The Latest from Boing Boing

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• "Skateistan: To Live and Skate Kabul" at Sundance 2011
• Logo cousins: RE/Search and Target?
• Most AOL revenue from dial-up zombies?
• The Donkey Show: Tijuana ephemera
• Happy 11th birthday Boing Boing!
• What does the front-end of an online hacker store look like?
• Preparations for alien contact
• Parents sue attorney who shooped fake CP of their kids
• Will robots fail to emotionally satisfy us (just like other humans)?
• Scientific research vessel witnesses whale threesome
• Iggymoticons
• CT Scans of ancient baby Egyptian mummy
• Boing Boing mention in promo for PORTLANDIA (new show debuting tonight on IFC)
• Hot Russian spy Anna Chapman to host TV show on weird mysteries
• Onion: American pundits exhibit eerie capacity to get inside lunatic killer's mind
• Chase No Face Luchador Wrestler Mask Remix: "El Gato Sin Cara"
• Croc swallows mobile phone, becomes constipated and burps ringtones
• Brak Flag
• Chase Chaser (BB Flickr Pool)
• Chase No Face frolicking in a basket
• Julian Assange tribute malware
• Mark Visser surfs massive waves on moonlit night with LED vest and surfboard
• Squirrel Appreciation Day
• Snack Flag
• Wayback Machine's new beta
• Chris & Cosey mix
• Crawfish discovery (and a recipe)
• Steampunk Palin comic book
• Flowers for Paul the Octopus
• Machine balances pencil on its tip

"Skateistan: To Live and Skate Kabul" at Sundance 2011 Posted: 22 Jan 2011 12:13 AM PST Two years ago, Xeni posted about Skateistan, an innovative skate park in Kabul, Afghanistan. This year's Sundance short film program features a great 9-minute documentary on the park, including brief interviews with the manager and young people who skate there. Directed by Orlando von Einsiedel, it contains some pretty shocking images of the damage the war has caused throughout Kabul. It also hints at the possibility for building "the kind of cross-cultural relationships that Afghanistan needs for future stability." Video link. (via SFF)

Logo cousins: RE/Search and Target? Posted: 21 Jan 2011 08:25 PM PST Logos separated at birth: RE/Search Publications and, er, Target's new home goods line?

Most AOL revenue from dial-up zombies? Posted: 21 Jan 2011 07:12 PM PST According to the New Yorker (via Consumerist) 80 percent of AOL's revenues are from subscriptions, and 75 percent of those may be paid subscribers who have another ISP. Dial down!

The Donkey Show: Tijuana ephemera Posted: 21 Jan 2011 07:28 PM PST Opening tonight at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMOA) at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, CA: The Donkey Show, which "explores the border's intersection of myth and reality through a blend of over 200 rare tourist photographs, vintage nightlife ephemera, and pop songs born of American myths of Tijuana." The exhibition is guest-curated by cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian Jim Heimann and author and music critic Josh Kun. For those of you in the Los Angeles area, the show's opening tonight. On Wednesday, Jan 26, the co-curators will be hosting a conversation about the show from 7-8 pm at nearby Track 16 Gallery, with a party featuring Nortec Collective artist DJ Clorofila from 8-10. Should be great fun.

Happy 11th birthday Boing Boing! Posted: 21 Jan 2011 04:15 PM PST We forgot it was Boing Boing's birthday today, dadgummit! Our pal Gareth reminded us. He didn't forget because today is *his* birthday, and by sheer coincidence, the first post ever on the Boing Boing blog was about Gareth's Street Tech site. Happy Birthday Gareth and Happy Birthday Boing Boing!

What does the front-end of an online hacker store look like? Posted: 21 Jan 2011 02:28 PM PST This. Note the dot-mil and dot-govs, and good heavens, the affordable pricing. Fascinating story behind the screengrab over at Krebs on Security.

Preparations for alien contact Posted: 21 Jan 2011 02:24 PM PST If we do make contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, what happens next? Well, assuming the ball is in our court, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project has a plan. In fact, SETI even has a Post-Detection Taskgroup made up of scientists, journalists, philosophers, and, of course, science fiction writers. Astrobiologist Paul Davies of Arizona State University leads the bunch. From Smithsonian: Their job is to advise relevant parties—other scientists, governments, the United Nations—about what to do if a SETI signal or any "putative evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence" were detected. While waiting for a contact, the group deliberates about what the consequences might be. While a discovery of microscopic life on another body in our solar system would be "of profound significance, which would change our worldview," Davies says, "it's not one of these things that is going to be disruptive to society." But the discovery of a signal from intelligent extraterrestrials could lead to "mayhem." (former of head of NASA's SETI program John) Billingham agrees. "Some people will think that this is a natural event in the continuing work on scientific questions," he says, and others will ask, in panic, "What do we do now?" People would likely fall into two camps. Catastrophists, as one of the camps is called, might well predict the end of humanity as we know it, or at least the end of our current culture. In 2010 Stephen Hawking said that making contact with aliens would be "a little too risky" and compared the event to Columbus arriving in the New World, "which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans." But millenarian enthusiasts anticipate revelations of rapture: how to cure cancer, solve the energy crisis or win world peace. And if aliens did manage to come to Earth, says (Center for SETI Research director Jill) Tarter, an admitted enthusiast, "they would likely have outgrown the aggressiveness that has served us so well." "Ready for Contact"

Parents sue attorney who shooped fake CP of their kids Posted: 21 Jan 2011 02:21 PM PST Wired News: "An Ohio lawyer who serves as an expert witness in child pornography cases might be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil damages for Photoshopping courtroom exhibits of children having sex."

Will robots fail to emotionally satisfy us (just like other humans)? Posted: 21 Jan 2011 02:26 PM PST Chronicle of Higher Education: "To her surprise, [Sherry Turkle] found that she deeply wanted Cog to interact with her rather than with a colleague who was there that day. She realized this human-looking machine was tapping into a deep human desire to see it as alive--as good a companion as any human. She describes it almost like a schoolgirl crush." (Submitterator, thanks Fiddleback)

Scientific research vessel witnesses whale threesome Posted: 21 Jan 2011 02:06 PM PST I think you should read this post by blogger Scicurious about a whale menage a trois. Two male whales. One female whale. Their sexual exploits documented in peer-reviewed research. Naturally, there are photos. One of which is not safe for work. The other will be not safe for work once you know what you're looking at. Have a good weekend. The whales certainly are.

Iggymoticons Posted: 21 Jan 2011 01:55 PM PST From the Can-You-Tell-It's-Friday Dept.: Maureen O'Connor at Gawker noticed that Iggy Pop's torso kinda looks like a face. I happen to agree, and to prove it, I headswapped it onto Sarah Palin, Sad Don Draper, and Iggy himself. Other LOLiggy possibilities included Joe Lieberman and Admiral Ackbar, both of whom have a striking resemblance to his torso. As a connoisseur of torsos that look like faces, I can say with absolute certainty that no torso-face lookalike has ever topped this NSFW Homer Simpson ladytorso lookalike.

CT Scans of ancient baby Egyptian mummy Posted: 21 Jan 2011 12:21 PM PST An ancient baby Egyptian mummy from the Royal Ontario Museum is CT scanned. Here's a trailer from a cool new Canadian TV series called Museum Secrets. According to Professor Nelson, the video tells us a few very important things about the baby. "The body of the baby is very compressed, while the head is reasonably intact. That suggests that the body wasn't compressed mechanically, or the skull would have been smashed flat too. The compression is probably due to the desiccation that is part of mummification." "The skeleton is fairly typical of a baby of this age, but babies of this age do not normally have a board thrust from their thorax into the base of their skull - nor do they have many of their thoracic vertebrae out of place. The rotation reveals the damage to the back and base of the skull, and the placement of the board between the shoulder blades where the thoracic spine should be." "The detailed analysis... shows the individual tooth buds, allowing us to estimate the age at death, at 9 months. It shows that the board probably displaced the bones of the base of the skull - thrusting them up into the cranial cavity." Museum Secrets: Episode 3: Inside the ROM broadcasts for the first time at 10 PM ET/PT tonight on History Television (Canada). Amanda Connon-Unda, a spokesperson from the production company said, "Currently the show is broadcasting (and with full episodes online) only in Canada, but USA and Europe broadcasts dates WILL BE released from our distributor, BBC Worldwide, later this year." Perhaps to soothe the ire of non-Canadians, Amanda gave us kind permission to post a video of the CT scan of the baby mummy. Museum Secrets: Inside ROM

Boing Boing mention in promo for PORTLANDIA (new show debuting tonight on IFC) Posted: 21 Jan 2011 01:17 PM PST [Video Link] At 0:38, a Boing Boing namecheck. Thanks, Portlandia, we love you already! The new show co-created/written/starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein will debut tonight, January 21, on IFC. (thanks, Joe Sabia!)

Hot Russian spy Anna Chapman to host TV show on weird mysteries Posted: 21 Jan 2011 01:04 PM PST A real-life X-Files: Anna Chapman, the sexy Russkie ginger-spook kicked out of the US last summer, tonight debuts as host of a new mystery show for the commercial Russian television network Ren TV. BBC News: "The trailer of the first edition of Mysteries of the World With Anna Chapman suggests the CIA's secrets are safe, at least this Friday evening." In the first ep, she'll report on a baby in Dagestan with skin marks said to resemble Koranic verses. Man, everything I've ever watched on Ren has been a little weird, but this sure is sounding like my kind of show. (thanks, Jason Weisberger) (Photo: Anna Chapman walks to deliver a speech during a congress of pro-Kremlin Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard) movement in Moscow, December 22, 2010. REUTERS/Alexander Natruskin )

Onion: American pundits exhibit eerie capacity to get inside lunatic killer's mind Posted: 21 Jan 2011 03:47 AM PST The Onion nails the uncanny facility the American punditocracy has exhibited for getting inside the mind of Jared Loughner: "It's strange, but when it comes to getting inside the mind of this human being who seems to possess no empathy, sense of morality, or hold on reality, and who is motivated only by personal animus and self-glorification, the nation's major political pundits have been amazingly adept..." Researchers at Horizon Media also reported that a number of prominent TV pundits appeared to be mimicking the exact same chilling gleam in Loughner's eye for what they could only speculate was "dramatic effect." Political Pundits Surprisingly Good At Getting Inside Mentally Unbalanced Shooter's Head (via Making Light)   Jared Lee Loughner: social media footprints of Arizona shooting ... Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner scared a motel clerk ... The gaming messageboard postings of Jared Lee Loughner - Boing Boing Former friend on Jared Lee Loughner's beliefs and motivations ... Can Jared Loughner help us get beyond good and evil? - Boing Boing The YouTube videos of Arizona shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner ...

Chase No Face Luchador Wrestler Mask Remix: "El Gato Sin Cara" Posted: 21 Jan 2011 12:48 PM PST Click to unmosaic. Larger sizes here. Created by Vladimir Verano. He's on Twitter. Previously on Boing Boing: "Meet Chase No Face, the heroic, seriously disfigured kitty [warning: potentially disturbing image]" and "Chase No Face frolicking in a basket [ditto]"

Croc swallows mobile phone, becomes constipated and burps ringtones Posted: 21 Jan 2011 02:26 PM PST Gena, a 14-year-old crocodile at an aquarium in Ukraine, "has been refusing food and acting listless after eating a cell phone dropped by a woman as she tried to photograph him." The phone keeps ringing. The woman "is resigned to losing her phone, but still wants its SIM card back since that has her precious photos and contacts." And the crocodile has bigger problems: he "has not eaten or had a bowel movement in four weeks and appears depressed and in pain." (AP via Yahoo News via Submitterator, thanks, Yenisei) Photo: this is not the actual croc in question, but it is indeed a croc. Shot by BB reader atomtigerzoo, and contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.

Brak Flag Posted: 21 Jan 2011 12:12 PM PST Brak Flag (About), by Aaron Muszalski aka sfslim. Previously: Cat Flag and Snack Flag. Someone needs to whip up a Mac Flag.

Chase Chaser (BB Flickr Pool) Posted: 21 Jan 2011 11:41 AM PST Photograph contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by BB reader jani º.º

Chase No Face frolicking in a basket Posted: 21 Jan 2011 11:43 AM PST [Video Link] Since so many Boing Boing readers were delighted with the heartwarming tale of a heroic, disfigured kitty known as Chase No Face [link to potentially disturbing post], I thought I'd post a video of Chase playing in her play-basket. Related: Josh Ellingson did a lovely illustration of her over at Laughing Squid. (thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Julian Assange tribute malware Posted: 21 Jan 2011 11:26 AM PST From f-secure.com: The Wikileaks founder has been immortalized in malware "Trojan-Dropper:W32/Agent.DQJN." Thoughtful of them not to forget copyright.

Mark Visser surfs massive waves on moonlit night with LED vest and surfboard Posted: 21 Jan 2011 02:38 PM PST Via Dangerous Minds, where there are links to more about how this happened, and a documentary to come of it, "Very early this morning surfer Mark Visser rode 30-40 foot giant waves in Maui in complete darkness lit only by LED lights built into his life vest and surfboard while helicopters hovered overhead filming the event. " [Video Link]

Squirrel Appreciation Day Posted: 21 Jan 2011 11:11 AM PST Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day. Seriously. Photograph of a squirrel in Flint, Michigan contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by BB reader de4dpulse.

Snack Flag Posted: 21 Jan 2011 10:55 AM PST Via Dangerous Minds (Thanks, Tara McGinley) Previously: Cat Flag.

Wayback Machine's new beta Posted: 21 Jan 2011 10:03 AM PST The Wayback Machine is an archive of Web pages from 1996 to the present. The Internet Archive has just released a beta version, and it's slick! Above, Boing Boing's home page in 1998. Now Online: The Internet Archive Releases Wayback Machine BETA (Submitterated by gdprice)

Chris & Cosey mix Posted: 21 Jan 2011 09:59 AM PST The Quietus presents a wonderful 90 minute musical journey from BB pals Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti of Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey fame. Along with their own music and remixes, they've selected tracks from Art Of Noise, Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld's ANbb, Plastikman, The Fall, Kraftwerk, Coil & Rose McDowall, Angelo Badalamenti, and more. This is the best music for today. From The Quietus: If we were running a chart of all the artists featured on the Quietus mix series, out ahead of the pack in terms of frequency of inclusion would be Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti. The past few months have seen not only Optimo's vinyl reissue of Carter's brilliant The Space Between, but also four Chris & Cosey LPS originally released in the early 80s, Heartbeat, Trance, Songs Of Love & Lust and Exotika. February 4th will see their first performance in years at Richard D Clouston's Cosey Club at the ICA, supported by Factory Floor. There, they promise "classic C&C tracks from their substantial back catalogue, reworked and accompanied by mash-ups of new and old C&C video projections." It's surely set to be just one more step on their music reaching a far wider, contemporary audience. We're therefore honoured that Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti have compiled Number Eight in the Quietus mix series. "Quietus Mix 008: Chris & Cosey" Carter Tutti & Chris & Cosey

Crawfish discovery (and a recipe) Posted: 21 Jan 2011 09:28 AM PST Researchers have named a new species of giant crayfish. Barbicambarus simmonsi lives in Tennessee and somehow went unnoticed until 2009. Which reminds me that it's been a while since I last ate crawdad. Delicious, delicious crawdad. If you're lucky enough to live in the sort of place that sells bags of frozen, cooked crawfish tails in the supermarket*, I highly recommend the following recipe as a yummy, if not particularly healthy, snack: 1) Put one bag of thawed crawfish tails in non-plastic container that you can cover and seal. Glass storage bowls would be good. 2) Add equal parts olive oil and white vinegar to cover the crawfish. Add salt, black pepper and/or red pepper flakes. 3) Cover, and let sit in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. Make sure your fridge isn't set really cold, otherwise the olive oil will firm up. If the olive oil firms up, let the container sit on a counter until it goes liquid again. 4) Serve bowl of marinated crawfish with forks and saltine crackers. Put crawfish on cracker. Eat. Yum. Pairs nicely with a cheap beer. Also, you know, this should go without saying, but eat the plentiful species of crawfish. Not the rare ones. Even if they are extra large. *Minnesota, to my knowledge, is not one of those places. But if you know something I don't know, speak up. It's been forever since I had a good etouffee.

Steampunk Palin comic book Posted: 21 Jan 2011 09:20 AM PST Chris Murphy of Comics Alliance reviews issue number 1 of Steampunk Palin. The story starts in the near future, in the immediate aftermath of a war that has destroyed all the Earth's oil. A new power source is needed, and Sarah Palin steps forward to suggest steam power as a replacement. A conglomerate consisting of big oil and nuclear power interests makes a counterproposal by blowing her up with a bomb at the meeting where she suggests this. ... Six months later Sarah Palin wakes up to find that she now has body more than half made of robot parts. Powered by steam. It's fitting that a cartoonish person gets her own comic book! Steampunk Palin' Comic More Insane Than You Imagined (Thanks, Felipe Li!)

Flowers for Paul the Octopus Posted: 21 Jan 2011 09:09 AM PST Paul the Octopus was not psychic, but he does now have a nice memorial statue. (Via Jennifer Welsh)

Machine balances pencil on its tip Posted: 21 Jan 2011 09:04 AM PST [Video Link] Finally! In our demonstration, we address the challenging problem of balancing an arbitrary standard pencil, based solely on visual information. A stereo pair of silicon retinas reports vision events caused by the moving pencil, which is standing on its tip on an actuated table. Then our processing algorithm extracts the pencil position and angle without ever using a "full scene" visual representation, but simply by processing only the spikes relevant to the pencil's motion. Our system uses neurally inspired hardware and a neurally inspired form of communication to achieve a difficult goal. Thus, it is truly a Neural Information Processing System. Pencil Balancer (Via Make)

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