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Friday, June 30, 2006

Video, MP3: More Raumpatrouille kitschtastic '66 German sfTV

Following an earlier BoingBoing post with clips from the 1966 German TV space-opera "Raumpatrouille" (Space Patrol) -- well, here are more clips. The show pre-dates Star Trek, and this quick B/W intro excerpt includes deliciously low-tech special effects: clothes irons, shower heads, and dissolving aspirin tablets create the illusion of spaceships gone wild, and planets in distress. Here's the same intro in color, sans English subtitles. Here's another clip in which the ship's commander is strongarmed against better judgement into admitting a science fiction author on board -- and another clip, "Never Trust a Robot." Here's a bunch more clips. Here's the show's IMDB listing. This fan-site for the show states:

The adventures of the Starship Orion were the first- and to date, only space opera project on German TV. There have apparently been several proposals to revive, continue or sequelize the series in the years since the series aired; all of these, sadly, have fallen through, but hope springs eternal. The last try were made by Roland Emmerich in 1996, but was dropped a year later.

This is so awesome. I grew up the child of a trekkie, and have a genetically-ingrained fondness for scifi teevee of this era -- but I'd never heard of "Raumpatroille" before this week.

Update: Slip on your go-go boots and grab your laser gun, here's the highly fruggable "Raumpatrouille" theme song! Link to 2.8MB MP3. Coop sez, "The composer, Peter Thomas, did a lot of cool soundtracks for 60s & 70 Euro films." (thanks, Coop!)

Reader comment: Nate says,

If you're so inclined, there's a link to PDF instructions on how to make a paper model of the ship featured in Raumpatrouille.
Link

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:50:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mark interviewed on Digital Village, Saturday 10am, KPFK Los Angeles, 90.7 FM

I'll be interviewed tomorrow on KPFK Los Angeles, 90.7 FM. Doran and Ric and I will talk about the origins of Boing Boing and Make magazine. I hope you tune it. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 07:21:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Update: Textamerica won't kill old free accounts after all

Following up on earlier news that photo-blog service Textamerica planned to delete old, free accounts for longtime users who didn't want to be forcibly upgraded to a $99/year paid membership, BoingBoing reader (and former enthusiastic Textamerica user) Caines says,

Now on the log in page it reads like this:

- - - -
"We are pleased to announce: In light of recent changes and the outpour of positive support, textamerica will continue provide free memberships to users. In celebration of our existing users that have recently upgraded, all accounts upgraded on or before 7/15/06 will hold “Founding Memberships” with special VIP privileges not available to other users. We are currently finalizing stipulations to new & existing memberships, terms and conditions to be announced 7/8/06. In honor of your greatly appreciated enthusiasm and participation in helping to keep the community strong, the “lifetime membership” contest will continue until the new TA is finalized (contest.textamerica.com). Thank You."
- - - -

"In light of recent changes and the outpour of positive support" my ass. We're having a grand time at the exTAmerica Flickr group.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:49:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Illos of celebrity-animal cryptozoological hybrid monstrosities

The latest issue of NYC-based art & lifestyle mag ANIMAL includes a series of celebrity-animal hybrids called CELEBIMALS. Here's a preview, and you can download the whole mag as a PDF. Shown above, left to right: Paris Hilton Ass Ostrich (Shamelesseae Hussius), Britneyroo (Careerisoverum) and Freeloading Federline Lizard (Paraciticus Africus Wannabe Reptilia), and Bug-eyed Star Fish (Gastrica Bypassus Denialus) with Reynolds Rainbow Trout (Homosexus Closeta).

While you're there, check out the article on...

Anarchy interior design by author and “Punk Shuist” Josh Amatore Hughes who cuts his couches in half and sprinkles glass on the floor.

(thanks, Bucky)

hugh says,

the celebimal portraits are the work of ["14, "the same person behind] illustration/celebrity/satire blog, "gallery of the absurd".

Hugh is correct, and 14's collaborator on this project was "sex, drugs, and gossip" blogger Michael K.

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:16:39 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

What did Brazil look like in 1822?

Brazil in 1822: people walked around with monkeys sloths on their shoulders (why is the monkey sloth holding a stick in his mouth like that?) and kids ran around squirting some kind of liquid on well-dressed women carrying overloaded fruit baskets on their head (what kind of fluid and why did they squirt it?). See more engravings from the same series at the always-wonderful BibliOdyssey. Link

Reader comments: Jackson Pritt says:

Sloth, not Monkey! That's a sloth, not a monkey. Also the stick appears to be a truss being used to keep the sloth from clawing the man carrying. Given the way the other animals are presented in that engraving it seems pretty apparent that they're taking exotic animals to market for slaughter.

Bernardo Carvalho says:

The liquid the kid is squirting is water, and the tube is called a 'bisnaga'. It was a common carnival prank until the early 20th century. This PDF talks a little bit about it on the first paragraph, also about the works of Jean Baptiste Debret.

Grant Berger says:

These pictures are actually examples of traveler artists whose commissions from colonial governments sent them to Latin America in order to produce elaborate pictures depicting native life, flora, and fauna. Obviously, these were made before the advent of photography, and were the only way the colony's mother government would see the place. Most western stereotypes are derived from these paintings.

William Silva says:

The fluid is perfumed water, squirted for fun, in the carnival.

Axt von Feld says:

Well Jackson, you are right, that is a sloth in a truss. Those slim arms end with three very sharp, branch grasping talons (ouch!) hence the name ‘three toed sloth’.

But the part about taking them for slaughter, I must disagree. The others are carrying exotic birds and butterflies, which were probably be sold as specimens. The print’s description “Le retour des nègres d'un naturaliste” (The return of a naturalist’s negroes) also corroborates that.

It wouldn’t be kept alive if it were to be slaughtered.

About the other print: The well dressed woman is carrying various fruits in her basket, the only ones I can discern are a pumpkin and a pineapple (BTW not a Hawaiian fruit, it was discovered in Brazil). Her fancy clothing is part of a early “carnival” scene, take a look at the other figures, they are all masqueraded or painted! The kid is squirting a “bisnaga” which was probably full of scented water, a typical 1820´s Brazilian carnaval prank. For a fascinating discovery of Imperial Brazil, please take a (very pleasant) read at Patrick Wilcken's Empire Adrift, about the mind boggling escapade of the whole of Portugal royalty to Brazil (my beloved country), driven from Europe by Napoleon’s army in the 1808.

Irene Delse says:

Here's the translation from French in the pictures shown in that entry:

1) "Negro hunters coming back to town. A naturalist's Negros return."

The hunters are in fact the black servants of a naturalist bringing him rare animals and plants (birds, lizards, butterflies, a sloth...) to be studied and preserved or sometimes, like the sloth, kept alive in menageries.

2) "Scenes from the carnival" (above) "Cobblers. A seller of Atacaça" (below)

It's carnaval or mardi-gras. The prettily-dressed woman is selling fruit to the revellers (see the basket on her head). A man is caressing her face and taking off her mantle. The child squirting a liquid (probably water?) is playing tricks at the adults. Note that everybody has the face partly painted in yellow or white or is wearing a mask.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:50:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The game theory of penalty kicks

David Goldenberg says: I heard from In Front Sports & Media how interested you are in the World Cup, so I thought I'd share a recent interview Gelf did with an economist at Brown who studies risk and reward on the soccer field.

There are several cool things about his research--most recently on how game theory applies to penalty kicks--but I thout this weird nugget on info he shared might be most interesting to BB readers.

Gelf Magazine: Sports Jones suggested in a 1998 article on this topic that the reason more players don't shoot to the center on PKs is because it would be embarrassing to get such a kick blocked. Do you agree?

Ignacio Palacios-Huerta: No, I do not. One can readily make exactly the opposite argument, namely that it is a great honor to score shooting to the middle, and not a big deal to have it stopped (rather than an embarrassment to have it stopped and not a big deal to score).

In fact, I think that in some sense it is a great honor. The most famous penalty shot (and I think the first one) to the middle was taken by Panenka in 1976 (YouTube). It is so famous that it has a name: when a penalty is shot softly to middle, say, 1 meter or 1.5 meters above the ground (like the second Ukrainian kicker did on Monday in the penalty shoot-out against Switzerland), it is said that the penalty was shot a la Panenka. [Editor's note: You can see the PK here on YouTube (it starts at the one-minute mark; the Supersport announcer describes the kick as "cheeky").]) Well, Panenka shot it like this in the last and decisive kick of the European final Germany-Czechoslovakia in 1976, and got totally famous for it. It is very risky but the fame payoffs is [great].

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:36:30 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Voicemails from guy wants $50 for dinner date

Gonzo Rangers has opened the doors to a mob shamefest on some guy who left voicemail for a woman he met through a dating service, demanding that she pay him $50 for dinner and drinks after she told him she didn't want a second date. The entry includes emails and voicemail recordings. This kind of thing -- publicly shaming a person for rude behavior by posting voice recordings, video, and photos on the Web -- is becoming very common -- sidekick thief, subway flasher, camera thief, subway puppy poo girl. Who needs law enforcement when you have a globally distributed mob ready to pounce on people who are accused of behaving badly? (Note: I was being sarcastic in this last sentence) Link

Reader comment: Adam says:

You forgot the "The Broken Laptop I sold on eBay Blog"

James says

Privacy should be a concern for everyone. My main concern when I see articles like these about mobs using public shaming and ostracism as a form of punishment for social misdemeanors makes me cringe. I can't help but think that at some point, someone will be wrongly victimized by one of these mobs and there will be no protection for them.

I speak from real-world experience with mob-mentality from when I was in high-school. I was constantly ostracized, threatened, and involved in altercations that landed me in the hospital or near death on several occassions. My only social crime? Being a punk in a sea of kids who were into hip-hop and gangs.

Already there are many victims of online shaming. This usually happens under the title of "cyber-bullying" to teenagers and I've yet to hear misplaced shamings in the adult world. However, as the Internet becomes more common place I believe it could become inevitable.

I can't imagine for what, but what if in the future you fell victim to one of these public shamings merely for behaving outside the accepted mob norm? Maybe you get drunk at a party with some co-workers and someone decides to initiate a public shaming of you for flirting with a colleague. Suddenly a personal situation that could be resolved between the parties actually involved becomes a public event and maybe it costs you your job. How could a person protect themselves from such an invasion of privacy?

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:27:01 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Giant aluminum rectifier purchased for $1

John bid $1 on a "large rectifier" on eBay. He won, and when he went to pick it up, it was four times bigger than he expected it to be (see soda can in lower right of image). It contains about 100 lbs of aluminum. Now, he wonders what he can do with it.

So, the question is: I have no earthly use for the thing, and while turning a $1 ebay lot into $58 at the aluminium scrap yard is an attractive option, I'd hate to see the thing melted down when there may be someone out there that could use it.

Link (thanks, Terrie!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:18:59 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

In South Bronx: "Free Technical School in basement"

John Young says:

My company in NYC was doing a community service day in the South Bronx. On the way there, I got waylaid on the street by a short older man who said in a thick Jackie Mason accent: "Young man! Do you want to learn electrical engineering?"

I was so intrigued that I followed him a few blocks away, past a whole bunch of disquieting, Wile E. Coyote-style "Free Technical School in basement: GO RIGHT IN! RIGHT THIS WAY!" signs, and found, basically, an underground maker's lair consisting of a big unimproved basement filled with chairs, boilers, and homemade electrical diagnostic devices. Plus LCD monitors mounted on the wall, CAT6 cable, and dry-erase boards filled with math. All the ingredients of a supervillain's lair. Except used in the service of creating more geeks.

I was terrified the whole time (South Bronx! Three stories underground! Genial elderly man who's spouting theories about biodiesel to passers-by!), but it turns out that he's teaching a highly employable skill, for free, to anyone with a clean police record in a depressed neighborhood.

There are some pictures here, if you want to see the "Free elec. school in basement go right in" signs for yourself.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:04:17 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Scott Beale reviews Kyocera KR1 Mobile EV-DO Router

Scott Beale of Laughing Squid loves his Kyocera KR1 EV-DO router, which uses a high speed wireless EV-DO connection for sharable Internet WiFi.

Now my portable broadband network is ready to go. I just show up with it, plug it in and in a minute or so the wireless network is live. That’s all there is to it. All I need is power and Verizon EV-DO coverage. Have an old laptop without a wi-fi card? No problem, just plug it into one of the 4 ethernet ports.

I’m going to bring the EV-DO router up to Gnomedex this week and see if I can get it to work at the conference and maybe do some testing with distance and number of users.

Link

Reader comment: Vinny says:

I have to say the Kyocera EVDO Router is one of the best things ever. In our company, we were paying almost $500 a month in one of our stores in NYC that couldn't get anything beyond a 144k down ADSL. Even at 1XRTT speed, we get 160 down in that location, and in another location in Ohio, we get almost 400k down, which is cool because we couldn't get anything at all there. Laptops weren't an option but this allowed us to hook the EVDO card up, leave it out where it could get a good signal, and even let the managers of those locations use their laptops with the included WiFi.

Awesome device and HIGHLY recommended.

Update: Scott Beale says:

I'm using it at Gnomdex right now and it works great. In fact I'm posting photos live from the event using my personal EV-DO network (including photos of guest speaker Senator John Edwards)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:47:22 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video: Fantastic Planet with electronica soundtrack

The musical trainspotters at everyone.doesntexist.com mixed a new soundtrack for La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet), the 1973 surrealist SF animation by René Laloux and Roland Topor. It's a strange film made even more psychedelic with the sounds of Aphex Twin, Matmos, Venetian Snares, and other composers.
Link (via Aeiou blog: excuse my French!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:29:58 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Whale meat sold by the can in Japan

According to Tokyo Times blog, there's a glut in the whale meat market.

With the prospect of Japan getting the go-ahead to resume commercial whaling in the not so necessarily distant future, the people in power are desperately trying to get rid of the nation’s growing stock of scientific research by-products – or whale meat as it’s more commonly known. School children in certain prefectures are being served it for lunch, one restaurant chain is offering whale burgers, and, in a rather desperate measure, dogs are allegedly being fed the stuff, whether they like it or not.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:09:34 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hirst's shark in tank needs replacing

The subject of artist Damien Hirst's famous 1991 work "The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living" needs to be replaced. Apparently, the shark suspended in formaldehyde isn't aging well. Hirst has said that he will happily refurbish the piece, purchased in 2004 from the Saatchi Gallery by US hedge fund manager Steve Cohen for a reported £6.5m. From The Art Newspaper:

Oliver Crimmen, curator of fish at the Natural History Museum who advised Hirst on the necessary measures to be taken for the conservation of the shark in 1991, said the long-term preservation of large specimens for scientific purposes requires an alcohol-based solution rather than formaldehyde...

Mr Crimmen said that Hirst “did not inject the deep tissues of the shark with formaldehyde and this has caused it to undergo some changes in shape.” He believes the tissue of the shark could be shrinking and put the cloudiness of the formaldehyde down to the chemical composition of the solution used by the artist.

Speaking to critic Stuart Morgan in 1996, Hirst said: “I did an interview about conservation and they told me formaldehyde is not a perfect form of preservation... They actually thought I was using formaldehyde to preserve an artwork for posterity, when in reality I use it to communicate an idea.”

Link (via Fortean Times)

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:00:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Doctors remove lightbulb from man's ass

On Wednesday, Fateh Mohammad of Multan, Pakistan underwent surgery to have a lightbulb removed from his rectum. The prison inmate says he has no idea how it ended up there. From Reuters:

Mohammad, who is serving a four-year sentence for making liquor, prohibited for Muslims, said he was shocked when he was first told the cause of his discomfort. He swears he didn't know the bulb was there.

"When I woke up I felt a pain in my lower abdomen, but later in hospital, they told me this," Mohammad said.

"I don't know who did this to me. Police or other prisoners."

Link to Reuters article, Link to the classic Rectal Foreign Bodies page

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:50:02 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Using Nomadic Furniture book to make doll furniture

Over at Swapatorium, poopscape writes about using the plans in a neat-looking hippie DIY book called Nomadic Furniture to make doll-sized furniture.

Nomadic Furniture gives instructions on how to build lightweight furniture that folds, knocks down, stacks or is disposable and can be recycled. Despite the hippy-ish hand-drawn illustrations, this book offers some interesting and rather modern furniture designs. Design Within Reach isn't exactly within mine, but if I can diy my own reasonable facsimile, I'm pretty happy.

Link

Reader comment: Jim says:

The Nomadic Furniture book was by Victor Papenek, an architect and designer that headed the School of Design at the Kansas City Art Institute just prior to my time there (he moved a few miles west to chair the department of architecture at the University of Kanasas in Lawrence).

Papanek was an amazing visionary designer, who saw the importance of designing for the real world and real human needs long before the rest of the design world began to get it. He introduced a set of values into design that are only now beginning to see wider interest and adoption.

An excellent book to read is his 1995 book, The Green Imperative: Natural Design For The Real World. In one of my favorite chapters, he talks about the design and adaptive genius of the Inuit people of the Arctic, describing many of their ingenious inventions, such as floating tactile coastline maps and goggles which utilized a slit to cut down on snowblinding glare.

I just wanted to point out that Papanek was a true revolutionary genius in the design world.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:16:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video: Indonesian coelacanth

A month ago, I posted that an Indonesian coelacanth had been caught on video by Japanese researchers. Thought to have been extinct for 65 million years, the coelacanth was "rediscovered" in 1938. It was thought that they only lived off the coast of Africa, but in 1998, an entirely different species of coelacanth was discovered swimming around near Indonesia. (More background from cryptozoologist Loren Coleman in this Cryptomundo post.) A team from Aquamarine Fukushima videotaped one just four weeks ago using an underwater robot. The video is now available on YouTube. What a beautiful beastie! Link (via Planet Timbotron)

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:06:13 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bengali science fiction of the 1880s

Amardeep Singh has posted a brief and fascinating essay on early Bengali science fiction literature of the 1880s:

The first [rocket] that he had built was unsuccessful and had come down on his neighbour Abinashbabu's radish patch. Abinashbabu had no sympathy for Shanku; science and scientists made him yawn. He would come up to Shanku and urge him to set off the rocket for Diwali so that the neighbourhood children could be suitably entertained. Shanku wants to punish this levity and drops his latest invention in his guest's tea. This is a small pill, made after the fashion of the Jimbhranastra described in the Mahabharata. This pill does not only make one yawn, it makes one see nightmares. Before giving a dose to his neighbour, Shanku had tried a quarter bit on himself. In the morning, half of his beard had turned grey from the effect of his dreams. Shanku's world is a real world, a human world. In his preparations for the space journey he has decided to take his cat Newton with him. For that he has invented a fish-pill. "Today I tested the fish-pill by leaving it next to a piece of fish. Newton ate the pill. No more problems! Now all I have to do is make his suit and helmet."

Link (via Making Light)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:15:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Deadline for World Fantasy Award nominations

Brandon sez, "Friday, June 30th is the deadline for making World Fantasy Award Nominations. You have to have been an attendee of the WFC either in 2004 or 2005 to nominate. There's still plenty of time to send in your nominations. They're accepting votes via email; nominations can be sent to Roger Turner at rturner@cyberus.ca." Link (Thanks, Brandon!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:57:44 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Google launches "predatory" Paypal rival Checkout, much is prohibited

With what some have described as a "predatory pricing model" and rates lower than credit card processing fees, Google's new online payment service Checkout officially launched today. The competitive rates sound like good news for consumers.

Update: Like Paypal, you can't use the service to pay for adult products or services. But as a number of BB readers wrote in to point out (comments after the jump), some of the categories of prohibited content are described in ways that seem remarkably broad:

Pornography and other sexually suggestive materials (including literature, imagery and other media); escort or prostitution services

"And other sexually suggestive materials"? Meaning Nabokov's Lolita, or other classic literary works that include erotic content? With language that loose, perhaps a copy of Harpers with naked Britney Spears on the cover would be verboten -- not to mention fine art nude prints, or any number of popular music CDs or movie DVDs not regarded as pr0n.

A ban on "occult goods" ("Materials, goods or paraphernalia for use in satanic, sacrificial, or related practices") seems similarly troublesome. Would that apply to Coop's dark-lord-lovin' "devil babe" stickers? Or a hardcore black metal CD ("Music to eat babies by")? How about incense?

Snip from NYT story by Saul Hansell:

Google is charging merchants 20 cents plus 2 percent of the purchase price to process card transactions, less than most businesses pay for credit card processing. Banking industry executives say that credit card processors typically pay MasterCard and Visa a fee of 30 cents and 1.95 percent for every purchase, so Google will be subsidizing many transactions.

Link to NYT article, and link to an analysis by Donna Bogatin at Zdnet.

Reader comments: Chris Smith says,

Don't know that 'predatory' is appropriate here. Google can maintain this pricing as long as the adwords return the value. Usually, predatory pricing is there to change the market conditions so that you can raise prices later. Your quote hints at this - it talks about 'cost the predator' more during the low price phase. But if Google makes its money back on adwords, it can maintain this pricing forever. This is not predatory pricing - it's tied selling.

Phillip K. says,

The shocker is not really Google Checkout predatory pricing, but the "content policy," or what you can't buy (or more specifically sell). There is the standard exclusion of nasty stuff that you will see anywhere, but in numerous places it is deliberately ambiguous and broad, and would seem to promote an agenda.

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:58:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

PDF of Oudemans' The Great Sea-Serpent

Tinselman says:

As of yet, only 2% of the ocean has been explored. And last year alone, over 13,000 previously undiscoverd new species were discovered. So what does one call an undiscovered species?

In 1892 Dr. Anthonid Cornelis Oudemans, director of the Dutch Royal Zoological Gardens at the Hague, published his definitive work on cryptozoology – long before cryptozoology was even a popular idea. Titled The Great Sea-Serpent, this comprehensive work not only describes some 150 sightings (dating back to the 16th century) but also presents various hoaxes and alternative theories.

(Remember, to sound like a salty sea dog, you say "sarpent," not "serpent.") Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 07:01:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Pentagon funding research on data harvesting from Myspace, social networks

Snip from New Scientist article:

New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming "semantic web" championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals.

Link to story.

UPDATE: Janet Daly of W3C says:

The New Scientist article is correct in describing what Semantic Web technologies are and how they work. However, the accuracies are outweighed the failures of the article.

[Her rebuttal continues after the jump.]
More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:43:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Net censorship: HOWTO bypass China's Great Firewall

Richard Clayton, a computer security researcher at the University of Cambridge, has been poking around at the technical structure of China's "great firewall." On the lightbluetouchpaper collective blog, he says he's come up with a way to penetrate that "wall" by ignoring the reset TCP packet returned by Chinese routers to maintain connection. As he explains it, if those packets are discarded instead of being dutifully returned as expected, then -- poof, the firewall becomes utterly ineffective. Clayton acknowledges that Internet filtering in China involves other methods, too, but this still seems significant:

The Great Firewall of China is an important tool for the Chinese Government in their efforts to censor the Internet. It works, in part, by inspecting web traffic to determine whether or not particular words are present. If the Chinese Government does not approve of one of the words in a web page (or a web request), perhaps it says “f” “a” “l” “u” “n”, then the connection is closed and the web page will be unavailable — it has been censored.

This user-level effect has been known for some time… but up until now, no-one seems to have looked more closely into what is actually happening (or when they have, they have misunderstood the packet level events).

It turns out [caveat: in the specific cases we’ve closely examined, YMMV] that the keyword detection is not actually being done in large routers on the borders of the Chinese networks, but in nearby subsidiary machines. When these machines detect the keyword, they do not actually prevent the packet containing the keyword from passing through the main router (this would be horribly complicated to achieve and still allow the router to run at the necessary speed). Instead, these subsiduary machines generate a series of TCP reset packets, which are sent to each end of the connection. When the resets arrive, the end-points assume they are genuine requests from the other end to close the connection — and obey. Hence the censorship occurs.

However, because the original packets are passed through the firewall unscathed, if both of the endpoints were to completely ignore the firewall’s reset packets, then the connection will proceed unhindered! We’ve done some real experiments on this — and it works just fine!! Think of it as the Harry Potter approach to the Great Firewall — just shut your eyes and walk onto Platform 9¾.

Link. Clayton is presenting a paper on this topic (PDF link to paper) at the 6th Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies being held in Cambridge this week. (Thanks, Mike Liebhold)
More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:21:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex

An article in today's San Francisco Chronicle about the physics of Superman, reminded my pal Vann Hall of the classically hokey 1971 essay "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" by SF author Larry Niven. It's all about the physiological difficulties that must make it difficult for Kal-El to father a child here on Earth. From the essay:

Assume a mating between Superman and a human woman designated LL for convenience.

Either Superman has gone completely schizo and believes himself to be Clark Kent; or he knows what he's doing, but no longer gives a damn. Thirty-one years is a long time. For Superman it has been even longer. He has X-ray vision; he knows just what he's missing. (*One should not think of Superman as a Peeping Tom. A biological ability must be used. As a child Superman may never have known that things had surfaces, until he learned to suppress his X-ray vision. If millions of people tend shamelessly to wear clothing with no lead in the weave, that is hardly Superman's fault.*)

The problem is this. Electroencephalograms taken of men and women during sexual intercourse show that orgasm resembles "a kind of pleasurable epileptic attack." One loses control over one's muscles.

Superman has been known to leave his fingerprints in steel and in hardened concrete, accidentally. What would he do to the woman in his arms during what amounts to an epileptic fit?

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:23:30 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video: Crazy '60s German TV robots und dance moves

Video clip from the sixties German TV show Raumpatrouille. Episode 3: The Keepers of the Law. "The computer can malfunction... the tracks are a bit mixed up. I call it a cybernetic neurosis." Link. Another vintage clip from the same TV program, mit futuristic frugging auf Deutsch: Link. (Danke schoen, Coop!)

Reader comment: Anselm Lingnau says,

The "Raumpatrouille" (Space Patrol) series is really something of a classic. The robots and dance scenes are only scratching the surface; watch for the clothes irons and shower heads as well as the special effect when the spaceship launches from its submarine base (which was produced by filming the bubbles produced by an Aspirin tablet and turning the footage upside down). The sets and special effects make the original Star Trek look downright sophisticated, but then again "Raumpatrouille" does predate ST by a couple of years.

The series has been available on DVD for some time, and a couple of years back bits from the various shows were strung together to form a feature film. Some of the original actors are also still around and occasionally seen on TV.

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:34:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bizarre toy from Taiwan: Benign Girl

Benign Girl is a Barbie knockoff from Taiwan. The name must be due to a weird translation hiccup, like maybe they were looking for a synonym for "sweet" or "kind."

I was standing near the register looking at the assorted things when all of a sudden I spotted "Benign Girl" and suddenly I heard the mermaids singing. Two Latina women were looking at Benign Girl and reaching forward as if to grab it and in a flash I knew this was something extremely precious and rare and that I needed to act fast!

So I reached around the women and snatched BG. And before they knew what happened I had paid and fled the scene, adrenalining all the way.

On the side of the package were the bullet points:

*BATTERY
*OPERATED
*CREATIVE
*VARIOUS MUSIC

The instructions on the package:
"Beautiful girl, press any button!"

Link

Reader comment: Moon Custafer says:

My local drugstore/post office has a number of odd imported toys whose packaging bears the results of too thorough a search through the translation dictionary. My favourite is the mechanical tortoise labelled "Magical Chelonian."

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:31:41 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wang Guangyi's propaganda posters hawk capitalist wares

Chinese artist Wang Guangyi creates satirical works of art touting iconic Western brands like Coke and Disney -- but in the visual tradition of Chinese propaganda posters. Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:19:25 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO send feedback to the BB editors

If you'd like to comment on a post, suggest a related site, or just give us feedback on BoingBoing.net, we've created a form to make that much easier for you. And, as always, the only way to suggest an item for BoingBoing is by following the directions here. We really appreciate your feedback and suggestions, but please use those forms and not our personal email addresses. Using the forms will automatically send your comment or suggestion to all of the editors at once. The links are at the top of the page. Also, please don't add us to any email lists without our permission. Thanks so much! Link (Thanks, Chris Smith!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:59:33 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Supreme court blocks Guantanamo tribunals

In a 5-to-3 ruling, the US Supreme Court ruled today that the military tribunals at Guantanamo violated both US military law and the Geneva Conventions. Link to NYT story, and here is the decision via Findlaw.

In related news, Salon.com ran a report on a document found in the ACLU's FOIA archives that says instructors from the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape school at Fort Bragg, NC (where elite troops learn how to survive extreme enemy interrogation measures) were shipped to Guantanamo to teach interrogators there. Link.

An anonymous BB reader says,

So basically, instructors who taught American military troops to deal with torture (by, effectively, torturing them) were sent to Guantanamo to teach interrogators there how torture -- excuse me, *interrogate* -- detainees.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:58:13 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Movie opening: Who Killed the Electric Car?

Chris Paine's new documentary feature "Who Killed the Electric Car" opens at theaters throughout the US this week, and I'm looking forward to seeing it. Snip from the NYT review by Manohla Dargis:

Like Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" and the better nonfiction inquiries into the war in Iraq, this information-packed history about the effort to introduce ˜ and keep ˜ electric vehicles on the road wasn't made to soothe your brow. For the film's director, Chris Paine, the evidence is too appalling and our air too dirty for palliatives.

Fast and furious, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is, in brief, the sad tale of yet one more attempt by a heroic group of civic-minded souls to save the browning, warming planet. The story mostly unfolds during the 1990's, when a few automobile manufacturers, including General Motors, were prodded to pursue ˜ only to sabotage covertly ˜ a cleaner future. In 1990 the state's smog-busting California Air Resources Board adopted the Zero-Emission Vehicle mandate in a bid to force auto companies to produce exhaust-free vehicles. The idea was simple: we were choking to death on our own waste. The goals were seemingly modest: by 1998, 2 percent of all new cars sold in the biggest vehicle market in the country would be exhaust-free, making California's bumper-to-bumper lifestyle a touch less hellish.

Link to review, and Link to movie website. (Thanks, David Newsom)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:49:31 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Audrey Kawasaki at Roq La Rue

Kirsten Anderson, curatrix of Seattle's Roq La Rue Gallery, says, "These are from the next show, by artist Audrey Kawasaki. My jaw hit the floor when I opened these up." Mine too. The show also features the gorgeous work of Myna Sonou and Scott Altmann. The opening party is Friday, July 7. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:38:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Insect species named after Star Wars characters

Bonnie Burton of Lucasfilm says,

Ever wonder what it would be like to see Yoda fly by your head or hear Chewbacca buzz instead of roar? Now you can find out thanks to entomologists Arnold Menke and David Vincent. These bug experts named new wasp species discovered in 1983 after their favorite Star Wars characters: Polemistus chewbacca, Polemistus vaderi, and Polemistus yoda.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:34:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

iPod tube amp

The Fatman iTube Valve Dock and Amp for your iPod is sure sharp looking and probably sounds great, but it ain't cheap at £299.00. I bought a beautiful, working vintage 1960s McIntosh MC-240 tube amp off eBay for roughly the same price. Link (via Gizmodo)

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:29:16 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video: "Condom-on" gag commercial for potentially real gadget

This video commercial for a zany prophylactic-applicator gadget called Condom-on sure smells like spoof spirit:

Using technology developed by NASA for the Mars Lander, the Condom-On has been aerodynamically optimized in wind tunnels to prevent air drag and ensure that your condom arrives at its destination ASAP.

But Joshua Davis, who created it, says "I actually think this could be a viable product but I don't have any background in manufacturing so I decided to just shoot the commercial and put the site up."

Let's hope he's less serious about the "i-Cut home circumcision device" he's also hawking.

Bonus: we're not naming names, but viewers may recognize a certain golden-voiced jazz moonlighter and Wired Magazine senior editor in the ad.

Link to website, direct link to video.

Reader comment: Jesse Hattabaugh says,

I actually would find one of these really useful, but only if it had a pez-dispenser-like magazine for wrapped condoms and could somehow open the wrappers and load the barrel with a quick action. The key to condoms is making them as unobtrusive as possible. I give him kudos!

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:05:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mark Pilgrim's list of Ubuntu essentials for ex-Mac users

Mac guru and software developer Mark Pilgrim recently switched to Ubuntu Linux after becoming fed up with proprietary Mac file-formats and the increasing use of DRM technologies in the MacOS. I've been a Mac user since 1984, and have a Mac tattooed on my right bicep. I've probably personally owned 50 Macs, and I've purchased several hundred while working as an IT manager over the years. I'm about to make the same switch, for much the same reasons.

I thought about buying a MacBook Pro anyway, since they're nice computers, and they run Ubuntu, but after pricing them out, I realized that I could get a lot more bang for my buck with a Lenovo ThinkPad T60p. If I'm not going to run the MacOS, why spend extra money for Apple hardware? I ordered the machine last weekend, loading it to the max with two 120GB hard drives, 2GB of RAM, and the fastest video card and best screen Lenovo sells: it was still cheaper than a Mac, even though Lenovo makes me pay for a copy of Windows XP that I plan on pitching out along with the styrofoam cutouts and other worthless packaging.

Once I'm settled in in LA, I'm planning on getting Ubuntu running on the machine and exporting all the data from my Mac to the new box. I'm also going to get Ubuntu running on my spare PowerBook. I get computers in pairs, and use one while the other is -- inevitably -- in the shop; the other Powerbook will remain my spare machine.

I'm planning on documenting every step of my switch here, and for starters I thought I'd link n to Mark's list of Ubuntu essentials, a kind of guide for Mac power-users who switch to Linux. I'm looking forward to applying some of the excellent advice here. Link (via Hawk Wings)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:04:23 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Vernor Vinge on computers, freedom and privacy

Wendy Grossman reports in the Guardian from the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference, describing Vernor Vinge's presentation of his incredible new novel Rainbows End and its relation to Orwellian notions of control. Rainbows End is probably the most mind-blowing work of science fiction I've read all year: it manages to touch on the future of fandom, consensus reality, copyright, DRM, scholarship, aging, generation gaps, and global politics, while telling a technothriller adventure story that I couldn't help but devour. In fact, the excellent plot pissed me off, because it kept me turning the pages so fast I could barely pause to appreciate the wild ideas in Vinge's worldbuilding.

The scenario he describes is the background he researched for Rainbows End. Set in 2025, the characters are surrounded by logical extensions of today's developing technology. Wearable computing is commonplace. Tagging and ubiquitous networked sensors mean you can look at the landscape with your choice of overlay and detail. People send each other silent messages and Google for information within conversations with participants who may be physically present or might be remote projections. One character's projection is hijacked and becomes the front for three people. The owner of another remote intelligence is unknown. Several continents' top intelligence operatives try to solve a smart biological attack that infects a test population with the willingness to obey orders.

Vinge makes two opening assumptions: no grand physical disaster occurs, and today's computing and communications trends continue.

He added a third trend: "The great conspiracy against human freedom." As novelist Doris Lessing has observed, barons on opposite sides of the river don't need to be in cahoots if their interests coincide. In our case, defence, homeland security, financial crime enforcement, police, tax collectors and intellectual property rights holders offer reasons to want to control the hardware we use. Then there are geeks, who can be tempted to forget the consequences if the technology is cool enough. Vinge quotes the most famous line from the comic strip Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Vinge's technology to satisfy these groups' dreams is the Secure Hardware Environment (She), which dedicates some bandwidth and a small portion of every semiconductor for regulatory use. Deployment is progressive, as standards are implemented. Built into new chips, She will spread inevitably through its predecessors' obsolescence.

Link (Thanks, Mark!)

Update: Jay sez, "Bazooka Joe at the smallWORLD podcast conducted an excellent interview with Vernor Vinge in which the author diplayed his dexterity of thought. He seems to make all the important connections."

Update: Jay sez, "Bazooka Joe at the smallWORLD podcast conducted an excellent interview with Vernor Vinge in which the author diplayed his dexterity of thought. He seems to make all the important connections."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:38:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Jim Baen, sf publisher, has passed away

Jim Baen, publisher of the extraordinary science fiction line Baen Books, has passed away. I loved Baen for his radically sensible approach to electronic publishing: give away electronic editions of books and people will treat them as advertisements to buy more print books.

Jim had a stroke two weeks ago, one that was characterized as "serious." At the time, the people he worked with explained that there were "very detailed emergency plans" left in place by Jim.

Here's author David Drake's obit for Jim.

James Patrick Baen was born October 22, 1943, on the Pennsylvania-New York border, a long way by road or in culture from New York City. He was introduced to SF early through the magazines in a step-uncle's attic, including the November, 1957, issue of Astounding with The Gentle Earth by Christopher Anvil.

The two books Jim most remembered as being formative influences were Fire-Hunter by Jim Kjelgaard and Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C Clarke. The theme of both short novels is that a youth from a decaying culture escapes the trap of accepted wisdom and saves his people despite themselves. This is a fair description of Jim's life in SF: he was always his own man, always a maverick, and very often brilliantly successful because he didn't listen to what other people thought.

For example, the traditional model of electronic publishing required that the works be encrypted. Jim thought that just made it hard for people to read books, the worst mistake a publisher could make. His e-texts were clear and in a variety of common formats.

Link (Thanks, David!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:46:43 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Ad from 1936: Make and sell your own Buck Rogers figs

I love this 1936 ad for a make-your-own-Buck-Rogers-figurines kit. The company encourages you to take the kit, make 200 figs per hour, and turn then sell them. Try to imagine a company today with that business model: "Make your own Disney figurines and sell them for real money!"

Get this great outfit! Make toy castings of Buck with his marvelous Disintegrator Pistol . . . Wilma Deering, his faithful Lieutenant . . . and Killer Kane, the arch-criminal of the 25th Century. Paint your castings in bright, lifelike colors. Make all the toys you want. Sell them at a big profit! Millions of people are interested in Buck’s adventures . . . and follow them daily in newspapers and radio. Start your own toy business with this complete outfit. Make real money.

Link (via Make Blog)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:30:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Real world Banana Jr 6000 computer from Bloom County

Fritzgutten, a Flickr user, has built this amazing Ubuntu-powered file-server in tribute to the old Bloom County comic strip. The strip featured an occassional appearance by a wise-cracking, waddling Mac-like computer called the Banana Jr 6000; by hacking up and painting a Mac he appears to have faithfully brought it to life. Link (via Make Blog)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:13:30 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bicycle-powered blenders

Fueled by the discovery that a Starbucks in Washington has "a bicycle powered blender and the customers make their own drinks," Make Blog's Phil Torrone went bike-blender crazy, pulling together a great post on making and buying bike-powered blenders. Link (Thumbnail from photo at Byerley Bicycle Blender)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:07:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO take pix of fireworks

Here's a great step-by-step guide to taking pictures of fireworks, something I've tried to do quite a lot, without any notable success. This'll be handy come Canada Day weekend or July 4.

Focal Length? - One of the hardest parts of photographing fireworks is having your camera trained on the right part of the sky at the right time. This is especially difficult if you’re shooting with a longer focal length and are trying to take more tightly cropped shots. I generally shoot at a wider focal length than a tight one but during a show will try a few tighter shots (I usually use a zoom lens to give me this option) to see if I can get lucky with them. Keep in mind that cropping of your wider shots can always be done later.

Aperture - A common question around photographing fireworks is what aperture to use. Many people think you need a fast lens to get them but in reality it’s quite the opposite as the light that the fireworks emit is quite bright. I find that apertures in the mid to small range tend to work reasonably well and would usually shoot somewhere between f/8 to f/16.

Link (via Make Blog) (Thumbnail from photo credited to Mr Magoo ICU)

Update: Kevin sez, "If you're looking to take more unconventional photos of fireworks, there are a lot of things you can do that will result in amazing effects beyond what a live audience can appreciate. Intentionally bluring your photos, taking zoomed photos, long exposures where you intentionally pan, track, zoom, change the focus, or some combination of the above can result in startling effects. My partner Rachel and I have been experimenting with this for a few years. You can see one of her albums here and one of mine from the same event here."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:04:34 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

P2P insurer will pay your fines if RIAA sues: $19/year!

David sez, "Apparently, a company in Sweden is offering file-sharing insurance - they'll pay your fines if you're sued by the RIAA. The /. submitter translates the link as follows: 'For a mere 140 SEK ($19 USD) per year, they will pay all your fines and give you a t-shirt if you get convicted for file sharing.'"

I have no idea if these insurers can be trusted with $19/year, but it actually sounds like a pretty plausible business model. If you count up all the file-sharers on the net, and divide it by the all the fines and settlements ever paid to the RIAA, my guess is that it's way less than $19/year, which suggests that you could make a buck (or Kronor) at this. Link (Thanks, David!)

Update: Travis sez, "This article estimates the odds of being sued by the RIAA at 1:1840. This works out to a break-even point of $34960 per lawsuit."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:59:37 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Exhaustive primer on making machinima movies

Hugh "Nomad" Hancock, creator of the feature-length machinima film Bloodspell has just posted the first half of a long blow-by-blow primer on making machinima movies. Machinima movies are films that are animated by walking video-game characters through the action, then adding voice-over, effectively using game-engines as cheap-and-cheerful animation programs.

We started creating art assets about January 2004, and we began filming our animatic from those assets in December 2005. We weren't working full-time at that point; however, out of those 12 months, we probably put in the equivalent of six months full-time BloodSpell development.

We created sets using the Aurora editor, which is by far the fastest and easiest way that I've ever been able to put together sets for a film (and I've been making Machinima for nearly a decade, starting in 1997). I can't overstate the practical impact of a tile-based system, which meant that our set editors didn't have to be trained 3D modellers to produce spectacular-looking sets quickly and easily. Instead, the process most resembled a cross between conventional set creation and interior decorating. At one point, working on Arianne's Apartment, we were horrified to hear ourselves saying things like, "Yes, but I'm just not feeling the utility of the space. It's too cold." The male members of the crew had to have a quick conversation about deathmatch and graphics cards to reassure themselves of their masculinity.

Link (Thanks, Hugh!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:56:13 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Coke machine manual

This purports to be the manual for a high-tech Coke machine, the kind with the scrolling LED tickers. I imagine that this is the kind of thing that you could have a lot of dorm/workplace fun with.

SERVICE MODE:

If configuration switch 4 is set to "C4 0", when the door is opened, "NONE" or a list of Error codes will show on the display. If configuration switch 4 is set to "C4 1", when the door is opened, "CASH - ####-##.##", "SALE - ####-####", "EROR", or "NONE" will show on the display. The service mode is entered when the door is open and the service switch on the controller is pressed.

The operator can now use the first four select switches to move through the main routine menu.

Select Button 1: Abort/Cancel - will return to previous menu prompt.
Select Button 2: Scroll Up - forward in menu.
Select Button 3: Scroll Down - backward in menu.
Select Button 4: Enter/Save/Clear - Allows you to enter a specific routine, save what you have programmed, or clear the error prompts.

Note: Routines with * are password protected. They can only be viewed and entered after the password is entered at the "PASS" prompt.

80K PDF Link, Coral Cache mirror (via Digg)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:53:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Punch card curtains

Jeffrey Garman made an ingenious set of window shades from old computer punch cards, a needle, and some thread. From his build notes on Flickr:

We have where I work boxes upon boxes of these prehistoric paper punch-cards. I'm always looking for novel ideas to put them to good use again. Besides being good for blocking out the sun they also make good book marks and table leg stabilizer's... I think the cards I used were 'saved' Fortran programs.

Link (via MAKE: Blog)

posted by David Pescovitz at 05:09:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Real-world search on GPS cellphones: "digital divining rods"

Snip from a NYT article by John Markoff and Martin Fackler about a new location-based search service for cellphone users in Japan:

If you stand on a street corner in Tokyo today you can point a specialized cellphone at a hotel, a restaurant or a historical monument, and with the press of a button the phone will display information from the Internet describing the object you are looking at. The new service is made possible by the efforts of three Japanese companies and GeoVector, a small American technology firm, and it represents a missing link between cyberspace and the physical world.

The phones combine satellite-based navigation, precise to within 30 feet or less, with an electronic compass to provide a new dimension of orientation. Connect the device to the Internet and it is possible to overlay the point-and-click simplicity of a computer screen on top of the real world.

The technology is being seen first in Japan because emergency regulations there require cellphones by next year to have receivers using the satellite-based Global Positioning System to establish their location.

Link to article. image: Ko Sasaki for The New York Times.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:39:27 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) in San Jose Aug 11

Mark your calendars and grab your gas masks: the world's longest-running lethal robot posse will perform maul, gnash, and pulverize its way through San Jose, CA on August 11, 2006. Details and a terrific video of a visit to SRL's San Francisco lab are here from Bre Pettis at the MAKE zine blog. Gajillions of previous BoingBoing posts about SRL are here. Image: Shot by "A*A*R*O*N" at an SRL show in Los Angeles (full-size). (thanks, Violet)

Update: the site with show details is down, so here they are:

[SRL founder] Mark [Pauline] says this show will get one of those long titles SRL is known for. As part of the 13th International Symposium for Electronic Arts festivities, SRL will be performing on August 11 in San Jose. Tickets are available here through the show organizers ZeroOne.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:26:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video: Panamanian reggaeton underwear perverts rock out

Well this is one of the weirder things I've seen recently. A gangsta-cosplay music video by a reggaeton group from Panama called BUKKAKE. Dudes dress up in spandex superhero costumes with face-masks, skateboard in parking lots, and rap about bukkake in Spanish. Here is a work-safe link where you can learn more about bukkake, a fetish sex act that originated in Japan but is evidently not unknown in Panama. Link (thanks, Susannah!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:13:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Nigerian Letter scammer convinced to carve replica Commodore 64

The 419Eater website chronicles the incredible story of a guy who baits "Nigerian Letter" scammers by telling them he has no time to help them free their dead relatives' seized assets because he is so busy sending out $150,000 scholarships for talented carvings to display in his galleries. He actually convinces a 419 scammer to produce a detailed replica of a Commodore 64 computer with the lure of a big cash payout -- then blows him off with a twist ending worthy of The Big Con. Link (via Waxy)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:46:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video: HOWTO make a dry ice bomb (this is not safe).

(Disclaimer: BoingBoing does not recommend that anyone but professional cryo/pryotechnics experts try this. "Dry ice bombs" can cause property damage, serious injury, or death. See reader comments after the jump for more detail on dangers). Dry ice, a plastic water bottle, and a good throwing arm are all you need. Link to a homemade instructional video from some dudes in Wyoming Ohio, circa 2003.

Reader comment: Jeff Roberts says,

You need to be very, very careful with dry ice. I spent one week in the hospital with a collasped lung and 4000 stitches, and my then-future wife received 500 of her own. And I wasn't even making a bomb, just playing around with dry ice - capped the lid and didn't unscrew it quickly enough. After a few seconds, the mountain dew glass bottle it was in exploded. It blew out all of the windows on the first floor of our house, and neither of us could hear anything for days. Be very, very careful.

Tom says,

A Georgia Tech student made some last fall and when they were discovered by the Atlanta Police, the police went on national television and called it an act of terrorism! Apparently a janitor found one that hadn't exploded, and it went off in his hands, which resulted in his ears ringing (the press referred to this as an "injury"). Hollot was actually charged with a felony but plead out to two misdemeanor counts with 24 months probation and 100 hours of community service.

Personally, I find it mind boggling that a media circus and a felony prosecution started over something far less dangerous then your typical 4th of July firework, but before your readers go out and build one of these things they might want to take heed that in the "post 9/11 world" the authorities have gone completely nuts. Link to news story.

More links: one, two.

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:36:16 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape

Congrats to BB pal and Techngnosis author Erik Davis and photographer Michael Rauner whose long-anticipated book, The Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape, has just been published by Chronicle Books. It's magnificent. (Previous BB posts related to Visionary State here and here.)



The beautifully-designed tome is a textual and visual trip (and it is a trip) to the bizarre, psychedelic, and eclectic spiritual landmarks in the state, from the Blythe geoglyph to Kenneth Arnold's Integratron, from the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center to Salvation Mountain, from the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to the Manson Family's Barker Ranch hideout. Above is the Unarius Academy of Science, El Cajon, the San Francisco Zen Center, and Swami's, Encinitas.

From Erik's introduction:

What if California itself was my tradition, a great polytheistic fusion of transplanted religions, nature mysticism, tools of transport, and creepy cults? What if the restlessness and constant mutation of California’s alternative spiritual scene actually reflected an almost dogmatic insight that reality itself is inherently perspectival? What if the California tradition was like the land itself: a collection of amazing and diverse ecologies, but united by freeways?

And so, searching for my rootless roots, I began to research alternative spirituality and religious sectarianism in California, reading deeply, doing interviews, and traveling to unusual sacred sites. I discovered that California’s culture of consciousness exploration is much older than the New Age or hippie flower-power. Less a place of origins than of mutations, California has long been a laboratory of the spirit, a visionary playground at the far margins of the West. Here, deities and practices from across space and time have been and are mixed and matched, refracted and refined, packaged and consumed anew. Almost a century ago, commentators were already complaining about Los Angeles’ surfeit of “astral planers, Emmanuel movers, Rosicrucians and other boozy transcendentalists.” Such spiritual eclecticism is not novel, of course, but nowhere else in the modern world has it come as close to becoming the status quo. I call this spiritual ethos “California consciousness”: an imaginative, experimental, and sometimes hedonistic quest for human transformation by any means necessary.

Defining and explaining the core elements of California consciousness is no easy task, however. I came up with a handful of underlying themes—visionary experience, nature, technology, the realized body. But the attempt to create an over-arching framework from which to hang all these tattered tales and mutant heresies grew frustrating. Then I realized that, in order to reflect its subject, the book should not be unified under a single concept, because the tradition itself is defined by inconstant spiritual pluralism. Instead of writing a definitive tome, I wanted a book to take the form of a journey, a wayward drift that would mirror the wanderings I was already making across the state, visiting monasteries and mountaintops, churches and homes, storefronts and desert arroyos.

It was in these trips that I felt closest to the historical roots of California consciousness, which itself is infused with the long dream of California as a destination and a launching pad. Some of the locations I visited were famous structures, architectural monuments to God or Art or both; others were marginal places, slipping into oblivion, or disguised by later owners. I found nearly all of these spots to be beautiful or strange, and they brought to life, if only for a spell, the people and stories that created them and that continue to shape the spirit of the West. My research began to take the form of a psychogeography: a dreamlike movement through space that uncovers hidden stories and symbolic connections, but never reaches a final resolution.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 01:53:54 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hey boys and girls, let's play "cornhole"!

5000 says,

It must be a midwestern thing, but after getting an eVite to an event promising "cornhole for the kids" a friend and I did some research and discovered there's a whole culture of Cornhole, a game of throwing bean bags through a hole in a plywood board. Wikipedia's got an entry on it. But more squirmily fantastic is the language on the Corn Hole fan site CornholePlayers.net:

"You've found your new home for Cornhole on the web! CornholePlayers.net is devoted to becoming your source for everything "Cornhole." There is plenty of great information about Cornhole on the web, but this is the one site that puts it all in one place for you!"

At last, free cornhole on the net! I never thought I'd see the day!

Double-anal-entendres aside, the site has a cool "how to make your own cornhole game board" gallery. There are many cornhole enthusiasts who like to party, cornhole-style. Why, here's the American Cornhole Association.

Reader comment: Lewis Riley says,

Cornhole is very, very big in Ohio. Here's a link to Carson Palmer's (quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals) cornhole tournament for charity.

Justin says,

here's a couple of places to play cornhole online. NabiscoWorld (linked) has a multiplayer function once you get past the nag screen. Christian Moerlein Brewery also has one here: Link

Alex Macentire says,

Now that I live in Ohio (I'm origionally from Missouri) I'm aware of the "cornhole" craze and I'll be honest every time i hear it I still think of the scene in "Office Space" when Lawrence tells Peter to "Watch your cornhole, buddy".

But there's all sorts of these little "professional" sports popping up. It seems like every game out there now has a professional organization. Link to the website of the National Association of Staredwon Professionals. Link to the home of the rock paper scissors international championships. Link to England's official tug of war site.

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:56:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Who is the "High Boots" singer?

Spike Priggen of Bedazzled wants to know who the singer in this fun Scopitone video is. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:34:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tom Jennings' car MP3 player made from gutted cheap-o AM radio

Tom Jennings, creator of Fidonet and owner of one of the first ISPs -- Little Garden, is building a wonderfully-functional MP3 player for his 1970 AMC Hornet, using its standard-issue, 36-year-old AM radio as the starting point. His riff on a "proper interface for an automobile" should be required reading for all car stereo designers.

This is the American Motors Corp. factory AM radio in its natural habitat. Nice looking radio and all that. Not only is it a "shaft-type" radio, non-DIN, but it's very shallow; even cutting the center dash piece all to hell won't fit a modern stereo.

Look carefully at this thing, interface-wise. There's not much to it, but it gets the job done quite nicely.

Knobs on shafts that rotate. Simple! Fits the human hand and wrist just great. Very intuitive -- infants figure them out (though infants usually pull the knobs off and put them in their mouth).

That knob on the left -- closest to the driver -- makes loud or quiet; that's all that it does. (The one function overload is volume-lowest clicks it off, reasonably intuitive, or not much to memorize.) Behind it is the tone control, on the same shaft, little used; you must poke around to find it, otherwise its existence doesn't interfere.

On the right is the tuner knob with a linear scale. Even if you have never used one a twist of the knob makes the pointer on the center scale move. Reasonably intuitive at that point. If the radio is on, and there are stations, turning this knob far enough makes a sound. Feedback.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:24:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Teachers who bully students

Lots of kids are bullied at school, but apparently many of the bullies may be their teachers. In a new psychiatric study, 116 elementary school teachers were surveyed about bullying. Nearly half of them admitted that they bully students. The researchers from the Menninger Clinic, published the results of the study in the International Journal of Social Psychiatry. From the paper abstract:

Results confirmed that teachers who experienced bullying themselves when young are more likely to both bully students and experience bullying by students both in classrooms and outside the classroom. Factor analysis revealed two types of bullying teacher: a sadistic bully type and a bully-victim type.

And from a Menninger Clinic press release:

“If your early experiences lead you to expect that people will not reason, but respond to force, then you are at risk of recreating this situation in your classroom,” says (co-author Dr. Peter) Fonagy. “The climate you remember from your childhood may even make you feel safe because it is familiar and consistent with your expectations.”

Link to press release, Link to paper abstract

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:17:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bat-eating centipede video

Watch a video of a giant centipede in Venezuela snatch a bat right out of the air for dinner. The clip is from David Attenborough's Life In The Undergrowth series.
Link (via Neatorama)

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:08:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Josh Glenn on P.K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly

Josh Glenn (who edited the much-missed zine, Hermenaut) has an excellent piece in Slate about Richard Linklater's adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly.

By then, Dick had been writing for more than a decade about semi-employed, drug-using, near-schizophrenic schlemiels who through sheer stubbornness and perversity succeeded in their struggle against neototalitarianism and irreality where heroic types had failed. Forget, if you can, that previous Hollywood adaptations of Dick novels have starred the likes of Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Tom Cruise: "I know only one thing about my novels," Dick wrote in a 1970 letter addressing himself to critics who didn't like his unglamorous, anti-heroic protagonists. "In them again and again, this minor man asserts himself in all his hasty, sweaty strength." And in a 1972 speech, Dick stole a march on Foucault, et al., by praising the "laziness, short attention span, perversity, [and] criminal tendencies" of the lazy, shiftless, half-crazed American slacker. ("We can tell and tell him what to do, but when the time comes for him to perform, all the subliminal instruction, all the ideological briefing, all the tranquilizing drugs, all the psychotherapy are a waste," insisted Dick. "He just plain will not jump when the whip is cracked.")

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:06:37 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Double-diamond home in the Hamptons has unclear future

The Pearlroth House, designed in 1959 by Andrew Geller, sits on Westhampton Beach in New York. Unless enough funds can be raised by the fall to move it to a new location in East Quogue, New York, it will be demolished. If it's saved, the amazing structure will be transformed into a museum of architecture and design.
Link (via Sensory Impact)

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:48:05 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Antero Alli on RU Sirius Show

RU Sirius gets high with a little help from his friends this week. On The RU Sirius Show he talks to Sheldon Norberg, author of the hilarious Confessions of a Dope Dealer. And on NeoFiles, Antero Alli talks about his upcoming online course working with Leary's 8-Circuit model of the brain.

SHELDON NORBERG: "The sticks can't go with the shake and the shake can't go with the bud and if there's some shake in your bud you're getting penalized and if there's some sticks in your shake you're getting penalized."

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:45:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fake eyes boost honesty

I've been in convenience stores before where life-size cardboard cut-outs of cops glare at me from a corner. Of course, the hope is that you'll be less likely to steal, even though the fuzz is fake. A research team from Newcastle University recently showed that people are more honest when they're being watched even if the eyes aren't real. The scientists compared how much money people dropped in an "honesty box" when retrieving a drink. Turns out, the deposited three times more cash if there was a poster of a pair of eyes staring them down than an image of flowers.

From the BBC News:

(Lead author of the study Melissa Bateson, a behavioral biologist,) believes this happens because the eyes on the poster may affect people's perception that they are being watched by other people.

"Although it was just a photocopied black and white poster, we know that people's brains are set up to process faces and eyes, and that is probably because it is very important for us to know if we are being watched by other people."

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:38:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Science fiction podcast: a modern Paul Bunyan story (funny!)

The latest story on the Escape Pod science fiction podcast is Larry Hammer's "Paul Bunyan and the Photocopier." It's a short, hilarious modern telling of a Paul Bunyan legend -- the telling is spot-on for the character of the Paul Bunyan stories, but the content (Paul Bunyan's need to build a photocopier when his secretary goes on vacation) is so incongruous that it made me double over with laughter while listening to it today.

Well, the time came Paul Bunyan had a pretty successful thing going with his lumber business. Fact is, the first year his company went public, the stock price doubled, and it went up fifty percent each of the three years after that. Mind you, this made Paul a target for corporate raiders. Why, the battle he had with Bluebeard is a yarn and a half--but that’s another tale. _This_ is the story of what happened when Paul Bunyan’s secretary went on vacation.

Now, Maizy was a good secretary--a _fine_ secretary. She could copy three reports, fax a corporate org chart, schedule an executive meeting, and keep a board member on hold, all at the same time--and keep the board member from getting madder than a polecat on laundry day while she did it. And this was the problem, you see--she was too good for Paul. He hardly ever had to do anything for himself with Maizy around. So when she visited her aunt right when Paul was preparing the year-end stockholder report, something bad was bound to happen.

Paul doing a financial report was a sight to see. He lined up all the numbers at the bottom of the page, carefully aimed his great axe, then _wham!_, chopped 20% off for capital expenses. Worked like a charm. But then, when he had the final report ready--then he had to copy it.

Now just between you and me, there’s nothing on this green earth that scared Paul the way that photocopier scared him. He could work his computer somewhat, at least as far as checking e-mail or making a slide show from someone else’s template. But that big plastic box, all white and humming, with its ten thousand buttons and twenty thousand lights, the sole purpose of each one to tell him that he’d forgotten to select an output tray--that sent the cold blue heebies down to his feet, through the soles of his boots, and into the basement boiler room.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:04:35 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Detroit Zoo exhibits Rick Lieder's extraordinary bug pix

Rick Lieder's extraordinary photos of insects are now on display at the Detroit Zoo. Lieder's work is fantastic -- he patiently waits in his suburban back yard with his camera until the insects he finds there assume pleasing poses and then shoots them. This approach -- in situ, natural -- is what makes these shots so amazing. Link (Thanks, Rick!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:24:06 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

New Canadian anti-DRM coalition

IntellectualPrivacy.ca is a new Canadian anti-DRM coalition, devoted to ensuring that Canada doesn't end up with American-style DMCA rules that let entertainment companies use DRM to override the user rights in copyright. They've sent an open letter to Canada's Heritage Minister that's excellent:

Rather than consulting on privacy and considering copyright law reforms that would protect Canadians from the use of DRM (as an increasing number of commentators have suggested we should do), our former government proposed copyright reforms that would provide protection for DRM. Proposed ‘anti-circumvention’ provisions would make it illegal for people to circumvent copyright holders’ DRM. Such legal provisions could cripple Canadians’ ability to protect their privacy and to enjoy copyright works in private, free from copyright holders’ DRM ‘spyware’. This problem is aggravated by free-market arguments that attempt to justify DRM on the basis that people often ‘agree’ to the surveillance when they agree to the standard-form contracts implemented by DRM. However, the law must protect individuals by ensuring that such ‘agreements’ reflect the expectations of the parties and are not used to circumvent privacy. Deceptive standard-form agreements that add provisions on surveillance undermine consumer confidence and hurt the acceptance of market-based solutions.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:03:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Forbidden Planet sf bookstores start a podcast

Forbidden Planet, the excellent international chain of science fiction bookstores, has begun a podcast to review books, comics, movies, RPGs and other genre material. Link (Thanks, Joe!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:01:03 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

All-smoking airline to take off soon (in puff of smoke)

A German entrepreneur has launched SMINTAIR, the world's first "all-smoking" airline, with nonstops from Dusseldorf to Tokyo. The airline website promises "bring back the exclusivity in flying encountered in the 1960s" -- ah, you mean the exclusivity of oxygen in the cabin? Connoisseurs of second-hand smoke are encouraged to book flights too, because

Non-smokers will find the cabin air more refreshing than on any other flight with any other airline, as SMINTAIR adds fresh outside air to the conditioning system! This is more expensive, as it burns more fuel, but it is seen as an additional service to our guests.

Instead of free travel, frequent flyer miles earn you lung tumors.

Link to blog post, here's a BBC News item. (thanks better living through miles)

Reader comment: Brian Nicks says,

This is a hysterical claim on the part of SMINTAIR. All airlines add fresh outside air to the conditioning system (about 50% of what you breathe in an airliner is fresh outside air). Jet engines take bleed air to feed air conditioning packs that introduce the outside air to the cabin, continually replenishing the supply of air in the cabin. SMINTAIR is selling a feature that all airlines provide. From airlinesafety.com:

In flight, the packs are usually operated in “high flow” mode during ground operations, and the climb/descent portions of the flight. Recirculation fans are also running to enhance the velocity of the air in the cabin. When cruise altitude is reached, it is normal for the packs to change from high flow to “normal” flow. That means they pump air into the cabin at a somewhat lower volume (cubic feet per minute) than they do in the high flow mode. That is done to reduce wear and tear on the packs and to save fuel. The laws of physics require additional energy consumption to pump higher volumes of air. That requirement is even more pronounced with the newer energy efficient and environmental friendly engines of today:

"... most newer jetliners are powered by high-bypass-ratio fan engines which are much quieter, much cleaner burning, more powerful and much more efficient. At the front end of this engine type is a large-diameter fan, which is powered by the core. The fan moves a large volume of air past the core rather than through it, and actually generates most of the thrust. Every unit of pressurized air extracted from the engine core has the effect of reducing fan thrust by an even greater amount, and that degrades fuel efficiency more severely on this type of engine than on the older type. By providing the cabin with a mixture of about 50 percent outside air taken from the compressor and 50 percent recirculated air, a balance has been achieved that maintains a high level of cabin air quality, good fuel efficiency and less impact to our environment." [Excerpt from Boeing consumer news. For the entire document, and more, click here: Boeing. See also, Facts and Myths]

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:28:42 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Photographer calls critic's boss to complain

Boing Boing pal and photographers' rights activist Thomas Hawk has come under fire from Jill Greenberg, a photographer whose methods he criticized online. Greenberg photographs distressed children, and Hawk criticized her for her methods in getting the children into a photogenic state of distress. In response, Greenberg and her husband have threatened to sue him for libel and called his employer. Hawk's response is a good one: he argues that if they disagree with him, they should disagree with him, not attempt to silence him. As they say in First Amendment circles: the answer to bad speech is more speech.

First she tries to discredit me as an insane person with personal problems who she doesn't even think has kids (even though in my blog post about her I clearly state I've got four children, have photos of my four children up on flickr and elsewhere on my blog etc.) She tells this to a professional publication American Photo (whom I've asked for a retraction from and who never contacted me to verify her claims even though they pulled quotes from my same post that referenced that I had four kids).

Next, Jill tracks down my employer, an unrelated third party who has absolutely zero to do with my personal views and opinions and tries to apply pressure to get me to pull my post. She literally calls my boss this morning who has absolutely zero to do with any of my blogging. (By the way Jill, I blog from my own laptop on my own time). The last company who thought that they could intimidate me by involving my employer, an unrelated third party, went by the name PriceRitePhoto. I don't think they are in business anymore but feel free to Google them to read the story.

And then her husband tells me that in his opinion I'm committing libel. I'm committing libel for having an opinion that what Jill is doing to these kids constitutes abuse. That to emotionally work these kids up is abusive. My opinion Robert Green. He goes on to tell me that if I want to discuss this further that I get a lawyer.

Link (Thanks, Zack!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:04:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Love-song about an IRC bot

Boten Anna is a song by the Swedish DJ Basshunter -- a love song about an IRC bot. Check out the video with multilingual subtitles and marvel in the fact that a song about an IRC bot actually charted in Sweden. As Danny says, "Maybe the Pirate Party has a chance in Sweden after all..." Link (via Oblomovka)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:57:50 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Map of London's quietest spaces

London is the loudest city I've ever lived in -- something about the rain, the squealing brakes on the black cabs, the construction, and the roar of pubs -- as anyone who's received a phone call from someone walking the streets can attest. Simon Elvins, a London artist, has produced a map of the city's quietest spaces:

Using information the government has collected on noise levels within London, a map has been plotted of the capital's most silent spaces. The map intends to reveal a hidden landscape of quiet spaces and shows an alternate side of the city that would normally go unnoticed.

Link (via We Make Money Not Art)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:51:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fairy-doors set into the sides of Ann Arbor's buildings

Many of Portland, Oregon's Ann Arbor, Michigan's buildings sport "fairy doors" that are just a few inches high, set unobtrusively into their facades. These doors appear to be purely ornamental (or, possibly transdimensional gateways into the Land of Faery) and this site collects images of them. Link (via Neatorama)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:47:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Future of Journalism: students fan out to cover story

Check out this amazing student-journalism project: students from five universities have picked a single, huge, ambitious subject and are fanning out across America to report on it over a long period, producing CC-licensed, broadcast-quality video and text.

The American military is in the midst of a profound shift in strategy that is reshaping the military's presence, and in many cases, its mission, around the world. Older, permanent bases are downsizing or being restructured; newer, smaller and more flexible bases, in places new to American troops, are being created. We are looking for ways to tell stories--cultural, economic, political and environmental--about the nearly half million men and women serving the security interests of the United States overseas.

The students have fanned out across the globe for their on-the-ground reporting, which ultimately will be used to produce broadcast-quality journalism. But one way they're learning to tell this story is through a blog, US Military Abroad, on which you'll find a good example of group blogging. And (update) don't miss their Korea blog. Other project blogs include:

* Privacy, Civil Liberties and Homeland Security (Medill School, Northwestern University)
* Immigration Outpost (Annenberg School, University of Southern California)
* Homeland Security Money Trail (Columbia University)

Link (Thanks, Dan!0

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:33:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

We feel more sorrow over not partying than not working

A study has concluded that in the short run, we are glad for having deprived ourselves of pleasure to work, while in long-term, we regret not working less and playing more. As the saying goes, "No one ever went to a death-bed saying, 'I wish I'd spent more time at the office.'"

In another experiment, students who'd just come back from their break were polled. The ones who'd partied it up regretted their actions -- while those who studied were virtuously smug. But when asked to recall the spring break from the previous year, suddenly more students regretted their choice not to party. When alumni were asked to recall their spring breaks of 40 years ago, the results were even starker: Those who hadn't been doing beer shots out of a barber's chair were striken with remorse.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:30:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Paintings executed in the dust on a Mini's windscreen

Austin's Scott Wade uses paint-brushes and his fingers to paint incredibly detailed art-scenes in the dust that accumulates on the windows of his Mini Cooper. The Austin American-Statesman has a small gallery of his finest work -- I love this dogs playing poker repro. My takeaway: anything that looks good in black velvet also works well in windshield dust. Link (via Neatorama)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:25:13 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Star Wars-inspired tattoos

Tattoos and Toys sports an impressive (but hard-to-navigate) collection of tattoos inspired by toys, movies and cartoons: Star Wars, GI Joe, Transformers, and others. Link (Thanks, Shane!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:21:34 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make your own Maakies sock-monkey

Craftbits has a great new DIY project: make your own sock monkey as featured in Tony Millionaire's Maakies. If you've never read Maakies before, you're a lucky person because you get to experience a lot of pleasure for the first time. The Maakies books come in two flavors: incredibly obscene, savage and roll-on-the-ground hilarious comic books intended for adults; and sweet, twisted and utterly PG picture books intended for children. They're like candy-coated razor-blades, and there could be no fitter tribute to the books than to make your own sock monkey. Link (Thanks, Vikram!)

Update: Matt sez, "Here's a Flickr set of some fantastic sock monkeys created by a Boston artist."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:19:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Lightning photography

Storm chaser Michael Bath has been photographing severe weather for almost twenty years. He's archived hundreds of his beautiful photos of thunderstorms and lightning on his Web site. Michael was also kind enough to prepare a page of tips for those of you who want to take your own lightning photos. This shot was snapped on January 24, 1993, in Oakhurst, New South Wales, Australia.
Link (Thanks, Janis Sawyer!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:40:20 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Donovan Crosby at sixspace gallery in Culver City

Artist Donovan Crosby is showing her wonderfully creepy work at sixspace gallery in Culver City, CA from July 1 – August 12, 2006. It reminds me a little of Marc Davis' paintings in Disney's Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.

This summer sixspace is proud to present Kindertotenlieder, the first solo exhibition by California-based artist Donovan Crosby. In her new acrylic paintings (on canvas and panel), she portrays Victorian-era children with flowers. Using the saccharine iconography of the 19th century, Crosby plays on the irony and perhaps oversimplification of our idealized expectations regarding the imagery of children or flowers. Often perceived merely as "pretty little things," each can carry within a fundamental "darkness" and complexity that, while disturbing in some regards, is also a natural component.

The depiction of certain flowers in Kindertotenlieder reference a "language of flowers" that was a common tradition in Napoleonic France through Victorian-era England. Citing two authoritative historical sources, Crosby utilized floral meanings that have meanings such as "absence," "reverie," and "hatred" that counter-act the quaint notion that flowers, and subsequently children, are wholesome and simplistic – for instance, the symbolic use of flowers was as much present in superstition and proverbs as it was communications and ceremonies. These dark undertones also signify the horrible living conditions many children suffered during the 19th century.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:39:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Johnny Ryan's Comic Book Holocaust

The first 200 people to buy a copy of Johnny Ryan's new Comic Book Holocaust from Buenaventura will get a signed/numbered edition. The book collects all Ryan's self-published comic parodies, plus 22 previously unpublished strips.

In these 128 raunchy, parody-packed pages, Ryan mocks every kind of comic imaginable. Comic Book Holocaust skewers characters of all types, from newspaper strip icons and alternative favorites to the stars of Manga, sci-fi, kid's, and superhero comics. This hilarious and irreverent sketchbook collection continues the Johnny Ryan brand of gleefully perverse humor.

BP Webshop Exclusive: The first 200 books ordered through the BP webshop will have a signed and numbered bookplate tipped in. These bookplates were cut down from the 3-color letterpress prints originally made for the covers of the four minicomics that this book collects (we'll remove this description when they run out). Buenaventura Press, 2006. 6.75 x 8.5 in. 128pp.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:09:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video of naked people attach themselves to trees in Colombia

Emulating the naked statue of Bolivar in downtown Bogota, students took off their clothes, stood against trees, and got wrapped in cling film in the name of art.

Student: "We are seeing rather terrible things these days, odd things that didn't happen before. That immorality was bonded to increase more and more each day is written. Evil, crime, genocide, all those dreadful things, kingdoms against each other, nations fighting each other, all that is in the Bible."

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:05:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Alan Moore's erotic "Lost Girls" and Peter Pan copyright woes

Violet Blue has posted some sneak previews of an amazing new work by graphic novel master Alan Moore (previous works: Watchmen, From Hell, V for Vendetta, and the first two sets of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Killing Joke, and Brought to Light).

His newest: a series of works titled "Lost Girls Collected," created with illustrator Melinda Gebbie. Violet says:

"[It features] explicit sex -- portrayed in a compelling, highly pleasurable way. Like the setting of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Lost Girls has Moore revisiting characters from Victorian fiction, where the main female characters from Neverland, Wonderland and Oz meet as adults in a strange hotel in 1913 to set out on a sexual adventure together."

And Moore explains:

"It presents this material in a way which is every bit as sensual and beautiful and at times, startling, as the actual sexual act itself can be. I think that was probably why we did it. The sexual imagination, which is the biggest part of sexuality, is not well served in our culture, and I really don't understand why that should be.

The only way that we can talk about or refer to sex -- we have two choices: we can either do it in grubby works of pornography that will be read by people who are desperately ashamed of what they are reading, or we can discuss sex in the clinical manner of sex manuals or The Joy of Sex. Neither of these things have got anything that I, or probably most other normal people actually associate with our sexuality."

More images, and more from Moore about "Lost Girls," are in this post on Violet's blog: Link.

But the London hospital that owns the rights to J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" story is upset that Moore appropriated the iconic character Wendy for the graphic novel (she's in good company: Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz," and Alice from Wonderland are in there, too):

''We understand this graphic novel involves characters from the story of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan & Wendy, which is, of course, in copyright in the U.K. and EU,'' the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children said in a statement about Moore's book.

The hospital, which was bequeathed the rights to the ''Peter Pan'' books by Barrie, said: ''In order to be published or distributed in these territories, Alan Moore's title would need our permission or license. From press coverage, we understand it deals with sensitive subject matter which does not initially seem appropriate to be associated with the hospital and with J.M. Barrie's legacy to us.''

Stephen Cox, the hospital's spokesman, said Friday that it has not taken legal action against Moore and is was waiting to see whether the author will contact the institution to discuss its objections.

Link to news story. (thanks, Violet!)
More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:51:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Iran's UN Human Rights appointees: no friends of net, press

Writer Nasrin Alavi on controversial appointments to the new UN Human Rights Council of two men known for extreme human rights abuses against reporters and bloggers:

The launch of the new body was witnessed by two Iranian representatives whose human-rights records – even by the standards of the Islamic Republic – are infamous: justice minister Jamal Karimirad and Tehran's prosecutor-general Saeed Mortazavi.

Mortazavi was the presiding judge of the infamous Court 1410 and hailed as the "butcher of the press" for his vicious rulings against journalists and free thinkers. He is credited with the closure of more than 100 publications and the harassment and imprisonment of many writers, activists, lawyers and bloggers in recent years. Shirin Ebadi, the lawyer and Nobel laureate, has even accused Mortazavi of being present in 2003 when Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured and killed.

Link to full text. (Thanks, Cyrus!)

Reader comment: Scott says,

It goes rather further than what you report. Saeed Mortazavi wasn't merely present when Zahra Kazemi was tortured and killed, but (as noted in this NPR report), Iranian reports say he ordered her arrest and supervised the torture.

Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay recently said that Canada wants "this creature brought to justice."

The report also notes that a report by Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami said that Mortazavi's men beat her, pulled out her fingernails, brutally raped her, and killed her.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:22:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Marine auctions "Google Water" from Fallujah for charity again

BoingBoing reader Punk Sergeant says,

Hi!! Back in January, BoingBoing blogged about the "Google water" I found while I was in Camp Fallujah, Iraq.

As you might remember I placed the water up for charity auction on Ebay to benefit Fisher House [a charity benefiting military families]. Unfortunately the all-powerful Google had my Ebay site shut down my auction, due to copyright violations. Luckily the highest bidder contacted me outside of Ebay and we were able to make a donation to the Fisher House for $130.

I’m back from Iraq and have brought some Google water back with me. Unfortunately there are Marines and service members who will not be returning to their families. Since Ebay will not allow me to auction off the water for charity. I would like to sell the bottle of water for a $500 donation to the Fisher house. The specific can be worked out between buyer and myself. If any other readers know a better way to auction this off please contact me and I will adjust appropriately.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:07:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video: He-Man versus the Big Lebowski

They peed on The Dude's rug. Link. Update: here's another video that smooshes together very short clips from Lebowski in rapid-fire order. It's like the "Cliff's Notes" version. Link. (thanks, Coop!)

Reader comment: Stella says,

Here's a good Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle remix of a scene from the Big Lebowski. Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:21:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Transformers casting call: ability to morph into robot on cue a plus

Snip from IGN.com:

Central Casting, the self-proclaimed largest extras casting company in the world, has announced an open casting call for extras for director Michael Bay's big-screen version of Transformers. They are looking for 16-17 year-olds and 18-23 year-olds that look like high school students. They require SAG members and non-union talent. The scheduled work dates are July 10-12, 2006, although dates are subject to change.

The call takes place in Burbank, CA on Thursday June 29 -- that's this week. Link. And Jalopnik has peeks at leaks from the forthcoming film: Link. (thanks, Bonnie, and Coop)

Reader comment: Gareth Simpson says,

Since you're looking for Transformers movie stuff and the rumour site you linked to has had its Bumblebee pictures C&Ded, you might like to take a look at this flickr group of on-set photos before it goes the same way.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:28:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Vogue magazine cover illos from the 1910s - '30s

Link. (thanks, numlok)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:22:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Intel's motivational happy-tune for Chinese factory workers

"Intel Care" is purported to be a corporate motivational song played in Intel's China factories to boost worker morale. "Intel, Intel, The place for you to be, Intel, Intel, The happy family!" Link (Thanks, Tian)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:04:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ice cream truck jingles as MP3 files

When my pal Sean Bonner switched his cell ringtone to the supremely saccharine "Bananaphone," I was pretty sure I'd heard the most obnoxious polyphonic atrocity ever. The annoyance rendered was like that of a thousand Für Elises, mixed with wasps, accordions, and Yoko Ono trying to hit a high note.

But played loudly enough, any one of these ice cream truck melodies would melt that record-setter into a puddle of digital goo. Link to WFMU blog post with lots of audio files, and here's my favorite. Maybe I'll make it my own ringtone. Then every time someone calls me, I'll taste Creamsicles or It's-Its in my brain and imagine a creepy dude hunched over the steering wheel, counting dimes. (thanks, Mike)

Mike Ransom says,

I noticed that WFMU MP3-ized the WAV of "And The Band Played On" from my Ice Cream page: Link.

I found a sample fragment from an urban musicology album online on 4/29/2000 (Link). I was able to carefully re-splice it into a whole so it could play as a continuous loop on the above page.

That's the one I really remember as a kid, plus Mr. Softee (I also like the less wholesome Kid Creole and the Cocoanuts tune with the same title.)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:56:27 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Kraftwerk's vocoder on eBay

A prototype vocoder built for Kraftwerk and pictured on the album Ralf & Florian is up for auction on eBay. Starting bid is $3,800. From the auction description:

The device was used for two studio productions, title "Ananas Symphonie" including synthetic vocals and rhythm track in conjunction with lapsteel guitar and rhythm machine , as well for "Kristallo" with rhythm machine and EMS-Synth.

Later used to sound the KW's intro for "Autobahn..."

It was conceived , built and constructed by electronic engineers in the area of Physikalisch-Technische BundesAnstalt (PTB) Braunschweig, Dipl.Ing P.Leunig and Dipl.Ing. K.Obermayer.

Later the well known german music studio engineering and supplier company R.Barth K.G.,Hamburg, Germany, boiled down the know-how gained from this project into so called MUSICODER which was produced in small quantities.

Link (via Music Thing)

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:14:48 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Knitted nautiloids

Beth Skwarecki knitted these beautiful nautiloids, marine mollusks that ruled the seas during the Paleozoic Era. Beth posted directions and the patterns to make your own nautiloids on Knitty.com.
Link (via MAKE: Blog)

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:37:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

New website: The Blog Reader

The Blog Reader is a new website that profiles bloggers. Justin Gerald was kind enough to profile me, and Treehugger's movie-star-handsome Graham Hill. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:23:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hubert Selby Jr. documentary screens in NYC

Michael W. Dean and Kenneth Shiffrin's documentary, Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow, will play July 5 & 6 at The Two Boots/Pioneer Theater.

An exploration into the life and art of the renowned author Hubert Selby Jr, who, against all odds, reached international acclaim with his controversial novels, including Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream. Archival footage and new interviews from the legion of artists and friends, who shared his passion for literature and life, drive this insightful documentary.

With Lou Reed, Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Darren Aronofsky, Uli Edel, Jerry Stahl, Richard Price, Nick Tosches, Amiri Baraka, Henry Rollins, Michael Silverblatt, James Ragan and others. Narrated by Robert Downey, Jr.

Wed. July 5 & Thurs. July 6, 2006 at 7PM -
The Two Boots/Pioneer Theatre
East 3rd Street, between Avenues A and B, New York City, NY
(212) 591 0434

Link

Discount for Boing Boing readers! Jeffrey says:

I'm a Boing Boing reader, and I'm a projectionist at the Pioneer Theater that is screening the Hubert Selby Jr. doc. If any Boing Boing reader comes in and mentions Boing Boing that they read about the movie on Boing Boing, we'll give them discounted admission ($6.50).

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:14:43 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

German publisher attacks Bulgarian books-for-blind site

A German publishing house is using its clout in Bulgaria to attack a website that legally makes texts available for blind people. Previously, the publisher tried to shut down the site and was pilloried for it; in revenge it is using the Bulgarian police to harrass the site's maintainers.

On the 9th of May the Bulgarian publishing house 'Trud', owned by the German media group Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, sends a letter threatening with a lawsuit the specialized web library for blind people - bezmonitor.com (its name means 'without a monitor'). The publishing house claims that they own the copyrights for certain classical Bulgarian books and translations of foreign- language ones, which appear on the website in files in ASCII format, which is good for reading by audio programs, that do it instead of people, who cannot see. The creator of the website, Victor, who is also blind is supporting it on his own and without any financial profit. Although he removes the texts in question, he mentions this case to his friend Dr. Grigor Gatchev, who is recognized translator, an author and well-known blogger...

Bulgarian citizens as well as organizations of the blind people, such as Association 'Eyesight' and the National Library for the Blind 'Louis Braille' inform all Bulgarian media on the behavior of publishing house 'Trud', which itself owns a few major daily newspapers. 'Trud' tries to prevent the story from becoming public, as the owner of the publishing house is also a director of the Union of the Bulgarian Publishers. And most major media outlets do keep silence. However fewer small independent newspapers voice people's outrage.

Publishing house 'Trud' is furious and wants revenge contacting the main department for combating organized crime to demand the closure of the website although the texts in question are long gone. The department, although a state institution, already has a very bad reputation for serving corporate interests and having made illegal arrests on previous cases. A phone call from the department to the blind programmer of the website, Victor, makes him remove all texts under the fear of arrest, which although completely illegal and immoral, would put Victor's health in danger.

Link (Thanks, Nikola!)

Update: Antonia has posted lots more about this in Bulgarian and English:

1. Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) owns the two biggest daily newspapers in Bulgaria (Trud and 24 Chasa), as well as several weeklies and special editions. The combined circulations of Trud and 24 Chasa are greater than that of all the other dailies in our country. Yes, WAZ is a monopolist as it holds about 70 to 80% of the print media market in Bulgaria.

2. Recently Trud have started an online 'knowledge' site znam.bg -- they are putting texts of classic books there but the access is paid. Any reader should send a short message via cell phone in order to obtain a login. Furthermore the site is all scripts, flash and stuff and is pretty unreadable for text browsers. Surprise, surprise! Such as the ones used by the blind.

When contacted the developers of znam.bg said: "Yes, we know there are other e-libraries, but we are going to make the best one and there will be no need for the others to exist". Once a monopolist, always a monopolist...

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:14:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

How big is Earth compare to other planets and stars

Fun series of photos comparing Earth's size to that of other planets and stars. I like the way the planets are laid out on a table.Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:11:33 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

FareCast for finding best day to buy plane tickets goes public

Farecast, a site that predicts what date you should buy a plane ticket to get the best deal, has concluded its private beta and is now open to the public. I've been dreaming of a service like this for years. I hate that every time I buy a plane ticket, I'm sure I'm getting ripped off. Unfortunately, the public beta still only encompasses flights originating in Boston or Seattle. Link (via Kottke)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:22:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

LibraryThing: cool social library catalog

WSJ has an interesting article about LibraryThing.com, a site that lets you create a database of your books, rate them, review them, and look at the catalogs of other users. The social information compiled by LibraryThing lets you find recommended books, the top-rated authors (and the lowest rated authors -- poor Jessica Cutler), the top-rated books, and lots more.

LibraryThing is free for users who catalog 200 or fewer books; after that it's $10 a year or $25 for life. Link (free WSJ article)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:00:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

90s cable mogul is "deeply, hilariously wrong" about future of media

John Battelle has great fun eviscerating cable TV baron Leo Hindrey's argument that Yahoo and Google will perish under the awesomeness of cable and telco distribution and content creators like Disney.

This guy is deeply, hilariously wrong. TechDirt points out the first reason - he's missing that folks don't go online for content alone, in fact, they go online to communicate, converse, and to declare who they are in the world. Sure, they also expect content to be there, but increasingly, it ain't Time Warner's or Disney's, it's YouTube or blogs. And if the Disney's of the world want to succeed on the Web, they best learn from the habits of the web natives, and not shove mid 1990s media models down their throats.

But Hindrey is also missing that the business model of controlling proprietary content due to massive capital outlays and control of distribution channels is, well, no longer the only game in town. There's a new distribution sheriff in town, and his name is search. His deputy is the open Internet. Get used to it. It's not going to go away.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:43:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Greatest hacks ever project from Croatia

SystemHack is a project from Croatia's Multimedia Institute -- a book and website that documents great and seminal hacks through time. The site for the project invites you to submit your own favorite hacks to the list:

A moment of excellence in programming is called hack. A perfect hack is surprising, mediagenic, lucid in employing technology, funny and non-violent. System.hack is every hack that opens up a closed system or makes an open system continually dynamic.

What are your favourite System.hacks ever?

Link (Thanks, Tom!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:36:01 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Animated light fixture made from human hair

This chandelier made from human hair uses high voltage to create an anenome-like effect. Be sure to check out the video. Link (via Make)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:35:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

She's in polyester, and she's packin'.

After last week's jeans with built-in gun holsters post, I ended up poking around for more stealth firearm fashion websites. A friend pointed me to Washington state resident Kathy Jackson, a mom and former "Women and Guns" contributing editor whose extensive personal website promotes personal firearm safety -- and everyday outfits designed to conceal lethal weapons. From her "Dressy Clothes" page:

The outfit: brown crinkly skirt, velveteen blouse

The gun is a Glock 26 in a belly band. The gun is located at the midline, just underneath my cleavage. I'm wearing a tube top underneath the band to protect my skin from the itchies.

Comments: I wore this outfit to church this morning. I positioned the gun high and centered so that it would be particularly easy to sit down for long periods of time. If I'd been going to a social gathering, I'd have moved the belly band so the gun would ride nearer my waist.

If you're not the churchgoing type or don't like dressy clothes, check out Ms. Jackson's "Casual Clothes" and "Office Clothes" HOWTOs. "With a little courage and creativity," she explains, "It is quite possible to conceal a firearm underneath most business clothing." Good to know next time you're feeling cranky in your corporate-issue veal-cube. This site offers an interesting set of tips on "gun concealment for women": Link.

What's that? You prefer vegan glow-in-the dark ravewear gun holsters? Okay.

Here's a slinkier fetishwear holster (as if they all weren't fetishwear anyway) for carrying up to six handguns at a time GAH! I mean "your six-gun," meaning ONE handgun with blast-tastic kablamability: Link, marginally work-safe. (Thanks, Violet Blue!)

And Thunderwear offers other varieties of, ah, conceal-carry thongs, like the model shown above: Link (Thanks, Aaron)

In related news, a German inventor has filed a patent application for password-protected ammunition:

[Hebert] Meyerle is patenting a design for a modified cartridge that would be fired by a burst of high-frequency radio energy. But the energy would only ignite the charge if a solid-state switch within the cartridge had been activated. This would only happen if a password entered into the gun using a tiny keypad matched one stored in the cartridge. When they are sold, cartridges could be programmed with a password that matches the purchaser's gun. An owner could set the gun to request the password when it is reloaded, or to perform a biometric check before firing. The gun could also automatically lock itself after a pre-set period of time has passed since the password was entered.

Link to New Scientist article.

Reader comment: dr.hypercube says,

Six-gun is Hollywood oater talk for a revolver - usually w/ six chambers for rounds (even more detail than you want - the cowboy left the hammer down on an empty chamber for, yes, safeties sake and that cylinder had rolled up paper money in it to pay the undertaker in the event of...). Looks like that rig would carry 2 guns less than comfortably - the bright side - high distraction factor when it's quick-draw time. For some nice not-concealed stuff see El Paso's web site: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:17:14 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Leave your paintbrushes in the can

Instructables recommends saving your paintbrushes by leaving them in the can, "like commercial painters do." Hell, if my laziness is actually a virtue, count me in. Link (via Make)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:15:44 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Combo bed-and-entertainment center from 1970s

This man is livin' large atop his giant size bed with a high-tech headboard sporting a TV, stereo, magazine holder, tissue dispenser (?), and hanging mystery strap. The look on his face says it all: "I may not be a king, but no king could possibly be as happy as I am." Link

Reader comment: Garth Johnson of Extreme Craft says:

Yes! You posted about my bed! I've been looking for more information about the maker of the TV bed--I've owned a round one for about 8 years now that I bought secondhand. Elvis has one at Graceland that's covered in a shag material.

If you have information about the history of these beds, please send email to Garth.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:14:06 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Danish public broadcaster will feed Wikipedia

The Danish public broadcaster has announced that it will feed sports editorial material to the Danish edition of Wikipedia. Hurrah for public broadcasting! Will the BBC be next? Link (Thanks, Udansk!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:09:13 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

TED Talks: archived video, big ideas

The folks behind the annual TED conference have launched a new video/audio archive featuring big ideas from speakers who've participated in the event. Jason Wishnow from TED says, "I recommend you start with names you DON'T already know - Ken Robinson and Hans Rosling are among my all-time favorites. Give them three minutes and you'll see exactly why."

All content is free and available in multiple formats (Flash, QuickTime, MP4, MP3 audio) and online locations (TED.com, TEDBlog (via VideoEgg), iTunes, GoogleVideo, RSS feeds...). Jason explains:

They're being released under a creative commons license, so other sites are free to re-post them, in their entirety (for non-commercial purposes). And check out the video-search function (on Windows or OS X 10.4+). Try searching for "South Bronx" or "carbon neutral".

We're launching with 6 inspired presentations: Al Gore's sage advice on living a carbon-neutral life, Hans Rosling's inspired interpretation of global statistics, Ken Robinson's vision for an education system that values creativity; Majora Carter's commitment to environmental justice; Tony Robbins' roadmap for reaching your potential; and David Pogue's software-inspired show tunes.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:02:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO protect yourself from cops when pulled over

The ACLU A former ACLU staffer has produced a great, 40-minute video on understanding your rights when you get pulled over by a cop. Josh sez,

I came across this "flex your rights" video which uses dramatizations with actors to illustrate how you can protect yourself using 4th, 5th, and 6th ammendment rights during commonplace encounters with police.

The film seems pretty cheezy, but the info in it is great. The info conveyed in the film is extremely useful to avoid nasty searches, seizures, and mishaps which could land a well-meaning person in jail or just ruin their day.

Link (Thanks, Josh!)

Update: Kris sez, "I believe that the video is not from the ACLU, just that the narrator used to work for them."

Update 2: Thomas sez, "The ACLU has several pamphlets available for download that explain your rights when stopped by the police. One is pocket-sized to keep in your glove compartment. They are available in several different languages, including Spanish and Arabic."

Update 3: This video comes from Flex Your Rights.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:08:04 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Chameleon snake discovered

Scientists have discovered a new species of poisonous venomous water snake in Borneo that can change its colors. The half-meter-long snake is a member of the genus Enhydris and might only live in the Kapuas River drainage system of Borneo. It's not yet known whether the chameleon-like behavior is a defense mechanism or something else. German zoologist Mark Auliya , a consultant for the World Wildlife Fund, and his colleagues named the creature the Kapuas mud snake. From the World Wildlife Fund:

“I put the reddish-brown snake in a dark bucket. When I retrieved it a few minutes later, it was almost entirely white,” said Dr Mark Auliya, reptile expert at the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig in Germany, and a consultant for WWF...

“The discovery of the ‘chameleon” snake exposes one of nature’s best kept secrets deep in the Heart of Borneo," said Stuart Chapman, WWF’s international coordinator of the Heart of Borneo initiative.

"Its ability to change colour has kept it hidden from science until now. I guess it just picked the wrong colour that day.”

However, WWF warns that the home of the new snake is threatened. Today, only half of Borneo's forest cover remains, down from 75 per cent in the mid-1980s.

Link to WWF news, Link to New Scientist article about the discovery

posted by David Pescovitz at 06:52:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Man seeks rubber band ball world record

Steve Milton of Eugene, Oregon, has a 580 pound, 3 feet high ball of rubber bands. He's shooting for the world record, set in 1998 with John Bain's 3,120 pound, 5-foot-tall ball. From the Associated Press:

Bain contacted Milton by e-mail when he learned that he was attempting to break the record. His words of advice: Never give up and always wear gloves because the stretched bands can burn the skin...

Milton has also started smashing things with the ball to raise money. He's pulverized an old TV set and tried to crush a computer monitor, but the ball bounced right off the top. Since that failed attempt, however, the ball has grown by 200 pounds, and he is optimistic he will be able to flatten the computer hardware.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 06:35:11 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Daily Show on Congressional video game hearings

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart takes on Congress debating video game regulation (starts around 2:00), with predictable hilarity:

Rep Lee Terry (R-Nebraska): As a father of three young boys -- 11, 8 and 6 -- who are avid gamers, I'm very concerned about the content included in the games.

Jon Stewart: And as I stand there, watching them play these violent games, helpless to do anything about it, I can't help but wonder where the system has failed... Who wants to be the first person to sound like an out-of-touch jackass? Oh, you! Congressman Upton.

Rep Fred Upton (R-Michigan): I'm a gamer myself. I used to be an expert in Pong. That was a great game. Boop! Boop! Boop boop!

Rep Joseph Pitts (R-Pennsylvania): It's safe to say that a wealthy kid from the suburbs can can play Grand Theft Auto or similar games without turning to a life of crime, but a poor kid, who lives in a neighborhood where people really do steal cars, or deal drugs or shoot cops might not be so fortunate. There's almost certainly child somewhere in America who will be hurt by these games. Maybe his dad's in jail or his brother's already down on the corner, dealing drugs.

JS: Maybe he buys a gun. Steals a car and tries to run. But he doesn't get far. In the ghettoooo, in the ghetoooo. Seriously, the House of Representatives is full of insane jackasses.

Link (via Wonderland)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:18:58 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Finest Haunted Mansion papercraft model ever

Ray Keim has just released a free downloadable papercraft model of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, and it's incredible. Jeff "Chef Mayhem" Baham, founder of the Haunted Mansion supersite Doombuggies describes it as the finest Haunted Mansion model, ever, and I think he's right. Link (Thanks, Jeff!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:53:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

More on crypto and online casinos

EFF Staff Technologist Seth Schoen send in this brief, fascinating primer on the cryptography of secure gambling. This is in response to an earlier post about an online blackjack service that publishes cryptographic hashes of its decks in order to "prove their honesty."

It's odd that they claim that "Multiplayer Blackjack at The Gold Casino is without question the most honest possible Blackjack currently on the planet". The computer science literature has been interested for years in the possibility of making distributed card games fair without special hardware, using only cryptographic protocols.

Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman wrote a joint paper on mental poker, which is great reading, and the literature has continued from there with various improvements and enhancements. This was, as far as I know, the genesis of the cryptographic subfield of "security multiparty computation".

This casino's protocol is _not_ the most verifiably fair known; an enhanced cryptographic "mental poker" protocol would be fairer because it would also prevent deck-stacking. Here is just one random recent example via CiteSeer.

On the other hand, all of the crypto protocols for mental poker seem to require special software just to _play_. This casino requires only a normal web browser to play, but requires special software to audit.

A casino could create a Java applet that implements a fair gambling crypto protocol and lets you play in a regular Java-enabled web browser. They could publish the source code to the applet for audit and also show that the compiler the used produces the exact Java bytecode with the same source file as input. (Or, if players wanted to, they could compile the Java applet for themselves and use their locally-compiled versions.) The source could verifiably include features to detect if the house is cheating. The user interface can be precisely the same as that of the existing web-based casino.

A basic part of the original mental poker problem is how to let two people shuffle a deck so that both of them agree that the deck was fairly shuffled and not stacked. The fact that this casino does not address this problem (but still relies on fancy crypto) suggests that it didn't try too hard to investigate what's known in the literature...

(Thanks, Seth!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:20:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Daddle: a kid-sized saddle for adults

The Daddle is a child-sized saddle (with accompanying knee-pads) intended to be strapped onto a grown-up's torso to formalize horsie rides. Link (via Neatorama)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:04:06 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Retro USB lamp with shade

This little retro-styled USB lamp is a refreshing change from the ultra-modern snake-light LED lamps that you usually see. I'd love to see a chintz and Tiffany version with a fringe of red strings! Link (via Red Ferret)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:58:19 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Alarm-clock with USB hub

Here's a bedside alarm-clock with a USB hub built into it. I already keep a USB hub plugged in next to the bed to charge my phone and iPod -- merging the hub with a clock is a great idea. Link (via Red Ferret)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:56:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, June 26, 2006

Comcast fires tech guy for much-blogged customer sofa nap

The Comcast broadband tech support guy whose impromptu nap on a customer's couch was blogged last week on BoingBoing will have more time to sleep now. He's been sacked: Link.

Reader comment: jstadum says,

You really have to feel bad for this Comcast guy, I have no idea what the context is for him being tired, maybe he works 22 hours a day and has 5 kids?

Bananatree says,

I work for Comcast support and I have some pretty funny stories, I don't want to blog them for fear of getting axed from my job, but I'll give you a quick run down. A while back, we got a call about a tech that happened to defecate in a customer's attic. When running some cable up there, he apparently felt the need to stick it to them in the grossest possible way. Of course, when we get called we get screamed at. Most people don't realize that we are outsourced. Another good one I heard about is a tech that buried a small dog in a sandbox because it refused to leave him alone. I can't imagine how fast something like that would race around the internet.

Jonathan says,

Love BoingBoing (of course!). But your recent post about the sleeping Comcast Support guy sacked (euphamism for "fired") for sleeping didn't mention what for me was the salient point (covered briefly in the article you linked to): the guy had been on hold for over an hour with his own company. I don't think it's surprising that a guy could fall asleep after an hour of waiting on hold. Shouldn't happen, but a firing offense? Comcast blew it. They could have turned this into a PR coup, humanizing the complany by giving the guy a chance to apologize and then fixing their f---'ed up phone system. Instead they threw him under the bus. No compassion in Comcast or blogland.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:39:30 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cell phones excite cortex

The controversy continues about whether cell phone emissions are bad news for the brain, but a new study suggests that the electromagnetic field generated by GSM phones can indeed stimulate the motor cortex near where the handset is held. Dr. Paolo Rossini of Fatebenefratelli hospital in Milan and his colleagues published their research in the scientific journal Annals of Neurology. They monitored the brain function of 15 people talking on the phone for 45 minutes. From Reuters:

In 12 of the 15, the cells in the motor cortex adjacent to the cell phone showed excitability during phone use but returned to normal within an hour...

The researchers stressed that they had not shown that using a cell phone is bad for the brain in any way, but people with conditions such as epilepsy, linked with brain cell excitability, could potentially be affected.

"It should be argued that long-lasting and repeated exposure to EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) linked with intense use of cellular phones in daily life might be harmful or beneficial in brain-diseased subjects," they wrote.

Link to Reuters article, Link to Annals of Neurology abstract (Thanks, Xeni!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:05:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Residents sell blank CDs

The anonymous surrealist art/performance group The Residents is selling a double-CD package, titled River Of Crime, for $14.99. The two disks inside are blank. The recordings, inspired by old-timey radio serials, and other multimedia material will be released online every other week throughout the summer for download by those who have the digital subscription code inside the CD-R package. Once the whole collection of "Crimecasts" are downloaded, the owner is meant to complete the package by burning the disks. From the project description:

THE RESIDENTS’ RIVER OF CRIME is a character driven podcast series of 20 shows, based on the time honored concept of TRUE CRIME. Rooted in 1940’s style radio drama, THE RIVER OF CRIME not only updates the original form with modern production values, but also heavily leans on a distinctive soundtrack as one of its primary dramatic devices. A modern day DRAGNET, the series follows the reminisces of its unseen narrator as he discloses a lifelong obsession with wickedness and vice. But, as opposed to the ironic and terse Joe Friday, a classic crime solver, THE RIVER OF CRIME’S narrator is a crime collector.

After an early fascination with the electric chair, the series’ protagonist soon finds himself completely absorbed by the idea of crime and criminals, and each episode unfolds as a personal recollection, a memory of some unlawful event that has affected his life. Within the series these events are recreated as drama, interviews and narration, interrupted and supported by a strong musical score.

Link to River of Crime at Residents.com, Link to River of Crime access site, Link to CNN story (Thanks, Dave Gill!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 05:26:23 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Steampunk robotics

Over at the MAKE: Blog, Bre Pettis posted his video interview with I-Wei Huang who makes amazing steam-powered robots. Bre told I-Wei that his robots seem like something from an Hayao Miyazaki animation and it turns out that I-Wei is also an animator!
Link to MAKE: Blog, Link to I-Wei Huang's site

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:58:26 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Giant sized photos of shot-up screenplays

Eames says

[Tom Benedek] has been invited to do a show at the Writer's Guild. It is called SHOT BY THE WRITER and he shot his old screenplays with a gun and then photographed the results with an old 8 inch by 10 inch camera. Incredible detail. Beautiful. What is really great about the work especially is that the images are beautiful, but they are also insanely scaled because of the 8 x 10 negative. So you have this wonderful relationship with the image when it is 5 feet tall with no fuzziness.

Link

UPDATE: Tom Benedek says:

Below is the invitation with all relevant info about places and dates for the show which consists of representations of the work for hire I have done in Hollywood which I no longer control but was paid to write for producers, studios. Original scripts I own, and movies that I wrote that got made(Cocoon, Free Willy, others) are not included in Shot by the Writer. Five jobs are represented by bronze sculptures and the other 17 are photographs of shot up scripts.

Tom Benedek

Shot By The Writer

Thursday June 29, 2006

6:30 - 8:30

Exhibition June 29 - September 8, 2006

Shavelson-Webb Library

Stephen J. Cannell Gallery

Writers Guild Of America, West Building

7000 Third Street Ground Floor

Los Angeles, Ca 90048

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:34:38 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Snake rescuer's blog has great photos and stories

BB pal Jody Radzik (who runs highly-recommended false-prophet exposé site, Guruphiliac), has a terrific blog about his ongoing adventures as a snake rescuer in New Mexico.

I found this smooth green snake (Liochlorophis vernalis) near a small river on the west slope of the Sangrés north of Santa Fe. It was apparently eating some kind of small black beetle which was abundant in the bush over the snake. It bluffed a strike by holding its mouth open, which was dark purple inside.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:10:09 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Nanotube "battery" with big possibilities

MIT researchers are developing a capacitor based on carbon nanotubes that potentially could be useful for all-electric cars. Of course, this is still very early stage research, but according to a Boston Globe article, the capacitor could be filled "in about the same time it takes to fill up a gas tank" and could be recharged hundreds of thousands of times, unlike most of today's rechargeable batteries. From the Boston globe:

Electronics professor Joel Schindall drives a Toyota hybrid car, which uses an electric battery to reduce gasoline consumption. But Schindall would prefer an all-electric car, and he thinks his team's research could finally make such vehicles practical...

``It's one thing to postulate it, but that's a long way from being commercially viable and competitive in price." Schindall says he hopes to have a finished example by the fall.

Andrew Burke, research engineer at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis, said that the new capacitors would have to be many times more powerful than any previously created. ``I have a lot of respect for those guys, but I have not seen any data," Burke said. ``Until I see the data, I'm inclined to be skeptical."

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:09:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street

On April 28, 1973, Stevie Wonder tore up Sesame Street. YouTube has the clips of Stevie playing his own Sesame Street jam and a smoking version of Superstitious. Now *that's* Kindie Funk!
Link and Link (via Daddy Types)

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:51:43 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Kindie Rock in Salon

In Salon today, Scott Lamb writes about "kindie rock," indy rock for youngsters of single digit ages (and their parents) who can't dig the cheezy kiddie pop found on most modern children's CDs. From Salon:

There may be no clearer sign of how big kids music has become than the long list of artists who, like They Might Be Giants, have surrendered to its allure. Lisa Loeb put out a kids record called "Catch the Moon" in 2003; in March, Devo oversaw a kid-oriented rerelease of their album called "Devo 2.0" with Disney that had teenagers performing all the songs; Stephin Merritt and his band the Gothic Archies are releasing an album of 13 songs based on Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" in October. And even if they're not making full albums, many artists have been making guest appearances as kids performers: Nick Cave and Natalie Merchant show up in duets on the forthcoming Zanes album (Lou Reed appeared on Zanes' "Night Time!" in 2002), Belle and Sebastian have curated an album of children's songs by Franz Ferdinand, the Flaming Lips, Travis and others to be released in the fall, and the two albums of the recent "For the Kids" series have included artists like Billy Bragg and Wilco, Tom Waits, Jason Mraz, Cake and Nada Surf...

Indeed, the appeal of a lot of these new kids songs is that with just a little tweaking, they could be regular adult rock. Take rising star Justin Roberts, whose most recent record, "Meltdown," is clearly targeted to parents as well as their offspring. Roberts makes clever lyrical references to Elvis Costello and Modern English, and his excellent new record includes emo songs like the bittersweet ballad "Sand Castle" -- Roberts describes it as "Death Cab for Brian Wilson" -- that could almost find their way onto "The OC."

Roberts traces his musical transformation back to the early '90s. "I was playing in this band ... in Minneapolis called Pimentos for Gus and my daytime job was as a preschool teacher. I really just started writing songs for kids there because it seemed like the thing to do," he recalls. "Then even after I left the preschool, for some reason I just kept writing kids songs; I had no kids, I had no friends with kids."

So what does the music actually sound like? It ranges from folksy balladry to faux-ska and proto-punk. Roberts' "Meltdown" is all jumpy dance guitars; (Dan) Zanes' new album tends toward roots rock and charming folk tunes; (Laurie) Berkner's perky songs feature jangling guitars and piano that wouldn't be totally out of place on a Sufjan Stevens record. But like most kindie rock, their music has a special quality that somehow transcends the divide between music for children and music for adults.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:37:25 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

DIY, ad-hoc ISPs built by and for troops in Iraq: "Hajjinets"

Snip from an article by Carey Voss in Localist:

Since the military provides just 6 to 12 computers for every 1,000 or so troops, time limits of 10 to 15 minutes per day are often enforced at Morale Welfare Recreation Cafés (the complicated name for military internet cafés). Anyone who sorts through spam, reads forwarded articles and jokes, then tries to respond to “real” email knows 15 minutes isn't enough. Josh Hines, a soldier from Conway who recently returned from Iraq , confirmed that the Army lacks internet services and lamented the scarcity of entertainment options.

It should come as no surprise, then, that some enterprising military personnel have engineered an alternative. Hajjinets, the common term for troop-owned ISPs, have sprung to life on almost every base around Iraq. A typical Hajjinet is built and maintained by one or two soldiers and can provide nearly 24-hour internet access (until the region is stabilized and electrical lines can be installed, generators must occasionally be powered down for maintenance). Most Hajjinets are small, serving between 20 and 30 troops, but ISPs serving as many as 300 are known to exist. In a country wracked by war, where even the capital city receives only intermittent electricity, where people's lives are in constant peril, and where even basic necessities are scarce, this is no small victory.

A Hajjinet's key elements are satellite service from an international provider, a satellite dish to send and receive data, and a central location inside a base where network hardware is safe from attack. Like an internet-age Frankenstein, a Hajjinet's hardware must be purchased from an international source, shipped in, then cobbled together by military personnel, many of whom have little previous experience running a network.

Link to article. No credit given for image, courtesy Localistmagazine.com. A linguistic aside: Here's more on the etymology behind the word "hajji." Some consider its use by western military personnel to be an ethnic slur.

Hey, look, there's a hajjinet.com with info on some troop-built ISPs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Update: Ah, the photo above shows up here on hajjinet.com, too. It's captioned as "The PantherNET NOC" in Camp Habbaniyah, Iraq, and "believe it or not, it works." The photo appears to have been shot by Dave Coughanour, the soldier and "hajjinet sysadmin" who runs hajjinet.com.

Reader comment: Shahid Ahmad wrote in to express concern over use of the term "hajji":

Muslims (I hate to use the apologist prefix "moderate") are understandably sensitive nowadays, with a lot of language now assuming unwelcome Orwellian shades.

Any "nickname" for a group of people demeans and limits that group. In the post 9/11 world, the term "hajji", which to Muslims means a person who has undertaken one of the pillars of Islam, a pilgrimage to Mecca at the appointed time, has been appropriated by the US military. It is used to indicate any Muslim, in particular, Arabs (referred to as towel-heads in Gulf War 1), but now extended to include all Muslims, whether or not they have undertaken the hajj.

Obviously, if the US military had used the term "Iraqinet", that would have been totally acceptable. If they had used the term "Saddamnet", that would have been humorous, and largely inoffensive too. The term "Hajjinet" is ironic for sure, but deeply prejudiced and serves only to deepen the gulf between the West and the Muslim world.

In the eyes of Muslims - and many Europeans and indeed, some Americans, the US military has lost a lot of its lustre since World War 2, but especially since 9/11.

The use and abuse of language plays a large role in the shaping of opinion. We all need to be very careful what we allow to creep into our conversations and discourse at a time when what is needed most is understanding, respect and dialogue. The construct "Hajjinet" is most unhelpful.

It's much easier to kill a child (let's not mention the ethnicity or religion, a child is a child is a child) when they can be labelled "hajji" and not "human". The first step in making the destruction of a life easier is to dehumanise and depersonalise that person.

p.s. I used the term "towel-head" - the more common, but no less offensive term also used was "rag-head".

On many online discussions, Muslims are nowadays disparagingly referred to as "hajjis" more frequently by Americans and "jihadis" by the British. It's not hugely different to the disparaging term "Crusader" when used in reference to Western troops in Muslim lands.

And I dug this out from the FAQ page on hajjinet.com:

"I am sure this one is going to offend some people, but it shouldn't. Its not meant to be a racial slur and I have yet to meet a local that takes it as such."

That's besides the point. It has become a slur through derogatory usage. Why not use a better term?

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:51:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Underage teen girls rob adult man they met on MySpace

Life imitates Hard Candy? Much recent media freakage over MySpace involves adult men accused of preying on underage girls. But in a different sort of incident reported last week, two Florida girls aged 14 and 15 created a bogus profile on MySpace, grabbed a pair of pistols, then robbed an adult man who arranged to meet the lovely but fictitious 18-year-old "Natalia" in person.

According to the fake character's profile details, Natalia was "just lookin' for some fun." Snip:

"[One of the girls] took [a] gun out and put it to my head and told me to empty my pockets." The girls didn't get much because the victim had forgotten his wallet. They let him go, unharmed, and he called police.

Link to news story, here's video. (Thanks, Tian)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:23:05 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

DHS: NYT should be charged with treason over bank data story

Snip from Minneapolis Star-Tribune article:

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush administration on Sunday to seek criminal charges against newspapers that reported on a secret financial-monitoring program used to trace terrorists.

Rep. Peter King cited The New York Times in particular for publishing a story last week that the Treasury Department was working with the CIA to examine messages within a massive international database of money-transfer records.

Link (thanks, Jay)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:15:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

New NPR podcast: What Would Rob Do?

Rob Sachs is my producer at NPR News, but now he's also... a podcasting advice columnist! "What Would Rob Do" offers a weekly dose of practical counsel delivered by an inquisitive twentysomething dude (and that would be Rob). This week's episode: "How to come back from an insult." Link

(Image: photo I took of Rob when we were covering the SIMNUKE event in the Nevada desert).

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:59:20 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

World's oldest jewelry?

Scientists have identified what may be the oldest jewelry in the world. They found the perforated 100,000-year-old Nassariusshells in museum collections where they were stored after being gathered during the 1930s and 1940s from the Skhul site in Israel and Oued Djebbana in Algeria. The researchers report in the journal Science that the shells were used as beads for jewelry. From the Association for the Advancement of Science:

“Our paper supports the scenario that modern humans in Africa developed behaviors that are considered modern quite early in time, so that in fact these people were probably not just biologically modern but also culturally and cognitively modern, at least to some degree,” said study coauthor Francesco d’Errico of le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Universite Bordeaux 1 in Talence, France.

Until recently, researchers generally believed that the first signs of modern human culture appeared 40,000 years ago, when anatomically modern humans arrived in Europe. The cave paintings, musical instruments, jewelry and other artwork preserved from this time period, the Upper Paleolithic, indicate that humans were capable of symbolic thinking.

Jewelry probably conveyed many aspects of people’s social and cultural identities, and most archeologists agree that personal decoration was one of the most important expressions of modern human culture, according to study coauthor Marian Vanhaeren of University College London in London and CNRS in Nanterre, France...

By studying modern Nassarius shells from Mediterranean beaches, they also determined that shells with single holes in the centre are rare in nature and that Skhul and Djebbana inhabitants must have purposely perforated or deliberately picked out such shells, arguably for symbolic use.

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:54:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

FAA grounds LA Sheriffs' plans for "spy plane drones"

Plans by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's to use small, RC-controlled drones for surveillance and rescue efforts have been grounded by the FAA. I filed an early report about the "Skyseers" for NPR back in April, with details and photos in this BB post. Snip from an AP article on the FAA's spyplane beef:

The Federal Aviation Administration won't authorize the drones until it investigates a demonstration the sheriff's department conducted last week, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. "I wouldn't want to term us as peeved, but we were definitely surprised," Brown said.

She said agency officials told the sheriff's department it needed their authorization before flying the drones to ensure they don't interfere with other aircraft. The department could face disciplinary action over the demonstration. Sheriff's officials described the controversy as a simple misunderstanding.

"A private citizen can go to the store and buy one of those model airplanes and fly them around. But because we're doing it as a public service, we have to deal with the FAA?" said Sheriff's Cmdr. Sid Heal.

Image courtesy of Commander Heal, LASD. I'd have to go back to my original transcripts from the April reports to check, but if memory serves -- my NPR producer Rob Sachs and I asked Commander Heal about the FAA issue, and the sense among LASD officials was that this was a non-issue. While press accounts refer to the "SkySeer" unmanned drones as "planes," they're more like very small, kite-weight model airplanes. Other than the optics and the high-tech control system, the thing looked absolutely identical to the hobbyists' toys you might see at a flying field on the weekend. During the "SkySeer" demo Commander Heal arranged for us, the device flew maybe 25 feet high, tops. Hardly the altitude where interference with aircraft would seem to be an issue. But IANAL and I am not an FAA official, so -- /shrugs/. (Thanks, Jim Graham!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:35:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Nanobot, hacktivism, strip mall, speed dating added to OED

On June 15, the Oxford English Dictionary added a slew of new words including: nanobot, hacktivism, mash-up, adware, heroin chic, air kiss, freakazoid (n. *and* adj.), geocache, Google, rug muncher, dotcom, and player-hater. Link to OED page, Link to Minesota Public Radio story (via Howard Lovy's Nanobot)

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:08:13 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

New social map of blogosphere's yummy, caramel-filled core

Matthew Hurst of Nielsen BuzzMetrics created this map of some thousand or so of the web's most popular blogs It's one of several maps of the internets featured in an article from this week's Chronicle of Higher Education. About this image:

The size of the circles on Mr. Hurst’s map indicates the numbers of links to the blogs. The colors of the circles show the type of blog software used or on what kind of server the sites are hosted, telling technology-oriented researchers the more popular servers and software. The map indicates that the most linked-to blogs focus on technology and social-political commentary.

Link (hides behind a paywall in about a week). The map's designer, Matthew Hurst, has launched an internet-map gallery on his blog where he'll post more like that: Link. Here's a neat one of the LiveJournal-o-sphere: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:24:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Report: Greenland shedding its ice-sheet as temps rise

BoingBoing reader John Parres says,

There is a moment in "An Inconvenient Truth" where Al Gore explains what is spelled out in this article from today's LA Times. In Greenland (and Antarctica) melting glaciers are forming pools (and small lakes) on the surface. What wasn't anticipated or modeled is that this meltwater is boring streams down *through* the glacier and forming a layer of water at the bottom between the glacier and land... causing the glacier to slip and break apart faster than imagined.

Here's a snip from that article:

In an influential paper published in Science, Zwally surmised that the ice sheets had accelerated in response to warmer temperatures, as summer meltwater lubricated the base of the ice sheet and allowed it to slide faster toward the sea. In a way no one had detected, the warm water made its way through thousands of feet of ice to the bedrock — in weeks, not decades or centuries. So much water streamed beneath the ice that in high summer the entire ice sheet near Swiss Camp briefly bulged 2 feet higher, like the crest of a subterranean wave.

Link to LA Times story. Reader comment: Alastor sez,

Al Gore DID talk about the problem of these lubricating pools of water forming between land and glacier in the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth'. I just thought I'd mention that.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:59:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Stephen Colbert's "World of Colbertcraft"

Jamais sez, "Stephen Colbert did a short bit for the MI6 game marketing conference this week in San Francisco, talking about his upcoming game World of Colbertcraft (along with his earlier game, Escape from Skateboard Mountain). It's short, but worth watching simply for Colbert saying 'Nintendo Wiiiiii.'" Link (Thanks, Jamais!)

Update: Here's the entire clip

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:25:54 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Illustrating water

Leif Peng of Today's Inspiration has a couple of great illustrations from old men's magazines of water scenes. This underwater scene is especially nice. Look at the guy above the surface of the water. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:45:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Reasons that HD DVD formats have already failed

Brandon sez, "Over at Audioholics, Clint DeBoer has posted a very compelling list of why the next-gen DVD formats are already dead in the water. All this time I've been worried I was gonna need to replace my DVD collection next year, but now I feel a little more secure in my Versatile Disc investments. His number 2 reason:"

Format Wars Don’t Sell Players

The only reason Sony’s Playstation, Microsoft’s Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube can sell so well simultaneously is because of the prevalence of excellent software titles. People want to buy the hardware just so they can play the software. This is not a format war – it is choice, just like Chevy and Ford (and just like the gaming systems, some people have one of each). The high definition DVD formats, however are really just the same source material packaged in two different wrappers- not to provide choice, mind you, but because the two camps simply are too greedy to combine forces, and not innovative enough to drive two truly separate products successfully. Take careful note – a format war is NOT competition, it is a hindrance and the bane of high definition DVDs.

Link (Thanks, Brandon!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:23:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Disneyland Pirates of Caribbean reopens: video, review

The newly refurbished Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean ride has opened, rebuilt to include elements from the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise (most notably, several appearances by a Johnny Depp animatronic in Jack Sparrow drag). It sounds like everything's gotten an update: better robots, better sound, better soundtrack, and what appears to be a pretty painless integration of the film with the ride. I can't wait to see it once I've moved to LA (Just so long as they don't try to merge the Haunted Mansion ride with the unwatchably crummy film adaptation).

Overall I am very, very impressed with how this rehab turned out. I was concerned about the Depp-ification of the ride, but I think they handled it just perfectly. There's certainly new stuff to see, and new faces spouting new dialogue, but it's all meshed perfectly with what has always been there.

The removal of the 1997 rehab figures and scenes is also a breath of fresh air. Aside from the Politically Correct junk that gone jammed in there, those World of Motion figures never quite gelled with their environments in my opinion. The lone exception being the conquistador guys they added to the Fort around '00. But the new stuff and new figures really meshes nicely with the original surroundings.

WDI added quite a bit of new props and eye candy. And someone in Imagineering must have gotten a really good deal on wood barrels and boxes, because there are dozens of barrels and boxes everywhere now from the loading area on through the entire ride. Maybe the townspeople were going to open a 19th century version of The Container Store or something? Who knows what WDI was thinking with all the barrels.

Link to video ridethrough, Link to Disney Blog review (Thanks, JayF and W Elias Disney!)

Update: Worth1000 photoshopper Larry sez, "I predicted the Johnny Depp/Pirates Ride thing 3 years ago."

Update 2 Here's some better video -- thanks, Gary!

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:53:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Laughing Song from Chinese kids' TV

The Laughing Song is a youtube captured from Japanese Chinese kids' TV -- adorable Chinese children laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing until you want to stick forks in your eardrums. Link (Thanks, Miss Cellania!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:22:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Canadian Gov't Pays Copyright Lobby to Lobby

Michael sez,

While the Canadian goverment is focused on accountability, my weekly Law Bytes column suggests that another form of lobbying exists that requires closer scrutiny - lobbying that is financed by the government itself. According to government documents obtained under the Access to Information Act , last fall the Ministry of Canadian Heritage entered into a multi-year agreement with the Creators' Rights Alliance, a national coalition of artists groups and copyright collectives with members both small (the League of Canadian Poets) and large (SOCAN and Access Copyright). The CRA has eight objectives, which notably include "to ensure that government policy and legislation recognize that copyright is fundamentally about the rights of creators" and "to ensure that international treaties and obligations to which Canada is signatory provide the strongest possible protection for the rights of creators."

The Canadian Heritage - CRA agreement, which could run until 2008 at a total cost of nearly $400,000, appears to be designed primarily to enable the CRA to lobby the government on copyright reform. The structure of the contract itself appears to have raised some eyebrows within Canadian Heritage. As the funding was being considered, an internal memo noted that the Copyright Policy Branch "would be funding an organization through this contract to provide comments on government policy. There is a concern that the Copyright Policy Branch would be setting an unwanted precedent in such matters." To address that issue, a different branch within the same Cultural Affairs department administers the contract.

Internal correspondence also reveals that the contract was designed to further the department's own policy objectives. A senior official outlined the rationale behind the proposed contract, stating in an email that once the CRA funding was complete, "we should have streamlined, stable funding to an organization whose structure, purpose and activities suit our own policy needs."

Those activities were clearly identified in an email to Canadian Heritage from CRA's co-chair who commented that "the job of taking on the educational sector on copyright reform is clearly a huge and major undertaking," adding that education was a "well heeled, publicly funded lobby. . . devoted to abolishing creators' rights on the Internet."

Link (Thanks, Michael!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:25:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Heinlein-inspired tesseract house in Second Life

James sez, "A Stanford math student just created a working version of a hypercube house, inspired by Robert A. Heinlein's classic "-- And He Built A Crooked House" short story. When you walk through four rooms in a straight line, or make three ninety degree turns, and you end up right back in the place you started. What's just as cool is the ingenious programming the creator, Seifert Surface, uses to maintain the illusion of moving through four dimensions." Link (Thanks, James!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:13:55 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

How can we keep the Bells from committing net-neutricide?

I've started writing a new column for InformationWeek magazine, and in the inaugural installment, I've written a piece about Net Neutrality. I start from the premise that the Bells' plans for a tiered Internet are bad -- something that there's widespread agreement on, nothwithstanding the Bells' astroturfing -- but go on to ask what regulation and which agency is likely to prevent them from committing neutricide:

How do you detect when the Bells are committing neutricide? It can't be as simple as measuring throughput. There's a host in China that I can't reach from my ISP in London because of an incorrectly configured router at Sprint. That's stupid and painful, but it's not the same thing as anti-neutral. Distinguishing stupidity from malice from outside is going to be very hard.

One thing we don't want is something like the SEC's anti-insider-trading rules. Network neutrality rules won't have much practical use if the only way to get them enforced is to convince a bureaucrat at the FCC to raid AT&T's sales office, seize its files, and investigate your suspicions of wrongdoing. The entities who have the power to spur crack Commission Commandos into action are the powerful ones, already best equipped to fight the Bells on their home turf. Spunky startups aren't going to be the ones with real leet skillz at pushing paper on the Hill.

We don't want to encourage a situation in which in Bells spend ten years coming to detente with the YaGoogleSofts of the world, agreeing finally to shut everyone else out.

Now, there is an alternative, which is to set things up so that big companies can act as proxies for the little guys' interests. That's how it works sometimes in copyright. Home taping was made legal because Sony, a corporate giant, was willing to take on the Hollywood studios in the eight-year Betamax legal battle. Once they'd won that fight, all the little companies got to enjoy the precedent they'd set, and we got to enjoy the explosion of cheap and flexible home recording gear.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:00:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

World's most expensive cities

The Sydney Morning Herald has a surprising list of the 50 most expensive cities in the world to live in, factoring in "housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment." Moscow is more expensive than Tokyo?

1. Moscow
2. Seoul
3. Tokyo
4. Hong Kong
5. London
6. Osaka
7. Geneva
8. Copenhagen
9. Zurich
10. Oslo
10. New York

Link (Thanks, Miss Cellania!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:18:47 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Super Mario bedroom

This bedroom has been elaborately redecorated to turn it into a replica of Super Mario World; the walls have been painted and green pipes have been affixed to the walls and ceiling. The effect is marvelous and makes me very jealous. Link (via Digg)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:57:10 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Online casino publishes deck-hashes to demonstrate honesty

PhatHash is an online blackjack casino that demonstrates the honesty of its virtual decks by making their mathematical "hashes" available as they enter play. During and after play, the hashing algorithm can be applied to the visible portion of the deck to ensure that the house isn't changing the cards to improve their odds.

# The MD5 hash (a standard and well-known cryptographic function) of that deck is calculated.

# This MD5 hash is published openly and immediately on on the PhatHash Log Page, becoming completely transparent information that anyone can examine. Anyone, at any time, including our competitors!

# The croupier in the multiplayer BJ room tells everyone what the new hash is. Anyone playing or auditing the game can verify that it is the same data that appears on the PhatHash Log Page at that moment.

# Play then proceeds with the new shoe of 520 cards. Note that anyone can audit the cards as they are dealt to the player(s) over the course of the hands to follow. Eventually in the course of play that shoe will be complete and it will be time to shuffle a new shoe.

Link (via Oblomovka)

Update: A reader writes, "The integrity of the deck doesn't matter worth *anything*. The hash insures (or is supposed to) that they haven't changed the cards middeck. There is NO protection against stacking the deck."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:10:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

70s LA movie reviewed: Cisco Pike

The LA Times' Sunday magazine, called West, has an article about a little known movie called Cisco Pike a "hippie-burnout drama ... in which the optimism of the 1960s slips into the disappointing loneliness that Los Angeles can cultivate like no other city." It stars Kris Kristofferson as a one-hot wonder rock musician who now needs to deal dope to make ends meet. Gene Hackman, Harry Dean Stanton, and Karen Black* also star.

It was finally released on DVD this year to little fanfare—so little that Norton didn't know of the release until I contacted him. In a final indignity, the packaging was adorned with this supremely backhanded compliment from critic Leonard Maltin: "Surprisingly Good."

But Cisco Pike is much more than that: It belongs in a pantheon of films—along with Sunset Boulevard, Mi Vida Loca and Valley Girl -- that have managed to capture in-the-moment pieces of the L.A. landscape that are no more.

Kristofferson's character, Cisco Pike, can't accept that his 1966 song "Breakdown" will stand as his only hit. Now he sends out demo tapes, collects rejections and bitterly corrects music-biz slicksters about the trivia of his distant career:

"I saw you guys at the Forum in, what was it, '68?"

"The Shrine '67."

Link

(*Karen Black rode in the same train with my family and I last week. She's one of my favorite actresses so it was fun. I didn't want to bug her but my three-year-old daughter had a chatty conversation with her about make-up.)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:47:26 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Macrame owl gallery

Here's a gallery of macrame owls, crafty home decor elements that were made by many people suffering from temporary aesthetic blindness in the 1970s. My mom made us a huge macrame owl that hung at the foot of the stairs for years. I loved it. Link (Thanks, Sarah!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:14:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video of girl with pickle phobia video

Maury Povich torments a girl with a severe pickle phobia. Link (thanks, Coop!!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:01:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Seduction geek jargon glossary

Neil Strauss's entertaining book The Game -- about the world of geeks who have developed algorithms for picking up women in clubs and other social settings -- is loaded with arcane jargon used by speed seduction practitioners.

Here's a website that has a large glossary of pickup artist jargon.

HP: Hook Point. The point at which general interest and neutral interest communications with a set turns into the set being "hooked" by your presence (the group has an active interest to want you to stay, a chick's feeling of attraction is switched on).

IVD: Instant Value Display. Something which cues, very quickly, a display of your value.

OQ: OverQualify. The point where the chick rules herself out for not feeling competent enough for any kind of relationship with you. A situation where you come across so smooth and alpha that you simply overqualify yourself to your target.

Link (via Sexoteric)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:49:18 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Woman caught with 320 heroin-filled condoms in stomach

An Australian woman faces life imprisonment for swallowing 320 condoms containing a total of 300 grams of heroin. She was picked up by authorities after her flight from Singapore landed in Sydney. The news reports don't say how the fuzz knew the women was smuggling the drug. Probably a tipster. Link

Reader comment: Chris says:

I'd wager on drug mule behavior before I'd wager on a tipster. Cops employ smuggler profiles to catch these types of smugglers. It's interesting stuff. Here's some links:

Drug smuggling behavior: a developmental smuggling model: Part 1. $9.95

Drug smuggling behavior: a developmental smuggling model: Part 2.

Wikipedia article on smuggling operations.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:12:23 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Disney: We [will|won't] sue if you put Pooh on a baby's headstone

Disney threatened to sue a British stonemason for copyright infringement over a plan to carve Winnie the Pooh into the headstone of a stillborn infant. After negative publicity, they changed their mind.

"Disney make billions of pounds every year from children but they won't let a family put a picture on a stillborn baby's headstone," he said. "It is ridiculous. The family are upset enough as it is."

Link (via Fark)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:56:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Birds on acid

Why have birds in Huntington Beach, California been flipping out over the last week? On Thursday, a pelican flew right through a car windshield (it lived). Meanwhile, the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center picked up three birds that we're apparently acting confused and fielded calls about sixteen more. Turns out, these birds may have domoic acid poisoning, the same illness that may have caused the 1961 northern California bird invasion that inspired Hithcock. From the Los Angeles Times:

Although toxicology tests aren't complete (there are no bird breathalyzers), such behavior usually signals domoic acid poisoning from eating algae, said Lisa Birkle, assistant wildlife director at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, which is caring for the pelicans...

According to news reports, thousands of befuddled birds rained down on Northern California towns in August 1961, slamming into buildings and even pecking eight humans...

Nobody is predicting a Hitchcockian invasion here, but Birkle urged Southern California residents to be on the lookout for pelicans acting disoriented or turning up in unusual locations.

Link (Thanks, Mark Pescovitz!)

UPDATE: Thanks to the readers who point out that The Birds was based on story by Daphne Du Maurier. However, Hitchcock apparently also drew inspiration from the 1961 invasion. Link to Santa Cruz Sentinel article

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:48:38 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

PKD robot still lost

Earlier this year, I posted about how Hanson Robotics' amazing Philip K. Dick robot, an android version of the late SF author, went missing. Well, according to this New York Times story from today, PKD is still MIA. Unless this is a publicity stunt, the loss of the robot is a major bummer, especially on the eve of the July 7 release of the film A Scanner Darkly, based on his excellent novel. Apparently, David Hanson accidentally left the head, packed in an American Tourister suitcase, on an airplane when head to change planes on the way from Dallas to San Francisco. From the NYT:

After landing in San Francisco, he notified the airline, whose officials apparently found the head in Las Vegas, packed it in a box and sent it on the next flight to San Francisco. Mysteriously, it never arrived.

"It's hard to know where they went wrong," said Mr. Hanson. "Did it go on to another city? Did it get mistagged? Did it end up in a warehouse? What happened?" He still doesn't know, though he is in touch with America West every few weeks in a vain quest for answers...

For Mr. Hanson the missing android is an open sore, straining his relations with Mr. Dick's foundation and the author's two surviving daughters, who provided access to much of Mr. Dick's nonpublished materials, which were downloaded into the android's brain. Sorry, database.

It took Mr. Hanson and a team of other experts six months to build the robot, and required $25,000 from student loans and investors. He also regards it as an artist might a masterpiece, one of a kind and invaluable in its own right.

Link (Thanks, Thau!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:36:59 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sealand devastated by fire, sole human on site injured

The "independent state" of Sealand, home to data havens and pirate radio operators, was ruined yesterday by a massive blaze. Snip from a local news report:

The so-called Principality of Sealand, seven miles off the coast of Felixstowe and Harwich, was evacuated at lunchtime yesterdayafter a generator caught fire. Thames Coastguard, Harwich RNLI lifeboat, Felixstowe Coastguard rescue teams, firefighting tug Brightwell, the RAF rescue helicopter from Wattisham and 15 Suffolk based firefighters from the National Maritime Incident Response Group (MIRG) were all called into action to tackle the blaze.

One man, believed to be a security guard, was airlifted from the scene and taken to Ipswich Hospital with smoke inhalation but no one else was on the Second World War gun emplacement.

Link.

Michael Bates of Sealand's royal family vows to rebuild: Link. No word yet on exactly how the fire happened, or whether foul play may have been involved, but:

There have been at least seven attempts by raiders to try to seize it from the Bates family with petrol bombs, shotguns and hand-to-hand fighting.

(thanks, Jake)

Reader comment: Bob Brinkman asks,

If Sealand was completely evacuated, hasn't it ceased to be a nation? My understanding is that nations MUST have a permanent population. If the sole occupant of Sealand was evacuated, Sealand ceased to be a nation. If that is the case, and Sealand now resides in British territorial waters, all thoughts of regaining sovereignty are most likely gone.

Robert de Bath says,

Sealand's status will not change because of this. The UK Gov doesn't see them as an independent nation anyway, and would therefore not 'claim' Sealand as part of the UK because they are already seen to be. They can get away with things because they are inaccessable but really all it means is that they don't have any busybody neighbours; they often go into town, like the rest of us, and can expect a knock through the door if the police would really like a chat.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:23:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Upset gentleman complains of "rogue helicopter pilot" during city meeting

Man with Bruce Jenner hair-do and fashionable white turtleneck uses strong language and unusual gesticulations to tell Charlotte, NC council members that he is upset by bothersome a "rogue helicopter pilot." Link (thanks, Coop!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:08:08 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Annual Disneyland goth day this August

Bats Day in the Fun Park is the annual, unauthorized goth day at Disneyland. The eighth of these is coming up this August, and has metastasized into a weekend-long festival with a conference hotel, music, and a "black market" selling gothy stuff. The event culminates with a mass riding of the Haunted Mansion and a group photo of hundreds -- thousands? -- of goths posing with the Mansion. I'm moving to LA in about three weeks, so I'll actually be a local when the next one of these rolls around. I'm really going to try to make it this year.

Is there any kind of dress code?

You can dress to impress, but keep in mind that it may be very hot that day. From our previous trips we found out that Disney will not allow capes or fishnet stocking, on guys, to be worn into the park. You can try to wear them in, but keep in mind that you may be asked to take them off and place them back in you car. One of the main reasons that there is a dress code is due to the fact that Disney does not want anyone from the regular visitors mistaken any of us as one of their characters or cast members.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:59:33 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, June 23, 2006

Japanese video giant meteor collision

Here's a happy computer video of what might happen if a big meteor hits earth. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:30:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Writing for Wired, circa 1998, by Paul Di Filippo

I just stumbled across this amazing piece by Paul Di Filippo on the trials and tribulations of writing an article for Wired in 1998. It's scary and funny. And I owe Paul a long-overdue apology for dragging him into the ordeal in the first place. Sorry, Paul! Link to PDF file| Link to the Wired article

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:43:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tiki Room is 43 today

In honor of the 43d anniversary of Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room -- my favorite animatronic show in the universe -- How has linked to a bunch of Tiki Room media files online, including the song from the Tokyo Disneyland Tiki Room, and photos and postcards of the Tiki Room. The Tiki Room features many wisecracking, singing birds, flowers and totem poles, who perform classical music, the Hawai'ian War Chant, and Let's All Sing Like the Birdies sing, while making toxic, grampa-grade jokes. Link (Thanks, How!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:10:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Darwin's tortoise dead at 176

Charles Darwin's tortoise, Harriet, has died at the Australia Zoo near Brisbane. Darwin brought Harriet (then called Harry: Darwin was quite a naturalist, but an undistinguished tortoise-sexer as these things go) from the Galapagos Islands in 1835. I had the pleasure of meeting Harriet last spring. She was awesomely photogenic, and her keeper told us that she'd roamed free in the Brisbane botanical gardens, giving kids tortoise-back rides, until the botanists got tired of her eating the rare plants. At 176, she was thought to be the world's oldest living tortoise. Link (Thanks, WY!)

Update: Natalija sends in this story that suggests that Harriet was the second-oldest tortoise in the world.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:52:59 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO share a WiFi connection

I'm at the international Creative Commons iSummit in Rio this weekend, and Wikipedia France's Jean-Baptiste Soufron and I pooled our efforts to share the limited WiFi with the whole room this morning, using a retractable Ethernet cable and two laptops. Jean-Baptiste created a short video explaining the technique, and has already posted it. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:52:54 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Spanish Copyleft Foundation to launch

Escribano sez, "In October, 2006 the 'Fundación Copyleft' will start its activities in Spain:"

The Copyleft Foundation is created in order to defend and stimulate artistic, cultural and scientific production under copyleft licenses.

We believe that copyleft licenses are those which allow creators a greater control over their arts, investigations and projects and a more reasonable economic compensation for their work, as well as allowing the final users a better access to and enjoyment of products under this type of non-restrictive licenses.

For that purpose the Copyleft Foundation will carry out specific projects aimed towards the development and awareness of activities under these copyleft permits in the areas of the arts, culture and science, coordinating and accelerating the synergies that come from individuals, private companies and civil services.

The Copyleft Foundation, which initiates its course this coming month of October year 2006, issues a formal invitation to participate to all those interested in copyleft and who form a part of the chain of assessment of the arts, culture an science as well as individuals and associative companies.

Link (Thanks, Escribano!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:17:01 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Jesus band-aids

Jesus band-aids -- for all your sacred boo-boos. Link (Thanks, Chad!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:14:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wide-scale graft in China and creampuff anime chipsurfers

Bruce Sterling writes,

Jinging and Chacha are Chinese Internet cops. These fetching Sino-anime cartoons were recently placed on servers in Shenzhen so as to establish an atmosphere of deterrence among Chinese websurfers tempted to get up to mischief on the global Internet.

These two digitized chip-surfing cream-puffs may have a job of work on their hands -- not with China's online dissidents, but with its globally-minded bankers. It would seem that about 4,000 Chinese bankers have filled their pockets with fifty billion dollars of embezzled Chinese money and absconded overseas. Who wants to bet they booked those trips by Internet? (...)

The name 'ChaCha' probably isn't that funny when you're down at the Shenzhen station house with the rubber hoses.

Link to Bruce's post, and Link to IHT article, "Global hunt highlights scale of graft in China." BoingBoing's Mark Frauenfelder posted earlier about JingJing and Chacha, right here: Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:02:49 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Nerdy t-shirt: "broken image"

Nice. $15 at jinx.com. Link. (Thanks, Giorgio)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:41:13 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Swiss Army Knife sofa converts to many configs

This sofa is inspired by Swiss Army Knives; its many sections swing around 360 degrees, creating many different configurations depending on whether you're having a quiet evening with the console or throwing a party. Link (Thanks, Anita)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:39:00 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

CSI South Park: distributed audio forensics to decrypt Cartman

BoingBoing reader Zac says,

John Walker is recruiting all-comers to help decipher the distorted wailings of the musical finale of the 1999 South Park movie. As he puts it, regardless of what lab trickery you might see on "grotesque fascist forensic-porn wallow CSI", in the real world "audio is rather more messy and the associative comprehension of human meatware still blows away digital signal processing". So boot up your meatware and help figure out what the hell Cartman is saying. If you submit a suggested hearing for one of the words (or anything else to his website), he uses a kind-of-cool "sentience test" CAPTCHA based not on distorted letters but a simple linear equation you must solve for x.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:37:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Woohoo, Futurama will return to Comedy Central!

BoingBoing reader Chris Wells was among many who wrote in to say...

As if Futurama fans haven't been through enough with Billy West's announcing this and later retracting it a few months ago -- it has been confirmed that Futurama really will be returning with new episodes on Comedy Central. All of the original voice actors signed new deals recently, and here's to hoping the writers join in on the fun.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:35:33 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

This is your brain on IEDs: anti-carbombing PSA for Iraq

A Hollywood-budget, American-made television public service announcement to discourage suicide bombings in Iraq is currently in production. The 60-second spot will air on Iraqi TV this summer:

There was an air of paranoia on the set last month even though the press were initially invited down to cover the 3-day shoot. Reporters and cameramen were banished to the perimeters of the scene and were kept in check by several crew members. They were also asked not to speak to the actors, extras or any of the Lebanese production team. Despite all the secrecy surrounding the project, NEWSWEEK has learned that the high-tech PSA will cost over $1 million to make and may even air in other Middle Eastern countries. This pricey and unorthodox attempt to subdue the violence is backed by a group of mystery donors. "I call them an independent, non-governmental group of scholars, non political people," says Plotkin. "Some may live in Iraq, some may live abroad. For a variety of different reasons—from safety concerns to wanting the focus to remain on the issue itself, they decided to remain anonymous."

Link. Image: David Frucht/Newsweek. (thanks, John Kinsella)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:30:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Template for news stories on US government data gathering

Daniel Solove says, " NSA warrantless wiretaps. NSA collection of phone records. CIA gathering of financial records. The stories are endless. To help out reporters, I thought I'd just write a quick and easy template to make reporting a little bit easier." Excerpt:

Under a top secret program initiated by the Bush Administration after the Sept. 11 attacks, the [name of agency (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.)] have been gathering a vast database of [type of records] involving United States citizens.

"This program is a vital tool in the fight against terrorism," [Bush Administration official] said. "Without it, we would dangerously unsafe, and the terrorists would have probably killed you and every other American citizen." The Bush Administration stated that the revelation of this program has severely compromised national security.

"This program is a threat to privacy and civil liberties," [name of privacy advocate] said. But [name of spokesperson for Bush Administration] said: "This is a very limited program. It only contains detailed records about every American citizen. That's all. It does not compromise civil liberties. We have a series of procedures in place to protect liberty."

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:27:05 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Is that a handgun in your pocket, or... no, really.

"Toters" is a line of blue jeans designed for "conceal carry" use -- hiding your personal protection weapon. "The naturally soft cotton denim fabric will not wear through from carrying a handgun, knife, or other solid steel object." They're designed by Blackie Collins, a fellow who also produces non-metallic knives that can evade metal detectors. Video clips on the website show Toters in action. Behind each front pocket lies a seekrit inner compartment camouflaged by a dark Cordura lining. Alas, it seems they only offer men's sizes -- what, no low-rise misses petites? Link (Thanks, Paul)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:20:44 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Indian auto maker giant Tata to launch $2,000 car

Make way for the hundred dollar laptop of automobiles:

Tata Group Chief Ratan Tata told shareholders that the launch of the car would create a new paradigm in low-cost personal transport, carve out a new market segment and reach a broader base of the pyramid.

"The styling and designing of the car have been completed and prototypes are being tested in the plant. It will be a rear engine, 4-5 seat, four-door car with about a 30 horsepower engine," Tata said in the company's annual report for 2005-06.

The car will be launched in early 2008 and we believe it will be extremely attractive to the Indian consumer, particularly younger families, at a price level of about Rs one lakh, Tata said.

Link, via indianraj blog. One lakh rupees is 100,000 rupees, which is about $2100 in US dollars. (Thanks, Razib Ahmed)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:04:37 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Web Zen: Flyer zen

rave flyer price guide

more rave flyers

punk

las vegas punk

square dance

danceteria

hip hop

arcade

Web Zen Home, Store (Thanks Frank!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:57:20 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Al Qaedaism, communism, and 1949 MGM water ballet musicals

Snip from an essay by Arnaud de Borchgrave:

Communism had Karl Marx. Al Qaedaism has Sayed Qtub. Who's he, most people would ask. The ideology that nurtured modern Islamic extremism, and spawned every violent movement from Hezbollah to al Qaeda, was born in 1952 when Qtub, an Egyptian writer, returned from studying American literature at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo.

The tipping point from detached observer to extremist ideologue took place at a church dance in Greeley when, as Qtub recalled in "The America I Saw," the pastor dimmed the lights and put on the come-hither number "Baby, It's Cold Outside," a hit tune from the MGM movie "Neptune's Daughter" -- a guy, girl and bathing suit lemon -- with Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban.

"The room," Qtub wrote "became a confusion of feet and legs; arms twisted around hips; lips met lips; chests pressed together," That was the scene that turned him off American culture in particular and Western culture in general -- and onto Islamic fundamentalism. "American girls," Qtub said, "know perfectly well the seductive power of their bodies... that it resides in their face, expressive eyes and hungry lips. They know that seduction resides in firm round breasts and hungry lips, full buttocks and well shaped legs -- and they show all this without trying to conceal it."

Link (Thanks, Bill Fletcher)

Reader comment: Rick Burgess says,

The Power of Nightmares (3hrs and available on google video I think) by Adam Curtis does an excellent job of telling this story; that while the American experience turned Qtub towards extreme devoutness it was being tortured by Egyptian jailers (with CIA involvement) that made him violent. It's an important point -it wasn't sexy dances that made him favour violence it was being subjected to violence that did it. And de Borchgrave comparing communism to a terrorist group doesn't inspire confidence... as does anything in the Washington Times which is Rev. Moon's mouthpiece.

James says,

It's highly simplistic to assert, as Rick Burgess does, that Qutb only turned extreme after being imprisoned by the Nasser regime. In fact, Qutb *supported* Nasser during his military coup, and unlike many fellow members of the Muslim Brotherhood, opposed Nasser creating a democracy in Egypt. On the Wiki: "In contrast, Qutb was very supportive of Nasser's autocratic movement and publically advocated for a 'just dictatorship'". This was *before* Nasser's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. Link

Burgess' attempt to minimize the totalitarian nature of Qutb's version of Islam doesn't inspire much confidence, citing "The Power of Nightmares", a program that terrorism expert Peter Bergen noted, in a review for the liberal-left Nation magazine, "sometimes has the feel of a Noam Chomsky lecture channeled by Monty Python": Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:41:35 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Clowns sabotage Minuteman III nuclear missile

Defensetech blog reports that a retired Catholic priest and two vets broke in to a military nuclear weapons facility and banged a Minuteman III missile silo cover with hammers, in an attempt to disable the weapon. Oh yeah, they were dressed in clown suits while they did it.

The trio -- members of the Luck, Wisconsin group Nukewatch -- said the break-in was part of "a call for national repentance" for the Hiroshima and Nagaski A-bombings in 1945.

The activists used bolt-cutters to get into the E-9 Minuteman II facility, located just northwest of the White Shield, North Dakota. "Using a sledgehammer and household hammers, they disabled the lock on the personnel entry hatch that provides access to the warhead and they hammered on the silo lid that covers the 300 kiloton nuclear warhead," the group said in a statement. "The activists painted 'It's a sin to build a nuclear weapon' on the face of the 110-ton hardened silo cover and the peace activists poured their blood on the missile lid."

This was all done while wearing face paint, dunce caps, misfitting overalls, and bright yellow wigs.

Link. When they were finished, the three clowns piled into a teeny-weeny car with a talking seal in the trunk, and the bearded lady drove them all off into the sunset. What I love about this country is that these men were not shot on sight.

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:22:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Media scholar Henry Jenkins starts blogging

MIT prof Henry Jenkins is pretty much the sharpest person I've ever met when it comes to the cultural implications of fandom, fannish activity, fan fiction, and participatory culture (a phrase he coined). He's started a blog, and just from the first handful of entries I know I'm going to be finding gems there every day.

First, the Snakes on a Plane phenomenon has been building momentum for well over a year now. In the old days, the public would never have known about a film this far out of the gate. They might have learned about it when the previews hit the theatre -- a phenomenon which itself is occurring earlier and earlier in the production cycle -- or even given the fairly low-brow aspirations of this particular title -- when the film actually hit the theatre. In the old days, this would have been an exploitation movie of the kind that Roger Corman used to crank out in the 1950s and 1960s and destined to play on the second bill at the local drive-in. The goal would be to use a easily exploitable concept, a vivid poster and advertising campaign to generate heat quickly: then get into town and out again before anyone knew what hit them.

But, these days, grassroots intermediaries such as Ain't It Cool News are feeding the public's interest for inside information, starting to generate buzz almost from the moment rights are purchased or stars cast for a forthcoming production. Much as day traders have used the online world to become much more aware of every tick and twitch of the Fortune 500, the movie fans are ever attentive to anything which might impact a film's performance at the box office.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:32:49 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video mashup of Country Bears and American History X

This youtube mashes up the trailers for the crummy Disney ridespolitation flick The Country Bear Jamboree and sterling commentary of US race relations, "American History X." Putting the narration for Country Bears over a short film about a young boy's induction into neo-Naziism isn't exactly funny ha-ha, but it's pretty definitely funny-weird. Link (Thanks, Cian!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:30:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Domestic surveillance in US: not just phone data, banking too

Snip from NYT story by Eric Lichtblau and James Risen:

Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly involve wire transfers and other methods of moving money overseas or into and out of the United States. Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:25:26 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cryopreservation may not damage cells

University of Helsinki chemist Anatoli Bogdan reports that cells, tissues, and perhaps the body, could be cryopreserved without suffering damage from ice crystals. Most people are familiar with cryopreservation as a method that could someday enable dead people to be reanimated when cures are available for whatever killed them. (Note: Cryonics organization Alcor says their technique doesn't cause the formation of ice crystals anyway.) Bogdan reports the results of his study in the scientific publication American Chemical Society (ACS) Journal of Physical Chemistry B. From the ACS News Service:

In medicine, cryopreservation involves preserving organs and tissues for transplantation or other uses. Only certain kinds of cells and tissues, including sperm and embryos, currently can be frozen and successfully rewarmed. A major problem hindering wider use of cryopreservation is formation of ice crystals, which damage cell structures...

"It may seem fantastic, but the fact that in aqueous solution, [the] water component can be slowly supercooled to the glassy state and warmed back without the crystallization implies that, in principle, if the suitable cryoprotectant is created, cells in plants and living matter could withstand a large supercooling and survive," Bogdan explained.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:48:23 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Biometric payment at convenience stores

Coast to Coast Family Convenience store in St. Petersburg, Florida now accepts payment via fingerprint scan. The technology is provided by San Francisco start-up Pay By Touch. From the St. Petersburg Times:

"People either love it or think it's a sign of the coming apocalypse,'' said Amer Hawatmeh, owner of the new convenience store at 110 E Bearss Ave. who signed up a few hundred customers for Pay By Touch. "But to me, it's the wave of the future...''

Pay By Touch now has tests under way with several convenience stores, gas stations and supermarket chains around the United States, including Harris Teeter in the Carolinas, Farm Fresh in Virginia and Jewel Osco in Chicago.

"Finger scanning is new, so we want to get people used to it by building acceptance at high-frequency, high-traffic retail locations such as gas stations and grocery stores,'' said Leslie Connelly, spokeswoman for Pay By Touch. "We're also going into places where people who don't have a banking relationship cash paychecks.''

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:18:37 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Backdorm Boys

Over at the Institute For The Future's Virtual China blog, my colleagues Nydia Chen and Lyn Jeffery introduce us to the famous Asian pop stars the "Backdorm Boys" (后舍男生). They apparently graduated this week from the Guangzhou Arts Academy sculpture program and these life-sized statues of themselves were their final projects.
Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:08:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Iranian president Ahmadinejad's hairstyling tips for men

From Greg Gutfeld's illustration and sick-wit blog, The Daily Gut:

"HOW TO GET MAHMOUD'S MANE. Curling Iron: For a longer hold I will diligently apply the hairspray BEFORE curling hair. That and the blood of martyrs will maintain a strong hold throughout the day."

Link. Gutfeld is also responsible for The Adventures of Keira Knightley's Jaw, the Big God Blog, and Al Zarqawi's Mom's Blog. (Thanks, Andrew Breitbart)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:00:50 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Underwear perverts' influence on couture lauded in NYT

Snip from a NYT article by Guy Trebay on the growing influence of fetish culture on popular fashion. For many adult connoiseurs of kink, superheroes in distress -- "underwear perverts," as Warren Ellis dubbed them -- were the beginning:

Cartoon Superman never amounted to more than that for most people. But for a select group, early encounters with the Man of Steel wearing a molded bodysuit, knee boots and a shiny cape helped set the course of an erotic life. "Batman and Robin and Superman were all really exciting," said John Weis, the chairman of the Folsom Street East street fair, an annual event that kicked off Gay Pride Week in New York on Sunday. "Batman was always tied up or in some peril, and I thought that was really great."

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:53:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

NAS: Earth hottest it's been in 400 years, humans responsible

Snip from introduction to a National Academy of Sciences report issued today:

There is sufficient evidence from tree rings, retreating glaciers, and other "proxies" to say with confidence that the last few decades of the 20th century were warmer than any comparable period in the last 400 years, according to a new National Research Council report. There is less confidence in reconstructions of surface temperatures from 1600 back to A.D. 900, and very little confidence in findings on average temperatures before then.

Link to news release, full text of report ("recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia... human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming"), and briefing notes. Here's a related AP report summarizing the findings:

Their 155-page report said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century. This is shown in boreholes, retreating glaciers and other evidence found in nature, said Gerald North, a geosciences professor at Texas A&M University who chaired the academy's panel. The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-New York, to address naysayers who question whether global warming is a major threat.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:59:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Head On ointment commercial better than science fiction

This TV commercial for an ointment called Head On reminds me of a commercial that a character in a near-future science fiction movie (like They Live) would be watching. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:04:30 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Table saw that stops when it touches skin

I posted something about the SawStop table saw on Boing Boing a couple of years ago. It has a mechanism that makes the saw blade stop rotating an instant after it comes into contact with human flesh (watch the amazing video of it in action here). Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools has a review of the SawStop from a happy user (who has not had to test out the safety feature yet.)

(A hot dog proxy for a finger gets only a nick when pushed into a turning saw blade) As for the safety features, I've haven't put the brake to the test. Like the air bag in your car, the Sawstop system includes an extensive startup and continuous self test while idle and running. And like your air bag it's very costly to "test." You get only one emergency stop per blade and brake. Besides $70 for a new brake, it's another $50-100 for a new blade. It's pretty high tech. The brake is a special aluminum block and electronic assembly with a fusible (i.e. burnable) wire holding the spring loaded brake block assembly in position. When the electronics "fires" after detecting contact with human flesh, the fusible wire is burned through by a high electric current "pulse". When the wire burns through, the spring loaded aluminum block is shoved into the spinning blade. The blade cuts deeply into the block, and the block absorbs the considerable momentum energy of the blade, arbor, belt and motor. The result is that the blade and block get hot enough near the teeth of the blade to unsolder or weaken the teeth on the blade. In short the blade is ruined 50% of the time according to one web site I found that had tested the unit. Once the emergency brake has been fired you need to replace the whole brake assembly (like the air bag), which includes the brake, spring, retaining fusible wire, firing electronics including capacitor, and brake frame assembly. Replacement only takes a couple of minutes. Despite the cost, it is still better than paying for a new finger. Two friends have lost 2.5 fingers collectively from table saws. And both were experienced woodworkers.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:40:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Report: Skype's China client installs censorware on users' PCs

Internet censorship tech-expert Nart Villeneuve reports that Skype's Chinese client (distributed by China-based provider TOM Online) installs censorware on the user's computer without telling. An important point: the international version of Skype available at Skype.com does not include the censorware. Nart says:

Skype's partner in China, Tom Online, has implemented filtering of Skype's text chat for Chinese users. Skype is not being transparent about the filtering fucntionality that has been introduced. Here is my initial attempt at trying to figure out Tom-Skype's filtering. Tom-Skype can be downloaded from skype.tom.com and I installed in in Chinese and English. I also installed the 2.5 beta version, all appeared to function the same. The tests [that follow in this blog-post] are from Tom-Skype 2.0 installed in English. The first thing I noticed is that Tom-Skype is bundled with an executable called ContentFilter.exe. It is an application developed by Tom Online called Tom Word Review. It is digitally signed by Skype.

Link to Nart's report, with screenshots.

Rebecca McKinnon examined the app, too, and wrote:

The bottom line is: TOM-Skype doesn't censor much at all, but it is set up to censor whatever TOM Online employees plug into their "keyfile," at any time. And users (unless they have attained Nart's level of geekdom) have no way of knowing what is going on and why.

Let's hope that TOM Online and Skype do the right thing, which is: 1) Inform users that censorware is being downloaded onto their computers along with the Skype-branded chat client, and inform users exactly which Chinese law requires that this must happen. 2) Do not add any political or religious words to the "keyfile" unless forced to do so by written court order. 3) Make a list of those words added to the "keyfile" available to users so that they can be informed that any messages containing those words will not be received.

Link to the full text of her post.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:38:15 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Collapsible bike trailer has "comfortable" bunk for camper

Joseph Dorocke built this trailer in the 1930s, when he was a "25-year-old Chicago youth." Wouldn't it be fun if millions of people used these today? Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:17:37 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thief and the Cobbler: lost animated film recreated by fans

BB pal "the Moth" says,

My friend Garrett Gilchrist recently completed a painstaking recreation of the original cut of Richard Williams' animated masterpiece, "The Thief And The Cobbler." Williams was the three-time Academy-Award-winning animation director for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and "Thief" was his pet project -- over 20 years in the making! It was pulled from his control by the completion bond company in the early 90s. They subsequently released a bastard version, replete with added shmaltzy songs & musical numbers. So Gilchrist took it upon himself to put together a version based on Williams' storyreel -- and it's fantastic!

Link to "The Thief and The Cobbler," available as a series of 17 video installments via YouTube. From the description:

This is not intended for profit, just a fan-made research project and tribute to this classic film. The film was worked on for 26 years, with a team of master animators like Ken Harris and Art Babbit. This film inspired Disney's Aladdin. Ruined versions of it were released as Arabian Knight and The Princess and the Cobbler. For more info, visit originaltrilogy.com (forum 11), orangecow.org, ffrevolution.com, and thiefandthecobbler.com.

Reader comment: Deric says,

The thief and the Cobbler link to you tube is a series of several low quality clips; the entire picture at DVD quality seems bittorrentable here: Link

Bruce Heerssen says,

This had me really excited; especially to learn of high quality bittorrent downloads. Unfortunately, the website hosting the tracker (Demonoid.com) only allows registered users to download their torrents and registration is currently closed. Perhaps a kind reader could step up the plate here and offer a tracker on their own site.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:13:01 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Lightning strikes motorcyclist

A motorcyclist in Colorado was struck by lightning while he was riding on the freeway from Denver to Boulder. He died, but, according to the Associated Press, it's not known if the cause of death was the lightning, the resulting collision with the center divider, or, ummm "something else." Link (Thanks, Mark Pescovitz!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:56:08 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Flaming Tuba guy David Silverman on NBC Tonight Show 6/23

David Silverman, longtime Simpsons director and director of the forthcoming Simpsons Movie, is more recently better known as The Flaming Tuba Guy.

He crafted a sousamaphone that spurts fire while he plays (video link), as detailed in this BoingBoing post.

An NBC Tonight Show producer thought this sounded neat, and as a result, David will be appearing on the Tonight Show this Friday, June 23, "Tubatron" and all. Go smoke 'em, David!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:47:41 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cory on fan-made radio podcasts: "What deep linking means."

My co-editor Cory Doctorow weighs in on the debate surrounding This American Life's decision to tell fans that they may not publish podcast code pointing to archived audio files hosted on TAL's website. Previous BB posts: one, two, three, and here Cory responds to arguments posed by "Radio Open Source" producer Brendan Greeley. Both TAL and ROS are distributed by Public Radio International (PRI). Cory says:

Brendan, I was disappointed to see your letter to Xeni in which you argued that deep-linking should be prohibited. The question of whether a copyright holder has the right to control who gets to publish the location of his files is a simple one to answer: he should not.

If you believe that a copyright holder has to the right to decide who is allowed to tell you where his publicly available files live, you're saying that all the other user rights in copyright -- parody, samplying, criticism, etc -- are necessarily at the rightholder's sufferance. These rights can't be exercised without the fundamental freedom to repeat the true fact about the location of this file or that.

You -- and everyone else who borrows liberally from the blogosphere, myself included -- are a tremendous beneficiary of the principle that has prevailed since the first web-page went live: no one can control inbound linking by legal means. This is in the RFC for the Web. It's in the RFC for the RSS.

I don't buy for one second the argument that because this challenges your ability to turn your radio program into something else, the entire web should change directions and adopt a new norm: "You may only include a hyperlink if the person who controls that file isn't worried about his business-model."

There are LOTS of people who could have new business-models if fundamental internet freedoms, like the freedom to link to any URL that will serve back a page, were abolished or rewritten. A competitor to Google that hired a million phone-monkeys to make sure that they had *permission* to link to everything in the search-engine's database could come into existence with a radically reduced index and then get the law to get rid of the superior resource we have in Google.

I respect your desire to move to "other platforms" but if the platform you're headed for is the Web, you need to actually formulate a coherent plan that doesn't start by removing the Web's most fundamental premise: that anyone can link to anything.

The plan you seem to have formulated, one where I can't include a URL from your server without your permission, is NOT a Web-platform business-model. It's a business model that throws out the Web in favor of an AOL-style network.

No one but TAL (or you) is making any files available if I publish an RSS feed with your deep links in them. Describing hte location where a file lives is not making them available -- not in the legal sense, or the technical sense, or the commonsense sense.

I hope you'll reconsider this idea and look beyond the immediate interest of wanting to be able to maximize your show's gain and to the health of the Internet and the open source ethos whence you have taken your inspiration.

And further to this:

If someone decided to grab our publicly available, CC-licensed mp3 files and re-distribute them in a different way than we'd planned (say, filtering out everything but shows about Iraq) I can imagine we'd have a problem with it.

First of all, you have gravely misunderstood what CC licenses permit. You have granted permission for someone to do *exactly* this by using a CC license. Second of all, what if someone were to compile a printed index listing the URLs of all the shows that don't talk about Iraq? Do you seriously mean to say that you think that publishing such an index is wrong? All an RSS feed is is a collection of URLs. References.

Update: Brendan Greeley's reply after the jump.

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:36:39 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Report: Bird flu coverup in 2003 China SARS case?

A man in China who died of pneumonia in 2003 and was said to be a SARS victim may in fact have died from human bird flu, two years before the Chinese government reported any cases of the disease on the mainland:

The case of the death in Beijing raises the possibility that others attributed to SARS may have actually been caused by the deadly H5N1 flu. But in a confusing development, at least one of the researchers asked Wednesday that the letter reporting the case be withdrawn from publication in The New England Journal of Medicine. Editors of the medical journal said they were trying to find out why.

The letter was available to journalists before its withdrawal, and it describes the case of a 24-year-old man who died of pneumonia and respiratory distress in November 2003. "Because the clinical manifestations were consistent with those of the severe acute respiratory syndrome and occurred when sporadic cases of SARS were described in southern China, serum and lung tissue from the patient, as well as fluid aspirated from his chest, were examined for SARS coronavirus," the researchers wrote. "All tests were negative for SARS."

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:02:44 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bill Barminski exhibit at Glu in Los Angeles viewable online

The wonderful artist Bill Barminksi (who currently has a show at Glu, 7424 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, Ca. 90036) has put his drawings up for viewing on his website. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:58:03 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Public radio and DIY podcasts: a PRI producer weighs in.

In previous posts here on BB (one, two, three), some readers argued that deep linking is a fundamental right on the 'net, and syndicated public radio shows like "This American Life" should just let fans roll their own podcast code if they like. Others, like reader Brendan Greeley, disagree:

I'm a producer for Open Source, another public radio show distributed by PRI. I'm not in any way speaking for PRI or TAL, though PRI has been great in their support of our use of CC licenses, and TAL is of course the greatest radio progam ever made ever.

I think, though, that by creating your own podcast of TAL content you're assuming that TAL can ONLY ever be a radio show, that is, it can only ever make audio files and distribute them. But a media company is much more than the files of content it makes. The shape of our RSS feed is a part of our content and brand just as much as the mp3 enclosures it delivers. If someone decided to grab our publicly available, CC-licensed mp3 files and re-distribute them in a different way than we'd planned (say, filtering out everything but shows about Iraq) I can imagine we'd have a problem with it.

It would limit, for example, our ability to accompany the mp3 enclosures with our own descriptive text. It would limit our ability to insert other content -- extras from interviews, a separate file of a promo for a new podcast we're launching -- into our RSS feed. Consumer platforms change by the month; there are ways we haven't thought of to use an RSS feed to shape our content, but we sure want to hold on to the ability to make those decisions when they come to us.

The second you take those mp3 files, wrap them in your own packaging and make them available to others in the way most convenient to you, you've reduced a radio program to a provider of one-hour weekly audio files. Maybe that's all TAL wants to be -- certainly every week it provides extraordinary one-hour audio files -- but shouldn't TAL get to make that decision?

Also, guys, public radio operates on painfully thin margins, and TAL is a very expensive show to produce. Ira Glass is not a big-media fat cat. Help us out here.

Reader comment: Chris Spurgeon says,

I have great respect for both "This American Life" and "Open Source", but I have a bit of an issue with one of Brendan Greeley's comments. He says, "If someone decided to grab our publicly available, CC-licensed mp3 files and re-distribute them in a different way than we'd planned (say, filtering out everything but shows about Iraq) I can imagine we'd have a problem with it."

But wait a minute. Right on the "Open Source" home page, it says that the content is licensed by a Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0" license. That license (details here) allows derivative works, such as (I assume) an Iraq-only set of Open Source mp3 files. It seems like there's a disconnect there between the actions they'd "have a problem with" and the actions they've allowed.

Robert "kebernet" Cooper says,

I would like to echo Mr. Spurgeon's appreciation for Open Source -- I think it is one of the best hours on radio -- but Mr. Greeley obviously has no understanding of what a network is.

The first rule of network programming is "never trust the client". You can never assume that any client is going to use your network services properly, the way you expect or even the way you want. This leads us to Jon Postel's famous axiom, "In general, an implementation must be conservative in its sending behavior, and liberal in its receiving behavior." To assume that (a) anyone will consume your website the way you designed it, rather than on, say Lynx, a voice browser, or using a Greasemonkey script, is preposterous. To assume that (b) anyone will even look at your RSS feed or see what is there besides the enclosures, is preposterous. I listen to Open Source on my iPod shuffle, synced with amaroK. I never even KNEW there was anything of interest in the feed besides the audio. To assume that (c) people won't deep link your content, filter your content, rate, organize or categorize your content is preposterous.

Moreover, not only is it preposterous to make these assumptions, to somehow pretend that these inherent network behaviors diminish the value of your content really shows a complete lack of understanding about what makes the web truly great.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:57:28 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hoodie with screen attachment for computer obsessives

Joe Malia, a second year student at the Royal College of Art in London created this hoodie for "computer obsessives." Using one of these would be infinitely cooler than merely deploying one of those polarized sheets of plastic that stop people from reading your laptop screen over your shoulder. Bonus: renders your screen legible in direct sunlight (if you're willing to be seen in this outfit in broad daylight, that is). Link (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Update: Here's a similar item from 1973 -- thanks, Chad!

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:26:23 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Create a new random identity by hitting reload

The Random Identity Generator creates a new plausible person every time you reload the page. They'll also sell you bulk random identities at $1 per 2,000.

Tim C. Whipple
324 Hillcrest Avenue
Southfield, MI 48075

Email Address: Tim.C.Whipple@pookmail.com

Phone: 734-687-8295
Mother's maiden name: Beer
Birthday: February 2, 1943

MasterCard: 5165 6364 9855 9856
Expires: 4/2007

Link (via Schneier)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:11:26 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Life among the homeless bloggers

Wired News covers the homeless blogger scene, talking to homeless people around the USA who use scrounged laptops and other computers, open WiFi networks, and library connections to get online, start businesses, express themselves -- even panhandle via PayPal.

Happy Ivy doesn't have a bathroom or a kitchen in the bus he calls home. He does, however, have a video-editing station.

Living in a squalid, Woodstock-style bus parked in a Fillmore, California, orange grove, the 53-year-old homeless man charges a power generator from a utility shed and uses Wi-Fi from a nearby access point. From this humble camp, he's managed to run a 'round-the-clock internet television studio, organize grassroots political efforts, record a full-length album and write his autobiography, all while subsisting on oranges and avocados...

Nearly all homeless people have e-mail addresses, according to Michael Stoops, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. "More have e-mail than have post office boxes," Stoops said. "The internet has been a big boon to the homeless."

Helping the homeless get e-mail addresses has been a priority for years at shelters across the country. And in an age when most every public library in the nation offers internet access, the net has proven a perfect communication tool for those without a firm real-world address.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:17:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Disney, 1939: No woman animators allowed

In 1939, the Disney Animation Studios sent this form letter to animator Lillian Friedman, who'd worked for five years at Fleischer studios, turning down her job application, noting, "Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason girls are not considered for the training school." Link (Thanks, Amid!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:42:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Royal Society to try open access science publishing

The UK Royal Society, the oldest "learned society" in the world, will try publishing some of its journals under open access licensing. That means that instead of being offered as expensive subscriptions -- that can only be paid by a few first-world, monied research institutions -- the journals will be released for free on the net, and scientist-contributors will pay submission fees to cover the cost of peer-review. This model has proven effective with other journals, particularly the all open-access journal Public Library of Science, which is now the most widely-cited journal in several of the fields it covers.

Last November, the Royal Society published a paper decrying open access publishing, arguing that no one should do open access because it would undermine the Society's market for its journals. This prompted an outraged response from the Society's members, who sent an open letter to the organization affirming that the Society's mission is the furtherance of science, not the collection of subscription fees.

The open access movement has been helped by recent developments, including the decision by the Wellcome Trust, one of the world's biggest research granting bodies, that all articles produced through work it has funded will have to be published on an open access basis from October.

Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said he was delighted the society was making work freely available to all. "Maximum distribution of research findings is essential to maximise their impact," Mr Walport said.

Earlier this year a report by the European Commission called for research paid for by member states to be made freely available.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:39:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Handheld device converts text to speech for blind people

Inventor Ray Kurzweil has shipped a £2,625 handheld device for blind people that you aim at any text and it reads aloud. I saw a demo of this at the Singularity Summit in Stanford last month and it really worked -- mindblowingly well. The audience loved the demo -- Kurzweil aimed it at a copy of his book on the podium and let it read aloud.

The K-NFB gives the user an initial "situation report", describing what it can see. The user then makes a decision about whether to take a picture.

After a few seconds to process the image, the contents of the document are read aloud.

A set of earbuds come as standard, but the sound could also be routed through a Bluetooth headset or a set of speakers.

Sight & Sound says it will help with the ad-hoc reading of documents such as bills and receipts, instructions on food packaging or medication or emergency evacuation notices in hotels.

Link (via Futurismic)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:28:49 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Coffee-cups with stamps on their bases

These coffee cups have stamps built into their bases; instead of leaving cup-rings, you can leave beautiful, tessellated Arts and Crafts-style floral patterns behind. A great idea! Link (via Gizmodo)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:24:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Library bookcases tumbled like dominos

We've all seen cartoons in which rows of library shelves are tumbled like dominos, but in librarian Klara Kim's Flickr photostream, there are actual pictures of the aftermath. There is certainly an element of hilarity to them -- albeit uncomfortable -- but the comments on the photo betray the tragedy: "Most [books] are intact, but some were caught in between shelves and got ripped apart. I would have taken photos of that as well, but there were only so many moments I could stand around taking pictures before I felt like a morbid jerk that wasn't helping anybody." Link (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:21:05 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Snow White 1937 dept store display found in amusement park

A 1937 animated department store window display of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves has shown up a t a kitschy amusement park in the Adirondacks, Magic Forest Park. The display is animated by motorized wooden cogs, and has been lovingly rebuilt numerous times as it wore through the decades.

Once at Magic Forest Park, said Gillette, the displays were originally stored in a barn with other attractions over the winter. When the attractions were removed from the barn and put into place for use over the summer, the display cases were moved into a circle in the barn for viewing by visitors. They were moved around into and out of storage each year. The annual movement, in addition to the exposure to extremes of heat and cold, contributed to some deterioration of the displays. Of the original 10 cases, one that depicts the queen disguised as an old hag offering the poisoned apple to Snow White, was actually destroyed by all of the movement.

Link (Thanks, Kirby!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:16:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Checking out Amazon grocery beta: will you save?

Amazon.com quietly launched a beta online grocery service a few weeks ago, with 10,000 items reportedly stocked and extensive gourmet, organic, low-carb, veg/vegan, and low-sugar offerings. "Household savings tips" columnist Stephanie Nelson wrote this analysis of pros and cons:

Amazon sells standard size boxes of Kellogg's cereals 17.6 oz. in a four pack, at an average price of $3.68 per box. That same variety and size of cereal is currently selling for $2.50 per box at my store this week. I'm not sure buying four boxes at that price offers enough convenience to offset the higher "bulk" price!

However, any strategic shopper knows how to figure out the rules of a store to take a strategic approach to getting lower prices. Although Amazon does not accept traditional grocery coupons, they do have regular promotions. For example, their site is currently promoting a special promotion for Kraft and Planters products. If you buy $39 or more of selected Kraft or Planters products, you get $15 taken off your order immediately as an instant rebate with a coupon code provided by the site.

In that case, I could buy a 12-count case of Kraft Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese dinner 14 oz. boxes for $28.80 and a 15-count case of Balance nutrition bars for $11.54. I would qualify for free shipping and there would be no sales tax. After the $15 instant rebate was deducted, I would be paying $1.51 per box for the Kraft dinner and 48 cents for each nutrition bar, which are pretty good prices for those items. Therefore, if you are a shopper who likes the convenience of online shopping, and has the storage space to keep an inventory of your purchases, you may be able to find some grocery bargains on typical items from Amazon.com. Even so, I wouldn't order those items because I could probably find them at lower prices with coupons at my stores when they were on sale, without having to buy them in bulk quantities.

Link to column. There must be clever ways to hack the pricing structure, and get the most out of it. Grocery shopping in real stores is one of my least favorite chores in life, so I'll be trying this out for sure. I am lazy, and will gladly pay a premium for any service that allows me to spend more quality time sitting on my ass. I cried when Kozmo.com and Urbanfetch.com died.

Reader comment: Nathan Becker says,

Just a humorous note on that. A co-worker and I found it very amusing that they list out "Product Features" for the food...take for example Bananas: "Great in Cereal."

Glenn Fleishman says,

A few comments on Amazon's grocery offerings. First, their prices on organic products are pretty good--comparable to my local very large food coop, Puget Consumers Coop (PCC) on their regular days. (PCC offers two days a month with 5% off and a monthly 10%-one-shopping-trip coupon.) For people who live in places that don't stock organic products, this is probably a godsend because they can get competitive big city prices without driving 50 to 500 miles.

Second, Amazon includes groceries (the ones I checked) in Amazon Prime. My wife and I pay $79 a year total (not per person) to get two-day free shipping on most Amazon-stocked products. We order just enough from Amazon and have just a few last-minute needs that the $79 offsets the shipping we ordinarily paid them and then we order other things more cheaply because of it (versus paying shipping or waiting weeks at Amazon or other stores).

Third, our toddler goes through a fairly small number of diapers these days, but as he gets bigger, they get more expensive. At our local department store, we were paying over 50 cents a diaper for size 5's in the brand we prefer, and we have a heck of a time buying them in stock. Diapers seem to often be out of stock in particular sizes. So Amazon is offering Pampers Cruisers size 5's for about 30 cents each in a nice sized box before tax (we pay about 9% in WA state).

This resulted in the indignity of a poor UPS driver dropping off a box of 124 diapers sent second-day air at *no additional expense to us* this morning. Ha! What is this -- 1999?

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:32:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Report: US/Canada border privacy laws often broken

Canada and the United States have shared policies about the exchange of personal data by immigration and customs officers at the border, but Canada's privacy commissioner says those rules are routinely ignored:

Although the Canada-U.S. agreements require that the exchanges of information be done in writing, except in emergencies, it appears to be common practice for Canadian customs officers to respond to verbal requests, reading out information in border services agency databases to their U.S. counterparts.

"It seems to be quite often honoured in the breach, from what we understand from our interviews," [Privacy Commissioner Jennifer] Stoddart told The Globe and Mail. "There's a lot of informal exchange of personal information." That means the border services agency does not know what information is being shared or how often, and cannot verify information is not being handed out improperly, or illegally.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:09:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Interview with "UFO Hacker" Gary McKinnon: why'd he do it?

Snip from Nigel Watson's Wired News interview with so-called "UFO hacker" Gary McKinnon, who faces 70 years in prison and a $2 million fine if convicted:

Gary McKinnon: A NASA photographic expert said that there was a Building 8 at Johnson Space Center where they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging. I logged on to NASA and was able to access this department. They had huge, high-resolution images stored in their picture files. They had filtered and unfiltered, or processed and unprocessed, files.

My dialup 56K connection was very slow trying to download one of these picture files. As this was happening, I had remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side. There were no visible seams or riveting. There was no reference to the size of the object and the picture was taken presumably by a satellite looking down on it. The object didn't look manmade or anything like what we have created. Because I was using a Java application, I could only get a screenshot of the picture -- it did not go into my temporary internet files. At my crowning moment, someone at NASA discovered what I was doing and I was disconnected.

I also got access to Excel spreadsheets. One was titled "Non-Terrestrial Officers." It contained names and ranks of U.S. Air Force personnel who are not registered anywhere else. It also contained information about ship-to-ship transfers, but I've never seen the names of these ships noted anywhere else.

WN: Could this have been some sort of military strategy game or outline of hypothetical situations?

McKinnon: The military want to have military dominance of space. What I found could be a game -- it's hard to know for certain.

Link. Previous BB posts on McKinnon's case: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:15:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mexican presidential election spam and la ley del Godwin

Supporters of Mexico's two presidential candidates are slogging it out for votes online with attack-spam campaigns. The guy on the left will steal your house, and the guy on the right? Tastes like Hitler! Snip from Reuters item:

As the top candidates spend millions of dollars on negative ads, their backers are launching stealth attacks on their behalf from the unregulated anonymity of cyberspace, making outrageous claims in mass mailings, chat rooms and blogs. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and conservative ruling party contender Felipe Calderon are running neck-and-neck ahead of a July 2 election in a campaign marked by smear tactics.

But those attacks pale in comparison to e-mails claiming the leftist would ban religious meetings, or limit foreign travel, or that Calderon would seek to emulate Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 rule in Chile. Among the more polite missives: "Adolf Hitler's rhetorical discourse is identical to that of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador."

Link. They should talk to this guy about this.

Reader comment: "Monterrey" of the Monterrey, Mexico-based blog ochocuartos says,

The mexican presidential election campaigns have been the worst ever. The top two parties have started a war of lies that has made that a lot of mexicans don't trust any candidate. It's like a shit-throwing war. Yes, the other candidate will end up covered up in shit. But so will every other candidate. Take a look at this youtube video: Link. Even if you don't know spanish, you will quickly get that comparing any candidate to Stalin, Pinochet and Hitler is, probably, a little bit too much. Even for Mexico. And we get to hear that kind of "dirty war" propaganda, as it is called here in Mexico, everyday. Makes you sick to your stomach. It's the ugly side of democracy.

Reader C. says,

This site has most of the smear emails that followers of the mexican leftist party PRD and his candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, are distributing. I haven't been able to find a repository of smear emails against the conservative party PAN and their candidate, Felipe Calderon, although I have received several of them.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:59:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

To do in NYC this weekend: Andrew Brandou's art

BoingBoing reader McGreggor says,

Andrew Brandou, a former illustrator for The Simpsons, Spongebob, Rugrats, and Duckman, has a brand new show at Jonathan Levine Gallery in NYC. The show opens this Saturday, June 24, but pics of his hauntingly beautiful work are already up. Andrew is known for his Howdy Parnder and After Audubon styles, and his new show is a modern and hallucinogenic take on the Manson Family murders. Both disturbing and hauntingly beautiful, the pieces combine elements of Japanese kemono and hakue, Golden Books characters, and Andrew's own unique take on death.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:45:21 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

This American Life / podcaster flap: former intern rebuts.

Following up on previous posts (one, two) on the blogtroversy surrounding podcast availability of PRI's much-beloved "This American Life" radio program, BB reader Chris Ladd says:

I'm a big fan of BoingBoing, and a big fan of TAL. In fact, I used to work there. I was their intern.

Now, being a BoingBoing reader and generally techy kind of guy, I hate DRM and extortionist content practices and all the rest of it. And, in fact, when I moved to Chicago last summer to work for the show, I spent much of the 20 hour drive listening to TAL episodes I AudioHijacked off of my real player.

That being said, while lame, the way TAL deals with its downloads isn't greedy, and it's not their fault. Don't forget that they are primarily a radio show, one that is broadcast nationwide. As an additional service, they let you stream the show from their website for absolutely free. Which is nice, right? So why can't you take it with you?

You have to understand that This American Life is produced differently than just about any other show on the radio. They get big names on there. They pay well. They score the whole show with great music. All of these things make it difficult to give away programs for free. Because all the different people who contribute to each show are entitled to a part of the CD sales, its in their contracts. As I understand it, there's some difference between streamed recordings and downloaded recordings that makes the lawyers go crazy. (Cory?) Also, there's some royalty thing with all the music used in the show.

Could contracts be changed to make this work differently? Maybe. But it would probably take a lot of time, and there's not a lot of people over there. Don't be fooled by that polished sound -- when I was there, there were eleven of us, and that includes me, a guy that runs the books, and a guy who makes CDs. Everybody's pretty busy making radio shows.

In any case, Ira's not trying to cheat you. He is, in fact, a very nice guy. Like, for instance, if he were going out to get lunch, he'd ask you if you wanted anything, and then he'd bring it back, and he wouldn't make you pay for it. And, say, if you were going out to get lunch, and you asked him if he wanted anything, he'd tell you and give you money to go get it, and sometimes he'd let you borrow his car. He's a nice guy.

So my advice to BoingBoingers is not to worry about it. Stop complaining, and hack things the old fashioned way. It's not difficult to just hijack it, or listen at your desk.

p.s. I don't know if people know about TAL's move to TV and New York, but here's a link to a story I wrote about it for New York Magazine: Link.

Reader comment: BB reader Declan says,

I've been reading the TAL thread and thought this article I wrote last year might be interesting. I exercise fair use and use my Radio Shark to capture radio shows, then transform them into something I can hear on the iPod and is accessible as a podcast. Link.

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:28:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Movie theaters suck balls, says bedraggled, besearched patron

BoingBoing reader Brian Walsh went to an AMC theater in San Francisco last night with a friend to see "The Devil Wears Prada," and had a rotten time. Turns out the Devil doesn't wear Prada, he wears an AMC security guard's uniform. The movie, the overpriced popcorn, the smooshy seats -- all great, Brian says, but the "being treated like a criminal" part, complete with repeated metal detector scans? Eh, not so much. Here's a snip from his blog recap, tagged with keyphrases like "MOVIE THEATERS SUCK BALLS," which should give you an idea of how he feels. Brian and date are metal-detectored before entering the theater, then after they sit down he gets up for popcorn...

As I head back into the theater, I am subjected to the tests again. Metal detector. Phone. Etc. This time I wasn't as cool with it.

I stopped to let the guard know that: It is a shame that the business model of the movie studios is inflexible and out of date. Hence, their inability to adjust to a world where content is readily available on multiple devices and from multiple sources has led to the theaters losing the one advantage that they have over my living room: the experience.(...)

During the movie, the wonderful experiences persisted. As enjoyed the excellent acting, wonderful story and beautiful women on the screen, I was distracted by movement on my left and right. There were devils in Prada security uniforms paroling the theater staring at us. I have called the theater to check this out, but my assumption is that they were looking for anyone using a recording device. At least they were consistent in degrading the experience.

Link.

Reader comment: Phuc says,

I believe its important to state that Brian Walsh went to see a preview screening, as the movie has a national release date of June 30th. As such, I see no problem with security doing what they did, although during the actual film, they could have been a little more lowkey. If Mr. Walsh were to revisit the theatre and watch a film that has already been released, I am sure that he would find the experience less obtrusive and much more enjoyable.

Reader comment: Amanda says,

At least he wasn't shot randomly, for no reason.

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:13:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival at Rocketboom

Rocketboom has an excellent report from the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival, featuring cartoonists from the New Yorker and Alexa Kitchen, an 8-year-old cartoonist prodigy, shown here. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:57:04 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Show with ze frank

I'm addicted to ze frank's daily video podcast called the show. It's mainly just ze's face talking for 3 minutes, but his manic, rapid-fire delivery and the way he edits the videos, uses different voices to argue, convince, tease, and scold himself is enthralling. Today, ze talks about a useless form letter he received from Delta after his flight was canceled and he asked for a refund. Pure vlogcast gold. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:39:50 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Kozyndan prints in QTVR: "Amorous Nudibranchs."

LA-based duo Kozyndan are two of my favorite artists, but it's hard to do their large-scale, intricate illustrations justice on the blog. Details are inevitably smushed. Good news, though: Dan (half of Kozyndan) says they've just whipped up a QTVR that allows you to pan through their latest panoramic piece online, and dig all the fine print.

"The Amorous Nudibranchs Paint the Town Red (and Orange and Yellow and Green and Blue and Violet)..." debuts this weekend at the Giant Robot NY gallery, and you can eyeball it here: QTVR link. One of their older panoramics is also viewable in QTVR format here: QTVR link. "Flat" versions are here.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:24:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Invisible Plan toy release and party in Hollywood, Thursday night

StrangeCo is throwing a party to celebrate the release of a new line of wickedly cool looking toys designed by San Francisco artist MARS-1. The series is called Invisible Plan, and the party will be held at Munky King (7308 Melrose Ave. LA, CA 90046). Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:06:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

AT&T retrofits privacy policy: your data is not yours.

Beginning Friday, AT&T customers can enjoy the benefits of an upgraded privacy policy that leaves the telecom giant free to share even more personal data with the government. Snip from SF Chron article by David Lazarus:

The new policy says that AT&T -- not customers -- owns customers' confidential info and can use it "to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process." The policy also indicates that AT&T will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service -- something that cable and satellite providers are prohibited from doing.

Moreover, AT&T (formerly known as SBC) is requiring customers to agree to its updated privacy policy as a condition for service -- a new move that legal experts say will reduce customers' recourse for any future data sharing with government authorities or others.

The company's policy overhaul follows recent reports that AT&T was one of several leading telecom providers that allowed the National Security Agency warrantless access to its voice and data networks as part of the Bush administration's war on terror.

Link. Here's background on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's ongoing lawsuit against AT&T, over these same issues: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:03:04 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

RU Sirius Show with sex book authors Mel Gordon and Joe Quirk

On this week's RU Sirius Show, R.U. concludes his interview with Mel Gordon on decadence and whoredom in Germany's Weimar Republic. And Joe Quirk continues his funny exploration of sex and gender and evolutionary psychology on NeoFiles. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:01:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Comcast tech support guy falls asleep on customer's couch

BoingBoing reader Brian says,

A Comcast technician apparently had a long night before going to replace my cable modem. After spending over an hour on hold with Comcast's central office to activate the modem, he fell asleep. I made a video commemorating Comcast's high quality customer service.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:29:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Prankster-for-hire Mr. Doubletalk spouts nonsense

Durwood Fincher (AKA Mr. Doubletalk) is an excellent prankster for hire who will spout almost-sensical-sounding gobbledegook that befuddles listeners who aren't in on the joke. (I have met many amateur "Mr. Doubletalks" who aren't even aware that they possess this talent.) Watch the video clips on his site. Link (via Growabrain)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:15:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Jasmina Tesanovic: Scorpions Srebrenica Trial, June 19

Belgrade, June 19, 2006: The War Sports
Jasmina Tesanovic

I always knew my Mom didn’t like the way I dressed, and the Special Court for War Crimes in Belgrade has my late Mom's taste in clothing. For all these months, the policeman at the door has taken charge of our manners, us, the special small crowd of women related to criminals and victims. He scolds us for chewing gum, sniffling aloud in grief, whatever...

Now he stops me: my summer T-shirt is indecent. The shirt's neck is too large and it hangs loose. Sandals are certainly not allowed in court, but he tolerates my shoes. The T-shirt's sleeves are a proper length, but... I am trying to convince him that I won't suddenly expose my shoulder in the midst of the trial proceedings, but he doesn't trust my assurances.

At that point, the wife of a Scorpion volunteers to help me. Her skirt is shorter than mine, but she produces a handy pin and and fastens the neck of my shirt. The Scorpion wife and the guard exchange triumphant smiles. I say: next time I will bring a burka ... Rules are rules, he does not understand my remark... I have no innate problem with obeying rules, but who is making them, and why? (...)

photo by Goranka Matic.
More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:15:23 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Amazing photos of starling flocks

Here's what a flock of a million starlings looks like. In Denmark, they call it the Black Sun. Link (via Ursi's Blog)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:55:09 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Lazyweb: download Textamerica pics before they're hosed?

A number of BoingBoing readers who have free moblog accounts on Textamerica are freaking out over news that the company will shut off free accounts on July 1, then delete the user contents therein, and switch to a $99/year fee-mandatory model.

Users who don't want to commit to "paid" but also don't want to lose all their pics one week from now are asking for advice on how to download copies of the photos they uploaded to the site. This app is helpful, but works only under limited circumstances.

Textamerica has not responded to emails I've sent asking if they provide instructions (say, FTP access or something) for content retrieval. BB pal Craig Engler, a longtime Textamerica user, says:

Crap, I have like two years worth of photos on there. Any BB'ers know the easiest way to get all your photos off Textamerica? Typically, the tool Textamerica provides for downloading your photo library does not work, at least for me. I'm thinking of trying the "DownThemAll" extension for Firefox to grab the images one painful page at a time...

Suggestions welcome here! Previous BoingBoing post: Textamerica goes fee-only, will delete all old, free moblogs.

Reader commentses: Craig later reported that he was able to siphon his stuff safely home with GetPix, a PC shareware app.

BB reader Brendon says,

For the Mac users out there, Sitesucker is a tool (donation-ware) that will allow you to download all the links off of a particular webpage. It's not perfect, but, with appropriate configuration, I'd think that people could use it to get their content back. (How Textamerica is going to get their customers back is another story; I certainly won't be running out to do business with them.) I don't know of a Windows equivalent, but I'm sure it exists.

Stu says,

Envision is a utility for Mac that can create a slideshow from a web page. It starts at one web page then follows all the links on that page to download pics. It can ignore gifs and small images. If one image links to another it will only download the linked image. I think it lets you save the images, but if nothing else you can do a file search for one of the filenames and see where it cached them.

Other readers point to HTTrack, "a free (GPL, libre/free software) and easy-to-use offline browser utility," and GNU WGET, "a free software package for retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS and FTP, the most widely-used Internet protocols."

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:55:01 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Yoda backpack

This Yoda backpack is a surefire chick (or dude, take your pick) magnet. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:37:37 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

More fan-kvetching over This American Life and podcasters

Following up on an earlier BoingBoing post about requests by the PRI program "This American Life" that podcasters stop deep-linking to archived audio files on the program's website (thislife.org), reader Christopher says,

Ironically, just last week I had a friend asking me how he could get these "podcasts" for less than $20000 (sic) the other day, and now it comes up here. I think this is a move by iTMS as well as Ira Glass to squelch all other sources for the show, because the iTMS now sells each of these 1 hour shows (which I believe are broadcast weekly for free in the Chicago area) for $4 to $6, as well as a couple $20 shows for fun. Go ahead and search the Music store for "this american life" and ignore the now defunct Unnofficial podcast.

Just for giggles I tried to put them all in my shopping cart for a full dallor amount, but it only holds about 20 or so at a time for $278.50 "plus applicable tax." If we extrapolate that for the whole 299 shows listed we get about $4177.50 - plus or minus $20 error.

This is exhorbitant extortion on the part of both Ira Glass and Apple. I don't listen to the show, and I don't plan to now that they're shutting down the open sources of getting it weekly. If this is a shadow of the future of podcasting, fear for the media... and buy yourself a new AM/FM radio while you still can.

I'd welcome responses by folks involved with the program who have another side to voice, and would be pleased to post here.

Reader comment: Mark says,

It isn't free, and the files are DRM'ed to heck, but Audible.com has This American Life for either $44.95 a year or $9.95 per month. I download the shows and listen to them on my Treo using their Palm-based player. Cheaper than iTunes and more portable as well. Link

Reader comment: Morgan W. says,

"reader Christopher" claims 4 bucks per episode is "exhorbitant extortion"." No, it's commercial exploitation, a system he seems not only reluctant to, but barely able to participate in. Shop for a better deal my friend. Had Chris ever listened to the show, he would have heard Ira Glass hawk the downloads at Audible which are only $2.77 or a year's subscription for $31.47 with a $10/year membership.

If you don't want to pay & mirrors of the "podcast" disappear, it's a small value of work to look inside a couple of the thislife.org .m3u "streams" to find the pattern of .mp3 URIs, to handle your own downloads. If you do download, use the --limit-rate option with curl. I grabbed all 300+ archived episodes over about a week at 2x real time.

In fact, this is the answer to TAL & WBEZ's wish to provide free streams but not downloads: limit the bandwidth of .mp3s to 1.1x realtime. Before I subscribed, I used Audio Hijack Pro with its scheduler to record streams of local radio stations. I've also used it with line-in from a regular ol' FM receiver. Hijack will push these into iTunes for you or you can write a script to build the RSS for your own podcast.

Reader comment: Tom Collins says,

It could be useful to include this in a followup: TAL on podcasts. I'm not involved with the show, but am willing to offer up a counterpoint.

When I look at the "Top Ira Glass Downloads", I see 299 shows with half at $3.95, half at $5.95, one at $19.95 and one at $26.95. Since the $20 and $27 ones contain multiple shows (probably duplicated in the $4 and $6 episodes), I estimate you could download everything for $1470.15. Not bad for 297 hours of entertainment. I'm not sure how this guy came out to $4177.

This American Life is a syndicated show, typically played on NPR stations each weekend. The NPR stations are paying PRI (Public Radio International) to carry the show. It's not a podcast. Ira Glass and PRI own the copyright on past shows, and have every right to sell copies as they see fit (currently with iTMS, Audible and by selling episodes on CD).

Note that the This American Life website does NOT include links to the MP3s. They link to a .m3u playlist that contains the URL for the .mp3. A pretty strong indication that they intend for people to stream the episodes, and not download them.

The irony here is that they continue to provide free streams of all (or almost all) of their episodes on the Internet. They're not "shutting down the open sources of getting it weekly". They're stopping podcasters from making a podcast out of their (PRI/Ira Glass's) content.

If they're generous enough to make them available in .mp3 so they can be streamed in apps other than RealPlayer, the least we (on the web) can do is honor their requests not to create RSS feeds linking to the .mp3 files. It's not your content -- you have no right to create an RSS feed of it. They could always go back to using RealAudio or some other DRM format if podcasters don't heed their requests. Don't fuck it up for the rest of us.

Reader comment: Sumana says,

TiVo has a no-additional-cost podcasts service, including approx. twenty episodes of This American Life. On the main TiVo menu, choose "Music, Photos, and More" or whatever they're calling it now, then choose "Podcaster." TAL is the very first Featured podcast in the list. But you can't pause podcasts in the middle, which feels very un-TiVo.

Reader comment: David Gulbransen says,

Here's the thing: I support 100% TAL's right to distribute their content as they see fit, and they have been making a valiant effort to protect their rights while making the program available via free streaming. I guess the problem comes in for listeners like me, who aren't able to listen on-line, and would like to listen to the program at my convenience on my iPod. I'm not downloading all 297 episodes. I just want this week's (or last week's) show. So how do I do that? Well, TAL is telling me it's simple: I pay for it via Audible or iTunes store. Well, that'd be fine and dandy... except I contribute to my local public radio station so that programs like TAL can get the funding they need. I'm already paying for it. Why can't I listen to it on my iPod without paying again? I could tape it off the air at home, right? I just want to be able to time shift the show without feeling like I'm paying double. It's not that TAL isn't worth paying for--it absolutely is. But if I do feel that I'm being penalized and paying twice for something when someone who can tune in at the time it's being broadcast isn't even necessarily paying for it once. Unfortunately, I do understand TAL's side of it... but there isn't an easy solution that I can see. I should qualify that I *used* to contribute to my local public radio station... WBEZ. However, since they announced that they are cancelling *all* music programming starting in 2007, I no longer support the station. (boycottcpr.com)

Reader comment: Ted Stevko says,

TAL is bending over backwards to be nice about this, and is going MUCH farther than most NPR/PRI programs. TAL didn't send C&D letters, they asked that people not take it down, personally. How cool is that? TAL provides MP3 formats, where almost every other NPR program is in RealPlayer formats. TAL has asked that you don't provide an easy way for people to grab all they can -- that's fine. Bandwidth still costs a lot, and forcing people to stream is a way of spreading out that bandwidth usage over time. If anything, we should support this move -- TAL is doing what they can, and providing amazing work for free. Be supportive of TAL, and more people will move that way.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:31:37 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cory's new podcast: "I, Row-Boat"

I've just posted the first installment in a new story podcast. This time, it's "I, Row-Boat," a story I just finished about a story about a theological dispute between an artifically intelligent Asimov three-laws cultist and an uplifted coral reef.. I'm going to read this one in three or four parts over the next couple weeks.

Robbie the Row-Boat's great crisis of faith came when the coral reef woke up.

"Fuck off," the reef said, vibrating Robbie's hull through the slap-slap of the waves of the coral sea, where he'd plied his trade for decades. "Seriously. This is our patch, and you're not welcome."

Robbie shipped oars and let the current rock him back toward the ship. He'd never met a sentient reef before, but he wasn't surprised to see that Osprey Reef was the first to wake up. There'd been a lot of electromagnetic activity around there the last few times the big ship had steamed through the night to moor up here.

Link, Podcast Feed

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:26:04 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Microsoft releases consumer "Robotics Studio" kit, blog

I may have missed the news while I was lollygagging around in the Himalayas on yak-back, but wow -- Microsoft has launched a blog for their new consumer robotics product suite, and it is here. (Thanks, Violet)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:23:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Driving the world's first car in Pasadena

LA Times' Dan Neil wrote a fun article about taking a spin in an 1886 Benz Motorwagen, generally regarded to be the first gasoline-powered car.

(Image from Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum) As auto critic for The Times, I've had my share of E-ticket rides — a Ferrari in the Alps, a Land Rover across Patagonia. I've gone over 200 mph in a jet-powered dragster, and not entirely on purpose either. But this — this quaint bit of blacksmithing and woodcraft, this spindly, oil-spitting cat's cradle — this is the coolest vehicle I've ever gotten hold of.

And not because it's fast. With a top speed of around 18 mph, the Motorwagen can't outrun a decently thrown bowling ball. Of course, it feels a lot faster when you're actually in the driver's seat, perched in the open air at the height of a stepladder.

No, it's cool because this is the real deal, the echt automobile, the genuine article (excepting the fact what I'm driving is actually a factory-built replica of the vehicle that's in the Deutsches Museum in Munich). And from this over-tall seat you can feel all the familiar tinglings, the infatuating sensations of the automobile, pared to their essences. Why did the automobile succeed? And why is it still succeeding, in places like China and India, where citizens are mortgaging their meager lives to get a car? Here truth is revealed: The pleasure of cars isn't about high-end audio systems and heated seats. It's about mechanically multiplied self-determination. Free will with leverage.

Link (1886 Benz Motorwagen Specs) (Don't miss the dune buggy article, either!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:18:17 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Animated student film, 1979, by Pixar's John Lasseter

Some enterprising archivist has posted an animated student film by Pixar founder John Lasseter at YouTube.

Lasseter created it while attending CalArts in the late 1970s. BoingBoing reader John Hudgens, who points us to this find, says,

"While Lady and the Lamp is not a very good transfer of the pencil-test animation, you can clearly see Lasseter's ability to give motion and life to supposedly inanimate objects that he'd continue to develop over the years... definitely worth a look!"

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:10:39 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

URGENT: Call now to stop the Broadcast Flags!

Danny sez,

The RIAA and MPAA have been jostling to get the broadcast flag *and* the audio flag into the monster telecoms reform bill.

They got it into the official Republican version, which is being considered in committee tomorrow (Thursday). But Senator Sununu (R-NH), who peppered the MPAA and RIAA with tough questions when they spoke to the committee, has filed an amendment to get the flags thrown out.

We think Sununu is in with a chance - Democrats are angry at the anti-consumer tone of the final bill (which also lacks strong network neutrality provisions), and Republicans are chafing at entertainment industry's yearn to over-regulate.

These are the bills that the Corruptibles cartoon describe - not futuristic theories about what Hollywood could do, but actual laws being considered right now.

If you're in the States below, call your Senator NOW, and ask him or her to support the Sununu amendment to remove both TV and audio flags (he also has an amendment to modify the audio flag, so be clear you want to kick out both flags). If your Senator is a Republican, warn them about giving the FCC extra powers. If your Senator is a Democrat, explain how bad this is for consumer rights. Either way, tell them that entertainment industry requests have no place in a telecoms reform bill, and they need to be kept out.

Chairman Ted Stevens (AK), (202) 224-3004 
John McCain (AZ), (202) 224-2235 
Conrad Burns (MT), Main: 202-224-2644 
Trent Lott (MS), (202) 224-6253 
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), (202) 224-5922 
Gordon H. Smith (OR), (202) 224 3753
John Ensign (NV), (202) 224-6244 
George Allen (VA), (202) 224-4024 
John E. Sununu (NH), (202) 224-2841 
Jim DeMint (SC), (202) 224-6121 
David Vitter (LA),(202) 224-4623 
Co-Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (HI), (202) 224-3934 
John D. Rockefeller (WV), (202) 224-6472 
John F. Kerry (MA), (202) 224-2742 
Barbara Boxer (CA), (202) 224-3553 
Bill Nelson (FL), (202) 224-5274 
Maria Cantwell (WA), (202) 224-3441 
Frank R. Lautenberg (NJ), (202) 224-3224 
E. Benjamin Nelson (NE), (202) 224-6551 
Mark Pryor (AR), (202) 224-2353 

Link (Thanks, Danny!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:07:09 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Star Wars Transformers

These Star Wars Transformers hint at a tantalizing universe where the Millennium Falcon is actually the hero of the movies, turning itself into a pair of pro-Rebellion mecha warriors. Link (via Wonderland)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:03:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Phone software encrypts your voice conversations

Voylent is a program that runs on your cellphone and encrypts your conversation before sending it out over the wireless data-channel in the GSM network. Normal GSM conversations are only weakly encrypted and can be easily sniffed; Voylent aims to provide robust encryption to prevent eavesdropping.

Voylent is a client for GSM cellphones that encrypts voice conversations (IP support not available in this version). We have just released our first public beta and are looking for testers, feature requests and feedback. The client has been tested only a few models, mainly Nokia S60 with Symbian OS. The full list of devices it runs on is included in the release notes & FAQ.

Link (Thanks, Rodolfo!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:57:55 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Microsoft's myriad Xbox security mistakes

Here's a paper from last year's Chaos Communication Congress called "17 Mistakes Microsoft Made in the Xbox Security System." The Xbox security was cracked, allowing hackers to install non-Microsoft OSes on the machine -- which makes a pretty good PC -- and undemine Microsoft's business-model of locking customers into buying licensed Xbox software for the subsidized hardware.

Be aware of the fact that a combination of security flaws can lead to a successful attack. Don't think that a possible security hole (or "only" a security risk) cannot be exploited because there are so many barriers in front of it. Attackers might break all the other barriers that block the vulnerability, and fixing that one hole would have stopped them.

MechInstaller is a great example for that. It was only possible because of the combination of several security weaknesses:

* The boot process was vulnerable, so we could use a modified kernel to analyze games.
* Some games are not careful enough with savegames, so that we can run our own code.
* Games run in kernel mode, so we have full control of the hardware.
* The Dashboard does not verify the integrity of the font files.
* The Dashboard has a vulnerability in the font code.

If any of these weaknesses had not been there, then MechInstaller would not have been possible. Also note that hackers have enough fantasy to find out these combinations.

Link (via Schneier)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:51:23 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Kentucky government censors political watchdog site

Patrick sez, "The Bluegrass Report is a well-established, highly reputable political blog devoted to investigations of Kentucky politics. The Republican state government of Kentucky has responded to its persistent refusal to dry up and blow away by...wait for it...blocking access to it from all state computers." Link (Thanks, Patrick!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:47:24 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Zoomorphic calligraphy

Developed in Turkey, India, and Iran in the 15th century, "zoomorphic calligraphy" is "not a matter of script metamorphosing into living forms which are also readable letters, but of using script to delineate such forms." That definition comes from a paper by Robert Hillenbrand, Professor of Islamic Art at the University of Edinburgh. This illustration, by Hassan Musa from Sudan, appeared in the 1994 book Mon Premier Dictionnaire Francais-Anglis Tout En Arabe. More info on the topic at BibliOdyssey.
Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:10:33 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make a rolling LCD projector

Popular Science has plans to build this rolling LCD projector, perfect for screening summer films on the sides of buildings. It's based on Lumenlab's technique to convert a 15-inch computer monitor into a high-definition LCD projector. The whole shebang cost just a bit over $1000 and took the maker 25 hours. It would be fun to build one into a vintage motorcycle sidecar!
Link (via MAKE: Blog)

UPDATE: BB reader John Young tells us about his sidecar outfitted with a "16MM-projector-on-a-Navy-searchlight-tripod-rig" that he uses for Guerilla Drive-Ins around West Chester PA:

The only photos I have right now (linked to from that page) are of my sidecar filled with tap-dancing crime-fighting showgirls, but I _do_ show movies out of it at secret locations in and around West Chester, PA. In order to sign up, folks have to locate the hidden AM transmitter in West Chester, record the ID number that's read aloud on a continuous loop from it, then use that number on the website to confirm their place on the notification list.

Then it's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" projected onto the wall of the gym at the local high school, or "Meatballs" at the lake. Short notice, small crowds, but not stealthy (both an R100 and a 16MM projector are LOUD.)

Both my 16MM projector and my motorcycle are from 1977, which was a banner year for heavy metal, punk music, and science fiction. Link

By the way, the original, biggest, and coolest "guerilla drive-in" event is Rico Thunder's in California. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:47:11 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Make-up artists interrupt newscast

I get a real kick out of live TV bloopers. In Moscow on Monday, two make-up artists walked onto the set of NTV's evening news and started touching up the anchors. From Reuters:

The presenters struggled to make the intruders understand they were live on air, while a man in a white T-shirt nonchalantly handed out sheets of green paper.

"We are in the picture, we are in the picture," Belova said with a slight smile, while Khrekov stared impassively at the camera, outwardly unmoved while a comb ran through his hair and a make-up brush advanced across his face.

Link (via Fark)

UPDATE: Here's the clip on YouTube with some fun added music. Link (Thanks, u2katrina!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 06:47:41 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

New method to date old books and prints

A scientist has come up with a new way to date books and prints created before the mid-19th century. The idea is that the wood blocks and metal plates used in the printing process degrade at a clocklike rate. That degeneration is visible in the prints themselves. The researcher who developed the idea, Penn State professor Blair Hedges, is a biologist but it was his passion for printed material that led him to this latest research. From Penn State Live:

Hedges, a biologist whose hobby involves Renaissance prints and maps, developed his "print clock" method by first measuring time-related changes in 2,674 Renaissance works. He found that the number of breaks in the lines of images printed from woodblock carvings increased over time, while the image intensity became more pale in copperplate prints. "Because woodblocks and copperplates were expensive to replace, they commonly were reused for decades to produce multiple editions of a book or print," Hedges said. His methods include taking digital photographs of the prints, which he analyzes with standard statistical methods and with widely used image-analysis software. Working with black-and-white pixels, the software can detect and count breaks in the lines of woodblock prints and can measure fading of the etched and engraved lines of copperplate prints.

The analyses reinforced the visible evidence that prints made from the same woodblock or copperplate were qualitatively different in later editions. Surprisingly, the analyses also revealed that the changes were usually clocklike on average, and therefore could be useful for calculating the printing dates of other art and books that currently are undated.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 06:36:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Anti-bird laser gun

While looking for methods to deter the pigeons that roost outside my bedroom window, I stumbled upon the Bird Chase Laser. The three "steady beams of red light" is sure to vaporize "annoy birds without injuring them."
Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 06:14:10 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

iPod gramophone

This object (no direct link, godwaful Flash site ahoy), is a record player, iPod dock, CD player and wine-rack. With a gramophone horn. Link to godawful, slow Flash site (via OhGizmo)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:48:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Friday: call RIAA execs and tell them "No DRM!"

The DefectiveByDesign activists (who protested DRM in yellow hazmat suits at Apple Stores and Bill Gates's WinHEC keynote) are staging another national day of protest: this time, they're asking you to pick up the phone this Friday and call an RIAA exec and tell him/her what you think of DRM.

On Friday, June 23rd, we will coordinate a day of action, and this time it doesn't involve yellow hazmat suits. You don't even have to leave your desk. We will provide contact numbers for executives at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and similar organizations around the world. We're asking you to proclaim your support for digital freedoms by calling the RIAA and telling them what you think of DRM and what you think of them!

Link (via Digg)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:42:33 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Lethem to Gehry: High-rise Brooklyn is wrong

Novelist Jonathan Lethem, author of Fortress of Solitude and avid Brooklynite, has written a stirring open letter to the architect Frank Gehry over plans to create a towering "neighborhood from scratch" in the middle of the low rise, homey buildings of Brooklyn.

Brooklyn-based architect Jonathan Cohn's rallying cry: "It's the scale, stupid." The primary objection to your project always was, and always will be, its outlandish disproportion to the neighborhoods around it. None of the array of low-scale, largely residential communities directly adjacent to this proposed "neighborhood from scratch" (your words) want or need such an intrusion. Residents have been enticed with goodies: major-league sports in Brooklyn, housing at a variety of income levels, an influx of jobs. Yet in this case, none of the carrots that have been dangled are worth it—or, necessarily, realistic. Let me quote Cohn from his superb article: "The ambitiously scaled projects of the 1960s failed … because interventions, at that scale, in existing fabric, were extremely traumatic to the urban morphology. This project (now 8.66 million square feet) would be like locating the former World Trade Center towers (only 7.6 million square feet combined) plus Madison Square Garden, somewhere near the West 4th Street transit hub because of all the trains there." With all due respect to your accomplishments, you've not made your career as an urban planner; your emphasis, rather, is sculpted steel and glass. The scale of this project was one of Ratner's company's preconditions for the site; it's not something that originates in your aesthetic. Guess what? It's a huge mistake—emphasis on the huge.

Link (Thanks, Milkjs!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:38:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

230 days of customer service hell over Sony DRM

Greg sez,

This is the permalink to the huge chronicle of my continued customer service experience with Sony BMG to get my DRM/rootkit settlement check and albums. After I (legally) purchased a music album that infected my computer with the malicious spyware rootkit program back in November 2005, I immediately contacted Sony and requested help.

It's now been 230 days since my first customer service call and blog post, and the issue is still not resolved. I've chronciled every e-mail and phone call on my blog - exemplifying Sony's utter incompetence in fixing their DRM woes.

Not only did they lose the CD I mailed them, lose my written settlement claim and then accidentally file two claims for me, they then tried to pawn off Sony CONNECT codes on me when I specifically requested iTunes (I'm boycotting all Sony products, naturally).

Hopefully the phone numbers and e-mail contacts I've posted will help the thousands others still trying to get their settlements from Sony's spyware fiasco.

Link (Thanks, Greg!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:31:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

CEA stands up for home recording

Fred sez, "The Consumer Electronics Association is running an ad this week in Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, reminding Congress of occasions in the past when the entertainment industries cried wolf about new technologies. The ad is brilliant, including this doozy from ASCAP in 1982 about recording off the radio: 'When the manufacturers hand the public a license to record at home...not only will the songwriter tie a noose around his neck, not only will there be no more records to tape [but] the innocent public will be made an accessory to the destruction of four industries.'" Link (Thanks, Fred!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:29:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Aussie government spending AU$120MM on censorware

The Aussie government is offering a "free Internet porn filter" to every family in the country. While not mandatory -- like the censorware in use in China and Syria -- this still has grave implications. These filters are notoriously unreliable, biased, and capricious (Boing Boing's feud with one such provider, SmartFilter, began when they offered us a secret deal to change the structure of our site in exchange for unblocking us). Once a substantial fraction of the population of Australia is behind such a filter, a deliberate or accidental miscategorization could render a site unreachable by much of the country.

The plan is part of a new package, called Protecting Australian Families Online, that will cost almost $120 million.

Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan says the filters will let parents set access limits based on what they think is appropriate...

The Government will make the National Library use the filters, and hopes all other libraries will too.

Link (Thanks, Krisjohn!)

Update: David Cake of Electronic Frontiers Australia sez, "Actually, we here at the EFA have been counting this as a win, which probably reflects are fairly poor expectations of our current government. With the conservative government being heavily lobbied by conservative Christian groups and others calling for opt-out ISP level filtering, and a misguided opposition supporting them, a proposal that takes ISP level filtering off the table and replaces it with opt-in PC filtering has actually improved the political outlook here quite a bit.

"Realistically, it's likely that only a relatively small percentage of the population will take them up on the offer - we aren't a conservative nation, and surveys tend to agree that the main reasons people do not install filtering software is not price, but choice, so I don't think it will up percentage that use filtering software that much. The government attempts to force it on libraries is definitely a worry, though."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:25:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

AT&T spy-room in St Louis - whistleblowers

Two anonymous ex-AT&T whistleblowers say they worked in a secret room in a backbone administration center in St Louis that appears to have been an NSA spying operation (the NSA isn't supposed to spy on Americans). EFF is suing the AT&T over its role in NSA wiretapping millions of Americans through a switching office in San Francisco.

In interviews with Salon, the former AT&T workers said that only government officials or AT&T employees with top-secret security clearance are admitted to the room, located inside AT&T's facility in Bridgeton. The room's tight security includes a biometric "mantrap" or highly sophisticated double door, secured with retinal and fingerprint scanners. The former workers say company supervisors told them that employees working inside the room were "monitoring network traffic" and that the room was being used by "a government agency."

The details provided by the two former workers about the Bridgeton room bear the distinctive earmarks of an operation run by the National Security Agency, according to two intelligence experts with extensive knowledge of the NSA and its operations. In addition to the room's high-tech security, those intelligence experts told Salon, the exhaustive vetting process AT&T workers were put through before being granted top-secret security clearance points to the NSA, an agency known as much for its intense secrecy as its technological sophistication.

Link

Update: Genie sez, "This Fri. June 23rd at 9:30 AM at 450 Golden Gate Ave., Courtroom 6, SF CA 94102, there will be a hearing on the US Gov't's proposal to dismiss EFF's class-action lawsuit against AT&T. They will also discuss AT&T's motions to dismiss the case, and requests from media organizarions to unseal evidence."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:18:08 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Homestar Runner as ISP tech support

The new Strongbad/Homestar Runner toon is great -- Homestar is a customer service rep, and hilarity ensues ("May I please take your address so I can send you my weight in signup CDs?"). Zing! Link (Thanks, Peter!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:13:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

China 'net censorship: not one big brother, but many

BoingBoing reader Ben Lehman, who lives in Shanghai, writes this response to yesterday's post comparing the results of censored versions of search engines in China:

I live in Shanghai right now, and I've lived in several other parts of the country and also done a lot of travelling over the last few years. I'm also a huge geek, so I've spent a fair amount of my time in smoky internet cafes between the QQ chatters and MMO players.

The censorship of large, famous portal websites like Google, MSN, and Baidu is the most visible aspect of Chinese censorship to the outsider, but I consider it really secondary to the firewall. I think that, for Americans, it's a big deal because it's big, public, and most importantly American companies that are involved. But, in day to day life, the internet in China is just smaller than it looks.

The thing that most people outside of China don't seem to get, and which your article missed, is that the firewall is maintained on a district-by-district basis. There are sites I can get to from my neighborhood of Shanghai that I can't get to at the coffee shop downtown. Likewise, moving provinces or counties results in a whole new wave of censored sites. Blogspot is inaccessible to most of the country, but totally open from rural Shandong. American Google and Gmail are available most places ... until the neighborhood cadre wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and turns them off for a week. Some parts of the country all you can get to is QQ and sina.com -- you can't even get to the official Chinese government site!

(Of course, access to some sites -- places like human rights watch and the US dept. of State -- is cut off by central government mandate. But the rest is pretty damned flexible.)

The insidious thing about this is not the censorship (getting around the firewall is so trivial I can't even begin -- it's even less effective than the last "big wall" China built to keep out foreign influence) but the fact that most Chinese people don't even know its there. Almost no one I've talked to even understands that government censorship happens at all -- it just looks to them like the internet has a lot more "dead links" and, if that's all you're used to, there's no reason to expect otherwise.

A lot of times foreigners see China as a big monolithic nation, but the central government actually has little direct control, and most things (including censorship) are entirely in the hands of local officials.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:25:26 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Textamerica goes fee-only, will delete all old, free moblogs

Moblog hosting service TextAmerica.com recently notified some logged-in users (others complain they never got the news) that the company plans to shut off all existing free accounts on July 1st, and offer service only to users who agree to pay a yet-to-be-announced membership fee. A few months after that, Textamerica will delete all content related to those old "free" accounts -- the ones created by their earliest and arguably most loyal users. Snip:

Update to the TA Community insiders: Due to the complicated nature of the planned upcoming move to a private paid members only community, changes will not be formally announced until sometime in August. Current 'free sites' will be suspended starting July 1 with a planned deletion scheduled for the fall 2006. DO NOT QUESTION me about these changes as NOTHING will be said in advance of the official notices. THANK YOU for your consideration in this regard. From *Janet on June 8, 2006 2:30am

"Do not question my authoritaaah!" What, is Eric Cartman running the company now? I try out lots of online services to see how they feel, and I maintained a moblog at Textamerica for some time, starting shortly after the company launched. But I stopped actively using the service when the user experience started to go downhill, right around the same time the company began to claim intellectual property rights over images that users shot and uploaded. That's no way to treat your users, and neither is this. Why is there no notification about the pending fee-only switch and account deletion on the Textamerica.com website, even if only for logged-in accountholders?

BB reader Joshua adds,

A couple of years back (see this previous BB post) when TextAmerica tried to assert ownership of the images their users were uploading, I created an application that let users pull their images out of the site and either save them locally or upload them to MoblogUK. The upcoming move to a private paid members only community seemed like a good reason to dust off the old importer and get it working again so that users who might be in danger of losing 2+ years worth of images have a way to save their data!

So, if that hand-rolled exporting app doesn't work (looks like it was Windows-only, anyway) and Textamerica isn't offering support/export instructions to users who don't wish to switch to "pay" but don't want to lose all their images -- looks like many longtime users will be screwed. None of my emails this week to Textamerica about this this or other issues related to the "free" shutdown have been answered.

Reader comment: Sean Bonner says Textamerica is violating the First Commandment of the Internets: you can't charge users for the exact same thing you've been giving them for free.

Looks like there's already a flickr group for ex-text america'ers: Link. And it looks like it's run by ex-textamerica employee Shawn Honnick: Link.

According to the "welcome" blurb on the Flickr group for former Textamerica users, Textamerica plans to charge $99 a year for membership. I can't find evidence of the company having announced that publicly, and they haven't responded to any of my queries -- but if that's true, yowza.

Reader comment: Vidiot says,

Thought I'd share my Textamerica horror story with you, as posted in the Flickr group. An excerpt (full text here):

One day, I made an image with my Flickr photostream's URL, took a picture of it, and uploaded it to TA, intending to "park" my TA site and archive my old camphone shots there. Nothing derogatory toward TA, just something along the lines of "My new pictures can now be found at this address."

Within hours, my entire TA site was gone -- deleted, along with all of my old camphone shots that I'll never get back. Some of which I would have wanted to hang on to -- New York blackout shots, celebrity sightings, pictures of my girlfriend, and other shots I wanted to keep for sentimental reasons. No e-mail from TA, no warnings, nothing.

I actually thought about suing TA, as I'm pretty sure their TOS doesn't include permanent deletion of one's site for merely mentioning Flickr. But I decided it wasn't worth the hassle or the money. I've never been shy about telling this story, though; TA screwed me -- a loyal customer who'd talked up their site quite a bit -- for no good reason.

Reader comment: Caines says,

Hey Xeni, I'm pissed off about this. I found out about TA from your old Moblog and signed up. Eventually my moblog was included in TA's early press releases (I don't know why). Anyway, a friend of mine signed up for an account earlier this week and wasn't given an option for a free account. He could either pay $99 or receive a free temp 30 day acct. If you go to their registration page, you will see the $99 fee statement. It was fun while it lasted.

Reader comment: Kristie says,

Here's the new reg link for Textamerica, complete with $99 reg fee. Interestingly enough, they haven't updated their whole site; going to my moblog shows a link to "get your own moblog--FREE!"

Noah Lockwood says,

My friends and I all have TextAmerica blogs so we can chronicle our trips and get-togethers - they're mainly for each other, though they're technically public, and our experience has generally been pretty good with Textamerica.

Not anymore. After sharing our outrage with TA via email amongst ourselves, some of my friends added posts to their moblogs protesting the decision, changed their profile images to protest images, and linked to the Boing Boing post. The posts were removed, and now their moblogs are GONE.

You can see a record of one of their messages at the Technorati page for the Boing Boing post (Link) - note that the link to "Paul's Non-Lawn Care Blog" (Link) now redirects to textamerica.com!

We are all getting the hell out of Textamerica because this is fucking ridiculous. Everyone should back up their moblogs before they get deleted. Viva Flickr!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:21:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

To do in SF June 26: Will Wright and Brian Eno rap out.

Next Monday, June 26, "Sims" and "Sim City" creator Will Wright will speak on "Playing With Time" at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. Brian Eno, who's crafting sound for Will's latest game creation, "Spore". Link to more info on this Long Now Foundation event. (Thanks, Alexander Rose)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:10:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Civet cat butt coffee tastes good, say connoisseurs

If you would like to pay $75 per quarter-pound for coffee beans excreted out of a rare Indonesian marsupial mammal's ass, good news! Thanks to the internets, island critter poo-café is just a click away. The stuff's called "Kopi Luwak," and here's more from a promo website:

[T]he paradoxurus [is] a tree-dwelling animal that is part of the sibet family. Long regarded by the natives as pests, they climb among the coffee trees eating only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries. Who knows who first thought of it, or how or why, but what these animals eat they must also digest and eventually excrete. Some brazen or desparate -- or simply lazy -- local gathered the beans, which come through the digestion process fairly intact, still wrapped in layers of the cherries' mucilage. The enzymes in the animals' stomachs, though, appear to add something unique to the coffee's flavor through fermentation.

Link to the website where you can buy it. Oh, and BB's own Mark F. mentioned the stuff in his book "The World's Worst," and recommends it as a beverage of choice for editors. Heh. (Thanks, Ivy)

Correction: D'oh! Paradoxurus are not marsupials, says candyblogger Cybele:

The animals mentioned as marsupials in the coffee article are known as Civet Cats ...not really cats, but certainly not marsupials.

They're part of the carnivore order and rather similar to ferrets, otters or raccoons but have their own taxonomic family.

Civet cats were at one time thought to be a vector for SARS. I'm not sure I'd want to drink something that came out of a SARS-vector's ass either.

And whatever genus they be, BB reader Pauric O'Callaghan says, by purchasing catbuttcoffee you may be supporting animal cruelty. As foie gras is to geese, so is Kopi Luwak to civets:

Due to the high prices, some of the supply now comes from force-fed animals. The images shown of the solid poops consisting of nothing by coffee beans are an example of this. Traditionally natives fished through the monkey poop for individual beans. The monkey poop does fall to the ground in single solid bean rich movements.

BB reader Steve adds,

FWIW, thecoffeefaq.com notes that a study "found that the beans undergo physical and chemical changes as a result of digestion.They become harder and more brittle, with an extremely finely perforated outer surface, and had a lower protein content, theoretically resulting in a less-bitter cup. Blind taste tests from professional cuppers, however, have not borne out the theory."

So I guess it's really just the weirness of production, not the taste, that sells it. Also, it says that much of the kopi luwak out there is probably fake (no mention of the site you referenced).

Reader Eric Strathmeyer says,

Dave Barry wrote a column a few years back about the poop coffee: Link. He likened the paradoxurus to a weasel.

omg, BREAKING! dieselsweeties creator Richard Stevens is addicted to catbuttcoffee! He says,

I have tried the Civet coffee and it is INSANE. It's a very mild, full cup if you brew it regularly. The insanity kicks in when you bring it to a good coffee shop and ask them to make you 4 shots of espresso with it. I felt wonderful for about 12 hours and woke up the next morning with a buzz.

Ted Hobgood says,

Loved your post about the Cat Poo coffee. It reminded me of a story Stephen Fry told on his wonderful quiz / chat / comedy programme "QI" (for "Quite Interesting") where he related a story about how he gave "Weasel Coffee" to Prince Charles as a wedding present. Apparently, this coffee is made from beans regurgitated by weasels. So pleasant.

Weasel Coffee site: Link.

QI site: Link. (QI is my latest television addiction, btw. Well worth finding for those who love odd facts, odd humour, and plenty of references to homosexuality and Britishcisms.)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:43:54 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Controversy over "This American Life" RSS feeds (UPDATED)

Update: Conrad, the "Unofficial American Life podcaster," clarifies the reports other readers have submitted:

I have decided to remove the Unofficial This American Life podcast at the request of TAL’s webmaster Elizabeth Meister. Contrary to posts on Boing Boing and elsewhere, Jon Udell and I did not recieve a “nastygram” or formal ceast and desist letter. Rather we received friendly emails from Ms. Meister, This American Life’s webmaster, making a request to take down the hyperlinks and RSS feeds, or she’d regrettably have to get lawyers involved. In other words, it wasn't a "cease and desist".

And Jared says,

Hello, I'm Jared, one of the people who received a request from This American Life to take down the links and podcast feed which linked to their MP3's. Like Jon Udell, I have decided to comply with This American Life's request at this time. While I'm confident that my page and podcast feed containing links to publicly accessible MP3's, hosted on This American Life's own servers is perfectly legal (see Tickets.com v. Ticketmaster), I felt that I should honor their quaint low-tech attempts of Digital Restrictions Management. I also want to make it clear, that I don't consider their request to be a "nastygram" or formal cease and desist as you've stated. Ms. Meister was courteous and clearly stated that she'd prefer that lawyers not be involved. I've posted a more detailed explanation of what happened on my blog.

------

BoingBoing reader m@ says,

My friend Jared, techblogger Jon Udell, and apparently some others have been sent emails from the PRI radio program This American Life's webmeister requesting they halt publishing RSS podcast-feeds of TAL shows that simply link to MP3s hosted on TAL own website. Jon has posted a copy of the email, and his response on his blog: Link. What's questionable about the request is that claims a copyright violation based on deep-linking to content that is already openly available and hosted on the content-provider's site.

BB reader Ken Kennedy was among those who also pointed out that...

Until recently, the "This American Life" feed off of PRI has been a RealAudio stream, which is a PITA to transcode onto a portable media player. Jon's up to that challenge, of course, but he was pleased when they recently switched to MP3s, and blogged about setting up a custom RSS feed to grab the shows and dump them for his player.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:35:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Pentagon memo says gayness is a mental disorder

Snip from AP wire story:

A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position. The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.

Oh, that's right, we ARE in Egypt already. Link (Thanks, Sean Bonner)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:23:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Egyptian blogger Alaa to be released from prison

Alaa Abd El-Fatah, an award-winning blogger in Egypt who was jailed last month, today received a release order from prison according to blogs maintained by supporters. He is due home later this week.

RSF.org explains:
Alaa Abd El-Fatah was arrested on 7 May 2006 while he was taking part in a demonstration in front of a Cairo court. He was accused of "illegal gathering" (in violation of the emergency law), "obstructing traffic", "insulting President Mubarak" and "insulting police officers during his arrest". Alaa Abd El-Fatah is co-author of Manal and Alaa's Bit Bucket, jointly awarded a 2005 best blog prize by Reporters Without Borders and German media Deutsche Welle. The "Free Alaa" blog states:

Alaa will now spend at least a day on a tour of police stations, and will likely be interviewed at Lazoghly, the headquarters of the Interior Ministry. But he should be back where he belongs (...) within the next 24-48 hours.

Stories of jailed bloggers like this always seem remote and "over there" until you sit down and read their stuff for a spell. They guy's into Radiohead and Nirvana, for chrissakes. He's like you or me, only -- well, he's in Egypt. Snip from the "about me" page on Alaa's blog, in which he waxes nostalgic about early music loves:

[And of] course Nirvana (you can't be a teenager without listening to Nirvana)... only microbus drivers listened to decent Egyptian music at that time so apart from Mounir I didn't like anything Egyptian. there was Portishead, Radiohead (creep was big at that time), Cranberries (zombie eih eih), Prodigy (I got the poison, I got the remedy). was Metallica's black album released at that time too? That led to going to metal and rock concerts, being mildly harassed when they cracked down on the black clads and long hairs in the infamous satanics incidents, while this was minor police abuse compared to what is the norm in Egyptian society and only had an effect on a thin strip of society I felt first hand for the first time what my parents tried hard to explain to me, you can't avoid politics, you can't just pretend this country is not fucked up [...] I still fantasize about fragging them all with bazookas.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:42:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Things found in a jail book cart

Jumbledpile has a Flickr set of things he finds "abandoned in books or stuffed on the book cart at the jail where I volunteer." Link (via Growabrain)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:34:25 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Asinine Joe Lieberman campaign cartoon

waltisfrozen has many funny and true things to say about the despicable Joe Lieberman:

He's a socially conservative hand-wringer who's shows a willingness to play the "What about the children??" card. He frequently breaks ranks with his own party in order to bolster his reputation as a self-styled "centrist." He's one of the few remaining apologists for some the Bush Administration's most egregious acts. And he's a total douche.

All true, of course. But even funnier and more despicable is the TV campaign Lieberman is running against his US Senate opponent. The last line in the ad pegs the stupidity meter: "One thing about bear cubs: they always do what they're told." Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:19:08 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Foster's Home blog

Craig McCracken, creator of the Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, is one of the best character designers around. He's got a new blog about the characters in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Link (via Drawn!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:06:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Satirical kids' book about copyright: Files are not for sharing

Defective Yeti's Matthew Baldwin has teamed up with net-cartoonist Goopymart to create a delightful political kids' picture book called Files are Not for Sharing: Link (via Waxy)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:51:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wendy Seltzer smokes the MPAA in the Wall St Journal

My pal and former EFF attorney Wendy Seltzer conducted a debate with MPPA exec Fritz Attaway in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. In it, Wendy makes mincemeat of Attaway's arguments, which keep coming around to accusing her of wanting to commit piracy and rip off artists, which, as she explains over and over again, isn't what she's trying to do at all:

Fritz, I have not been asking for media free of charge. I have been asking for it free of usage and interoperability restrictions that go beyond copyright. The difference is critical -- I fully support a market in which creators are compensated for their works, but not one in which a creative industry can monopolize cultural reference and the technology around its works.

The copyright balance is that both creators and the public get the returns on investment, neither to the exclusion of the other. None of us creates from scratch, rather one creative work is input to the next.

I'd gladly pay more for fully usable media. The problem is that I don't just want to see my own creative output, but the works of the public around me. DRM hides the choices from us until we have a whole ecosystem of limited-use devices: iPods that need their songs re-purchased after one too many computer crashes; first-generation HDTVs that won't work with the next generation of HD-DVD players; and movies you don't realize you can't re-mix until you have a flash of inspiration after Jon Stewart's Oscar show.

I would ask you how you justify DRM that does not stop the commercial pirates -- we all know they use even more sophisticated copying than the still-available DeCSS -- but does interfere with noncommercial transformation.

Link (Thanks, Wendy!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:44:08 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

MPAA's PirateBay letter to Swedish Sec'ty of State

This appears to be a PDF of the fax that the MPAA's John G. Malcolm sent to the Swedish Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice demanding that he shut down the legal (under Swedish law) site The Pirate Bay. In the letter, Malcolm notes that he also got the US Embassy to intervene on his masters' behalf against the Swedish site.

The Pirate Bay was raided and the servers at its hosting company were indiscriminately confiscating, leading to the shut down of hundreds of websites. The resulting furor has led to lawsuits and official investigations of police irregularities, and public outrage that Swedish cops were being used as pawns by American entertainment companies looking to shore up their creaking business-models.

The raid shut down The Pirate Bay for a few days, but it is now back online and operating in Sweden again.

Clearly the complaints that we filed on behalf of our members in 2004 and 2005 with the police in Stockholm and Gothenburg against the operators of The Pirate Bay have resulted in no action. As I am sure you are aware, the American Embassy has sent entreaties to the Swedish government urging it to take action against The Pirate Bay and other organizations oyeratin,a with Sweden that facililate copyright theft. As we discussed during our meeting, it is certainly not in Sweden's best interests to earn a reputation among other nations and trading partners as a place where utter lawlessness with respect to intellectual property rights is tolerated. I would urge you once agmn to exercise your influence to urge law enforcement aiithorities in Sweden to take much-needed action against The Pirate Bay.

PDF Link, Coral Cache (via Digg)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:37:48 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO build an RFID skimmer

Two electrical engineering students from Tel Aviv University have written a paper to be presented at Usenix called "How to Build a Low-Cost, Extended-Range RFID Skimmer." It does pretty much what it says on the tin: shows you how shockingly insecure the RFIDs in your office key-fob, subway-card, car-key, etc all are -- easy to "skim," clone, and walk away with. The two achieve skims at more than 25cm, and note that they are "halfway to a full-blown relay attack."

Our reference system was the RX-MFR-RLNK-00 Texas Instrument Multi-Function Reader evaluation kit. The evaluation kit embeds the TI module we used, and comes with small 8.5 cm diameter round antenna directly connected to the module's output [TI05]. The basic read-range of the evaluation kit was 6.5 cm.

We first connected our 10x15 cm PCB antenna to the evaluation kit, without the power amplifier. This alone gave a range increase of 30%, to around 8.5 cm. Attaching the big loop antenna to the evaluation kit gave no results since the kit generates only 200 mW output power that is insufficient to drive the antenna.

Using the power amplifier we reached much larger ranges (see Figure 13). With the linear power supply providing 14.58 volts, we were able to read the tag at a range of 17.3 cm using the PCB antenna, and at a range of 25.2 cm using the copper tube antenna. With a 12-volt battery we reached a reading range of 23.2 cm using the copper tube antenna and 16.9 cm using the PCB antenna. Note that this type of battery, upon recharging, can supply more than its nominal voltage: we measured that it supplied 13.8 volts during the above experiments.

Link (via Schneier)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:26:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Pete Seeger tribute disc locked down with DRM

Such irony: Bruce Springsteen recorded a tribute album for Pete Seeger, anti-property agitator and old-guard leftist. Springsteen's label slapped a super-restrictive DRM on the disc that prevents PC playback, ripping to MP3, and lots of other freedoms that are totally in synch with the poltiical messages in Seeger's music. Link (Thanks Rob!)

Update: Some readers report having bought copies of this disc without any apparent DRM -- we've seen this before, as with the Coldplay disc, where some copies have DRM and some don't. It can indicate that either the label was too cheap to buy DRM licenses for all the copies it shipped, or that copies produced for another country got the DRM and have wandered into the US retail channel (or vice-versa).

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:20:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cory's Australian Broadcasting Corp radio interview

I did a fun, short interview about DRM with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's LateNightLive program this week -- the audio's online now. Link (Thanks, David!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:12:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Do you remix? Open debate

OpenDemocracy is commemorating this week's international iCommons Summit in Rio with an open debate on the question, "Do you remix?"

We would love to hear your opinion about the 'Remix Culture': Do you remix? What is the relationship between remix and culture? Do you have example of cultures from your specific local scene that you see as using remixing in order to create something new?

Link (Thanks, Jessica!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:11:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

How do homosexual animals evolve?

Joan Roughgarden, a transgendered professor of biology at Stanford University, has penned a fascinating-sounding book on the evolutionary role of homosexuality called Evolution's Rainbow. This month's Seed magazine features a long article on Roughgarden's theories, which center on explaining why, if homosexuality is a genetic aberration, it hasn't been bred out of all species -- instead, homosexual coupling is more the norm than the aberration when it comes to most animals. As she says, "a 'common genetic disease' is a contradiction in terms, and homosexuality is three to four orders of magnitude more common than true genetic diseases such as Huntington's disease."

Japanese macaques, an old world primate, illustrate this principle perfectly. Macaque society revolves around females, who form intricate dominance hierarchies within a given group. Males are transient. To help maintain the necessary social networks, female macaques engage in rampant lesbianism. These friendly copulations, which can last up to four days, form the bedrock of macaque society, preventing unnecessary violence and aggression. Females that sleep together will even defend each other from the unwanted advances of male macaques. In fact, behavioral scientist Paul Vasey has found that females will choose to mate with another female, as opposed to a horny male, 92.5% of the time. While this lesbianism probably decreases reproductive success for macaques in the short term, in the long run it is clearly beneficial for the species, since it fosters social stability. "Same-sex sexuality is just another way of maintaining physical intimacy," Roughgarden says. "It's like grooming, except we have lots of pleasure neurons in our genitals. When animals exhibit homosexual behavior, they are just using their genitals for a socially significant purpose."

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:09:09 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Signed copies of Cory's novel "Someone" with free UK shipping

The paperback of my novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town has just shipped and the UK bookstore Aust Gate has a case of signed copies that they'll ship free for second-class post to the UK and for reasonable rates around the world. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:56:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Elephants with stress disorder, rats that laugh

Elephants and other species can experience emotions akin to those present in disturbed people. Writing in the June/July issue of Seed Magazine, GA Bradshaw recounts a the story of pair of "traumatized" elephants who witnessed the slaughter of their families being massacred and grew up to be mass murderers, indiscriminately killing rhinos and other animals. He goes on to discuss the burgeoning body of evidence for parallels to human psychology in many vertebrates and even some invertebrates, and tantalizingly asks whether this means that humans' "unique" and subtle psychologies aren't more common than we like to think.

Until a few years ago, making such inference and diagnosing elephants with PTSD would have been dismissed as anthropomorphism. But no longer. Elephant psychopathology, chimpanzee infanticide and other un-animal-like behaviors are part of a growing body of research that suggests science is building toward a radical paradigm shift. Streams of new data and theories, critically from neuroscience, are converging into a new, trans-species model of the psyche. Humans are being reinstated back into the species continuum that Darwin articulated, a continuum that includes laughing rats, octopuses with personalities, sheep who read emotions from the faces of their family members and tool-wielding crows.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:53:15 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Desperate inventions of post-Soviet Russia

Home-Made: Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts is a brilliant book about the ingenious creations of Soviet and post-Soviet inventors in Russia who improvised the industrial rubbish around them into a startling variety of useful and gorgeous items. Part Make Magazine, part Prisoners' Inventions, Home-Made showcases a brand of uniquely Russian invention. Where other developing nations are thin on industrial equipment and expertise, Soviet Russia brimmed with factories and tools and trained labor, but was crippled by political ideology and corruption. The resulting tools are the creation of people who seem to be refugees from a lost civilization -- people who know much, have much, but are in steady decline. Each artifact is photographed, with notes from its creator on the process of its creation:

We prepared this aerial according to the dimensions published in Radio magazine. But, you know, resonators are everything. THey were made form forks so that the reception would be better. In my opinion it all worked out very well. The effect was noticeable from the very start. Everyone particularly wanted to watch the programmes from Petersburg. My mother had the forks in her cupboard. She bought them when everything was collpasing around us. There wasn't anything else but forks to buy in the shops then. They werent' even very good forks, in the practical sense. But they went well with that aerial.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:41:56 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Exact change wallet card

"So what is the fewest number of coins you can carry that allows you to produce any exact change?The answer is 10 coins, 3 Quarters, 1 dime, 2 nickel, and 4 pennies. With this combination you can produce any number between 1-99 cents." Here's how to make an exact change coin-holding card that fits in your wallet. Link (via Make)
Reader comment: Andrew Neal of Chapel Hill Comics says:

You have the amount of dimes and nickels switched: it should be two dimes and one nickel, not vice-versa. Make seems to have it right on their page, so I suspect they fixed it after you cut and pasted!

I'm in retail so this jumped out at me; the only reason for two nickels is if you don't have a dime!

Reader comment: Kevin says:

While the correction that has been posted to this article is true (ie: you don't need 2 nickels if you have a dime), it is also more expensive. $1.04 vs $0.99

Reader comment: Blar says:

Actually, both combinations work. You can make any amount of change if you have one dime and two nickels, or if you have two dimes and one nickel. (If half dollars are an option, though, then both options are wrong and you can make exact change with only nine coins.) Also, for the record, the Instructables website continues to say "1 dime, 2 nickel" just as you