- Boing Boing

The Venn diagram of cardigans. (via Information is Beautiful) — Xeni • Comments: 3

Craigslist's "adult services" section blocked after human trafficking/prostitution controversy

Craigslist, the popular classifieds Web site, has blocked access to its "adult services" section and replaced the link with a black label with the word "censored."

Bizarre CNN op-ed accuses Craiglist of profiting from child sex ...

Zombies get "red light camera" tickets, too

Xeni Jardin at 8:36 AM Sat

Video artist and viral genius Joe Sabia, whose work we've featured before on Boing Boing Video and the Virgin America in-flight Boing Boing TV channel, shares word of a project he just completed for the energy drink company behind Zombie Blood Energy Potion.

"Red Light Fright was highly experimental, highly speculative, and the results were hilarious," Joe says.

"We basically loaded an intersection with zombies, intentionally blew a right light, and received a ticket in the mail with a ton of photos showing branded zombies in action. No arrests, no manhunts for us (we hope). just good, safe clean fun."

Did the zombies really get the parking tickets? Are they real zombies? Are they real parking tickets? He won't tell me. Either way, a clever viral marketing stunt on what I'm told was a very low budget.

REDLIGHTFRIGHT.COM

Exec at troubled hedge fund busted for operating "complex" weed farm in her home

Xeni Jardin at 9:01 PM Fri

Teri Buhl at Forbes reports on a sign of the times:

"An executive at a billion-dollar Connecticut hedge fund was arrested on felony charges of allegedly running a huge year-round pot farm inside her home. But her boyfriend says the cops have it wrong, that they're goat farmers, not dope farmers."

(Image: A CC-licensed photo by Flickr user r0bz.)

A bill introduced in Canada's House of Commons would give US Department of Homeland Security officials "final say over who may board aircraft in Canada if they are to fly over the United States en route to a third country." (via @ioerror) — Xeni • Comments: 31

"They're into everything, from the Russian prostitute rings in resorts like Cannes and St Tropez to gassing tourists in their villa and stealing everything they've got. Bosses are now based here permanently, with foot soldiers working for them, often flying in for set periods before returning home with their profits in cash. The numbers really are unprecedented at the moment."—a French police officer, on the "military-like precision" with which Russian mafia are said to be taking over the French Riviera. (Telegraph UK) — Xeni • Comments: 11

The Student Loan Scheme: gateway drug to debt slavery

Xeni Jardin at 12:33 PM Fri

Information designer Jess Bachman has a new piece out which isn't so much an info-graphic as a graphic article. Jess explains:

It deals with the nightmare that has become student loans. Default rates on student loans are worse than sub-prime mortgages, and the total debt is bigger than all our credit card debts combined. It's a huge issue than many people are keeping quiet about. College students are a hugely under-represented and unadvocated group in Washington, and what we and the government are doing to them is just wrong.

Link to the full-sized graphic on CollegeScholarships.org.

Adafruit Industries has posted a pair of terrific videos in which Apple's "Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs talk about their short career building illegal telephone equipment, aka 'blue boxes.' Interesting how their two stories differ...the engineer and the marketer." Bonus: Cap'n Crunch! — Xeni • Comments: 3

Well, I know what I'm doing this weekend: here's a recipe for how to make sriracha hot sauce, the ubiquitous Asian restaurant condiment in that clear plastic bottle with the little white rooster on the side. (via Farhad) — Xeni • Comments: 22

Friday tunes: "Chola Maati Ke Ram," from the Peepli Live soundtrack

Xeni Jardin at 11:39 AM Fri

I drove south last weekend to a predominantly Indian suburb of Los Angeles to catch Peepli Live (Wikipedia) at a movie theater that plays only films from India.

Its was terrific, a poignant and LOL-filled commentary on the state of Indian news media, and the injustice and tragedy that rural communities face. Unsurprisingly, the soundtrack was full of great tunes. My favorite was the song embeded above, "Chola Maati Ke Ram," performed live here by Nageen Tanvir at a launch event for the film.

The lyrics of this song are about human mortality. Loosely and imperfectly: Time spares no one... death spares no one... our bodies are clay robes that will eventually disintegrate, so it is best to dedicate our lives to honoring Lord Ram, and all that is eternal.

Incidentally: Today, Kamla Bhatt will be interviewing the Indo-fusion rock band Indian Ocean, who performed several songs in the Peepli Live Soundtrack, at 12.30 pm PST on Stanford radio station KZSU. Listen online here.

My Name is (Hurricane) Earl

Xeni Jardin at 3:36 PM Thu

How astronauts see Hurricane Earl. This image acquired by NASA two days ago:

The relatively placid view from the International Space Station belied the potent forces at work in Hurricane Earl as it hovered over the tropical Atlantic Ocean on August 30. With maximum sustained winds of 135 miles (215 kilometers) per hour, the storm was classified as a category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale as it passed north of the Virgin Islands.

Meet Desiré Dubounet: prolific gadget patenter and healing space medicine drag queen YouTube starlet

Xeni Jardin at 10:07 AM Thu