Now the USTR is busy again, signing America up to treaties that undermine attempts by Congress to make phone unlocking and jailbreaking legal. America's official representative is going to other countries and telling them, "If you want to do business with America, you must ban jailbreaking and phone unlocking, and in return, we promise to keep those activities on the banned list, too."

In other words, America's trade reps are cramming a massively unpopular, harmful policy down the throats of its trading partners, while simultaneously locking America into the same policy, undermining Congress at the same time.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants you to take action on this. Maira Sutton and Parker Higgins have written a good article explaining policy laundering in depth.

U.S. wireless carriers claim that unlocking your phone to change carriers is illegal under Section 1201 of the DMCA, which prohibits the removal of digital rights management (DRM) technology. Section 1201 of the DMCA also set up a triennial rulemaking procedure, whereby the public can ask for exceptions to the rule that you cannot remove DRM from your devices. Phone unlocking was not approved in the last round of DMCA rulemaking, raising the specter of lawsuits against phone owners.

In light of public outrage over this, several members of Congress have introduced legislation to legalize phone unlocking. Already, opponents are saying that an effective narrow fix—a permanent phone-unlocking exemption from Section 1201—may violate the Korea-US trade agreement. Regardless of whether such a claim is true, such chatter can be enough to slow down the pace of change, and make any political reformers of the DMCA more cautious than they might otherwise be.

Big Content interest groups like the Motion Picture Association of America, Recording Industry Association of America, and International Federation of the Phonographic Industry—just to name a few—continue to have a strong influence on US trade negotiators. They are lobbying hard for our government to promote international policies to strengthen their control over how and when the public can interact and experience their creative products.

How the US Trade Rep Ratchets Up Worldwide Copyright Laws That Could Keep Your Devices Locked Forever

Three brave heroes who survived their encounters with Dorner have since claimed the reward, but the stingy governments and groups who offered the money now refuse to pay because Dorner somehow didn't survive an army of cops roasting and demolishing the mountain cabin he holed up inside for his last stand.

After the LAPD's gung-ho public rampage in search of Dorner, a final insult to the people they ostensibly serve seems entirely appropriate. Update: Commenter Ethan points out, though, that the LAPD itself is planning to honor reward offers: "It's the city of Riverside that withdrew the reward. Irvine is still planning to pay it out as is LA. The LAPD Deputy Chief said it would be disingenuous to deny the reward because Dorner was killed."

The Pyramids of Giza close to tourists at 4:00 pm. Recently, a group of Russians managed to hide out at the site after closing time and scramble up the Great Pyramid of Cheops in the fading light. Naturally, they took photos. (Because if there is one thing the Internet has taught me about Russians, it's that they like to climb to dangerous heights and then take photos.)

These shots are kind of fabulous, not just for the thrill of "yeah, somebody broke the rules!", but because of the perspective you get from on high that isn't visible in the many ground-level shots I've seen. From on top of the Pyramid, you can see how the stone is pockmarked and carved — it really looks like something humans cut out of the Earth. You can also see the graffiti left by generations of tourists in multiple languages; English, Arabic, French, and more. And you can see the edge of the modern city, shimmering just at the horizon. I don't think I'd previously had such a profound sense of how closely modern Egyptians lived and worked to the Great Pyramid, before. What a fascinating view!

Boing Boing is on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. Join us at the social network of your choice, or heck, all three of 'em.

Photographer Göran Strand created this stunning time-lapse video made from photographs of the aurora borealis as seen from Östersund, Sweden on March 17, 2013. The video consists of 2,464 images taken over four hours. The extreme intensity of the aurora borealis display resulted from a huge solar storm spurred by two solar flares that erupted on March 6.

The ban did not stand very long. Public mockery seems to have killed it.

According to one report, in 2011 British MP and Education Secretary Michael Gove was prevented from taking flapjacks into a cabinet meeting, after officials cited similar safety concerns. That is the only report of that alleged incident, however—although Gove was (and is) the Education Secretary, there does not appear to be any other evidence that he was ever frisked for flapjacks or that even the British government has actually classified them as a security risk.

Triangular Treats Banned Due to Risk of Sharp Corners

(Image: Flapjacks..., a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from ajy's photostream)

On Thursday (3/28) at 3pm ET, Boing Boing pal and White House innovation advisor Tom Kalil is hosting a Google Hangout to talk about the maker movement! Tom has been instrumental in helping President Obama and the administration understand the value of maker culture in sci/tech education. Joining Tom in the Hangout will be folks like MAKE founder Dale Dougherty, Super Awesome Maker Show's Super Awesome Sylvia, and Ford future tech lead Venkatesh Prasad. "White House Hangout: The Maker Movement"

(Above, President Obama checks out a soccer-playing robot built by Blue Bell, PA high school students. Photo by Pete Souza.)

We've gathered fresh video for you to surf and enjoy on the Boing Boing video page. The latest finds for your viewing pleasure include:

• Your WiFi-enabled camera might be spying on you.
• Cody R Wilson's 3D-printed guns: the VICE documentary
• Troll comments on YouTube video by sending comment via postal mail.
• Calculating product placement in hip hop songs: CDZA's $56 million musical shopping spree.
• Rap Quotes: site-specific street art with official-looking signs bearing hip hop lyrics.
• Telekinesis' latest video has a romantic ghost in the machine.
• Winny Puhh: through YouTube, bizarro Estonian punk band finds new global fame.
• A fisherman opened the uterus of an adult bull shark and found a two-headed shark pup inside.

Boing Boing: Video!

A Gulf of Mexico fisherman opened the uterus of an adult bull shark and found a two-headed shark pup inside. According to Michigan State University researchers, this is the first two-headed bull shark confirmed by scientists. ""Given the timing of the shark's discovery with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, I could see how some people may want to jump to conclusions," Michael Wagner, MSU assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife, wrote in a report in the Journal of Fish Biology. "Making that leap is unwarranted. We simply have no evidence to support that cause or any other." (EurekAlert!)

The highly theatrical Estonian punk/metal/WTF band Winny Puhh have been around since 1993 or so, but online audiences around the world are discovering them by way of this video: the band performing their song “Meiecundimees üks Korsakov läks eile Lätti” on Eesti Laul 2013, the semifinals for the Estonian slot in Eurovision Song Contest 2013.

Death and Taxes magazine has a good backgrounder here, with more of their videos, all of which are weird, some of which are NSFW.

Listen to their songs here.

* I know this is gonna shock you, but their name translates to "Winnie the Pooh." HT: Syd Garon!

Photos courtesy of Winny Puu, via the band's Facebook.

Gao Chao's team had already been building macroscopic graphene materials in one and two dimensions; to create the new aerogel, the researchers branched out into the third dimension, using a new method of freeze drying the solutions of carbon nanotubes and graphene to create malleable carbon sponges.

PhD candidate Sun Haiyan explained, "It's somewhat like large space structures such as big stadiums, with steel bars as supports and high strength film as walls to achieve both lightness and strength. Here, carbon nanotubes are supports and graphene is the wall."

The new material is amazingly absorptive, able to suck in up to 900 times its own weight in oil at a rate of 68.8 grams per second — only oil, not water, which means it has massive potential as a cleaning material when it comes to events such as oil spills.

Graphene aerogel is the new world's lightest substance [Crave/Michelle Starr]

(via Beyond the Beyond )

(Image: Graphene aerogel resting on a delicate plant, Zhejiang University))

Please click HERE for information. Thank you.

Artist Jay Shells combines his love of hip hop music and his formidable sign-making skills in "Rap Quotes," with "official-looking street signs quoting famous rap lyrics that shout out specific street corners and locations."

He installs the signs at those same street corners and locations throughout New York City.

Video below. [Animal New York]

(via Ethan Zuckerman)

Their "Methodology for price determination" breakdown follows:

Prices were calculated based on current retail or market value, not resale value. For vehicles, values for the most part were selected from the high end of the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price range.

ELECTRONICS
Iyaz - Replay: 80GB Video iPod
Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy: Super Nintendo/Sega Genesis prices were from packaged and unopened items found on eBay
Chamillionaire - Ridin Dirty: We went with the PS1 price, even though Chamillionaire can probably afford a PS2.

HIGH END FASHION
Black Eyed Peas - My Humps: Went with average prices for a lot of these accessories
Macklemore - Thrift Shop: Yes mink fur coats can be this expensive

ACCESSORIES
Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song
Eminem - If I Had...: Nike Air Hat/Pair of Lugz
Nelly - Air Force Ones: We should have gotten white ones, sorry.
LMFAO - I'm in Miami Trick: Vans
Notorious B.I.G. - Mo Money Mo Problems - Rolex
Snoop Dogg - Drop it Like it's Hot: Went with a $9,100 rolex, even though they can be much more expensive. And a lower end bottle of Chandon at $109

BOOZE
LMFAO - I'm in Miami Trick: Red Bull and an affordable Smirnoff even though they would probably drink Grey Groose
Jagged Edge - Where the Party At: A fifth of Bacardi
50 Cent - In Da Club: A pint of Bacardi to sneak into the club
Busta Rhymes - Pass the Courvoisier: A less expensive type and size
Snoop Dogg - Gin and Juice: Seagram's Gin
Ke$ha - TiK ToK: Jack Daniel's
R. Kelly - Ignition Remix part 2: Got this empty bottle of magnum Cristal off of eBay for 25 bucks.

TRANSPORTATION
Sir Mix-a-Lot - I Like Big Butts: Mercedes E Class
Jay-Z - On to the Next One: Lexus and Range Rover
Far East Movement - Like a G6: CDZA doesn't provide items to rent. We only provide items to BUY.
Vanilla Ice - Ice, Ice Baby - Lamborghini

This edition of CDZA's weekly musical experiments features Mark, Todd and Stasia from the Key of Awesome.

Related: CDZA merch, and an MP3 download, neither of which cost $56 million.