The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Canada's DMCA, dissected
• With chiptunes, silicon rocks
• Lowdown on the AT&T data plans
• AT&T threatens customer with legal action for emailing CEO
• "Spiritual acupuncture" against cops fails to save hoodoo-ing housing huckster from hoosegow
• Porn actor slash web designer suspected of slashing porn co-worker to death with "Samurai sword"
• To do in LA: Rich Fulcher's "Eleanor" show (tonight thru Fri.), Mighty Boosh docu debut
• The fact that accidents happen =/= no reason to try to stop accidents from happening
• What happens when you flip a starfish wrong side up
• Snails on meth have better memories
• The Wild Webcams of Iceland
• Nerd Merit Badge for Foursquare Douchebags
• Duplicious
• A sound rule
• The human-powered proto-Google at the University of Kansas
• My favorite Father's Day ideas from Etsy and Makers Market / Boing Boing Bazaar
• Bin Laden's boarding pass
• Image: If Edward Gorey did Gashlycrumb Games
• Tom the Dancing Bug: USA To Relinquish Vast Territories
• Studying sleep patterns to optimize your sleep-wake cycle (Video)
• LA gang tours
• MiroConverter: turn your video into WebM
• Made by Hand in LA Times' Brand X
• Video: Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend: Behind the Gatefold
• Canada's DMCA was designed to "satisfy US demand"

Canada's DMCA, dissected Posted: 03 Jun 2010 02:37 AM PDT Michael Geist sez, As expected, the Canadian government today introduced its own DMCA [ed: the US copyright law that has been in place for 12 years, resulting in tens of thousands of lawsuits against Americans without having any effect on infringement or delivering any new income to artists]. Despite a full national consultation and a public rejection of the old Bill C-61, discouragingly some things have not changed. Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore won the internal fight over Industry Minister Tony Clement for a repeat of C-61's digital lock provisions and against a flexible fair dealing approach and today's bill reflects those policy victories. However, over the past month, Clement made steady in-roads in trying to restore some balance in the bill and achieved some wins. The bill contains some important extensions of fair dealing, including new exceptions for parody, satire, and (most notably) education. It also contains more sensible time shifting and format shifting provisions that still feature restrictions (they do not apply where there is a digital lock) but are more technology neutral than the C-61 model. There is also a "YouTube exception" that grants Canadians the right to create remixed user generated content for non-commercial purposes under certain circumstances. While still not as good as a flexible fair dealing provision, the compromise is a pretty good one. Throw in notice-and-notice for Internet providers, backup copying, and some important changes to the statutory damages regime for non-commercial infringement and there are some provisions worth fighting to keep. Yet all the attempts at balance come with a giant caveat that has huge implications for millions of Canadians. The foundational principle of the new bill remains that any time a digital lock is used - whether on books, movies, music, or electronic devices - the lock trumps virtually all other rights. In other words, in the battle between two sets of property rights - those of the intellectual property rights holder and those of the consumer who has purchased the tangible or intangible property - the IP rights holder always wins. This represents market intervention for a particular business model by a government supposedly committed to the free market and it means that the existing fair dealing rights (including research, private study, news reporting, criticism, and review) and the proposed new rights (parody, satire, education, time shifting, format shifting, backup copies) all cease to function effectively so long as the rights holder places a digital lock on their content or device. Moreover, the digital lock approach is not limited to fair dealing - library provisions again include a requirement for digital copies to self-destruct within five days and distance learning teaching provisions require the destruction of materials 30 days after the course concludes. The digital lock provisions are by far the biggest flaw in the bill, rules that some will argue renders it beyond repair. I disagree. The flaw must be fixed, but there is much to support within the proposal. There will undoubtedly be attacks on the fair dealing reforms and pressure to repeal them, along with the U.S. and the copyright lobby demanding that their digital lock provisions be left untouched. If Canadians stay quiet, both are distinct possibilities. If they speak out, perhaps a fixable bill can be fixed. I'm relaunching Speak Out on Copyright.ca to focus on this bill and encouraging Canadians to join the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group(to get active) and the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook Page (to stay updated). The Canadian Copyright Bill: Flawed But Fixable Canada's DMCA was designed to "satisfy US demand" Canada's Heritage Minister ready to bring back DMCA-style ... 7 Copyright Questions for Canada's DMCA Minister Tweet-sized letters of protest over Canadian DMCA, ACTA Canadian students speak out against the Canadian DMCA Canada's sellout Heritage Minister ready to hand copyright to ... Documentary on Canada's DMCA

With chiptunes, silicon rocks Posted: 03 Jun 2010 01:48 AM PDT Jeffrey Lim's Impulse Tracker, a freeware DOS app popular among chiptune makers in the late 1990s. Photo: Dave "SMOKEHARD" Mattt Sine waves, square waves, sawtooth and triangle; white noise for a drumkit, and a cathode ray tube for a stage. Being geeky, I was into computer-generated music as a youngster, long before I caught up with pop music. In an age before cheap internet access, however, there weren't many folks to share it with. So it's with not a little jealously to see today's chiptune scene, fed as much by fresh, unhinged creativity as the nostalgia it often evokes in listeners. One epicenter of all this is 8-Bit Collective, where dozens of new tracks are uploaded daily, sourced from an army of thousands of registered users. Founded by Jose Torres and George Michael Brower, it describes itself as the first file-sharing community dedicated to chiptunes. "Pure malleability," Brower said, describing the essential qualities of computer-generated music. "I'm put off by anyone who refers to chiptune as a 'genre' because of the diversity you'll find under that umbrella." Though far from the first such site on the web, 8-bit Collective acts like a wiki or repository: anyone can add a new song, and the editorial filtering comes from the comments added by listeners. The vast size of its community--nearly 19,000 registered users--and archive ensures both a constant stream of quality tracks, fertile discussion and an inexhaustible backlist for newcomers to enjoy. Computer-generated music emerged in the 1950s, heralded by what the BBC describes as 'a truncated version of In The Mood.' The success of synthesizers in popular music notwithstanding, an early heyday for music synthesized in real time came in the 1980s, as the soundtrack to a generation of electronic games. Though held back by technology, competition for the pocket money of millions of kids forced developers to make the most of limited resources. "I grew up with a strong love for gaming," said Atlanta musician Judson Cowan, in a 2007 Destructoid interview which neatly describes how old video games inspire new music. Cowan, who releases his albums free-of-charge as Tettix, describes how a childhood affinity became a calling. "I love the musicality of game soundtracks. I love the unabashed hook usage and the freedom that working with such primitive sounds gives to the compositions. When you're not so concerned with creating synths that sound good, with avoiding making things cheesy, it really opens up your options a lot musically." Classics from gaming history are now performed by orchestras to large audiences. But it's also true that those who loved chips sounds have freed the style from its gaming roots: "It's more about the instrumentation," composer Matthew Applegate told interviewer Richard Haugh last year. Brower likes melody, but notes that the collective is home to a lot of music that completely ignores conventions familiar to gamers: "I think chip music can be a really "pure" way to communicate your ideas as a composer. That said, there's a lot of really percussive, atonal chip music. I think that's sort of a testament how colorful the scene is. I think a lot of chip musicians may be too self-conscious to admit it, but the nostalgia factor doesn't hurt either. I'm just really disappointed when people can't see through the novelty of the medium and appreciate some of the incredible songwriting that goes on in the name of chip music." Where to get started, if your own exposure comes from mainstream pop music's mining of the sound, or an occasional video interview? Wade in with Music Radar's splendid glossary of chiptune tech and lore, published just a few days ago. The first entry introduces the AY-3-8910 chip, a classic found in the Amstrad CPC and other popular machines of the 1980s. Chip Flip also has a nice timeline of electronic music, beginning in 1951. Recent chiptune projects include A Kind of Bloop, a cover album of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. By taking the sound of chip music to a Jazz standard, the artists highlight chip music's expressive power: it can embody even the warmest classics, far from the crashing melodies found in games and Blipfest alike. Project organizer Andy Baio introduced the project thus: "I've always wondered what chiptune jazz covers would sound like. What would the jazz masters sound like on a Nintendo Entertainment System? Coltrane on a C-64? Mingus on Amiga? I've researched the topic quite a bit, and was only able to find four jazz covers ever released." The project reached its funding goal within hours of its announcement, and the resulting album is just $5: download it here. Another new project, however, lives firmly in the retro 1980s zone: 8 Bit Weapon's Tron Tribute takes Wendy Carlos' 1982 analog score and renders it as pure chip music, only to mash it up with a chaotic modern sensibility. Last week, chip artist The Disco King remixed Kansas' '76 prog rock classic Carry On Wayward Son. How well did he distill a track "strewn with complex guitar work and rhythmic changes" into pure melody and white noise? Judge for yourself: hear the result at Music Radar. If you like the sound of all this, 8-Bit Collective's relentless deluge of music beckons. Other interesting sites include 8-bit peoples, the Mod Archive and Chipmusic.org. Game nostaliga-centered sites include Amiga Music Preservation and The High Coltage SID Collection. Kohina offers streaming internet radio feeds. Want to try your hand? Hardcore composers craft new sounds with the old hardware. Others use specialist equipment like the SidStation, which uses the same audio chip found in the Commodore 64. A more approachable method is to buy software that emulates classic machinery, letting you attend the old school with modern apps such as Garageband, Logic Studio and MU.LAB. On the iPad and iPhone, bleep!BOX is a fun place to start: the straightforward interface makes composing a cinch even for beginners. And once you're happy with your first attempt, critique is only an upload away. "I'm honored to have had a hand in the creation of a platform that's given so many people an outlet to express themselves," Brower said. "And if its done anything to increase awareness of this 'movement,' style of music, whatever you want to call it, then I'm more than happy."

Lowdown on the AT&T data plans Posted: 03 Jun 2010 02:07 AM PDT John Gruber explains the good and bad regarding AT&T's new data plans. Short version: 'unlimited' is dead, but it's OK because overage rates are now reasonable. However, tethering is an extra $20, with no extra allocation, meaning they're charging you again for bandwidth you've already paid for.

AT&T threatens customer with legal action for emailing CEO Posted: 03 Jun 2010 01:44 AM PDT Compare Apple's Steve Jobs and AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson. Steve Jobs replied personally to Giorgio Galante's angry email about tethering. Randall Stephenson, however, had his lawyers threaten him with a cease and desist order. One of these men is not like the other. [Engadget]

"Spiritual acupuncture" against cops fails to save hoodoo-ing housing huckster from hoosegow Posted: 02 Jun 2010 10:19 PM PDT Ruben Hernandez, a former used car dealer from Downey, CA, was today sentenced to a dozen years in the klink for defrauding banks of about $4 million in home-buying fraud schemes. He was evidently someone who practiced a bastardized form of "applied magic" derived from West African traditions. The particular craft he practiced (reports say it included elements of Palo Mayombe) has become popular among Latin American drug dealers and criminals who wish to exact revenge upon enemies, or protect against prison time. At any rate, the guy's spells weren't very good. Snip from LA Times: "Investigators went into one of the bedrooms, and it was a shrine with a cross and all kinds of skeletons and stuff," said Eugene Hanrahan, a deputy L.A. County district attorney. "The star attractions were these three effigy dolls dunked upside down in this brown liquid. One of them had my name, and the other two had the names of investigators." Each doll had pins in its eyes, he said. Attached to the dolls was the case number in the criminal charges. Hanrahan said that inside the home on Thorndike Road investigators also found their names wrapped around a baseball bat. (...) The prosecutor said Hernandez later admitted creating the dolls of his enemies but claimed the "pins were a form of spiritual acupuncture" to make them see that he was a good man. With the trial finally over, Hanrahan said it's safe to report the apparent spells did not work. But he wasn't always that sure. "Around the time of the preliminary hearing my left foot swelled up. It became very painful.... But it later fixed itself," said Hanrahan. "I didn't think about it at the time, until we discovered the shrine." Those familiar with vodun and all her offshoots will see familiar elements in Hernandez' shrine, above, photographed by investigators. That one red, black, and white carved figure looks like a manifestation of Eshu-Eleggua, with the burnt cigars and cigarettes as offerings nearby. I see other elements in the photos that look like they belong to Ogun and Ochossi, and I'm going to guess that the image above was shot just behind the primary entrance to Hernandez' home (or altar room), as shrines for these three deities are generally placed near doors/entranceways. Just as some crazy people use Christianity to justify crimes, other wackos pick and choose elements from Afro-diaspora traditions, and apply them to whatever sociopathic behavior suits them. Don't take away from this story that the ancestral traditions of West Africa are all about crackheads, fraudsters, or dunking needled dolls upside down in poo-water to smite motherfuckers. Man tried voodoo, black magic against prosecutor and investigators, authorities allege (Los Angeles Times)

Porn actor slash web designer suspected of slashing porn co-worker to death with "Samurai sword" Posted: 02 Jun 2010 04:41 PM PDT Susannah Breslin reports grisly news out of Porn Valley today: a part-time web designer, part-time porn actor (who'd just lost both jobs and his residence) is the primary suspect in "a stabbing rampage with what is purported be a movie prop Samurai sword." The murder took place last night. The victim was a co-star of the suspect in at least one adult film, and a self-described "multimedia consultant" whose final tweets included mention of tinkering around with Wordpress files late at night. The murder suspect had a history of violent behavior, as evidenced in his social networking profiles. Susannah writes: Stephen Hill, 30, who performs in adult movies under the name Steve Driver, whose middle name, the LAPD confirmed in a phone call this afternoon, is Clancy, and whose last known residence is Canoga Park, fatally stabbed a coworker at Ultima DVD Inc. The Van Nuys company specializes in fetish videos in which men are abused by women. News reports state Hill was a sometimes porn actor and a web designer for the adult video production company and distributor. The incident took place in the back of the building at approximately 10:20 pm Tuesday evening. Hill was upset because he had been told he was losing his job and had been evicted from the company's building, where he had been living. The first victim was stabbed with what has been described as a "machete-like" weapon or "Samurai sword." Two coworkers who attempted to come to the first victim's aid were also stabbed. Hill fled the scene. He was last seen driving a 1996 blue Toyota RAV4 with right-side damage and license plate 5YTC423. (...) The victim who died is reportedly someone at least known in the business as Tom Dong. Ironically, the two men appear together on the box cover of a "Cuckold Abuse and and Femdom Humiliation." In the movie, the husband (Dong) must bear witness as his wife has sex with an "ethnic" man (Hill). It appears Dong was on Twitter, as well. His handle: @notjustanotherasian. He described himself as an "Entrepreneur. Multimedia Consultant. Technology Enthusiast. Observer of Life. Motivated Individual." There's much more in her report about the online bread crumbs that trail back to the suspect, including ominous MySpace profile messages about death and killing people. Also, links to some of the adult films in which the suspect performed. Susannah adds, While I don't recall having ever met Hill, his type is familiar: a porn fan who became so obsessed with the industry that he managed to find a place in it, a hanger-on who never got farther up than the bottom rung, a loose cannon among loose cannons who one day went off. Porn star murder suspect may have had a history of violence (True/Slant. Report is work-safe, but includes links to material that is graphically sexual) Screengrabs of final tweets by the murder victim, whose profile has since been disabled on Twitter, follow.

To do in LA: Rich Fulcher's "Eleanor" show (tonight thru Fri.), Mighty Boosh docu debut Posted: 02 Jun 2010 04:45 PM PDT If you don't know who "Eleanor" is, watch this. For readers in or near Los Angeles: Cinefamily is hosting a three-night series of live one-man shows with Rich Fulcher as "Eleanor" starting tonight, Wednesday June 2 and continuing tomorrow and Friday: "An Evening with Eleanor: Tour Whore." On Friday, Cinefamily will hold the LA premiere of a new documentary about the Mighty Boosh tour (very much hot off the presses--I believe the final cut was just finished this week). More about "Eleanor," the live show... Rich Fulcher, co-star of the freaky British import "The Mighty Boosh" (seen on Adult Swim) and the savage BBC3 cult comedy hit "Snuff Box"! presents Eleanor, the world's greatest groupie and self-professed "tour whore", a filthy and outrageous character first brought to life on "Mighty Boosh" and now embodied in the flesh on our stage. Decked out in overly tight tights, she's made Neil "Young" again, put the "Wood" in Woodstock, and now she tells all -- the Z-list musicians she's bedded, the litany of her glorious past excesses, instructions on sleeping your way to the top -- through song, dance, audience participation and X-rated confessional monologue. Her decadent and surreal stories will leave you feeling freshly molested, so join the legendary slut and prepare to be pounded like yesterday's beef! I caught Fulcher's improv show last week, and can enthusiastically recommend his live shows to anyone near LA over the next few nights as a rare and must-see delight. Tickets to the live "Eleanor" show are here (they start at $15), and here's more about the documentary "Journey of the Childmen (a film by Oliver Ralfe), and tickets to the LA premiere on Friday are only $10. Video: Watch the Boosh documentary trailer after the jump! Rich Fulcher's Tiny Acts of Rebellion: BB Video Interview - Boing ... To do in LA: Rich Fulcher (Mighty Boosh, "Tiny Acts of Rebellion ... Rich Fulcher gives Hollywood the finger. Snuff Box: "demented genius" Brit-com (BB Video) Mighty Boosh: Live at the Roxy / Pocket Book of Boosh ... (BB Video) Mighty Boosh, part 2: Crimpin' Ain't Easy (BB Video) Mighty Boosh, pt 3: Slashfic, Boosh books, Eleanor's ... BB Video Notes: Mighty Boosh at Roxy (video stills) BB Video: Xeni with Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt of The Mighty ... Touch Noir: Tribal Games & Mighty Boosh release The Mighty Decider ...

The fact that accidents happen =/= no reason to try to stop accidents from happening Posted: 02 Jun 2010 03:18 PM PDT BP and federal regulators (Those guys at the Minerals Management Service. You know, the ones who were also sleeping with the people they regulated?) knew about problems at the Deepwater Horizon site as far back as June of 2009. Despite problems, BP still sought—and received—dispensations to operate outside of ostensibly mandatory safety regulations. We've got a name for this kind of behavior: Criminal negligence.

What happens when you flip a starfish wrong side up Posted: 02 Jun 2010 03:08 PM PDT More starfish videos than you can shake a bumpy-skinned arm at on the Echinoblog.

Snails on meth have better memories Posted: 02 Jun 2010 03:00 PM PDT Snails that are high on methamphetamine remember simple "this happens when I do that" lessons longer than sober snails put through the same trials. Interesting for somebody like me, who takes Ritalin to treat the symptoms of ADHD. Studies have shown that ADHD is linked to lower levels of dopamine in the brain and that stimulant drugs—in low, keep-your-teeth, no-turning-tricks-behind-a-7-11 doses—bring those brains back up to into the "normal" range. I've long wondered whether the improvements I see when I take Ritalin have more to do with getting around to doing certain tasks, or simply remembering to think about doing them at all (it's sometimes hard to tell a difference). The researchers on this snail study are hoping for some insights into the biology of addiction, but I'd imagine there's something to learn about ADHD treatment from this line of questioning, as well. Image courtesy Flickr user, via CC

The Wild Webcams of Iceland Posted: 02 Jun 2010 02:59 PM PDT "Inspired by Iceland" is a lovely visual chillout website (which I presume was created by or paid for by the Tourism Board of Iceland) that allows you to gaze through various high-speed webcams throughout the land. Included vistas: glacial lakes (complete with icebergs), the famed blue lagoon, and downtown Reykjavík. (Thanks, Alex Zamora * Alas, Flash required, so you won't be enjoying this on your iPad any time soon.)

Nerd Merit Badge for Foursquare Douchebags Posted: 02 Jun 2010 02:48 PM PDT My pal, John Young of Nerd Merit Badges says: As you may know, at Nerd Merit badges, we do not believe in half-assing our goofy projects. If we are going to jump the shark, by God that shark is going to stay JUMPED. That's why, when we just released our version of the famous, semi-controversial Foursquare "Douchebag" badge, we decided to spray each badge with a mixture of "that Abercrombie store smell" (Yahoo! Answers told us it is their "Fierce" cologne), and herbal frat-liquer Jägermeister, mixed together and delivered through a bernoulli spray nozzle: the "douchenozzle". This Abercrombie-and-Jäger mix is strong, mutagenic stuff. You can see that not even our industrial-welding respirator could keep our programmer friend Chris Conley from getting a whiff and undergoing a sudden, tragic transformation. (And no, we are not kidding -- each douchebadge we ship really *is* sprayed with this stuff! Our office REEKS right now.) Foursquare Badge: Douchebadge "Double pop that collar, son!"

Duplicious Posted: 02 Jun 2010 02:44 PM PDT Siveya Ethersmith wants to help you fine-tune your bullshit detector. His blog Duplicious is a fun blend of the author's musings and observations, which may or may not be based in reality. Posts have a Duplicious status of "reality," "deceit," or "TBA." For example, would a 9.5-mile-wide clock have a lethal minute hand traveling at 60 mph? Are wind turbine farms straining the Earth's tectonic plates? Does Siveya have a history as a card-counter and host of trespass parties? Yes indeed he does. Siveya is also writing a memoir, The Giving Thief, about a decade he spent exploring the country's urban landscape.

A sound rule Posted: 02 Jun 2010 02:27 PM PDT

The human-powered proto-Google at the University of Kansas Posted: 02 Jun 2010 02:19 PM PDT NPR has a story today about the history of KU Info—a call-in question and answer line that's operated at my alma mater for 40 years. The basic gist: Call KU Info any time, with any question and get an answer. Obviously, that meant a lot more in the days before ubiquitous Internet access and really helpful search engines. Imagining somebody sitting in a room trying to answer random questions about science, history, foreign language and pop culture trivia with a Rolodex and the encyclopedia, instead of just Googling it, is akin to imagining doing laundry before the washing machine, or trigonometry before the multi-function calculator. But it really wasn't all that long ago. When I arrived at KU in 1999, search engines were still just useless enough (Hi, Ask Jeeves!) that, depending on the question, KU Info could often get you an answer faster than the Internet. Plus, the service operated 24-7 back then, and since we all hadn't yet been spoiled by Wikipedia, there was still a certain thrill to middle-of-the-night games of "Stump the KU Info Staffers". For all its frivolity, the service had serious roots—beginning as a way for students to get and share information during a period where the campus was fire-bombed multiple times, two teenagers were shot and killed by police, African American activists were fired on by snipers and nobody knew when a protest might turn deadly for the protesters or bystanders. There was a lot of debate, by the time I left school, about whether anybody really needed KU Info anymore. But it seems like the service has found a niche, moving from trivia catch-all to answering more University-specific questions that students can't track down easily online. What that says about the navigability of the school's website ... well, I wonder. But still, from a purely cultural standpoint, it's nice to see KU Info is still around. And it's interesting that it's surviving on the same kind of speaking-to-a-niche business plan that has allowed uber-local suburban and neighborhood newspapers to weather changing times better than their big-city, wanna-be national counterparts. Image courtesy macinate via CC

My favorite Father's Day ideas from Etsy and Makers Market / Boing Boing Bazaar Posted: 02 Jun 2010 01:53 PM PDT Etsy kindly invited me to guest curate some Father's Day gift ideas, and I selected 15 items (from Etsy and Makers Market / Boing Boing Bazaar), including a hand carved coffee scoop, a stainless steel espresso tamper, a sweet pocket knife, an amoebic coffee table (above), a wooden keepsake box, an iPhone dock made out of a log, a leather iPad sleeve, a unique miso bowl, a kit with three kinds of organic fermentation cultures, honey from a San Francisco urban beekeeper, a cigar box guitar, buttons made from beach stones, Mars Attacks wall graphics, a hollow spy nickel, and a pair of brass balls. Guest Curator: Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing

Bin Laden's boarding pass Posted: 02 Jun 2010 12:54 PM PDT British Airways used this mocked-up image in an internal magazine to illustrate its new mobile-boarding pass system. Ooops. From Yahoo!: So how did this happen? The short answer is that no one knows — or at least, no one's telling if they do. A British Airways spokeswoman told ABC News reporter Scott Mayerowitz that "a mistake has been made in this internal publication and we are working to find out how this occurred." And in response to a follow-up call from Yahoo! News, another spokeswoman for the airline remained firmly on message, saying, "We're still working to find out how this occurred at this time." The gaffe could be the result of a tasteless prank that got out of hand — but current speculation is running toward the theory that it's the handiwork of a disgruntled employee. British Airways is currently locked in a labor dispute with the union representing its cabin-crew workers, and the strike has grounded flights for thousands of travelers in one of the busiest travel times of the year. "British Airways red-faced over faux image of Bin Laden boarding pass" (Thanks, Gabe Adiv!) UPDATE: As pointed out in the comments, looks like the creator of that mock-up used this fake boarding pass generator linked to from BB in 2006!

Image: If Edward Gorey did Gashlycrumb Games Posted: 01 Jun 2010 05:08 PM PDT OK look, let's set aside -- if you would -- the whole "it's actually Link, not Zelda" thing and just appreciate how nice animator Carlos Ramos's Gashlycrumb-Tinies-inspired drawing turned out, and think about how desperately he needs to expand it to the other 25 letters. 'Z is for Zelda' by: me a million years ago. [Carlos Ramos] Carlos Ramos: "India" painting show Carlos Ramos paintings

Tom the Dancing Bug: USA To Relinquish Vast Territories Posted: 02 Jun 2010 10:42 AM PDT

Studying sleep patterns to optimize your sleep-wake cycle (Video) Posted: 02 Jun 2010 10:24 AM PDT Alexandra Carmichael of the Quantified Self posted a video of sleep hacker Matt Bell. Having struggled with sleep for much of his life, he now tracks it with Zeo and looks for patterns. In this talk, Matt reveals several factors that he has found to be helpful for getting a good night's sleep. Matt Bell Hacks the Sleep-Wake Cycle

LA gang tours Posted: 02 Jun 2010 09:51 AM PDT LA Gang Tours offers high-end bus tours of gang hot spots, historic and current, and crime scene locations in South Central, Los Angeles and vicinity. Also on the agenda are the birthplace of Raymond Washington's East Side Crips, the county jail, Los Angeles Black Panther Party hangout, Watts Arts Gallery, and the Firestone Sheriff Station where the National Guard set up their HQ during the Watts Riots in 1965. LA Gang Tours was founded by gang member-turned-minister Alfred Lomas. According to the Web site, "The objective is to create jobs for the residents of South Central, Los Angeles; to give profits from the tours back to these areas for economic growth and development, provide job/entrepreneur training, micro-financing opportunities and to specialize in educating people from around the world about the Los Angeles inner city lifestyle, gang involvement and solutions." Tickets are $65 and include opportunities to chat up reformed, er, gangstas. From AOL News: To make sure tourists get a taste of the gang life without all the pesky violent crime that can mar a rating on Yelp or TripAdvisor, Lomas has negotiated a cease-fire agreement with the gangs, guaranteeing that the tour bus can roll through the streets of South Central without risk of a carjacking or drive-by shooting. "I was able to do this through my humanitarian efforts," Lomas said. "I went into the housing projects of the different gangs, and when you're feeding someone's mother, you earn the right to be in the area." So far, academics and law enforcement officials have been the main demographic, but Lomas is starting to see locals from rich areas, like Bel Air and Beverly Hills, take the tours. "They want to see this area that they've heard so much about but have never been to, even though it's close by," he said, adding that he hopes to attract more out-of-town tourists this summer. "LA Man Creates Tour of Gangsta Hot Spots" Poorism: tourism in slums Poorism, poverty tourism

MiroConverter: turn your video into WebM Posted: 02 Jun 2010 09:18 AM PDT Nicholas from the nonprofit, open video player Miro sez, "The new open-video WebM format is a real chance to move us all out of the proprietary video format mess of the current web and device world. Miro Video Converter (free and open-source, of course) is the first video converter for the WebM and definitely the easiest way to make WebM videos. We want to do everything we can to make WebM easy to create and use so that it can blossom on a million websites!" Miro Video Converter (Thanks, Nicholas!) (Disclosure: I am proud to volunteer on the board of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the nonprofit 501(c)3 that oversees Miro and its projects Major update to Miro, the free/open Internet TV client Miro kicks Joost's ass Miro free and open video player goes 2.0 Miro, the free video player, goes 3.0 Miro 1.0: the free and open future of video on the net Miro launches: Democracy Player evolves into a 1.0 product ... Miro 1.1: faster torrenting for better net TV Democracy Player final beta is out: next stop, Miro Player ...

Made by Hand in LA Times' Brand X Posted: 02 Jun 2010 11:22 AM PDT Jessica Hundley of the LA Times' Brand X interveiwed me about my new book, Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World. BX: Were there stumbling blocks along the way for you during writing the book, with embarking on DIY experiments that maybe didn't work or were too hard? MF: There were certain things. I was getting interested in alternative energy and there's this group of people who are into human powered energy. They basically build a bike with a giant flywheel and they generate electricity with it. I looked into it and realized that to provide my family's electrical needs I'd have to pedal 1,000 hours a month. I don't want to knock anyone who does it, but for me, it wasn't enough bang for the buck. And the other thing is when my chickens started to get picked off and I was getting desperate to save them. And we were just surrounded by predators: bobcats and raccoons and coyotes. I felt pretty over my head then. We also considered a goat, but someone has to milk the goat twice a day, and I do travel and, I don't know, do you hire a goat milker? With this book I wanted to do things that would enrich our lives and would be possible to do and still work and write and spend time with my family. UPDATE: Brand X has added a photo gallery of the DIY stuff at my place. Photos by Lawrence K. Ho for the Los Angeles Times. Citizen scientist: Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder's handmade touch in a tech-driven world Also, here are a few recent bloggers' reviews of Made By Hand: • "Of course it's not merely good, it's foundation-shaking, at least for me." — Seth Godin, Seth's Blog • "I read the first chapter and became hooked.  I read it cover to cover in under a day." -- Lane Holloway • "Lucky for Mark Frauenfelder, I liked his book." -- Jeff Cutler's Test Lab • "It was an easy and pleasurable read." -- NovoKane • "...the author makes a persuasive case that a DIY approach can help its practitioners achieve "a richer and more meaningful life, a life of engagement with the world." — Hardy Green, DailyFinance • "...not only was I entertained I was educated on a wide range of topics!" — Recycled Crafts

Video: Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend: Behind the Gatefold Posted: 01 Jun 2010 04:17 PM PDT You've already seen an extensive breakdown of the concept art behind Double Fine's nü-cult-classic Brutal Legend right here on Boing Boing, but above, interface designer Joe 'codeloss' Kowalski goes awesomely in-depth on work he put into the menu and title screen systems -- a system brilliantly aping the wonderful yesteryear of gatefold sleeves and ballpoint-pen scrawled notebooks. If you're still a stranger to its foreboding metal world, see our Games To Get page for links to newly discounted copies of the game, or visit Double Fine's own shop for autographed copies & ephemera. Thrashing, mad, metal: the art of Double Fine's Brütal Legend ...

Canada's DMCA was designed to "satisfy US demand" Posted: 02 Jun 2010 12:18 PM PDT Michael Geist sez, The Canadian government will introduce its DMCA this afternoon, leaving some to wonder why a U.S. style approach to digital locks is being implemented when so many Canadians spoke out against it. The simple answer may be revealed from a former Minister of Industry chief of staff, who told a PhD candidate researching copyright policy that the Prime Minister required that the U.S. be satisfied with Canadian copyright reform as the only mandate for a bill. In a paper being presented this week in Montreal, Blayne Haggart writes that according to the former chief of staff to Maxime Bernier, the decision to introduce U.S.-style DMCA rules in Canada was strictly a political decision, the result of pressure from the Prime Minister's Office desire to meet U.S. demands. She states "the Prime Minister's Office's position was, move quickly, satisfy the United States." When Bernier and then-Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda protested, the PMO replied "we don't care what you do, as long as the U.S. is satisfied." "We Don't Care What You Do, As Long as the U.S. Is Satisfied" Canada's Heritage Minister ready to bring back DMCA-style ... 7 Copyright Questions for Canada's DMCA Minister Canadian Prime Minister promises to enact a Canadian DMCA in six ... Tweet-sized letters of protest over Canadian DMCA, ACTA Documentary on Canada's DMCA Canadian students speak out against the Canadian DMCA Canada's sellout Heritage Minister ready to hand copyright to ... Canada's copyright minister: superinfringer

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