Saudi Arabia is reported to have used the international police organization's "red notice" system to locate and arrest journalist Hamza Kashgari, 23, over tweets perceived as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad. There were three of them, describing an imaginary meeting with the Prophet, all published, on the day observed as the Prophet's birthday. One read: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you … I will not pray for you." [via AFP].
Police in Kuala Lumpur said Hamza Kashgari, 23, was detained at the airport "following a request made to us by Interpol" the international police cooperation agency, on behalf of the Saudi authorities. Interpol later denied that its notice system had been involved in
the arrest of Kashgari. A spokesperson said: "The assertion that Saudi
Arabia used Interpol's system in this case is wholly misleading and
erroneous."
Blasphemy is punishable by execution in Saudi Arabia. More at the NYT. The Daily Beast spoke to a friend of Kashgari's who was at the Kuala Lumpur airport, and witnessed the detention. The Wikipedia entry for Kashgari includes a pretty thorough and reliable account of the affair (at the time of this blog post, anyway).
In the strange YouTube video embedded below (which is currently nearing a million views), the Saudi cleric Nasser al-Omar demands between outbursts of tears that Kashgari be put on trial for insults to Allah and the Prophet Mohammad.
Here's artist Bruce McCall explaining the aesthetic of his retrofuturistic "serious nonsense" illustrations, which nostalgically recall futures that never came to past. It's a very sweet TED talk, and really nails the appeal of old ads, especially old technology ads.
Todd Johnson's Shockfossils are "multimillion volt Lichtenberg figures in acrylic." He masks acrylic slabs with lead and then rents time on a commercial particle accelerator and the result are beautiful, fern-like fractals.
Greg sez, "Check out this collection of all-new flash fiction from some huge names -- Neil Gaiman, Lev Grossman, Scott Westerfeld, Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, N.K Jemisin, IO9 contributing editor Ann VanderMeer, and tons more -- based around a fantastically monstrous illustration by Las Vegas artist Jeremy Zerfoss. It's fun, quick to browse through, combines big genre names, cool artwork, and... monsters!"
These really are great fun! Here's Lev Grossman's "The Solar Medusa":
This appears to be a happy sun, the kind that an innocent child might draw amid fluffy white clouds in a bright blue sky. Do not be fooled. This is not a happy sun, and it does not wish you well. The Solar Medusa is a floating, translucent gasbag that cleverly interposes itself between you and the real sun, lining up its outline so that when it is in position its presence is nearly undetectable to the naked eye. Once the medusa's prey—that's you—is blinded by the glare, it lowers its long, golden tentacles—what might be termed its 'rays'—and draws you up into its warm, sunny embrace. The process of digestion takes weeks. You won't enjoy it.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Probably not the best choice of font for the flag of the US Marine Corps Scout Snipers. From CNN:
The Marine Corps said it became aware of the photo last November and the local command investigated, but found it not to be racially motivated, according to a statement released by a Marine Corps spokesman, Lt. Col. Stewart Upton.
The unit's commander decided not to proceed with disciplinary action, it said, but all Marines in the unit were reminded that such behavior will not be tolerated and any further display could result in punishment.
"They determined that the Marines in the photo were ignorant of the connection of this symbol to the Holocaust and monumental atrocities associated with Nazi Germany," (Marine Corps Commandant, Gen. James) Amos said in his statement Friday.
UPDATE: Mother Jones interviews Iraq war veteran Waitman Beorn, who blew the whistle on the Scout Snipers' unfortunate logo. Beorn is currently a visiting history professor at Loyola University New Orleans and a Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowship recipient who teaches at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Reuters reports that the most award-winning songstress of all time died today: "A Beverly Hills police officer told reporters at a briefing that emergency assistance received a call from the Beverly Hilton at around 3:20 p.m. PST, and the singer was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m." — Rob
This much is certain: Gary Friedrich created the Marvel comics character Ghost Rider. Freidrich sued Marvel (and its new owners, Disney) because he claims that he never signed away the rights to his character, and thus the feature film based on the comic was illegal. Freidrich also apparently launched his own, rival line of authorized Ghost Rider merchandise.
Disney/Marvel has countersued Freidrich, claiming that the boilerplate legalese on the back of his paychecks were all the assignment they needed to assert ownership of his character. What's more, Misney has broken with the industry-standard practice of turning a blind eye to creators doing sketches of their own characters for money at conventions, and singled out Freidrich for punitive, retaliatory legal claims for doing what every artist in the field does.
Finally, Misney has sought to prohibit Freidrich from publicly identifying or marketing himself as the creator of Ghost Rider, on the basis of the ancient legal principle of fuck you I said so and I can afford more lawyers than you so shut up.
As payback, not only can Friedrich no longer sell his own Ghost Rider merchandise, he can’t even represent himself as its co-creator, thereby robbing him of any potential financial gain he might accrue from convention appearances and the like. (He will, however, still be able to sign officially licensed Marvel merchandise, either with ink or bitter tear stains.) In addition, Marvel is also demanding $17,000 from the unemployed, financially destitute 68-year-old, which Comic Book Resources surmises will serve as a warning to all others who currently enjoy the privilege of selling their own unlicensed merchandise, and should maybe just keep their mouths shut then.
Walt74 sez, "Today about 10.000 people protested the ACTA treaty in Berlin, people in whole Germany went on the streets, 50.000 altogether. Here are my pics from the protests in Berlin."
Did you get pics at your local ACTA march? Post them to the comments!
Back in 2008, the blog Who Cares About That? wrote about Vanessa Mancini's project to build a functional sculpture: a bathtub made from deconstructed books fitted together and then sealed so that one could "bathe in knowledge." It's a beautiful artifact, though I can't find any evidence that it was ever finished. If you know more about this piece, please post in the comments.
This bath is made entirely out of books which Vanessa cut and fitted together over a metal frame to form a bath of books, which is suspended by four antique bath tub, lion-shaped feet. She intends to later cover it in layers of resin and has already applied proper taps and drain, so that it will be a utilizable, functional bath at all effects.
The idea is of immersing oneself in knowledge, books, truths, and 'cleaning' or ‘purifying’ one's mind with from external, every day life bombarding from media, by reading ad reflecting on books,- ‘pure sources’, which is of course, metaphorical, implying we can become polluted by ideas of truths and knowledge, which we can only 'clean' by reading our way through to our own ideas and reflections.
Walt and Lilian Disney's daughter Diane talks to the Huffington Post about her parents' "secret apartment" over the firehouse on Disneyland's Main Street, USA. The apartment, decorated by a film production designer called Emile Kuri, was a private haven for the Disneys during the construction of Disneyland, and remained so after its completion. The apartment is still there (though it's off-limits to the public) and is a kind of time-capsule of the Disneys private lives.
There's another space, over the Pirates of the Caribbean, that was built to be a more lavish family apartment, but Walt died before it was completed. It was the "Disney Gallery" (a shop selling prints and other souvenirs) for many years, though it was lately converted to a luxury hotel suite, the "Disneyland Dream Suite." Initially, stays in the suite were awarded as surprise prizes to visitors, but now I believe it can be rented at a very high tariff.
Did a lot of people get to go up there, or it was a very private place?
Very private. It was for them. It was their residence there and they would invite people up, if there were special people in the park, mother and dad would go out and they would invite them up. Early, it was during "Davy Crockett," I remember there was some event there that day and Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen were both out there for it, and dad was looking out that window and saw them and he said, "Hey, come on up!"
He told them how to get around, back behind, and get up to the apartment and there was a fire pole in it, it's not there now, but there was a door into the closet area that had a fire pole, like the firemen would have, and he showed it to them and said, "Why don't you guys slide down that?" And they did! People would say, did your father ever do that? I'm sure he didn't.
The Art of Google Books is a Tumblr devoted to "Captured mark of the hand and digitization as rephotography" -- that is, collecting examples of accidental art generated by scanning glitches from the Google Books program. Shown here: "Digitally severed maps, half in color and half in black and white. From various pages of 1865 to the Present: A United States History for High Schools by Boyd C. Shafer, et. al. (1965)."
Here's a MMO-Champion thread in which Ramsesakama sets out to recreate the World of Warcraft realm of Kalimdor in the maker-friendly game/environment Minecraft, in faithful 1:1 scale. Using procedural tools and a lot of skull-sweat, the task is undertaken, with awfully fabulous results.
I'm trying to create a replica of Kalimdor in Minecraft, and I want it to be the correct scale. I'd like to create the terrain first, so I need to compute the relative distances (in Minecraft blocks) between the different locations in Kalimdor.
If a Minecraft character is approximately two blocks tall, and if we assume the male Orc model is equal in size, then how many blocks is "one yard" in WoW?
Here's the casting-call poster for Samuel Bayer's video for Nirvana's iconic 1991 anthem, Smells Like Teen Spirit. It asks (unpaid?) extras to be prepared to "adopt a high-school personna (sic), i.e. preppy, punk, nerd, jock..."
Here's Washington State rep Maureen Walsh, a Republican, explaining to her colleagues why her she was breaking with the party line and voting in favor of same-sex marriage. It's an emotional, moving address, and Walsh, together with one of her GOP colleagues, helped carry the motion, paving the way for legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington State.
You know, years ago, my daughter went to, she was in elementary school. Many of you have met my daughter. She’s a fabulous girl. She’s wonderful. My boys are great too, but my daughter is just something special, and she was the light of her father’s eyes. And she went to school and there were some kids that were, a whole group of kids that were picking on another kid. And you know, my daughter stood up for that kid, even though it was not the popular thing to do. She knew it was the right thing to do. And I was never more proud of my kid, knowing that she was speaking against the vocal majority on behalf of the rights of the minority.
And to me, it is incumbent upon us as legislators in this state to do that. That is why we are here, and I shudder to think that if folks who had proceeded us in history did not do that, frankly I’m not sure I would be here as a woman. I’m not sure that others would be here due to their race, or their creed. And to me, that is what’s disconcerting.
Mark V sez, "Electric Puppet Theatre is a web comic that I draw in Inkscape, using git for version control. A neat side effect of using git is that I can make a 'making of' video for each 24 page issue by playing the git repository through ffmpeg. The linked page contains animations for the first two issues as well as instructions on creating this type of animation (touching on how to make both ogg and youtube-compatible webm animations)."
Git is an incredibly powerful tool for keeping track of the changes of files. It is the version control software used to maintain the Linux kernel, managing and merging code written by many contributors around the world. But it's also useful for individuals to keep track of their own work. I use Thomas Gideon's Flashbake scripts to log all the changes to the novels and stories I work on, automatically saving any edits every 15 minutes and noting a bunch of easy-to-automate "context" (the local timezone and weather, the music I'm listening to, my most recent Boing Boing posts).
This is a wonderfully geeky example of how git can be combined with other powerful free/open tools, like ffmpeg (which makes and converts audio and video files) to capture your personal workflow and package it in ways that illuminate your process for other people who want to compare notes.
Today is the day of global protest against ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a copyright treaty negotiated in secret (even parliaments and other legislatures weren't allowed to see the the working drafts), and which many governments (include the American government) are planning to adopt without legislative approval or debate. ACTA represents a wish-list of legislative gifts to the entertainment industry, and will seriously undermine legitimate users of the Internet. It imposes criminal sanctions -- with jail time -- for people who violate copyright, including remixers and other legitimate artists and creators. ACTA requires governments to shut down legitimate websites whose users "aid and abet" copyright infringement, creating a regime of fear and censorship for sites that accept comments and other media from users and curtailing discussion and debate in order to maximize entertainment industry profits.
The arts should always be on the side of free expression. Creative industries should always be against censorship. This secret, undemocratic agreement that seeks to "preserve the creative industries" by imposing censorship and surveillance on the whole Internet lacks all legitimacy and should be rejected. If the entertainment industry wants laws passed to its benefit, let it use the same democratic mechanisms that all bodies use in free societies. Smoke-filled rooms and crony capitalism have no place in a free society.
Here is the form to contact lawmakers all over the world and tell them to reject ACTA. Many European nations -- including, most recently, Germany -- have halted their involvement in ACTA. The tide is turning. We won the SOPA fight. We can win this one. It's time that laws affecting the whole Internet took the fate of the whole Internet into consideration, and rejected the narrow interests of a single industry body as trumping all concerns about human rights, free expression and freedom of assembly.
The law should not go after minor transgressions. Moreover, I specifically said a real reform should also relax some copyright protections – such as cases where a work that is long out of print could be made widely available to a new audience. Nowhere did I suggest that the law should criminalize the illustrative uploading of a 36-year-old alt-weekly article that is otherwise unavailable.
Well said, Bill Keller!
The interesting thing about Keller's new op-ed role is that, like the Times' "public editor", it appears to be an unmoderated sinecure by design, occupied by a fellow whose lack of self-awareness may be disconcerting to some colleagues.
John Brownlee on why there'll probably never be an ARM Mac on store shelves, despite Apple's porting of OS X to the platform: "ARM processors are still relatively slow, and unsuitable for the vast array of tasks we take for granted in a desktop or laptop." [Cult of Mac] — Rob
Quinn Norton's first-person account of the police raid on Occupy DC for Wired is riveting and scary. The Occupy camp that was demolished was riven by a deep disagreement on tactics and politics, and the police raid was a dramatic change from the good relations the camp had enjoyed with local law enforcement.
Screams of anger, panic, and pain began to cut through the grey air, and I managed to get back into the crowd a bit, away from the police. In the midst of the pressed and screaming crowd I saw two occupiers, Mo and Georgia, find each other, and hug. They stayed there, oblivious to the cacophony around them, both their eyes glassy and vacant and a little too wide open.
I grabbed a woman I recognized from the info tent and pointed to them. “Get them out of here,” I told her. She just looked at me for a moment in the chaos, and I repeated, “Get them the fuck out of here.” She nodded and grabbed them, still hugging. I spun around, and the riot line was on me. Pushed from every direction, I tripped over something behind me which turned out to be a person on the ground. The officer in front of me screamed “Move back!” but other people were falling on the fallen, and there was no way to move back without trampling them, and no way to stay without being trampled.
Peter Sunde, the notorious and entrepreneurial "brokep" who co-founded the Pirate Bay, writes in Wired about his view on the entertainment industry's corruption and the cluelessness of the lawmakers who side with them: "Evidently, Warner Brothers felt that the investigation was taking too long. The studio contacted the police officer in charge of the investigation (one person that worked mostly by himself) and before I had even been questioned by him, he interviewed for a job with Warner Brothers."
— Cory
Converse will release two different styles of Super Mario low-top in Japan in March 2012 -- I like the overall look, though I think I'd prefer them in canvas over leather.
It comes in a black and a white premium leather version, with the Converse star logo being replaced with the star icon from the iconic video game. Furthermore the colors of the sneaker have been adapted to the signature colors of the Super Mario character and the Super Mario Bros., Mario and Luigi, are printed on the heel of the sneakers.
Noah sez, "I thought you might enjoy this piece I was recently commissioned to create for a play about an electrician who starts channeling the spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Needless to say the people at the local used building material store were quite intrigued to know what I was going to do with the 100+ outlets & switches I as buying, when they found out it wasn't for a building."
Aaron Swartz, the young activist and entrepreneur who kicked off the fight against SOPA and PIPA, talks strategy and tactics with the MIT Technology Review, and makes a lot of important points about the way that the future's information wars will be fought.
Swartz: I first heard of the bill shortly after it was introduced in September 2010—back then it was called something else. They kept changing the name. I heard about it and quickly put together a website, which ended up becoming Demand Progress, to try to make people aware of the issues. Their plan was to rush it through a vote before anyone could have a chance to raise any objections.
Very quickly our protest started going viral. Several hundred thousand people signed the petition, and the vote was delayed. And that began this long fight. Since then, my engagement has been on and off. I've had other things to do but have tried to be a catalyst at key moments. The main thing was the incredible community building. That was basically what stopped it in the end.
Writing in the WSJ, Tom Downey describes what he perceives as a new shift in the way that Japanese food, coffee, cocktails and fashion relates to the outside world; according to Downey, the ideal now combines the much-vaunted Japanese attention to detail and precise copying with a kind of remaking that produces a "replica" Brooklyn coffee that's better than the best coffee in Brooklyn, a "replica" vintage pair of jeans that look more vintage than the actual item, and so on. It's Baudrilliard's simulacra, with more denim and espresso.
"It's not so difficult to make something that's 100 percent the same as the original," he says. He holds up a heavy, metal zipper, American-made new old stock. "I've got 500,000 of these. Enough for the next 40 years.
"But the key isn't just getting the details right—it's knowing when to change things," Tsujimoto continues. "My style has to be an improvement: With 1 percent more here, 2 percent less there, we create something that looks better. You have to change the fit because all these classic garments were designed with extra room to carry tools or weapons."
He takes a deerskin-lined flight jacket off the rack and points out the colorful American military design stitched onto the back. He passes me what appears to be a standard-issue '50s-style gray cotton sweatshirt until I actually touch the thing. The heft of the loop-wheeled cotton makes it the thickest, heaviest sweatshirt I've ever felt.
Inky-handed, staple-punctured mutants, start your engines! The LA Zine Fest comes to the Spring Arts Tower (453 S. Spring Street) on Feb 19, from 11AM to 5PM.
Team False Start is a collective of zine-enthusiasts dedicated to promoting zine culture as a means to connect the pre-exisiting communities in L.A.–artistic or otherwise. We aim to create opportunities for people to share self-published works and host events that encourage ideas to spill out onto paper in pictures and words. We believe that by embracing the urge to create and sharing ideas there can be a more robust and formidable local zine community that extends beyond bookstores and bedrooms. In order to accomplish these goals, we are organizing an event that has been needed for a long time: Los Angeles Zine Fest 2012! This is an opportunity for So-Cal zinesters to come together en masse and meet and exchange ideas with those from all over the country.
Alcoa's 50,000-Ton forging press in Cleveland is "one of the great machines of American industry." Built in 1955, the "Fifty" broke down three years ago, and Alcoa considered scrapping it. But it's back in operation. Tim Heffernan has the story in The Atlantic.
A forging press is -- begging the forgiveness of the engineering gods -- essentially a waffle iron for metal. An ingot, usually heated to increase its malleability, is placed on the lower of a pair of dies. The upper die is then gradually forced down against the ingot, and the metal flows to fill both dies and form the intended shape. In this way, extremely complex structures can be created quickly and with minimal waste.
What sets the Fifty apart is its extraordinary scale. Its 14 major structural components, cast in ductile iron, weigh as much as 250 tons each; those yard-thick steel bolts are also 78 feet long; all told, the machine weighs 16 million pounds, and when activated its eight main hydraulic cylinders deliver up to 50,000 tons of compressive force. If the logistics could somehow be worked out, the Fifty could bench-press the battleship Iowa, with 860 tons to spare.
It is this power, combined with amazing precision—its tolerances are measured in thousandths of an inch—that gives the Fifty its far-reaching utility. It has made essential parts for industrial gas turbines, helicopters, and spacecraft. Every manned U.S. military aircraft now flying uses parts forged by the Fifty. So does every commercial aircraft made by Airbus and Boeing.
As the public outrage SOPA effectively killed SOPA and tens of thousands of Europeans take to the streets to protest ACTA, Canadians need to do their part to counter the inclusion of SOPA-style reforms into their copyright bill and to demand changes to its restrictive digital lock rules. According to documents recently obtained under the Access to Information Act, Industry Canada received thousands of letters of concern about Bill C-61, the 2008 copyright reform bill, the overwhelming majority of which focused on digital lock concerns. Just one month after the bill was tabled, the government had tracked over 27,000 letters and emails.
A year later, the government held its national copyright consultation. It generated enormous public interest with over 8,000 submissions.
Now officials have received over 50,000 emails of concern on Bill C-11 in the past couple of weeks alone, at times receiving upwards of 400 emails per minute.
The public opinion on Bill C-11 is clear. The majority support reform on two key conditions. First, no SOPA-style amendments such as website blocking or expanded liability should be added to Bill C-11. Second, the digital lock rules should be balanced by linking circumvention to actual copyright infringement.
Canadians have been speaking out on copyright reform in general and digital locks in particular for years with widely held views that reflect Canadian sensibilities about balancing protections and consumer property rights. The numbers keep growing and will continue to do so. If you have yet to speak out, write, email or tweet at the ministers and your MP providing your views on Bill C-11, now is the time to do so. If you are following the anti-ACTA rallies this weekend or tracking the C-11 debate in the House of Commons and wondering what you can do, write, email or tweet once more, asking Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore, Industry Minister Christian Paradis and your Member of Parliament: can you hear us now?
[Video Link] Book of Sith, by Daniel Wallace, just came out today. It features a battery-powered electronic case.
The black-and-red pyramid-shaped Sith case appears innocuous. But with the touch of a button, the door of the case lifts, accompanied by lights and Star Wars sound effects. The secrets within are revealed— the Book of Sith slides into view.
The Sith have existed in the galaxy for centuries, lurking, waiting for their chance to seize control. As various Sith Lords emerged and rose to power, they recorded their thoughts, exploits, and plots for Sith control of the galaxy. When they fell, their knowledge vanished with them forever. Or so it seemed. . . .
Over the years, these writings were passed among numerous Sith and Jedi, who added their comments to the pages. In his quest for domination, Darth Sidious tracked down what remained of five pivotal Sith texts written by his most powerful predecessors. Then, drawing on the knowledge within the compiled pages, he wrote a sixth text—his own manifesto. Together, these documents, along with several collected objects associated with them, shed light on the philosophy, achievements, and failures of the Sith Order. For years, this collection remained hidden, existing as legend only. But now all who are tempted may unlock the Book of Sith and delve into the dark side. . . .
From the creators of The Jedi Path, in collaboration with Lucasfilm, Book of Sith reveals the mystery and madness of the dark side—while introducing new characters, history, as well as sinister insights into what it means to be a Sith Master.
Eolas, a notorious patent troll who partnered with the University of California in a shakedown scheme that claimed royalties for all "interactive web sites" that featured rotating images, streaming video, and other practices that had been widely established before their patent was filed, has lost a key lawsuit. A jury in Tyler, Texas (the sleepy town where the shell-companies used by patent trolls have their nominal offices) found that the Eolas patent was invalid, after hearing testimony from Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and other luminaries of the open web.
If the jury had upheld the patents, there would have been a potentially brutal damages phase in which Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Amazon, Adobe, JC Penney, CDW Corp. and Staples would have been sued for infringement and been asked for more than $600 million in damages, with the majority of that coming from Google and Yahoo.
The Eolas patents were denounced for years before this week’s landmark trial, but managed to survive repeated re-exams at the United States Patent and Trade Office.
However, Thursday’s verdict is likely a setback Eolas can’t overcome. It may well be appealed, but that will be a long process, and in the meantime Eolas won’t be able to go after new targets.
Locus magazine, the venerable science fiction trade publication put out by the nonprofit Locus Science Fiction Foundation has expanded its digital offering, selling DRM-free PDFs, ePubs, and Mobis on a subscription basis or as singles. I'm proud to write a column for Locus, and really treasure each issue when it comes through the door.
CIA.gov is down. Any number of entities might like to claim credit, but Anonymous seems to be first (via various accounts on Twitter). No hard reporting available yet, however, and given the target in question, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to confirm. — Xeni
Italian Etsy seller ConceptualDevices made this $450 elephant beanbag chair, "a place where to read (and write) fairy tales."
Its external lining is made of a soft fabric used for outdoor upholstery produced by Sunbrella which is easily washable, waterproof, oil proof and sunlight resistant. The internal lining is 100% cotton and contains the expanded polystyrene padding.
TANTO is manufactured in Italy. Elephant is the first character of a wide collection of pachyderms that we intend to make.
Mark W Shead uses the terrifying design of this air pistol (you have to point is straight at your face to check the pressure) as a jumping-off point for a short, to the point essay on "domain knowledge" and software design.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
In an interesting interview at CEPro, Alan Parsons, the man who engineered Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and yes, had his own Project, says that room acoustics are far more important than audiophile gear. In fact, the interview led one Slashdot commenter to post this fine quip: "Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment." From CEPro:
What is the biggest thing that both electronics dealers and enthusiast consumers should do when setting up home theater/sound systems?
(Parsons:) You get what you pay for. But having said that, there are some decent budget surround systems you can buy at Costco or Walmart that really aren’t bad. Everybody has their budget; the hi-fi world will tell you if money is no object you can get better results out of every component - even the surface the amplifier sits on. Pro sound people have different expectations; they are only concerned that a piece of gear works and allows them to do their job. Hi-fi people spend huge amounts of money for tiny improvements, and pro sound guys will say, “I can spend half as much and get the results I need.”
I’m simply not very familiar with the latest domestic hi-fi equipment. I don’t go to hi-fi trade shows and I don’t have sophisticated equipment in the family areas of my house for music, but there are things that make sense like good speakers and a decent amp. But I dare say there would only be a small improvement if I bought a $20,000 amp. I can live with what I have.
I do think in the domestic environment, the people that have sufficient equipment don’t pay enough attention to room acoustics. The pro audio guy will prioritize room acoustics and do the necessary treatments to make the room sound right. The hi-fi world attaches less importance to room acoustics, and prioritizes equipment; they are looking more at brand names and reputation.
Andy Baio, in an opinion piece for Wired News: "Since Gmail added oAuth support in March 2010, an increasing number of startups are asking for a perpetual, silent window into your inbox. I’m concerned oAuth, while hugely convenient for both developers and users, may be paving the way for an inevitable privacy meltdown." — Xeni
Wood burns in a stove as Pascal Prokop drives his totally baller 1990 Volvo 240 station wagon during cold winter weather on a road near the town of Mettmenstetten, some 25 kilometres south of Zurich, on February 9, 2012. Prokob built in the stove by himself and got an operating permit by the Swiss technical inspection authority. As I publish this blog post, it is 15ºF in the town where he lives and drives.
Pros: S'mores while driving are possible. Cons: the stove occupies the spot where one's significant other might be seated. Oh, and, you know: fire?
Here's artist Bruce McCall explaining the aesthetic of his retrofuturistic "serious nonsense" illustrations, which nostalgically recall futures that never came to past. It's a very sweet TED talk, and really nails the appeal of old ads, especially old technology ads.
Todd Johnson's Shockfossils are "multimillion volt Lichtenberg figures in acrylic." He masks acrylic slabs with lead and then rents time on a commercial particle accelerator and the result are beautiful, fern-like fractals.
As payback, not only can Friedrich no longer sell his own Ghost Rider merchandise, he can’t even represent himself as its co-creator, thereby robbing him of any potential financial gain he might accrue from convention appearances and the like. (He will, however, still be able to sign officially licensed Marvel merchandise, either with ink or bitter tear stains.) In addition, Marvel is also demanding $17,000 from the unemployed, financially destitute 68-year-old, which Comic Book Resources surmises will serve as a warning to all others who currently enjoy the privilege of selling their own unlicensed merchandise, and should maybe just keep their mouths shut then.
I'm trying to create a replica of Kalimdor in Minecraft, and I want it to be the correct scale. I'd like to create the terrain first, so I need to compute the relative distances (in Minecraft blocks) between the different locations in Kalimdor.
Swartz: I first heard of the bill shortly after it was introduced in September 2010—back then it was called something else. They kept changing the name. I heard about it and quickly put together a website, which ended up becoming Demand Progress, to try to make people aware of the issues. Their plan was to rush it through a vote before anyone could have a chance to raise any objections.
"It's not so difficult to make something that's 100 percent the same as the original," he says. He holds up a heavy, metal zipper, American-made new old stock. "I've got 500,000 of these. Enough for the next 40 years.
Team False Start is a collective of zine-enthusiasts dedicated to promoting zine culture as a means to connect the pre-exisiting communities in L.A.–artistic or otherwise. We aim to create opportunities for people to share self-published works and host events that encourage ideas to spill out onto paper in pictures and words. We believe that by embracing the urge to create and sharing ideas there can be a more robust and formidable local zine community that extends beyond bookstores and bedrooms. In order to accomplish these goals, we are organizing an event that has been needed for a long time: Los Angeles Zine Fest 2012! This is an opportunity for So-Cal zinesters to come together en masse and meet and exchange ideas with those from all over the country.
Locus magazine, the venerable science fiction trade publication put out by the nonprofit Locus Science Fiction Foundation has expanded its digital offering, selling DRM-free PDFs, ePubs, and Mobis on a subscription basis or as singles. I'm proud to write a column for Locus, and really treasure each issue when it comes through the door.
, my book about the future of energy in the United States, will be published April 10th.
Italian Etsy seller ConceptualDevices made this $450 elephant beanbag chair, "a place where to read (and write) fairy tales."
Its external lining is made of a soft fabric used for outdoor upholstery produced by Sunbrella which is easily washable, waterproof, oil proof and sunlight resistant. The internal lining is 100% cotton and contains the expanded polystyrene padding.
Mark W Shead uses the terrifying design of this air pistol (you have to point is straight at your face to check the pressure) as a jumping-off point for a short, to the point essay on "domain knowledge" and software design.
