@joellevand: nah, the concept wasn't bad at all, just that Stevens is utterly incapable of articulating such ideas without sticking foot in mouth.

I love the new painting, Mark!

Hey everyone, thanks -- seriously -- for weighing in with your feedback here, both the praise and the criticism. We'll be mulling over all of this, and reworking the site in days/weeks to come. Your thoughts matter a lot to us.

I'm glad the general vibe seems to be that you like what we've tried to do here, though! A lot of people worked super hard to make this smarter/funner/easier/more crossplatform friendly thn before.

We still have kinks to work out, though, and we'll do our best to address those quickly.

XJ

Please, no angry santas. The erroneous opening slate in this video has long since been corrected, folks! This media does not state that Santarchy is a protest of any sort -- was a short-lived production goof, and the entire team apologizes.

@anonymous: >

Ooooh, good question! I've asked Bonnie from Lucasfilm to weigh in.

I have no idea what you people are talking about.

This does not remind me of goats or any other mammalian member of the Bovidae family.

I was thinking that this reminded me of a big donut that several friends were sharing. Maybe glazed. Something yummy.

I can't believe you would bring up goats, they eat trash and they are disgusting creatures.

@mr.skeleton, thank you for respecting the plight of larvaepersons who, without us, have no voice. enough! let the murders end. stopsilkwormgenocide.com.

No, B-Trom, that was the weirdest part. After a half a frickin hour, they were just like, "o, hai, nm u guys kthxbi." And as I said, I feel a little guilty for not having pressed for an explanation (I believe we were owed one!) but I really really needed to be home quickly and didn't have it in me for a fight at that moment. If I were, say, John Gilmore or Bruce Schneier and not a total pussy, I'd have done more.

@Gregjsmith, I think the staff at LAX is just dumber and slower. I honestly wonder if this isn't just some kind of drill they do, periodically, and never tell the passengers what's up.

Yeah, wow. Didn't realize this procedure was so common. I think what really felt so surreal here was the duration -- half an hour, man.

@Delaney, This isn't a debate over whether Radiohead should have released the album under a CC license, nor did I say they should have ONLY released digitally.

You're missing my argument.

The point is this: it would appear from statements made by band members and reps, and from the release itself that the digital product was released as an incomplete product at a lower quality than it could have been for the specific purpose of encouraging CD sales.

I believe this is lame.

Fans who prefer "just digital" should be offered an equivalent quality product if digital distribution is taken seriously. Again, this just proves that they're not taking digital distribution as seriously as they might have. Not that they're evil baby-rapists or frauds or that the music is bad.

And as for the torrents -- the CD isn't out yet, I wonder what the content of the torrents is? Probably the same 160 kbps material as one might download from radiohead's store, only without the fulfillment glitches some folks complained about, and no registration required. Not saying people *should* torrent, just observing, perhaps those were factors.

Long run, I believe the best way to stave off unauthorized digital distribution is to offer an equivalent quality digital product at a price the market will bear. This was not an equivalent quality product. We now know why.

It is "my goal in life to be pretty fucking sweet at everything there is to be pretty fucking sweet at."

@Delaney, none of this changes the artistic merit of the album. The business of art and the body of art are, and always will be, distinct. Related, yes, but distinct. They're two separate discussions.

I think we can very rationally and candidly critique business decisions while being shameless, drooling fans of the music itself (I sure am).

In Rainbows is a fucking awesome piece of work. I am no less of a fan of the music, even if I believe this release strategy was flawed.

oooooh don't make me feed you!

(ok you're right.)

Yurei: I believe we need a cat macro for the italicized portion of your comment there.

@complainers: half of us BB editors are vegan or veg, and the other half are kind of grossed out by the notion of eating sentient and still-squirming Cthulhu analogues, so don't worry -- we're not advocating live octopus ingestion as a lifestyle choice. But, like, we're totally cool with other people doing their thing, and posting video on the internet if they so choose.

I should clarify that I'm not speaking for all Boingdom here, but: I do think it's interesting to weigh the relative cruelty/suffering factor of chopping the octopus head off, then consuming the freshly killed body, compared to -- I dunno, one of those really large pig factory farms in which these very intelligent mammals are kept in unsanitary and crowded conditions, killed in a manner that might relaly freak you out, then we eat the meat many weeks or months later. I don't believe it's fair to condemn people (in this case, mostly Korean-American patrons) who eat critter-flesh that just happens to be a lot fresher than what most American consumers eat. Might be more distasteful to you, but maybe that's more of a cultural issue. I don't see where this is fundamentally all that different than picking up a package of lunchmeat at Safeway.

What are you, a turrist?

BTW no disrespect to Mark there, at all. I can totally understand why reasonable folks find the broader array of Pinchbeck's ideas interesting or amusing. But the part of his schtick that co-opts what's left of tribal culture, and sloppily, inaccurately reinterprets it at a profit pisses me off.

>

Hey, whoah there - I think if you read the whole piece or understood the backstory, you'd realize that this is way off base. I'm very sorry about your mom, and you certainly have a right to an opinion. But Clayton is a friend of mine, and I know also that he has deep roots to the community represented in these pictures. His family lost pretty much everything they had in Katrina, which wasn't much, and that place is his home.

I think the attempt here was to look at these people in a different way, just as some people fought hard over language: "survivors," not "victims."

Is placing the subject in front of a blank background for a portrait somehow less honest than photographing them in the midst of ruin? Bah, no. Any more than using a portrait lens, and focusing only on the face is any less honest than photographing wide angle, and capturing all the rubble. It's a different way of looking, and he's entitled to it, and I think the world is better for having the ability to see through that lens.

Oh, you may think I'm a coward, but they didn't find that giant brick of heroin in my water bottle!

@aaronz, no, actually, we have followed up before -- to the point of actually meeting with TSA directors. I am in the process of pursuing this one, too.

@vertigo25, in fact I did. You'll see the update trail in this post, also.

@JAwasnack -- you are correct. I'm fumbling around for the url, but there was a slew of (largely ignored) news about this a few weeks back. New laws that basically mean we surrender a lot of rights after we enter the security screening area. If you refuse a screening, you're in deep shit, and once you've passed through (as I did, because I was landing), you've surrendered various rights.

@Gareth Stack, are you saying you are unable to subscribe to BBtv through iTunes because you're using the Ireland Store?

@scooterzz, I win top 5 stupid speed errors of 2007 award! Gah, I know Alex Albrecht, and am familiar with Chris' work, and I goofed!

> That's right. I get TWICE that much in blood money, or the equivalent number of freshly slaughtered babies, before I even roll outta bed.

If you saw the segment and felt I was anything less than honest, critical, or appropriately skeptical and questioning, feel free to weigh in and say something. But I doubt you did.

UPDATE: I'm filing a FOIA request around the incident, with help from Ryan Singel at Wired News.

@Kevitivity, jeez that's so narrowminded of you. BM is also about naked WOMEN running around on bicycles. [scoffs].

UPDATE 2: Here's Ryan's blog post about this story, over at Wired News: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/reporter-caught.html.

@M: ["I'll hunt for that link if anyone is interested."] Sure, we're interested.

@Melissa, that's awesome! Hey, if you ever spot a CHANNEL belt, I'll totally reimburse you....

I wonder who the woman is in that framed B&W; photograph on Steve's desk there.

@Jemaleddin, thanks, it's a known bug and our legion of codemonkeys are workin' on it! Sorry.

When I say "shot," I mean with a camera, not a gun. Feel better.

Honestly I don't know what Gilmore is bitching about -- how hard is it for him to just go ahead and flash a little sash at the gate? Is that so much for a TSA agent to ask for?

stopsilkwormgenocide.com.

@cheeken you are correct! Our apologies, we should have made this clearer. Yes, this was shot at Copro Nason!

@okkoto, wasn't intending "munch" literally, I'm aware of how it's ingested.

The reason these guys cite "2012" and "2013" and refer to "the return of Quetzalcoatl" has everything to do with a new age misinterpretation of Mayan and Nahua cosmology. End of story, AFAIAC.

I'm totally with you on the broader notion that human beings have done a lot of damage to the world, and that we need to think very differently and act very differently now if we want to leave a good inheritance to our grandchildren (and the many other species that will inherit the planet).

@JeffreyT, yeah, that "bluetooth on the touch" rumor would have been sweet if true!

@Anon#3, thanks, yah, I already know about the adapters. But they stink! They're all clunky and complicate the elegance of such a small, simple device. Also, I suspect the iPhone might cause RF interference with these Bose headphones, adapter or no adapter.

XJ

@phasor3000: I love to sing-a! About the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a!

@American Scot: Oooh, darnit, I can't find that in our archives -- will look for url elsewhere!

@cavalier: mmmmmmaybe! [winks knowingly]

And happy thanksgiving to you, motherfcker!

boy does it suck when you recall the police and they do nada want to dill with you.

Ah, also -- the law enforcement agency in question appears to be local police in Arizona, who operate at the airport. Not the TSA. But I'm not entirely clear on the facts yet, the NY Post article isn't too thorough.

Hey, Brandon -- easy Quicktime links coming within a day or two.

@Anonymous-es: Don't be silly. Pointing to an item of interest on our blog doesn't mean that we "endorse" that action, or think it's "cool," as you say here. That's pretty dumb. Besides, as others have pointed out, there's some evidence to support that the whole burning a million quid stunt was just that -- a prank that involved the destruction of decommissioned bank notes.

@Chang that's so cool!

@Anonymous, re "Jan Pehechaan Ho" -- yeah, actually i think the song, the audio, does appear in Ghost World as Sander says! But of course, it originated in Gumnaam as you rightly state. @cior, I agree!

@george57L well it's mostly a wink at Cory Doctorow, who coined the phrase! I am merely propogating its usage!

Wow. That last line, the victim's willingness to forgive, is perhaps as profound as the fact he survived with relatively minor injuries.

I'd like to see a double header with this and bumfights. better yet, bums vs. giraffes. (go giraffes!)

@TheCynic, @Cpt. Tim, I'm not sure what happened there -- maybe a moderator goof, not my doing. Please chill, though, and note that the phrase in question has now been posted here not once but several times with vowels intact -- so nobody's "censoring" you. Let's move back to the discussion at hand, which is more interesting, no?

@phasor3000, i don't know if that's rhetorical or directed at the post's author (me), but I'm not arguing a position here -- just noting the incident occurred. A woman died.

We've been following airport security news for some time here on BB, and this is a related story. I don't know enough about the case to make a judgement of my own, but that wasn't the point of the post.

@Hoopy Frood & Anonymous: Sorry it's taking a while, but yes, we hope to offer alternate formats ASAP! We really are working on it.

@David Kasdan and others, yeah, we're fine tuning the BB logo stuff, I think maybe this was a bit too busy this time.

@Kurt, that was none other than Nihar Patel, writer/producer/bringer-of-funny extraordinaire!

@mikelotus, that's interesting, and I wasn't aware of this. Regardless, I'd imagine there is a tremendous pharmacological difference between the prescription substance and the sort of mess brewed up with kitty litter, cough syrup, and q-tips in some junkie's bathtub. comparing the two might be like comparing moonshine to merlot, though I suspect street meth is infinitely more hazardous.

@all the folks complaining about "irrational exuberance" here -- this is not Wikipedia, guys, don't expect NPOV. I love Cory's reviews, including this one. No, we never accept payment for reviews, and I think it's accurate to say we even pay for most of the stuff we review (books and gadgets and whatever), which is not the norm.

BB is a place where we share things we're excited about with anyone who cares to drop by. If you're not into it, there are many other places to spend your time and attention on the internet, and by all means, life is short! Be happy elsewhere!

Please also let us know where we can mail your subscription fee refund.

FUCK YOU THAT VIDEO IS TOTALLY GAY. I HATE THIS BLOG. Just kiddin' :-D

@waugsqueke, post updated to include link to uncensored version! Here it is:

MP3 Link.

@igpajo: AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

Saying Newport News is in the Deep South is like saying Colorado is on America's West Coast.

@Anonymous #7, two words: BALL WEIGHTS.

@Kathryn Hill, we've added "make this more accessible for hearing-impaired" to the tweaks list, I understand there's some Flash feature that does this automatically? Please, by all means, we'd be stoked to work with Project ReadOn, too. We would love to do a better job of being accessible to all.

(and thanks for the very kind words, Kathryn!)

@anonymou5, please remember that this is a forum for civil dialogue, not personal bashing.

@anonymous4, 5 and 6, you're correct about the "age appropriate" issue --

I'm presuming the smart young men and women who create this podcast are only seeking to protect themselves from legal liability. In an age where "abstinence education" is the standard in America, and prosecutions for online obscenity are such a focus for our current administration, it's standard.

Anyway -- I think these guys did a terrific job with a super low budge production, on a topic that obviously means something to 'em.

His eyeballs say it all. Whatever he's smoking, that pipe is full of win.

LOL, won't be issuing a retraction here, that's silly. Do the math, some of the figures I pointed to (which are estimates, and not estimates I came up with personally) include predicted pre-sales of the physical CD and vinyl. The band was taking orders for both CD and download simultaneously.

Their rep pretty much said "we're selling files solely for the purpose of boosting CD sales," and I paraphrased this. Nothing to retract.

Didn't say they weren't making any money off downloads. And who knows, if they really did rake in that much from downloads alone, maybe next time they'll think about the release process differently (and offer digital files which are an equivalent product, not a lesser product intended to encourage CD sales).

Ah, also -- the downloads were an incomplete album, as I understand it. The CD and vinyl include more material, more tracks, with the apparent intent being "try this out via low quality download, then go buy the REAL thing."

Guess what, for a lot of us, digital downloads ARE the REAL thing. I'm perfectly happy purchasing entire albums digitally and having that be the entire purchasing and listening experience. I don't need no stinkin' CDs, or vinyl, though it's great if others prefer that, to each his own.

Why not go end to end digital? I think that's lame. Not a crime, not "ripping off your fans," but cmon, it's lame. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

I guess that even with all of this considered, you could consider what Radiohead did here to be one step forward. But IMO, they should have followed up with the other foot.

@nicholas, as I state in the post, and have before on Boing Boing:

[[I can't fault airport security personnel who spot an unfamiliar electronic device, worry that it might be dangerous, and question accordingly. That's what they're there for. But why do prosecutors still insist on carrying these charges against Simpson, despite clear and abundant evidence she meant no harm?]]

@brian corcoran, ah, I forgot about ginger! Some veteran zero-g flyers mentioned this, and I know expecting moms throughout history have used this for morning sickness. Yeah, some people on the zero-g flights carried candied ginger to help with nausea. Makes sense.

Hey guys -- jeez, you'd think I said the iPhone is gay or something. Simmer down, whoah.

So, yeah, pretty much what @voracity said, although I'm not speculating that the band *won't* do this again.

My point here isn't that fans were "ripped off," I'm perfectly capable of typing that if I'd meant it. I typed what I meant.

It appeared to many when this news first came out that the band was testing out a new, direct-to-consumer method for distributing digital music without DRM, with the digital files being the endgame (and CDs or vinyl available for whoever wants 'em).

Instead, it appears now that the digital distribution was a sort of loss leader , with less-then-optimal quality files offered for the sole purpose of selling more copies of the physical CD, and that's why these files were released at a far lower bitrate than even Radiohead had previously offered -- Hail to the Thief was sold online at one site @ 320 kbps.

There's a difference between 160 - 320, guys, that's the whole point of the band's comments, and the comments of their rep. 160 kbps, LOL, that's like, what, state of the art circa 1997.

I think Bob Lefsetz made the case for why this is a letdown better than I can:

This wouldn’t happen with a new band. New bands are WIRED, they UNDERSTAND the Internet. Whereas now we know that Radiohead doesn’t really believe in files, they live still live in the nineties, we’re supposed to buy the CD

Read his entire post, it's great: Link.

I am still a big fan of Radiohead. The album's great. I shelled out a silly amount of money for the downloads because I wanted to support the idea of un-DRMmed, high-quality files as being a perfectly good way to sell music in and of itself.

This isn't the end of the world, but it is lame.

I am tempted to remind everyone of Blink Tag Bandit, whose reign of terror took place in the mid-1990s. But that would be in very bad taste, because, of course, this is a real story with real victims and not a joke.

What Teresa said. I plan to donate to the organization providing aid to these women. Fine, my small donation may not stop the mass rape epidemic immediately. But it might help one or more victims who didn't deserve what happened to them, and when we pool our focus and our resources together, we can help instigate change.

DUDES: direct Mp4 link at the top of the post (url fixed now, thanks!), @brian corcoran sorry about mispronouncing the blog name, eh?, @Alex, RSS feed for BBtv is live and is here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/boingboing/tv. You can now watch this shit on your iphones via iTunes, w00hoo!

Thanks so much for the helpful feedback guys.

I'd hit that.

Hey guys, we're so sorry about the ad volume issue. It's known, and our hamsters -- i mean, admins, are working on it.

I personally apologize to your ears! Also the plosives and sibilants are too poppy and hissy, we're recording next week's material with a new setup. Thanks for your patience.

Dude I can't believe there is a flame war here over menstruation. OH WAIT I CAN it's the internet.

I see what u sed dere. warning added.

Hey thanks guys! The EFF PSA volume issue is a goof, we're working on it. Links and episode info are now in the post, too.

@redrighthand -- fair enough, but I think the argument here is more "this will sure be crappy," not "NBC is stealing from its customers."

The standard experience we've grown to expect online is that whatever you download, free or otherwise, remains available with no self-destruct date.

It's absolutely reasonable for people to consider anything less than that to be a sub-optimal, or "crappy," experience.

@Pete: (1) you're correct, there's no "buy." The readers' statement has been corrected. (2)The readers constructed this poorly -- the missing detail here was Windows DRM as the culprit not the fact that the files are disabled after 7 days.

You guys are like Mad Libs but with more FUD!

Whups, re-pasting (MT comments blank out if you put text inside carets)

-----

[[Some speculate that the onset of Wain's schizophrenia was precipitated by toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be contracted from cats. The theory that toxoplasmosis can trigger schizophrenia is controversial but is the subject of significant research]]

XJ

Well, Wikipedia is sometimes worth as much as you pay for it, but -- check this out, from the bio entry:

>

XJ

@Cpt. Tim: This is not Engadget. You're on Boing Boing.

We do need to post a "guidelines for forum etiquette" kind of thing, but generally the common sense rule is: be civil to one another. Don't turn a heated argument into personally directed insults.

I appreciate the dialogue we're having here, now, and I think this is great. No one is calling anyone else an infidel / jihadist / Hitlerian douchebag.

(Famous last comments -- may have jinxed it)

@Ryan Davidson: The less ambiguous language takes a little digging to find now, but here it is.

The two sections of the website at issue (still visible on Google's cache) would seem to be:

---------------------------------------------

(1) the post titled "Addresses Of Jena 6 Ni----s: In Case Anyone Wants To Deliver Justice."

Google's cache shows that a version of that post dated September 20, 2:51PM local time, read in part:

"Jena, Louisiana -- Six ni----s are on trial in Jena, Louisiana. Five are currently out awaiting trial. Get in touch, and let them know justice is coming. Their addresses and phone numbers are (...)"

Followed by addresses and phone numbers purported to belong to those people.

(2) Another post titled "Lynch The Jena 6: We Are Anxiously Awaiting Their Release."

Here is a snip from that post:

Jena. Louisiana -- The American National Socialist Workers Party anxiously awaits the release of the Jena 6 n-----s, responsbile for an unprovoked assault on a white high student, so the six can face true justice.

"If these n-----s are released or acquitted, we will find out where they live and make sure that white activists and white citizens in Louisiana know it," ANSWP Commander Bill White stated today, "We'll mail directions to their homes to every white man in Louisiana if we have to in order to find someone willing to deliver justice."

---------------------------------------------

[Redaction of n-word is my own -- XJ]

@Cpt. Tim, you have not been edited here. I see three comments from you in this thread alone.

Right, but the magazine in question is in the Netherlands. No laws there banning women from wearing jeans and a t-shirt if they so choose.

Look, I get it, but I think we also have to remember that not every single woman in the world who chooses to dress modestly for cultural reasons is doing so because she fears being killed or maimed. There is room for diversity.

There are conservative Christian folk in the United States who choose to cover their bodies, also, and I don't begrudge them this choice.

@Darrell, nice work, grasshopper!

@Michael, I think it's fair to say that any of us who share parts of ourselves online like receiving public attention to one degree or another. That includes you, that includes me.

Whether or not this is the case with Mr. Righi, the real issue here is the law, and how Circuit City managers and law enforcement interpreted the law in this incident.

I find these reader testimonies very interesting because IANAL, and I don't know exactly what the laws are in these cases. I suspect they vary somewhat from state to state, and I suspect also that there's some ambiguity, some degree of flexibility for interpretation. Does that change over time, as the general climate changes?

Are some of us more stubborn about privacy incursions in small-scale situations where we *can* do something (say, refuse to show receipt or ID), because we know now about other, broader violations we're powerless to do much of anything about (say, NSA wiretapping)?

Hey, any lawyers out there? Sure would be interesting to hear from you in this thread, and hear you identify yourselves as such.

@anonymous15, dude, i don't know where this iron blood bulletin board community is but christ i want a screenshot or url! ALso i think the whole dispute should be settled in a showdown with RZA and GZA of Wu Tang moderating.

Take the Furries bowling
Take them bowling

Take the Klingons bowling
Take them bowling

@Nathan: There is no cowardice here, as you'll see if you reload -- just an updating/editing error. We're humans here, and sometimes we goof.

jeebus, you guys slay me. i am so glad we have comments on BB again.

Great, I can't wait for your response to this horse-fuckery documentary post I got waiting in the wings. Tally ho!

@Nick, Yeah, I just don't approach this story thinking about the same things, I guess. And I believe we should generally spend less time as a people bashing or judging the personal and religious traditions of others, and more time reading our own inventory.

Honestly, I didn't intend to spark a discussion on whether burkas are good or bad, or the merits of the Muslim faith, or gender inequality -- those are all worthy things to consider, but I just thought these clothing designs were an interesting reflection of human innovation within a specific tradition. A tradition I don't understand all that well.

One alternative way of looking at this design story is -- the religious codes and cultural mores are what they are. You could say that this designer (or these designers) are finding creative ways to provide observant conservative Muslim women with more experience mobility.

Swimming in public in a conventional bathing suit isn't something they'd do; these suits make it possible for them to comfortably enjoy that experience.

Without getting into a debate over whether or not those cultural or religious boundaries are just, or fair, or a form of gender oppression -- I think this is a very interesting example of how design can change our experience of the world.

@all, let's do remember the the first two words of the headline are "woman dies," and keep the debate adult.

@Teresa, yeah. Either the photographer, Mr. Cowling, plagiarized his own bio, or "Tim Clark" > The Tooth Fairy, and Tim Clark plagiarized the bio. Cowling says he's innocent, and so far attempts to confirm the existence of any "Tim Clark" who wrote this have been unsuccessful.

It's cool! We don't often hear about practitioners of "alternative" faiths in the news, unless they're accused of molesting or eating babies or whatever. This guy sounds like a normal, nice man, and it's awesome he won the lottery.

What Teresa Nielsen Hayden said. :-)

If I were this guy, my new Crowleyan Credo would be "Buy What Thou Wilt, That Shall Be The Whole Of The Law."

@daemonsquire - DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!

We're trying to just do interesting, escapist, non-narrative video that is pleasing to the eyes and brain in U.C., but maybe military death tech is stretching that a bit. We will go back to kittens next time maybe. Kittens with guns and supercharged turbo engines tho.

Roger that. Will wear crocs, pocket protector, and I CAN READ YOUR EMAIL t-shirt in next ep.

No, Wil Wheaton is his own unicorn chaser, he is excellent and awe-inspiring. BBtv's editor cut the episode this way because the only thing that could possibly compete with Wil Wheaton's unstoppable WINfulness is a THUNDER CHICKEN, flying high and proud.

@Peetr, thanks we're working on that! Meantime, the iTunes subscription link will serve that up for you, btw: http://snurl.com/1s0aj

@Anonymous16, please: Hecate and Demeter are listening.

@Jim s-g, yikes THE ALL CAPS DO LOOK WEIRD WE WILL FIX THAT SOONEST THX.

Am I the only one fixated on the thing in the photo, lower left, that reads "crapolicio.us"?

@Peter K:

(1) Bad scarification session at ye olde body modde shoppe

(2) Bad trip and/or rollin' too hard on E.

oh, that wasn't a choice, i just manually typed 250px wide by goof. Thanks for spotting! Fixed.

@Eduardo, that's a great idea, but we don't have a way I can imagine to automate the count -- keep it automatically udpated. One thread might have 100 comments when I post the roundup, then increase to 200 an hour later! Hm, thinking...

@Jason Cosper: Boogahhhhhh! Hi!

Many thanks for checking it out, guys!

(1) podcastiness coming! RSS feed and the ability to subscribe via iTunes will be live ASAP. Hopefully Wednesday October 3, the day on which we were *supposed* to launch anyway. We just couldn't wait.

(2) THanks for the reminder -- I've udpated the post to include a direct link to the MP4 file above, now, for iphone users and others who get indigestion from flash.

Hey guys! Thank you each, very much, for your gentle comments. :)

RSS feed and the ability to subscribe via iTunes will be live ASAP. Hopefully Wednesday October 3, the day on which we were *supposed* to launch anyway. We just couldn't wait.

Direct video link here, for those who have probs viewing Flash: Link

Zabet wrote:

[[I now have the ignominious honor of looking like an idiot who favors knitted tumors over actual people's lives.]]

Zabet, I'm so sorry you are offended, but I don't agree at all. The question of how to combine lighthearted and more serious subject matter is something we've wrestled with on Boing Boing the blog for years, too, and I guess we're still figuring out how best to do that in what is, for us, a new medium: video. On Boing Boing the blog, you'll often see posts about war or torture or human rights smacked right up against silly posts about papercraft or comics or what have you.

Again, I'm so sorry if you would rather we hadn't included your wonderful work in this piece. If anyone is at fault here for not presenting it properly, it's me. I thought that naming you, individually and collectively, in this very detailed accompanying blog post, and linking twice to your work (here and on boingboing.net) was the right way to do this.

Very sorry.

XJ

@Kristina and others, thank you very much, and we're really glad you enjoy it. Hey, if you dig it and you feel moved to add a review to iTunes, we'd really appreciate it! Here's the iTunes URL: Link.

Hey, Zabet -- yes, that's why we credited you in the blog post and linked to your site!

They could both use LOLspeak captions...

Pinchbeck's full of shit. I've spent some time around actual Mayan daykeepers in Guatemala and Mexico, and his interpretation of the Mayan calendrical system and Mayan cosmology is just pura mierda.

No, the world isn't going to end in 2012, nor does the Mayan Calendar end then, any more than the Harmonic Convergence was real. Damn, pero gabachos is stupid sometimes.

Look, I am no scholar in this field. I am not a "Mayanist" expert, nor am I Mayan obviously, or someone who's qualified to speak for the indigenous people who originated this knowledge, as it were.

But having spent considerable time in Mayan communities in Guatemala since I was a teenager, among priests and older community members who maintain this tradition, I can say with much confidence that hucksters like Pinchbeck (and Castaneda and Argüelles and their profiteering ilk) are just constantly, willfully, clumsily misinterpreting and co-opting this material to sell books and fashion themselves as new age messiahs.

Seriously, move along.

An authentic understanding of Mayan calendrical systems and religion is a lot more complicated and hard to come by, if you're non-indigenous, and you damn sure aren't gonna get it by munching on DMT and staring at fractals.

...which is why i made the joke.

@Eduardo: it's "Invite from [name] [email address]" and it's generated from the user email, not [something@quechup.com], which gets past many people's trust filters.

Here's an example with header info, actual victim's details deleted:

--------

From: VICTIM@gmail.com
Subject: Invite from VICTIM (VICTIM@gmail.com)
Date: September 3, 2007 9:36:36 PM PDT
To: XENI'S ADDRESS
Reply-To: (VICTIM@gmail.com)
Return-Path:
Delivered-To: XENI'S ADDRESS
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.9 (2007-02-13) on XENI'S EMAIL SERVER
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=7.0 tests=BAYES_00,HTML_MESSAGE autolearn=ham version=3.1.9
Received: (qmail 14572 invoked from network); 3 Sep 2007 21:39:48 -0700
Received: from mail2.quechup.com (HELO www1.quechup.com) (212.100.231.184) by XENI'S EMAIL SERVER with SMTP; 3 Sep 2007 21:39:47 -0700
Received: by www1.quechup.com (Postfix, from userid 48) id E56A52B3517; Tue, 4 Sep 2007 05:36:36 +0100 (BST)
Sender: "Quechup"
X-Mailer: PHP v5.2.3
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary = "1c0ee4632942be820932c592055b2695"
Message-Id:

WANT

@Suburbancowboy, check out their website -- they weren't capping it at one bulb, just telling folks who may not have a lot of motivation "hey, how hard it it to just start with one little lightbulb?," hoping they'll move on from there. One bulb at a time.

Well, I think the point is that they weren't just any ole buildings, they were, um, the Transamerica Pyramid, and other landmarks. I don't think the organizers expected to shut off ALL lights in SF, it was more of an awareness-raising exercise, and in that respect it sounded like they did a great job.

Wow. OK. This is not an homage to dogfighting, it's a reimagination of what would have existed if punk and ska and skinhead culture were born in Nigeria. IT'S A FASHION SHOOT. Not an actual documentary of 1970s punk scene in West Africa.

It's possible to explore visual ideas in this medium without advocating them. Hence the dog reference. He's telling a story in images, not promoting dogfighting.

I figured more folks would be upset by the racial implications of a fantasy photoset featuring skinheads in Lagos, but -- yeah, this is not a pro-dogfighting photoset. Clayton is a dear pal of mine, he's not into animal cruelty, and I just love his work, and I think this set is freakin fantastic.

Also, did anyone else see Fela and Black Flag play that double-bill in Accra back in 1982? Fuckin' awesome, and the King Sunny Ade / Dead Kennedys tour of Benin that followed was sold out.

omg capsaicin is evil!!!!

NPJ FTW

OMG that's Carla and Mark with Timothy Leary!!!

Anonymous Klingon, I hope you'll let us know here at BoingBoing when the event does happen. It sounds unmissable.

(yay for eccentric humans doing their own thing no matter what fun-crushers may say)

XJ

@OneWag, assuming that's correct -- wow. "EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY." Rrrright.

@om, that is very kind of you, but no I am not in Burma, or anywhere nearby.

Foreign journalists are in fact not allowed inside Burma. As other commenters have posted, however, some very brave citizens of that country have been risking their lives and safety by sneaking out documentation of the atrocities being committed by the military regime in power.

Those people, and the monks, and the poor and the everyday folk who are participating in the protests -- they're the ones truly at risk here. They deserve our sustained attention.

@oboreruhito,

But stop spitting on a gift because it wasn't good enough.

It's not a "gift" if you pay for it.

And plenty of music fans/consumers aren't expecting "gifts," they'd be absolutely happy to pay a reasonable price for digitally-delivered music that is of no lesser quality than "real" CDs.

The positive lesson from this experiment, whether it was just for CD marketing purposes or not, is that we now have further proof that this is true.

@rrsafety, thanks I've corrected the post. When I saw this demonstrated on TV, it looked like the gizmo was on the inside, but I must have been wrong.

[[Lady Jaye collapsed and died in the arms of her heartbroken "other half" Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.]] Oh, my goodness, how very sad. My condolences to her loved ones.

@owl, these aren't spam -- they're opt-in messages for people who support NARAL and want alerts via txt. Same with the other messages described in this post.

Nooooooo say it isn't so! Well, even if this isn't really who he is, so to speak -- gotta give the guy props for pronouncing it "TIM-BER-LAND." That alone is jeanyus!

The choice not to publish that word on BoingBoing is not one of censorship, but a decision about what I'm comfortable saying, and what is needed to communicate what I'm trying to communicate.

I'm not comfortable using that word at all. Its use is not required in order to tell the story or invite the debate here in the comments section.

I don't feel entitled to its use.

Others are free to make their own decisions -- but that is mine, and I don't accept the notion that this is "censorship."

We don't post beheading videos. We don't post explicit photographs of people having sex. And I don't post this word. Just an editorial choice.

Wow, some big licensing differences between this and iTunes. For instance, AMZN have a ton of Radiohead albums, where iTunes has zippo! Led Zep searches still turn up karaoke and lullabies. Drat.

@Anonymous 4, I am presuming that this will be free, but I might be wrong. VA didn't specify one way or the other in the press release, and the service launch is not planned 'til '08.

@Moltketti, ooh, cool! I'm gonna try the mod! Thank you so much for sharing this!

@spincycle, that's very cool, but please note that this item is about the adult film star Ashley Blue, not the blogger and author Violet Blue, who is in turn sometimes confused with a porn performer who assumed the name Violet Blue in later years. It gets confusing, I know.

@Jeffrey, that's a legitimate point! I goofed, that was sloppy of me. I've edited the title.

@GorillaSushi, that doesn't seem like a reasonable criticism at all. Have you checked their fares lately? They're very competitive, and I don't see any indication that the added service here will cause them to raise rates. I mean, they may indeed raise fares after the initial launch period has passed, but if they do, I wouldn't guess that's all about the broadband.

At any rate, fares on VA are really nice right now. I've been flying them on SF/LA and LA/NY routes, and enjoying it, and no they haven't paid me to say that -- they're not a Boing Boing sponsor.

Susannah Breslin, the BB pal who pointed us to this story, has reached out to its author at the NYT to see if he has recommendations of what concerned folks can do.

@Tits McGee, those suggestions seem to me to be excellent.

A small footnote: I couldn't help but think how bizarre the name of the roaming Congolese death squads is. They've co-opted the term "Rasta," and I wonder how many Americans or others reading the article (or other news about Congo) now might imagine that this is in fact how actual Rastafarians behave.

Whatever you think of the *real* Rastafarian Movement, and their lifestyle and their faith (few outside it take the time to understand it, many white folks in particular romanticize it, others have dismissed it as a "stoner cult") -- they're not death squads.

(shakes head sorrowfully). What an incredibly horrible story this is, so very awful. And even more sad, the fact that systematized sexual violence against women is not uncommon in other wars around the world.

If the face of this 18-year-old girl isn't the face of abiding, inextinguishable strength, I don't know what is.

Wow, guys. Is the opposite of "oppression" walking around naked, then? I think not.

What if some women from cultures other than our own simply prefer to dress in this more modest way, because it's part of their cultural tradition? Not because the law demands that they do, or because oppressive religious codes forbid them do anything else -- but because this is how they choose to present themselves to the world?

This is complicated stuff, but I don't think it's my place to liberate these women from choices they make. I think the metallic tracksuit on the left looks kind of bad ass, actually!

XJ

@Bloo, good point. Let's also hope the broadband frequency is "wide stance."

(I was joking about Gilmore btw, I have nothing but respect for him and the lawsuit he filed.)

Well, [cough cough], please don't Sulk. I Might Be Wrong. Call me an Airbag, or a Creep. I Just feel a little Let Down.

I understood that Radiohead initially said they were releasing a new album as downloadable audio files on a tip-box system, not soliciting a few token Dollars and Cents from each of us to pay for a promotional preview for the real product, which is an $80 box set. Nice Dream, huh.

Again, maybe I'm misunderstanding some of the nuances, but I believe it's better when there are No Surprises for hardcore fans like me who are nuts enough to pay them $80 for the goddamned MP3s anyway.

I remain Optimistic.

@Amber -- I think that's possible, and I'm familiar with this, too. I spent some time in rural West Africa this year, and this is a widespread custom among (particularly) rural people there.

@shanealeslie, thanks for weighing in, and I've heard great things about the film, all blog-jokes aside. I guess I need to just shut up and buy it now!

I, for one, welcome our new bastard unicorn furry lovechild overlords.

And how!

OMG I know it's not *the* Doctor Tchock, but someone has great taste in pseudonyms!

@Webbie -- it's relevant, she identifies herself as such in the press she's doing around this story. It's in the story I cite, and I'm not repeating the fact in an effort to tar her, it's just -- that's who she is and what she does for a living. If it were about me, it'd be Xeni Jardin, BoingBoing blogger and whatever, and in this case, it's Kyla Ebbert, San Diego [name of school] student and Hooters waitress.

@kiint, he wasn't "trying to remain anonymous," I just always try to verify before publishing whether someone's comfortable with being identified on the blog, as a privacy courtesy. I've just now verified, and you'll see his name here in the post.

@Anonymous #9 -- far be it from me to censor nipples on BoingBoing. No, that's the original, untouched (just resized) pic from the website. I guess the top she's wearing has built-in pasties. XJ

Wow, guys, I found the theme music for this long-anticipated game! http://snurl.com/1r7vx

@Jordan, indeed, that is a production goof. We're sorry for the error, and are fixing that now! By the time you see this comment, we'll be in the process of doing so.

If Cory offered copies of his books for *sale* online in electronic form with missing pages and print you couldn't enjoy as fully, and we learned about the lower-than-optimal quality and incomplete content after we'd paid for it, and we learned a few weeks later that he'd only done so for the purpose of selling dead-tree copies, then maybe, I guess.

But no, Cory doesn't do that. He doesn't condescend to his audience. So I don't think the two are analogous.

Radiohead has the right to do whatever they want with the art they create, and if they want to give away or sell low-quality MP3s to entice people to buy CDs, again, it's not a crime.

But it's not very forward-thinking, given how many of us see digital downloads of music as a primary means of purchase and enjoyment.

Jim Griffin on the pho list likes to talk about "Tarzan Economics," meaning that folks in the record biz often try to hang on to an old business model while tentatively grasping at others, trying to swing through the jungle.

If you really want to progress, at one point or another you just have to let go of the old, familiar vine, and fly forward.

Greetings, mein düdes:

A few answers @ everyone (and thank you very much, both for the kind words for the BBtv team and for the helpful criticisms)...

(1) YES other boingers are coming soon! We're taking it simple at the beginning, and gradually expanding out into more kinds of ways of telling stories... more contributors, more stuff out in the field... you'll see new things next week, and we'll expand further each week. One step at a time. The idea here is to TRY EVERYTHING. See what works, don't repeat what doesn't. What you tell us about what you like or don't like weighs heavily.

(2) Yeah, sorry about sound probs. We don't want to be too perfect or fussy or polished, but crappy sound or overly "hissy" sound with "host" speech is lame. We're working on it for the next episode. Sorry.

We will include more cowbell in the future.

(3) Animated Jackhammer Jill *IS* rad and was produced by Of The World TV. PEsco did a post about them today over on the main BB site, chekkitout: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/05/of-the-world-tv.html.

(4) Unicorn chaser is a regular fun thing, but not all the time.

(5) Jackhammer Jill is beardless.

(6) We mosaic/blur the x-rated stuff because we don't want BBtv video to be too NSFW.

(7) @A New Challenger ROFL

(8) @Ocker3 hm that's no good. Our UI team will talk and maybe we'll change things around a bit. shouldn't be a hunting expedition, you're right.

Again thanks for watching and weighing in! It really means a lot to us. No, a marketing consultant did not tell me to say that. I mean it.

XJ

@Cowicide, that's actually not why we blurred the x-rated bits. We want BBtv to not be *too* NSFW for much of our audience who view it at work, or in other shared environments. Nobody's telling us where the boundaries are, and nobody's "censoring" us. We're just trying to sort out what makes sense for our audience/community/victims.

XJ

Is it wrong that I am as excited about this as I am about the November London Led Zeppelin reunion show? I kind of think they'll both be duds, because comeback shows with rock-n-roldsters where half the dudes are dead are often lame. But still, two of my favorite bands of all time, and I don't care if you think that's incongruous.

Also fk'n great post. How awesome is that video clip.

@willibro/everyone re: the link/don't link question:

I didn't leave out a link to be "PC," or because I thought an href tag would encourage anyone who clicked it to become a neo-nazi, don't be silly.

The part that interests and concerns me is the "mechanical" effect of linking to them in the body of a BB post -- when you're doing this on a blog that has as large a network footprint as BB, that small act affects the linked-to site's Google rank in a big way. Linking also does serve to drive significantly more traffic to the site than explaining how to find the site without an embedded link.

I still don't know what the best policy is, or what I'll do next time, but it's interesting to be having this discussion with you guys.

XJ

@Nick: it's an internet joke.

@verafides, which Olympus recorder do you like?

Many thanks to all who've weighed in on this thread, really fascinating to read your insight here. Even you, Jason.

XJ

@Lakelady, I think it's fair to say that sometimes, extraordinary circumstances and extraordinary desire to save the lives of others overwhelms common sense. Also, those basic supplies were not available to all the first responders out there, least of all the volunteers -- distribution was extremely difficult. The last people we should be finding fault with are the men and women who simply tried to help, and are now paying with their own bodies and lives.

@ntac, right -- betcha you were receiving much smaller doses of a much higher quality / more pure substance than what they're referring to as "devil's breath."

We did not buy the name. That guy did something that was a violation of Twitter's TOS (squatting/poaching/selling names), and lost control of the BoingBoing "domain." We then obtained it.

@Zuhaib, oooh lovely, I see their work on Amazon's MP3 store, too. url: http://snurl.com/1rc8v

@anonymous#6, there are other ways to avoid motion sickness in zero gravity. Some less intense drugs work for some people, and I've always made do with a pocket full of Altoids or gum, and some techniques that involve minimizing inner ear confusion.

Bottom line: in heavy-G pullup period, stay still, don't move your head, keep your eyes fixed on one spot, other things you can do to trick your physiology into not freaking out. It's not the weightless parts that make you sick, it's the heavy-g parts before or after.

I've flown zero g multiple times, and never used even over-the-counter drugs for motion sickness on those flights. I've had a few woozy moments, but never puked or had enough probs that the experience was unenjoyable.

Don't taste me, bro!

@epi_mom pwns.

Oh, that was a headline construction goof, I didn't intend that meaning. I will correct.

I'm glad you guys liked Gabe and Max as much as we did. I think we're going to put out a call for questions from BBtv viewers, and then forward those by fax and whatnot to Gabe and Max, and ask them to respond to those questions in a tailor-made infauxmercial which we'd air on BBtv. These days, what with business and stuff, you gotta get your emails. I sure would like to know more knowledge from them about how to achieve the dreamlife of my dreams on the internet.

@Nathan -- this is a little like explaining one's underwear choices, but here's what happened.

Sometimes I might tweak a post, add something, change a word or two for clarification, add a pic, correct a typo, and so on. The posts are fairly fluid in that respect.

In this case, the original post did not include that last line, or the image. I refreshed posts in Ecto (the editor I use, is sometimes wonky but mostly great) and added the image, and the final line, did some other tasks, accidentally deleted the post, and re-posted with the image but without the final line. Realized the goof a few minutes later, re-posted the last line.

Aaaaaand there you have it.

@Roy, fascinating! You were there!

@Cheeken, and others, the song Foxie Moxie gogos to is indeed "chick habit," by April March, and she's totally awesome. iTunes Store Link.

What a fascinating piece. Also, am I the only one who skimmed the headline and read "frankenorgasms"?

@FirstPesonShow.net-kevin -- Hey, I think our ad folks have fixed the "sound too loud on ads" issue now (6pm PT). How's it sound now? Should be cool moving forward. Sorry 'bout that.

@everyone: Joel, Cory, and Pesco will each debut shortly, and Mark will be more of a regular part of the show! We're just kind of getting our material together, figuring out what sort of approach suits each person best, and getting a sense of what feels most boingy. So, yes, definitely expect a lot more diversity in terms of the faces you see. We'll be doing lots more stuff out in the world, and other wacky formats I don't even wanna talk about yet.

And, also expect a greater portion of stuff coming from our friends (filmmakers, nerds, explorers, whatever, folks we know).

And, expect stuff from you, our audience (friends we haven't met yet! ← awwwwcheeseball)

Thanks for hanging in there, I know there are plenty of little flaws and rough edges. Our promise to you is not that this will be flawless, but that it will be as honest of an experiment as we are capable of doing, and that we will try to evolve this into something great, and that we will try to always make new mistakes, as Esther Dyson says.

Oh wait that's three promises! Hahahah sorry, I suck. :)

XJ

@nicerobot, thanks for the heads up! We boosted the video quality a little too much in the last two episodes, and discovered that this causes problems for iPhone and Apple TV. We've dialed back the quality now, within the acceptable range for those platforms -- if you feel like re-downloading now (422pm Wed 7 11), all should be well. Again thanks, and sorry for the technical problem.

What @pfurrie said.

I love Doug Rushkoff. For that reason, and many others.

As important as the food, I love what she says about the importance of walking, and how to integrate that into an urban lifestyle. She is cool.

She's cool. Also, salad dressing can be home-made, and healthy! Tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, soy sauce, blended herbs, yogurt -- tons of stuff you can mix in various combinations that aren't "bad."

Good point, Jim! We should have made this clearer. The film is really good, the guys sent me a screener copy and I watched over the weekend. While the theme is kind of scary (corn is in everything, it's a huge, gov-subsidized industry, corn derivative foodstuffs are making America fat), the movie is not preachy at all, very fun, and the scene where they try to homebrew high-fructose corn syrup is just hilarious. I think that's my favorite part of the film, and worth the price of admission alone.

Oh, and coincidentally, the NYT ran an editorial on the farm bill just this weekend: Link.

@misseliza, whups, thanks, I've clarified.

Guys, thanks, the post has been updated with a correction and a link to the previous (correct) BB post.

@X, thanks very much! We're planning to do more collaborative work among the BB team on future episodes, so... stay tuned, please!

Oh, also -- Bonnie at the excellent food blog ethicurean has an interesting review up on King Corn:

http://www.ethicurean.com/2007/10/10/king-corn/

@anonymous, well, I got that notion from... um... seeing them play live in NYC when I was a pre-teen punk. Being there in person.

Snip from the booklet that was inserted with Some Old Bullshit:

For the record Beastie Boys stands for: Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence. That might sound kind of serious or it might sound idiotic, probably both, but it seemed funny at the time. We played our first club gig at A7. If you came up in N.Y.C. hardcore, you probably know the place. If not, it was like playing in your aunt's living room - that is if your aunt's living room had cat pee all over and was a part time crack house. Then we opened for Reagan Youth and I think Even Worse at what was once the legendary club, Trude Hiller's. H.R. of the Bad Brains saw us play and gave us a gig opening for them at the closing night of Max's Kansas City. Talk about irony. Then we broke up.

Early on, they'd play what could only be described accurately as hardcore, in hardcore clubs, with hardcore bands. After a set doing thrash, they'd put down their instruments and goof off as MCs. Eventually, they stuck with the MC part and the rest is funkstory.

XJ

@Guabaman, ROFL, that's cuz I was wearing the space flightsuit they gave me to wear on the Zero Gravity flights! I stuck some Vader and Yoda stickers on it. There was an astronaut in the house with the same flightsuit. It was weird, like showing up at the Oscars and seeing some other chick in the same gown.

@Gareth, ahhahahahahaha i cracked up there too!!

@Pat, thanks! And @Lionel, WOW, thanks for commenting here. We're going to feature you, and your amazing creations, in part two of "American Furry" on BBtv, probably next week.

Hey, for everyone who thinks furries are uncool, check this out (work-safe):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1wnOUH2jk8

XJ

@Stefan: "Forever" just means the next 5 minutes, until we try something new that turns out to be fun to watch. There is no "totally" in the BBtv equation at this time, except for the fact that we are striving to be totally fuckin' sweet at everything there is to be totally fuckin' sweet at. (SOURCE)

@albedo LOL you said "frottage burn" and "Ms Pac Man" in the same sentence.

Weren't "Incense, Wood Resin, Amber, Jasmine, Iris, Violet and Cedarwood" names of actresses in his films, along with Holly Woodlawn and Candy Darling and the like?

Is it true that "html" stands for HACKERS, TROLLS, MASHUPS and LOLCATS -- the fabled "four horsemen of the netpocalypse?"

Also how do you pronounce HARBLS please.

I, too, would like more advice on how to make my MySpaces and Facebooks more sparkly, and make them emit a pleasing freshness odor. Is there like a plug-in?

@Pyros, no, "+1" meant "I agree with your sentiment." Thanks for being civil.

She cain't hep it!

@Jesse M., it's actually not something I coined, or selected -- we re-run these lists with the kind permission of Frank from chaoskitty.com. He has generously granted us permission to do so for some years, all of these cool finds are his, and the name "web zen" is also his.

@Adam, oh, okay, cool! Someone better tell the cows.

@Pyros, +1.

@ others who've lobbed insults at the guy -- let's please be mindful of the fact that he is recently deceased.

Arguing in a comments thread over what constitutes comedy is going to be about as fruitful as a thread about whether furries are creepy or sexy, or whether George Bush deserves to be president. Someone should just call someone else a nazi here, and we'll consider it a wrap.

I didn't know "Timmy" personally, but I think he was very talented. The particular kind of confrontational, hyperbolic schtick he did is not without precedent, and not without peer.

Sascha Baron Cohen didn't teabag taxis at the Convention Center (plz correct me if I missed it), but the stuff Timmy did with the Crap TV guys reminds me a little of stuff on the Ali G show -- only in the environment of pre-dotcom-crash Los Angeles, a time and place that kinda means something to me, personally. @Chiefcynic, actually, a lot of awesome comedy does involve some guy acting like a moron.

So, yeah, I think this is really fcking funny, and the story of how this very charismatic and smart young man came to pass away is also tied in to that internet history, and is extremely sad.

Anyway, that's part of why I thought it would be a good thing to share on BBtv. The circumstances that led to this material being produced, all of the crazy money flying around at E3, the hubris, the hype, the huge parties, the big payout promises -- this clip captures all of that perfectly.

His schtick was insane, the environment around him more so.

Perhaps! I am rather into fake fur coats. Fur-curious, I guess!

@TK: Naturalists might diss you similarly for wearing pants.

@Pat Race: Thanks for watching and caring enough about it to respond!

* I AM WEARING PANTS.

* re: format of this episode, we're experimenting with a lot of different things here. Today's episode was not pre-fab, not something we just grabbed off YouTube and re-ran on BBtv. The process was kind of cool -- the filmmaker provided us with access to tons of raw material from the film she's still making. Our (disgustingly talented) editor picked little bits here and there with which to tell a story in less than 5 minutes on the internet, and strung it all together. We actually did tape some host intros, but when our editors showed us what they'd constructed -- I dunno, we just all felt like this story told itself better without any interruption from us. Maybe we'll do it differently next time. Whatever. The beauty of this experiment is that it's just that: a daily experiment. We promise you that this will never be homogenous, or a copout. We promise you that we will try new things every day. And yeah, we're gonna keep doing it every day.

* That said: Expect more of our faces and voices (Mark, me, other Boingers) in the mix next week, though, we've been roaming around the world shooting a bunch of adventures this week... editing now.

* re: IT ROOM. We get paid to run ads, and that's what enables us to produce the show. We know Dell is ethical and makes good computers and monitors -- they like this campaign, our viewers have been sharing their opinions about it, and I'll be interested to see how that develops.

* WHEN FURRIES LOOK AT US, THEY SEE FOOD.

What seems silly to me is the notion that you have to go around kneeling and kissing VCs' hands in order to start an internet business. These poor guys, it's like all they learned about the internet they learned in 1999, before the drop. Hell, Boing Boing has never received a dime in VC funding. We didn't start out as a business at all.

ScottSO: Yes, the BBtv vlog episodes will be in the same feed as the Boing Boing tv episodes!

I am secretly wearing mom jeans RIGHT NOW.

@sasquatch, these are all available via the main BBtv RSS feed:

http://feeds.boingboing.net/boingboing/tv

and each episode is downloadable! there's a li'l button right there in the castfire interface.

if this were a Fox headline, it would read

FOX HAS ITS WAY WITH HOUND

@osiris7, I have seen those guards IRL. When I was in Northern India last year, I spent some time around other Tibetan Buddhist religious figures, including one who'd fled China recently enough that personal security concerns seemed to remain high. The man traveled in a heavily armed convoy, with lots of personal guards carrying large guns.

I thought that read "Batboy" at first glance. Man I miss Batboy. He was hot. WWN FTW.

@jawells, EULAgy, hahahahhah

@Bill Simmon, gosh that's terrible.

I really didn't want this thread to turn into a public bashing, I like these guys. Let's try to remember that they seem like a pretty modestly-sized operation, without an excess of funding or resources. But that's really too bad. Great ideas are not of much use if nobody can get to them.

Hopefully someone from INDEX will chime in here, and/or the accessibility issues will be resolved.

@bzishi, Randy Pitchford's console mounts are indeed mindbogglingly badass.

@takuan, I don't agree that what they're doing is censorship. I do think it's a terribly outdated way of thinking about information distribution.

The magazine seems to be primarily aimed at social good, not profit, per se, but they're relying on what amounts to an elitist, oldfashioned business model.

They're well-meaning people, and they produce a terrific publication. They're not evil, they've just made what amounts to (IMO) a bad decision, and it's all the more unfortunate because of the subject matter in this particular issue.

Perhaps they'll change their policy sometime soon!

OH NO THEY BE STEALIN' MAH TATER!

Guys, seriously. Don't believe everything you watch on the videonets.

@draconum, hobo-enabler, lawl!

@beanolini, yeah what sucks is that even after the captcha, i'm still blocked! i rebooted the router and tried safari en vez de firefox and got around it, but seriously, screw google.

Hey, look! Teresa Nielsen Hayden is proving out my hypothesis, right here! Man is she ever rad.

Hey Biphenyl, looks like we neglected to credit you properly -- my apols! Folks, that cool ditch photo is from http://biphenyl.org.

Ah, schnitzel changed to snosages! Dude, I don't eat that stuff, and i failed to factcheck. My apologies.

@5000, You mean the classic title "The Octopus Invades The Vagina And It Hurts"?

@shiva7663, OMG SOMEONE MAKE A FLOWCHART PLZ!

I flew in and out of SFO a few times over the past several weeks, and did not experience this.

THanks, licensefarm! THat's kind of what we thought. I've covered a bunch of these things as a journalist, and am a lot less interested in the sales pitches and the "woohoo, the intersection of sex and technology and money," than I am in watching the sponteneous, awkward reactions of a real human being who normally does not frequent such environments.

also, splendid!

Congratulations, Cory and Alice! Welcome to earth, Poesy!!!!

I for one welcome our baby overlords.

@Takuan: yes, it died of ROFLMAO

peeples: you can has unicorn chaser.

@license farm: the dead possum has a thing on its rear leg that projects a keyboard using laser light, it communicates via bluetooth with any compatible PDA or laptop. I tried using it on my iPhone and could not get it to work, but we did set it up with a little iMac and were typing text with it. Crazy, but simple, and yes it works. The possum makes it awesome!

@oldgreg: crack is a cruel, cruel master.

This video is PURE AWESOME. Period. Saying it should be something else is like saying chocolate cake should be a tofu salad.

@Downpressor: 'cause i fucked up. fixed!

WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE HAMSTERS

I've personally communicated my respect and my regret for the lack of clarity to Ms. Ono.

As a wiser blogger/journalist once told me, sometimes speed conspires to make fools of us -- the pressure to crank out lots of posts with other obligations present sometimes leads to sloppiness. I handled the original post in a less than clear way. I will try to do better next time.

She is indeed a gracious lady and a class act, and her subsequent personal email to me on the matter humbled me greatly.

Respect, yo.

Whatever it is, it represents the USSR.

That's really cool, WV peeps! I was conceived in your fair state. My favorite part of West Virginia is Possum Holler, a tiny little burgh nestled between two old mountains, where you can buy cheese and pepperoni slices at Possum Holler Pizza. I used to have a bumper sticker from there, with a little possum offering you a piping hot slice in his little outstretched possum paw.

@mattmckeon, i know that area, the monongahela valley! I love this warning about camping in the area -- Civil War leftovers can make you hurty!

Snip:

[[[Special Notice: Many of the artillery and mortar shells shot into the area for practice still exist here. In 1997, a highly trained crew surveyed the trail locations and known campsites for shells. They found 15, some of which were still live. All were exploded on site. Many more may still exist and are dangerous. Since it is impossible to survey every acre of the wilderness, we ask that you follow the recommendations below for your own safety]]]

@ghastlyordeal, I'm basing that observation on IP logs, not snobbery!

Arguing about what's funny or not on the internet makes about as much sense as arguing what kind of wine tastes best. Sweetberrywine, or peanut nor?

@anonymous #3, i thought the verizon ad was really well done and funny, actually. I LOLled, and that's saying something, because i have to look at the ad every time i view a published episode, which is, like, a lot.

Plus, and this is not shilling, but -- have you tried the thing they're promoting, FIOS? A couple of the guys in the studio where we produce BBtv have this at home (it's not available where I live), and it's -- well, it's AWESOME. Super super fast broadband. If Bay was hawking some retarded product, I'd give you a few points, but he's engaging in self-deprecating humor for a killer service that does what it says it does, so I'm happy to see this sponsorship run on BBtv.

Call me when you see us run Halliburton spots featuring Dick Cheney, then we'll talk.

(waves hi!!!)

I don't think that's how it works, Marisa. You have to submit to retinal scans and other biometric stuff, so no, the system operates in a way so folks who share your last name would not be waved through.