The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Delightful old Soviet automobile ads are delightful
• Western tourists renewing vows unwittingly receive malediction in Maldives
• Vintage footage captures Shatner as Captain Kirk in 1968 Christmas Parade
• Sportscaster shocked to find there is potsmoking going on in this establishment
• Dick move: "friend" tattoos giant penis on pal's back
• EFF sues Justice over push for new encryption "back doors"
• Can Lisbeth Salander really do all that hacker stuff? Ask a Hacker!
• Lovely lab recreations of Saturn's hexagonal storms
• On self-publishing experiments
• Privatized prisons in Arizona helped draft laws to send people to prison
• Report: BP dispersants are making people sick
• Cell-phone using time traveler spotted in 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie
• What the heck is this weird skin flap on Boo Berry?
• Child-seats are for children, not for beers, learns gentleman in Texas
• Hate Spam? Blame Igor Gusev
• What's up with: The Sun
• Howl, twittered
• What Ozzy Osbourne teaches us about genome analysis
• U.S. record on cybercrime weak, lacks vodka
• Moment of Boing

Delightful old Soviet automobile ads are delightful Posted: 28 Oct 2010 09:42 PM PDT My, but aren't these old Soviet car ads just the comrade's potato! A gallery of scans awaits you here. (via Submitterator, thanks, metkere)

Western tourists renewing vows unwittingly receive malediction in Maldives Posted: 28 Oct 2010 09:21 PM PDT A foreign couple who believed they were renewing their marriage vows in a quaint, local-style ceremony in the Maldives were in fact being verbally abused by locals for LOLs. Police in the Maldives are launching an investigation. "Instead of words of blessing, the celebrant calls the couple 'swine' and 'infidels' in the local language," reports the BBC. Boing Boing moderator Antinous offers to abuse anyone in Quenya or Klingon for half of whatever the Maldivean pranksters charged. (thanks, Antinous)

Vintage footage captures Shatner as Captain Kirk in 1968 Christmas Parade Posted: 28 Oct 2010 09:36 PM PDT Via the BB Submitterator, Boing Boing reader "That Neil Guy" says, The University of South Carolina has posted rare black and white, silent footage of a 1968 Christmas parade in Columbia, SC. Along with the requisite marching bands and visit from Santa, we're also treated to William Shatner in full Captain Kirk regalia. It's a weird little time machine moment. Oh, and, by the way, the very day of the parade saw the premiere of the original series episode Wink of an Eye. More via this item at theexaminer.com.

Sportscaster shocked to find there is potsmoking going on in this establishment Posted: 28 Oct 2010 06:47 PM PDT "They're smoking weed over there. They don't care."—Newy Scruggs of NBC-DFW, reporting on the other pastime of choice at the World Series.

Dick move: "friend" tattoos giant penis on pal's back Posted: 29 Oct 2010 05:07 AM PDT Perhaps you are familiar with the acronym UFIA? Now there's UPOB, unsolicited penis on back. An Aussie tattooed a 19-inch penis on his pal's back, and now faces criminal charges (via).

EFF sues Justice over push for new encryption "back doors" Posted: 28 Oct 2010 05:20 PM PDT The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the FBI, DEA, and the Department of Justice Criminal Division, "demanding records about problems or limitations that hamper electronic surveillance and potentially justify or undermine" the DoJ's new demands for back doors in all communications systems. If granted, those expanded spying powers would make it easier for the government to snoop on email, webmail, Skype, Facebook, even Xboxes.

Can Lisbeth Salander really do all that hacker stuff? Ask a Hacker! Posted: 28 Oct 2010 05:01 PM PDT Vanity Fair factchecks Lisbeth Salander's skills in an interview with (reformed) hacker Kevin Poulsen, now editor of Wired's Threat Level blog.

Lovely lab recreations of Saturn's hexagonal storms Posted: 28 Oct 2010 04:17 PM PDT Video link. Back in 2007, Pesco blogged about a mysterious hexagon on Saturn that emerged from a storm on their North Pole. While people have known since Isaac Newton's time that spinning a bucket of water could create similar patterns, scientists wanted to emulate the precise conditions on Saturn. Neither Newton nor Saturn have cool green glowy stuff or sparkly white stuff and mechanized centrifuges, so this is quite pretty and trippy. There's some lovely stills of varying rates of spin creating different shapes. I recommend muting their sound and putting on Gustav Holst's Saturn. There's even a HOWTO at The Planetary Society. Big Picture: Saturn and vicinity Cool Cassini Saturn science Unexplained space phenomena captured in photo of Saturn's rings ... Cassini mission extended- T-Rex's on Saturn: The theory that will re-make science as we know ...

On self-publishing experiments Posted: 28 Oct 2010 02:15 PM PDT NPR's Michele Norris and Cory separate self-publishing facts from fiction in a short new interview. [NPR]

Privatized prisons in Arizona helped draft laws to send people to prison Posted: 28 Oct 2010 04:03 PM PDT The story of industries paying lobbyists to influence legislation that benefits their business is nothing new—but what about when that industry is a privately-owned and operated prison system? NPR reports that Arizona Senate Bill 1070 (PDF), the immigration bill that requires anyone who can't produce papers proving they are in the country legally to be arrested, was drafted with the help and influence of Arizona's private prison companies. "According to Corrections Corporation of America reports reviewed by NPR, executives believe immigrant detention is their next big market. Last year, they wrote that they expect to bring in "a significant portion of our revenues" from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that detains illegal immigrants." Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law - NPR

Report: BP dispersants are making people sick Posted: 28 Oct 2010 04:00 PM PDT Things could be going from really bad to even worse around the Gulf of Mexico, for residents and for BP. An investigation by Al Jazeera reveals that the dispersants BP is using to treat the spill are making people sick. There are already a number of reports about the toxicity of oil itself, but this investigation by Al Jazeera suggests the problem is bigger than that: already toxic dispersants are forming new compounds when combined with crude oil that become even more dangerous— not just for the environment, but for the humans who live and work there. "Naman, who works at the Analytical Chemical Testing Lab in Mobile, Alabama, has been carrying out studies to search for the chemical markers of the dispersants BP used to both sink and break up its oil. According to Naman, poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from this toxic mix are making people sick. PAHs contain compounds that have been identified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic. Fisherman across the four states most heavily affected by the oil disaster - Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida - have reported seeing BP spray dispersants from aircraft and boats offshore. "The dispersants are being added to the water and are causing chemical compounds to become water soluble, which is then given off into the air, so it is coming down as rain, in addition to being in the water and beaches of these areas of the Gulf," Naman added. "I'm scared of what I'm finding. These cyclic compounds intermingle with the Corexit [dispersants] and generate other cyclic compounds that aren't good. Many have double bonds, and many are on the EPA's danger list. This is an unprecedented environmental catastrophe." Residents are reporting brown vomit, brown urine, copious diarrhea, skin rashes, sore throats and even internal hemorrhaging. The report says that they are finding growing numbers of cases and it seems to be getting worse. "Trisha Springstead, is a registered nurse of 36 years who lives and works in Brooksville, Florida. "What I'm seeing are toxified people who have been chemically poisoned," she said, "They have sore throats, respiratory problems, neurological problems, lesions, sores, and ulcers. These people have been poisoned and they are dying. Drugs aren't going to help these people. They need to be detoxed." BP dispersants 'causing sickness' - Al Jazeera

Cell-phone using time traveler spotted in 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie Posted: 28 Oct 2010 04:39 PM PDT Joshua Glenn says: Last fall, HiLobrow published a pre-mobile telephony image of a woman who appeared to be using a smartphone. You were kind enough to link to that post. I found a couple of other "Pluperfect PDAs" after that (I link to all of our discoveries in the post below) but since then I'd pretty much given up on this meme... until now. This Irish guy with the 1928 footage of the mobile phone user has just afforded the "Pluperfect PDA" meme a new lease on life... Scott Lawrence suggests she's using an olde tyme hearing aid. I don't want to believe that because, well, I Want to Believe. UPDATE: Xeni says: "THANK YOU FOR ALERTING US TO THE FACT THAT THIS MAY NOT REALLY BE A TIME TRAVELER USING A CELLPHONE." There is no need to continue to alert us in the comments. time-traveler with cellphone Time traveler caught in 1940 photo?

What the heck is this weird skin flap on Boo Berry? Posted: 28 Oct 2010 03:32 PM PDT John Edgar Park wonders, "What the heck is this weird skin flap on Boo Berry?" I, too, was mystified. I figured it might be something like the skin flap on the watermelon-eating girl my daughter pointed out to me last month. Scott Lawrence figured out what was really going on. Take a look at a previous Boo Berry cereal design here. Compare it to the designs for Count Chocula and Frankenberry. The reason for the "skin flap" on the three characters is clear -- its the cheek behind the characters' protruding lips. But whoever redesigned the Boo Berry character didn't understand that, and drew something that doesn't make any sense. The lip flap has no purpose. It's a copying artifact. "It's like a photocopy of a photocopy," says Lawrence, "all of the elements are there, but they've been mangled into something incoherent." The most amazing part of this is that the art director approved such a massive flub. Over at Dinosaurs and Robots, we explore the curious phenomenon of excellent old designs being redrawn to look like shit. Take a look: Canned Mermaid Antifreeze Skippy peanut butter Vogue magazine Sprite Lucky Charms cereal Peanuts

Child-seats are for children, not for beers, learns gentleman in Texas Posted: 28 Oct 2010 03:20 PM PDT 30-year-old Larry Garza of Corpus Christi, Texas was arrested this week for placing his beer in a child safety car-seat instead of the two- and four-year old children riding with him. (via Nick Bilton)

Hate Spam? Blame Igor Gusev Posted: 28 Oct 2010 03:43 PM PDT The King of Viagra. The Don of Delete. 20% of the entire world's spam emails can be linked to one guy.

What's up with: The Sun Posted: 28 Oct 2010 02:30 PM PDT This is the Sun, as photographed October 20th by Alan Friedman. See those little plumes, rising like steam off the top and sides? That is not steam, says astronomy blogger Phil Plait. Instead, it's ... the gas that follows magnetic loops piercing the Sun's surface. When we see them against the Sun's surface they're called filaments, and when they arc against the background sky on the edge of the Sun's disk they're called prominences. They look so delicate, probably because they make the Sun look fuzzy, like a comfy blanket... but have no doubts on the fury and scale of what you're seeing here. See that little bright spot on the plume on the left, just above the Sun's edge? That spot is the same size as the Earth. Our planet is about 13,000 km (8000 miles) in diameter, so that one minor prominence is roughly 50,000 km high. That's 30,000 miles. And it's positively dwarfed by the Sun itself. A million Earths could fit inside the Sun. It's neat—if somewhat ego-deflating. And there's more, read the rest at Bad Astronomy.

Howl, twittered Posted: 28 Oct 2010 02:40 PM PDT All of Allen Ginsberg's Howl, one line at a time. [@HowlTweeter]

What Ozzy Osbourne teaches us about genome analysis Posted: 28 Oct 2010 02:29 PM PDT You may have heard back in July that Osbourne was set to become one of a small handful of humans who have had their entire genome sequenced and studied. Now, we're starting to hear a little about what researchers found in Ozzy's genes. Scientific American had an interview today with the founder and the research director of Knome, Inc., the company that did the data analysis. Tomorrow, Ozzy, himself, will be mumbling incoherently about his genome at TEDMED. Partly, people are excited about this simply because it's a story about a famous person doing something we might like to do, but can't. And, more importantly, it's kind of about spying on a famous person. But is there something useful going on here? Does this rise above the level of futuristic paparazzi photo? Well, maybe. For one thing, it turns out to be a fascinating look at how shared symptoms don't always have the same cause. Ozzy Osbourne suffers from tremors similar to those of a person with Parkinson's Disease. But, from the Scientific American interview, it sounds like he doesn't actually have Parkinson's, itself. And, for that matter, there doesn't seem to be a clear genetic cause for his tremors, at all. That's interesting. And a good reminder that what happens to our bodies is often a lot more complicated than anything revealed in a genetic test. Another good lesson to come out of this: A reminder that the science of reading and gathering information from the genome is still very, very young. The people from Knome, Inc. talk a lot about usual variations in Osbourne's genome, centered around nervous system control and alcohol metabolism. But then, they make a key point—there's just not that much data to compare him to. "Like everyone," they say, "Ozzy carries several hundred thousand variants that have never been seen by scientists." That's very cool for the scientists. But it really drives home the point that we are, essentially, talking about a field that's akin to the early days of natural history, when gentlemen researchers were just grabbing every sample creature they could get their hands on, shipping it back to England and trying to fit it into some kind of context. It's a thrilling time, full of exploration and discovery. But it means that, when you see your first platypus, you have no earthly idea what that platypus means. Is it a deformed duck? Is it a hoax? How rare a creature is it? Any answer you can come up with is just guess work until you've tracked down a lot more data points. In other words—get excited about the data points. But take the analysis with a grain of salt, at this point. Ozzy Osbourne is only our first platypus. Scientific American: Ozzy Osbourne's Genome Reveals Some Neanderthal Lineage

U.S. record on cybercrime weak, lacks vodka Posted: 28 Oct 2010 12:56 PM PDT My post on real evil by a Russian mob got me called a CIA propagandist, which is kind of a stretch, given my previous reporting and attempted reporting on U.S. intelligence. Still, that gives me an opportunity to fault the spotty efforts by my home country to put a significant brake on cybercrime, which in my view is one of the gravest threats we're facing. Among the greatest U.S. government screw-ups are the failures to invest sufficiently in developing a more secure Internet protocol, to call out other governments who are harboring the worst of the worst, and to warn the public that nothing they do online is secure. I could go on at length, but I have elsewhere. Instead, let's talk about the arrogance of U.S. law enforcement abroad and about Viggo Mortensen naked. In the movie "Eastern Promises," which features Viggo Mortensen nude [Hey, when your book comes out in paperback, I'll be happy to discuss SEO ethics], there's a bit after he has been initiated into the most central Russian gang with a tattoo. "I am through the door," he tells an associate. Ordinary business in Russia doesn't require that kind of rite. What it does require is prodigious vodka-drinking. There's an historic reason for this: In the old days, the man in your circle who wasn't drinking was probably an informant. U.K. detective Andy Crocker, one of the two main heroes in Fatal System Error, learned that lesson during the unprecedented three years he spent chasing, arresting and convicting three members of a Russian cyber gang. He bonded with an MVD colonel who would be his key partner after passing out in the colonel's office during an afternoon celebration, discovering later that the colonel's wife had passed out on top of him. When I was reporting in Moscow with Crocker and my other big hero, California security whiz Barrett Lyon [that's us in the picture], I too had to drink beyond reason to earn the trust of Russian officers. Only then was I through the door. While there, I also went to interview the FBI's legal attache, the man the U.S. goes through when it wants help from the MVD. Nice guy, hardworking guy, sincere guy. But for religious reasons, he doesn't drink a drop. All power to him and his god, but it seems to me the FBI also needs good men in places like Saudi Arabia, where abstinence doesn't hurt the cause. Given my work on this stuff over the years, I can give a more sophisticated analysis of why U.S. law enforcement leadership hasn't handled cybercrime abroad right, despite talented agents. But the images I see are my vodka shots with Andy and the MVD and my chat with the ramrod-straight but misplaced man from the FBI.

Moment of Boing Posted: 28 Oct 2010 11:51 AM PDT We don't know much about the origin of this little number, but we thank Minnesota-based radio host and funnyman John Moe for sharing it with us. [Video Link]

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