The Latest from Boing Boing

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• @BBVBOX: recent guest-tweeted web video picks (boingboingvideo.com)
• Walter Cronkite, Funky Drummer
• Looking for Bill Barker
• Rampaging toilet terrorizes children
• Walter Cronkite, RIP.
• Drew Friedman fine art print of The Three Stooges
• Keyboard Cat t-shirt
• Slate reports on animal onanism
• Jaime Hernandez silkscreen poster
• Video made using Google SketchUp for $12
• Video: Rushkoff on Colbert
• BBC exposes three psychic mediums
• Amazon zaps purchased copies of Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles
• Anatomical model exhibition at the Wellcome
• Newly discovered daguerreotype of man who had iron rod pierce his skull in 1848
• Drug War Quiz in Mother Jones
• Interview with Congressman Barney Frank on his plan to legalize pot
• MRI scans of sushi
• Rock Band opens track creation/sales to home musicians, indie bands
• Recently on Offworld: insanely twisted shadows, iPhone Portal, Wii-injuries

@BBVBOX: recent guest-tweeted web video picks (boingboingvideo.com) Posted: 17 Jul 2009 11:43 PM PDT (Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.) Xeni Jardin: Richard Elfman (Forbidden Zone), David Silverman (Simpsons) other freaks play oompah + squeezebox in H'wd: Link Richard Metzger: Pat Buchanan and Rachel @Maddow Demonstrate Why You and Your Grandpa Will Never Understand Each Other Link Richard Metzger: Is this first public performance of Madonna? Little watched YT clip. Danceteria, NYC Link Richard Metzger: Psychoville: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid Link Jesse Thorn: The Whipmaster! Link Jesse Thorn: People on Youtube, singing "Not Gonna Cry" by Mary J. Blige. Link Richard Metzger: Karl-Heinz Stockhausen is not amused Link Jesse Thorn: This is an amazing episode of the amazing/hilarious/nightmarish "Wonder Showzen," called "Ocean." NSFW or you. Link Jesse Thorn: Rock and Roll God Andrew WK goes on Fox News, makes a funny face. Link Jesse Thorn: WTF? Reunited Cheech & Chong argue about the economy, then they go settle it in Tron-world. Via @gavinpurcell Link Jesse Thorn: 29 minutes with Ze Frank on The Sound of Young America. Link Andrea James: Tribute to North Carolina's own World's Largest Twins, the McCrary brothers: Link Jesse Thorn: Clip from a new animated series on F/X called "Archer," with Jon Benjamin and Jessica Walter. Looks hilarious. Link Andrea James: Dr. David Gliza confronts Mercedes, a Same Outfit Wearer, on a very special episode of 'Stop It':Link More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com

Walter Cronkite, Funky Drummer Posted: 17 Jul 2009 10:29 PM PDT If you needed another reason to feel sad about the passing of the iconic television journalist Walter Cronkite today, this video is it. John Perry Barlow tweets, "True fact: Walter Cronkite was a hot drummer. Once saw him play with Mickey Hart, Mike Gordon, & Mutatator. Kept the one." This video is proof. Cronkite appears around 1:55 in. Previously: Walter Cronkite, RIP.

Looking for Bill Barker Posted: 17 Jul 2009 08:24 PM PDT Bill, where are you? UPDATE: If you know where Bill is, please don't post his contact info here or anywhere publicly. But I would appreciate it if you could ask Bill to get in touch with me.

Rampaging toilet terrorizes children Posted: 17 Jul 2009 06:50 PM PDT Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry. Apparently, Colorado's Denver Water is trying to get people to make sure that they don't overuse their toilets, or some such thing. No running toilets. No excessive flushing. No leaky toilets. That's what I gather, at least. So, I guess they have some kind of toilet mascot? The "Running Toilet"? That pretty much amounts to a man in a toilet suit? Which sounds sort of unpleasant? According to The Latest Word, Mr. Toilet got all crazy last weekend and bum-rushed a big water fountain where a bunch of kids were playing, spreading its "Use Only What You Need" toilet message hither and yon, while the kids were trying to play. I don't think the toilet meant to scare them, but you have to admit that a giant toilet appearing out of nowhere and running through the fountain is a bit weird. Agreed. Don't let the toilet terrorists win, kiddies, or we all lose. (Via Copyranter. Image via The Latest Word.) Bonus link dedicated to Xeni "MJFan4RVR" Jardin: Toiletman moonwalking.

Walter Cronkite, RIP. Posted: 17 Jul 2009 09:56 PM PDT Walter Cronkite, the broadcast news legend who spoke the words "And now we have two Americans on the moon" 40 years ago this week died in New York today at age 92. Here is astronaut Neil Armstrong's statement on Cronkite's passing.

Drew Friedman fine art print of The Three Stooges Posted: 17 Jul 2009 03:08 PM PDT Here's a stunning Drew Friedman fine art print of The Three Stooges (with Shemp) and recurring nemesis Vernon Dent. Limited edition of 35 numbered prints signed by the artist.

Keyboard Cat t-shirt Posted: 17 Jul 2009 02:17 PM PDT A t-shirt design by OXEN over at Threadless. And the crowd goes wild. Three Keyboard Cat Moon (Thanks, UPSO!)

Slate reports on animal onanism Posted: 17 Jul 2009 01:57 PM PDT Slate's culture editor John Swansburg says, Just posted an article by my colleague Dan Engber on the subject of animal masturbation. It turns out that onanism has been observed throughout the animal kingdom: dogs do it, cats do it, horses do it, turtles do it, birds love to do it. Some moose can even bring themselves to sexual climax by just rubbing their antlers on a tree (!). Dan's article explores the scientific explanations for why animals might have evolved this behavior. There's also an accompanying video slide show -- it turns out folks are very fond of posting footage of their frisky pets, or of the strange activity they saw a koala enjoying at the zoo... Hands or Paws or Anything They GotMasturbation in the animal kingdom.

Jaime Hernandez silkscreen poster Posted: 17 Jul 2009 04:26 PM PDT Jordan Crane made this giant-sized silkscreen poster from Jaime Hernandez' fantastic illustration for the cover of Love and Rockets No. 24. Jaime Hernandez silkscreen poster Previously: KCET interviews Jaime Hernandez, Johnny Ryan and other LA ... Jaime Hernandez interview - Boing Boing Jaime Hernandez interviewed - Boing Boing Jaime Hernandez's poster for Bob Dylan - Boing Boing Mark interviews Love and Rockets' co-creator Jaime Hernandez ... The Comics Journal interviews Jaime Hernandez - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Love & Rockets: 25 years exhibit Salon has an article about - Boing Boing

Video made using Google SketchUp for $12 Posted: 17 Jul 2009 01:33 PM PDT April says: Given your previous coverage of Google SketchUp, I thought you would love this music video made by one-man band Roche Limit. Why? Because he made it almost entirely using the free Google SketchUp software. We also interviewed the man behind Roche Limit, Dave Righton, and he talks about the making of the music video. Music video, My Friend Ship by Roche Limit Previously: Google Sketchup for Dummies - Boing Boing Making 3D models from video clips - Boing Boing

Video: Rushkoff on Colbert Posted: 17 Jul 2009 11:22 AM PDT The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Douglas Rushkoff www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum Our pal Douglas Rushkoff was on the Colbert Report on Wednesday night, talking about his new book Life Inc. It's a very intense 6 minutes and I think Doug does a masterful job of getting his points across, and his passion for the subject matter is palpable. Congrats, Doug! We're proud of you!

BBC exposes three psychic mediums Posted: 17 Jul 2009 11:05 AM PDT It's fun to watch these three charlatans summon the ghost of a fictitious manager of a phony chocolate factory, set up by BBC 3 television. (Via Cynical-C)

Amazon zaps purchased copies of Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles Posted: 17 Jul 2009 11:03 AM PDT People who bought Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm for their Kindle were surprised to discover that it had disappeared from their devices overnight. It turns out the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic version, and Amazon caved into their demand to sneak into people's electronic libraries and take back the book at the publisher's request. From Pogue's Posts: This is ugly for all kinds of reasons. Amazon says that this sort of thing is "rare," but that it can happen at all is unsettling; we've been taught to believe that e-books are, you know, just like books, only better. Already, we've learned that they're not really like books, in that once we're finished reading them, we can't resell or even donate them. But now we learn that all sales may not even be final. As one of my readers noted, it's like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we've been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table. This kind of bullshit will encourage readers to visit Web sites in countries where the copyright has expired on Orwell's books so they can get free un-stealable electronic copies. Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others

Anatomical model exhibition at the Wellcome Posted: 17 Jul 2009 10:39 AM PDT The incredible London museum The Wellcome Collection is staging a new exhibition, titled "Exquisite Bodies: or the Curious and Grotesque History of the Anatomical Model," running from July 30 to October 18. The talented Joanna Ebenstein of Morbid Anatomy was a curatorial adviser and graphic designer for the exhibition. I'm sure it will be an incredible, er, body of artifacts. From Morbid Anatomy: Popular anatomical displays were a kind of popular, spectacular, democratized version of scholarly or professional medical museums. Often exhibiting objects intended for (or perhaps even once presented in) an academic context, these displays--which were extremely popular in the 19th Century and could be widely found at fairgrounds and in "popular anatomical museums" until the beginning of the 20th Century-blended education and entertainment, public health and spectacle, scholarship and prurience for a mass audience. The centerpiece of these displays was usually the Anatomical Venus--a beautiful, life-like woman, generally made of wax, often life-sized, and demonstrating--upon the delicate removal of her breastplate--the mysteries of the inner female body. This central Venus was generally supplemented by waxes and other sorts of models, wet preparations, and illustrations parsing topics such as the ideal and compromised female body, the ravages of sexually transmitted diseases, the aberrant body, the mysteries of generation, and the ill effects of spermatorhea (aka "abnormally frequent emission of the semen without copulation", seen as a real public health issue at the time). "Exquisite Bodies" (Morbid Anatomy)

Newly discovered daguerreotype of man who had iron rod pierce his skull in 1848 Posted: 17 Jul 2009 01:23 PM PDT Jack and Beverly Wilgus have had this daguerreotype for 30 years. They assumed it was a whaler holding the harpoon that blinded him. But someone who saw the image recently suggested it was Phineas Gage, a railroad worker who survived an iron rod piercing through his skull in 1848. Gage's resulting personality change led to a new understanding of neurology. This is the only known image of Gage. [Phineas] Gage was the 25-year-old foreman of a construction gang on Sept. 13, 1848, preparing a railroad bed outside Cavendish, Vt. As usual, he was using a pointed iron rod -- 3 feet, 7 inches long and 13 1/4 pounds -- to tamp gunpowder and sand into a hole drilled in the rock. But on that day, the mixture exploded, sending the rod through his left cheek and out through the top of his head. It was successfully removed and, to the surprise of physicians, Gage lived 11 more years, dying after a series of increasingly violent convulsions. His story is a showpiece in neurology texts and folklore because of his survival and the abrupt changes in his personality. A piercing image of Phineas Gage

Drug War Quiz in Mother Jones Posted: 17 Jul 2009 10:27 AM PDT As part of Mother Jones magazine's huge special report on the "war on drugs," -- awesomely titled "Totally Wasted" -- they've created a fun quiz to test your knowledge of the drug war. It too has a great headline, borrowed from Timothy Leary: "Just Say Know." Drug War Quiz: Just Say Know (Thanks, Mike Mechanic!)

Interview with Congressman Barney Frank on his plan to legalize pot Posted: 17 Jul 2009 11:07 AM PDT Esquire interviewed Barney Frank about the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009. BARNEY FRANK: Announcing that the government should mind its own business on marijuana is really not that hard. There's not a lot of complexity here. We should stop treating people as criminals because they smoke marijuana. The problem is the political will. ESQ: That's my second question. There's already been a lot of change in the country. Thirteen states have decriminalized pot. What's holding up Congress? BF: This is a case where there's cultural lag on the part of my colleagues. If you ask them privately, they don't think it's a terrible thing. But they're afraid of being portrayed as soft on drugs. And by the way, the argument is, nobody ever gets arrested for it. But we have this outrageous case in New York where a cop jammed a baton up a guy's ass when he caught him smoking marijuana. ESQ: You're kidding. BF: Actually, I've just been corrected by my partner -- it was a radio he jammed up the guy's ass, not his baton. He's Not High: Inside Barney Frank's Plan to Legalize Marijuana (Via Dose Nation)

MRI scans of sushi Posted: 17 Jul 2009 10:14 AM PDT Seen above and below are MRI scans of sushi. Uhei Naruse scanned the rolls at a hospital in a personal research project to tease out the secret of good sushi. Trevor Corson, author of "The Story of Sushi," has the details of this experiment on his Sushi Concierge blog. From Sushi Concierge: Pictured (at left) are three sushi nigiri—hand squeezed rectangles of rice topped with a slice of fish. The first was made by the veteran chef. It was small and light, weighing in at only 12 grams, and the MRI scan revealed a lot of empty space inside it, between the grains of rice. It also revealed another secret of a veteran chef's skill—the grains of rice were mostly aligned lengthwise, which helps the nigiri hold together without being too dense, by creating adhesion along the edges of the aligned grains. The second nigiri was made by the apprentice. It was denser—about the same size, but weighing 15 grams. And the rice grains were less uniform in their orientation. The third nigiri was made by the robot, which couldn't come close to matching human skill. The grains of rice were hopelessly jumbled and the sushi was thick and heavy, clocking in at 20 grams. Naruse ate some of it and described it as "sticky." This is closer to the typical sushi that, sadly, we're content to eat in the States. "Want to See the Inner Secrets of Perfect Sushi?" (Sushi Concierge) "The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice" (Amazon) Previously: Sushi Cake - Boing Boing Sushi Conveyor video as a single long still image - Boing Boing Rice Krispie and candy sushi - Boing Boing

Rock Band opens track creation/sales to home musicians, indie bands Posted: 17 Jul 2009 09:56 AM PDT A surprise announcement and massive game-changing news for musicians: developers Harmonix have just announced The Rock Band Network, a new initiative to let home users and indie bands create and sell their own Rock Band tracks through the game itself, in partnership with Microsoft's XNA Creators Club. We've got all the first details on the program, which is due to launch in closed beta by the end of the month, over at Offworld. I'm with the Band: Harmonix opens Rock Band track creation, sales to Xbox 360 home users

Recently on Offworld: insanely twisted shadows, iPhone Portal, Wii-injuries Posted: 17 Jul 2009 08:11 AM PDT Recently on Offworld we watched what surely must be the game trailer of the month: an extended look at animator Michel Gagne's upcoming Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (above), with some of the most striking art direction and animation we've seen in games for some time, cut to black metal band Dimmu Borgir's "Blood Hunger Doctrine", which shouldn't work but absolutely fantastically does -- it's a must watch. Elsewhere we saw one fan's attempt to recreate Portal on the iPhone and the latest look at tiny-planet shooter Max Blastronaut, found the latest two gorgeously designed official Team Fortress 2 T-shirts, and listened to a wicked live remix of the theme song to The Silver Case -- the first PlayStation adventure game from No More Heroes and Killer7 creators Grasshopper Manufacture. Finally, we found a new on-demand publisher for budding board game designers that lets you piece together your pieces, upload your own artwork, and sell the game directly through the site, spent our first day on the Wii Sports Resort, which ended in broken glass and a trickle of blood, and our 'one shot's for the day: the gorgeous girls of Nintendo punk, a Metal Gear packing slip that's just a box, a fantastic new Darkstalkers montage, and, best of all, beautiful and very French pixels for what we genuinely hope is a new catburglar game.

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