Wallpaper from Disney World's Polynesian resort

Mister Jalopy sez, "Auction for banana leaf wallpaper that was destined for the Polynesian Hotel at Walt Disney World. When Cory builds the True Fan Enchanted Tiki Room, this will be perfect for the powder room!" Link (Thanks, Mister Jalopy!)

Oil Falls on Economy Worries

Oil futures extended their declines Thursday as concerns about the economy and demand for oil grew and the dollar strengthened.

Gama-Go hoodie sale, including Boing Boing hoodie!

Gama-Go is having a big hoodie sale! Buy one and you can get a second for 1/2 off. That includes the limited-edition Boing Boing/Gama-Go hoodie too! (Unfortunately, very limited sizes remain on those.) So, for example, if you buy a $120 BB/GG hoodie (above left) and an $84 Deathbot Circuitry hoodie (above right), they'll half the price of the more expensive BB/GG hoodie, bringing your total to $144 for the two. The Gama-Go crew is holding the sale to support a very exciting new project: They're hoping to open a boutique and art gallery in San Francisco! Also, keep your eyes peeled for another fun BB/GG collaboration in the near future. Link

UPDATE: For those not seeing the discount when they order, the Gama-Go sale page informs, "To be clear, we will adjust your total after you've placed your order, but before we charge your card."

Delta Pilots Nix Arbitration Overture

Delta Air Lines Inc.'s pilots union rejected Wednesday the idea of submitting to arbitration with its counterpart at Northwest Airlines Corp. to break their impasse over integrating seniority lists as part of a possible combination of the carriers.

Vlog (Xeni): Tibet report - monks forced to participate in staged videos.

In this BBtv vlog episode, Xeni speaks with Tibetan human rights worker Lhakpa Kyizom about reported abuses against so-called "wired monks" in Tibet, by PRC military and police. Using cellphones, these monks photographed people who had been killed or injured during nonviolent, pro-Tibetan sovereignty protests that took place in March. The monks then disseminated these images to supporters outside Tibet, using connected computers and mobile devices.

After the images spread worldwide, and their origin became known to authorities in the tightly-controlled, tense, post-protest environment in Tibet, Kyizom says, military forces invaded the monastery, confiscated all communications tools, and detained nearly 600 monks in political retaliation.

Kyizom works as a radio producer for Tibet Connection, and is a trainer with the Active Nonviolence Education Center in the Northern Indian town of Dharamshala, also home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile.

Link to Boing Boing tv episode, with discussion, downloadable video, transcript of Kyizom's account, and links to related reports.

Update: Nathan Freitas says, "The unfortunate aftermath of the incidents your video covered...."

Two monks commit suicide in Amdo Ngaba
According to confirm information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), two monks committed suicide in Amdo Ngaba (Ch: Aba) as a direct result of relentless oppression by the Chinese security forces after the series of peaceful protests.

Update 2: Chinese military police killed 8 Tibetans today, after shooting on hundreds of Tibetan monks and villagers in a monastery:

Witnesses said the clash – in which dozens were wounded – erupted late last night after a government inspection team entered a monastery in the Chinese province of Sichuan trying to confiscate pictures of the Dalai Lama.

Officials searched the room of every monk in the Donggu monastery, a sprawling 15th century edifice in Ganzi, southwestern Sichuan, confiscating all mobile phones as well as the pictures.

When the inspectors tore up the photographs and threw them on the floor, a 74-year-old monk, identified as Cicheng Danzeng, tried to stop an act seen as a desecration by Tibetans who revere the Dalai Lama as their god king

Link (thanks Oxblood)

Previously:
* BBtv Vlog (Xeni): Tibet's uprising and the internet.

Sunspots don't cause global warming, people do

Climate change denialists like to cite Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark's theory that global warming is caused by sunspots in excusing the ongoing de-terraforming of the Earth (Svensmark's work was the basis for a film called "The Great Global Warming Swindle"); but research from Lancaster University undermines Svensmark's conclusions.

The idea is that variations in solar activity affect cosmic ray intensity.

But Lancaster University scientists found there has been no significant link between them in the last 20 years.

Presenting their findings in the Institute of Physics journal, Environmental Research Letters, the UK team explain that they used three different ways to search for a correlation, and found virtually none.

This is the latest piece of evidence which at the very least puts the cosmic ray theory, developed by Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark at the Danish National Space Center (DNSC), under very heavy pressure.

Link (via Futurismic)

Drivers get creative to save gas

People are combining errands, sharing rides and eliminating pleasure trips.

Florida dental-products salesman Jean Laborde doesn't take as many fishing trips as he used to. Student Kaitlin Kelly has started carpooling to work and school in New Jersey with friends.

Best practices for water imbibing: "Just drink when you're thirsty"

NPR talked to scientists who say that the benefits of drinking tons of water are overrated, and that you don't need to carry a water bottle for a stroll around the park -- "Just drink when you're thirsty."

Myth No. 1: Drink Eight Glasses Each Day
Scientists say there's no clear health benefit to chugging or even sipping water all day. So where does the standard advice of drinking eight glasses each day come from? "Nobody really knows," says Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a kidney expert at the University of Pennsylvania.

Myth No. 2: Drinking Lots of Water Helps Clear Out Toxins
The kidneys filter toxins from our bloodstreams. Then the toxins clear through the urine. The question is, does drinking extra water each day improve the function of the kidneys?
"No," says Goldfarb. "In fact, drinking large amounts of water surprisingly tends to reduce the kidney's ability to function as a filter. It's a subtle decline, but definite."

Link (via Kottke)

`Chocolate Rain' Claims a YouTube Award

And the winner for best music video: "Chocolate Rain." Tay Zonday morphed from an unknown musician to an Internet superstar who got booked on national TV shows after his song "Chocolate Rain" _ an amateur clip of his baritone crooning _ went viral last year. Now he's among the 12 winners of the second annual YouTube Video Awards, recognizing the top user-created videos of 2007.

Violent video-games are relaxing

Here's a short item about a Middlesex University study that concluded that players of violent video-games experience relaxation after they finish playing:

The psychologists studied 292 male and female online gamers playing World of Warcraft. They found that overall the gamers, aged between 12 and 83, were more likely to feel calm or tired after playing, although there were differences depending on sex, age and personality.

"There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type," said Middlesex University's Jane Barnett, who is also an International Game Developers Association committee member.

Link (via Wonderland)

Angela Bassett Gets Hollywood Star

Angela Bassett has had good days _ becoming a mother to twins, winning a Golden Globe, being nominated for an Academy Award. Then there was Thursday. "Do you ever have one of those days? I woke up and the sun wasn't really shining but then it burst through the clouds and it was glorious. Hallelujah!" Bassett exclaimed to the crowd at the ceremony for the 2,358th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Debating the feasibility of an in-flight liquid bomb

A UK court finally heard evidence about the bizarre liquid-explosive plot hatched in 2006 by some fairly unrealistic suicide bombers, the origin of the global ban on taking liquids through aviation security checkpoints. The plan? To mix Tang and peroxide in Lucozade bottles and make airplanes go boom. Ever since the plot first came to light, chemists and explosives experts have been highly skeptical of it working, and the TSA and UK authorities have blithely insisted that they believe it could come true.

Now, readers of Bruce Schneier's security blog are invited to weigh in on the feasibility of such a scheme, given the information that just emerged in court:

The court heard the bombers intended to use hydrogen peroxide and mix it with a product called Tang, used in soft drinks, to turn it into an explosive.

They intended to carry it on board disguised as 500ml bottles of Oasis or Lucozade by using food dye to recreate the drinks' distinctive colour.

The detonator would have been disguised as AA 1.5 batteries. The contents of the batteries would have been removed and an electric element such as a lightbulb or wiring would have been inserted.

Link to Schneier's blog, Link to Daily Mail article

No Charges in Fatal OH Schoolyard Fight

A grand jury has declined to bring charges in the death of a father after a schoolyard fight with another man over their students' behavior. The jurors decided against charging Grant Reese after hearing evidence in the October death of 29-year-old Franklin Jude, Franklin County prosecutor Ron O'Brien said Thursday, two days after the panel met.

Air Canada: for $35, we'll let you talk to customer-service reps who can actually help you with a cancelled flight

Air Canada continues its slide into self-parody with a new optional service for fliers: for a mere $25-$35 per trip, the airline will sell you its "On My Way" service. What's "On My Way" service? It's a special number you can call that's staffed with people who aren't anaesthatized, script-reading drones, in the event that the airline loses your luggage, cancels your flight, or otherwise screws you over. This is the same airline that charges coach passengers two bucks for a "pillow" that's actually a ziploc bag you blow up and slip into a paper doily (business- and first-class passengers get their ziploc bags for free), so I guess it's all in keeping with business as usual at Canada's flagship air-carrier.

Air Canada said passengers who opt to pay an additional $25 one-way on short-haul flights and an extra $35 one-way on long-haul routes within North America will receive "speedy" access to "specially-trained" customer service agents who will help rebook flights on Air Canada or other airlines, as well as pay for hotel stays and meals, if necessary.

Air Canada said the program, which applies to any flight cancelled within 48 hours of the scheduled departure, goes beyond the industry practice of assisting customers affected by schedule changes deemed to be the airline's fault, such as mechanical problems with aircraft, scheduling glitches or crew members failing to show up for flights.

But while Air Canada is touting the program as an industry-first, at least one observer said it was once common for big North American carriers to go out of their way to help inconvenienced or stranded customers – free.

Link (via Consumerist)

Red Cross Accounts for Unused Rooms

The American Red Cross said Thursday that it paid $688,000 for hotel rooms that went unused during last year's wildfires in Southern California. The charity said in a statement that it paid for 6,074 "room nights" at San Diego-area hotels that went unused _ about 22 percent of the 27,714 total nights booked during the wildfires, which destroyed nearly 2,200 homes and killed 10 people.