posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:50:54 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Cali Rezo's digital paintings

I work with a tablet and a pen directly on the computer. Besides, my crafting is quiet "traditionnal":

I use photographics references (I shoot everything that moves... and everything that does not also, haha !). I start with a sketch (with my electronic pen, huh, not on paper, no, no, no !)( and I don't draw ON the photo). Then I paint the light and dark flat tints. And I tune the color tints and the finess of the strokes.

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:12:34 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Grand Canyon bookstore still selling Creationist myth

Park officials have defended the decision to approve the sale of Grand Canyon: A Different View, claiming that park bookstores are like libraries, where the broadest range of views are displayed. In fact, however, both law and park policies make it clear that the park bookstores are more like schoolrooms rather than libraries. As such, materials are only to reflect the highest quality science and are supposed to closely support approved interpretive themes. Moreover, unlike a library the approval process is very selective. Records released to PEER show that during 2003, Grand Canyon officials rejected 22 books and other products for bookstore placement while approving only one new sale item — the creationist book...

Ironically, in 2005, two years after the Grand Canyon creationist controversy erupted, NPS approved a new directive on “Interpretation and Education (Director’s Order #6) which reinforces the posture that materials on the “history of the Earth must be based on the best scientific evidence available, as found in scholarly sources that have stood the test of scientific peer review and criticism [and] Interpretive and educational programs must refrain from appearing to endorse religious beliefs explaining natural processes.”

“As one park geologist said, this is equivalent of Yellowstone National Park selling a book entitled Geysers of Old Faithful: Nostrils of Satan,” (said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch.)

How old is the Canyon?

That's a tricky question. Although rocks exposed in the walls of the canyon are geologically quite old, the Canyon itself is a fairly young feature. The oldest rocks at the canyon bottom are close to 2000 million years old. The Canyon itself - an erosional feature - has formed only in the past five or six million years. Geologically speaking, Grand Canyon is very young. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:40:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Doll packed with pot

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:07:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, December 29, 2006

Saddam Hussein has been executed (and now it's on youTube)

At least two Arab-language television networks (Alhurra, US-based; and Al Arabiya, Dubai-based) are now reporting that Saddam Hussein was hanged in Baghdad at 10:05 PM Eastern Time. Reports say he was executed with two co-defendants.

Update, 1035PM ET: Iraqi state television (Al-Iraqiya) is now reporting the same, as are other Iraqi TV networks and Al Jazeera. CNN now reports that a senior US military official has confirmed.

Link to CNN's coverage, Wikinews here, evolving Wikipedia article here, New York Times coverage here.

Related: in the New York Times, a report on debate at television networks today over whether and how to broadcast images and video of the execution. In the age of abundant online video, it seems inevitable that explicit footage will soon show up on the internet. How does that -- or should that -- influence editorial decisions at television networks? Will they show greater restraint on-air than online? Link. Poynter is running a related column about the ethics of coverage: Link. Editor&Publisher has a similar item here: Link.

Update, Dec. 30, 11AM ET: Online and on-air, CNN is running stills and video of Hussein at the gallows just up to the execution, and "video captured by cell phone" of his corpse wrapped in a shroud, with the face visible. The NYT online is running similar video and stills, and the BBC seems to be running the same footage (with stills of the shrouded corpse). As I understand it, the footage comes from Iraqi state TV (Al Iraqiya -- screengrab of their website below), which did not broadcast the actual moment of death. It would be interesting to see a roundup of exactly what editorial choices the big Western media companies made, and whether any of them went with different boundaries on-air than online.

Nice to see Fox News staying classy: JPEG Link (Thanks Krolls)

Explicit images of Hussein's corpse and "unedited" cellphone video of the hanging (which includes the moment of death) have already shown up online in other places. A quick search on Google Video, YouTube, and other popular video services for "Saddam," "saddam hanging," or "saddam execution" yields abundant copies of both the phonecam and Al Iraqiya footage. The metadata some uploaders have added for the more explicit cellphone video is macabre: "Includes the drop!" (examples -- video links: 1, 2, 3, 4)

IMAGE below: screengrab of Al Iraqiya (Iraqi state TV) website (cropped): Link to full image.

Reader comment: Alf LaMont says,

The images of Saddam, and the notion that our country had a hand in such medieval barbarism were so disturbing, that I immediately sought solace in Matt Stone and Trey Parker's endlessly more amusing end for Saddam as a "Sandy Little Butthole" /Satan's consort. Link.

The BBC News 24 posted to their blog on their editorial choices: Link

Update, Dec 31: BBC is running a story on the fact that the phonecam video differs significantly from the "official" Al Iraqiya footage, which seemed to depict a quiet, dignified procedure. In contrast, the "unofficial" phonecam video shows Hussein being taunted and cursed at his death, and him taunting back, while camera flashes go off: Link, and here's their translation, though I understand that others would translate some of the nuances differently. The phonecam video would also appear to contradict some details of previous reports. Al Jazeera's English-language site is running a story on the footage here: Link. We don't know who shot it.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:09:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

BoingBoing's most-trafficked posts of 2006 (and all time)

What were the most-clicked posts on BoingBoing this year? Ken Snider, BoingBoing's sysadmin extraordinaire, dug into the stats to find out. Between that and our keyword logs, one thing is clear -- we really need to be doing more posts about britney spears' naked mesothelioma ipod video lesbian kissing torrents.

While we don't currently have a reliable way to determine which items were in fact most read by human eyeballs (or cyclops kitten eyball, for that matter), Ken did calculate which permalink urls received the most traffic. Here they are:

Top visited permalinks in 2006 (Stories from 2006 only):

(1) StarForce threatens to sue Cory: Link (669,311)
(2) Adorable cyclops kitten: Link (305,773)
(3) NBC nastygrams YouTube over "Lazy Sunday": Link (191,513)
(4) Facebook prank on police: Link (165,773)
(5) Anti-copying malware installs itself with dozens of games: Link (154,139)
(6) Coldplay's new CD has rules: No MP3s, no DVD players, no car stereos: Link (147,720)
(7) Diet Coke + Mentos = Rapid Carbonic Geyser: Link (141,649)
(8) Rumsfeld resignation summarized in Mac OSX screenshot: Link (139,487)
(9) Stephen Colbert kicks ass at White House press corps dinner: Link (136,691)
(10) SNL Natalie Portman gangsta video, braindead NBC: "viral" = "borrowed": Link (122,316)

Top visited permalinks in 2006 (Stories from all years):

(1) Microsoft "Genuine Advantage" cracked in 24 hours: Link (1,176,966)
(2) StarForce threatens to sue Cory: Link (669,311)
(3) HOWTO get something posted to Boing Boing: Link (371,114)
(4) Five years' worth of Boing Boing posts in one file!: Link (315,143)
(5) Adorable cyclops kitten: Link (305,773)
(6) BoingBoing traffic stats are back: Link (304,182)
(7) NBC nastygrams YouTube over "Lazy Sunday": Link (191,513)
(8) Solving and creating captchas with free porn: Link (173,134)
(9) Facebook prank on police: Link (165,773)
(10) Boing Boing has a linking policy: Link (155,332)

Ken adds,

Some other interesting stats for 2006:

There were 53,356,288 requests for the main page

The various RSS/Atom feeds were served 144,949,688 times

There were 385,629 views of BB's "Defeating Censorware" page

Reader comments: Michael Mason says,

Below are a list of some early posts I found while perusing the archives:

Somebody is launching an encyclopedia: Link

First mention of Cory: Link

Mark disses Hunter S. Thompson: Link

Cory's first post: Link

Cory's First Haunted Mansion mention: Link

400 Visitors a day: Link

Pesco's First Post: Link

Welcome Xeni: Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:48:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Giant arctic ice shelf liberated by climate change

The mass of ice broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 800 kilometers (497 miles) south of the North Pole, but no one was present to see it in Canada's remote north. Scientists using satellite images later noticed that it became a newly formed ice island in just an hour and left a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake.

Reader comment: Madeleine Begun Kane responds:

Ode To A Former Canadian Ice Shelf
By Madeleine Begun Kane

An ice shelf’s collapsed in the ocean.
Global warming’s far more than a notion
Dreamed up by Al Gore,
Though some wish to ignore
All the changes that greed’s set in motion.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:47:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

A tale of two social newsfilter sites: Digg and Newstrust

Two years ago, the inspiration for creating a Web site for news junkies hit two men with vastly different ambitions. One hoped to make boat-loads of money. The other dreamed of enriching American democracy by identifying trusted news sources hidden in the deluge of information available online. The latter turned out to be the tougher task.

Fabrice Florin, a successful technologist and a veteran of Apple Computer, launched the beta version of NewsTrust.net last month after turning 50 and deciding it was time to give something back to society.

Florin had founded three for-profit companies, but feared that if he focused on profits with NewsTrust "the public interest would get cheated.'' So he raised a small amount of money from donors and funded the rest himself.

Meanwhile, Kevin Rose, 27-year-old host of an obscure cable TV tech show, lost no time in launching Digg.com in October 2004. Rose's site lets people give a thumb's up or a thumb's down to stories other users had found on the Web and submitted to Digg.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:46:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

In defense of Noka: a monkey argues for fine chocolate

Internet celebrity monkey ("i'm small, i'm terry cloth, and i think i have a nice personality!") weighs in on the internet fistfight over luxury chocolate brand Noka (Previous BB post: Link). There's an interesting thread on this over at food forum "chocolateandzucchini" today: Link. Monkey's rebuttal after the jump.
More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:05:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

DIY centrifuge weapon from 1963 Popular Mechanics

BoingBoing reader Ted read our post yesterday on the Dubious Centrifuge Weapon, and says,

It immediately made me race down to the basement to my pile of old Popular Mechanics, specifically the November 1963 issue. I scanned it am sharing it here for BoingBoing readers. Now we can all build our own little electric centrifuge cannons! ;)

Previously on BB:

Reader comment: anonymous says,

That reminded me of this site, with a How-To on building a BB machine gun that uses a centrifugal chamber to accelerate the BBs: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:56:09 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

More on Google and the case of the disappearing sexblogs

Link to his post, which is very instructive reading for any blogger or website owner -- not just "adult" -- who wants to ensure their site is properly ranked in Google and other search engines. Background for the story on BoingBoing here and here.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:49:02 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Antique Denver blizzard photos

BB reader Mike says,

I like the pictures of a 1913 Denver blizzard that Flickr user etching has posted in his stream. (Just in his stream, not grouped, unfortunately.) It's a kind of silent editorial on the thousands and thousands of pics of the current mess. I didn't know that the buried car shot was actually a hundred years old, but I suspected as much. And I wish people still sledded down 8th Ave.

Previously on BB:

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:42:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Defensetech's top 20 posts of 2006

(1) Clowns Sabotage Nuke Missile
On Tuesday morning, a retired Catholic priest and two veterans put on clown suits, busted into a nuclear missile launch facility, and began beating the silo cover with hammers, in an attempt to take the Minuteman III missile off-line. Seriously.

(2) Look Out, Pyongyang? Rail Gun in the Works
One of the big selling points of the Navy's new destroyer is that it can rain a whole lot of hell -- 20 rocket-propelled artillery shells, in less than a minute -- on targets up to 63 nautical miles away... But really, that's the start. The ship's real power will come when it moves away from chemical powders to shoot its projectiles -- and starts relying on electromagnetic fields to shoot projectiles almost six kilometers/second, instead.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:04:02 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Web Zen: New Year's Eve music zen

Web Zen Home, Store (Thanks Frank!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:57:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Top 10 sex memes of 2006, by Violet Blue

Blogger and San Francisco Chronicle columnist Violet Blue shares this roundup of memorable moments in memehood with BoingBoing readers. Full text follows after the jump.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Top Ten Sex Memes of 2006
Violet Blue

Memes snake around and wind up on everyone's blogs, sites, get injected into inboxes and become just generally known by most without widespread recognition from a news or mainstream media site. They propagate, survive, spread and mutate, through a user-supported natural selection process. Typically -- and especially with sex memes -- they're too scary or NSFW to get any official traffic. And yet everyone finds out about them, and are fascinated for at least one solid minute. But the best part of sex memes, besides the weirdness and snarky wrong ironic humor? The gap between perception and reality is often a goatse-like chasm...

10. Celebrity Cooch Flash-A-Palooza
I'm just relieved that leatherface Joan Rivers isn't on the cooch-flashing bandwagon this year, but if trends continue through 2007, we'll be seeing that (no doubt) surgical wonder in no time. Pretending to flash your pantyless pundenda was the new black for starlets 85 lbs. and above and they made the webrounds like a coke-encrusted credit card in the Marmont bathroom. On the list: Pam, Paris, Britney (don't forget the "sex tape" -- *yawn*), Lindsay... even D-list porn stars like Mary Carey gave it a try (and gets a double "D" for effort).

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:48:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make Green Eggs and Ham

I do not like them on a website.
I do not like them day or night.
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Reader comment: Mike says,

As a side note, it is somewhat interesting to note that green eggs can be made without the use of food coloring. A little grape jelly will have the same effect (although not as profound).

Grape juice (and a number of other fruits and vegetables) contain molecules that act as a sort of litmus test. The molecules change pigment based on the PH of their environment. In the case of egg whites, it turns green (indicating a PH > 7). Link to New Scientist article.

Bob (The Surreal Gourmet) Blumer made a slightly more appetising 'Green Eggs and Ham' with prosciutto and 'Eggs' made from cantaloupe (for the green 'white') and honeydew (for the 'yolk'). Not a very literal interpretation, but one I'd rather see on my breakfast plate. Link.

There was a fantastic cafe in Mt Eden (Auckland, New Zealand) called Solla Sollew that offered green eggs and ham. Their version was 'green' simply by covering it a fresh herb pesto. It was absolutely delicious and I haven't tasted anything quite as good since.

The cafe itself was delightful, large artworks of Seuss characters around the walls, trippy murals on the toilet walls and on the outside of the building, Seuss books available to read, kids and dogs welcome. A real community-minded cafe which was closed by the new owners after 1 month and turned into yet another boring textbook cafe. The one thing that remains is the exterior mural (link). It makes me smile every time I see it. Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:36:02 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

World's largest superconducting magnet

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:16:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Vintage articles about living dinosaur hunts

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:57:42 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Berlin hacker fest talks include Apple FileVault analysis

Jacob Appelbaum updates us on what's happening at the annual Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin this week:

Ralf-Philipp Weinmann and I (with special guest hacker David Hulton) will be giving our talk "Unlocking FileVault - An analysis of Apple's encrypted disk storage system" ( Link )

Stream the video from Saal 1 at 11:30AM CET on December 29th (today!) in mp4, wmv, ogg video and ogg audio format.

Check out the CCC wiki for general streaming information at the 23c3.

If you're interested in FileVault ( Link ) this talk will present information never previously discussed.

A code release with slides will be available here after the talk is finished: Link.

I also wanted to send some other links of talks that are coming up at the congress... These are going to be amazing!

* Amit Singh - Software Protection and the TPM ( Link )
* Thierry Zoller & Kevin Finistere - Bluetooth Hacking Revisited ( Link )
* George Danezis - An Introduction to Traffic Analysis ( Link )
* Lawrence Lessig - On Free, and the Differences between Culture and Code ( Link )
* Luis Miras - Automated Exploit Detection in Binaries ( Link )
* Tina Lorenz - Pornography and Technology ( Link )
* Johannes Grenzfurthner - "We are great together, the liberal society and its enemies!" ( Link )
* Mitch Altman - TV-B-Gone ( Link )
* Fox Magrathea & Autumn Tyr-Salvia - Culture Jamming & Discordianism ( Link )

Previously on BB:
• To do in Berlin: 23rd Chaos Communication Congress
• Hacker-con videos: "150 hours of hardcode nerd education."
• Chaos Computer Club hacker con in Berlin (2005)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:51:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Report: HD-DVD copy protection defeated

On the doom9 forums there is news of a new tool to decrypt HDDVD's. How you get the key is not yet clear but there is a promise to have a tool to get the needed key later. (check the #9 post in the thread): Link, and related coverage at the Inquirer UK.

I was not aware of anyone having done that, so I did. Have a look. The AACS copy protection system is realy Unbreakable! The program is a simple implementation of the aacs crypto protocol freely available on the net. No reverse engineering! Stay tuned for source code soon! Merry Christmas everyone!

Snip from Reuters coverage:

A hacker known as Muslix64 posted on the Internet details of how he unlocked the encryption, known as the Advanced Access Content System, which prevents high-definition discs from illegal copying by restricting which devices can play them.

The AACS system was developed by companies including Walt Disney Co., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. to protect high-definition formats, including Toshiba's HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-ray.

Muslix64 posted a video and decryption codes showing how to copy several films, including Warner Bros' "Full Metal Jacket" and Universal Studios' "Van Helsing," on a popular hacker Internet blog and a video-sharing site.

The hacker also promised to post more source code on January 2 that will allow users to copy a wider range of titles.

Reader comment: A.V. points out that the HD-DVD DRM crack is not a crack -- but a hack that will stop working pretty soon:

Note that AACS has not been broken. All they did was copy the key from memory off WinDVD's software. Yes, this will let you copy HD-DVD for now, until the manufacturers revoke the key in the next batch of HD-DVD pressings. WinDVD will either have to get a new key or might get their licence canceled entirely, ending the product.

Of course if they get a new key, then it can be copied from memory again unless they start encrypting it in memory and then this program is useless.

So "backup" your HD-DVD's while you can, in a few months this program will be useless on newer releases.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:38:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fake moon dirt

"We need tons of it, mainly for working on technologies for diggers and wheels and machinery on the surface," adds David S. McKay, chief scientist for astrobiology at the Johnson Space Center (JSC)...

Source materials used to produce the three simulants will potentially come from locations as diverse as Montana, Arizona, Virginia, Florida, Hawaii, and even some international sites.

Initial lots will weigh just tens of pounds to ensure that the simulant is made correctly. "Eventually we will scale up to larger quantities when we can make sure that there is little variation from batch to batch," (NASA program manager Carole) McLemore said.

Once NASA understands how to make the various simulants, plans are to farm the work out to companies to produce larger batches. "We will have certification procedures in place for vendors to follow so users know that the simulants meet the NASA standards," McLemore said.

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:47:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Japan's dogs by design: cute mutants with genetic disorders

Rare dogs are highly prized here, and can set buyers back more than $10,000. But the real problem is what often arrives in the same litter: genetically defective sister and brother puppies born with missing paws or faces lacking eyes and a nose.

There have been dogs with brain disorders so severe that they spent all day running in circles, and others with bones so frail they dissolved in their bodies. Many carry hidden diseases that crop up years later, veterinarians and breeders say.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:18:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Second Life: Shirky pokes more holes in sloppy press coverage

Earlier this month, I wrote something about the uncritical reception Linden Labs was getting for its Total Residents figure. Turns out even I was not skeptical enough, and I put up a second piece digging a bit deeper.

The term Residents is even more inflated than I first thought, as something like 20% of the most recent million Residents have never been counted logging in.

The press reaction to Second Life was also more credulous than I knew. Linden is guilty of promoting a misleading figure, but the reporters covering Second Life are guilty of converting that figure into an outright falsehood:

Like a push-up bra, Linden's trick is as effective as it is because the press really, really wants to believe...

"It has a population of a million." -- Richard Siklos, New York Times

"In the Internet-based virtual world known as Second Life, for instance, more than 1 million citizens have created representations of themselves known as avatars..." -- Michael Yessis, USA TODAY

"Since it started about three years ago, the population of Second Life has grown to 1.2 million users." -- Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN

"So far, it's signed up 1.3 million members." -- David Kirkpatrick, Fortune

Professional journalists wrote those sentences. They work for newspapers and magazines that employ (or used to employ) fact-checkers. Yet here they are, supplementing Linden's meager PR budget by telling their readers that Residents measures something it actually doesn't.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:03:40 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

MSFT PR-donated Vista laptop on eBay, proceeds go to EFF

Laughing Squid is auctioning off the controversial Acer Ferrari 1000 Windows Visa laptop that was sent to Laughing Squid by Microsoft, AMD and Edelman. Proceeds from the auction will be donated to EFF.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:02:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Update on "Google 'disappears' sex blogs?"

Link to updated post (Danny and Violet's comments are at the bottom, scroll down please -- their arguments are really good stuff).

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:47:20 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Nerdcore shows in Vegas, January 8-9

Above, the lovely Miss MC Router (alternate link). Doesn't look like she's on the lineup, but she rocks.

MC Plus+ tells BoingBoing,

Bring in the year 2007 with performances from your favorite Nerdcore artists. It's happening January 9th and 10th in Las Vegas. Check out this link for details. The super nerdy lineup includes but is not limited to MCeeP, Fanatical, High-C, YTCracker, and of course your boy, MC Plus+ (along with Plus+'s most sworn nemesis, Monzy).

Previously on BB:

• Nerdcore for Life documentary - trailer
• Response to SNL video "Christmas Box" = "Boobs in a Box"
• Windows Vista: Suicide notes, nerdcore rap MP3
• New MC Plus+ album of nerdcore rapping
• Nerdcore rap: Attack of the Clonefucker
• Nerdcore artists to release nerd-rap compilation disc
• Fuck the MPAA - nerdcore gangsta rap song
• MC Frontalot: Nerdcore rapper

Reader comment: Doctor Popular says,

Nerdcore artist Beefy has recently released his new album "Tube Technology" -- Link. Although Beefy won't be performing at any of the Vegas shows, the album features artists such as Drown Radio and MC Router (pictured with her "g33k L1f3" tattoo). Beefy will also be headlining a nerdcore show in Portland the week following CES with TG, Drown Radio and more nerdy rappers.

Also, there will be a sneak preview of the new Nerdcore For Life documentary at the Consumer Electronics Show as well as performances by several other nerdcore luminaries on the DIVX stage.

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

Internet crime predictions for 2007

Internet users witnessed yet another wave of spam, worms, viruses and other online attacks in 2005, and experts predict the online world will grow even more dangerous this year. Few believe 2007 will be any brighter for consumers, who already are struggling to avoid the clever scams they encounter while banking, shopping or just surfing online. Experts say online criminals are growing smarter about hiding personal data they have stolen on the Internet and are using new methods for attacking computers that are harder to detect.

"Criminals have gone from trying to hit as many machines as possible to focusing on techniques that allow them to remain undetected on infected machines longer," said Vincent Weafer, director of security response at Symantec, an Internet security firm in Cuptertino, Calif.

One of the best measures of the rise in cybercrime is junk e-mail, or spam, because much of it is relayed by computers controlled by Internet criminals, experts said. More than 90 percent of all e-mail sent online in October was unsolicited junk mail, according to Postini, an e-mail security firm in San Carlos, Calif. Spam volumes monitored by Postini rose 73 percent in the past two months as spammers began embedding their messages in images to evade junk e-mail filters that search for particular words and phrases. In November, Postini's spam filters, used by many large companies, blocked 22 billion junk-mail messages, up from about 12 billion in September.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:38:08 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO disable your new, RFID-laden US passport

All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials – and hackers – to grab your personal stats. Getting paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here’s what you can do about it. But be careful – tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison. Not to mention the “special” customs search, with rubber gloves. Bon voyage!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:33:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Battelle revisits his own tech predictions for 2006

As you all know by now, each year I prognosticate, and each year I judge how I did. This year, well, I have to say, if the only thing I got right was that Time was going to put Web 2.0 on the cover ("You" was a proxy for that, trust me), I'd be happy. But overall, I think I did OK, though I was a bit early on many things. Here's the rundown.

Image: Bart Nagel.

Related posts on Battelle'sSearchblog:
• 2006 Predictions
• 2005 Predictions
• 2005 How I Did
• 2004 Predictions
• 2004 How I Did

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:01:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Department of Defense remakes Gilgamesh online

BoingBoing reader Sarah says,

In the vein of inappropriate/unexpected graphic adaptations of literature... my father, a psychiatrist with the Veterans Administration, alerted me to a new training video on the VA website that describes post-deployment health evaluation procedure... as an adaptation of GILGAMESH. What genius government employee came up with that one, eh?

There are some odd (though not necessarily helpful) synchronicities: Gilgamesh was the King of Uruk (now in Iraq). In the vid, his friend comes home from battle with Gulf War Syndrome (I'm guessing), and he with PTSD.

reader comment: someone whose name I accidentally deleted says,

Using Gilgamesh in a cartoon to explain "Post-Deployment Health Evaluations" sounds like a bizarre combination, but they're following a meme started by VA psychiatrist Jonathan Shay. His books include "Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character" and "Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming". Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:59:42 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Worst vlogs of 2006

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:56:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cloneburger with cheese, please: Cloned critters get FDA ok

Fans of cloned meat and dairy products -- c'mon, we know you're out there -- rejoice! The US government declared today that food products made from cloned animals is "safe to eat," and probably won't require labeling to disclose the fact:

After more than five years of study, the Food and Drug Administration concluded that cloned livestock is "virtually indistinguishable" from conventional livestock. FDA believes "that meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day," said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:29:47 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Silent but deadly: DREAD centrifuge-powered weapon

Update: this story's a year old, but it's making the rounds again this week after a Gizmodo post. A number of BoingBoing readers submitted it today, but it appears there's been much criticism of the concept since the original 2005 article. Read on, with skepticism or drool, depending on whether you believe the outlandish claims.

-------------------

The gun looks like an angry flying saucer, and the ammo looks like golf balls. A flying saucer that shoots golf balls should be funny. But 120,000 rounds per minute at .50 caliber makes that not one bit funny. Snip from defensereview.com:

Imaging a gun with no recoil, no sound, no heat, no gunpowder, no visible firing signature (muzzle flash), and no stoppages or jams of any kind. Now imagine that this gun could fire .308 caliber and .50 caliber metal projectiles accurately at up to 8,000 fps (feet-per-second), featured an infinitely variable/programmable cyclic rate-of-fire (as high as 120,000 rounds-per-minute), and were capable of laying down a 360-degree field of fire.

Reader comment: Tom says,

It's worth looking at the discussion forum thread on the DREAD weapon to read analyses on why this won't work. Also, a thread from another forum (Link) does a good job of summing up the flaws in the concept. My guess is that someone with posting rights to Gizmodo got a little overheated when they saw the video (which has been out for over a year and a half) and thought that it was something new.

Regarding the mythical 'Dread' centrifuge weapon - you should probably post this link, which does an excellent job of talking about how unlikely some of that company's claims are...

There are some serious issues with the physics of the 'DREAD' gun (linked to by BoingBoing recently. The comments on the suggested site (notably that of J-Star on February 20 @ 12:09:54) are absolutely correct in terms of the physics (though some of the numbers aren't quite accurate). In short, for the gun to have anything like the claimed firepower, it would be enormous and have huge recoil. Similar ideas _have_ been considered for non-lethal (low muzzle-velocity) guns to quell riots. Link.

A patent has been pointed out for this exact device. US Pat. #6520169 no-reg. link to patent: Link. It's an easy read. Strange but it seems not a hoax - although patents can lie too.

Previously on BB:
- Centrifuge as a weapon (2005)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:13:01 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

What's ahead in 2007? Predictions from 7 thinkers.

Here's a snip from what Chris Anderson (Wired, The Long Tail) had to say:

I'M WILLING TO bet that 2007 is the year that somebody figures out how to make video advertising work in a YouTube world. And if I'm right, the TV industry is going to get very rocky, very fast.

I doubt that the same disruptive force will hit movies, however. The big-screen home-theater boom created a market for high-def films, and that factor-of-10 increase in downloading time bought Hollywood another five years or so to figure things out.

WE WILL SEE migration of social applications as user-generated content moves to the WiFi environment. YouTube, MySpace and multi-user games will be available on hand-held devices, wherever you go. People will carry their digital assets much like their bacteria. Israeli tech guru Yossi Vardi calls it "continuous computing."

The nanotechnology world foreseen by K. Eric Drexler arrives in the form of MEMS, or microelectronic mechanical systems. Very inexpensive moving parts will be mass-produced like a semiconductor. But unlike semiconductors, they move. Useful for anything that employs moving parts.

Synthetic Biology pioneer George Church of Harvard University expects $3,000 personal genomics kits in stores.

"Pop Atheism" might include popular atheist TV and movie characters, professional athletes, political figures, etc. Look for the first billion-dollar IPO for the Web service that gets atheists together for "rituals," dating and political and business networking.

Previously on BB:

• Brockman: 40 years of "intermedia kinetic environments"
• More BB posts on Brockman (about 60 total)
• More BB posts on EDGE (about 50 total)

Reader comments: David C. Frier says,

Ballmer had this and this only to say about 2007, "You'll be back in control."

How viciously will this man have to insult his customers before they just go away? The Vista licensing agreement is being described as the "world's longest suicide note." Has Steve read it? Did you know that it goes WAY beyond DRM on content... to the extent of reserving the right remotely to disable YOUR hardware should MS decide at some time in the future that it's not up to snuff? "Back" in control? Does he imply that I am already out of control? Suppose I am, how much of that is due to his handiwork?

Never mind Steve. I have converted one of my old machines to Linux and so have begun the process of stepping away from my 23 years of MS experience to make his arrogantly worded prediction come true -- at least for me. By the end of '07 I hope to be running none of his products anywhere in my life.

(Note that this email comes to you from MS-Outlook, which may be the toughest drug of all to kick -- PDA synch is a Holy Grail.)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:19:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Google "disappears" sex blogs? UPDATED

-----------------

A number of bloggers who cover topics related to human sexuality say they've suddenly disappeared (or at least been deeply demoted) in Google search results. Popular "indie" blogs that deal with nonfiction sex ed or indie alt-erotica fare (Tiny Nibbles, Comstock Films, ErosBlog, and others) have suddenly vanished to much lower ranking in relevant search results -- even when you have Google's adult filter turned off. And in practical effect, being buried is just as bad as being filtered out entirely.

The drop appears to coincide with changes Google recently made to their keyword ad program, AdSense.

But here's what's so crazy: now, when you search for the missing indie sexblogs, the top results are icky porn spam blogs (aka "porn splogs").

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Violet Blue, also the author of newly-disappeared Tiny Nibbles, says:

What's disturbing to me (besides the harm it's done to small businesses over the holidays) is that Google's snafu seems to have dropped more sex-positive businesses (that focus on accurate sex ed) than big-gun, mainstream adult businesses (that sell unsafe sex toys and skanky product). To me, this also shows the huge problem with having a monoculture wherin a single business is depended on to provide a communication service. They screw one thing up, and an essential feature (like access to accurate search result information) disappears. (...)

It used to be that if you searched for Good Vibes, Comstock Films, Tiny Nibbles and Violet Blue, you'd get each of these sites in the top rankings or on the first page (SafeSearch off, natural results). No more. However, if you search for Adam and Eve or Vivid, you get the mainstream sex toy and porn sites on the first page.

So, as Tony Comstock explains eloquently in his post about how his indy film business has been seriously affected, if people read about any of these entities in a magazine and then go to search for them, searchers don't find what they're looking for. Unsafe sex toys and "interracial" porn from huge companies, no problem, but books and toys from women-owned sex-positive healthy sex businesses? No.

And Valleywag writes:

Some word Violet wrote probably triggered a Google ban, inadvertently, but the search engine's rules are opaque, as is the procedure for an appeal against deletion. You think there are other search engines, so that's okay? There are no other search engines.

Reader comments:

Geno says,

You've probably heard this from a million people already, and the Boing Boing post touches on it tangentially ("you'd get each of these sites in the top rankings or on the first page "), but just in case: tinynibbles.com isn't *gone* from the google search, it's just somehow been demoted to around number 50.

This doesn't change the effects on the sites, and I agree that what's happened is a bad thing, but just for precision's sake, it can't be an out-and-out ban. I don't know enough to speak authoritatively about the math of it -- and I'd guess you are surrounded by people who can -- but the first thing that comes to mind is a change in the ranking algorithm.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:00:33 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Knitting mathematics

Mathematics has long been an essential tool for the fiber arts. Knitters and crocheters use mathematical principles—often without recognizing them as such—to map the pattern of a cable sweater, for instance, or figure out how to space the stitches when adding a sleeve onto a jacket.

Now, the two crafts are returning the favor. In recent years, mathematicians such as Osinga have started knitting and crocheting concrete physical models of hard-to-visualize mathematical objects. One mathematician's crocheted models of a counterintuitive shape called a hyperbolic plane are enabling her students and fellow mathematicians to gain new insight into startling properties. Other mathematicians have knitted or crocheted fractal objects, surfaces that have no inside or outside, and shapes whose patterns display mathematical theorems.

"Knitting and crocheting are helping us think about math we already know in a different light," says Carolyn Yackel, a mathematician at Mercer University in Macon, Ga.

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:02:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Chocolate-obsessed blogger's exposé on costly candy, Noka

BB reader Egg Syntax says,

Noka makes obscenely expensive chocolate ($2080/lb in small doses). This superb exposé from a very, very serious chocolate geek reveals that they buy widely-available chocolate and remold it at up to a 6,956% markup. Excellent reading and a good reminder that price is often not proportional to quality.

I can't speak to the veracity of the claims in this exhaustive (10! part!) investigative series, but I couldn't stop reading it. I don't even care much about the subject in general -- I hardly eat sweets at all, myself -- but the scientific references and geeky specificity made this a riveting read. It's more about economics and the psychology of luxury goods than chocolate alone.

Reader comment: Steve says,

I just recently purchased chocolates as a gift. It was a six pack for $10. That's about $1.70 a chocolate. This is to say, chocolate is expensive. The price per pound listed in the article is deceiving because that's the type of mark-up you get when you sell products in such small amounts. Plus, you don't buy those types of chocolates by the pound. Anyone who really enjoys chocolate would be more than willing to spend up to $2 or $3 for a piece. I thought that blogger came to some ridiculous conclusions.

I read the Dallas Food article in question a few days ago, and while the author does occasionally fail to take into account the fairly standard practice of marking up an item if sold in small quantities, the end conclusion is far from invalid, as reader Steve commented. Noka is re-selling chocolate to which they have added no value at a considerable markup, even when similar or same quantities are involved. The chocolate in question was purchased by the author from Chocosphere.com, who offers the exact chocolate mentioned in the article for $7.50 per bar. Indeed, the author notes, "So, if you buy Noka's 48-piece Vintages Encore box for $100, you're getting about the same amount of chocolate you would have gotten by buying one 100-gram Bonnat bar at a retail price of $7.50. That's a markup of more than 1,300% over the retail price."

Just because reader Steve bought an unidentified $10 box of chocolates doesn't make his argument valid (if anything it makes it worse), and he doesn't appear to have read the article in question, as his criticism is addressed directly in the original piece.

Steve said, "The price per pound listed in the article is deceiving because that's the type of mark-up you get when you sell products in such small amounts. Plus, you don't buy those types of chocolates by the pound. Anyone who really enjoys chocolate would be more than willing to spend up to $2 or $3 for a piece. I thought that blogger came to some ridiculous conclusions."

I think that Steve is missing the point. When we compare Noka's prices for a four-piece box to, say, Recchiuti's, we see that Noka's price is 60% higher, and you only get 1/7 the amount of chocolate. This would perhaps be justified if there were something extraordinary about Noka's chocolate (or if they were adding a great deal of value to it) but, as the article exhaustively demonstrates, there's not.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:26:48 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Knit your own Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo

Previously on BB:
• South Park creators: download our shows!
• South Park: Make Love Not Warcraft
• South Park: Flying Spaghetti Monster, Richard Dawkins
• More South Park-related posts on BB (about 80 of 'em)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:06:48 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wanted: your Michael Crook blog harassment testimony

10 Zen Monkeys, the blog hosted by Laughing Squid which is currently at the center of the EFF lawsuit against Michael Crook, has just put a call out for Michael Crook DMCA war stories in order to help in the case against him. Link to post soliciting your documentation.

Crook is a deranged, serial troll, and his behavior is consistent with that of someone who craves attention, no matter how negative. But what does matter is the fact that the DMCA is so poorly conceived and written that even the nuttiest, most deranged of trolls can abuse it into silencing constitutionally-protected online speech.

For instance, others might use the same tactic to chill political speech: what better way to see to it that your opponent's campaign ads are yanked from YouTube a week before the elections? Laws this broken need to be fixed.

Related BB posts:
• Michael Crook sends bogus DMCA takedown notice to BB
• EFF Sues Michael Crook for Bogus DMCA Claims
• RU Sirius show about EFF suit against Michael Crook
• Ethan Ackerman schools us on DMCA and ISPs' obligations
• Troublemakers enjoy harassing sites with bogus DMCA
• EFF fights another DMCA abuser
• HOWTO protect yourself from "The Craigslist Experiment"

Reader comments: Anonymous says,

YTMND does Crook: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:49:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Scanning license plates to identify delinquent parking violators

San Francisco isn't the first city to use the license-plate scanning technology. Oakland uses it to find stolen vehicles. San Francisco just added the stolen car data to its system last week.

The system isn't perfect. The cameras don't capture all license plates because some are tilted at the wrong angle or too dirty to read.

The cost of software and equipment for one of the specially outfitted Department of Parking and Traffic vehicles is about $92,000, (said James Lee, assistant director of enforcement for the Department of Parking and Traffic.)

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:04:59 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sara Lanzillotta's fabric freaks

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:56:09 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Scott Teplin's floorplan art

My buddy Scott Teplin has a show coming up in Paris on Jan. 13th to feb 20. I really dig his work. For a while now, he's been doing drawings of three dimensional letters, filled with different substances. This has evolved into letters and abstract shapes drawn as axiometric floorplans for strange clubhouses filled with mysterious and enigmatic devices. It's like detention-room doodling, done by a pre-adolescent supervillain.

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:32:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Internet access in Asia disrupted by Taiwan earthquake

中国电信称，据我国地震台网测定，北京时间12月26日20时26分和34分，在南海海域发生7.2、6.7级地震。受强烈地震影响，中美海缆、亚太1号、亚太2号海缆、FLAG海缆、亚欧海缆、FNAL海缆等多条国际海底通信光缆发生中断，中断点在台湾以南15公里的海域，造成附近国家和地区的国际和地区性通信受到严重影响。

China Telecom has confirmed that, according to China institute of earthquake monitoring, at Dec 26, 20:26-20:34 Beijing Time, 7.2 and 6.7 magnitude earth quake have occurred in the South China Sea. Affected by the earthquake, Sina-US cable, Asia-Pacific Cable 1, Asia-Pacific Cable 2, FLAG Cable, Asia-Euro Cable and FNAL cable was broken and cut up. The break-off point is located 15 km south to Taiwan, which severely affected the International and national tele-communication in neighboring regions.

据悉，中国大陆至台湾地区、美国、欧洲等方向国际港澳台通信线路受此影响亦大量中断，国际港澳台互联网访问质量受到严重影响，国际港澳台话音和专线业务也受到一定影响。

It was also reported that communication directed to China mainland, Taiwan, US and Europe were all massively interrupted. Internet connection to countries and region outside of China mainland became very difficult. Voice communication and telephone services were also affected.

中国电信称，受余震影响，抢修工作遇到较大困难，加之海缆施工具有一定难度，预计影响还将持续一段时间。

China Telecom has claimed that due to the aftershock of the earthquake, the repairing works would be very tough. In addition undersea operation is also not easy to handle with. So this phenomenon is going to exist for certain period.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:39:59 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Santarctica: Santas going bananas in Antarctica

This is how people at McMurdo Station in Antarctica keep from going crazy celebrate their craziness during the holidays. Above: a dude in a reindeer costume pauses for a moment of reflection. With a bunch of colored balls. At the South Pole. Photos, blog post. (Thanks, T.bias, via Wayne's list)

Related BB posts:
• Santarchy in Antarctica (2003)
• Will the real Antarctic Anti-santa please stand up? (2003)
• More Santarchy in Antarctica (2003)
• Astronaut in Antarctica to conduct fun experiments (2006)
• More archive posts about Antarctica

Reader comments:

Jonathan Moore points us to a description of the "blue balls," which are actually an art project called Stellar Axis. Wow, Art in Antarctica! snip from the description:

Stellar axis is a giant art piece depicting the 99 brightest stars in the southern hemisphere. blue fiberglass spheres of various yet relative sizes represent the stars - with sirius being the largest. they are arranged as they are in the sky, in forms of constellations as they are when the solstice occurs. only we don't see the night sky here, therefore we don't get stars, but either way, it is beautiful, the contrast of cobalt and ice shelf. locally, the spheres had become known as 'blueballs.' ("hey sandwich, you really have to go out there and check out the blueballs... they're amazing!") the installation is about a 45 minute ride from mcmurdo, out on the ross ice shelf, near pegasus runway.

Related: Artist McKendree Key's earth art with balls at Lake Camplain. Her website here. Her work at Caren Golden Fine Art here. It would be a stretch to say there is a preexisting tradition of ball art similar to what the Santa's came to on their own, though certainly there are other examples of earth artists who use that shape in their work ( Andy Goldsworthy being the best example) but you can certainly see that artists also have an affinity for the form and are making things like the Santa's are doing.

McMurdo Station is not actually at the South Pole but on Ross Island, which is some distance from the pole and at a more reasonable altitude. Also it's Summer, so the place isn't as crazy-inducing as you might think. At least, that's what I gather from my brother, who's been there a couple of times (and is on his way there now). As for the picture, some people just have more Christmas spirit than others. And more blue balls.

Here's a more "blue collar" look at how people unwind / maintain sanity at McMurdo. The Science outposts down there are, in fact, more construction site than laboratory. Link to BigDeadPlace [ Ed. note: Yeah, we've blogged these guys before! Link 1, Link 2 ]

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:27:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

The Little Book of Hindu Deities

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

Mark's video picks on ABC News

Previously on Boing Boing:
BB video favorites

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:03:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Response to SNL video "Christmas Box" = "Boobs in a Box"

Link to MC Slutsky's "Boobs in a Box," from Geek Entertainment TV. "The track was laid down by Drown Radio aka Doc, a San Francisco electronic music artist and Nerdcore MC, who also directed the video for MC Slutsky’s musical debut." (Thanks, Violet)

Not that anyone cares, but here's my response: Duck in a Box. Make her open the box.

UPDATE: BoingBoing's Mark Frauenfelder and About.com editor Jennifer Emick *both* reminded me that Hustler's Larry Flynt once published a photograph of of Pat Boone sticking his junk in a box: Non-worksafe image link (contains nudity). As I recall, someone found the polaroid in a dumpster and sold it to Flynt. "And that was back in the '50s," says Mark, "What an innovator Pat Boone was!"

Related BoingBoing posts of yore: Link.

Reader comment: Doctor Popular says,

Regarding Boobs in a Box, here is a site with instructions on creating your own DIY BIAB: Link.

Valie Export performance art 1968 (predates current gift giving trend): [Export's] Famous feminist performances in the late 1960s include Tapp- und Tast-Kino ("Touch Cinema"), performed in ten European cities in 1968-1971. In this avowedly revolutionary work, Export built a tiny "movie theater" around her naked upper body, so that her body could not be seen but could be touched by anyone reaching through the curtained front of the "theater". (Link)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:49:56 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Oil pipeline tapping in Nigeria

CNN reported today that over 200 people in Nigeria died today from a massive explosion and fire resulting from a tapped oil pipeline. VQR's Winter issue (in the mail as we speak) features a portfolio of essays on oil in Africa, and in light of today's news, we're posting in advance John Ghazvinian's important essay "The Curse of Oil." It offers some important background on the little-known practice (at least in the West) of pipeline "tapping" and on the larger issues of oil development and revenue in Africa.

Reader comment: Mark J-L says,

A good friend of mine is a photographer for the Baltimore Sun, and he shot for a story on Oil in Nigeria. It's a multi-part story with a pretty good set of pics (related story and links to pics in the right column). Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:37:01 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wikipedia founder Wales launches search project (CORRECTION)

CORRECTION: Jimmy Wales tells BoingBoing that the Times UK article excerpted below contains an important error:

"Amazon is a recent investor in Wikia, but they have nothing to do with this search project."

- - - - - - - - - -

Snip from Times UK article:

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, is set to launch an internet search engine with amazon.com that he hopes will become a rival to Google and Yahoo! Mr Wales has begun working on a search engine that exploits the same user-based technology as his open-access encyclopaedia, which was launched in 2003.

The project has been dubbed Wikiasari — a combination of wiki, the Hawaiian word for quick, and asari, which is Japanese for “rummaging search”.

Mr Wales told The Times that he was planning to develop a commercial version of the search engine through Wikia Inc, his for-profit company, with a provisional launch date in the first quarter of next year. Earlier this year he secured multimillion-dollar funding from amazon.com and a separate cash injection from a group of Silicon Valley financiers to finance projects at Wikia.

Wikiasari.com currently redirects here: Link, and on that site, Mr. Wales explains:

Search is part of the fundamental infrastructure of the Internet. And, it is currently broken. Why is it broken? It is broken for the same reason that proprietary software is always broken: lack of freedom, lack of community, lack of accountability, lack of transparency. Here, we will change all that.

There have been some amazing projects in recent years which have matured now to the point that a new alternative is possible. Wikia is funding and supporting the development of something radically new.

Nutch and Lucene and some other projects now provide the background infrastructure that we need to generate a new kind of search engine, which relies on human intelligence to do what algorithms cannot. Just as Wikipedia revolutionized how we think about knowledge and the encyclopedia, we have a chance now to revolutionize how we think about search.

Help me out, spread the word. I am looking for people to continue the development of a wiki-inspired search engine. Specifically community members who would like to help build people-powered search results and developers to help us build an open-source alternative for web search.

Reader comment: Dan Harper says,

You probably already know the blog "Evolving Trends" has been writing on the Semantic Web, and said back on June 26, 200, that Wikipedia is best positioned to really make the Semantic Web take off, and unseat Google. Link. Maybe this is the way the Zeitgeist is blowing.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:04:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

In case you missed it: NRA's wacky graphic novel (UPDATED)

While visions of sugarplums and Wiis danced in your head over the holiday, blogs were abuzz over a promotional graphic novel attributed to the National Rifle Association of America (The NRA).

In short: Wonkette posted jpeg scans from a digital copy sent in by an anonymous tipster. Elsewhere, some at Daily Kos and a popular gun law forum (and, for a while, me) expressed doubts over authenticity (c'mon, it was so far-out! lobsterrorists!). Then, Wonkette shared the original doc with BoingBoing (PDF link), a Wonkette commenter determined it appears to have been illustrated by Chris Gall, and everyone agreed -- not a hoax (though we're still awaiting response from the NRA). Here's a link to the updated BoingBoing post with embedded blog-drama, and there are fresh posts at Wonkette (Link), Kos (Link) and the CA-CCW forum (Link). And below -- readers say Adobe Reader reveals what are apparently hidden notes from the NRA assigner to the illustrator.

IMAGE: Brochure excerpt. Guns will protect you from tsunamis. Who knew?

Previously on BB:
• Fear-mongering graphic novel attributed to NRA (UPDATED)

Reader comment: Josh Larios says Adobe Reader reveals "hidden" notes in the NRA pamphlet:

If you use the text selection tool in Adobe Reader and highlight some of the half-page graphics in the recent NRA illustrated pamphlet, you can cut and paste into a text editor to see some of the instructions to the illustrator for those pages. That last page with the tsunami was originally supposed to be very different:

Idea: Good (American values) and evil (anti-American influences) are locked in a final, titanic moment of combat, and the reader must act now.

Concept: Iconic evil non-American figure with blazing torch seeks to overpower and set fire to American flag defended by iconic American muscular warrior. Good guy has death grip on bad guy's throat and on the torch, which has already caused the flag to smolder. The balance of power is dangerously equal; neither combatant has advantage.

Vann Hall adds,

I downloaded the complete PDF and noticed 'placeholder' comments still located 'beneath' some of the images. (Quark layering, perhaps?) In any case, the artist followed most image concepts pretty closely, although he *did* un-Jewify (or maybe un-Scrooge-McDuckify) the recommended Soros image a bit, and what is now the closing 'guns against tsunamis' image was originally imagined as a bit more Captain Marvel-y. Per-page text, and my comments [wvh], follow.

(4) Idea: George Soros (God like) sitting on stacks of money, guns burning all around him. [wvh: Final image is a falsely pious Soros; actually looks more like a liver-spotted Walter Mondale.]

(6) Idea: Globalist one-world anti-American types want to reduce our quality of freedom to that of the rest of the world. Concept 1: Globalist holding blue earth in one hand and crumpled-up Bill of Rights in the other. Concept 2: Globalist holds globe, from which the U.S. land mass has been plucked, oceans pour into the resulting void. Cutline will help explain this. [wvh: Concept 2 was the one used.]

(12) Idea: Brutal, door-to-door, armed gun confiscations. Concept: Four burly armed SWAT-equipped pol body-slam a fragile 71-year-old lady to the floor of her modest kitchen to wrest and recover her opened, non-threatening pearl-handled revolver. Cutline explains this illustration depicts a true event that happened in post-Katrina New Orleans (see attached frame grabs).

(14 - 15) Idea: When disaster triggers collapse of society, all that stands between your family’s security and chaotic crime is a firearm. Concept: Night scene of a horrifically ravaged middle-class neighborhood – by hurricane or tornado or riots or terrorist act – abandoned by police and left powerless against violent mayhem by roving gangs. A lone father stands guard over his home, wife and children with a shotgun.

(20) Idea: Criminal gangs are in all communities and of all races. Concept: Clearly Asian, black, white and Latino gang members. [wvh: Not sure which one of these brownish individuals is supposed to be white, though.]

(29) Idea: Good (American values) and evil (anti-American influences) are locked in a final, titanic moment of combat, and the reader must act now. Concept: Iconic evil non-American figure with blazing torch seeks to overpower and set fire to American flag defended by iconic American muscular warrior. Good guy has death grip on bad guy’s throat and on the torch, which has already caused the flag to smolder. The balance of power is dangerously equal; neither combatant has advantage. [wvh: Final version has nice, white, nuclear family (albeit 1.1 kids short) peacefully watching an approaching tsunami in the final moments before it sweeps them away.]

Just a comment on the NRA pamphlet -- from a reluctant life NRA member. The most important thing in the pamphlet, the concepts, are right out of the NRA playbook, leading me to believe this is the real deal. Globalized gun bans, Hillary, Soros, Schumer and the animal rights depictions and mentions are their main points of argument in their mailings, magazines, and telemarketer phone calls.

It would appear that this is a new concept to lure those younger folks on the fence about the issue into the fold. I get all of their garbage in the mail, and will chime in, should it arrive...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:46:34 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

To do in Berlin: 23rd Chaos Communication Congress

Last year BoingBoing posted some info about the "Chaos Congress" here in Berlin, Germany and I haven't noticed any mention of it this year. This "hacker" convention is excellent and I've really been looking forward to it all year. I went last year because of a link suggested on Boing Boing and I loved it. Many of the talks are in English and the people there are super. I highly recommend stopping in even if someone is simply passing through the city. There is definitely no need to be a hacker and any technology interested person will find the speakers interesting. There is some info and a few links to help travelers find cheap places to stay in Berlin on the congress' web site.

Among the many fine presenters scheduled are Annalee Newitz (link to session), Lawrence Lessig (link to session) Jacob Appelbaum (link to session), Seth Schoen (link to session), Johannes from monochrom (link to session) and Joi Ito (link to session). The opening keynote will be delivered by Tim Pritlove and John Perry Barlow (link to session)

Previously on BB:
• Hacker-con videos: "150 hours of hardcode nerd education."
• Chaos Computer Club hacker con begins in Berlin

UPDATE: Jacob Appelbaum says folks are uploading photos to Flickr with the tag "23c3": Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:45:58 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Treasure Chests book from 1967

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:29:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Disney Designer's Fun Park Plans for Three Mile Island

BB reader Justin says,

After the 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, Disney theme park designer Art Riley jokingly proposed repurposing the site as an amusement park - seen here in this concept art found recently on Ebay.

Reader comment: Mike Outmesguine says,

I happened to catch this news that Unit 1 from Three Mile island (TMI-1) was shut down earlier this month for a few days "due to a grid disturbance" which probably means problems with the delivery of energy to the electrical grid. It's operating at full power now providing 850 Megawatts. (Link). Unit 2 is the reactor that had the meltdown in 1979 and as of 1993 is permanently shutdown and defueled. (Link)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:11:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Govs & Gadgets: Swashbuckling Hiram Bingham III and autogiro

Continuing in our series of official US lawmaker portraits that include objects of a technological persuasion...

• Jeb Bush post
• John H. Sununu post

Oh, I'll see your Blackberry and raise you an autogiro.

Hiram Bingham III barely qualifies for your Governors' Gadgets Derby; he served, owing to peculiar circumstances, as Governor of Connecticut for exactly one day in 1925. His career in the U. S. Senate was longer and more distinguished. But he is best known as an archaeologist, since he discovered the forgitten Inca city of Macchu Pichu. See this link.

Anyway, Bingham was a pilot and an enthusiastic promoter of aviation. For a photo of him posing in front of the U.S. Capitol, climbing out of his autogiro after a quick game of golf, see this link. For an impressive photo of the same aircraft against the Capitol dome, see this link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:55:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Source of Nouveau Black print by Shepard Fairey

If you ask me, Fairey's use of Moser's art is really cool. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:49:26 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Early history of computer role playing games

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:39:39 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Robots and girls photo gallery

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:32:58 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Teapot synchronicity story

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:28:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Alexander Graham Bell's ginormous kite, 1920

BB reader Octal Khan says,

I scanned this photo from a 1920 National Geographic I bought for my dad for Christmas (he was born in 1920). Inside was an article about Alexander Graham Bell, widely regarded as the inventor of the telephone. Bell was also a supporter of aerospace engineering research and experimented with box kites and wings constructed of multiple compound tetrahedral kites covered in silk, including ones big enough to carry men aloft. This picture of a giant ring kite really caught my eye.

Reader comment: Mark Eckenweiler says,

Note that Bell also designed & successfully tested the first wireless telephone – in 1880, a full 15 years before Marconi’s groundbreaking work in radio. (I wrote a short piece for WaPo last year on the 125th anniversary of the field test: Link )

Patents here: 1, 2.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:17:17 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Iranian president's blog wishes you merry Christmas

From the happy-fun holiday greeting on Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's weblog:

If Jesus Christ (peace be upon Him) was present today, he would order an encounter against those who would propagate corruption, obscenity and perversion, and try to nullify and exterminate the merits and the rights of women and diminish their position – a position that virgin Mary (peace be upon Her) – is their role model and sample.

Previously on BB:

• Iran's president taunts US... on Ahmadine-blog?
• Ahmadine-blog is not a hoax.
• Iranian president Ahmadinejad's hairstyling tips for men
• Censorware in Iran: latest crackdown on bloggers

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:42:24 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

More US governor official portraits with gadgets

I was visiting with Gov. Lynch of NH recently and saw this in his outer waiting room. This portrait of John Sununu [former governor, not the senator] conspicuously shows his trusted PC behind him. He probably sat for the painting in 1988 or '89.

Reader comment: Jeff Gates from Outtacontext.com says,

Am I the only one who thought, at first glance, that was a portrait of Bill Gates done in the style of a politician's official portrait? -g Now that would make a great series: what if...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:11:06 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wireless hacker pleads guilty, Google searches used as evidence

Court documents are ambiguous and don't reveal how the FBI discovered his search terms. That could have happened in one of three ways: an analysis of his browser's history and cache; an Alpha employee monitoring the company's wireless connection; or a subpoena to Google from the police for search terms tied to his Internet address or cookie.

Google has confirmed that it can provide search terms if given an Internet address or Web cookie, but has steadfastly refused to say how often such requests arrive. (Microsoft, on the other hand, told us that it has never received such queries for MSN Search, and AOL says it could not provide the information if asked.)

This isn't the first time that Google search terms popped up in a criminal case: Last year, prosecutors in a North Carolina murder case introduced as evidence phrases culled from a seized hard drive. The defendant was found guilty in part because he searched for the words "neck," "snap," "break" and "hold" before his wife was killed.

Reader comment: Craig Ball ("Attorney and Technologist, Certified Computer Forensic Examiner") says,

In your post today, [Declan McCullagh] identifies three ways by which prosecutors may have come by the accused's Google searches. I believe [he] failed to mention the most likely means (though [he] likely meant more-or-less the same thing when you mentioned browser History).

There are several places in a Windows/Internet Explorer environment where users net activity is recorded other than in the History, the cache (Temporary Internet Files) or the Cookies folders. In particular, the most likely source turned up during a computer forensic investigaton would be the index.dat files used by the sytem to, among other things, manage net cache. These durable records permit second-by-second reconstruction of web activity, though their contents must be decoded. A Google search would be carried as a URL, and the search terms would be included in the search string. Even when the system deletes an index.dat file, it can be carved from the unallocated clusters and brought back for analysis. It's a great forensic resource.

Another little known sources for net activity are the User Assist keys in the system Registry. These Rotation-13 encoded data also walk an investigator through network activity, and the interesting thing about the User Assist keys is that, insofar as I've been able to discern, they have no clear purpose in supporting user activity. Rotation-13 is really high security encryption of the sort you might have devised in third grade. All letters are rotated 13 places in the alphabet. It's just enough encryption that users who stumble across the key won't recognize the content or find it in a text search.

Welcome to my world.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:50:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fanmade rock aria for NASA mission: "Spacewalker"

I know Nihar Patel from his production work with the NPR News program "Day to Day" (I'm a contributor, and have had the privilege of working with him on reports). But I've just discovered that he's also a singer-songwriter in a yet to be named geek music genre.

He wrote a kitschy, nerdy fan homage to the Discovery STS-116 mission -- think Bowie's Space Oddity meets Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, but more dumbtastic:

Space Shuttle Discovery touched down on Friday. On this mission, astronaut Robert Curbeam made a record FOUR spacewalks. As a tribute to Curbeam, enjoy this rock aria featuring lyrics and vocals from Nihar Patel, and music from The Alan Parsons Project. It's titled "L'morte du Spacewalker."

It's not Filk. It's not nerdcore. It's starschlock, and it's fabulous.

Image (NASA): Astronaut Bob Curbeam prepares to replace a faulty TV camera outside the International Space Station during the mission's first spacewalk.

Related BoingBoing posts:

• Orbital dandruff on NASA TV: watch solar array retraction
• Google and NASA sign partnership agreement
• NASA's Space Gallery of Printed Works
• More NASA-related BB posts

Reader comment: Freddie Freelance says,

Haven't you heard of the music Genre called Space Rock? Hawkwind? Flying Saucer Attack? ?!? Maybe we could get Mr. Patel an opening slot at NEARfest 2007?

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:52:09 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tree-griefer mauls holiday display, stagedives Xmas (video)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:23:22 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, December 25, 2006

James Brown, RIP: Christmas in Heaven.

The Godfather of Soul died today. He was 73. James Brown was one of the most influential figures in American pop culture history. Link to Wikipedia bio, and here's coverage in the NYT. Here are some links to vintage video of him in performance: Eyesight, Super Bad, I Feel Good, It's A Man's World, Please Please, Sex Machine, at the Olympia, Soul Power, Ed Sullivan, and an unusual TV interview (shorter clip here) Mr. Brown did when he was in a chemically altered state of consciousness after having been released from jail.

Reader comment: Andrew Tonkin says,

FYI James recorded a song called "Christmas in Heaven" (Amazon Link) - creepy man, it's like he KNEW.

Scott Eric Kaufman says,

If you haven't, you ought to read the article Jonathan Lethem (author of the superlative Fortress of Solitude) wrote on Brown for Rolling Stone.

WFMU did an amazing six-hour special on James Brown on Christmas exactly five years ago, streamable from their archive in a variety of formats and bitrates: Link

Loudersoft's servers are overloaded now, so BB readers can't get to that James Brown MP3. However, it's available via Coral's servers: MP3 link

This youtube link is Eddie Murphy doing James Brown. This bit turned a lot of young folks on to James when he wasn't at a really high point in his career. It arguably was the basis for James' 1980s-'90s comeback.

This youtube video is a great and weird link of him making a Japanese soup commercial. Good bye you old funkmeister.

The man behind that six-hour WMFU set, music journalist Douglas Wolk, also wrote a short but excellent book (Amazon Link) about "Live At The Apollo", one of the best live albums ever recorded. Despite not being a big James Brown fan, I really enjoyed it. Douglas will also be doing a short piece about Brown tomorrow on Democracy Now.

Another James Brown-related item few people are aware of: JB (James Brown)-style roller skating (YouTube link). Originating in Chicago, this style of skating responds to the unique rhythms and breaks of James Brown's music. Groups of JB skaters hit a different rink nearly every night of the week to show their stuff. On Thursdays at "The Rink" on 87th St, or Sunday nights at Glenwood, there's barely room on the floor. I discovered the JB skating scene (and rediscovered Brown's music) when I was training to try out for a roller derby league. My only regret about making the derby league is that I no longer have time to see (I am nowhere near agile enough to "do") JB skating.

If you're in SF on any Sunday don't miss the skaters in Golden Gate Park dancing like those in the JB youtube video. I had no idea it was called JB skating, just that it is amazing to watch. I took my son (6) to the park recently and one of the skaters took him under her wing and was holding his hand as he skated around with all of the other dancers/skaters. He had so much fun and even started doing his own moves. The skaters are incredible athletes and nice folks to boot!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:05:02 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Merry Petsmas

A snapshot of cavity-inducing sweetness from my friend and NPR News colleague Farai Chideya. She explains, "That's my hand, since I'm taking the pix -- my goddaughter Leah, and my friend Carol holding one of her 15 fuzzy animals."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:45:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Hacksaw cake for jailed pal

Previously on Boing Boing:
Prisoners' Inventions: MacGuyver meets the prison system

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:15:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Liveblogging Christmas: Turduckencam 2006

BoingBoing reader Scott says,

For the second year in a row, my friend Erica and her mother and her father have conducted Turduckencam for the holidays. In case anyone doesn't know by now, a turducken is a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey. All three layers of meat are separated by layers of different filling. Mmmmm! No clue if they then plan to stuff it into a goose, then an emu, and then an ostrich...

As for the food, I've always been wary of anything on a plate that begins with the letters T-U-R-D, but hey, whatever floats your holiday boat. Also, a question: is the vegan version of this called a tofucken? Just asking.

Reader comment: louisiana refugee sez,

Please school these people a bit more about turducken. its a Louisiana thing, ya herd? Links: 1, 2, 3, 4

TofuRkeys are great, but this recipe has been going around in vegan circles for years: Link. People who've had both tend to say the home version is far greater.

Here is a link to a ten bird roast recipe that Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall (yes, he's posh) did on River Cottage. "You need a whole free range turkey... and a whole goose (6-7kg). And then a selection of 8-10 smaller birds..." The Beeb are doing well with back-catloguing what people want to see again. So watch the short vid (QT or WM).

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:48:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Old FBI memo: "It's a Wonderful Life" is commie propaganda

FBI documents from 1947 show that government officials once believed the Christmas movie classic "It's a Wonderful Life" was Communist propaganda. About the FBI memo titled "COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY," Blogger Will Chen writes,

I love It's a Wonderful Life because it teaches us that family, friendship, and virtue are the true definitions of wealth.

In 1947, however, the FBI considered this anti-consumerist message as subversive Communist propaganda (read original FBI memo).

According to Professor John Noakes of Franklin and Marshall College, the FBI thought Life smeared American values such as wealth and free enterprise while glorifying anti-American values such as the triumph of the common man.

Link. 1947 was the same year in which the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) began investigating suspected Communist influence in Hollywood. This led to the blacklisting of many directors, writers, and other talent. More background on that: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:05:13 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Snowed-in Denver airport viewed from above (photo)

Here's a Santa's-eye view of Denver International Airport, where many people -- including some BoingBoing readers! -- have been snowed in over the past week. The airport has reopened, but flights are still snarled. Hang in there, guys, and hope you get to where you're going soon.

Ashley Niblock took this incredible photo. (Thanks, Jacob Appelbaum!)

Update: wow, here's a side-by-side comparison of the same site with and without snow: Link (from mo.murrey).

Reader comment: Denver area resident Chris Lynn says,

Here are some photos of the Blizzard that hit the Denver area this week. I particularly like the one of my car buried in the snow.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:40:10 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Weird 1895 Christmas card: chihuaha with a rifle

Speaking of guns -- an anonymous BB reader says, "Nothing says holiday cheer like a chihuahua with a rifle. This Christmas card, dated 1895, might be the oddest ever." Yo quiero lead. Link

Reader comment: Michael says,

Another bizare 'Pro-NRA/SantaVsTerroist-SuicideBomber/TerroistVsBabyJesus' etc card I came across is linked here. The chihuaha may have been the root of all this? I swear, it gets stranger all the time.

The sheer strangeness of that chihuaha card motivated me to slap together an animated christmas greeting: Link. Happy Christmas!

The chihuahua/gun Christmas card reminded me of this super creepy card that my dad received at his business last year. I thought it was just the sort of thing you guys would appreciate in all its disturbing glory. Flickr link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:39:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fear-mongering graphic novel attributed to NRA (UPDATED)

Update: (Tue., Dec. 25): More here.

Update (Mon., Dec. 25): This is not a hoax. I've been updating this item for a few days with reader comments debating authenticity (see bottom of post), and I'm now confident it's legit. Wonkette kindly shared a copy of the original PDF with us Sunday, and here it is: PDF LINK. Based on that, and copies of the Jan. 2007 cover of NRA magazine "America's 1st Freedom" uploaded by people who say they're NRA members (Link to scans), and illustrator Chris Gall's website -- I don't see any reason to doubt. Thanks to everyone who wrote in. On the internet, I guess it's better to be too skeptical than too prankable. Thanks also to the solid guys at Wonkette for yet another great scoop (BTW, now that it's written by two manly he-dudes, I think they should gender-correct the name... Wonkero ? ).

----------------------

Wonkette has published sneak peek scans from a new "graphic novel" attributed to the NRA to promote membership (don't miss the image alt tags.)

The illustrations are terrific. Above: With their mutant critter hordes of lobsters, islamofascist deer, and TNT-totin' owls, razor-eschewing hippie chicks who've escaped from R. Crumb comix are coming to burn down your white suburban home. And ye shall know them by the tracks of their Birkenstocks.

At left: your television is controlled by fire and drool-spewing ghost-ogres from Japanese fairy tales.

Link to scans from the Jack-Chick-esque "Freedom In Peril: Guarding the 2nd Amendment in the 21st Century," attributed to the National Rifle Association of America (I contacted the NRA to request confirmation, but have not yet received a reply).

For the record, I'm a firm supporter of second amendment rights. But I'm also fond of tofu and terror-chickens. (thanks, Vann Hall!)

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:39:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Web zen: Winter Zen

• ice recordings
• perserve a snowflake
• snow globes
• martin + munoz
• line rider
• die at the slopes
• pimp my nutcracker
• flying spaghetti monster lights
• fruitcake
• xmas kitten
• don't die ding
• mission snowdriftland
• charlie brown christmas performed by scrubs

Web Zen Home, Store (Thanks Frank!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:35:01 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Egyptian temple in GA from Nuwaubian Nation of Moors destroyed

From the most recent issue of Oxford American magazine:

In Putnam County, Georgia, a religious sect known as the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors operated for years while repeatedly defying local authorities. Ultimately, their property was seized. Soon after the raid, photographer A. Scott gained access to the compound to document its eerie and fascinating iconography.

You saw the two pyramids as you rounded the bend in the highway. They were several stories high, rising above the Georgia pines. One was black and one was golden. If your car windows were rolled down, you could hear an ummmmm coming from unseen speakers.

As the road made another bend, the entire complex came into view: the sphinx, the temple of the bull-god, the groves of fake palm trees, the thirty-foot-high golden ankhs, the rows of statues of animal-headed Egyptian deities, and—in some ways strangest of all, given the setting—a billboard that read JOHN 3:16. This was Tama-Re, the compound of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. These photographs were taken shortly before the place was bulldozed. The Nuwaubians are an offshoot of the Nation of Islam. Dwight “Malachi Z.” York founded the group and led its members. (...)

York was convicted of child molestation and racketeering in 2004. He is currently serving 135 years. The federal government seized Tama-Re.

Reader comment: Mutant Rob corrects the original title of this BB post:

Nuwaubian Nation of Moors is not a sect of Nation of Islam, but of the Moorise Orthodox Church (from which Nation of Islam branched off).

Forget Sun Ra - the Lost Children of Babylon are the real faithful of Dr. Malachi Z York, of the Nuwaubian faith. Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:30:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Overclock your infant: babymod with tinfoil processor cooler

BoingBoing reader Michael says,

This is what every parent needs, geek or not -- a tinfoil water-cooled hat for overclocking your baby! Sure, technically the cap is sold as a solution for a serious cooling deficiency in some newborns, but I think we all know that's just a cover story for the underground baby modding scene.

Reader comment: Sarah H says,

The coolcap isn't for correcting a cooling deficiency, it's to lower the temperature of a normal baby who's having a difficult birth to well below normal. Lifelong disabilities like cerebral palsy can be caused by insufficient oxygen supply to the brain during birth, and the coolcap lowers the brain's temperature to reduce its oxygen demand. While overclocked babies make a witty headline, you might also mention that the company who created it demonstrated that it seriously reduces the chance of death and major neurological disability! Link.

I'm a Googler, and our new Google Patent Search gives even more insight into this oddity: Infant Brain Cooling Device!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:16:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Windows Vista: Suicide notes, nerdcore rap MP3

BB reader Henrik says, "I wrote a raptune about two nerds who wait for Windows Vista. The project is called n00b Killaz and Henrik Persson was the writer, performer and producer. Mårten Olsson was the mixer. All in good fun!" MP3 Link. I like it!

Previously on BB:
• Lore Sjöberg riffs on Vista EULA
• Vista license improves, but still broken
• Vista DRM is bad for Microsoft
• Vista licence: Microsoft's abusive relationship with you
• More (about 45 posts) on Vista in BB archives

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:13:47 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Warren Ellis to write weekly SL column for Reuters

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:59:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Omakase linkdump: Merry Craftsmas

A roundup of festive crap sent in to BoingBoing by you, dear readers:

• Evil Christmas Carols (audio). How beautiful! With "sinister" key changes to minor, they sound menacing, like soundtracks to silent movies about damsels in distress on Christmas eve.
• Weird nativity in FL retirement community, above (WTF? Raelians?)
• Scientific formula for blink-free holiday group photos
• War on Moisture: TSA bans snowglobes on planes
• Top 10 DIY Christmas trees
• $600 upside-down Christmas tree
• Flickr pool: your strangest holiday ornament
• Roombas singing Christmas carols (video)
• Rankin-Bass Santa + Rudolph rescued (previous BB post)
• 101 Classic Christmas Videos

• Gingerbread Katmari Damacy (above)
• Video: horribly Bad Star Wars Christmas: part 1, part 2
• Ultraviolent Star Trek holiday office diorama
• Baby Jesus kidnapped, returns with snapshots
• A Very Cthulhu Christmas (audio)
• More Ctholhiday cheer: Scary Solstice (audio)
• sf-themed holiday story collection (+ 2, 3, 4, 5)

• Newtonmas crafts (above): holiday tree topper, costume
• Iranian political asylum applicant mom jailed in NC after applying for permit to sell street art (BB reader Pembdasi, who submitted this item, says, "I am her half-brother. I just found out about this today, the day before Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas I suppose.")
• Silent choir sings "Silent Night" in sign language
• Retro ads: shopping mall Santas arriving by copter, parachute
• Zanta, holiday cult figure in Toronto. Here's more.
• Boymongoose: 12 days of Christmas, Indian-style (video). Re-blogged by popular demand -- everyone I've showed this to in person squeals, then emails it to 20 people. About: Link, and you can buy the boy-band's "Christmas in Asia Minor" album online, in CD or download form: Link. Includes such classic carol faves as "Hark the Herald, Angel Singh," and "We Are Wishing You A Merry Christmas."

(Thanks and happy hols, Huw Bowen, Rob Nachbar, Tim Shore, Dave Topping, Mark Vadnais, John/Disney Blog, Scott, Wil, Justin, Human, Mark Wu, Paul Campbell, Tay, Tobias, Robn, Stef, Jacob Appelbaum, and Santa's Helper!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:38:44 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, December 22, 2006

The New Hampshire mystery stone

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Mystery of the Bayer Stone Head

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 06:52:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Unretouched photograph of long horse

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Photos of extinct long-horse
• Long horse on Wikipedia
• Balinese long horse

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 06:48:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Welcome home, Discovery STS-116

Link to image gallery, more media including audio, video, and text reports here: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:07:26 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cats + Wiis = wiikitty.com

Link. (Thanks Raian)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:49:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

US judge rules: no links to webcast if copyright owner objects

U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay in the northern district of Texas granted a preliminary injunction against Robert Davis, who operated Supercrosslive.com and had been providing direct links to the live audiocasts of motorcycle racing events. Lindsay ruled last week that "the link Davis provides on his Web site is not a 'fair use' of copyright material" and ordered him to cease linking directly to streaming audio files.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:27:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Letters "asdf" stand for junk video: "shitteoblogging"

here's some of my favorite shitteos called "asdf." i guess the main thing that ties all these films together is that the people that posted them thought so little of their work that they just titled them by hitting the four "home position" keys under their left hand- pretty much the default "word" you type when you have nothing at all to say but you have to fill in a text box anyway.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:24:17 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

FL gov. Jeb Bush's official portrait includes his Blackberry

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:06:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

NPR "Xeni Tech": US losing war of web to terror groups?

Researchers exploring the so-called "Dark Web" analyzed 86 websites from groups labeled as terrorist orgs by the US government, using data mining software. In a report titled "Analyzing Terror Campaigns on the Internet," a team of tech and culture experts from several US universities compared them to 92 US state and federal government websites. The researchers determined that the government sites lagged behind in advanced web technologies. In short, they said, the terrorist groups demonstrated greater sophistication in their use of Web 2.0 tools.

I filed a story about that report for today's edition of the NPR News program "Day to Day," and spoke to one of the authors, Dr. Jialun Qin of the Univ. of Mass., Lowell. Does he believe the American government is losing a "war of websites" against terrorist organizations in the Middle East? Well, not exactly. Snip from transcript of Qin's comments:

According to some studies, the US government is the best in the world in terms of using the internet to communicate with the general public. So it's not a problem of the government, really -- the government is doing a pretty good job. The problem is that the terrorists are learning very fast, they're taking advantage of a lot of different new technologies including the internet. The US government has to improve its usage of internet. The terrorists surprised us.

Also in the segment: James Ellis of the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, a nonprofit group in Oklahoma City funded by the Department of Homeland Security. I asked him if he believed the government should be doing more to shut down these sites, as some have argued -- significantly, the report states that some portion of the activity ends up being hosted on servers inside the United States at one point or another. Ellis said:

It's more complicated than people realize. The information is transient. When you shut down a site, it doesn't go away, that community doesn't go away. In some cases, it can be more helpful to leave a site intact so you can monitor the activity, and watch it over time... watch them develop as indicators and warnings. It's like cutting off the head of a Hydra -- it's just going to pop up somewhere else.

Image: Left, a web graphic on one of the sites in the report. The poster depicts Abu Mus’ab Zarqawi, and the text says "Emir Zarqawi, may God save him. Eagle of Iraq, volcano of Jihad, and the beheader." Right, the NPR segment includes audio from the Al-Anbar website, which offers "holy war" hymns in an audio section.

Also on today's edition of "Day to Day," an amazing interview my colleage Neal Carruth put together -- this one is truly a must-listen:

Sunni Insurgents Launch TV Channel
Sunni insurgents in Iraq are running a 24-hour television channel, called Al Zawraa. The channel shows attacks on Americans and Shiites, as well as violence committed by Shiite militias. Saad Qasim, a translator in NPR's Baghdad Bureau, talks with Alex Chadwick.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:23:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fun way to browse Google Image Finder

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Photographs from the Arkansas State Prison 1915-1937
• Japanese cosplay photos
• Photographs of pregnant animals

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:52:26 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Giant squid caught by Japanese

A Japanese research team has succeeded in filming a giant squid live -- possibly for the first time -- and says the elusive creatures may be more plentiful than previously believed, a researcher said Friday.

The research team, led by Tsunemi Kubodera, videotaped the giant squid at the surface as they captured it off the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo earlier this month. The squid, which measured about 24-feet long, died while it was being caught.

"We believe this is the first time anyone has successfully filmed a giant squid that was alive," said Kubodera, a researcher with Japan's National Science Museum. "Now that we know where to find them, we think we can be more successful at studying them in the future."

Related BB posts:
• Unusual photo of large squid in parking lot
• Giant squid caught on film for first time
• Squid biomass exceeds human biomass
• More squid posts on Boing Boing

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:38:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Japanese game show features food prepared by scantily clad cooks

Related: Boing Boing video picks for 2006

Reader comment:

Brian says:

Regarding the "Japanese game show features food prepared by scantily clad cooks", it is a popular weekly　variety show known as Pu-Sma. The show has two hosts, Yusuke Santa-Maria and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi (of the pop group SMAP), additionally each episode will include two or more celebrity guests that will join in on the fun.

Yusuke is well-known for his passion of all things "Ero", so the show often exhibits scantily clad young women in one situation or another.

Each episode features a different competiton that takes place between the two hosts and their special guests. If the competition involves the purchase of something, the loser of the competition must pay for whatever items were used during that particular episode. The expensess can easily get into thousands of dollars that come directly from the losing team's wallets.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:46:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

BB guns for Christmas!

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:37:54 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

A brief history of Sex.com: all crime, no sex.

The only thing missing from the Sex.com story is a dead stripper found with a rubber alligator lodged in her throat -- though, by all estimates, to add this to the URL's outrageous legacy wouldn't be a huge shocker. It would only be adding some sex to the mix -- especially considering the Sex.com story includes a fugitive seized by U.S. marshals, hard-luck convicted felons hiding millions in Mexican shrimp farms and strip clubs, the fugitive's daughter caught smuggling over 200 pounds of pot, one multimillionaire dot-com scammer speed fiend with a Stanford MBA, a bizarre bid to buy Caesars Palace and a recent Tijuana gangland-style assassination attempt on a lawyer (nicknamed "The Toad") that left a Mexican cabbie and a 4-year-old boy wounded.

Like mobile-home scammers in Florida and billboard plastic surgeons in Los Angeles, URL grifters are part of the sleazy yet entertaining Bay Area tech-industry zoo. And so when a guy like Gary Kremen snags URLs like Match.com and Sex.com and dabbles in brokering far-reaching Web page patents and "Internet consulting" while (according to a 2005 CNN interview) working on a nice speed habit, he just sort of blends in with the rest of the money-grubbing, VC-chasing dot-com herd. Like most startup cowboys, Kremen sat on the Sex.com URL as an undeveloped property -- until a con man named Stephen M. Cohen came along and swindled VeriSign/Network Solutions out of Sex.com with fast talk and forgeries.

Previously on BoingBoing:

• Sex.com: a url worth dying for?
• Sex.com sells for over $14M,"adult social network" to follow
• Sex.com's CEO is suing Yahoo
• Verisign will have to pay for sex.com mistake
• High-tech companies need high-tech lawyers.
• More on sex.com in the BoingBoing archives

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:19:26 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make etched brass steampunk journals

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:29:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Photo of happy pots on a stovetop

Related: Interesting perceptual illusion with faces | Mr Angry and Mrs Calm optical illusion | Excellent purple dot illusion | Optical illusion's effects last overnight | More illusions on Boing Boing

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:14:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Surgeon with bleeding suitcase stopped at airport

(Local medical officer of health Dr. Derek) Bell intends to refer the incident to the Medical Council because of the potential for injuries to bag-handling staff from sharp objects inside the bag, and the risk of exposure to blood and body fluids.

Mr Walker said the instruments were safely inside steel trays and he always asked patients beforehand if they had infectious conditions such as Aids or hepatitis. He declined to disclose what operation he performed at the Queenstown Medical Centre.

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:05:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Record labels sue the bejeezus out of AllofMP3.com

Started in 2000, the Web service, which charged just pennies per song and roughly $1 for an album, established its legality by claiming that it complies with Russian copyright laws, and that it distributes royalties through, and is licensed to sell its music by something called the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society.

Of course, that body was not officially recognized outside the country, and the legality of the business plan was hotly debated even inside Russia, but while that was being sorted out, the service grew to become what the United States Commerce Department called the world’s highest-volume distributor of online music.

The service quickly began suffering death by a thousand cuts this year — with Visa and Mastercard refusing to process payments for AllofMp3’s parent company, Mediaservices, earlier this year. Then last month, Russian authorities agreed to move to shut down the music service, after the United States gently suggested that such a clear and constant violation of international copyright standards could hold up Russia’s acceptance in the World Trade Organization.

Previously on BoingBoing:

• AllOfMP3 loses Visa account, switching to ad-supported
• US Trade Representative bends Russia over on copyright
• Is it legal to buy songs from Russian MP3 sites?
• USA: Russia can't enter WTO unless it shuts down AllofMP3
• Russian MP3 site given thumbs up by investigators
• Archived BoingBoing posts about AllofMP3.com

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:45:34 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Torrid tale of NBC, FCC, and Conan's manatee fetish site

There was only one problem: as of the taping of that show, which concluded at 6:30 p.m., no such site existed. Which presented an immediate quandary for NBC: If a viewer were somehow to acquire the license to use that Internet domain name, then put something inappropriate on the site, the network could potentially be held liable for appearing to promote it. In a pre-emptive strike inspired as much by the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission as by the laws of comedy, NBC bought the license to hornymanatee.com, for $159, after the taping of the Dec. 4 show but before it was broadcast.

Conan being Conan, he and the late-night team soon built out and launched a bogus porn site at that address, all about horny manatees. Radar Magazine ran a followup item, pointing out that...

There are no FCC regulations that required NBC to buy the domain. "We have no regulations dealing with URLs," says David Fiske, an FCC spokesman. "I don't know what they're talking about, frankly."

"Yeah, the Times overstated that a bit!" wrote Marc Liepis, a spokesman for the show, in an e-mail, explaining that NBC has a policy of registering domain names mentioned on-air not to comply with regulations but "to prevent others from registering sites that our talent mention, then trading off our intellectual property."

Reader comment: Glenn Fleishman says,

"NBC bought the license to hornymanatee.com, for $159," More importantly -- "bought the license," what are we in the 1950s dot com world or something? Did they buy the license for all the internets? Where they smoking the drugs when they paid the $159?

According to Conan O'Brien, they licensed it for 10 years for $159, which isn't great but ain't too shabby. We posted a video clip of Conan explaining the whole thing here: Link

...And Andy Samdberg was on Late Night last night and attempted to converge the very viral "Dick in a Box" SNL Digital Short with HornyManatee.com by showing "Fan Art" he'd done of him and the Manatee with their dicks in festive, gift-wrapped boxes.

Here's the link to "Dick in a Box" (Link), though postings of which appear to be disappearing from YouTube as we speak, even though Samberg said last night that NBC had sent it to YouTube. Not THIS again...

NBC does in fact have an official YouTube account, under which they posted the uncensored version of Dick in a Box, among other things. So maybe they only half-understand how this viral video business works. Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:23:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Greatest cartoons of all time (video link roundup)

Cityrag has compiled video links for a list of The 50 Greatest Cartoons as voted on by the animation industry in 1994. Here's an excerpt:

1. What's Opera, Doc? (1957)
2. Duck Amuck (1953)
3. The Band Concert (1935)
4. Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953)
5. One Froggy Evening (1956)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:26:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Top Ten Creepy Fossils of 2006

1. Volaticotherium antiquus - Ancient Gliding Beast.

Discovered in Mongolia, this little half a pound squirrel-like animal is a whole new order of animals. It is a mammal that glided 70 million years before any other mammals—and maybe before birds flew.

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:35:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bloggers shrink the planet: report from New Delhi

Quinn Norton files a report from the Global Voices Online conference in New Delhi, India, where about 100 bloggers from more than 25 countries gathered last weekend:

Exciting things happen when dedicated bloggers from around the world meet for the first time. For Briton Rachel Rawlins, being introduced to Tunisian exile Sami Ben Gharbia was the chance to meet a personal hero.

Gharbia is the creator of the Tunisian Prison Map -- an idea inspired by a New York Times interactive map charting murder locations in New York City. Gharbia turned the concept on its head: Instead of showing government figures on crime, he'd display where his former government was behaving criminally, imprisoning political dissidents for daring to speak out.

When you click on a place-mark on Gharbia's Google Maps mashup, a pop-up reveals details, stories and videos of prisoners and their families. The map is compelling and provocative, and it's one more reason Gharbia, who now lives in the Hague, says he can't go home.

The site is "the best advocacy tool I've ever seen anywhere," gushes Rawlins, managing editor of Global Voices Online, an international citizens' media group that held its second annual summit in India's bustling capital last weekend.

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

Watch snow accumulate in Great Colorado Blizzard of 2006

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:02:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Barbara Rushkoff's new parenting blog

From where I stand, in the middle of Park Slope, I’m almost urban, not quite suburban, and alls I can say that the farthest thing on my mind is trying to be cool.

Here's the thing. I remember when Mamie was 6 months old I went out and spent $32 on a Sex Pistols t-shirt for her. Here I was imposing my youth on her, like my punk days would show everyone how cool my kid was. How cool I was. So can I tell you how stupid I felt when nannies at the local playground would look at me and ask me about the shirt.

”Well, it’s this band that I used to love.”

I didn't mention that the only time I listen to Never Mind The Bullocks these days is when I clean the house. Punk rock man, yeah. (Isn't John Lydon like 60 now anyway?) But saying that sentence I realized the shirt had nothing to do with my kid, and everything to do with me trying to show everyone what kind of parent I was trying to be. Which is so wrong.

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:27:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Second Life griefers assault real estate millionaire Anshe Chung

A bunch of griefers in Second Life staged a members-only metaverse assault on "virtual real estate tycoon" Anshe Chung yesterday, during a staged SL event with CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman. A torrent of pixelated male genitals rained upon the victim, whose offline name is Ailin Graef.

Steve Hutcheon of the Sydney Morning Herald filed a comprehensive report of the incident here and tells BoingBoing, "If you can't visualize it, see this YouTube clip: Link Google Video Link." Snip from Steve's report:

"She is very popular, and some people don't like her," said CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman, whose Second Life avatar (online persona), GreeterDan Godel, was interviewing Anshe at the time of the attack.

"She's made a lot of money, and is one of the most prominent of all Second Life residents. So to some people, some griefers, that makes her a target."

Griefers are so-called because they create grief. Their antics are designed to interrupt proceedings in virtual worlds and games usually for no other reason than because they can.

Attacks like the one launched against Anshe are triggered by a program code that generates self-replicating objects.

Much like email spam, these "griefspawn" attacks can chew up system resources and slowing down performance. They can sometimes even trigger network crashes.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:27:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Unexplained Explainer

Daniel Engber, Slate Magazine's Explainer in Residence, has posted a list of submitted but unanswered questions from the preceding year. Many are truly unhinged, such as the one from a guy with apparent connections in Nigeria seeking advice on how to fence gold and gems. Mr. Engber has unwisely promised to answer the one that gets the most votes. Given the demonstrated ability of boing boing readers to bring web servers to their knees, I'm thinking this is a battle we can win.

# Given the exchange and dispersion of matter, how likely is it/how often do we inhale/consume and/or incorporate into our own protein structure molecules that were once in some historical figure, say Abraham Lincoln?

# Lasers are now powerful and small (at least I think they are), so why don't our troops carry laser guns?

#I have been pondering this situation for as long as I can remember (maybe age 7-8) and it drives me nuts. It makes me feel like my head will implode if I think any harder. Is the universe infinite? It must end somewhere. But when it ends... there must be something on the other side... right?

# If a group of passengers on a hijacked plane wanted to, could they bring a plane down by all of them using their cell phones at the same time?

# Can you tell me how long it will take if you eat rat poison to see if it is going to affect you? Please e-mail me back. Because my niece ate some.

# Hi. I just wanted to know if our eyeballs roll back when we are sleeping (or closed) or do they shake? Or...

# PYGMIES: How/when/where/still in existence/do we mate with them?

Greg from The Talent Show has already taken a pass as explaining most of the "Unexplained Explainer" questions. A sample :

"If we taught animals to talk, how would that affect the world?"

There would be more vegetarians, but we'd get definitive proof that cows are complete dumbasses.

"What would happen to the stock market if a meteor impacted the earth? What would happen to the global markets and the U.S. market? Say a meteor hits inside U.S. borders and takes out two states."

The insurance industry would crash, but the U.S. government would bail them out. Unfortunately the same won't be done for the millions of refugees created by the meteor strike. But at least the trillions of dollars wasted on the "war against meteors" will create a few more jobs, right? Also, we *must* abolish the death tax.

Link

I think I know the answers to two of the questions. If you don't read anything else, check out the Stavatti's TIS-1 proposal. The future is now (or, at least, coming soon).

For "breathing in other people", I read an article in (I believe) Science News around 1993. I've forgotten the specifics, and I've tried to track it down on the web, but have been unable to. It involved statistical modeling of gaseous dispersion in the atmosphere, and found a single exhalation would disperse after several hundred years. I believe the example they used was that, in every breath you take, you're breathing in Napoleon's last breath. Now it isn't protein or particulate matter, but it does give an upper bound to the answer.

For the Laser Rifle, check out Stavatti's Tactical Infantry System-1. It's a proposal submitted to the US Army for a gasdynamic laser lethal at over 1000 meters and up to 170 bursts/minute. Lethal lasers with a fast recharge and long life require a lot of energy, so you usually end up talking nuclear. Section VI of the proposal covers the challenges and risks to laser weapons... mainly that of cheaply producing large quantities of Polonium-210 (currently produced only in microgram quantities, and extremely lethal). It's interesting to note that Po-210 is the same thing that the assassin used on Mr. Litvinenko.

The military is also researching non-lethal laser weapons (dazzlers), but that's a touchy area, as blinding weapons are banned by the Geneva convention. The workaround is in Article 3, which states that it's ok to blind as long as that's not the purpose: "Blinding as an incidental or collateral effect of the legitimate military employment of laser systems, including laser systems used against optical equipment, is not covered by the prohibition of this Protocol."

BB reader Tom Matthews mentioned the Stavatti TIS-1 and gave a brief description of it under "The Unexplained Explainer". I'm writing to provide you guys with the actual PDF from the company who "makes it" -- PDF Link.

Another one of the unexplainables, explained. Current theoretical physics indicate the the universe is finite. Let's start with an obvious example:

Is the Earth infinite? Obviously, no. However, if you are a creature tat only moves along the surface of Earth, you might go on endlessly and end up where you started, since the earth is curved. For a two dimensional being the Earth might seem infinite, though it is not. You need to break through a third dimension and fly out to space to really understand that the Earth is finite.

This happens to us when thinking of the Universe. If we think in three dimensions, then the Universe seems infinite to us. However, if we understand that space-time is a third dimension and that the universe is curved along this dimension, we might understand that we might travel endlessly through the Universe only to end up on the other side. If we were to travel through space-time, we might very well find ourselves outside our Universe.

As to the second part of the question, the string of theories (pun intended) is so long we're better off letting the physicist duke it out for a while.

We here at Drivl couldn't resist answering Slate Magazine's 40 Unanswerable questions. Link

OK, what I actually had in mind was forcing Engber to address a question that was clearly unanswerable, but this is good too.

Since my academic background is in relativity and cosmology, though, I have to address the "finiteness of the universe" comment. Drawing an analogy to the surface of the Earth is pretty good as far as it goes. Essentially, you let two spatial dimensions represent space, suppressing the third because it has to do duty representing time. Pursuing that analogy, in a closed spacetime the "direction toward the center of the Earth" is playing the role of time and the center of the expansion is the big bang event. That is a rather roundabout way of saying that there is no spatial center just as there is no center to the surface of the Earth ("Mediterranean" notwithstanding).

However, the comment that current belief is that the universe is finite is no longer operational. As of the last 5 years or so, with highly refined measurements of the distances to very distance galaxies, we actually detect that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating due to the presence of dark energy. This necessarily implies that the universe is open and the whole idea of a spherical topology is moot. Not only that, but it means that the universe has always been infinitely big and is expanding only in the sense that the curvature is changing.

This whole discussion revolves around a misunderstanding of what the big bang theory actually says. People think of it like they think of a normal explosion -- there is space, and somewhere in it a big boom occurs, and from the boom stuff goes flying out into the existing space. Doesn't work that way.

The stuff (galaxies, etc.) is not flying anywhere. To be more precise, the local motion of any particular bit of stuff is approximately zero. You only see relative motion on cosmological distances, not locally, but that is because the space in between the stuff is changing. The stuff is only going along for the ride.

So a more accurate, if puzzling, picture is that, open or closed, the entire universe has always been full of stuff. The big bang did not happen at some center and stuff is flying out. No, the big bang happened everywhere, all at once, and nothing "flew out." Rather, the geometry of the spacetime in which the stuff exists began to change. Things get further apart because there is more and more space being created between the things, not because the things are flying in any particular direction. Think of it like a bunch of paper clips connecting rubber bands together. If you stretch the rubber bands, the paper clips get further apart, but not because they actually moved around on the rubber bands. The paper clips (galaxies) stayed put. It was the rubber bands (geometry) that changed.

There. Maybe I can work for Slate.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:19:13 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Kurimoto Tanshuu's 18th century wildlife drawings

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:58:24 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Genetics insights may extend lifespan

The teen's illness... when replicated in mice, allowed an international team of researchers to answer a fundamental question in the science of aging: Do we get old due to the accumulation of damage over our lifetimes or due to the genetic blueprint we inherit?

"What we say is [that] both are valid and that, in particular, damage to DNA contributes to aging," says Jan Hoeijmakers, a geneticist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and lead author of the study, which comprised teams from four different institutions in Europe and the U.S. "Damage accumulates ... but it is modulated by your genetic makeup. If you have better repair and/or slower metabolism, you age slower..."

The researchers compared the activity of thousands of genes in the liver of a 15-day-old mutant mouse to those in a normal mouse who lived two and a half years. The result? "The rapidly aging mice switched their activity from growth to maintenance and repair, up-regulating cellular defenses and down-regulating respiration and metabolism," Hoeijmakers says. "This also occurs upon natural aging, and if you [could] switch to this 'survival' mode early in life, you would live longer."

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:45:06 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Illuminated musical score from the 15th century

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:22:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Live nude supermodel scanning online: Naomi Campbell

As I type this, a 99%-unclothed Naomi Campbell (okay, she's wearing shoes) is posing for photographer Nick Knight, who is using a 3D body scanning device to capture her likeness digitally in a warehouse somewhere. You can watch the whole supermodel camgirl stunt online: QuickTime stream link. It's live now (12:20pm ET), not sure how long they'll continue. Susannah Breslin, who points us to this spectacle, says "I can't tell if this will be interesting or not. Maybe if she hits someone with a phone." Link to project home page.

Update, 12:57pm ET: Ms. Campbell's not on set anymore, and the scanners aren't active -- but here are some low-res screengrabs from the video stream, so you can get an idea of how they set up the shoot (worksafeness: one of them contains blurry, pixelated, waist-up nudity): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

The model stood on a small circular platform, and scanners were perched mid-torso level on mobile, mechanical arms. I'm not sure where the resulting photos will be shown, but it looked really cool. There's a technical credit on the project website for the scanning technology -- "Kev Stenning at Rapido3D." Here's that company's website: Link. Would be interesting to know the resolution at which they're scanning for this shoot, and more tech specifics about the devices they're using.

Reader comment: Brem says,

The scanning system they are using is a set of Full Body scanners from InSpeck, a company I worked for, incidently: Link. Here is the product details: Link. It appears those actual cameras are 1.3 Megapixels. There are 4 cameras on two columns and the subject usually takes 50-80% of the image. So in theory: 1.3 x 4 x 0.8 = approx 4.2 Million polygons, but with sampling and polygonal reduction, it would come to aroudn 1 M polygons or less, depending on the needs.

They've started 3D scanning again, here's a snapshot of the QT feed: JPG Link JPG Link 2.

Your story gave me a most startling deja vu---remember "Looker"? (Ed. Note: Michael Crichton wrote that one.) Definitely a favorite for adolescent boys, at least. Now just be on the lookout for something to "happen" to the models so they don't have to pay them fees.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:18:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Remco Yankee Doodle toy commercial

Related: 1960s TV commercial for V-RROOM! tricycle noise-maker | Creepy Crawlers TV commercial | Mr. Machine toy robot TV commercial

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:05:41 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

RU Sirius interviews Brian Flemming

BRIAN FLEMMING: The early Christians, the very first Christians, did not believe in a human Jesus... If you look at the beginning of Christianity...nobody was mentioning Bethlehem or Jerusalem as the place where he was crucified. Basically, nothing that you and I would call the story of Jesus was told then. He was a savior who lived up in another realm. He had died and had risen back up to be with his father. All of this took place in an upper realm, not down on earth. Bit by bit, they added historical details.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:58:09 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video clip from ""LOST VEGAS: The Lounge Era"

The lives these performers led were predictably ones of booze, broads and hanging with guys (like Sinatra, the Rat Pack) who made much more money than these second and third bananas. They owed the casinos for the gambling losses, and constantly hoped that a big break would make them instantly famous. Our film profiles a group of these guys, and a woman named Fay McKay, a talented jazz singer who became known for her boozy comic parody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

Our film played the CineVegas festival in 2005, and is finally having its first theatrical play date at the famous Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, on January 8. We're waiting on whether IFC and/or Starz Cinema Channel are going to pick it up for cable showings. We're also looking for a distributor for DVD release.

Fay McKay is still alive and living in the desert, in obscurity. It would sure be nice for lots of people to see her do her famous comedy bit. Since it's the season, we've uploaded Fay's bit to YouTube. By the way, the actor/sleight-of-hand genius/show biz historian Ricky Jay is our film's narrator. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:41:34 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Hit-and-run thieves nab nearly $200K in microchips

A group of thieves in Santa Clara fled with about $190,000 in microchips after what police suspect was a planned fender-bender collision. The victim had just picked up about 100,000 microchips from a Santa Clara warehouse for his employer in Fremont when a white van rear-ended his silver Mazda MPV about 1 p.m. Tuesday, said Santa Clara police Detective David Tanquary.

While the victim and the van driver got out near Kifer Road and Bowers Avenue to inspect the damage, which was minor, another person slipped from the van and sped off in the Mazda, Tanquary said. The van driver then jumped back into his vehicle and drove off.

Reader comment: Anonymous says,

Though $200K is a lot of money, these group of thieves think bigger. Think $12.7 million dollars. In just an hour, they piled 585 cartons and 18 pallets of microchips and motherboards manufactured by a multi-national company in Bayan Lepas into the containers. The loot estimated to be worth US$12.7mil (RM46.99mil) was said to be the country’s biggest ever heist. And arguably the most audacious, too. This heist would affect the bottomline of the companies involved, such as AMD, Intel and Motorola. Link to story.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:24:59 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

News orgs to tackle AT&T Thursday over surveillance docs

Wired News -- joined by the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News and Bloomberg News -- is seeking documents and statements provided by former AT&T technician Mark Klein about the government spy program. AT&T says the pages contain corporate trade secrets. At 2 p.m. Thursday, both sides will make oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco.

Wired News attorney Timothy Alger believes it's unlikely that genuine trade secrets are at issue, but argues that even if they are, the public interest in the case trumps trade-secret protections.

"Even if there are trade-secrets interests, that interest has to yield to the paramount public interest in what the court is deciding," Alger said. "People should know if their phones are being tapped into by AT&T on behalf of the government."

Related posts on BoingBoing include:

• EFF suing AT&T for helping NSA illegally spy on Americans
• AT&T built warrantless wiretap rooms for the NSA
• AT&T retrofits privacy policy: your data is not yours
• Wired News publishes damning docs from EFF vs AT&T
• More archived BB posts on AT&T

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:56:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Journalist deaths in Iraq in 2006 set a new record

In most cases, such as the killing of Atwar Bahjat, one of the best-known television reporters in the Arab world, insurgents specifically targeted journalists to be murdered, CPJ found in a new analysis. Worldwide, CPJ found 55 journalists were killed in direct connection to their work in 2006, and it is investigating another 27 deaths to determine whether they were work-related. Detailed accounts of each case are posted on CPJ’s Web site. The figures reflect increases from 2005, when 47 journalists were killed in direct relation to their work, while 17 others died in circumstances in which the link to their profession was not clear. CPJ, founded in 1981, compiles and analyzes journalist deaths each year.

Afghanistan and the Philippines, with three deaths apiece, were the next most dangerous datelines in 2006. Russia, Mexico, Pakistan, and Colombia each saw two journalists killed. All are traditionally dangerous countries for the press, CPJ research shows.

Reader comment: Mandy Hearne says,

I would add the death of David Rosenbaum to the list of unconfirmed deaths. The tactic of letting a person die of untreated wounds is not unfamiliar in the history of the US (see Assata Shakur's story, for example). A series of 'failures of the system' is a highly effective means of murder, it is neat and completely deniable.

And when telling the story to a friend from Turkey, who studied at a fairly "Leftist" university and is aware of the killings of journalists there, said that had David Rosenbaum's death happened in Turkey, there would be no doubt it was murder by the government. I think that the US has a history it has to own up to in the death, potential murder, of David Rosenbaum. Funny that the 'murderer' turned himself in: "Asked why Hamlin turned himself in, Morris said, "Stranger things have happened." Hamlin told police he would show them where he hid the weapon, Morris said."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:49:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sony settles rootkit suit: $1.5M to states, users file for refunds

Customers in both states can file a claim with Sony BMG to receive refunds of up to $175. State officials estimate some 450,000 compact discs carrying the XCP software were sold in California, while about 130,000 were sold in Texas. Customers have 180 days to file claims, which must include a description of how their computer was harmed and documentation of repair expenses. Some who used certain antispyware software to remove the programs installed by the Sony BMG CDs ended up with a glitch that disabled their CD-ROM drives.

As part of the settlements, Sony BMG also agreed not to distribute any compact discs loaded with any copy-protection software that hinders computer users from easily locating it or removing it from their computers. The record company also agreed to improve its disclosure practices.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:33:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

BBC will use BitTorrent to distribute 100s of TV episodes

Azureus is best known for developing a BitTorrent client, or program, that allows large media files to be easily shared over the internet. The program has been downloaded more than 130 million times. Earlier this month the company launched a video sharing site similar to YouTube, codenamed Zudeo. The site allows users to upload and view content. However, in contrast to most video sharing sites, Zudeo offers high definition videos. Users must also download a program to access and upload content.

The new deal means that users of the software will be able to download high-quality versions of BBC programmes, including Red Dwarf, Doctor Who and the League of Gentleman. Classic series such as Fawlty Towers will also be available through a BBC "channel".

Reader comment: Mathew says,

Unfortunately, the BBC content they are planning to distribute via BitTorrent is going to be DRMed, so the announcement is a lot less interesting than it at first seems: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:09:39 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Free copies of "An Inconvenient Truth" for educators

The giveaway ends January 18, or when the DVDs run out. The website is the social activism arm of Participant Productions, the company behind this film and others including Good Night, and Good Luck, North Country, and Syriana. Teachers can request a copy at this link.

Random trivia snippet: I went to a cool Current.tv event hosted by Al Gore last week in Los Angeles, and at one point Gore told the audience that Inconvenient Truth should have been named "Kill Al Volume 1," because the producers pretty much worked him to death to make and promote the movie. (Thanks, odiyya)

Reader comment: Brent the Closet Geek says,

The guys who run the dating site HotOrNot apparently donated some $25,000 dollars to help get the movie for teachers: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:55:31 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Virgin komodo dragon birth: the miracle of Christmas

Other reptile species reproduce asexually in a process known as parthenogenesis. But Flora’s virginal conception, and that of another Komodo dragon earlier this year at the London Zoo, are the first time it has been documented in a Komodo dragon.

Reader comment: Anonymous pedant says,

Strictly speaking, the miraculous pregnancies of the two komodo dragons aren't immaculate conceptions, unless you meant to imply the dragon fetuses aren't tainted by original sin. (The argument could be made that all komodo pregnancies are immaculate conceptions, so to speak.) Virginal conception is perhaps a closer term, I'd imagine, though I can't vouch for these two particular dragons' virtue. I have recently heard this mistake referred to snarkily as the "immaculate misconception."

Surely, you're aware of one of the greatest internet memes of all time: Raptor Jesus. He went extinct for your sins! Link.

The London Zoo which also had a "virgin birth" with one of its komodo dragons this April seems to think that the dragons are able to store sperm and use it when conditions for reproduction are optimal. Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:23:50 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sloan Fndtn. funds "open" alternative to Google Book Search

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is funding the Internet Archive to scan rare, unusual and culturally significant books and artworks at a bunch of major institutions, including the Boston Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Research Institute. The grant comes out of Sloan's concern that commercial entities are becoming the default repositories of the world's cultural heritage, and that the restrictions corporations impose on access to the works they display don't serve the public good.

"'You are talking about the fruits of our civilization and culture. You want to keep it open and certainly don't want any company to enclose it,' said Doron Weber, program director of public understanding of science and technology for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:53:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Pinata stuffed with US soldiers now gone

The profoundly tasteless US-soldier-stuffed-piñata blogged yesterday on BoingBoing is no longer offered for sale at the Oriental Trading Company website.

Sorry, you'll just have to go find supplies for your jihadi slumber party somewhere else.

Link (Thanks, Breitbart!)

Reader comments:

Appalled anonymous reader says,

So it's tasteless to beat the piñata if it's soldiers, but totally ok if it's a donkey, or a butterfly?

Why no horror at the reindeer pinata, the (not nearly as realistic) fighter jet pinata, the Dora pinata, or the space shuttle pinata?

How about this video I found on YouTube about a guy trying to extract revenge on the piñata who killed his father? Kind of... Lynchian. Or something. Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:48:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mark Dery's reading list

2. Albertus Seba: Cabinet of Natural Curiosities---The Complete Plates in Colour, 1734-1765, edited by Dr. Irmgard Musch. Another breathtaking wonderbook from the German publisher Taschen. From the Amazon blurb: "In 1731, after decades of collecting, Seba commissioned illustrations of each and every specimen [in his wonder closet] and arranged the publication of a four-volume catalog detailing his entire collection---from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs, crocodiles, shellfish, corals, insects, butterflies and more, as well as fantastic beasts, such as a hydra and a dragon. [These] illustrations, often mixing plants and animals in a single plate, were unusual even for the time. Many of the stranger and more peculiar creatures from Seba's collection, some of which are now extinct, were as curious to those in Seba's day as they are to us now. This reproduction is taken from a rare, hand-colored original." Once seen, never forgotten, these hand-painted dream photographs from the Baroque capture, with stunning vivdness, the aesthetic of wonder...

5. Losing Our Heads: Beheadings in Literature and Culture by Regina Janes. The fact that there's an entire book devoted to this subject gives meaning to my life, and almost convinces me there's a god...

9. The Red Hourglass: Lives of the Predators by Gordon Grice. A mordant masterpiece, in which the author invents a genre all his own: Nature Gothic. The chapter titles---"Tarantula," "Recluse," "Mantid," "Black Widow," "Rattlesnake"---tell it all. Fascinated by the alien ways of the nonhuman world, Grice combines the sardonic deadpan of noir fiction with the best naturalists' unsentimental scrutiny of animal behavior and a rural midwesterner's applied knowledge of the predator-prey relationship. A Jean-Henri Fabre for literati who drive pickups with rifle racks.

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:36:23 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wimpy record industry moguls drop lawsuit against mom

Update: Great news! The RIAA won't cut and run in the War On Santangelo after all -- now they're going after her children:

[T]hey began investigating her children, ultimately filing suit against the kids after getting the daughter and a neighbor to admit to using Kazaa under oath.

Today the RIAA dropped the lawsuit against Santangelo herself, though Santangelo's first lawyer Ray Beckerman confirms for us the suit against her children now moves forward -- after her first battle drained the family coffers.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:15:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Japanese man survives 3 weeks in the outdoors by hibernating

Mitsutaka Uchikoshi had almost no pulse, his organs had all but shut down and his body temperature was 71 degrees Fahrenheit or about 21.6 Celsius when he was discovered on Rokko mountain in late October, said doctors who treated him at the nearby Kobe City General Hospital. He had been missing for 24 days.

"On the second day, the sun was out, I was in a field, and I felt very comfortable. That's my last memory," Uchikoshi, 35, told reporters Tuesday before returning home from hospital. "I must have fallen asleep after that."

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:05:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Santa's copyright: weird release clause for mall photos

Here is yet one more idiotic copyright issue that I am absolutely outraged by. I have just returned from taking my sons to have their photo taken with the mall Santa. Every year I take them, and I choose the least expensive photo package, so that I can then buy a CD with their picture on it. They won't let you just buy the disk. The picture packages begin at $13.99, and then the CD is an extra $6.99.

Fine. But this year, there's an additional item you can purchase: A Copyright Release for an extra $15.99! You don't have to buy it, but I suppose the implication is that if you use the photo of your child with Santa without buying it, they can come after you?

They also offer a package for $24.99 wherein you receive a 5x7, a CD and a copyright release. So, that's still more expensive than just going for Package A + a CD.

Frankly, I'm outraged by this. And tempted to see what happens if, you know, I decided to post the pictures of my sons on a personal website not having purchased the copyright release of my own children.

Reader comment: Shaun says,

…Claus Clause? :P

I was recently visiting my grandmother in Springfield, Illinois. She is 87 years old. She asked me if I could make a copy of a picture of my grandfather and her. She said Kinko's wouldn't make copies of it. She said they wouldn't copy it because it was a picture taken by Olan Mills Studio and it would violate copyright laws. The picture was taken in 1959.

This whole copyright issue is out of control, but to post every single complaint just weakens the stance of abuse. I use to work in a photo development section of a big box retailer. It's common to turn down professional photos unless you have a copyright release this is nothing new. In fact it was the most problematic part of the job, because customers didn't understand it. I'd like to also mention I've got pictures from the 20's with notes on them saying copies are prohibited.

Bart is right, but i don't think he explained the issue well enough. and given the trouble those of us who work/used to work in photo labs have with customers who want prints of professional images it might be nice to get it all out there.

photography copyright works this way; whoever takes the photo (and there by possesses the negs or original digital files) owns the copyright. most cases this is the photog, in the cast of photo studios (like with santa land) its the studio. this isn't a clever copyright trick to make more money, its just how the law works automatically to protect the creators of those images. that said, this makes it technically illegal for you and those guys down at the photo mat to copy (not distribute) those images without permission (copyright release) or proof of ownership (negs). now this is a big problem because the studios and photogs in question seldom explain this to their customers before hand, so when people go to get extra copies they get confused and angry at the lab guys.

photogs and studios are not in the business of taking photos for money, they sell prints (or rights to make prints). its how they make money. so many studios wont actually give out releases because it means the money for those extra copies goes to some one else instead of them. other places will sell you the negatives along with the prints or charge a fee for a release , and the best places will just give you a release and send you on your way. the fee is simply to offset the cost of loss business. this stuff has been going on for decades and is nothing new.

all thats different with this santa photo story is that they studio in question is advertising the release instead of waiting for people to come to them. i suspect there are two reasons for this. 1 disclosure: like i said these studios seldom if ever clearly state whats going on in regards to copyright (there will be a small sign or fine print paragraph somewheres but little else). by listing the release along with its price as part of a package people will ask what it is and then get a clear explanation (hopefully). 2. to prevent angry phone calls. every mall photo studio i've ever set foot in has a line of people waiting to yell at them because they can't make prints. if you explain up front, this is less likely to happen.

in short this situation is actually a step forward, now the customer knows what the legal situation is and can deal with it without insane amounts of frustration.

In Ryan's comment, he said: "all thats different with this santa photo story is that they studio in question is advertising the release instead of waiting for people to come to them"

but I see another, very important difference. They are double dipping by asking to be paid separately for the CD and for the release. What on earth are you buying when you pay them for the CD if not the right to use the file(s) contained on it? If they intend for you not to make copies from the CD, why are they even selling it without a release? Ryan says that if you show up at Photomat with the negatives, it implies that you have purchased the right to make copies. Well, if I show up with the image file that I legitimately purchased from the photographer/studio, I expect that I have paid for that same right to copy. The problem for the photofinisher, of course, is that they can't easily tell the difference between a legitimately obtained image file and one that came from a scan of a print.

When I recently hired a photog to take some pics of my human spawn, I was somewhat disappointed that, while I would receive a CD with digital copies, they weren't quality digital copies even though the fellow used some description of exotic Cannon cam. When I asked why he had brought forth many of the same arguments that were brought up here. Fair, I suppose. He has the right to is opinion and I have the right to believe he's wrong.

When I mentioned that $600+ was pretty much all that they were going to milk me for and that if I needed more copies I could very well scan them and reprint them, he was shocked. Shocked I say.

My rational is this: When I hire a contractor to do up some custom coding for me, that code is mine and I can do with it whatever I please. I paid for it, so I can open-source it or print it on toilet paper. Whatever. When I hire a contractor to do some stuff to my house, there are no stipulations on what I can and can't do on the kitchen counter. It's mine.

In my view, the photog is a contractor that I have hired to produce something for me. The fruits of the labour I paid the photog for are mine and mine alone. Well, perhaps they belong to the child, but until she pays off her staggering debts, they belong to me. Diapers are expensive, yo.

This view is not popular amongst the photog friends of mine, even though they do understand the logic.

Tinfoil's comment is correct, to a certain extent. However, under copyright law, there is a difference between someone who creates a copyrighted work for you as an employee and one who does so as an independent contractor. It comes under the Work for Hire section of copyright law. As an employee, anything you create automatically has the copyright assigned to the employer. As an independent contractor, it is assigned to the independent contractor, unless there is a written agreement that the copyright is assigned to the employer (along with several other conditions, but that's the relevant one here).

So what Tinfoil should have done when hiring his photographer is have him sign an agreement which stated that copyright is assigned to Tinfoil, and he is entitled to hi-res copies of the images. But Tinfoil neglected to do so. So while his logic is fine, it doesn't mesh with the current state of copyright law. And unlike some areas, he had the ability to mitigate that problem, by finding a photographer who was willing to sign over those rights.

I just wanted to point out the other side to this debate (though I am sure it is in the minority here).

Most people are looking at this in the view that they paid the photographer to take pictures and therefore they should own the rights to the images for the money they paid. I think however that it should be looked at differently. By charging you per print the photographer is potentially saving you money. A photographer, like everybody else in the world is trying to make a living at a job. They have set up their business plan so that they make a certain salary. Now the photographer has two choices, they can either a) Charge you a flat rate to take photos and give you the copyright or b) charge you less money to take the photos and then charge extra for your for prints. The advantage to paying for prints is that you only have to pay for what you use. If you only need a couple of prints then it doesn’t cost you a lot. If you do what a lot of prints then it costs you more. If the photographer was to charge a flat rate for the images then even if you didn’t want a lot of images you would still be paying a high dollar amount. It’s kind of like watching a DVD. I can either buy the movie if I think I want to watch it a lot, or I can just rent it which saves me money if I only want to see it one or two times. Renting is cheaper but has more limitations. (not a perfect analogy I know)

Keep in mind that often both of these options are already available with photography as was the case with the original article. The complaints seem to stem from the fact that the purchaser, in effect, can’t own the DVD for the rental price.

We live in a free market and believe me, there are no shortages of photographers these days that would be happy to take your picture. If you don’t like the deal one person is giving you then go find someone who’s deal you like better. Just remember to balance quality and price. With photography entering the age of digitization and access to the tools becoming more available, prices will fall and the market will get more competitive, just like the markets that entered the digital age before them. But remember that with increased access. Access is good in that it allows otherwise talented people who were unable to enter a field before the ability to do great work but with it also comes a lot of untalented people and in general you still get what you pay for. Writers, designers, editors, and now photographers have undergone this transition for both better and worse, but mostly for the better. But that is another conversation for another time.

Most advertising photographers make their money based on usage, not their time. In addition to that, most will not (and should not) ever give up the rights to their images. The photographers fee will basically be a calculation based on the medium, region, size and other factors. One photograph could be worth $2,000 or $20,000 depending on how it will be used. And as I said, once that time is up the photographer gets to do whatever he/she would like to with the image, including sometimes relicensing it to the same client. Most savvy clients know that they are not paying for the time, but just for the rights to use the image. This is, in addition to stock, one of the only ways to make passive income as a photographer.

I can't blame "service photographers" (portrait studios, etc) for thinking the same way, the only difference is their clients are not as educated about both the law and what should be considered a good practice for the photographer.

As a formerly LA-based photographer now in Denver I found that most clients want to pay a day rate and retain all rights to the images, not necessarily because they want to screw me, but that is the market that has been set up for photographers here, by my predecessors.

So instead of taking blow after blow to my ego, as well as accepting checks that barely cover my expenses, I work as a designer.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:03:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Boing Boing video picks from the last couple of years

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:02:24 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Baby put through airport x-ray

Officials, who declined to release the 56-year-old woman's name, said she spoke Spanish and apparently did not understand English.

She initially didn't want the baby transported to a hospital, but security officials called paramedics and insisted that the child be examined by a doctor...

"Rather than focus on the radiation dose, which is a small amount, we need to focus on why this happened, so it doesn't happen again," said Dr. James Borgstede, a diagnostic radiologist at Penrose-St. Francis Health Systems in Colorado Springs, Colo., and president of the American College of Radiology. "Human beings weren't meant to go through those things."

In the several seconds the baby spent in the machine, the doctor added, he was exposed to as much radiation as he would naturally get from cosmic rays — or high energy from outer space — in a day.

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:59:25 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Two-headed fossil

"To my knowledge, it is the only record of a vertebrate fossil showing that kind of malformation," Dr Buffetaut, director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, France told BBC

"Living animals like this are known. But if you compare the number of reptiles born with two heads with the total number of reptiles born, it is very small.

"So the chances of finding a fossil like this are extremely low."

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:49:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Rudy Rucker's science fiction webzine Flurb #2 is out

So here we go with a new issue of FLURB. I was waiting till I had gotten around to writing a story that would be just about impossible to commercially market, and now I think I've done it. It's liberating to know that FLURB is there for such a demented and counter-cultural tale as "The Third Bomb."

And now I'm also able print Charlie Anders's bisexual romp, "One Door Closes," Charles Stross's curious artifact from the future, "Message in a Time Capsule," Marc Laidlaw's caustic "Open Open Letter."

I may siphon in a couple more stories later this month or early in January, after taking some time off for the holidays.

For now: beware of sea cucumbers, garage door openers, sneezing, hipster publishers, and ... the space demons!

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:38:43 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Institute for the Future's fifty year forecast project

Piles of rubbish clutter the streets of the new urban sprawls. In overloaded hospitals, patients lie in corridors, victims of a pandemic. Water prices have rocketed, and temperatures have nosedived with a premature slowing of the Gulf stream.

Welcome to dystopian Britain, a thoroughly miserable snapshot of the country's woes come the middle of the 21st century. While the bleak scenario might seem unlikely at present, Sir David King, the government's chief science adviser, is urging policy-makers not to be complacent. A bleak future will only be avoided if they understand the threats and what new technologies might come to the rescue.

Professor King, a Cambridge chemist, decided more than 18 months ago that government departments needed to ensure their future policies were scientifically better informed. He set up two reviews, which have just been completed. One charted trends likely to affect Britain in the next 50 years or so. The other picked out emerging scientific and technological breakthroughs that will help shape that future. Link

Chinese astronauts walk on the moon, the world has splintered into currency blocs after an international exchange rate shock, and even robots have the vote.

It sounds like the exaggerated vision - utopian or distopian according to taste - of a parlour futurologist. But these scenarios of what life might be like around the middle of the century have emerged from 270 rigorously researched papers commissioned by the government that together purport to be the world's most extensive look into the future.

The Horizon Scan covers a vast range of science and technology, politics, economics and society - from internet crime to robotics, banking to the computer-brain interface, stem cell research to "grey power" in an ageing population.

And it is intended to do far more than feed a human curiosity about what life may be like for our children or grandchildren. Sir David King, the government's chief scientist, argues horizon scanning will have a powerful influence on policy-making - and not only in Whitehall. "Although it was designed as a tool for government, I believe it will also have a broader use across the private sector," he adds. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:21:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Omakase linkdump: Christmas is awesome

* Nativity scene with IG-88, Mister Burns, Lego Playmobil Jesus, and Plastic Kevin Federline (I think) Kevin Smith Action Figure Danté of the movie "Clerks" (thanks Monique and Brian Johnson). It materialized in an office at the PBS television network: Link.

* Christmas means torturing the poor suckers you work with and never having to say you're sorry. BoingBoing reader Phoebe chirps gleefully, "I gift-wrapped my co-worker's entire cubicle!" Link to evidence.

* Grant says, "Dec. 18 is the USPS's busiest mailing day of the year and today (12/20) is the busiest delivery day of the year. Check out this link to see an insider's look of the inner workings of the USPS's Manhattan distribution facility. Very cool for those that love to see how things work."

* Where do trees go after Christmas? Video Link.

* Frank Lloyd Wright Gingerbread House: Link.

* Kevin says, "This Washington Post article gives the behind the scenes story of one of the greatest Xmas songs of all time (and certainly the oddest). David Bowie appeared with Bing Crosby in his final Xmas special, just one month before Bing died in 1977." Link

* Alainsane says, "In December of 1999, my coworkers and I built this 'FOSABread' house out of junked computer parts we had around the office. It features a deluxe heatsink entryway, CD-ROM shingles, processor-seat windows, and an authentic nativity scene (as authentic as the one that inspired it!)." Link

* Hurricane FEMA victim's gingerbread house: Link.

* William S. Burroughs' "A Junky's Xmas": video Link (Thanks, Jesse).

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:49:00 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Metalhead graffiti causes terror freakout

We didn’t get the connection with 'Anthrax' the band at first," a county official said. "The other band names were on the back and not on the same side as the Anthrax one was."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:33:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Goth moths slurp birds' tears after piercing victims' eyelids

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:26:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Record industry DRM from 1907

BoingBoing reader Cameron snapped this photograph of a Edison Laboratory phonograph cylinder container from 1907, covered with anti-copying, anti-piracy fine print: "UPON ANY BREACH OF SAID CONDITION, THE LICENSE TO USE AND VEND THIS RECORD, IMPLIED FROM SUCH SALE, IMMEDIATELY TERMINATES." Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:21:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO handle hecklers: video

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:13:28 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Poll: Next tech titan not from US; kids more wired than congress

# Twenty-one percent believe that “next Bill Gates” will come from the United States while 13 percent believe he or she will come from India.

# (...) 83 percent -- believe that a typical 12-year-old knows more about the Internet than their member of Congress. Republicans (85 percent) and Democrats (86 percent) agreed with each other.

# Two-thirds of Americans believe that soon there will be no place in the world where we won’t be able to access the Internet. Sixty-six percent said that in 10 years they will be able to access the Internet anywhere they are in the world.

# (...) most Americans aren’t quite ready to rely on “citizen videos” for our news just yet. Seventy-percent said they would rather watch the evening news coverage instead of a citizen video report on an event. Though, only one year after YouTube burst onto the scene, fully 25 percent of those 18-49 years old would chose citizen video. Self-described progressives picked citizen video 30 percent of the time, while only 19 percent of those calling themselves conservative did.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:30:38 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Astronaut chops off her hair in space for charity

They appear as two line items in a final transfer list between the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station: items 811 and 811.1. Uplinked to the shuttle crew as a final preparation for the undocking of Discovery from the station on Tuesday, the list identifies 811 as Suni Williams, FE-2, and 811.1 as a ponytail.

Sunita 'Suni' Williams is the latest member of the station crew, having arrived with Discovery on December 11. Her title aboard the ISS is Flight Engineer-2 (FE-2). The ponytail is hers.

"Remove ponytail from 811 prior to transfer of 811" reads the resupply transfer list. "Report final stowage location."

"We believe 811.1 has been completed, please confirm," ground controllers wrote to the crew elsewhere in the list.

Williams, who arrived at the outpost last week with long flowing — and floating — hair, arranged to have her locks cut last Sunday and the clippings stowed on Discovery for a future hairpiece to be donated to a patient suffering from long-term medical hair loss.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:29:08 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

NASA's Space Gallery of Printed Works

Unique about the above archive is material little remembered about the history of rocketry and space travel. On pages 30 and 31 of the above children's book, the DYNA-SOAR project is discussed. According to the article which is paraphrased here, the Boeing Dyna-Soar was a follow-on to the X-15 program. The name came from the idea - "dynamic soaring." The booster for the man-carrying winged space glider was to be a military Titan ICBM ( Intercontinental Baslistic Missle ). After the initial test on the Titan, the high altitude orbital reconnaisance patrol bomber (a later advanced relative of Dyna-Soar) would be strapped to a mother plane, launched from beneath the wing and rocketed into orbit at 17,000 miles per hour.

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:12:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Do rats dream of electric cats?

"This work brings us closer to an understanding of the nature of animal dreams and gives us important clues as to the role of sleep in processing memories of our past experiences," (professor Matthew) Wilson said...

"These results imply simultaneous reactivation of coherent memory traces in the cortex and hippocampus during sleep that may contribute to or reflect the result of the memory consolidation process," Wilson and (postodcotoral researcher Daoyun Ji wrote in Nature Neuroscience.)

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:47:09 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Scorpion in jeans stings woman at store

The woman came to the store in Nago on Oct. 26, and tried on a pair of jeans. She suddenly felt pain in her right knee and rubbed it with her right hand. The scorpion then stung her right index finger, officials said.

Store clerks called an ambulance and she was taken to hospital, where she stayed for five days...

(Employees) added that during the process of drying and pressing jeans, workers use chlorine agents so they don't believe the scorpion crawled inside the jeans at that stage. "We will investigate how it crawled inside the jeans and try to prevent a recurrence," one employee at the store said.

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:36:25 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Village installs giant sun mirror

"It wasn't easy," Village Mayor Pierfranco Midali told Italy's Ansa news agency.

"We had to find the proper material, learn about the technology and especially find the money," he said.

The project cost some 100,000 euros (£67,110) and was financed by the regional authorities and a bank.

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:01:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cosplay restaurant in Toronto

Owner Aaron Wang, 24, who opened the iMaid Cafe this summer, got the idea for the theme after seeing a piece about a maid cosplay restaurant on the television news in China.

"I call them maids not waitresses," said Wang, who moved to Canada from Beijing six years ago.

"They smile a lot and they are cute. I want somebody cute like the characters from cartoons -- big eyes, long hair and young."

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:42:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

All the world loves George Liquor's Goddamn Xmas cartoon

"Best spent buck in weeks!" -- Dr. Strange-Q

"What a treat -- much smoother than the original Flash version from 8 years ago!" -- Trevour

"Whoah, I have a Flash file of this saved from the 90s, but the frame rate and sound quality on this one is SO much better! Release all the old Goddamn George Liquor Program shorts spruced-up like this and I'll buy 'em all!" -- Lyris

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:00:58 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Areas of My Expertise free audiobook

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:58:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Profile of world's oldest blogger

Mr. Crowdis does not own a computer right now (although he is planning to buy two). He writes his blog entries longhand at his kitchen table in the mornings, after he has breakfast and takes his pills. Then he mails them across the country to New Brunswick. There, a family member types them into a computer and posts them on Mr. Crowdis' eclectic blog, Don To Earth.

...

Readers are especially fond of snippets from his family history, including the story of his grandfather dying with a knife in his back while throwing a drunk out of the saloon he ran in a Colorado mining camp.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:49:31 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

San Francisco's topless scene in 1966

The next day the Off Broadway (down the hill) and Big Al's (up the street) went topless, and shortly thereafter so did some 350 bars and beaneries from Seattle to Baja. "I went out and got (topless queen) Carol (Doda) involved in anything," says (Condor promoter) Big Davey. "Anything they ever thought up in Hollywood, I topped it. I even had Carol chasing the mayor down the street. He wouldn't talk to her, but he's all right. (Mayor Shelley has indirectly befriended topless, regularly declaring that "Fun is part of our city's heritage.")

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:38:55 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Good moods prevent colds?

"We need to take more seriously the possibility that a positive emotional style is a major player in disease risk," Cohen says.

Those who displayed generally positive outlooks, including feelings of liveliness, cheerfulness, and being at ease, were least likely to develop cold symptoms. Unlike the negatively inclined participants, they reported fewer cold symptoms than were detected in medical exams.

The new study, which appears in the November/December Psychosomatic Medicine, replicates those results and rules out the possibility that psychological traits related to a positive emotional style, rather than the emotions themselves, guard against cold symptoms. Those traits include high self-esteem, extroversion, optimism, and a feeling of mastery over one's life.

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:38:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wrong, wrong, wrong: Humvee piñata stuffed with US soldiers

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:03:56 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Horse head-butt cures blindness

"I was putting a collar around his chest, and he whacked me real hard with his head," Mr Karkos told the New York Daily News.

"Being kicked is part of the job, but I've never been hit that hard.

"I was pretty shaken up, kind of dazed. Then, later that night, I started to get the vision back in my right eye...

Although his vision is still not perfect, Mr Karkos has been able to see about 15ft...

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:56:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Reg Kehoe and His Marimba Queens

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:34:20 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Skype founders' internet TV project goes beta

What is the Venice Project? Skype co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström built it with some of that $2.6 billion from selling Skype to eBay. Friis (who, by the way, is rather a babe) explains on his blog:

It’s simple, really — we are trying to bring together the best of TV with the best of the Internet. We think TV is one of the most powerful, engaging mass medias of all time. People love TV, but they also hate TV. They love the (sometimes…) amazing storytelling, the richness, the quality itself. But they hate the linearness, the lack of choice, the lack of basic things like being able to search. And wholly missing is everything that we are now accustomed to from the Internet: tagging, recommendations, choice, and so on… TV is 507 channels and nothing on and we want to help change that!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:27:03 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ex-CIA analyst claims White House censored his NYT op-ed

Flynt Leverett, a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council, or NSC, and a former CIA analyst, said the White House told a CIA censor board to excise parts of a 1,000-word commentary on U.S. policy toward Iran that he had offered to the New York Times. (...)

[He] said there were two key paragraphs that the CIA board wanted to cut. The first was about U.S. cooperation with Iran concerning Afghanistan about the time of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. The second dealt with an offer by Iran to the United States in early 2003 to discuss the possibility of a "grand bargain" that would settle several disputes between the two countries.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:58:02 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Inkjet printing with live stem cells: "bio-inks"

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have successfully directed adult stem cells from mice to develop into bone and muscle cells with the aid of a custom-designed ink-jet printer. They say it's a first step toward better understanding tissue regeneration, which may one day lead to therapies for repairing damaged tissues, as occurs in osteoarthritis.

Jamais Cascio writes about it here (image grabbed from his site), and there's more over at Bruce Sterling's blog ("You might well call it the Meatrix"): Link. (via beyond the beyond)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:25:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Paparazzi sue gossip blogger Perez (not Paris) Hilton for 7.6 mil

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:14:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

AIDS medics in Libya sentenced to death

Supporters of the Bulgarian and Palestinian aid workers say their confessions were elicited through torture, and Libyan government is trying to cover up the real culprit -- unhygenic hospital conditions, and a failing health care system.

Link to today's news (AP). There's scientific background on the case at the journal Nature (including an analysis of HIV and hepatitis samples from the infected children) (Link), and a thread over at MeFi, too (Link). The New England Journal of Medicine has a related editorial here: Link. Snip:

"Science has not been respected in this court; without the scientific evidence, there's no way there could be a fair trial," said Richard Roberts, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, who hand-delivered a letter of protest signed by more than 100 Nobel laureates to the Libyan Mission to the United Nations in New York in late October. "The Libyan government doesn't want to admit that their hospital had a problem with hygiene that spread HIV," said Roberts. "These people were the ideal scapegoats: they were foreigners. And the Libyans knew that the Bulgarian and Palestinian governments couldn't kick up much of a fuss."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:54:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Carl Sagan Blog-a-thon

Billions and billions are expected to participate. Bryan & Dave say,

The Carl Sagan Blog-A-Thon commemorates the 10th anniversary of Dr. Sagan's death (December 20): Link. In conjunction with the blog-a-thon, we created celebratingsagan.com as a place for people who don't have their own blogs, but would like to participate. Aside from testimonial we have received original art and songs from worldwide Sagan fans who range from students to professors and pilots to musicians.

Update: Nick Sagan tells BoingBoing,

For more information on the subject, here's Cornell University's Chronicle Online on the blog-a-thon. Here's what I've said on my blog.

Audio link.

At age six, Nick Sagan's greeting, "Hello from the children of planet Earth," was recorded and placed aboard the NASA Voyager Interstellar Record. Launched with a selection of terrestrial greetings, sights, sounds and music, the Voyager I and Voyager II spacecraft have since left the solar system; they are now the most distant human-made objects in the universe.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:27:37 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, December 18, 2006

Good documentaries on Google video

Reader comments:

Andrew Tonkin says:

Thanks for that. You may wish to add that Richard Dawkins' video of "God Delusion" is actually part 2 of his "Root of All Evil?" documentary; Part 1 is entitled "The Virus of Faith." Users should search under the two episode titles, not "Root of All Evil?" which is misspelled on both clips.

In "The Virus of Faith," Dawkins challenges Pastor Ted Haggard of the New Life Church, the same Ted Haggard that resigned under sexual controversy recently. Interesting viewing.

You may be interested to know that google video also hosts a whole bunch of good BBC documentaries, including all three parts of "The Power of Nightmares"; "Tetris - From Russia With Love"; " Louis and the Nazis" and "A War On Science (Intelligent Design and Dover)".

Do you have any idea how many full length documentaries are on google video? I've watched at least one every night for the last few months. I'm afraid they'll get pulled so I download them as well. Let me show you something.

That's just the beginning. I'm a slut for conspiracy theories... Google video has every conspiracy theory video you can possible imagine. From the most balls out bullshit you've ever heard (this is awesome) to all the 9/11 and peak oil stuff. Also, it appears that George Bush (daddy bush) killed Kennedy. No shit.

Right now I'm working through the UFO stuff, having already completed the free energy and Tesla archives. These last two turn up some UNBELIEVABLE stuff! I'm serious. I honest to god don't know what to make of some of the free energy stuff. Make sure you check out the Disclosure Project!

I added to your list.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:54:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The electrical siege of Baghdad

Over the past six months, Baghdad has been all but isolated electrically, Iraqi officials say, as insurgents have effectively won their battle to bring down critical high-voltage lines and cut off the capital from the major power plants to the north, south and west.

The battle has been waged in the remotest parts of the open desert, where the great towers that support thousands of miles of exposed lines are frequently felled with explosive charges in increasingly determined and sophisticated attacks, generally at night. Crews that arrive to repair the damage are often attacked and sometimes killed, ensuring that the government falls further and further behind as it attempts to repair the lines.

And in a measure of the deep disunity and dysfunction of this nation, when the repair crews and security forces are slow to respond, skilled looters often arrive with heavy trucks that pull down more of the towers to steal as much of the valuable aluminum conducting material in the lines as possible. The aluminum is melted into ingots and sold. What amounts to an electrical siege of Baghdad is reflected in constant power failures and disastrously poor service in the capital, with severe consequences for security, governance, health care and the mood of an already weary and angry populace.

Reader comment: Wim Lewis says,

Brings to mind the "infrastructure hits" in the backstory of Bruce Sterling's "Heavy Weather." Though it's an age-old third-world problem that power lines have significant resale value.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:50:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Australia court: link to copyrighted material, feel the wrath

A full bench of the Federal Court yesterday upheld an earlier ruling that Stephen Cooper, the operator of mp3s4free.net, as well as the internet service provider that hosted the website, were guilty of authorising copyright infringement because they provided a search engine through which a user could illegally download MP3 files. The website did not directly host any copyright-protected music, but the court held that simply providing links to the material effectively authorised copyright infringement.

"Mr Cooper had power to prevent the communication of copyright sound recordings to the public in Australia via his website," the judges said. "He had that power because he was responsible for creating and maintaining his mp3s4free website."

Ms Sabiene Heindl, general manager of Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), said similar action could be taken against individuals who, like mp3s4free, used the internet to link to copyright-protected material. [She] said that this could apply even if a person had embedded a copyright-infringing YouTube clip in their blog or MySpace page.

"We don't make any distinctions between big websites or small websites", she said, adding that MIPI would consider individual blogs on a "case-by-case basis as to whether it would be appropriate to take action".

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:28:58 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Stuff stashed on the Space Shuttle

Roman has a recording. Sunita's got her snapshots. And Bill has his banner from up north. The STS-116 crew, living aboard Discovery and docked with the International Space Station, has mementos and favorite items packed with them. Launched on the evening of December 9, the six member crew has also delivered supplies for the ISS, a new truss segment, and a new station resident, who will stay on the ISS when Discovery returns to Earth.

For STS-116 commander Mark "Roman" Polansky, pilot Bill Oefelein and their four crewmates, the mementos in their personal preference kits (PPKs) and in the Official Flight Kit (OFK) are souvenirs of their just begun 12-day mission to be given to family, friends, and organizations that they support. For Sunita Williams, who moved onto the ISS on Monday, they'll act as reminders of home for the duration of her six-month stay.

"We all have a small amount that we can take up on shuttle," Williams told collectSPACE. "For the station we have a little extra [room] that we can take up of stuff that we can really use while we are up there, like a ball cap or whatever."

"Its just like your office, where you have pictures of your family or little things that are mementos to you and some of that stuff is a little extra for station crew members [as] we are going to be there for a longer period of time," said Williams.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:14:27 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Joe Barbera, RIP

posted by David Pescovitz at 05:58:38 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Diamond-encrusted USB drives are a girl's best friend

(thanks Violet).

Reader comment: Chris Spurgeon says,

If you're looking for a less expensive way to ensure that you don't lose your USB drive, there's always my solution -- embed your drive in a bowling ball! Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:11:23 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Xeni on CNN: cool holiday-themed internet videos

I'll be joining CNN International host Kristie LuStout at 740pm Eastern/440pm Pacific for a look at some of the more interesting holiday-themed videos to be found online. Shown here, a very machinima Christmas: Visiting Scrooge, a two-part series filmed entirely in The Sims 2. More fun junque: Mobile yule log, Boymongoose, A Christmas Gory, Texas Xmas, and 10ZenMonkeys did a great roundup of darkly reworked classics here: Link. BTW I'm pretty sure Kristie LuStout is a Cylon, because it is not possible for a human to be that smart and gorgeous at the same time.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:55:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia, etc.) is having a fundraiser

Wikipedia is having a fundraiser and we actually need the money :) There was just an audit, so you can feel more confident. And don't forget it's tax deductible for those end of year write offs! Link to more info on the December 2006 fundraising drive, and the audit is here: PDF Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:29:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

t-shirt du jour: braiiiiiiiinnnnns.

Reader comment: Brian Arnold says,

That shirt looks an awful lot like this Zombway shirt. Personally, I think the Zombway shirt is funnier, especially with the little bits of blood.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:22:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Report: USA's biggest cash crop is now pot.

[The report] contends that the market value of pot produced in the U.S. exceeds $35 billion — far more than the crop value of such heartland staples as corn, soybeans and hay, which are the top three legal cash crops.

California is responsible for more than a third of the cannabis harvest, with an estimated production of $13.8 billion that exceeds the value of the state's grapes, vegetables and hay combined — and marijuana is the top cash crop in a dozen states, the report states. (...) Nationwide, the estimated cannabis production of $35.8 billion exceeds corn ($23 billion), soybeans ($17.6 billion) and hay ($12.2 billion), according to Gettman's findings.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:12:25 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mt. Hood search and rescue guy's profile

Mountaineer Steve Rollins figures he has worked nearly 100 rescues on the icy heights of Oregon's 11,239-ft. Mount Hood. He has dropped by rope from helicopters near the peak using night vision, slogged through whiteouts and climbed into crevasses. Between gigs, the 29-year-old holds down a computer job with Nike. But like the other members of Portland Mountain Rescue, his lifesaving work is pro bono: "You could offer me a paycheck, but it wouldn't make the job any more rewarding."

Reader comment: Julie says,

Two famous US climbers are missing in China. "Renowned American climber Charlie Fowler and high-altitude mountaineer Christine Boskoff have gone missing in central-western China. The pair had been on expedition since the autumn, and had managed the first ascent of the oft-attempted Yala Peak in early October." They are trying to raise money for the search effort. Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:02:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Kentucky Fried Christmas

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:56:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video documentary of woman who thinks like a cow

Her story first became known as she was included as a case study in neurologist Oliver Sacks' book An Anthropologist on Mars.

Interestingly, Grandin suggests that her autism helps her understand animals, as she suggests they have similar styles of thinking in some instances.

In the programme, Grandin explains her work and views on autism. Furthermore, the documentary highlights her as a bright and engaging person, far from the usual stereotypes of autistic people.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:47:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Top ten sex device patents

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:38:50 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Handheld device parcels out cigarettes

The Nicostopper is an electronic cigarette dispenser in which you can fit a maximum of 10 cigarettes at a time. Once the ciggies are in, you program the intervals at which you would like to take a smoke. Not only will you be allowed to take the cigarettes out only at the pre-defined intervals, but, like a discerning grandmother, the Nicostopper will also flash “self-help” messages each time to make you feel guilty as well.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:34:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thousands of Santas in Moscow

Reader comment:

johnboy says: "The story behind those Santas is kinda disturbing and should be attached to that story"

Its purpose and appearance had been painstakingly created to appear benign. Few of the 70,000 or so who gathered were older than teenagers and their uniforms were so incongruous as to be unthreatening. Each was dressed as Grandfather Frost or the Snow Maiden, traditional Russian New Year characters.

Yet, according to Russia's liberal democrats, scenes like this are less a display of benevolence than a show of force. For them, Nashi, the Kremlin-backed youth group behind Sunday's parade, is an alarming throwback to the Soviet era.

As the youngsters swayed to the "patriotic karaoke" emanating from the stage, a voice boomed out from the loudspeakers exhorting them to reinvent Russia's lost glory.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:26:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Betty and Veronica redesign disaster

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:23:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Animated scene from unmade Ren & Stimpy cartoon

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:25:23 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Automated house from 1950

Step into the bedroom and Mathias flips a wall switch. The draperies close automatically over the two windows. A surplus bombsight motor in the basement does the work. He throws another switch and the windows close. The radio in the living room can be turned on and off from the bedroom (and from the kitchen and basement as well). Extension speakers bring the sound to you wherever you are.

Clocks in the closet shut the radio off at 10 o’clock each night and turn it on at 6 a.m. On Saturdays and Sundays, the radio stays on until 11 and resumes at 8 in the morning. A special switch cuts out the shut-off clock, if Mathias wants to listen to programs after the usual sign-off hour.

When Mrs. Mathias sits down at her dressing table she doesn’t have to fumble with the twin lamps to turn them on. She merely pulls out the center drawer a fraction of an inch and the lights go on. A microswitch in the drawer does the trick.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:07:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Chicago nightlife guide from 1959

Inside cover... wowie wow wow! The L&L Cafe on West Madison trumpets air conditioning and the "WORLD'S MOST GORGEOUS SHOWGIRLS," including a lineup of enticing names like 'Xonia,' 'Roszika,' 'Deidre' and 'Jackie Joy.' A little Googling reveals that the L&L was originally a swank, wife/sweetheart-friendly nightclub during WWII, but it is unclear when it transformed into a girl-ogling joint. More research shows that one of the L's in 'L&L' was Chicago restaurateur Danny Lardas, which might explain the need for abbreviation; I suppose "Lardas Showgirls" might have been a difficult sale. It's also unclear whether the old L&L has any relation to the current L&L Tavern on North Clark - a purported onetime hangout of John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Daumer, and yours truly.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:01:37 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

BB Digital Emporium: John K's "George Liquor Xmas" video

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:50:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Google and NASA sign partnership agreement

As the first in a series of joint collaborations, Google and Ames will focus on making the most useful of NASA's information available on the Internet. Real-time weather visualization and forecasting, high-resolution 3-D maps of the moon and Mars, real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle will be explored in the future.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:49:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Beer in a feeding tube poster, for a good cause

posted by David Pescovitz at 06:48:59 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Love Hotels photo book

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:56:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Report from the Mustang Range Machine-Gun Shoot

Aside from war, however, machine guns do not seem to lend themselves to utilitarian purposes. A detached investigation of this prima facie absurdity is at least part of the reason I have been dispatched here, to shoot guns in the desert. I am now no longer detached; this no longer feels so absurd. The next range officer on the line hands me a full-auto Glock 18 and I fire before his fingers are off the gun. These firearms enthusiasts find it amusing that this model is de rigueur for the fashionable rapper; it is the most obtuse and imprecise weapon on the submachine-gun range. (Although for me, given that I could barely hit the desert with the Uzi, this seems an invidious distinction.) I crouch forward and am heavy on the trigger. There is a Winnie the Pooh doll crucified on sawhorse stocks; he is untidily aerated. Crane, a gentle man with a dog called Pigglepug, generously defends himself against a poster of an anonymous jihadi with a Palestinian kaffiyeh. Nearby a 12-year-old wields an M1 Thompson at a Mr. Happy doll. "This is better than Disneyland," he says.

"Obviously," Crane says.

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:24:05 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Morse Code officially dead? Unlikely.

I passed the Morse exam years ago while getting my ham license, but I never used -- or even considered using-- Morse on the air. Then back in July, with full knowledge of Morse’s obsolescence, I decided to learn it well enough to be able to actually carry on a radio conversation. To celebrate my modest progress, I ordered a top-line GHD telegraph key (the Rolls-Royce of keys) as an early Christmas present to myself. With exquisite irony, UPS delivered it yesterday afternoon, only hours before the FCC announcement was released.

It is tempting to conclude that the FCC’s action spells the end of Morse, but I am certain we will see a very different outcome. Freed from all pretense of practical relevance in an age of digital communications, Morse will now become the object of loving passion by radioheads, much as another “dead” Language, Latin is kept alive today by Latin-speaking enthusiasts around the world. Latin fans eagerly tick off the practical benefits of speaking a dead language, but of course they pursue their study because it is fun and challenging, gives them a sense of accomplishment and links them to a community of other passionate speakers.

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:07:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Top Cryptozoology Books of 2006

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:50:20 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Holiday internet video classic: Pulp Xmas

First blogged on BoingBoing here in 2004.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:48:13 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Xeni on CNN's "Welcome to the Future"

* A voice translation gadget for troops in Iraq. Background: See this previous BB post.

* Pros and cons of fingerprint scanners and other biometric authentication devices for home and enterprise computer users. Background: see this Bruce Schneier essay.

* Second Life. I fall off a virtual cliff and lose both legs (which grow back), then shop for goth miniskirts, then we teleport to Tibet.

The show airs a bunch of times, here's the schedule (I think, but check local listings):

Saturday, December 16th: 6am, 3pm

Saturday, December 23rd: 7pm, 11pm

Sunday, December 24th: 2am, 6am, 2pm, 7pm, 11pm, 2am

Bruce is missing a key point in fingerprint reader security: yes, one can steal your fingerprint, but the question is which one of the 10 fingers you are using? 9 of them can still give you access to the database/open doors / start your car / etc., but at the same time could trigger a silent alarm to the security center / 911 / etc that either someone has stolen your finger prints, or they've cut your fingers, or they are forcing you against your will. So, in other words, there's always more than one way to approach a problem ;)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:21:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, December 15, 2006

Craft and Make at Bazaar Bizarre in LA on Saturday

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 06:27:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Behold, the sight of his noodly light.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:03:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mystery photo: man in top hat sitting on dead horse

In the photo, a dead horse lies in the street, roped off with string tied to stakes in the dirt road. A man in a top hat, bow tie and jacket sits on top of the horse, and people in the background are standing still, looking toward the camera.

"I always just assumed it was taken as a joke or something like that," said Bill Wangemann, Sheboygan city historian. "I was never able to find out anything about it. What the story behind that (picture) is, I don't have the foggiest notion."

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:27:20 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Gremlin Moleskine notebook

SOLD OUT! Thanks to everyone for ordering these! I hope to sell a new design soon. -- Mark

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:21:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

War on Terror board game

Everyone starts the game as an Empire, with a couple of free villages and they can settle anywhere in the world. Although peaceful (we had to ban fighting in the first round) the 'politics' of the game already start to form, depending on what oil is discovered and how 'aggressive' the initial settlement choice is.

Send secret messages; fund terrorism; make deals; renege on deals; wage war; expand your empire; forge secret alliances; fund regime changes; kidnap politicians; be the terrorists

Empires then spread over the planet grabbing all available land, searching for the best oil and the most strategic borders. Some go for towns and cities, other spend their cash on extra empire cards, building up their political options. Maybe, if they're lucky, they'll get an early nuke.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:09:31 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

La Très Sainte Trinosophie: 18th c. French occult tome

Bibliodyssey, a site devoted to rare old books and materia obscura, is one of my favorite blogs. Each page-load is like a peek into the most treasured recesses of an eccentric book-hoarder's stash. I have a tiny attention span and an aversion to collecting too many objects, so for me it's a dream come true. Here's a snip from today's entry, "La Très Sainte Trinosophie," which includes some pages of cool old magic code I don't understand:

The 'Cosmic Master of the Age of Aquarius' and mysterious adept, the Count de Saint-Germain, allegedly died in 1784. He was a spy, virtuoso violinist, diplomat, friend at the Court of Louis XV, adventurer and was said to be able to transform iron into gold. A veritable procession of people have claimed to be the still living Count de Saint-Germain since 1784.

"During the centuries after his death, numerous myths, legends and speculations have surfaced. He has been attributed with occult practices like snake charming and ventriloquism. There are stories about an affair between him and Madame de Pompadour. Other legends report that he was immortal, the Wandering Jew, an alchemist with the elixir of life, a Rosicrucian or an ousted king, a bastard of Queen Maria Anna of Spain, that he prophesied the French Revolution. Casanova called him the violinist Catlini. Count Cagliostro was rumored to be his pupil."

Either the Count de Saint-Germain or Cagliostro is considered to be the author of 'La Très Sainte Trinosophie' (The Most Holy Three-fold Wisdom), from the latter half of the 18th century. It has been called "the rarest of occult manuscripts"¹ and the only surviving copy is owned by the library in Troyes, France.

Reader comment: Neil says,

It's worth pointing out that de Saint-Germain appears prominently in Neal Stephenson's lovely "Quicksilver".

If Saint-Germain sightings are of interest, it's also worth noting that he's all over Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:36:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

WIRED hacks GAWKER

Link 1, Link 2.

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

Dirty, crafty: adults-only knitting salons

Violet Blue's SF Chron column this week explores an adults-only knitting salon in San Francisco. Mercy.

Two women wrestle in cavegirl bikinis. Pasties are modeled by a sexy lineup of women who could only belong in a San Francisco burlesque troupe. "Kinderwhore" is a knitting pattern for naughty schoolgirl socks shown on two mischievous adult schoolgirls. In one adorable photo, a demure model pouts amid a pile of sex toys and hand-crafted cozies for almost every sex toy that keeps Good Vibrations in business. Lest we forget that the ingredients for marital bliss can include love, a paddle and deft needles, one image shows a babe in latex playing cards on the back of a man made into a human table by way of the knitted blindfold and cuffs she's administered.

Image: a flogger, modeled by a blogger (the smolderlingly saucy Kelly Sue DeConnick).

Reader comments: Rachel Kramer Bussel says,

Coincidentally, Violet Blue and I both wrote about sexy knitting this week - since you posted about her column, I thought you might find my Village Voice column on "Kinky Knitknacks" of interest as well, covering the same idea in a slightly different way. With sexy photos!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:17:08 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sonic art weapon: Ravezooka

"The Ravezooka is a musical weapon that shoots powerful "hardcore" sounds based on your target's distance from the instrument. Squeezing the trigger handle initiates sound and a beam of light. As the user moves the Ravezooka around, the frequency range being played changes based on the distance of the person or object in front of the instrument. The closer the target, the lower the frequency range."

Link to wwmna blog entry.

The Ravezooka was created by Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis and Lesley Flanigan. Here's their project page, and you can hear it in action at New York University's Winter Interactive Telecommunications Program show on December 17 and 18.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:06:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Vintage "Guide to PCs": computer ad from 1982

Shay says,

I've recently found and scanned some pages from a 168-pages, 24 years old DEC sales booklet. Some of the photos are just hilarious, and some of the features touted (teleconferences, no-screws HD installation) are still being used to sell PCs today.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:55:18 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Anti-terror funds pay for mobile fingerprint scanners for cops

Columbus, Ohio police just spent about $120,000 in federal homeland security grant money to buy 40 cellular-enabled fingerprint scanners which will allow officers to run a fingerprint of a suspect against 250,000 prints in the city's fingerprint database, according to the Associated Press. The department says the Rapid Identification Terminal (wi-fi enabled!) will cut down on crime since officers will no longer have to route a suspected criminal to the central office, where fingerprinting can take up to an hour. This doesn't replace that procedure but let's officers find out if the person they've stopped has outstanding warrants or may be lying about his or her identity.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:47:14 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Clockwork Insects

"One day I found a dead intact beetle. I then located an old wristwatch, thinking of how the beetle also operated and looked like a little mechanical device and so decided to combine the two. After some time dissecting the beetle and outfitting it with watch parts and gears, I had a convincing little cybernetic sculpture. I soon made many more with other found insects and have been exploring and developing the theme ever since."

Link (Thanks, Sass)

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

NPR Holiday crafts contest winners announced

Carla Sinclair (Craft) and Phil Torrone (Make) were among the judges. At left, Julie Jackson's winning homage to Stephen Colbert and his word of the year, truthiness.

Reader comment: Julie Jackson, creator of the winning entry, shares news of how the pint-sized Stephen is celebrating the NPR Craft Contest win. "He and his little 'elf friends' won't shut up about it." Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:56:55 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Pirates of the Caribbean: behind the ILM digital effects

The work of several Star Wars veterans (including VFX supervisor John Knoll) is being showcased in a special website just launched to explore the mind-blowing visual effects of this past summer's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." Interactive clips at this new site allow you to peel back layers of animation to see what ILM had to start with before transforming actors wearing tracking markers into astonishingly real characters.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:39:17 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Internet monkey proves holiday fruitcake need not suck

More: monkey cooking latkes, hannukah celebration, christmas stuff, and... hmmmm... a visit with the truthiness elf, winner of the NPR holiday crafts contest.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:29:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fun ad for books

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:14:01 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Gingerbread version of Carcassonne board game

A board-gaming colleague of mine created, played, and I beleive subsequently ate, a full gingerbread version of the popular, and oft-expanded tile-laying game "Carcassonne". She has published the details including how long it took and llinks to lots of photos...the little gingerbread "meeples" are the best!

Jon Power points to more coverage on boardgamegeek and says,

Boardgamegeek.com is the centre of the board game universe and a few minutes on there will convert almost everybody away from horrid Monopoly and back into fun games like Carc. My club in York is called Beyond Monopoly!, we'll be meeting tomorrow to play German games all day. German style board games are the future. We go to Essen each year to join 150,000 boardgamers at the biggest show in the world. 4 days of board games in massive exhibition halls, it's unbelievable.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:13:25 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cyber-freedom prize winners include Cuban hunger striker

Guillermo Fariñas, "El coco", head of the independent news agency Cubanacán Press, began a hunger strike in February 2006 to demand the right for all Cubans to have access to a "free Internet". The authorities hospitalised him and put him on a drip to try to end his campaign, which was widely covered in the international media.

After he had spent several months in intensive care suffering from kidney and heart problems, the authorities told Guillermo Fariñas he could have "limited" access to the Internet. He refused, explaining that he could not honourably exercise his profession as a journalist by looking only at news and information which had been filtered by the government.

"El coco" only ended his hunger strike on 31 August after a brush with death and the loss of 15 kilos. He is continuing his work at Cubanacán and has become one of the leading voices among Cuban opposition journalists. He also still keeps the foreign media up to date with human rights violations in his country and in particular passes on information about intimidation and harassment of independent reporters. Cubanacán, founded in 2003, is the leading news agency of the new generation of Cuban journalists. None of its 17 reporters has the right to use the Internet or fax to send articles abroad. Their reports are mostly filed from public telephones. Since telecommunications charges are very high, the calls are mostly placed by collect.

Habib Saleh. Syria President Bashar al-Assad has made Syria into one of the worst ‘black holes’ in the Internet. He has set up systematic filtering of online opposition publications and sent his political police to mercilessly track down dissidents and independent journalists expressing themselves online. Writer and businessman Habib Saleh, 59, has paid the price of this systematic repression. On 29 May 2005, he was arrested at his office in Tartus, 130 kilometres north of Damascus. He was sentenced to three years in prison at the end of an unfair trial at which he was accused of “spreading lies” on the Internet.

Yang Zili, China. Computer technician Yang Zili was sentenced on 28 May 2003 to eight years in prison for “subversion”. His “crime” was to post articles on his website lib.126.com, "the garden of Yang Zili’s ideas", in which he wrote about his support for political liberalism, criticised the crackdown on the spiritual movement Falungong and condemned the economic woes of China’s peasants.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:59:37 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Would you rent a MacBook for about $2 a day - for 3 years?

Apple France and French ISP Orange are hooking up to provide French consumers with a rented MacBook and 1 Mbps DSL for €60 ($79.50) a month. That works out to about €2 a day. (You can upgrade to 8 Mbps DSL for an additional €5 per month.)

The catch is that you have to sign up for three years, but that includes three years of Apple Care.

Louis-Pierre Wenes, executive director of France Telecom’s domestic operations compared this deal to getting a €150 rebate on the price of a MacBook (€1099) plus an additional two years of AppleCare (€319) — in that €35 that pays for the computer x 36 months = €1260. However, M. Wenes didn’t explain what happens at the end of the three-year deal. (There also appears to be a rent-to-buy option, but it’s unclear how that works out.)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:49:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mysterious duck die-off in Idaho, new H5N1 worries

This is a story about a massive duck passing (at least 2000 have kicked the bucket so far) in Idaho. Experts aren't sure what is causing the die-off, but they are pretty sure that this is not H5N1. Their theory? Probably a bacteria. However, the main reason I submit the link? On page two of the story is the following text: "...They said it was unclear why a similar outbreak had never before occurred in Idaho. SIMILAR EVENT IN IOWA LAST YEAR. On Wednesday, officials outfitted with protective gear were gathering hundreds of mallard carcasses..."

Reader comment: Neil says,

CNN is reporting that the mallard die-off was caused by fungus growing on moldy grain like the earlier Iowa incident.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:30:39 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Xmas music: 2400 songs diced and resmushed into one MP3

Seeing as everybody is full of christmas cheer, glee and misery, i thought i'd add to that. I've put together 2400 christmas tracks into one 75 minute mix. 8 seconds of each song is spliced onto one of four tracks, with each track filtered according to frequency. It's not easy listening, and a friend of mine actually copied it because "i already feel like shit, so maybe with this i'll come out on the other side". (paraphrasing a bit here).

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:21:31 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Web Zen: shopping zen

Shamelessly self-promoting bonus links: The BoingBoing t-shirt store, and the BB Digital Emporium.

Web Zen Home, Store (Thanks Frank!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:46:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Imaginary Foundation's new shirts

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:12:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Pain-free family

The researchers studied six of his relatives, aged between 4 and 14 years. All had suffered many cuts and bruises, and injuries to lips and tongue caused by biting themselves; several had fractured bones without noticing.

This shows the importance of pain for our health and survival, notes Geoffrey Woods of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, UK, who led the study. "Pain is there for a jolly good reason — it stops us damaging ourselves," he says. For example, the pain from a broken arm or sprained ankle encourages us to rest that body part while it recovers.

The children in the study had no such safety check, causing them to be both graceless and reckless. "One girl was continually knocked down in the playground and just didn't mind at all," Woods says...

The SCN9A gene encodes a 'sodium channel': one of the structures that allows electrical charge to flow into nerve cells, triggering a signal, the researchers explain. Without this particular type of sodium channel, the brain does not receive any signal that the body has encountered a pain-causing stimulus.

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:56:58 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cory's gone until 2007

Of course, the rest of the gang will still be here. If you want to submit a Boing Boing suggestion, use the form. I just delete Boing Boing suggestions I get by email, anyway, so this is always the right thing to do, no exceptions, ever, period.

If you want to talk to someone about doing business with Boing Boing, visit FM Publishing.

If you're looking to talk to someone about licensing some of my stories or novels, or commissioning a speech, article or whatnot, contact my agent, Russell Galen.

Have a great holiday, everyone! See you in 07!

Cory

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:21:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Jargon watch: "Pizza upskirt"

(Photo "Fornino" from Flickr user Slice)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:08:14 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Set-top box with guts does *everything*

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:05:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Steampunk watch

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:47:25 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mario and Luigi rubber stamps

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:43:19 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Vintage console TV and hi-fi

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:40:11 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Keyboard brush/figurine with afro

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:07:58 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bill Gates: Don't buy DRM music, rip CDs instead

Gates said that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which “causes too much pain for legitmate buyers” while trying to distinguish between legal and illegal uses. He says no one has done it right, yet. There are “huge problems” with DRM, he says, and “we need more flexible models, such as the ability to “buy an artist out for life” (not sure what he means). He also criticized DRM schemes that try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific.

His short term advice: “People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then.” Link (Thanks to everyone who suggested this link!)

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

Michel Gondry solves Rubik's Cube with feet

In this video, film director Michel Gondry appears to solve a Rubik's Cube with his feet.
Link (Thanks, Coop!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:21:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Science of Psychopathy

The cover story of Science News this week is about psychopaths, defined in the article as those pleasant individuals who "lack a conscience and are incapable of experiencing empathy, guilt, or loyalty." (On the cover, Ted Bundy.) From the article:

Psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley wrote The Mask of Sanity (1941, Mosby), a classic textbook on psychopathy. Cleckley portrayed psychopaths as superficially charming, intelligent people who don't feel deep emotions and lie about almost everything because they neither understand nor care about others...

Although psychiatrists don't currently label psychopathy as a formal personality disorder, a wave of new research has yielded insights into how psychopaths think and suggested biological and temperamental roots of this condition.

These findings have not only sparked debate among researchers but also attracted widespread interest among lawyers and judges. Courts in the United States and other countries increasingly rely on psychopathy measures to make sentencing judgments. New studies suggest that being labeled a psychopath increases the likelihood that an offender will be locked up indefinitely or even executed.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:14:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Remote-controlled sharks

Boston University marine biologist Jelle Atema has made progress converting sharks to "remote control" so that they could be outfitted with sensors and sent on spying machines. In a project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Atema implanted sharks with electrical stimulators that trick their brains into smelling food. Using the stimulators, he was able to "steer" the sharks around a tank. From Boston University's Alumni e-Newsletter where a video demonstration can be seen:

For decades, the navy has used dolphins and sea lions to patrol harbors, salvage expensive hardware, and locate potential sea mines. Indeed, mounting chemical, auditory, or visual sensors on a shark is the easy part. The challenge is finding a way to steer sharks over long distances. Over millions of years, sharks have evolved to pursue one particular target of opportunity — lunch — and military commanders would need a way to override that instinct in order to dispatch their shark spies to areas of strategic interest...

The military has since made the research classified, and it is now run out of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I. But Atema is seeking new funding sources to continue his work on sharks, with potential civilian applications in mind — such as tracking fish populations, changes in ocean temperatures, or chemical spills.

Link (via Defense Tech)

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:55:13 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Xeni.net/trek: Guatemala - Bananifest Destiny

I'm back from an assignment in Guatemala, going through gigs of footage on hard drives, and scribbled story notes on frayed, coffestained moleskine pages. I'm sorting through everything on a road blog (xeni.net/trek). Emails and comments I received from readers during the trip guided me to story ideas I wouldn't have known about otherwise, and assisted me immeasurably. Here's a roundup of recent journal entries.

* Video: Market report. Quick walk through the mercado central in Antigua, Guatemala, shot on an Altoids-sized camera. Link to 1:11 video (in Flash or Quicktime).

* Travel haiku: homesick fading battery.

* United Fruit Company promotional video, 1950. Bizarre promo film produced by the United Fruit Company just four years before a CIA-backed coup protected that firm's interests in Guatemala by overthrowing democratically-elected leader Jacobo Arbenz. If the company's foreign policy ambitions had a name: Bananifest Destiny.

* Internet video on CIA role in 1954 coup. Various documentary clips found on YouTube, Google Video, and archive.org which relate to the 1954 US-backed coup. Guest cameo by Richard Nixon.

* Is "Apocalypto" Racist? The actual title of the essay was "Is 'Apocalypto' Pornography," but IMO that gives perfectly respectable porn a bad name. (via Tom Zeller/NYT/The Lede).

* Art in response to "femicides". Over 2,000 women were murdered in Guatemala from 2001 through March, 2006. More recent stats show that 600 women died in 2006 alone. While I was in Guatemala, I interviewed government officials and human rights workers about this -- thousands of women demonstrated in the capital one day. These crimes are often sexualized and extremely violent, with signs of rape, torture, mutilation or dismemberment. A Mexican-American artist in the Bay Area has launched an interactive art project in response.

* Vintage video about evil volcano near Antigua. Sensationalist '30s newsreel about indigenous people who live at the foot of the "volcano of water" near Antigua, Guatemala. It's strange to see this for three reasons: one, I woke up to this same volcano outside of my window every morning while I stayed in Antigua. Two, the smarmy narrator refers to Mayan people as "human mules," and in other offensive terms. Three, the scenes of daily life in this video don't look much different from life today in Guatemala's more rural communities.

Previous BoingBoing roundups from xeni.net/trek - Guatemala: Link. Videos: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:33:41 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Incredible Roy Doty Christmas card

I must have been six or seven years old when I first came across Roy Doty's illustrations in a pile of old Popular Science magazines from the 1960s. Doty's "Wordless Workshop" comics featured a pipe-smoking dad who solved common household problems with ingenious but easy-to-make devices.

I instantly became a fan of his elegant, light-hearted, clear-as-a-bell drawings, and whenever I found old copy of PopSci at a garage sale or used book store, I'd tear through it until I found his two-page cartoon, which he started doing in the early 1950s.

A couple of years ago, I learned that Roy was still actively drawing, for magazines and books. I immediately emailed him and asked him to become the illustrator for MAKE magazine's puzzle page, called Aha! (in homage to another hero of mine, Martin Gardner, who wrote two books I treasure: Aha! Insight and Aha! Gotcha, now available in one volume). Roy was happy to oblige, and has illustrated the column ever since. I can't tell you how exciting it is to get the faxes with his rough sketches for the column. Of course, he needs no art direction; he knows exactly how to illustrate the puzzles.

Every year, Roy sends out whimsical Christmas cards, and this year's is a masterpiece -- a Mousetrap / Rube Goldberg-style holiday celebration machine. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:04:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

World's greatest scooter hack

From the Make blog. It looks kind of phony. Why does the guy need to be up so high? Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:04:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Illustrator Hal Robins on RU Sirius Show

RU Sirius and one of our favorite SubGenii, Hal Robins, mourn the decline of underground comix and mull over Subgenius lore on this week's RU Sirius Show. And RU has an inspiring discussion with NASA scientist Creon Levit about the near future of space exploration on NeoFiles. (Photo by Scott Beale) Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:29:44 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Balinese long horse

How long would a Balinese long horse have to run on a rolamite before it turned into a unicorn? (Photo provided by Len Cullum)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:13:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

World's tallest man saves two dolphins

Bao Xishun is 7 feet 9 inches tall, and as you might imagine, has very long arms to match his body. Those long arms of his were put to good use recently when he was called in by desperate veterinarians to reach into the stomachs of two dolphins and remove the plastic they had swallowed. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:05:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cook cubic hard-boiled eggs with this device

This neat Catalan gadget allows you to cook square boiled eggs. The device is called Kubikou, which translates from Catalan to "cubic-egg." Wish I knew where to buy 'em outside of Catalunya.

Link. (Thanks, Carabassa)

Reader comment: Summer Smith says,

I bought an egg cuber as pictured from Sur La Table a year ago as a gift for a crazy friend. Looks like it's no longer available (at least it's not online), but here's a place from which you can have one shipped: Link.

To quote the friend: "I've found yet another way to categorize people - those who say 'Cool!' when they see a cubic hard-boiled egg, and those who say 'Uh, why?'. I'm glad to be in the former category, as are my friends. I've also learned that many of my co-workers are in the latter."

BTW, the MAKE magazine blog recently featured an Egg Cuber: Link.

Have an eggstraordinary day!

Heidi says,

this is just an ebay auction for the 'kubikou' egg cuber you have posted.

shari says,

square boiled egg? nah, try star/teddy bear/hello kitty boiled eggs. Technically, you can make boiled egg into any shape if you have the mold. Molded egg is quite normal in bento making world, cos it's cute! I'd think that square egg is pretty boring compared to those :D. Link

Alexander says,

Not that common in the states, but my grandma used to have one and she used to tease me unmercifully about how I never understood how only she could get cubed eggs. "I get them from square chickens, and only my favorite gransdon is worth the trouble." (my Hungarian is rusty, but I think that's what I remember her saying.)

_why says,

I'm sure someone else has mentioned the Gillygaloo, a legenday bird which laid cubical eggs -- and with good reason. As Jorge Luis Borges recalled in "The Book of Imaginary Beings":

The Gillygaloo nested on the slopes of Paul Bunyan's famed Pyramid Forty, laying square eggs to keep them from rolling down the steep incline and breaking. These eggs were coveted by lumberjacks, who hard-boiled them and used them as dice.

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:59:22 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Frankincense harvesting endangers resin-producing trees

Evolution meets Christmas. Frankincense is a fragrant tree resin with a long history in Christian ceremonies, and was one of the gifts said to have been presented by the three wise men. Eric Roston writes,

This month's Journal of Applied Ecology reports that over-production of frankincense is having a deleterious affect on the viability of resin-producing trees in Eritrea.

Tapping frankincense causes the Boswellia trees to use up their carbohydrates replenishing their resin, instead of growing the flowers, fruits and seeds of their reproductive systems, according to Science Daily. The Christmas spirit herein forces natural selection, and the Boswellia forests may not be fit enough for the task.

Link to Eric's blog entry, and here's the Wikipedia entry on Boswellia trees and frankincense. Image above: the evolving tree in question.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:41:44 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Newcomb's Paradox: what would you do?

Franz Kiekeben (who is a very funny cartoonist) does a nice job of describing Newcomb's Paradox, which I've enjoyed contemplating, on and off, for many years.

A highly superior being from another part of the galaxy presents you with two boxes, one open and one closed. In the open box there is a thousand-dollar bill. In the closed box there is either one million dollars or there is nothing. You are to choose between taking both boxes or taking the closed box only. But there's a catch.

The being claims that he is able to predict what any human being will decide to do. If he predicted you would take only the closed box, then he placed a million dollars in it. But if he predicted you would take both boxes, he left the closed box empty. Furthermore, he has run this experiment with 999 people before, and has been right every time.

What do you do?

On the one hand, the evidence is fairly obvious that if you choose to take only the closed box you will get one million dollars, whereas if you take both boxes you get only a measly thousand. You'd be stupid to take both boxes.

On the other hand, at the time you make your decision, the closed box already is empty or else contains a million dollars. Either way, if you take both boxes you get a thousand dollars more than if you take the closed box only.

What would you do? Please read the rest of Kiekeben's essay before offering your reasoning. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:31:00 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hunter kills hermaphrodite deer with 7 legs, "crab pinchers"

Wisconsin resident Richard Lisko shot and killed was driving in his truck and hit and killed a deer which had seven "crab-like" appendages and both male and female sex organs.

"And by the way, I did eat it," Lisko said. "It was tasty."

Link to story with creepy photo. Here's another local news report. (Thanks, Brook, and Bill Leslie)

Reader comment: glamajamma says,

I am actually in Wisconsin and read about the 7-legged deer over lunch. I was very disappointed on the number of pictures on the subject, so I have been Googling like crazy for more pictures. This link is a more disturbing picture and the comments hints to the deer being a hermaphrodite. The following links may or not be deer deformities, they could just be good camera angles. Link 1, Link 2

(Ed. note: the news story appears to be real, but those linked-to photos may instead be relatives of the Long Horse.)

Daniel Rubenstein says,

Here are more pictures of the mutated deer.

We are calling her Se-venison.

This is from the Fon Du Lac Reporter.

Stephanie B. says,

Look at the linked-to photos closely. In all but the official photos from the news story, it is clear that there are two deer in the photograph. In the first photo of the snowy woods, there is another deer behind the "six-legged" deer. You can see its tummy. In the second photograph of the field, the second deer is standing parallel to the first and its head is concealed, giving it the appearance of being "long." In the third photograph, the extra legs which appear to be attached to the deer are actually those of a baby deer's. Look at the location they are in, and this becomes more plausible than extra legs growing in that spot. Do not believe everything you see.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:15:44 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wii users in motion: Flickr photo pool

BoingBoing reader Mario Anima says,

A group dedicated to photos of people playing the Nintendo Wii has been formed on Flickr, and the results are pretty hilarious.

Half of the fun with the Wii is watching others while they are playing the Wii. Many of the photos consist of what you might expect, young gamers in awkward poses -- laughing, making odd facial expressions, and having a lot of fun while making a total fool of themselves.

The surprise is the photos of people you wouldn't necessarily expect to see, like Michael T. Gilbert's photo of his dad playing Wii Sports Bowling [ shown here ]. They tell an entirely different story, and likely one Nintendo had hoped would come to fruition with the Wii.

Link to Wii Motion photo pool.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:02:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Missing equine: quagga, zorse, or zdonk?

This is an old photograph of a quagga, an African equine believed to have been extinct for about 100 years.

However, a stallion that escaped from an Edmonton farm two weeks ago, may be part Quagga.

[Patricia] O’Neil bought Zebastian seven years ago at an auction near Innisfail, thinking he was a hybrid horse. When Zebastian fathered a foal, O’Neil said she sent his DNA for testing at the University of Phoenix. She said Zebastian has the DNA markers of a quagga zebra, a species that has been extinct for more than 100 years.

More at Cryptomundo. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:00:44 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cory's Someone Comes to Town quoted on CBS's Criminal Minds

Last night's episode of Criminal Minds on CBS opened with a quote from my novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town -- keen! 1.6MB QuickTime Link (Thanks to everyone who wrote in about this!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:17:52 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Creative Commons anniversary party, Dec 15

An upcoming Second Life/First Life Creative Commons party will be held jointly in many real world cities and on Joi Ito's in-game island, with special guests Joi Ito, Larry Lessig, and Jimmy "Wikipedia" Wales.

What: Creative Commons Turns Four!
When: Friday, December 15, 2006, 9pm-11pm
Where: The island of Kula (direct teleport here)

The party is actually a celebration of CC's 4th year in business, and along with Second Life, it's going to be held in San Francisco, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Portugal, and New York City. If you can make any of those, see this Creative Commons listing, for details on getting an invite.

Link (Thanks, James!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:39:37 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

MySpace users have stronger passwords than corporate users

Bruce Schneier analyzes the data from a successful phishing attack on MySpace and compares the captured user-passwords to an earlier data-set from a corporation and concludes that MySpace users are better at coming up with good passwords than corporate drones. The article is a great state-of-the-password address, with lots of fun nuggets like "We used to quip that 'password' is the most common password. Now it's 'password1.' Who said users haven't learned anything about security?"

While 65 percent of passwords contain eight characters or less, 17 percent are made up of six characters or less. The average password is eight characters long.

Specifically, the length distribution looks like this.

Yes, there's a 32-character password: "1ancheste 23nite41ancheste 23nite4." Other long passwords are "fool2think fool2thinkol 2think" and "dokitty17darling7g7darling7."

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:34:43 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Melting coins is now super-illegal

Thinking of getting rich by melting down pennies and nickels to take advantage of higher metal prices? Think again -- Uncle Sucker's got a new law and will