The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Jury reaches verdict in BART police shooting caught on cellphones: involuntary manslaughter
• LA's "Grim Sleeper" serial killer suspect nabbed by DNA and pizza; was he snapped on Google Street View?
• Elderly Romanian wife suspects husband is faking death, keeps it secret
• NASA: Robonauts on Moon By 2013
• Greenpeace founder Jim Bohlen has died
• Germany goes after Facebook over claimed privacy violations
• Inside the "Nitrous Mafia"
• One-armed Chinese monkey kills 80 chickens
• Onion: New Apple Store "Friend Bar"
• Why We Talk to Terrorists: response to Supreme Court ruling on "material support" of foreign terrorist groups
• The Grateful Dead sing the National Anthem at a '93 Giants game
• Roswell crash anniversary
• Patent holder's demand: stop discussing my patent
• Fairyland USA, 1963
• Volunteer at the Boing Boing Picnic!
• Cold War-era weapons technology ads featuring cute, cuddly toys
• Obama-berry Bubble Gum, Tanzania
• Art exhibit dedicated to Chatroulette
• Forever21 has a new maternity clothing line
• Games Inspired by Music: Play the entries and vote!
• Spicy, happy foodtime blogging now!

Jury reaches verdict in BART police shooting caught on cellphones: involuntary manslaughter Posted: 08 Jul 2010 05:17 PM PDT A Los Angeles jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Johannes Mehserle (shown in the photo at left), a white Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer who fatally shot Oscar J. Grant III, an unarmed black man who was lying face-down on an Oakland train platform. The event was captured on mobile phone photo and video by many bystanders—even by the shooting victim himself, just before his death—and much of that media made its way onto the internet. Here in Los Angeles, crowds have gathered at the courthouse. Up in Oakland, trains and streets are packed with people trying to get out of the way of anticipated civil unrest in the event of a not guilty verdict. Update, 4:08pm PT: Mehserle has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Mehserle could get 2, 3 or 4 years for involuntary manslaughter plus 3, 4 or 10 years for using a gun. "That means the minimum total sentence that Judge Robert Perry could impose would be five years, and the maximum would be 14 years." Lots of police on the streets in Oakland tonight. Image below, courtesy L.A. County Superior Court: a cellphone photo which was taken, according to lawyers, by Oscar Grant of ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle, just before Mehserle shot Grant to death on New Year's Day, 2009. "Citizen videos" spread online showing BART police officer ... BART cop's alleged murder of a transit rider inspires protest tee ...

LA's "Grim Sleeper" serial killer suspect nabbed by DNA and pizza; was he snapped on Google Street View? Posted: 08 Jul 2010 04:48 PM PDT Here in Los Angeles, the big story today is the capture of a suspect in the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer case, so named because the killer apparently went dormant for a decade before resuming his murderous behavior. The suspect, Lonnie David Franklin Jr. (photo below), once worked for the LAPD. He was nabbed with "familial DNA". His son's DNA was a close, but not precise, match with DNA found at the scene of murders, and Franklin's DNA was later reportedly confirmed as a match when investigators swabbed traces left behind after he ate at a local pizza parlor. There's an internet rumor floating around that this Google Street View link shows the suspect, who worked as a sort of freelance car repair guy around the neighborhood. Authorities have not confirmed that the address is Franklin's, but local TV and papers have reported it as such (after eavesdropping on LAPD scanner radio). The Street View link does snow a shot of someone in front of a green house working on a car at that address, but we don't know who that person is. The killer is said to have focused primarily on black women, specifically prostitutes and "party girls." As far as I know, this is the first "familial DNA" arrest in California. There are some concerning privacy implications, particularly when one combines physical data-gathering (collecting DNA not just from the suspect but from relatives or others in the suspect's social network) with the sort of ambient, online data-gathering manifest in services like Google Street View. No one will argue that a serial killer should roam free, or that all available technology shouldn't be used to solve violent crimes, particularly a case involving as many deaths over as many decades as this one does. But how might these technologies be mis-used in the future? Guess we'll find out. (thanks, Andrea James) Update: The address shown in the Street View link (screengrab below) certainly does appear to be confirmed as belonging to the suspect jailed today. A public records property search shows: 1728 W. 81st St N/A Lonnie D Franklin Jr and Y Sylvia South Los Angeles. Did Google Street View spot rapist/kidnapper Garrido? The blog of Philip Garrido, serial rapist and kidnapper: "sound ... Rapist/kidnapper Garrido's creepy van in Google Maps: Xeni on ... Gadgets used in Garrido property investigation: "ground ... Jaycee Dugard gets $20 million settlement

Elderly Romanian wife suspects husband is faking death, keeps it secret Posted: 08 Jul 2010 12:45 PM PDT A 72-year old Romanian woman kept her husband's death a secret for two weeks because she wanted to make sure he was really dead, and not just pretending to be dead so he could go be with his mistress.

NASA: Robonauts on Moon By 2013 Posted: 08 Jul 2010 12:24 PM PDT This week, NASA announced plans to "land an operational humanoid robot on the moon in 1,000 days." The contractor of choice? Armadillo Aerospace, founded by gaming godfather John D. Carmack (Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, etc.). The Dallas Observer has extensive coverage, including NASA's "Project M" whitepaper. Read more at the NASA robonautics website. (thanks, Nick Rallo, image: NASA/GM)

Greenpeace founder Jim Bohlen has died Posted: 08 Jul 2010 12:14 PM PDT Jim Bohlen, a Greenpeace founder, died this week at age 84. He trained as a US naval radio operator, then obtained an engineering degree and worked for a defense contractor on Long Island, where he met R. Buckminster Fuller. He was a Quaker and a longtime peace activist. "Jim is survived by his wife Marie, a stepson, a son and daughter by his first wife Anna, and a global environmental organisation."

Germany goes after Facebook over claimed privacy violations Posted: 08 Jul 2010 11:58 AM PDT The German Data Protection Authority in Hamburg has launched legal action against Facebook, following complaints from people "who had not signed up to Facebook, but whose details had been added to the site by friends." Facebook is accused of storing the private data of non-members without their permission, to be used for marketing purposes.

Inside the "Nitrous Mafia" Posted: 08 Jul 2010 11:50 AM PDT Hippie crack: it's a familiar sight (and sound) at summer music festivals. Folks line up to drop $5 for a balloon of laughing gas. And then another. And another. For the dealers of N20, called the "Nitrous Mafia" by some, this is big business. But many jam bands and fans consider nitrous to be a big bummer. From this week's Village Voice cover story, titled "Tales of Hippie Crack": Throughout the year, the Nitrous Mafia travels from state to state, selling balloons at concert sites. The scene in Williamsburg is only a small preview of what happens in summer, when the outdoor festival season kicks into gear. During these campground events, which last two to four days, the Mafia, which is divided into two rings, based in Boston and Philadelphia, can burn through hundreds of nitrous tanks. With the ability to fill up to 350 balloons per tank, which they sell for $5 and $10, they can bank more than $300,000 per festival, minus expenses. Year after year, security guards at these events attempt to crack down on the illicit business, but, in most cases, they're outmatched by a phalanx of menacing gas dealers who have little regard for unarmed concert personnel. And for some musicians and their fans, the illicit trade is a bummer. "It has a negative impact on the entire scene," says Don Richards, the tour manager for Umphrey's McGee, ranked the No. 4 jam band in a recent Rolling Stone poll. "It's a very controlling group, to the point where I've seen people get beat up." "It's something that should be left to the dentist's office," says Josh Clark, the lead vocalist for the San Francisco–based jam band Tea Leaf Green. "Inside the Nitrous Mafia, an East Coast Hippie-Crack Ring"

One-armed Chinese monkey kills 80 chickens Posted: 08 Jul 2010 11:44 AM PDT Link. (Thanks, ting). More like this.

Onion: New Apple Store "Friend Bar" Posted: 08 Jul 2010 11:11 AM PDT The Onion goofs on the psychology of fanpersons and the sociology of the Genius Bar in this very funny video. Boing Boing, the "happy stage of bad clichés," gets a nod (screengrab above). Look for the Zach Galifianakis cameo! (thanks, burris)

Why We Talk to Terrorists: response to Supreme Court ruling on "material support" of foreign terrorist groups Posted: 08 Jul 2010 11:25 AM PDT In John Brockman's Edge newsletter, an essay by Scott Atran (left) and Robert Axelrod (right), two social scientists who study and interact with violent groups "to find ways out of intractable conflicts." The piece is a response to a recent Supreme Court decision that amounts to a real "chilling effect" for anyone working for peace and reconciliation through dialogue with foreign groups that have a history of armed conflict. Before the ruling, we knew that sending money or guns to any of the four dozen groups currently designated by the secretary of state as terrorist organizations was punishable by up to 15 years in prison. But now the law has been clarified to show that, say, holding conflict resolution workshops with them, or even interviewing one of their officers for an op-ed piece, could merit the same penalty. This NPR News analysis is a good place to start for real-world examples. From Atran and Axelrod's Edge essay: In the course of this work and in our discussions with decision makers in the Middle East and elsewhere we have seen how informal meetings and exchanges of knowledge have borne fruit. It's not that religious, academic or scientific credentials automatically convey trust, but when combined with a personal commitment to peace, they often carry weight beyond mere opinion or desire. So we find it disappointing that the Supreme Court, in Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project, ruled that any "material support" of a foreign terrorist group, including talking to terrorists or the communication of expert knowledge and scientific information, helps lend "legitimacy" to the organization. Sometimes, undoubtedly, that is the case. But American law has to find a way to make a clear distinction between illegal material support and legal actions that involve talking with terrorists privately in the hopes of reducing global terrorism and promoting national security. Edge 321 -- July 8, 2010 (Edge.org)

The Grateful Dead sing the National Anthem at a '93 Giants game Posted: 08 Jul 2010 10:54 AM PDT Check out this lovely rendition of the National Anthem by Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and Vince Welnick before a 1993 San Francisco Giants game at Candlestick Park. via Erik Malinowski's Twitter

Roswell crash anniversary Posted: 08 Jul 2010 11:11 AM PDT Happy anniversary, Roswell crash of 1947! From the Pixies, "Motorway to Roswell": how could this so great turn so shit he ended up in army crates and photographs in files his tiny boat sparked as he turned to graze our city Roswell UFO Incident

Patent holder's demand: stop discussing my patent Posted: 08 Jul 2010 10:48 AM PDT Roy van Rijn is a Dutch open source/free software developer who wrote a blog-post explaining some audio-fingerprinting algorithms he was experimenting with, along with a few code-fragments, and a promise to release all the source code. Unwisely, he called his post Creating Shazam in Java (Shazam is a commercial audio fingerprinting tool), and this attracted a notice from Darren Briggs, the Chief Technical Officer of Landmark Digital Services, LLC, which holds the patents used in Shazam. Briggs said that van Rijn's post violated Landmark's patents (though Briggs had only seen the code fragments) He requested that van Rijn not "ship, deploy or post the code presented in your post. Landmark also requests that in the future you do not ship, deploy or post any portions or versions of this code in its current state or in any modified state." This is a pretty far-reaching request, and the reference to patent infringement gives it the whiff of a threat. After all, Briggs hasn't demonstrated that van Rijn violates his patents, and what's more, this request would preclude van Rijn from rewriting the code so as not to infringe those patents. But it gets worse. Van Rijn asked Briggs to tell him which EU patents his code is alleged to violate. Briggs replied with some US patent numbers. When van Rijn pointed out that he wasn't in the US, Briggs claimed that because someone in the US might read and run his code, it "may contribute to someone infringing our patents in any part of the world." In closing, Briggs says, "we would like you to refrain from releasing the code at all and to remove the blogpost explaining the algorithm." Briggs appears to be saying that his US patents grant him the right to prevent van Rijn from discussing its subject matter -- and that they also constitutes a ban on publishing code that may violate them, even in regions where the patent hasn't been granted, even in regions (such as the EU), where software itself isn't patentable. I don't know whether van Rijn's code violates the Landmark patents, or whether Landmark's patent claims are valid, or whether Landmark holds EU patents as well (it's not clear from Briggs's letters whether any of these things are true). But one thing I'm dead certain of is that it is not illegal to discuss a patent's technical workings. The entire point of the patent system is to give a monopoly to an inventor in exchange for full disclosure of the invention so that other inventors may study and learn from it. In other words, the patent system exists to encourage discussion of patented inventions, not to censor them. Despite this, van Rijn's lawyer has advised him to censor his blog posts, or face the possibility of becoming a professional litigant who spends the next several years expensively defending his rights in various courts. I couldn't reach Mr Briggs for comment. Free Software Coder Bullied over *Algorithm* (Thanks, DeathBoy!) US patent judges aren't actually patent judges -- "catastrophic ... Halliburton tries to patent patent trolling itself Marriage proposal as patent application Sony files patent on any-object motion control Economists call for patent and copyright abolition

Fairyland USA, 1963 Posted: 08 Jul 2010 10:51 AM PDT Annie sez, "We just posted this retro little movie from the historical archives of our children's park. It is a 25 minute promotional film made in coordination with the Oakland Parks and Rec back in 1962. In the movie, you follow Alice as she leads kids on a tour through Children's Fairyland, a storybook theme park built in 1950. Walt Disney stopped here while touring the country to get inspiration for Disneyland. The movie shows the different attractions in the park, some of which still exist today, like the talking dragon and Alice in Wonderland-themed merry-go-round." Children's Fairyland, USA (1962) Part 1 of 3 (Thanks, Annie!) Stormtrooper Fairyland Robot Wedding

Volunteer at the Boing Boing Picnic! Posted: 08 Jul 2010 11:08 PM PDT The Boing Boing Picnic is in two days, and we could really use some extra arms and legs and tentacles to help us make sure the event runs smoothly. If you're coming and can dedicate an hour or two to helping David, Xeni, Dean, and me in making sure things run smoothly, please send an email to mango [at] tokyomango [dot] com, subject line: Picnic Volunteer with your name and what time you're available between 11AM and 4PM. If you pre-sign up to volunteer we'll promise you a t-shirt and some extra happy mutant love. Thanks! Update: Thanks to all of you who volunteered to volunteer! I think we have enough people for now. If you show up the day of and still want to help out, just look for one of the people wearing a Happy Mutant Volunteer name tag and ask if they need help.

Cold War-era weapons technology ads featuring cute, cuddly toys Posted: 08 Jul 2010 10:18 AM PDT From 1955 issues of Scientific American: Three ads for advanced weapons systems from Ford, featuring a cuddly teddy bear and toy soldier duo. Click here to see the full, uncropped version of the ad above. I like how the teddy bear is riding the torpedo Slim-Pickens-style, á la Dr. Strangelove. (Copyranter, via Modern Mechanix.)

Obama-berry Bubble Gum, Tanzania Posted: 08 Jul 2010 09:25 AM PDT Magic Obama Strawberry, spotted by Boing Boing reader Mara Abrams in Tanzania (and here is Mara's nonprofit). Previously: The definitive Barack Obama portrait

Art exhibit dedicated to Chatroulette Posted: 08 Jul 2010 09:18 AM PDT An art gallery in Brooklyn is dedicating exhibition space to Chatroulette that includes canvas prints like the one above and a video grid with 108 rotating faces. I love how the different wall colors in each users' bedroom create a beautiful mosaic-like appearance. The Narcissus Series [via Mashable]

Forever21 has a new maternity clothing line Posted: 08 Jul 2010 08:11 AM PDT Forever21, the bible-bagging fab-finds-on-a-budget women's clothing store, now has a maternity line. I don't know, it just seems to send the wrong message somehow. Love21 Maternity

Games Inspired by Music: Play the entries and vote! Posted: 08 Jul 2010 12:39 PM PDT A few weeks ago, we asked you to create Games Inspired by Music -- chip music, to be precise, the old-fashioned computer-generated audio that's come into its own as a creative medium. Safari Books Online provided 30 days free access to a selection of game development titles, which are still available for another week. In the last hours the entries came pouring in and we were in awe of the oldschool wonder! We've compiled a shortlist of finalists into a Boing Boing Arcade: try them all and then vote for who should take home the top prizes, provided by Safari Books Online, and goodies from Gama-Go. The poll will remain open until July 14 and we'll announce the winners on July 15! Many thanks go to the chiptune and electronic artists who allowed us to post their music as inspiration to the game developers. And, of course, to those who have dedicated time and energy to creating the games themselves. Shall we play a game? Play and vote

Spicy, happy foodtime blogging now! Posted: 08 Jul 2010 10:21 AM PDT While it's certainly true that Japanese Snack Reviews tells me a ton about Japanese junk food, it's not true that it tells me, in the site's slogan, "more than (I) need to know about Japanese junk food." Because what I need to know about Japanese junk food is everything. Wouldn't you want to know everything you could about a product called "Extremely Spicy Mania with Death Sauce"? (I'm guessing the translation is a little liberal here.) And when you discover that the death-sauced snack is actually crispy corn rings from the Japanese wing of the fine stateside snack purveyor Frito Lay, wouldn't that warm feeling in the pit of your stomach embolden you to seek them out? Sure it would. By the way, speaking of warm feelings in the pit of your stomach, blogger "Orchid64" helpfully notes of Extremely Spicy Mania that "Mainly, my reservations only relate to the stomach burn," which is the sort of useful, specific annotation you just never seem to get from fancypants big-shot food writers. It's a great site, and handy besides.

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