posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:53:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mike Figgis: that TSA "shoot a pilot" thing was bogus

Regarding the Mike Figgis LAX story, it's not true.

We were thinking of reporting this story on a radio show I work on, so we did a little fact checking. We contacted Figgis' publicist, and got this email from Mike Figgis himself:

the story is a complete exageration of something I said in an interview, namely...I was being questioned in toronto airport by the US immigration officer who said "purpose of your visit?" and I was about to reply "I'm here to shoot a pilot" when I thought better of it and said

"I'm here to film the 1st episode of a potential series for Fox/Sony"

This was exactly as I said it to the journalist and the next I knew of it was phone calls wishing me deepest sympathies etc and the venue had moved to LAX and I had been arrested etc etc.

I've had distortion before in interviews but never fiction. If it had been true it would have been a good story - sorry to dissappoint All the best - mike figgis

Previously:

Update: Dear christ, must everything be LOLcatted now? Link.

Karina Longworth, the founding editor of Cinematical (she is no longer associated with the site), says:

I saw your post this morning in follow-up to the Mike Figgis non-story. Just wanted to note two things. You wrote, "The fake news broke on either Moviefone / AOL or Cinematical, I'm not sure. But someone has some 'splainin' to do."

First, Cinematical is now owned by AOL and is operated essentially as a subsidiary of Moviefone, so it's all the same gang. Second, the Cinematical blog post linked to an AOL/Moviefone news story which in turn based its information on this Guardian blurb.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:52:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Zombie spammer nabbed, inboxes around the world smile

[He] is accused of using networks of compromised "zombie" computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails.

"He's one of the top 10 spammers in the world," said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company's Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. "He's a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day."

A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:50:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

LJ purge drama: Who are "Warriors for Innocence"?"

I’ve been watching your series on the LiveJournal purges with interest. It turns out that the registrant for the domain WarriorsforInnocence.org matches those for the old front company Coastal Management, which listed a bunch of fraudulent positions on job-hunting sites like CareerBuilder back in ’05—presumably for datamining purposes. Both WfI and Coastal list their address as

15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

…and their phone/fax as 480-624-2599

Here’s the info on WfI.org, and for Coastal Management (need to scroll down just a bit).

With all the complaints about WfI.org’s spyware, I wonder if they cooked up the LJ pedophilia scandal in order to get hits on their website from older and badly secured browsers in hopes of collecting data from interested parties. Perhaps some of your readers would be in a position to find out more about this connection?

Previously on BB:

Reader comment: Sounds like the answer may not be as sinister. Vann Hall says,

Hey, the reason that WfI.org and Coastal Management both have the same registration info is that both domains were registered using GoDaddy's "private" domain feature. All such domains are really registered to Domains by Proxy, Inc.; they "map" to the actual registrant only within GoDaddy's internal database...

The WHOIS information for the "Warriors For Innocence" that was posted about here is in fact the address and phone number for Domainsbyproxy.com. All of the domains they register have that listed address and phone number. Their whole business model is based on obfuscating WHOIS information. The fact that WFI and Coastal Management (and a bazillion other domains) both share this registrar doesn't imply any connection between them. (Nor does it preclude one, of course.)

Since shady/dishonest websites have a strong incentive to keep their information anonymous MANY of the clients of domainsbyproxy.com have e-reps that could only charitably be described as "abysmal".

If you want to know who these WFI schmucks are, deeper digging will be required.

Long time reader, Sam Walker

This website discusses who Warriors for Innocence are and their ties to dominionism, and "Christian Patriot" militias

Well, it could be as insidious as you think.

The folks are Warriors for Innocence have been getting a lot of scrutiny, and as such, a few survivors of harsh Christian Reconstructionism have found that these folks are linked to some hardcore dominionist groups. (see also: Link)

No mistake should be made here: these people are not so much about stopping pedo's, they are about erecting and establishing a hate filled theocratic society by any means necessary. They are all about control. And they are firmly entrenched in the belief that they are "more right" than anyone else.

Thats why they have the distinction of being referred to as "Talibangelicals". Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:22:47 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

LiveJournal/6A re: mass strikethrough - "we screwed up."

Barak Berkowitz, Chairman and CEO of Six Apart, has released an admission that "For reasons we are still trying to figure out what was supposed to be a well planned attempt to clean up a few journals that were violating LiveJournal's policies that protect minors turned into a total mess. I can only say I’m sorry, explain what we did wrong and what we are doing to correct these problems and explain what we were trying to do but messed up so completely."

Explaining LJ's intentions, Berkowitz also says: "Another issue we needed to deal with was journals that used a thin veneer of fictional or academic interest in events and storylines that include child rape, pedophilia, and similar themes in order to actually promote these activities. While there are stories, essays, and discussions that include discussion of these issues in an effort to understand and prevent them, others use a pretext to promote these activities. It’s often very hard to tell the difference."

His formal statement concludes with: "One could say that no matter what we did we would either be accused of opposing free speech or endangering children but I am sure we should and could have done this much better. I hope you can forgive us and we can regain your trust." He has since added notes about specific questions, although the 76 pages of comments after this entry alone suggests that some users do not think his answers were thorough enough.

Previously on BB:

Reader comment: Dan Wineman says,

I just wanted to comment on this quote from the Six Apart CEO:

While there are stories, essays, and discussions that include discussion of these issues in an effort to understand and prevent them, others use a pretext to promote these activities. It’s often very hard to tell the difference.

Well, yeah. That's the entire reason ideals like freedom of speech exist: because it's not just *hard* to tell the difference between good and bad speech -- it's *impossible* to set an objective standard that everyone agrees on. So the only policy that's safe from turning into tyranny is to allow all speech, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you. Yes, people could be harmed; yes, even children. Freedom is more important.

LiveJournal wouldn't be in this situation if it hadn't tried to regulate the content of its users' speech. End of story. The lesson to be learned isn't "regulate better" or "police more carefully" -- it's "don't even try." Most likely, the law (and the Constitution definitely) will be on your side.

In the US, anyway.

Thanks for posting LJ's response to the erroneous purging of legit child sex abuse survivor sites and fanfic sites not actually promoting paedophilia. I just wanted to respond to the reader's comment you included at the end. LJ was not trying to censor anyone, just enforcing it's own TOS that stated "You agree to NOT use the Service to: Upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, …" . The true paedophile and paedo-advocacy sites are in violation of this TOS as they promote actions that are unlawful, harmful, and abusvie to children. As Six Apart is a private company, they are under no obligation to publish any speech, particularly that in violation of their TOS.

I am mother to two children whose lives have been decimated by their father, a man who was/is deeply involved with child porn and incest-style writing. People like me hope that LiveJournal, etc. err on the side of protecting children. Whenever I read an article like this on Boing Boing, I wish you would also occasionally link to sites where people can learn about protecting children from predators, pornographers, etc. Free speech is important; it’s also vitally important to protect children from people who want to hurt them.

Julie Richardson is absolutely correct that 6A is a private company and has no obligation toward free speech. They are within their rights to block or remove whatever speech they care to -- I never said anything to the contrary. But they also enjoy the freedom NOT to block anything, at least in the United States. By choosing to enforce these content restrictions on a minority (and thereby calling attention to the prior restraints in their TOS), they risk alienating the entire community. In fact, judging by the hundreds of angry comments on Berkowitz's journal entry and elsewhere, that has already happened.

Elizabeth, there is no doubt that what happened to your children is tragic and regrettable. I'm certainly not suggesting that we shouldn't try to protect children. It just isn't LiveJournal's responsibility to do that -- in fact, they can't do it without damaging their community, as we've just seen, and the content would simply reappear elsewhere. The only solution that works is to allow as much discourse as possible, and let the marketplace of ideas (link) sort out the good from the bad.

It's a cliche, but it bears repeating: The cure for bad speech is more speech.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:02:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cory speaking at UC Irvine next Wednesday

Wednesday, June 6, 2007
3:00-4:20 PM
100 Humanities Instructional Building

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:01:51 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Copyright's Authorship Policy: how to make an art-neutral copyright

Tim's point is that copyright ends up choosing what kind of authors are allowed to make art, and which ones aren't. For example, extending copyright over sampling -- but not over reproducing distinctive licks or melodic snippets -- means that mashup artists' music is illegal, but the white skiffle and R&B artists who adapted black music for their own (the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles, for example) get to make all the music they want.

Tim goes on to suggest a simple and cunning mechanism for minimizing copyright's impact on authorship, a method that will allow the largest variety in art and expression. This is great stuff, and has been the basis of some great discussions in my classes.

For that reason, the paper introduces a new justification for authorial ownership of copyright—both the vesting of the initial copyright in authors, and for providing ways for the right to find its way back to authors.1 The argument relies on the concept of authors as agents of decentralization in the copyright system. Vesting rights in authors, the argument goes, provides new ways to seed the development of both new forms of distribution, and also support for changing modes and forms of creation. Centuries ago in England, authorial copyright helped introduce competition into bookselling, beyond an centralized publisher’s cartel. Today, there are lessons for copyright’s authorship policy in the more than five million items under Creative Commons licenses,2 the proliferation of Open Access licensing in academia, and the use of open source licenses by commercial entities like IBM and Apple. These experiments show the potential of a decentralized copyright system for promoting a full range of production modes.

See also:
Why wireless carriers should be forced into neutrality
Jack Valenti says stupid things -- really, really stupid things
Searchable index of Judge Posner's decisions - law for the people
Network neutrality - why it matters, and how do we fix it?
A simple prescription for keeping Google's records out of government hands.
Understanding broadband regulation
Killer audio file of killer lawyers talking Grokster

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:40:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

LOLbots

I hate myself for blogging you. LOLS. ROFL. NSFW. LMAO.

Incidentally, I hear Scott Beale's working on a dissertation-sized über-düper post of every LOL variant evar. I promise not to blog that, either. (posted from the road, in central america / xeni)

Update: The LOLbots site got Boingdotted, and is not working too well as of Thursday AM. "my durn admin thinks getting email and business related traffic out is more important than LOL," says R. Stevens. Stay tuned. Here's something to tide you over.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:37:41 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Church to (heh) organist: quit selling sex toys, or quit church

The Associated Press is reporting on a story about a Catholic priest in New Franken, Wisconsin, who gave his church organist of thirty-five years a surprising ultimatum; quit her sex toy home party job or quit the church.

Apparently after meeting with Linette Servais, who is 50 and apparently does most of her work for no pay, to express his dissatisfaction with her other work (you know the work that pays), Rev. Dean Dombroski sent a letter to his congregation explaining that "Linette is a consultant for a firm which sells products of a sexual nature that are not consistent with Church teachings" and that she would have to make a decision. Linette, who says she started selling sex toys after treatment for a tumor left her experiencing sexual dysfunction, says the decision was easy; she’s still selling sex toys.

Linette is not the only woman of faith who has made sex toy sales her ministry. And while part of me is wondering where in the Church teachings it says Thou Shall Not Sell Sex Toys, knowing the kind of poor quality merchandise her company carries, I have to wonder, as the kids say, WWJD.

Reader comment: Pete Duniho says,

Reading the quote from the letter by Rev. Dean Dombroski, "Linette is a consultant for a firm which sells products of a sexual nature that are not consistent with Church teachings", it seems entirely plausible that the reason that the "products of a sexual nature" are not "consistent with Church teachings" is that they are of sub-standard quality. Perhaps Servais could have resolved the conflict simply by switching to a different supplier of products, rather than quitting her church job. :)

As you postulated about the organist fired for seeling sex toys WWJD, I think its almost obvious he would opt for biblically inspired sex toys.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:06:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo on the Gong Show

The name ("The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo") was inspired by a fictional secret society on the Amos 'n' Andy TV series called "The Mystic Knights of the Sea." Most of the members performed in whiteface and clown makeup; a typical show would contain music ranging from the 1890s to the 1950s, in addition to original material. This version of the band employed as many as fifteen musicians at any given time, playing over thirty instruments, including some instruments built by band members...

Various reasons for the band's transformation from musical theatre troupe to rock band were given, including cutting costs and increasing mobility, exploring new musical directions (such as Danny {Elfman}'s interest in Ska and New Wave), and a desire to perform music that didn't need theatrics to support it. Although there was some confusion about what name this new venture would operate under (in the 1980 short subject "Face Like A Frog", the band is credited simply as The Mystic Knights), the name was eventually and permanently shortened to Oingo Boingo for the Rhino Records "Los Angeles Rock And New Wave Band" compilation, L.A. In, featuring their song "I'm Afraid."

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

The Internet troll as the trickster archetype

The troll comes to the door of a new forum and sets down his bag of tricks. If he has a grudge against the people inside discussing and debating their passions with a certain degree of amicability, peacability and decorum, he does not show them. He has the cracked, stoic smile of Robin Goodfellow, a Puck with the simple desire to disrupt peace itself. He loves chaos; his bag is full of golden apples he can lob to set the masses squabbling. He has also many masks, smoke bombs, straw men, cloaks, puppets, matches, ethanol, knives, dust, sand, and magicks of the most arcane sort. He knows what he is about -- causing trouble. Why? This is the troll’s darkest mystery -- if any one knew his secret, he would die. For all trolls, their motive power is this: without contraries, they cannot progress...

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:58:31 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Artist eats dog to protest prince's hunting

The dog died of natural causes at a corgi breeder and was prepared and cooked by others for McGowan...

McGowan is well known for his outlandish performance stunts. He ate a swan in another protest against the queen. Swans are protected by the monarchy.

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:51:21 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

To do in DC Saturday: Mingering Mike gallery opening

A retrospective of works by the "imaginary soul superstar" I reported on for NPR not long ago (Link 1 / Link 2) will open Friday Saturday in Washington, DC, at this gallery: Link. If I wasn't approximately one gajillion miles away this week, I'd totally be there. If you are nearby, I heartily encourage you to attend -- I hear Mr. Mike will be in the house signing copies of his excellent new book, and he seems truly a wonderful and talented human being. There will also be a listening booth where you can listen to his tunes.

Previously:

(posted from the road in Central America / Xeni)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:11:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Little boy ruins sand mandala

"He did a little tap dance on it, completely destroying it," said Lama Chuck Stanford, of the Rime Buddhist Center in Kansas City.

A security tape shows the boy's mother returning to the mandala, grabbing her son by the arm and walking out of camera range...

"No problem," Geshe Lobsang Sumdup, leader of the group from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in southern India, said through a translator. "We didn't get despondent. We have three days more. So we will have to work harder."

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:47:09 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

SF writers advise on homeland security

The group's motto is "Science Fiction in the National Interest." To join the group, Andrews says, you have to have at least one technical doctorate degree.

"We're well-qualified nuts," says Jerry Pournelle, co-author of the best sellers Footfall and Lucifer's Hammer and dozens of other books.

Pournelle and others say that science-fiction writers have spent their lives studying the kinds of technologies and scenarios Homeland Security officials have been tackling since the department began operating in 2003.

"We talk to a lot of strange people and read a lot of weird things," Bear says.

At the Washington conference, Bear offered to put biometrics researchers in touch with movie special-effects experts. The experts might be able to help the government determine how to match the face of someone walking through an airport to a grainy photo of a known terrorist.

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:31:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

New AACS processing key leaks onto the net

Processing keys can be used to make software that allows users to make unapproved uses of their HD-DVDs, like backing them up, playing them on GNU/Linux systems, and running them on mobile and handheld devices like iPods. The movie studios use the AACS scrambling system to prevent these uses, preferring to ban some of these uses and attach pricetags to others.

The last processing key leak created an Internet firestorm when the AACS licensing authority sent hundreds of legal threats to sites that published the key. The strategy backfired: within days, more than a million pages had published the key, ensuring that more people knew how to break HD-DVD players than owned the devices.

AACS has the capacity to "revoke" a processing key. When they do this, all HD-DVD players are unable to play new discs unless they get an update (woe betide you if your DVD player is on your boat, in your cottage, or at your grandparents' place where there is no Internet access). The big question is whether the AACS can revoke keys faster than hackers can extract them.

It's a race. AACS is losing.

Six days before the revocation of the original processing key, a company in the Caribbean updated its DVD-ripping software with a new key. Apparently, they had broken this key long in advance and held it close to their chest, awaiting a revocation event. The revocation was nullified before it even took effect.

Doom9's new key was released yesterday -- it's unclear whether it's the same key -- and it already appears on more than 244,000 pages. I'm betting that this breaks a million by Friday.

DRM takes years and costs millions to develop. It is generally broken in days, by hobbyists, for free. That's because DRM relies on hiding keys in devices that users own and have unlimited control over, and because every single vendor has to implement its key hiding perfectly in order to keep the secret. All a hacker has to do is find one mistake, the weakest implementation, and it's game over.

The amazing thing is that the entertainment industry keeps on shovelling dollars down the DRM pit. If I were a shareholder at Universal, Fox, Disney, Sony or Warners, I'd fire or repurpose every employee whose job it was to make my products less attractive to customers with magic, nonfunctional anti-copying technology. Link (Thanks, Alex!)

See also:
Blu-Ray AND HD-DVD broken - processing keys extracted
AACS DRM body censors Cory's class blog
Digg users revolt over AACS key
AACS vows to fight people who publish the key
Why AACS keys will leak faster than they can be patched
New AACS crack "can't be revoked"
HD-DVD re-cracked six days *before* it is patched
EFF explains the law on AACS keys

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:47:43 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Weinberger talks about Everything is Miscellaneous

First, in the philosophical portion of my "career," I reacted viscerally against the dominant schools of thought that assumed the aim of philosophy is to be clear and distinct. Analysis of course has its place, but it has always seemed obvious to me that most of what matters can't be said. So, when a Web form asks you to list your interests, you freeze. I do, anyway. Or if you ask me to describe my children, at the end I'll always be left with the feeling that I left out the most important parts. The power of language - as many have noted - is in what it doesn't say. (Ring one up on the Cliche-O-Meter!)

Second, in the late 1980's and early 1990's, I survived the SGML wars. SGML would enable complex document sets to be created, maintained, retrieved, and reused far more easily. But, industries couldn't agree on the details of which metadata to capture, and lots writers saw the creation of metadata as red tape. Explicit metadata sucks. Usually. (Cory Doctorow made these points in his enlightening and entertaining way in his MetaCrap article.)

So, I knew I wanted to write about metadata because it's crucial and maddening and elusive. On the other hand, who cares about metadata? What counts is the effect it's having on our institutions and their authority. So, at various times, the rubric of the book was the promise of the implicit, messiness as a virtue, social knowledge, and even (for about four minutes) the problem with Aristotle.

See also:
Everything is Miscellaneous - how the Web destroys categories, disciplines and hierarchies
Cory interviewed by David Weinberger about metadata
Everything is Miscellaneous: prologue and chapter 1 online

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:31:44 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Trippy tribute to the US Bicentennial

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 05:43:16 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cory's talk on trade policy and copyright at Google

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:55:39 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Only one month left for applications to Viable Paradise writing workshop

Martha's Vinyard is a gorgeous setting for the workshop, and the homey feeling among participants, volunteers and instructors is furthered y expeditions to see some of the natural beauty (including a midnight run to see the bioluminescent jellyfish). But the real meat is the one-on-one sessions and supervised peer workshopping where the absolutely vital skill of critically appraising a work with an eye to improving it is taught. The workshop runs from first thing in the morning to last thing at night, cramming what felt like a lifetime into a scant week.

I hope to see some of you this fall! Link

See also: Viable Paradise, 7-day bootcamp for sf/f/h writers

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:52:13 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make Tetris ice-cubes

See also:
Tetris Shelving
Real-life Tetris video
Plush Tetris blocks
Giant 3D plush Tetris blocks
Sub-micro Tetris

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:42:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Display your tiki mug collection at Ooga Mooga

There's a small fee to put your own collection up on Ooga-Mooga (though it's free to store up to ten mugs). However, all the information and pictures in Ooga-Mooga -- information like who designed a mug, where it was used, when it was created, what different versions are available -- all of that is freely available to anyone. There are even price sightings entered continually by Ooga-Mooga's users, so you can get a general idea what a particular mug tends to go for.

A great example is one of my favorite mugs (and one I have on my own wish list), a mug used at the Mainlander in St. Louis in the '60s. It's based on a Witco fountain. Link

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

Bill Barminski and Chris Louie's Modest Mouse video

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Funny d-CON ad from 1971
• Video from the actual notebook of an 11-year-old bully victim
• Bill Barminski exhibit at Glu in Los Angeles viewable online

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:03:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

American TB threat more real than Lou Dobbs' Mexi-Leprosy Menace

Couldn't help but enjoy the irony of these two stories breaking today. One (Link) discusses how CNN's Lou Dobbs says Mexican immigrants are causing increased leprosy in the US (the data is widely considered to be inaccurate). In the other, an American traveling abroad with a rare strain of TB has possibly infected people in Europe and Canada (Link).

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:24:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bugs Bunny popsicle

Today, Eric sent me this photo. He says: "The ice cream truck just came here in Boston: Bugs is a bit skewed as well. I'll get the Ninja Turtle next time. I've been reading Boing Boing for years now- great!" (Click on thumbnail above for enlargement)

Reader comment:

Kate says:

I've been fond of the ice cream truck's latest media tie-in ever since I was a child and you could get Slimer-themed misshapen things. And now that I've moved to England, I've missed them more than I thought I would.

I went back to L.A. in March and, when the ice cream truck rolled around, I picked up what was called a "Darth Vader" ice cream.

Berry, Fruit Punch, and Cherry Flavor with Sour Cherry gumball eyes.

Great fan of the site, love random things like this.

In frozen, edible form, Hulk comes to us simply as a giant green head with two purple gumballs acting as "eyes." Don't let the gamma-inspired color scheme fool you -- much like the terminally yellow Spongebob, Hulk also tastes like lemonade. With a painted-on scowl and a drooping brow that identifies his inner rage, the Incredible Hulk's Ice Head is a formidable foe. As for Spongebob's frosty funpop, it's a little more haphazard than Hulk, though adequately "bumpy" along the sides with two plain black gumball eyes. Black isn't a typical color even in those machine-refiller boxes, so Spongebob's eyes seem way more important than Hulk's. Still, neither will be judged on any of this. It's a dangerous game they're playing, but the rules are simple. They just gotta make sure they ain't the first to melt to death.

I went to the Blue Bunny website (makers of the ice cream treats Mark has bought) and they don't feature the ice-cream truck items there, but they do at their Bomb Pop website. And, according to the pictures on the website, the eyes are supposed to be centered.

On behalf of those who initially thought the manufacturers were trying to emulate the Tweety wrapper, we concede.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:01:25 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Central America: snapshots from the road (Xeni)

I'm grabbing a bunch of little detail snapshots while I'm wandering around through Central America. Here's the growing flickr set of little stuff that adds up to my memory of texture here. Most of what's uploaded now is from urban areas, though I've been elsewhere, too. Includes: internet laundry, tortillas and more tortillas, a bus named Daniela, telephone utility covers in the street, an interesting "no pets" sign, local citizen journalism, baby cocos, coca cola chickens, trompe l'oeil en el mercado, political paint jobs, lots of patterns to recognize, ethanol rides, pan dulce, economic indicators, footwear for honkys, and salas de video juegos.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:10:44 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Google Maps Zoom and kitty on perch: the inevitable LOLcatting

Previously: Google Maps is spying on my cat, says freaked out BB reader

Reader comment: tucker g perry says,

Perhaps this would best be referred to as LOLcaching.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:28:39 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Merlin Mann on "email bankruptcy"

Email is such a funny thing. People hand you these single little messages that are no heavier than a river pebble. But it doesn’t take long until you have acquired a pile of pebbles that’s taller than you and heavier than you could ever hope to move, even if you wanted to do it over a few dozen trips. But for the person who took the time to hand you their pebble, it seems outrageous that you can’t handle that one tiny thing. “What ‘pile’? It’s just a fucking pebble!”

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:21:26 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wireless video Teddy Bear

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:13:05 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Google Maps is spying on my cat, says freaked out BB reader

BoingBoing reader Mary Kalin-Casey says,

The new Google Maps zoom feature zooms all the way into my living room window. See cat on cat perch.

I'm all for mapping, but this feature literally gives me the shakes. I feel like I need to close all my curtains now. I'm going to look into whether it's possible for a person to have pictures of their home removed from Google Maps. Meanwhile, I'm happy to show bb readers the photo in the interest of illustrating creepy privacy violations. Heck, the whole world can see him anyway.

Reader comment: Rich Gibson warns us of the global threat of "delusional cat fanciers," and their dastardly luddite cartel:

Mary Kalin-Casey may be sane, but I doubt it, and it is a Good Thing that Google now provides 'Street View.' Google, and contractors (and several other mapping companies), are driving vans with cameras up and down the streets.

Please don't support the paranoid rantings of deluded cat fanciers who want to have public data censored to serve their own psychosis.

You don't have a right to 'privacy' over what can be seen while driving the speed limit past your house. Boing Boing regularly blogs about evil security guards beating down poor photographers who just want to take pictures of pretty buildings. How is the case made different when the 'poor photographer' is replaced by a van of camers, and the evil security guard is replaced by a person who, if not evil, is certainly a cat owner, which is pretty suspicious in itself?

I was looking at it and it dawned on me: if she succeeds on removing her home from Street View it will be a real-world '404: site not found' proffered by Google. I kind of hope this happens as I'm sure it would be surreal.

There could be even more privacy issues than "they can see my cat." For example, the link provided here shows a car sitting in a driveway, and you can read the car's license plate clearly. I don't know exactly what you could do with that information, but there it is.

Riffing on--and linking to--your post about the cat that is being spied on using Google Maps Street View, we're looking for submissions for the best examples of this dynamic, and we'll post a story and/or gallery of the best in a couple of days. Link.

Here is a humorous image concerning a method to ask Google not to show your home (that's the 'grammar' used in the robots.txt standard to ask robots not to index your website).

Pen Waggener says,

Interesting story. Has nobody else noticed that there's a _person_ in the crosswalk beside this apartment complex? Following the link in the story to Google Maps, Zoom out 1, then click the little arrow to the right to see her, and then you can zoom in 4 times to clearly make out a high level of facial detail.

The ironic thing about Mary Kalin-Casey's submission, is that her name and home address are now spread across the internet, which is a much more significant privacy concern than a view of a cat in her window.

Here's a detailed picture of my neighbor taking out the trash. At least he can use it to prove to his roommates that he actually does some work around the house!

There is a way to have an image removed from Google's Street View -- or at least an interfact that allows you to report an inappropriate image. If you hit "Street View help" from the image window, there's a link at the bottom that allows you to "Report inappropriate image." One of the options is "this image infringes on my privacy."

This link will allow the cat in question to report the image as "inappropriate".

Incidentally, a little ways south down the street, the camera captured a lady getting into her car. You can identify her, and her license plate, with excellent clarity. Left as an exercise for the reader.

I think this lady may have a cat in a plastic bag. She's right down the street from the cat in the window.

Looking into the Belagio in Vegas... Why? Link.

Just to follow-up on your post about the new Google Maps Street View feature, someone has located San Francisco's legendary Frank Chu and another person is trying to track down world famous street busker Bushman. Link.

Here's a toll booth operator at the Golden Gate Bridge. This is truly frightening.

I wrote this article before being alerted to your item on Google maps spying on a reader's cat. Coincidentally, I included photos of my former front windows where you can see the pillows my cats loved to sit in, but no cats in the shot. Pity.

We just posted on our blog pictures of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel where cameras are not permitted since 9/11 but street view has images with traffic.

Of all the times to be coming out of a strip club: Link.

Ryan Singel from Wired News says,

I'll do Daniel one better. Come submit and vote on your favorite inadvertant, urban snapshots here: Link.

6th and Howard (by the building with chairs and shit on it) has been blacked out for some reason on google street level maps. Link.

I took a "walk" in downtown Denver using Google Maps' Street View, and i discovered a couple of buildings that "disappear" when you get close to them. It's really interesting to look at and makes me think of the real-world "404: Site Not Found" that danKissam mentions. Link.

2 fellows going into the cannabis club "Sanctuary" at 669 Ofarrell in San Francisco: Link. zoom out and scroll to the left a little to see the address. Pity they didn't have their marijuana leaf/physician's cross thingie sign out. You can obscure their face a little more by going one click west.

See also:

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

Cthulhu-themed hot dog roaster

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:28:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Gear clock

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:45:59 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

LJ purges incest, slash fic under pressure from self-appointed "warriors"

A group called "Warriors for Innocence" has approached Six Apart, the company that owns LiveJournal (arguably the most popular fandom blog service online) demanding that certain journals be purged. These journals contain, among other things, fanfiction containing slash and incest. According to WFI, the goal is to purge LJ of all references to child molestation, incest, child pornography, and pedophilia. In short, the targets are ostensibly "real-life" predators. But out of the purges that have taken place, flesh-and-blood predators rank low on the list. Mostly, fandom and fanfiction communities have been the victims.

There are many troubling things about this story -- not least of which is the fact that child rapists get together online and swap stories -- but one of the things that bothers me most is the fact that anyone who has been a victim of incest, child rape, paedophilia, or other similar abuse might find his or her journal deleted. If, for example, one has listed "incest" in the interests column alongside "activism," the journal might still be purged. And if one dares to actually have a community online for survivors of incest, it might suffer a similar fate.

Link to to a list of deleted journals and communities, as well as a minor history of the event and links to other, more in-depth posts. Other relevant links include: rumours of the purge, and this conversation between WFI and an LJ user whose community was deleted; this post is possibly the best.

The "Warriors" maintain they're only going after sites that promote real-world acts of sexual violence against children, not "Lolita sites" or "survivor sites." They say they're only asking LJ to enforce its current terms of service with users who are abusing the system, and committing criminal acts.

Warren Ellis has a related post here, and he says:

Personally? I have an eleven year old daughter. I’m with Warriors For Innocence on this.

For what it’s worth: Warriors For Innocence come off a little weird, to say the least. Mind you, so does Andrew Vachss. But LiveJournal’s response bears more study. Their sloppy, blanket response indicates that they simply don’t have a process in place to differentiate between nonce-news and people writing about furry widdle brother and sister unicorns who love each other very much.

The outcome, therefore, has been pure comedy, with comments that read very much like “I love spending all day reading about forced underage incestuous sex with squirrel fisting on top, but of course I’m not interested in that in real life — that’d make me a pervert!”

LiveJournal is part of Six Apart, which has in times past proved itself to be, shall we say, socially backwards. They’re not good at dealing with people. The questions of importance are less about the somewhat gung-ho and poorly informed Warriors For Innocence, and more about the panicked spasm LiveJournal had, that appears to have had very little thought put into it.

Reader comment: sea0tter12 says,

Here's a news article describing the LJ strikethru, complete with quotes from LJ officials.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:42:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

WiFi slurper grabs up to six open networks and makes one connection

Well, the idea is to bundle all the traffic from these six wireless network interfaces (and maybe a wired interface too) into one big connection which, if you keep the wireless interfaces down to five, otherwise you need to hook up to it by wire, could be retransmitted into one powerful new connection! *^_^*

The box at this moment happily boots Debian and the bonding of all the network traffic is done in a load-balancing way, but the other way around. Instead of balancing the load of one connection over multiple servers, we balance multiple connections into one device.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:48:08 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Repeating matches, a lost wonder of 1933

If you borrow a match from the gentleman pictured at the right, he is likely to want it back! He is one of the users of a new repeating match recently produced in England. The match may be struck and relighted more than a hundred times. A small box, coated with a special composition used as the striking surface, serves as a holder for the repeating match when it is not in use. The device is much thicker than an ordinary parlor match and gives a correspondingly larger flame.

Update: Spoilsport Hens points out, "Not really lost in the mists of time."

Update 2: Emily sez, "My friend returned from a year spent teaching in China last summer, and brought me this bitchin' Mao Tse-tung reuseable match. Everyone I showed it to seemed temporarily amazed by it. I used it for a few months before it stopped working. On the side it says it's made by the Nanyang Yanju Co, LTD. As you can see from the picture, you take the little match stick out from the top, and then strike it on the side. I believe it's just your basic flint and steel."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:43:10 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Canadian Parliament: no free speech rights to video of Parliament

As if on cue, the Tea Makers Blog reports that the House of Commons (presumably acting on behalf of the Speaker) sent a notice and takedown notification to YouTube, asking it to remove a parody video of a Parliamentary committee hearing appearance by CBC President Robert Rabinovitz. The clip has been reposted to MySpace, yet the incident highlights the fact that the concerns associated with this form of online speech are real. Without a change to the rules, takedown notices involving political speech are likely to become more common in Canada.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:39:33 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Venezuela's TV crisis, continued: Chavez to sue CNN in world court?

In the wake of the controversial shutdown of Venezuela's oldest broadcaster, RCTV, on Sunday night, President Hugo Chavez's government is stepping up the pressure on other local webs and even rattling its saber at CNN for any hint of opposition to its strong-arm tactics.

Minister of Communications William Lara has cited two segments aired by CNN, one depicting crowds of protesters and another placing a photo of Chavez alongside that of a late Al Qaeda leader and of some demonstrations in China. Lara claims latter images were meant to "associate the image of Chavez with that of violence and death" while footage of a demonstration was in fact taken in Acapulco when people took to the streets after the killing of a journalist and was not, as CNN claimed, of protests against the closure of RCTV (Radio Caracas Television).

Lara claimed these images formed part of an international campaign to discredit and attack Venezuela, which would take its case against CNN to an international court.

That bit about suing CNN (or, perhaps, parent company Time Warner) in "an international court" intrigues me. Is there some global television justice tribunal I don't know about? Does Judge Judy preside? Can I file a complaint there about the person who decided that the Sopranos must sleep with the fishes, come June 10?

More on the dispute with CNN, and on protests in Venezuela related the Chavez government's recent media-related actions, in this Times UK story: Link.

Here's a CNN piece, with a response statement from the network: Link.

Previously on BoingBoing:

(posted on the road in central america / xeni)

Reader comment: RobW says,

It's perhaps only an amusing coincidence, but Otto Neustald worked for CNN. He was the CNN reporter in Venezuela who alleged that coup leaders gave a videotaped press-conference calling for Chavez's resignation because of the deaths of anti-Chavez protestors, hours _before_ those deaths had occurred, while requesting that the networks play the video at a later time.

This link is to the Journeyman documentary "Venezuela: Anatomy of a Coup" which includes Neustald's allegations and is in any case an excellent overview of events surrounding the coup attempt for people who can't get hold of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". The Journeyman doco was broadcast on Australia's second government network SBS in October 2002, first in two parts on their foreign news current affairs program "Dateline" then again by popular request in a single showing.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:26:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Jailed Chinese journo Shi Tao joins lawsuit against Yahoo

Our human rights group, which filed suit against Yahoo! last month for its complicity in sharing identifying information of internet users with Chinese authorities, leading to their arrest and long-term detention, has just added another plaintiff to the lawsuit. Shi Tao, a well-known Chinese journalist, joins Wang Xiaoning and Wang's wife, Yu Ling, in their lawsuit against U.S. internet company Yahoo! Inc. and its subsidiaries.

Shi Tao was sentenced to prison by a Chinese court in 2004. The court's verdict, just like the verdict issued against Wang Xiaoning in 2003, cited evidence tying Yahoo! to Shi Tao's arrest by Chinese authorities. Specifically, Yahoo! handed over Shi Tao's identification information, including his anonymous internet user ID, as well as the location from which he had sent his e-mails. Yahoo!'s cooperation with Chinese authorities led to Shi Tao's arrest, detention, and long-term imprisonment. Both Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning are currently serving ten year sentences for their expression of free speech via the internet in China.

I don't see any specifics about today's news from this organization online, so I'll just dump their press release in entirety here, after the jump. (posted from the road in Central America / Xeni)

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:01:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Berkman's Internet & Society Conference this Friday, June 1

...that the Berkman Center is having its big Internet & Society Conference this Friday, June 1. It only happens every 2 years or so, and we've got a pretty cool line up of participants, including Nicholas Negroponte, Doc Searls, Wendy Seltzer, David Weinberger, Ethan Zuckerman, and plenty more from Facebook, the Center for Social Media, and The Berkman Center.

The conference is focused heavily on the future of university, and "What is the role of University in cyberspace?" Should be a good time! I'm sure there will be some blog posts after the conference, but I thought I'd give you all a heads up.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:18:21 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fire bad, but arson-melted keyboard pretty

BB reader Greg says,

A couple years ago, someone (allegedly, they were never caught) set fire to a lumber mill in 100 Mile House, BC, Canada. Definitely was not a nice occurrence, but at least the heat from the fire created this wonderful keyboard sculpture, which I've photographed in tiny detail. Because someone will surely ask, the keyboard is from an older HP. Vectra, I think.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:55:20 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Punk baseball cards

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:19:49 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cheap simple timer circuit clicks for days with one 9V battery

I wanted to see how few parts I could use, from what I had on hand, to build this clicking blinking LED device based on a 555 chip.

The earphone clicks and the red LED blinks at a constant 137 times a minute. The exact rate depends on the value of the resistor and capacitor. That rate will be maintained very precisely for the life of the battery. It’s not forever, but listening closely I could still hear the earphone faintly clicking after 6 days of continuous operation.

This device also simulates a faucet dripping. Hide it near a sink to frustrate a handyman.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:08:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Is Tinkywinky, in fact, queer? Enquiring Polish pols want to know.

Ewa Sowinska, government-appointed children rights watchdog, told a local magazine published on Monday she was concerned the popular BBC children's show promoted homosexuality. She said she would ask psychologists to advise if this was the case.

In comments reminiscent of criticism by the late U.S. evangelist Jerry Falwell, she was quoted as saying: "I noticed (Tinky Winky) has a lady's purse, but I didn't realize he's a boy. At first I thought the purse would be a burden for this Teletubby ... Later I learned that this may have a homosexual undertone."

A subsequent item in Reuters quotes Ms. Sowinska as denying from those earlier comments -- or perhaps, articulating a Teletubbie "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Link. (thanks, Scott)

Previously on BoingBoing:

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:35:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Organ donor TV: reality show for would-be kidney recipients

A Dutch TV station says it will go ahead with a programme in which a terminally ill woman selects one of three patients to receive her kidneys.

Political parties have called for The Big Donor Show to be scrapped, but broadcaster BNN says it will highlight the country's shortage of organ donors.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:32:43 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Spinal column gooseneck lamp

Update: Great minds think alike, Here's another golden spine lamp. (Thanks, Ben!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:18:34 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

LOLCats meet Rocky Horror

Speaking as someone who spent a million consecutive Fridays out of my face watching this movie and shouting blearily at the screen, I can vouch for this. Link

See also:
LOLCODE: LOLCats meet programming
LOLPresidents photoshopping challenge
Where LOLCats come from
Massive cache of kittah pix (aka LOLcats, cat macros)
Pedantic overanalyzer sucks all the fun out of LOLcats
Pedantic overanalysis of LOLcats not pedantic enough, says blowhard
LOLtrek
Cat macros hijacked by heartless homosexuals
Oh, how I love the gebril macros!

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:16:05 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Best LOLpresident so far on that Fark thread

By Peaceboy, from this FARK thread Cory blogged a while back, in its infancy. (thanks, Nate!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:47:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Candy bar wrappers by famous graffiti artists

Get One. Get the Set. Eat the Chocolate. Save the Wrapper.Ten legendary New York City graffiti artists including Blade, Crash, Crachee, Crime 79, Dondi, Dr. Revolt, Iz the Wiz, Lady Pink, Spar One and Voice of the Ghetto (Stay High 149) have created one-of a kind works transforming wrappers for an array of new candy bar of which a portion of the proceeds will benefit the All-Stars Project. Each Graffiti Bar weighs an impressive 2.25 ounces and is filled with classic treats enrobed in the finest gourmet chocolate. New bar flavors include Milk Almond, Milk Cafetto, Caramel, Cookies-n-Cream, Smores, Dark Strawberry, Dark Toffee Crunch, Banana Milk, Dark Rum and Dark Chocolate. Individual bars can be purchased for $4.00 each or a Limited Edition “gallery box” includes the full 10 bars. Price $40.

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:38:17 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

TSA detains director Mike Figgis for threatening to "shoot a pilot" (HOAX)

- - - - - - - - - -

"I'm here to shoot a pilot," director Mike Figgis is reported to have said to security screners at Los Angeles International Airport today -- meaning, in entertainment industry parlance, "I have returned to Los Angeles with my crew, so that we might produce a first episode of a television program made to test audience reaction with a view to the production of a series."

Scott Weinberg at Cinematical writes that Figgis was detained for 5 hours of questioning and related security theater bullshit.

Story in Cinematical, Threat Level, AOL, and elsewhere today. Cinematical quips,

Good thing the immigration officers didn't ask him about his body of work. Figgis' answer might have been "I recently made a huge bomb."

Reader comment: Zan Hecht says,

I sincerely doubt the authenticity of the Mike Figgis story about being detained for saying he was there to "shoot a pilot." I've heard versions of this same story (involving several different directors and destination airports) floating around Hollywood since as early as late 2001. My guess is that Figgis spread this urban legend to the press in an attempt to gain publicity.

Clark Perry says,

Just to chime in on Xeni's post re: Mike Figgis -- my personal experience causes me to doubt this.

A few months ago while passing through LAX, a TSA employee singled me out for screening. My carry-on bag was so stuffed with clothes that I barely got it zipped up. As he moved to unzip it, I grinned and said: "That thing's gonna explode." He looked up sharply for a moment and my heart froze. I thought I'd just screwed up big-time. Then he just returned my grin. He knew what I meant.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:00:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Griffin iTrip Pocket for iPod Nano

Last week, though, I started using the tiny Griffin iTrip Pocket instead. It plugs right in to my iPod nano, and plays through the car's FM receiver. The three buttons along the bottom can be set to any unused FM frequencies.

I've tried FM transmitters before and have been disappointed. For some reason, the iTrip Pocket does a better job of transmitting a clear signal. I rarely get static.

The one downside to this is how quickly it drains the battery. I am guessing it'll exhaust the Nano's battery in under five hours, which could be a problem on long trips. But for driving around town, it's great. Link

Reader comment:

Max says:

Might I suggest for you the monster ipod cassette adapter? It never fuzzes, doesn't drain battery, and it attaches to any player with a 3.5mm jack. Also they have used ones on Amazon for just four bones.

The best iPod transmitter I've ever seen is this guy by Kensington. I have had it for as long as I've had an iPod and its fidelity is incredible! also, because it plugs into your cigarette lighter, your ipod plays for aeons.

I read your post on Boing Boing yesterday about the iTrip Pocket. I recently purchased an iTrip for my iPod Nano too, but a different model than yours, the iTrip Auto. The exciting thing about it is that it is a combination FM transmitter and iPod charger, so your battery isn't drained by the iTrip. Like the pocket, you can manually select the frequency you want to use. So far it has worked great for me, a very clear signal.

Hey man, here's a tip about those transmitters: If you're ever in a position where you know you'll definitely be listening to just the iPod (like a trip to Tucson, AZ for instance), you might want to remove your antenna. Mine screws off really easily, but of course this wouldn't work so well with one of those fancy ones embedded into your rear window. Without the external antenna, your radio can only pick up what the Griffin's putting out, and then you don't have to constantly mess around with it, like I have had to do with every one of those transmitters I've ever used. Maybe this way you won't find out when the (very frustrating) return trip from Tucson is near completion (I was all the way back to Ontario when I thought of this.)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 06:33:44 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Roswell plans UFO theme park

The proposed park initially will cover 60 to 80 acres with room to expand to 150 acres. It will feature other rides and attractions, including an exhibit hall with information on scientific exploration of the universe.

"It's not just about the Roswell Incident and did it happen," said (concept designer Bryan) Temmer, of Land O' Lakes, Florida...

The town's biggest tourism attraction is the International UFO Museum and Research Center, which has drawn 2.5 million visitors since opening in 1992.

I tend to doubt this theme park will ever be built. Sure Roswell draws plenty of people who get off of I-10 or I-40 to make a 200 mile side trip to see what the fuss is about. That's the problem. It's a side trip. It will always be a side trip. We're a city of 50,000 people that is 180 to 200 miles from someplace larger and 120-130 miles away from the nearest Interstate highway.

I deliver mail in downtown Roswell within a half a block from the UFO museum. I'm amazed that so many people come here. Before 1980 or so, no one knew we were here. Now I see license plates from all over. Heck, I met a postie from England once while delivering mail. And I will confess that the UFO museum presents a balanced look at the controversy. Note: I am NOT a believer.

The sad thing is that there is other stuff to see here. Did you know that the Father of Modern Rocketry, Dr. Robert H. Goddard came here to conduct his experiments after he was run out of Massachusetts? One of our high schools is named after him. And one of his rocket gantries sits in front of our art museum. I'm not sure if it's still there, but there used to be a replica of his workshop inside the museum.

Carlsbad Caverns are close by. So are the haunts of Billy the Kid. The live version of Smokey the Bear came from a fire 70 miles west of here and has his own museum there. John Chisum of the Chisum Trail fame had his ranch just south of here. I'm an hour away from the Triple Crown racing of Quarterhorses.

But a theme park built around the 'alien' experience. It would suck people away from walking downtown Roswell and then fold. I'm sorry but we're just too far off the beaten path to make this work.

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:40:43 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

World's largest MP3 store launches

That aside, I got a $20 voucher for the MP3 store last week and spent it all on some pretty great music. I searched for one of my favorite teen punk bands, The Forgotten Rebels, and found a band called Ultimate Power Duo that self-identified as Rebels-esque. I downloaded a handful of their tracks, and was instantly transported to my wasted youth of listening to "In Love With the System" over and over again in my friend Mike's basement while drinking hard cider that we got the taxi driver to buy for us.

The recommendation system is the key to PayPlay, since it's unlikely you've heard of most of the artists in their catalog. The artists self-identify, citing their musical influences. Searches for better-known artists -- David Byrne, Tom Waits, Talking Heads -- yielded less fruit: there were so many artists in the search results and many of them appeared to be quite adept at, um, hiding the extent to which they were influenced by some of my favorite acts.

Still, it was easy to fill my basket with $20 worth of $0.88 music, all of which I've enjoyed immensely. PayPlay also features an admirable artist split, with artists taking home an average of $0.59 per track, (artists signed to labels average about seven percent of the price of an iTunes Store download), which means that your purchases at the store are pretty good karma, too. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:31:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wurstminster Dog Show paintings

My painting is called "Encounter in God's country Between a Belgian Tervuren and a Gigantic Beetle." Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:15:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Flickr challenge -- ink a Kirby Thor page

If you're a fan of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's epic run on the Mighty Thor, you've heard (and maybe even share) the complaints about the inking style of Vince Colletta. Well, now is your chance to put your ink where your mouth is and have some fun re-embellishing a select page of Kirby's dynamic artistry!

Thanks to the assistance of John Morrow, publisher of The Jack Kirby Collector, I've posted a photostat of Jack Kirby's pencils from a page of Thor issue 144 for you to ink, experiment, and play with. Issue 49 of the Jack Kirby Collector is dedicated to Thor, and Mr. Morrow has indicated he may run select examples of the inked pages submitted to this group!*

Feel free to use the discussions in this group to share your thoughts or links about Kirby, Thor, inking tips and techniques, and even the infamy of the prolific one himself: Vince "the Prince" Colletta.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:05:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Man in underwear wrestles leopard

(Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority southern district head Raviv( Shapira said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Leopards living near humans are usually too old to hunt in the wild and resort to chasing down domestic dogs and cats for food, he added.

Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.

posted by David Pescovitz at 01:46:49 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tree peels like a banana when hit by lightning

A lightning strike in Boulder, Colorado this weekend left a tree without much of its bark. One of my co-workers took these pictures and says the tree is waxy and smooth to the touch.

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

Creepy kid head candle holders

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:26:43 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Jim Phillips's Screaming Hand as vinyl toy

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:54:27 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Brian McCarty: "God of Animation" toy photo and a TV series!

posted by David Pescovitz at 12:28:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Gama-Go book contest: deadline this Friday, June 1

Boing Boing is holding a contest to give away four copies of Limited Edition: Art & Design of Gama-Go (release date: June 16, 2007). To enter, draw or paint a picture on your hand, then submit a photograph or scan of it. Send entries to gama.go.hand.art@gmail.com. We'll pick our favorites and announce the winners and show their, ahem, handiwork on Boing Boing. Contest ends at Noon Pacific time, June 1st, 2007.

Gama-Go is also throwing a book release party in San Francisco on June 14. See poster above for details.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:29:35 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Real world cyberwar versus cyberpunk

See also: Estonia suffers cyber-warfare DD0Ses

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:24:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Alter Ego: author's audio slideshow of gamers and avatars

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

Tree with face

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:35:03 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Rudy Rucker on Synthetic Biology

The fact that the SynBio organisms are likely to have simplified Tinkertoy DNA doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be faster and better. It’s more likely that they’ll be dumber and less adaptable. I have a mental image of germ-size MIT nerds putting on gangsta clothes and venturing into alleys to try some rough stuff. And then they meet up with the homies who’ve been keeping it real for a billion years or so.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:00:54 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Venezuela: Chavez to shut down a second TV station

Chavez took Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, off the air at midnight on Sunday and replaced it with a state-run channel to promote his socialist programs. The move sparked international condemnation and accusations from the opposition that he was undermining democracy in the OPEC nation.

Protests over the closure of RCTV, Venezuela's oldest private channel, simmered in several Venezuelan cities on Monday. In some locations, the police used tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Seizing on the momentum of RCTV's closure, Communications Minister Willian Lara presented a case to the state prosecutor's office saying experts hired by the ministry had found that opposition broadcaster Globovision was inciting assassination attempts on Chavez.

As evidence, he cited Globovision showing footage of an assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981 accompanied by the song "This Does Not Stop Here," sung by Ruben Blades, now Panama's minister of tourism.

Committee for the Protection of Journalists has published a list of recommendations to the Chavez government: Link.

Many more reader comments have come in about the earlier closure of RCTV, I'll post some of them here now.

Simon Garcia says,

Here is a link to pictures of the protests held today by university students against the government measure to close RCTV and being repressed by police forces. I stress 'close' because even though technically the government decided not to renew the airwaves transmission license. It is clearly a political retaliation measure because they didn't press any charges against RCTV for the coup and didn't give RCTV any chances to explain the reasons why the license wasn't renewed even though RCTV had to have by law preference to get it renewed and the government had plenty of more frequencies to set a new channel. The whole issue is explained very clearly at this CPJ article.

Here is video of students protesting the RCTV shutdown. Dozens of students have been harmed by armed forces just because they were supporting the freedom of speech at the state half-funded USB (Universidad Simon Bolivar) one of the oldest and most respectable science and engineering schools in Latin America.

However hundreds are marching through the streets to demand the right of speech. According to Venezuela's civil laws no security force is entitled to break in any autonomous school of studies.

This is like the birth of a dictatorship right in front of our eyes. Right now, state owned and financed independent leftist tv stations and websites are celebrating the recent closing down of a critical tv station (RCTV) as a victory of democracy and freedom of speech, the people's democracy. Or as the common state sponsored slogan has it "Con Chávez Manda el Pueblo", (With Chavez the people rules")

Things are gettin ugly. Please keep an eye on us, dude.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS: one, two, three.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:27:35 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bradbury's Farewell Summer, a 50 year+ anticipated sequel to Dandelion Wine

Dandelion Wine is one of my favorite novels ever, period. It's an incredibly lush, juicy story about boys and summer and grandparents and mystery, a book that sits on the line between poetry and prose, a book that seems like the most incredible dream you ever had, that feels like lying in a hammock with your eyes have closed, listening to the wind soughing through the trees. I read it when I was 17, and it made me nostalgic for my youth -- even though I was in the middle of it.

Farewell Summer comes from the typewriter of a much more mature, more experienced writer. It follows the stories of the people in Dandelion Wine as their long summer stretches into October and gets good to the boys who pack around town, skinny dipping, eating candies, and discovering magic. These boys decide to make their summer last forever, to reject aging, and to do so by targeting the evil, childless old men who run the Board of Education.

They plot a magic war against the Board, a series of mystical attacks against its members and its trappings, and draw the ire of the town's adults. The story is magic, makes you feel the everyday magic of young invention and delight and rage.

Bradbury manages to make Farewell Summer every bit as delightful and magical as Dandelion Wine was, but he does at a much shorter length, using language that, by Bradbury standards, is as unadorned as Hemingway's. It's as though a lifetime of word-drunkenness has given him a connoisseur's palate and the ability to substitute one perfectly chosen word for a whole paragraph of beautiful alternatives.

It felt like I was drunk after I'd finished the 211 large-print pages of this book. The world didn't look the same, and there was a strange, pleasant taste in my mouth. What a wonderful book. It was worth the half-century wait.

Inside, honey lay sheathed in warm African chocolate. Plunged and captured in amber treasure lay fresh Brazil nuts, almonds, and glazed clusters of snowy coconut. June butter and August wheat were clothed in dark sugars. All were crinkled in folded tinfoil, then wrapped in red and blue papers that told the weight, ingredients and manufacturer. In bright bouquets the candies lay, caramels to glue the teeth, licorice to blacken the heart, chewy wax bottles filled with sickening mint and strawberry sap, Tootsie Rolls to hold like cigars, red-tipped chalk-mint cigarettes for chill mornings when your breath smoked on the air.

The boys, in the middle of the shop, saw diamonds to crunch, fabulous liquors to swig. Persimmon-colored pop bottles swam, clinking softly, in the Nile waters of the refrigerated box, its water cold enough to cut your skin. Above, on glass shelves, lay cordwood piles of gingersnaps, macaroons, chocolate bits, vanilla wafers shaped like moons, and marshmallow dips, white surprises under black masquerades. All of this to coat the tongue, plaster the palate.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:57:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

LOLCODE: LOLCats meet programming

HAI WORLD:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
VISIBLE "HAI WORLD!"
KTHXBYE

See also:
LOLPresidents photoshopping challenge
Where LOLCats come from
Massive cache of kittah pix (aka LOLcats, cat macros)
Pedantic overanalyzer sucks all the fun out of LOLcats
Pedantic overanalysis of LOLcats not pedantic enough, says blowhard
LOLtrek
Cat macros hijacked by heartless homosexuals
Oh, how I love the gebril macros!

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:40:51 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, May 28, 2007

Fantastic Toronto: sf from T-O

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:48:26 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Microswitch keyboard DIY

I will be goddamned if this isn't the coolest keyboard in the multiverse.

It is normal to rest some weight on the fingers during typing. The need to lift fingers from the keyboard to avoid pressing keys seems likely to generate a fairly continuous low-level stress. Typists spend a lot of their time doing this anyway - and so far additional stress is not noticable.

Touch typing demands that the fingers feel their way to the correct positions to some extent. Though the activation force on the keys is very low, they still have a couple of millimeters of travel - and it remains reasonably practical for fingers to feel the locations of the keys without actually pressing them.

Another problem is accidental keypresses. These tend to be caused by reaching for one key without fully retracting the other fingers.

These drawbacks would become increasingly severe if the activation forces were reduced further - and could be alleviated by increasing them somewhat.

See also:
Sledgehammer keyboard
Keyboard waffle-iron
Crazy vertical keyboard
Pirate keyboard
HOWTO make a steampunk keyboard
Keyboard used as bean-sprouting medium

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:26:37 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Everything is Miscellaneous: prologue and chapter 1 online

But we all know how reality works, so why worry about what might be possible in some sci-fi alternative universe?

Because the alternative universe exists. Every day, more of our life is lived there. It’s called the digital world.

Instead of atoms that take up room, it’s made of bits.

Instead of making us walk long aisles, in the digital world everything is only a few clicks away.

Instead of having to be the same way for all people, it can instantly rearrange itself for each person and each person’s current task.

Instead of being limited by space and operational simplicity in the number of items it can stock, the digital world can include every item and variation the buyers at Staples could possibly want.

Instead of items being placed in one area of the store, or occasionally in two, they can be classified in every different category in which users might conceivably expect to find them.

Instead of living in the neat, ordered shelves we find in the Prototype Labs, items can be jumbled digitally and sorted out only when and how a user wants to look for them.

See also Everything is Miscellaneous - how the Web destroys categories, disciplines and hierarchies

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:20:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fanta screws with your mitochondria?

[An] expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria.

Reader comments: EJMD says,

Professor Peter Piper, the molecular biologist who, according to the extract from the article in The Independent, found sodium benzoate had an effect on mitochondria, may be more familiar to BoingBoing readers for his work with pickled peppers. According to Goose, M., (no date) the question regarding the location of the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked remains unresolved. Link.

Sodium benzoate apparently "causes" benzene, according to that news article. Gawd I love science reporting in the media...

"Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance."

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

Tweety Bird popsicle doesn't look like Tweety Bird

Update:

HeyGabe's Mario ice cream is even better!

Renato says: "I got really creeped out by the Tweety Bird popsicle, and thought it could be compared to the Picasso of the popsicles. Anyway, the eyes intrigued me. I could not resist the curious feeling and quick-and-poorly photoshoped the eyes to match the image on the pack...

"So, the question 'Would look a bit more with Tweety if the eyes were in the right places?'

"The answer: 'God, no.'

"The photoshopped picture."

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:38:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Venezuelan media crackdown: the other POV

As a friendly reminder, whenever text is presented on BoingBoing in blockquotes, you're reading the quoted words of someone, and not the blog-voice of a BoingBoing editor.

That said -- many BoingBoing readers shared opinions about the media turmoil in Venezuela.

Emil says,

While normally a station losing a license would be a sad thing, this is a TV station that actively supported a coup against Chavez in 2002, and was partially responsible for the violence and deaths that took place at this time. These events, including the role of RCTV and others are well documented in the (award-winning) film "The Revolution will not be televised".

I'd like to draw your attention to the following article by the "Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting" group: "Coup Co-Conspirators as Free-Speech Martyrs"

The article you quoted from Anonimo regarding the RCTV shutdown completely fails to provide any context for the shutdown (a refusal to renew their license), or the process by which it was carried out and why. RCTV was a major participant in the April 2002 coup, as detailed in these articles.

If you want to see footage of RCTV and the other channels who supported the coup and how they did so, please check out The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, an excellent documentary by an Irish documentary film maker who was in Caracas at the time of the coup.

Venezuelanalysis article: Link. ZNet article: Link.

The venezuelan situation is a very complex one. There is a lot of radicalization, so you will find very opposite POVs. But one small comment: Chavez rise to power came after a failed coup and the actual Ministry of Interior, Jesse Chacon, assasinated some workers when they assalted the goverment channel (the same one they have now under their control) during that coup attempt. This is a matter of free speech. Thanks for listening.

While I too think it is a bad idea, it is a litle more complex than is being presented. I was in Venezuela during the coup of 2002 and watched the private media coverage daily. It was incendiary and flgrantly anti-democratic. That station is guilty of faking footage of violence in order to incite further violence, and guilty of hiding the truth about what was really happening from the electorate. I am no pro-Chavez partisan, but I was genuinely horrified by the coverage of the coup. Does this justify its closing? No, but their calls for press freedoms ring a bit hypocritical after their gross manipulations and lying.

Although I am not a Chavez worshiper nor do I live in Venezuela, the article concerning RCTV seems flawed.

Firstly, it is not being shut down. Chavez is not renewing the license for the use of the public airwaves.

The can still broadcast over cable, internet, and satellite. Secondly, the poster failed to mention that RCTV openly supported and helped a coup of his government that was partially successful. Chavez did not shut it down immediately but allowed the contract to expire 5 years later.

He also allows other networks that are openly critical of him to continue, just not the ones that tell people to overthrow a democratically elected government.

It seems plausible that the US would do the same if ABC openly supported and helped enact a coup of the government.

This article sums it up better than i can, if you are interested. (not intended to be a bb link suggestion) It includes a few examples of similar actions in the US and UK and interviews with those opposing Chavez's decision.

Again, I have a plenty of criticisms of Chavez but in this case I do not think he is impairing free speech, at least not in the way it was presented on boingboing. I am open to being completely wrong though.

First off all, not only the problem was the exit off the public signal from rctv, the thing is that the goverment is intimidating to the Cable television against the possibility to transmit via this way.

We know that is not the same but at least is something for us the venezuelans almost everybody have cable tv acces, the poor people too, believeme This is a very extrange country, i'm not saying it in the bad sense off the word we are a very wonderfull yet extrange society.

The second point is the potential expropiation of the MICROWAVE (microondas) transmition stations, the new channel Tves, wich is now in the old RCTV frequency (que cagada coño!) but is using a big part of the equipment of rctv wich they say is just a momentary resource untill they build their own structure for broadcasting the new channel. But here, in this wonderfull yet extrange country, we all know that there is nothing more permanent than the provisional. and that is a very sad thing in this case.

The new channel is not bad at all, sincerely, at least by now is very aceptable we aspect not anther channel like Venezolana de Television (the country's public tv channel) wich is almost "the Chavez´ propaganda channel" The new Tves is wat VTV is suposed to be.

This is a personal opinion Xeni, i know there are lots of things that i don´t know in that respect as many persons in venezuela, but this is an obvius violation to the freedom of speech.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:27:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mark on Blogtalkradio tonight

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:44:18 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Venezuelan media crackdown: TV anchors sign off, mouths shut

In this video, you can see the strange and sad way that the news program on RCTV shut down this past Friday, after Venezuela's president arbitrarily decided to close it.

Each worker at the TV station, hundreds of people whose jobs depend on this network which has been critical of Chavez, will be unemployed tomorrow.

The station closes Monday May 28th thanks to a political decision through which Chavez seeks to gain total control of the basic freedoms of the country's citizens.

The world needs to know. Only you guys abroad can help us spread the word. Chavez spends hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying around the world with goverments and earning many international support at the expense of our taxes, natural resources, and freedoms.

Many of us are scared, but we are willing to do something about it.

Video link.

And here are videos of demonstrations against chavez closing down this channel, the most popular tv station in Venezuela, one that has been on the airwaves for 53 years: Link 1, Link 2.

(posted from Central America / Xeni)

See also on BB: Venezuelan media crackdown -- the other POV.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:20:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Int'l. Space Development con: Glenn Reynolds liveblogs it

I haven't been to an International Space Development Conference in years. Things have changed a bit, and that was probably more apparent to me than to people who have been going every year. But lots of people were remarking on some changes.

Most notably, the character of the attendees has changed. There's less of a science-fiction-convention feel, as more of the people attending are actually making their living in the space biz, and particularly the commercial space biz. One of the people I was talking to last night was noting that there were a lot more attractive women than in the past, a change she put down to the presence of a lot more "good-looking men with money."

There's something to that, and Alan Boyle has a post on the entrepreneurial activity at the conference. I have to say that it's the first time I've seen Brioni suits at an ISDC -- as happened a few years ago with the nanotech conferences I attend, suddenly there's a sizable contingent of venture capitalists, investment bankers, big-firm lawyers, and the like. There's not a space bubble yet, but a guy I spoke with who knows a lot said that "the bubble's scheduled for two years from now," and that seems about right.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:11:59 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Slave Leias at Star Wars Celebration IV

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:28:55 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Homework sucks: The case against homework

Kindergarten kids are assigned homework. Kids get homework over the weekend. Over vacations. When they're away sick for a day.

What's more, all the credible research on homework suggests that for younger kids, homework has no connection with positive learning outcomes, and for older kids, the benefits of homework level off sharply after the first couple assignments.

Not that most teachers would know this -- homework theory and design isn't on the curriculum at most teachers' colleges, and most teachers surveyed report that they have never received any training on designing and assessing homework.

The book is composed of equal measures of interviews with kids, parents and teachers; hard research numbers from respected institutions; and strategies for convincing your kids' teachers to ease back on homework.

One thing the authors keep coming back to is the way that excessive homework eats into kids' playtime and family time, stressing them out, contributing to sedentary obesity, and depriving them of a childhood's measure of doing nothing, daydreaming and thinking. They quote ten-year-olds like Sophia from Brooklyn, saying things like "I have to rush, rush, rush, rush, rush, rush through my day, actually through my seven days, and that's seven days wasted in my life."

No Child Left Behind has to shoulder some of the blame here. No Child Left Behind and standardized testing not only turns your child into a slave to her test-scores, but they can even affect your property values: a school with low test-scores brings down the neighborhood property values. That means that whatever your approach to your kids, the chances are that the other parents in your neighborhood are busting their asses to get their kids great test scores, drilling them, sending them to tutors, helping them with assignments that they were meant to complete themselves. If you don't do the same, your kids will suffer by comparison.

The authors report on an elementary school in North Carolina where at least twenty standardized test books have to be replaced after their use because the stressed out elementary school kids working to them have vomited on them.

The stories go on and on, and just when you're ready to throw in the towel and send your kids into the woods to be raised by wolves, the authors supply several long chapters of strategies and sample dialogs for convincing your kids' teachers to ease off on homework, for changing the homework policies in your school district and for rallying other parents to their cause.

They're not whistling Dixie, either: the authors have gone through this themselves, challenging and changing the homework policies in their kids' school districts. The last section of the book is an activist guide and a postmortem of the strategies they employed. One of the authors, Sara Bennett, is a celebrated civil rights lawyer; the other, Nancy Kalish, is a famous editor and writer of material for parents, especially mothers. One imagines that their school board didn't know what hit them.

I was lucky enough to attend excellent, publicly funded alternative schools through my educational career. We had homework, but we were also given a lot of time for free play, and a lot of free rein to choose our subjects and design our curriculum -- I remember spending half of the fourth grade working my way through two or three math textbooks and the other half designing and writing a parody of MAD Magazine, to the exclusion of all other work. The next grade I followed the class for most of the semester, except when I didn't. In high-school, I took a year off, moved to a little house in Mexico, and wrote stories. All of this stuff contributed more to my learning than any amount of worksheets and homework ever could have. Link

Update: Sara Bennett, co-author of the book, writes in with StopHomework.com, her site to continue the movement.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:26:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Crazy molecular gastronomy tasting menu report

This was "Whim 03", and I think was one of the dishes that came semi-unplanned, off the cuff, as our menu evolved. It was the first dish that absolutely knocked me into a cocked hat for technical brilliance. The white block was an impossibly light, and yet completely sturdy marscapone foam, topped with salmon roe, on a bed of parsley puree. The pink powder was grated frozen tuna, which reminded me of freeze dried astronaut food. The white puree was grapefruit foam, with passion fruit seeds. This was a riot of contrasting textures, with absolutely surprising complementary flavours.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:23:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO get your security deposit back when you move out

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:17:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Burst Culture: what it means to get your culture in short bursts

* Comics Foundry retreated from its position as a web “magazine” (though it was aping print magazine elements, rather than adopting the medium of the web fully, as I recall) to try and become a print magazine. And was summarily rejected for distribution by Diamond. They’re out time and money on a project that would have seen them, if successful, available in fewer venues and read by fewer people than if they’d stayed accessible by anyone with an internet-ready device.

* I love print. I love magazines that commit and pay for long articles and long fiction. The web rewards neither approach. It’s a packeted medium, a surf medium. Short bursts are the way to go. The web isn’t a replacement medium — it’s *another” medium. That said, if your concept of a magazine is something designed in one-page bursts, or three pages that only carry 500 words due to the mass of images, then, really, you’re not doing anything the web can’t do better, are you?

* Every day, millions of people download single lumps of data that take them three minutes to consume. They’re called mp3s. It’s a burst culture. Embrace the idea for a while.

* Bursts aren’t contentless, nor do they denote the end of Attention Span. If attention span was dead, JK Rowling wouldn’t be selling paperbacks thick enough to choke a pig, and Neal Stephenson wouldn’t be making a living off books the size of the first bedsit I lived in

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:12:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

East Germany's miserable manufactured goods

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:08:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Oddball screws and the blogger who loves them

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:04:39 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Detailed anatomical t-shirts

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:34:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Harley Hearse

Now, he has what he prefers to call "the Krause Funeral Home Motorcycle Hearse" out of sensitivity to local manufacturing icon Harley-Davidson Inc., which carefully guards its famous brand.

"For so long, funerals have been so reactive," Krause said. "I think that's part of the reason that people don't like funerals - that they've been so traditional. . . . If we can offer people more options and be more creative in the way we say goodbye, it will certainly broaden our clientele."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:49:58 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Demo: Brian Woods's comic about teens with "powers"

He succeeded. The stories in DEMO are incredibly diverse in their interpretation of what it means to have "power," from telekinesis to lying convincingly. In each case, the power forms the center of a hard-edged little story about the rottenness and the wonder of being young, the endless redemption available and the endless difficulty of achieving it.

It only took me about five pages to get hooked on this thing. A lot of that is due to Becky Cloonan's wildly versatile illustration style which fearlessly changes from story to story, to suit each piece best.

There isn't a single story here that I didn't love, that didn't make me think, that didn't thud home in my heart, though they hardly take more than five minutes apiece to get through. Link

See also:
DMZ: graphic novel, a worthy successor to Transmetropolitan
DMZ comic t-shirt

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:44:33 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Creation Museum opens Monday

Here exhibits show the Grand Canyon took just days to form during Noah's flood, dinosaurs coexisted with humans and had a place on Noah's Ark, and Cain married his sister to people the earth, among other Biblical wonders.

Scientists, secularists and moderate Christians have pledged to protest the museum's public opening on Monday. An airplane trailing a "Thou Shalt Not Lie" banner buzzed overhead during the museum's opening news conference....

A Gallup poll last year showed almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years.

Three of 10 Republican presidential candidates said in a recent debate that they did not believe in evolution.

posted by David Pescovitz at 05:15:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fox Rent A Car's bureaucratic idiocy

The problem was that I wanted to use a debit card to pay for my car (I got rid of all my credit cards a few years back when I paid off the last of my debts). I rent cars all the time with a debit card and I'm used to rental agencies taking a small deposit (usually $250) on the card, or, in some extreme cases, requesting my Social Security Number and doing a credit check on me.

But Fox had a genuinely idiotic policy for debit-card payers: they needed a copy of my Southwest flight itinerary. It wasn't enough for me to show them the itinerary on my laptop's screen. They couldn't take it on a USB stick and print it themselves. I either had to take a taxi to a Kinko's and print it and come back or call Southwest and have them fax the itinerary to Fox.

An itinerary proves exactly nothing, of course. You can make any itinerary you want on your computer and print it off. Given that Fox got this reservation from Southwest, anything I printed for them was totally redundant. The clerk kept repeating that he needed "proof" that I was flying out of Oakland again. I offered to let him photograph my screen with his cameraphone, but for some reason, that isn't "proof," while going to a print-shop and screen-dumping to a printer would be.

I spoke to a supervisor (who told me that this was my fault for not noticing this bizarre requirement in the five screens' worth of fine print in their reservation "agreement"), called Fox corporate HQ and left a message, then turned around, walked up to the Hertz counter with my debit card and drove off in one of their cars five minutes later.

Update: Brendan sez, "I recently did a little googling about Fox Rent-A-Car in preparation for a trip to California. It turns out they're listed with the Better Business Bureau for bad business practices. The Attorney General of California seems to have some interest in them too. Maybe it's a good thing they made it so difficult to rent."

Update 2: Doug did some digging into Fox: "I followed one of the links to the California Attourney General's site and found that there was a judgment in place against Fox Rentals for various business practices which were illegal under California law.

"What made the hair on the back of my neck stand up however, was the statement on the Attourney General's Website that Fox routinely tracks their customers by GPS. They have used this to illegally charge their customers for driving out of a three state area, but hey, they could certainly use it for other purposes."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:57:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

BBC shredded on bad science in WiFi scare report

Update: Chris sez, "Wellington Grey's 'Miscellanea' has a great take on the WiFi scare.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:11:56 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tim Biskup's limited Dragamel vinyl figure released today

posted by David Pescovitz at 03:32:34 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bike/bike lock sculpture

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:49:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sony charges $82 for replacement screw

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:47:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Asbestos: the perfect building material (1952)

Update: Rick Prelinger sez, "The asbestos video you just posted is a low-quality derive from the high-quality version from Prelinger Archives. Hey, no problem, it's public domain, but the mpeg-2 is much better for remixing!"

Update 2: Scott sez, "I used the actual audio from the original and animated it, with an MST3K-style onscreen commentary. I did this just after my animation-a-day-for-a-year project ended and just before my show on PlumTV began."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:31:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ad from 1934 promises to help you get fatter

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:26:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, May 25, 2007

Graphic novel history of Nat Turner's slave revolt

But the Nat Turner books are nothing like Why I Hate Saturn and many of his other books -- they've every bit as brilliant, but without a shred of whimsy. Instead, these expressively illustrated black-and-white pages, with almost no text (what text there is is lifted from Turner's confession before he went to his execution) are as savage a tale of the slave-trade as you could hope to find.

Great artists are often incredibly versatile and Baker is no exception. These books will haunt me. Link to book 1, Link to book 2, Link to Kyle Baker's pages for the Nat Turner collections

See also: Kyle "Why I Hate Saturn" Baker's new collection

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:50:49 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO trick wiretaps into thinking you've hung up

Download Blaze’s C tone and broadcast it continuously during phone calls. You can play the tone at low volume so it just seems like ambient room noise...

Don’t stop there – befuddle your foes. Play the C for a second in the middle of a call, then without hanging up, dial another number. Analog wiretap systems will interpret this as a new call. You may be chatting with a friend, but now the spooks think you’re talking to Domino’s.

Update: Mark sez, "This would be completely ineffective against the most simple and least effective wiretaps like a wireless transmitter or a voice activated tape recorder attached to your phone line."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:38:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Kid-sized caped crusader outfits

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:31:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Map of a notional LA subway based on the London Tube

Update: Jeff sez, "I did a photo documentary on the building of LA's 'last' freeway, the Century Freeway. In researching the history of LA transit for this project I found a map of SoCal's fabled Red Car system at the Huntington Library. You can see part of it on the Web site I created for this project a while back: In Our Path. It looks awfully similar to Parada's vision!"

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:28:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Was Chewbacca a Bigfoot?

When I visited Honey Island Swamp, in the 1980s, the Star Wars movies had obviously made an impact on the local naming of the Honey Island Swamp Monster. Locals in the area some miles outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, were calling their Honey Island cryptid, casually, for example, by naming their small swamp boats (wrongly spelled) “Wookie.” The Star Wars movies came first, and there is no evidence that the Honey Island Swamp Monster was called a “Wookie” or a “Wookiee” before 1977.

Some people, however, seem to think otherwise. Florida cryptozoologist Scott Marlowe has argued on the cryptozoology.com forum that “the term ‘Wookie’ chosen by Lucas is a North American Indian term for a Bigfoot…It is culturally and linguistically related to the term Shaawanoki which is the Seminole word for the Skunk or Swamp Ape.”

This is a highly doubtful theory...

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:43:05 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Boy shoots half-ton wild hog

Reader comment:

Mike says:

Just to put in my two cent's worth, something about that hog photo isn't right. I'm not saying it has been doctored, but i suspect the kid is standing further behind the hog than is readily apparent. The article says the measurement around the hog's head is 56 inches. Half that would be 28 inches (a normal small human waist measurement) and the kid in the photo probably has at LEAST that waist measurement (if not MORE) but the hog head in the photo looks to be 3 or 4 times that measurement size when you compare the two (kid and hog). Seriously. PLUS, the hog in that photo looks to be the size of a goddamned RHINO, and your average rhino weighs about 5000 lbs (the hog in the photo weighs approx. 1/5th that, just over 1000 lbs) so again, something isn't right with the pic IMO. Thanks!

More pictures of the hog that are a bit more realistic. The hog definitely is not as impressive as the original news photo. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:10:49 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Shop for clothes at the Christian Domestic Discipline Store

You can also purchase a book about Christian Domestic Discipline. Excerpt:

Biblically, a man’s right to chastise and discipline his wife is strongly implied. Just as a parent would never stop to ask permission to chastise his child, a husband should not have to obtain consent to discipline his wife; however, our legal system has put him in the position of having to do so. Just as our culture is turned upside down in so many other things, the traditional Christian marriage is no exception.

It is worth mentioning that even Biblically, it is best if the wife submits willingly rather than being forced to obey her husband, and in giving honor to his wife as the weaker vessel, it is good that the husband listen to her thoughts and opinions and try to incorporate them into their lives so that she will be content. In that sense, this discussion of CDD and all it entails is Biblically sound.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:05:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sounds for the Space Set!! a free album from the "RIAA"

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:53:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Darth Vader helmet art show

Walking through The Vader Project exhibit at Celebration IV is like taking a stroll through a Darth Vader tribute done by the coolest lowbrow and urban artists on the planet. Frank Kozik, Paul Frank Sunich, Marc Ecko and Urban Medium (among numerous others) gave Darth Vader’s helmet a hipster makeover. As fans walk through the exhibit they can see the artist’s own unique style featured on each helmet. Whether it’s a Tiki-inspired design from Shag or a girlie 1940’s style pinup from Marc Ecko — it’s apparent each artist took time to pay special tribute to the headwear of the Sith.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:32:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Brain machine how-to video

This weekend, learn how to hack your brain by making Mitch Altman's Brain Machine! It flashes LEDs into your eyes and beeps sounds into your ears to make your brain waves sync up into beta, alpha, theta, and delta brainwaves!

Mitch invents cool things that make the world a better place. He's well known for the TV-B-GONE and this brain machine is his latest project. One of the cool things about this project, is that it builds on an open source project. Mitch used Lady Ada's open source MiniPOV and switched out LEDs and added new capacitors and resistors and then rewrote the firmware to make it into the brain machine. It's super cool when people make hardware open source so that others can work with it!

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:20:38 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Closing credits for Ernie Kovacs show

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:58:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Video: Sony's color flexible display

posted by David Pescovitz at 01:48:01 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Man stays awake for 11 days

He said that his 'Stone Age' diet of raw food helped parts of his brain to stay awake and remain functional for long periods.

He said: "It makes it much easier to switch from one side of the brain which is really tired, to the other.

"But both are pretty tired at the moment."

During the record attempt, Mr Wright noticed his speech becoming incomprehensible at times and colours appearing very bright.

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:48:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Win a copy of the new Gama-Go book

Boing Boing is holding a contest to give away four copies of this book. To enter, draw or paint a picture on your hand, then submit a photograph or scan of it. Send entries to gama.go.hand.art@gmail.com. We'll pick our favorites and announce the winners and show their, ahem, handiwork on Boing Boing. Contest ends at Noon Pacific time, June 1st, 2007.

GAMA-GO and Last Gasp have teamed up to make a gem of a book.

What happens when an art school dropout, a traveling curmudgeon, and an amateur taxidermist take on the massive apparel-industry juggernaut? If on the way to work they're kidnapped by a Yeti, you end up with a company like Gama-Go.

Gama-Go co-founders Tim, Chris, and Greg have combed through six years of illustrations to hand-pick this hard-bound 400-page collection.

Since everything we make is limited and all the designs are immediately retired, there's never been a way to view all of our work -- until now.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:58:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Pogo collectors: Fantagraphics needs your help.

CALLING ALL POGO FANS & COLLECTORS:

We are requesting the help of Pogo collectors who may have original art or high quality reproductions of Walt Kelly’s Pogo strip.

We are currently assembling Walt Kelly’s POGO: The Complete Daily & Sunday Strips. We are looking for the best possible black-and-white reproduction of both Sundays and dailies — especially the Sundays. If you have original art or proofs that you would be willing to let us scan, we would be grateful if you’d contact us. You may e-mail me directly at groth@fantagraphics.com

(Please put POGO in the header). Thank you.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:32:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

US to provide domestic surveillance assistance to Mexico

Calderon argues that the government needs the authority to combat drug gangs, which have killed hundreds of people this year. Mexican authorities for years have been able to wiretap most telephone conversations and tap into e-mail, but the new $3-million Communications Intercept System being installed by Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency will expand their reach.

The system will allow authorities to track cellphone users as they travel, according to contract specifications. It includes extensive storage capacity and will allow authorities to identify callers by voice. The system, scheduled to begin operation this month, was paid for by the U.S. State Department and sold by Verint Systems Inc., a politically well-connected firm based in Melville, N.Y., that specializes in electronic surveillance.

Reader comment: Dan says,

The Mexican government may say that they need help from the US to keep track of drugs but it's ridiculous. Everyone in Mexico knows exactly where all the drugs are. Walking around the Baja asking for directions will often yield gems such as "Walk past the drug lord's mansion and take a right." It's no secret. Some police actually make a business of raiding lesser known drug lords, taking seizing all their materials and reselling it for a tidy profit.

Mexico needs better surveillance? Please, Mexico needs some real police.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:14:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Web Zen: feline zen 2007

Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!) ( posted from Guatemala / Xeni )

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

Central America: notes from the road -- Palenque, old books, DNA

Here's a post on the excellent Bibliodyssey blog that points to a collection of texts at Mesoweb about the Mayan ruins at Palenque.

Referenced publications include a scholarly work about evidence of physical deformities that may have been genetically transmitted as a result of heavy intermarriage within the god-king class in preColumbian Mayan society.

Physical Deformities in the Ruling Lineage of Palenque, and the Dynastic Implications," By Merle Greene Robertson and Marjorie S. Rosenblum Scanidizzo and John R. Scandizzo.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:29:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Secret rooms of the Stasi: photos by Daniel and Geo Fuchs

Daniel & Geo Fuchs have documented the architectural legacy left by the former GDR’s Ministry for State Security (Stasi), the main security and intelligence organization of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

The Stasi had nearly 90,000 official workers and 170,000 unofficial collaborators in a country with a population of 16 million. The organization was dissolved 18 years later, yet some of these sites have remained practically as they were.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:09:39 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Breaking DVD DRM is legal in Finland

Our law firm's client was released as Finnish court today ruled that the charges must be dropped for the two defendants that had "organized discussion" of breaking a technical protection systems.

According to the court, CSS (the DRM on DVDs) no longer achieves its protection objective. The court relied on two expert witnesses and said that "since a Norwegian hacker succeeded in circumventing CSS protection used in DVDs in 1999, end-users have been able to get with ease tens of similar circumventing software from the Internet even free of charge. Some operating systems come with this kind of software pre-installed." Thus, the court concluded that "CSS protection can no longer be held "effective" as defined in law." All charges were dismissed.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:53:43 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

San Quentin prison scrapbook from 1932

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Here's a creepy, interesting, and real eBay find: a scrapbook documenting life among the prison population of San Quentin in 1932.

Chapters include "Mystery of Pervert Solved," profiles of jailhouse characters like "Chloroform Kate," stories of genital modification performed by disturbed inmates, the tale of a child born in prison, photos of theatrical plays that include cross-dressing strip shows, suicide tallies, and more. Don't miss "Pervert blows air into penis." Snip:

Fifty-two pages titled "Suicides of San Quentin." Total of 29 listings each with a mug shot, name, date, method, and details of the suicide. Remaining pages include more information on San Quentin including a medical case involving a mans penis with pictures, a note from a black inmate regarding him being mistreating by other inmates, [and] information and photos of two men found in a "compromising position"...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:09:57 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Congolese cloth cult: video of "sapeurs"

Reader comment: Paul Frigon says,

[This video was shot in] Paris, France, in the quartier of "Chateau Rouge" inhabited by many congoleses.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:51:17 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Croatian Parliament in chaos over YouTube videos

Today, the main oposition party in Croatian parliament (SDP - Social Democratic Party) walked out of Parliament after Mr. Ivica Kirina (Interior Minister) accused the SDP of publishing videos about him on YouTube.

The video clips in question were not doctored; they were just showing public appearances of Mr. Kirin with some funny (but not insulting) remarks.

The series of four videos were seen by 500,000 croats so far (we have a population of 4.5 million).

Today, we have a crisis of government because of four video clips published on YouTube.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:28:22 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Demented kids' book photoshopping contest

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:23:27 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Spiderwoman/Superman Bollywood musical number

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:21:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Can CAPTCHAs solve book-digitizing?

It's a clever hack, but there's one thing I don't understand. CAPTCHAs are supposed to contain a word known to the computer. You key it in and the computer confirms that you're a human being by comparing your entry to what the computer knows the CAPTCHA to be.

But if CAPTCHAs contain text unknown to the computer -- and any text that stymies OCR software is, by definition unknown to the computer -- then what's to stop you from entering anything in the CAPTCHA box and gaining entry?

Instead of requiring visitors to retype random numbers and letters, they would retype text that otherwise is difficult for the optical character recognition systems to decipher when being used to digitize books and other printed materials. The translated text would then go toward the digitization of the printed material on behalf of the Internet Archive project .

“I think it’s a brilliant idea — using the Internet to correct OCR mistakes,” said Brewster Kahle, director of the Internet Archive, in a statement. “This is an example of why having open collections in the public domain is important. People are working together to build a good, open system.”

Update: Alex sez, "the system works by having two words displayed. One that is computer generated (hence the computer knows what it is) and the other a scan from a book to be solved by the human (you do not know which is which). You enter in both words, if you get the computer generated one correct - the system knows your a human and lets you in. It can then also assume you entered the other non-generated word in correctly and can use it."

See also:
Solving and creating captchas with free porn
PWNTCHA: defeating CAPTCHAs with software
Use kittens to distinguish bots from people

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:48:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

BoingBoingBoing podcast 13: game developer Jane McGonigal

Super lucky #13 edition of the BoingBoingBoing podcast is now online!

Special guest for this episode is game designer, games researcher, and futures forecaster Jane McGonigal, who is probably best known as the brain behind I LOVE BEES and WORLD WITHOUT OIL. She's also Pesco's colleague at Institute for the Future. (Previous BoingBoing posts about her work: Link.)

- - - - - - - - - -

LISTEN TO BOINGBOINGBOING #13:
Podcast Feed, Subscribe via iTunes, Archive.org, Listen at Odeo, Direct MP3 url, iTunes link.

- - - - - - - - - -

STUFF WE TALK ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE
(total duration -- 35:25)

The book "Stumbling on Happiness," and what the search for happiness and lvl uppage means for game designers (previous BB post here).

Flying machines that can't fly, made by eccentric people. They make for good video.

Bjork and those wild sound editing gizmos on the Volta tour (previous BB post here).

The difference between someone who tells you they predict the future, and someone who forecasts the future. Hint: One is always lying. The other, if they're any good, is not.

TECH NOTES:
We recorded this podcast as a Skype conference call, and captured it with AudioHijack. The audio was later edited in Apple's Garage Band, after some help from Levelator.

PREVIOUS EPISODES OF BOINGBOINGBOING:
1 (Mr. Jalopy, master craphound), 2 (Violet Blue, sex futurist), 3 (Gareth Branwyn, cyberculture writer), 4 (Chris Anderson, WIRED editor-in-chief), 5 (George Dyson, tech historian), 6 (Steven Johnson, author), 7 (John Hodgman, humorist and PC), 8 (Merlin Mann, productivity guru), 9 (Matt Haughey, MeFi), 10 (Bonnie Burton, Lucasfilm), 11 (Noah Shachtman, defense tech reporter), 12 (Q Burns Abstract Message, DJ and music producer).

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni )

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:47:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Investigative reporter says he has the 500 missing Rove emails

Investigative reporter Greg Palast says 4.5 million votes will be shoplifted in 2008, thanks largely to the “Rove-bots” that have been placed in the Justice Department following the U.S. Attorney firings.

... he (Palast) claims to have the 500 emails that the House subpoenaed and Karl Rove claims were deleted forever. They prove definitively, says Palast, that the Justice Department is infested with operatives taking orders from Rove to steal upcoming elections for Republicans and permanently alter the Department.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:42:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Get Illuminated podcast #10 -- Steven E. Landsburg

Common sense tells you that promiscuity spreads AIDS, population growth threatens prosperity, and misers make bad neighbors. I wrote this book to assault your common sense.

My weapons are evidence and logic, especially the logic of economics. Logic is most enlightening -- and surely most fun -- when it challenges us to see the world in a whole new way. This book is about that kind of logic.

Daughters cause divorce. A thirst for revenge is healthier than a thirst for gold. A ban on elephant hunting is bad news for elephants, and disaster assistance is bad news for the people who receive it. Malicious computer hackers should be executed. The most charitable people support the fewest charities. Writing books is socially irresponsible; elbowing your way to the front of the water-fountain line is not. The tall, the slim, and the beautiful earn higher wages -- but not for the reasons you think.

Each of those statements is closer to the truth than you might imagine. If your common sense tells you otherwise, remember that common sense also tells you the earth is flat.

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

Central America: notes from the road (Xeni)

Where I am right now, the coffee and wifi flow freely, wisps of smoke puff out of the volcan de fuego nearby, and all is well.

A number of particularly violent attacks have taken place on public transportation in the nation's capital, Guatemala City, in recent weeks. People are asking if some of the attacks may have been orchestrated with political motives, because a climate of destabilization could help certain political parties running on a law and order platform. Billboards everywhere for one party promise "a strong hand" against crime. Some folks I've spoken with fear that this could presage an abandonment of human rights protections hard-won in peace accords after Guatemala's 36-year civil war. Link.

Amnesty International released a statement about the widespread violence against women in Guatemala recently, and this was covered in local papers this week. More here.

Editorials in Guatemalan papers and conversations with people who work on this issue generally come down to this idea: the femicide epidemic is the direct, logical result of decades of impunity for human rights violations committed during the civil war. "The highest officials in our country got away with torture, disappearances, and murder for nearly four decades, and still walk among us as free men" one human rights worker told me, "of course impunity leads to more violence."

I haven't seen the Canadian documentary film "Killer's Paradise" yet, but it sounds like a truly worthy project. The director, Giselle Portenier, has been following the story closely for years. Here's the film's official website, and here's the trailer.

Sandra Guamux, 21, sits with her 5 month old son, Alfredo, at an abandoned gas station in Zona 4 of Guatemala City. About 20 otherwise homeless people live inside the station and most are addicted to huffing paint thinner to numb the cold and their hunger pains. Guamux said another baby was stolen from her five days after it was born last year, and she is convinced the baby went into an illegal adoption system. She said that the police told her they would not investigate the situation since she had no photographs of the child.

Guatemalan law currently allows notaries to act as baby brokers who recruit birth mothers, handle paperwork and complete foreign adoptions in less than half the time it takes in other countries.

But U.S. officials have urged Guatemala to tighten up the procedure amid concern brokers were paying or threatening mothers to give up their babies.

UPDATE: Shii says,

I found the horribly offensive YouTube video that caused Turkey to ban the entire website, and have mirrored it on a web host with more balls: Video Link.

Absolutely obscene, I tell you. When you see it you will be chilled to your bones.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:19:58 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

UFO fonts

It is not necessary to use the Katakana font, "real" alien fonts are widely available as here: Link. Klingon, Cardassian, etc., some bearing a strong resemblance to the symbols on the UFO.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:14:26 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Turning coders into journalists (hint: add spellcheck, subtract Skittles)

The Medill School of Journalism just won a grant that will allow Medill to offer master's degree scholarships in journalism to computer programmers. It's among $12 million in grants awarded via the Knight News Challenge. The general idea is to lure talented coders, immerse them in the practice of journalism, and then turn them loose to figure out interesting ways of putting journalism and technology together. Our role model is Adrian Holovaty of the Washington Post (who also won a Knight News Challenge grant and, consequently, will be leaving the Post to launch a tech/journalism startup).

We want to enroll the first scholarship recipients this September, so we're looking to get the word out through the tech community as quickly as possible. I do think it's a pretty meaty idea and I am sure your readership will have some interesting perspectives (some will probably love it, others will probably say there's not much a j-school can teach a coder).

The page that describes the Medill program, including how to apply, is here. I've blogged about the initiative here. The full list of News Challenge winners is here. The press release announcing all the winners is here.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:11:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

LOLPresidents photoshopping challenge

Update: Maitri sez, "Someone has already created a website dedicated to LOL President images."

See also:
Where LOLCats come from
Massive cache of kittah pix (aka LOLcats, cat macros)
Pedantic overanalyzer sucks all the fun out of LOLcats
Pedantic overanalysis of LOLcats not pedantic enough, says blowhard
LOLtrek
Cat macros hijacked by heartless homosexuals
Oh, how I love the gebril macros!

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:44:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Giant collectively controlled game of breakout coming to cinemas near you!

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:38:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Google Print doesn't do exclusive deals with libraries, but still holds the public domain tight to its chest

Google has replied, saying that it doesn't have any such deal with the libraries, and they've put it in writing. They've even included one of their library contracts. This is really, really good news.

I'm still disappointed that Google puts restrictive notices on their public domain works (these aren't licenses, just "polite notices") that tell what you're not allowed to do with these books. I know they're worried about their competitors getting ahold of those documents, but that's the deal with the public domain: it doesn't belong to you, period, it belongs to all of us. Just because you scan a public domain book, it doesn't confer the right to control it to you.

More importantly: Google is betting that it will make more money by locking these books up to be merely read than it could by making them available as a giant tarball for the Internet to bend, spindle, mutilate and fold. That merely hosting these will generate more pageviews than turning them loose for remix, mashup, scholarship and other forms of inventive re-use.

It just doesn't seem like Google, betting against the Internet's creativity and capacity to innovate. I know they've got a lot of smart people there, but I hope they understand that they don't have all the smart people. Google makes the bulk of its money by indexing the cool stuff other people make. Why restrict people from making more cool stuff? Link (Thanks, Alex!)

See also: Why Publishing Should Send Fruit-Baskets to Google

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:29:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO make OpenCola

Flavoring

* 3.50 ml orange oil
* 1.00 ml lemon oil
* 1.00 ml nutmeg oil
* 1.25 ml cassia oil
* 0.25 ml coriander oil
* 0.25 ml neroli oil
* 2.75 ml lime oil
* 0.25 ml lavender oil
* 10.0 g gum arabic
* 3.00 ml water

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:20:14 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cloth cult: "Why Congolese men rather starve to death than look cheap."

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Photo: Héctor Mediavilla Sabaté, from this Colors feature.

Serial entrepreneur and blogger Emeka Okafor, who also happens to be organizing TED GLOBAL in Tanzania next week, points us to this blog entry about Congolese "sapeurs" by Sefu Massamba Shongo Erik aka "Papa Shongo," a Congolese blogger who lives in New York City:

Hopefully you’re already familiar with the Congolese outlandish fashion sense courtesy of Koffi Olomide (expensive designer clothes, no concern whatsoever about matching colors) and Papa Wemba to name a couple.

If you thought that fashion sense (nonsense sometimes) was limited to famous Congolese artists only, you were wrong my friend. We Congolese have been so obsessed with designer clothes and looking good that over time some of us have prioritized it to the detriment of basic needs sometimes.

If you ever thought you spent more than you could afford to support a lifestyle, wait till you meet this guy I read about in a LA Times article who reported earning about $150/month but somehow was able to afford D&G, Gucci and other obscure designer accessories. That same gentleman also owned a fur coat, in an equatorial climate mind you!

Although this may seem ridiculous to most of us, showing off (which this really is) has become a religion for a lot of “Congolais” who feel that perhaps they must live up to the hype, the expectation that all Congolese must have a high fashion sense. The phenomenon can also be observed here in the US where I’ve met someone (Charlotte, NC) who was working 3 jobs (no kidding) just so he could impress his friends and family with his Mercedes-Benz.

Emeka also points us to some fascinating related items about the "cult of cloth" in Congolese culture, including a Colors Magazine feature (with amazing photos), the "Chic Theory" article in the Australian Humanities Review, and a BBC video documentary.

Image, top: "A three-and-a-half-year-old sapeur — wearing an eye patch in imitation of his uncle, the famouse K.V.V Mouzieto, a grand Sapeur who lives in paris — struts down a dusty street."

Image, inset: "‘I’M A SAPE’: Papy Mosengo, 30, lives with his parents and earns $120 a month — and spends several times that each month on clothes. (Edmund Sanders / LAT)"

Reader comment: Brett Burton says,

Just saw your Boing Boing post about the LA Times' Congolese cloth cult. It reminded me of something I recently read in Vice Magazine, so I did some googling.

On the Vice web site, they mention the recent LA Times piece and point out that they covered the Congolese scene in an article four years ago: Link.

The thing I read was in the May issue, where Vice profiled the Swenkas of South Africa. Couldn't find a link to that article, but here's one for a Swenka documentary: Link.

Ben Frazier says:

Regarding your post on the Congolese men who would rather starve than look bad — as usual, the Onion beats everyone to the punch by commenting on the phenomenon (albeit using a Westerner as the subject) in this article, which is now over seven years old: Link.

Clarification: Many BoingBoing readers wrote in to ask if the Emeka Okafor in question is this Emeka Okafor, listed by Wikipedia as an pro NBA player. No.

Wikipedia, disambiguate thyself!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:32:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Spinning, flashing Dr Who cellphone charms

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:02:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Insanely detailed papercraft AT-ATs to download

Update: Dave sez, "The same site has a bunch more papercraft patterns to download including a sweet looking Delorean."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:09:41 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

This week in LA: Star Wars Celebration IV

Can't make it to the biggest Star Wars convention on the planet this week? Fire up your lightsaber and take a look at the official starwars.com blog coverage of Celebration IV in Los Angeles, CA.

From Wednesday through Monday thousands of Star Wars fans converge to the Los Angeles Convention Center in costume to watch all 6 films, see R2-D2 Builders in action, belly dancing Princess Leias in metal bikinis and more!

For an ongoing photos of the event all week long, visit our photo blog on Flickr: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:46:09 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

ABC reports CIA cleared to conduct black ops against Iran

The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

Reader comment: Patrick Nielsen Hayden says,

Kevin Drum makes a very good case that it's all just theater: Link 1, Link 2

I, for one, am glad to see ABC make this report about the CIA's possible role in Iran (and BoingBoing bringing attention to it). As a journalist and journalism student who understands that the role of the media should be another check and balance on the government (it's called the fourth branch of government for a reason), and as a person who believes Bush is "leading" this country in the wrong direction, I think this kind of reporting is important.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:41:27 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Gates and Jobs to meet and, like, talk about stuff next Wednesday

For more than two decades, Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Steve Jobs and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates have sparred over the issues that were crucial to the development of the technology industry. Issues such as whether it is wiser for a company to partner or build everything itself. Or the primacy of software versus hardware in personal computers. Or which is more important: how easy it is to use a product or what it can do once you figure out how?

This jousting over big ideas, sometimes friendly but often not, has always been from a distance. Until now.

Although Gates made a famous phone call to Jobs in 1997 and the two shared a stage briefly at a 1983 Apple promotional event, the two industry icons have never had a public conversation.

So when they sit down next Wednesday for a 75-minute joint interview in front of a gathering of tech executives, their long history and competing philosophies should make for an interesting - if not history-making - discussion.

Reader comment: Colin Nekritz says this isn't the first time. Given that fact, it seems kind of tacky for a Dow Jones/WSJ reporter to describe this meeting -- organized by the WSJ, taking place at a WSJ conference, promoted on the WSJ's own editorial pages -- as "historic."

Steve and Bill sat down at the All Things Digital WSJ executive conference in 2005 and chatted. It wasn't official per se but they had a nice conversation.

When I worked for Adobe in the 90s I had the, well, wouldn't call it privilege, to talk to both of them. Though they're rivals they actually have quite a bit of respect for each other, did ask them about the other and both got these wry smiles. Though not first hand info, scuttlebutt was they do talk a couple times a year, and not about geek stuff, simply they know each other and have since the dawn of computers. Think about it, these two old war horses pretty much have the entire planet's technological industry in the palms of both of their hands, arguably both are responsible for the fact PCs are so prevalent today. (My personal take being a Linux/Mac person is basically Jobs invented everything, Gates copies it then marketed his cheap imitation to the masses).

You can see they do get along actually fairly well, check out the pics here: Link

Jason Chatfield says,

Going from the photos, Here's what I think was discussed at the dinner: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:40:05 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Idea for urban camouflage vehicle

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:29:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Giant rat taunts scabs in NYC

Reader comment:

Supreme Commander, Shadow Government says:

It's kinda funny that you sometimes stop noticing bizarre things when you see them all the time...

The Giant Inflatable Rat has been has been around scab-busting in NYC and up and down the East Coast for well over 10 years...the rats are used by a bunch of different unions whenever they have labor disputes...

Check out the article on the Huge NYC Rats.

And yes, if you find the Scab-Hunter mobile, you find the Rat.

The giant inflatable rat is a mainstay at any labor related strike or protest in NYC. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:15:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Jasmina Tešanović: Hope for Serbia

It's a historic day for the nation that currently calls itself Serbia. Today the special court for war crimes in Belgrade declared the assassins of Zoran Djindjic guilty.

The killers of our late prime minister Zoran Djindjic (1952 - 2003) are guilty of first case murder, guilty of attempting to kill democracy and destroy the dignity of a country. All of the notorious Zemun Gang -- those accused in the courtroom, anyway -- got between 30 and 40 years of prison from tough-minded judge Nata Masarevic. This means a life sentence for them, practically speaking. The guilty parties abandoned the court room in anger and defiance, together with their numerous relatives and political supporters.

In front of the court the Zemun gangsters made violent threats and created incidents with the press while waiting for the jury and other VIPs to clear the area. There was also a street presence from various local political parties and NGOs, some with banners saying IT IS NOT YET OVER... Because they are looking for the unknown parties who gave the orders to Zemun group, who are the organized crime wing of the local secret police.

More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:08:04 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Felix the Cat drugs people into enjoying comic book

By the way, the new issue of Craig Yoe's cartoon history magazine, Arf Forum, is out, and it's full of comic art treasures. Craig is also the editor of the promisingly titled forthcoming book, Clean Cartoonists' Dirty Drawings, with a spicy cover by Superman creator Joe Shuster.

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Sexiest Nancy panel ever?
• Felix vs Kit Cat: cartoon character and wall clock scratch it out in court

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

Famous dead punks hawk Dr. Martens

posted by David Pescovitz at 01:00:40 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

PBS "Now": Can US entrepreneurial know-how save lives in Africa?

On Friday, May 25 at 8:30 pm (check local listings), NOW travels to Kenya to investigate an enterprising idea: franchising not burger and donut shops, but health services and drugs in rural Africa. American businessmen are teaming with African entrepreneurs to spread for-profit clinics around the country in the hopes of providing quality, affordable medical care to even Kenya’s poorest people. But can they overcome obstacles like extreme poverty, corruption, cheaper fraudulent services, and long distances to establish a sustained solution to a chronic problem?

“If we had as many franchise outlets delivering health care in developing countries as Subway has sandwich shops, we've estimated that we could serve about 120 million people a year,” Businessman Scott Hillstrom, who conceived the idea, told NOW’s David Brancaccio.

This is part of a new beat on NOW and NOW Online called “Enterprising Ideas” that focuses on innovative solutions to social problems around the world. For the next two years, NOW will devote time to examining how people are applying business skills toward a new kind of bottom line: making the world a better place.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:21:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Disney bars Nintendo DS from critics' screening of Pirates 3

Weirdly, they did allow non-camera-equipped cell phones in - which I discovered during my lengthy argument with the security guy - meaning I could have brought my DS if I said it was a cell phone. Unfortunately this didn't occur to me until I was hunched over my Subaru's passenger window, waving goodbye to my little patience-maker as I abandoned it to the 300 degree heat of my car interior. (I have no games on my cell phone because I'm a snob who can't stand dumbed-down mobile games).

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:46:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Preview of Hi-Fructose Vol. 5

The critically acclaimed under the counter culture art magazine Hi-Fructose returns this summer.

Featuring: cover artist Amy Sol, the awe inspiring art and interview with James Jean, the undisclosed locations of Mars-1, the beautiful paintings of Lori Earley, the punch drunk art of Brendan Danielsson and the ever curious bipeds of Travis Louie.

Multi-Page Exposes on: Pars Kid, The Murals of Aaron Noble, the Packaging Tape Baby Street installations of Mark Jenkins, Friends With You's Rainbow Valley, Josh Keyes, Designer Vinyl, and much more yet to be revealed!

Hi-Fructose is co published and edited by artists Annie Owens and Attaboy.

Vol. 5 ships at the end of June.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:32:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Brilliant final projects from Cory's class

From the class discussions and one-on-ones, I knew I had a really amazing bunch on my hands, but I was absolutely gobsmacked by the incredible quality of the final projects. From founding a record label to conducting public polls to writing guidelines for journalists to interviews and classroom materials, my students did me better than proud.

I encouraged my students to do work that would be of use to the world at large. I hate the idea of the usual college final paper, which the student doesn't want to write, the prof doesn't want to read and no one else wants to ever see. Instead, I challenged them to produce useful work that the world could benefit from, and they met and exceeded the challenge.

I've invited those students who want to share their work to post about it on the class blog. Click through below for a guide to the projects.
More...

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:15:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Chinese gold farmers documentary

Xiaobai started working in a gold farm serving Korean gamers in 2002. For the past four years, he traveled around China and worked in several gold farms. After being a gaming vagabond for so long, he finally established his own gold farm with a friend in Jinhua. His gold farm is growing into an enterprise famous for power leveling (raising the level of customers’ virtual characters) in World of Warcraft. He has to deal with government officials, brokers, customers from all over the world, and a volatile body of employees...

Changmao was a member of a gang in a small town called Lishui. Some residents in Lishui say that the town feels a lot safer even since the emergence of gold farms and there are less unemployed youngsters wondering around and looking for fights. He started working in a gold farm one year ago. Now he is persuading other gang members to join him to fight virtual enemies...

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:08:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ape lad draws: Pretty Little Monkey Girl, and Hellmonkey

"In Spanish, 'Mona Lisa' means 'pretty little monkey girl,'" he writes. Link.

Don't want to get all pedantic on anyone's business, but I think that translation is probably not accurate (though my Spanish is clunky). Still love the drawing anyway. "Mono," male noun, is monkey, and "lisa" can mean "flat," or "smooth." Smooth ladymonkey?

Anyway -- equally astounding, Hellmonkey: Link. (Thanks, Holy Mac)

Previous BB posts about Ape Lad:

Reader comment: Marc in Barcelona, Spain says:

Hey Xeni, I'm a boingboing.net maniac! Your blog is great. I wanted to add my 2 cents into that story about Jim Henson you just posted. There's a film from the famous Spanish surrealist-Director "Luis Buñuel" called "El Angel Exterminador".

I suspect Jim Henson took the idea from that film.

The plot summary from IMDB :

"After a lavish dinner party, the guests find themselves mysteriously unable to leave the room... and over the next few days all the elaborate pretenses and facades that they've built up by virtue of their position in society collapse completely as they become reduced to living like animals... "

I've watched it and it's an excellent movie. I strongly recommend it to you.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:05:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Talk Like Bob Dylan day is May 24

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:18:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

What do you do with an old Transformer tattoo?

(1) Saw off your leg and sell it to a Dreamworks publicist before July 4.

(2) Transform it (heh) into an even bigger tattoo.

Max, whose before and after leg is shown above (still undetached, still unsold to Dreamworks) explains:

"When I was 19 three friends and I got Transformer tattoos on ourselves. Within a few years we were no longer friends and after a few more years I could no longer recall why I wanted a Decepticon on my body. I could make up some stuff but when it came right down to it I made an impulsive decision."

Read, and see, the rest of his tattoo tale here: Link. (Thanks, Craig) ( posted from Guatemala / Xeni )

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:03:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Medical records of Colorado residents compromised

On MPR's wavLength blog and American Public Media's Future Tense program, there's a story about how we came across personally identifiable medical records for thousands of residents of Colorado (and some from Illinois) on an FTP server that required no username/password to view the data. Data was sensitive, and some records included SSNs.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:49:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Smorgasbord of vintage African TV ads

I recently spent about a month in several West African countries (I'm typing this now from Central America). During my short stay on the continent, I became obsessed with local TV commercials. I believe you can learn a lot about any culture through its ads. I taped a bunch of stuff in hotel rooms, and will blog clips sometime soon -- but for now, I wanted to point to some super cool vintage African TV ads I found online, from the '60s and '70s.

You can find some great classic 1960s TV commercials from Africa on sites like YouTube and Africahit.com, but all of that stuff appears to originate from one source: the amazing Africa archives at Adeater.com. About a dozen MPEG files there, and products include everything from perfume to cool old cars to booze to cigarettes (add it up, you got a recipe for the good life). You can't link directly to the index of Africa commercials, or to any individual videos therein -- the site navigation kind of stinks. But if you search for "Africa" you'll find the stuff.

Here are a few favorites that originated in Adeater's archive: a retro hair product commercial (Petrole Hahn, screengrab above), Omo washing powder (I wonder if the boxer was a famous fighter at the time?), Ploum Ploum men's cologne (avec heavily sedated dancing), An Ivory Coast bank ad from 1967 (my how the economic promise has changed in this country).

And here's a wild 1976 spot for Gauloises cigarettes (screengrab below), presumably for French-speaking West African audiences. Dig the sweet cha-cha-cha score. Includes kung fu fight scene with vigorous chair-tossing and bottle-breakage over heads. "Gauloises, the cigarette of a strong man."

Update: here's another vintage African ad for Omo laundry soap, this one from Algeria: Link.

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni )

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:31:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Design Made in Africa: traveling exhibit

"Design Made in Africa" is described as the world's first major traveling exhibit of contemporary African design. The show opened in New York a few weeks ago at 4 World Financial Center, and includes the work of 30 designers from 14 African countries. Works on display range from useful to ornamental: chairs, wall hangings, graphic design, jewelry, lighting, and more. If you happen to be reading this blog post from Morocco, you can check out a companion exhibit at the Batha Museum in Fes.

Either way, hurry: both the New York and the Morocco exhibitions close this weekend, on May 27.

There's a website with more amazing images from Design Made in Africa, but I'm afraid the site was Made In Hell. First Flash, then a popup window, then a video that won't play unless you have DivX installed. Argh. (via Urban Congo, thanks Emeka Okafor!) ( posted from Guatemala / Xeni )

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:31:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fine art advertising photoshopping contest

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:34:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Punching bag filled with underwear

"(There were) bras, thongs and bathing suits. We could not believe there were clothes inside instead of sand," he said.

Heckel said the smell was "bad, real bad..."

Heckel said Thursday that the representative (from TKO) told him that the underwear in the bag was a "quality problem" that they were dealing with, and that the people who had made the decision to put underwear in the bags had been fired.

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:30:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mark Pescovitz photo

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:10:09 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

HOWTO find four leaf clovers

I find four-leaf clovers frequently, even when not explicitly looking. Many find this "gift" extraordinary, and even though this mutation is reported to only occur once in about 10,000 clovers, getting lucky isn't as hard as one would think....

4-leaf clovers, or "shamrocks", are a mutation of the usually 3-leafed White Clover plant, trifolium repens. One clover is actually one leaf of a larger plant, with 3 leaflets. Mutations can occur due to a low frequency recessive gene or environmental causes. Often the reason for mutation is differentiable from one clover to another. The mutation does not stop at the 4-leafed variety: 5-leafed clovers are not uncommon. However, the more leaflets, the harder they are to find (and the luckier they are): the record is an 18-leaf clover, and the highest I've ever seen is 10-leafed.

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:55:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bacteria for data storage

Genetic coding is so massive that information - say, a Shakespeare play - can be stashed away somewhere in the gene without affecting an organism's overall appearance and other traits.

But mutation could distort stored data. Tomita says data are stored in four places in the bacteria so the data stay intact...

"Many people never even thought about storing data for thousands of years," Tomita said.

"This may sound like a dream. But we're thinking hundreds of millions of years."

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:46:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hybrid military vehicle to hit Baghdad streets: "The Aggressor"

Well, at least the name doesn't sound as goddamned sissy as most of the hybrids we're able to buy back at home. At the Popular Mechanics blog, Brittany Marquis says:

The diesel-electric hybrid hype has met its match: the U.S. Army. After focusing on hydrogen fuel cells in its original version of “The Aggressor,” a high-performance, off-road Alternative Mobility Vehicle (AMV) for military ground exploration and scouting missions, the Pentagon is now going the way of Detroit—with batteries.

The new, second-generation prototype will still utilize the same basic chassis and exterior design for light-duty capacity. But the Army’s auto research arm—part of the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC)—has developed a battery-dominant, hybrid-electric drivetrain with a diesel engine-generator. That could make the new Aggressor the first hybrid to hit the streets of Baghdad en masse.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:23:27 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

New uses for old tech junk: e-waste fun at Maker Faire

At Maker Faire, the Alameda County Computer Resource Center (ACCRC) disgorged a large amount of old electronic equipment onto the floors of many an exhibit hall at the San Mateo fairgrounds. We donated junk for the people in the play room, and our booth, Silicon Death Valley, was basically a two large piles of electro junk, flanked by a propane-burning hearse and our fearless leader getting tattooed.

I've written up a photo-blog posting with lots of little stories about what people did with the things they pulled out of our piles. One woman took home an electron microscope we'd brought. Her reason for taking it? She's building a chip fab in her garage!

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:20:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Electric Slide creator foreswears DMCA, embraces Creative Commons

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:05:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

30 Days of Night: the vampires of the Arctic

The premise is frightening enough, but the artwork really seals the deal: Templesmith's smeary, bloody, indistinct illustration has the feel of Ralph Steadman's work for Hunter S Thompson's books, interpreted by way of an institutionalized paranoid's drawings from a bad therapy session.

The writing is tight and the ending is particularly satisfying -- a wonderful resolution that leaves you wanting more. I've just finished the first volume, and I'm looking forward to reading the other four. Link to Volume 1

Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5 (Thanks, Chris!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:53:20 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Machinima noir: dark and lovely

This is the loveliest, most haunting piece of machinima I've ever seen.

The inspiration began with the mask, a free gift from the “Mask and Feathers” store of dzogchen Moody. "It’s such an incredible piece that I wanted to find an outfit to show it off." She added feathers and other assorted parts from various shops. From this, Lainy's Death was born. At first, the plan was just to take some dramatic shots of her avatar from the clock tower under the permanent dark sky of Midnight City.

"The pictures weren’t really capturing the right feel and [I] decided to see how it looked as a recording," she continues. "From there I moved to the bar in the city, which I remembered had the most beautiful lighting, and continued to film shots." Only then did the kernel of a story emerge. Midnight City, she says, "reminds me of a noir movie, so tried to create a character that would live in that place."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:52:42 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Plain Janes appearance in LA, May 24

The event is on Thursday, May 24, 8PM-10PM.

Let us sum up THE PLAIN JANES for you real quick;

1. Lunch room rejects.
2. Multiple Janes.
3. Girl Gang.
4. Art attacks.

Castellucci is the author of Young Adult novels, THE QUEEN OF COOL, BOY PROOF, and most recently...BEIGE.

Her first graphic novel, THE PLAIN JANES, is illustrated by Jim Rugg of STREET ANGEL fame.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:52:18 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Interview with Carla Sinclair of CRAFT

» EXPRESS: What's the weirdest project anyone suggested to you? Did you print it?

» SINCLAIR: Someone talked about making paper with animal excrement, but I didn't think we should use that. But we did print how to make a tank top with flashing LEDs on it.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:58:09 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Al Gore's impressively messy office

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:30:52 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, May 21, 2007

Experimental, surrealist Jim Henson work from the 1970s

I know you guys love mash ups and psychedelic/surrealist art so you may really enjoy this, some experimental work by Jim Henson in the 1970s that mixes his puppets/Muppet work with his lesser known experimental film work (pre-Sesame Street Henson was nominated for an academy award in 1967 for a live action short called "Timepiece").

"Limbo: The Organized Mind" was a stock (but very surreal) bit Henson used to perform on variety shows in `60s and `70s. This clip is from an appearance on the Tonight Show in 1974 and features a disembodied floating face (called "Nobody") taking a surrealist trip through his own mind.

I wish network TV still programmed stuff like this!

Reader comment: Kim Scarborough was first among many to write in and say...

The music for that short was done by Raymond Scott, and a much cleaner copy of the soundtrack (with Henson's voice) can be heard on his CD, "Manhattan Research, Inc."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:05:40 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Funny non-griefer Craigslist experiment

Readhead with Khrushchev bio and crossword
To the beautiful woman with in white dress reading the Khrushchev biography (and a lovely smile to boot!) on the 6 train uptown wednesday night… I had three books in my satchel about that very same period…! And was disappointed I had to get off at 77th street…

Re: Readhead with Khrushchev bio and crossword
That's my girlfriend, asshole.

Re: Re: Readhead with Khrushchev bio and crossword
She's lovely…so what's the harm of trying to say hello? There's no reason to be, well, an asshole about it… You have an amazing girlfriend; it's rather unseemly to rail at people who notice her…

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:46:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Pentagon says terrorists hacked Dr. Laura's son's MySpace page

The MySpace page, publicly available until Friday when it disappeared from the Internet, included cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation; photographs of soldiers with guns in their mouths; a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned "My Sweet Little Habib"; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets...

It also included several graphic cartoons. In one of the stick drawings, a top-hatted man laughs as he rapes a bound and bleeding woman in front of her family. In another depiction, a man forces a boy to perform oral sex at knifepoint as the child's mother pleads for her son's life.

Laura Schlessinger's publicity machine is working hard to get out the message that her son's MySpace page is possibly fake. Army spokesman Robert Tallman also hopes the media will buy the "hacked by terrorists" version of the story:

"Our enemies are adaptive, technologically sophisticated, and truly understand the importance of the information battlespace," Tallman continued. "Sadly, they will use that space to promulgate and disseminate untrue propaganda."

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

Home bar made from Ford Econoline front end

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:17:01 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sleeping through a gunshot

The bullet that struck him was one of five that someone sprayed across his mobile home and truck at about 4:20 a.m. Sunday, (Cabell County police officer R.H.) McQuaid said. The one the struck Lusher apparently lost velocity as it traveled through two walls.

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:42:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Lethem annoints director for "You Don't Love Me Yet" copyright experiment

In other words, after a waiting period during which those rights would still be restricted, anyone who cared to could make any number of other kinds of artwork based on the novel’s story and characters, or the film’s: a play, a television series, a comic book, a theme park ride, an opera – or even a sequel film or novel featuring the same characters. For that matter, they can remake the film with another script and new actors. In my agreement with the filmmaker, those ancillary rights will be launched into the public domain.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:07:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Threadless spoiler tee

Update: Harold sez, "The webcomic Theater Hopper has been selling t-shirts like the Threadless tee for quite some time now. The artist even has two different editions."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:57:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

In Praise of Fan Fiction: Cory's latest Locus Magazine editorial

Two things are sure about all fanfic, though: first, that people who write and read fanfic are already avid readers of writers whose work they're paying homage to; and second, that the people who write and read fanfic derive fantastic satisfaction from their labors. This is great news for writers.

Great because fans who are so bought into your fiction that they'll make it their own are fans forever, fans who'll evangelize your work to their friends, fans who'll seek out your work however you publish it.

Great because fans who use your work therapeutically, to work out their own creative urges, are fans who have a damned good reason to stick with the field, to keep on reading even as our numbers dwindle. Even when the fandom revolves around movies or TV shows, fanfic is itself a literary pursuit, something undertaken in the world of words. The fanfic habit is a literary habit.

update: WD45 sez, "The most recent podcast of Definitely Not The Opera from the CBC featured a fine intro to the world of Fan Fiction." DNTO is just about my favorite CBC Radio show, and that's saying something -- it's the only radio I've ever truly loved.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:46:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

LineRider meets Super Mario

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:31:38 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Spy-camera watch from 1970

This particular one is of the Quartz age, a 1970 SIPE LED digital watch with Steinheil 2.5/12mm lens, for 7 exposures on special cassette. Actually, it appears to be a Dynamic Scattering Liquid Crystal Display, the earliest form of LCD developed in the late sixties.

See also:
History of spy-cam watches Solid wood pocket-watch from 1900
Pictorial history of kids' watches
History of armored military watches
History of slide-rule wristwatches
Early days of plastic watches Mechanical "LED watch" from 1970
History of calculator watches
Steampunk watch
Belt-drive watch
Watch guts of great beauty
All-plastic watch movement from the 70s
Awesome, impractical, expensive watch

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:25:40 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

UK police to using hovering spy drone to record unruly behavior

The UK's first police remote control helicopter has taken off. Merseyside police are using the "spy drone", fitted with CCTV cameras, mainly for tackling anti-social behaviour and public disorder. The machine is 1m wide, weighs less than a bag of sugar, and can record images from a height of 500m. Originally used by the military, it is due to be operational by June for a full three-month trial, which is the "first of its kind" in the UK.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:29:01 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Passive aggressive notes taped in offices and shared houses

Reader comment:

Guillaume says:

The usual comeback is to write "I also spit in yours" below.

Keep up the good work.

Made me think of this part of William Gibson's Virtual Light,

Rydell got his bag of cornflakes out of the cupboard and carefully unrolled it. About enough for a bowl. He opened the fridge and took out a plastic, snap-top, liter container with a strip of masking-tape across the side. He'd written MILK EXPERIMENT on the masking-tape with a heavy marker.

"What's that?" Hernandez asked.

"Milk." "Why's it say 'experiment?'"

"So nobody'll drink it. I figured it out in the dorm at the Academy." He dumped the cornflakes in a bowl, covered them with milk, found a spoon, and carried his breakfast to the kitchen table. The table had a trick leg, so you had to eat without putting your elbows down.

I always liked that part quite a bit! Thanks!

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:25:00 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Giant gallery of gyros signs

Extensive coverage of the hand-painted signage outside establishments selling gyros in Chicago. These are masterpieces of prosaic art, it says. Some will find the universal gyros visual theme, brown-thing-on-a-stick, to be vaguely disturbing, but if you are from Chicago you are probably used to it.

"Gyros is supremely sloppy, and dangerously volatile. The afterglow of gyros suffuses your being, oozing through every pore to fill out your aura as well. To eat a gyros and mingle with others is inconsiderate."

Yum!

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:20:30 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Nat M. Wills -- the "tramp comedian" from early 1900s

Since Boing Boing has become something of a clearing house for all sorts of hobo goodness, I was wondering if you knew about this new CD of Nat Wills' Tramp comedy routines that date back to 1909? The label's site includes some sound clips.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:15:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Maker Faire photos from Scott Beale

Link, and here's a blog post from Scott with more about his experience at this weekend's geekstravaganza.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:49:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Free neuro notecards

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:48:55 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Total Anhilation ('tween "robot punk" band) at Maker Faire

My youngest brother Brendan (age 11) is the frontman of the band Total Annihilation.

His stage name is Eddy Demon, and he plays with our family friend Damon (aka Dorkmeister Harmoniak) on bass, his and our friend Pete on drums (recently turned 14), and as of recently, his guitar teacher James on rhythm guitar.

On Saturday, they played at the Maker Faire, a really cool event in San Mateo hosted by Make Magazine. They rocked out amid fire-spouting fire trucks, mobile cupcake cars, power tool races and a two-story-high game of Moustrap. It was fantastic.

I set up some equipment and recorded a few of their songs for your enjoyment:

Coffee Break - MP3 Link

In N Out of Grace - MP3 Link

Jerkbusters - MP3 Link

The second is a Mudhoney cover -- Mudhoney are one of Brendan's faves, along with (at last reckoning) the Minutemen and the Stooges.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:48:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ani Phyo: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen book and videos

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:51:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Topsy-Turvy Bus

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:04:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

InfoBunker: nuclear hardened data center

It's not my place to go into too much detail about what's housed in the bunker, as just to get inside under escort you have to agree to a strict no-photos policy (perfectly understandable); but suffice it to say that the simplex lock on the main hut door is only the very beginning. Many hardened, keycoded, and biometric-protected doors stand between the outside world and the data centers, including the self-sufficient power systems (six days' worth of diesel fuel; 17,000 gallons of water (for drinking and fire suppression); military-grade NBC air filtration). It's built to withstand a 20-megaton nuclear blast at 2.5 miles, according to the website, and I can believe it. Your data will be intact even if the rest of the Internet has been vaporized.

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:56:01 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Radio clip: Driving dad to jail for protesting School of the Americas

What happens when the person who taught you right from wrong starts breaking the rules? In this radio segment, my NPR News colleague Jim Gates drives his father, Philip Gates, to a Los Angeles prison.

Jim's dad was arrested late last year for publicly protesting the School of the Americas, considered by many to be a sort of finishing school for torturers, death squad leaders, and human rights violators from corrupt foreign regimes (it's now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation).

Jim's story about his father appears in this episode of Minnesota Public Radio's "How's the Family? -- "Direct Link to segment in RealAudio, and I'm happy to report that Jim picked his dad up from jail last Friday -- pop's doing well.

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

As an aside -- I'll be spending the next few weeks in Guatemala, following up on stories I reported on earlier this year for NPR. There are many historic links between Guatemala's bloody, 30-year civil war, and the School of The Americas: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:28:52 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Mobile phone with lightning warning

The multiple receivers in a phone, such as Bluetooth, FM, tri-band GSM, Wi-Fi and RFID, can be tuned to pick up these signals, says Nokia (US patent application 2007/0085525). Software will then interpret them, work out the distance to the lightning, and tell you if strikes are getting closer.

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:27:10 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Unicorn Chaser

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:25:34 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Nerd stigmata: wound in shape of mouse cursor

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:24:01 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Little Mermaid in Muslim garb

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:15:18 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Reporter interviews people hanging out instead of working

Going over my own findings, a surprising number of people had had something job-related happen that very day. A surprising number had called in sick. Claire, who works in quality control at a biotech company, used a vacation day to get a tattoo of a bird. Another woman took the day off to be with her dogs. ("And catch up on errands," she added responsibly.)

"John," who is 18 and was strolling through Yerba Buena Gardens one Thursday morning, laid out his typical itinerary: "Watch the grass grow, get high, hit on the ladies."

How does he pay rent? "If you ask 100 girls for $10, that's $1,000, that's rent," he explained logically.

What is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so.

Reader comment:

Brendon says:

First off, love boingboing and your contributions to it. I've even learned not to dismiss ukulele music, fwiw.

Your post, "Reporter interviews people hanging out instead of working" reminded me immediately of a story on an episode of This American Life titled "The Secret Life of Daytime" that aired (the Internet tells me) on April 14, 2000. The story in question ("Act One") was titled, "Why Aren't You at Work?" and featured New York Observer reporter George Gurley interviewing people who, like in the article you linked to, just hanging around NYC. Pretty neat. I thought you might be interested, if you weren't already aware.

Thanks for your work, and take it easy.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:11:04 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Facebook profiles, dead or alive. No, seriously. Dead? Or alive?

The USA Today recently gave a brief report concerning the victims of the Virginia Tech Massacre: “Slain Students Pages to Stay on Facebook”. The social networking website’s administration decided that these students’ profiles will not be taken down; instead, they will be remain frozen in their last updated state. This decision goes against Facebook’s policy of removing profiles of the recently deceased out of respect for their privacy, but this is not a new phenomenon. There is simply no way for these websites to keep track of which of their users are dead or alive - the dead are all online now; they “live” on websites like Livejournal, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, or Flickr, and they’re not going anywhere.

Reader comment: Ren says,

I wrote this post on TerraNova the other year and tired to get a discussion going about the virtual after life along the lines of the Clock of the Long Now i.e. how would we maintain an online presence long after death (which was in part kicked off by another BB post): After me, after you

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:09:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments