The Latest from Boing Boing

CBC radio show on advertising now podcast

Posted: 13 May 2009 04:45 AM PDT

Andrew sez, "The best CBC Radio show is now being podcast - 'The Age of Persuasion' is a half-hour show on advertising. It's been on the radio for a few years, but only recently hit the intar-tubes due to nightmare(ish) licensing requirements. It's often hilarious and always damned interesting as the host - Terry O'Reilly examines the cultural and sociological impact of advertising on modern life."

The Age of Persuasion (Thanks, Andre!)

What rights do the EULAs for video-hosting sites claim?

Posted: 13 May 2009 04:43 AM PDT

Here's Markus Weiland's great research report detailing which rights each video-hosting site claims to your material when you upload it. Be sure to click through to see the whole list:

Blip.tv: Appears to claim only those rights needed for running the service and offers users to choose their own license for viewers. States that personal data will only be disclosed where legally required. Located in the State of New York, USA.
Dailymotion: Appears to claim only those rights needed for running the service, however it always offers viewers a license for viewing only. The service is located in France where reasonable data protection laws can be expected, however personal data will nevertheless be disclosed based on "good-faith belief".
Flickr Video (Canada): Claims of content rights appear to be limited to needs for running the service but wording regarding "purpose" leaves some room for interpretation. No attribution for uploaded content can be expected from the service. Personal data is disclosed based on "reasonable belief". Located in province of Ontario, Canada for Canadian users.
Kyte.tv: Claims the right to use uploaded content for advertising its service, including deriving own works from submitted content. Grants viewers the right to derive own content from uploaded videos. Processes personal data in the USA and discloses it in "good faith belief". Service located in State of California, USA.

Owned? Legal terms of video hosting services compared (via Lessig)

Noodling: catching a catfish by letting it bite your arm

Posted: 13 May 2009 04:41 AM PDT

Catfish noodling is a fishing technique that involves sticking your arm into a catfish hole and waiting for one of the big monsters to latch onto your arm as it attempts to escape.

Hillbilly Cat Fishing

Okie Noodling: a documentary on catfish noodling (via Kottke)

Jesse Ventura: I could make Chickenhawk Cheney confess to the Sharon Tate murders with a waterboard

Posted: 13 May 2009 04:37 AM PDT

Jesse Ventura -- former pro-wrestler, Minnesota governor, Navy SEAL -- says that he's ashamed that the US government waterboarded its prisoners, and says that Cheney is a "chickenhawk" who didn't have the guts to fight in Vietnam, but was tough enough to order torture:

It's drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you -- I'll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders...
I don't have a lot of respect for Dick Cheney. Here's a guy who got five deferments from the Vietnam War. Clearly, he's a coward. He wouldn't go when it was his time to go. And now he is a chicken hawk. Now he is this big tough guy who wants this hardcore policy. And he's the guy that sanctioned all this torture by calling it enhanced interrogation.

Jesse Ventura: You Give Me a Water Board, Dick Cheney and One Hour, and I'll Have Him Confess to the Sharon Tate Murders (via Digg)

Can't see the video? Click here

Blind man dragged off plane in Philadelphia, accused of faking

Posted: 13 May 2009 04:34 AM PDT

A blind man flying with his wife from Philadelphia to Belgium (where he works as a translator) was arrested and dragged off the plane when he stood up and demanded to know, after two hours, why they were sitting on the tarmac, with no drinks and no news. The arresting officers didn't let him grab his cane, but rather accused him of faking blindness, then characterized his problems leaving the plane as "resisting." He was imprisoned overnight without being told of his charges, read his rights, or given access to counsel -- and he injured himself while there because he didn't have his cane.

Cantisani said he spoke with the captain, who told him the plane was having mechanical problems. He then returned to his seat.
Shortly afterward, another passenger made a remark about the crew, prompting three Philadelphia Police officers to escort that man off the plane, Cantisani said.
Then, police tried to remove Cantisani as well, he said...
He said the officers yanked Cantisani from his seat and dragged him off the plane, injuring his hand, which was gripping his seat belt . Then they forced him into a wheelchair.
At one point, an officer held him "by the throat," he said..
During the struggle with police, Cantisani said, he lost his retractable walking cane, making him unable to navigate.
Officers told him they had done the "blind test" and didn't believe he was blind, he said.
Vanore said he knew of no "blind test" administered by police.

Blind interpreter detained at Philly airport says he has nightmares from arrest (Thanks, James!)

Slain Lawyer's YouTube Video Plunges Guatemala into Crisis, Protests Form on Facebook

Posted: 12 May 2009 11:39 PM PDT

The crisis in Guatemala sparked by an assassinated attorney's final words -- captured on YouTube -- continues to expand online and in the streets.

Above, a protest poster distributed on Twitter in posts marked with the hashtag #escandalogt (short for "Guatemalan Scandal," for those who don't read Spanish).

The poster reads: I WILL NOT BE AFRAID TO GO OUT INTO THE STREETS, DEFEND MY LIBERTY, UPHOLD THE LAW, DEMAND JUSTICE, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID TO LIVE IN MY HOMELAND AND CHANGE ITS FUTURE.... GUATEMALA, I WILL NOT ABANDON YOU.

Inset above, a photo taken on Sunday: a worker guards the body of Rodrigo Rosenberg just after he was shot by gunmen in Guatemala City.

In the posthumously-released video, Rosenberg said he feared he would be assasinated, and that if he were, those responsible would be operating at the orders of Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom.

Prensa Libre reports that Facebook is now being used by Guatemalans calling for Colom's impeachment and trial. Organizers are spreading word on Twitter and various social networking sites to gather for a second day of protests, tomorrow, Wednesday May 13. Snip from article, with my rough translation from Spanish:

En el portal de Facebook se puede leer el enunciado de un usuario: "Hoy solo fue una pequeña muestra. Mañana con más fuerza y mientras más personas lleguemos mejor aún!!!! Manifestemos Todos!!! Mañana somos más!!!, se lee en otro.
On Facebook one can read the declaration of a user who says, 'Today's demonstrations were only a small example, tomorrow with more strength and even more people we will achieve more still! Everyone, Protest! And, 'Tomorrow, there will be more of us,' says another user.

Here is one of many Facebook groups calling for Colom's resignation and trial.

The Wall Street Journal has a report up here. Colom was interviewed on CNN en Español today, and a transcript is here. Here's an AP item from today, here's a NYT item.

I'm hearing anecdotal reports on Twitter and elsewhere that account holders at Banrural, the Guatemalan bank at the heart of this scandal, are withdrawing all their cash from the institution and causing a growing liquidation panic that threatens to further destabilize the already teetering country.

Previously
- Guatemala: Protests for Assassinated Lawyer Streamed Live from Laptops in the Streets
- In YouTube Video Shot Before His Death, Attorney Blames President for His Assasination

French "three-strikes" copyright law passes -- but may be dead anyway

Posted: 12 May 2009 07:01 PM PDT

You may have heard about the French Assembly passing Sarkozy's mad "three-strikes" bill, which will allow big media companies to force ISPs to disconnect you by accusing you of copyright infringement (without even having to produce proof). Jeremie Zimmermann, a leading French activist opposed to the bill, has a good analysis of the problems it will face, even having passed:

* HADOPI is legally dead because it opposes to fundamental principles of French and European law, including the respect of a fair trial, principle of proportionality and separation of powers. European Parliament has also for the 4th time recalled its opposition to the French text by voting again amendment 138/464, thus voiding the French HADOPI. The law is also not respecting requirements of French constitution regarding a due process, equality in front of the law, and legality of the law, which the Constitutional Court will now have to judge.
* HADOPI is technically dead because it entirely relies on identifying users through their IP address that can be altered or high-jacked in many ways 5. As a consequence, innocents will inevitably be sanctioned. Circumvention techniques are also already largely available.
* HADOPI is dead in the media because government's propaganda didn't stand for long under close scrutiny from citizens over the net6 and to the aware consideration of a few critical elected representatives.7. A fantastic movement opposing the text allowed public debate to interfere in every possible part of the French web about the real stakes of the funding of creation in the digital age. Today, 60% of the French reject this text according to an IFOP poll8 (33% only agree to the scheme) and a wide opposition includes independent movie theaters, hundreds of independent labels, science-fiction authors and performing artists.
* Finally, HADOPI is dead politically, right in the middle of an "Hadopigate " revealing unhealthy collusion between Minister of culture and big media close to the president Sarkozy, everybody within the majority already understood that this text is a ball and chain they will have to drag along for a long time.

Solemn burial for HADOPI in French National Assembly

Previously:

National Geo: "Extreme" animal embryos

Posted: 12 May 2009 03:02 PM PDT

Seen above are parasitic wasp embryos, which apparently inspired the "alien birth" in Alien. From National Geographic's photo gallery of "'Extreme' Animal Embryos Revealed'":

In a biological attack unique in the animal world, the unassuming embryos (injected by their mother into a caterpillar) use a virus in their DNA to paralyze their host. They bite their way out of the caterpillar and begin spinning cocoons.

As a final insult to the injured host, the caterpillar--apparently brain-addled by the virus--builds a silky blanket over its attackers and defends them against predators until the wasps emerge, fully formed, and take to the skies.

"IN THE WOMB: 'Extreme' Animal Embryos Revealed"

Previously:

Glenn Beck guest passes out -- best Keyboard Cat play-off yet?

Posted: 12 May 2009 02:38 PM PDT

"Gone."

Can't see the video? Click here

Plants vs. Zombies

Posted: 12 May 2009 03:10 PM PDT

After reading Tom's description of PopCap's Plants Vs. Zombies on Offworld, I downloaded it and played it with my six-year-old daughter over the weekend and last night.

The game is a classic "tower defense" game. Brain-eating Zombies on the street are shuffling towards your house. The only way to defend your family against the rotting cannibalistic invaders is by sowing seeds of different species of fast-growing plants designed to stop or slow them down.

At this point, everyone else in the house is sick of Jane and I talking about how much fun Plants Vs. Zombies is and what we'll need to do keep the zombies from overtaking us when we play again (as soon as she gets back from Kindergarten class today).

Plants vs. Zombies

Walking Dead Compendium One

Posted: 12 May 2009 02:10 PM PDT

Cory and I both have raved about The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1 collects the first forty-eight issues, which focus on human beings trying to survive in a world taken over by flesh-eating zombies.

The only downside to this 1088-page zombie-apocalypse graphic novel is that the book literally weighs five pounds. They need to make a Kindle version of it.

Despite the burdensome weight, I couldn't help opening it to re-read the series from the beginning. My high opinion of it hasn't diminished since the first time I read it -- this is a hell of a great comic book.

Previously:

Can't see the video? Click here

What makes us happy?

Posted: 12 May 2009 01:46 PM PDT

The June issue of The Atlantic has an article about a 72-year-long study at Harvard about how different experiences affect the health and happiness of people. Video above, full text of article here.

Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition—and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant.

Cannabis Industry Boom

Posted: 12 May 2009 01:33 PM PDT

A BBC news video reports that Canada's pot industry makes $7 billion a year.

Canada's booming cannabis industry ranks alongside tourism and forestry as a money earner and employer but the illegal trade has angered its US neighbour.

(Via TYWKIWDBI)

Guatemala: Protests for Assassinated Lawyer Streamed Live from Laptops in the Streets

Posted: 12 May 2009 04:34 PM PDT

Protests are taking place today in Guatemala City to demand justice for an attorney who was assassinated on Sunday, and who claimed in a posthumously released YouTube video taped before his death that if he were to die, it would be at the orders of Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom.

Quick background: The slain attorney, Rodrigo Rosenberg, represented a man who refused to take an assigment by Guatemala's president to serve on the board of a bank widely known as a money laundering hub and a shelter for narcotrafficking spoils. This whistleblower client of Rosenberg, Khalil Musa, was assassinated in March. On Sunday, after reportedly refusing to participate in the corruption and the coverup, Rosenberg himself was assassinated.

Protesters are at the presidential palace today. Libertópolis is streaming the action on Ustream.tv, as I type, though the stream is going on and off as armed military police swarm in.

Twitter users are marking conversations about today's protests, and about the case in general, with the hashtag #escandalogt. To take this sort of public action in Guatemala is not something one does lightly, and the young people at the center of these protests are placing their lives at risk.

I'm seeing some Guatemalan Twitterers spreading word that "chicken bus" drivers will gather tomorrow in the capital for another round of protests. Why? These same transportistas have long been the target of ever-escalating assasinations and extortion from narco gangs. The same corruption Rosenberg and Musa attempted to expose fuels this cycle of violence.

I don't have factual confirmation, but Guatemalan BB readers and Twitterers are saying that coverage of this story on the Guatemalan television networks is actively censored by the state (and that the recently declared "swine flu emergency" in a country with only 3 confirmed H1N1 cases was little more than a thinly disguised attempt by the state to exert more control). Claims of censorship there have historic precedent, and it makes the existence of these online "citizen TV" transmissions all the more significant. (via deztyped and many others)

Previously: Guatemala - In YouTube Video Shot Before His Death, Attorney Blames President for His Assasination

Update, 3pm PT, May 12: CNN now has an item on the story.

Update, 330pm PT, May 12: Photos from the protest are here. And here is audio from the protest. And here is a website demanding the president be impeached and brought to trial.

Business Software Alliance says that adopting copyright treaties doesn't decrease piracy

Posted: 12 May 2009 12:06 PM PDT

Michael Geist sez,

The Business Software Alliance is out today with their annual report on global piracy in 2008. The data shows declining numbers in many countries (the report covers 110 countries), though there is an overall increase due to very high rates in parts of the world.
Two keys - first, it points to the growing importance of open source software, which the report says commands 15 percent of the market...
68% of the countries that the BSA tracks that have ratified the WIPO Copyright Treaty have shown no change or only a minor increase or decrease in software piracy rates. The three countries that showed a significant decrease are Russia (which only ratified in February), China (which ratified in 2007), and Qatar (which ratified in 2005). Russia and China are important markets, yet their numbers remain very high (68% in Russia and 80% in China) and few would argue that the big declines are as a result of anti-circumvention legislation. Moreover, the average software piracy rate among WCT ratifying countries is 62% and, as mentioned, only five countries that have ratified the WCT have software piracy rates lower than Canada's.

Does The WIPO Copyright Treaty Work? The Business Software Association Piracy Data (Thanks, Michael!)

Can't see the video? Click here

Great OS for babies?

Posted: 12 May 2009 12:06 PM PDT

I'm on a quest to find a good free OS to put on a beater laptop for the baby (15 months, obsessed with computers!) to play with. Sugar is a little too old for her, I think. I described it in my podcast some time ago -- easy UI, lots of cool sounds, BabySmash-style keyboard mappings, easy access to bookmarked, downloaded YouTube videos, etc.

Qimo looks like it's in the right ballpark -- anyone else got a good "BabyBuntu?"

Qimo is a desktop operating system designed for kids. Based on the open source Ubuntu Linux desktop, Qimo comes pre-installed with educational games for children aged 3 and up. Qimo's interface has been designed to be intuitive and easy to use, providing large icons for all installed games, so that even the youngest users have no trouble selecting the activity they want.

Qimo (Thanks, @jonobarel!)

Hundred-year mechanical clock

Posted: 12 May 2009 12:06 PM PDT

Here's a sweet little student project from ITP: a clock that counts up to a hundred years and falls apart:

Showing 'Time in Six Parts,' the clock "rotates once every second. The following pulley rotates once every 5 seconds (1:5 ratio). The next rotates once every 60 seconds or 1 minute. Then 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, and 1 decade. The decade wheel carries the load of the large arc. The large arc rotates once every century. The final ratio between the 60-RPM motor and the large arc is approximately 1:31.6 billion. Each wheel is marked with a black nut to highlight a position that could be tracked over time. Along the arc, 100 lines mark the divisions of each passing year. When the clock finally reaches the end of a 100-year cycle, the arc falls off its track onto the floor."
The 3.16 Billion Cycles Clock, with the time in six part series, is perhaps an attempt to present time in a prospective like never seen earlier. If with this the designer intended to take time beyond our consideration and explore its new realms, he has by far succeeded in his effort, but still the clock remains routed to the core, by living every second till eternity (we aren't living an age to see a 100 years pass).

The 100-Year Alarm Clock lives every second (via Cribcandy)

Previously:

ITP Thesis Week - Tweenbots - Boing Boing

Can a computer discover scientific laws?

Posted: 12 May 2009 11:24 AM PDT

In his first column for Seed magazine, my Institute for the Future colleague and pal Alex Pang looks at efforts to create software that doesn't just support scientific discovery, it actually does new science. From Seed:

Older AI projects in scientific discovery tried to model the way scientists think. This approach doesn't try to imitate an individual scientist's cognitive processes — you don't need intuition when you have processor cycles to burn — but it bears an interesting similarity to the way scientific communities work. (Cornell professor Hod) Lipson says it figures out what to look at next "based on disagreement between models, just as a scientist will design an experiment that tests predictions made by competing theories."

But that doesn't mean it will replace scientists. (Cornell graduate student Michael) Schmidt views it as a tool to see what they can't: "Something that is not obvious to a human might be obvious to a computer," he speculates. A program, says Schmidt, may find things "that look really strange and foreign" to a scientist. More fundamentally, the Cornell program can analyze data, build models, and even guess which theories are more powerful, but it can't explain what its theories mean — and new theories often force scientists to rethink and refine basic assumptions. "E=mc2 looks very simple, but it actually encapsulates a lot of knowledge," Lipson says. "It overturned a lot of older preconceptions about energy and the speed of light." Even as computers get better at formulating theories, "you need humans to give meaning to what the system finds."

Why We're Not Obsolete: Alex Pang in Seed

Sam & Dave's "Hold on I'm Coming" performed by Italian scarecrows

Posted: 12 May 2009 10:49 AM PDT

Sam & Dave's "Hold on I'm Coming" performed by Italian scarecrows in a Kubrick-like warehouse.

Snippet from documentary about groupies

Posted: 12 May 2009 10:40 AM PDT

Here's segment from a documentary about early 1970s groupies, featuring famous groupie Pamela Des Barres (who wrote the entertaining memoir, I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie). I don't think this is from the documentary Groupies, but I may be mistaken. Anyone know where it comes from?

Can't see the video? Click here

Li'l Sideshow play sets

Posted: 12 May 2009 10:06 AM PDT

Archie McPhee sells fun Li'l Sideshow play sets, like the Frog Girl and Lobster Boy set seen above. Also available for $13.95 each are the Bearded Lady, World's Tallest Man & Smallest Man, and Strong Man. Archie McPhee action figures

Previously:

19th century pregnancy anatomical models from Japan,

Posted: 12 May 2009 09:49 AM PDT

Joanna at Morbid Anatomy just pointed to a stunning Pink Tentacle post about 19th century Japanese anatomical models of pregnancy.

BB Video - $5 Cover: Craig Brewer's New MTV Series on Local Indie Music Life

Posted: 12 May 2009 10:10 AM PDT

(Download MP4, or watch on YouTube)

In today's Boing Boing Video (brought to you in part by WEPC.com), director Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow , Black Snake Moan ) talks to us about his latest project: the MTV online series $5 Cover, which chronicles the internet-age lives and dreams of struggling musicians in Memphis, Tennessee.

$5 Cover is described as "a rough-and-tumble show set in the clubs, bars, and all-night cafes of present-day Memphis," and follows "young musicians as they fight for love, inspiration, and money to pay the rent." These are real people, but this is not reality schlock.

When I first saw clips of the series in production during a visit to the MTV offices, I knew it was going to be great. I grew up an MTV teen, but am not generally a fan of MTV's present-day on-air programming. I've felt for some time like the network no longer produced stuff I'd find interesting.

But this is different. Maybe part of what allowed something this authentic and engaging to incubate at MTV is the fact that this is primarily an online series.

And then there's the fact that Brewer is at the helm. I'm a big fan of his big-screen work, and he clearly loves the stories at the heart of $5 Cover -- the lives and art of musicians who are his own community, in Memphis.

Boing Boing asked Brewer how the internet is changing what it means to be an independent artist, and how technology is changing the nature of what "local music" means. He talks to us about why he created the show, how this is different than directing for film or television, and why all of this matters so much to him.

When MTV sent us a DVD of the completed episodes, Boing Boing Video's editor and I watched them all, back to back, and then vowed to buy some of the music online. I'm not kidding, it's that great. We went particularly nuts about Amy Lavere, an artist featured in the first part of the Boing Boing Video episode. She's from Memphis, by way of TX and Louisiana. Al Kapone was another personal fave.

More about $5 Cover: New episodes premiere Friday nights at midnight on MTV and at Fivedollarcover.com throughout May. There are mini-documentaries about what went on in each week's episode here, and Flipside Memphis gives you an even deeper dive into the Memphis culture. The entire video series, along with music videos and other related video, is available on iTunes for download to own. The soundtrack is available digitally through services including iTunes and Rhapsody, and I've been googling my way to the artists' websites and myspaces and discovering lots more on my own.

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)

Sponsor shout-out: Boing Boing Video is brought to you in part by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside."

Can't see the video? Click here

Toilet snake bites man's penis

Posted: 12 May 2009 09:38 AM PDT

The China Times reported that a snake emerged from a toilet and bit a Taiwanese man on the penis. From Yahoo!:

"As soon as he sat down, he suddenly felt a knife-like pain and reacted instinctively by standing up," the China Times said. "When he looked down, he saw the big snake."

The 51-year-old man, from Nantou County, was under medical care with minor injuries, a director at Puli Christian Hospital said.

"Toilet snake attack: urban legend comes true?"

RFID for your Fried Chicken

Posted: 12 May 2009 08:57 AM PDT

Douglas Rushkoff is a guest blogger.

I've been obsessed with South Korea since visiting there earlier this year for a story on pro gamers.

Beyond or perhaps encouraging cultural/national stereotypes, South Koreans do make unique technological contributions, in uniquely South Korean ways. There's an intensity of thought and attention to production detail in some of their 'wonderful things' that demands admiration and even awe.

That's why I'm planning to make a quick tour through the KoreanNovation trade show this week in New York. Not only to see stuff like the high-temperature-resistant RFID tag, or the "mask for nasal insertion" (a surgical mask worn in the nose, which I assume works if you remember to keep your mouth closed...) but also to talk to the people who think of and then go make such things.

Thanks, Jeff, for the link.

Krassner: Stewart was right the first time

Posted: 12 May 2009 11:20 AM PDT

Douglas Rushkoff is a guest blogger.

Paul Krassner posted an interesting response to the attacks on Jon Stewart for having called Harry Truman a "war criminal" and then apologizing.

I also feel compelled to disagree with Jon Stewart. I think that Harry Truman was indeed a war criminal. Actually, I believe that in most wars, both sides harbor top-level war criminals, but that the victor determines who they are. As Lenny Bruce said in 1962 at the Gate of Horn in Chicago, "If we would have lost the war, they would have strung Truman up by the balls...." Lenny was arrested for obscenity that night. One of the items in the police report complained: "When talking about the war he stated, 'If we would have lost the war, they would have strung Truman up by the balls.'"

Huffington Post

The Photographer: gripping graphic memoir about doctors in Soviet Afghanistan, accompanied by brilliant photos

Posted: 18 Apr 2009 06:42 AM PDT

FirstSecond, one of the great literary comics presses of the modern world, has topped itself with The Photographer: Into war-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders, a collaboration between photographer Didier Lefevre, graphic novelist Emmanuel Guibert, and designer Frederic Lemercier.

The book is the memoir of Didier, a photographer who accompanied a caravan of Medecins Sans Frontiers doctors into war-torn Afghanistan to staff a clinic in the middle of the Soviet-Mujahideen war. Didier dictated the memoir to Guibert (the graphic novelist who also produced Alan's War, a stunning memoir of post-war France) before he died of a heart-attack, and Guibert and Lemercier worked to turn this into The Photographer.

Visually, The Photographer resembles nothing so much as a Tin Tin adventure, except that it is liberally sprinkled with Didier's photos and contact sheets, dropped in among the drawn panels, incorporated seamlessly into the action. Didier was a powerful, naturalistic photographer, unflinching and unpretentious, and between the finished drawings and the annotated contact sheets, you get a sense of a real artist at work.

The story is in three parts: first, there is the journey to the clinic, which begins in Pakistan where Didier meets all manner of intelligence operatives, pathological liars, adventurers and NGO workers, and then follows the MSF crew as they meet up with escort of Mujahideen guerrillas and arms-smugglers, buy their horses and donkeys, and are smuggled over the border into Afghanistan. After this, the caravan proceeds through the towns and mountains of Afghanistan, dodging Soviet helicopters, losing pack animals over sheer cliffs, and watching in horror as the discipline in their escort is brutally enforced. The caravan is led by an unlikely and charismatic woman doctor who commands the Muj's respect through sheer competence and force of will.

The second part of the story tells of Didier's time at the clinic, as all manner of war-wounded, ill and orphaned victims are processed and treated by the doctors, tales of horrific woundings and incredible bravery and sacrifice and nobility. After a while, it becomes too much for Didier, who decides -- unwisely -- to return to Pakistan alone, with just an escort of Afghani farmers with whom he does not share a common language.

Finally, Didier tells the story of his voyage home, a gruelling trip that gets worse after he is abandoned by his escort. After coming close to death, he is rescued by grifters who rob him -- but get him to safety. After more misadventures, he arrives home, finally, in Paris.

The story is very well told, a gripping adventure that sheds light on subjects as diverse as faith, photography, art, love, nobility, Soviet-Afghani relations, pride, masculinity, racism, and bravery. As I said, the photos are magnificent -- worth the cover-price alone -- but the story makes them so much better. This isn't just a great photography book, it's a great novel, a great comic, a great memoir, and a great history text.

The Photographer: Into war-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders

The Photographer sampler (PDF)

Boing Boing Video: recent episodes, in case you missed 'em.

Posted: 11 May 2009 07:59 PM PDT

Here's a recap of recent episodes of our daily original video program, in case you missed them in the firehose of blog fixins that is Boing Boing.

* The Throbbing Gristle Interview (Download MP4 or watch on YouTube): Richard Metzger and I interview the godfathers (and mothers) of Industrial Music once dismissed by a British lawmaker as "wreckers of civilization." Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge speak with us about the technical and creative underpinnings of the legendary "art damage" ensemble. We dig into some of the hacked-together synth and sound modification machines built back in the early 1970s, like "Thee Gristleizer."

* ARPANET turns 40, and Vintage Computers in Slovenia (Download MP4 or watch on YouTube):

ARPANET turns 40 this year, so we're 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. We revisit an episode hosted by monochrom's Johannes Grenzfurthner at the "Cyberpipe" museum of internet history in Slovenia, where computers and networking devices from those early years can be found.

* Ninja Assassin - John Gaeta on Hybrid Entertainment Merging Film and Games (Download MP4 or watch on YouTube).

Academy Award winning visual effects guru John Gaeta (Matrix, Speed Racer) offers a sneak peek inside his newest project, Ninja Assassin. Along the way, we explore a broader realm of questions about the future of games, movies, and interactive entertainment. Includes super badass stunt footage!

Where to Find Boing Boing Video: 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).

Sponsor shout-out: Boing Boing Video is brought to you in part by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside."

Can't see the video? Click here

Prize-winning Movie Plot threat

Posted: 12 May 2009 04:57 AM PDT

Bruce Schneier's announced the winner of his annual "movie-plot threat" contest, the competition to come up with ridiculous security threats of the sort that are used to justify banning photos in public places or liquids on airplanes:

Though recent shooting sprees in churches, nursing homes, and at family outings appear unrelated, a terrifying link has been discovered. All perpetrators had small children who were abducted by terrorists, and perpetrators received a video of their children with hooded terrorists warning that their children would be beheaded if they do not engage in the suicidal rampage. The terror threat level has been raised to red as profiling, known associations, and criminal history are now useless in detecting who will be the next terrorist sniper or airline hijacker. Anyone who loves their children may be a potential terrorist.

Fourth Movie-Plot Threat Contest Winner

Previously: