Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things suggest a link | rss | archives | store | mark | cory | david | xeni | john Sponsored by: Support Bloggers' Rights! HOWTO: Get a link posted to Boing Boing Boing Boing Mobile powered by Winksite Fark rules! Our Linking Policy This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License . Stats (About our stats) Our first five years' worth of posts in one file Copyright 2005 Happy Mutants LLC. Some rights reserved. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States [and other countries]. Monday, January 9, 2006 Flame someone anonymously online, go to jail. Declan McCullagh writes: It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess. This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act . Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison. "The use of the word 'annoy' is particularly problematic," says Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union . "What's annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else." Link to News.com story ( Thanks, Deep Fried Geekboy and many others ) posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:36:10 AM permalink | blogs' comments Musician requests truly badass bone conduction hearing aid Following up on an earlier Boing Boing post about the wacky and extinct "Bone Fone" listening device, reader Seth Walot says, I have Treacher Collins Syndrome . I was really intrigued by your "bone fone" post on boingboing.net because I have never seen any bone conduction stuff besides my hearing aid. I have a Shiley BC-1 bone conduction hearing aid. As far as I know, they haven't really made any type of upgrades or anything to it because the market for bone conduction hearing aids is pretty limited (I have no outer ear, so I can't use any kind of around-the-ear aid, although there is a bone-implanted BAHA aid that I could get if I wanted to have the surgery for it). Since there are alot of engineers and techy DIY hands on people who read Boing Boing, I was wondering if you could suggest some kind of contest or something to make a new bone conduction aid. I'll be 23 in 2 weeks and I have had the exact same model of aid since I was born. Thats pretty depressing, although you could say I am indeed keeping it old school. I've always wanted a waterproof aid, or one that would help me hear the music I record a bit better. On a side note, the aid has never stopped me from making music, and I do it under 2 aliases "horace the library turtle" and "chainfight winner" which you can find on teampandarocks.com and on myspace.com. ps: I love to read boingboing.net! Previously: Dead Tech -- The Bone Fone posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:19:13 AM permalink | blogs' comments South Park "Bloody Mary" an immaculate deletion, says Comedy Central Many Boing Boing readers sent in this Comedy Central email response to complaints over the apparent cancellation of a South Park episode. "Bloody Mary" raised the ire of The Catholic League , which claimed to have successfully pressured the network into canceling re-airings. Here's background on the story. Snip from Comedy Central's autoresponder: Dear Viewer: Thank you for your letter regarding the "South Park" episode entitled "Bloody Mary." We appreciate your concerns about the potential influences of outside special interest groups on the media and enterainment industries and particularly Comedy Central. Though Comedy Central did not include the "Bloody Mary" episode in a special year-end marathon of "South Park" episodes in deference to the Holidays, "Bloody Mary" did in fact air in every one of "South Park's" normally scheduled repeat timeslots. As satirists, we believe that it is our First Amendment right to poke fun at any and all people, groups, organizations and religions and we will continue to defend that right. Our goal is to make people laugh, and perhaps if we're lucky, even make them think in the process. Despite misleading claims from those who would like to claim victory, we have not permantly shelved the "Bloody Mary" episode from future airings due to outside pressure nor will we exclude it from future DVD releases. Sincerely, Comedy Central Viewer Services ( Thanks, TeD Strother, Gary Shuster, Gedeon, Jan VIlhuber, Todd , Mike , chad , ttrentham , and the ten gajillion other BB readers / South Park junkies / First Amendment fans who submitted this ) Previously: Comedy Central downs "Bloody Mary" "Bloody Mary" resurrected: censored South Park hits P2P Bloody Mary: War on Xmas over, War on Blasphemy starts posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:07:19 AM permalink | blogs' comments SuperSoaker as makeshift ear-wax syringe A Canadian cottage-goer developed a deafness-inducing ear-wax-clot from excessive swimming; a doctor on the cottage-island decided to substitute a handy SuperSoaker water-gun for a syringe and got great results -- so great that he wrote them up for the Canadian Medical Association Journal. D.K. (a family and emergency physician) assessed the utility of the Super Soaker Max-D 5000. He was surprised to note that it was able to deliver a superbly pressured narrow stream of water equivalent to, or perhaps exceeding, the quality of that achieved with standard ear-syringing instruments. The owner of the Super Soaker Max-D 5000 was sought out; after hearing an explanation of its intended application, he granted permission for its use. Verbal consent (covering risks and benefits) was obtained from the patient. He then changed into swimming shorts, located himself on an ideal location on the deck and held a Tupperware container (product number 1611-16) to the side of his neck, in lieu of a kidney basin. The Super Soaker Max-D 5000 was filled with body-temperature water and then mildly pressurized using the blue hand-pump. The trigger was depressed, releasing a gentle, narrow jet of water, which was then aimed along the posterior wall of the ear canal (Fig. 1). After approximately 15 seconds, the jet was aimed along the anterior wall. This cycle was repeated (with occasional repressurizing) until the Super Soaker was empty. Midway through the second load's stream, wax particles began to run out of the ear. Just after starting the third load, a large plug of wax burst forth from the patient's ear. The 3 generations of family members present took turns admiring (or recoiling from) the specimen. The patient exclaimed in joy, "I can hear again!" Link ( via Making Light ) posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:02:31 AM permalink | blogs' comments Five-year-old gets drunk at Applebee's Five-year-old Seth Pereles was sipping what his mother thought was an apple juice at the Applebee's restaurant in Battery Park City, New York. Turns out that apparently he had accidentally been served a Long Island Iced Tea. His mother, Cynthia Pereles, says the restaurant came clean on the mistake but she's suing them for $75,000. From Local 6: Pereles said she did not realize her son was drinking a concoction of white rum, gin, vodka, triple sec, Coke and sweet-and-sour mix until it was too late. The boy's eyes became glazed and he began to laugh uncontrollably, according to a report. "When you're looking at your 5-year-old and you're asking him, quiet down Seth, sit still and you see that mentally and physically he cannot comply with what you're asking him to do because he is under the influence," Pereles said. Link posted by David Pescovitz at 09:09:00 AM permalink | blogs' comments Books bound in human skin This weekend, the Associated Press published an interesting article about antique books bound in human skin, a relatively common practice in the 19th century. For example, the private Boston Athenaeum library has an 1837 edition of a highway robber's memoirs wrapped in his own skin. Brown University holds an anatomy book that, appropriately enough, is bound in human skin. From the article: ...Wealthy bibliophiles may have acquired the skin from criminals who were executed, cadavers used in medical schools and people who died in the poor house, said Sam Streit, director of Brown's John Hay Library. The library has three books bound in human skin -- the anatomy text and two 19th century editions of "The Dance of Death," a medieval morality tale. One copy of "The Dance of Death" dates to 1816 but was rebound in 1893 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf, a master binder in London. A note to his client reports that he did not have enough skin and had to split it. The front cover, bound in the outer layer of the epidermis, has a slightly bumpy texture, like soft sandpaper. The spine and back cover, made from the inner layer of skin, feels like suede. Zaehnsdorf probably left the covers plain to showcase the material, Streit said. Brown's other "Dance of Death" edition, done in 1898, is more elaborately decorated with inlays of black leather and a gold-tooled skull. But a closer examination reveals the pores of the skin's former owner. Link UPDATE: BB reader Brian Frye points to a deeper article on the subject in the November 10 issue of Harvard Law School's newspaper, The Record. Link posted by David Pescovitz at 09:00:24 AM permalink | blogs' comments Kitty and horse are pals This picture of a 12-week-old barn cat with her three-year-old equestrian pal is sure to give you cavities. The two live on a farm near Shepparton, Victoria in Australia. (Photo by David Caird, from the Herald Sun.) Link posted by David Pescovitz at 08:32:57 AM permalink | blogs' comments DRM keeps Spielberg's Munich out of award-voters' hands Patrick von Sychowski sez, Steven Spielberg will most likely not get any nomination for the BAFTA (British Film Academy) awards for "Munich" because of a massive DRM cock-up. BAFTA's 3,000+ members were sent encrypted 'screener' DVDs that can only be played on special DVD players supplied by Cinea (www.cinea.com - a Dolby subsidiary). First the DVDs were held up by UK customs, thereby missing the first round voting deadline. But when they arrived, they would not play on any machine because they had been mastered for Region 1 (North America). As BAFTA members are cannot vote for films they have not seen and only a handful of preview screenings have been held, the film ought to be disqualified from consideration. I can't imagine Spielberg will be best pleased about this. I find it extraordinary that even members of Britain's film making community are not trusted to play DVDs from any other region than Europe! Warner Bros has earlier committed a similar technical faux-pas when they sent BAFTA members commercial DVDs of "Batman Begins" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" that were also Region 1, though at least WB has steered clear of Dolby/Cinea (motto: "Making Piracy History"). Looks like other studios might want to do the same thing, come next year's awards season. On Patrick's advice, I called the BAFTA PR office and heard a recorded message apologizing for the "technical errors" with the Munich screener that "will not play in the UK machines" and a recent BAFTA PR email adds "WHILE YOU SHOULD ALREADY HAVE RECEIVED YOUR DVD OF THE FILM,  DUE TO A LABORATORY ERROR IN THE U.S., THE DVD YOU WERE SENT WILL NOT OPERATE IN UK PLAYERS, AS IT IS FORMATTED FOR REGION 1." Update: Ron sez, "I'm a BAFTA member that lives in the US and the reverse issue is just as much of a problem - many of the screeners I was sent are PAL format and so I can't watch 'em. You'd think that the genuises who are mailing these out would understand that if you're MAILING it to the US, you might want to use a format that can be VIEWED there. "Regarding the special encrypted Cinea player that we were all sent, I never hooked it up and I wonder how many people did. About half of the screeners I received are encrypted for Cinea and the other half weren't. I don't have time to watch ALL the screeners I get anyway so naturally I just end up watching the ones that are easy to watch, that I can watch on my laptop or at a friend's house. I have to believe that those movies that were sent out in the encrypted format were viewed FAR less than those that won't." Update 2 : Ted sez, "The judges for the Academy Awards here in the US are now all saddled with Cinea machines and encrypted DVDs. Not only that, but when the DVDs are played, despite the fact that all is encrypted, etc., the films are still interrupted by the periodic copyright ownership warnings, as with the pre-Cinea DVDs." posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:07:27 AM permalink | blogs' comments Hollywood's Canadian politician: history of a sellout A legal scholar has investigated the past fundraising of a Canadian politician who was recently outed for taking campaign contributions from the copyright cartel and delivering restrictive copyright laws in return. He concludes that while the Member of Parliament claims that funding doesn't influence her politicking, it wasn't until the campaign contributions began to roll in that she took any interest in copyright law. Sam Bulte is the Canadian Liberal Member of Parliament who takes big campaign contributions from the entertainment cartel and then proposes Draconian, US-style copyright laws. Throughout her first term, she was nearly silent on the subject of copyright. In her second term, however, Bulte received substantial funding from entertainment and pharmaceutical companies and introduced a number of overbroad copyright proposals. Bulte claims that she can't be bought and sold, but the numbers tell another story: Ms. Bulte claims that "Nobody influences me. Nobody can buy me." I'll take her at her word. But I am concerned at Ms. Bulte's recent fascination with copyright law. Ms. Bulte was first elected in 1997. According to Elections Canada's candidate contributions and expense reports, her campaign contributions totaled $67,423. Corporate sponsors aplenty, but no big copyright. And, interestingly, I cannot find reference to Ms. Bulte even uttering the word "copyright" until the dying months of that Parliament, when, as a member of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, she asked a few questions in a working sessions on a study of the Canadian book