Wired News covers the militant wing of the accessibility movement: Web designers who re-design important infomrational websites to improve their accessibility and standards-compliance:

David Jones republishes articles from Wales' National Assembly website on his own Assembly Online site because the official designers "clearly don't know what they're doing."

"They're singularly clueless; the HTML and CSS are invalid," he said. "I was exasperated, so I thought I'd do it myself to show them how it might be done. My employer -- an Assembly-funded body looking to secure next year's funding -- cited it as a disciplinary offense. I don't work for that company anymore."

Link

Joey's posted some info on Toronto's "Secret Swing," a mysterious art installation that consists of a playground swing hanging in a downtown grafitti alley. He also points to some of Rannie's pix (Link, Link) that show it off in all its glory. Link

Inspired by yesterday's link to a commercially available bottlecap tripod, Adam has put together instructions for a $1.50 DIY version. Link (Thanks, Adam!)

From the Japan Times: Japan's telecommunications ministry announced yesterday it may force consumer WLAN users to pay spectrum user fees.

[T]he ministry plans to hit the users with these fees because such appliances use almost the same spectrum as mobile phones, whose users are required to pay the fees, they said. The move might provoke stiff opposition from product manufacturers as it is likely to affect their sales. The ministry plans to collect fees from users of information appliances when they purchase these products, according to the sources.

Manufacturers of home appliances are currently stepping up efforts to develop information appliances that are linked via wireless networks and can be controlled from anywhere. Spectrum user fees have been charged in connection with licensed broadcasting and radio stations, as well as with cellular phone companies.

Gamespot has more on the story, and points out that gamers in Japan who use the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP would also be affected because both use wireless LANs to connect.

Reports say the bill will not be proposed to Japan's parliament until 2005 -- leaving ample time for device manufacturers and pissed-off wireless enthusiasts to raise a fuss.

Kevin Fox has whipped up a concept sketch for Google functionality as available in 1960. Link (Thanks, Kevin!)

Greg sez, "The expanded version of the fully-animated commercial my frind Tom and I created for MoveOn.org's 'Bush in 30 Seconds' contest is now online. Originally planned to be only a couple minutes long, the full length version is now a seven minute look at the hard times living under Bush's economy. The completed short is an appropriate juxtaposition of Bush's economy with a depression-era style that I think is appropriate when describing the first presidency since Hoover to preside over a job loss." This is an amazing piece of work. Link (Thanks, Greg!)

Amazing PBS piece traces the history of the reaction to the portable camera -- eerily familiar to the reaction today to the phonecam.

The appearance of Eastman's cameras was so sudden and so pervasive that the reaction in some quarters was fear. A figure called the "camera fiend" began to appear at beach resorts, prowling the premises until he could catch female bathers unawares. One resort felt the trend so heavily that it posted a notice: "PEOPLE ARE FORBIDDEN TO USE THEIR KODAKS ON THE BEACH." Other locations were no safer. For a time, Kodak cameras were banned from the Washington Monument. The "Hartford Courant" sounded the alarm as well, declaring that "the sedate citizen can't indulge in any hilariousness without the risk of being caught in the act and having his photograph passed around among his Sunday School children."

Link (via Kottke)

Out of the Box Computers is selling a PC called the ThinkTank that is built inside a modded motorcycle gas-tank. Link (Thanks, Mark!)

Following up on this BoingBoing post about allegations by journalist Seymour Hersh of rape and sexual abuse of minors at Abu Ghraib prison Iraq -- there appears to be evidence for those claims in supporting statements that accompany the Taguba Report.

What most of us have seen of the report are excerpts from the 50-page summary. In fact, there are well over 6,000 pages in the report itself, including statements by and interviews with witnesses. Among them, testimony from an Iraqi prisoner that would appear to substantiate Seymour Hersh's claims that boys were sodomized at Abu Ghraib. Maj. Gen. Taguba evidently found these statements credible -- they supported statements from interviews with soldiers and other witnesses.

At the end of this post are links to digital copies of two documents from the Taguba report, hosted on the Washington Post website. Is it possible that they document the exact incidents to which Hersh referred? Excerpt from statement provided by Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, Detainee #151108, on January 18 2004:

I saw [name deleted] fucking a kid, his age would be about 15 - 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard the screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn't covered and I saw [name deleted] who was wearing the military uniform putting his dick in the little kid's ass. I couldn't see the face of the kid because his face wasn't in front of the door. And the female soldier was taking pictures. [name deleted], I think he is [deleted] because of his accent, and he was not skinny or short, and he acted like a homosexual (gay). And that was in cell #23 as best as I remember.

Another testimony alleging abuse of minors from a statement provided by Thaar Salman Dawod, Detainee #150427, on January 17, 2004:

I saw lots of people getting naked for a few days getting punished in the first days of Ramadan. They came with two boys naked and they were cuffed together face to face and Grainer was beating them and a group of guards were watching and taking pictures from top and bottom and there was three female soldiers laughing at the prisoners. The prisoners, two of them, were young. I don't know their names.

Here's a update (sub required) on Capitol Hill plans for hearings on new (and as-yet unreleased) material documenting torture at Abu Ghraib. And there's this snip from a CBS interview with "leash girl" Pfc. Lynndie England, the guard seen grinning and pointing at Iraqi prisoners in the infamous photos:

When England was asked if there were other things that happened at Abu Ghraib, things that were not photographed, she said, "Yes." When asked if there were worse things that happened, she said "Yes," but would not elaborate.

Link to first PDF, Link to second PDF. (Thank you, Mark)

Update: A recent Associated Press item on plans for new abuse-related hearings quotes Sen. John Warner as saying that new Iraq prisoner abuse incidents come to light "each day":

More cases of possible mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners have come to Congress' attention and need investigation by the Pentagon, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., also said that L. Paul Bremer, the former head of the American-led occupation in Iraq, may testify about prison abuse at a congressional hearing next week.

"I'm not trying to, you know, drop a little hint here. I'm just saying ... each day that comes along, new incidents that occurred in the past" are revealed and will need to be investigated, Warner said. ... Warner spoke to reporters after his committee had a private, classified briefing on the status of several Defense Department investigations into abuse stand. He gave no further details on what new allegations came up during the briefing.

Link

Michale sez, "Tripods are great for photography, but a pain in the ass to carry. Everyone these days seems to be carrying water bottles everywhere. So trust a Japanese company to combine the two to make a really useful thing: A mount that makes a bottle filled with water or soda a useful stable base for your digital camera." Link (Thanks, Michael!)

Science News has an interesting survey of the latest scientific studies about the Atkins diet. Predictably, the jury is still out:

"This year, a spate of studies comparing low-carb versus low-fat diets has confirmed that unrestricted-calorie, high-fat, high-protein eating can trim a person's weight at least as much as low-fat, restricted-calorie dieting does. Several of the studies also highlight other apparent benefits from carbohydrate restriction.

However, a few studies have turned up evidence of problems, including (heart disease). Many physicians now conclude that although low-carbohydrate diets—such as the Atkins and the Zone diets—are proving powerful weight-loss tools, they aren't for everyone. These health professionals argue that such plans should be adopted only under the guidance of a physician.

A few physicians go so far as to argue that low-carb diets aren't for anyone..."

Link

On today's edition of the NPR show "Day to Day," I report on one of the cooler '80s flashback trends -- break-dancing, which is enjoing a popularity boom among urban youth. From headspins to poppin' and lockin', b-boy style is back in the house, yo.

I went to one underground hiphop dance competition in LA recently, and talk to some of the participants on today's program. At left, one of the judges bursts into a spontaneous headspin at the end of the b-boy competition. View more snapshots I took at the event here.

More story background: website of competition organizer Joanna Vargas, an LA-based choreographer: Link. Bboy.com, a popular website for the breakin' community... several judges and dancers described it as a popular networking hub: Link. And Culture Shock, one of the larger groups that participated in "MAXT OUT" competition -- two members were interviewed in today's NPR piece: Link. A lot of the teens I spoke with talked of hooking up with other dancers on Myspace.com and Friendster. Among dancers, the most popular way to hear about new underground hiphop seemed to be a combination of word-of-mouth and (a) Kazaa, or (b) burning CDs for each other. Everyone complained about how suck-ass commercial urban FM radio programming has become.

Listen to NPR show audio here after 12 noon Pacific Time.

Beer behemoth Miller Brewing Co. is suing an L.A.-based clothes manufacturer for copyright infringement and brand dilution. The problem? Parodical T-shirts that riff off the Miller slogan, bearing messages like "It's Mullet Time" and "Mullet Low-life." The shirts are available at stores including The Buckle and Nordstrom (where you can buy by them online, for now). Link to news story. (Thanks, Kyle)

Update: BoingBoing reader in South Africa Gerrie Swart says, "Miller is owned by South African Breweries Limited (SAB). The interesting thing being that SAB recently won a court case against a small company making satirical t-shirts in South Africa (this company is called Laugh It Off promotions). It might be that SABMiller will be using the same shitty tactics in other countries? Some links on this: SAB buys Miller (Link 1 Link 2), SAB wins case against T-shirt company (Link), Laugh it Off wins this round (Link), SABMiller wins first round against Laugh it off Promotions (Link)."

Duke University is buying iPods for its entire incoming freshman class.

""Whoa!" said rising Duke freshman Mollie Tucker of Raleigh when she learned she'd pocket an iPod. "It sounds like a good idea. It sounds really cool." When she arrives Aug. 19, her iPod will be loaded with all kinds of useful information, including orientation schedules, calendars, campus tours, even the Duke fight song.

"Students also can use them for course content, such as recorded lectures, music, language lessons and audio books. Throughout the year, they will be able to download information through a Duke Web site modeled after Apple's iTunes site..."

Link (Thanks, Thomas!)

Irregular Orbit has a nice entry that sums up everything great about comic book genius Jack Kirby.

[Kirby] also agreed to take on DC's long-time oddball series, Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen. Which quickly became Superman's Ex-Pal: The New Jimmy Olsen -- folded into Kirby's Fourth World universe with wild plotlines involving subterranean space-age/primitive biker gangs, genetic research carried out by genetically enhanced researchers and chaos wrought by rampaging D.N.Aliens. And then there's Don Rickles look-alike, Goody Rickels vs. Don Rickles himself. This is all conveyed in Kirby's expressionistic, perspective pushing, chrome-plated, spaced-out style, complete with the occasional trippy photo-montage for variety.

Link

The Computer Shop UK has a deal on a PC that comes with a firmware-locked modem that can only dial one ISP, Supanet. In order to get unlocked, you need to pay a pound a minute to call their support line and then fork over £60 so they can post you a CD that will restore your modem to good working order.

Yoz has the deal, and a link to a utility that can unlock your modem without paying Computer Shop's ransom. Link

Great writing news this week: I have stories in two brand-new anthologies.

Unwirer, which I publicly collaborated on with Charlie Stross using a blog is now published in its final form in ReVisions, a collection of alternate science stories.

Nimby and the D-Hoppers, which was originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, was honoured with includion in Hartwell and Cramer's Year's Best SF 9.

A good writing day indeed.

Wired News has a good piece on the backlash against the growing trend of news-sites requiring logins to read their articles, covering automated tools like the Mozilla bugmenot plugin that automatically spoofs your logins to 14,000+ sites.

The point that everyone seems to miss is that no one can possibly keep track of a thousand passwords for a thousand websites, which means that these sites undoubtably contain recycled passwords (admonishments from security experts to never recycle a password are the infosec equivalent of telling people to "eat less and exercise more" -- simplistic doctrine that is vanishingly unlikely to be adhered to in the field).

The more you recycle a password, the higher the likelihood that you will use it in a sensitive context -- a bank site, a message board, an IM client, an auction site -- where someone might impersonate you or even commit identity theft crimes against you.

What's even worse is that while these news-sites are willing to spend the computational cycles necessary to receive your password, none that I've seen use SSL for their login, which means that the NYT and others demand that you send your password in the clear when you sit down at a WiFi cafe and want to read the paper. This is a potential disaster if that NYT password is also a sensitive one somewhere else: it's a case of really callous disregard for user privacy and security. Link

Linda Rondstadt was yanked of the stage at Vegas's Aladdin Casino for praising Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 911.

Ronstadt "spoiled a wonderful evening for our guests and we had to do something about it", Mr Timmins said.

He said the 58-year-old singer, booked to play the Aladdin for one show only, was not allowed her back in her luxury suite after the show.

Link (Thanks, Tracy!)

Good piece on Mindjack on the rise of body-language cues in Massively Multiplayer online games with emphasis on Second Life's toolkit:

"V-Chat," launched in 1995, was an early contender in the ballooning collection of larger-scope chat spaces that encompassed both 2D and 3D graphics. V-Chat's avatars, although primitive, were both customizable and capable of expressing a range of emotional states. Microsoft's 2D "Comic Chat" built upon the facial expressions Microsoft had tested with V-Chat. Comic Chat displayed text in speech or thought bubbles, allowing users to express not only their public, but "private" thoughts; AI-detection of user-typed acronyms would cause one of the illustrated avatars to assume an appropriate pose, such as waving if the user had typed "BRB" for "be right back." While both the 2D Comic Chat and 3D V-Chat gave users more expressive outlets, it was ultimately 3D space that would offer the greatest potential for interpersonal dynamics. After analyzing logs from V-Chat sessions, Microsoft Research found that "Overall, V-Chat users appear to be using the 3D features of the program to reproduce the social conventions of physical proxemics."2 The opening up of chat to 3D space allowed users to communicate nonverbally simply by establishing location and facing relative to other participants.

Link (Thanks, Donald)

TheyWorkForYou is the best political advocacy site I've ever seen: it scrapes the UK Parliamentary record and then turns the debates into an easily searched means of keep tabs on your MP -- and to turn your MP's deeds into the basis for discussion and political activism. A common question from Americans, Canadians and others is how this system might be adapted for their respective governments.

Well, now the TheyWorkForYou team have released the source-code for their app under the GPL, and they're also publishing raw XML feeds of their data-sources for you to mix and munge.

Get busy! Link (Thanks, Danny!)

This circular concept printer ("uses rotational, instead of linear, movement to reduce its size") was one of 130 winners of the 2004 Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA). Link (via Gizmodo)