The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Brown recluse Spider Man
• Which credit card companies will let you buy marijuana?
• Afghan artist adopts "Jihadi Gangster" persona to lampoon official corruption
• YouTube introduces Creative Commons option for uploaders, remixers
• After high-profile sexual assault cases, 2 NYC hotels to give maids "panic button"
• The War Project: Interview with Staff Sgt. Jason Deckman
• Baaa: experiments in ovine geometry
• Too young to wed: inside the secret world of child brides
• When it comes to locking up suspects endlessly on secret evidence, Bagram dwarfs Gitmo
• NATO fears Anonymous, Wikileaks as "threat to member-states' security"
• Wikileaks publishes US docs on Egypt nuclear power program
• Apple "Mac Defender" malware fix busted in 8 hours
• Google: recent Gmail phishing scam originated in China
• Watch sessions from the World Science Festival via webcast
• June 1, 1969: "Give Peace a Chance," the John Lennon and Yoko Ono "Bed-in" chant
• Japan: League of elder heroes volunteer to clean up Fukushima, instead of young folks
• Report: Northrop Grumman latest military contractor to be hacked
• Google launches "+1" feature for sharing, upvoting content around the web
• TOM THE DANCING BUG: Lo, What Great Plans For Louis Maltby?
• Twitter to launch "relevant tweets" search, with photo, video results
• iPhone: "You can't make phone calls, but you can't get cancer."
• Inside a Bitcoin-powered online illicit drug mall
• Intel's "Museum of Me"
• Make friends with strangers on "conceptual walks" in NYC
• Drawing every weird creature in every HP Lovecraft story
• Point a laser at a plane, and US may fine you $11K per incident
• Student journalism project on 3D printing
• Kotaku bows to, then headbutts, Warner Brothers' lawyers
• $105M high-tech high school in CA built, can't open due to budget cuts
• Pickled vegetables and coffee also on WHO's "possibly carcinogenic" list

Brown recluse Spider Man Posted: 01 Jun 2011 11:33 PM PDT From the Hark A Vagrant webcomic, a series of strips asking what Spider Man would be like if he'd been bitten by a brown recluse spider. Brown Recluse Spider Man (via Super Punch)

Which credit card companies will let you buy marijuana? Posted: 02 Jun 2011 03:56 AM PDT Christopher Maag of credit.com reports on the credit card companies that let you get stoned now and pay later. "The issue of purchasing medical marijuana is an emerging issue, and we're continuing to look into it," says Jim Issokson, a spokesman for MasterCard. Visa and Discover also allow people to purchase medical marijuana in states where it's legal. Citing the fact that marijuana-medical or not-is still illegal according to federal law, American Express does not allow its customers to use its cards for pot purchases of any kind. "It is our policy to adhere to the federal law in such matters," Bradley R. Manor, an AmEx spokesman, told Smartmoney.com. Want to Charge Weed? What Credit Card are You Carrying?

Afghan artist adopts "Jihadi Gangster" persona to lampoon official corruption Posted: 02 Jun 2011 02:47 AM PDT Aman Mojadidi, a Florida-born Afghan-American, lives in Kabul, where he uses surreal stunts and comedy to highlight corruption and incompetence. He dresses up like a cop and stops motorists and then gives them bribes, he puts up election posters advertising his Jihadi credentials and asking for the public's votes, and so on. He's like the Ali G of Kabul. Mr. Mojadidi, who spent his teen years as a vegetarian, high-school dropout and surfer in Florida, most famously channeled widespread contempt for the country's corrupt leaders by adopting the persona of "Jihadi Gangster"--a comical blend of Afghan mujahedeen and American gangsta rappers. The most controversial photograph from his "Jihadi Gangster" series--"After a Long Day's Work"--featured Mr. Mojadidi sitting on a couch in front of a gold-plated prosthetic leg and a table filled with alcohol, cashews and jade-tipped bullets. With his black turban and golden gun hanging down below his long gray beard, Mr. Mojadidi was pictured blithely using a remote to switch TV channels as a scantily clad woman with a blue burqa covering her face fawned over her man. This 'Jihadi' Is Armed With a Subversive Sense of Humor

YouTube introduces Creative Commons option for uploaders, remixers Posted: 01 Jun 2011 06:05 PM PDT YouTube + Creative Commons = awesome. Starting tomorrow at 9am Pacific time, YouTube will offer the option to license videos with the Creative Commons CC-By-3.0 license, and will introduce new remixing options in YouTube's cloud-based video editor. At launch, YouTube reps told me over the phone earlier today, only the one license option will be available (as opposed to, say, a choice from multiple license classes which include options to disallow commercial re-use). The thinking: start simple. Multiple license classes might be overwhelmingly complex for casual users for whom this may be a first introduction to Creative Commons. From leaked YouTube announcement, which will go live in the AM: Now, look no further than the Creative Commons library accessible through YouTube Video Editor to make this happen. Creative Commons provides a simple way to grant and use copyright permissions to creative works. You can now access an ever-expanding library of Creative Commons videos to edit and incorporate into your own projects. To find a video, just search in the YouTube search bar or from within the YouTube Video Editor. We're working with organizations like C-SPAN, PublicResource.org, Voice of America, Al Jazeera and others, so that over 10,000 Creative Commons videos are available for your creative use. To get started, visit youtube.com/editor and select the CC tab: Any video you create using Creative Commons content will automatically show the source videos' titles underneath the video player: As part of the Creative Commons launch on YouTube, you'll also be able to mark any or all of your videos with the Creative Commons CC BY license that lets others share and remix your work, so long as they give you credit. To mark your video with the Creative Commons license, select 'Creative Commons Attribution license' on the upload page or on the Video Description page: * YouTube didn't intend the news to go live today; users spotted something wonky when someone made a mistake on the stealth part, and news leaked out early. I have never heard of this blog, but the reminder of "internal dogfood" as a Silicon Valley term was amusing, and revealing.

After high-profile sexual assault cases, 2 NYC hotels to give maids "panic button" Posted: 02 Jun 2011 01:46 AM PDT The Wall Street Journal reports that the Pierre Hotel and the Sofitel New York, two hotels involved in high-profile cases of rich male guests sexual assaulting maids, will provide housekeepers with panic buttons to summon help if they are attacked. A union for hotel workers "has begun working on legislation to make panic buttons mandatory at all New York hotels and would be asking for language requiring them in the next union contract. The current contact expires next year." That's a start, but I say: give 'em guns. (via Kim Zetter; pic via bardiche's tumblr)

The War Project: Interview with Staff Sgt. Jason Deckman Posted: 01 Jun 2011 03:22 PM PDT Susannah Breslin's "The War Project," a series of interviews with veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has a new feature up: the story of Staff Sgt. Jason Deckman. The 38-year-old veteran has been in the Army for 16 years. "I dream about my weapon," he tells Susannah. Deckman is a combat engineer who has deployed five times--to Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, and Iraq twice. He has served with the 3rd Infantry Division, 1st Armored Division, 1st Cavalry Division, 54th Engineer Battalion in Bamberg, Germany, and 420th Engineer Brigade. In early 2007, he transferred to the Army Reserves and is currently assigned to the 980th Engineer Battalion at Camp Mabry in Austin. Later this year, he will deploy to Afghanistan. He lives in Killeen, Texas. From Deckman's story: One of the things that I got was I had nightmares for a while. I've been having a few more lately. It's a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. It's not normal to think you're going to be killed in the very next second. It does weird things to your brain. I dream about my weapon. I can point it at the enemy, and I can see him coming at me, and I pull that trigger, and it feels like someone jammed gum inside there, and I can pull it, and pull it, and pull it, and it only budges a little bit at a time. I didn't dream about IEDs while I was in Iraq. It wasn't until after I'd come back. I had one dream after I came back where I was walking through this little, shitty mud shack village. I kind of went up a hill on one side, and there was a little road come down to this ditch. Somehow I had fallen in the ditch, I couldn't get out of the ditch, and the enemy was up at the top of the hill rolling IEDs down the road at me. INTERVIEW: Staff Sgt. Jason Deckman (thewarproject.com, interview and photo by Susannah Breslin) Read Susannah's post at Forbes about the process of helping these vets tell their stories. Follow her on Twitter.

Baaa: experiments in ovine geometry Posted: 01 Jun 2011 02:43 PM PDT Cyriak Harris, one of my favorite animators, has a new one out. It's called Baaa and is about multiplying, mutant sheep. [Cyriak via Laughing Squid]

Too young to wed: inside the secret world of child brides Posted: 01 Jun 2011 02:31 PM PDT National Geographic has a riveting photo-essay and related feature article out on the problem of child marriages (the focus is on the Mideast and south Asia, though the phenomenon is not limited to this region). The photography is by Stephanie Sinclair, and it is incredible work. Above: Kandahar policewoman Malalai Kakar arrests a man who repeatedly stabbed his wife, 15, for disobeying him. "Nothing," Kakar said, when asked what would happen to the husband. "Men are kings here." Kakar was later killed by the Taliban. From the story by Cynthia Gorney, which makes clear there's no easy solution: The people who work full-time trying to prevent child marriage, and to improve women's lives in societies of rigid tradition, are the first to smack down the impertinent notion that anything about this endeavor is simple. Forced early marriage thrives to this day in many regions of the world--arranged by parents for their own children, often in defiance of national laws, and understood by whole communities as an appropriate way for a young woman to grow up when the alternatives, especially if they carry a risk of her losing her virginity to someone besides her husband, are unacceptable. (...)[I]n communities of pressing poverty, where nonvirgins are considered ruined for marriage and generations of ancestors have proceeded in exactly this fashion--where grandmothers and great-aunts are urging the marriages forward, in fact, insisting, I did it this way and so shall she--it's possible to see how the most dedicated anti-child-marriage campaigner might hesitate, trying to fathom where to begin. "One of our workers had a father turn to him, in frustration," says Sreela Das Gupta, a New Delhi health specialist who previously worked for the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), one of several global nonprofits working actively against early marriage. "This father said, 'If I am willing to get my daughter married late, will you take responsibility for her protection?' The worker came back to us and said, 'What am I supposed to tell him if she gets raped at 14?' These are questions we don't have answers to." (thanks Marilyn Terrell, via BB Submitterator)

When it comes to locking up suspects endlessly on secret evidence, Bagram dwarfs Gitmo Posted: 01 Jun 2011 02:13 PM PDT "Some 1,700 detainees at the Bagram U.S. Air Base in Afghanistan are being held without charges or a trial, primarily on the basis of secret evidence that they never get to see or challenge." [Nieman Watchdog Journalism Project, via Spy Talk]

NATO fears Anonymous, Wikileaks as "threat to member-states' security" Posted: 01 Jun 2011 02:03 PM PDT James Nixon at thinq.com: "NATO leaders have been warned that Wikileaks-loving 'hacktivist' collective Anonymous could pose a threat to member states' security, following recent attacks on the US Chamber of Commerce and defence contractor HBGary - and promise to 'persecute' its members." Here's a draft report by General Rapporteur Lord Jopling which claims Anonymous "is becoming more and more sophisticated", and "could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files".   Pentagon: Hacking can count as an act of war Pentagon has list of "cyber-weapons" for use in computer warfare ... Court forces Twitter to expose anonymous government critic - Boing ... Two veteran Anonymous members say group is responsible for Sony ... Anonymous dumps huge torrent of Chamber of Commerce docs

Wikileaks publishes US docs on Egypt nuclear power program Posted: 01 Jun 2011 01:54 PM PDT The news agency Al-Masry Al-Youm in Egypt is partnering with Wikileaks to publish secret U.S. documents "which reveal that an American diplomat recommended that the US use information on the presence of radioactive material in Egypt as a means of applying diplomatic pressure on the country." The recommendation was made following a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) indicating the presence of highly enriched uranium particles. According to one of the documents, the IAEA independently began an investigation into "Egypt's nuclear files". According to the document concerning the "investigation into enriched uranium particles found at the Anshas power plant," dated 5 August 2010, Geoffrey Pyatt, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, recommended that the US employ the "implementation of safeguards" report issued annually by the IAEA "to pressure Egypt into being more cooperative in the council and in general leadership." Pyatt also recommended the US show "its concern over the highly enriched uranium or the intention of enriching it", as recommended by Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Orion. According to another secret document leaked from the US Embassy, Egypt's Minister of Electricity, Hassan Younes, awarded a bid to Australia's Worley Parsons instead of the Bechtel Power Company of the US. Egypt's Nuclear Power Plant Authority offered a US$188 million contract for ten years for the development of Egypt's first nuclear power plant. Via @wikileaks. In related news, Wikileaks is partnering with a news organization in Haiti to release US diplomatic cables related to Haiti.

Apple "Mac Defender" malware fix busted in 8 hours Posted: 01 Jun 2011 01:39 PM PDT From CNET: "Less than a day after Apple tackled the malware threats in OS X with an updated implementation of its malware detection technologies, the MacDefender malware developers have issued another variant that bypasses Apple's definitions to root out and remove the malware."   Apple acknowledges "Mac Defender" malware, promises fix Beware MAC Defender: OSX malware disguised as anti-virus software ...

Google: recent Gmail phishing scam originated in China Posted: 01 Jun 2011 01:31 PM PDT Not so much Gmail; more like Jinan-mail, amirite? From Google: Through the strength of our cloud-based security and abuse detection systems*, we recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing. This campaign, which appears to originate from Jinan, China, affected what seem to be the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users including, among others, senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists.

Watch sessions from the World Science Festival via webcast Posted: 01 Jun 2011 01:24 PM PDT The World Science Festival is an awesome event that brings together scientists, communicators, and the public for fascinating conversations and eye-opening presentations. The downside: It's in New York City (also, most of the sessions are already sold out.) But all is not lost: Several sessions from the conference will be webcast—some live, some after-the-fact—and, as a bonus, the webcasts come with audience interaction and running commentary delivered by science journalists from the staff of Scientific American and, also, by me! The webcasts start tomorrow (with Sci Am's Philip Yam hosting a panel on dark matter and dark energy) and run through Saturday. The full webcast schedule is online. I've been asked to host the panel that inspired my recent blog post about tornadoes, uncertainty, and the risks of climate change. "The Illusion of Certainty: Risk, Probability, and Chance" will feature mathematicians Marcus du Sautoy and Amir Aczel, psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer, physicist Leonard Mlodinow, and cognitive scientist Josh Tenenbaum. The actual panel happens on Thursday night. The webcast, with my commentary, starts on Friday at 4:45 Eastern. I'll also post the webcast to BoingBoing on Saturday.

June 1, 1969: "Give Peace a Chance," the John Lennon and Yoko Ono "Bed-in" chant Posted: 01 Jun 2011 01:35 PM PDT Video Link, from ImaginePeace.com. More about the event on June 1, 1969, on Wikipedia (via Yoko Ono/Imagine Peace).

Japan: League of elder heroes volunteer to clean up Fukushima, instead of young folks Posted: 01 Jun 2011 01:18 PM PDT A group of more than 200 elderly people in Japan have volunteered to help clean up the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station, where meltdowns and messes have caused radiation leaks. BBC News: The Skilled Veterans Corps, as they call themselves, is made up of retired engineers and other professionals, all over the age of 60. They say they should be facing the dangers of radiation, not the young. It was while watching the television news that Yasuteru Yamada decided it was time for his generation to stand up. No longer could he be just an observer of the struggle to stabilise the Fukushima nuclear plant. The retired engineer is reporting back for duty at the age of 72, and he is organising a team of pensioners to go with him. For weeks now Mr Yamada has been getting back in touch with old friends, sending out e-mails and even messages on Twitter. (photo of Mr. Yamada courtesy BBC News)

Report: Northrop Grumman latest military contractor to be hacked Posted: 01 Jun 2011 02:08 PM PDT Just days after news that top military contractors Lockheed Martin and L-3 were targets of hacking attacks, news today that defense supplier Northrop Grumman Corp. may also have been hit with a network intrusion related to an earlier breach of RSA's SecurID system. From Fox News: Lockheed Martin said its network had been compromised last week, and defense contractor L-3 Communications was targeted recently, as well. Both intrusions involved the use of remote-access security tokens, experts say. On May 26, Northrop Grumman shut down remote access to its network without warning -- catching even senior managers by surprise and leading to speculation that a similar breach had occurred. "We went through a domain name and password reset across the entire organization," the source told FoxNews.com. "This caught even my executive management off guard and caused chaos." "I've been here a good amount of time and they've never done anything this way -- we always have advanced notice," the person said, speculating that the surprise action was a response to a similar network assault. And Kevin Poulsen at Wired News has a related report up with more details about the attack on L-3. (via Kevin Poulsen)   RSA SecurID breach linked to hacker attack on Lockheed Martin ...

Google launches "+1" feature for sharing, upvoting content around the web Posted: 01 Jun 2011 01:05 PM PDT Via the official Google Blog, word that the Gooogle "+1 button" introduced in March ("recommend content to your friends and contacts directly from Google search results and ads") will now be available to the whole web. "As a result, you might start seeing +1 appear on sites large and small across the Internet," the introductory post continues. A bit of internet proto-history: the +1 button dates back before the graphics and media-rich web as we now know it. Exactly when and where did its use online originate? There is some proof that "+1" was used an indicator of approval or recommendation on Usenet and the Apache list back in 1993 (thanks, @waxy). It was also used on IRC, BBSes and Usenet as far back as the mid-'80s, from what I can tell (thanks to all on Twitter who chimed in to the conversation this morning with personal recollections). A bit of internal BoingBoing sharing: we've used it on internal email threads for as long as I can remember, sometimes to the amusement of newcomers.

TOM THE DANCING BUG: Lo, What Great Plans For Louis Maltby? Posted: 31 May 2011 11:53 AM PDT

Twitter to launch "relevant tweets" search, with photo, video results Posted: 01 Jun 2011 01:55 PM PDT Twitter today announced that it will soon roll out a new version of search that includes photo and video results. "Relevance" is the focus, rather than chronological order. The announcement came at the "All Things D" conference, and Joshua Topolsky had an interesting followup question: Just asked @dickc about why Twitter won't let me get at older tweets. Costolo's reply, as paraphrased by Joshua [on Twitter]: Basically? The infrastructure isn't there. Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land addressed this shortcoming back in 2010, with a pointer to third-party services that can help: basically, Topsy is it. Or, I suppose, you could always ask the Library of Congress!

iPhone: "You can't make phone calls, but you can't get cancer." Posted: 01 Jun 2011 11:20 AM PDT FunnyOrDie takes on the widely mis-reported WHO study on cellphones and cancer. Video Link, via Tim Shey.   The World Health Organization, cell phones, and cancer--what's ... Why People Think Cell Phones Cause Cancer

Inside a Bitcoin-powered online illicit drug mall Posted: 01 Jun 2011 11:15 AM PDT Gawker's Adrian Chen: "Through a combination of anonymity technology and a sophisticated user-feedback system, Silk Road makes buying and selling illegal drugs as easy as buying used electronics--and seemingly as safe. It's Amazon--if Amazon sold mind-altering chemicals."

Intel's "Museum of Me" Posted: 01 Jun 2011 11:10 AM PDT As unconventional online advertising goes, this one sure is interesting and elegant: Intel's "Museum of Me," which creates a "museum" of your online life, via the data in your Facebook account. Sure is getting a lot of attention among the interneterati this week. Pro tip: if you want to succeed at internets, tap into narcissism.

Make friends with strangers on "conceptual walks" in NYC Posted: 01 Jun 2011 02:34 PM PDT Poet Jon Cotner takes people on "conceptual walks" around New York City: "I'll give each participant two lines to repeat to strangers on the sidewalk. Possible lines include: "That looks pretty cozy" (uttered when someone approaches with a baby carriage); "That's a good-looking wolfpack" (uttered when someone passes with three or more dogs); "I hear that's a nice way to cool off" (said when someone passes with an ice-cream cone, iced coffee, or slushy) ... they inevitably produce laughter and warm, oceanic feelings. They replace urban anonymity with something bordering on affection -- even if it's fleeting. The accumulation of these moments can be blissful."

Drawing every weird creature in every HP Lovecraft story Posted: 01 Jun 2011 10:40 AM PDT TheLoveCraftsMan sez, "An artist is spending a year trying to draw every Lovecraft creature ever mentioned. His ultimate goal is "to draw EVERY creature he ever describes (sticking to Lovecraft only so far) from Elder Things and and The Great Race (who are described in immense detail) to Vooniths and Wamps (who are only mentioned)." THINGS THAT DEVOUR AND DISSOLVE "You think those floundering things wiped out the servants? Fool, they are harmless! But the servants are gone, aren't they?" "Things are hunting me now--the things that devour and dissolve--but I know how to elude them." "My pets are not pretty, for they come out of places where aesthetic standards are--very different. Disintegration is quite painless, I assure you--but I want you to see them. I almost saw them, but I knew how to stop." H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond yog-blogsoth (Thanks, TheLovecraftsman!)

Point a laser at a plane, and US may fine you $11K per incident Posted: 01 Jun 2011 10:44 AM PDT Idiots who point lasers at planes or helicopters (doing so can temporarily blind the pilots of those aircraft) may now face fines as high as $11,000 per violation, according to the head of the Federal Aviation Administration. (AP)

Student journalism project on 3D printing Posted: 01 Jun 2011 10:42 AM PDT Northwestern journalism student Harry Swartout published a multimedia reporting project all about 3D printing. He interviewed a slew of people, including folks from MakerBot Industries and Bespoke Innovations. Harry called me too and I was happy to share my limited perspective on the topic. He also visited Columbian Model and Exhibit Works, the studio that printed an entire scale model of Chicago for the Chicago Architecture Foundation. (Image above.) A slideshow of his images from Columbian Model and Exhibit Works is here. And the whole package is on his blog: Harry Swartout on 3-D Printing.

Kotaku bows to, then headbutts, Warner Brothers' lawyers Posted: 01 Jun 2011 10:22 AM PDT Nondisclosure agreements typically have reporters agree not to run stories before a certain date. Warner Brothers' NDA, however, apparently bans signitories from covering information already published elsewhere. Game blog Kotaku, doubtless chafing under such an NDA, suggests this is to 'lock in exclusives,' i.e. to prevent critical coverage of info published early in other media. Therefore, it will not cover Warner Brothers' games at all for three months.

$105M high-tech high school in CA built, can't open due to budget cuts Posted: 01 Jun 2011 11:24 AM PDT Hillcrest High in Riverside, California is just-completed, $105 million high-tech high-school that is desperately needed to alleviate crowding in nearby schools. But the Alvord Unified School District can't open the doors because they've had so many cuts there's no money to staff or run the school: It's a bitter disappointment to 13-year-old Jacob Barrera, who on Thursday graduated from Arizona Middle School and had been looking forward to breaking in the new campus next year. Since sixth grade, Jacob and the rest of what was to have been the first freshman class have been dazzled by school officials, who showed them computer mock-ups of the school and let them pick its colors and mascot: the cardinal-and-gold Trojans. Then, last fall, the district broke the news that Hillcrest High would be mothballed for at least a year and the kids sent to La Sierra High School, a campus with 3,400 students, more than twice the number it was designed for. What if they built a school and nobody got to go? (via Super Punch)

Pickled vegetables and coffee also on WHO's "possibly carcinogenic" list Posted: 01 Jun 2011 09:42 AM PDT There was a lot of fuss yesterday about the World Health Organization classifying cellphone use as possibly carcinogenic (PDF). Top marks for fear-mongering go, for example, to the Daily Mail, which described it as "an authoritative verdict" on the dangers of cellphone use. Also on the WHO's list of possible carcinogens: pickled vegetables and coffee. [Bad Science]

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