Army Day!

Army day
Keep an eye out for crocodiles -- the islands of the South Pacific are teeming with them.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

Brainspore

The Village People led me to believe that the Navy was the place to go for that kind of thing.
- http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
  
  Historically, the armed services and the priesthood were the two professions that a homosexual could thrive in without having his marriage status questioned.
  - http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog
    
    Priest’s marriage status? Maybe if he’s Orthodox.
    - http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
      
      I think my point is clear. Priests are not questioned about their marriage status simply because they are, well, Priests. And apropos of absolutely nothing, here’s Steve Ballmer going nuts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8M6S8EKbnU
EH

SAILORS WELCOME
- niktemadur
  
  Hello, sailor.
soylent_plaid

So let me get this straight: “crocodile” was 40s slang for penis?
- xzzy
  
  Everything is slang for penis if you add the word “your” or “my” in front of it.
  - Brainspore
    
    I beg your pardon?
    - alfanovember
      
      My goodness, your innuendo is thick.
- Preston Sturges
  
  What’s pink and sounds like a bell? Dong!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=810530150 Scott Thrower

I would like to join the army now please thank you.
- DisGuest
  
  I would like to join the army in that pool.
Chentzilla

Do I really read Boing Boing for six years now?
http://boingboing.net/2006/05/12/happy-naked-soldiers.html
- Guy Dawson
  
  Reminds me of this:
  
  http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2008/02/23/essex-man-completes-all-the-porn-on-the-internet-307/
http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski

See, the mistake is to try to eliminate objectification when in reality it needs to be equal opportunity.
http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

Holy cow. It’s like the volley ball scene in Top Gun times a thousand.
- niktemadur
  
  “You can be my wingman any time”…
  SWORDFIGHT! SWORDFIGHT!
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHklGtW3rwU
blueelm

I particularly like the nice touch in the right with the one guy playfully spitting water on another guy.
- Brainspore
  
  Water… riiiiggghttt.
- Shibi_SF
  
  Brainspore knows what’s up. (Water? I don’t think so, either.)
Preston Sturges

Right! Camp it up!

http://youtu.be/qbIO3h8mWoE
- http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
  
  Silly! [and a bit suspect, I think]
Edoardo Paolo

At the time, no one – and I mean no one – would have looked at this ad as anything but innocent fun. We’ve slid waaaay down a slippery slope and there is no going back. For better and for worse.
- Brainspore
  
  The woman in the lower right part of the ad sure seems to be enjoying the mental image of those slippery, sloping soldiers as she towels off her naked body.
  - welcomeabored
    
    Can’t help but hear songs in my head from ‘South Pacific’. The guys are singing ‘There Is Nothing Like a Dame’, and Mitzi there has just finished ‘washing that man right out of her hair’. (Yes, I know those were seabees in the movie.)
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgzvTHsOxSQ&feature=fvwrel
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzu8ZxBHMWk
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Stew Pot!
      - Donald Petersen
        
        Cap’n Antinous! Come on in… the water’s fine!
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        I guess that they had to make Ken Clark wear the shirt so that everyone would know that he was Stew Pot, but I don’t get why they seem to have body-shaved him for the role.
    - welcomeabored
      
      OTOH, I may be in the running for this week’s BB prize for ‘Most Obvious Allusion’.
- http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
  
  Slippery slope.
  - RJ
    
    Was that a sexual or a racist euphemism?
- RHK
  
  Right. Because there were no gays back then.
- http://scavenger-ethic.blogspot.com/ scav
  
  Maybe no-one would have *admitted* that they looked on it as anything but innocent fun.
  
  Now it’s coming round full circle: wild homoerotic water-parties in army drag really are innocent fun after all. Not my cup of tea really, but for those who enjoy that sort of thing, I say go enjoy yourselves, lads.
  - http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
    
    In William Manchester’s memoir “Goodby Darkness” he tells about a guy in the army (WWII) who was brazenly open about being homosexual. But the guy looked so much like everyone’s image of ‘macho man’ that nothing came of it. He eventually took up with a young soldier who actually looked obviously queer. Guess which one the army gave a dishonorable discharge to….
- IronEdithKidd
  
  You really have no idea how dirty your grandparents minds were.
mesocosm

And bears.
http://twitter.com/Bashtarle Bashtarle

I’d be more worried about waterborne parasites.
- allium
  
  Yeah, does Oceania have an analogue to the candiru?
- sam1148
  
  The guy soaping up his fist is the official parasite inspector.
- Gilbert Wham
  
  Water Bears?
buddy66

There’s the old Gray Eagle himself, Walt Whitman, peering from the undergrowth.
RedShirt77

The gesture the soldier in the foreground is giving with his fist is also something that translates differently in modern culture. Not a welcome sight in most group bath situations.

I imagine some ad company thought this was a way to appeal to women to buy their towels or whatever.
Chuck

All of those soldiers, except for one, will dress in mandrill costumes and “attack.” And maybe one of them will dress in drag and “try to run away.” It’s all purely innocent — they’re all members of a men’s magazine front cover reenactment club.
RJ

Whoa. Hold on. Look again at the picture. Right in the center of the image, you can see a shirtless man with a helmet on his head. WHAT IS THAT THING BEHIND HIM?
- Boundegar
  
  A Great Old One.
Preston Sturges

Here’s a real life version of that picture. They seem to have pretty average upper bodies but their lower bodies look like they have been hauling 80 lb packs back and forth across Borneo for 6 months.

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/57114/12639514
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  We’ve now evolved to have giant upper bodies and tiny toothpick legs.
strangefriend

There are saltwater crocodiles in Guadalcanal & east of Japan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalcanal#Fauna
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Donald-King/1527368856 Donald King
  
  Also check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltwater_crocodile#Distribution
  
  Crocodiles are in Australia, New Guinea, and Bismarck Archipelago (which includes New Britain), as well as several other islands in the South Pacific.
- http://twitter.com/ErnestValdemar Ernest Valdemar
  
  The magnificent Darren Naish on South Pacific crocodiles:
  
  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2012/06/18/saltwater-crocodile-crocodiles-part-iii/
  
  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2012/06/24/crocodiles-of-new-guinea-philippines-crocodiles-part-iv/
anaglyph

What strangefriend said.
Donald Petersen

I note with surprise the absence of tan lines in this Man’s Army. Bathtime must have been a regular and leisurely event during this particular engagement.
pjcamp

You know, if it weren’t for the helmet, that would be totally homoerotic.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  He could just pull a turtleneck up over the helmet.
  - Brainspore
    
    How can you even tell if he’s circumcised from that angle?
legotech

This cracks me up…my parents used to sell original old advertising and we used to get like $20 for these. There were four…one for each of the services. We used to have several issues of several different magazines that we hunted for and the ones with these ads in em were on that list.
- http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
  
  Damn!! Post them!!!!
http://twitter.com/chrisjimson chris jimson

“Hey guy. . . nice helmet!”
jasonfist

I believe this is the third time this image had been posted on BoingBoing!
- Gilbert Wham
  
  Well, it’s run by nerds with ADD and a penchant for new screwdrivers and The Shiny (you know, Our Tribe), so they’re easily distracted…
- IronEdithKidd
  
  And it’s just as awesome this time.
- Brainspore
  
  Don’t forget to get your card punched. The fifth one is free!
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Don’t forget to get your card punched.
    
    Is that what you kids are calling it these days?
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Agenbroad/100002463876063 James Agenbroad

I just wonder whether Sal Romano did the art for this one.
http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

Here’s another:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianmontone/4087885827/
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  One thing is clear. The artist for these had no idea how to draw body hair.
legotech

https://skintop.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/wwii-advertising-and-the-art-of-james-bingham/

Here’s all of them