes will culminate in a 60-minute documentary. The project also will include an outreach initiative in collaboration with our educational partners, a chaptered program DVD, and downloadable outreach materials.

Free pre-paid Cremation! Posted: 05 May 2009 10:12 AM PDT Few things are as exciting as receiving a mailer offering a free pre-paid cremation. Imagine my disappointment, however, to open the envelope and discover that the cremation service actually costs money. It looks like other people have been burned by this cremation offer, too. Can't see the video? Click here

Going Places: Capitalism cartoon from 1948 Posted: 05 May 2009 09:49 AM PDT (Douglas Rushkoff, the author of Life Inc., is a guest blogger.) One of the best things about spending the bulk of a decade researching a single topic is how much cool stuff you find. While working on the film version of Life Inc., we became addicted to Internet Archive's film libraries. This one, a cartoon produced by John Sutherland, defends the principles of capitalism against the anti-competitive ideas of Lefties. The most honest aspect of the film is that it readily admits that for capitalism to work, industry must continue to grow.

The End of Personal Finance Posted: 05 May 2009 09:51 AM PDT (Douglas Rushkoff, the author of Life Inc., is a guest blogger.) My friend and neighbor Helaine Olen just got a nice piece into Slate about the way that our finance gurus let us down. It's the same story I've been looking at for the past decade, but told in a pretty immediately accessible way - particularly for Slate's audience. While Helaine concludes that she'd be satisfied with a genuine apology from the finance industry for how badly they served personal investors, I feel like I want more: an admission that they were actually successful in their industry's greater quest, which was to enact the greatest redistribution of wealth to the wealthy since about 1300. Let's hope it isn't followed by disastrous unemployment and a plague this time, too. Excerpt: Years ago, when I wrote a popular financial makeover feature for a major national newspaper, one of our subjects asked if he should be plowing his more than $50,000 in savings into gold. It was 1997 and gold was trading at a little more than $300 an ounce. The financial planner assisting with the piece laughed dismissively, and the question never made it into the final write-up. Well, my bad. As I write, gold is hovering around $900 an ounce. For more than two decades, as income inequality increased and job security decreased, Americans lapped up personal finance columns, books, and television shows. We thrilled to stock tips and swooned at sensible strategies for using dollar-cost averaging to invest in no-load index funds. Buy and hold, my friends! The annualized gain for the S&P 500 stock index over time is more than 10 percent! You, too, can turn into the millionaire next door. Carpe diem, folks! Seize the financial day! The advice proffered by the vast majority of analysts, would-be gurus, and television pundits came down to one word: stocks. Some, like CNBC's infamous Jim Cramer, advocated stock-picking strategies. Others encouraged mutual funds. But very few--at least of those that could get publicity via mainstream outlets--doubted the efficacy of the market. The End of Personal Finance (Slate / The Big Money) Can't see the video? Click here

New Genetic Survey: Humans Originated Near Current Border of Angola and Namibia Posted: 05 May 2009 09:39 AM PDT (Photo: a cc-licensed snapshot from Namibia by Flickr user Waterwin.) Snip from a NYT article about a new study by a group of geneticists which pins the origin of humankind to a spot on the coast of southwest Africa near the Kalahari Desert. The study is said to be the largest ever of its kind on African genetic diversity. The researchers say Africans are descended from 14 ancestral populations that typically correlate with language and cultural groups. Locations for the Garden of Eden have been offered many times before, but seldom in the somewhat inhospitable borderland where Angola and Namibia meet. A new genetic survey of people in Africa, the largest of its kind, suggests, however, that the region in southwest Africa seems, on the present evidence, to be the origin of modern humans. The authors have also identified some 14 ancestral populations. The new data goes far toward equalizing the genetic picture of the world, given that most genetic information has come from European and Asian populations. But because it comes from Africa, the continent on which the human lineage evolved, it also sheds light on the origins of human life. The research team was led by Sarah A. Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania, and reported in in a recent issue of Science: "The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans." (via Ned Sublette)

New Web Censor Evasion Toolkit Launches: Psiphon Posted: 05 May 2009 08:48 AM PDT Mentioned in a NYT article by John Markoff about tools such as Tor used in places like China and Iran to route around internet censorship, this word of a new browser-based toolkit. Political scientists at the University of Toronto have built yet another system, called Psiphon, that allows anyone to evade national Internet firewalls using only a Web browser. Sensing a business opportunity, they have created a company to profit by making it possible for media companies to deliver digital content to Web users behind national firewalls. The danger in this quiet electronic war is driven home by a stark warning on the group's Web site: "Bypassing censorship may violate law. Serious thought should be given to the risks involved and potential consequences." Psiphon is here, and on Twitter. Here's a snip from their launch press release: At the heart of the new venture is Psiphon's Managed Delivery Platform (MDP), in which large-scale producers of content push their media through Psiphon's proprietary cloud-based system to consumers in denied environments. On the user end, the free service is encrypted, requires no software to download, is multimedia capable, and can even work through mobile smart phone platforms, such as the iPhone. Users can sign on to Psiphon in a variety of ways: through email invites from trusted friends and colleagues, for example, or through Psiphon's innovative "right2know" technology, which allows media producers to show consumers in censored environments content which is not available to them. On the web: psiphon.ca

Your Blog is a Weapon? Posted: 05 May 2009 08:39 AM PDT Law prof Eugene Volokh blogs about a U.S. House of Representatives bill proposed by Rep. Linda T. Sanchez and 14 others that could make it a federal felony to use your blog, social media like MySpace and Facebook, or any other web media "To Cause Substantial Emotional Distress Through "Severe, Repeated, and Hostile" Speech." Oh lordy, there goes 4chan. Here's the relevant text: Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.... ["Communication"] means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received; ... ["Electronic means"] means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages. Jacob Sullum at Reason thinks the proposed law is stupid, too. It was bad enough that a grandstanding U.S. attorney successfully prosecuted Lori Drew, a Missouri woman who participated in a cruel MySpace prank that apparently precipitated the 2006 suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier, under an anti-hacking law that clearly was not intended for this sort of situation. Now Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and 14 of her colleagues want to make such prosecutions easier through a breathtakingly broad bill that would criminalize a wide range of speech protected by the First Amendment. The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act would make it a felony punishable by up to two years in prison to transmit an electronic communication ("including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages") "with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person...to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior." (Thanks, Glenn Reynolds)

Cinco de Mayo Time-Lapse by Andrew Curtis Posted: 05 May 2009 08:33 AM PDT Urlesque posts this appreciation for the work of time-lapse aficionado Andrew Curtis. Happy Cinco de Mayo. (thanks Stephen Lenz)

Preview of Audrey Kawasaki's upcoming solo show in Tokyo Posted: 05 May 2009 08:39 AM PDT Audrey Kawasaki has posted images, details, and in-progress shots of her upcoming solo show in Tokyo, "Watching Shadow." Can't see the video? Click here

Recently on Offworld Posted: 05 May 2009 08:33 AM PDT Recently on Offworld we looked at length at Infinite Ammo's Paper Moon (above), the most recent game on Blurst (the web-portal from Minotaur China Shop creators Flashbang) and saw how even it's planar-3D platforming worked perfectly in a time-limited high-score setup: imagine a monochrome silent-movie paper-cut-out Mario that you'll want to play five times in a row, and you're getting close. We also saw our unabashed iPhone love Eliss get reworked with a smoother difficulty curve and additional levels, after -- it seems -- most everyone was subtly abused by the original, and played both the first demo for the now-officially-released long-anticipated Plants Vs. Zombies and a text adventure based on what it's actually like to attend the Game Developers Conference. Elsewhere we saw the most horrifying version of Mario 64 ever captured on film, remembered what it was like to compile computer programs by mail (!), dug up early plans to make a CD-ROM addon for the NES (!), and wished we were in Montreal for this 8-bit/chiptune showcase and Kokoromi member game jam. Finally, our quick-serve 'one shot's for the day: a belated birthday wish from the creator of a game about restrained gentle-lady catfights, and Polytron's Fez, deconstructed, found while guest blogger Tiff Chow dug up these adorable hand sewn and huggable handhelds.

You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Inbox too full? Subscribe to the feed version of Boing Boing in a feed reader.
If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: Boing Boing, c/o Google, 20 W Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610