The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Digital TV's history in America: the DTV transition nearly cost the USA its technological freedom
• Free CC-licensed kids' fantasy short story every week
• Cracked and peeling photoshopping contest
• Lutheran Halal cafe
• Hittin' the Ole Dusty Trail
• Hundreds of top British cops defrauded the taxpayer for millions in phony expense racket
• $134.5 BILLION worth of US bonds seized from smugglers at Swiss border
• Bulletproof "tactical" corset
• On the Road with Kesey and Truman

Digital TV's history in America: the DTV transition nearly cost the USA its technological freedom Posted: 14 Jun 2009 10:00 PM PDT Seth Schoen from the Electronic Frontier Foundation reminds us that the US digital TV transition that just took place was, for several years, Hollywood's best bet for infecting every device in your home with Digital Rights Management technology, giving itself veto power over the design of everything from video cards to networking protocols. This was the "Broadcast Flag" proposal, and the big studios and broadcasters promised that they would sabotage the DTV transition if they didn't get their way. The FCC rolled over and gave it to them -- and then EFF, the American Library Association and Public Knowledge sued them, demonstrated that they didn't have the jurisdiction to regulate hard drives and cable-connectors, and the studios never made good on their threat. MPAA's Fritz Attaway said that "high-value content will migrate away" from television if the broadcast flag wasn't imposed; he told Congress that fears of infringement without a broadcast flag mandate "will lead content creators to cease making their high-value programming available for distribution over digital broadcast television [and] the DTV transition would be seriously threatened". Most famously, Viacom said that "[i]f a broadcast flag is not implemented and enforced by Summer 2003, Viacom's CBS Television Network will not provide any programming in high definition for the 2003-2004 television season. " It's six years later and these threats have all fallen flat. This week, CBS will broadcast dozens of popular programs, like CSI, Without a Trace, Survivor, and The New Adventures of Old Christine, in high definition via over-the-air broadcast. So will all the other major networks. Digital TV also continues to feature popular movies with no DRM. Into the DTV era, with no broadcast flag mandate

Free CC-licensed kids' fantasy short story every week Posted: 14 Jun 2009 09:56 PM PDT Jonathan sez, "As an aspiring author of fantasy for young adults, there is only one to get better [and get published] that I can think of: write. Then write more. And write better. So in order to do that I have set myself the target of putting a free short story online every week, and to keep doing just that for a year. I'm at the third week, and I have a couple in reserve to cover busy weeks. But more than that, I am making these stories available under a Creative Commons Share-alike Licence, hoping that others will take the stories to places that even I can't imagine. And on top of that, I'm willing to let commercial licences go for 1 euro. Just to get the ball rolling." I love to see projects like this that display work ethic and talent. Good luck, Jonathan! free reads

Cracked and peeling photoshopping contest Posted: 14 Jun 2009 11:46 PM PDT Today on the Worth1000 photoshopping contest: Peeling and Cracking 2. Squick! Peeling and Cracked 2

Lutheran Halal cafe Posted: 14 Jun 2009 09:52 PM PDT In Brooklyn, the Lutheran Halal Cafe. As Patrick Nielsen Hayden notes, "I wonder what Lutheran halal cuisine would entail. Doner kabab hot dish?" In Brooklyn, about a mile south of us (via Making Light)

Hittin' the Ole Dusty Trail Posted: 14 Jun 2009 06:22 PM PDT (Bill Gurstelle concludes his guest blogging stint here on Boing Boing. He is the author of several books including Backyard Ballistics, and the recently published Absinthe and Flamethrowers. Twitter: @wmgurst) Thanks to Mark and the other BoingBoing bloggers for the chance to put words in front of the world's most interesting and lively blog readers. It's been great. You've been great. I'm taking took a page from previous guest blogger Gareth Branwyn's final post and putting hyperlinks to many of my posts all in one place for those who may have missed them and so I have one place I can link to: Summer Road Trips Hit By Rock From Outer Space? Rocket Making for Amateurs A Monkey on My Back (non-metaphorically speaking) Growing the Poison Pepper Licensed to Drink Knife Throwers Just Want a Little Respect Happy 35th Anniversary, 10 Cent Beer Night The Least Exciting Moments in Sports Wails and mumbles: So Effective It's Given Away in Bags! Wails and Murmurs: Eating Couscous at the Chi-Chi's in Walla-Walla Exploring Your Own Backyard: My new book, Absinthe and Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously continues to do well, as does Backyard Ballistics, The Art of the Catapult and the rest, no doubt helped by the interest fueled by posting on this wonderful blog. Please do check out Absinthe and Flamethrowers if you have any interest. For more info, see www.absintheandflamethrowers.com. If you want to reach me to, say, inquire about writing assignments or speaking engagements, visit me at www.williamgurstelle.com and use the form on the contact page. I'm leaving the country for a couple of weeks, but I'll have email access from time to time. Thanks again. Enjoy your summer, live dangerously, and live artfully.

Hundreds of top British cops defrauded the taxpayer for millions in phony expense racket Posted: 14 Jun 2009 09:05 AM PDT Here's a neat companion story to the nation-rocking news that UK Members of Parliament have used their expense accounts to commit massive acts of fraud against the taxpayer: it turns out that Scotland Yard's top detectives have been doing the exact same thing, charging millions to their official AmEx cards, taking huge cash-advances at ATMs, buying clothes for their girlfriends, charging custom-made suits bought from mail-order bespoke tailors, etc. One officer charged £40,000 to his card in a single year. These were elite cops from special units -- including the anti-terror squad, whose members are charged with inflating their expenses from investigating the 7/7 bombings. "It beggars belief that our police, who are supposed to be solving crime, are suspected of fraud on a grand scale." Auditors at the Metropolitan Police Authority have spent two years examining receipts from the accounts of more than 3,500 officers. The Amex cards were issued in 2006 to detectives from specialist operations, which includes counter-terrorism and those involved in diplomatic and royalty protection. The scheme was then extended to the specialist crime directorate, which counters organised crime, as well as conducting sensitive inquiries such as the cash-for-honours investigation... Sources have told the Observer that some detectives had fallen into the habit of withdrawing hundreds of pounds at a time from cashpoints. Other officers appear to have filled in blank receipts from restaurants to account for cash payments. Card fraud probe targets 300 detectives

$134.5 BILLION worth of US bonds seized from smugglers at Swiss border Posted: 14 Jun 2009 09:00 AM PDT Two Japanese smugglers were busted on the Italian-Swiss border with a suitcase whose false bottom was stuffed with $134.5 billion in US treasury bonds, including two one billion dollar Kennedy bonds (a denomination used for national currency reserves). Either these guys are the world's dumbest, most ambitious counterfeiters, or they're the biggest currency smugglers ever caught. It gets better: Italian law says that the penalty for currency smuggling is 40% of the seized cash, and that 40% (US$28 billion) will take a huge bite out of Italy's public debt. If the certificates were real, for Italy it would be like hitting the jackpot. The fine alone would amount to US$ 38 billion, five times the estimated cost of rebuilding quake-devastated Abruzzi region. It would help Italy's eliminate its public deficit. If the certificates are fakes the two Japanese nationals could get a very lengthy jail sentence for fraud. As soon as the seizure was made the US Embassy in Rome was informed. Italian and US secret services were called in to assist the Italian financial police. Some important international financial newspapers had already reported on the existence of 'funny money' circulating on parallel, i.e. unofficial, financial markets. US government securities seized from Japanese nationals, not clear whether real or fake (via @stacyhebert)

Bulletproof "tactical" corset Posted: 14 Jun 2009 08:55 AM PDT Tactical corsets: a corset that's bulletproof, comes with pistol holster, pepper spray holster, and an "interrogation pouch." Tactical Corsets (via @richardkadrey)

On the Road with Kesey and Truman Posted: 14 Jun 2009 07:54 AM PDT (Bill Gurstelle is guest blogging here on Boing Boing. He is the author of several books including Backyard Ballistics, and the recently published Absinthe and Flamethrowers. Twitter: @wmgurst) Today's the end of my guest blogging stint on BoingBoing and I'm in the mood for a summertime road trip. Unfortunately, my car is 1999 AWD Ford Explorer with a 5.0 V-8 and gets, maybe, 16 miles to the gallon. The thing about it is that nothing ever goes wrong with it. It's a great vehicle, gas mileage aside. Wired magazine ran a great article explaining that the greenest vehicle is the car you already own. So, If I do go somewhere, I'll rent a Civic instead. A great road trip requires more than just driving. It should be something like and retracing the route of Lewis and Clark. Or retracing the route of H. Sargent Michaels 1905 "Photographic Guide for Motorists from Chicago to Lake Geneva." Matthew Algeo new book, Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure, is the account of a great road trip. The book's conceit is marvelous: almost immediately after leaving office, ex-president Truman and his wife Bess got behind the wheel of a new Chrysler New Yorker and drove from Missouri to New York and back, as plain old private citizens. Harry loved to drive, so he and Bess loaded up the trunk with a few suitcases and took off. No bodyguards, no secret service. Harry and Bess ate in roadside diners, stopped at country gas stations, and just made like normal people, as well as the recently retired leader of the greatest nation in the free world could do. Impossible to imagine Clinton, Bush, or Bush doing that (Carter, maybe.) Algeo retraced the route, visiting the places Turman stopped at. He uses newspaper accounts and interviews with the still living but now usually elderly people that interacted with Harry - waitresses, hotel clerks, even a cop who stopped him on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for driving too slow - to weave together a terrificly interesting story. So, I need a road trip. Maybe I'll retrace the route of the Ken Kesey's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test trip, or Hernando Desoto's quest for the fountain of youth through the Southeast. I'm still thinking of more.

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