The Latest from Boing Boing

---

• Automatic TV ad, 1957
• Branch Holder for making stick-swords
• New York legislature says "I do" to same-sex marriage (big photo gallery)
• ... And just one more thing
• Hackers publish "private" Tony Blair info
• What happened before the Vancouver riot kiss
• Cellphone from bin Laden raid links al Qaeda to Pakistan's intelligence agency
• NTSB report blames cellphone, laptop distraction for "Duck Boat" incident that killed 2, injured 26
• Bin Laden wanted a marketing makeover for al Qaeda, documents show
• Gawker chats up someone identified as a LulzSec member
• Survey: Nine out of ten businesses have had a data breach in the past year
• Lulz Logs Leaked
• HOWTO: Bedside lamp in a hollow book
• Russia: head of online payments company arrested over cyber-attack on rival
• How to hack the New York Times paywall
• Artist's statement translated
• Peter Falk, 1927-2011
• Mexican Congress votes to reject ACTA
• What are your favorite sfnal worlds?
• First Hobbit stills released
• CopWatch and OpenWatch: covert recording apps for interactions with authority figures
• Skynet: It began in Vegas
• Gruesome anti-smoking messages: do they really deter smoking?
• What is Horsebic?
• Early 20th century electricity class
• Walking Dead 14: taking things-get-worse stories as far as they'll go
• Comic Book Legal Defense Fund backs traveller arrested at Canadian border for "pornographic" manga on his hard drive
• Rochester police use selective enforcement of parking laws to harass attendees at a meeting in support of Emily Good
• The Power of Open: Stories of Creative Commons success

Automatic TV ad, 1957 Posted: 24 Jun 2011 11:51 PM PDT My goodness, there's a lot to like about this 1957 ad for Crossley's "Fully Automatic" TVs. First of all: the sets are gorgeous. And the lady with the pearl bracelets who's effortlessly tuning her sets using the fully automatic mechanism? Look at that manicure! And the accessories! The Saturday Evening Post, September 15 1956, p. 66-67

Branch Holder for making stick-swords Posted: 24 Jun 2011 11:47 PM PDT This is a cute design concept: a rubber sword-guard intended to be affixed to stray branches to make them more sword-like. I can't tell whether designer Naama Agassi has produced these, but they look like they'd be a fun DIY project to make out of cardboard or Sugru or some other material. Branch Holder (via Geekologie)

New York legislature says "I do" to same-sex marriage (big photo gallery) Posted: 24 Jun 2011 10:14 PM PDT People on the street cheer after the New York Senate passed a bill legalizing gay marriage in New York June 24, 2011. The state legislature of New York tonight made same-sex marriages legal. New York now becomes the sixth state to allow gay people to get married, and the most populous state to do so. Reuters: "State senators voted 33-29 to approve marriage equality legislation introduced by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat in his first year of office." Gov. Cuomo has already signed the bill, so it will become law 30 days from now. Human rights, dignity, equality, gift registries, tax breaks, divorces, and everlasting love for all. They're celebrating in the streets tonight. Below, a couple follows the New York Senate sessions via twitter as they await the vote announcement. More photos follow of crowds awaiting, then celebrating the news, at the historic Stonewall Inn. The one photo that's really making the rounds tonight, however, is this one of a rainbow-lit Empire State Building. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi Below, people celebrate at Stonewall Inn, NYC, an historic site in the fight for gay rights. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

... And just one more thing Posted: 24 Jun 2011 06:09 PM PDT [Video Link] Columbo was as much a part of my childhood as Big Bird, She-Ra, and Jim Lehrer. In honor of Peter Falk's passing, I present this clip of America's greatest detective explaining why he loves his job. It seemed like a fitting send-off for the actor who brought Columbo to life.

Hackers publish "private" Tony Blair info Posted: 24 Jun 2011 03:41 PM PDT Team Poison, one of hacking outfit LulzSec's rivals, has published what it claims is private information about former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other British government officials. In this Zine: - Tony Blair Office Members Information - Tony Blair Address & Phone Book (Includes family, friends, MPs & lords) - Katie Kay Curriculum vitae (Tony Blairs special adviser) Posted to pastebin, the release contains the names, address and other contact info of numerous people and a detailed resumé said to be Kay's. It also states that the information was obtained in December 2010 and that Team Poison still has access to the webmail server that yielded it. In an earlier tweet, the group (styled TeaMp0isonN_) earlier promised that Blair "and his cockroaches are getting owned tonight. - War IS Terror." Blair, with U.S. President George W. Bush, agitated for the war in Iraq and is accused of manufacturing and exaggerating evidence of the Iraqi regime's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction to support their cause. Depending on the source, up to 600,000 civilians died during the war and the subsequent U.S. occupation.

What happened before the Vancouver riot kiss Posted: 23 Jun 2011 10:51 PM PDT Here's a little video showing what happened before Alexandra Thomas and Scott Jones had their iconic kiss in the midst of the Vancouver riot -- basically, the Vancouver PD laid an unprovoked beating on Thomas and Jones gave her a kiss to comfort her as she lay groaning on the road. Vancouver riot kissing couple video shows what happened before photo (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Cellphone from bin Laden raid links al Qaeda to Pakistan's intelligence agency Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:46 PM PDT When US forces raided that Abbotabad compound and killed bin Laden, they brought back the cellphone belonging to OBL's "trusted courier." That device "contained contacts to a militant group that is a longtime asset of Pakistan's intelligence agency, senior American officials who have been briefed on the findings say." More in the New York Times.

NTSB report blames cellphone, laptop distraction for "Duck Boat" incident that killed 2, injured 26 Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:42 PM PDT Multitasking sinks ships. From gcaptain, the maritime professionals' blog: The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) today determined that the mate operating a tugboat near Philadelphia on July 7, 2010, failed to maintain a proper lookout while towing a barge up the Delaware River. The investigation revealed that the mate was inattentive to his duties while navigating the vessel because he was distracted by his repeated use of a cell phone and lap top computer while communicating with his family who were dealing with a family emergency. In the accident, a 250-foot-long sludge barge was being towed alongside a 78.9-foot long tugboat (which had 5 crew on board). The barge collided with an anchored amphibious passenger vehicle (carrying 35 passengers and two crew members), which sank in about 55 feet of water. Two people on that passenger vessel were killed; 26 passengers and a crewmember suffered minor injuries.

Bin Laden wanted a marketing makeover for al Qaeda, documents show Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:50 PM PDT Documents obtained by US special forces from the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed show that the terror mastermind was considering a rebranding campaign for al Qaeda, and a possible merger with other regional militant groups. Mat Apuzzo, in the Associated Press, got a briefing from US officials familiar with the documents: The problem with the name al-Qaida, bin Laden wrote in a letter recovered from his compound in Pakistan, was that it lacked a religious element, something to convince Muslims worldwide that they are in a holy war with America. Maybe something like Taifat al-Tawhed Wal-Jihad, meaning Monotheism and Jihad Group, would do the trick, he wrote. Or Jama'at I'Adat al-Khilafat al-Rashida, meaning Restoration of the Caliphate Group. As bin Laden saw it, the problem was that the group's full name, al-Qaida al-Jihad, for The Base of Holy War, had become short-handed as simply al-Qaida. Lopping off the word "jihad," bin Laden wrote, allowed the West to "claim deceptively that they are not at war with Islam." Maybe it was time for al-Qaida to bring back its original name. Can I make a suggestion, dead guy? Go Silicon Valley. Just take out some vowels, a la Flickr, gdgt, Tumblr, and the like. "LQD."

Gawker chats up someone identified as a LulzSec member Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:17 PM PDT "LulzSec is the expression of energy through comically malicious and entertaining cybermaterials."—"Topiary," as interviewed over Skype chat by Gawker's Adrian Chen. This person is identified as "a leading member of Lulz Security," or LulzSec.

Survey: Nine out of ten businesses have had a data breach in the past year Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:12 PM PDT SC Magazine: "Ninety percent of organizations have sustained at least one data breach in the past year, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Ponemon Institute and Juniper Networks." Wait. There's a Pokémon institute?

Lulz Logs Leaked Posted: 24 Jun 2011 12:55 PM PDT Looks like someone affiliated with LulzSec leaked some chat logs to the Guardian. Here's the breathless analysis. For what it's worth, Boing Boing has not independently verified the validity of these logs, and pranks by pranksters are always possible.

HOWTO: Bedside lamp in a hollow book Posted: 23 Jun 2011 10:47 PM PDT Here's a great HOWTO for building a bedside lamp in a hollow book. The book's cover is the switch, and the book's designer says he wanted to prove that literature is illuminating. How To: Not Your Ordinary Book Light. (via Red Ferret)

Russia: head of online payments company arrested over cyber-attack on rival Posted: 24 Jun 2011 12:46 PM PDT Authorities in Russia have arrested Pavel Vrublevsky, co-founder of Russia's biggest online payment processor ChronoPay, over charges that he paid a hacker to attack his company's competitors. More: Joe Menn in the Financial Times, and Brian Krebs at Krebs on Security.

How to hack the New York Times paywall Posted: 24 Jun 2011 12:49 PM PDT [Video Link] It is very complicated. Here is a very important world exclusive video explaining the complex hacking skills required. (Joe Sabia)

Artist's statement translated Posted: 23 Jun 2011 10:42 PM PDT Charlotte Young has produced an "artist's statement" video with handy subtitles intended to de-bullshytte-ify this often obscure literary form. Artist's Statement (via JWZ)

Peter Falk, 1927-2011 Posted: 24 Jun 2011 02:34 PM PDT

Mexican Congress votes to reject ACTA Posted: 23 Jun 2011 10:40 PM PDT The Mexican Congress has passed a bill rejecting ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. ACTA was negotiated in secret, and, despite the name, is largely concerned with extremist copyright measures allowing for (and even mandating) expanded surveillance for copyright infringement, easier seizure rules, and easier Internet censorship. Now, the question is whether or not the Mexican executive branch will try to ignore the will of Congress on this issue and sign ACTA anyway. Mexican Congress Says No To ACTA (Thanks, Xeni)

What are your favorite sfnal worlds? Posted: 23 Jun 2011 10:35 PM PDT Victoria sez, "Underland Press and author Jeff VanderMeer are building a book of the top 30 science fiction and fantasy worlds--from Ringworld to Dune, from Middle Earth to Lankhmar and beyond. This link goes to the web form that allows readers to nominate their three favorite worlds, and gives readers a chance to write about why they love the world. When it comes time to publish the book, a few of the responses will be excerpted in the book itself (with the authors' permission, of course). They're thinking of the book as a compendium of sorts, but also as a travel guide. We've all spent years in these worlds--in imagination if not in fact. This book is a both a walk down memory lane, and a place to start new dreams."

First Hobbit stills released Posted: 24 Jun 2011 09:28 AM PDT Behold! Martin Freeman as Bilbo. [EW via @Tour_with]

CopWatch and OpenWatch: covert recording apps for interactions with authority figures Posted: 23 Jun 2011 10:34 PM PDT OpenWatch is a project that publishes open/free apps for Android and iOS; the apps (called "OpenWatch Recorder" and "CopRecorder") covertly record audio and, at your direction, transmits it to the OpenWatch site. There, it is reviewed for significance, stripped of personal information, and published. It also has a video mode. The OpenWatch site looks for regional patterns in authority-figure interactions -- for example, whether a county operates its drunk-driving checkpoints in an illegal fashion. To me, something like OpenWatch could help solve a major problem for investigative reporting in an age when newsrooms are shrinking. We've still got plenty of people who can bulldog an issue once it's been flagged, but there are fewer and fewer reporters with deep sourcing in a community, fewer and fewer reporters who have the time to look into a bunch of different things knowing that only one out of a hundred might turn into a big investigation. Perhaps providing better conduits for citizens to flag their own problems can drive down the cost of hard-hitting journalism and be part of the solution for keeping governments honest. At first, the app did not have grand aspirations. Jones built it for some friends who'd gotten into some trouble with the law and who could have been aided by a recording of their interaction with law enforcement. But Jones' worldview began to seep into the project. Informed by Julian Assange's conception of "scientific journalism," Jones wanted to start collecting datapoints at the interface of citizens and authority figures. "It's a new kind of journalism. When people think citizen media, right now they think amateur journalism ... I don't think that's revolutionary," Jones told me. "I don't think that's what the '90s cyberutopianists were dreaming of. I think the real value of citizen media will be collecting data." Policing the Police: The Apps That Let You Spy on the Cops (The Atlantic) OpenWatch (Thanks, Rich!)

Skynet: It began in Vegas Posted: 24 Jun 2011 08:26 AM PDT The State of Nevada has become the first to legalize driverless cars.

Gruesome anti-smoking messages: do they really deter smoking? Posted: 24 Jun 2011 08:27 AM PDT Starting in 2012, cigarette packs in the United States will carry new warning labels that show some rather gruesome depictions of the consequences of smoking. I would have thought this would be a deterrent to smoking. But research suggests that might not be the case, writes Sara Reardon for Science Insider. Science Insider asked Tavris what the current research in behavioral psychology has to say about the effectiveness of fear imagery. "'Current' research?" she replied in an e-mail. "Social psychologists have decades of research showing that fear communications generally backfire, that people tune them out, and therefore that these tactics are generally not effective." Tavris cites the Department of Homeland Security's post-9-11 terror alert system as an example of warning that became a joke to many Americans. While the system certainly raised awareness, it didn't couple that awareness with any action a person could take to protect himself. "To be effective, the fear message must be combined with an immediate action the person can do to alleviate the fear," she says. "So what are people going to do with these new feelings of anxiety and fear? To calm yourself, you think, 'What a stupid code.' " The new FDA labels do suggest an action: stop smoking. But as any smoker can attest, this is far more easily said than done. Counterintuitively, Tavris says, smokers who want to quit but have failed are actually the group who are most likely to make a joke out of the new labels. The behavioral phenomenon at play is called cognitive dissonance: a clash between two conflicting beliefs. One way to resolve the tension is to override the disturbing new message. I think there's good reason for the government to take steps to dissuade people from smoking. But, from this perspective, it sounds like the new labels might not be the best way to achieve that goal. Via Noah Gray

What is Horsebic? Posted: 24 Jun 2011 08:36 AM PDT I am so very glad you asked. "Horsebic is a riding lesson without horses. It's a new innovation from FinIand trademarked for physical education." [video link, thanks Robert Popper] * Pronounced "horse-bitch."

Early 20th century electricity class Posted: 24 Jun 2011 07:56 AM PDT Matt Novak of Paleofuture sent me this great photo of an early 20th century trade school electricity class. According to the Library of Congress, there's no specific date associated with this shot, although I'd guess early 1920s, which was when electricity installation really started to take off in a meaningful way. There are a lot of apartments in Minneapolis that still have those tacked-to-the-ceiling conduits. Also interesting, this photo comes to us from the Bain News Service, one of the first news photography agencies, which started distributing photos to subscribing newspapers in 1898. The LOC has the Bain archives now, and you can check them out on Flickr. Thanks, Matt! We miss you up here in the Frozen North.

Walking Dead 14: taking things-get-worse stories as far as they'll go Posted: 24 Jun 2011 07:32 AM PDT Robert Kirkman's and company have been producing Walking Dead comics for for eight years now, hewing to a simple and effective formula: put intelligent people in a terrible situation, have them try intelligently to solve their problems, have them fail, and have things get worse. This is a surprisingly effective means of generating dramatic tension, because who the hell can look away when someone is trying to solve a problem, but landing in a worse problem? Generally, there are limits to this sort of plotting: eventually, your characters have nothing left to lose, things have gotten as bad as they're going to get, and it's time to raise the stakes, get to the climax, and wrap things up. A remarkable thing about Walking Dead: this is a zombie comic where, I'm pretty sure, nothing will ever get substantially better, and yet, somehow, Kirkman hasn't run out of plausible ways for things to get worse for his characters. Every month, a new issue hits the stands in which people who seem to have hit bottom continue to lose in bigger and more meaningful ways. Sometimes, Kirkman has to give them a bit of a reprieve in order to have more to snatch away from them -- this has been the arc in the last couple collections -- but these reprieves are necessarily filled with dread because you just know that things are going to start going downhill any minute now. And yup, here we have The Walking Dead Volume 14: No Way Out, and things are getting worse for the entirely likable, plucky, hard-working survivors of the zombapocalypse -- without going into spoilery specifics, let me say that if Volume 13 felt a little too talky and not kill-y enough, Volume 14 is going to make you a happy, sadistic reader. Me too. I'll keep reading these for as long as Kirkman keeps finding novel ways to torture these poor bastards, and there's a tiny kernel of hope in my heart that they're going to beat zombiism, stem the plague's tide, and rebuild -- despite the disease, despite the marauders, despite everything. I'm probably an idiot for hoping this, but I go on hoping. When it comes to zombie plagues, I'm just a starry-eyed optimist, I guess. The Walking Dead Volume 14: No Way Out

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund backs traveller arrested at Canadian border for "pornographic" manga on his hard drive Posted: 24 Jun 2011 07:05 AM PDT Charles from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund sez, "Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has formed a coalition to assist the defense of an American facing criminal charges in Canada for having manga comics on his laptop that Customs authorities allege are child pornography. He faces a minimum of one year in prison if convicted. CBLDF has also published an advisory about traveling through international borders with comics and a list of comics seized in Canada since 2002." The images at issue are all comics in the manga style. No photographic evidence of criminal behavior is at issue. Nevertheless, a warrant was issued and the laptop was turned over to police. Consequently, the American has been charged with both the possession of child pornography as well as its importation into Canada. As a result, if convicted at trial, the American faces a minimum of one year in prison. This case could have far reaching implications for comic books and manga in North America. The CBLDF's Board of Directors voted unanimously to aid the case by raising funds to contribute to the defense and to help the defense with strategy and expert resources. Brownstein says, "This is an important case that impacts the rights of everyone who reads, publishes, and makes comics and manga in North America. It underscores the dangers facing everyone traveling with comics, and it can establish important precedents regarding travelers rights. It also relates to the increasingly urgent issue of authorities prosecuting art as child pornography. While this case won't set a US precedent, it can inform whatever precedent is eventually set. This case is also important with respect to artistic merit in the Canadian courts, and a good decision could bring Canadian law closer to US law in that respect. With the help of our supporters, we hope to raise the funds to wage a fight that yields good decisions and to create tools to help prevent these sorts of cases from continuing to spread." CBLDF Forms Coalition to Defend American Comics Reader Facing Criminal Charges In Canada (Thanks, Charles!)

Rochester police use selective enforcement of parking laws to harass attendees at a meeting in support of Emily Good Posted: 24 Jun 2011 06:56 AM PDT A followup on Emily Good, the woman who was arrested for video-recording a police stop from her front yard: during a neighborhood meeting in support of Ms Good, Rochester Police came out with a ruler and measured the parking-distance of the attendees' cars. Cars that were more than 12 inches from the curb (even by half an inch) were ticketed. Needless to say, the 12 inch ordinance isn't normally enforced with this kind of vigor. Police Harass Community Members Attending Meeting in Support of Emily Good

The Power of Open: Stories of Creative Commons success Posted: 24 Jun 2011 06:29 AM PDT Jane from Creative Commons sez, Since last fall, we've been talking at length to various creators about their CC stories--the impact Creative Commons has had on their lives and in their respective fields, whether that's in art, education, science, or industry. We are thrilled to announce that we have cultivated the most compelling of these stories and woven them together into a book called The Power of Open. The stories in The Power of Open demonstrate the breadth of CC uses across fields and the creativity of the individuals and organizations that have chosen to share their work via Creative Commons licenses and tools. The Power of Open is available for free downloadunder the CC Attribution license. It is available in several languages, with more translated versions to come. You can also order hard copies from Lulu. We hope that it inspires you to examine and embrace the practice of open licensing so that your contributions to the global intellectual commons can provide their greatest benefit to all people." But that's not all--The Power of Open is launching with events around the world! The official launch is June 29 at The New America Foundation in Washington D.C., featuring Global Voices Online and IntraHealth, with CC CEO Cathy Casserly representing for staff. Additionally, the first event already took place on June 16 in Tokyo, Japan, with Creative Commons Chairperson Joi Ito introducing the book to the Asia/Pacific region. For the full list of events taking place in Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, London, and Paris, head on over to the thepowerofopen.org. The Power of Open (Thanks, Jane!)

You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610