Michael is composing a guide to comfortable homelessness, using a blog to do it. Here's his entry on personal hygiene without a home:

Don't like a dry shave? Nobody does. Buy yourself some generic sex lube. It's only a couple of bucks at Walmart or Target or, really, any drugstore. A little dab and a disposable razor and you can get a nice shave. Rub a thimbleful of water over your face and wipe off to finish. It may sound funny, and of course your razor is ruined unless you rinse it out right away, but this works very well. It's one of my favorite tricks.

A dab of sex gel will help you comb out your hair in the morning, too, and it disappears completely into the hair, as if it were never there.

For washing up, make my homemade, adult version of baby wipes in a bottle. First, find some hand and body lotion that has a scent you'd like to wear, buy some baby oil, and get some relatively scent free shower gel or shampoo. Pour a couple of teaspoons of each into a small water bottle, say half a liter. Maybe skimp a little on the baby oil and be a little generous with the shampoo. Fill the bottle halfway with warm water, cap it and shake to mix. Now take a napkin from your favorite fast food place, saturate it with the mixture, and give yourself a good wipe down. It takes the smell off, trust me. Add a bit of witch hazel to the mix if you like an astringent quality.

Link (Thanks, Michael!)

A reader writes, "Trever Talbert hand crafts pipes. Every year, he makes one or two one-offs for Halloween and auctions them off. Past years' are here. Link

BuhBuhCuh sez,

Students at the University of Pittsburgh are taking a class on "writing and reading practices in digital environments." This week, they are looking at a MMO called Second Life, and started a discussion on the ethics of researching players - do you tell them you are researching, or does that compromise the research. (A good terra-nova thread).

The 'net works in funny ways, and sure enough, a student told a SL user about the blog. Now the users of Second Life are in an uproar about the ethics of the students researching them without asking first. (Not to mention that the fairly intellectual Second Life community wasn't happy about the insinuations that they are all crazed stalkers.)

There is a long thread in the Second Life forums but registration is required.

Link (Thanks, BuhBuhCuh!)

My interview with Carnegie-Mellon's George Mason University's English department newspaper, English Matters, is online!

On the one hand it was that, as a science fiction writer, we're supposed to be looking towards the future, and it's pretty clear to me that the future involves electronic text. It's very hard to imagine that we'll read fewer electronic words or more paper words as the years tick by and so I wanted to be involved in that practice; I wanted to be one of the people who was a pioneer in that practice, because I'm a science fiction writer and it's what I should be doing.

By the same token, I was pretty sure whatever the future of electronic text looked like it wouldn't be distorted in a way that was intended to maximize the degree to which it resembles traditional, non-electronic text – which is what DRM technology does. The objective of DRM technology is to make bits act like atoms. To embrace that as the future of electronic text is to say that the Luther Bible will finally give us a proper Protestant Reformation once they can make the Gutenberg press run on fetal calfskin instead of paper, because everyone knows that a real Bible is on fetal calfskin. Once they can be sure that the Luther Bibles are only printed in Latin and read by priests, then we'll have a proper Protestant Reformation underway, and not until then.

Link (Thanks, Aaron!)

Brewster Kahle points us to two excellent, full-length, Creative Commons licensed documentaries on the perils of electronic voting. Confusingly, they are both called "VoterGate."

Votergate 1: "This is an action documentary, following a young team on their nationwide investigation of the current problems with our voting systems and elections procedures. Fast-paced and engaging, this documentary reveals the shocking story of how touchscreen voting systems are highly susceptible to hacking and how these systems are being implemented across the country without the proper checks and balances to insure accuracy and accountability"

Votergate 2: "This film is an investigative documentary uncovering the truth about new computer voting systems, which allow a few powerful corporations to record our votes in secret. But the film is not just a warning. It strongly concludes that elections are harder to defraud when voters turn out in big numbers. This documentary is designed specifically to help viewers navigate past the fear and spin already being thrown at this critical issue." Link to the first movie, Link to the second movie

A PR company is selling services "to take action against bloggers!"

"(PR client) is a market intelligence and media analysis services firm. (PR client) is working with F1000 companies who are using our services to Manage and Monitor Digital Influencers (such as blogs, message boards, user groups, complaint sites, etc.) as an intelligence and threat awareness tool. (Person's name), CEO could talk to you about 'What F1000 Companies are doing to take action against bloggers' and 'How companies are taking steps to protect their corporate reputations from bloggers/digital influencers.'"

Wow, I guess PR really is the opposite of blogging. Link

Tom Coates has hit his fifth bloggaversary, "five full years of random plasticbag.org posts - 4175 of them in fact, plus 1517 links in the linklog (before I moved over to using delicious to manage them in the last couple of weeks). In terms of the non-linklog posts alone that works out at over two posts a day, each and every day of each and every week, of each and every month, of each and every year since November 1999...I've written in excess of 1.1 million words over the last five years. To put that in perspective, English versions of the Bible have only around 750,000 words in them. I've written a bible and a full third of a sequel."

Here's the provocative notion: "there must be any number of ways to visualise that data or explore it or rip it apart or whatever. So here's the dump: Every full post made to plasticbag.org over the last five years."

Boing Boing's fifth is coming up in January -- we'll have about 17,000 posts by then. Maybe we'll do this too! 7.4MB Textfile Link

Here's a clip of GW Bush in classic form as he prepares to be videotaped. Link (Thanks, Nick!)

Following up on earlier news today about a hilariously clueless cease-and-desist from Nintendo's attorneys to softcore website Suicide Girls -- the implications of which are as stupid as they are far-reaching -- BoingBoing reader Josh says,

Hi Xeni, I called the S.F. and the Seattle offices of the law firm representing Nintendo here, Perkins Coie. They not only seem to not know about this, they can't even look at it because their firewalls won't allow them to get to porn sites. (Ed note: BWAAHAHAHAHAH!)

I've emailed someone in their offices the posts so I expect this'll get cleared up inside a day or two.

Link to previous BoingBoing post with full text of the laughably logic-lacking lawyerletter. I've known some of the partners at Perkins Coie in the past -- sharp, tech-savvy, forthright folk. I can't imagine this silliness will go too far.

Sinclair Media Group, the broadcasting conglomerate which famously aired an anti-Kerry smear program last Friday, reportedly has links to the adult biz.

Sinclair is ran by David Smith, who in the mid-1970s was a partner in a company called Cine Processors, according the Los Angeles Times, which cites public records and a former partner in the company as sources. David E. Williams, Smith’s partner in the business, told the Times that Cine Processors’ sole business was the development of 8mm pornographic films.

Link to AVN article, which refers to an LA Times story: Link, site reg. required. (via Fleshbot)

Nerve is a new Canadian Broadcasting Corporation show featuring short clips on outre and transgressive subjects, like scrotum--waxing, grafitti writing, and wearing a burkha. Link

Domino Artwork has downloadable PDFs explaining how to make large portraits of Abe Lincoln and MLK out of 12 sets of double-nine dominoes. Link (Thanks, Bob!)

Rick sez,

We've built an appropriation-friendly library in San Francisco and are now welcoming visitors.

The Prelinger Library is an appropriation-friendly, browsable collection of approximately 40,000 books, periodicals, print ephemera and government documents, located in downown San Francisco, California, USA.

Though libraries live on (and are among the least-corrupted democratic institutions), the freedom to browse serendipitously is becoming rarer. Now that many libraries have economized on space and converted print collections to microfilm and digital formats, it's become harder to wander and let the shelves themselves suggest new directions and ideas. Key research libraries are often closed to unaffiliated users, and many libraries keep the bulk of their collections in closed stacks, inhibiting the rewarding pleasures of browsing. Despite its virtues, query-based online cataloging often prevents unanticipated yet productive results from turning up on the user's screen. And finally, much of the material in our collection is difficult to find in most libraries readily accessible to the general public.

Most important of all, people wishing to copy library holdings for research and transformative use often face difficulties in making legitimate copies. Since the act of quoting and recontextualizing existing words and images is indistinguishable from making new ones, we think it's important for libraries to build appropriation-friendly access into their charters, and we're trying to take a big first step in this direction.

Link (Thanks, Rick!)

This Doom-3-inspired casemod is completely excellent, from the glowing red windows to the realistic fake rubble around the base. Link (Thanks, John!)

Yow! This is the best thing I've read all year. National Geographic reports that "Scientists have found fossil skeletons of a hobbit-like species of human that grew no larger than a three-year-old modern child. The tiny humans, who had skulls about the size of grapefruits, lived with pygmy elephants and Komodo dragons on a remote island in Indonesia as recently as 13,000 years ago." Link (Thanks, Dave!)

It's all a url pun on the infamous "godhatesfags.com." BoingBoing reader Alex K. says, "The site came about as a part of the short film hosted on the site, 'Felt: Tearing the Fabric of America.' The short film is a damn funny mockumentary replacing the focus of ire and derision from homosexuals to puppets. Down with the Felt Agenda! Adam and Eve, not Adam and Sleeve! Jim Henson has been in HELL for 14 years, 5 months and 11 days ! " Link to godhatesrags.com, and link to movie. Actually, God Hates Rather a Lot of Things: Link. Here's a particularly promising url: Link (Thanks, Wayne Correia!)

UPDATE BELOW

No, this ain't The Onion. But it is ridiculous. Suicidegirls founder Sean says:

I got this email this morning from the law firm that represent Nintendo. They are claiming that the member RuneLateralus listing Zelda and Metorid as his favortie video games in his profile is an infringement on Nintendo's intellectual property. I enjoy an ice cold coca cola on a hot day. Do you think Coca Cola is going to sue me for posting that?

Remember, kids, lawyers are evil and all they want to do is figure a way to bill you more of their time. Nintendo is actually paying these people to threaten me over RuneLateralus favorite video games listing on his profile. What a bunch of morons.

Link to SG blog post with full text of Nintendo nastygram. (Ed. note: SuicideGirls is a sponsor of BoingBoing)

UPDATE: Link to update post

UPDATED.
BoingBoing reader Stef was among many to alert us to news that as of Monday morning, "George W. Bush's website now blocks all non-US traffic. Wonder how the US citizens living/working overseas feel about this?" Link to BBC report (which references BoingBoing as a source). The server reply is "Access Denied. You don't have permission to access 'http://www.georgewbush.com/' on this server."

Reader Daen de Leon points to the Netcraft report here: Link

Reader Supi in Finland says, "Guess Bush really hates us foreigners. Finnish news article here. In brief: GWB's publicist turned media to ask questions from Bush's internet campaign manager Michael Turk, who never bothered to reply. You can of course access the site via a proxy, but that's little bit too complicated for most of the people. Well, at least we are left with this "mirror" of Bushs site -- georgewbush.org (brought to you by whitehouse.org -staff). And johnkerry.com works just fine from Europe."

Reader Marco Montemagno in Italy says, "On this page I uploaded a screenshot [of what happens when I try to access the Bush website."] Link

Reader Michael Maas asks, "Can US soldiers in Iraq access GeorgeWBush.com?" [Ed note: I'd assume so, if they use military networks rather than regionally-managed ones -- but I'd welcome an authoritative answer.] See update below.

Canadian reader Anne Galloway says, "Just to let you know there is no problem accessing Bush's site from Canada." And Tarik in Barbados says, "You know can access Bush's site from Barbados no problem, including that awful Kerry flash game." Reader Tom Biro adds, "I work for a company based in Germany, but I am working (and have lived - forever) in New Jersey - since our whole network proxies out of Germany, I'm unable to visit this website. I imagine I'm not the only person actually here in the States having this problem. The number of expats this affects is probably pretty huge. "

Swiss reader Guido says, "The ISP behind georgewbush.com seems utterly incompetent. The following two links work just fine from Switzerland: https://georgewbush.com/, and http://65.172.163.222/. The 'normal' homepage, however, doesn't work." Thanks, Guido. It must be hard work, keeping up with all those internets!

Dave Cross says, "To counter the barring of georgewbush.com someone has set up a http://georgewbush.co.uk -- which is just a redirect to michaelmoore.com."

UPDATE: Can US servicemen and women, reporters, and contractors in Iraq access georgewbush.com? Blogger and NBC combat correspondent Kevin Sites is in Iraq, and he tells BoingBoing: "I just tried. Access denied." Some US readers with enlisted friends and relatives stationed overseas echo that. Reader John J. says, "My sister's stationed in Germany; she tried it and got that 'access denied' response." But an enlisted reader requesting anonymity says, "I am a Lt Col serving in Northern Iraq - all of us serving here are on .mil domains - we have no problem getting to the site."

Reader Jim in Germany says, "It is probably done by this tool: Akamai EdgeScape. This is how it works -- Link. And this link shows you the way how visit it anyway ;) -- Link. My article in my blog (in German, sorry) Link." And Jason in the UK says, "This is the link to the origin server that Akamai uses to pull in content to the network. This link is still accessible to me in the UK."

Joi Ito has more: Link. No official word on why from the Bush camp, but internet monitoring firm Netcraft said "the pattern of traffic to the website suggests that the block was not due to an attack by vandals or hackers."

BoingBoing pal Cameron Sinclair says:

"50 artists were given Votomatic voting booths from the 2000 Florida election. Naturally they fucked with them. Tonight they will be auctioned off in New York City.

"Participating designers and artists include David Byrne, Christo, Frank Gehry, Milton Glaser, Hugh Hardy, Maira Kalman, Richard Meier, David Rockwell, Stefan Sagmeister, Ed Schlossberg, Robert A.M. Stern, Brian Tolle, Yeohlee Teng, and Diane von Furstenberg."

Link to details on Benefit Reception and Silent Auction - Wed, Oct 27.

Shown here: SIT ON THIS, designed by Tucker Viemeister, Kai Williams, Philip Refior, and Silas Warren of Springtime USA. Materials: Pink corduroy, foam rubber, and iron-on patches. “The abstract form of the Florida voting booth reminded us of a chair. We shortened the legs, made a corduroy slipcover, and BINGO! It’s almost a proverbial La-Z-Boy. To wake up the complacent citizen, we wrote on the seat: Do Not Rest Until Your Vote Is Counted.”

There have been many weddings in gamespace before, but this service in Star Wars Galazies -- documented in loving high-resolution on this page -- takes the cake. A beautiful service, a honeymoon suite with black satin sheets, and Vaseline on the lens as the couple moves to virtually seal their vows. Link (via Wonderland)

BoingBoing pal Lynda Keeler says:

"Hipstercards features dozens of designs contributed by digital artists and graphic designers. The cards are free, easy to send and wildly creative in how they incorporate the 'Vote' message. The beauty of these eCards is that they can quickly travel from person to person -- so they can cycle beyond your initial circle of friends and reach people who may not be as committed to voting and are in critical states."

Link

Following up on this previous BoingBoing post, Mark Hedlund says,

Earlier this week BoingBoing linked to my blog post about Bluetooth being disabled on the new Treo 650 for laptop dialup. I got a note this morning from Sprint PR saying that they do plan to support laptop dialup over Bluetooth on the Treo 650. The phone will ship without it, but they will release a software patch to enable support -- no firm release date given.

Link. And here is my response: Link

BoingBoing reader Oivvio Polite says, "AdLand celebrates the banner ads tenth birthday, showing the first banner ad ever and AT&T 'you will' banner, and the commercials from 1994 that go with it. The banners turned ten years old October 25 2004." Link

And Wired News Editor Kourosh Karimkhany says, "BTW, the first site to run that ad (actually, to inspire AT&T to create those ads) was Hotwired. As it happens, today the ol' timers are getting together for the 10th anniversary of Hotwired."

Joel sez, "Check this out: A group of developers built an OSX iSync client for the Sidekick II, then didn't get approved by Danger/T-Mobile, meaning Mac users are effectively cockblocked from syncing because of the locked-down nature of the platform."

I publicly apologized last year for recommending the Sidekick to people. Danger lied to the press and its customers about the platform, then went on record saying that it intended to sell its customers out to media companies.

Now it's screwing over Mac users who want to have a means of migrating their own data off their devices. If you do business with Danger after all this, you need your head examined. Link

Check out this awesome Mario-Bros-playing Lego robot -- it's a set of articulated Lego arms that press the buttons on a NES controller in a preprogrammed sequence that completes the first level of Super Mario Brothers. Link (via Engadget)

Gerry sez, "This is easily the most surreal thing I've seen this morning so far. It's an old Super Mario Brothers...on Ice special from apparently ABC from I'd guess about 1988. Hosted by Jason Bateman and Alyssa Milano. You have to watch this." 14.9MB Quicktime Link (Thanks, Gerry!)

Kids at Richland Center High School in Richland Center, WI got a chance to meet George W Bush during an official visit. However, any student who turned up wearing a pro-Kerry pin, hat or shirt was threatened with expulsion.

Here's the contact information for the school officials, who have betrayed the trust we put in them as educators to teach democratic fundamentals, like open debate, dissent, and freedom of expression.

Richland Center High School
23200 Hornet High Rd
Richland Center, WI 53581
Phone: (608) 647-6131

Here’s the principal:
John Cler
608-647-6131 x1590

Here’s the local superintendant of schools:
Rachel Schultz
608-647-6106

Here’s the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction:
1-800-441-4563

Here’s the state superintendent:
Elizabeth Burmaster
state.superintendent@dpi.state.wi.us

Link

Update: Many of you wrote to say that you communicated with the the principal listed above that that he says:

1. The Bush people rented the gymnasium, and the school was just enforcing their requirement that students not wear Kerry-supporting materials
2. The principal didn't threaten expulsion

I don't buy it: signing up to do #1, enforcing a ban on political expression, at a political event, in a political season, is a betrayal of an educator's duty. And anything a school administrator bans carries with it the implicit threat of discipline. One student reports being threatened with expulsion, the principal denies it. It may be that the principal didn't make the threat of expulsion, but telling students that it is forbidden to do foo implies that students who undertake foo will be punished somehow.

Fantastic TidBITS article about Rolex's moron lawyers sending a cease-and-desist letter to John Gimore for hosting the archive of a mailing list that includes a spam for fake Rolexes.

Since the FreeS/WAN list is archived on the Web, Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc. (remember Rolex? It's an article about Rolex) found the post in searches for the counterfeiters of Rolex watches. It's obvious to anyone over the age of 13 (and probably lots of people under that age) that the spam appearing in the FreeS/WAN archive is something that happened to the FreeS/WAN list, not something that the FreeS/WAN list intentionally propagated. It was an accident, and an unfortunate one at that. But obvious though this is, a group of highly paid attorneys hired by Rolex couldn't figure this out and sent a cease-and-desist letter (undoubtedly accompanied by twenty-seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one) to John Gilmore telling him that, as the person who registered the freeswan.org domain, he could be liable for damages up to $1,000,000 for posting content that violated the Rolex trademark, promoted counterfeiting, and diluted Rolex's intellectual property rights. Now that's adding injury to insult! First spam makes it through to a list you run, and then you're threatened by lawyers because of it.

Link (Thanks, Henry!)

Now this is a casemod: the components are suspended on old Cat-5 cable and coat-hangers, floating free in the air; it's like hydroponics for PCs. A caseless mod! Link (Thanks, Zed!)

Electron Luv's hand-built tube-amps are works of art. Fantastic stuff. Link (Thanks, Rich!)