I'll second #9's vote for Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy. Bracing social satire, crisply written, intricately plotted; they're everything the Harry Potter books would be if Rowling were a better writer. (And I *liked* the Harry Potter books!)

I'd also like send some big up love to the late cartoonist and novelist William Steig, who understood poignancy better than just about any other YA writer. He wrote Shrek, but I really recommend the novels Dominic (1972), The Real Thief (1973), and Abel's Island (1976). These are perhaps geared toward younger readers, but the writing is so lovely you'll fall in love with them, too.

@36
@22 "Generalized misanthropy and hatred is very un-BoingBoing-like."

Going to have to disagree with that. Take a look at any of Cory's vitriol, or most of what Rob Beschizza writes.

Can't speak to Rob's writing one way or the other since I don't know it all that well (yet). But I'll STRONGLY disagree with you about Cory. Cory's not at all misanthropic. He seems to love people and "wonderful things" and he generally reserves his wrath for those who severely abuse the public trust by violating civil liberties or human rights, or the evil "douches" who use their positions of power to take advantage of the weak and disadvantaged.

Brownlee's post attacks an entire group of working folks just because he had some bad experience somewhere. He makes it personal and says he'd like to do violence against every one of them. Yeah, it's supposed to be satire, but satire should be aimed at the powerful and privileged, not people who work in retail trying to be helpful.

What a snarky, sad post. I've had great experiences every time I've gone to an Apple store, with employees who generally seem thrilled to be there.

Brownlee: You can be very funny but your constant vitriol is quickly becoming tired. Generalized misanthropy and hatred is very un-BoingBoing-like.

Inventor? Or discoverer?

Hoffman apparently believed low doses of LSD acted as a longevity drug and cognitive enhancer. 102 sure won't hurt those claims.

Wow. Big, big news to some of us. To the rest, just another day.

He's biking in Heaven. Blessings to you, Albert!

Peacelove, By pranks do you mean innocent in intent or faked?

I meant not intended to be cruel to the recipients. This was simply an interesting and potentially revealing prank against some infamous people.

I was a buddy of Geerhart's in high school (if the kid pic is any indication). These letters are simple pranks, with no malevolence or meanness in them. And they sure are revealing -- alternately funny (Ramirez's personalized stationary), sad (Menendez), and creepy (Manson, Cheney).

Nice work, Little Billy!

Ah, follow-up. According to the Daily Mail Walsh-Smith "has admitted having a drink problem..."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=559430&in_page_id=1773

How sad. Walsh-Smith claims her husband has no grounds for divorce, but I wouldn't be surprised if she had a drug or alcohol problem. She certainly doesn't seem emotionally stable. Is this one of those situations where a severely neurotic or disturbed person has no idea why someone else no longer wants them around?

On the other hand, she's probably a very tiny fish in a huge pond controlled by her much wealthier and more powerful husband. So maybe she thought airing her grievances in such a public way would help her avoid being totally screwed. I can't see this helping her case, unless he pays her off just to shut up and go back to England.

BoingBoing follows interesting developments in technology and social media, and they're right to post this. This could represent the beginning of a whole new genre: dirty laundry videos on YouTube. Are we in for a whole slew of celebrity spouse rants?

BoingBoing covered Baggs a year ago, with a link to her amazing short film "In My Language."

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/26/autistic-person-tran.html

Worth noting, Samantha Power is Obama's Senior Policy Advisor:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/02/18/samantha_power/index.html?source=search&aim=/news/feature

(You may need to watch a short ad to view the article. Or, better yet, subscribe.)

Act One: ADHD. Act Two: Pending.

The comments to the Baltimore Sun article are instructive; a much higher percentage of them thought Officer Rivieri's behavior was perfectly legitimate way of dealing with "snotty kids."

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/baltimore-sun/T5TM52PM1CM4MDOO1

Luckily, their online poll reports 82% thinking Rivieri was "way out of line."

I'm pleased to note that almost all BoingBoing commenters find the officer's behavior violent and possibly criminal. A 220 pound cop with a gun who threatens an unarmed, non-violent 14-year-old seems a pretty clear case of police brutality. Thanks to YouTube, one more dangerous authoritarian bully is (at least temporarily) off the streets of Baltimore.

Obviously, Yoko needs the money.

Wow, Mark, that's your best one yet! When I first saw it I assumed this was another Tim Biskup post!

Creepy. There's a fascistic undercurrent to the "Quiet" event. We Live In Public makes the whole experience look extremely unpleasant and sick. But the film seems like a fantastic document of Harris' extraordinary excess and hubris. I can't wait to see the finished documentary!

Harris seems to have been way ahead of his time in some ways, foreshadowing reality television shows like Big Brother. But he was totally wrong about the major cultural shift away from top down information and entertainment. Neither he nor anyone else in Silicon Alley seems to have groked the massive changes that were about to occur as soon as high-speed bandwidth became widely available. The extraordinary democratization of information distribution is the exact opposite of the top-down customization and control for which Harris seems to have had such a boner.

#46 LADYADA:

don't you realize that interviewer could get in A LOT of trouble? you could have cost him his JOB!

Shades of V for Vendetta! Do you think they might also drag him out of his house at night and "disappear" him?

a lot of money is spent getting all this A/V equipment run and you went ahead and ruined it as a dumb prank.

You really think calling out AT&T for their evil, un-American plan to monitor Internet communications is a "dumb prank?" Obviously, a majority of Boingers strongly disagree with you and consider Joel a hero for speaking up like this. This topic is no joke; AT&T's plan represents a significant threat to freedom and democracy.

how stupid! i'm unsubscribing boingboinggadgets from my rss feed.

Sorry to see you go. I recommend reading BoingBoing regularly to become better informed on the serious civil liberties fights going on right now. And, while you're at it, send a check to the EFF, too. They're suing AT&T for illegal wiretapping on behalf of all Americans, including you (assuming you are American).

That's almost certainly Dane Cook, which makes this a brilliant viral marketing ploy for a guy widely hated by critics over 30 and beloved by his hordes of young fans. I think Cook has found the perfect vehicle for his dry style here.

At the very least, he's got a lot of new fans.

People seem to be confusing several issues here. Artists have no more inherent right to make money with their creative output than anyone else. Protecting an old paradigm by suppressing culture and technology is an illegitimate path to income. The only way anyone deserves to make money is if they can figure out a viable business model for a new digital age.

Under the scarcity economy, the business model entailed selling books, paintings, CDs, and other tangible goods. That paradigm is winding down, as more and more art is going digital. Society is being radically remade as copying and sharing technology become ubiquitous. Steal This Film 2 and Falkvinge correctly point out that the only way to prevent file sharing is to create a police state and shut down the Internet.

When people ask me how artists will get paid in the future, my standard answer is, I don't know. It's not my job to figure out a new business model for artists. Art and artists existed long before there was a film industry, or a music industry, and they will continue to produce and sometimes get paid long after those industries no longer exist in their present form.

My concern is to protect the extraordinary freedom that comes from free and open information exchange. If the old business model no longer works, then it's the job of artists and other creative types to figure out a model that works under the new rules. Markets adjust and people are resourceful. Have faith that open file sharing will bring extraordinary and unforseen new opportunities to all creative people.

I was thinking it's actually Dane Cook, given the hilarious Cook digs (photos labeled "douche.jpg." And the fact that, well, it sounds like Dane Cook.

#13: I found a craptastic copy via www.torrent-finder.com. If someone could get a clean copy up, that would be awesome. Gmail me at magicpeacelove with leads.

I agree with #23. Torture humor has lost its luster for me. To understand why, check out this hilarious video of a Current's Kaj Larsen undergoing waterboarding.

http://www.thebluestate.com/2007/11/video-waterboar.html

Har har.

Mark didn't mention it, but the teaspoons are from Hendrik Ball's wonder emporium-esque shop, Grand Illusions.

http://www.grand-illusions.com/

Apologies to DYBBUK for my silly error; of course I was responding to #3's criticism of the film. #6 NEX has a point about the one-sided slant of the film, but for me it's a refreshingly straightforward viewpoint. Most people I know are so immersed in a copyright paradigm they have no conception that ownership of intellectual property is a historical artifact, rather than a moral and ethical imperative.

For me, Steal This Film II does a beautiful job of laying out the history of intellectual property. It describes how small groups of powerful interests have consistently tried to suppress every social change that comes along to threaten their top down control over information. The film makes clear that such top down control is a thing of the past, and that's a good thing.

As for the lack of analysis of what this ultimately means for society, no one has any idea what this means and anyone who tells you otherwise is just guessing. The changes yet to come will surely dwarf those we've already seen -- if we can just keep the would be Internet censors out of the way.

I couldn't disagree more strongly with #2, and I think Cory dramatically underrates the film. Steal This Film II is the first film I've seen anywhere that gets to the true heart of how copyright originally happened and why it's now evil. The selection of wise talking heads, including some certifiable adults (over 40!) makes for a clear, convincing, and mature rebuttal against all the well-intentioned people who still believe file-sharing is stealing, rather than an inevitable, profound, and healthy development in human culture.

As one guy says, "Music was around before there was a recording industry and I'm sure it will continue to be around after they're gone."

It's a film I can show my parents -- and they might actually understand the stakes. Steal This Film II shows the links between information control and fascism, and explains why open sharing is an essential part of being human.

Merry Christmas and all, but I think "Hobs Lane" is spelled with only one "l." Or are you guys right and the album cover wrong?

The Charles Bridge in Prague; there's a center of occulture and a major power spot. I brought no expectations to the bridge and was quickly schooled. The Dalai Lama once stood on the Charles Bridge and announced, "This is the center of the universe." Of course, maybe he says that everywhere...

Some silly comments! Brown is a magician, and any claims he makes must be taken with a strong grain of salt. His job is to create the illusion of impossibility, and this he accomplishes beautifully.

Check out Something Wicked This Way Comes, his award-winning live stage show. Possibly the best live magic/mentalism show of the last decade:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=.1402638741983898688&hl=en

Brown's a consummate gentleman and a brilliant performer. Bravo!

Actually, in magicians' parlance this isn't a levitation at all, but rather a suspension. From the beginning, the effect is that he's sitting on a platform which is resting on a couple of supports. He (or an assistant) removes all but one of the supports and he "magically" remains suspended in midair on only one support.

Yes, it's a "classic" and yes, it's still performed all over the world. But that doesn't change the fact that, as many commenters above noted, it sucks as a magic trick. The method is obvious to a ten-year-old. Always has been and always will be.

The great Theo Annemann once said, "Audiences are far from being as dumb as many magicians would like to think." If BoingBoing readers are any indication, this particular suspension should be retired for good.

Actually, in magicians' parlance this isn't a levitation at all, but rather a suspension. From the beginning, the effect is that he's sitting on a platform which is resting on a couple of supports. He (or an assistant) removes all but one of the supports and he "magically" remains suspended in midair on only one support.

Yes, it's a "classic" and yes, it's still performed all over the world. But that doesn't change the fact that, as many commenters above noted, it sucks as a magic trick. The method is obvious to a ten-year-old. Always has been and always will be.

The great Theo Annemann once said, "Audiences are far from being as dumb as many magicians would like to think." If BoingBoing readers are any indication, this particular suspension should be retired for good.

My son loves his PVC marshmallow gun, provided free by the kind Howtoon folks at the Maker Faire in San Mateo. Congrats to Saul and the whole gang!

I'm inclined to agree with #3. This one feels rushed (literally) and doesn't add much to his previous film, which I consider a masterpiece. In fact, this one seems positively superficial by comparison.

Mythbusters went to Moffet Hanger to get a wind-free environment for their Helium Football episode, in which they tested the myth that a football filled with helium will fly farther than one filled with air (it didn't). Great shots of the inside of the hangar, with astonished commentary from Adam: "This is crazy! It's the largest building I've ever seen!"

http://www.tv.com/mythbusters/helium-football/episode/554050/summary.html

Silly Boingers! Dice stacking (and the plural form is correct, as in "purple people eater) is a form of juggling closely allied with magic. It's actually not all that difficult. You just need a cup with fairly straight (not tapered) sides, some dice, a smooth surface, and a confident stroke.

Get the motion and rhythm down and you can learn the basics in an afternoon. Snatching them one at a time off a stack is a bit more knacky but still pretty easy, compared to how cool it looks.

Here's another cool dice-stacking clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bDgO3_vRXQ&eurl=

If you reveal the secrets to a magic trick doesn't Rollo come by and threaten to take your legs?

Ironically, this is indeed one of the more effective ways magicians protect their IP, not so much against undesired exposure but against copycats. I've heard any number of stories over the years of magicians stealing material who get either a phone call or a personal visit to "persuade" them to stop.

This is especially true if you rip off a big name performer in Vegas. Some of those guys have absolutely no sense of humor about that.

If that's not "excessive force," we're all in trouble. Regardless of why the police prevented Yearwood from entering the hearings, the video still seems pretty "clear and unambiguous" to me. I know Yearwood resisted being manhandled by the cops, but to extrapolate from that to "resisting arrest," let alone "assault on an officer," seems insane.

Thanks to the video, the assault charge appears to be a phony, trumped up charge. If the video is to be believed, some of those officers should lose their jobs and be prosecuted for lying.

The notion of magic secrets "going to the grave" is pretty much a non-issue. Original secrets are few and far between in the magic world, and most magic effects are easily reverse-engineered by experienced magicians.

Following up on Andrew Mayne's excellent (and accurate) comment (#16): "Stealing," "using without credit," and other forms of "unauthorized" borrowing are rampant throughout the magic world. I have friends who have created effects only to see them performed on TV shows by big-name magicians without attribution, permission, or payment. Knock-offs abound in the magic world.

The IP issue, however, is the biggest elephant in the room for the magic world. Kevin Kelly's "Universal Library" is quietly coming to pass in the magic world as well, and the Torrent sites have become a haven for "sharing" vast libraries of in- and out-of-print books and videos. This new world of information sharing means that the young and the poor all over the world will now have access to all the great thoughts and secrets of magicians past and present.

This is a glorious development, in my opinion. It is already creating a new generation of magicians who are more knowledgeable about more magic history and theory than any previous generation. And as with the music world, the profusion of torrent sites also means creators like Mayne are much better known and more beloved than they could ever be in a pre-Internet world.

Of course, the price is that creators will find it increasingly difficult to get paid for works that -- like the latest songs and movies -- hit the freeweb almost as soon as they hit the stores.

The only solutions are for creators to either 1. gift the world with their creations, or 2. figure out a fundamentally new paradigm to make money in this new world. I suspect the future will see some combination of 1 and 2. Stay tuned.

Re. @#92 - The woman and the McDonald's coffee:

Just to follow up, the reason this case is held up as the ur-case for frivolous lawsuits is that McDonald's spent tens of millions of dollars on PR to hide their "reckless, callous and willful" (judge's words) conduct.

The full facts are worth reading:
http://www.atla.org/PressRoom/FACTS/frivolous/McdonaldsCoffeecase.aspx

Although this refutation is pretty compelling, too:
http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/000152.php

As for Mr. Righi, if his account is accurate, he called the police after he was illegally detained by the store. Then the police officer acted improperly and arrested him.

If all this is true, I hope he fights the power all the way to the top. And I appreciate his courage in taking on this issue.