England's buildings are littered with blue plaques placed by English Heritage, commemorating the birthplaces of important people, famous architecture and so on. English Heretics put Black Plaques up to commemorate an entirely different kind of heritage:

The Black Plaque scheme was instigated in October 2003. Its purpose is to commemorate and draw public attention to historical figures in such diverse fields as sorcery, the Royal Art, left hand path occultism and witchcraft, as well as the mentally infirm: tortured poets, psychopaths and village idiots.

Link (via Oblink)

I just finished watching the torrent of episode five of this season of The IT Crowd, the awesome geek sitcom from Graham Linehan, the creator of the uproariously funny Father Ted. On his blog Graham noted that this wasn't the best episode ever, but it still made me laugh out loud. There's a lot more transvestitism and boob-jokes in this episode than IT jokes, alas, but there's still plenty of funny stuff here. I ended up watching the torrent as usual -- though Channel 4 has a video-on-demand service, the (ineffective) DRM means that the easiest way to watch this on Linux is to get it via P2P. Torrent Link (Thanks, Dave!)

(Disclosure: I was an unpaid consultant on series one of The IT Crowd, and my fiancee works at Channel Four)

See also:
IT Crowd Season 2, Episode 4 -- and DVD! IT Crowd Season 2, Episode 3: Great anti-piracy PSA sendup
IT Crowd Season 2, Episode 2 -- keyboard-destroying nerd sitcom
The IT Crowd -- season two, episode one

James Surowiecki (author of the great book The Wisdom of Crowds) has a fantastic, tight little article about copyright and fashion in this week's New Yorker. Fashion designs aren't covered by copyright, and this means that couture designs are knocked off and sold at huge discounts in department stores and shops like H&M within seconds of appearing on the runway. This upsets many designers, but there's plenty of evidence that it's good for the industry as a whole -- the knockoffs sell to people who'd never buy the couture originals, so they don't really cannibalize sales; what's more, by making a hot new look ubiquitous, the knockoffs contribute to making it look tired and boring, which creates the market for next season's clothes.

This reminds me of the story of database copyrights, which exist in Europe and not the in the USA. Advocates for these monopolies argue that a copyright spurs investment and makes the industry bigger. But the fact is that the European database industry has stagnated over the past 25 years, while the US industry has grown 25-fold, and the biggest difference between the two is that European firms can prevent competition by using the database right.

Even though the evidence is that a database right has retarded the industry and limited growth, European database firms still profess a great love for their regulatory monopoly, and American firms still bemoan its absence.

The recipients of regulatory monopolies are like kids getting candy: they all believe that they need more, and nothing will convince them otherwise. But monopolies end up costing the public and the next generation of creators: by limiting competition in databases, Europe has created a smaller and less useful database industry. By encouraging competition in fashion, the world has created an easy means for all of us to get cheap clothes, while creating a huge amount of investment in the "next thing," making it easier for new designers to break into the field.

Designers' frustration at seeing their ideas mimicked is understandable. But this is a classic case where the cure may be worse than the disease. There's little evidence that knockoffs are damaging the business. Fashion sales have remained more than healthy--estimates value the global luxury-fashion sector at a hundred and thirty billion dollars-- and the high-end firms that so often see their designs copied have become stronger. More striking, a recent paper by the law professors Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman suggests that weak intellectual-property rules, far from hurting the fashion industry, have instead been integral to its success. The professors call this effect "the piracy paradox."

The paradox stems from the basic dilemma that underpins the economics of fashion: for the industry to keep growing, customers must like this year's designs, but they must also become dissatisfied with them, so that they'll buy next year's. Many other consumer businesses face a similar problem, but fashion--unlike, say, the technology industry--can't rely on improvements in power and performance to make old products obsolete. Raustiala and Sprigman argue persuasively that, in fashion, it's copying that serves this function, bringing about what they call "induced obsolescence." Copying enables designs and styles to move quickly from early adopters to the masses. And since no one cool wants to keep wearing something after everybody else is wearing it, the copying of designs helps fuel the incessant demand for something new.

Link (Thanks, Scott!)

In the new issue of Arthur, Douglas Rushkoff calls bullshit on alternative theories about 9/11. Not only that, he argues that the endless speculation is bad for the counterculture. From Doug's column:

Yes, I believe that 9-11 theorizing debilitates the counterculture. It robs us of some potentially creative thinkers. It replaces truly important questions with trivial ones. It marginalizes more constructive investigation of American participation in the development of Al Qaeda as well as its subsequent aggravation. And perhaps worst of all, it is precisely the sort of activity that government disinformation specialists would want us to be involved with.

9-11 theorists are unwittingly performing as the unpaid minions of the administration’s propaganda wing. (At least most of them are unpaid; no doubt, some of the loudest are working as contractors for the same agencies whose activities they pretend to deconstruct.) That’s why, instead of nodding along with their long-winded, preposterous yarns under the false belief that any critique is better than no critique, we—the informed, intelligent, and reasonable members of the war resistance—must instead disassociate ourselves from this drivel. In other words, we must draw the line between the kind of analysis done by Greg Palast and that done by Pilots for Truth. If we don’t apply discipline to our thinking, we risk falling into the trap that even some of our best intellectuals have—like Harper’s editor Lewis Lapham, who on reading a bit too much 9-11 conspiracy, has concluded that it all has some merit.

I’m all for supposing. It’s how the best science fiction gets written, the best science gets speculated, the best innovations get developed, and the wildest thoughts get hatched. But forensics is a different beast. As any detective will tell you, the most straightforward solution is usually the right one...

Link

Dig this prototype Japanese arcade game where you get to be a witch flying around on a broom. Certainly more imaginative than a steering wheel controller. Joel has more over at BB Gadgets.
Link to BBG post, Discuss

Our pals at eBoy, creators of the Boing Boing logo and our mascots Jackhammer Jill and the GadgetBeast, designed a wonderful line of PEECOL toys for Kidrobot. The first figurines will be available in a few weeks for $10. Congrats, eBoy! I wish people looked like this in real life. Link

The Harvard Coop bookstore had the police remove students who were writing down the ISBNs of textbooks, in defiance of the store's ridiculous position that ISBNs are "property." Of course, the store is private property (albeit property owned by a co-op that is supposed to be serving Harvard students) and they're free to demand that students leave the premises, but busting students whose "crime" is writing down detailed information about which books Harvard students are required to read in order to get their degree is hardly appropriate for a store that nominally serves the students' interests.

The Harvard Coop called police yesterday after three undergraduates collecting information for a student-run textbook-shopping Web site refused to leave the bookstore. The two Cambridge police officers who arrived allowed the students to continue copying down book identification numbers, which they did for two and a half hours before leaving on their own terms.

The Cambridge Police Department said its officers removed three or four males from the Coop's third floor, where textbooks are sold, at a Coop official's request after receiving a call from the store at 4:34 p.m. But a Crimson reporter and photographer present did not see anyone removed, and the three students collecting data for the Crimson Reading Web site also said they did not witness the police escorting anyone from the floor.

Link

Random House and eMusic have begun to sell DRM-free audiobooks on their site. This is pretty big news, since iTunes has an exclusive deal with Audible for ebooks, and Audible won't sell non-DRM ebooks (though they have other non-DRM products), even when the author doesn't want any DRM. I wonder if Random House will buy audio rights from authors who refuse to allow their works to be released with DRM on iTunes, though.

Back when i still used a Mac, I bought tons of Audible books -- thousands of dollars' worth. When I switched to Linux, those books were the hardest part of my switch. I had to re-encode each one as an MP3 by playing it back while running AudioHijack, which took almost a month, using two Powerbooks at once.

So these days, I buy most of my audiobooks on CD and rip them, then give away the discs to charity, which is kind of a pain in the ass, but it beats the alternative. Nice to know I can buy some titles from eMusic (though I'm still bummed that none of the major audiobook publshers will do DRM-free releases and that Apple won't allow non-DRM audiobook publishers to sell through the iTunes store). Link (Thanks, Ben!)

ThePirateBay has been digging through the enormous chunk of leaked email from MediaDefender, the sleazy enforcers used by the entertainment industry to fight P2P, and they've discovered evidence of illegal sabotage. So they're suing all the big movie and record comapnies in Sweden:

* Twentieth Century Fox, Sweden AB
* Emi Music Sweden AB
* Universal Music Group Sweden AB
* Universal Pictures Nordic AB
* Paramount Home Entertainment (Sweden) AB
* Atari Nordic AB
* Activision Nordic Filial Till Activision (Uk) Ltd
* Ubisoft Sweden AB
* Sony Bmg Music Entertainment (Sweden) AB
* Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Nordic AB

Link to Slashdot thread, Link to Pirate Bay thread

See also:
MediaDefender's source code leaked?
MediaDefender sends takedowns for leaked mail, gets savagely taunted
Giant email leak from MediaDefender -- MAFIAA hitmen

These vegetable animals (shown here: eggplant penguins) are incredible -- I imagine that getting kids to eat their veggies is much easier if said food is pre-sculpted into elaborate animals. Just think of the sound-effects you could make at the dinner table: "Oh God no, please don't eat me, ow ow ow!" Link (via IZ Reloaded)

Update: Thanks to Edd in the comments thread for identifying the source of these pix: Food for Thought, by Joost Elffers and Saxton Freymann.

This tutorial sets out the multi-step process by which you can stencil your clothes with bleach, working in inverse to create ever-lighter fabric sections by spraying on diluted bleach. Link (via IZ Reloaded)

It's a little early to be getting ready for Hallowe'en, but I really enjoyed this tutorial on making "witches' jars" for your Hallowe'en decor. They'd work just as well on the back shelf of your rec-room bar, after all. Link (via Neatorama)

Dafyd sez, "Several British MPs' personal websites and blogs (including that of the popular London mayoral candidate Boris Johnson) were forced offline earlier today when Alisher Usmanov, an Uzbek billionaire (he's the guy who bought an entire auction for £20m on Monday) complained about a blog posting by Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan. Fasthosts, Murray's ISP, pulled the plug on his blog, apparently also killing the sites of several other customers.

"Murray is the author of the fascinating "Murder in Samarkand - A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror", which - to say the least - does not portray Usmanov in a good light. Schillings, the lawyers acting on behalf of Usmanov, have already succeeded in getting Murray's host to alter some of his posts to present Usmanov in a different light. They also appear to have sent threatening emails to owners of Arsenal Football Club fan sites (Usmanov is an Arsenal shareholder), threatening libel action if any of Murray's statements appear on their sites.

"The Google cache of Murray's blog makes for some interesting reading.

Yet More Schillings Bollocks

On my article about Alisher Usmanov which so incensed his lawyers Schillings, let me ask this question. Has anybody seen an argument posted or published from any credible source to argue that what I say about Usmanov is untrue?

I ask the question because one of the edits to this log my webhost made at Schillings' behest was to say that my claim was "regarded as false by many people". I have altered that edit, because there is no justification for such a claim. I have yet to see evidence of anybody, not one solitary person, arguing that I am wrong about Usmanov, other than his lawyers. Who are these "Many people", and why are they peculiarly silent?

I am very sympathetic to my webhost having to change things for Schillings, but not to the extent of altering things to become defamatory of me!!!

(Thanks, Dafyd!)

This music video for Masala's "Od Tarnobrzegu po Bangladesz" is a remarkable example of Polish "ragga-bhangra" music -- funky Indian music performed by Poles with a proper bollywood-style video. Link (via Beyond the Beyond)

This notional tiered-pricing graphic -- from a world where there's no Net Neutrality and ISPs are allowed to block various web-sites if the companies that run them don't pay for "priority delivery" -- scared the pants off of me. I think that this is what it's really all about -- not just charging three times for every bit on the Internet (you pay your ISP for your connection, the web-host pays its ISP for its connection, and then it pays again for "carriage" to your ISP), but rather, turning the Internet back into cable TV, where access to anything except MPAA content costs extra and is walled off from the majority of users. Link

Update: Thanks to Eripsa in the comments thread for identifying the original source of this: "this image was created in May 06 by Something Awful forum member echobucket in response to the failed neutrality amendment to the telecom bill drafted that summer."

The next issue of BB fave art magazine Hi-Fructose features the psychedelically sweet artwork of the magical Yoko D'holbachie! Check out editors Attaboy and Annie Owens's blog for some preview spreads in the next few days.
Link to the Hi-Fructose blog, Link to d'Holbachie's Cosmos (via Laughing Squid)

Naomi Wolf was on The Colbert Report last night talking about her book, The End of America, A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, which outlines ten steps that "fascist, totalitarian, and other repressive leaders [employ to] seize and maintain power, especially in what were once democracies.”

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

2. Create a gulag

3. Develop a thug caste

4. Set up an internal surveillance system

5. Harass citizens' groups

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release

7. Target key individuals

8. Control the press

9. Dissent equals treason

10. Suspend the rule of law

Here's an essay on the 10 steps that Wolf wrote for the Guardian in April. Link to Colbert video

That's How it Happened presents a puzzle to ponder before the weekend begins.

You're a cowboy, and get involved in a three way pistol duel with two other cowboys. You are a poor shot, with an accuracy of only 33%. The other two cowboys shoot with accuracies of 50% and 100%, respectively. The rules of the duel are one shot per cowboy per round. The shooting order is from worst shooter to best shooter, so you get to shoot first, the 50% guy goes second, and the 100% guy goes third, then repeat. If a cowboy is shot he's out for good, and his turn is skipped. Where or who should you shoot first?

(CC-licensed photo by Rick)

Link

Japanese scientists have created this cute-as-a-bug see-thru froggy.

the transparent frog is the result of breeding two specimens of Japanese brown frog (Rana japonica) that had a genetic mutation giving them pale skin. By selectively breeding their offspring, the researchers were able to create a frog that remains transparent for its entire life cycle. Most of the world’s known transparent creatures live underwater, and transparent four-legged animals are extremely rare.

Link

Michael says: "A man in Japan has been taking a photo of the same vending machine every day and intensely noting the changes. He compares to previous years, draws diagrams of movements, and keeps complete tabs on everything else. Also remarkable is how clean and unbroken it remains the entire time. How long could an outdoor machine like this last in America?" Link

Amanda Visell created this snazzy "I Heart Tripods" cat shirt to help cover the vet bills of owners of cats that must have a leg amputated for one reason or another. It's $30. Link

Amy Crehore says:

I just came across an incredible resource for artists or anyone who loves Victorian illustration, humorous advertising and the color lithography of the late 1800's. I have shown only a few examples of Victorian Trade Cards here. The Trade Card Place is an online reference library of an amazing amount of unique and exciting images

Link

A friend of The Morning News's Pasha Malla knitted this amazing striped scarf. Look at it from a certain angle and a skull and crossbones pattern emerges from the stripes. Ysolda Teague developed the pattern and made it available free.
Link to The Morning News, Link to video demo on YouTube, Link to Ysolda Teague's pattern (via Neatorama)

AV sez, "Germany's parliament on Friday approved a copyright law, which makes it all but illegal for individuals to make save and make copies of television, films and music, even for their own use. It goes into effect in 2008."

Nice going, Germany -- between this and the new anti-hacker laws, you've managed to criminalize every productive member of the information society. Enjoy the caves and flint axes.

Germany's upper house of parliament on Friday approved a controversial copyright law, which makes it all but illegal for individuals to make copies of films and music, even for their own use.

The Bundesrat pushed aside criticism from consumer protection groups and passed the law, which makes it illegal for anyone to store DVDs and CDs without permission. The law also covers digital copies from IPTV and TV broadcasts.

Link (Thanks, AV!)

Update: Variety's reporting of this story seems to have gotten the story wrong. Check out the comments for this post, especially Sonja's, for more.

More research suggests that the "little people," the one-meter tall humans whose bones were discovered on the island of Flores, Indonesia in 2004, were a distinct species and not modern humans with a medical disorder. According to Smithsonian Institution anthropologist Matthew Tocheri and his colleagues, the little people's wrist bones are much more like those of an ape than a human. Their findings, published today in the journal Science, argue that this "hobbit" species split off at least 800,000 years ago from the evolutionary branch that led to humans. From the New York Times:

Dr. Tocheri and his colleagues said that the distinct species emerged from ancestors “that migrated out of Africa before the evolution of the shared, derived wrist morphology that is characteristic of modern humans, Neanderthals and their last common ancestor.”

But Robert B. Eckhardt, a professor of developmental genetics at Pennsylvania State University and one of several critics of the new-species designation, took issue with the new research. He said the wrist study appeared “to be an exercise in the presentation of misleading ideas in an obfuscatory manner.”

Link (Thanks, Xeni!)

Previously on BB:
• How Hobbits made tools Link
• Hobbit brain Link
• Fun on Flores Link
• Own your own Hobbit skull model Link

Chris Colin, who wrote this short article Mother Jones, says: "Extremely quietly, a Maryland school district has launched the first public high school in the country dedicated to teaching homeland security.

"From all I could tell researching the piece, this doesn't mean questioning assumptions about national security and so forth -- it means funneling 15-year-olds into a very profitable industry, and providing future workers for the companies that comprise it. Creepy/lousy."

Students will choose one of three specialized tracks: information and communication technology, criminal justice and law enforcement, or "homeland security science." David Volrath, executive director of secondary education for Harford County Public Schools, says the school also hopes to offer "Arabic or some other nontraditional, Third World-type language."

The school's main goal is to get its grads jobs in the booming $24-billion-a-year homeland security industry. It's certainly in the right location: Northeast Maryland has become a mecca for the military-industrial complex. The Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground is the county's biggest employer, and all manner of defense contractors have set up shop nearby, including weapons maker Northrop Grumman.

Link

Steve says:

After seeing the crazy and weird carny photos, I thought I'd link to a video my friend made while we were at the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee. Some guy goes around the country with his pig race spectacle. It's a bizarre scene that has a number of races including ducks, goats and pot belly pigs. I've linked to the very quick pig race. Never a dull moment at the State Fair.

Link

Brian says: "Lawyers for two Gitmo detainees have been accused of smuggling their clients two pairs of 'Under Armor briefs and a Speedo bathing suit.' The lawyers respond in an open letter worthy of such a laughable accusation... especially considering that they haven't been permitted to actually visit their clients in over a year."

August 12, 2007

Re: Discovery of Contraband Clothing in the Cases of Shaker Aamer, Detainee ISN 239, and Muhammed Hamid al-Qareni, Detainee ISN 269

Dear Mr. Stafford Smith.

Your client, Shaker Aamer, detainee ISN 239, was recently discovered to be wearing Under Armor briefs and a Speedo bathing suit. Neither item was issued to the detainee by JTF-Guantánamo personnel, nor did they enter the camp through regular mail. Coincidentally, Muhammed al-Qareni, detainee ISN 269, who is represented by Mr. Katznelson of Reprieve, was also recently discovered to be wearing Under Armor briefs. As with detainee ISN 239, the briefs were not issued by JTF-Guantánamo personnel, nor did they enter the camp through regular mail.

We are investigating this matter to determine the origins of the above contraband and ensure that parties who may have been involved understand the seriousness of this transgression. As I am sure you understand, we cannot tolerate contraband being surreptitiously brought into the camp. Such activities threaten the safety of the JTF-Guantánamo staff, the detainees, and visiting counsel.

In furtherance of our investigation, we would like to know whether the contraband material, or any portion thereof, was provided by you, or anyone else on your legal team, or anyone associated with Reprieve. We are compelled to ask these questions in light of the coincidence that two detainees represented by counsel associated with Reprieve were found wearing the same contraband underwear.

Thank you as always for your cooperation and assistance,

Sincerely,

[Name redacted]
Commander, JAGC, US Navy Staff Judge Advocate

Link

Malaysia's Department of Islamic Development issued a booklet with advice on observing the fasting month of Ramadan and other religious rituals in space. They provided the information to help two Malaysian Muslims who are involved in a contest for a ticket to the International Space Station. From the AFP:

The booklet covers Islamic washing rituals required before prayer, saying that if water is not available the astronaut can symbolically "sweep holy dust" onto the face and hands "even if there is no dust" in the space station.

There are also suggestions on how to pray in a zero-gravity environment.

"During the prayer ritual, if you can't stand up straight, you can hunch. If you can't stand, you can sit. If you can't sit, you should lie down," according to the booklet.

Muslims are required to eat food that is halal, which rules out pork and its by-products, alcohol and animals not slaughtered according to Koranic procedures are forbidden -- but again in Space there is flexibility.

"If it is doubtful that the food has been prepared in the halal manner, you should eat just enough to ward off hunger," the booklet said.

Link

Photographer Dean Shaddock writes:

"This was captured as I collected my things from airport security (Detroit Metro Concourse A). I think of it as something like a Rorschach test. Is an elderly Catholic nun being frisked by a Muslim security agent the celebration of blind justice? Or is it simply an admission of absurdity?"

Link

Carl says:

Google Docs has expanded with presentation software. The functionality is so so. But they have a wicked paper-animation promo video! Someone at Google clearly loves Michel Gondry films.

Link

Jordan says:

I got an interesting text message on my iPhone this morning: "AT&T FREE Msg: Good News, your messaging package now includes text, picture & instant messages al for the same price of $19.99 per month. No action required" IM and pix messaging are coming!

Link

The postcards from BuildYourOwnChicago.com can be assembled into 3D papercraft "micromodels" of the great landmarks and transit vehicles of Chicago. The free samples on the site look very promising. Link (Thanks, Mike!)

Vintage slideshow presenter Charles Phoenix recently returned from my hometown of Denver, Colorado, where he visited a few of the retro-highights that the Mile High City has to offer, including The Cruise Room (a 1933 art deco bar), Arapahoe Acres (a mid-century post and beam modern neighborhood), Rockmount Ranch Wear (a western clothing store owned by a 106-year-old fellow who still comes to work every day), and the famous "Mexican" restaurant, Casa Bonita:

My number one priority was having a delicious Mexican dinner (and it was delicious alright!) at one of the most over the top themed restaurants ever and timeless-classic monument to kitsch, CASA BONITA. This very well preserved, and still-amazing-after-all-the years, Americana classic of the highest order is a spellbinding time warp of the year it was built, 1973. It’s worth a trip from anywhere to experience. Eight or so individually themed dining rooms overlook a central two story waterfall where human divers take the plunge Acapulco style every twenty minutes. Each dining room is more amazing than the next. There’s the stalagmite and stalactite room; the western room; Aztec jungle room; the Cinderella and Prince Charming Room and several others. You can even have dinner behind bars in jail. They also have a baby-scale puppet theater, scary walk-through monster cave, temptation filled gift shop and beret-wearing caricature artist. I can’t wait to go back!

Charles is being kind about the quality of the food there. When I was a kid the owner of Casa Bonita made a TV commercial to quell the rumors that the restaurant prepared their dishes with dog food.

Here are some YouTube videos of Casa Bonita: Casa Bonita 2001, Cliff Diver at Casa Bonita, Casa Bonita Walk It Out

Link

Short version: it wasn't a "fake bomb" at all, it was a wearable tech jacket on the body of a friendly young technologist who would have been *way* better off wearing something else to the airport today. Authorities in Massachussetts who've been accused of overreacting to tech art misunderstandings before -- remember the Mooninite Menace? -- are throwing the book at her.

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

A 19 year old female M.I.T. student was arrested at gunpoint after entering Boston's Logan International Airport with what authorities claim was "a fake bomb" strapped to her chest, according to wire reports. The device is said to have been some kind of computer circuit board with Play-Doh and wires attached, strapped over her black hoodie. Link to AP report on her arrest.

The young woman is identified as Star Simpson, shown in the image above left, and she is a sophomore from Hawaii.

Here is her MIT website, here's her homepage, here's one of her recent projects. She has a user account on Instructables.

Snip from her vanity site:

In a sentence, I'm an inventor, artist, engineer, and student, I love to build things and I love crazy ideas.

In a paragraph; I'm currently studying computers and how they work at MIT. I play at a student-run machine shop called MITERS. Before that, I lived for a long time in Hawaii, while traveling the world and saving the planet from evil villains with my delivered-just-in-time gadgets.

This being Boston, I'll be interested to learn whether this was a legitimate threat or a misunderstanding/overreaction by authorities, combined with poor fashion judgement on the young lady's part.

Here's a happy-fun quote from the AP item:

She's extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used," Pare told The Associated Press. "And she's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."

Image of the lovely and talented (seriously!) Ms. Simpson on a better day, with torch and mirror, from this photoset of MIT tinkerers at the MITERS student-run machine shop, shot by George Lange.

Update: Law enforcement spokesperson at press conference being broadcast on CNN right now -- "She said it was a piece of art, and wanted to stand out on career day. I'm not sure why she had the Play Doh on her hands. She couldn't explain that.... there were wires attached to a battery that actually lit up... I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear such a device to the airport. We had someone with a submachine gun at the airport go right to the scene."

Update 2: Deja duh: Boston Globe referring to this incident as "Logan Hoax Arrest." And here's a photo of that gun.

Update 3: They're showing the LED hoodie on CNN right now (screengrab from a local TV report below).

Looks like the "improvised electronic device" consisted of a circuit board and a common battery that caused her sweatshirt, which had painted writing on it, to light up. Authorities referred to the paint as "putty."

The hoodie reads "Socket To Me / COURSE VI." A BB commenter familiar with MIT stuff says, "Course VI means she majors in Electrical Engineering / Computer Science."

Sheesh! Someone needs to not let these hyperintelligent hacker chirren out of the house wearing this kind of stuff when they're headed to airports in Boston. {shakes head}. Poor thing.

Update 4: She's being charged with "posession of a hoax device" (again with the hoax devices!) and disorderly conduct. But on the plus side, she's not dead.

Update 5: BB Discussions moderator Teresa Nielsen Hayden puts it in context. And the winner of the comment thread is BB reader Rob Cockerham:

I can't believe NBC is promoting Bionic Woman like this. What a terrible idea.

Update 6: Christy from Instructables.com (Simpson is a regular participant on the site) says:

Star was an intern at Squid Labs this summer, and is an all-around awesome geek who loves to build things. FYI, friends at MIT say she wears the hoodie on a regular basis- it's just unfortunate that she had it on while trying to pick a friend up at the airport. MIT students don't really do mornings, or worry about what they're wearing, so I can't imagine she'd even think about her clothes before heading out to pick up a friend at the airport before 8am.

When Star gets out we'll have her do an Instructable on

1) how to get arrested at the airport without being shot, and

2) how to package your homemade electronics to look purchased.

Maybe BB and Instructables should start handing out some official-looking stickers and plastic covers to make breadboards look more commercial -- it will keep our readers away from automatic weapons.

I just put up a forum post on Instructables asking for design suggestions. If BB readers have any suggestions, just send them over and we'll print them up asap!

Update 7: Christy from Instructables.com says (1125am PT),

I talked to Star briefly -- she's out on bail, is just fine, and thinks the whole thing is crazy.

Of course, they've impounded her sweatshirt, so she's got to do something else for Career Day.

Update 8: Bruce Schneier: "Definitely stupid police overreaction. Refuse to be terrorized, people!"

And Chris Anderson, who, apart from being Editor in Chief at Wired Magazine is also a total UAV nerd, says:

Sorry to be late chiming in with support for Star, but I can confirm that she's a world-class geek and otherwise cool person. While she was at SquidLabs this summer, she helped with our UAV testing. Cracked one of the imaging problems, too. Really sorry to see the lapse of judgment that led to this arrest, but I'm sure she's got a glorious career ahead of her regardless.

Update 9: BB reader Sujal Shah says,

One clarification: Simpson did answer the original information desk staffer's question about what the art was. That there's no step between an answer that wasn't believed and guns drawn is a big issue to me. Innocent people will get killed this way.

Here's the post I left on Schneiers blog:

Just so we're all clear on this, she DID ANSWER the desk staffer who asked her what the contraption on her sweatshirt was. She responded that it was art. Link to local TV account. The employee had to repeat the question before she got an answer. This bit of info was missing in the original AP version, which made it sound like she refused to answer what the device was.

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Russian political life has been usurped by "siloviki" -- ex-spies -- who have apparently seized power from the small network of hyper-rich plutocratic "bankers" who rose to power after the Wall came down. The siloviki are a tight mafiyeh whose methods include high-profile international assassination of defectors (the assassins walk free and then run for high office).

Virtually all key positions in Russian political life -- in government and the economy -- are controlled by the so-called "siloviki," a blanket term to describe the network of former and current state-security officers with personal ties to the Soviet-era KGB and its successor agencies. The unexpected replacement of former Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov by former Federal Financial Monitoring Service Director Viktor Zubkov is the latest consolidation of this group's grip on power in Russia. Although Zubkov is not an intelligence officer by background, he has become one de facto during his years at the Financial Monitoring Service, and he has intimate knowledge of where the country's legal and illegal assets are to be found.

The core of the siloviki group, led by former KGB officer and Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Vladimir Putin himself, comprises about 6,000 security-service alumni who entered the corridors of power during Putin's first term. Now, as Putin's second term winds down, their clout is virtually unassailable. Their locus of power is in the presidential administration: deputy chief of staff Igor Sechin cut his teeth in the KGB's First Main Directorate, which oversaw foreign intelligence operations and has since been transformed into the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). Fellow deputy chief of staff Viktor Ivanov worked for the KGB's main successor organization, the FSB, which is responsible for counterintelligence operations.

Link

My latest Guardian column, "Free data sharing is here to stay," is live -- it's an argument about the "information economy," and whether restricting copying hurts or helps it.

It used to be that copy-prevention companies' strategies went like this:

"We'll make it easier to buy a copy of this data than to make an unauthorised copy of it. That way, only the uber-nerds and the cash-poor/time-rich classes will bother to copy instead of buy."

But every time a PC is connected to the internet and its owner is taught to use search tools like Google (or The Pirate Bay), a third option appears: you can just download a copy from the internet. Every techno-literate participant in the information economy can choose to access any data, without having to break the anti-copying technology, just by searching for the cracked copy on the public internet. If there's one thing we can be sure of, it's that an information economy will increase the technological literacy of its participants.

Link

The University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic has just released a huge, deep report on the privacy implications of various DRM systems. They examine 16 different systems in depth and conclude that DRM is a grave threat to personal privacy.

Our assessment of the compliance of these DRM applications with PIPEDA led to a number of general findings:

• Fundamental privacy-based criticisms of DRM are well-founded: we observed tracking of usage habits, surfing habits, and technical data.

• Privacy invasive behaviour emerged in surprising places. For example, we observed e-book software profiling individuals. We unexpectedly encountered DoubleClick - an online marketing firm - in a library digital audio book.

• Many organizations take the position that IP addresses do not constitute "personal information" under PIPEDA and therefore can be collected, used and disclosed at will. This interpretation is contrary to Privacy Commissioner findings. IP addresses are collected by a variety of DRM tools, including tracking technologies such as cookies and pixel tags (also known as web bugs, clear gifs, and web beacons).

• Companies using DRM to deliver content often do not adequately document in their privacy policies the DRM-related collection, use and disclosure of personal information. This is particularly so where the DRM originates with a third party supplier.

• Companies using DRM often fail to comply with basic requirements of PIPEDA.

PDF Link (via Michael Geist)

After yesterday's story about how airport cops are assembling files on travellers' reading material, the a DHS spokesman has hotly denied keeping track of the titles of the books you read -- unless those books are, you know, suspicious.

"I flatly reject the premise that we care at all about the latest Tom Clancy novel a traveler is reading," Knocke said.

"But the fact does remain that CBP officials are going to be mindful of whether there is anything that suggests there could be possible violations of a law associated with a traveler or items in possession of a traveler as they make an admissibility decision about that traveler," Knocke said. "That is what they are charged by Congress to do."

Link (Thanks, Xeni!)

London has spent £200 million installing 10,000 CCTV cameras, and yet the proportion of crimes solved is going down, not up -- and some boroughs with the more cameras have the worse crime-solving rates.

• There are now 10,524 CCTV cameras in 32 London boroughs funded with Home Office grants totalling about £200million.

• Hackney has the most cameras - 1,484 - and has a better-than-average clearup rate of 22.2 per cent.

• Wandsworth has 993 cameras, Tower Hamlets, 824, Greenwich, 747 and Lewisham 730, but police in all four boroughs fail to reach the average 21 per cent crime clear-up rate for London.

• By contrast, boroughs such as Kensington and Chelsea, Sutton and Waltham Forest have fewer than 100 cameras each yet they still have clear-up rates of around 20 per cent.

• Police in Sutton have one of the highest clear-ups with 25 per cent.

• Brent police have the highest clear-up rate, with 25.9 per cent of crimes solved in 2006-07, even though the borough has only 164 cameras. cameras.

Link (via /.)

ICANN -- who run the Internet's top-level domain system -- have been trying to retire .su, the old domain used by the Soviet Union. They ordered the .su registrar to stop selling .su domains, but the registrar continues to sell thousands of domains every year -- and they've just declared fire-sale pricing for new signups.

. One address that hasn't been retired is ".su" - assigned to the Soviet Union in 1990. It is still operating despite the country no longer existing, and despite the ".ru" TLD assigned to Russia in 1994.

There are currently 9648 sites under the domain. And apparently it is getting more popular - this time last year there were only 7206. Add to this the fact that the body operating ".su" has cut prices in response to an ICANN request to freeze new registrations, and the number of ex-Soviet sites that will have to be reassigned, and you have one almighty mess.

Link (via /.)

Jay Parkinson is a private physician practicing in Williamsburg, New York. In addition to house and office calls, he'll examine your boo-boos by emailed photos or webcam and let you know whether you need stitches, cream, or a pat on the head and a lollipop.

An e-Visit is a rapidly emerging concept that uses communication technology to manage health and disease. Many doctor visits can be avoided by simply talking with your doctor, or emailing photos, or video chatting face-to-face. Nearly every young adult has a digital camera or phone camera. Video chatting is becoming increasingly more common. I believe in harnessing these ubiquitous technologies to optimize your health. It's the wave of the future for affordable healthcare.

Link (via Apophenia)

A new torrent file on The Pirate Bay purports to contain the source code for MediaDefender's anti-P2P technology. MediaDefender are the sleazy enforcers used by the entertainment industry to entrap and bust P2P users, and they've been plagued by recent email leaks and taunts from gloating P2P fans.

MediaDefender-Defenders proudly presents the source code that MediaDefender use.

The source is complete for their operations regarding Kazaa, bittorrent, gnutella etc. This system is now released for the public in order to identify the decoys they set up. A special thanks to the MD employee that gave this to us.

Link (via Digg)

Gord sez, "Brooklyn artist/musician/way-out thinker, Ranjit Bhatnagar, rigs up a home made tin can orchestra and Theremin to perform Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy.'" Man, that's one crazy junk drumbot -- like the Fat Albert percussion section. Link (Thanks, Gord!) Link (Thanks, Gord!)

See also: Theremin cover of Gnarls Barkley

The Guardian has published a collection of annotated photos of famous writers' "writing rooms." I haven't lived in one place long enough for a decade to have a real writing room, but I'm hoping to put down roots soon and get something more permanent than a flat-pack desk covered in random toys surrounded by unsorted piles of books. Maybe a mahogany study lined with creepy Haunted Mansion-style busts, a wall of exotic masks and swords, deep horsehair armchairs, secret panels, and a fireplace.

I especially like the rooms from Geoff Dyer and Will Self (holy war room, Batman!), and JG Ballard's room is pretty swank:

On the desk is my old manual typewriter, which I recently found in my stair cupboard. I was inspired by a letter from Will Self, who wrote to me on his manual typewriter. So far I have just stared at the old machine, without daring to touch it, but who knows? The first drafts of my novels have all been written in longhand and then I type them up on my old electric. I have resisted getting a computer because I distrust the whole PC thing. I don't think a great book has yet been written on computer.

I have worked at this desk for the past 47 years. All my novels have been written on it, and old papers of every kind have accumulated like a great reef. The chair is an old dining-room chair that my mother brought back from China and probably one I sat on as a child, so it has known me for a very long time. A Paolozzi screen-print is resting against the door, which now serves as a cat barrier during the summer months. My neighbour's cats are enormously affectionate, and in the summer leap up on to my desk and then churn up all my papers into a huge whirlwind. They are my fiercest critics.

Link (via Kottke)

MIT researchers are demonstrating a new robotic exoskeleton leg system that takes the weight off your back when carrying a heavy pack. In recent experiments, they've demonstrated that the contraption can take 80 percent of the load of an 80 pound backpack. The current prototype apparently screws with your natural walking gait, but they're hoping to tweak the design to enable a normal stride. The research was led by professor Hugh Herr, a double amputee whose pioneering research in the Media Lab's Biomechatronics Group is focused on new prosthetic devices. From the MIT News Office:

Exoskeleton devices could boost the weight that a person can carry, lessen the likelihood of leg or back injury and reduce the perceived level of difficulty of carrying a heavy load.

The person wearing the exoskeleton places his or her feet in boots attached to a series of tubes that run up the leg to the backpack, transferring the weight of the backpack to the ground. Springs at the ankle and hip and a damping device at the knee allow the device to approximate the walking motion of a human leg, with a very small external power input (one watt).

Link

Here are still more interesting county fair / carny images by photographer and Boing Boing reader Charles Kamm.

Above: "This photo is one of the worlds largest horse at the orange county fair," he explains. "I'm currently living in Barcelona, Spain, photographing the city."

Hey! Speaking of steeds! Remember ZOO, that stylized feature film directed by Robinson Devor, about men who like to situate themselves "on the business end of horse flounder," as one astute Amazon reviewer put it? Welp, it's out on DVD as of this week: Link.

The film is described as a semi-fictionalized, romanticized, quasi-documentary about that guy in Washington state who famously died in flagrante horse-a-licto, in 2005.

Zoo looks interesting, even if the subject is squick-inducing. I have not seen it, and am not entirely sure that I am prepared to. (Thanks, Susannah Breslin!)

Notley Hawkins let me know about his carnival photos. They are far superior to mine. Check them out on his Flickr account. Link

Danny O'Brien of the EFF says,

Newsweek is reporting that companies like AT&T, working with the White House are using their money to push for blanket retroactive immunity for their involvement in the administration's warrantless wiretapping schemes:

But critics say the language proposed by the White House—drafted in close cooperation with the industry officials—is so extraordinarily broad that it would provide retroactive immunity for all past telecom actions related to the surveillance program. Its practical effect, they argue, would be to shut down any independent judicial or state inquires into how the companies have assisted the government in eavesdropping on the telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. residents in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.

The plan is to kill by fiat the court case the EFF is running against these phone companies. What's weird is the Democrats appear to be going along with this, even though it would effectively cover up the Bush administration's past crimes. As Glenn Greenwald writes in Salon, quoting a New York Times piece:

Democratic Congressional aides say they believe that a deal is likely to provide protection for the companies.

If you think that the Democrats should stand up to AT&T's lobbyists, you can call them now:

Call Rep. Nancy Pelosi — 202-225-4965
Call Sen. Harry Reid — 202-224-3542

Tips on what to say on EFF's Stop the Spying site.

Image ganked from Williac's Flickr stream.