The latest posting from Ukrainian arts collective Bob Basset (makers of all those wonderful leather steampunk gasmasks) features an intriguing pair of "paw shoes." Got 'em in a 45?

paw-shoes. my new project./лапотуфли .

Wired's HOWTO wiki suggests freezing Mentos into ice cubes and then serving them in Diet Coke-based cocktails as a kind of timed practical joke (the cubes melt, and the drink turns into a volcano). Diet Coke is recommended "because it isn't sticky."

Mix an Exploding Drink

(via Neatorama) Read the rest

Ryanair, the discount airline that operates virtual prison-ships in the sky, is serious about installing pay toilets on its aircraft -- it will cost a pound to go wee. They're also reducing the number of toilets on their cramped, miserable planes. What are the odds that this will improve relations between passengers and the surly, angry flight crew?

The (very) last time I flew Ryanair, they locked us all in a no-toilets departure area for an hour and a half before the flight, then threatened to have me arrested for using the toilet when I boarded, rather than waiting until we were in the air and levelled off (which turned out to be an hour later).

The chief executive of Europe's largest budget carrier said the airline would also generate extra revenues by removing two out of the three toilets on its Boeing 737-800 jets and filling the space with up to six seats...

Asked if he would be interested in charging £5 a toilet visit in order to eliminate the need for the loo altogether, he said: "If someone wanted to pay £5 to go to the toilet I would carry them myself. I would wipe their bums for a fiver."

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary defends pay-per-pee fee (via Consumerist)

(Image: Ryanair seats, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Matt From London's Flickr stream)

Mark sez, "The recent post of the CARDIAC Unboxing [ed: the CARDIAC being a cardboard teaching computer that Bell Labs released in the late 60s] made me poke my father, who has written a CARDIAC emulator that actually looks like the real CARDIAC, to put together a webpage with the source of it. Both his childhood and mine were definitely influenced by this little wonder out of Bell Labs, so for those who can't get the cardboard variant, here's the software one, along with a scan of the original CARDIAC manual."

CARDIAC: (CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation)

(Thanks, Mark!)

Ben sez, "A 1930s pamphlet from the Kotex Company to help mothers teach their daughters about menstruation (aka, the new purification) and the proper use of Kotex brand pads and belts."

Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday

(Thanks, Ben!)

Read the rest

Newly minted Tonight Show Conan O'Brien did a really funny segment last night about Twitter -- or, more specifically, about the breathless, conspicuous insertion of Twitter into every news and entertainment program everywhere all the time, of late. Twitter Tracker (via @biz, and sadly, Hulu region-blocks folks outside of the USA - this sucks.) Read the rest

Is that Champ, the mysterious cryptid that supposedly roams Lake Champlain? The image above is a video still from new phonecam footage said to have been taken near Oakledge Park in Burlington, Vermont. BB pal Loren Coleman is all over the story at Cryptomundo. "Media and Others Take Closer Look At 'Champ Video'" Read the rest

CryptoZoo is a new real-world game launched by my Institute for the Future colleagues, in partnership with the American Heart Association. There are games scheduled in San Francisco and New York City this weekend and next weekend, but you can play anywhere, anytime. Game designer Jane McGonigal says, "There’s an after-dark night chase and a daytime chase in both cities.. Night-time is a bit more adventurous, daytime more playful and family friendly." From the game description:

It's a secret world of strange, fast-moving creatures...

Your city is full of strange creatures, hiding in plain sight. But to catch a glimpse of them, you have to keep up...

Learn how to run with the most mysterious species on the planet: bounce like springboras, slalom like whip zananas, crouch-run like ninja rabbits, spin like swingdogs, jump like tiptrees, and swing like the summit monkeys.

You've never moved like this before. And once you've run with the cryptids, you'll never move the same way again.

CryptoZoo Read the rest

On BBG, our Rob's found a very very clever little DC inverter for the car:

Assuming your car has a mug holder, it's an unexpectedly clever and useful design. But it is also $30. [Thinkgeek]

Behold! A styrofoam coffee cup power inverter

Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets Read the rest

Two police officers pin a man to the ground and try to handcuff him. The man wriggles and prays to Yahweh. Eventually, one of the officers shoots him with a Tazer, which instead of subduing the man, gives him the strength to break free and run away. The officers pursue the man half-heartedly, but quickly give up. Read the rest

Improv Everywhere is the joyful performance art troupe that pulls playful large scale pranks designed to surprise and delight unwitting public audiences. They're the ones behind the frozen people in Grand Central Station, the No Pants! subway ride, the Food Court Musical, the 80 fake uniformed Best Buy employees, the Starbuck's time loop, the McDonald's bathroom attendant prank, and others.

Improv Everywhere founder Charlie Todd and his cohort Alex Scordelis have written a book, Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere, that reveals the behind-the-scenes stories of 13 of their pre-planned missions, along with tips on how anyone can start their own street theater prank group.

Yesterday, Improv Everywhere threw a surprise wedding reception for a random couple getting married at City Clerk's Office in Manhattan. Watch the video here.

Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere

Bad news for freedom. Snip from WIRED Threat Level piece by David Kravets:

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed lawsuits targeting the nation's telecommunication companies for their participation in President George W. Bush's once-secret electronic eavesdropping program. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker upheld summer legislation protecting the companies from the lawsuits. The legislation, which then-Sen. Barack Obama voted for, also granted the government the authority to monitor American's telecommunications without warrants if the subject was communicating with somebody overseas suspected of terrorism.

Full story here. Image courtesy Billboard Liberation Front.

UPDATE: EFF and ACLU plan to appeal the ruling:

EFF and the ACLU are co-coordinating counsel for all 46 outstanding lawsuits concerning the government's warrantless surveillance program. Additionally, EFF is representing the plaintiffs in Hepting v. AT&T, a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of millions of AT&T customers whose private domestic communications and communications records were illegally handed over to the National Security Agency.

"By passing the retroactive immunity for the telecoms' complicity in the warrantless wiretapping program, Congress abdicated its duty to the American people," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. "Now it is up to the Court of Appeals to stand up for the Constitution, and reverse today's decision."

Previously:

Media Matters catches Bill O'Reilly in another lie, this time about Dr. George Tiller, who performed abortions for "women diagnosed with cancer who needed abortions to qualify for chemotherapy, women who learned late in their pregnancies that their wanted babies had fatal illnesses, and rape victims so young they didn't realize they were pregnant for months," as reported by Susan Hill, President of the National Women's Health Foundation. (See Xeni's post.)

From The Daily Beast:

Finding the truth uncomfortable, Bill O’Reilly has apparently decided just to lie about it: On his show last night, O’Reilly claimed that he could be sure that he did not incite Dr. George Tiller’s assassin because he never called him “Tiller the Baby Killer”; he only “reported what groups were calling him.”

Here's what Media Matters has dug up:

* On the May 15 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly stated that Kathleen Sebelius, who was then the governor of Kansas and is now secretary of health and human services, "is the most pro-abortion governor in the United States. Based upon Dr. Tiller, the baby killer in her state, and all of that. All right? So there's no doubt."

* On the May 11 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly said Sebelius "is pro-abortion. She wants the babies done for. This is -- she supported Tiller the baby killer out there."

* On the April 27 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly said that Sebelius "recently vetoed a bill that placed restrictions on late-term abortions in Kansas.

Chimps built a 5-piece toolkit to help them extract honey from underground bee colonies.

The tools consist of pounders, enlargers, collectors, perforators and swabbers. Chimps, suspended in acrobatic positions on branches, might first pull out a thick stick pounder to break open beehive entrances. They then reach for another stick, the enlarger, to perforate and widen different honeybee hive compartments. Next comes the collector, used to dip or scoop out honey.

Different tools and methods are needed to obtain underground bee honey. The chimps wield a perforator to penetrate the ground, locate a honey chamber and dig into the soil. They then pull off strips of bark to "dip and spoon the honey out of the opened beehive."

Obtaining honey from an underground hive isn't easy. Aside from dealing with angry, stinging bees, the chimps must dig narrow sideways tunnels, maintain perfect aim and prevent soil from falling into, and ruining, their desired sweet reward.

The honey extraction toolkit has been licensed by Home Depot and will be available later this fall, says one of the chimps.

Chimpanzee toolkit Read the rest

Abbey Ryan creates one painting a day and auctions them on eBay. Other artists do the same thing. What a fun way to make a living! Here's a peanut butter and jelly sandwich she painted (6 x 8 in. oil linen on panel). The current bid is $152.50.

It's interesting to watch Abbey paint. Here's a video of her painting a picture of a strawberry and blueberries.

Abbey knows I am a cigar box guitar maker, so she sent me a photo of her cigar box easel (click for bigger).

Ryan Studio: A Painting a Day by Abbey Ryan Read the rest

• Every gadget expands until it becomes a PC. Any gadget that does not so expand is replaced by one that will.

• Joel interviewed Dane Novarlic, the United Nations' emergency network admin. He's currently in Pakistan helping people displaced by the Taliban.

• Cabledrop holds cables securely, but has the added quality of looking very rude.

• TomTom touts "subtle swirls" on its special edition satnav, the world's most glamorous by far.

• The H-Bomb is a battery-heated $1,000 wetsuit.

• Yes, it was our Surfing theme day! Remember the Waikiki Beach Boys; Predict surf at Mavericks; and learn how to Sell surf wax.

• Liquid metal breeching rounds are exactly what they say they are.

• Someone put an Atom PC in a vase. But is it ceramic? Read the rest