By Cory Doctorow at 1:03 pm Saturday, Jan 7
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Papabear2010 sez, "Based on Dr. Seuss's final book before his death, this is a story about life's ups and downs, told by the people of Burning Man 2011. Combining the stunning visuals of Burning Man and its population with the haunting, silly, thought provoking words of Dr. Seuss." Dawww, this is just lovely.
Oh, the Places You'll Go at Burning Man!
By Cory Doctorow at 10:40 am Saturday, Jan 7
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George Mason University's Green Machine marching band plays Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" and they crush it.
George Mason University Green Machine plays Rage
(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
By Cory Doctorow at 10:00 am Saturday, Jan 7
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Rep Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the principal instigator of the Internet-killing, freedom-hating, pro-censorship Stop Online Piracy Act, has dismissed the bill's enormous, widespread opposition. Smith claims that the million emails sent to Congress in one day, the phone calls received on the Hill at the rate of one per second, and the opposition from scholars, artists, lawyers, civil rights groups, big companies, little companies, librarians, and the engineers who created the Internet are all irrelevant, representing a "vocal minority" who are not "able to point to any language in the bill that would in any way harm the Internet."
We've done exactly what he's claimed we haven't -- as have numerous other parties, including famed Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe, who also cited specific language in the bill. Ditto with former DHS Assistant Secretary, Stewart Baker, who also cited language from the bill about how SOPA will cause significant security problems for the internet.
Rep. Lamar Smith Decides Lying About, Insulting And Dismissing Opposition To SOPA Is A Winning Strategy
(via Beth Pratt)
By Cory Doctorow at 8:00 am Saturday, Jan 7
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Katharine Gammon writes in Wired about the work of McGill University researcher Pieter Sijpkes and colleagues, who have produced an experimental 3D printer that produces ice-sculptures. The researchers give current applications as a cheap alternative to printing in plastic goop (thanks to patents that will soon expire, the plastic powder used in high-end 3D printers costs more than filet mignon) and for "ice tourism."
He and his team have printed a statue, an egg carton, a martini glass, and molds that melt conveniently away. Why ice? Well, it’s cheap and readily available, and low-cost ice models could help inventors design products more quickly. The challenge of printing with ice, besides the very cold temps necessary for the process, was building a machine that’s up to the task. Here’s how Sijpkes did it.
Building a 3-D Printer for Supercool Ice Objects
By Cory Doctorow at 7:22 am Saturday, Jan 7
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Writing in the LA Magazine, Dave Gardetta visits the thinking of the world's top parking theorists, who believe that parking causes people to go insane: "I truly believe that when men and women think about parking, their mental capacity reverts to the reptilian cortex of the brain. How to get food, ritual display, territorial dominance—all these things are part of parking, and we’ve assigned it to the most primitive part of the brain that makes snap fight-or-flight decisions. Our mental capacities just bottom out when we talk about parking."
The whole feature is fascinating, tracing the grim history of urban parking, where neighborhoods were blighted and jobs and businesses destroyed in the rush to add places for cars; up to recent political wrangles over parking in southern California's car-centric metro areas.
Shoup can often be found dallying around parking meters and brings a camera to photograph illegally parked cars. Not long ago you could have spotted Shoup clicking on the corner of Pico and Fairfax, where the city had quadrupled its meter rates. (“Rates had gone too high there—sometimes there wasn’t a car on the street.”) In Westwood Village Shoup once rode the Raleigh back and forth for weeks tailing cars. He discovered that the average driver had to circle the block two and a half times before locating an open metered space. Westwood became a model for Shoup; the “cruising” he observed there occurs wherever drivers seek out inexpensive metered space to avoid pricier garages and lots. (A similar study in Manhattan in 1995 revealed that New Yorkers spent 11 minutes on average searching for a space.) In a year’s time in Westwood, space hunting by drivers consumed an extra 47,000 gallons of gas. It stalled traffic, increased accidents, and required 950,000 extra vehicle miles, about four trips to the moon and back...
So Cole, an untested mayor, decided to commit career suicide—he would be the first to install meters. And not just anywhere but in the city’s seediest business district, its skid row, a stroll for prostitutes that would soon be renamed Old Pasadena. Cole had chosen the area to install parking meters because it was ideal for conducting his own experiment: He wanted to attract merchants to the area, where the rent on the decaying buildings was low and the potential for foot traffic was high. Could meter revenue clean and repair Old Pasadena, then help police its streets? “There was, putting it politely, tremendous opposition,” says Cole. Shop owners barely hanging on told Cole he was crazy. In a large meeting with merchants, Cole said something that swayed them: Rather than fill city coffers, meter collections would go back to businesses in the form of new alleyways, sidewalk improvement, more trees, and police. “The moment I said that, one of my staff members kicked me under the table,” says Cole.
Between the Lines
(via Kottke)
(Image: Parking Madness At Lintas Plaza, Kota Kinabalu, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from thienzieyung's photostream)
By Cory Doctorow at 6:13 am Saturday, Jan 7
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Mother Jones attempts a taxonomy of libertarian thought in order to figure out where Ron Paul fits. My feeling is that Ron Paul can only be understood by abandoning the traditional one-dimensions left-right political axis, or, rather, augmenting it with more axes: libertarian-authoritarian, centralist-decentralist, material-spiritual, and probably a few I've forgotten.
Congressman Ron Paul's third-place finish in Tuesday's Iowa Republican Caucus was a remarkably strong showing for a candidate who has so little in common with mainstream Republicans. Perhaps the nation's most politically unique congressman, Paul shares policy stances with conservatives, liberals, and libertarians, while differing markedly from all of them.
The Venn of Ron Paul and Other Mysteries of Libertarianism Explained
(Thanks, mmechanic!)
