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Happy Hols from Boing Boing tv! In this week's Friday Unicorn Chaser episode, Sculptor Chris Yates creates laser-cut robots for the holidays, based on the Diesel Sweeties webcomic by R. Stevens. Read the rest

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Longtime Boing Boing tv contributors monochrom have brought us Soviet terrorism training videos, improvisational urban fires, and highfalutin economic philosophy from the mouths of sock puppets.

Monochrom sock puppets Kiki & Bubu return to us today, for a very special holiday-themed episode: Kiki & Bubu & The Feelings. The yuletide song they perform for us is sure to be an instant classic -- Killing Capitalism with Christmas. You can grab it on iTunes, on the 2008 album "Monochrom: Carefully Selected Moments".

Bonus: Watch this behind-the-socks footage, from the secret filming location in the Austrian alps.

SYNOPSIS (some spoilers):

Yes, it is a time of crisis, but it is also a time of Christmas. Slovenian hackers crack CNN's hologram thingie, and bring us the avatar of gender-ambiguous singing sensation Enron Hubbard. Enron sings a hypnotic call to reject holiday consumerism and replace malls with meaning. Or if not meaning, post-internet nihilism and the ironic use of MySpace smiley-gifs. Online porn monster shows up after Enron is finished singing his holiday song, then Kiki and Bubu scamper off for eggnog frappucinos.

Previously:

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Today's episode of Boing Boing tv is an OFFWORLD feature -- this time, Joel and Rob visit the annual chiptunes music gathering Blip Festival 2008, better known as "blipfest."

Joel interviews several artists in this episode who create music inspired by the aural texture of old-schoold video games: Mr. Spastic, Jellica, and Nullsleep.

Join the conversation about this episode over on Offworld.

Previously: Blipfest 2008: Joel interviews chiptunes artist Bubblyfish.

(Special props to Beschizza for doubling as director of photography for these episodes! Holy Brother of Mario, what can't that guy do. Seriously. )

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In just a few weeks, Boing Boing TV will be traveling to Vegas for The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show with the Boing Boing Gadgets guys -- Joel, John, and Rob. We're planning to broadcast video reports from the show floor. We're also bracing ourselves for lots of casino umbrella drinks.

To get us started in planning our coverage on the blog in text, photos, and in video, we thought it might be cool to hear from you, our audience. So we asked BB commenters and peeps who follow us on Twitter -- what do you hope or expect to see more of, or less of, at the world's largest electronics show this year. What exactly do you want us to bring home from CES?

In this episode of BBtv, we share your responses. They include:

♦ Find weird things on the fringes -- BE BOING BOING. ♦ OH WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!!! (capture that on video.) ♦ Better netbooks, notebooks -- mobile computing. ♦ The most impractically ginormous flatscreen television ever. ♦ mobile gaming! laptops and mobile devices that allow me to get my game on out in the world. ♦ What notebooks or a/v devices are attendees themselves using on the show floor? ♦ Do not cover gadgets at all. Cats are better than gadgets. Also, they are an emergency food source during times of economic crisis.

Sponsor shout-out: Boing Boing TV's coverage of CES 2009 is sponsored by WEPC.com Read the rest

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Today on Boing Boing tv, the first in a series of gaming/gadget features with Joel Johnson from an annual celebration of 8-bit/videogame-inspired music. Joel says:

Last week found us at Blip Festival 2008, the megalocus of live chiptunes music, where Game Boys met Atari STs with Amiga visuals for four evenings of square wave fun.

We were out in Gowanus in Brooklyn at the event, at least until Rob and I got tired and had to go home and rest our widdle heads. But until then, we got to speak to several of the artists just after their sets, and the BBtv crew is taking our drunken, blurry footage and actually making something worth watching out of it.

First up: Haeyoung "Bubblyfish" Kim

Here's the comments thread over at Boing Boing Offworld. Read the rest

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In this week's edition of our weekly Boing Boing tv update...

♦ We take a sneak peek at the images in Imaginary Foundation's gallery show, which opened this week in LA, and we watch their iconic "astronaut drummer" guy rocking out IRL.

♦ New BB guestblogger Susie Bright checks in with a video report! (NB: she consults Brian Eno and Eric Schmidt's Oblique Strategy cards when in doubt -- and she shows us the Mac desktop widget version here).

♦ We take a look at the groups featured in Cory's "Boing Boing Charitable Giving Guide"

♦ Boing Boing is blogging over at GOOD Magazine, and we preview Pesco's first contribution -- about the psychological impact of Twittering/vlogging/lifecasting/Facebooking everything you do.

♦ At the end of this episode, BBtv remixes the already-excellent "Best Viral Videos of 2008" montage curated by our pals at Videogum. Enjoy. Crunk makes everything better.

Previous Weekly Boing Boing Updates from BBtv: * Boing Boing tv Update: Econopocalypse, Julie Amero, Holiday Gifts, Mumbai. * Boing Boing tv Update: Virgin WiFi, Obfuscated Code, Comment Poetry, Downfall Housing Remix * Boing Boing tv Update: OFFWORLD, YES MEN, and THIS IS THE FIRST. Read the rest

Perhaps you missed an episode or two of Boing Boing's daily original video programming this week? Here's a recap, so you can watch while you pretend to be productive at work for what's left of this fine Friday.

♦ MONDAY: In our Weekly Update, we caught up with the people behind the BB post "Donate Your Used Digital Camera to LA's Skid Row Photo Club. BB readers donated used gadgets to the Skid Row Photo Club, and project participants join us from the heart of Skid Row. Then, we LOLled as Mark's chickens dance to Yakety Sax, and watched some gory splatterpunk claymation videos from Japan. WATCH IT. Here's a direct MP4 Link.

♦ TUESDAY: In our weekly Boing Boing Gadgets Video feature, Joel reviewed the Philips Norelco Bodygroom ($50) a shaver for men. Strategic kitteh were deployed as figleafs to shield our viewers' eyes from inadvertently exposed people-parts. WATCH IT. Here's a direct MP4 link.

♦ WEDNESDAY: Brandon Boyer, editor of Boing Boing Offworld, updated us on iPhone games and arty Wii avatars. WATCH IT. Here's a Direct MP4 Link.

♦ Also on Wednesday, we began a three-day commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in partnership with WITNESS. First episode: this video about the treatment of mentally disabled youth at a hospital in Paraguay, and proof of the power in video to stop human rights abuses. WATCH IT. Read the rest

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Today is the final installment of Boing Boing tv's three-day special series in partnership with the video network WITNESS commemorating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

In this episode: the story of Jesus Tecu Osorio, a Maya Achí man who witnessed one of the most horrific massacres of Guatemala's 36-year internal conflict, when he was a child -- and what he is doing to preserve the memory of victims, and the rights of survivors.

Here is a snip from the Wikipedia article about that massacre:

In 1978, in the face of civil war, the Guatemalan government proceeded with its economic development program, including the construction of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam. Financed in large part by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, the Chixoy Dam was built in Rabinal, a region of the department of Baja Verapaz historically populated by the Maya Achi. To complete construction, the government completed voluntary and forcible relocations of dam-affected communities from the fertile agricultural valleys to the much harsher surrounding highlands. When hundreds of residents refused to relocate, or returned after finding the conditions of resettlement villages were not what the government had promised, these men, women, and children were kidnapped, raped, and massacred by military officials. More than 440 Maya Achi were killed in the village of Río Negro alone, and the string of extra-judicial killings that claimed up to 5,000 lives between 1980 and 1982 became known as the Río Negro Massacres.

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BBtv presents this week's Friday "Unicorn Chaser" -- the goofy truth behind Xeni and BBtv's UK music correspondent Russell Porter's reports from the SF Outside Lands music festival. Summer concert season is long gone, and the gaffer tape that once spelled "Boing Boing tv" on our tour bus has long since faded, along with our concert sunburns. So we figure it's safe to reveal how much dorking out took place between story tapings and band sessions. Besotted joyrides on stolen Segways, the snatching of sunglasses from complete strangers, and improvised pickup lines like "I'm the drummer from Radiohead. Really." Russell? You really are "special." We love you, man, and we miss "working" with you.

BBtv Reports from the 2008 Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival:

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More than 20,000 children have been abducted and forced into armed service by warring factions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1996. Many of these children are sexually exploited; many are forced to participate in or witness atrocities, as a way of life.

In day two of Boing Boing tv's three-day special series in partnership with the video network WITNESS commemorating the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, we present this special feature on the lives of the child soldiers in DRC.

In this episode, we'll hear from Bukeni Waruzi of the Child Soldier Project (AJEDI-Ka/PES), who are working to demobilize the boys and girls and provide them with protection, rehabilitation, and psychological care.

If you'd like to support the work of the Child Soldier Project, here's more info on how to assist (they are accepting donations, but there are other ways to help, too).

For more on WITNESS, and how they are using video to draw world attention to human rights abuses throughout the globe, visit the recently launched Witness HUB website.

Previously:

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Machine Project, a wonderful little alt/tech gallery and event space in Los Angeles where we've shot many a Boing Boing tv episode, is hosting another one of their annual holiday season Fry-B-Ques.

Last year, BBtv attended, and we shot the episode above. You're not actually supposed to fry gadgets, and now that a year has passed, fine, I can reveal that we did not really fry a cellphone. It's all Final Cut magic. Fake. Fakefakefake. You cannot fry cellphones, or gadgets, or bailed-out automobile manufacturers, or credit default swaps, or anything non-edible at the Fry-B-Que. There, that's over with. I feel so much better.

Now, then. If you go, here is my advice: do not eat anything for like 48 hours beforehand. Here's the blurb from Machine Project:

Fry-B-Q is here! Please join us on Sunday, December 14th at 8pm. This year there's a new twist – Pie-B-Q! Head to Machine for the fried food extravaganza and live music by Emily Lacy & friends, and then go next door to our neighbors the Echo Park Film Center for screenings of new videos from the Machine Project Field Guide to LACMA, rare Machine home videos and pies. Pies! Starts at 8pm. Admission to the event is free, pay $5 for all you can fry privileges, and $5 for all you can pie privileges. Things to do:

1) Arrive between 8 - 11 pm Sunday Dec 14th.

2) Bring something edible to fry. Our trained fryolater technicians will be standing by, eager to batter and fatify your soon to be delicious snacks.

Boing Boing tv is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week in partnership with WITNESS. Founded by musician and activist Peter Gabriel in 1992, the group uses video and online media to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.

Today, we present this interview with the organization's digital archivist, Grace Lile about video as a tool to fight human rights abuses at home and abroad. She tells us about how WITNESS gathers videos from human rights activists and "citizen eyewitnesses," and why collecting and preserving this footage matters.

Grace also tells us about the recently-launched hub.witness.org, which is a sort of gathering place for people who want to get involved.

(Special thanks to Yvette Alberdingkthijm, Sameer Padania, Martin Tzanev, Matisse Bustos Hawkes, and Bryan Nuñez of Witness, and BB Patron Saint Joi Ito.)

(Warning: the video embedded in this post contains graphic content that viewers may find disturbing.)

Boing Boing tv commemorates the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week in partnership with WITNESS. Have you read the declaration lately? You can do so here. It is as timely and essential to our world today as it was on December 10, 1948, just after the end of World War II.

WITNESS was founded by musician and activist Peter Gabriel with other human rights groups in 1992. They use video and online media to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We'll be airing reports from the WITNESS archives this week, and tomorrow Boing Boing tv will present an interview with the organization's digital archivist, Grace Lile. She spoke with us about how WITNESS gathers videos like the one I'm embedding here, and why collecting and sharing this footage matters. She also tells us about the recently-launched hub.witness.org, which is a sort of gathering place for people who want to get involved.

Today, as a special edition of BBTV WORLD, we present a video from WITNESS that was produced by Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). With this video, they sought to "prevent continued unlawful acts that threaten the rights to life, liberty and personal security of two boys, Jorge, age 18, and Julio, age 17, and 458 others detained in the Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital of Paraguay." Read the rest

Boing Boing Offworld editor Brandon says,

Clearly still struggling through Infinite-Jest-esque urges to purchase beauty-enhancing video phone masks and the anxiety of talking to yourself while staring into a tiny, lit, terrifying Hal 9000 eye-hole, I've made my official non-gnome deathknight debut on BBtv.

In it I recap what we've been doing on the site (most notably, the debut of Monster Mii), recommend Dr. Awesome, the first game that's felt to me like a proper 'iPhone game,' versus a game that's merely been made for the iPhone, and let you know what's happening on the site in the coming weeks.

Bonus points for recognizing any of the ephemera in the background, and, as usual, a direct download link so you can blow it up full screen and shoot suction darts at my scruffy mug.

Join the comments thread on this episode over at Offworld blog. Read the rest

Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson writes:

The Philips Norelco Bodygroom ($50) is a shaver for men, specially tuned to the harmonic frequencies resonant with the hexagonal shafts of masculine hair for a shave that doesn't just cut your hair – it shatters it. (Or it's just a fancy double-edge electric clipper specifically marketed for men.)

Either way I tried one on various bits of my body, including, I discovered to my horror after I had already uploaded the video to the BBtv crew, what was to end up to be my exposed cock. Thankfully due to the magic of editing you can enjoy my aimless rambling without getting a flash of the juniors, which have been replaced with the soothing softness of a harmless kitten.

You can get an idea of how the Bodygroom works in the video, but here's a quick spoiler: I think the new Bodygroom is a pretty great, especially with the new attachments, although I don't know that it does a whole lot that you couldn't do with any other rechargeable clippers. Still, recommended.

Special thanks to fofurasfelinas for her very needed kitten pictures. And if you want a direct MP4 download, we have the technology.

Episode duration: 04:22.

Do let the fellas know what you think of this episode over in the Boing Boing Gadgets comments thread. Read the rest

In this week's Boing Boing update on BBtv (Here's a direct MP4 Link, 05:33 duration)...

♦ Remember that project we blogged about a few weeks ago -- Donate Your Used Digital Camera to LA's Skid Row Photo Club? Well, many of you did. The gadgets went to good use at the Skid Row Photo Club, and project participants join us today, live from the heart of Skid Row, to tell you why it mattered (and still does). They're still accepting used camera donations, and project founders Michael Blaze and Dave Bullock encourage likeminded nerds to start similar clubs in other cities.

♦ Clay Shirky is guestblogging on Boing Boing, and they've been terrific, debate-inspiring screeds.

♦ Mark is into all things "down home" of late -- including chickens. He shot a time-lapse video of his chickens frolicking around in the back yard, and we did what any responsible viral video producers would do. ADDED YAKETY SAX.

♦ Pesco found some awesome Claymation Splatterpunk movies from a guy in Japan named Takena. He's a genius. Enjoy the montage in today's ep.

IMAGES BELOW: Courtesy Skid Row Photo Club.

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Oh, what a week we had in Boing Boing television.

♦ MONDAY: Our Weekly Update featured Dale Dougherty speaking with us about why he believes television news (specifically CNN) is having a hard time covering the economic crisis. We spoke to Julie Amero, the substitute teacher in Connecticut whose life became an extended living hell because of pop-up porn on a computer in her classroom, and the stupidity of overeager prosecutors, lying IT "experts," and corrupt, buck-passing bureaucrats who don't know jack about technology (an extended audio interview with Amero is coming up on Boing Boing, soon). We viewed snapshots of the tragedy in Mumbai, a city known and loved by editors and commenters alike, here at Boing Boing. WATCH IT. Here's a direct MP4 Link.

♦ TUESDAY: In our weekly Boing Boing Gadgets Video feature, Joel Johnson did not show us his junk. But he did give us a naked shower review of an underwater MP3 player. He did not like the device, but many of our commenters rather liked seeing him make a lovable oaf of himself in the buff. WATCH IT. Here's a direct MP4 link.

♦ WEDNESDAY: We enjoyed a fantastic new Bill Barminski music video, an ode to the joy of vinyl and surf musique. WATCH IT. Here's a Direct MP4 Link.

♦ THURSDAY: Joi Ito invited Silicon Valley's Web 2.0 elite to Tokyo for a tour of the otaku district, led by Danny Choo in Stormtrooper finery. Read the rest