Poor guys. That shit is ridiculous.

FRIGHTENING.

This is the stupidest kitchen gadget I've ever seen.

The most and least wanted paintings are fascinating. Notice that Holland is the only country that prefers abstract art!

@ Jamin, 33:

HOLY CRAP. That was one fucking offensive commercial. I love how they paired the fat slob with a gorgeous, thin blonde wife. The "You know I hate it when you do this" line was pretty much jaw-dropping. Bonus: the nonchalant way that the friends react when she reveals that she "delivered" the pizza and the way she throws up her hands in disgust.

Horrible.

What a great site! I hope lots of people are inspired to create their own garbage architecture.

To my everlasting shame, I do this at peoples' design reviews: "Haha, THAT looks easy to vandalize!"

I guess this makes me an urban design security expert??

I would NOT want to wake up in the middle of the night with this... thing... in my room!

Well, there are probably much more unpleasant ways we could destroy the Earth.

I say, let 'er rip.

Won't the policy of giving pilots guns work out to be statistically similar to what goes on with private citizens and their guns, that accidents and incidents of criminals using the guns against their owners are much more common than owners actually defending themselves with their guns?

This Doles guy is operating under a pretty narrow definition of what public art and public spaces are for. Sad.

Also, "Pedestrian Art"?

hahaha...

RIP.

Awesome! Go students, stand up for your right to hug!

fascinating stuff!

I dig the "fearmongering" one.

It's kind of fascinating how people who used to deny the earth is getting warmer AT ALL have switched to saying "OK, it is, but it's not anthropogenic!"

So... it's a slow-motion natural disaster, OK. And we have no obligation to protect against natural disasters, nor do we respond to their ill effects?

Afraid you lost me there.

Besides, the fact is that switching to alternative energies, finding ways to conserve water, etc. will help prevent wars over scarce resources.

They're already happening today, and hey, war is definitely anthropogenic.

SCARY. I can't help but think that the actual terrorists must be falling down laughing over this.

Awesome post. I love crows and ravens, they're really very intelligent. They even like to play - I remember seeing them while I was skiing, throwing themselves onto a snowy slope from the air, tumbling down it, and then flying back up to do it over and over again.

My uncle also used to tell stories about the ravens at Yellowstone Park, who had figured out how to unhook the straps over the food compartments in snowmobile seats. Guys would return to their snowmobiles and see that their sandwiches had been raided!

Holy crap, that is weird. It will be interesting to see how this research develops!

Wait, I don't think I've ever watched a Starbucks barista work, but are the changes and the discussion an indication that:

- Starbucks used to pour the espresso straight into a paper cup

- Starbucks used to make ONE shot at a time, slowing service down and fucking up the brewing process

- If Starbucks did make two shots at a time with one of those double-shot head-thingies (My barista training wasn't in English, OK? :P) and the second shot wasn't used, they didn't pour it the hell down the grate after a minute because it was, uhhh... older than a minute

- Starbucks is now encouraging its employees to TASTE the leftover shot rather than just pour it down the grate after it's been sitting there longer than a minute

I mean, the foam is obviously not top-notch, but if that's the way they treat their coffee... Holy crap, it's not rocket science, people!

**PRIMAL SCREAM OF FRUSTRATION**

Just had to get that out of my system. Moving on.

Coaxial, that's exactly what I thought. Have you guys seen the documentary Why We Fight? It will make you feel very, very bad for poor President Eisenhower, one of the real Cassandras of our age - his prophecy was true, but nobody listened to him.

Takuan, no! Oh god no. Obama's not perfect, but I'm pretty sure he's the best of what's around at this point...

"Does anyone really believe that this was just a couple of rogue operators?"

I sure the hell don't believe that.

You're not going to find a memo from George W. Bush saying "It's OK for you to beat the shit out of prisoners", but the fact is that the Bush administration was working away at its doctrine of allowing torture in certain situations - power that is, according to them, above the law as made by Congress and as judged by the courts - at the same time Abu Ghraib was happening.

That's how policy trickles down.

The mindless cruelty and the stupidity of filming it are part of human nature when humans are given free rein to do whatever they want to their prisoners... As has been mentioned, that's your basic Stanford Prisoner Experiment.

But before that could happen, somebody had to run that experiment - somebody had to decide that the soldiers had free rein and loosen oversight on them.

Which is how the administration is absolutely culpable, in my opinion.

How can these people do that to these children?!?

I remember back in the day when "if ants eat Pop Rocks, will they explode?" was the definition of a bad science project.

Holy crap this story makes me sad.

These things are cool. We had a talk from one of our professors who helped develop machines like this in Africa so villagers could produce their own bricks instead of buying them at a premium from suppliers. Of course, that not only reduced the price, but also the distance of transport - good for the environment!

Judging by the way he described their work, though, people who want to make bricks from their local sand have to do a *lot* of trial and error work to find the right consistency, though. It will be interesting to see if a community of sand mixologists starts up to trade recipes after a while.

RRSafety, I'm a little confused by your fervent dislike of people who have ideological goals and put them into action. It would be interesting to hear more about the negative effects of utopian thinking, which you suggest might sink this project.

I'm pretty damn sure this is fake, fake, fake. There are just *way* too many people out there who realize forgeries of anything to do with Hitler would be extremely valuable, for them *not* to crop up more or less regularly.

I'm betting the painting these sketches were stuck in was 100% fake to begin with. And the Disney aspect is just too disturbing and makes too much of a good story to be real.

I agree with the posters who say a lot of us are simply trained to eat all the food on our plates as kids. As a child I was considered rude by a few of my friends' parents because I would only eat until I was full enough!

Mostly I think kids need to be taught to fill their own plate, taking a small portion and "seconds" if they are really still hungry.

And to spend all day running around outdoors, of course.

Good for the psychologists.

Goddamnit. This is horrible.

That's all I have to say.

Reckless leaper finds soft landing.

*headdesk*

Why? Why do people have to be this way?

"The Power of Dreams"? Eww.

I can understand the need for cash, but this is a bit annoying. And I'm really trying to imagine a BoingBoing "Safety" post... A steampunk helmet or something??

Whatever, carry on. The Internet isn't free.

I like the idea of having the cistern inside, it's a bit like a weird mutation of Frank Lloyd Wright's "prairie homes" with the hearth as the center.

But this house could've been better executed.

Hah! This is so cute.

Personally I think we need a Washington vs. Washington D.C. one in order to aid me in telling various Europeans where I come from... Here's a hint, their American geography knowledge is *not* better than our European geography...

Oh yeah, and people, it's not about global warming.

It's about those plants NOT belonging in that climate.

Simple as that.

Someday people are going to look back at pictures of golfcourses and English lawns in the American West, where sprinklers run the entire goddamn day in the middle of August, and they will weep and curse us all.

I think I'll go rehearse my heartfelt apology to my unborn children and grandchildren now.

Xaxat, that's the first thing I thought of too.

One of the saddest, most disturbing TAL stories ever.

Adorable baby! Congratulations!

I think if I were her, I'd go with "Emmy", but then I'm boring.

But you have to admit that there is NO better way to win hearts and minds than to release armed robots who speak English in bizarre mechanical voices into foreign countries and let them roam the streets!

Also, I bet these robots will NEVER cause any problems with friendly fire, or any civilian casualties! Because they are just THAT well-programmed!

Ah, progress. A wonderful thing.

But you have to admit that there is NO better way to win hearts and minds than to release armed robots who speak English in bizarre mechanical voices into foreign countries and let them roam the streets!

Also, I bet these robots will NEVER cause any problems with friendly fire, or any civilian casualties! Because they are just THAT well-programmed!

Ah, progress. A wonderful thing.

yes, michael, you missed the point.

The point being: If somebody doesn't respect the DIY crosswalk, and that leads to injuries, then there are legal ramifications for that.

No it won't happen, but it's still something that the authorities feel they need to take care of. Unlike getting crosswalks added to dangerous intersections, apparently.

Takuan's got it right unfortunately. As much as I approve of DIY traffic planning, there are legal ramifications for this kind of thing. Some of my friends got their apartment searched after their prankster neighbors decided to paint their own crosswalk last year.

Sounds like this municipality really needs to get its shit together.

This is a great idea for transporting basic information about many subjects, and I intend to steal it very, very soon!

To be fair, a lot of people do seem to be complaining just about the programs' time slots. I don't agree with just letting kids watch TV all evening, but I can see how if South Park is on at 6 PM in some places it would make it rather easy for kids to come across it.

None of that, though, accounts for how preoccupied the complainants were with anal sex. Or the hilarity of this complaint:

"Last night I was watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, on the Comedy
Channel, 7 PM, during one of the pieces about Madonna visiting Isareal, he
mentioned her "TIT CONES" on TV. This type of 'humor' shocks and offends me. What
do you plan on doing about this type of behavior and what type of constraints
will be put in place to prevent this type of behavior again?"

That's right, TIT CONES! On NATIONAL TELEVISION!

"BENDY CHICKENS HEALTH ALERT"

and

"KYLIE'S WEDDING: WE TOOK DRUGS!"

Takuan et al: It often comes as a surprise for Americans when we hear about all of the surveillance going on in Germany. Since moving here (to Hamburg) I've been shocked to hear about lots of things Minister of the Interior Schäuble wants to do. That includes the federal trojan program Zimmerpflanze, Benediktus and Elnico mentioned. Things like this are the reason my city is plastered with stencils of Schäuble's face and captions like "I'll get you all!" or "Stasi 2.0". It's just the German incarnation of the all too popular belief that if you have nothing to hide, it shouldn't bother you to be spied on.

And yes, Bavaria is a very, very right-of-center type place. You'd think looking at the Alps all day might put people in a better mood than that. But unfortunately they're not the only ones. Since some stupid kids had a knife fight on Hamburg's famous red-light boulevard (the Reeperbahn) it's now forbidden to carry weapons there. "Weapons" including your trusty Leatherman, *and* my x-acto I tote around in my model-building supplies.

And don't even get me started on the raids that happened before the G8 summit last spring. Including storming peoples' workplaces, which of course got them fired. And taking dirty clothing for smell samples. A famous, and famously insane Stasi tactic, incidentally...

So yeah, as much of a paradise Europe is in some ways, it sure isn't perfect.

damn bavarians, this is completely typical for them.

Iwood, no offense but that's a pretty silly rebuttal of M.Mitchell and Eh.

Come on, can you believe that some anti-terrorist types actually decided to take this woman seriously. She took a picture of a guy while he was sleeping, for christ's sake, that ought to rate a lot higher on the creepy scale than him wanting to take a picture of every state capitol!

Are they being taught to ignore all common sense in order to "cast a wider net"? Because I think I'd prefer our cops to have the skills and training to actually analyze whether or not a person is being alarmist or ignorant and parse through possible risks, thank you very much, instead of wasting precious energy and resources by responding to every tip from a random stranger with "CODE RED ALERT!"

I've been beaten to the punch on both 16 bars = too much pressure for any kind of decent espresso, and espresso pods = bad coffee.

So... you're all correct, and this is a terrible idea!!

I think urban space itself just jumped the shark...

Hopefully they'll put the H&M, the McDonalds and the Starbucks in exactly the same locations as in real Lyon (or would that be Lyon I?)

uh - no offense -

but discussing with you, although massively entertaining, still loses out to having dinner with my parents or hugging my grandma or going out on the town with my best friend from high school.

web contact is not the same as in person contact. not to me anyway.

notice i'm not talking about tourism, it *has* become flamboyant and wasteful. but it also bears mentioning that a true understanding for foreign cultures is unlikely to develop without visiting them, unless you have a truly amazing empathetic mind.

so i'll be flying till the oil runs out. then i'll build a damn sailboat.

what the...

...

... would the next person who considers deep-frying an ipod just send it to me, please?? I can think of several better uses for it.

Whiterwitch:

Umm, it's a very nice - and considerably more carbon-neutral - idea to propose, that we all just stay home and explore our local communities.

But what if my current local community is *across the Atlantic* from my family?? Or if I have to travel for business?

Sorry, it's just not feasible that I - and the thousands and thousands of other migrants and expats around the globe stop flying. Nor can my friends refuse to travel to the States for business meetings.

Sadly enough we're all hostage to the TSA's wrongheadedness, and that's the truly ridiculous part of this story.

I'm an urban planner and I *want* this.

Like, a *lot*.

stupid. These people didn't do anything wrong, besides embarass the tv network.

Here's hoping their young artists grant more than pays for any court expenses!

Nice. I like this better than just about any flashy new skyscraper design I've seen for years. They should build another for their corporate offices in some downtown!

This reminds me of that This American Life episode about the so-called "Hitler's yacht". http://www.thislife.org/Search.aspx?searchFor=hitlers%20yacht

I can easily imagine the same kind of bizarre happenings going on with Saddam's yacht in the future...

Johnnywierd, to provide a partial answer:

- Europe is not necessarily better at, say, not listening to your phone calls. Keep that in mind if you're hoping for a more libertarian country.

- Most governments don't lash out at individual American citizens. But there are plenty of individuals who will expect you to provide a full explanation of what the HELL is going on in your home country, so be prepared for that.

- Also, please don't be intellectually lazy and become a complete anti-American ideologue once you've skipped town. I've seen that happen to expats more than once and it is highly disappointing.

Remember, one-way flights are expensive!

Cheers,

wolves

Wasabicracka, I'm sorry but you've completely missed my point. Twice. Perhaps I was being too vague.

- Brokedown Palace was a (cruddy, alarmist) film about American travelers getting stuck in jail in Asia. My point was that it's not enough for the United States to treat foreign travelers in a LESS BAD way than other countries treat American travelers, i.e., the countries that the State Dept. issues warnings about, as you mentioned.

We should be attempting to treat foreign travelers WELL.

Sorry if you think that's a "love bubble". I like to think of it as expecting my government to act in a decent fashion.

- I do not live in the United States. "Foreigner's bureau" is my lazy translation of Ausländerbehörde. No, an American official did not tell me that "everybody does it". A German dude did, because I am a foreigner in his country. Basically, I was trying to show an example of how easily an expat can get into a situation where a visa is expired for three weeks. Cory has provided another example of a near miss.

Also, I'd like to add that I think it's extremely silly to divide issues of repression into "real issues" such as the obviously disgusting burning of CIA tapes showing torture, and - "crap like this" such as the imprisonment of innocent people for only 2 days.

They are both symptoms of the same disease, IMHO.

Ken Hansen:

I'm not going to argue the details of the case with you, and I think we agree on the fact that the response to this woman's visa trouble was clearly out-of-proportion.

However, I think you missed the point of my example.

Ten years ago, America had no reason to even consider being screaming paranoid about terrorism, and thus clearly tend to let some immigration issues - say, a visa that had expired 3 weeks ago - slide.

Right now, Germany has no reason to even consider being screaming paranoid about terrorism, and in
my case, they also allowed me to run around their country with a visa that had expired, for one month.

Times change. There will always be reasons for a government crackdown. Jplotz had an example of what he considered to be extreme surveillance in Germany in the 1980's, and I provided the context: Not only the Cold War, but also far-left domestic terrorism. Of course last year's Germany is different from this year's United States. But political climates can sure change quickly.

So if 10 years from now I found myself back in Germany on the way to a jail because of the fact I stuck around for 3 extra weeks after my visa had expired way back in 2006 - having been assured that this would cause me no problems - I would be pretty pissed off.

Jplotz, in the late 80's Western Germany was in the middle of the Cold War and paranoia was running high. They also had a bit of a terrorism problem, namely the Red Army Fraction (Baader, Meinhof, and company).

Of course all governments behave badly in that kind of situation. Is that any reason to accept it?

Wasabicracka:

So this incident is better than things that happen to Americans in other countries?

As in, YAY! our treatment of foreign tourists is totally way nicer than the plot of "Brokedown Palace"?

I always thought our founding fathers decided to rebel against Britain in order to actually improve government and governance. That's where our moral authority in the world came from, remember that? Slowly but surely, this kind of crap has turned our nation into a joke.

Ken Hansen:

Look, I don't know if you've ever dealt with immigration before. But the example of this lady's overstaying her visa could be quite similar to something I did in Germany, where I still live. I didn't have time for an appointment at the foreigner's bureau, because my case worker was on vacation for a month. I was seriously freaked out about the possibility of running around as an illegal for a whole month, but I was assured by the head of the bureau that it would be no problem for an American citizen. "Everybody does it."

I'm guessing that if in 10 years, I were to be handcuffed and starved for 2 days because of this prior crime, I'd be pretty pissed off too.

And Roger Strong is right. I wouldn't want to travel to Iran either, because I couldn't be sure I would be treated according to my human rights. For foreign nationals in America, it's the same issue - just a matter of degree.

How long is it going to take before the fundies are the ones running the public schools and all the secular humanists start homeschooling?

Losboats: Thanks for the Spokane Garbage Goat video! I grew up in Spokane, and I can't wait to subject all my friends here in Hamburg to its awesomeness.

hah! That's hilarious.

And yep, Halloween costumes are sadly not yet a normal sight here in Hamburg. But we're working on it.

hah! Finally!

I also frequently fly through Heathrow, my colleagues and I have nicknamed it "The George Orwell Theme Park" because of that horrible, horrible security queue.

Cory, your comment at Nr. 2 also really captured my thoughts on the matter. I'm actually sort of amazed that hasn't happened yet!