Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

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Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years -- Sue Townsend's comic novels of recent history turn dark and sweet

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 05:09 AM PST

I've written before here about the impact that Sue Townsend's comic Adrian Mole novels have had on my life since I was a young teenager, so it'll come as no surprise to learn that I was completely delighted by the latest volume, Adrian Mole: the Prostrate Years, which is sweeter, darker, more sentimental and more grim than the earlier installments.

For the uninitiated, the Adrian Mole books chronicle the life of a young man born near Leicester, whose dysfunctional family, intellectual impulses, gormless bumbling and terrible poetry make for a meaty, multi-volume series that serves as a wicked history of Britain and the world since the 1980s.

In the latest volume, Adrian is nearly 40, and is increasingly estranged from his (latest) wife, the mysterious and sexy Daisy, who seduced Adrian in Weapons of Mass Destruction. Their five year old is a High-School Musical-crazed monster, their finances are in tatters, and they're living with Adrian's elderly parents in their converted pigsty. Adrian's mother is writing a fictionalized agony memoir called A Girl Called Shit, and the lovely bookstore Adrian works at is going bust. And there's something wrong with Adrian's prostate, a problem compounded by all the friends and acquaintances who insist on calling it a "prostrate."

And yet, there's plenty that's sweet here. Adrian is figuring out fatherhood. His childhood flame, Pandora Braithwaite (now an MP) is back in his life. His half-brother Brett is back, his career as a hedge-fund manager in ruins. His son, Glenn, on deployment in Afghanistan, is shaping up to be a critically minded sharp young man. And Bernard, the alcoholic librophile who's helping out at the store, turns out to have quite a good approach to life that Adrian stands to learn much from.

Reading these books every year or two is a magic experience. Townsend recounts and recasts recent history in a way that makes you realize just how funny and tragic it all is. Townsend's vision has recently failed her, but she continues to write these books at an amazing clip. It's a real inspiration, as well as superb entertainment.

Adrian Mole: the Prostrate Years

Entire Adrian Mole series

Previously:



Video from CC footage of Brisbane Zombie Walk

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 03:42 AM PST

Pool, the Australian public broadcaster's Creative Commons repository, has spawned a video cut together from Aussies' shots of the epic Brisbane Zombie Walk.

Video: Outbreak: Brisbane Zombie Walk 2009 (Thanks, Gary!)

Previously:


Copyright documentary from Australian radio

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 11:24 PM PST

Oscar sez, "I just finished a 48-minute radio documentary for the Australian public broadcaster, the ABC, about remix culture, piracy and copyright. It's got brain-melting copyright education programs aimed at kids, commentary from Lessig, and tomfoolery from the Australian film industry about losses from internet piracy. There's also a history of the Statute of Anne, and the Australian music industry agreeing that amateur remixing at home should be allowed. It includes a cut-up of Johann Strauss' Blue Danube which will hurt your ears and make you laugh, and tracks from Girl Talk, Steinski, Strictly Kev and many others."

I've just gotten as far as the woman from the Australian film industry explaining that even though sales of DVD and box-office tickets are up, copyright infringement is still a deadly threat to the movie industry, demanding that the Internet be totally remade to prevent it, just in case. Nice stuff.

Adrianne Pecotic: The fact that there is a level of illegitimate consumption of film and television is something that detracts from the revenue that could go back into the industry and could go back into supporting local video stores, local cinemas and online distribution. Theft is not justified because someone is being successful, and that's a really important point in this debate.

Oscar McLaren: But it does seem strange that I mean, we're told in quite apocalyptic terms often that the video industry and the film industry is really starting to hurt. I don't imagine many people would actually be aware that the revenues are in fact going up quite steadily and have been for the past decade or so.

Adrianne Pecotic: I think the important thing about the losses that are being suffered by the film industry through piracy, is that individual investors in individual films rely on that investment in that particular film, for that film maker, or that investor as their entire revenue. If you're looking at the analysis across the board of the whole industry and whether it is going up or whether more people are consuming films or less people are consuming films, you're not asking the question of whether a particular film has had the opportunity to recoup its proper revenue.

Oscar McLaren: For the record, box office sales were also at all-time high levels last year, reaching nearly $1-billion.

Internet piracy

MP3 link

(Thanks, Oscar!)

Previously:


History of the IMG tag

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 10:42 PM PST

Mark Pilgrim traces the history of the humble IMG tag and the heated discussion that ensued when graphics were added to the web:
I'd like to propose a new, optional HTML tag:

IMG

Required argument is SRC="url".

This names a bitmap or pixmap file for the browser to attempt to pull over the network and interpret as an image, to be embedded in the text at the point of the tag's occurrence.

Why do we have an IMG element? (via Waxy)

Careless forklift driver brings down the warehouse - video

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 10:40 PM PST

In this brief true-life comedy short film, a gentleman who is careless with his forklift in a warehouse full of cases of glass bottles (vodka?) manages to bring the whole lot crashing to the ground with much hilarity!

Fork Lift Accident Brings Down The Warehouse Video (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

EU replaces definition of "open standards" with meaningless drivel

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 10:38 PM PST

Lobbyists at the EU have gutted the definition of "open" (part of a proposal to require more open standards and open source tools in European government) to mean "the willingness of persons, organisations or other members of a community of interest to share knowledge." This meaningless drivel replaces a more robust definition that included, "The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties (consensus or majority decision etc.)."
According to this line of thinking, if everyone were forced to use Microsoft Word for document interchange, then that would provide interoperability. Except that it wouldn't, because interoperability implies at least two *different* things are are operating together: self-interoperability is trivial. Version 2's "homogeneity" is better described as a monopoly and a monoculture - and the last two decades have taught just how dangerous those are.

It's not hard to see why some companies might prefer the wording of Version 2. Version 1 specifically says: "The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis." This would allow alternative implementations from the free software community, which is unable to pay royalties. The current wording, which allows patented, proprietary solutions as part of the "open continuum" would mean that free software could not compete. How convenient.

EU Wants to Re-define "Closed" as "Nearly Open" (via /.)
Previously:


Anti-Alan Grayson smears in context

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 10:34 PM PST

Digby does a great job of rounding up the criticisms of outspoken Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson, who is being pilloried for such rhetorical crimes a calling Enron lobbyists "whores" (yes, it's an insult to whores, but that's not what's got some people upset):
You see, it's one thing for Republicans to give speeches on the floor of the House saying that Democrats want to murder the elderly or that they plan to create sex clinics and force teenage girls to have abortions. That is simply folksy language these people use to communicate with their people. When Newt Gingrich blamed Susan Smith's murdering of her own children on liberalism, Lady Frothenberg understood that it was harmless hyperbole. When Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and the rest of the conservative movement leadership say daily that Barack Obama is a black racist who hates America, it's simply their way, and we all understand that it is just entertainment for the masses who require this type of crude stimulation.

But when one calls a former Enron lobbyist a K-Street whore on an obscure radio show, one has simply gone too far, sirrah, and it will not be tolerated.

There will be a town hall meeting this evening led by Pastor Dick Cheney to discuss the possibility of witches in the village and what types of enhanced interrogation might be used to determine the breadth of the infiltration. Our deep sense of decency, morality and civility demand it. And thank you once again, Lady Frothenberg, for bringing this egregious breach of proper behavior to our attention.

Whatever the rest of you do, don't encourage this miscreant Alan Grayson to do more of this boorish behavior by donating money at his crude web site: Congressmanwithguts.com. If you do, I certainly hope you don't plan on being invited into the any of the finer homes and establishments in the Village because you just aren't welcome there!

Lady Frothenberg Laces Up Her Corset (via Making Light)

TV admits it was wrong about PVRs

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 10:29 PM PST

Tim from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "Digital Video Recorders, once considered a mortal threat by the entertainment industry, have now become its new best friend. It's just the latest example of how the industry's constant warnings of the dangers of "piracy" frequently turn out to be baseless hysteria..."
A mystified NBC President Of Research called the situation "completely counterintuitive." But the reason behind the revenue isn't counterintuitive at all -- it's obvious: When consumers are granted the ability to watch television whenever and however they want, they watch more TV -- not less. That's a simple result which could only be "counterintuitive" to an industry that all too frequently treats its own best customers like criminals.

It's a cycle that by now has become sadly familiar: When the industry meets a new technology, it panics and fights it tooth-and-nail. Eventually, the industry loses this fight, often squashing innovation or arbitrarily singling out a few citizens for punishment along the way. Finally, the same technology ends up benefiting the same short-sighted industry -- but rather than learn their lesson, the same corporations are usually busy repeating the same cycle all over again with something else. It happened with the VCR, the audio cassette, and even the turntable.

DVR is TV's New BFF (Thanks, Tim!)
Previously:


Adorkable kids' Mario and Luigi costumes

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 10:20 PM PST


Jim sez, "In a fit of creativity, my wife dressed our son and daughter as the Mario Brothers. Throw together a few simple items, and one hat pattern later and you have a simple sibling costume set."

Halloween 2009: Making Mario (Thanks, Jim!)

Previously:


Abandoned bowling alley becomes furniture

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 10:16 PM PST

Ape Lad sez, "The bowling alley I once enjoyed as a child (in Riverside CA), is now furniture."

An abandoned bowling alley finds a second life in this beautiful series of furniture by LA-based designer/woodworker William Stranger. Crafted from reclaimed strips of wood salvaged from a local defunct Tava Lanes Bowling alley, the collection springs to life in a variety of forms including a series of wall hangings and a low coffee table.
Recycled Bowling Lane Furniture is Right up Our Alley (Thanks, Ape Lad!)

Odd and lovely PR artifacts for VanderMeer's novel FINCH

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 10:13 PM PST


Jeff VanderMeer sez, "Finch, the final novel in my Ambergris series, is now out, and I'm offering online posters, slogans, icons, and other cool stuff, including the Murder by Death soundtrack for the novel on a new page just for readers. I totally believe in and love the idea of 'PR artifacts'--creations that stand on their own as works of art. Does it support the publication of the novel? Maybe, but the main point is to have fun putting out some really neat stuff. Case in point: readers can take one 'Wanted Dead' web poster that's supposedly created by the rebels in my story and add their own headshot. "

Finch (Thanks, Jeff!)

Previously:


Big Head papercraft Hallowe'en costume

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 10:10 PM PST


Eric made this smashing papercraft "Big Head" costume for Hallowe'en this year, based on the Big Head mode from classic video games.

Head (Flickr) (Thanks, Eric!)

Newspaper columnist quits over paywall

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 10:06 PM PST

Saul Friedman, a long-standing Newsday columnist, has quit the paper over its decision to implement a paywall, pointing out that by charging $5/week for readers, they'll drastically cut his audience size (and, presumably, the present and future opportunities that having a large audience afford to a working writer). I doubt he'll be the last. Last month at the O'Reilly Tools of Change conference at the Frankfurt Book Fair, someone asked a representative from The Guardian newspaper (for whom I write a column) if they would consider charging for access to the site, and I pointed out that I would no longer offer The Guardian such a hefty discount off my normal word-rate if this were the case. It's worth it to me to write for lower fees in exchange for the broader reach, but if you eliminate that reach, the benefit to me as a writer starts to dry up.

I wonder if newspaper strategists grasp that they get a lot of work on the cheap in exchange for the reach they provide to their writers, and that intentionally limiting that reach will raise their costs. I also wonder at newspaper strategists who, having decided that they can't monetize fame, have opted to monetize obscurity instead, seemingly in the belief that this will somehow be easier.

That did not sit well with Mr. Friedman, a freelancer who wrote Gray Matters, a weekly column on aging. He explained his departure in a note to Jim Romenesko's media blog. In an interview, Mr. Friedman said, "My column has been popular around the country, but now it was really going to be impossible for people outside Long Island to read it." That includes him; living outside Washington, he is not a subscriber to Newsday or Cablevision.

Mr. Friedman, who is 80, said he would continue to write about older people for the site timegoesby.net, but he called his decision an end to more than 50 years in newspapers. He wrote for Newsday for more than 20 years, including several years as a staff writer in its Washington bureau.

Columnist Quits After Newsday Starts Charging for Its Web Site (via /.)
Previously:


20-year old Iraqi woman dies; father ran her over for being too Westernized

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 11:07 PM PST

noor faleh almaleki.pngA young Iraqi woman died tonight in Arizona because her father believed she had become too Westernized. Noor Faleh Almaleki, the 20-year old pictured here, moved to the Phoenix area in the mid-90s with her family. Her father, Faleh Hassan Almaleki, feared that her American upbringing had led her to abandon traditional Iraqi values. He opposed the way she dressed and the way she resisted his rules. So on October 20th, he ran over her and another woman, Amal Khalaf, in his Jeep Grand Cherokee as they walked across a parking lot. Khalaf — who is the daughter's roommate and the mother of her boyfriend — survived, but the daughter died tonight in the hospital. Her father is in police custody now after a failed attempt to escape to the UK via Mexico. Iraqi woman, 20, dies; police in Arizona say father ran over her

The Harvest

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 07:29 PM PST

harv.jpg

Our friends at Good have a post up with striking images by photographer Mathieu Young. These photos were shot during harvest time (last year) in California's Mendocino County region, where an awful lot of marijuana is grown.

"On the one hand it seems like an illicit activity," Young told Good. "But on the other hand, you have a bunch of people who are living off the land, which is beautiful."

Picture Show: The Harvest [GOOD]
Full gallery here, in larger rez: The Harvest [ mathieuyoung.com ]

Rats on a plane!

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 07:26 PM PST

You think you got problems, huh? Air India got real problems. One of them being rats on a plane. You know what I say? Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking rats on this motherfucking plane!

The struggling government-owned carrier's already uneven reputation has been further tarnished in recent months by rats on a plane, a strike by senior pilots and a midair fistfight between pilots and flight attendants. In September, a flight to Riyadh was grounded after a passenger saw sparks coming from an engine.
Hey, sounds like a party to me. At Air India, Losses, Rats and a Brawl in the Sky [NYT]

The Secret of Liquid Smoke

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 06:45 PM PST

liquidsmoke.jpg

The secret: It's not the creepy chemical additive you thought. A couple of weekends ago, I caught an episode of the public radio show "The Splendid Table" with soothingly voiced chef Lynne Rossetto Kasper. The topic was BBQ and I was shocked (Shocked!) to hear Lynne* and her guest recommend liquid smoke as the key to great crockpot pulled pork. In fact, Lynne seemed pretty surprised to hear herself suggest it.

But the truth, my friends, is that sometimes there is a little truth in advertising. And liquid smoke is one of those times.

*We're on a first-name basis like that. In my imagination.

You can be forgiven for wrongfully accusing liquid smoke of nefarious fakey toxic chemicalness. Even chemists have been confused on this one. Back in June, Slashfood interviewed NYU chemistry professor Kent Kirshenbaum, who--like you, me, Lynne Rossetto Kasper and everyone we know--had believed the worst about this cheap, sketchy sounding liquid.

Unlike the rest of us, however, Kirshenbaum actually went out and studied liquid smoke. He found that, despite its synthetic 1950's aura, the stuff is perfectly natural.

What is liquid smoke?
Liquid smoke is very simply smoke in water. Smoke usually comes as a vapor, but there are ways to condense it and turn it into liquid and that liquid can then be carried in water.

How is it different from regular smoke?
Regular smoke is a vapor, and it is difficult to store.

Is one healthier than the other?
It seems that the liquid smoke can be substantially healthier because there are carcinogenic compounds that can be removed. A lot of the carcinogenic compounds [found in direct smoke from charcoal or wood] do not dissolve. But by dissolving the compounds into water, they can be removed.

So, it's like a water bong?
Correct.

Knowing is half the battle. The other half: Recipes. Today, I made "The Splendid Table's" Ultimate Cheater Crockpot Pulled Pork, using liquid smoke (hickory smoke, to be precise). It took exactly 15 minutes of my time and 5 hours in the crockpot. And it's freakin' delicious. If you eat meat, and you eat pork, you will hate yourself forever if you don't make this asap.

Slashfood, Liquid Smoke: What Is It?
The Splendid Table, Ultimate Cheater Pulled Pork

Image courtesy Flickr user afiler, via CC.

Iran: blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan confirmed in prison, details of treatment emerge.

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 07:27 PM PST

Yesterday marked exactly one year since Iranian blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakhshan was arrested. Cyrus Farivar has been covering the story on his blog and in various news outlets. He posts an update today, after a Skype chat with Hossein Derakhshan's brother, Hamed Derakhshan (who lives in an undisclosed country). We now know that Hoder is being held in the notorious Evin Prison, where many other political detainees have been taken, and where human rights abuses are commonplace and extreme.

"Hossein confirmed the recent Human Rights Activists in Iran reports that claim he had been forced to do squats in cold showers and has been beaten repeatedly," reports Cyrus.

His family doesn't know when they'll see him next, and does not know all of the details of his detainment.

Hossein Derakhshan's brother, Hamed, speaks out [ cyrusfarivar.com ]

Previously:


The Best Zombie Story of the Year

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 04:15 PM PST

200911021610

Joshuah Bearman says:

Proximity to Halloween, and sheer fascination has moved me to highlight this great article I read a little while ago. It is about Zombies, the Haitian kind, and is the best Zombie-related story in recent memory. Of any kind: no comic, game, literary mash up, or blockbuster matches this article in Men's Journal (of all places)! The piece is a detailed look at the elaborate system of secret societies, ritual magic, and pharmacologically-induced human trafficking that is the Haitian zombie culture.

It is incredible. Even if you are familiar with Wade Davis, or have read The Serpent and the Rainbow, or seen the mediocre movie, Berlinski's story is still incredible. In addition to the background on how zombies may or may not be created, it's like a mystery that plays out in the byzantine world of zombie administration, which sounds like an episode of Trueblood, with regional hierarchies of Chief Sorcerers and Departmental Chiefs and Presidents and Emperors and Queens and their sorcerer secretaries. Not to mention the zombie passports — documents that allow one to create, hold, or move your zombie from region to region. (Yes, such things exist; there are pictures.)

Berlinski follows Madame Zicot, a woman trying to track down her zombified daughter, Nadathe, by navigating her way through the secret societies. (And yes, they do accessorize with candle-topped skulls and convene at midnight.) It is gripping as an occult procedural, and heartbreaking as a story of real personal tragedy.

The Best Zombie Story of the Year

Toilet-as-computer comic

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 04:07 PM PST

Photo-14
This old, yellowed, photocopy hangs near the bathroom at my favorite burger joint in San Francisco, Joe's Cable Car. I can just see back in time to the late 1980s or so when it was probably a popular faxed gag in corporate America. For some reason, the whole thing, especially imagining it tacked up in break rooms around the nation, really craps me up.

Farewell, it's been real

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 07:42 PM PST

charikul_1002609.gif Boing Boing guestblogger Connie Choe is a health and culture writer by day and a professional kimchimonger by night.

I will be adding "Guest blogged for Boing Boing" to my personal list of Scary and Surprising Things Accomplished in the New Millennium, right under "Gave birth to daughter sans epidural after 46-hour labor" and "Attended county fair." It has indeed been terrifying to produce content for such smart, sassy readers (Yeah, I called you sassy. What of it?). But aside from the whole terrifying aspect, it's been heaps of fun writing here (and reading all your comments), and I'm grateful to have had the chance to contribute to a blog that I love so dearly.

Bugs & Fishes,
Connie

Twitter & Facebook

Praying mantis in my backyard

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 03:37 PM PST

Mantis2

I was doing a little work in the back yard yesterday when I cam across a praying mantis. I don't see too many, and this one was a handsome specimen so I took a couple of photos. I also shot a video, but he didn't do much other than lick his foreleg for a while. Maybe I'll upload it later on.

PS22 kids chorus sings The Cure

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 03:52 PM PST



Following in the footsteps of the Langley Schools Music Project, here is the PS22 Chorus. In their repertoire, Lady Gaga, Journey, Survivor, Fleetwood Mac, Styx, Tori Amos, Coldplay, and many others. The video above is the The Cure's "Pictures of You." The PS22 numbers aren't nearly as haunting as the Langley Schools tracks but are still captivating, touching, and weirdly quite lovely. PS22 Chorus (Thanks, Gabe "TuneUp" Adiv!)

Instructions for building an autonomous sentry gun

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 02:26 PM PST


Here are complete instructions (software, source code, build manual, hardware) for an autonomous sentry gun that will shoot anything that moves.

DIY autonomous sentry gun

Video: Robert Crumb talks about his illustrated Genesis

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 02:01 PM PST


Elizabeth says: "Robert Crumb hasn't been doing any TV interviews, and is only doing one radio interview, but we did tape his B&N event in New York last week.  It's pretty much the only visual record of what he thinks of Genesis, and is a great look into his creative process.
The video of Robert Crumb's dialogue with Francoise Mouly at the Barnes and Noble in Union Square filmed on 10/23 is now available on Fora.tv. The 47-minute video features Crumb discussing his childhood, early life, married/family life, and his new book THE BOOK OF GENESIS ILLUSTRATED.

R. Crumb in Conversation with Francoise Mouly

Charts showing how much US residents pay for health care compared to people in other countries

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 01:43 PM PST

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200911021338-1 200911021339

Four graphs created by the International Federation of Health Plans that compare how much US residents and people in other countries pay for health care. As Jay Livingston of the Montclair SocioBlog says, "Our Lipitor must be four to ten times a good as the Lipitor that Canadians take."

SPIDER'S MOON, short sf story about trade between spacefaring South Seas islanders and Vietnamese factory owners

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 01:22 PM PST

Lavie Tidhar's story "Spider's Moon" is up on Futurismic, and it's a very rewarding ten-minute read. Futurismic's short-short fiction department publishes some genuinely wonderful science fiction, bite-sized stories that contain actual characters and settings and plots in impossibly small packages.

"Spider's Moon" is no exception: a story about spacefaring South Seas Islanders who come to Earth seeking mass-produced Vietnamese technology, and of what transpires; told with an admirable lyricism and poesie.

Melkior felt a little lost at Hoi An. He had arrived three days before, taking a room in a small hotel just outside the old town. It was, in many ways, a disconcerting experience. Once, Hoi An had been a trade centre, the meeting place of Chinese and European merchants on the coast of Viet Nam, and the old town had been preserved just as it had been, full of charming little cobbled streets and charming little temples and charming old houses - "Charm," the brochure insisted, "is the defining characteristic of the town". The old town was a bubble out of time, and visiting it was a wilful act of time-travel, or so it seemed to Melkior. The Hoi An lanterns ("Famous for hundreds of years," boasted the brochure) still hung everywhere, and barges still travelled down the river, pushed on long poles - and yet it was a lie, too, for the past was not really there, only its semblance, and who could believe in the past (not less a gentle, charming past) under the full spider's moon?

Crossing from the old town into the new was a disorienting fast-forward into the future: here, beyond the bubble of preserved time, the future happened with every heartbeat, the sound of construction filling the days, houses and office towers rising higher and higher into the atmosphere, as if grasping for the moon. He was here for the new town, not the old; was here for the future, not the past. The juxtaposition of both unsettled him. It had occurred to him he should have stayed in Da Nang, a forty-five minute drive down the road, a busy, bustling, cheerful city that had nothing of the quaint or picturesque (as the brochure had put it). Hoi An was a tourist town, famed for its tailors and shoe-makers, and even Melkior had given in to that extent, having purchased a new, sombre black suit and two pairs of custom-made knock-off trainers, with the company logo hand-stitched into the thin leather. He wore them now, feeling the cobblestones beneath the thin soles.

Spider's Moon By Lavie Tidhar

Old song about emasculating Castro by giving him a crew cut

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 01:06 PM PST

200911021301 I remember reading a book years ago that mentioned a CIA plan in the early 1960s to sprinkle thallium salts into Castro's boots, which "would cause his beard, eyebrows, and pubic hair to fall out... like a follicle deprived Samson."

Today, I listened to this catchy Tin Pan Alley song called "If Butch the Rough Barber Man Shaves Castro." Why did people in the 1960s think Castro's hair was so magical?

"If Butch the Rough Barber Man Shaves Castro" Thanks to WFMU's Bob Purse for finding this 45 and converting it to an MP3!

Workpoop: Wacky factoid, or creepy boss micromanagement tool?

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 12:58 PM PST

cuteroll.jpg

How much do you get paid to poop? That's the question asked by Workpoop.com, a Web site that will, helpfully, time your restroom breaks and then calculate how much money you make while on the toilet using that time, the number of times you go per week and your hourly salary. I'm torn between three feelings here: First, a childish glee; Second, a childish disappointment that I can't really participate, what with not having an hourly salary; and Third, the creeping sensation that, somewhere, somebody's boss is using this to shorten their break times.

Workpoop, your pay-per-poo calculator. Via Barfblog.

Previously:

BoingBoing: We have a lot of archived articles about poop.

Image from Flickr user lilit, via CC.

Feature documentary film about psychedelics

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 12:18 PM PST


Manifesting The Mind is a forthcoming documentary about psychedelic drugs. The trailer features such heads as Dennis McKenna, Alex Grey, and Dr. Rick Strassman. When it comes to laying out a comsic rap about the magic of hallucinogens, these guys are pros. Manifesting The Mind (via Dose Nation)
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