The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Killer of Sheep: A cautionary music rights tale
- Dating site nukes 5,000 overweight members
- Ahmedinejad's website hacked?
- Suicide food logo -- Pekingeend Duck
- The mysteries of Venn diagrams
- Guide to shooting smack published by City of New York
- Tech writer defends junkets
- Mad's Mort Drucker on cartooning
- 3 Idiots: Bollywood blockbuster is equal parts cautionary tale, maker manifesto, portrait of India
- Five new expoplanets discovered by NASA's Kepler telescope
- FARK's headlines of the year unveiled
- Burj Khalifa, formerly Burj Dubai, opens
- Interview with Ray Kurzweil
- Anthropologist Wade Davis speaks at Long Now Foundation, January 13
- Why Twitter Will Endure: David Carr
- New Zealand: concern over sweeping new digital surveillance powers
- Google engineers debate which superhuman powers are awesomest
- Ten-year-old girl suspended for bringing peppermint oil to school
- What startups are really like
- Tokyo's first "complaints choir" sings of greedy bosses and balding
- In case you missed it: Demi Moore's lawyers threaten Boing Boing over photo analysis post
- Hans Jenny and cymatics
- Infographic comparing health care spending to life expectancy
- Gulf oil states to launch their own Euro-like currency
- Having fixed Africa and AIDS, Bono tackles filesharing
- Penny Arcade TV
- Advisor: What should I do with my high school CD collection?
| Killer of Sheep: A cautionary music rights tale Posted: 05 Jan 2010 03:15 AM PST  In 1977, filmmaker Charles Burnett submitted Killer of Sheep as his Master's thesis at UCLA Film School. It's set in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts and filmed in an Italian neorealist style. After a well-received festival run, it languished for 30 years without a theatrical release or distribution because of music rights issues. It wasn't until 2007 that the rights were secured, and the film went on to have a theatrical release. Burnett isn't the only filmmaker who has run afoul of music rights. Abel Ferrara's 1992 film Bad Lieutenant used the song "Signifying Rapper" by Schoolly D, including in a key scene where a nun is sexually assaulted. Schoolly D's record company had not cleared the sample of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir used on "Signifying Rapper." Zep's people sued, and the upshot was that Ferrara had to destroy all unsold copies of the film and change out the track.This climate has had a chilling effect on independent filmmakers hoping for a theatrical release. Many major label tracks are made available with a "festival license" option, meaning you can pay to use it on a version submitted to festivals, but if you plan distribution beyond that, you have to pony up big bucks. Luckily, this has led to many more independent filmmakers seeking out tracks from unsigned musicians for much more reasonable terms. At any rate, you should check out Killer of Sheep if you haven't. The songs really do make several of the scenes work, and you'll appreciate that Burnett stuck to his artistic vision, even if it took 30 years for most of us to be able to see and hear it. Killer of Sheep: The Charles Burnett Collection |
| Dating site nukes 5,000 overweight members Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:53 PM PST "Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded." And with that, BeautifulPeople reportedly nuked 5,000 members it deemed "fatties."(thanks, Antinous) |
| Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:57 PM PST Austin Heap blogs that the official website for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has been pwned. Right now, ahmadinejad.ir displays a rambly greeting that references the untimely deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Patrick Swayze. Nobody puts Iran in a corner! (via Cyrus Farivar) |
| Suicide food logo -- Pekingeend Duck Posted: 04 Jan 2010 03:57 PM PST  Another mouth-watering food product label from the Suicide Food blog: A mama duck serving her plucked baby on a platter. It's even better when you pretend the mama is shedding a tear. Other winning graphics from Suicide Food: |
| The mysteries of Venn diagrams Posted: 04 Jan 2010 04:04 PM PST  Above, a Venn diagram I made visually depicting every combination of Dwarf from the fairy tale. Not included: Snow White. |
| Guide to shooting smack published by City of New York Posted: 04 Jan 2010 10:23 PM PST  The City of New York spent $32,000 on 70,000 16-page fliers showing how to safely inject street drugs. If this campaign saves one life, it's a bargain. The experts that the NY Post selected to be quoted in its article don't seem to agree, however. Most favor the abstinence-only approach. "What we do not want to do is suggest that there's anything safe about shooting up narcotics," said [Bridget] Brennan, the city's special narcotics prosecutor. "No matter how many times you wash your hands or how clean the needle is, it's still poison that you're putting in your veins."In other words, make drug use as dirty, dangerous, and illegal as possible. UPDATE: Boing Boing reader haineux posted the link to a PDF of the pamphlet. Haineux wrote: For those that can't read it, the pamphlet includes: |
| Posted: 04 Jan 2010 03:15 PM PST NYT tech writer David Pogue writes that junkets are OK because it's pre-approved by his editors. NYTPick contends that his appearances nonetheless contradict New York Times ethics rules which see others fired for lesser infractions. Fake Steve Jobs' own thoughts on these issues, however, get to the point in a manner neither subtle nor safe for work. |
| Mad's Mort Drucker on cartooning Posted: 04 Jan 2010 02:53 PM PST Ever since I could read, I have admired Mort Drucker's work in Mad. He's the guy who drew the wonderful movie and TV show parodies in the magazine. Until today, I had no idea what he looked like, or what his voice sounded like. Thanks to the magic of the YouTubes, now I know! It's always interesting to see how an artist sets up his studio, and in this video, we get a good look at Drucker's workplace. Mort Drucker, world famous caricaturist and humorous illustrator best known for his work in MAD magazine has made an exclusive, never before seen tutorial film about his process and life experiences. Presented and interviewed by Stephen Silver. To watch the 2 hour and 15 minute film go to www.schoolism.com and click on "The Masters Series" banner located on the bottom. The film will debut starting January 20th 2010.In the Studio with Mort Drucker |
| 3 Idiots: Bollywood blockbuster is equal parts cautionary tale, maker manifesto, portrait of India Posted: 04 Jan 2010 03:22 PM PST @robinsloan said it best: "It works as fun movie AND a portrait of India today AND a maker manifesto." The film is a cautionary moral tale about about aspiration at all costs, and a social commentary on India's educational system. The hacker-protagonist played by Aamir Khan preaches DIY tech education as an empowering journey to world-changing knowledge, not a shallow means to upwardly mobile ends. Bollywood movies somehow manage to cram in more sheer total stuff than US pics. This one's no exception: there's a hot "wet sari" scene, a bathroom dance number with aerial toilet steadicam shots, a climax of of parental drama that involves comparison shopping between laptops and SLR cameras, an obviously fake rubber baby, and beautiful Himalayan scenery. Blogs, webcams, and aerial surveillance drones glide effortlessly through the script. Not once, but twice, a homemade penis-electrocution hardware hack serves for comic (and bladder) relief. If you're reading this and you speak Hindi, none of this is news: by various metrics, Idiots was the most-anticipated (and is now the most-successful) Indian film in some time. But for Bollywood noobs, I can think of no better first door to open. The film is in Hindi and English, with English subtitles. Yes, you'll miss out on some of the layered humor in the film's ample Hindi puns, but there's so much else going on you'll be fine.
Producer Vinod Chopra reportedly plans to make the entire film available for download and viewing online, for free, this March. Chopra is quoted in the Economic Times, a business publication out of India: I'm providing this facility for those who can't see it on big screen and watch pirated movies. I just want them to discourage pirated prints. They just need to wait for 12 weeks and after that they can legally download the movie and watch it. Tomorrow if there is a facility to watch movies on mobile phones, the film will be available there but in appropriate time.
MP3 version of soundrack: Amazon. (Music by Shantanu Moitra, Shreya Ghoshal & Sonu Nigam.)
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| Five new expoplanets discovered by NASA's Kepler telescope Posted: 04 Jan 2010 01:54 PM PST Hot Jupiter, y'all! No, really: NASA's Kepler space telescope has discovered its first five new exoplanets, all significantly larger than Earth, and called "hot Jupiters" because of their high masses and extreme temperatures. |
| FARK's headlines of the year unveiled Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:52 AM PST The fundamental joy of reading Fark.com is, of course, the headlines themselves. Every year, Drew Curtis and gang celebrate the very best of those headlines in a roundup list, and this year's list is pretty great. Warning: do not sip liquids while clicking forth. |
| Burj Khalifa, formerly Burj Dubai, opens Posted: 04 Jan 2010 12:47 PM PST The tallest building in the world opened today for business. Known during construction as the Burj Dubai, it's now to be called Burj Khalifa after the leader of neighboring Abu Dhabi, which just bailed Dubai out of a $10bn hole. |
| Posted: 04 Jan 2010 12:26 PM PST Inventor Ray Kurzweil is interviewed by h+ magazine about consciousness, brain modeling, global warming, and the Singularity. Ray Kurzweil: The h+ Interview |
| Anthropologist Wade Davis speaks at Long Now Foundation, January 13 Posted: 04 Jan 2010 04:54 PM PST Anthropologist Wade Davis is National Geographic's "Explorer-in-Residence," and deservedly so. His books about indigenous cultures are more exciting and stranger than any Indiana Jones adventure. I became a fan after reading his book about voudon and zombie culture in Haiti, called The Serpent and the Rainbow (skip the awful movie with the same name -- it bears almost no resemblance to Davis' book). Davis has a new book, called The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, and he's going to give a talk about it at the Long Now Foundation On January 13. It will be hosted by Stewart Brand. (Above, Wade Davis at TED, talking about "the Elder Brothers, a group of Sierra Nevada indians whose spiritual practice holds the world in balance.") Previously: |
| Why Twitter Will Endure: David Carr Posted: 04 Jan 2010 09:43 AM PST Over the holidays, you may have missed David Carr's piece in the New York Times on Twitter, and why the service will outlast the likes of Myspace and Friendster. It's a good read, full of talking points for your parents, or Brian Williams (awesome sweatpants!). |
| New Zealand: concern over sweeping new digital surveillance powers Posted: 04 Jan 2010 12:05 PM PST  Police and Security Intelligence Service agents in New Zealand have been granted new powers to monitor any and all aspects of someone's online life, according to this news report in the Sunday Star Times: The measures are the largest expansion of police and SIS surveillance capabilities for decades, and mean that all mobile calls and texts, email, internet surfing and online shopping, chatting and social networking can be monitored anywhere in New Zealand. In preparation, technicians have been installing specialist spying devices and software inside all telephone exchanges, internet companies and even fibre-optic data networks between cities and towns, providing police and spy agencies with the capability to monitor almost all communications.(via @EFF) |
| Google engineers debate which superhuman powers are awesomest Posted: 04 Jan 2010 09:37 AM PST Teleportation wins, invisibility loses, and the ability to obtain a Google Wave invite is a given: crowded around a humble whiteboard, engineers at the Googleplex debate what superhuman powers are most awesome. (ieee spectrum via @DangerRoom) |
| Ten-year-old girl suspended for bringing peppermint oil to school Posted: 04 Jan 2010 10:41 AM PST Via Jonathan Turley: "School officials have suspended a 10-year-old girl in New York for bringing peppermint oil to the John Mandracchia-Sawmill Intermediate School and giving drops to her fifth grade friends to flavor their water. The Commack School District insists that the oil 'is an unregulated over-the-counter drug.'" |
| Posted: 04 Jan 2010 10:16 AM PST A web-essay from Paul Graham that really does ring true: "What Startups Are Really Like." A few months old, but has been making the rounds anew on social media. |
| Tokyo's first "complaints choir" sings of greedy bosses and balding Posted: 01 Jan 2010 01:54 AM PST Complaints choirs are groups of people in different cities who sing about things that are bothering them. It started in Helsinki and has infected ranters all over the world, in St. Petersburg and Philadelphia and Singapore. Tokyo is home one of the newest (and funniest, in my opinion) complaint choirs. In their official music video, seen here, dozens of Japanese people ranging from young women to businessmen in suits sing about everything from screwed up pension plans to unwanted hairs. |
| In case you missed it: Demi Moore's lawyers threaten Boing Boing over photo analysis post Posted: 04 Jan 2010 12:09 PM PST  December, 2009: You were enjoying the holidays, drinking nog, wrapping prezzies, hugging puppies. Demi Moore's lawyers, on the other hand, were sending nastygrams to Boing Boing. We responded, then blogged. The whole story's here: "Demi Moore's lawyers threaten Boing Boing over photo analysis blog post." Don't miss the response letter by Boing Boing's attorneys (PDF) David Carr of the NYT Media Decoder blog covered the matter here, noting "Decoder was shocked by the insinuation that a fashion magazine might airbrush one of its cover subjects. We have no specific information about what might or might not have happened to the photo. We just know it's a little weird looking." And Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon wrote, in "Demi's Hip Will Sue Your Ass"— As we microanalyze the pictures in question, why, you may ask, have Ms. Moore's shapely form and its contentious fractions of flesh become a matter of such great import? It's just a picture, fer chrissakes!(BB reader Mark Koeppen whipped up this animated gif comparing the US and Korea versions of the "W" mag cover featuring Ms. Moore.) |
| Posted: 04 Jan 2010 10:04 AM PST  A film of turpentine subjected to soundwaves. Taken by Hans Jenny using Schlieren photography. |
| Infographic comparing health care spending to life expectancy Posted: 04 Jan 2010 09:33 AM PST From National Geographic, an infographic comparing health care costs per person to life expectancy (line thickness indicates the number of doctor visits per year). No surprise: The USA's line is a bummer. |
| Gulf oil states to launch their own Euro-like currency Posted: 04 Jan 2010 09:24 AM PST More bad news for the dollar: oil-producing states in the Gulf region are creating a new, shared currency (sort of a petro-Euro). Your suggestions for the new currency's name? |
| Having fixed Africa and AIDS, Bono tackles filesharing Posted: 04 Jan 2010 10:22 AM PST Bono, in a New York Times top-ten essay filled with of Brilliant Ideas That Will Fix The World If Only They'd Listen To Moi, says "Intellectual Property Developers" are doomed because of filesharing. Snip: Ah yes, the "noble effort to stop child pornography," always good to lead with that one when you're proposing draconian net-trawling tactics. After all, those efforts did stop child pornography, right? And surely what's good for squashing China's dissidents is good for the world! Cory's on holiday, but you can bet he had some pithy goodness to tweet, after the jump.
Previously:
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| Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:36 AM PST Penny Arcade has a video channel. Watching the lads is interesting, especially the mini-documentary, a super intro to their play-work. |
| Advisor: What should I do with my high school CD collection? Posted: 03 Jan 2010 12:59 AM PST  My parents are moving out of the home I grew up in next month, which means I have to go through all my stuff and get rid of most of it. I'm donating my old clothes and manga and stashing away photo albums in a storage box, but my biggest dilemma is this: what should I do with my high school CD collection? It's not even like I have that much left — just a boxful that survived room changes through college and beyond. But as I scanned the song lists from Bon Jovi's Cross Road, The Notorious BIG's Ready to Die, and Paula Abdul's Spellbound, I started to feel overwhelmed. What was I going to do with all this music that I don't really listen to anymore but I still hold dear somewhere in my heart? I don't even have a CD player anymore, except for the one in my car. Here's what I ended up doing: I sat down on my floor and dedicated a good hour to looking through the entire collection and mentally bookmarking the songs that I would maybe listen to again. (Queen Latifah before she went CoverGirl? Maybe just a song or two... or not. The Cranberries? No thanks. Arrested Development? Definitely.) Turns out there weren't that many. Then, I inserted each CD into my MacBook and ripped those songs on iTunes. I could not, in good conscience, throw away the original self-titled Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey or Janet (I must have had those from way before high school), or chuck the cover art for Bad even though there was no CD in its case, so I kept those. I also kept a few cassette tapes to play on the vintage tape player-radio thingy I picked up in my friend's garage. Everything else went in the trash. I'd love to hear what everyone else is doing. If you've faced a similar dilemma as me and found a good way to solve it, please leave a comment! Image via Corazon Girl's Flickr Advisor is a column about how to juggle technology, relationships, and common sense. Got a story to tell? Email me at lisa [at] boingboing [dot] net.
Previously:
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(via Amazon)
Over the holidays, I kept spotting tweets from Indian and non-Indian friends alike gushing about 
SO: James Lovelock, the ecologist behind the Gaia hypothesis, came out a couple of years ago with a prediction that more than 6 billion people are going to perish by the end of this century, mostly because of climate change. Do you see the GNR technologies coming on line to mitigate that kind of a catastrophe? 
. He places his work in the context of the Greek philosophers who proposed systems of thought based on mathematical order and the relationship of sounds, musical tones, and words. What I love best about his work is that you can feel his wonderment in every chapter and every image (like this soap bubble that became a polyhedron when subjected to sound) . Originally two volumes (the second was published posthumously), Jenny's work on 
But we know from America's noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China's ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it's perfectly possible to track content. Perhaps movie moguls will succeed where musicians and their moguls have failed so far, and rally America to defend the most creative economy in the world, where music, film, TV and video games help to account for nearly 4 percent of gross domestic product." 
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