TOM THE DANCING BUG: Super-Fun-Pak, featuring Pato Afortunado mit Heinrich Hund!
By Ruben Bolling at 8:45 am Wednesday, May 23
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"How can you be serious?" Not by wearing this T-shirt! The classic Mark Pawson T-shirt, updated for 2012.
By Ruben Bolling at 8:45 am Wednesday, May 23
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By Xeni Jardin at 2:50 pm Monday, May 21
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Boing Boing partner, Boing Boing Video host and executive producer. Xeni.net, Twitter, Google+. Email: xeni@xeni.net.
[Video Link] What is this I don't even. The artist is HGich.T, the song "Tutenchamun." Original video sans subtitles and explanations are here. It's several years old, but new to me. (HT: @treyka)
By Xeni Jardin at 11:24 am Thursday, May 17
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Boing Boing partner, Boing Boing Video host and executive producer. Xeni.net, Twitter, Google+. Email: xeni@xeni.net.
REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
German riot police carry a demonstrator fully covered in paint as police clears the camp of occupy protestors in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, May 16, 2012.
By Cory Doctorow at 6:00 pm Monday, May 14
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This little feller is a "German Spermatorrhoea Ring," ca 1894. Spermatorrhoea ("involuntary loss of semen") was best fought with this toothy beast, which also doubled as a cure for Onanism ("voluntary discharges from masturbation").
An extremely rare Spermatorrhoea ring fastened with a screw. With provenance from the original German catalogue dating from 1894. Spermatorrhoea means involuntary loss of semen, although the rings were also intended to prevent voluntary discharges from masturbation or Onanism (Originating from Onan who originally "spilt his seed on the ground" Genesis 38:7-9). The ring was placed at the base of the penis and fasted with a screw such that any engorgement of the organ would meet with the teeth of the ring and arrest the process.
By Cory Doctorow at 6:16 am Monday, May 14
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Jun 1, Sydney Vivid Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom | Context (essays) With a Little Help (short stories) For the Win (YA novel) Makers (adult novel) |
The German Pirate Party has taken seats in the fourth consecutive regional election, this time in North Rhine-Westphalia, where it received 7.5% of the vote, which will likely translate to 18 seats. These state-level elections are being viewed in part as a referendum on austerity and other Merkel doctrines, and there's a growing tide of disgust with business-as-usual across Europe. The Pirates are doing a good job of presenting themselves as a real alternative, albeit one with a specialized agenda. The trick will be for the Pirates to articulate the equation that all copyright policy ends up being Internet policy, and all Internet policy ends up being policy for everything, since everything we do involves the Internet. So far, many people are taking that idea to heart. Party founder Rick Falkvinge provides some analysis of the German PP phenomenon:
The first reason is that the German Piratenpartei was long-term from the get-go. Where most pirate parties are started like any internet project – “we’re going to change the world come next weekend” – the Germans knew they would be around for a long time, and invested early in the organizational foundation for that.
The second reason is timing and ripples on the water. When the Swedish Piratpartiet had its breakthrough in the European Parliament, and was in media all over the world, the German Piratenpartei was able to exploit that momentum when a local minister named Ursula wanted to create a net censorship to fight CP. T-shirts with the name “Zensursula” were common, zensur being German for censorship. The goverment did not win the narrative on that one, and the idea of censorship was abandoned while the Piratenpartei raked in new members. I’d say that this was the breakthrough in activist critical mass.
The third reason is Germany’s federal party support. Having won 1% in the European elections and 2% in the federal elections in 2009 entitled the Piratenpartei to considerable governmental funding, which is paid out to all parties that beat the half-percent mark in elections. This has allowed the Piratenpartei to buy themselves the appearance of an established party out in the streets – their posters and banners are everywhere on paid billboards, as well as on streetlights and more activist-associated locations. But all of it looks professional, yet with a new message. It looks electable, which is key.
German Pirate Party Scores Fourth Consecutive Election Win - Falkvinge on Infopolicy
By Cory Doctorow at 7:50 am Tuesday, May 8
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The German Pirate Party has won seats in a third federal district, taking 8.2% of the vote in Schleswig-Holstein; they're on track to win seats in a fourth state next week in Northrhine-Westphalia. TechDirt's Mike Masnick writes:
It seems clear that The Pirate Party is certainly surpassing the German Green Party as the preeminent 3rd party -- and it seems to be having an impact. As we noted, the Greens have tried to co-opt much of the Pirate Party's agenda as their own, and Germany's major political parties have started to show a much more reasoned approach to copyright as well...
Of course, it's worth noting a point that's been left out in many of the discussions about the success of the German Pirate Party: Germany has some of the worst copyright laws around, especially on issues like secondary liability. Perhaps those two things are linked... and perhaps those who keep pushing for more draconian enforcement of copyrights might want to take that into account. There's little to no evidence that such laws do anything to slow down infringement, but it sure seems to make people respect copyright law even less.
By Cory Doctorow at 12:36 pm Friday, Apr 27
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@jimmy_pirat (a Twitter account with only one post) snapped a blurrycam picture of a campus employment ad that sought students to pretend to be pro-ACTA and hold up photogenic signs, paying €100 for two hours' work. The recruitment agency named in the ad disavows any involvement with it, and has threatened to sue whomever posted it. I wonder who the hoaxter was?
By Cory Doctorow at 3:42 pm Thursday, Mar 8
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On Behance, art director Bjoern Ewers shows off the gorgeous macro-photo ads he produced for the Berlin Philharmonic, which depict the insides of instruments as airy atria (or, as Colossal has it, "vast and spacious, almost as if you could walk around inside them.")
By Cory Doctorow at 7:00 am Monday, Feb 13
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This very beautiful working Stirling-engine steam-car model was made by the Germany company Böhm Stirling-Technik and sells for $500.
The stirling Car A1 (Thanks, Francesco!)
By Cory Doctorow at 2:29 pm Saturday, Feb 11
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Walt74 sez, "Today about 10.000 people protested the ACTA treaty in Berlin, people in whole Germany went on the streets, 50.000 altogether. Here are my pics from the protests in Berlin."
Did you get pics at your local ACTA march? Post them to the comments!
ACTA-Demo Berlin, 11.2.2012 (Thanks, Walt74!)
By Cory Doctorow at 8:31 am Friday, Jan 27
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Sillysparrowness, a self-described "German teacher with a leaning towards silliness," described the process by which she came to build a beautiful, obsessively finished Tardis.
I built a TARDIS (Thanks, scottiep!)
By Cory Doctorow at 12:07 pm Wednesday, Nov 30
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A German man is suing the Pope for violating seatbelt laws on his visit to Dortmund by standing up in the back of the popemobile and waving (rather than remaining seated and buckled in, as the law apparently requires).
Sundermann's client surely does not have standing to sue to enforce the seatbelt law, and even if he did the Papst would have diplomatic immunity as a head of state. Sundermann has apparently suggested that because the defendant is still a German citizen, that wouldn't apply, but that is another argument he would lose. Sundermann has also said, unsurprisingly, that the suit is intended to increase public awareness of the seatbelt law, and is not actually "an attack on the Church." Hope God feels the same way, because a false lawsuit against the Pope is probably an Eighth Circle offense, I would guess. I know that seems harsh but I don't make the rules.
(Image: 041908 166, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from dougtone's photostream)
By Cory Doctorow at 9:26 am Saturday, Nov 26
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Jun 1, Sydney Vivid Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom | Context (essays) With a Little Help (short stories) For the Win (YA novel) Makers (adult novel) |
This awesome rollercoasteroid staircase is underway in Germany:
The walkable, large outdoor sculpture Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain is currently in construction on the Heinrich Hildebrand Höhe in Duisburg Wanheim (D). It overtops the plateau with the artificially heaped-up mountain by 21m | 23yd so the visitor can rise by more than 45m | 49yd above the level of the landscape and enjoy an impressive view over the Rhine.
Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain / Heike Mutter + Ulrich Genth (via Crib Candy)