The Latest from Boing Boing

Why URL shorteners suck Posted: 04 Apr 2009 01:19 AM PDT Delicious founder Joshua Schachter says that URL shorteners like TinyURL are a bad idea, because they make the web more fragile, dependent on the shortener services as central points of failure. They also assist spammers, undermine googlejuice, and expose users to security vulnerabilities. I agree -- and I like Kottke's suggestion: "With respect to Twitter, I would like to see two things happen: 1) That they automatically unshorten all URLs except when the 140 character limit is necessary in SMS messages. 2) In cases where shortening is necessary, Twitter should automatically use a shortener of their own." The transit's main problem with these systems is that a link that used to be transparent is now opaque and requires a lookup operation. From my past experience with Delicious, I know that a huge proportion of shortened links are just a disguise for spam, so examining the expanded URL is a necessary step. The transit has to hit every shortened link to get at the underlying link and hope that it doesn't get throttled. It also has to log and store every redirect it ever sees. The publisher's problems are milder. It's possible that the redirection steps steals search juice — I don't know how search engines handle these kinds of redirects. It certainly makes it harder to track down links to the published site if the publisher ever needs to reach their authors. And the publisher may lose information about the source of its traffic. But the biggest burden falls on the clicker, the person who follows the links. The extra layer of indirection slows down browsing with additional DNS lookups and server hits. A new and potentially unreliable middleman now sits between the link and its destination. And the long-term archivability of the hyperlink now depends on the health of a third party. The shortener may decide a link is a Terms Of Service violation and delete it. If the shortener accidentally erases a database, forgets to renew its domain, or just disappears, the link will break. If a top-level domain changes its policy on commercial use, the link will break. If the shortener gets hacked, every link becomes a potential phishing attack. on url shorteners (via Kottke)

HOWTO Make a business-card catapault Posted: 04 Apr 2009 01:14 AM PDT Instructables user Clide has created a business card that you can assemble into a papercraft catapault! "After seeing the business cards with gears a few months back (normal and planetary), I started thinking about what else could be made to fit in a business card. I wanted something unique and memorable that could represent me and my creativity. What I came up with was a business card that can convert into a rubber band powered desktop catapult." Cardapult the Business Card Catapult (via Craft)

"Marx was... second???" Posted: 03 Apr 2009 09:19 PM PDT Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger It looks like it was actually Thomas Jefferson who came up with the concept of "fictitious capital"! Since the "Marx was Right!" post proved so darned popular, I thought I'd do a lil' bait and switch, but looky at what we have here: Via Infectious Greed

Beer TV commercial featuring a Moog, c. 1970s Posted: 03 Apr 2009 09:08 PM PDT This phenomenal 1970s commercial for Schaefer Beer features Edd Kalehoff, composer of The Price Is Right theme music, on the Moog synthesizer. (via Boing Boing Gadgets)

The Scene: Legendary Detroit TV dance show Posted: 03 Apr 2009 07:46 PM PDT Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger The Scene, a daily dance show that featured many national and local guests artists as well as many youngsters from the community. The show ran for a record twelve consecutive years from 1975 to 1987 and retired as one the most popular and successful shows in the history of WGPR-TV, Channel 62. The Scene had a strong loyal following of viewers that grew to include city and suburb, white and black, the young and the young at heart. Nat Morris, executive producer and host, provided opportunities for unknown artists, launching many careers that went to national and international fame. The Scene paved the way for all the Detroit local entertainment TV shows that followed and had the impact on Detroit Black television in much the same way that Soul Train and Don Cornelius had on a national level." Check out these moves: The Scene website Thanks Tara McGinley! UPDATE: Dodongo posted this in the comments, it simply must be seen to be believed!

Ayahuasca experience Posted: 03 Apr 2009 03:57 PM PDT Dose Nation spotted this gripping National Geographic Adventure article about a writer's trip to Peru to take Ayahuasca. And it was a trip. From National Geographic Adventure: All at once, I willed myself to rise. I sailed up through the tunnel of fire, higher and higher until I broke through to a white light. All darkness immediately vanished. My body felt light, at peace. I floated among a beautiful spread of colors and patterns. Slowly my ayahuasca vision faded. I returned to my body, to where I lay in the hut, insects calling from the jungle. "Welcome back," the shaman said. The next morning, I discovered the impossible: The severe depression that had ruled my life since childhood had miraculously vanished. Giant blue butterflies flutter clumsily past our canoe. Parrots flee higher into treetops. The deeper we go into the Amazon jungle, the more I realize I can't turn back. It has been a year since my last visit, and I'm here again in Peru traveling down the Río Aucayacu for more shamanistic healing. The truth is, I'm petrified to do it a second time around. But with shamanism—and with the drinking of ayahuasca in particular—I've learned that, for me, the worse the experience, the better the payoff. Peru: Hell and Back Previously: Rise of ayahuasca ceremonies in USA - Boing Boing Wade Davis: an Inuit elder and his shit knife - Boing Boing Ayahuasca church spreads into UK - Boing Boing

Cough drop commercial from 1967 with Frank Zappa soundtrack Posted: 03 Apr 2009 03:14 PM PDT Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger Clio-award winning Luden's cough drops commercial from 1967 with a Frank Zappa soundtrack.

Heinlein's house for sale Posted: 03 Apr 2009 01:35 PM PDT The house Robert A Heinlein had built for himself and his wife in Colorado Springs is up for sale for a mere $650,000. Features "private wooded lot w/three cascading ponds." 1776 Mesa AV (via Scalzi) Previously: Photos from Heinlein's lost moon movie - Boing Boing Amazing Heinlein discussion on Electrolite - Boing Boing Heinlein award created - Boing Boing Heinlein's dystopian juvenile novels - Boing Boing

Web Zen: Song Zen Posted: 03 Apr 2009 12:53 PM PDT Above, Perry "Peretz" Farrell on the Chabad Telethon, singing the classic "Oseh Shalom," via Beware of the Blog. bird song vintage song smutty song ice cream truck song song origins song mistakes songs you used to love Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Terror cops in Wales mistake jazz musician for terrorist Posted: 03 Apr 2009 11:52 AM PDT Britain's crazy anti-terror laws lend themselves to being brought into action by any kook, something that's been borne out again recently after a jazz musician in Wales was subject to an armed terror-squad raid after a tipster told them they thought he was a terrorist (he has brown skin, a soundproofed recording studio, and drinks "ethnic" West Indian beverages). Victor Frederick, 63, was arrested and strip-searched just yards from his home, just moments after his partner Andrea Heath and their daughter had infra-red sights trained at them and were told they would be shot if they moved. No charges were ever brought against Mr Frederick... But Mr Frederick, who has lived in Cardiff for 35 years and is originally from St Kitts in the West Indies, told how: police confiscated apparently suspicious items, which included a video of boxer Muhammad Ali and a ceramic urn containing a traditional West Indian drink; police interpreted soundproofing equipment and wiring from his musical studio as a potential sign of illicit activity; he was followed by a police helicopter flying just above him more than two weeks after last month's raid on his house in Holmesdale Road, Grangetown. Terrified musician targeted in armed anti-terror raid (Thanks, Carl!)

Game industry exec celebrates 60+ hour work-weeks Posted: 03 Apr 2009 11:46 AM PDT Just in case you thought working in the games industry was OK now that Electronic Arts has (supposedly) cleaned up its act, Greg Costikyan has a scorching post about top game execs who celebrate "corporate culture" in which people are expected to work 60 hours a week: Mike Capps, head of Epic, and a former member of the board of directors of the International Game Developers Association, during the IGDA Leadership Forum in late 08, spoke at a panel entitled Studio Heads on the Hot Seat, in which, among other things, he claimed that working 60+ hours was expected at Epic, that they purposefully hired people they anticipated would work those kinds of hours, that this had nothing to do with exploitation of talent by management but was instead a part of "corporate culture," and implied that the idea that people would work a mere 40 hours was kind of absurd. Now, of course, the idea that a studio head, which Capps is, would have such notions is highly plausible; but he was, at the time, a board member of the IGDA, an organization the ostensible purpose of which is to support game developers. Not, you know, to support management dickheads. Morever, the IGDA has for some years had a Quality of Life Committee, which strives to demonstrate that long hours are an unproductive use of employees, and that superior alternative to the exploitative conditions at many development studios exist. The simple fact (as demonstrated in its research, available at the link above) is that most game developers burn out within 5 years of entering the industry, because of the absurd hours (for, incidentally, lower pay than programmers, artists, producers, and Q/A people can command in other software and media ventures). (And for the youth reading this post, this is why you are an IDIOT to attend Digipen or Full Sail -- get a generalized CS or art degree, so you can get a job somewhere else when you get burned out on the industry. Do NOT get a degree that ties you to the medium for all time to come.) Mothers, Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Game Developers (Thanks, Greg!)

Dancin' Stalin vs. Martians video game Posted: 03 Apr 2009 11:44 AM PDT Evgeny sez, "I've just put up a post about a new Russian game Stalin vs Martians. Check the trailer with the dancing Stalin screaming "I command you to dance!" Mars attacks, Stalin reacts! (Thanks, Evgeny!) Previously: Stalin World - Boing Boing Soviet vid "reenacts" Stalin's visit to Berlin - Boing Boing Kozik's Stalin bust - Boing Boing Stalin's army of man-apes - Boing Boing Stalin World photos - Boing Boing Lithuania's Stalin-Land gulag-park celebrates 5th birthday - Boing ... Dance, dictator, dance: the first footage of Dreamlore's Stalin vs ... Ideas are more powerful than ray-guns: Stalin vs. Martians gets a ... Stalin vs. Martians "Gorbachev" is the best game promo rock video ...

Nine year old's survey project excluded from school because he learned some people don't think of themselves as male or female Posted: 03 Apr 2009 12:38 PM PDT A reader writes, "TheFourthVine's nine year old nephew, Z, wrote a survey that she encouraged her friends to take. However, when his mother went to the school's open house to take a photo of the end result, she couldn't as out of all the science projects Z hadn't been shown." Except she couldn't. Because my nephew's project, alone among all of them, was not displayed. After much back and forth with various people, my sister learned that apparently some people were uncomfortable with his conclusions. Specifically the part where he said that what he really learned from this project was that some people don't want to be called boys or girls, and that those people need an "other" option. (And also that they tend to prefer blue to green.) Follow up on Z's Science Project

The Godlike Genius of Julia Davis Posted: 03 Apr 2009 11:13 AM PDT Although I mentioned her in a previous post about "Jam," actress/writer Julia Davis deserves her own BB post, as I, in my office as "current Boing Boing guest blogger," do hereby decree... Best known as the creator of "Nighty Night," Julia Davis's sense of humor is bleak, black and thoroughly uncomfortable. Although the New York Times described her series as "an English 'Curb Your Enthusiasm," Davis is willing to take far greater risks than Larry David ever would. David, at the end of the day still wants you to LIKE him, but Julia Davis, in her career-defining role as monstrously selfish beautician Jill Tyrell most definitely doesn't give a shit what you think about her! Inspired by Mike Leigh's classic teleplay "Abigail's Party," the plot of "Nighty Night" involves Jill's husband, Terry, being diagnosed with cancer. Although his prognosis isn't terminal, Jill behaves as if it is, and even tries to hasten his not-so-impending death with laxatives and prune juice, so she can get on with HER new life! With Terry held prisoner in the attic, Jill turns her amorous attentions to Don, a doctor who has just moved next door with his wheelchair-bound wife, Cathy. Here is their first meeting. Jill dances to the song "Lavender" by Marillion(!): Although "Nighty Night" did air on the Oxygen network, few Americans are aware of this groundbreaking, darkly comedic creation. You can get it on Amazon and Netflix has it for rental. Check it out, it's brilliant stuff from a unique comic mind (PS Speaking of unique comic minds, Julia Davis is the new mother of twins and the father is Julian Barrett from The Mighty Boosh!) Nighty Night (BBC site) Will "Nighty Night" change the sitcom forever? Turning Glenn down (YouTube) Julia Davis interview: 'I am drawn to extremes' "Let's talk to the Tarot..." (YouTube) "Injure for Friends" (HD YouTube clip from "Jam") A lonely woman goes to great lengths to make friends. 'Comedy is a safe place to let go' "Human Remains" Wikipedia entry on the six-part BBC mockumentary series on marriage by Julia Davis and Rob Bryden AD/BC: A Rock Opera (YouTube) Julia Davis & Matt Berry sing

Hidden Econopocalypse Admonition in Chinatown Sign Posted: 03 Apr 2009 10:42 AM PDT This sign for a real estate and insurance company in San Francisco's Chinatown seems to be a fitting description of what real estate and insurance companies are trying to do right now. Truth squad: I'm guessing that "Hang On" means something entirely different in Chinese. Image link. (photo by Domini Anne)

Wii Remote spraypaint can and virtual graffiti Posted: 03 Apr 2009 09:43 AM PDT Martin Lihs converted his Wii Remote into a "spraycan" for virtual graffiti. Brandon has the details and a video over at Boing Boing Offworld. WiiSpray virtual graffitti, stencils in motion

Nightmarish cable tangles Posted: 03 Apr 2009 09:25 AM PDT And I thought the nest of wires under my desk was bad. Over at BB Gadgets, Joel points us to "A gallery of 'electrical cabling gone wild.'" Presented By: Inside Guantanamo: Sunday at 9P e/p Guantanamo Bay is one of the world's controversial prisons. This may be its final chapter. With unprecedented access, National Geographic has the story you haven't heard. Both sides, told from the inside, before its doors close forever. Click to learn more and go Inside Guantanamo >> natgeotv.com/guantanamo   Ads by Pheedo

BB Video: Doctor Popular's Awesome Yo-Yo Stylings Posted: 03 Apr 2009 07:59 AM PDT Download the MP4 here. Flash video above, click "fullscren" icon inside player to view large. YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video. Today on Boing Boing Video, a yo-yo demonstration by world champion yo-yoer, game developer, "craft mogul," and nerdcore rapper Doctor Popular. This episode is an excerpt from our marathon live streaming coverage of the Game Developer Conference, during which "Doc Pop" graciously hung out with our crew and offered insight. We hope to bring you more of those conversations soon, particularly his thoughts on game development. He also creates comics based on internet memes and social network etiquette dilemmas, my favorite of which involves the social awkwardness of "unfollowing" someone on Twitter. Some of his "Memes in Real Life" internet arts are here. The guy's a genius, and his yo-yo-ing is nothing but hypnotic. Scott Beale at Laughing Squid has a bunch of posts on the eclectic range of Doc Pop's work. Previously: * Hideo Kojima on Metal Gear Solid Touch (games) * Jane McGonigal on Emotion, Gaming, and Dance. * Jane McGonigal - Games Can Change the World. * Jane McGonigal's Game Developers' Conference talk on Making Your Own Reality * BBV @ GDC live stream archives, at Ustream.tv * Boing Boing Video and Offworld.com Live at GDC09: offworld.com archive * Boing Boing Video and Offworld.com Live at GDC09: boingboing.net archive [ Credits and props for BBV Live @GDC09: Production Team -- Jolon Bankey, Derek Bledsoe, Daniela Calderon, Eddie Codel, Xeni Jardin, Allison Kingsley, Matty Kirsch, Alice Taylor, Wesly Varghese. Special thanks to Wayneco Heavy Industries (accommodation and studio facilities), Virgin America Airlines (air travel), Celsius (thermogenic energy beverage), Ustream.tv (streaming video host). Moral support, production assistance, additional talent, and good vibes provided by: Domini Anne, Scott Beale, T.Bias, Jeremy Bornstein, Brandon Boyer, Chris The Van Guy, Peter S. Conrad, Marque Cornblatt, Wayne, Bre, and the entire de Geere family, Marcy DeLuce, Cory Doctorow, Joel Johnson, Kourosh Karimkhany, Jim Louderback and the Revision 3 team, Karen Marcelo, Rocky Mullin, Alicia Pollak, Jackie Mogol, Taylor Peck, David Pescovitz, Micah Schaffer, and Teal. ]

David Byrne's snapshots of UK police posters. Posted: 03 Apr 2009 07:47 AM PDT David Byrne, Boing Boing hero, music legend, international art treasure, and patron saint of all that is wonderful in the universe, sends us these snapshots from the road. He says: I've been enjoying the postings of terrorist alert, security and CCTV posters on Boing Boing. All Eyes On You was a lovely one! here's one I saw on the road near Newcastle, where I performed the other night. love the "be taken down" in smaller type...I want one of these for my house! DB en route to Liverpool I've uploaded them to flickr: one, two. Previously: ONE NATION UNDER CCTV graffito in London - Boing Boing Remixes of the paranoid London police "anti-terror"/suspect your ... Remixing the London police's insane, paranoid terrorism scare ... Do not discard brain -- war on terror poster - Boing Boing Propaganda posters remixed for the war on terror - Boing Boing Dumbest salvo yet in the war on terror, courtesy of the London ...

Recently on Offworld Posted: 03 Apr 2009 06:12 AM PDT Recently on Offworld, Ragdoll Metaphysics columnist Jim Rossignol sat down with Introversion co-founder Chris Delay, to learn more about the foundation and growth of one of gaming's first most successful indies, how they managed to game the pirates by releasing fake torrents, and how their upcoming Subversion will procedurally model entire cities. We also started voting on last month's contest to write a new legend for one of the cards in EA/Phenomic's real time strategy PC game BattleForge, so head over to have your say on that. And, we rounded up the best of gaming's April Fools posts: World of Warcraft's Pimp Your Mount, Maxis's all-ASCII Spore rogue-like, Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear surprise, Wolfire's Small Tank, Microsoft's rhythm-yodeler Alpine Legend, and the Zeno Clash team's new Apple II point and click adventure. Elsewhere, we saw thrift store paintings enhanced with giant katamari, a new art-project rhythm game that's all light and konga drumming, a papercraft version of Toshio Iwai and his Tenori-On (!!!), a chiptune remix played through a hacked VGA adapter, and the first sing-along video of PopCap's Plants Vs. Zombies. Finally, we saw Hudson's slice of gaming history, the Shooting Watch, come to the iPhone, and their amazing video showing how tower defense games are like conveyor belt sushi, a Japanese meme based on a Goldeneye glitch, a new T-shirt where DaVinci does Mario, last year's promised WiiSpray virtual graffiti finally in motion, and, most wonderfully, LittleBigPlanet's (very) anatomically correct Sackboy.

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