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Saturday, September 30, 2006

eBaya obscura: "Sex Rituals in Black Magic," 1934

BoingBoing reader Danjite says,

Things one finds randomly on E-Bay. It's 1934 -- The (First) Depression Era -- the focus is on practicality, keeping fed and restimulating the economy. At least one printer was doing their share, producing this lovely, really, really attractive, Practical Guide to Sex Rituals in Black Magic. Heavily illustrated, of course, it contains such intriguing chapter headings as: "The Black Mass and it''s Orgies", "Werewolves and Vampires", "Christianity and Sexual Magic", "Incubii and Sucubii" and about a dozen others. All this in purple print and with a gold-stamped purple cover. Yum, sayeth the bibliophile!

Link

Reader comment: JJ Merelo says,

Some of the pictures in that book seemed familiar to me, at least the ones featured in the last 3 snapshots. And yes, they are part of the "Caprichos" series of engravings by Goya. Check out this one, for instance. I think most of them can be seen in the Prado museum, but I'm not sure.

Edward says,

Abebooks has copies starting at $20.00 if you are not seeking a rare copy.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:17:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

200 ways to fight DRM this Tuesday

DefectiveByDesign's Peter Brown writes in with "Zuned" -- a sticker-designed produced for October 3, the International Day Against DRM.

There are over 200 projects proposed for the Anti-DRM Day, from Free DRM-Free movie downloads to encouraging French citizens to continue turning themselves into the police for violating France's barbaric new DRM law.

I got all fired up after reading an article about ZUNE and talking to one of my cohorts about it. What do you think of these? I took my favorite iteration of an imprisoned DefectiveByDesign stick figure you use and applied it to a few different layouts - Amy

Zune, I understand, is pronounced F*** when written in Hebrew. It seems that when you transfer a music file from one Zune to another, that file will get deleted after 3 days/plays - even if what you transfer is licensed under creative commons...

That seems pretty f***** to me.

Link (Thanks, Peter!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:31:30 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ansari back from space, which smells like burnt almond cookie

The Expedition 13 crew have returned from the International Space Station to Earth -- specifically, the dry steppes of Kazakhstan, where they landed Thursday night local time in a Soyuz TMA 8 spacecraft. No word on whether Borat was around to welcome them home.

In the NASA image above, from left: Anousheh Ansari, the first female space tourist, who accompanied Expedition 13 crew members Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams.

Just a few minutes before this photo was taken, they were extracted from their Soyuz capsule after landing on the home planet.

Expedition 13 was up there for six months, and a NASA report says their tasks included ..."the arrival of two space shuttle missions, resumption of construction of the orbiting laboratory and the restoration of a three-member crew."

They'll now spend a few weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical exams.

Ansari ascended to the ISS with the crew of Expedition 14, and spent eight days there. Her trip was arranged through the Russian Federal Space Agency.

BoingBoing reader John Parres recaps Ansari's Awesome Adventure:

On September 18, Russians launched a Soyuz supply ship carrying a replacement ISS crew and the first female private space explorer, Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari, from the very same pad used 45 years ago to launch the first man into space - Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961.

Ms. Ansari is the first female Muslim to view the Earth from weightlessness. (Prince Sultan ibn Salman ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia was the first Arab, the first Muslim and the first member of royalty in space on Discovery in 1986 1985).

In 2004 Ms. Ansari and another relative put up the title sponsorship of the $10 million reward for the winner of the Ansari X Prize aimed at encouraging the development of a privately built, reusable spaceship which which SpaceShipOne achieved in October 2004.

Anousheh Ansari maintained a space blog during her trip.

Correction: John Schwartz, who writes about this stuff for an obscure little website called the New York Times, says: "Oops. it's 1985 on flight STS-51G. January 1986 Challenger, STS-51L, fell apart during ascent, and there were no other flights that year... next one was sept. '88."

Below, a close-up of Ansari just after landing in Kazakhstan, and a snip from one of her blog entries:

The time went by really slowly, but finally the moment arrived and they were ready to open the hatch. Mike and Misha called me closer and told me to take a good whiff because this would be the first time I would smell “SPACE.”

They said it is a very unique smell. As they pulled the hatch open on the Soyuz side, I smelled “SPACE.” It was strange… kind of like burned almond cookie. I said to them, “It smells like cooking” and they both looked at me like I was crazy and exclaimed:”Cooking!”

I said, “Yes… sort of like something is burning… I don’t know it is hard to explain…”

(Thanks to the many BB readers who wrote in, including Ali and Avi)

Update: BoingBoing reader Ivan Reyes says, "Borat was actually on the flight. See photo below."

Click for full image.

Reader comment: Jennifer Saylor says,

Anousheh Ansari isn't the first to describe outer space as smelling like something burnt. In a 2001 "Fresh Air" interview, NASA astronaut Capt. Jerry Linenger describes the smell of space this way:

Flying into MIR, it smells sort of like dirty sweat socks in a guys’ locker room. Actual smell of space, though, that’s a very interesting question. When we would open a hatch, for example, that was exposed to the vacuum of space, uh, there’s always a double hatch, and so you open the one hatch, you now have the pure smell of space. And it’s a uh, tough — you know, any aroma is tough to describe, but it has a distinct smell, and it’s sort of a burned-out, uh, after-the-fire, the next-morning-in-your-fireplace sort of smell. And that’s the real smell of the vacuum of space.

The interview: Link.

Karrie says,

Couldn't help but point out that NASA published a short article speculating on why moondust smells the way it does... Kinda related to the 'smell of space' mentioned in today's article. Link.

Update: This just in -- a snapshot from on board the ISS. Why did Ansari say space smells like burnt almond cookies? Clearly, they were cruising the Cookie Monster Nebula.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:25:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Suspicious Looking Device exists to incite unease

The Suspicious Looking Device is a bright orange box with a countdown timer on the top. If you touch it, it lets out a loud siren and then scoots away on a set of hidden wheels. Its entire purpose is to look suspicious -- it has no other function. Link (via Digg)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:10:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make elephant-shit paper

This photo-essay explains the process by while paper is made from dried elephant shit:

1. collecting the elephant dung
2. wash dung and boil for 5 hours
3. to bleach
4. spin dung to cut fibres for up to 3 hours and add colour
5. weigh out into equal weight balls
6. sift evenly into frames
7. dry in the sun
8. sanding to a smooth surface
9. assembly of products

Link (via Make)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:03:14 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Polished wood PC chassis

Suissa Computers hand-builds PCs out of polished woods and plastics in form factors that are utterly unlike the standard PC shapes. Link (via Make)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:00:33 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

War on Moisture in the Onion

The Onion does a masterful job on the War on Moisture in its man-on-the-street interviews:

Alex Hunter,
Surveyor

"The ban was a necessary precaution. We have to be willing to make these kinds of sacrifices if we're going to prevent scientifically impossible terrorist attacks."

Link (via Ian!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:56:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, September 29, 2006

Giving Kiosks: ATMs for church donations

Seen here is a Giving Kiosk, essentially an ATM a POS for church donations. Pastor Marty Baker of Stevens Creek Community Church in Augusta, Georgia invented the machine so that members of his congregation only need to swipe their bank cards to fill the church coffers. They're so popular with Baker's congregation that he and his wife founded a company, SecureGive, to sell Giving Kiosks to other houses of worship. From the Los Angeles Times:

The kiosks can let donors identify their gift as a regular tithe or offering, or direct it to building or missionary funds. The machines send information about the donation to a central church computer system, which shoots the donors an e-mail confirmation.

The Bakers charge between $2,000 and $5,000 for the kiosks, which come in a variety of configurations. They also collect a monthly subscription fee of up to $49.95 for licensing and support. And a card-processing company gets 1.9% of each transaction; a small cut of that fee goes to SecureGive.

So far, seven other congregations have installed or ordered the machines. All of them are Protestant, and most are in the South. If the idea takes off and makes the Bakers rich, Patty says they will thank the Lord — and give a significant sum to their church...

At Stevens Creek, volunteers such as Jeff Asselin still pass around the wooden-handled collection bag. But Asselin said it is considerably lighter these days — although some people who donate at the kiosk drop their receipts in the bag as a vestige of the old ways.

"The Bible talks about bringing your offerings to the church, and they like the feeling of dropping their offering in the plate," Patty Baker said. "And we also believe that your offering is part of worship, so that's how they participate."

Link to LA Times article, Link to Secure Give (Thanks, Jason Tester!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:00:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Make an electronic noisemaker and more at Machine Project LA

I've been to Machine Project in Echo Park a couple of times, and fell in love it. It's hard to describe what it is exactly, but if you can imagine a cross between an art gallery and an electronics lab and a classroom that's housed in a funky little storefront building with a hole in the floor that you can peer through to gaze upon a glowing unicorn skeleton, you'll get a fair idea of what the place is like. And it's run by one of the nicest technology-and-art geeks I've ever met, Mark Allen.

I think there's still time to sign up for two one-day workshops being offered.

This weekend (Saturday September 30th) Machine Director Mark Allen will be teaching a one day workshop entitled "A build your own noise thing workshop spectacular". This be focused on using 555 timers to make square wave oscillators. We’ve done this one before and it’s a good time. $65. More information and registration here.

Then, starting next weekend (oct 7th), we have a four week class called "Spooky Projects - Introduction to Microcontrollers with Aurdino" taught by the illustrious Tod E Kurt. If we had known that Tod engineered the hardware and software for robotic camera systems that went to Mars (as well as possessing degrees in physics and electrical engineering from Occidental and Caltech) we would have been too shy to ask him to teach this class. But we didn’t know. $285 (materials included). More information and registration here.

Registration is now open and as usual we expect these classes will fill quickly. We hope that you can join us for one or both of these nerdfests.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:41:17 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Natural history models made from glass

In the 19th century, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka created thousands of incredible scientifically-accurate models of plants, flowers, and marine animals from glass. Their work is in collections all over the world with a large collection of the botanical sculptures held at the Harvard Botanical Museum, as featured in the book The Glass Flowers at Harvard.

This weekend is the Dublin Blaschka Congress celebrating the couple's marvelous work with a series of events and presentations. The conference coincides with the opening of a large exhibition of Blaschka models at the National Museum of Ireland (Natural History) running until the end of the year. (Seen here, "Argonauta Argo" and "Physalia Arethusa" from the National Museum & Gallery, Cardiff.) From an online exhibition of their work titled "The Glass Aquarium" at the London Design Museum's site:

At a time when the public was entranced by the bizarre plants unearthed by explorers and by the splendidly surreal creatures discovered beneath the sea (since the invention of the submarine and deep sea diving kit in the mid-1800s) the Blaschkas offered a glimpse into those exotic worlds...

Leopold and Rudolf began the process of creating their replicas by making highly detailed drawings: many of which are now archived in the Rakow Library at the Corning Museum of Glass in the US. Their techniques and equipment were fairly basic. Each exquisitely intricate model was made by fusing or gluing clear and coloured pieces of glass using a combination of glass blowing and lamp working. Tentacles and gills were attatched on fine copper wires and, where necessary, paper and wax were used too.

The Blaschkas were equally meticulous in the way their approach to decoration. The translucence of jellyfish was replicated by using finely speckled layers of pigment usually on the underside of the glass. Thicker coats of paint, sometimes mixed with powdered glass, were used to depict thicker skin or textured surfaces. Although they both worked on every apsect of their replicas, Leopold tended to prefer working with the larger pieces of glass and to concentrate on assemby; while Rudolf enjoyed the fine details of intricate work and did more of the painting and decoration...

Even in their own era, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka resisted conventional definitions and described themselves as “natural history artisans”. As for their work, it was hailed at the time as: “an artistic marvel in the field of science and a scientific marvel in the field of art.”

Link to Blaschka Congress, Link to more images at the Design Museum London (via Kircher Society)

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:06:56 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Torture bill haiku poem

MadKane writes:

The Constitution
Was cast aside by Congress.
Hideous corpus!

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:05:08 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

EFF: 24 Hours to Stop Wiretapping Bills Before the Election

Derek Slater from the EFF says,

We've got 24 hours to stop the NSA wiretapping bills in the Senate and let cases like EFF's lawsuit against AT&T proceed in the traditional court system. Worse still, now some of your Congressional representatives are trying to sneak a dangerous surveillance proposal into the Port Security Bill. If your representative is on the list in this post, call them IMMEDIATELY to oppose the NSA spying program.

The amendment is so bad, I'll let it speak for itself: "no action, claim, or proceeding shall lie or be maintained in any court ... against any person for an activity arising from or relating to the provision to an element of the intelligence community of any information ... in connection with any alleged communications intelligence program that the Attorney General or a designee of the Attorney General certifies, in a manner consistent with the protection of State secrets, is, was, or would be intended to protect the United States from a terrorist attack. This section shall apply to all actions, claims, or proceedings pending on or after the effective date of this Act."

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:02:21 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Graffito warning from 1597: "play here and die"

Make editor and publisher Dale Dougherty recently took this photo. He says:

(Click on thumbnail for enlargement)

Here's some graffiti from the alley-side wall of a church in Dubrovnik.

In Latin, it reads: Pax Vobis Memento Mori Qui Ludentis Pilla. (1597) (My photo cuts off "mori".)

Translated it means: Peace be with you. Remember that you will die, you who play here.

Presumably it's a warning to those who play in the alley, perhaps from someone at the church.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:02:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Guide to contemporary California cults

On his new blog, 10 Zen Monkeys, RU Sirius has a fun piece about creepy California cults, ones not examined in Erik Davis' new book The Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape. My favorite is the Helzer Brothers' group called "Transform America"

The Helzer Brothers’ activities were a tawdry and pallid expression of Manson family values. After being excommunicated from the Mormon Church for taking drugs, Glenn Helzer, from Contra Costa County (a San Francisco suburb) decided to form a self-awareness group to stop Satan and hasten the return of Jesus. He got himself two members, his own brother Justin and a young woman named Dawn Goldman. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Glenn Helzer’s plans “included a bizarre plot to train Brazilian orphans to slaughter the leaders of the Mormon Church so he could become its prophet; and ‘Transform America,’ a self-help group to foster ‘a state of peace and joy.’”

In order to raise money, the Helzer’s sold ecstasy and Glenn got his onetime girlfriend, Keri Mendoza, to pose for Playboy. (She appeared as Kerissa Fare, Miss September 2000). But when drugs and sex didn’t produce enough money fast enough, Helzer’s mind turned towards robbery and murder. The group extorted $100,000 from an elderly couple, Ivan and Annette Stineman, and then killed them, returning the next day to dismember them. (Peace and joy can be such hard work!)

Helzer next planned to incorporate his friend, Selina Bishop (daughter of blues guitarist Elvin Bishop) into his plot by getting her to cash the check. But he decided that she knew too much, so he and his brother bludgeoned her to death and then eviscerated her body. Fearing that Bishop’s stepfather and mother would finger him as a suspect in the murder of their daughter, Helzer dispatched them the following day. On August 7, 2000 the three conspirators were arrested. Glenn Helzer received five death sentences. Brother Justin got only one and Dawn Godman was sentenced to 38 years-to-life.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:54:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

RU Sirius interviews Erik Davis

The RU Sirius Show drops two fine podcasts on us this week. There's an interview with Erik Davis about his trippy and marvelous book, Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape. And then there's a conversation with the people behind a new film, American Hardcore, which is about the unrelenting 1980s hardcore punk rock scene. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:36:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Stoned professor videos resurface online

Earlier this week, I posted links to videos of a University of Florida professor delivering a very loopy lecture to business school students -- apparently, while really really really high. We're told he was subsequently fired. I don't know the story behind the videos (perhaps he was using marijuana or some other medication to treat a serious illness), but they do make for very interesting viewing. UF pulled them from their webserver, but a number of BB readers who've become fans of the Apparently Baked Professor's delivery style have pointed us to new locations.

Many links follow, but this first one is all you need. Trust me. GS says,

Like any good BoingBoinger, I snatched the WMVs early yesterday before UofF took them down so I could put together a little highlight reel: Link.

Tom says,

Here is a torrent of the baked professor video.

Shawn says:

I saw your call for mirrors so here's what I could do for the effort. I don't have tons of bandwidth but hopefully some others can grab them and mirror from this link. These are the original WMV files in all their 640 x 320 x Baked glory. Your readers will want to do a "Save As" rather than stream them (probably). Enjoy!

Brendon says,

The video appears to be available at google video: Link.

And on a sad note, Joakim says:

I was checking the videos from the week before the famed lecture and, in one he's talking about how he would be screwed if the university decided to lay him off. Around 23:44 in the video. Kinda ironic.

Many more mirrors for video files after the jump.
More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:23:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Interview with a Starbucks obsessive maniac

A 34-year-old programmer named Winter (he legally changed his name from Rafael Antonio Lozano this year) has made it his life's mission to drink a cup of coffee at every Starbucks on the planet. There are over 12,000 Starbucks -- new ones open daily -- and he has visited over 6,000 so far. He's worn a Starbucks shirt every day since October 2001.

Radar has a fascinating interview with him.

The primary rule is I have to drink at least one four-ounce sample of caffeinated coffee from each store. The store has to have actually opened for business; I can't get there the day before, when they have friends-and-family day and they're giving drinks away—in many ways that's kind of arbitrary. It has to be a company-owned store, not a licensed store. I have to drink the coffee, but there is no time limit on when I have to drink the coffee. But the longer I go without drinking it, the greater the risk that I might lose it. There are two stores I need to go back to in Washington State because I didn't finish the coffee—I lost it. I took it out of the store, I had it in a cup, and in the middle of the night I forgot I hadn't drank it all and I used the cup to relieve myself.

The day you hit 29 stores, what were the side effects?
Well, pretty early on I started developing a headache, I started feeling jittery. Later, because of all the liquid I drank, I started feeling bloated. Just looking at the little cup of coffee made me nauseated.

How many total ounces did you drink that day?
One hundred and four ounces and three shots of espresso. It hurt. And I lost an hour when my jeans ripped in the crotch while I was leaping up to a stone ledge to take a photo—so I had to stop at a mall to buy a pair of jeans. Toward the end of the day there were times when I felt like I was going to hurl, and I really didn't want to because I don't have a rule in place for what happens if I vomit. Would I have to go back to the store and drink the coffee? I probably would. So I definitely wanted to avoid vomiting.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:22:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Handmade wooden "cellphones" from Mozambique

Peter sez, "I saw these beautiful wooden handmade Nokia, 'Philips', and best of all, 'Scony' cellphones in Pemba, Mozambique. I feel like a total jerk because I was so intent on getting a picture for Boing Boing that I forgot to buy one."

Reminds me of these wooden mobile-phone bottle-openers I spotted in a market in Helsinki.

Link (Thanks, Peter!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:38:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Disneyland parking structure repeatedly robbed at gunpoint

The Disneyland parking-structure toll-booth has been robbed at gunpoint twice in the past two weeks:

Two unidentified men drove up in a dark-colored Porsche at about 3:50 p.m. Tuesday. One man got out of the car, walked up to the toll booth and demanded all the money in the cash box. A weapon was seen by the attendant but never pointed. The man was given the money, returned to the vehicle and drove off very quickly, said Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez.

On Sept. 19, a man in a light-colored vehicle, possibly a Toyota Camry, drove up to a different toll booth at about 2:30 p.m. The man got out of the car, asked for the money, flashed a gun, received the money and drove off, Martinez said.

Link (via The Disney Blog)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:32:34 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Pancakes and Sausage on a Stick - Chocolate Chip Flavor!

Jimmy Dean Pancakes and Sausage on a Stick - Chocolate Chip Flavor! I get fatter just looking at a picture of the box. !, indeed. Link (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:12:55 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO: Make a bat-person costume out of an old umbrella

This bat costume is a dead clever way of recycling a broken black umbrella. Link (via Make Blog)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:05:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ragnar's "Maltese Chimp" as a sculpture set

Electric Tiki's sculpture of Ragnar's "Maltese Chimp" is a faithful 3D rendition of the original drawing. Link (Via TimeDragon)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:04:00 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV song parody

Asylum Street Spankers have an excellent parody rendition of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon," called "Stick Magnetic Ribbons on your SUV." (Not safe for work)

Sample lyrics:

"Oh Stick magnetic ribbons on your SUV, keep your apathy and get off scot free. If I don't see a ribbon on that SUV, I'll call you a red, wish you were dead, and put the blame on weed, if I don't see a ribbon on that SUV. Please don't send me to Iran and I sure don't wanna see Afghanistan. Any day now I could be another grunt sporting a stump, so buy another ribbon while you're paying at the pump." Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:50:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Kid Sphere Hotel in Belgium

The Atomium is a giant model of an iron molecule built for the 1958 World's Fair in Belgium. It re-opened this year as the Kid Sphere Hotel and it looks amazing. Link (Thanks, Jessica!)

Reader comment:

Wendy says:

I'm a Belgian, I live in Brussels, and I am a huge fan of this building (we were able to do one of the last parties in the then not yet renovated top ball :-).

Just passing by it once a week makes me smile again and again :-)

If you're ever in Brussels, go visit it...

It's only of of the balls which has the kids hotel - this is what the atomium site has to say about it: -- An area specifically for children and school groups.

This area will occupy a whole sphere and will be used for lessons in urban life. The idea, an original concept from the Spanish artist Alicia Framis, that they should be able to sleepover has also been incorporated as part of an educational trip.

General site. For the rest all the balls have different functions and there is a restaurant in the top ball.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:35:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

American Airlines bans in-flight kissing

A gay couple flying from Paris to JFK on American Airlines were told by the crew and purser that they weren't allowed to touch or kiss each other. When they questioned this, the captain came out of the cockpit and threatened to divert the plane. American Airlines says this was all according to procedure, because kissing of any kind isn't allowed on AA flights.

Shortly after takeoff, Varnier nodded off, leaning his head on Tsikhiseli. A stewardess came over to their row. "The purser wants you to stop that," she said.

"I opened my eyes and was, like, 'Stop what?' " Varnier recalled the other day.

"The touching and the kissing," the stewardess said, before walking away.

Tsikhiseli and Varnier were taken aback. "He would rest his head on my shoulder or the other way around. We'd kiss--not kiss kiss, just mwah," Tsikhiseli recalled, making a smacking sound.

Link (Thanks, Doran!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:29:51 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make retractable metal Wolverine claws

This is a hell of a costume -- a set of retractable galvanized metal Wolverine claws. Lethally cool.

The next step was to mount the claws to a ball-bearing track that could be hooked to the back of Nate's forearm. The track was created from a sliding keyboard tray. The slider on the track was modified to be much shorter, and use only 8 ball bearings. Bolts were put through the slider on the track and then some galvanized metal was bent and hack-sawed to make the right shape for attaching the first claw. This required drilling holes through each galvanized metal pience and matching holes in the first claw. Once the first claw was fitted to the track, 2 other claws were then drilled to match the first, and 3" and 3.5" bolts were used with nuts, split washers, washers, and locking nuts to to space the claws apart and keep them tightly affixed to each other and subsequently to the track. Once this was complete, screws were added through the bottom of the track so that the slider could not slide out of the track (to avoid killing innocent bystanders). Pictured above the the fully extended claws on the track.

Link (via Make Blog)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:23:37 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Accessory turn signals from the 20s and 30s

Before the late 1940s, automobile turn signals were an after-market item. At the Automotive Addictions blog, Bobby Green displays a wide variety of amazing accessory turn signals from the 20s and 30s that came in all kinds of cool shapes and styles.

From his post:

As necessity is the mother of all invention, you can only imagine how many model T's and A's smashed into each other due to the lack of information form one driver to another as to which direction you were about to suddenly go. Of course everyone could use hand signals, but you can imagine how many people actually did, I mean,... what if it's raining ?.. are you gonna roll down your window and stick your arm out of the car every time you want to turn? Probably not.

Link (via Coop's Positive Ape Index)

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:16:01 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make a "Kip Hawley is an idiot" Freedom Baggie

KipHawleyIsAnIdiot.com is a site devoted to helping travelers express their dissatisfaction with the TSA's security theater war on moisture.

This week, a traveller in Milwaukee was detained and then booked as a threat to the nation for writing [TSA director] Kip Hawley is an idiot on the "liquids" baggie at the airport.

KipHawleyIsAnIdiot.com gives you instructions for making your own "freedom baggie" with your opinion of the TSA chief.

I flew from SFO to LAX yesterday morning, and was robbed at gunpoint by a TSA agent, who stole my cologne, face-wash, and moisturizer. She said that my moisture baggie could only contain vessels of 3 oz or less' worth of moisture. I pointed out that all these vessels did have less than 3 oz' worth of moist substances in them, as they were all half-empty, and she said yes, but the vessels were capable of holding more than 3 oz. Apparently, the risk is that a hair-gel bomber will take to the skies, and use a syringe to refill the tube of face-scrub through its tiny little aperture, somehow mixing some kind of moisture-bomb in the plastic tube without melting it. Apparently, liquids acquire magical explosive properties when they are in quantities of more than 3 oz.

A TSA supervisor took me aside and asked me why I was so upset. I said that my family left the Soviet Union to escape arbitrary authority, and the seizure of property by the state. She suggested that I send in a report to the TSA complaining, and I laughed and asked her how many of those people get added to the No-Fly List.

Of course, this is all a hollow joke. The risk of someone mixing a binary hair-gel explosive has been dismissed by chemists as a near-zero. Meanwhile, as KipHawleyIsAnIdiot.com points out, "air cargo is not screened and there is still no point-to-point baggage matching." Link (Thanks, Bill!)
…

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:52:37 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

British Library, Council take on Creative Commons and DRM

Adam sez, "Counterpoint is a think tank, sponsored by the partially government-funded British Council. Today (29th Sept) they're publishing a Creative Commons-licensed ebook by Rosemary Bechler (Contributing Editor to openDemocracy) bringing together thoughts on new approaches to copyright and cultural commons. It's aimed at policy-makers without a background in copyright issues, so starts from the basics, introducing RMS, CC etc. but quickly brings lots of threads together in a fascinating way. A great read for smart politicians or journalists."

The first generation of Creative Commons is not the Utopian world of Romantic authentic exchange that Carlyle thought money had destroyed. But it draws on the same insight. It turns out that what makes for success is not whether money is exchanged or whether laws are challenged. What makes cultural commons thinking the basis of a gathering social movement worldwide, is the perception that it is the mutually enabling relationship that matters most. These licences make it easier to share. Those whose innovating energy have begun to transform the centre from the edge – who we might think of as the new authors – are people who have understood this. And they are also its beneficiaries.

Whether you look at a mature movement such as the open source software movement, or emergent groups, such as the free culture movement or the scientists’ movement for open publication, these people are intent on creating a domain of open cultural sharing, somewhere where all can be creative together. An Open Business40 project, too, has a quality that is hard to pin down, from the perspective either of law or of economics. It recognises that the same transaction could at one and the same time be a commodity, a gift and a public service – as long as the common culture, the enabling relationship, is intact.

At the same time, the British Library has published "Intellectual Property, a Balance: The British Library Manifesto" that is also very good, constituting a comprehensive set of reforms to British copyright law that would keep the BL in a position to go on being the guardian of UK culture.

I like this one quite a lot, but am skeptical of the clause on Digital Rights Management, which says that DRM should be allowed, provided that it doesn't undermine "fair dealing" (the UK equivalent of fair use). The problem is that DRM inevitably undermines fair dealing, since fair dealing includes exemptions for scholarship, criticism, parody, etc. There's no DRM software invented yet that can tell the difference between a pirate and a parodist -- indeed, sometimes it takes the Supreme Court or the Law Lords to state defintiively whether a work is a parody or just a ripoff. Can a DRM simulate the Supreme Court and figure out, a priori, whether they'd rule that this use was fair?

Libraries should be allowed to make copies of sound and film recordings to ensure they can be preserved for posterity in the future.

Currently the law does not permit copying of sound and film items for preservation. Without the right to make copies, the UK is losing a large part of its recorded culture.

■ The British Library Sound Archive is one of the largest archives of music in the world with over a million discs, 185,000 tapes and holdings of every other medium upon which sound can be recorded. ■ As the Library is not able to make copies of items, many original audio and film formats we hold are becoming increasingly more fragile and require the urgent creation of a preservation surrogates or face irretrievable decay.

We recommend that copying for preservation purposes is extended to all copyrightable works as is the case in many other countries.

Link to Counterpoint report, Link to British Library report

(Thanks, Adam and others!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:38:08 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ceramics decorated with crawly critters

I'm quite taken with Laura Zindel's simple ceramic housewares, decorated as they are with line-art of crawly critters in the style of Victorian naturalist illustration. Link (via Geisha Asobi)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:19:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tiny edible fast-food meal

A Craftster competition to produce edible, miniature food inspired a wife-and-husband team to prepare an incredibly tiny fast food meal, complete with miniscule fries and a tiny soft drink -- they also made a miniature tray, cup, and fries-bag.

I give you, miniature fast-food... Our burger was a little over one inch tall and about an inch wide. After we took all the pictures we cut the tiny burger in half and each ate half. It tasted awesome... Everything was handmade, including the tiny buns.

Link (via Geisha Asobi)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:16:42 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Replica of gen-one Star Trek phaser

The 40th Anniversary Star Trek Phaser -- of all the ray-gun shapes, this was always my favorite, implying in its delicacy that it was doing something altogether mroe interesting that merely blasting opponents with raw energy. Instead, I always presumed that it was delicately, fatally, discombobulating the atomic structure of its targets. Link (via Red Ferret)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:12:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Otaku hunters

Tokyo teenagers have been busted for mugging junior high students in the Akihabara district. Apparently, these toughs call their bullying "otaku hunting" because they target young Akiba-kei, a slang term for people who dig the electronics, manga, and anime products sold in Akihabara. According to the Mainichi Daily News, there have been 25 reports of otaku hunting this year. From the Mainichi Daily News:

"Otaku are weak and they've got money, so we went after them," one of the arrested youths told the police.

Police said one of the cases involved three boys waylaying a 14-year-old boy who was headed to Akihabara to buy an anime doll and demanding he pay them money or he would be bashed. The boy handed over 3,000 yen (US$25.47), the police said.

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:24:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

John K's animation for Weird Al's video

Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi and his partner Katie Rice created a funny video for Weird Al Yankovic's latest CD/DVD dual disk set, Straight Outta Lynwood. You can watch an excerpt of the video on John K's blog. Beware of the scene where a cat bites off the girl's face Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:26:44 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

O'Reilly's Craft magazine ready for pre-order on Amazon

I just got an advance copy of O'Reilly's new magazine, Craft, which is a sister publication to Make (the technology project magazine I edit), and I'm really excited by it. I'm especially proud of it because my lovely wife, Carla Sinclair, is the editor-in-chief, and she and the Craft staff have put together a stunning debut issue loaded with really fun projects. If you like Make (or even if you don't) you will like Craft.

Check out the table of contents here.

Craft is the first project-based magazine dedicated to the renaissance that is occurring within the world of crafts. Celebrating the DIY spirit, Craft's goal is to unite, inspire, inform and entertain a growing community of highly imaginative people who are transforming traditional art and crafts with unconventional, unexpected and even renegade techniques, materials and tools; resourceful spirits who undertake amazing crafting projects in their homes and communities.

Volume 01 features 23 projects with a twist, including sewing a light-up tank top, turning old shoes into great new knitted boots, felting an iPod cozy, embroidering your skateboard, making a jet-age garden, and more.

Pre-order on Amazon

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:09:20 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Protest DRM in NYC this Saturday!

Fred sez, "On Saturday, at 3pm Free Culture @ NYU in collaboration with DefectiveByDesign.org will be protesting DRM and the iTunes Music Store at the Apple Store in Midtown Manhattan, which is at 59th St. and 5th Ave. We’ll be meeting at 2:30 at the fountain across the store, near the North West corner of 58th Street and 5th Avenue. We’ll then hit the Apple store for an hour and a half, distributing flyers and explaining the evils of DRM to shoppers and others passing by. It should be quite an event – we’ve got a dozen or so very bright Hazmat suits that we’ll be bringing and a brand new sandwich board." Link (Thanks, Fred!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:10:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ambulance driver training hurt by copyright

Adrian sez, "This is a frequently updated blog by a ambulance driver in London, England, Who discovered during a training session that he wasn't recieving the most up-to date information because copyright restrictions prevented his the ambulance service from making additions or changes to the document in question. It's anecdotal support for a oft discussed topic on this blog."

However there is a problem - the Guidelines book we should be getting is version 3.0, but the book we are actually getting is version 2.2. The reason for this? Copyright. It seems that the London Ambulance Service wants to change a few bits to make it more relevant to London. But because the organization that wrote it maintains the copyright - it can't be changed for us.

Link (Thanks, Adrian!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:38:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Photo: rescued Taiwanese kitten naps on a Mac keyboard

Link. Shot by Jeremy K. in Taiwan, who rescued this kitten from the street, where government animal control patrols would have apparently offed it (Taiwan is an island, after all, and there's a feral cat problem). Here are more photos. He explains:

I'm jeremy.

My life is surrounded by cats. Up to now, I keep 14 cats with me, But I'm NOT proud of it.

I'd rather prefer each cat has it's own family, so there're gonna be 14 families become cats lovers.

Why am I doing this ? Becouse there're too many cats in the street, and NO ONE gives a sh*t about them.

Taiwan government's policy of homeless dogs and stray cats is "KILL THEM ALL". I can't change that, BUT.... At least, something we can do. and it's up to you.

~"Take them home."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:26:34 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Baked biz professor: the psychedelic remixes begin

BoingBoing reader Kyle says, "I was inspired by your stoned professor story. So I made this little ditty." Link to QuickTime short.

Update: University of Florida has taken original videos offline. Many BoingBoing readers yearning for a hit of the Baked Biz Professor have written in requesting mirror site urls. We'll post them if you'd like to point us to them.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:06:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

CIA's recruiting website includes weird personality quiz

From Defensetech:

These are tough times for the Central Intelligence Agency. It's not just the blown calls on Iraq. Or the bruising turf battles with the White House. There's the series of internal purges. And, of course, the constant threat of another terrorist attack. No wonder the Agency is having trouble hiring good people.

But still, can things have grown so dire at Langley that the CIA has to resort to gimmicks like this wink-wink-trying-to-be-ironic-and-cool-but-instead-looking-even-more-dorky recruiting website.

The "CIA personality quiz" is supposed to show how the Agency needs all types to function. So the exam offers up a series of questions, about your favorite leisure activities, the "kind of transportation you prefer," and what super power you'd like to have. And then the site tells you what kind of valuable asset to the CIA you'd be.

Link (thanks, Noah Shachtman!)

Reader comment: Frank F says,

They're also running commericials in the same style as the art displayed in the screenshot you posted: Link. Saw that one run a few days ago in the East Bay on a Comcast cable channel. Kinda stands out, what with the CIA not usually running commercials and all.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:57:50 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

To do in LA tonight: Xeni at SOCALWUG, on Tibetan WiFi

The Southern California Wireless Users Group (SOCALWUG) meets every month here in Los Angeles, and I'll be joining them this evening to share video, photos, and audio from a recent trip to Northern India and Tibet -- where I learned about some amazing guerilla wireless projects. We're also going to try to do a live Skype call with Yahel Ben-David, founder of the Tibetan Technology Center in Dharamshala, India. They're hosting a big community wireless summit there in October. Tonight's nerd hang should be fun, please come join us if you're in town. Link to details.

WHEN: 7:00pm to 9:00pm (Pacific), Thursday 09/28/06

WHERE: Auditorium at VAN NUYS / SHERMAN OAKS SENIOR CITIZEN CENTER (A.K.A. BERNARDI CENTER), on 5040 Van Nuys Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423.

Image: (Xeni Jardin, 2006) -- antenna for the Dharamshala mesh network on top of a Hindu temple overlooking the Kangra valley.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:40:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Omakase Links: sexy taco, space gun, deli flesh.

* Tacotrucks.net: a map of East Oakland with locations, menus, and truck-art photos from the hood's finest mobile taco delivery portals. Here is the fellow behind it. (thanks, Benjamin Frost)

* Hundreds of photos of deli meats: Link (thanks, Scott).

* Beginning October 6, the Lucky JuJu Pinball Museum in Alameda, California will host "X-Ray Photography of Toys and Other Interesting Things," an exhibit of work by by NY-based science photographer Ted Kinsman. Link.

* Index of every US president who's ever appeared on the animated TV series The Simpsons: Link (Thanks, Emily Gordon).

* Photos from the Rocketbelt Convention at Niagara Falls: Bill "Beam Jockey" Higgins says, "I attended the Rocketbelt Convention in Niagara Falls, New York, home of Bell Aerospace where the Rocket Belt was invented. Retired RB pilots and engineers were mingling with people building the new generation of belts and other personal rocket devices. There was a demo flight on the street outside the Niagara Aerospace Museum." Link.

* Hand-stitched "Just Married" iPod cases: Link (thanks, Emily Sessions).

* Cute, colorful, crocheted bombs with burning fuse, crafted by a girl in Berlin: Link (thanks, Noortje).

* Gruesome landmine awareness campaign on ketchup packets in New Zealand: Link (thanks, FoodMonkeyMike).

* Art teacher loses job after fifth-grade students see nude sculpture during field trip to Texas museum: Link (thanks, Sagebrush Gardener).

* Haircuts by children: Link (thanks, Cory Silverberg).

* What do Jabba the Hutt and John the Baptist have in common? "Star Wars Shortened." Link to video. (Thanks, Jason Wishnow).

Previous installments of BoingBoing Omakase Links:
- Arabic smokes, Norway bimbo, Danish BB ringtone
- Post-holiday bluesnixer roundup

Reader comment: regarding the art teacher who was fired for exposing 5th grade students to nude sculpture at a Texas art museum, BB reader Gregory Fischer says,

thanks for the post. I followed the links to the Frisco, Texas independent school district website. if anyone cares to comment directly to the board, here is the contact info for the director of communications:

Shana McKay-Wortham
FISD Director of Communications
Email: mckays@friscoisd.org
Phone: (469) 633-6060
Fax: (469) 633-6050

also note that the school motto is "Never be anything less than everything you can be.” glad to see irony is alive and well.

Chris Cantwell writes,

I saw your post on BoingBoing regarding Sydney McGee, who was fired for taking her students to the Dallas Museum of Art. I've written this letter to the principal (and the FISD) and am sending it to all the major publications in the Dallas area as well. I grew up in Plano, next door to Frisco, and this story really upsets me.

Read Christopher's letter, and a response from the school district, after the jump.
More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:13:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

NASA Mars rover reaches "Victoria Crater"

The Mars rover named Opportunity reached a long-anticipated destination today: the rim of "Victoria Crater," on the Meridiani Planum region of the red planet, on the rover's 951st Martian day, or sol (Sept. 26, 2006).

After the drive, the rover's navigation camera took the three exposures combined into this view of the crater's interior. This crater has been the mission's long-term destination for the past 21 Earth months.

BoingBoing reader Kevin Biegel, who points us to this news, says, "The big stereoscope picture is nothing less than breathtaking! There's even a crazy-cool rock outcropping cliff thing that looks like a giant head!!! Between this and the Virgin Galactic news and pictures today, this former Space Camper is very happy." Link

Previously: Mars Opportunity rover closing in on 'Victoria Crater'

Reader comment: Erica Petroff says,

On September 10th, as the Opportunity rover closed in on Victoria Crater, it was posted that the Victoria Crater was about six times bigger than the Endurance Crater, but the link you had to the NASA website (Link) said that the Victoria Crater was six times wider than the Endurace Crater, making it much much more than six times larger. That really only makes this extra exciting, but I thought you guys might want to know? Anyhow, thanks for keeping me updated and everything!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:22:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Branson's SpaceShipTwo interiors to look fucking awesome

Wired Magazine's NextFest is taking place in NYC this week, and I could kick myself for not being there. If you're there, digging it in person as I type this from behind my lonely little MacBook, I hate you.

Among the many amazing things at NextFest today: Sir Richard Branson unveiled the concept interior for SpaceShipTwo, the Virgin Galactic spaceliners on which passengers will soon be able to space-vacay with cushy intergalactic recliner seats and lots of big windows looking out on the great beyond.

“It won’t be much different than this,” Branson told reporters here at Wired Magazine’s NextFest forum. “It’s strange to think that in 12 months we’ll be unveiling the actual plane, and then test flights will commence right after that.”

Virgin Galactic’s spaceliners will be specially-outfitted SpaceShipTwo vehicles built by Mojave, California-based Scaled Composites and veteran aerospace designer Burt Rutan. The new spacecraft, designed specifically for space tourism, will be three times the size of Rutan’s SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for privately-developed piloted spacecraft capable of reaching suborbital space twice in two weeks.

Link to Space.com story. Image: Mock-up interior of SpaceShipTwo. Michael Soluri, for SPACE.com

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:20:26 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Playing volleyball across US-Mexico fence

Joshua Bearman wrote a story for LA Weekly about a game of "border volleyball," in which players on either side of a two-story fence separating the US and Mexico hit a ball back and forth.

All this activity finally brings down the hammer of the border patrol, and a jeep shows up to separate us. The officer is friendly but firm. He’s just come on shift and has no idea we’ve been playing volleyball over the fence for the past hour.

“Really?”

He tells us that a daredevil launched himself across the border in a cannon a while back, but that ours was, in fact, the first-ever game of international border volleyball.

“And it worked over that tall fence?”

“Yup,” we say. “We’re up for one more round if you want to play.”

“No, man,” the officer says. “I’m on duty.”

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:13:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

BB Emporium: 3 songs by Spike Priggen

We're happy to present Boing Boing Digital Emporium's first batch of DRM-free music. Spike Priggen is offering three songs from his latest album, There's No Sound In Flutes! (with album art by Peter Bagge).

Citing as influences the '80s New York/London punk and new wave scenes, as well as the power pop of Cheap Trick and Big Star, Spike (Michael) Priggen makes a wide variety of pop music, which ranges from subtle chamber pop to loud, bombastic garage rock to forays into psychedelia. There's No Sound In Flutes! is his 3rd solo LP.

From the jangly romanticism of "I Know Everything," to the scathing wit of "Everyone Loves Me But You," (30-second MP3 sample) to the heart-on-sleeve sentiment of "Little Star," (30-second MP3 sample) to the elegant, evocative twang of "The Only Girl (in the World)," the self-penned, self-produced There's No Sound In Flutes (on the artist's own Volare Label) maintains the same bountiful levels of craft, energy and heart that distinguished Priggen's prior solo releases, the all-original The Very Thing That You Treasure and the quirky covers collection Stars After Stars After Stars.

30-second samples: Everyone Loves Me But You, Little Star, Till It All Falls Apart

Buy Everyone Loves Me But You ($1), Buy Little Star ($1), Buy Till It All Falls Apart ($1)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:46:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

High-pitched, anti-teen alarm is now ringtone, techno track

A high-frequency sonic alarm created to stop troublesome teens from loitering in retail areas has been repurposed as a dance track and a mobile phone ringtone:

Merthyr Tydfil-based Compound Security released the "Mosquito" ringtone as a way of letting teenagers hear their phones ringing without adults knowing. It was developed because adults lose the ability to hear high-pitched sound.

But now the sound is being used in a dance track, Buzzin', with secret melodies only young ears can hear. The tune was developed after the success of the company's ringtone which was released in June. (...)

A condition called presbycusis, or ageing ear, means that by the time most people reach the age of 25, they cannot hear much above a frequency of 13 or 14 kilohertz.

Link (thanks, Nick)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:46:09 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge 2006

Science magazine and the National Science Foundation announced the winners of the 2006 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. Seen here is the second place winner in the Illustration category, "A Da Vinci Blackboard Lesson In Multi-Conceptual Anatomy" by Caryn Babaian of Bucks County Community College.
From the article about the winners:

Some things never grow old. Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, first drawn more than 500 years ago, is still teaching people about the intricacies of the human body. Biology teacher Caryn Babaian of Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania, uses the iconic sketch as a "multi-conceptual image" in her introductory anatomy class to illustrate three crucial anatomical concepts: rotation, transparency, and transverse section. Babaian requires her students to draw the image in their notebooks as they watch it take shape on the blackboard. Panel of judges member Thomas Lucas says even though the use of the image "gave inspiration to a few people, the effect on them might have been more powerful than something that went over the mass media."

Link to Science article, Link to slide show (Thanks, Mike Love!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:45:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Chinese professor strips in art class

Mo Xiaoxin, a professor at Jiangsu Teachers University of Technology in Changzhou, China, stripped naked during a class on "body art" to "challenge taboos," according to the Beijing News. Four visiting models, including an elderly couple, also stripped during the presentation. The professor invited the students to join in the nudity, but apparently most were just freaked out. From Reuters:

"There are no taboos in the field of research, but to do this directly in the course of teaching is obviously not appropriate," the paper quoted Tian Junting, a culture ministry official, as saying...

The naked lecture made many of the 30 or so students feel "uneasy," the paper said. "Some kept their eyes trained on the ceiling, some awkwardly bowed their heads and stared at the ground".

Tian, the culture ministry official, said the course was still in a "research phase" and it wasn't yet known whether it had produced "positive or negative effects."

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:27:52 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Finger length tied to athleticism

A new study suggests that the length ratio between women's second and fourth fingers is a good indicator of their sports ability. Researcher Tim Spector of St. Thomas' Hospital in London and his colleagues analyzed hand X-rays from more than 600 female twins who also provided information on their sports abilities. They report their results in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. From The Independent:

The finding adds to evidence that the ratio between the two fingers - not the length itself but their length relative to each other - is associated with a number of different personality traits, which include sexuality, fertility, intelligence, aggressiveness and musical ability. The difference is believed to be linked to the level of the male hormone testosterone, to which the foetus is exposed in the womb. Scientists have suggested that the higher the level of testosterone, the more masculine the resulting foetus is likely to be, with its associated traits of strength, fertility and mathematical ability.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:43:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Seven-headed task-light

Gerber -- whose multitools are the best in the world, for my money -- have shipped an sevent-headed LED flashlight whose bulbs are individually poseable to illuminate different parts of a tricky, underlighted project or room. It's called the "Inferno Flexlight" and can be hung, posed, or held.

The Flexi-Light can be used as a task light, table-top lantern, tent chandelier or flashlight. It gives users total control of how and where they use light in the field. Scroll through five lighting modes with a simple turn of the switch: focused white flashlight, diffuse white area light, night vision red area light, focused night vision red and flashing red emergency beacon.

Link (via Gizmodo)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:48:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video-game-inspired knitwear

Office Lendorff sells knit sweaters and scarves with video-game-inspired pixel-art. I love this scarf -- if only I was living somewhere cold enough to merit ever wearing one! Link (Thanks, Jennifer!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:40:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Google Maps reveal world's largest earwig

Somewhere in Germany there is a very big bug. Link (Thanks, Pa!)

Reader comment:

Stephen says: "That's a thrips devouring Germany, not an earwig. Thrips = Thysanoptera, most adults around 1 or 2 mm. (singular form ends in s) Earwigs = Dermaptera, most adults around 1 or 2 cm."

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:22:34 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Digital TV liberation front/Chilling Effects talk at USC

Next Tuesday night, October 3, I'm hosting a free talk by Wendy Seltzer, the lawyer who founded EFF's Digital TV liberation front -- teaching people how to build the TV sets that the Broadcast Flag would ban -- and the Chilling Effects project -- which documents and analyzes the nastygrams used to censor Internet speech.

Wendy's coming to my USC speaker-series on Oct 3, the International Day Against DRM to tell us about the ways that copyright law have become a tool for censorship, perverting the original intention of copyright, to enable creativity. If you're looking to understand how free speech become suppressed speech, you need to come to this talk.

Wendy presently teaches at Brooklyn Law, and is one of a small but growing number of lawyers who can write code as well as hacking law. She is a Harvard Berkman Fellow, and a smart lawyer, a fine writer, and a great speaker.

As you've heard from the previous speaker podcasts (Jason Schultz, EFF, Michael Ayers, Toshiba, Bruce Sterling, Bruce Schneier) these are great, interdisciplinary talks, attracting engineers, lawyers, film studies people, hackers, artists and musicians, people in industry, students, and hobbyists. I hope you'll make it next Tuesday!

Where: University of Southern California, Annenberg School, Room 240, Los Angeles

When: Tuesday, October 3, 7PM - the International Day Against DRM

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:12:35 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Alien clone sex cult leader launches "Clitoraid" campaign

Raël, the self-appointed space messiah of the swingin', clone-lovin', Raelian Movement has launched a website where you can "Adopt a Clitoris" and surgically "restore pleasure" to African women who have suffered forced clitoral excision, or female genital mutilation. The fact that such atrocities are committed against African women is of course very real, and not one bit funny. But this website -- well, that's another story.

Link to Clitoraid, which rhymes with Clonaid and Stemaid, any of which would probably pair nicely with Gatorade when you've just stepped onto a hot planet like the one pictured at left. (thanks, numlok)

Reader comment: Daniel V. Klein says,

I sent a pointer to the site cited in this post to my Mother, and she said:

"Hard to tell. The background info is pretty accurate, but restoring the clitoral nerve is nonsense. I assume it's a money making scheme. Sleazy way to make a buck."

You might say "ordinarily, I love reader comments", but my Mom is one of the preeminent researchers and writers on FGM. You can check her credentials here.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:26:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video: apparently-baked biz school prof who was soon fired

Update: University of Florida has taken the original videos offline. Many BoingBoing readers yearning for a hit of the Baked Biz Professor have written in requesting mirror site urls. We'll post them if you'd like to point us to them.

Now this is what I call higher education. BoingBoing reader Shawn says,

It appears from the content of this video that this University of Florida professor -- whom everyone has to take in the business school -- got REALLY REALLY REALLY HIGH before one of his classes.

As I am told, he was fired the next day. Minute 28 is hilarious.

I'm including links to the windows video files hosted at UF in the hopes someone remixes this.

Looks like the lecturer's name is Howard J. (John) Hall, and he remains listed on the faculty of the University of Florida, Warrington College of Business. Video of his September 5, 2006 lecture: Link 1, and Link 2. He does ramble, but he's far more entertaining than any of the business school professors I ever sat through.

And as hilarious as the notion of a professor doing bong hits, then delivering a business school lecture may be, we don't know the truth here. Was he sick, and on medication? Maybe he's using medical marijuana to treat a serious condition? Perhaps there's a not-funny story behind the videos.

Reader comments: Henry Stokes says,

In the first video, the apparently-baked prof lectures/rambles about the origin of the middle finger about 15 minutes in. Well, according to Snopes, the origin he presents is in fact an urban legend: Link.

Shawn, who originally pointed us to the item, updates us:

I did a little more research and found the video for the week after (luckily UF uses a good file naming structure) and found that a new professor takes over the next week. She doesn't elaborate on the issue but just assures the class everything is going to be ok. I also looked at the video for the week *before* and while he is a little goofy as profs go, he is much more coherent and to the point. Unfortunately I can't find *any* news story related to this (looked in the Gainesville Sun and Google News). Maybe your readers can find some hard facts?

Alanna says,

I had another baked professor for first-year philosophy: Link. From the Toronto Star's article, I now understand why he was so hard to follow in lectures; he smokes pot with a medical clearance from the government. I'm not sure how it can be that he's just allowed to lecture whilst high. One of the questions on our term test involved correlating Plato with an excerpt of lyrics from one of the prof's favourite reggae songs.

Jeff says,

don't forget boston university mythology professor carl ruck, who freely admits to using psychodelic mushrooms on regular basis as part of his research, and as wikipedia says, "he currently teaches a mythology class [...] that presents this theory in depth."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:53:49 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Japanese store sells lovely vintage boom-boxen

The Turbo Sonic store in Tokyo offers a wide selection of beautiful old ghetto blasters and boomboxen from the '70s and '80s. They also offer some nifty t-shirts and what looks like a boom box belt buckle, though I can't quite tell. Link (mostly Japanese site) (via xlr8r).

Reader comment: Tom Whitwell, Communities Editor at the Times Online (UK) says,

You might also enjoy this range of vintage synth/sampler etc belt buckles: Link. Lots of links to similar in the comments.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:26:58 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Guatemala security forces retake "jail town" built by prisoners

Earlier this week, Guatemalan authorities took over a jail that had been run by inmates for over a decade. The prisoners built and ran an entire city inside, including pubs, restauraunts, churches, and drug labs.

Seven prisoners died when 3,000 police and soldiers firing automatic weapons stormed the Pavon prison just after dawn on Monday. Corrupt guards would only patrol the prison's perimeter and run the administration section while an "order committee" of hardened inmates controlled the rest. They smuggled in food, drink and luxury goods. (...)

Pet dogs, including a whining puppy, roamed the deserted prison grounds after the raid. One inmate kept a spider monkey captive, national prison officials said. (...) Police seized hundreds of phones and large quantities of the chemical acetone, used in the production of cocaine.

Link (thanks, Paul)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:10:21 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Seetharaman Narayanan of Photoshop splash screen fame

David says,

A lot of people have noticed that every time Photoshop launches, they can't stop staring at one name on the Splash Screen: Seetharaman Narayanan. His unusual name has inspired quite a following on the internet. Now you can learn a little more about the man behind the name.

Link to interview. Here's an excerpt:

Everyone knows about your interesting name. What’s one interesting thing about you that people don’t know?

I bike to work every day, rain or shine. My bike route is 20 miles round-trip and I have been riding to work for the past 10 years. I even influenced my mentor Peter Merrill into biking to work. Since Peter is a maniac, he is now doing double-centuries on weekends.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:59:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Zombie Rights March Protested by Pirates

Shannou says,

Here's a flickr set of pictures documenting the zombie rights march to Austin's City Hall last Friday. The zombies' signs in the march included badly spelled slogans such as "Mairage = 1 Zombie + 1 Zombie", "More Binifits for Zombie Vets in Our Necronomoconomy", "Brains...The Other White Meat", "We're here, we're dead, get used to it!" and "Zombies Was People Too." The zombies, shouting "What do we want? Brains! When do we want them? Brains!" was unhindered by a group of pirates protesting the undead's demands for their rights.

Link. You know, when I was in Seattle last week ( self-important clearing of throat ) visiting the Allen Institute for Brain Science and researching this story, I couldn't help but wonder -- what would zombies do with that open-access, 3D, digital atlas of brains? Plan dinner parties, perhaps.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:16:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

danah boyd talks social networks - video

Ken sez, "danah boyd, the latest speaker in the ibiblio.org speaker series, is up on the ibiblio.org web site. In this talk, she gives an awesome, in depth talk on social networks and why people are using them. She touches on the history of social networks, how the online communities came into being, and some of the forces working on them today."

There's no better speaker on social networks than danah boyd -- prepare to have your mind blown. Link (Thanks, Ken!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:39:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

NPR is hiring a blogger

National Public Radio has a job opening for a blogger. It sounds like a cool job. The lucky candidate will manage an NPR.org blog described as...

[A] daily guide to the events of the day and notable stories on the network and the Web; uses news judgment and a lively prose style to present a singular perspective, writing and reporting original items and drawing other NPR reporter/correspondents and listeners into analysis and discussion; may also host a podcast of the day's top on-air stories; and may serve as a public representative of National Public Radio, Inc.

Oh, and it also says some silly junk there about how you must have "a passionate desire to join the blogger 'A' list." Snort. My fellow "blogger D-list" colleague JJ Sutherland adds

Other qualifications not mentioned are a strong liver and deep fondness for insult-flinging world leaders. Willingness to drunk-dial foreign bureaus on deadline also a plus. Unfortunately, pajamas aren't encouraged, although I can count the times I've seen our new CEO Ken Stern wearing a tie on the fingers of one hand.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:11:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Austin open source programmers hack for 48h for advocacy

In Austin, on the October 13th weekend, 100 coders will gather and code "like rabid monkeys" for 48 hours straight, producing open source code for running political "advocacy" projects. There's a videoblog, and many events through the weekend. Silona sez, "We are hosting it at tekrepublik.com 5310 Burnet Austin Texas. They normally have huge LAN parties so they has a big pipe. There will be people in Canada and Seattle helping out remotely. We will be working on everything from creative a semantic structure paralleling the legislative process (the top item when I surveyed 50 legislators) to updating the current calendar system to use hcalendar from microformats.org and be handicapped accessible (knowbility.org is helping out there.)" Link (Thanks, Silona!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:07:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Model for Disney World Haunted Mansion for sale

The Harry Packer Mansion, which inspired the Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World, is up for sale, for a mere $1.75 million. Link (Thanks, John!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:03:25 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Most surreal political campaign smear ads ever

Here's a sample of memorable attack-ad copy used by North Carolina Republican Vernon Robinson in an attempt to unseat Democrat Brad Miller from the U.S. House of Representatives:

* “Brad Miller even spent your tax dollars to pay teenage girls to watch pornographic movies with probes connected to their genitalia.”
* “Brad Miller spent your money to study the masturbation habits of old men.”

Link (thanks, David Cassel)

Reader comment: Dave Bullock says,

The page you linked to for wacktastic Vernon Robinson radio ads only had the banjo version linked, but thanks to google's site: function I found the Mariachi ad. Link to "One big fiesta for aliens and homosexuals."

Samuel says,

Adding to his hypocrisy, this guy blatantly stole an old photo-montage of mine (from back in the 8-bit days) which he uses in his TV ad. Original: Link. His Ad (see 00:37): Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:00:05 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Audio from Bruce Schneier's USC talk

Last night, security legend Bruce Schneier gave a tremendous lecture as part of the Technology and Public Diplomacy series I'm organizing at USC. He talked about privacy in the era of Moore's Law, and the fact that advanced technology makes it easier to spy than to resist spying. One remark that stuck with me is that "personal data is like pollution" -- like the CO2 we offgas and the waste we produce. Our data-trail is toxic crud, and we haven't developed any good technology to help us dispose of it -- all our technology is devoted to saving and manipulating that data.

Bruce's message wasn't a happy one, but it was inspiring, alarming and informative. You can download the audio or subscribe to the speaker series podcast feed.

Download audio, iTunes podcast link, Podcast feed

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:39:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Paintblogging with Coop

Coop is documenting the process of creating a 12' x 6' painting.

Using photoshop, I began to tear apart the sketch, changing things until I was happy with the positioning of the limbs and the details of the face. I don't remember everything I did, but i'm pretty sure I resized the hand and face, and repostioned the legs, arm and head, as well as re-drawing the silhouette of the hair. Most of the changes are minimal, but they do add up to a very different image.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:54:09 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Steven Johnson's fave books about plagues

And speaking of Steven Johnson (yes, that one), I missed his excellent item in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago where he lists his five favorite account of plagues. Steven should know a good plague tale--his new book, Ghost Map, due out next month, is about an 1854 cholera outbreak in London and what it tells us about the dynamics of cities. From Steven's list in the WSJ of five great plague books, titled "Read Them in Good Health":

3. "Rats, Lice and History" by Hans Zinnser (Little, Brown, 1935).

A "biography" of the virus behind typhoid fever, "Rats, Lice, and History" was an unlikely best seller when it was published in 1935, given that it reads like a cross between a biology textbook and "Tristram Shandy." Written by Harvard bacteriologist Hans Zinnser, the book makes the first systematic case for the crucial role of microbes in world history, documenting how disease helped topple the Roman Empire and derail Napoleon's march on Moscow. The chapters on the louse and the rat remain classics of popular science writing, explaining how those troublesome critters shaped European society from the Middle Ages on. The most memorable image: the vermin crawling out--"like water in a simmering cauldron"--from the woolen garments covering the body of Thomas à Beckett, as he lies in state in Canterbury Cathedral.

Link to the WSJ article, Link to purchase Rats, Lice, and History, Link to pre-order Ghost Map

UPDATE: BB reader Paul Baum writes "Typhoid fever is caused by salmonella (a bacterium); Zinnser's book is about typhus, caused by Rickettsiae. Neither of these are viruses!"

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:39:17 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Submit videos to Web 2.0 Conference

BB band manager John Battelle co-hosts the big Web 2.0 Conference each year with O'Reilly Media. For this year's Web 2.0 in San Francisco, November 7-9, John is planning a mini-film festival of videos that "are emblematic of where our culture's video grammar seems to be headed." From the submission page:

Have you seen a video clip or short film that you think is Web 2.0 worthy? We're looking for fun and telling viral videos (less than 3 minutes in length) to feature at the conference in November. Submit your nominations below. Submitters of the chosen shorts will be thanked from stage.

Link (via Searchblog)

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:19:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Micro air vehicles that cooperate

MIT researchers are using tricked-out model helicopters, each about the size of a seagull, to demonstrate swarming behavior in unmanned micro-air vehicles (drones). According to Aeronautics and Astronautics professor Jonathan How, they're focusing on techniques for "persistent surveillance." A group of drones could act as a distributed eye-in-the-sky for a military convoy with the vehicles taking turns landing on a truck for recharging in a docking station.
From New Scientist:

In the indoor tests, up to five radio-controlled helicopters are being used to collaboratively track small ground vehicles and land on the back of small moving platforms.

A video shows one of the vehicles landing on a moving truck, while using a camera to lock onto the target and landing pad.

In another experiment, each UAV was programmed to automatically land on a stationary recharging station when running low on battery power. Another video shows two aircraft working together to track a moving ground vehicle. The UAVs automatically take turns tracking the target at low altitude.

Link to New Scientist article, Link to MIT press release

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:05:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Super-8 movie of Olympia to Seattle in two minutes

The always awe-inspiring Steve Lodefink posted a super-8 movie he made circa 1988. He used a song his band performed for background music

I stuck my thrift store Bauer Super 8 camera out the sunroof of a VW Bug and squeezed the plunger of the shutter release cable, taking single frames all the way from Olympia to Seattle.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:32:16 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tiki mug shaped like diseased liver goes on sale Oct. 1st

The Bag Liver tiki mug, created by the ceramicist geniuses at Munktiki, goes on sale October 1 at 3Pm at Forbidden Island in Alameda.

Only 25 of these mugs will be available, at $60 each. There will be a strict one-per-person limit, and the sales will be in-person only, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:19:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

MakeShift challenge online

In each issue of Make (I'm the editor-in-chief) we run the MakeShift challenge, which is, appropriately, conceived and written by Lee D. Zlotoff, the creator of the MacGyver TV series. It's a scenario in which an urgent problem must be solved, with only a limited number of items at hand.

Here's this issue's challenge. If you come up with a solution, Send a detailed description of your MakeShift solution with sketches and/or photos to makeshift@makezine.com by October 27, 2006.

The Scenario: You set off on a solo backpacking jaunt one blissfully free weekend, in search of a legendary mountain hot spring that has remained pristine thanks to the 12-plus-hour climb it takes to reach it. A well-earned sweat topped off with nothing but silence, solitude, and hot water - what's not to like?

Just as your topo map indicates that you're within minutes of the spring, you hear an agonized shouting from somewhere off the rocky trail. You quickly discover a large, cylindrical fissure in the ground, about 15 feet in diameter and about 20 feet deep, at the bottom of which lies a rather large example of humanity, with his leg bent at such an unnatural angle that there's no doubt it's badly broken. You yell down to the man - who is easily twice your weight - to say help has arrived. He acknowledges you with a wave, but he seems to be fading fast from shock, pain, or whatever. the walls of thet fissure are nearly vertical and full of jagged rocks, but your experience tells you they're scalable. Still, there's no way you'll be able to climb those rocks with this guy on your back. You'll have to come up with another way to get him out of this whole.

And then it hits you:
A noxious, sulfuric smell that says that this fissure is a vent for the same gases that make the hot springs so warm and bubbly. If you don't quickly find a way to get fresh air to this guy, he's not going to survive long enough for you to rescue him.

The Challenge:
Devise a way to keep this guy breathing while you come up with and execute a plan to safely extract him from the fissure. Then get him stabilized long enough that you can either get him off the mountain yourself, or hike back out to summon more help.

Here's what you've got:
A top-of-the-line backpack with a nested, detachable water container, a sleeping bag, inflatable air mattress, two-man backpacking tent, a large towel, cook set, butane stove, camping food, and a basic first aid kit. You also have 40 feet of nylon rope, an elaborate Swiss Army knife (or Leatherman tool), a 25-foot roll of duct tape, a small Maglite-type flashlight, your trusty, 6-foot bamboo walking stick, and the bandanna around your neck. Any questions? Good, 'cause humanity awaits.

Send a detailed description of your MakeShift solution with sketches and/or photos to makeshift@makezine.com by October 27, 2006. If duplicate designs are submitted, the winner will be determined by the quality of the explanation and presentation. The most plausible and creative solutions will each win MAKE sweatshirt. Think positive and include your shirt size and contact information with your description. For rules and solutions to previous MakeShift challenges, visit makezine.com/makeshift.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:10:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The art of James Jean

James Jean is a well-known magazine illustrator. On his website, he's got a series of eerie and darkly funny paintings called "Recess." Show here from the series: "Chemistry."

Recess is about childhood and ghosts. It is a series of pictures depicting the suburban milieu.

He's got a great blog, too. Link (Via RaShOmoN)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:54:04 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

R.I.P. Tokyo Rose

WFMU's Beware of the Blog has an eye-opening obit for WWII's Tokyo Rose (Iva Ikuko Toguri), a Japanese American who was abandoned by the U.S. government and forced by the Japanese government to become a radio propaganda DJ. All the while Toguri remained a loyal American patriot. Her story is fascinating.

Toguri became adept at sabotaging her own broadcasts. Though employed to broadcast pro-Japanese propaganda, Toguri's outspoken support of the Allies off-mic (while cleverly concealing it within her message and delivery on-air) resulted in numerous arguments, fisticuffs, and sometimes daily 3 am harassments thanks to the Kempeitai Thought Police. She helped keep American soldiers alive (at mortal personal risk) with food, medicine, clothing, and hope during her almost daily visits to their cells.

As an American unwilling to denounce her citizenship, Toguri was not to be trusted by the Japanese, and as an American woman of Japanese extraction broadcasting for the Japanese, she was considered a traitor in her own country.

Link

Reader comment:

Kinnell says:

Not to be argumentative in any way but in response to your posting about Iva Ikuko Toguri but she is not Tokyo Rose.

Some of the people that were witnesses against her in her case where she was charged with treason later came out to say that they were pushed by the State Department to provide false statements. In other words she was not Tokyo Rose, which was later proven in part by the actions of Ron Yates of the Chicago Tribune. They had an interview with Yates on Wednesday's All Things Considered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Ikuko_Toguri - in the first lines of her wikipedia article it states that she was exonerated of those charges.

So again, not being argumentative, but I just want the truth to be out there about someone rather than furthering the stamp that was put on her life and was never able to be rid of.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:31:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Art that inspired Disney artists -- exhibition in Paris

The Le Grand Palais in Paris has an ehibition called "Il Etait une Fois Walt Disney" ("Once upon a time, there was Walt Disney"), which features art that inspired the Disney artists.

And as all of you know, Disney's artists works do not pale in front of those of those masters. In fact the association is mind-boggling: if you are a layman, the quality of the concept artists' works become even more obvious and you start understanding that Walt had some really outstanding individuals working for him, that he was not the only one who drew everything and that the Studio was far from being a factory. If you are a Disney enthusiast you are bound to be stunned by connections with famous or less famous works of art from the past that you were not aware of.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:24:34 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Amateur scientists find huge cave

Amateur scientists have discovered an unknown massive cave filled with crystals in California's Sequoia National Park. The spelunkers from the Cave Research Foundation found the cavern last month. It's been named Ursa Minor (Latin for "small bear") in honor of the skeleton of what appears to be an ancient bear found in the cave. From National Geographic:

Only a small portion of the cavern has been explored so far. But researchers say they have already found several large chambers with a variety of formations, including thin curtains of minerals several feet tall, slender "soda straws" up to six feet (two meters) long, and sheets of glimmering crystals on the cave's floors and walls...

"There are things in the cave that could really open windows into our knowledge of geologic history and the formation of caves throughout the West," park cave manager Joel Despain told the Associated Press.

Link

UPDATE: BB reader Steven Johnson (no, not that one), writes:

Serious cavers do NOT refer to themselves as "spelunkers" (at least, not in the United States). Among serious cavers, "spelunker" has come to mean "person who goes underground without the proper equipment or training". At caving conventions you'll see bumper stickers that read "Cavers Rescue Spelunkers." Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:52:02 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

TSA: calling Kip Hawley an idiot is not allowed

A flier in the Milwaukee airport wrote "[TSA secretary] Kip Hawley is an idiot" on the clear plastic bag that he was ordered to put his liquids into, and ran it through the x-ray machine. The TSA goon working the machine detained him for 25 minutes, telling him that the First Amendment didn't apply in airport security. Does anyone seriously think that calling the head of the TSA an idiot endangers airplanes? Or that terrorists would call attention to themselves by writing inflammatory things about the TSA Obergruppenfuhrer on their carry-on luggage?

The TSA then confiscated the baggie and the traveller's liquids, took his picture, and "filed a report" on him.

He grabbed the baggie as it came out of the X-ray and asked if it was mine. After responding yes, he pointed at my comment and demanded to know "What is this supposed to mean?" "It could me a lot of things, it happens to be an opinion on mine." "You can't write things like this" he said, "You mean my First Amendment right to freedom of speech doesn't apply here?" "Out there (pointing pass the id checkers) not while in here (pointing down) was his response."

At this point I chuckled, just looking at him wondering if he just realized how foolish that comment was, but I think my laugh pushed him over the edge as he got really angry at this point. A Milwaukee County Sheriffs deputy was summoned - I would have left at this point, but he had my quart bag with my toothpaste and hair gel.

When the deputy got over the TSA supervisor showed him the bag and told him what had happened to that point. After he had finished I started to remind him he had left out his statement that my First Amendment rights didn't apply "here" but was cut off by the deputy who demanding my ID. I asked if I was under arrest, and his response was "Right now you are not under arrest, you are being detained." I produced my passport and he walked off with it and called in my name to see if I had any outstanding warrants, etc. The TSA supervisor picked up the phone about 20 feet away and called someone? At this point two more officers were near by and I struck up a conversation with the female officer who was making sure I kept put. I explained to her who Kip Hawley was, why I though he was an idiot, and my surprise that the TSA Supervisor felt my First Amendment rights didn't' apply at the TSA checkpoint. She didn't say much.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:10:24 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

George W. Bush butt plug

The statement in this post title is not a value judgement on the President's character, but a description of sex toy you can buy online if you're so inclined: Link (thanks, Jonno!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:09:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

D20 geek-ring

An Etsy crafter is selling this hyper-geeky ring sporting a polyhedral 20-sided die in place of a gemstone. Of course, the 20 is face-up! Link (via Wonderland)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:24:55 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make a Star Trek on/off switch

This great HOWTO illustrates the process of homebrewing your own Star Trek: The Next Generation On/Off switch. I'm thinking it would be a great controller for a garbage disposal -- tell your kids that it's a "transporter" and encourage them to "beam down" their left-over vegetables (but caution them strongly against "transporting" their hamsters and siblings, of course). Link (via Make)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:19:31 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Scientists and Engineers for America - fight for science!

Michael sez,

I have recently been involved with the creation of a new political group designed to allow scientists and concerned citizens to fight back against the ideologically driven health and science policies of the Bush Administration and their cronies in Congress. Today we launched Scientists and Engineers for America.

Concerned about the ideological and partisan manipulation of science, compromising of scientific integrity and harassment of scientists by the Bush Administration and Congress, leaders in the scientific and engineering communities announced the launch of a new organization on Wednesday, September 27th. The group, called Scientists and Engineers for America, is a 527 political organization that will focus on the need to address the current state of science policy by electing new political leadership...

Competent government depends on getting best science and technology advice. Scientists and Engineers for America will use web-based tools (www.sefora.org) and lectures around the country to explain why independent scientific advice is essential for national security, energy, the environment, health care, education, and America’s competitiveness. The group proposes a basic Bill of Rights to prevent the politicization of science.

The group will discuss the impact the Bush Administration’s science and technology policies have had in their fields and the need for voters to consider the science and technology policies by candidates in this year’s mid-term elections. The group will also provide details of their activities including launching a speaking tour focusing on a number of this fall’s highly contested campaigns in key states.

Link (Thanks, Michael!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:15:04 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Matchstick Hogwarts - fantastic and detailed!

Kirk sez, "Someone used more than 500,000 matchsticks to make a model of Hogwarts. Astounding stuff."

Acton's matchstick version of Hogwarts has been sold to an attraction in Spain called "The HOUSE OF KATMANDU", but will continue to be exhibited in Gladbrook while the finishing touches are completed. By the time the final building (the Clock Tower buidling) is finished at the end of the year it will have taken Acton nearly three years to build. Hogwarts is Acton's largest matchstick model to date. The model will be shipped to Spain before 12/31/06, so make plans to visit Matchstick Marvels before it leaves the States.

Link (Thanks, Kirk!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:13:00 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Vintage BBC broadcasting equipment - photos

Stuart sez, "Matthew Sylvester, a BBC engineer, has upload to flickr batch of work photos from the pre-nineties including the first satellite uplink dish in the UK. Lots of cool looking old machinary and control rooms in places like Bristol that really demonstrates the effort that the BBC used to have to go through to get video and film from the field onto the screen in the days before video-phones." Link (Thanks, Stuart!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:10:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ethics and RFIDs - video of Adam "Everyware" Greenfield

Andreas sez, "Back in June, Cory reported about a presentation by Adam Greenfield about his recently published book 'Everyware'. [Ed: Everyware is a book about the threat and potential of a world dominated by RFIDs and other tracing technology -- about the potential empowerment or control that such a world would bring] We invited Adam to Keio University in Tokyo for a similar talk and now the videos of the event are up -- more than 80 minutes of CC-licensed Everyware goodness!" Link (Thanks, Andreas!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:08:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Photo illustrates DRM

Chruba made this photo to show how he felt about DRM: a pair of handcuffs shackling a pair of headphones. Link (Thanks, Chruba!)
Update: Tim made this great pic of a DVD player in chains -- nice one!

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:03:51 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Crawly critter wallpaper

This wallpaper, printed with tessellated ink drawings of iguanas, plants, birdies and bugs, is damned handsome. Link (via Cribcandy)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:34:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Baby Toupee: small wigs for small people

When my kids were helpless infants, I enjoyed putting silly clothes, glasses, and hats on them. Too bad Baby Toupee, a site that sells different baby novelty wigs, wasn't around a few years ago! Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 07:40:26 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

FOUND! Lazyweb request: name of children's stories from 1940s or 1950s

UPDATE: I love Boing Boing readers. I never thought I'd get the name of these stories, and was wondering if I had only dreamed about them. Within minutes, several people sent me the correct answer: Homer Price. Here's the

Wikipedia article about the books:

Homer Price is the title character of a pair of children's books written by Robert McCloskey in the early 1940s. Homer lives in Centerburg, a fictitious small town in the American Midwest. He is a mild-mannered boy who enjoys working on radios, and somehow gets involved in a series of outrageous incidents, such as building an unstoppable donut-making machine or caring for ragweed taller than barn silos.

I'm trying to remember the name of a series of children's stories from the mid-20th century. They were about a boy with a name that begins with the letter H (I think), and in each story, they boy had some kind of improbable adventure.

I read the books (each book has seven or eight stories about the boy) when I was about 10 and all I can remember are bits from two stories -- one where he found a mouse that could sing (which later lost the ability to sing) and another where he accidentally colored his skin with some kind of spray gun hooked up to a garden hose. Link to book on Amazon

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 07:25:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bruce Sterling speech at Ubicomp - video

Don sez, "Bruce Sterling gave a keynote at the UBICOMP 2006 conference in Orange County on 9/17/2006 titled either 'The Spime Meme Map' or 'UBICOMP: The majesty of the ideas and the lyricism of the language' depending on where you look for the title. The video has been posted at the LUCI blog. The question and answer period is interesting with discussions of the power of infrastructure and the role of 'magic' in the technology design process." Link (Thanks, Don!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:24:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Boing Boing's Get Illuminated Podcast

In addition to our weekly "Boing Boing Boing" podcast, we've got another podcast, called "Get Illuminated." Each week, we'll interview creative people in fringe culture.

Get Illuminated's patron saints, icons, and talismen include Robert Anton Wilson, Tim Leary, Stanislav Szukalski, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Maria Sabina, the Church of the SubGenius, Discordianism, MAD Magazine, underground comics, '70s punk, pranksters, and mad scientists.

In Episode 1, we interviewed cultural critic and author Doug Rushkoff. He talked about the renewed interest in Timothy Leary and Aleister Crowley, let us in on the plot of the new comic he's writing for Vertigo comics, and talked about the book he's been waiting all his life to write. Get Illuminated podcast feed | Subscribe via iTunes | MP3 Link (64K) | Internet archive page

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 05:16:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dog swallows RFID, starts car

A woman in Surrey, England couldn't figure out why her car wouldn't start. An Automobile Association patrolman arrived on the scene and the two realized that the woman's dog had swallowed the car's immobilizer chip fob. The immobilizer contains an RFID chip that must be within a certain proximity of the steering column for the key to work. According to a BBC News report, the patrolman put the dog in the front seat, turned the key, and the car started right up.
Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:40:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Richard Dawkins on the God Delusion

Richard Dawkins, author of the mind-blowing classic The Selfish Gene, has a new book just coming out titled The God Delusion. In it, according to his Web site, he "eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being (and) shows how religion fuels war, forments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence." I can't wait to read it! For a taste of Dawkins' evangelical atheism and disbelief in belief, check out this interview with him on the BBC's Newsnight Book Club.
Link to YouTube video, Link to buy The God Delusion

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:32:33 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Map of smells on NYC subway

Gawker has compiled an interactive NYC subway map showing the stenches of each station, as reported by readers. Union Square sports BO, poo, food, mold, and wee. Link (via Metafilter)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:46:50 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

How aluminum foil is made

Here's an interesting Discovery Channel video showing how an 18" thick, 14-foot x 5-foot, 8 ton ingot of aluminum is milled into eight miles of the aluminum foil you have in your kitchen. I still call aluminum foil "tin foil" even though it hasn't been tin for almost a century.
Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 01:43:21 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Paul Allen's Brain Atlas: digital, 3D, neural map breakthrough

Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle are today celebrating the completion of a new digital atlas of the mouse brain. The achievement will likely lead to a greater understanding of how the human brain works.

I visited the Institute last week, spoke to founder Paul Allen about the project, and filed reports for NPR "Day to Day" and Wired News.

Mice brains and human brains have significant differences, but are similar enough that a complete "atlas" of the mouse brain is seen by many scientists to be as important a milestone as the Human Genome Project, which mapped the DNA sequence.

Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft 30 years ago with Bill Gates and is one of the world's richest men, donated $100 million to create a searchable 3-D digital map called the Allen Brain Atlas. The map is the inaugural project of the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

Allen's funding helped to assemble a dream team of scientists, who methodically scanned ultra-thin slices of mouse brain with the aid of robot helpers. Those scans help to identify how individual genes are "turned on" in different areas of the brain.

Link to archived audio report for the NPR News program "Day to Day," including an interview with Mr. Allen.

Link to related text and images at Wired News.

Image: Top, a cutaway view from the Allen Brain Explorer shows a 3-D rendering of mouse-brain anatomy, with reference planes mirroring a coordinate system used to "map" the brain. Below, Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science sort slides holding ultra-thin slices of mouse brains, which are scanned by a computer to track how more than 20,000 genes express themselves at the cellular level. Allen Institute for Brain Science © 2006.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:50:43 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Creepy eBay auction: FemBot from Austin Powers movie

eBay is auctioning off the FemBot from Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

You are looking at a movie prop original. The FemBot of Jessica [It's actually Vanessa, not Jessica, as Boing Boing reader Eli points out -- Mark] Kensington from the motion picture, Austin Powers 2, "The Spy Who Shagged Me". This silicon puppet weighs approximately 30lbs and is the original that was used in the movie. All silicon skin with a fiberglass plastic shell interior for the face. Face is wired with lights inside the eyes and mouth area. Works with a 9 volt battery. Punched hair.

Comes with: Original dress used in the movie. Pull off silicon mask. Black round wooden base with speedrail stand.

Link (Thanks, Jürgen!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:10:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cory's new column on the threat of high-def

My new Information Week column is called "High-Definition Video -- Bad For Consumers, Bad For Hollywood" and it explains the way that HDTV has become a Trojan horse for smuggling DRM into your living room -- and how the broadcast industry doesn't know how to make a decent HD show:

The new HD technologies include anti-user nasties like "renewability" -- the ability to remotely disable some or all of the device's features without your permission. If someone, somewhere, figures out how to use your DVD burner to make copies of Hollywood movies, they can switch off *everyone's* burner, punishing a limitless number of innocents to get at a few guilty parties.

The HD DRM systems also include gems like "selectable output control" -- wherein? some programs will refuse to be played on some devices. As you flip up and down the dial, parts of your home theater will go dark. Creepier still is "authorized domain" -- the ability to flag content so that it can only be played within a "household," where the studios get to define what is and isn't a valid living arrangement.

On top of these restrictions are the punishing "robustness" regimes that come with HD DRM systems. These are the rules manufacturers have to follow to ensure that the anti-user stuff in their devices isn't compromised. It's a requirement to add expensive armor to products that stop a device's owner from opening up her device to see what's inside, and make changes. That's bad news for open source, of course, since open source is all about being able to look at, modify and republish the code that runs a device.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:34:19 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Teddy Bear massacres fish

This cute teddy bear was inadvertently responsible for the death of 2500 fish in New Hampshire. Apparently, the bear clogged a critical drain at the Milford Hatchery. Robert S. Fawcett, Hacthery Supervisor, posted the following in the Hampshire Fish and Game Department's Weekly Fishing Report:

On Wednesday, September 6, 2006, a TEDDY BEAR released by person or persons unknown stopped the flow of water to a circular pool at Milford Hatchery, killing 2,500 rainbow trout. WATER FLOW in hatcheries IS LIFE SUPPORT TO THE FISH! Stop that flow, which delivers the dissolved oxygen required for fish respiration, and the fish suffocate and die. RELEASE OF ANY TEDDY BEARS into fish hatchery water IS NOT PERMITTED. Please think before you act. If a teddy bear is dropped accidentally, find a fish culturist and tell them quickly, so they might save your teddy bear, and keep it from becoming a killer. Thank you.

Link to NH Weekly Fishing Report, Link to Associated Press article

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:32:33 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Audio from Bruce Sterling's USC talk yesterday

The audio from yesterday Bruce Sterling's talk at the USC Annenberg Public Diplomacy Center is live now. Bruce gave another barn-burner of a talk, even more entertaining and thought-provoking than usual, which is saying something. He talked about copyright and authorship, and all the ways that authors and artists get compensated, and which ones make good art and which ones make poor art. It was mind-blowing and amazing. Link, Subscribe to podcast, Podcast feed

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:27:49 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Induction Coil Rocket Launcher

Gareth says:

In the early '80s, when I was a member of the L5 Socieity and went to all the conferences of the time on commercial space dev, everybody talked about mass drivers, the electromagnetic catapaults that could be used to hurl moon material into space to be processed for colony building. This desktop induction launcher works on the same principle. When you watch the videos of the launch, you'll get an idea for just how powerful one of these coils can be.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:22:04 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Skyfishing

Skyfish, also known as Rods, are allegedly insect-like creatures that zip around in the air so fast that they're nearly impossible to see with the naked eye. The "evidence" of their existence is in the form of video footage. Of course, instead of some new cryptid or UFO-related phenomena, the Rods might actually be video artifacts or tricks of light. But that wouldn't be as interesting. And Japanese farmer Kozo Ichikawa wouldn't have anything to catch. The 64-year-old tangerine farmer claims that he angles for the skyfish and snatches them out of the air with his bare hands. According to an article in the Mainichi Daily News, Ichikawa's talents are featured in a DVD produced by Rods researcher Jose Escamilla. The image seen here is clipped from Escamilla's "RODS Timeline." From the Mainichi Daily News article:

While no samples of living skyfish are in captivity, nor have any samples been found for that matter, the sexagenarian farmer has no doubts that they exist.

"When I was a little kid, I used to catch them all the time," he tells Cyzo. "Now, though, the environment's gone bad and you've got to go deeper and deeper into the mountains to see them anywhere...."

Considering Japanese eat more fish than any other people on the planet, how would the skyfish go down at the local sushi bar? Not well at all, according to Ichikawa, who says skyfish aren't for consumption.

"You don't eat skyfish," he says. "You just catch them and then release them again. That's all. Mind you, if you did eat them, I guess they'd probably taste a bit like nata de coco (a healthy, jelly-like Filipino food produced from coconut milk)."

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:20:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bedbugs on the rise

Recently, my friend told me he was staying in a motel in Florida and was attacked by bedbugs. He was bitten over 100 times and ended up getting a systemic allergic reaction. I told Make senior editor Paul Spinrad about it and he told me bedbugs are on the rise. He's right. There are a lot of news stories about the phenomenon.

A local bedbug expert is Brian Cabrera, assistant professor of entomology at the University of Florida's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center. "They are definitely back," he says.

"Whereas before, pest control companies would see two cases in a year, they're now seeing 20, 50, 75 cases a year. Definitely an increase, but it won't constitute an epidemic."

Cindy Mannes, vice president for public affairs with the National Pest Management Association, says between 2000 and 2006, pest control companies have seen a 71 percent increase in the number of calls about bedbugs, some receiving as many as 30 or 40 a week. And some companies, she says, are setting up bedbug divisions.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:45:58 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Free Bruce Schneier talk in LA today, 7PM

A reminder for Angelenos: Bruce Schneier is giving a free public talk tonight at 7PM at the USC campus, at the Annenberg School room 207. Bruce is a legendary security expert and a powerful advocate for the idea that security shouldn't come at the expense of freedom. He's an amazing speaker and a great writer -- the event is open to the public and I hope we'll see you there! As with previous speakers (1, 2) we'll be podcasting the talk. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:09:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

BoingBoingBoing podcast with this week's guest, Violet Blue

Over the weekend, we recorded the second installment of our new weekly Boing Boing podcast, "Boing Boing Boing." Each week, the Boingers and a guest talk about the week's Boing Boing stories and new projects coming up -- a kind of Best of Boing Boing, in audio form.

In this edition, we're joined by author, blogger, lethal-robot-handler, and sex educator Violet Blue. She recently became the San Francisco Chronicle's first sex columnist, and we asked her about that column -- "Open Source Sex" -- and an unauthorized but hilarious guerilla promo campaign announcing the launch (the Billboard Liberation Front stuck giant sexy photos of her on bus stops and buses throughout San Francisco).

Podcast, Podcast Feed, Subscribe via iTunes, MP3 Link (64K)

Previously: Introducing Boing Boing Boing: the Boing Boing podcast!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:52:51 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sensible introduction to blogging

My friend Suzanne Stefanac's new book is "Dispatches from Blogistan: A travel guide for the modern blogger," a distinctive and sensible HOWTO book for people thinking about starting a blog, or just wanting to understand more about the why and how of blogging.

Dispatches from Blogistan works hard to include the bigger context of blogging, with fascinating and fast histories of publishing, free expression, and the media that preceded blogging. Framed thus, the interviews that Suzanne conducts with many great bloggers (including Farai Chideya, Bruce Sterling, Craig Newmark, Jamais Cascio and, ahem, yours truly) really come to life, showing how blogging is part of a long and honorable tradition. Blogging recapitulates many of the media and the media-fights that preceded it.

This is a fast book and a smart one, and a great introduction to the subject for people who just don't get it, but want to. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:24:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, September 25, 2006

RIP, sf writer John M Ford

Stefan Jones sez, "Science fiction writer and game designer John M. Ford passed away last night. I'll leave the dignified tributes to others, and present a sample of how I best knew the guy, namely his hilarious off-the-cuff riffs posted on Making Light. One of the posters in the commemoration thread found this recipe for Hot Gingered Pygmy Mammoth:"

Preheat a giant turtle shell over a fumarole. A big giant turtle. Put some oil in there. Make sure no other giant turtles are around to see you do this.

On a flat rock, stirring with your Stick of the Dining God, dry cook the sesame seeds over medium heat until they are brown and smell good. Remove from the heat. Add the noodles to the turtle shell and fry fast until puffy and the color of sunrise. Remove from the oil and drain on non-itchy leaves. Throw salt. Set aside.

Sear the mammoth meat on the flat rock. Salt but don’t overdo it, you remember what happened to the Chest-Clutching Tribe of the Plains. Drain.

Link (Thanks, Stefan!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:49:58 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

BillMonk: Roommate-ware for splitting bills

H1kari sez, "When I shared an apartment, there was constant tension over who owed for utilities and beer. Later in life, my girlfriend and I would often argue over who paid last time. Now, a site called BillMonk lets you enter shared bills and objectively know where you stand with your friends. When you're on the go, you can record debts from your phone via SMS. The notion of borrowing is extended to include your personal library so you can track which things are lent out. There's all sorts of cool features like auto-splitting bills, ties into amazon's product lookup system for tracking your book collection, etc. I've found it super useful, so just thought I'd share it!" Link (Thanks, H1kar1!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:48:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Drew Friedman's Old Jewish Comedians

Drew Friedman is my absolute favorite caricaturist and probably my favorite living portrait artist. His insane attention to detail and mastery of stippling gives his portraits a surreal-yet-oddly lifelike quality. Mark F. and I can't stop talking about his latest book, Old Jewish Comedians, published by Fantagraphics as part of their excellent BLAB! Storybook series. (Link to Mark's review at Mad Professor.) Friedman takes on all the greats, from Jack Benny, Don Rickles, and the Marx Brothers to Henny Youngman, Bud Abbott, and Sid Caesar. The portraits not only exude the charisma of these funny men but somehow manage to feel "of the time" too. And as Mark said, Friedman is a master at drawing liver spots. Highly recommended.
Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:38:23 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO poach salmon in your dishwasher

It reminds me a little of Seinfeld's Kramer prepping food in his shower, but Wine X Magazine has a recipe for poaching salmon in your dishwasher. This odd HOWTO was written by Bob Blumer, author of the book Surreal Gourmet. From the recipe:

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO COOK A WHOLE FISH!

1 Place fish packets on the top rack.

2 Add dirty dishes and lemon-scented soap. This optional step is not recommended for novices. However, as long as the salmon's tightly sealed in its aluminum foil packet, it won't absorb any soapy taste or smell.

3 Set dishwasher to the "normal" cycle. Modern dishwashers have "economy" and "cool dry" settings, which are undesirable since they conserve heat. However, on the other end of the spectrum, the "pots and pans" setting tends to overcook the fish.

4 Run salmon through the entire wash-and-dry cycle -- approximately 50 minutes for most models.

5 When cycle's complete, take salmon out, discard foil, place one fillet on each plate and spoon a generous serving of dill sauce on top.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:18:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Marmaduke comics explained

Each day, Joe Mathlete posts the Marmaduke comic on his blog, along with an explanation. It's terrific.

Marmaduke spots a smaller dog being toted around the block while on his afternoon walk, envies its portability and general lifestyle, decides he is sick of walking, and demands that Owner-Lady suck it up and carry him. Owner-Lady balks.
Marmaduke ordered a pizza from 2 Ur Door Pizza! and tipped one of the delivery persons (2 Ur Door Pizza pizzas take two people to deliver them) a bone. As Marmaduke is a dog, and dogs consider bones to be very important and valuable, he no doubt was being earnest and generous in his offer, but the delivery boy has not encountered such before.

(A lesser strip would have pointed out the absurdity in a dog ordering pizza ("how can such a thing be?!?"), but the humor in Marmaduke is much more subtle and layered to settle for such an obvious chuckle. In the Marmadukiverse (c), this sort of shit happens all the time.)

Link (Thanks, Sergio!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:09:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Article on classic toy designer John McNett

Scott and Brian say:

Today the Mego Museum is featuring a great article on John and Linda McNett, a couple who met while working as toy designers at Mego Corp in the mid 1970's. In addition to working on many great Mego products such as 2XL -- One of the first interactive electronic toys, the Micronauts, and World's Greatest Super Heroes, John worked on Etch-a-Sketch, Magna Doodle, and designed the look of the Colecovision system and Coleco's minitabletop arcade games like Pac Man and Frogger. It's a cool insight into the orgins of our favorite toys written by Ben Holcomb, author of the forthcoming book World's Greatest Toys.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:17:59 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Radar interview with John Hodgman

Radar interviews the wonderful John Hodgman.

Radar: And then there's The Daily Show. Talk about a sweet gig.
JH: It is so incredibly unexpected and providential as to be frightening to even discuss with you now.

Radar: Is Jon Stewart as Waspy in person as he appears on television?
JH: I'm not going to get into ethnic phrenology with you. He's a very handsome man who is of average height.

Radar: With all of this appearing in front of the camera, one could conclude you harbor a desire to act. Do you?
JH: I am not an actor, but I am not averse to the idea of being a personality. For me the best example is George Plimpton, who chased after every adventure with very little prejudice, always with an open mind and often with a funny accent. I am on top of a roller coaster that I never expected to be on. I don't know what's going to happen when the roller coaster goes down. My guess is I will fly out and I will hit a pole.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:03:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Project to make Marmaduke less unfunny

Of the three least funny dog comic strips on the planet (Fred Basset, Howard Huge, and Marmaduke), Marmaduke is the unfunniest. The folks at the Marmaduke Project are attempting to make Marmaduke not suck so much by modifying his cartoons in a variety of ways. Link (Thanks, Erin!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:57:58 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Guy uses VR goggles to pilot RC plane

Video of a guy who put a wireless camera on a model plane and wears VR goggles to pilot it. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:46:52 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wired News on future body hackers

Chris Oakes wrote an interesting feature for Wired News about state-of-the-art bionics and individuals who are itching to upgrade their own bodies whether they "need" it or not. The article, titled "What if Bionics Were Better" is the final part in Wired News's excellent series on artificial limbs and neuroprosthetics. From Oakes's article:

Phillipa Garner is a self-described "gender-hacker."

In 1993 at the age of 51, she underwent sex reassignment surgery. That was just the beginning of her quest for self-improvement. She followed the sex change with more modification: vaginoplasty, brow reduction, cheek implants, breast implants, lip augmentation and a face-lift. And she'd happily sign up for more, she says.

"I would be inclined to go through with some pretty radical conceptual self-improvement procedures," Garner said. "I think of cosmetic surgery as collaborative art.... And when I next have disposable income, I'll be back in the O.R..."

To Garner, surgical enhancements fall right in line with her vocation. A freelance illustrator whose work includes monthly satire in Car & Driver magazine based on cheekily modified car concepts, she has also produced a stream of personal vehicle designs for more efficient transport of the human body.

Whether she's modifiying vehicles or her own body, it's all part of the same quest for improvement.

"I felt that my situation in general was screaming out for a monkey wrench in the works," she said.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:44:31 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Animation of processes inside living cells

BioVisions at Harvard Univesity produced a neat animation of the processes taking place inside living cells. I like the little walker thing pulling along a big wobbling, rubbery bag of something or other. Link (Thanks, Craig!)

Reader comment:

Devin says:

Those little walking things are kinesins - they are used for transporting vesicles of goodies up and down axons. You can see a more chemical-y video here and there's apparently a whole homepage for kinesins here.

Eva says:

The "little walker thing" in the cell animation video you linked is a molecule called kinesin. It drags vesicles ("rubber bag") along microtubuli to direct the cargo in the vesicles to a particular region of the cell. I explain it here, with relevant wikipedia links.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:41:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Vinyl record art

Dutch artist Jeroen Diepenmaat has made several interesting works involving vinyl records. At left is "loop/loop (2005)," a hand cart with an LP as the wheel. Push and it plays. At right is "pour des dents d'un blanc éclatant et saines (2005)" with a taxidermy bird's beak acting as the needle for the record player. Sound samples from both of the pieces are available on Diepenmaat's site.
Link (via MAKE: Blog)

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:05:22 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Homeland Security relaxes liquid on planes rules

Homeland Security official told the AP that airline passengers will once again be allowed to bring most liquids onto planes, as long as they were purchased from secure airport stores.

The department also announced that the chocolate ration has been increased to 20 grams a week. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:04:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Naps improve declarative memory

A nap can do wonders for your factual memory, scientists report. Researchers from the City University of New York asked subjects to memorize word pairs. They were tested twice, once right after the test and again six hours later. Those who snoozed for up to an hour before the second test did 15 percent better than the rest. The results of the study appear in the scientific journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. From New Scientist:

"Traditionally, time devoted to daytime napping has been considered counterproductive," the researchers say. It now seems sleep is "an important mechanism for memory formation".

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:29:22 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Severed heads freak out burglars

When I was in college, my friend Jason kept a fake human skull and a ventriloquist dummy in the window of his ground floor apartment. He told me that the items would deter superstitious burglars. Maybe Jason was onto something. In Vienna last week, burglars fled from the basement of an apartment building after stumbling upon eight mummified human heads that a dentist who lived in the building kept in a chest for "research." From Reuters:

"The burglars were looking for loot when they discovered the heads," said a spokeswoman for Austrian police. "From what it looks like, they just left them lying and bolted away."

Austrian authorities said they were investigating whether there had been a breach of the regulations for storing research materials.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:09:54 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Scary Russian warning sign

eBay oddity scout Michael-Anne Rauback spotted this intense vintage Russian warning sign. It's undated, made of porcelain, and measures 8.25 x 11 inches. The text reads: "Don't get in. You will be killed." Current bid is US$25.00.
Link (Thanks for the translation, Marina Gorbis!)

UPDATE: According to BB reader Martin Rundkvist, the sign does not appear to be porcelain as the ad states but rather enameled metal.

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:53:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Gigantic Little Nemo book does justice to the loveliest comic ever

I just bought a copy of the astonishing Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays, the single largest book I've ever owned, and quite possibly the most enchanting.

So Many Splendid Sundays collects 110 of the full-page Sunday color newspaper strips from Winsor McKay's Little Nemo in Slumberland, published at their original full size -- 16 inches by 22 inches (this is more than a coffee-table book, in other words: add four legs and it could be a coffee-table).

It's the first time I've ever seen Little Nemo pages at the size they were published, back at the turn of the 20th century, and it's also the first time I've ever really gotten Little Nemo.

These strips, orginally published in breakfast-table-hogging broadsheets, were watercolor masterpieces, huge paintings that depicted the weekly dreamland adventures of Little Nemo, tripping through fantastic, surreal worlds that McKay brought vividly to life. Each page ends with a charming corner panel in which Nemo's mother wakes him for school, making Slumberland vanish.

I've seen them reproduced at generous (but smaller) sizes, and they always seemed a little goofy and uninteresting. I just couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. But when I opened a copy of the mammoth Splendid Sundays collection, the appeal of Little Nemo hit me like a shovel upside the head. Once you've seen Little Nemo at full size, you'll get it too: as generous, gentle, beautiful and wildly imaginative paintings.

These 110 strips were chosen by Nemo collector Peter Maresca, who scanned and digitally restored them, a true labor of love. He left the backgrounds of each page slightly grey, lifting out the yellowing of age, but restoring that muted tone of fresh newsprint. That single detail makes a tremendous difference, especially when combined with the generous page-sizes: you can't help but feel transported a century back in time when you see this.

At $120, this might be the kind of book you'd only think of getting as a gift for a friend, and never treating yourself to, but you'd be cheating yourself. This is one $120 book that's worthy buying for your own enjoyment (though I can't imagine a better gift!). Link

See also: Expirable copyright makes giant-sized Little Nemo possible

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:28:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bruce Sterling free talk at USC Los Angeles today

A reminder for Angelenos: Bruce Sterling is giving a free talk today at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School, hosted by the Center for Public Diplomacy. It's at 2PM, in room 204 of the Annenberg School -- and it's open to the public, though seating is limited, so get there on time! Link

Don't forget: Legendary security expert Bruce Schneier is speaking tomorrow night, Tuesday September 26, at 7PM at the Annenberg School in room 207.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:28:03 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

URGENT: Call your Senator NOW to stop wiretapping bills

Derek sez, "For the last two months, constituents' phone calls and letters have helped hold back dangerous legislation related to the NSA spying program. But in the last week before the pre-election recess, the White House and several Congressional leaders are trying to sneak these bills through and effect the single greatest expansion of government surveillance ever. Take action now to stop the illegal surveillance, before it's too late." Link (Thanks, Derek!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:24:20 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Art Spiegelman's memoir in cartoon form

Art "Maus" Spiegelman is publishing his memoir in comix form, entitled "Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@?*!" in the Virginia Quarterly Review. They're publishing parts of it on the net (disappointingly, parts are being withheld due to unspecified "rights issues"). Even with the gaps in the narrative, this is fine and compelling stuff. Link (Thanks, Kevin!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:21:44 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Updated Adobe updater needs updating

Funny screen grab from an Adobe update. Quentin says: "When I first saw it, I was disappointed that the "OK" button wasn't labeled "Update"." Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:23:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make a shoulder-bag out of floppies

Step-by-step HOWTO for constructing a stylish shoulder-bag out of floppies -- this is pretty much the perfect HOWTO project: it begins with dumpster-diving, and was inspired by a desire to make a suit of plate-mail armor out of obsolete magnetic storage media. I hope this maker follows up with a HOWTO for the armor.

This is a bag I made from floppy disks. I found scads of floppy disks in a dumpster and wanted to make plate mail armor out of it (that is my next floppy project) I found out that a bag would be a great proof of concept project. Here goes...

Link (via Make Blog)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:33:49 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Charlie Stross interview podcast

Rick Kleffel's awesome science fiction podcast Trashotron has just posted an interview with Charlie Stross, my frequent collaborator and author of the forthcoming sf supernatural thriller The Jennifer Morgue.

Bob Howard—a T-shirt–wearing computer geek and field agent for the super-secret British government agency The Laundry—must save the world from eldritch horrors, codenamed Jennifer Morgue, in this fast-paced spy thriller. Bob's current mission is to stop the evil Ellis Billington from achieving world domination, but he must overcome obstacles including the Gravedust device, which permits communication with the dead; destiny-entanglement protocol; banishment weapons; and Ramona Random, a lethal but beautiful agent for the U.S. counterpart to The Laundry. Billington plans to raise the eldritch horror Jennifer Morgue from the vasty deeps, and communicate with a dead warrior for the purpose of ruling the world. Blending physics and applied mathematics with the practice of summoning and demonology, this spy-meets-horror novel will keep sci-fi fans on the edge of their seats. This volume also includes a bonus story, "Pimpf," featuring agent Bob Howard in the world of virtual gaming, as well as an afterword entitled "The Golden Age of Spying."

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:41:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Furniture made from bundles of sharp pencils

These chairs and tables made from glued-together bundles of wicked-sharp pencils aren't very practical, but they sure are pretty. All those sharp tips, so pointy they strobe... Mmmm. Link (via Neatorama)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:07:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Secure your checked bags -- fly with a gun

If you want to keep your checked valuables from being stolen while you fly, just keep a gun in your suitcase.

Many airports won't let you effectively lock your suitcases when you fly, and the new limits on carry-on luggage thanks to moisture-terror-hysteria mean it's open season for unscrupulous TSA employees and baggage handlers who want to help themselves to expensive cameras and other valuable in checked bags.

But once you add a gun -- even a starter pistol -- to your luggage, it gets extra-locked, gains new tracking privileges, and is subject to heightened scrutiny all the way to your destination.

A "weapons" is defined as a rifle, shotgun, pistol, airgun, and STARTER PISTOL. Yes, starter pistols - those little guns that fire blanks at track and swim meets - are considered weapons...and do NOT have to be registered in any state in the United States.

I have a starter pistol for all my cases. All I have to do upon check-in is tell the airline ticket agent that I have a weapon to declare...I'm given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me.

That's the procedure. The case is extra-tracked...TSA does not want to lose a weapons case. This reduces the chance of the case being lost to virtually zero.

It's a great way to travel with camera gear...I've been doing this since Dec 2001 and have had no problems whatsoever.

Link (Thanks, Dan!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:04:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO turn a USB hub into a monster with glowing eyes

Instructables has a great HOWTO for converting an old USB hub to a scary monster with glowing red eyes, whose six spindly legs can be plugged into any USB device. Link (Thanks, Ed!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:02:54 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Flickr set of vintage kids' product packaging

Paula sez, "Dan Goodsell (aka Grickily), co-author of the book Krazy Kids' Food (Taschen 2003), has the most excellent Flickr set of vintage products for kids. The set includes tons of candy and food you loved as a kid, but have forgotten about until now. The products are from circa 50s-80s, and include cereal boxes, candy wrappers, ice cream boxes, cartoon cells from 1960s cereal ads, etc." Link (Thanks, Paula!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:25:42 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Iraq For Sale: documentary about profiteering contractors

I've just watched Robert "Outfoxed" Greenwald's new documentary, "Iraq For Sale," which documents the disgraceful profiteering of private contractors in Iraq, like Halliburton, CACI and Titan.

Greenwald's film talks with military personnel, past employees of military contractors, and the families of contractors who were killed in Iraq. He builds a compelling, damning case that the use of these contractors is putting American soldiers in harm's way, hurting US military effectiveness in Iraq, bilking the US taxpayer out of billions, and endangering the lives of the ex-military personnel who sign on with contractors on the promise of higher wages than those paid by the US military.

From charging the US military $100 to ineptly wash a bag of laundry (and getting officers to reprimand soldiers who do their own laundry in the sink) to overseeing interrogation at Abu Ghraib, these military contractors are wasteful, undertrained, and grotesquely expensive. Greenwald's film features footage of bonfires built to destroy improperly ordered vehicles, computers and other equipment that the contractors purchased at taxpayer expense -- since these contractors are compensated on a "cost-plus" basis, they get paid more for wasting money than saving it.

Another are where they scrimp is on the safety and training of their own personnel. They hire inept translators who give bad intelligence to the military. They send their front-line workers -- such as truckers recruited from the US -- into battle-zones without military escorts or armor. Meanwhile, the "savings" realized by putting untrained people in charge of interrogation at Abu Ghraib (Greenwald shows a single-page "interrogation manual" that consists of little cartoons with a short sentence under each) are not used to provide better equipment for US soldiers -- they sleep in infectious tents, drink untreated toxic water, and eat improperly prepared food, thanks to the likes of Halliburton, whose stock doubles and redoubles every year the Iraq war goes on.

The frustration of the soldiers is palpable and heartbreaking. From those who bemoan that their comrades get sucked into working for the profiteers by the high salaries, only to be killed in action to the soldiers who are required to train contractors to do their jobs, then are relegated to scut-work while all the skilled labor is taken over by the contractors they trained.

Greenwald is encouraging people to host screenings of Iraq For Sale in their homes, inviting over friends and neighbors to see the movie and discuss the film's content. The site has a list of upcoming screenings around the world, hosted by people, clubs, companies and schools.

"Will things go wrong? Sure they willl, it's a war zone. But when they do, we'll fix it, we always have -- for 60 years, for both political parties."

- David J. Lesar, CEO, Halliburton

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:22:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Infographic: Disney wants infinite copyright

Here's a telling little infographic (original is a scalable vector graphic) -- "Disney wants infinite copyright." I once was on a standards committee with a Disney TV executive who was convinced that every time Disney broadcasted an old show, the copyright clock started over for that program -- so if you put a 50 year old cartoon on TV, it would get another 95 years of fresh copyright.

There's a small technical niggle about the "When will Mickey Mouse enter the public domain?" campaigns, and it's this: Mickey Mouse, the character, is a trademark. Trademarks stay proprietary for as long as they're in use in commerce (but trademarks only protect against misleading commercial uses, not noncommercial use or commercial uses that don't mislead). The copyright question with Disney is more properly, "When will old Mickey Mouse cartoons enter the public domain?"

Of course, even that misses the real, hard question to put to Disney. That's this: "Almost all the movies made when the first Mickey cartoon was made are rotting and running to slime. No one can bring them back to life because they can't even figure out who they belong to, 78 years after the fact. Why should all of those movies vanish so that you, Disney, can go on making money off of less than one percent of the creative works from the 1920s?" Link (Thanks, Pablo!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:50:34 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Web zen: tiki zen

how to build a tiki bar
tiki bar tv
don tiki
tiki farm
critiki
tikiroom
vegas vic's
kahiki fireplace
konakai
Web Zen Home, Store (Thanks Frank!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:43:56 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tortilla art photoset

BoingBoing reader Tim says,

San Francisco artist Rio Yanez hosted "The Great Tortilla Conspiracy" at the De Young museum last week, inviting artists to come by and have their art silkscreened onto tortillas with edible inks.

Link to photos.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:37:18 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bangkok Coup: Media clampdown in Thailand

Snip from the Bangkok metblog:

Starting [Saturday], all media operators, including Internet media companies, face immediate closure if any news articles or comments, which could be deemed a threat to Thailands national security and monarchy, are published.

The Information Ministry invited all companies and operators to discuss cooperation methods in helping the government "to restrict, control, stop or destroy information deemed to affect the constitutional monarchy".

Chief internet inspector Kritpong Rimcharonepak told reporters: "We seek their cooperation not to present articles, remarks, or information that will infringe the democratic reform under the constitutional monarchy. They can still present political comments on their media, but if anything goes wrong, the caretakers of those media must take responsibility."

Link (thanks, Sean Bonner)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:33:08 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Can RIAA sue for songs they never verified by downloading from you?

Glyn sez, "In UMG v. Lindor, the defendant Marie Lindor has made a motion to preclude the RIAA from introducing into the case songs as to which it has failed to produce the song files. Ms. Lindor's lawyers submitted to the Court the RIAA's interrogatory responses where the record companies had stated under oath that their case was based upon (a) Media Sentry's detection of song files being 'distributed' and (b) Media Sentry's allegedly making "perfect digital copies" of those files. Ms. Lindor's attorneys argued that the RIAA cannot prove that it made perfect digital copies of the songs if it doesn't have the song files." Link (Thanks, Glyn!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:22:51 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, September 22, 2006

Problems with Zimbabwe's Internet

Ethan Zuckerman has a fantastic post about his recent trip to Zimbabwe, and the real story about the Internet outage there and the proposed Internet wiretapping law:

There’s a bill pending in Zimbabwe’s parliament - the Interception of Communications Bill - which would establish a government center for the interception of communications: email, web page downloads, instant messaging, financial transactions, as well as postal mail and courier services. The Chief of the Defence Intelligence, the Director-General of the President’s department on national security, the Commissioner of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Commissioner-General of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority would be able to apply to the Minister of Transport and Communications to intercept communications - requests will be granted if the minister has reason to believe “a serious offence has been or is being or will probably be committed or that there is threat to safety or national security of the country.”

To comply with the bill, Internet Service Providers would - at their own cost - have to install hardware and software to allow such communication interception to take place. Because of the financial burden this would put on providers - and because they’re concerned about the loss of privacy of Internet users - ZISPA is challenging the bill and has written a detailed response to the bill.

Link (Thanks, Ethan!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:11:56 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

EFF hiring a staff activist

The EFF is hiring a new activist. I've worked in some pretty amazing places, but no place so amazing as EFF -- the best day-job I've ever held, a truly life-changing experience:

Job responsibilities include:

* Creating powerful images about key issues for our website
* Coordinating and developing graphics for grassroots awareness campaigns that can drive people to our website and to take action
* Working with other public interest groups on grassroots campaigns
* Editing written materials for the website

Required:

* Intimate knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator
* Experience designing for web and print
* Excellent writing skills
* Great project management skills
* A passion for internet civil liberties issues

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:09:56 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bingo Watch -- looks like a Bingo card

The latest awesomely crazy watch from Tokyoflash is the Bingo Watch, whose face resembles a Bingo-card, and which tells time by filling in different positions on the board. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:08:13 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Boing Boing Emporium: True Films, by Kevin Kelly

My friend Kevin Kelly, a co-founding editor of Wired and author of several excellent books, including Out of Control and Asia Grace, is a documentary movie junkie. True Films, his 56-page PDF book, reviews 100 of his favorite documentaries. Kevin says:

(Click on thumbnails for enlargement)"True Films" contains the best 100 documentaries I've reviewed on True Films as of December, 2004. I winnowed some from the larger list, and came up with an alphabetical collection of 100 documentaries I feel are worth your time. Most people will enjoy the majority included. There's been one private film club launched around this list. What you get for your $3: a downloadable PDF file of a color version of the book (which was printed in B&W).

Buy for $3 | Other items for sale at the Boing Boing Digital Emporium

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:40:08 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

French DRM activists surrender to police

Bruno sez, "Under the newly adopted, very controversial DADVSI French law, it became illegal to bypass, help bypass, or suggest one bypasses DRM protections. Offenders are liable of up to a € 30,000 fine ($38,000) and six months in prison. Three DRM activists went, accompanied by a cheerful crowd of supporters, to their local police station and admitted the following:"

* Stéphane used DVDdecrypter to transfer a legally purchased DVD onto his portable DVD player, and risks a € 3,750 fine;

* Tangui read a DVD on an open-source Linux software; and

* Jérôme bypassed DRMs on music legally purchased on iTunes and another French online provider, explained how to bypass DRMs on a webpage, and translated a software that gets rid of protections on digital content; for all that, he risks a € 30,000 fine and up to six months in prison."

Link (Thanks, Bruno!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:27:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Steam powered bikes

Make Blog has a monster post rounding up steam-powered bicycles past and present -- these boiler-bikes look like they're likely to explode on the crossbar and take your nads with them, but they also look like they might be worth it. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:23:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Flickr hits 0.25 billion photos

Kullin sez, "Seven months ago, Flickr reached 100 million photos. Today it reached a quarter of a billion." Link (Thanks, Kullin!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:19:48 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tesla statue unveiled in Niagara Falls, Canada

Bill sez, "A new statue of Nikola Tesla now stands at Niagra Falls, in Victoria park on the .ca side. Tesla stands atop his famous AC motor while scribbling in the dirt with a walking stick (which refers to the event when the rotating-field principle appeared in a flash to Tesla while he was walking in Belgrade park.) The statue commemorates the 150th anniversary of Tesla's birth." Link (Thanks, Bill!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:18:43 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Documentary about people who speak Klingon

Fortean Times posted an interview with Alexandre Philippe and David Marchiori, respectively the director and producer of Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water, a new documentary about the Klingon Language Institute. The film explores the line between reality and fiction through profiles of the likes of Louise Witty, who, according to the film's Web site, "becomes fascinated with the language from her interest in Star Trek boots (and then fabricates and sells them), to a paintball fanatic who shouts his strategic commands in Klingon. From the interview:

FT: The film, as you say, doesn’t take the easy route of poking fun at what some ‘normal’ folks might consider to be weird behaviour, even when it borders on the absurd…

(AP:) Truthfully, of course, some of the film is funny; but Klingon speakers would see that too – they’re definitely in on the joke, and that’s what makes it great. But there’s a difference between finding this weird and laughing at what they do and dismissing their activities. Yes, it’s funny. Yes, it’s absurd. But that’s precisely the type of subculture that makes our world so endlessly fascinating. In this era of globalisation, I think it’s great that people try to assert their identity by embracing such communities. And what I’m personally particularly proud of is that I was there to create a lasting document proving the existence and the worth of this unique linguistic phenomenon...

DM: Everyone we met during the filming process, and all the Klingons we have met since, are virtually the same – gentle, intelligent people. Many of them are genuine Trek fans and this is their way of exploiting their love of the franchise. Many are linguists and language experts; in some cases Klingon is the sixth or seventh language they speak. And many of them are in it for the social aspects. I will say that while KLI members for the most part don’t indulge in dressing the Klingon way, they do take on a different persona when in Klingon mode. The large groups of people who like to dress as Klingons really take on different personalities while in the role. They act boisterous and aggressive... but when they change back, all is normal.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:42:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Femke Hiemstra's illustrations

My friend Kirsten Anderson, editor of Pop Surrealism, just bought this beautiful drawing by Dutch artist Femke Hiemstra. It's titled "Halloween Shepherds." She currently has work hanging in New York City's MF Gallery as part of their Halloween Art group show. And in the spring, Hiemstra will have her own show at Kirsten's incredible Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle.
Link to Femtasia

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:24:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Reason interviews Wired editor Chris Anderson

Nick Gillsepie, editor-in-chief of Reason says: "I thought you might be interested in our interview with Chris Anderson, which is now online."

Among the highlights:

• Anderson says he was a "complete fuck-up" who graduated high school late and flunked out of the University of Maryland with "a 0.0 G.P.A."
• Calls himself a "small 'l' libertarian" who nonetheless voted for Al Gore in 2000: "But I’m not proud of this. I wish the system would put forward politicians that I could vote for."
• Says being a parent of four young children "has made me a better boss."
• Dismisses the Wall Street Journal's Lee Gomes' criticism of The Long Tail: "I struggled a little bit with some of those statistics in my first week of researching this, too, but fortunately, I had time to actually do the math."
• Takes on social theorists such as Paradox of Choice author Barry Schwartz who fear that too much choice is paralyzing: "The answer to the paradox of choice is help."
• Talks about his musical past in a band called R.E.M., which lost a Battle of the Bands to the famous band of the same name.
• Discusses his proudest achievement at Wired: "What I’m most proud of is that we made our very optimistic message about how technology can change the world [matter again] after many people had written that off after the dot-com bust. I’m very proud that we stuck to our mission and that that message resonates [again]. I don’t think we caused it to resonate, but when the world recognized what sort of felt obvious to those of us who live in this world, I was very proud that we were still leading that."

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:46:16 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Airline attendant attempts to trick passengers into turning off cell phones

Stephen D. Levitt, co-author of the excellent book Freakanomics says he was on a flight a few days ago, and before the plane was about to take off, the flight attendant announced:

“According to the reading on my equipment up front, there is still one cell phone turned on, so please check that you have turned yours off.”

Obviously, she has no equipment for detecting this, but you should have seen the passengers scramble to check their bags. Except for me, of course. My laptop hummed happily along under the seat in front of me. Still, brilliant on the part of the flight attendant, although I think it would have been more convincing coming from the pilot.

He also adds this tidbit:

... TSA just confiscated my deodorant and my toothpaste. Of course they let me keep my contact lens solution. Hmmm…if I were a terrorist, don’t you think that I could figure out how to take the top off a bottle of contact lens solution and put my explosive liquids in there? It is totally pointless to enforce rules which impose costs on innocent people, but are easily circumvented by terrorists. Can anyone think this is accomplishing anything productive?

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:41:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Anti-smoking propaganda designed as discarded cigarettes

An ad agency in Chile made little notes that looked like cigarettes, and dropped them on sidewalks. Nicotine-junkies desperate enough to pick up the fake cigarettes unrolled them to read the following message: “It seems not only do you need a cigarette, you also need help.” Link (Via Neatorama)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:21:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fake half-suit for videoconferencing

Slobs who work at home can look their best for videoconferences with the Businessbib, a pullover half-suit that has a built in shirt and tie.

Businessbibs are hand-made from recycled materials and are supposed to be sturdy and stylish. Priced between $135-150, they can be ordered online.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:13:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Book of doodles by US Presidents

WFMU's Beware of the Blog reviews a new book of doodles by US Presidents. It looks good. As Michael Kinsley wrote, "If you read only one book on presidential doodles this year, make it this one."

What the fuck is up with Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) and his "freaky jack-o-lantern head contemplating sacred desert bird doodle?" If that's not a 'shroom-fueled Meat Puppets album cover, I'm a mindless idiot on the lake of fire.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:05:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

George Lucas, Wicket and Chewie pose for camera

My friend Bonnie Burton works at Lucas and she takes excellent photos for her Flickr stream. I especially like this one. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:01:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

1:3 scale Ferrari took 20,000 hours to make

Pierre Scerri's 1:3 scale Ferrari represents 20,000 hours of love and devotion.

It took Pierre 15 years and more than 20,000 hours to build this car. He learned to make glass so he could make the exact pattern lens for the operating headlights. He learned to make rubber so he could mold his own tires. His computer mainframe design background with the French telecommunications system allowed him to duplicate the Ferrari electronics system in exact miniature. It also provided him with the understanding needed to make a 1/3 scale operating fuel injection system identical to that in the full-size Ferrari.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:57:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Death of a 76 Ball, Encino, California

(Click thumbnail for enlargement). The gloomy weather was appropriate for the unhappy event I photographed a few days ago: the replacement of a resplendent 76 Ball with a hideous new sign at an Encino service station. The feeble bump on the new sign is a shameful mockery of the grandeur of the extinct orb. More about the 76 Ball here.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:56:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Swarm of Angels film project holds its first vote

The Swarm of Angels project (which is raising £1,000,000 from 50,000 small personal donations to make a feature film) has reached one of its critical milestones.

With the inaugural 700 members all settled in and working on opening up the next membership opportuntity as well as the setup for the film, they're opening up the first "voting day" to settle the big questions that the project is working on now:

* How to reward members who complete tasks in the critical path?
* What the project's tagline should be
* What to do with any excess money from the project?
* Which poster should the project use? Link (Thanks, Matt!)

(Disclosure: I am a proud member of the advisory board of the nonprofit Swarm of Angels project)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:46:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

SquidSoap dispenser shows you when you're done scrubbing

Squid Soap's mission is to "train tomorrow's great hand washers." The pump-bottle is decorated with a plastic squid, and the top of the pump has an ink-stamper that leaves a ring on your hand when you pump your soap. Once you've scrubbed enough to remove the ink-stamp, you've also scrubbed enough to kill the germs on your hands. Link (via Collision Detection)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:33:08 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Marmalade for £5,000 a jar

Jam-maker F Duerr & Son has debuted a commemorative £5,000 pot of marmelade made from rare whisky and champagne and decorated with edible flakes of gold.

The Fine Cut Seville Orange Marmalade with Whisky, Champagne and Gold mixes the finest Seville fruit with vintage Dalmore 62 whisky from Whyte & Mackay (valued at £32,000 per bottle), topped off with a splash of Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill 1996 vintage champagne and garnished with flakes of 24-carat gold leaf.

The resulting spread, encased in a custom-made crystal jar valued at £1,100, would cost £76 to cover a single slice of toast.

Link (Photo thumbnail from a larger picture on the Daily Telegraph site, credited to Eddie Mulholland) (Thanks, Nandini!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:20:41 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

What getting emergency contraception is like

A blogger recounts the unbelievable crap she was fed by her doctor, pharmacist and local hospitals when she tried to get emergency contraception after the condom broke. She has three kids and doesn't want a fourth, but no one would give her EC -- instead, they asked her nosy questions about her sex-life, told her she couldn't have "abortion pills" and eventually turned her away:

"No." I state plainly. "I am not married. I've been in a relationship for several years and I have three children, I don't want a fourth." I respond tersely.

"Oh, I see." He says and then he hurries on, "Well, see. *I* understand. I want you to know that I understand what you're saying. But see, the problem is that we have 4 doctors here right now but only one of them ever writes EC prescriptions. But see, the thing is that he'll interview you and see if you meet his criteria. Now, I called the pharmacy but I also talked to him and well....*clears throat*....you can come down and try to get it. You know, if you meet his criteria he'll give you a prescription, I mean, there's really no harm in trying." the nurse trails off, his voice falters as I realize what I'm being told.

He continues, almost over eager at this point to distance himself from the hospital, "See, I understand what you're saying and all. I think it's a good thing that it's going over the counter. I just thought I should tell you what he told me. You know, you'll just have to have an interview with him and he'll see if you meet his criteria. He'll only be on duty until 2pm today though and you should ask for him if you decide to come down because he's really your only chance."

I sigh and thank him before hanging up. I know exactly what he was telling me. If I wasn't raped and wasn't married then too damn bad for me.

Link (via Making Light)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:10:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Last statements of the Texas executed

The Guardian newspaper has combed through the last statements of the 376 people executed by the state of Texas (Texas has an online repository of last statements) and published the highlights. They're quite a collection, ranging from moving, sad, infuriating and brave:

"What I want people to know is that they call me a cold-blooded killer when I shot a man that shot me first. The only thing that convicted me was that I am a Mexican and that he was a police officer. People hollered for my life, and they are to have my life tonight.

"The people never hollered for the life of the policeman that killed a 13-year-old boy who was handcuffed in the back seat of a police car. The people never hollered for the life of a Houston police officer who beat up and drowned Jose Campo Torres and threw his body in the river. You call that equal justice. This is your equal justice. This is America's equal justice.

"A Mexican's life is worth nothing. When a policeman kills someone he gets a suspended sentence. When a Mexican kills a police officer this is what you get. From there you call me a cold-blooded murderer. I didn't tie anyone to a stretcher. I didn't pump poison into anybody's veins from behind a locked door [ ... ] I hope God will be as merciful to society as he has been to me. I'm ready, Warden."

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:57:20 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Nerd humor about Katamari Damacy

Today on xkcd, a way-funny comic for trufans of the amazing video-game Katamari Damacy. In KD, you roll a giant ball around a landscape, trying to kock over and pick up the objects that litter it -- as you pick up more objects, you get bigger, which increases the objects you can grab, all the way up to mountains, clouds and worlds. KD hacks your brain the way that Tetris does -- after a lot of Tetris, the whole world seems to be composed of polygons that want to be slid together, and after a lot of KD, the world seems made of objects that you should knock down and roll up. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:50:19 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Rentware phone costs $2,000 over 40 years

An 82-year-old woman with a rental phone ended up paying over $14,000 $2,000 for the rotary set over 40 years. She began renting the phone at a time when AT&T would not sell you a phone -- and they wouldn't let you buy a phone from someone else and plug it in to your wall.

These days, DRM hardware and media seems to all come on terms like this: a license, a rental, anything except a plain, old-fashioned sale where you end up owning property.

The DRM people tell us that rentals are great for the poor and disenfranchised, since these rental "offers" can be made for less than a real purchase would cost. But I think this is more representative of the trajectory of rentware models: you pay, and pay, and pay, and pay.

It's not a coincidence that rich people who have a choice almost never choose to rent. They own their homes, their cars, and their TVs. Rich people don't sign "agreements" that let repo men come over and take away their stuff. Even if you know you'll never miss a payment, we all know that owning enriches you, renting enriches someone else.

The number of customers leasing phones dropped from 40 million nationwide to about 750,000 today, said John Skalko, spokesman for Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies, a spinoff of AT&T that manages the residential leasing service.

"We will continue to lease sets as long as there is a demand for them," Skalko said.

Benefits of leasing include free replacements and the option of switching to newer models, he said.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:44:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video games in real life photoshopping contest

Today on the Worth1000 photoshopping contest: video-games rendered as photorealistic scenarios (love this Pong!). Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:34:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Violet Blue's SF Chronicle column debut: "Open Source Sex."

BoingBoing pal and intrepid sexblogger/podcaster/author Violet Blue today made her debut as the SF Chronicle's newest columnist. The first edition of her weekly online column about the erotic underpinnings of San Francisco city culture, "Violet Blue: Open Source Sex," is now live: Link. This week, she reports on an underground sex club and secret Tiki bar frequented by hipsters and Elvis impersonators.

For a news institution like the Chron to make an indie blogger a columnist is interesting enough... but this is also the paper's first-ever column about sexuality. That's an admirably risky move. Phil Bronstein's got balls.

But evidently, not everyone at the paper does. Typically, they run a list of links (a blogroll of sorts) next to online columns. Looks like someone went limp at the last minute with Violet's column. Not only did they yank the links, they won't even link to her own blog, or books, or podcasts, as they would with other columnists (shame on you, whoever you are). She's posted the conspicuously missing linkroll here.

And Scott Beale adds, "A group of pranksters have been modifying bus shelters with unauthorized promotional posters for Violet’s new column. Here’s the first one and the second one."

Looks like the work of the Billboard Liberation Front. One of the pimped-out bus stops is shown above. More snapshots here, including one billboard-mod which contains nudity. Here's the Chronicle's press release about the column launch, here's a video interview with her at RyanIsHungry, and Violet's blog-post about the project is here. Congratulations, Violet!

Update: David Calkins says,

"We saw this. Took a quick snapshot - sorry for the poor quality. Balsy fuckers, whoever they are. I wonder just how many buses and shelters they hit?"

Link to full-size.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:41:21 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Whocalled.us

Over the last few weeks, I've been receiving strange calls every few days on my mobile phone. A prerecorded male voice talks for about 20 seconds in Spanish and then hangs up. I don't speak Spanish so I have no idea what the guy is saying or why he's calling me. Tonight, my pal Jennifer Lum got a mystery call and after doing some Googling, came upon this fun site Who Called Us. You can enter the number that shows up on caller ID, see how many other people report the same caller, and share comments, clues, and speculations (peppered with some racist bullshit) about who or what is doing the dialing. Nobody has uncovered the identity of my mystery caller yet, but it makes me feel a little better to know that at least 563 other people are being annoyed by the same person. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:40:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Philadelphia Orchestra launches DRM-free music store

Gabriel sez, "I just got an e-mail from The Philadelphia Orchestra's newslist about the launch of their download store. They offer 256kbps MP3s or FLAC downloads -- 'without shackles,' as they put it. There are downsides -- for example, you can't download just one track from an album, you must purchase the whole album. But there are also upsides -- like being able to get copies of recent live performances that otherwise wouldn't be released." Link (Thanks, Gabriel!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:51:39 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Furniture made from old bicycles

Bike Furniture Design makes elegant handcrafted furniture from old bicycle parts. It's all made to order, and I'm guessing it's a little on the pricey side, but it is handsome as anything. Link (via SciFi Tech)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:49:08 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

WoW players plan raids in Second Life

Some World of Warcraft players have started planning their WoW games inside of the virtual world Second Life; they use Second Life on Tuesday afternoons, when WoW goes down for maintenance:

Well, some folks on the alliance side of We K(no)W finally figured out something useful to do there - plan raids during Tuesday downtime. Above is my Avatar standing on the UBRS map with a few notations. I'll admit I only lasted a few minutes in there again this time, but at least it was interesting finally!

Link (Thanks, Theo!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:44:25 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ex-RIAA agency "can't find" artists it owes money to, like Public Enemy

Fred von Lohmann sez,

SoundExchange (which is in charge of collecting and distributing royalties collected from satellite radio and webcasting) can't seem to locate the artists to whom these royalties are to be paid. If the monies are not disbursed, SoundExchange gets to keep them. Apparently SoundExchange was worried about publishing the list for fear that "middlemen" would try to swipe a piece of the action for connecting artists with their royalties. (Did they ever think to reach out to the fans?)

They finally published a list of the artists they "can't find."

Check out all the major label artists they can't find:

Cassandra Wilson (Blue Note)?
J. J. Cale (Mercury)?
Jane Siberry (Warner)?
Jeff Buckley (Columbia Records -- they're still putting out his stuff posthumously, with help from his mother!)?
Loverboy?!!
Booker T & the MGs?!!!
Public Enemy? !!!!!!
SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES? !!!!!

Not to mention major indie artists like:

Pizzicato Five
L7
Pete Rock

And they can't find Public Image Ltd, despite the fact that they found Johnny Rotten's "other band," the Sex Pistols? They can't seem to find "Neko Case & Her Boyfriends", despite the fact that they seem to have found Neko Case?

The only silver lining here is that to look at the list is to realize that webcasters are bringing real musical diversity back to America -- it's a much richer list than you'd get by aggregating playlists from FM radio!

For SoundExchange's sake, I hope there's a reasonable explanation for this.

Link

Update 2: Fred sez, "Turns out SoundExchange WAS part of the RIAA until 2003. Now it's independent -- although each of the major labels has a board seat. Anyhow, the point is the same -- SoundExchange certainly has deep connections with the major label establishment, so. Here's the FAQ re SoundExchange.

Update: Laura sends in links to other pools of unclaimed royalties for artists: EMI, EMI music publishing, Sony BMG, Universal Music, Harry Fox, CMRRA

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:59:44 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Making Comics: Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" for creators

I just finished reading Scott McCloud's magnificent Making Comics, a comic book for people who want to write comic books, or for those of us who want to know about what goes into making a comic. In this, McCloud's third nonfiction book about comics, he was produced his most significant achievement to date, and that's really saying something.

Like many, I first encountered McCloud's books with Understanding Comics, a comic about what comics mean and how they mean it. It's a guide for readers who love comics, and for readers who want to know why they might love comics. It's incredibly lucid and inspiring, and it explains some of the fundamental ways in which stories happen and some of the fundamental ways in which we perceive them. Reading that book was a watershed for me, something that made me reconsider every story I read, watched or heard.

After that came Reinventing Comics, a highly speculative book about what comics might be on the Web. In Understanding Comics, McCloud was telling us something he really knew cold, these incredible insights he'd had about how comics work. In Reinventing Comics, McCloud is more making it up as he goes along, talking about how he thinks comics might be someday. Like many predictions about the Web, some of it was obsolete by the time it went to press, and some of it was shown up over time. Reinventing Comics is an interesting book, but it's not a book that inspires the way that Understanding Comics did (McCloud seems to know this -- the third book contains some slightly wry jokes to that effect).

In Making Comics, McCloud presents a subject that blends the best of both of Reinventing and Understanding Comics. Like Understanding Comics, Making Comics visits territory where McCloud is a master. His explanations of how comics are made, the mechanics of the decisions that make a successful story out of words and pictures, are both theoretical and highly practical. McCloud is a great explainer, someone who makes the subject come to life -- even for someone like me, who'll likely never draw or write a comic. The insights he offers into how comics are made touched me like those in Understanding Comics, making me re-think the way that I see the world and understand it -- seeing how anything gets made tells you more about how to use it.

But there's some of the best of Reinventing Comics in this, too. Like any author, McCloud doesn't know exactly how he does what he does, and in the tradition of the best books about creating, this is a book where McCloud asks himself hard questions about how and why he tells his own stories. So he's not only visiting turf he knows intimately, he's also blazing new trail.

The book is in seven chapters, and each chapter ends with several pages of prose notes, which contain further explanations and exercises for the student comics-ist. It's a handsome, easy-to-absorb gift for the aspiring comics creator in your life. And it's a fine book for anyone who wants to understand how to take apart a comic and see how it works. Link

See also:
Scott McCloud takes "Making Comics" on the road with daughters

Making Comics site

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:56:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wedding procession led by flower girl in Vader helmet

Bill celebrated his wedding last weeked in two unusual ways. First, the procession was led by a little girl in a Darth Vader helmet while a "hipster-country" version of the Imperial March played. Then Bill caught hidden-camera footage of his nogoodnik brother planting a camera in his nuptial suite as part of an elaborate "Shivaree" prank, and posted it on the Internet in revenge.

About Shivaree, Wikipedia sez, "In the American Midwest, along the Missouri River in Nebraska and Missouri, the term takes on the meaning of playfully kidnapping the bride, curiously similar to some Central Asian traditions." Link to Vader flower-girl post, Link to practical joke post (Thanks, Bill)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:57:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Audio from Toshiba's DRM lawyer talk at USC

Last Tuesday night, Toshiba's Michael Ayers led a fantastic public discussion about DRM at the USC Annenberg School. Michael negotiates Toshiba's DRM deals, and helped bring the CSS system for DVDs to fruition -- he's now working on next-gen DVD DRM for Blu-Ray and DVD-HD. For all that, he's generally an advocate for consumer rights in DRM, if only because the more crippled a device is, the less of it Toshiba can sell.

The attendees were split on this -- some people from the Disney studios attended, and they, too, were conflicted about this. All in all, it was one of the meatiest, most interesting and wide-ranging talks about DRM, copyright and freedom I've been a part of.

Link, Podcast feed, Subscribe to podcast (Thanks, Andy!)

Reminder: The next two speakers in the USC Annenberg series are Bruce Sterling, 2PM on Monday, Sept 25; and Bruce Schneier, 7PM on Tuesday, Sept 26. These are free, public talks, and I'll post the audio for them as well. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:48:48 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Search every code-example in every O'Reilly book

Tech-books publisher O'Reilly Media has launched Code Search, a single place to search all the code examples in every O'Reilly book -- 2.6 million lines of code! Link (Thanks, Ryan!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:40:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Umbrella shows a Flickr stream on the inside surfaces

A project in the handle of the Pileus umbrella paints the brolly's interior with a series of wirelessly-fetched Flickr photos while a camera in its tip lets you document your day.

The system is constructed by the Pileus Umbrella and the Pileus WebService. User can see and take a photo and video with the PileusUmbrella. User can hand on own experience in rainy day to next user with an umbrella type photoset. User Connects the Grip with the Screen, then the Grip reads the Screen’s ID and login to own Pileus Account. When user takes photos or videos, Pileus WebService evaluates media-type of data and uploads it to Flickr or YouTube, and then set a tag by screen ID. In addition, user twists the grip, it searchs contents at Flickr and YouTube by tag of screen ID, and displays contents in order.

Link (via We Make Money Not Art)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:38:17 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Author replicates novel in Second Life for book-launch

Jason sez, "I run a culture blog about Second Life called 'In The Grid,' and just got done interviewing a fascinating science-fiction novelist named JC Hutchins. A grassroots podcaster who has 10,000 people now listening to each chapter, Hutchins recently decided to hold a book release party within the virtual universe there; and not only that, but one of his fans even built a series of key sets from the novel in which to hold the party, and even special avatars of each character that fans can wear throughout the event." Link (Thanks, Jason!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:33:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Beheaded dolls from history

Artists Garith Pettibone and Shiva Rodriguez (photo right), er, hack dolls into representations of various historical figures who were beheaded or died other gruesome ways. They've made more than a dozen of the figures, including Anne Boleyn, Brunhilde, Francoise-Thérèse de Choiseul-Stainville, Gaius Julius Ceasar, Marie Antoinette (seen here), and many more.

From the HeadlessHistoricals "About Us" page:

Using forensic photographs, written historical accounts, and techniques used for creating horror effects in film, special attention is given to the details of the injuries sustained during the final moments of each character's life. All of the eyes are glazed over to produce the lack-luster stare of the dead. Torn flesh and deep gashes are shown in all their gory details and for decapitations the severed muscle tissue and bone is visible in the wound...

These dolls were designed and created by a couple of artists who share a love for history and for horror, two things that often share the same stage in textbooks and films but are rarely seen together in commemorative dolls.

Link (Thanks, Kirsten Anderson!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:32:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bible for mobile phones

If you live in South African, you can download the holy bible to your mobile phone for 40 rand ($5.43). The service is the work of the International Bible Society and Christian Mobile, "a South African firm that sells mobile phone ringtones of Christian songs and an SMS Hopeline of daily bible verses and prayers." The text is available in English or Afrikaans. From Reuters:

"The Virtual Bible will enable the Bible Society to supply the Bible to every modern cell phone user in a fast and affordable format," Rev Gerrit Kritzinger, chief executive of the Bible Society in South Africa, said in a statement...

Customers can choose between the traditional King James version of the bible or more up-to-date translations. Zulu and Xhosa version will be available soon and other languages will follow.

Link (Thanks, Lindsay Tiemeyer!)

UPDATE: BB reader Krisjohn points out that the Qur'an has been freely available for Nokia Series 60 phones for quite some time. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:54:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Rebar's PARK(ing) Day prank in San Francisco

I've posted previously about San Francisco urban prankster group Rebar, who among other stunts converted a downtown parking space into a public park. (Link) Today, Rebar is celebrating PARK(ing) Day again, transforming several parking spaces into temporary parks, including the mayor's personal City Hall spot. Laughing Squid's Scott Beale is working out of Ritual Coffee Roasters today where the nearest parking space is now a little greener. As usual, Scott has the photo goods over at his blog.
Link to Laughing Squid, Link to PARK(ing) Day site

UPDATE: Rebar is also celebrating PARK(ing) Day in NYC. Link to Gothamist coverage (Thanks, Jeremy!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:47:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mind Performance Hacks

At FOO Camp last month, Brian Sawyer, editor of O'Reilly's Hacks series of books, gave me a copy of Mind Performance Hacks by Ron Hale-Evans. I've been dipping into it every chance I get and I'm delighted at every bit I've read so far. The book is like a user's guide to your brain complete with new "software subroutines" that you can run to optimize various mental processes like memory, creativity, emotional response, learning, and logical analysis. O'Reilly's online catalog has a handful of sample hacks from the book posted as PDFs here, and Hale-Evans also maintains a wiki for the book. Mind Performance Hacks is a thinking person's self-help book. Highly recommended.
Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:37:56 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sanrio headquarters photo

Here are a couple of pictures of Sanrio headquarters. The sad, stained walls, the psych ward pastel color scheme, and the tiny windows into dismally-lit lifeless offices are exactly the opposite of what I would have expected. But I like it anyway. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:46:05 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

People wash hands more often when a recorded voice tells them to

The Hand Hygiene Voice Module mounts on a restroom wall, reminding you in a "non threatening, non-intrusive" male or female voice to wash your hands after using the toilet.

It says, "Hand washing reduces the spread of germs. Thank you for washing your hands!"

The manufacturer claims it increases hand washing by 12%. Link (Via Neatorama)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:32:00 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Margaret Thatcher Illusion

Mighty Illusions has a neat psychological illusion. Take a look at these photographs of Maggie Thatcher. You'll note that they're not quite the same. But when you rotate them 180 degrees, the differences appear much more pronounced. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:17:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Visualize product size before you buy

When I'm shopping online for a new camera or other expensive little box shaped item, I have trouble visualizing the size of it. For example, the Exilim EX-Z70 is 95.2 x 60.6 x 19.8 mm. That doesn't mean much to me. Even when I convert that into inches, it's still hard to visualize. A new site called sizeeasy lets you enter the dimensions of the gadget you're interested in and compare it to other common objects (a deck of cards, a box of matches, a CD case, etc.) so you can see how big it really is. Link (Via Lifehacker)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:04:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Commemorative 75th anniversary Airstream trailer

Airstream has commissioned a commemorative, 19-foot trailer for its 75th anniversary, and will produce 75 numbered units. The trailer's designer David Winick has more information on his site:

The 75th Commemorative Edition Travel Trailer combines ultra-refined, polished aluminum interiors with rich, natural materials such as warm wood veneers materials and details which pay homage to founder Wally Byam’s original designs.

Designer David Winick took the lead in creating an interior space that is both ultra modern and retrospective. Natural linoleum in warm tones brings out the highlights of genuine wood veneers. Upholstery inspired by 1940’s tailoring heightens textural contrasts, reflecting in an array of aluminum surfaces. Porthole windows, round vents and yacht-inspired details further integrate the past and future in this very special travel trailer.

Link (Thanks, David!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:49:14 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Clothes for baby cryptozoologists

Earlier this year, I posted about Amy Miller's baby onesies emblazoned with iron-ons of Bigfoot, the Giant Squid, Mothman, and other characters from cryptozoology. Amy makes tiny models of the creatures from cannibalized doll parts and other crafty bits and then photographs them to create the images. Now she's upped the quality of her cryptid baby tees by printing the images on fabric and stitching the prints like patches directly onto the shirts. Seen here, the Jersey Devil design. Each shirt is made to order for $20 including tax and shipping.
Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:47:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Eat a roach, skip the roller-coaster line

Eat a 3"-long Madagascar hissing cockroach and the coaster park Six Flags Over Texas will give you a pass that lets you skip the lines on their most popular rides:

Chew and swallow one of these crunchy, wiggling critters and Six Flags will also give you a Flash Pass for the evening that will let you bypass the line on many thrill rides...

The cockroaches, which Six Flags will buy from local pet stores, were chosen because they are considered a delicacy in many Asian and African cultures.

Link (Thanks, Ethan!)

(Photo thumbnail from a larger picture entitled Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches by Flickr user Corwinok)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:38:49 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

How physics killed Spiderman's girlfriend

Jim sez, "I teach a class at the University of Minnesota originally called "Everything I Know About Science I Learned from Reading Comic Books." I have written a popular science book, and have given many public talks on this subject. A friend taped and posted some clips from a recent talk at a science fiction/comics convention, and posted clips on YouTube." Link (Thanks, Jim!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:32:01 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Knitted English garden

A woman in Surrey has made an entire English garden out of knitted items, from carrots to snails to squirrels to a picnic lunch -- she solicited contributions from all over England:

The project has been painstakingly completed by more than 300 contributors, including a group of gay men knitting in Brighton, and a 12-year-old boy in Sussex, who spent six months making the pond and waterfall.

Ms Bolsover, 46, of Dorking, Surrey, estimates her team made 4million individual stitches, knitting together 80km (50 miles) of wool.

Link (via Craft!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:28:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Orchestral performances of Commodore 64 music

The C64 Orchestra performs orchestral renditions of classic music from games for the Commodore 64 personal computer -- Monte on the Run, One Man and his Droid, Cybernoid 2 and others. Link (Thanks, Viper Fantastic!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:25:39 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bruce Sterling story: How kids' lives will be ruined by Internet control

Bruce Sterling's uproariously funny story "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Google" has just been published in the New Scientists -- it's a short short story about the life of a teenager when today's tools of ubiquitous computer control and surveillance are perfected. Like all great science fiction, this doesn't so much predict the future as it predicts the present:

I tried hard to buy us another spray can. I'm a street poet, so really, I tried. I walked up to the mall-store register, disguised in my Dad's business jacket, with cash in hand. They're cheap, aerosol spray cans. Beautiful colours of paint, just screaming to get sprayed someplace public where everybody has to see what's on our minds. The store wouldn't sell me the can. The e-commerce system simply would not allow that transaction. The screen just went gray and stayed gray.

That creepy "differential permissioning" sure saves a lot of trouble for grown-ups. Increasing chunks of the world are just... magically off limits. It's a weird new regime where every mall and every school and every bus and train and jet is tagged and tracked and ambient and pervasive and ubiquitous and geolocative... Jesus, I love those words... Where was I?

Link (this goes to the ad you have to look at if you're not a New Scientist subscriber, which redirects to the story) (Thanks, Steve!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:17:56 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Windows Media Player new DRM - worse than ever

The Inquirer's Charlie Demerjian shreds the new Windows Media Player 11 DRM, which is far more restrictive than previous versions. This is the anti-copying built into Microsoft's smart-phones, media centers and PCs:

One of the problems with WiMP11 is licensing and backing it up. If you buy media with DRM infections, you can't move the files from PC to PC, or at least you can't and have them play on the new box. If you want the grand privilege of moving that content, you need to get the approval of the content mafia, sign your life away, and use the tools they give you. If you want to do it in other ways, you are either a lawbreaker or following the advice of J Allard. Wait, same thing...

Yes, WiMP11 will no longer allow you the privilege of backing up your licenses, they are tied to a single device, and if you lose it, you are really SOL. Remember that feeling I mentioned earlier? This is nothing less than a civil rights coup, and most people are dumb enough to let it happen...

But it gets worse. If you rip your own CDs, WiMP11 will take your rights away too. If the 'Copy protect music' option is turned on, well, I can't top their 1984 wording. "If the file is a song you ripped from a CD with the Copy protect music option turned on, you might be able to restore your usage rights by playing the file. You will be prompted to connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times." This says to me it will keep track of your ripping externally, and remove your rights whether or not you ask it to. Can you think of a reason you would need to connect to MS for permission to play the songs you ripped from you own CDs? How long do you think it will be before a service pack, masquerading as a 'critical security patch' takes away the optional part of the 'copy protection'? Now do you understand why they have been testing the waters on WiMP phoning home? Think their firewall will stop it even if you ask?

Link (Thanks, Matthew!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:59:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ice Jackets encase vodka bottles in ice

IceJackets are molds that fit around vodka and other liquor bottles that you can fill with water and then freeze, producing a vodka bottle that's encased in a jacket of ice.

I've done this before with a big milk-carton -- just cut the top off and slide the bottle in, then fill with water and pop it in the freezer. You can even do things like suspend flowers, curios and other detritus in the ice. Link (via ShinyShiny)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:53:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ghost dance video from "India's filmic Shakespeare"

Avi sez, "Google Video now hosts the dance of the Ghosts sequence from 'Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne', Satyajit Ray's rare 1968 film fable. Ethnic psychedelia by India's filmic Shakespeare!

This is the dance of the Ghosts sequence from 'Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne', Satyajit Ray's rare 1968 film fable. The action occurs in an ... all imaginary land. Goopy the singer and Bagha the drummer are untalented musicians whose playing provokes as much ridicule from the peasants as it does contempt from the king. The only audience they manage to charm is the ghosts. Wearing magic sandals, they arrive in the kingdom of Shundi where, to everyone's amazement, the ruler admires their music. Meanwhile, the king of the neighboring realm of Halla, who is the twin brother of the king of Shundi, wants to declare war. Goopy and Bagha do everything in their power to dissuade him, and finally it is their singing that demobilizes the troops at the last moment. Reconciled, the twin brothers offer to reward Goopy and Bagha with their daughters in marriage.

Link (Thanks, Avi!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:50:13 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Remember Ring heats up on your anniversary

The "Remember Ring" is programmed to breifly heat up to 120 deg F every hour on the hour on a specific date -- such as your anniversary. It powers itself with a "micro thermopile" that turns heat from your hand into stored electricity that runs its internal clock and the heater. Link (via Gizmodo)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:46:35 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Space Invaders wrapping paper

For some reason, this gorgeous Space Invaders wrapping paper is sold as "dude wrap" for guys' presents. I'm pretty sure that Space Invaders are unisex. Link (via OhGizmo)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:42:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

FCC screws deaf people

The FCC has changed the rules on Closed Captioning, creating a large number of exemptions that will make it easier for shows to be aired without accessible text. Natalija sez, "As someone who grew up without being able to understand movies or television, and wasn't able to afford a closed captioning machine until near adulthood, this is a severe blow to those with hearing disabilities. People don't realize how much more deaf people are willing to buy something when they can see it advertized in words, or how much more willing they are to watch something when it is captioned instead of having to rely on another person to explain things."

On Wed. Sept 13, 2006, the FCC issued one of the worst decisions it has ever issued on closed captioning. The Order is on the web site shown below. Basically the order grants two requests for exemptions from the requirement to closed caption, a requirement in place since 1996 and that has ensured more and more closed captioning on television.

In taking this action, the FCC states that it is "inclined favorably" to grant new exemption requests to organizations that do "not receive compensation from video programming distributors from the airing of [their] programs," and who also say they "may terminate or substantially curtail [their] programming" or "[curtail] other activities important to [their] mission" if forced to caption.

The gist of what the FCC has done is to open the door to many more exemptions. It appears also the FCC's action creates a rule change that defines a new category of exemption from the captioning rules, cutting the legs out from the current "undue burden" proof currently needed to get an exemption for captioning requirement.

Link (Thanks, Natalija!)

Update: François sez, "The adverse impact goes much beyond the hearing impaired: close captioning attaches a synchronized stream of text to a video stream, which opens up useful ways to index, search and retrieve video for anyone, deaf or not."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:26:56 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Open source prosthetics movement

Quinn Norton's written a stupendous piece for Wired News on a new open-source prosthetics movement started by a Iraq-war veteran upper-arm amputee named Jonathan Kuniholm, who has vowed to produce a prosthesis "that's so cool, somebody with two arms would want an amputation to get one."

Kuniholm was an engineer before his Marine reserve unit was sent to Iraq, where he lost his arm to an IED. His engineer/design partners in North Carolina worked with him to improve the nonfunctional smooth plastic prosthesis he was issued by the VA, making substantial improvements over the basic design. Then they decided to open up the designs to help other amputees. The site has grown into a collection of prosthesis hacks that includes mounting a Spider Man fishing rod on a child's prosthetic arm.

All this week, Garry Trudeau has been running a Doonesbury series about BD, the football jock/veteran amputee just back from Iraq, who goes to a tattoo parlor motorcycle shop with his prosthetic leg to get the man there to "pimp his gimp."

Founded last year, the nonprofit Open Prosthetics Project applies the ethical and intellectual property foundation of open-source software to the task of building better artificial limbs. The project releases its experimental designs to its website in the public domain, free for anyone to use, forever. Anyone can download the STL files, tinker with them in CAD software, and submit them to a rapid manufacturer, such as a prototyping 3-D printing company.

This lets anyone turn out a customized prosthetic device without incurring tens of thousands of dollars in production costs. A user with a few hundred dollars to spend can be holding the physical reality within a week, though the post processing would still require some expertise...

Open Prosthetics' experimental design incorporates both modes in one hook, using a pin/spring/cam set-up controlled by the intensity of the wearer's shrug: A limited shrug momentarily opens or closes the hook, just like the traditional design, while a full shrug acts as a toggle, reversing the hook from open to closed, or visa versa, and leaving it there until the next actuation.

They've built and rebuilt two versions of this positional hook, and they have a working prototype of the entire limb made from LEGO Technic parts. (This video demonstrates the strength difference of the two modes in picking up a small object.)

Link

Doonesbury mod-your-prosthetic strips: 1, 2, 3, 4

(Thanks, David!)

Update: The Lizardman sez, "This reminded me of Amina Munster, a Suicide Girl who had her prosthetic leg pimped on an episode of Inked. I remember seeing the episode being stunned when she handed the leg to the artists to be 'tattooed' and mentioned how much it cost - he seemed suitably awed as well. Here's an NSFW interview from BME/News which includes her.

Update 2: Nick sez, "I work on a public radio program, The Story: with Dick Gordon. We recently aired an interview with Jonathan Kuniholm and Chuck Messer, two founders of The Open Source Prosthetics Project. The same show also features an interview with Robert Haag, a man who was motivated to design prosthetic devices--including a screw-on fishing pole--for his son Michael, who was born without a left hand. The show aired on August 17, and can be heard here."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:23:24 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cigarette manners from Japan

Japan's one of the last industrialized nations in the world where adult smoking is still widespread, but the country's got a sophisticated cigarette etiquette, which includes carrying portable ashtrays for your butts, and not walking while you smoke. Here's a Flickr photo of a really funny, sweet smokers' etiquette book-jacket being given away by a tobacco company in Sanseido bookstores. Link (Thanks, Aaron!)

Update: Lee sez, "The full set of Japan Tobacco's wonderful 'smoking manner' poster campaign can be found here."

Update 2: Hiro sez, "The Japanese sensibility on this is beyond 'bordering on' the absurd. It's funny and sad and charming: see this image of a roadside ashtray being grossly overfilled, but yet people still take time to squish more butts in."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:08:10 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Open PVR from Neuros: cash money to owners who hack it

Neuros, makers of the coolest video-recording toys in the world, have just released their OSD, a fully open set-top box. Neuros already made history with its Neuros Recorder 2, a device the size of a deck of cards that turned any TV show or DVD into something you could watch on your PC, PSP or iPod. Now with the OSD, they've gone one better, with a device that has a fully open firmware that anyone can hack and improve. What's more, they're offering cash bounties to hackers who add various features to the device, including $1000 for a YouTube or Google video Browser, $600 for a Flickr Photo Browser, $500 for a WiFi PSP or PDA remote, $700 for a TiVo-like recording function for radio/satellite radio, and $500 for getting VoIP running on the device.

The product's sell-sheet is a wiki and the first batch are only available to Linux hackers who will test, tweak and extend them.

Standard Power Adapter
Imagine you'd like a cigarette adapter for the OSD, or a second wall adapter. Instead of using an expensive proprietary part, the OSD uses a standard power adapter that you can buy at your local electronics store. It's the same Power Adapter the Sony PSP and the Dell Axim X5 use.

Remote Control
The OSD remote control uses a set of standard codes that emulates a Sony VCR. This means that it's easy to replace with a Universal remote of your choosing. If you lose the remote or want to consolidate your remotes, it's easy.

Programmability of the Included Remote
The included remote can control the TV volume and power which means that you can use it to replace the remote that came with your TV. You can flush your TV remote down the toilet (but we recommend you first make sure your toilet is capable of processing such it - consult the user's manual).

Link (Thanks, Mr.Cris!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:20:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Man fixes PCs in exchange for second base

From Craigslist SF Bay Area:

I'll Fix Your Computer if You Let Me Feel Your Boobs - 26 (haight ashbury)

Cute/nice IT guy/PC specialist will fix your computer in exchange for a gentle feel of your boobs. I'm a totally non-creepy (really) professional who will repair your hard drive, back up files, install software and peripherals, whatever, for an innocent grope. I have a lot of tech knowledge in my life and regrettably no boobs. Serious inquiries only and thanks.

Link (this posting has been removed by Craigslist community, but reader Rauz Liebling points to a mirror of the page here, just for posterity) (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)

UPDATE: BB reader Andrew Ferguson kindly reminded me of a similar story from Craigslist last year that Mark posted. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:44:59 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Biker Billy Jalapenos

A few people have asked me about the "Biker Billy Jalapeno" peppers I mentioned in my Cult of Capsaicin story. They're twice as large and twice as hot as ordinary jalapenos. You can buy the seeds from Burpee. Here's the info.

We discovered Bill Hufnagle's cooking show several years ago while flipping through the cable channels. Bill is a freewheeling food lover, pepper gardener, vegetarian and Harley rider, totally committed to getting people to play more with their food, cook healthier and ride safe. Hot peppers, Bill says, make for more fun and more flavors than any other vegetable. So take your taste buds on a culinary road trip with our hot Biker Billy pepper seed.

This jalapeno is really packed with rich flavor. Billy likes 'em best when they are flaming red and at their sweetest. Fruits are very large, measuring 2" at the shoulder and 3-1/2" long. Upright plants up to 24" tall. Burpee Exclusive. Grows best in full sun. Harvest 66 days after transplanting into the garden.

Link

Reader comment:

Ethan says:

Burpee has a Flickr page of our Harley "pepper bike" which we custom created for Biker Billy. Flames shoot out of the tail pipes! The bike has a gold leaf hand-drawn logo inspired by an old 1892 Burpee catalog cover, and the paint changes color like a ripening pepper.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:32:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fantagraphics art exhibit opening in NYC

A huge art exhibit celebrating thirty years of Fantagraphics Books, publishers of the greatest comix in the world, opens next Thursday, 9/28, in NYC. The Fantagraphics 1976-2006 retrospective will be on display at the Society of Illustrators until October 21. (Seen here: Daniel Clowes' cover to the forthcoming Fantagraphics oral history book Comics As Art: We Told You So, now available for preorder on Amazon.)


From the show announcement:

This massive art exhibition features over 100 original pieces by dozens of authors published by Fantagraphics over the last 30 years, including Daniel Clowes, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Chris Ware, Peter Bagge, Jim Woodring, Joe Sacco, Carol Tyler, Ivan Brunetti, Tony Millionaire, Roberta Gregory, Bill Griffith, Richard Sala, Bob Fingerman, Steve Brodner, David B., Kim Deitch, Al Columbia, Drew Friedman, Kaz, Frank Frazetta (!) and many others. It will be an amazing show, with many iconic pieces from Fantagraphics' history.

Link to an invitation to the opening reception, Link to Society of Illustrators exhibit page

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:08:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Counterfeit dollar bill?

(Click on thumbnails for enlargement)

On the Boing Boing Boing podcast, I mentioned that I had been passed a phony $1 bill, but now I'm not so sure. Here's why.

Last Sunday, I bought my kids some ice cream ($7 plus tax for two small cups!) and gave the girl at the counter a $10. She handed me two $1 bills and some coins. One of bills was normal looking. The other one was as white as a sheet of photocopy paper, and just as thin. It was very wrinkled and the edges were frayed. It felt extremely flimsy.

When we sat down, I showed the bill to my 9-year-old daughter and I told her that I thought it was counterfeit. She wanted me to go back and exchange it for a real dollar, but I told her that a counterfeit $1 bill is worth more than a dollar to me.

At home, I looked at the bill under a microscope. The printing looked fuzzy, but the paper contained telltale red and blue fibers, the kind found in real currency. I don't think a counterfeiter specializing in $1 bills would use this kind of paper. Also, when I held a magnet close to the bill, it clung to the magnet (as explained here).

My conclusion: the money is real. I think it went through the laundry, though.

Reader comment:

Adam says:

The story of your possibly counterfeit $1 bill (and your recent mention that you lived in Japan) reminded me of the time I found a 10,000 yen note in the gutter on my way to work on a rainy morning. I'm almost certain that the plenty of salary men and office ladies saw it but because it was so dirty they were not interested in it. Not me. When I got to my office I asked what I should do with it. The majority felt I should take it to the police station and that it would be given to me if nobody claimed it.

To my surprise my supervisor said I should just keep it. She had once found some money on a train and turned it in. Six months later she came home from a two week vacation to discover that during that time a postcard with directions to pick up the money had arrived. Unfortunately the date by which she had to pick up the money had already lapsed.

With the decision to keep it made, I took the note home where I laundered and ironed it. Needless to say the color was washed out. Additionally, the bill was no longer square and had two permanent creases - presumably the result of having been run over by cars a number of times. The most anonymous way I could think to spend the note was to buy the cheapest one way ticket at the train station. At first the ticket agent tried to ask a lot of questions but I said I didn't speak Japanese and could he please speak English. I imagine that ultimately he decided that whatever trouble might arise from this note was probably less trouble than trying to deal with a gaijin.

As for counterfeit money, after I returned from Japan (1993) I ended up working on a prototype electronic notebook for some microscopists. They had a contract to try to determine the origin of some extremely good counterfeit $100 bills. If, on a scale of 1 - 10, a bill only has to be a 5 to be easily passed these bills were a 9. As I recall, there were two theories. One was that some other country planned to flood the market with these super counterfeits. The other was that it was the work of a hobbiest hence the extreme attention to detail. In either case, the goal of the microscopists was to look for particulate matter either in the paper or trapped between the paper and the ink with the hope that the particulate matter would reveal where in the world the bills were made. I believe it was these bills that prompted many of the subsequent changes in bill design. My favorite proposed protection scheme involved the use of genetically modified cotton. While it satisfied the requirement that it would be hard to duplicate, the time required to identify a counterfeit meant that you only knew long after it was passed.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:26:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The papercraft of Shin Tanaka

Japanese papercraft artist Shin Tanaka makes awesome figurines.

POLICY

Paper toy is:

REPLICABLE, but SHIN makes only one model per a design.

DISTRIBUTABLE, but SHIN's toy is only for the designer and SHIN.

MASS-PRODUCABLE, but all SHIN's toys are made by his hand.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:54:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

10 science based frauds

Neatorama has an excerpt of "10 scientific frauds that rocked the world," from a book called Condensed Knowledge, by Mental Floss.

The Quadro Corporation of Harleyville, South Carolina, had an impressive client list: public schools, police agencies, the U.S. Customs office, and Inspector General’s offices to name a few. The product they sold, the top of the line Quadro QRS 250G (also known as the Quadro Tracker, available for $1,000), boasted the ability to find drugs, weapons, or virtually anything worth looking for. The small plastic box supposedly contained frequency chips of an advanced sort not known to regular science. Driven by static electricity, the Quadro would resonate at exactly the same frequency as the searched-for item. When the FBI opened the box, however, they found nothing inside. Quadro threatened to sue Sandia Laboratories when Sandia suggested that the device was fraudulent, but eventually Quadro became the bigger company, and just closed shop.

Link

Reader comment:

David says:

#4 - the peppered moth experiment is not a hoax. The idea that it is has been widely promoted only by creationists. The moths were glued to trees for the sake of photographs, not during the actual experiment/observation, the experiment took into account different places where moths rest, and birds will pretty much eat whatever they can get their beaks on. Link

That rather calls the validity of the list into question...

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:49:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hand painted Michelin man

Coop broke in his new camera by taking some photos of a Stendhal Syndrome-inducing, hand-painted Michelin man (and a companion Michelin mutt).

One of the things that makes me truly happy to be a Angeleno is the handpainted signage of this crazy city. Everywhere you go, there are crudely-rendered depictions of bleach bottles, Mickey Mouse, and polar bears drinking Coke. I have often thought about trying to document some of my favorites, and produce a book/art object, Ed Ruscha-style.

I drive by this tire place almost every day on my way to my studio. Of all the signage in the city, this masterpiece is the one that I always come back to, the one that just blows my mind.

Link

Reader comment:

Maury says:

Also a lover of handpained signage, I enjoyed the post of the Michelin man sign.

Recently in San Blas Mexico, I took a few and here's a link to a small flickr set

Attached is my fave: Tuberculosis.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:35:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mister Jalopy on his pocket guide to modest automobiles

Over at Hoopty Rides. Mister Jalopy has written an excellent essay on the creation of his "Mister Jalopy's Pocket Guide to Living and Dying with Modest Automobiles"

After being invited to Foo Camp, I decided I wanted to bring something cool to show off and I thought it would be a clever way to get out of hosting a session. Plus, I have a backlog of projects that reach from here to the top of Jack's Beanstalk. Sometimes I think that I should create a list of all the projects, but that invariably leads to an upset stomach and an immediate desire to take a nap.

A favorite idea was to sell books in a standard bulk gumball and sticker machine. Small books. Very small books. A specific volume that would have just enough information to get you started on a new path in life. I have a shelf at home that is dedicated to inspirational books that open a foreign world and change you in a fundamental way. I am not talking about going to Morocco. I am talking about "Getting Started Right with Turkeys." Or "Shop Work on the Farm", "5 Acres and Independence", "Aircraft Sheet Metal Construction", "Locksmithing", "Your Self-Service Store" and "Backyard Poultry Farming". These books give a peek into what might be. One day, you are Joe Average. A nobody. End of the week comes and you are tending baby chicks and picking locks. A transformation has taken place. You are a giant.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:31:38 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

How-To: Build a Robot from a Coat Hanger

Gareth Branwyn says:

Okay, the title lies. It's not really a robot, it's a little one-motor walking machine (no sensors, no feedback), but the project does teach you about basic breadboarding, soldering, use of the BEAM Bicore control circuit, how to hack a servo motor, and other deep geek mojo you can apply to building actual bots.

This is a version of the project that was in my book, Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots, and pictured in Make Vol. 6 and on the issue's Web page. The illustrations were done by Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder and the photos are by Street Tech's court photographer Jay Townsend.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:17:54 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Willie Nelson's mysterious "narcotic" mushrooms

When news came out on Monday that Willie Nelson and his crew were busted on their bus for possession of pot and shrooms, the Associated Press used the phrase "narcotic mushrooms." (Previous post here.) I'd never heard psilocybin mushrooms described as a narcotic before but apparently the word "narcotic" has a more general meaning when used by police. Over at the excellent new 10 Zen Monkeys webzine, RU Sirius has the real dope:

Among the drug hip, the use of the word narcotic to describe mind-active drugs other than opiates carries with it an implicit irony. (Implicit only because irony, by its nature, can’t be explicit.) On the other hand, the mainstream media, even the San Francisco Chronicle, from the drug-sophisticated Bay Area, tends to use law enforcement misnomers for illicit drugs, when reporting news around drugs. For instance, one report called the disassociative hallucinogen Ketamine a “date rape drug.” There is, of course, no such thing as a date rape drug. There are drugs that were developed to be used — and are used – for other purposes that are, on rare occasions, used for date rape. And then there’s alcohol, which has been the more easily available and frequently used substance of choice for date rapists since time immemorial. Unlike some other US papers, The Chronicle, at least, never reported on an LSD overdose, something this is virtually impossible to achieve, however hard some of us may have tried back in the days of heroic dose experimentation.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 01:06:05 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

RIAA threat-mail parody from McSweeney's

McSweeney's has a lovely parody of an RIAA threat-letter:

If you would prefer not to be stripped of your home and dignity, please send us $3,750 in the return envelope. If your toddler has been named in this lawsuit, explain to them that the fruits of their labor as an adult will go to pay a debt that will ultimately lead to their death at a young age due to their inability to afford medical insurance. Toddlers never understand that, but they'll get the point if you make them cry. If your household pet has been named in this lawsuit, it will be euthanized. If you are a 13-year-old girl, do not expect that the bad publicity in the past has made us hesitant to sue little girls—it has only made us hate you even more. If you, your household pet, or your toddler did not commit any of the acts above, then we will sue you and ruin your life forever for lying. Then we will sue you again, because it's not about the money anymore. It's about revenge.

If you would like to make an excuse, please mark one of the boxes below with a No. 2 pencil and return.

1. My computer was hacked.

2. I am poor and cannot afford music. That is why I download songs at the public library. Please don't sue me or my children will starve. :(

3. One of your goons was in a van outside my house using my wireless connection to frame me.

4. Other children were singing the "Happy Birthday" song, but I was just lip-synching.

Link (Thanks, Steve!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:54:31 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Vintage Disneyland schwag group

The Vintage Disneyland Souvenirs Flickr group has dozens of fantastic photos of fabulous Disneyland souvenirs, from an era of widespread use of ashtrays and cocktail serving-platters. Link (Thanks, Matt!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:36:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Diaries of kamikaze pilots

Martin Roth has written a review of a book that sounds interesting, called Kamikaze Diaries, by Professor Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

It tells the stories of seven young men who were compelled to become kamikaze pilots – essentially airborne suicide bombers, flying into Allied warships (the Wikipedia entry on kamikaze is here) – by the Japanese military. Most of the seven had been students at elite universities, and they kept diaries, which form the basis of the book.

It’s an invaluable study. It makes clear that high levels of coercion were used to compel the students to “volunteer” for their assignments. And it shows that these were no grinning fanatics – the image that many in the West have of the kamikaze pilots. (An image I vaguely held myself, despite having lived in Japan. It’s not a topic that the Japanese discuss much with Westerners.)

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:40:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Online activists launch Battlestar Galactica party-planner

Zack Exley (the pioneering online activism strategist from MoveOn) and other online politics hackers have put their heads together to produce the world's greatest fan-party planner for Battelstar Galactica fans. FrakParty.com's mission: "Everyone we've ever met who's into Battlestar is pretty frak'n cool. So we thought, why not get all these people together and have one big cool nationwide party when the new season Premieres on October 6th." It's like MoveOn parties, but for BSG crazies. Link (Thanks, Zack!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:56:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Zimbabwe's Internet cut off due to lack of foreign currency

Zimbabwe has run out of foreign currency and can't pay the satellite companies that provide the country's Internet service; the satellite companies have shut off throttled the whole country's Internet access until the bills are paid:

Government-owned TelOne, which owns the country's main satellite Internet link, said satellite firm Intelsat had cut its international bandwidth because it failed to pay the $700,000 fee.

"The link is slow because they reduced the megabits on our satellite link until the payment is made," TelOne spokesman Phill Chingwaru told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We have approached the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for foreign currency and they are working on that, but meanwhile there would be delays in browsing because of the partial cut-off."

Link (Thanks, Daniel!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:42:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Videoblogger Josh Wolf returns to prison today

More here, here, and here. Josh's last video post before returning to prison is here today. Previous BB posts about Josh's case here, also in this week's BB podcast. Benefit concert tomorrow night, details here. Wolf plans to blog from prison, by way of paper notes presumably. RSF says:

Reporters Without Borders today accused the US justice system of “persecuting” freelance video journalist and blogger Josh Wolf after three appeal court judges decided on 18 September to revoke his bail and send him back to prison for refusing to hand over his unedited video footage of a demonstration to a grand jury.

Wolf had until 1 p.m. today to report to the federal prison in Dublin, California, where he was already held from 1 August to 1 September.

“We say again that the federal judicial authorities cannot invoke national security to imprison Wolf, as they have - abusively - in contempt of court proceedings against other journalists involving professional secrecy,” Reporters Without Borders said. “At no time has Wolf tried to run away since these proceedings were brought against him. The month he already spent in prison was both absurd and unjust. Sending him back is cowardly and persecutory.”

The press freedom organisation added: “Would Wolf be suffering this fate if he were not a 24-year-old freelance journalist? We doubt it. And he was given such a short deadline to return to the prison that his lawyers did not even have time to appeal against the latest ruling.”

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:00:56 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hot-rodder buried in tricked-out coffin

James D. Calabrese, a hot-rodder in Orange County, was buried in a coffin tricked out with parts from his beloved 1958 Chevy Biscayne. A funeral procession of hotrods took him to his grave. Link (Photo thumbnail from a larger photo on OCRegister.com, credited to Leonard Ortiz, The Orange County Register)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:59:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Scott McCloud takes "Making Comics" on the road with daughters

Scott "Understanding Comics" McCloud is taking his family -- including his talented 13-year-old daughter, Sky -- on a one year cross-country tour. Scott's going to be touring with his new book Making Comics, giving speeches, and his kids will be home-schooled by producing a blog and a series of podcasts and video podcasts documenting their travels. Scott and Sky talked to Henry Jenkins's students at MIT about this (listen to the 2-hour webcast), explaining:

Each member of the family is blogging about the trip over on Live Journal. And they are working together to produce a series of podcasts which they are calling Winterviews (after youngest daughter, Winter, who will be the on-camera presence in these films). The daughters will research about some of the comics people they will meet along the way, read and discuss some of their work, prepare questions, do interviews, and edit them for transmission via the web. Sky is also preparing an evolving powerpoint presentation as they travel to explain to various audiences about the trip and what they have learned along the way.

Meanwhile, she remains in contact with a larger circle of home schooled kids who are also tapping into their interests in popular culture (in this case, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars) to inform critical essays and research projects. We all concluded that Sky could be a poster child for the new media literacies we have been exploring through our project with the MacArthur Foundation -- someone who is tapping the full range of new media technologies to learn and share what she is learning with a larger community. Sky is incredibly articulate, holding her own debating the fine points of comics aesthetics with her dad and fully comfortably plopping herself down and conversing with a room full of graduate students. We were delighted to hear her say she was potentially interested in being an MIT student some day. She won the hearts of many of us here.

I met Scott this summer and he told me about Making Comics -- it's a tutorial for people who want to learn how visual storytelling works, drawing on styles from manga to Will Eisner. The book is a tutorial for budding comic-book creators, with exercises and patient, lucid and funny instruction, just the kind of thing that made Understanding Comics into the best book on media I've ever read. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:51:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Coup in Thailand, foreign news blocked intermittently

Began yesterday. There's more on Bangkok metblog, start here: Link. Image: Daniel Cuthbert, © 2006.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:40:56 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Giant comedy Anglepoise lamp

This $3500, eight-foot-high Anglepoise lamp was released to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the original 1227 Anglepoise Lamp. Link (via Gizmodo)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:40:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Roulette-wheel predictor legal in UK?

It's not clear whether a British roulette-predicting device will be illegal under a new UK gambling law, or whether it will be up to casinos to deal with them on their own. These devices record the sound of the wheel and predict where the ball will land with a high degree of accuracy:

Mark Howe, who sells the devices for £1,000 from a workshop in Sheffield, claims his software will also work on level wheels. Surrounded by the soldering irons and laser sensors he uses to make his devices, he gave the Guardian an apparently successful demonstration of the software he said earned him a substantial sum before he was banned from British casinos in the 1990s.

The equipment consists of a clicker that records the deceleration speed of the rotor and ball, a remote computer device concealed inside a mobile phone or MP3 player, and an earpiece that instructs a player which zone the ball will land in.

Mr Howe says a gambler with the equipment can gain an edge of between 20% and 100% over the casino, overturning the casino's normal 2.7% edge over customers. "Next year is free hunting for anyone interested in making money from casinos," he said. "All you need to use this is nerves, a good front and consistency."

Link (via Kottke)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:37:37 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Washington DC punk walking tour

Capitol of Punk is a locative media walking tour about Washington DC's "harDCore" scene of the late 70s and 80s. DC was the birthplace of such seminal punk bands as Bad Brains, Ignition, Dag Nasty, and, of course, Minor Threat. The Yellow Arrow tour includes video podcasts with interviews and music, a PDF map, and text messages tied to key DC hardcore locations around the city.
Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:26:43 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

AA batteries with built-in USB charging-plugs

USBCells are standard-sized AA batteries whose heads flip open to reveal a USB plug; plug them into your PC and they'll recharge off the USB port. I already use USB chargers for my phone and music player and GPS when I'm on the road -- this completes the picture. I wish that every rechargeable device came with a USB recharge point! Link (Thanks, Jason!)

Update: Charlie sez, "Like many NiMH rechargeables in the AA and AAA form factors these are 1.2 VDC and not 1.5 volts like 'real' batteries. This is usually not a problem when a device only uses one or two batteries, but anything that uses four or more in series is unlikely to work properly due to the cumulative difference in voltage. My son's giant robot battle scorpion, for example, requires six batteries in series for 9 volts total, but rechargeables typically only provide 7.2 even at peak charge, and this leaves the scorpion unable to fend off enemy robot cockroaches or the neighbor girl's robot kissing bug."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:12:17 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

To do in NYC tonight: Design Like you Give A Damn

Wired Magazine is hosting an interesting event in NYC tonight at the New York Public Library:

Join Cameron Sinclair, Kate Stohr and Cynthia Barton of Architecture for Humanity, editors of the book Design Like You Give a Damn, along with cultural commentator John Hockenberry as they discuss how a new breed of designers is responding to humanitarian crises and rethinking the social and economic future of the more than two billion people currently surviving in sub-standard living conditions.

starts at 7pm. Link (thanks, Melanie Cornwell!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:11:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Robotic RC fighting beetles

Remote-controlled, robotic battle-beetles: presumably if you got enough of these together, you could completely skeletonize that smug little Tickle Me Elmo Extreme bastard. Link (via Red Ferret)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:07:51 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Clay Shirky: An "expert Wikipedia" won't work

Clay Shirky has written an excellent analysis of the flawed assumptions behind Citizendium, an expert-focused online encyclopedia from Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger. Sanger has long criticised Wikipedia and Wikipedians for failing to accord special status to "experts" -- but as Shirky shows, an expert-focused Wikipedia would likely devolve into interminable pissing matches over who was and was not qualified to be called an expert, because expertise isn't a measurable quantity, but rather something that is socially constructed.

Sanger himself experienced [interminable fights over credentials] in his fight with Cunctator at the dawn of Wikipedia; Cunc questioned Sanger's authority, leading Sanger to defend it with increasing vigor. As Sanger said at the time "...in order to preserve my time and sanity, I have to act like an autocrat. In a way, I am being trained to act like an autocrat." Sanger's authority at Wikipedia required his demonstrating it, yet this very demonstration made his job harder, and ultimately untenable. This the common case; as any parent can tell you, exercise of presumptive authority creates the conditions under which it is tested. As a result, Citizendium will re-create the core failure of Nupedia, namely putting at the center of the effort a process whose maintenance takes more energy than can be mustered by a volunteer project...

Citizendium is based less on a system of supportable governance than on the belief that such governance will not be necessary, except in rare cases. Real experts will self-certify; rank-and-file participants will be delighted to work alongside them; when disputes arise, the expert view will prevail; and all of this will proceed under a process that is lightweight and harmonious. All of this will come to naught when the citizens rankle at the reflexive deference to editors; in reaction, they will debauch self-certification (leading to irc-style chanop wars), contest expert preogatives, rasing the cost of review to unsupportable levels (Wikitorial, round II,) take to distributed protest (q.v. Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf), or simply opt-out (Nupedia in a nutshell.)...

The philosophical issue here is one of deference. Citizendium is intended to improve on Wikipedia by adding a mechanism for deference, but Wikipedia already has a mechanism for deference -- survival of edits. I recently re-wrote the conceptual recipe for a Menger Sponge, and my edits have survived, so far. The community has deferred not to me, but to my contribution, and that deference is both negative (not edited so far) and provisional (can always be edited.)

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:00:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Library on the moon

The moon might be a good place for a massive storehouse of digital information, sort of a Lunar Library of Alexandria (that hopefully won't burn down). That's the idea proposed by NASA scientist David McKay, who ten years ago led the team that announced that a Mars meteorite contained evidence of life. According to the New Scientist blog, McKay says the lunar library could be stored on computers buried in the ground, placed inside craters, or located in hollow lava tubes. The New Scientist blog post refers to a white paper that McKay wrote on the subject, but I can't seem to find it online. From the post:

The benefits of lunar storage are that there is no oxygen to erode the material, constant sub-freezing temperature and the Moon is currently free of all of the havoc wreaked by humankind...

Families could even pay a fee to preserve photographs in the lunar library for future civilizations. McKay calls it the "ultimate time capsule."

Link

UPDATE: BB pal Glenn Fleishman of Wi-Fi Net News says:

Your post reminded me of the superb novel by Jack Williamson, "Terraforming Earth," which I believe was overlooked at the time it came out. In his story, Earth is at a nuclear dead-end, and one scientist manages to take several people, vast stores of knowledge, and flora/fauna archives to a previously established moon base. Computers clone and teach "descendents" from time to time over millions or perhaps hundred of millions of years. Sometimes they find that earth belongs to alien species. Sometimes, Earth is back to high technology. Once, they save future humanity from total extinction. Link

UPDATE: Richard Morgan writes:

Your post reminded me of an article I wrote over the summer for the science section of the New York Times, about the alliance to rescue civilization and its efforts to store -- not just a compendium of human knowledge -- on the moon, but also an ark of all genetic material as well.

Link

UPDATE: Jamais Cascio writes:

For whatever it's worth, the idea of putting an information repository on the Moon is something I've been writing about for awhile, too. I first discussed it in a column in 1999 (an archive copy of the article is here) and brought it up again on WorldChanging more recently (link) in connection to the massive seed vault being built in Norway to protect plant DNA in case of global catastrophe. The ARC folks first wrote about their version of the idea in 1999, as well. While we all came up with the concept independently, I would not be surprised to find even earlier non-fiction iterations of the proposal.

It all boils down to making backups. As anyone who has done tech work (even for themselves) knows, backups are not substitutes for maintenance. Dealing with disasters after the fact is always far more costly, time-consuming and frustrating -- and, on the scale we're talking about, life-threatening -- than performing regular maintenance. Maintenance projects (fighting global warming, eliminating global poverty, eradication of pandemic diseases) reduce our need to use backups; backup projects are our last hope when maintenance fails.

The reoccurrence of this idea is an acknowledgment that sometimes maintenance fails, and that if human civilization is worth keeping around, we need to think big.

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:26:51 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Internet Craftsmanship Museum

The incredible Internet Craftsmanship Museum celebrates the passion, precision, and "craftsman's touch" as embodied by "anything from furniture to stained glass to a clock to a model steam engine." Seen here, Roger Ronnie's miniature 1896 Bergmann pistol and Iqbal Ahmed's Victoria horizontal steam engine with working boiler. The virtual museum, and its real world counterpart in Vista, California, was founded by Joe Martin, owner of machine tool manufacturer Sherline Products.

From the Museum's Welcome page:

While good machinery can produce parts of great consistency and accuracy when properly operated, without the craftsman's touch the results will be acceptable but not noteworthy. Pieces that truly grab our attention and admiration go beyond the minimum of what is required to add what we can only call the "craftsman's touch"... This museum will feature works that represent the spirit and skill of individuals; not committees or manufacturing companies. These projects were built by people with skilled hands and brains, but, most importantly, they were built for the love of doing it. Coming from the hands, the brain and the heart, they should be judged not just as a collection of parts, but rather as art.

Link (via MAKE: Blog)

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:02:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fish monitor public water supply

Fish are used as a canary in a coal mine to help detect whether the water supplies of cities like San Francisco, New York, and Washington DC have been deliberately tainted with toxins. As the fish swim in tanks that are filled from the municipal supply, their vital signs are monitored by electronic sensors. From the Associated Press:

"Nature's given us pretty much the most powerful and reliable early warning center out there," said Bill Lawler, co-founder of Intelligent Automation Corporation, a Southern California company that makes and sells the bluegill monitoring system. "There's no known manmade sensor that can do the same job as the bluegill." Bluegills -- a hardy species about the size of a human hand -- are considered more versatile. They are highly attuned to chemical disturbances in their environment, and when exposed to toxins, they experience the fish version of coughing, flexing their gills to expel unwanted particles.

The computerized system in use in San Francisco and elsewhere is designed to detect even slight changes in the bluegills' vital signs and send an e-mail alert when something is wrong.

San Francisco's bluegills went to work about a month ago, guarding the drinking water of more than 1 million people from substances such as cyanide, diesel fuel, mercury and pesticides. Eight bluegills swim in a tank deep in the basement of a water treatment plant south of the city.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 06:39:55 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Torpark is out, offering "anonymous, portable web browsing"

The computer security wonks and human rights advocates at Hacktivismo today released Torpark, a portable tool to keep web users' identities private. Think of it as anonymity on a stick. A privacy-pop! Snip from launch announcement:

[The] anonymous, fully portable Web browser [is] based on Mozilla Firefox. Torpark comes pre-configured, requires no installation, can run off a USB memory stick, and leaves no tracks behind in the browser or computer. Torpark is a highly modified variant of Portable Firefox, that uses the TOR (The Onion Router) network to anonymize the connection between the user and the website that is being visited.

"We live in a time where acquisition technologies are cherry picking and collating every aspect of our online lives," said Hacktivismo founder Oxblood Ruffin. "Torpark continues Hacktivismo’s commitment to expanding privacy rights on the Internet. And the best thing is, it’s free. No one should have to pay for basic human rights, especially the right of privacy."

Torpark is being released under the GNU General Public License and is dedicated to the Panchen Lama*.

Link to press release, and here's Here's v 1.5.0.7. (thanks, Oxblood Ruffin and Steve Topletz!)

Reader comment: Amos says,

It might be worth reminding people that your identity and information when using tools like this is only as secure as the computer you are running it from. While suspect the Torpark folks did a very good job of ensuring that it won't *leave* any information on the system it's plugged into, there is nothing they can do to keep a keyboard logger (trojan or otherwise) from logging everything you type or, as we've seen recently, logging everything you see and everything your mouse clicks too.

Booting from a "Live CD" such as Ubuntu's avoids the whole malicious logging software issue, but info could possibly(?) still be written to swap disk and there could be a hardware key logger and/or video recorder capturing everything. Anyway, no security is absolute and using Torpark is certainly better than not using it. Just don't forget to make a judgement call about the environment you're running it in too - including the space around you.

elfspice asks,

I have known about torpark nearly a year now and have been using it frequently for about 4 months. It is most certainly not new, and I should also direct you to a new related project, i can't remember the name now (aargh) which is the same thing but with thunderbird, possibly they called it torbird (?)

Oxblood Ruffin sez,

Torpark and Torbird are both services that run on the TOR network. The former is for browsing and the latter is for email. They're derived from Firefox and Thunderbird respectively, and by the same developer. Also these tools are not brand spanking new and have been floating around the haxor world for a while. However, the improvements and added stability were deemed worthy of a more mainstream release, so we took it to the people, yØ.

Jim says,

The Torpark site seems to be down atm, but here are the direct links to the files on the evilshare download site that Torpark links to off their page: Executable, and Source.

Josh says,

The Torpark is just for Windows machines (for nw). Vidalia is for Macs & Windows and there is a Linux/Unix package as well: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:53:39 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

BB exclusive: Al Gore on launch of Yahoo Current TV

Yahoo and Current TV are teaming up to launch four new internet "television channels" that comprise the new Yahoo! Current Network, and all four go live tonight.

Earlier today, Xeni spoke with former Vice President Al Gore, internet godfather and co-founder of Current TV, about "Yahoo Current." Here's what he had to say:

- - - - - -

BoingBoing / Xeni: What will Yahoo Current be?

Al Gore: Four broadband channels, each consisting of a combination of professionally produced and viewer-contributed content. For Yahoo Current Buzz -- see Yahoo's Buzz Index for an idea of what this will be. We brought Madeleine Smithberg on board for this channel; she was a co-creator of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." Yahoo Current Action will offer sports programming. Yahoo Current Driver will be an auto destination. And Yahoo Current Traveler is our travel channel. That will include video postcards submitted by viewers, as well as Bono's directorial debut with a video he recently made. I've seen it, it's very interesting and very funny.

BB: Why is Current TV partnering with Yahoo for this?

Al Gore: Current has pioneered the use of viewer-created programming, and Yahoo has incredible resources with regard to networks, distribution, and community. It just made sense to join forces. The new project will take advantage of Yahoo's worldwide distribution capability on video delivery.

BB: What should we expect in the way of format? Will the video we see online at Yahoo Current also be broadcast on Current?

Al Gore: Yes, there will be some crossover. We're talking about short form video, updated constantly, and some of it will also show up on TV. These four channels are each based around parts of the Yahoo community, and the idea here is that this online community can generate a lot of interesting content.

BB: Sports, pop culture, travel, automotive -- are you planning additional channels for the future, based on other interests or lifestyle themes?

Al Gore: Well, we've got a lot on our plate with these four for now. We're going to focus on making these four channels the best they can be, and see where that goes.

Update from Xeni: As with Current TV's satellite programming, Yahoo Current will also pay viewers for selected contributions, as if to woo video authors away from uploading to non-paying sites like YouTube. You'll get $100 for each video featured on the broadband network, and if your video is selected to air on Current TV, you receive an additional $500. The Yahoo! Current site does include lawyertalk worth reading before you submit, naturally. By uploading your file, you grant Current a

...worldwide, exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, restriction free license for a term of three (3) months (...) to distribute, reproduce, copy, record, modify, add to, combine with other materials, remove, adapt, publicly perform, publicly display, sublicense, freely assign, create derivative works from and otherwise use and exploit any of same, or any part thereof, in any medium now known or hereinafter known, in any language and by any means or manners now or hereafter developed. Further, you hereby grant Current an option to acquire the exclusive right to broadcast, exhibit or otherwise distribute the Submitted Material in all media throughout the world in perpetuity (the “Option”), which Current may exercise within three (3) months of the date you provide us with Submitted Material.

The new partnership between Current and Yahoo is particularly interesting because until now, the television network had close ties with another search and online video titan: Google. Brief Google zeitgeist segments about top search topics aired twice hourly on Current TV. Additionally, Mr. Gore served as Senior Advisor to Google (more on that in this Wired Magazine story from just four months ago).

The Current.tv/Google site is still live for now, and spotlights a Google Current episode that ran today about the Thong Girl debacle. No word from Google or Current on the present or future status of the companies' relationship.

The San Francisco Chronicle's "Tech Chronicles" blog has an item about the deal, with details on the sort of craziness former Daily Show producer Madeleine Smithberg is planning for the "Yahoo Current Buzz" channel:

One of the first bits: She sent a correspondent to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border with one of the female members of the anti-immigration Minutemen organization. The woman wants to rename Los Angeles the "City of Angels" and prefers the term "spicy folders" to tacos.

Update: the terms and conditions blurb above came from current.tv/terms.html (I can't seem to access that page right now). A Current spokesperson writes to say that two licensing options are now possible with Yahoo! Current, and they are detailed at these links: one, two. Alex Dolan of Current says,

There are actually two license options: one exclusive, and one non-exclusive. If producers choose the exclusive option, their videos that are featured on the Yahoo! Current Network will receive $100 and be eligible to air on Current’s TV broadcast for additional payment starting at $500. For producers who choose the non-exclusive option, their videos featured on Yahoo! Current will not be compensated or eligible to air on Current TV. We also have only one month from upload to option the piece.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:00:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Airport Security game: race to confiscate

This Shockwave game, Airport Security, has you playing an airport screener racing to confiscate arbitrary objects from travellers' luggage. Link (Thanks, Raph and Thomas!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:58:15 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hand-truck chair

I'm not sure if these handtruck chairs are for sale, but they're way ingenious and a great way to cart your friends around in style. Link (via Gizmodo)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:48:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO pick a Master padlock with a BART card

Violet Blue demonstrates a simple means for picking a standard Master padlock with an old BART transit card:

The internal latch on these Master combination locks are pretty much the same latching mechanism as an ordinary doorknob; slide something into the slot, wiggle it until it pushes the slide open, and the lock pops open.

Link (Thanks, Jason!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:16:01 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Inventing the yellow legal pad

Legal Affairs magazine tells the secret history of the yellow legal pad. From the article, by Suzanne Snider:

In 1888, Thomas W. Holley, a 24-year-old paper mill worker in Holyoke, had an idea for how to use the paper scraps, known as sortings, discarded by the mill. Sortings were anything trimmed away as scrap or considered of lesser quality than the writing paper eventually packaged and sold. Holley's notion was to bind the scraps into pads that could be sold at a cut rate. Convinced he had a winning idea, he founded his own company to collect the sortings from local mills (Holyoke was then the papermaking capital of the world) and began churning out bargain-price pads.

The legal pad's margins, also called down lines, are drawn 1.25 inches from the left edge of the page. (This is the only requirement for a pad to qualify as a legal pad, though the iconic version has yellow paper, blue lines, and a red gummed top.) Holley added the ruling that defined the legal pad in the early 1900s at the request of a local judge who was looking for space to comment on his own notes...

Some believe that writing on a yellow pad is easier to read than writing on a white pad. But Israel Abramov, a professor of psychology at Brooklyn College and a specialist in color vision, dismisses the theory. Readability, he says, is more a matter of contrast—how the color of the ink interacts with the color of the paper—than of the paper color alone...

Abramov prefers a psychological to a physiological explanation for yellow's predominance. "White paper that sits around starts to look yellow and old," he said. "I heard of one professor who used yellow paper for his lecture notes because he didn't want his students to know how old the notes were."

Link (via Michael Leddy's Orange Crate Art)

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:10:21 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Boing Boing Emporium: The Cult of Capsaicin

A few years ago I wrote "The Cult of Capsaicin," an article about the subculture of people who are hooked on incredibly hot peppers. The article never ran in the magazine I wrote it for, but I've shared it with a few friends, and they enjoyed reading about these chileheads who get hooked on the endorphins the body releases to suppress the pain caused by eating hot pepper.

Here's an excerpt:

Try this: put a couple of drops of Tabasco Sauce on your tongue. Hot, right? Tabasco Sauce rates between 2,500 and 5,000 on the Scoville scale, the standard measurement system for chile pepper heat. Now try a drop of Mad Dog Inferno, a ridiculously hot sauce that clocks in at 90,000 Scoville units. As I chewed ice cubes and blinked away tears after touching a miniscule droplet of Mad Dog Inferno to my tongue from the tip of a toothpick, I knew I’d never make it as a chilehead.

That’s because I’m not a nontaster, explains Dave DeWitt, author of 30 books about chile peppers and spicy foods, including The Whole Chile Pepper Book and The Hot Sauce Bible. DeWitt is referring to a Yale surgeon’s study in the 1970s that identified three types of people: nontasters, medium tasters, and supertasters. Nontasters are born with as few as 11 taste buds per square centimeter of tongue, while supertasters can have as many as 1,100 taste buds crammed into the same area. Capsaicin has no taste, but taste buds not only sense flavor, they also transmit pain and temperature signals to the brain. That’s why nontasters can tolerate high doses of spice, says DeWitt, who considers chileheads to be on the far right side of the pepper bell curve. “In any movement you have your fringe element,” he says.

For a chilehead, 90,000 Scovilles is pabulum. Andy Barnhart, a recently retired chief scientist for a telecommunications company in Maryland, likes to dump habanero powder (400,000 Scovilles) on his ice cream “until it turns almost black.” But even that doesn’t turn Barnhart’s crank like it used to. “I’ve now gotten into Pure Cap; that is really hot stuff,” says Barnhart, 61. “I blend it with a little alcohol to preserve it and I put it in a bottle with an eyedropper and I carry it around with me.” (Pure Cap, a 570,000 Scoville unit extract, isn’t the same as pure capsaicin, which, at 16 million Scovilles, is as hot as it gets.) If Barnhart comes across a bowl of soup or a drink that doesn’t provide a sufficient jolt, he pulls out the eyedropper and gives it a squirt.

Barnhart’s 38-year-old son, Douglas, shares his father’s taste (or lack of taste buds) for hot stuff. The burly barbeque grill salesman has been known to polish off eight “Biker Billy” jalapeños (an extra large, extra hot variety) in thirty seconds. Peppers are a part of Barnhart’s daily routine. “I’m definitely addicted,” he says. “I get a little grouchy if I don’t have anything hot. I can’t explain it other than that. I just become unsettled. If I don’t have hot peppers around, I start looking for the next best thing, and that’s black pepper. But you can’t get enough heat off black pepper.”

Buy for 50 cents | Other items in the Boing Boing Digital Emporium

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 05:17:27 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Disney releases album as MP3s

Yahoo's gotten Hollywood Records (owned by Disney) to release the new Jesse McCartney's album "Right Where You Want Me," as unrestricted MP3 files:

"We're trying to be realistic," said Ken Bunt, senior VP of marketing at Hollywood Records. "Jesse's single is already online and we haven't put it out. Piracy happens regardless of what we do. So we're going to see how Jesse's album goes (as an MP3) and then decide on others going forward."

Will wonders never cease?

Link (via Deep Links)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:37:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tiny turbine

MIT researchers have made progress developing a tiny gas-turbine engine using processes borrowed from computer chip fabrication. The idea is that compared to batteries of the same weight, these coin-sized engines would power laptops, cell phones, and other mobile devices for much longer. "Big gas-turbine engines can power a city, but a little one could 'power' a person," said professor Alan Epstein of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. So far, the MIT team has built all of the components. The next step is to integrate them into a complete system. Like integrated circuits, the components are produced en masse on a large silicon wafer and then cut apart. From the MIT News Office:

The MIT team has now used this process to make all the components needed for their engine, and each part works. Inside a tiny combustion chamber, fuel and air quickly mix and burn at the melting point of steel. Turbine blades, made of low-defect, high-strength microfabricated materials, spin at 20,000 revolutions per second -- 100 times faster than those in jet engines. A mini-generator produces 10 watts of power. A little compressor raises the pressure of air in preparation for combustion. And cooling (always a challenge in hot microdevices) appears manageable by sending the compression air around the outside of the combustor.

"So all the parts work…. We're now trying to get them all to work on the same day on the same lab bench," Epstein said. Ultimately, of course, hot gases from the combustion chamber need to turn the turbine blades, which must then power the generator, and so on. "That turns out to be a hard thing to do," he said. Their goal is to have it done by the end of this year.

Link to MIT press release, Link to my related article from Small Times, January 2002, about tiny fuel cells, microturbines, and "The Power of Small Tech"

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:05:54 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Annamarie Ho's Betelnut Girls art installation

As BB readers know, there's an interesting culture surrounding Betel nut, a popular stimulant in some Asian countries. Often, the stuff is sold from streetside booths by scantily-clad young girls. My pal Annamarie Ho has created an art installation/performance piece commenting on this "sexually provocative sales style." The work, titled Binlang Shi Shr (Betelnut Girls), will be on display at part of the Entrapment show at the Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY College at Old Westbury in New York. The show opens tomorrow, September 20, and closes October 21. The image here is from a series of digital prints Annamarie created for the show.

Annamarie says:

I've built a booth inside the gallery and, during the opening and closing, I'll have a scantily-clad girl selling betelnut stickers to viewers. There's also an accompanying video with footage of actual betelnut girls in Taiwan and prints of Taiwanese models in some pretty kitschy scenarios.

And from the show program:

Ho simulates a vending stand of the sort that becomes, in effect, a free-standing display case, where the "betelnut beauties" function as commodified mannequins. She includes an example of the accompanying neon business signs often phrased to sound like the names of love hotels in East Asia. In Binlang Shi Shr (Betelnut Girls), Ho not only expresses a concern over the "entrapment" of women in sexual-economic exploitation, but also exoticizes this selling process, as an actor hired for the performance interacts with viewers like a betelnut girl. Ho assumes her role as a stand owner who monitors the girl's behavior. Bringing this simulating experience of betelnut girls to the space of the art gallery, Ho also raises a larger issue of what's being sold in contemporary commercial galleries, as she uses the actor and the performance piece as a means to sell her installation.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:50:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Photos of drug smuggling attempts

My favorite government publication is the Drug Enforcement Administration's Microgram Bulletin. It deals chiefly with the novel ways drug dealers market, promote, and camouflage their products to avoid detection.

The rewards for being a high-level drug dealer are great, precisely because the punishment for failure (imprisonment or getting rubbed out by a rival) is equally great. In this harsh environment, dealers go to great lengths to conceal their products during storage and shipment.

The photos of confiscated drugs in Microgram Bulletin are good examples of dealer ingenuity, but remember: these are the guys who got caught. Tons of drugs move across borders around the clock, and the best smugglers are hiding them in ways that the DEA hasn't wised up to yet.

HEROIN-LACED BATTING IN FURNITURE (FROM VENEZUELA) IN MIAMI, FLORIDA

The DEA Southeast Laboratory (Miami, Florida) recently received 23 bags of grey colored batting that had been removed from two pieces of upholstered furniture, suspected to be laced with heroin (see Photo 11). The furniture (a chair and sofa) had been shipped from Venezuela, and was seized at the Miami Airport by Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel. Analysis of extracts from the batting (total net mass 62.16 kilograms) by GC/MS and FTIR confirmed 14 percent heroin hydrochloride, equivalent to approximately 8.7 kilograms total net mass. This was the first submission of this type to the Southeast Laboratory.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:29:52 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tickle Me Elmo Extreme - 10th anniversary laugh-bot

Fisher-Price has revealed the tenth anniversary edition of the Tickle Me Elmo doll, the TMX (Tickle Me - Extreme). It has three "tickle-points," and slaps its thigh and rolls around on the ground when you prod them. Once it's done laughing, it climbs back to its feet.

I love that cheap-ass robotics platforms are coming out of big toy companies now. Can't wait to see what the hardware hackers do to this thing (if they can get one, that is -- speculators are snapping up supplies and putting them on eBay at double retail). Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:12:00 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Introducing Boing Boing Boing: the Boing Boing podcast!

Last Sunday, we recorded the first installment of the new Boing Boing podcast, Boing Boing Boing. This is a weekly podcast in which the Boingers and a guest talk about the week's Boing Boing stories and new projects coming up -- a kind of Best of Boing Boing, in audio form.

This week's guest was the incomparable Mr Jalopy of the Hoopty Rides blog. Mr Jalopy is an incredible craphound and gearhead, a talented yard-saler, maker, and hot-rodder. In this 'cast, Mr Jalopy discusses his new book, his philosophy of yard sales, and the relative value of Yu-Gi-Oh cards versus Hot Cheetos.

Podcast, Podcast Feed, Subscribe via iTunes, MP3 Link

Update: Andrew sez, "Your Hot Cheetos story w/ Mr. Jalopy reminded me of a story from a year or two ago. A friend of mine was on a bus in Chicago, and witnessed a high school-aged girl perform a rather involved ceremony with a bag of Hot Cheetos and a vacuum sealed pickle. Before opening the Cheetos, she mashed them into tiny crumbs. She opened the cheetos and the pickle, setting the pickle to the side, and pouring the juice from the pickle packaging into the Cheetos bag. She then mashed this into a type of Cheetos/pickle juice slurry, and proceeded to squeeze the concoction into her mouth by turning the Cheetos bag into a sort of junk food pastry bag." Squick, squick, squick.

Update 2: Mark sez, "I have been fascinated by the Flamin Hot Cheetos phenomenon for a couple months now. I love looking around youtube for videos and searching the web for mor kids talking about how they love Flammin' Hot Cheetos on their myspaces. For a couple weeks I have been thinking of starting a blog where I can post the best stuff I find. I just didn't think there were many other adults interested. I thought that I must be some sort of creep or something. Then I listened to your podcast and I flipped out. I didn't know other grown people were into this. After listening to it I decided at work that the next day I would start my FHC blog. I just want to let all of you know that because of you I saw my idea to completion."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:44:09 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tonight in LA: Free talk by Toshiba's DRM lawyer

A reminder to Angelenos: Tonight at 7PM, Michael Ayers will be giving a free public speech at the USC Annenberg School. Ayers negotiates DRM deals for Toshiba, and helped birth such anti-copying systems as CSS for DVDs. He's presently overseeing the deployment of AACS, the anti-copying technology in next-generation DVDs like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

Ayers works for a consumer electronics and computer company, so he's often an advocate for user-rights in DRM negotiations, but at the end of the day, he's there to cut a deal that lets Toshiba ship without worrying about getting sued.

We've often been at the same DRM negotiation and though we were rarely on the same side, I always respected his ability to broker compromises, as well as his integrity and candor.

September 19, 7PM-9PM
University of Southern California, Annenberg School, 3502 Watt Way
Room 207

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:43:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Moo Cards: Stunning kid-sized custom biz-cards with Flickr pix

Moo prints beautiful little calling-cards for kids and the young-at-heart. Each card can have a different back, and the undersized cards are just the right size for your name, email address and a URL or two. The project was co-founded by my friend Stef Magdalinski, who also spends his time hacking British democracy with projects like Wikiproxy and TheyWorkForYou -- he's good people.

It's hard to convey just how cool-ass these cards are. They feel like a fetish object, the thick card and soft laminate finish create a great hand-feel, and they're visually stunning -- playful and intensely personal.

They've got an engine to make cards from your Flickr stream, and for $20 they'll send you 100 custom cards -- Flickr Pro users can get 10 cards for free, just as a try-out. We got a box to 100 here this week and when I took them out of the box, it was like Christmas -- so bright and colorful and fun. So many different designs, and all of them from our most beloved Flickr snaps.

I've been making my own business-cards since I was 18, playing with the designs and the stock. I've had folding cards, embossed cards, letterpress cards, oversized and undersized cards. My latest ones are taken from an old ad I found on the Modern Mechanix blog. There's definitely a fraternity among the business-card-proud -- a flicker of recognition when you exchange cards with someone else who takes unseemly pride in his bits of pocket-paper.

There's lots of free stuff on the Internets, but the 10 free cards from Moo might just be the coolest thing for 0 dollars you can get. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:39:13 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Slimming filter for HP cameras makes people skinnier

Several of HPs cameras now feature a mode called "slimming effect" that stretches and squashes your photo subjects to make them appear "10 pounds lighter." The slimming effect is adjustable, for those times when you need to shave off more pounds. Link (via OhGizmo)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:04:47 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tangram bookcase

The Tangram bookcase system comprises simple polyhedrons that you stick on the wall in any pattern you choose -- just like playing with blocks as a kid, only vertical, and you can stick your books in them when you're done. Link (via Cribcandy)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:00:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, September 18, 2006

Amazing graph of how US income tax gets spent

Eva says: The website, http://thebudgetgraph.com, houses the huge visual representation of how the US federal government spends our income taxes. Not only does it show the amount spent on each item, but it also shows the percentage change from last year so you can see what is emphasized and can spot trends. It is well researched and justified in supporting materials. You can also buy a poster or send one to congress for 10 bucks. The the graph is the star here, it puts things into perspective. In fact, this is data that many people do NOT want to see, since all of us in the US have paid for part of everything on there. Link

Reader comment:

Jason says: Here is a link by the chart's author, showing mandatory spending as well, which ads some nice perspective.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:05:44 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Steam-powered Gameboy video

This model-steam-engine enthusiast has devised a means of powering his GameBoy Color off of a 1930s-era pufferbelly:

A 1936-38 Jensen steam engine (flywheels from a later models are used in this video) runs a small generator that puts out the 3VDC needed to run a Gameboy color.

Link (via Digg)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:04:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

On-screen bank-site keyboards defeated by trojan

A new trojan that records screen-movies has been discovered in the wild; the malware specifically captures your mouse as you laboriously enter your password into banking sites that use on-screen keyboards to defeat keyloggers.

I've written about on-screen keyboards before -- I think that these things are bad news. They make banking sites un-accessible to people who are blind or have some physical disabilities, and while they defend against keyloggers, they also force you to have short, weak passwords. What's more, it's apparent that keyloggers can handily adapt to these screen-boards.

Today we will analyze a new banking trojan that is a qualitative step forward in the dangerousness of these specimens and a new turn of the screw in the techniques used to defeat virtual keyboards. The novelty of this trojan lies in its capacity to generate a video clip that stores all the activity onscreen while the user is authenticating to access his electronic bank.

The video clip covers only a small portion of the screen, using as reference the cursor, but it is large enough so that the attacker can watch the legitimate user's movements and typing when using the virtual keyboard, so that he gets the username and password without going into further trouble.

Link (Thanks, Peter!)

Update: George sez, "Just read the piece about virtual keyboard loggers (with the Citibank screenshot) on BB. As I am a Citibank customer (well more like thorn in the side - their service is variable to say the least) I immediately went to log in to my account to send them a message asking them if they had seen this story. When I got there I had a new message:"

...Rather than entering your password using the screen keyboard, you will now simply use your computer's real keyboard. You will also be asked to answer an additional question that only you know the answer to when you log in, to further increase security....

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:51:56 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dr. Seuss taxidermy

The specimens in Theodore Seuss Geisel's "Dr. Seuss School of Unorthodox Taxidermy" are absolutely marvelous. Limited reproductions of four of the pieces, including the Adoluvian Grackler, Two Horned Drouberhannis, Sawfish, and Mulberry Street Unicorn (seen here), are available in a matched number set for $8,380. Single pieces range from $1,695 to $3,495. From The Art of Dr. Seuss gallery:

Seuss embarked on an ingenious project in the early 1930s as he evolved from two-dimensional artworks to three-dimensional sculptures. What was most unusual for these mixed-media sculptures was the use of real animal parts including beaks, antlers and horns from deceased Forest Park Zoo animals where Seuss’s father was superintendent. Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy was born in a cramped New York apartment and included a menagerie of inventive creatures with names like the “Two Horned Drouberhannis,” “Andulovian Grackler,” and “Semi-Normal Green-Lidded Fawn.” Shortly after Seuss created this unique collection of artworks, Look Magazine dubbed Seuss “The World’s Most Eminent Authority on Unheard-Of Animals.” To this day, Seuss’s Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy remains as some of the finest examples of his inventive and multi-dimensional creativity.

Link (via Neatorama)

posted by David Pescovitz at 06:23:43 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sonos + Rhapsody = happiness

A few weeks ago I wrote about how much I was liking the Sonos digital music system, which plays digital music stored on your computer on different stereo systems throughout your house (you can play different sings in different rooms at the same time). It's an absolutely brilliant system that hasn't given me one minute of the usual frustration I experience whenever I set up some new technology in the house.

Last Thursday Sonos announced a partnership with Rhapsody, the music subscription service from RealNetworks. Now I can play two million songs on any stereo system in my house, using Sonos' portable iPod-like controller. It's an incredible experience being able to call up almost any song you can think of and start playing it. I showed it to my wife, and she immediately began playing all of David Bowie's '70s songs. She's hooked. I've been teaching my 8-year-old about punk by playing Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Ramones, Clash, and Buzzcocks. You get a free 30-day Rhapsody trial with Sonos. After that, you pay $10 a month. It's a bargain.

You don't even need a PC to run Sonos with Rhapsody, because the Sonos hardware plays the Rhapsody streams. Maybe that's why there are so few hiccups or glitches.

My family is now listening to a lot more music than we ever were (my 3-year-old likes the kid's "radio station," which has everything from Burl Ives to Ralph Covert) because we have easy and instant access to music like never before. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 05:10:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Willie Nelson cited for grass and shrooms

Willie Nelson and four of his bandmates were busted for possession of marijuana and "narcotic" mushrooms this morning. The five were issued misdemeanor citations after Louisiana cops found 1.5 pounds of marijuana and .2 pounds of shrooms on their bus. From the Associated Press:

The citations were issued after a commercial vehicle inspection of the country music star's tour bus, state police said in a news release.

"When the door was opened and the trooper began to speak to the driver, he smelled the strong odor of marijuana," the news release said.

Link (Thanks, Mike Love!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 05:05:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mid-century rocketship lamp on eBay

This far out 1950s child's lamp is for sale on eBay right now. BuyItNow price is $333 or submit your best offer by September 27. From the listing:

Striking 18" tall lamp features a very hard & heavy painted plaster base, lead spaceman with dome helmet and litho paper shade. I have never seen one of these in over 20 years. Working properly with original cord intact. No cracks, breaks, tears or repairs. Paint on base has a few smalls chips. The shade has a few very light and thin scuff marks but is otherwise like new. Does look like a scene from (Rocketship) X-M as I recall. Rare lamp in excellent condition.

Link (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 04:55:37 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

XLR8R: 100th anniversary issue

XLR8R, the highly-influential electronic music and culture magazine is celebrating its 100th issue this month. The realm of electronica can be intimidating to outsiders (like me) because of all the sub-genres, micro-niches, artist aliases, and vast amounts of material to filter. Since 1993, XLR8R, in print and online, has been my tour guide of choice when I dip into this musical subculture. Reading it is like having a trusted friend take you on a tour through the best boutique record store in the world. Congratulations to publisher Andrew Smith and his talented co-conspirators!
Link to Issue 100 Preview, Link to XLR8R

posted by David Pescovitz at 01:07:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tale of the first penis transplant

A Chinese man who had lost his penis in an accident earlier this year received a transplanted member from a brain-dead man. The operation. performed at Guangzhou General Hospital, was reportedly a success, but the man suffered emotional trauma and after just two weeks insisted that the penis be removed. The story of the procedure will be told in next month's issue of the scientific journal European Urology. From The Guardian:

After 10 days, tests revealed the organ had a rich blood supply and the man was able to urinate normally.

Doctors have previously succeeded in reuniting men with their sexual organs after traumatic accidents or attacks, but the Guangzhou operation is the first in which a donor penis has successfully been attached to another man.

"Because of a severe psychological problem of the recipient and his wife, the transplanted penis regretfully had to be cut off," Dr Hu said. An examination of the organ showed no signs of it being rejected by the body.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:56:05 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Introducing the Boing Boing Digital Emporium

The four of us at Boing Boing love music, comics, videos, and books. We especially love them in digital format so we can store them on capacious hard drives, instead of cramming more things into our already overstuffed bookcases. And we super-extra especially love them to be DRM-free so we can read, watch, and listen to them on our MP3 players, on our handheld devices, on our computers, and in our cars.

That's why we created the Boing Boing Digital Emporium, launching today. We'll be selling our favorite DRM-free digital goods and giving the the majority of the proceeds (minus the transaction charges imposed by Paypal and Payloadz) to the creators of those goods.

In the coming days and weeks, look for songs, albums, comics, novels, videos, and anything else that can be delivered digitally.

To kick things off, we're proud to offer Mister Jalopy's Pocket Guide to Life & Death with Modest Automobiles. Mister Jalopy of Hooptyrides knows a great deal about older cars, and he knows how to explain the way they work to people like me, who consider the stuff that goes on under a car's hood to be scary and utterly mysterious.

Mister Jalopy has condensed a lifetime of experience working with used cars into a single page PDF document called Mister Jalopy's Pocket Guide to Life & Death with Modest Automobiles. It's truly the best thing I've ever read about cars, and if you are considering buying a used car, then the $1 you'll pay for this downloadable document will pay for itself a thousand-fold. Even if you aren't interested in buying a car, you will undoubtedly enjoy reading this super-dense document, loaded with hard-won wisdom.

Buy for $1 | More Boing Boing Digital Emporium Goods here

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:54:35 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bad info in background check database nixes apartment application

My friend (who doesn't want me to name him here) is in a frustrating predicament because of an error in an online "background check" company's database. (I've downloaded First Advantage SafeRent's "Consumer Disclosure Request Form" because I want to see if the information about me that they are storing is accurate. I recommend you do the same).

Since I am spending a lot of time working far from my usual home, I attempted to rent an apartment last week. The apartment complex conducted a criminal background check, and told me I was ineligible as a tenant, because the background check turned something up.

What, precisely, did it turn up? Ah, the woman could not tell me that, because she herself did not know. She merely entered my name, birthdate, and SS# into her computer terminal, and a service provided by First Advantage SafeRent Inc. told her "no." So, the apartment complex kept my $75 application fee, showed me the door, and left me to deal with the nice people at SafeRent on my own. This entailed downloading a PDF form from their web site, printing it, signing it, and mailing it to them with a copy of my driver's license, to prove my own identity. Presumably this is purely for financial reasons, since SafeRent must prefer to sell its information, and will only give it away if I can convince them that I am the "person of interest."

Since I didn't feel like waiting for a response that may take several weeks, I decided to satisfy my curiosity with one of the many online services that now offer background checks. I paid a total of $78 for a nationwide search on myself. And, what do you know, there I am, listed as being guilty of a misdemeanor.

Only one problem: I was indeed charged, many years ago, but the charge was dismissed with prejudice, and I have a copy of the court document to prove it.

That document is not going to do me a lot of good. Let us assume that I can correct any error in the records maintained by the state criminal justice system. Actually this itself is a major ordeal, entailing an application which must include a set of my fingerprints; and then of course I will also have to go through the same thing with the FBI, since the state cheerfully admits that it tells the FBI everything.

I will still have to go after more than 100 online background-checking services, one by one, because, inevitably, they are creating their own databases derived from second-hand or third-hand sources. (A local database is so much cheaper for them to search, obviously.) One of the services I looked at states that it will not correct any error until compelled to do so by a court order. And of course new services are popping up all the time.

Already there have been some reported instances of rejected job applicants filing suit against background-checking services, alleging negligence.

What interests me is that this whole phenomenon is only just beginning to get rolling. Criminal background checks are still a little too expensive right now for most apartment landlords, home-owner associations, and employers. That obviously will not last, since apparently those millions of paper documents in county court houses have been largely digitized. Now that the data entry has been completed (competently or otherwise), information just wants to be free, right? Certainly it wants to be cheaper than $78. In a few years (or maybe months) from now, when you can check any job applicant or prospective tenant for $5, or maybe for free if the service is supported by context-sensitive popup ads, everyone will be checking everyone. Already it costs me nothing to view a map of the alleged child molesters living in my neighborhood. (I wonder how many errors are in _that_ database.) Can other felons be far behind?

Maybe one of your readers has some ideas on how this can be fixed. I don't see any way. It makes the fuss over Wikipedia look pretty trivial; John Seigenthaler certainly didn't have to submit a set of fingerprints to get _his_ error corrected, and it didn't deprive him of a place to live, either.

Reader comments:

David says:

I suggest that your friend get a lawyer that handles defamation lawsuits and sue everyone of those background check companies that is reporting false information.

Defamation -- communication to third parties of false statements about a person that injure the reputation of or deter others from associating with that person.

Gabrielle says:

Perhaps your friend can't do anything about the errors in these numerous databases without suing many pants off, but he could take preventative measures so that this doesn't happen again. If I were him, I would pay the not-too-terribly expensive fee that the FBI charges to have a federal criminal background check run on yourself. And, for good measure, he could have a state check done as well. I had both of these done before beginning my immigration process to Canada. In New York City, the state criminal background check was around $50 and they e-mailed me the results the very next day. It was very painless. The FBI check is less so, and entails having fingerprints done and mailing a bulky package to Virginia, but the end result of having a definitive document telling future landlords you're not a dangerous felon would be worth it. I imagine if you had an FBI clearance in hand when you applied for the apartment, the landlord would forego the entire "background check" process just to save themselves the trouble.

Tor says:

I for one would be extremely suspicious of someone who offered their FBI background check along with their rental application. As with any other document, if you haven't recieved it from the Bureau yourself, it could be easily altered using a photocopy machine and microsoft word (and tape) or photoshop. Boingboing posted a while ago on electronic bording passes being altered to show a different name. This kind of document would be even easier to alter. The best way, in my opinion, to do this would be to check your background yourself, apply normally, and only if they discovered a criminal record in error, to provide a letter explaining the truth, and volunteering to provide back-up documents. You don't need to raise any red flags if you don't have to do so. Many landlords, unless they are desperate, will simply take a pass on a tenant who seems to have issues, after all, there are other prospective tenants out there.

Sanford says:

No one brought this up so I thought I would. Aren't their laws about denying for misdemeanors things like employment, credit and housing? It's my understanding that most or all of these things can only be denied for felonies or in some cases for misdemeanors that are what they call crimes of moral turpitude -- prostitution, theft. Drug crimes, assaults, DUI/DWI, other serious traffic violations are not crimes of moral turpitude, and these make up the bulk of misdemeanors. My wife does a fair amount of hiring in her job and they are prohibited from even asking about misdemeanors. Seems that when you can be denied housing for a past drunk driving charge or a cup throwing incident at a sporting event things are getting out of hand.

Tor says:

A number of states (including NY and Wisconsin) as well as some cities and localities prohibit some forms of employment discrimination against people with a criminal history.

Federal housing law prohibits generally discrimination based upon race, religion, ethnic background or national origin, sex, familial status (including having children or being pregnant), or a mental or physical disability. In addition, some state and local laws prohibit discrimination based on a person's marital status, age, or sexual orientation. However, I am not aware of any place in the US where a person is protected from housing discrimination based upon their criminal history - the cases I found, in fact, explicitly say that it is legal to ask if a prospective tenant has a crimnal history, and to base a decision on those grounds.

Also, while your friend should be able to get the online services to correct their records (a threat of a defamation lawsuit should work, once he/she has informed them that the record is incorrect) - he or she will never be able to totally expunge the federal records - NCIC (from what I understand) will not destroy fingerprint records even if the person is found innocent. That being said, their records will (should) indicate the true resolution of the charge - whether it was dismissed with prejudice, guilty or innocent.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:08:03 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dozens of new undersea species discovered off Indonesia

Researchers from Conservation International discovered dozens of new species in the water off Indonesia's Papua province. This epaulette shark (Hemiscyillum freycineti) walks around the bottom of the sea on its fins. From the Associated Press:

The team from U.S.-based Conservation International also warned that the area--known as Bird's Head Seascape--is under danger from fishermen who use dynamite and cyanide to net their catches and called on Indonesia's government to do more to protect it...

"Above and below water, it's simply mind blowing," (said Mark Erdmann of Conservation International.)

Erdmann and his team claim to have discovered 52 new species, including 24 new species of fish, 20 new species of coral and eight new species of shrimp. Among the highlights were an epaulette shark that walks on its fins, a praying mantis-like shrimp and scores of reef-building corals, he said.

Link

UPDATE: Fark's headline about this story and the shark that walks on its fins had me in stitches: "Knock. Knock. 'Who is it?'"

UPDATE: Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman reminds us that the Mark Erdmann was also co-discoverer of the Indonesian coelacanth in 1998. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:49:56 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Surveillance cameras that scold you

Surveillance cameras in Middlesbrough, England have been outfitted with speakers so that operators can yell at citizens who they see misbehaving. Other similar "talking" systems have been installed elsewhere. From the BBC News:

"For example, if an operative now sees someone dropping litter, they can tell them to pick it up, or if they see an incident starting to get out of hand, they can give advice that will hopefully nip it in the bud," (said Barry Coppinger, Middlesbrough Council's executive member for community safety.)

"I think that it will give people extra confidence as they go about their business and re-enforce the message that Middlesbrough is a place that is constantly thinking about community safety."

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:20:10 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Four-year-old drumming prodigy

Check out 4-year-old drumming prodigy Igor Falecki rocking the skins.
Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:12:18 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Murder suspect says he killed goat, not his brother

A man in the Nigerian village of Isseluku was arrested for killing his brother last week. The man's alibi is that he had actually attacked a goat with an axe and then it magically shape-shifted into his sibling's dead body. From the Associated Press:

Murder suspects in Nigeria, where many people believe in black magic, sometimes claim spirits tricked them into killing. In 2001, eight people were burned to death after one person in their group was accused of making a bystander's penis magically disappear.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:57:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wearable finger-forks

These £4 wearable utensils turn you into Edward Fingerforks. They're made of stainless steel and "Sharp enough to pierce your food but not enough to skewer your other fingers!" Link (via OhGizmo)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:08:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Canadians: HOWTO stop the Canadian DMCA, act now!

For the past 30 days, Michael Geist has been listing reasons why Canadians should be alarmed at Canada's proposed new copyright law, which will bring the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act to Canada's lawbooks. The DMCA has been roundly criticized as terribly upsetting the copyright balance, resulting in researchers being jailed and threatened with lawsuits, an unchecked expansion of the copyright monopoly into areas unenvisioned by law (region-coding, limiting compatibility), and a chilling effect on free speech.

Canada's DMCA, Bill C-60, is slated to be one of the first orders of business for the new Parliament. Today, Geist has posted a list of thirty things you can do to fight Bill C-60 in Canada. This is the make-or-break moment, when Canada decides whether it is going to follow the US down the same tiger-pit it fell into in 1998, giving American media and technology companies the legal tools to clobber Canadian culture and industry, or whether Canada is going to learn from America's mistakes and produce a copyright law for the digital century that promotes new forms of expression and creativity.

1. Write to your local Member of Parliament.  Letters (which are better than email) from just a handful of constituents is enough to get the attention of your local MP.  Contact information for all MPs is available here.  Online Rights Canada also provides an easy way to write to your local MP.
   
2. Write to the Prime Minister of Canada.  Contact information here.
   
3. Write to Bev Oda, the Minister of Canadian Heritage.  Minister Oda is one of the two ministers responsible for copyright policy in Canada.  Prior Canadian Heritage Ministers have been perceived to be close to U.S. copyright lobby groups and copyright collectives.  Ministry contact information here.  Minister Oda's contact information here.
   
4. Write to Maxime Bernier, the Minister of Industry.  Minister Bernier is responsible for the Copyright Act in Canada.  Despite the fact that Minister Bernier is viewed as a strong advocate of reduced government intervention, the rumour mill suggests that he supports DMCA-style reforms. Minister Bernier's contact information here.
   
5. Ask each political party where it stands on copyright.  Copyright policy could prove to be a divisive issue in the months ahead - ask each political party for their views on the issue.
   
6. Write to Canadian Heritage's Copyright Policy Branch.  The Copyright Policy Branch is home to a large contingent of bureaucrats focused on copyright matters.  Contact information here.
   
7. Write to Industry Canada's Intellectual Property Policy Directorate.  The IPPD is Industry Canada's counterpart on copyright policy, though it addresses a broader range of IP issues.  Contact information here (scroll to the bottom).

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:04:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Super Mario wedding cake to die for

Check out this stupendous Super-Mario-themed wedding cake, with three storeys of NES-inspired 8-bit-color graphic elements! Link (via Wonderland)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:26:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Vintage pix of grocery stores

This small gallery of vintage stock images of people working and shopping at grocery stores is remarkable for many reasons, not least because the retail space is to undesigned, as compared to the hyper-evolved money-removing mazes in contemporary groceteria. Link (via Neatorama)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:22:52 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Diebold voting machines opened with hotel minibar key

The key that controls access to a standard Diebold voting machine is a common key that can be ordered from the Internet, also used to open hotel minibars.

The access panel door on a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine — the door that protects the memory card that stores the votes, and is the main barrier to the injection of a virus — can be opened with a standard key that is widely available on the Internet...

Using such a standard key doesn’t provide much security, but it does allow Diebold to assert that their design uses a lock and key. Experts will recognize the same problem in Diebold’s use of encryption — they can say they use encryption, but they use it in a way that neutralizes its security benefits.

The bad guys don’t care whether you use encryption; they care whether they can read and modify your data. They don’t care whether your door has a lock on it; they care whether they can get it open. The checkbox approach to security works in press releases, but it doesn’t work in the field.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:18:25 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Flu, hernia, or police more likely to kill you than Al Qaeda

Ryan Singel at Wired News has produced an insightful little chart that compares the odds of dying from a terrorist attack to other causes of death in the United States. According to this data, Americans are more likely to be killed by a policeman than by a toothpaste-wielding foreign jihadist. Snip:

Comparing official mortality data with the number of Americans who have been killed inside the United States by terrorism since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma reveals that scores of threats are far more likely to kill an American than any terrorist -- at least, statistically speaking.

In fact, your appendix is more likely to kill you than al-Qaida is.

With that in mind, here's a handy ranking of the various dangers confronting America, based on the number of mortalities in each category throughout the 11-year period spanning 1995 through 2005 (extrapolated from best available data).

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:52:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

AOL will offer movie, TV, music downloads for Viiv PCs

News.com reports that AOL is expected to announce a deal with Intel this week to offer downloadable movies, television shows, and music for Viiv PC users. And according to early reports, you'll be able to watch the videos on any screen you like, unlike current editions of Apple's iTunes 7 and Amazon's Unbox. Snip:

Under the deal, AOL will let owners of Viiv PCs, an entertainment PC platform designed and promoted by Intel, to download episodes of "Welcome Back Kotter" and studio movies to the PCs, according to sources close to the companies. These consumers can then watch these movies on plasma TVs or LCD TVs. Consumers will also be able to download music, sources said. (...) Under the AOL-Intel deal, any screen works.

Link

Previously:
- Amazon Unbox to customers: Eat shit and die

Reader comment: Bryan Hurley says,

Just some constructive clarification thoughts. The ViiV PC is meant to be a media hub for the home, and connected to a Plasma TV or LCD TV already, running Windows XP Media Center as part of the ViiV definition. Therefore they can claim it will play on those displays. If you have iTunes or Amazon's service on your ViiV system setup like that then of course you can display those on those same output devices. Unless they say you can transfer it to another device or burn to DVD there is no difference because it is just how it is hooked up to your display.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:43:34 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dobro inventor's stringed instrument collection for sale

John and Rudy Dopyera's beautiful collection of stringed musical instruments is now for sale in its entirety. Not only aesthetically incredible, these guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, violins, and basses have great historical significance. John Dopyera is perhaps best known as the inventor of the Dobro and he and his brother's innovations helped shape the sound of most America music, from Blues and Hawaiian to Bluegrass and Country. From Elderly Instruments:

The Dopyera brothers were born in what is now Slovakia, and came to the U.S. with the wave of Eastern European immigrants around the beginning of the 20th century. (In fact, the word “Dobro” is both a contraction of “DOpyera BROthers” and the word for “good” in their native tongue.) Engineers, tinkerers, businessmen, and accomplished musicians (their family had a history of violin making going back centuries, and Rudy was by many accounts an exceptionally talented and soulful Gypsy-style violinist), the two Dopyera brothers combined their Old World skills and traditions with the booming technology and futuristic tastes in art of pre-WWII America. Who else thought that spun aluminum might be a good material for sound projection? Who else engraved beautiful Art Deco designs on the bodies of their guitars? Only the Dopyeras.

The unusual, experimental, and mostly one-of-a-kind instruments in this collection – John’s unusual (and spectacular sounding!) resophonic violin, Rudy’s balalaika-inspired Lullabyka, the Art Deco-influenced steel body uke and tenor guitar, even the actual workbench on which John perfected the fabled tri-cone resonator system – are uniquely American (and uniquely Dopyera) innovations.

Link (via Michael Leddy's Orange Crate Art)

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:14:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

World's greatest anime mashup

Last week I saw the most incredible piece of mashup video I've ever seen -- "The Race," a mashup of over 100 anime clips. It's characters from over 100 cartoons participating in a rotoscoped "Whacky Race," while high-octane music jabbers in the background. The creators at Istiv Studios graciously granted me permission to post a copy of the video online. Now you can see it too.

After a few minutes of editing i realize that, just putting characters in a race, make them run from a point to an other, should be boring. So i had the idea to put in it some "Chibi Things"-like fighting. Now my race became a fighting race. A sort of "Wacky Race" with participants, tricking, cheating, to win the great prize. I was prepared to do a lot of rotoscoping, but at this point i never imagined how much of cutings i'm going to do, to complete this project. After 1 year of editing, and many stops caused by boringness, world of warcraft or my Ph D. rush ... i finally finish the vid.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:20:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Geek reverse-engineers NYC pizza

Jeff Varasano, a software engineer, has completed a multi-year project to reverse-engineer the pizza recipe from his favorite NYC pizza-joint, Patsy's on 117th Street. He's got something he swears tastes just as good as the real thing, and his hacker's delight at having cracked this puzzle is plain to see from the grin on his face as he takes his pies out of the oven.

I've been off high-carb stuff like pizza for about five years now, but I always make an exception for my favorite pizza, the slices from Massimo's on College Street in Toronto, which are the most incredible food ever created, bar none. It's tough to limit myself to three giant slices when I go to Massimos, and I've actually had dreams about their food when I'm on the road. Not a dream, mind you, but recurring dreams. It's that good.

Pizaa does indeed enflame a geek's passion.

It's all in the crust. My dough is just water, salt, flour and yeast. I use no dough conditioners, sugars, oils, malts, corn meal, flavorings or anything else. These violate the "Vera Pizza Napoletana" rules and I doubt that Patsy's or any great brick oven place uses these things. I've only recently begun to measure the actual "baker's percents" of the ingredients. Use this awesome spreadsheet to help you. The sheet allows you to track your experiments. Here's a basic set of ratios. The truth is that a lot of these recipes look the same and that you can vary these ingredients by several percentage points and it's not going to make a huge difference. You really have to learn the technique, which I'm going to explain in as much detail as I can, and then go by feel. Really, I just measure the water and salt and the rest is pretty flexible. The amount of flour is really, "add until it feels right." The amount of Sourdough starter can range from 3% to 20% and not affect the end product all that much. Weights are in grams. I also show this as both "Baker's Percents" (This has flour as 100% by definition and then all the other ingredients as their proportionate weight against of the flour) and using the Italian method which actually makes more sense to me, of showing the base as 1000 grams of water and all the other ingredients in proportion to that. Both methods are attempts to make the recipes scalable.

Link (via Cnet)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:30:34 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Saturday, September 16, 2006

This Film is Not Rated - must-see doc about MPAA ratings

I just saw "This Film is Not Yet Rated" and boy, is it a fantastic piece of work. As you've no doubt heard, TFINYR is a documentary about the MPAA's censorious ratings system, whereby a secret group of "parents" meet to determine whether a given film is safe for kids to see. If they give a movie an NC-17 (no children under 17 admitted), it's a death-sentence: studios won't promote these movies (sometimes they don't even release them), most cinemas won't exhibit them, and Wal-Mart and Blockbuster won't carry them.

The MPAA's excuse for this is that it's an alternative to government censorship of films, but as director Kirby Dick shows, it's wildly implausible that such censorship would be found constitutional. The MPAA system treats independents as second-class citizens, issuing gnomic pronouncements about a film's suitability, while treating the big studios that own the MPAA with more solicitude, lavishing editorial suggestions on directors who've come under the thumb of the big six.

This Film is Not Yet Rated makes a compelling case for MPAA ratings system as a form of institutionalized, homophobic puritanism. The ratings board is quite relaxed about violence, especially extreme, gory violence, but takes a dim view of sex, and won't tolerate sex out of the missionary position, nor gay sex of any kind, nor any suggestion of women getting real pleasure out of sex. It's an eye-opening look at America's hidden values, where you can take your kids to see bad guys gunned down by James Bond, but not a lightweight teen-comedy about lesbian girls sent away to anti-gay brainwashing camp.

The movie revolves around the mystery of the MPAA's ratings process. Kirby Dick hires a likable middle-aged lesbian private eye who stakes out the MPAA's LA headquarters, writing down license plate numbers and war-dialing the MPAA voicemail system until she gets the names and addresses of all the "parents" on the ratings committee, some of whom are childless, or with grown children.

He then submits his film for rating, and it receives a predictable NC-17 rating. As this is an indie film, the MPAA won't provide him with specifics about their decision. He asks to have his rating appealed, and is put through an Orwellian process whereby the arbitrators of his appeal (who unanimously vote against him) are kept secret from him. Here his private eye comes to the rescue again, revealing that the neutral arbitration committee includes executives from the major studios (who are presumably easier on their own products than on those of powerless indies), and, incredibly, two members of the clergy.

The most incredible thing about this film is the filmmakers that Dick interviews. The creators of Team America, Boys Don't Cry, Gunner Palace, Dirty Shame, But I'm A Cheerleader, Jersey Girl and other movies that received NC-17s from the MPAA recount the incredible heartbreak of slamming into the immovable wall of MPAA ratings. They talk about making movies that they hope will change the world. They talk about having hope snatched away from them by a little clique of oligarchs who control 95 percent of the films released in the US.

After watching this movie, I wanted to support these creators. I walked into a video-store across the way and bought Boys Don't Cry, a transgender teen who was raped and beaten to death; Gunner Palace, a documentary about life in the US military in Baghdad; A Dirty Shame, a gross-out sex-comedy from John Waters, one of my favorite filmmakers; and But I'm a Cheerleader, a lighthearted comedy about a sexually curious teenaged girl sent to an anti-gay rehabilitation camp.

They all look like great movies, and they didn't get the chance they deserved.

The movie's got a special treat for copyfighters -- a whole section on copyright and piracy, featuring an interview with Larry Lessig (the movie