And Now, Some Ripped-From-the-Headlines Context.....

BocasResearchStation sez, "This video shows an octopus cleverly trying to camouflage itself amongst seaweed in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Hiding is the primary defense mechanism for these creatures, and this little guy is making use of branches of algae to try to get by unseen."

An Octopus Pretending to be Seaweed (Thanks, BocasResearchStation!)

(Watch video: YouTube, Dotsub, or download MP4.)

A quick little goodie from Boing Boing Video. Last night, I sat in on a live recording session at Santa Monica's Village Studios with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, described as "African-American string band revivalists." They were amazing: I have never been so emotionally moved by someone playing a musical jug (and banjos, fiddles, cow bones, and kazoos). Their performance was witnessed by a handful of music biz folks and oldtime music enthusiasts, and made me feel deeply homesick for Appalachia (I'm also craving cornbread and butterbeans today - there's a song for that).

The Chocolate Drops have a new record coming out in 2010, and Boing Boing will be all over it like gravy on grits. If you dig R. Crumb, Smithsonian Folkways recordings of pre-blues and pre-bluegrass banjo music, and love folks who bring new life to authentic American music, you will flip out.

So, the video above: after the Drops' performance and recording session ended, Dom Flemons (of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, seated in center in the video), Blind Boy Paxton (seated at left in the video), and Frank Fairfield (seated far right) sat down together and jammed pure, sweet magic for a spell. I wasn't prepared with a proper camera or crew, but I grabbed my iPhonetraption out of my pocket and got to shootin'. I hope you enjoy it as much as everyone in the room did. Pure magic, these guys.

As in past years, Lost Landscapes 4 will be an eclectic montage of rediscovered and rarely-seen film clips showing life, landscapes, labor and leisure in a vanished San Francisco as captured by amateurs, newsreel cameramen and industrial filmmakers.

This year's Lost Landscapes will include much new and unseen material from Prelinger Archives and other collections, including newly discovered films shot by longtime San Francisco residents. Unlike most film screenings, Lost Landscapes relies on audience members for the soundtrack -- we encourage viewers to interact with the film, shout out questions and identify mystery scenes.

Michael Simmons of Fretboard Journal says: "Here's an interesting video from olden times [1964] featuring a song called 'Teenage Fallout Queen.' And there's this site devoted to Cold War pop music."

(I love the lettering in the title at the beginning!)

Ford Motor Company is bringing to market the worlds first automotive inflatable seat belts, combining attributes of traditional seat belts and air bags to provide an added level of crash safety protection for rear seat occupants.

The advanced restraint system is designed to help reduce head, neck and chest injuries for rear seat passengers, often children and older passengers who can be more vulnerable to such injuries.

Ford will introduce inflatable rear seat belts on the next-generation Ford Explorer, which goes into production next year for the North American market. Over time, Ford plans to offer the technology in vehicles globally.

The weather in Los Angeles is so predictable, weather reporter Mark Thompson from our local Fox affiliate can just play sexy rap music and dance the day's forecast. He is one of the many reasons I love living in Los Angeles. Here's one video. Here's another, and here's yet another. He has an awesome, manly-man voiceover voice. But I like him best when he's silent. As one non-LA YouTube commenter said, "I wish my weather channel played songs that said 'bitch please.'" (That'd be this one, at 1:42.) (via @eecue)

The following is an update to this previous post. So here's another video gem from Supreme Master TV, uploaded and blogged by Robert Popper.

Why doesn't every television news network run stuff like what's in this clip? Say what you will about "God's Direct Contact," at least her broadcast devotees say thank you to journalists and photographers for doing all we do for "humans and animals," and "especially while on duty." I'd like to hope they think that what we do here at Boing Boing "uplifts the atmosphere of the world."

A number of Boing Boing readers responded to my earlier post with personal stories of (apparently quite tasty) meals eaten at the vegan restaurant chain owned by personality cult leader Supreme Master Ching Hai. But BB reader HiTek LoLife takes the tofu cake, with a personal anecdote re-blogged in full after the jump.

I love this commercial for a mobile home liquidator produced by I Love Local Commercials, a couple of guys who travel around the country making free commercials for independent businesses.

Watch: MP4 download, YouTube, Dotsub (with captions/text translations).

In this episode of Boing Boing Video, we test-drive "Sarriugarteis (Odontochile) trilobiteis," also known as The Electrobite.

This trilobite-shaped DIY vehicle was created by "Oilpunk" enthusiasts Kyrsten Mate + Jon Sarriugarte, with help from fellow makers Amy Jenkins and Tansy Brooks.

Pesco previously blogged about the little bugger here -- it's even been to Burning Man, where it no doubt terrified some trippin' hippies.

Robert Popper has posted an appreciation of Supreme Master Television, a cult-backed satellite television network I've seen advertised in airports around the world, but never before bothered to google. There's a lot to love in this clip. Robert: I'd like to know when we can say "hebbo!" to a Tarvuist Faith television channel.

Supreme Master TV has a website, the cult behind it operates a chain of vegan restaurants, and they have offices in Southern California. Their leader is one Supreme Master Ching Hai, and Rick Ross says it's more like ka-ching. That's her, at left (click for large size), and here's a Wikipedia article. She sells hair extensions and stuff. She has opinions on global warming. She sings spiritual lounge music. She designs "celestial clothes and sleeping mattresses for dogs," which are spiritually themed costumes designed to bring your "blessed canine friend" closer to enlightenment. If you do one thing today, please: watch the dog video.

Mayor Mike says: "John Nese is the owner of Soda Pop Stop pop only store in LA. Listening to him rattle off what makes or breaks a good soft drink, makes me thirsty. Listening to his passion about supporting the little man in the face of large corporate pressure in the marketplace is just plain refreshing."

Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA

After I posted my photo of a praying mantis in my back yard, Boing Boing reader The Black Sickle shared this terrific HD video he shot (with a Nikon D90) of a mantis eating a grasshopper. (Click the HQ button in the YouTube player for high quality.)

The RevolveR notebook uses a design similar to a cloth Jacob's Ladder toy to create a journal with "floating" bindings, so that you can turn it inside-out.

RevolveR (via Making Light)

"We Are Douchebags."

From Wikipedia: A reclaimed word is a word in a language that was at one time a pejorative but has been brought back into acceptable usage—usually starting within the communities that experienced oppression under that word, but often also among the general populace as well.

A thirsty gentleman with a new bottle of wine, but no corkscrew, shows his friends a neat trick. (Via Cynical-C)

Jesse Thorn and Adam Lisagor, who are each best known for internet funnystuff, have stitched together a wonderful non-comedy web video series called Put This On.

I attended the premiere last week in Old Town Pasadena, held inside the building that houses the subject of the pilot episode (embedded above). I loved the pilot, loved the hosts, loved the bespoke retro men's denim + indigo clothing at Rising Sun Jeans. I don't want to give away the goods here, but I have a neologism for you all: denimpunk*.

Adam and Jesse are looking for funding/sponsorship, and I told 'em I thought they'd do well. This is very watchable stuff. There's even a clothing credits page for each ep! Matt Haughey and Ask Metafilter ponied up some dough to help with the pilot. I hope the guys score some dough, and make many more episodes, for two reasons:

1) I want to see more good internet video.
2) I live in Los Angeles, home of the be-flip-flopped hipster slob. I want to see more dudes dress like grownups.

* Here's why that word came to mind. The guys who run Rising Sun Jeans have this period-perfect, retro denim thing going on. They re-create early denim and indigo fashions with loving attention to accuracy and craftsmanship. They also ride very old, lovingly restored cars and motorcycles. This isn't lowrider or rockabilly or hotrod culture, it's something I hadn't seen before. Neat. You should go check out their store if you're in LA.

Pool, the Australian public broadcaster's Creative Commons repository, has spawned a video cut together from Aussies' shots of the epic Brisbane Zombie Walk.

Video: Outbreak: Brisbane Zombie Walk 2009 (Thanks, Gary!)

In this brief true-life comedy short film, a gentleman who is careless with his forklift in a warehouse full of cases of glass bottles (vodka?) manages to bring the whole lot crashing to the ground with much hilarity!

Fork Lift Accident Brings Down The Warehouse Video (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

The video of Robert Crumb's dialogue with Francoise Mouly at the Barnes and Noble in Union Square filmed on 10/23 is now available on Fora.tv. The 47-minute video features Crumb discussing his childhood, early life, married/family life, and his new book THE BOOK OF GENESIS ILLUSTRATED.

R. Crumb in Conversation with Francoise Mouly

WATCH: MP4 Download, YouTube, or Dotsub.

Boing Boing Video proudly presents "Man in the Sand," from Gordon Gano and the Ryans' new record "Under the Sun." Video directed by famed illustrator, photographer, and filmmaker Matt Mahurin. Read Cory's review of the album: Gordon "Violent Femmes" Gano's solo album "Under the Sun" is out!

Another fun experiment you can try at home! Although, given pigeons' tendency to carry disease, I'd recommend training a cat, spouse or younger sibling. The video, sadly, winks out right as the expert is being brought in to explain Skinner's research. So, instead, enjoy this explanation of the pigeon experiment and its practical value, courtesy PBS:

With pigeons, he developed the ideas of "operant conditioning" and "shaping behavior." Unlike Pavlov's "classical conditioning," where an existing behavior (salivating for food) is shaped by associating it with a new stimulus (ringing of a metronome), operant conditioning is the rewarding of a partial behavior or a random act that approaches the desired behavior. Operant conditioning can be used to shape behavior. If the goal is to have a pigeon turn in a circle to the left, a reward is given for any small movement to the left. When the pigeon catches on to that, the reward is given for larger movements to the left, and so on, until the pigeon has turned a complete circle before getting the reward. Skinner compared this learning with the way children learn to talk -- they are rewarded for making a sound that is sort of like a word until in fact they can say the word. Skinner believed other complicated tasks could be broken down in this way and taught. He even developed teaching machines so students could learn bit by bit, uncovering answers for an immediate "reward." They were quite popular for a while, but fell out of favor. Computer-based self-instruction uses many of the principles of Skinner's technique.

Boing Boing guestblogger Connie Choe is a health and culture writer by day and a professional kimchimonger by night.

Whenever I'm hanging out on a chairlift I like to shout that I'm going to go die a cold, snowy death. Mostly so that if I were to actually perish on the ride down I could say, "I told you so." But also because I am genuinely (and in my case, irrationally) afraid that something terrible like this will happen. The guy in the video is an experienced backcountry skier named Chris Cardello. In his words:

When the slide propagated, I tried to remain as composed as possible and make sure my AvaLung was in. As I was getting buried and the slide slowed, I threw one hand up and with my other hand I grasped the AvaLung, which had been ripped out of my mouth during the turbulent ride. While I was buried, I tried to be as calm as possible; I knew my hand was exposed so my crew would be digging me out shortly. I was able to breathe through the AvaLung, but it was difficult due to the snow jammed down my throat.

Enjoy Вивальди "времена года" Лето-3часть, the Russian boy accordion genius. It's all in the head shake. Once you get that down, the rest is easy.

A number of news sites and blogs erroneously (or hoaxily?) reported the death of Chuck Biscuits (Wikipedia), who has performed over the years for bands including Black Flag, Circle Jerks, DOA, and Danzig. The reports were all wrong. He will live to bang on de drum again. Apparently the whole thing was a prank on a particular journalist. Or not. All I know is the photo in this post was taken by Glen E. Friedman, who broke the news about the fact that everyone who broke the other news was wrong. Oh, and: this blog post is an elaborate excuse to post the Danzig "home video" above, in which Mr. Biscuits confesses his love for sugary breakfast cereals. His addiction to the likes of Quisp and Boo Berry ("the caviar of breakfast cereals") is the stuff of punk legend. (thanks, Sean)

Dave sez, "As part of Sesame's 40th anniversary, we have a 5-week poll in which Sesame Street fans can vote for their all-time favorite segment over the past 40 years. Each week for four weeks, fans will vote for their favorite video from a selection of pre-selected 40 videos. In the fifth and final week of voting, fans will choose from the 40 highest overall ranked videos from the previous 4 weeks. At the end of the 5th week, through out the 6th week, and onwards, we will feature the winning video and 39 ranked runner ups."

Vote - Best Sesame Ever (Thanks, Dave!)

Vincent Pearase, of Oak Park High School in Winnipeg Canada, writes:

One of our talented Oak Park students, Andrew Vineberg, helped make this hilarious short, Hiding Your Sexual Orientation From Your Parents 101. The kid is a vlogger, too. He does an amazingly erudite, funny vlog under the moniker Volatile Chemical. Check it out! Andrew has asked to show this at our next school assembly.

Michael sez, "Library 101 is a song, a video (with pics of over 400 library staff who submitted them to be in the video), 23 essays from some of the most respected minds in 'Libraryland' and resource list of 101 hyperlinked things we think libraries need to know to succeed as technology changes so many things for us and society. The project even has over 1,900 fans on the Facebook page, almost all of them library staff (from over a dozen countries!)."

Library 101 (Thanks, Michael!)

Worst and weirdest Beatles cover ever. A choir of ventriloquistic monstrosity, from Hungary. Nabbed from Robert Popper's newfangled webble-site.

Trossen Robotics forum member WGhost9 says they designed, built and programmed this creepy candy crawler in just 3 weeks.

It runs C on an Axon microcontroller. It uses all digital servos and can lift over twice its body weight. The software (soon to be given out open source) allows for 6 synchronous degrees of motion. Future additions will include foot sensors and a remote control option.

This is an outstanding cartoon (by Chris Ware) depicting a This American Life story about kids who started a fake TV camera craze at their elementary school. As Graham says, "It's so amazing. Why can't there be more of this? I could watch HOURS of this."

He reveals to Dinah Shore that his mom worked at a military technology company that made bombs and missiles, and his dad ("Mister Pop") taught media communications at a local high school. At the time, brothers Tony and Hunt Sales, sons of the recently departed comedian Soupy Sales, were playing in the Stooges in Iggy's band. Iggy Pop on the Dinah Shore show.

The clip stops right as Iggy gets ready to launch into a performance, but I believe this is the stupendous performance that followed, with some guy named David Bowie on the keyboards! Looks like this was another performance from the same show.

[YouTube, thanks @EuclidAlone, via @bbsuggest]

Previously: Alice Cooper on the Soupy Sales show, 1979.

Davide sez, "Guess how Italian politicians take care of comments on YouTube against them? On 22 October, Cuffaro laid charges with regard to the first 4609 comments on a video clip on You Tube, entitled 'Costanzo Show: Totò Cuffaro aggredisce Giovanni Falcone' (video clip posted on You Tube on 14 January 2007). Antonio Di Pietro decided to pay defence for all."

We will defend you all from Cuffaro (Thanks, Davide!)

Banjoleles are the coolest kind of ukulele, as evidenced in this magnificent video by Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer.

"Other rappers can't stand me, but give me respect. They do give respect really. I mean they do act tough, but generally speaking, they're awfully nice chaps."

(Thanks, Casey!)

This is a kea. Isn't he cute? Happy, little green parrot...tra la la.

Happy, little green parrot who calmly burrows through the still-living flesh of sheep and dines upon their kidney fat while they lay bleating in terror. No, really. You can see a video here. Watch Clip 4, starting about two minutes in.

And now, the context....

There are times I envy those who have to get dressed and go work with other people. Like, for instance, when I watch this awesome karaoke video. I haven't worked in a real office since 2006, so I'm left to conclude that you all totally have this much fun every day. Right?

P.S., the best part of this video is the woman who refuses to join in. Clearly, a fun-hater who hates fun. At the same time, I feel really sorry for her and would love to hear how she described this event to friends and family at the end of the day.

Susannah Breslin pointed me to Marilyn Minter 's latest video months ago, but I didn't get around to blogging 'til now. Green Pink Caviar is described as

A lush and sensual voyeuristic hallucination. Filmed with macro lenses, the video was inspired by a photo shoot where Minter directed her models to lick brightly colored candies while she shot photos from underneath a glass plate. The models' tongues mixed the colorful sugar with saliva, slurping and pushing color across the glass surface to simulate painting.

Elephant Toothpaste is the name of a classic chemistry experiment that's all about getting hydrogen peroxide to quickly break down into water and lots of oxygen. The result: Thick spirals of super-awesome foam.

There's lots of videos of this on the Internets, but I chose this one (despite the head-shakingly awkward co-host) because it demonstrates two versions of Elephant Toothpaste--one of which you can do at home with easily available materials. Fun!

As usual, if you've got a video you'd like to see on Saturday Morning Science Experiment, email me!

Eternally excellent Rachel Maddow allowed me to join her tonight (pretty much the only reason I own a TV now is to watch her show) for a discussion about John McCain's "Internet Freedom Act," also known as "The Great Telecom Reacharound of 2009."

Why is the former presidential candidate who once described himself as technologically "illiterate" suddenly so worried about the nerdy details of internet architecture? Follow the money.

A Sunlight Foundation Report released yesterday says McCain received more telecom lobbying money than any other senator, over the past two years. We ought to stop calling him the senator from Arizona and start calling him the senator from AT&T.

Video: McCain Pushes Agenda Against Web Freedom (The Rachel Maddow Show)

Watch Senator Al "Kick-Ass" Franken wipe up the floor with this health-care-lobby shill from the Hudson Institute who claimed that universal healthcare would increase medical bankruptcies. This is the perfect mix of being sensible and being devastatingly sarcastic, and I love him for it. Go Al!

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies

(Download MP4 video or Watch on YouTube, or view with subtitles on Dotsub).

Institute for the Future teamed up with Sun Microsystems and Boing Boing Video to co-host the Digital Open, an online tech expo for teens 17 and under around the world.

We're publishing an 8-part series of videos profiling the winners. Today, meet 16 year old Harry Lee of Melbourne Australia. He talks with us about his "Sneaky Card" game concept, which explores social interactions between people. He was inspired by ARG and indie projects like "Bite Me," by Gamelab, and Jane McGonigal's Top Secret Dance-Off, both of which we've covered previously on Boing Boing.

"I love index cards," says Harry, "And I was thinking -- hmm, how can I incorporate them into a project?" So he designed and printed these game cards, and "spread the seeds of sneakiness and espionage" into the unsuspecting pockets, math books, binders and bags and jackets of his schoolmates.

I tracked most of the cards and found, with much satisfaction, that a majority of them had been passed down at least three times. The most successful story is of the card passed from student to student three times before ending up in a math teacher's jacket. The teacher found it and gave it to another math teacher, who inserted it into a student's corrected test before giving it back to him. The card passed hands once again before I lost track of it.

I wonder if giving viral videos an old-timey silent movie treatment will become more popular. As for the actual content of the video, I thought it was sad. I hope the man in the video receives the help he needs to recover and stay well. He may not have been drunk. Maybe he was in insulin shock or something like that. (Here is the original video).

"Celebrate the launch of Windows 7 by illegally downloading your very own copy!" Video link. (Funny or Die, thanks, @serafinowicz)

I Love xkcd from NoamR on Vimeo.

Noam sez, "There are so many things to love in this world, so just to point a few of them I've animated the xkcd comic xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel. Singing by the amazing Olga Nunes."

I Love xkcd (Thanks, Noam!)

(Download MP4 video or Watch on YouTube, or view with subtitles on Dotsub).

Institute for the Future teamed up with Sun Microsystems and Boing Boing Video to co-host the Digital Open, an online tech expo for teens 17 and under around the world.

We're publishing an 8-part series of videos profiling the winners. Today, meet 15-year-old Ferran Rovira Bosca, of Spain. He created a concept for an "Eco Self-Sustaining House" -- architecture of the future that captures its own renewable energy, and operates off the grid. Ferran believes technology can help us come up with new ways of protecing the environment and saving money in our households at the same time. He says he learns a lot about what's possible in this realm from exploring sustainable technology websites online.

Here's more about his "Casa Ecologica Autosuficiente."

Read more about the youth competition in IFTF's press release announcing Digital Open winners.

Link (thanks, Souris)

Comrades, I present to you the unheralded but noble sport of "anvil launching" in which a brave athlete puts a crapload of black powder between two anvils, lights a fuse and runs like the devil, then watches as the topmost anvil sails hundreds of feet into the air!

Gay Wilkinson is the world champion anvil launcher and in this brief video, he demonstrates his grace and athleticism and total disregard for commonsense or safety. Gay, you are a credit to the sport.

How to Shoot an Anvil 200 Feet in the Air (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)