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A Message From Russia: Turtles Are Reluctantly USB Compatible
Posted by John Herrman at 10:40 AM on August 28, 2008
In what is apparently an advertisement for a Russian mobile internet provider, a creative young HSDPA fan experiments with his modem in ways some might frown upon. The ad doesn't follow the viral convention of surprising viewers with an unlikely result following from normal circumstances, because the setup - a violent turtle rape - is weirder than the outcome. The ad raises some serious questions: was this guy just dealing with a captured Georgian spy turtle in accordance with the Russian Uniform Code of Military Justice? Does the Geneva Convention cover terrapins? Did he get any reception? Is the turtle USB 2.0 compatible, or just 1.1? Most importantly, having finally broached the taboo subject of turtle penetration, whither viral advertising? [English Russia]
In what is apparently an advertisement for a Russian mobile internet provider, a creative young HSDPA fan experiments with his modem in ways some might frown upon. The ad doesn't follow the viral convention of surprising viewers with an unlikely result following from normal circumstances, because the setup - a violent turtle rape - is weirder than the outcome. The ad raises some serious questions: was this guy just dealing with a captured Georgian spy turtle in accordance with the Russian Uniform Code of Military Justice? Does the Geneva Convention cover terrapins? Did he get any reception? Is the turtle USB 2.0 compatible, or just 1.1? Most importantly, having finally broached the taboo subject of turtle penetration, whither viral advertising? [
Maclife reviewed the Apple Cafeteria, perhaps under the guidance of the 
Do kids nowadays even know what TV test screens look like? In the world of 24 hour broadcasting, how often do stations prefer to put these up instead of some Everybody Loves Raymond rerun? Not very often, but if you want to re-live those glory days of annoyingly bright colours in felt form, there's this TV Cozy. The standard one costs US$25, but you'll have to pay more if you own a larger sized set. Putting these on when you're not watching TV should make the set last a few more weeks between dustings, plus also protects against errant baby spit. [
While the city of Philadelphia is content with using 
Bill Daley is the food critic for the Chicago Tribune, accustomed to differentiating the finer points of the expensive, aged steaks of Rush Street, not the freeze dried packets of astronaut cuisine. So when NASA sent him a few packets to test out (most of them cooked through injection with hot water) we were pretty keen on hearing just how well our men and women of the cosmos were eating (with no access to real Cosmos, of course). His verdict? Sometimes the food was quite good, other times, not so much.
Knowing that the government can keep us safe against 
Full-screen this 
Barack Obama is set to notify his subscribed 
Filed under the "good thing we tried it out first" department is this recent test of Shuttle-replacement Orion's parachute re-entry system. Based on the same system used for Apollo, the group of eight parachutes deploys after re-entry, ensuring the Orion capsule glides down back to terra firma for a pillow-soft landing. That's what's supposed to happen, anyway.
Yesterday's images of the 
The idea of making public spaces more playful is the brainchild of artist Bruno Taylor. In this project, he modified several London bus stops with swings to brighten the day of busy commuters. Never mind the smell, the noise, or that dude rubbing up against you--a swing set at the bus stop would melt away all of the stress associated with public transportation. That is until you get a little too carried away with the swinging motion and knock out someone walking behind the bus stop with your arse. On the playground that's detention--in the adult world it's called assault. Haha...(ass)ault. [
In order to thwart the spread of HIV in India, "condom a cappella" has been released by an organisation that's funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A ringtone that's meant to promote safe sex, we thought that it might consist of a crying babies, nasty bodily functions or soliloquies from one's parents, but instead the ringer is a chant of "condom, condom!" And as everyone knows, if people chant a word on a mobile phone ringer, its correlating concept is immediately embraced by the youth of the world. [
Informed by the Bush Administration that a Rebel base is located in the heart of San Francisco, Imperial forces surrounded the city in advance of a full-scale invasion. While Imperial Admiral Piett promised administration officials that the assault would commence only if the Rebel forces fail to surrender by 8PM PDT tonight, video reports on the ground reveal that Imperial fighters have already begun flybys and the Death Star battle station has moved into position above the city.
One of the 
Yeti hunter Yoshiteru Takahashi and a crew of six experienced mountaineers are off to the Himalayas to try to get undeniable evidence of the existence of the fabled primitive humanoid. Again. This time they are going to install an array of state-of-the-art motion-sensitive cameras along a ridge at 14,000 feet high. Takahashi is convinced that the creature exists:
According to German news site Nachrichten, a passenger at the Linz airport set off alarms when his suitcase full of bacon was mistaken for a bomb. The story was translated with Google, so it's high on hilarity and low on verifiable detail. 
Flash! An inflatable catastrophe second only to the Hindenburg disaster has occurred in Bern Switzerland at the Paul Klee Centre art museum. A house-sized inflatable turd designed by American artist Paul McCarthy broke free from its moorings in high winds after the security system designed to deflate the installation failed.
David Walsh, a network engineer who worked at Apple from 1995 to 2007, is currently suing them for making him work a little too hard. Specifically, he says they made him work more than 40 hours a week without overtime (because he was a "senior" engineer, a pseudo-management position he says was created to skirt paying overtime) and required him to be on call for seven days straight every six weeks. In other words, a pretty 
Apparently a proposal in the middle of the Amazonian rainforest wasn't enough for Brits Darren McWalters and Katie Hodgson, seen here taking their vows under the guise of a rearward-facing wing-mounted priest above the English countryside. The magic words were exchanged with a combination of hand signals and radio headsets, which were also simulcast to guests on the ground. From the looks of the video below, it seems like things went off without a hitch.
How clean does Extended Stay Hotels think its surfaces are? Very, very clean. So clean it hired a lady (probably for a little bit more than its US$59.99 nightly rate) to lick various surfaces around their hotel. It certainly looks real and has all the real links and notations that an Extended Stay Hotel website should have, but Boing Boing has its doubts. Can't we just enjoy a lady licking a toilet/washer/dryer/toaster/refrigerator without calling fake on it? More licking after the jump.
In this month's Mad Magazine, there's an ad parody for Circuit City (Sucker City! Oh, Mad Magazine you rascal!) that takes aim at the electronics retailer. Always across the street from a Best Buy! Expensive TVs! The price always goes down right after you bought it! Wah wahhhh! I wasn't even aware that Circuit City sold Mad Magazine, but apparently they do, and they sure are pissed. In fact, they're ordering every store to destroy every copy of the offending issue. Hit the jump for the full ad parody and Circuit City's internal response.
Way back in the days of 2007, courier company Deadline Express treated their New Zealand patrons to a particularly evocative printed advertisement. It was a US$14,000 billboard that featured a timer counting down to when it would blow up, proving "when Deadline Couriers gives you a time, they actually mean it." We can't speak for the service, but the explosions were spectacular in video: