Becky Hogge from the Open Rights Group sez, I've just come back from Parliament Square in London, where about 30 of us have spent the morning building a giant picture of Prime Minister Gordon Brown out of photos of CCTV cameras and other surveillance state ephemera. Take a look at some of the photos of the day (http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=FnFBigPicture&m=tags) - it looks fantastic (and the great weather helped!) Last week, Boing Boing helped us put out a call for people to ...

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A nice way to end the week. Congratulations to Boing Boing pals Sean Bonner and Tara Brown. (Some related tales of love and photons in this cute WIRED item.)...

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In Alaska, a legislative panel investigating vice-presidential Sarah Palin has issued a report which finds she unlawfully abused her authority as governor by firing the state’s public safety commissioner. Also, remember that hacked Yahoo Mail account she used to hide correspondence from subpoenas? Snip from NYT: In another setback for Ms. Palin, a judge on Friday ordered the state of Alaska to preserve any government-related e-mail messages that Gov. Sarah Palin sent from private accounts. The ruling, by Craig Stowers ...

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Yesterday, I blogged about Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book hitting number one on the New York Times young adult list. Neil read the entire book aloud, a chapter at a time, on his book tour, and uploaded a nightly video, so that when it was done, his reading of the whole book could be viewed for free as a series of video streams. Coincidentally, I also finished listening to the HarperCollins audio edition of Neil reading The Graveyard Book yesterday, and ...

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Ars Technica's Julian Sanchez takes a long, investigative look at the entertainment industry's claim that piracy costs the American economy 750,000 jobs and $250 billion and discovers the truth: they made it up and repeated it until they forgot they had made it up. With Customs a dead end, we dove into press archives, hoping to find the earliest public mention of the elusive 750,000 jobs number. And we found it in—this is not a typo—1986. Yes, back in the ...

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A fifteen year old girl in Newark, OH faces being labelled a "sex offender" for sending naked cellphone photos of herself (a minor) to other minors. If convicted, she'll spend the next ten years on public registries, classed as a producer of child pornography. No word on what compensation she (as the victim of the crime) will be able to get from herself (as the perp). According to Ohio law, 2907.323(A)(3) states anyone possessing material that shows a minor in ...

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Ars Technica's Frank Caron plunges into the stormy seas of terrorism recruitment video games, reviewing such modern classics as Night of Bush Capturing, Quest4Bush, War on Americas, and Rescue The Nuke Scientist ("the player is an Iranian soldier seeking to rescue two Iranian nuclear experts who were kidnapped by U.S. forces. The game was designed in response to an American-made game called Assault on Iran that featured almost exactly the same situation, but in reverse"). Bottom line seems to be ...

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Sydney, Australia-based photographer Keith Loutit creates lovely tilt-shifted time-lapse short films. His aim, he says, "is to present Sydney as the Model City, and help people take a second look at places that are very familiar to them." You can see more of his films on the Keith Loutit Vimeo page. Previously on BB: • Cranford Rose Garden tilt-shift timelapse...

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Harvard architecture student Bryan Boyer redesigned the US Capitol building for a grad school project. His motivation is that the US House of Representatives stopped growing in 1911 simply because the building couldn't hold any more seat. As a result, he says, "the US Capitol changed from monument to memorial." More interesting than the elevations and photo illustrations though are the souvenir plates and $50 bill that Boyer designed to support his big vision. Over at the Sceptical Futuryst, Stuart ...

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Jesse Thorn says: This is the new project from the guys who invented "Look Around You," Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz. It's a religion/television program called Tarvu. They're working on an Adult Swim series right now. Say 'Hebbo' to Tarvuism!...

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Halloween is decidedly a makers' holiday, ripe for DIY costumes, ghoulish gadgets, high-tech hauntings, and general mischief making. To celebrate, our pals at Instructables are holding a DIY Halloween Contest! To enter, just submit an Instructable, photos, or video in any of the following categories: Hack-o-Lantern, Costume, Gadgets and Gizmos, Decorations, Food, and Green Halloween. (For example, above left, Frankenberry mask. Above right, Creepy Cobweb Shooter made from a hot glue gun.) The prizes include gift certificates to the Maker ...

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Russian biker busted for driving a non street legal bathtub. Shots from the life of Road police service from Russia and other post Soviet countries....

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Earlier, I posted about artist Kristin Baker's paintings inspired by auto racing. My wife Kelly Sparks had turned me on to Baker a few months ago. But Kelly, a fashion designer, was reminded of the paintings again when she saw Hussein Chalaya's spring 2009 ready-to-wear collection. The abstract nature and colors of the prints align beautifully with Baker's paintings. And Chalaya's remarkable garment structures definitely convey the motion of a speedway. Hussein Chalayan spring 2009 collection (style.com) Previously on BB: ...

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(Video: Interview with former Alaskan Independence Party chairman Mark Chryson) Esther Kaplan, Investigative Editor for The Nation Institute, says: While the McCain camp continues to hammer home Barack Obama's ties to a former '60s radical, the press corps has yet to report on how far-reaching Sarah Palin's ties are to contemporary radicals -- specifically, the paranoid anti-government figures behind the Alaskan Independence Party. Reporters Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert found that AIP activists played a critical role in Palin's election ...

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Leah of Current says: I thought you might get a kick out of this literal animated remake of Aha’s "Take Me On." (It was a pet project of some of our talented animators of SuperNews.) Take On Me: literal video version...

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I was Googling to see how people used the word "subterranea" and I stumbled across the fantasitc Subterranea Britannica, the Web site for a 35-year-old society "devoted to the study and investigation of man-made and man-used underground places." Here are some of the categories of underground sites that interest them: Adits, Air Raid Shelters, Cave Dwellings, Chalk Wells, Control Cenres, Earth Houses, Fougous, Funicular Railway Tunnels, Mines, Mushroom growing, Priest Holes, Sallyports, Secret Hiding Places, Show Caves, Souterrains, Subways, Underground ...

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My wife just ran into the office and excitedly told me about this new video that Eric Wareheim of "Tim and Eric Awesome Show -- Great Job!" fame directed and posted on his Facebook page this morning. "It's really trippy, dude. I think Boing Boing readers will love it." I think she might be right. Check out this amazing video for "The Youth." (Thanks Tara McGinley!)...

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Kristin Baker is a hypertalented New York City-based artist who paints incredibly dynamic, energized abstractions influenced by her passion for Grand Prix auto racing. She uses acrylic to paint on mylar and PVC. If someone decides to make an animation of JG Ballard's novel Crash, I nominate Baker to be the art director. Seen above, Big Bang Vroom (acrylic on PVC cm, 243.8 x 304.8 cm). Kristin Baker (Thanks, Kelly Sparks!)...

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Today on Boing Boing tv, we continue our SPAMasterpiece Theater series, featuring author, PC, and minor television personality John Hodgman, whose new book, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE launches next week. Hodgman himself describes this series as the dramatization of "true tale[s] of romance, adventure, infamy, and low-cost prescription drugs, all culled from the reams of actual, unsolicited emails, received here by us and people like you -- what we call SPAM." Today's installment: Barrister Abbey and Diana Khan in ...

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Video Link, via DLISTED. Previously on BB: the original, and another, and another, y la ultima. But a request: The world NEEDS a La Pequeña Sarah Palin. *Needs.* WHYYYYYY? WHYYYYY doesn't this episode exist yet? Por favor, Felipe Avello, te pido con toda mi corazon. (thanks Susannah!)...

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