By Mark Frauenfelder at 5:25 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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D.C. Denison, the Boston Globe's technology editor, wrote a story for Make online about the end of a great idea called Sparqs -- an "industrial arts club." I hope this idea spreads to other cities, and flourishes.
One large, startling work-in-progress was a "buscycle," a bus that is designed to run entirely on the energy produced by pedaling passengers. Coming together on the bed of a 1989 Dodge box van, now sheared of its top, the buscycle was usually surrounded by a small swarm of artists and bike nuts, welding and twisting wrenches. It occupied the main stage in the shop, except when it was being pushed around the empty parking lot on tentative test runs.
A number of smaller projects were also in residence. Dan Grunberg and son Ted, 14, were leaning into a variety of tools around the edges of the shop. Dan was using the MIG welder and plasma cutter to fashion a firebox for a custom BBQ smoker. So far, he's put about three weeks of free time into the pursuit of this "perfect smoker."
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 4:27 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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Last Call Poker is an alternate reality game built around the frame of a dodgy poker site. The site asks for your "date of death" when you register. After filling out a profile and playing poker for a few minutes, you start getting phone calls, emails and had strange images show up on you screen. There seems to be quite a bit of story hidden within the site including movies (with ex-child star Todd Bridges--better known as Willis from 'Diff'rent Strokes'), audio segments, and live poker games played at cemeteries around the country (using the tombstones as cards)."
Link
(
Thanks, Pablos!)
By Cory Doctorow at 4:21 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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This November 3, Chicago's Northwestern University Law School will host a one-day summit for lawyers and others who are involved in the lawsuits that the RIAA has begun to bring against the 70 million Americans who file-share. An entire conference devoted to discussing what the hell the RIAA is doing with its indiscriminate litigation. Wow. I thought the RIAA was in the business of making records, but it turns out that the music is a loss-leader to sell its its real product: lawuits.
This one-day conference brings together public and private defense
attorneys, clients, investigators, advocates and academics to discuss the
latest developments in peer-to-peer litigation. How do the RIAA and MPAA go
about identifying plaintiffs? What are the most effective legal strategies
and tactics? Is it better to settle immediately, or fight it out in the
courts? How is this impacting the individuals sued? What is the role of ISPs
in this quagmire? Should Congress step in and, if so, what legislation is
needed? Are there other ways to compensate authors for their
works? Panelists will address these topics and more. Audience members will
be strongly encouraged to share their experiences as well.
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 4:16 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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David Berlind is a ZDNet columnist who owns a $20,000 stereo that he can't play his $0.99 iTunes on, thanks to Apple's braindead DRM. Investigating this has turned Berlind onto the myriad of DRM horror stories, and he's vowed to become a DRM-hatin' reporter who will seek out and report on the underreported DRM nightmare.
Microsoft and Apple couldn't have asked for a better gift horse (Hollywood) to come their way, seeking a solution that ultimately gives back to it what it has for so long wanted. Both companies had a razor (the DRM playback technology) and all they needed were some blades (the music). Today, with every individual DRM-wrapped piece of content that gets sold, we are securing the futures of the DRM licensors (mostly Apple and Microsoft). That content will forever be useless unless you have something that includes their playback technologies.
The fact that you have 1000 iTunes store-bought songs means that you will be paying Apple to use that music for the rest of your life (directly for devices like iPods or indirectly through licensee's products like Motorola iTunes phones). With Microsoft aggressively licensing its DRM technology to multiple device manufacturers (for both audio and video) and multiple online content merchants, I've already said that its DRM technology is positioned to follow in Windows' footsteps as the next dominant technology monoculture even though Apple's players continue to sell like hot cakes. By continuing to buy DRM-wrapped content, we as consumers are actually unwittingly co-conspiring with Hollywood to give Microsoft and Apple the keys to the kingdom.
Link
(
via Deep Links)
By Cory Doctorow at 4:13 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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Back on Sunday, I
blogged about the twenty Congressjerks who've decided that selling out to Hollywood on the Broadcast Flag is more important than getting re-elected. Now Public Knowledge has put up a fax-your-lawmaker alert for the flagloving twenty -- one click and you can give them a piece of your mind. Just to refresh you: the Broadcast Flag proposal (which we helped Public Knowledge kill in May) is a regulation that gives a veto to the entertainment companies over all digital TV devices, including PCs. Even if you don't give a rat's about watching TV, you still need to care about this, as it will restrict the design of PCs and the components that comprise them
You know the drill. Click the link below to contact your congress members. After you've sent a letter, using the talking points below, try giving your members' offices a call and tell them why the broadcast flag is a bad idea. This is especially important for those of you who have a member on the appropriate committee (see the list below). If you don't have a member on either of the committees, your letter will go to the chairmen and ranking members.
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 4:06 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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This is a 40-minute MP3 of a British radio broadcast called "DJ Food - Raiding the 20th Century" that attempted to sum up the entire cut-up/remix/mash up music movement. It's lots of crazy, whacky, jarring, harmonious, tricksy, and serendipitous sound, and it made me laugh and think. The landing page for the MP3 has an exhaustive list of the samples employed.
Pt 1 - Time Machine
20th Century Fox theme intro
Negativland - Downloading (Seeland)
MCSleazy / Franzie Boys - Triple Take (Half Inch Recordings 12")
DJ BC - Surebladi (mp3)
Danger Mouse - Encore (CD)
Wayne Butane - Elderly (Sucks Bigtime)
Big City Orchestra - Bulldog (The Beatlerape)
Jay-Z - Encore (accapella) (Roc A Fella)
The Beatles - Glass Onion (2 versions) (Apple LP)
Avril Plays The Beatles (mp3)
Loo and Placido - Safari Love (mp3)
Jrb - Busta vs Steptoe & Son (mp3)
Loo & Placido - Kids Will Rock You (mp3)
Braces Tower - Special Child (mp3)
Exactshit - Crazy (CDR)
Cropstar - Crazy Prado (mp3)
Tacteel vs Britney - Overprotected (CD-R)
Will Smith vs Mr Trick - Nod Ya Head (Boot Camp 7")
Osymyso - Intro inspection (Radar 12")
fLeXuS - It Ain't Nothin' (CD-R)
unknown - Spandau Fillet (mp3)
Go Home Productions - Turn Out The Light Slave And Give Me Some Rhythm
(mp3)
Go Home Productions - Work It Out With A Foxy Lady (mp3)
Beyonce - Crazy In Love (poj mix) (mp3)
Skkatter - Diddy (mp3)
Wobbly - Yo Yo Yo Yoyo, Hey... (Wild Why)
Frenchbloke & Son - Sound of da S Club (CD-R)
Lemon Jelly - Soft Rock (LJ 7")
dsico - Bille Jean Dancehall Edit (mp3)
People Like Us - Nobody Does (ubuweb mp3)
2 Many Djs - Smells Like Booty (mp3)
fLeXuS - White Love (CD - R)
Evil Twin - The Lady & The Lake (CD-R)
Justin Timberlake - Like I Love U (Ochre remix) (mp3)
Osymyso - Intro Expansion Pt 2 (mp3)
Go Home Productions. - Ray Of Gob (Half Inch Recordings 12")
Madonna - WTF? (mp3)
Player - Angel of Theft (Blood 12")
Osymyso - Wegoddim (mp3)
Flashbulb - Mama Said Knock You Out (mp3)
Link
(
Thanks, Ben!)
Update: Here's the official Raiding the 20th Century page, but they've taken the MP3 down.
Update 2:
Here's a torrent (Thanks, David!)
By David Pescovitz at 3:33 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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Sean Ness, my co-worker at the
Institute For The Future, is geared-up about a Canadian engineer's invention that spins synthetic tornadoes and harnesses their energy. Louis Michaud's machine is called an atmospheric vortex engine. He estimates that a 200 meter diameter engine could crank out 200 megawatts of power. From The Economist:
This vortex would be produced inside a large cylindrical wall, 200 metres in diameter and 100 metres tall. Warm air at ground level enters via tangential inlets around the base of the wall. Steam is also injected to get the vortex started. Once established, the heat content of the air at ground level is enough to keep the vortex going. As the air rises, it expands and cools, and water vapour condenses, releasing even more heat. This is, in fact, what powers a hurricane, which can be thought of as a heat engine that takes in warm, humid air at its base, releases cold, watery air at the top of the troposphere, about 12 kilometres up, and liberates a vast amount of energy in the process. (Just as water requires heat to make it boil, it releases heat as it condenses back into a liquid.)
Mr Michaud's vortex would reach a similar height to that of a hurricane, but its base would remain stationary.
Sean says, "How'd you like it if your neighbor installed one in her backyard!?"
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 2:02 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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Todd Lappin tokk some nice photos of the crushed ice snowboarding event in San Francisco last week. He says: "Every skier and snowboarder in Northern California has had the fantasy at one time or another: 'If only it snowed in San Francisco...'
"Today it finally happened. More than 200 tons of crushed ice were trucked in, and a kicker was built on the Fillmore Street hill. Then, under a perfect blue sky, 20 of the world's best skiers and snowboarders did their thing.
"Thanks to the folks at Icer Air 2005 for all the hard work they did to pull this off!"
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 1:39 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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Some guy is selling cut ponytails on eBay. The odd thing is that each auction sale includes the "cut picture" -- that is, the photo of the unhappy looking girl holding the ponytail she just cut off. I guess this is the ponytail aficionado's version of the money shot.
Link
By David Pescovitz at 1:18 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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A 13-foot Burmese python in the Everglades National Park tried to swallow a six-foot alligator. Apparently, it was too big a bite. The python population was introduced in the Everglades by people dumping their pets. From the Associated Press:
The gory evidence of the latest gator-python encounter – the fourth documented in the past three years – was discovered and photographed last week by a helicopter pilot and wildlife researcher.
The snake was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. (University of Florida wildlife professor Frank) Mazzotti said the alligator may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it.
In previous incidents, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw.
"There had been some hope that alligators can control Burmese pythons," Mazzotti said. "This indicates to me it's going to be an even draw. Sometimes alligators are going to win and sometimes the python will win."
Link
By David Pescovitz at 1:05 pm Wednesday, Oct 5
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Scientists from the Center for Disease Control have recreated the virus behind the Spanish flu that killed 50 million people in 1918. They replicated the long-gone bug to better understand the brutality of the bug and hopefully gain insight into the H5N1 avian flu virus in Asia. From Reuters:
"What can we learn from the lessons of 1918 to prepare for and mitigate against a future influenza pandemic?" (said Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.)
Drugs and vaccines could be designed to target the mutations found in the research, Taubenberger said.
Taubenberger's team used pieces of virus taken from preserved samples from 1918 victims, as well as from the corpse of a victim dug up from a frozen grave in Alaska in 1998.
They used these pieces to make a replica of the 1918 virus, and brought it back to "life" -- viruses are not truly alive like other microbes -- by combining it with modern influenza virus pieces and growing it in bacteria.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:33 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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Craig says: "[NYT] article on Bhuddist economics in the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. A nice example of someone making sense:
Around the world, a growing number of economists, social scientists, corporate leaders and bureaucrats are trying to develop measurements that take into account not just the flow of money but also access to health care, free time with family, conservation of natural resources and other noneconomic factors.
The goal, according to many involved in this effort, is in part to return to a richer definition of the word happiness, more like what the signers of the Declaration of Independence had in mind when they included "the pursuit of happiness" as an inalienable right equal to liberty and life itself.
Link (thanks, Craig!)
By David Pescovitz at 11:31 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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Rock/culture critic Neil Strauss spent several years mastering "speed seduction" techniques based on
neuro-linguistic programming. Then he wrote a book about his experiences employing the psychological tricks to hook up with women. Of course, the question is whether the techniques described in
The Game actually "work" or if they just boost a man's self-confidence enough that he seems desirable to some women. At least initially. From an Associated Press profile:
This is a community where the woman you want to meet is the "target," where anyone she's with is an "obstacle" and where men learn magic and ESP tricks to show value and avoid LMR ("last minute resistance").
All this can take you from an AFC (average frustrated chump) to MPUA (master pickup artist). It worked for Strauss, who bedded dozens under the nom-de-guerre Style and became a guru in his own right.
"All this stuff is backward engineered from what works. Nobody sat at a computer and invented these techniques. They watched guys who are successful and broke it down to what works," Strauss says....
One thing Strauss stresses is that the techniques he's describing can only get the conversation started. After about 15 minutes, a pickup artist's real personality will begin shining through the cracks.
"On the surface it might sound like a horrible thing -- men learning tricks to manipulate women. But any guy who doesn't have anything inside -- like confidence and self-awareness, some sort of spirituality or goodness, being in touch with their emotions -- is not going to do well anyway."
Link
UPDATE: BB reader Matt Denner emails:
While Strauss did spend some time with Ross Jeffries, the man who promotes NLP in his program known as "Speed Seduction," most of his time in "the community" was spent with Mystery and other gurus who teach a different form of seduction entirely. These methods rely on the pick-up artist (PUA) doing something interesting and unexpected as they speak with their "target," but do not involve any form of hypnosis. I just thought this was worth pointing out since Strauss and other PUA's would probably rather be seen as the interesting people they are rather than manipulative hypnotists. By the way, the book is very interesting as a tale of the community and should not be seen as a pick-up guide. There are plenty of those already.
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:59 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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Jim Leftwich says: "Scientists have taught dolphins at Disney's Epcot Center in Florida to sing a short, high-pitched version of the Batman theme, which combines both rhythm and vocalizations."
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:56 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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If the Virgin Mary had been born 2000 years later, she might have ended up in an Indiana State prison, if Republican lawmakers there get their way. A proposed bill hopes to make criminals out of unmarried women in Indiana who conceive "by means other than sexual intercourse."
Peter Svensson says: "Under the proposed Indiana law, if [Mary] willingly accepted the Holy Spirit's visitation, that would be a misdemeanor:
As it the draft of the new law reads now, an intended parent 'who knowingly or willingly participates in an artificial reproduction procedure' without court approval, 'commits unauthorized reproduction, a Class B misdemeanor.' The criminal charges will be the same for physicians who commit 'unauthorized practice of artificial reproduction.'
"Presumably, if the Holy Spirit didn't give her a choice in the matter, she would have been let off. But in either case, the Holy Spirit would be charged."
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:45 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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Great article by Chris Null in today's Wired News: "For $10, Friends Beyond the Wall takes your prison visiting room photo, crops you and your loved one out of it, and digitally inserts you into one of dozens of exotic backgrounds. Instead of standing in front of a cinder block wall, you can be seen leaning on your Jaguar, on safari in Africa or taking a virtual honeymoon in Morocco."
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:19 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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Jamie Franki, an associate professor of art at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, beat 146 other artists in the competition to design a new US nickel. The artist said he gave Jefferson a slight smile (I don't see it, but I do like the design).
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:04 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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The LA Times has an article about Doors' drummer John Densmore's refusal to allow Doors' songs to be used in TV commercials.
"People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first time to this music," Densmore said. "I've had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music, other people say they know someone who didn't commit suicide because of this music…. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That's not for rent."
When Cadillac offered $15 million for the rights to use "Break On Through," the surviving members of the band wanted the money, but Densmore held out.
"Everyone wanted him to do it," said John Branca, an attorney who worked on the Cadillac proposal. "I told him that, really, people don't frown on this anymore. It's considered a branding exercise for the music. He told me he just couldn't sell a song to a company that was polluting the world.
WTF is a "branding exercise?"
Link
Reader comment: Stephanie says: "John Densmore wrote an article for The Nation approximately three years ago explaining why he refused to allow The Doors' music to be used in commercials.
If I learned anything from Jim, it's respect for what we created. I have to pass. Thank God, back in 1965 Jim said we should split everything, and everyone has eto power. Of course, every time I pass, they double the offer!"
"I'm actually glad to see that he hasn't changed his position."
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 9:04 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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A new study from the Library of Congress concludes that the majority of US sound recordings are not available:
Evidence uncovered in this analysis suggests that a significant portion of historic recordings is not easily accessible to scholars, students, and the general public for noncommercial purposes. There are many reasons for this, but the primary one appears to be a convergence of two factors. The first is that the physical barriers created by recording technologies change often and have rendered most such recordings accessible only through obsolescent technologies usually found only in special institutions. Second, copyright law allows only rights holders to make these recordings accessible in current technologies, yet the rights holders appear to have few real-world commercial incentives to reissue many of their most significant recordings. The law has severely reduced the possibility of such recordings entering into the public domain, at least until 2067.
While there is no reason to assume that the law intended to create or sustain such an imbalance between the private and public domains, the evidence suggests that it has, in fact, created such an imbalance. This study indicates that there is an active and hardy network of foreign and small domestic companies, associations, and individuals willing to make historic recordings available; indeed, some do this in spite of laws that force them underground or overseas.
Link
(
Thanks, Joel!)
By Cory Doctorow at 8:59 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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Yahoo's latest crawl has identified a jaw-dropping
53 million Creative Commons-licensed work on the Web. About one in 250 of the pages Yahoo indexes are CC licensed.
Link
(
Thanks, Mia!)
By Cory Doctorow at 6:44 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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This coming Monday, October 10th, I'll be doing a reading/signing at the Oxford Street Borders in London. Also appearing is Jon Courtenay-Grimwood, author of the newly released
9Tail Fox. The whole thing is organized by legendary cyberpunk doyenne Pat Cadigan, and the event promises to be a ton of fun. Festivities begin at 6:30, but Cadigan sez, "Come early, get good seats."
When: Monday, October 10th, 6:30PM
Where: Borders Oxford Street, London (Oxford Circus tube)
Map link
By Xeni Jardin at 6:03 am Wednesday, Oct 5
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In 1970, film director Randal Kleiser (
website /
IMDB) was a film student at USC -- his roommate there, btw, was
George Lucas. One of Randal's projects during that time was a one-minute "ad" protesting the Vietnam War, created with
Harry Winer. They asked
Jon Voight to do the voiceover, he said yes. With a very simple set and help from a very young actor, they produced a beautiful short which Randal has kindly offered to share with Boing Boing readers again today.
It's as if it was produced just a day ago.
Baby Peace, directed by Randal Kleiser:
Link to quicktime, Link to WMV.
(Thanks, Jeff Kleiser, and thanks, Randal Kleiser -- and special thanks to Jeff Koga for video conversion!)
