Mr. H.B. Keyser must have really loved those prize buck horns (afterall, they were 7 1/2 foot spread). So he grafted them into this oak tree when it was younger.

Update Here's the whole build-log -- thanks, Alex!

"Severe stated that she had obtained the package, which contained a human head, from a male in Haiti for use as part of her voodoo beliefs," the US Attorney's Office said in a statement.

A spokesman for Miami's immigration and customs agency told the AFP news agency that the head was not simply a skull.

"It had teeth, hair and skin, and quite a lot of dirt," she said.

If we examine the history of subways, we will find how tremendously expensive and destructive they are.

They are, first of all, meant for cold climates such as Toronto, New York, London, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. But L.A. is a Mediterranean area; our weather is sublime, and people are accustomed to traveling in the open air and enjoying the sunshine, not in closed cars under the ground.

Subways take forever to build and, because the tunnels have to be excavated, are incredibly expensive. The cost of one subway line would build 10 monorail systems.

Along the way, subway construction destroys businesses by the scores. The history of the subway from East L.A. to the Valley is a history of ruined businesses and upended lives.

The monorail is extraordinary in that it can be built elsewhere and then carried in and installed in mid-street with little confusion and no destruction of businesses. In a matter of a few months, a line could be built from Long Beach all the way along Western Avenue to the mountains with little disturbance to citizens and no threat to local businesses.

Compared to the heavy elevateds of the past, the monorail is virtually soundless. Anyone who has ridden the Disneyland or Seattle monorails knows how quietly they move.

A truth and reconciliation commission was convened to explore the scope of the mass murder on the island, and Patrick Ball, a "forensic statistician" was called in to extrapolate the full scope of the wartime deaths that can be laid at the feet of the Indonesian occupiers.

Patrick is a friend of mine, and his work on this is truly ground-breaking -- he's testified at Milosovic's trial, for example. He's an amazing example of how math can make a different in the real world.

To generate the East Timor report, HRDAG researchers spent three years in the country -- now called Timor-Leste -- collecting and analyzing mountains of raw data. The group marshaled 8,000 testimonies and developed innovative sources of information, including the first human rights retrospective mortality survey to determine how many people died and why.

They surveyed 319,000 graves and used hundreds of Python, Java and bash shell scripts to build a huge database of mortality data that contained an 80,000-file directory tree.

While prior information about East Timor focused on anecdotal accounts, the HRGAD researchers used comparative analysis of the datasets to uncover patterns of deaths and build objective evidence of abuses. The team also developed an array of descriptive statistical analysis profiling the scale, pattern and structure of torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and sexual violations. In order to estimate what was missing from the data, the HRDAG developed software to link multiple reports of the same death in a technique called record linkage. They then used multiple systems estimation to calculate the deaths no one remembered.

"The Indonesian military has persistently argued that excess mortality in Timor due to its occupation of Timor was zero," said Romesh Silva, a HRDAG field statistician who led the design and implementation of the project's data collection. "This claim can now be tested empirically and transparently with the tools of science instead of merely being debated with the tools of political rhetoric."

I recently blogged about Canadian Red Cross spokesman David Pratt's use of the Red Cross's donated funds to harass video-game makers for identifying in-game health-kits with the red cross symbol. In an interview with a gaming site, Pratt has vowed to police every use of the red cross, no matter how small, even though this is a "practically impossible task." How this furthers the Canadian Red Cross's humanitarian mission is not obvious to me -- I should think that they'd be better off spending that money helping people.

There is no legal reason that the Canadian Red Cross needs to sue game makers. Its mark is protected by the Geneva Convention, so even the (extremely remote) possibility that its mark could be "genereicized" by common use is removed. At the same time, it's highly unlikely that any court would find the use of the red cross to denote medkits in works of fiction -- such as video games -- violated the Geneva Convention.

Likewise, it's not obvious how the use of the red cross in works of fiction will undermine the Canadian Red Cross's humanitarian mission -- will combatants open fire on Red Cross workers because their Quake play has confused them about the meaning of the mark?

Pratt's campaign against video games has ugly overtones: he has previously characterized the simulated violence in video games as antithetical to the Red Cross's humanitarian mission. I'm a lifelong antiwar activist -- I've gone to jail for protesting arms bazaars -- but I like shooting at pixels on screens. How can a work of fiction undermine humanitarianism? Are the gamer charities that raise funds for children's hospitals also anti-humanitarian?

Under Pratt's guidance, the Canadian Red Cross is squandering its goodwill on what amounts to literary criticism -- "we don't approve of this art, therefore we'll use our rights in our mark to censor it."

I've been a lifelong supporter of the Canadian Red Cross. Some of my earliest memories are of accompanying my father to the local school gym where he donated blood, and as soon as I was old enough, I became a regular donor too. The Red Cross trained me in CPR and first aid, and then wilderness first aid. I even supported the organization after its shameful tainted blood scandal, when it was found to have deliberately releasaed HIV-infected blood into the blood supply.

The Canadian Red Cross is betraying its supporters again with this misguided harrassment campaign. Taking the red crosses off of first-aid kits in the real world could even cause harm, making it harder for people to locate these medical supplies in emergencies. Taking them off of the medkits in video-games is nothing better than censorship.

There's no reason for the organization to do this. It doesn't further its mission. It doesn't protect anything. It just makes them look like fools and thugs. What a waste.

Shacknews: How long has the Red Cross been aware of the problem, because at least in my own personal firsthand experience I would say this is something that has been going on for upwards of a decade and a half or so?

David Pratt: I have personally been aware of this for about six weeks. I'm not really of a generation that necessarily plays video games. The Red Cross as a humanitarian organization is primarily focused on our international and domestic program. It's only within the last two months that we've done a lot more in the area of trademark protection. Part of that stems from my role within the Humanitarian Issues Program, which relates to international humanitarian law. We felt there was some synergy there with educating people about the emblem rather than sending them legal letters right off the top, that we would attempt to engage them in educational effort. That's how this latest issue got started. I've only been with the CRC for a little over a year now, though the organization has been involved with emblem protection for years. That usually happens by way of people who send us emails when they see instances of unauthorized use.

Shacknews: Is that what happened this time?

David Pratt: Actually what happened in this case, is we have a receptionist, a fellow who's in his early 20s. He plays video games, and he's obviously involved in the Red Cross and aware of this issue, and he brought it to my attention. One of the things that struck us in relation to the video games industry is that while certain products that are out there, first aid kits and so on, that's certainly a problem--and our philosophy is that there's no emblem abuse that's too small to report, because you have to try to get them all, which is a practically impossible task--but one thing we saw with the video games industry is that it has a huge reach, especially with young people. It may create an impression that the Red Cross emblem is part of the public domain.

It's not a question so much of targeting, because we will pursue any case any industry. We're not singling out the video game industry, but the video game industry is an important file we're working on right now. We would never single out one industry for paritcular attention.

Update: A tipster sez, "David Pratt used to be the Liberal MP for Nepean-Carleton. Former cabinet minister. Sarmite Bulte used to be his parliametary secretary, and before that worked for his department as a consultant, and later as a lobbyist. Yes, that Sam."

The NSA updated their children's outreach site recently. In the process, the previous mascot, Crypto Cat, has undergone some changes. Previously, Crypto Cat was a male dressed in a trench coat, but she is now a high school teenager in a midriff-baring sweater.

In addition, the NSA has added new characters to make a spy supergroup known as the "CryptoKids (TM)". The new characters include Decipher Dog, Joules (squirrel), Slate (rabbit), T. Top (turtle), and Rosetta Stone (fox). Each of them have their own special abilities -- they are like the Power Rangers for warrantless wiretaps.

The U.S. trademark application shows they applied for the trademark on Crypto Cat on December 19, 2005; this was around the same time the scandal was just starting to heat up.

Image of previous Crypto Cat: GIF link. USPTO Trademark Applications: (Crypto Cat) (Crypto Kids) (Decipher Dog)

Previously: DHS to kids: Ready for... Furries?

For more, see this Wired article by Noah Shachtman on the NSA's online youth infotainment outreach program.

There is breaking new from Al Rai TV in Kuwait that's just come in here in the last five minutes. According to Al Rai, the kidnappers say they will carry out a threat to kill Jill unless their demands are met by a Feb. 26 deadline.

The station is citing sources that are "close to her captors." The chairman of the station, Jassem Doodai, declined to specify the kidnapper's demands when questioned about it by a reporter from Reuters.

Previously Jill has said that the group was demanding the release of all female detainees held in Iraq. Five were released, but US and Iraqi officials have denied there was any quid pro quo with regard to those releases. 450 detainees were released over the last 48 hours in Iraq, but none were women. It is unclear from this statement if the kidnappers have additional demands that are not yet being released. And it is unclear what else was in the letter that Jill cryptically mentioned that she was providing in her third video.

One thing is certain, the setting of a deadline with some time ahead of it is worrying, as it carries the weight of being a "considered" deadline. We are all still hopeful that something can be worked out as this new channel seems to be opening. But, without a shadow of a doubt, we are all very worried. We'll update this post on Natasha's blog when we know anything more.

Update, 1:15pm PT: J. Scott Tynes says,

Xeni, there's been a few updates.

One: Al Rai's editor, Jassem Boudai, is indicating that there is some confirmation that Jill is staying "in a safe house" with women somewhere in Baghdad.

Two: Confirmation of what we'd said before: There was audio on the previous tapes but Aljazeera did not air it in an effort to control the message and silence critics about its "open mic" policy for terrorists. This seems savvy editorial control. There was tremendous media speculation about "why were the tapes silent." They were not. A call to Aljazeera would have made this clear.

A second update highlights an Associated Press report analyzing why Al Rai television got this tape and how and why they might have chosen to air it in full. It is a top drawer analysis of the media manoeuvrings taking place during this terrible ordeal.

Hopefully some of the new information released and out there through various channels today can help get Jill freed soon.

28-year-old haxx0r and chef Marc Powell did a live demo of molecular cuisine at a recent Dorkbot in San Francisco, and I was there to stick microphones in the liquid nitrogen cooled almond-armagnac foam. It was a ton of fun, and tasted weird but wonderful -- Boing Boing pal Eddie Codel was there, he's chowing down on some laughing-gas-infused dessert in the image here. Scott Beale shot that photo, and many more. I mostly ate mutant strawberries.

The idea is to create dishes based on the molecular compatibilities of foods. For instance, unripe mango and pine share a molecular structure, so they might be tasty if combined. That's the theory, anyway. Molecular gastronomists combine white chocolate and oysters for the same reason.

Archived audio, a recipe for "Nitro Pumpkin Seed Pie Horchata Foam" (mmm!), and links to books and web resources are all here. "Xeni Tech" archives for Day to Day are here.

Bonus: two things that didn't make it into the story -- the periodic table of elements, in Thai, that hangs on Marc's kitchen wall: Link. You never know when you're gonna need to look up a noble gas for your omelette. And another phonecam snap from the walls of hacker bed-and-breakfast Unicorn Precinct 13 -- one day, all our meals will look like this: Link. (Thanks, Karen Marcelo, and thanks Marc Powell!)

Yet.

Link (Thanks, k3wp!)

Update: 1:04PM PT: The DRM-free torrent is now available (Thanks, Marvin!)

Update 2: Episode 3 and Episode 4 are both on YouTube now -- thanks, Bradley!

Vicky added: "Isaac wasn't fazed by it at all and has gone back to St Wulstan's Primary School telling everyone he wants to bring it in..."

Pictures of the creature have puzzled experts at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. Information officer Douglas Herdson said: "We've had people looking at the photos and there are certain things that look right about the body and certain things that don't.

"It is very difficult to say for certain whether this is an octopus."

He said it was feasible that an octopus owner had flushed a dead specimen down the drain - they cannot last more than 20 minutes in freshwater.

He added: "Some people don't realise it is illegal to release exotic creatures into the wild in Britain."

The device consists of the magnetron from a 600-watt domestic microwave oven and concentrates its power into a volume of just one cubic centimetre. The researchers inject the microwaves though a pointed rod into a solid substrate made from glass, silicon, germanium, alumina or other ceramics. The energy from the microwaves then produces a molten hot spot in the substrate.

What the scientists then do is pull the microwave drill out of the solid, which drags the molten hot spot and creates a hot drop. The drop then becomes a floating fireball that measures about 3 centimetres across and lasts for some tens of milliseconds (see figure). "The fireball looks like a hot jellyfish, quivering and buoyant in the air," says Jerby.

Lori Menzel of the town of Kewaskum said the burglar left his Yahoo account open after checking his personal e-mail on the computer at her home.

``He never logged out,'' she said, adding: ``He made himself at home here. He spent some time in our bedroom trying on my husband's clothes. I could tell he went through some of my clothes.''

Early in Walt Disney's career, he had a minor success with a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a distant ancestor of Mickey Mouse. However, Walt lost the rights to Oswald in a sour business-deal with a distribution company (an historical film shown at the Disney parks has it that he was ripped off).

Now, nearly a century later, the Disney company has agreed to release a sports announcer named Al Michaels from its ABC network to NBC, which presently holds the rights to Oswald. NBC gave Disney a number of commercial concessions, and sweetened the deal with control over Oswald. Link (Thanks, Experiment 33!)

I'm on the Board of the Foundation, a new nonprofit, and we've just produced our first-ever marketing campaign with the generous volunteer assistance of Grad Conn, my friend and old business-partner. The campaign consists (modestly) of the badges you see below, and a landing-page with some information on signing up to the workshop, which runs for six weeks every summer -- it's going to be in East Lansing, Michigan again this year.

We're looking for websites that are willing to help us run the campaign by donating some space to host one of these badges (they're in two standard sizes, 150x150 and 150x58) in a prominent place between now and the application deadline on April 1. Even if you can only run it for part of the time, or in rotation, we'd appreciate your help.

Clarion has trained hordes of talented writers, from Bruce Sterling to Octavia Butler, from Kelly Link to Nalo Hopkinson. I'm a graduate and had the good fortune to teach the program last year as well. Attending Clarion is a life-changing experience for many, a watershed moment that helps writers understand what is needed if they are to succeed, and that gives them the tools to achieve success.

Help us out if you can: inline one of the images below and link it to http://www.theclarionfoundation.org/ads/landing/. You'll be helping to guide the careers of the writers who'll be entertaining you in a year or two.

Thanks!

The past two shows have marked the commencement of a new series on how the underlying infrastructure of the Internet works -- what's IP, what's UDP, how do packets traverse the Internet, and so on. This is building a foundation for deepening understandings of Internet security issues.

All told, the show is a running master-class in infosec, a great primer for those of us hoping to deepen our understanding of security online. Link

A nine minute student documentary of the Free Culture New York Summit held at Columbia University, January 2006. The film explores a new form of student activism, based primarily on and about the Internet. Beginning with the Free Culture demonstration at the Times Square Virgin Megastore, the documentary covers Free Culture members out to educate consumers on alternative forms of music distribution online (archive.org, ccmixter.org, blogs, etc). It continues the discussion with interviews featuring conference participants (Cory Doctorow, Creative Commons, Free Culture students activists). Finally, using cc licenses for distribution and production, the film acts as an example for other young student filmmakers who are interested in alternative copyright licensing.

* Simple layout
* 3D effects, used sparingly
* Soft, neutral background colours
* Strong colour, used sparingly
* Cute icons, used sparingly
* Plenty of whitespace
* Nice big text

Step 1 Hold the sheet inside out, by its two adjacent corners on one of the shorter ends. Position your hands inside each of these two corners.

Step 2 Fold the corner in your right hand over to the corner in your left, enveloping it. With your right hand, pick up the corner that is hanging down in front and fold it over the two corners in your left hand.

Step 3 Pick up the last corner and fold it over the other three corners. The sheet should now be right side out.

Step 4 Place your folded sheet on a table and straighten it, tucking in the elastic edges as you go.

The North Side Elementary students said selling the chocolate bars and potato chips went against what they were taught in school about healthy eating. They were raising money for a field trip to Washington D.C.

Veronica Atkins said the donation will come from her foundation, which promotes her mission to combat Type II diabetes.

``I was so proud when the children said you're telling us not to go out and eat sugar and then you ask us to sell it,'' Atkins, 68, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Tuesday's edition. ``I said no way am I going to let them down and not let them go on the field trip.''

A research project created a "music market" for 48 songs, in which participants were asked to score the songs from one to five stars. They tried a number of configurations, such as permitting the rankers to know how others had ranked the music, isolating rankers from other rankers' ratings, and segmenting the rankers into different, isolated groups.

The conclusions of the study are fascinating: our music choices are as driven by social factors as by taste:

In the independent condition, participants chose which songs to listen to based solely on the names of the bands and their songs. While listening to the song, they were asked to rate it from one star ("I hate it") to five stars ("I love it"). They were also given the option of downloading the song for keeps.

"This condition measured the quality of the songs and allowed us to see what outcome would result in the absence of social influence," said study co-author Matthew Salganik, a sociologist at Columbia University.

In the social influence group, participants were provided with the same song list, but could also see how many times each song had been downloaded.

Researchers found that popular songs were popular and unpopular songs were unpopular, regardless of their quality established by the other group. They also found that as a particular songs' popularity increased, participants selected it more often.

The upshot for markerters: social influence affects decision-making in a market.

Update: The Treehouse Workshop has a great range of treehouse books, videos, and galleries -- thanks, Red!

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.

But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight.

(...)"FYI from FEMA," said an e-mail message from the agency's public affairs staff describing the helicopter flight, sent Monday night at 9:27 to the chief of staff of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and recently unearthed by investigators. Conditions, the message said, "are far more serious than media reports are currently reflecting. Finding extensive flooding and more stranded people than they had thought — also a number of fires."

"Theoretically, this should be able to double the distance that a person can see clearly," (Blum) says...

Technicians scan the eyeball with an aberrometer -- a device that measures aberrations that can impede vision -- and then the pixels are programmed to correct the irregularities.

Traditional glasses correct lower-order aberrations like nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatisms. PixelOptics' lenses handle higher-order aberrations that are much more difficult to detect and correct.

Thanks to technologies created for astronomical telescopes and spy satellites, aberrometers can map a person's eye with extreme accuracy. Lasers bounce off the back of the eyeball, and structures in the eye scatter the resulting beam of light.

Software reads the scattered beam and creates a map of the patient's eye, including tiny abnormalities such as bumps, growths and valleys. The pixelated eyeglass lens is then tuned to refract light in a way that corrects for those high-level aberrations.

Norris teamed up with Spreadshirt to sell official Norris shirts. You can take any phrase from chucknorrisfacts.com and place it on a shirt.
Link

In the video, Carroll said the date was Feb. 2. "I am here. I am fine. Please just do whatever they want, give them whatever they want as quickly as possible," she said. She wore a veil and appeared composed, speaking in a strong voice.

Link to AP story.

Update: Jeff Tynes, a friend of Jill's, tells Boing Boing:

A third tape has been released of Jill, this time airing on Kuwaiti television's "Al Rai."

We've not seen the tape but apparently Jill appears to be okay and indicates the date is February 2nd, although she corrects herself, having said February 6th at first.

She also says "There is very short time; please do it fast" We aren't sure why it wasn't aired on Al-Jazeera this time but suspect it might be due to the editorial controls in place there.

Natasha Tynes ( Link) has more quotes and other information from Jill off the tape and will be updating as more information becomes available.

Almost 1,000 Danish websites have been defaced by Islamic hackers protesting about controversial cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad. The attacks typically replace home pages with pro-Islam messages and condemn the publication of the images.

Hack attack monitoring group Zone-H said the defacements were done both by hacker groups and individuals. Zone-H said some hackers left moderate messages but many called for a violent response to the cartoons' publication. "We have never seen so many defacements that are politically targeted in such a short time," said Roberto Preatoni, founder and administrator of Zone-H.

Artzybasheff had a long career as an illustrator, beginning in the late 1920s with art deco style illustrations for books like Creatures, extending all the way through the 1950s. His most notable achievements are his cover illustrations for Time magazine, depicting a wide range of notable people in the news; and also his arresting images for magazine ads promoting Shell Oil, Xerox and Parker Pens.

Kircher, if you don't know, was the 17th century jesuit polymath behind such fantastic inventions as the sunflower clock, the cat piano, the vomitting statue, the speaking trumpet, and the automatic organ. He was also the proprietor of one of the greatest 17th century wonder cabinets, and is often referred to as the last man to know everything about his culture.

For now, the Kircher Society is nothing more than a blog, "The Proceedings," which focuses on all things wondrous, curious, and esoteric--anything that would have fascinated Kircher if he were alive today.

Reader comment: Bob Rossney says: "I think it extremely likely that the 'AK' behind the Society is one of two people: David Wilson, who runs the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, or Lawrence Weschler, who wrote Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder (about the Museum), among many other books. The MJT is presently hosting an exhibition called 'The World Is Bound With Secret Knots: The Life And Works of Athanasius Kircher.' And when I saw Ricky Jay interview Weschler at City Arts & Lectures in San Francisco last week, Weschler was very big on Kircher, saying that one of the symposia he ran last year at NYU (I think) was entitled 'Athanasius Kircher: Coolest Guy Who Ever Lived, Or What?'"

LIVING:
* Willard Boyle, George Smith: Charge-coupled device
* Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn: Internet Protocol
* Robert Gore: ePTFE, known by the GORE-TEX® brand name
* Ali Javan: Helium-neon laser
* Robert Langer, Jr.: Controlled drug delivery
* Julio Palmaz: Intravascular stent

POSTHUMOUS RECOGNITION
* Herman Affel, Lloyd Espenschied: Coaxial cable
* Gregory Pincus: Oral contraceptive pill
* Richard Hoe: Rotary printing press
* Benjamin Holt: Caterpillar track-type tractor
* Dale Kleist, Games Slayter, John Thomas: Fiberglass
* William Upjohn: Dissolvable pill
* Granville Woods: Railroad telegraph
* Karl Bosch, Fritz Haber: Ammonia production process
* Elihu Thomson: Arc lighting

Why is the Red Cross wasting the charitable dollars we donate to it shaking down video-games on the basis of some trademark dilution bogeyman? Is there any question that the use of red crosses to denote health-packs in games will bring even the most minute quantum of harm to the Red Cross? Kee-rist. I mean, I hear about a lot of stupid, crazy stuff, but this takes (today's) cake.

The fact that the Red Cross is also used in videos which contain strong language and violence is also of concern to us in that they directly conflict with the basic humanitarian principles espoused by the Red Cross movement,'' Pratt said in a Jan. 31 letter to a Vancouver law firm that represents several Canadian game developers. "The crux of the problem is that the misuse of the Red Cross in video games is not only in contravention of the law, it also encourages others to believe that the emblem of the Red Cross is `public property' and can be freely used by any organization or indeed for commercial purposes."
I contacted the Canadian Red Cross for comment on this -- I wanted to know if there was any precedent for Canadian charities suffering harm arising from game-based trademark dilution, and if they could cite precedent or statute under which the games' use of the red cross was unlawful, but they didn't get back to me. If they contact me later, I'll update this post. Link (Thanks, Alice!)

Update: Allen sez, "The Red Cross has an even bigger, more menacing trademark infringer. A little outfit they call Switzerland. Somebody should inform the Red Cross that these guys have been flagrantly using the unique design they created for their logo."

Update 2: Varney sez, "The International Red Cross recently chose a new, neutral symbol which can be used anywhere without offending any theology. One would imagine that the old Red Cross would be deprecated once this is introduced."

"It is fiction," conceded Larry Nation, communications director for the association. "But it has the absolute ring of truth."

That is not the way leading climate scientists see it. When the book was published in 2004, climate experts condemned it as dangerously divorced from reality. Most of these scientists believe human activity, chiefly the burning of fossil fuels, is changing the atmosphere's chemistry in ways that threaten unpredictable, potentially damaging effects.

The book is "demonstrably garbage," Stephen H. Schneider, a Stanford climatologist, said in an interview yesterday. Petroleum geologists may like it, he said, but only because "they are ideologically connected to their product, which fills up the gas tanks of Hummers."

"UK research shows that, on average, downloaders are film fans who view the same number of legitimate films (cinema, rented and bought DVDs) as the average active DVD consumer (24). On top of that, they also consume illegitimately acquired movies. "

* the Australian lead of moving toward fair use

* the UK lead in holding hearings on the dangers associated with DRM

* the French lead of considering legalized P2P with a levy system to cover audio and video downloads

* the US lead on legislation that allows for increased of Internet materials in the classroom

* the South Korean lead of not prosecuting downloaders for personal purposes

* the majority of the world's population which has not ratified the WIPO Internet treaties nor extended the term of copyright beyond life of the author plus 50 years

(Click on thumbnail for enlargement of Amy Crehore's "Tickler")

Opens Friday Feb 10th 6-10pm
runs through March 4th
musical guests : The Briefs

Roq La Rue is proud to present for the month of February "Sweetest Taboo", a group show curated in collaboration with Damion Hayes of Cut Kulture United.

"Sweetest Taboo" brings together some of the most exciting emerging artists from the Pop Surrealism and Urban Contemporary movements to express those things, (illicit or not) that society occasionally frowns on, but that always brings a smile to these artists faces. It could be a tough graffiti writers love for dolphins and rainbows, the pure joy of fresh wallride skuffs in no skate zones that fills a skateboarder’s heart, a painter’s fondness for disturbing genetic mutations, or simply a playfully naughty thing that one doesn't bring up in polite conversation.

Artists include:
Nhon Nguyen, George Estrada, Robert Hardgrave, Iosefatu Sua, Jilf, Jason Sho Green, Joshua Howard, Jesse Ledoux, Sam Sneke, Ray Noland, Kipling West, Chris Reccardi, Gabe Marquez, Amy Crehore, Mike Leavitt

Roq La Rue 2312 2nd Ave Seattle WA 98121 (206)374-8977 www.roqlarue.com

Human rights group Reporters Without Borders is reporting that Yahoo! provided Chinese authorities with personally identifying data on yet another of its customers in China. Li Zhi, a 35-year-old resident of Sichuan province, used what he believed to be an anonymous Yahoo account to express his opinions on message boards and chatrooms, and was accused of communicating online with overseas dissidents.

The data Yahoo gave authorities led to his imprisonment for eight years, says RSF -- that would be the second such case involving Yahoo in less than a year (Link to previous Boing Boing posts about Shi Tao, the Chinese journalist jailed for ten years with Yahoo's help).

A hearing on the ethical responsibilities of Internet firms is scheduled to take place before the House Committee on International Relations on February 15 -- and Yahoo has been invited to attend.

Snip from RSF's statement:

[RSF called] on Yahoo! to supply a list of all cyberdissidents it has provided data on, beginning with 81 people in China whose release the worldwide press freedom organization is currently campaigning for. It said it had discovered that Yahoo! customer and cyberdissident Li Zhi had been given his eight-year prison sentence in December 2003 based on electronic records provided by Yahoo. “How many more cases are we going to find?” it asked.

“We were sure the case of Shi Tao, who was jailed for 10 years last April on the basis of Yahoo-supplied data, was not the only one. Now we know Yahoo works regularly and efficiently with the Chinese police.

Reader comment: Dan says:

Vintage eyeglasses are a great link to the past, but if you're just interested in the style, you might consider a company called Shuron, who still make the retro styles. I spend a few months looking for a good pair of retro glasses in vintage shops around town, but they were the wrong size (did 1950's men have tiny heads?) or very distressed, suggesting that they might not hold up to renewed use. Since the Shuron glasses are new, you get them without scratches and in a perfect fit.

Their website claims that if you've seen vintage glasses in a movie, you've seen Shuron frames.

I'm ordering a pair of the Ronsir Zyl, but from what I can see (the Telstar Combo is over bandwith right now, and I haven't looked for a cached version yet) the glasses you referenced look like the Sidewinder

Since I learned of the company, I've found that many local dealers can order a pair for me, and I can also order them online from most retailers like www.eyeglass.com and www.eyeglasses.com.

Secret Still #2 - Alison Wiese
Opening 8pm, artist talk 9pm Saturday February 11th

Machine Project 1200 D North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026
213 483 8761

A functioning fractionating still (located in our secret gallery) made from household plumbing supplies distills corn whiskey. Celebrating improvisational authority (the space of the sub-suburban yard fort, and the do-it-yourself zine) Alison Weise shares strategies of re-use and field-expedient substitution with tinkerers and amateur hobbyists.

Starting at 8pm we are going to stand around, stare at the still, and sample the whisky. At 9pm Ms Wiese will talk about her project, covering a tiny-weeny bit of historical context, a cursory description of the process, and an attempt to try to address the top 3 questions folks seem to ask about distilling: Can you go blind from drinking this stuff? Will the still blow up? Is this legal?

Positive ID required at the door.

Reader comment: Joe says: "As a sometimes home brewer and an oftentimes home drinker (not to mention a chemical engineer), I've long wished to make my own hard liquor. Though I never got around to building the thing, I found some great step-by-step plans for a homemade still here: http://www.moonshine-still.com/

"The plans look pretty sound, but one problem with building the thing is the fact that distilling your own vodka/whisky/moonshine is pretty illegal here in the US, so it's not particularly practical if you're renting."

Reader comment: Will says: This is a link describing 'the basics' for what hoops you have to jump through to legally distill in the US, including paying proper taxes, etc. You can brew your own wine or beer in reasonable amounts, but you can’t distill it without paying taxes, etc. You can get a cheaper no-tax permit from the BATF for an 'alcohol fuel plant,' but that requires proof of denaturing -- thus making the alcohol unfit/dangerous/deadly to drink."

Secret Still #2 - Alison Wiese
Opening 8pm, artist talk 9pm Saturday February 11th

Machine Project 1200 D North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026
213 483 8761

A functioning fractionating still (located in our secret gallery) made from household plumbing supplies distills corn whiskey. Celebrating improvisational authority (the space of the sub-suburban yard fort, and the do-it-yourself zine) Alison Weise shares strategies of re-use and field-expedient substitution with tinkerers and amateur hobbyists.

Starting at 8pm we are going to stand around, stare at the still, and sample the whisky. At 9pm Ms Wiese will talk about her project, covering a tiny-weeny bit of historical context, a cursory description of the process, and an attempt to try to address the top 3 questions folks seem to ask about distilling: Can you go blind from drinking this stuff? Will the still blow up? Is this legal?

Positive ID required at the door.

The system called SNAP (SNAil-based data transfer Protocol), uses biological carriers, and, for the first time, taking advantages of the unique merits of the wheel for data transfer...

System architecture: the system is constructed of a back end - a carriage, Ben-Hur movie style, which is made of a yoke made of light Balsa, and outfitted with two huge wheels - 2 DVD wheels, 4.7 Giga each. The front end, to which the carriage is harnessed consist of a Giant snail (Achatina fulica), known also as Giant African Snail (Africans are known as the world fastest runners ). These giant snail are of the GastroPod family (G-pod. We will reserve this name for transfer of music, and the name: G-mail for transfer of emails by snails SMTP –snail mobile transfer protocol )

Packets transport: Data is transported in 2 packets in parallel, 4.7 Giga each packet.

Results: Calculations that were conducted after the experiment, explicitly proved that in spite of the relatively, very slow, speed of the biological carriers, the Snap system succeeded in transferring data faster than any other conventional technologies, existing today.

Pope told her caretaker, Kathy Painter, she didn't want to be buried because she believed she would come back to life...

(Coroner O'dell) Owens said Painter put on gloves and removed the maggots from Pope's body daily.

He said she used bug spray when they became too numerous to remove by hand. Investigators found 17 cans of bug spray in the house, he said.

"She really took care of (the body)," Owens said.

Painter even bought Pope new clothes just before officials discovered her body.

"She bought new clothes because she thought this was the time period she was coming back," Owens said.

Family members kept a window air conditioner running to keep Pope's body cool until about two months ago, when it broke, Owens said.

Video Bomb lets you grab Internet videos you like and publish them as a feed -- "bomb" them -- that your friends or fans can subscribe to, so all the online video you find ends up in their video player automatically, It lets you program and publish your own TV station made up of anything you find online and anything you make and publish.

Video Bomb is designed to make video-sharing social and sustainable. It uses Digg-like voting to bubble the best videos to the top of the list, and Delicious-like tagging to help you make sense of the pile.

Like all Participatory Culture Foundation projects, Video Bomb is simple, elegant and powerful. It has wonderful gracenotes like "publisher hookup" in the video-submission form -- that's where you embed links to t-shirt, donations, or merchandise offered by the video's original publisher, so that everyone who gets your feed will have the chance to reward the creators and sustain their work. Link

(Disclosure: I'm a proud member of the Participatory Culture Foundation's Board of Directors)

EFF's legal director Cindy Cohn, a legendary free-speech litigator (Cindy argued the Bernstein case that legalized crypto in America) has written a great essay for EFF's Deep Links about the reasons that this will fail to solve spam, and punish free speech:

Email being basically free isn't a bug. It's a feature that has driven the digital revolution. It allows groups to scale up from a dozen friends to a hundred people who love knitting to half-a-million concerned citizens without a major bankroll.

Email readers and senders will both lose, because the incentives for Yahoo, AOL, and Goodmail are all wrong. Their service is only valuable if it "saves" you from their spam filters. In turn, they have an incentive to treat more of your email as spam, and thereby "encouraging" people to sign up.

Even email senders who just want to reach Dad@aol.com may eventually be in trouble. Once a pay-to-speak system like this gets going, it will be increasing difficult for people who don't pay to get their mail through. The system has no way to distinguish between ordinary mail and bulk mail, spam and non-spam, personal and commercial mail. It just gives preference to people who pay.

Since last Oct 31, Sony has been reeling under revelation after revelation about the copy-restriction systems it put on its music CDs. These systems created security vulnerabilities for music-fans, spied on their habits, and destabiized their computers. The initial reports of these were met with contemptuous dismissal from Sony, but eventually, thanks to the work of EFF and others, Sony agreed to a costly class-action settlement.

However, one element of that settlement is that it requires people who want to opt out of the settlement to refrain from suing Sony until the settlement winds down. One person who wishes to sue Sony has asked the US Court of Appeals to overturn this, which would open the door to more immediate individual lawsuits against the company for breaking its customers' PCs.

However, as Mark Lyons notes, if this appeal goes forward, it would be a major departure from standard practice:

In the short term, if the court of appeals likes what they hear, it will be easier for individuals to pursue their own case.

In the long term, if the court of appeals (and then possibly the Supreme Court) decides that similar injunctions are not acceptable in class actions, then quickie class action settlements like this one won't be as appealing to companies (since the nice thing about class actions to these companies is they only have to fight a limited number of fights and pay out a relatively predictable amount of money that they can easily control) because every Tom, Dick, and Harry can go to court and sue on their own without having the class action trip them up.

Previous installments of the Sony DRM Debacle Roundup: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V

(Sony taproot graphic courtesy of Sevensheaven)

We are looking for two young Crypto enthusiasts, 18 and older, to host an upcoming fun, hip, and off the wall series that looks inside the world of cryptozoology, creatures, legends, and the people who investigate them. The hosts should be really into cryptozoology, and have an interest or even borderline obsession with undiscovered creatures, mythical beasts, and unclassified species. You should have a unique personality and be comfortable in front of a camera.

If you are interested, MTV wants you to send them an email at crypto@mtvstaff.com and provide the following information:

Name and contact information.
Why you would be the right person to host our show.
Why you love MONSTERS.
Why you believe or disbelieve in their existence.
How you got interested in cryptozoology.
What your favorite cryptid is and why?
What, if any, monster hunts you’ve been on and what adventures you had.
Some background on who you are.

Zooko's Triangle [Zooko] argues that names cannot be global, secure, and memorable, all at the same time. Domain names are an example: they are global, and memorable, but as the rapid rise of phishing demonstrates, they are not secure.

Though no single name can have all three properties, the petname system does indeed embody all three properties. Informal experiments with petname-like systems suggest that petnames can be both intuitive and effective. Experimental implementations already exist for simple extensions to existing browsers that could alleviate (possibly dramatically) the problems with phishing. As phishers gain sophistication, it seems compelling to experiment with petname systems as part of the solution.

The Sentinelese, thought to number between 50 and 200, have rebuffed all contact with the modern world, firing a shower of arrows at anyone who comes within range.

They are believed to be the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world to remain isolated and appear to have survived the 2004 Asian tsunami.

On some visits the party would see Sentinelese; on others they would not. Invariably, however, they would try to land - at a place out of bow-shot, if there were natives on the beach - and leave gifts. These in-cluded sacks of coconuts, bananas, and bits of iron conveniently sized to be hammered and scraped into arrowheads; occasionally they brought special presents like mirrors, red ribbons, rubber balls, and bead neck-laces. Sometimes the Sentinelese would make gestures that appeared friendly, waving their hands as the dinghies chugged across the lagoon; sometimes they would make gestures that were probably hostile, turning their backs toward the visitors en masse and sitting on their haunches as if to defecate. It was not out of character for them to rush out of the jungle and grab the gifts, then shower their retreating benefactors with arrows.

Occasionally there were incidents more reminiscent of the Keystone Kops than of Captain Cook. Once, a high-ranking naval officer, newly deputed to the Andamans, accompanied the expedition. "He was a very fat guy, a Punjabi, with a very loud manner and talking too much, that type of character," Pandit recalls. As the officer's dinghy approached shore, and Sentinelese were seen emerging from the forest, he stood up and started waving his arms over his head, shouting at the tribesmen in Punjabi: "Hello! Hello! I am your friend!" A second later, an arrow clanged against an iron shield that a crewman had held up, just in time, in front of the officer's belly. During another expedition, a boat carrying the superintendent of police turned turtle in the surf. Some armed Sentinelese watched from the beach, but did not shoot the struggling men. This was seen as an encouraging sign.

Reader comment: Geoffrey says: "I really enjoyed this post and read the entire Goodheart article. On the same site, I then found maps and photos of the Sentineli island and people. Maybe NSFW in a Natnl. Geo. sort of way. Fascinating...thanks for the post."

Pics, Videos, Maps

RU also has a fascinating interview with Michael Chorost on the NeoFiles Show this week. Chorost had a computer implanted in his skull to restore his hearing and wrote a book, "Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human."

And speaking of surreal, MondoGlobo.net is featuring a short, bonus remix of RU's conversation with Larry Harvey of Burning Man. Enjoy. Link

Yesterday I blogged about The IT Crowd, a new sitcom from Graham Linehan, the creator of Father Ted, about socially maladjusted sysadmins and their compulsive liar of a boss.

Britain's Channel 4, the network that produced The IT Crowd, has been posting the episodes for free download a week in advance of the airing date, which is great news. Unfortunately, C4 takes countermeasures to keep you from downloading and watching it -- the shows are streamed as DRMed Windows Media Videos, and region-locking prevents you from accessing them if you're outside of the UK.

Lucky for us, DRM doesn't work! The shows have been online and available via Bittorrent download within a short while of being posted to the C4 site. I'm delighted to be able to see these shows; I can't remember when I laughed so much.

Episode three is a hoot -- it's the romance episode, and like the earlier episodes, it's great farce comedy in that it lards absurdity upon absuridty, culminating in one of the great shit-on-my-forehead clown-beat-down scenes of all time. Link to Torrent, Link to mirror of Torrent

Update: This is also on Filecloud -- thanks, Marvin!

Update 2:Episode one is available on Google Video -- thanks, Tian!)

If you are a ballpoint pen lover, switch to black ink when security is important. Among water-based inks, remember that gels are the most impervious. But when you're writing checks to pay the monthly bills, only one type of ink, the kind in gel pens, has been found to be counterfeit proof to acetone or any other chemical used in "check washing." Most ballpoint and marker inks are dye based, meaning that the pigments are dissolved in the ink.

Update: Hanne sez, "I thought I'd put a few words in for one of my favorite inkmakers, Noodler's Ink. Specifically, their magnificent Waterproof Black ink, which bonds to the cellulose in paper fibers and cannot be washed out or dissolved out of the paper. For those concerned about the possibility of check-washing, or those who have any other forgery concerns of any sort, I can't recommend Waterproof Black highly enough."

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A team led by ex-Winamp-er Rob Lord today released a preview edition of Songbird, a desktop media player that offers an open source alternative to services like Apple's iTunes and the Windows Media Player. Instead of connecting to one locked store full of DRMmed goods, it can connect to any and all available music (and video) on the internet.

Code brains behind the project include people who helped build Winamp, Muse, Yahoo's "Y! Music Engine" media player, and developers from Mozilla Foundation. Initial release is for Windows only, with editions for other OSes to follow in the coming weeks.

Built on the same platform as Firefox, Songbird acts like a specialized web browser for music. It sees the online world through MP3-colored glasses -- it looks at an archive of public domain sound files or a music store's catalog, and displays available media for you.

I spoke with Rob Lord earlier today by phone about the preview release. Screenshots and interview after the jump.

Update: Here's another one -- thanks, Walter!)

Last month, I blogged about Pam Noles's wonderful essay about the difficulty of being a black sf writer in a largely white field, and about white writers' reluctance to attempt to portray people of color.

Tamu Townsend sends in information about this small-press book from two talented writers who tackle the subject head on with practical advice for writers who want to write "the other" and get it right.

Writing the Other: A Practical Approach by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward is now available from Aqueduct Press for $9 a copy. Based on the acclaimed "Writing the Other" workshop, this book includes essays and exercises that help authors create believable characters with diverse backgrounds. Race, religion, and age are among the differences covered in the book's hands-on approach.

Nationally, the workshop has drawn praise from established professional writers such as Suzy McKee Charnas and Mary Freeman Rosenblum, as well as talented beginners such as David D. Levine. To read their comments, please visit the workshop's website.

Andy Carol is a Lego builder who created a working Difference Engine in legos, though his machine "only" solves second- and third-order polynomials to three or four digits. The site contains fascinating detail about the workings of Difference Engines and Carol's implementation thereof. Link (Thanks, Rick!)

Update: Paul sez, "The original work by Babbage wasn't funded by Ada Lovelace, it was funded by the British government. The original difference engine did work, and quite well - it was able to provide thousands of corrections to naval tables of the period. While still developing the difference engine, however, Babbage began to expand his idea - into the *programmable* analytical engine. This is the machine for which Ada developed a programming language, however the work was still funded substantially by the government. Political issues, not technical limitations, are what ultimately killed the project. Babbage had no social skills whatsoever, many in the government hated him. "

Podshow Music is a clearinghouse that clears the copyrights in songs that you can use in your podcasts. It's not clear whether putting a song in a podcast is a fair use, but with Podshow, you can se sure that you have the rightsholder's temporary permission to use it.

Initially, the Podshow Music terms required you to promise that you would refrain from discussing subjects like "software piracy (warez, cracking, etc.), hacking, phreaking, emulators, ROM's, or illegal MP3 activity" or saying anything "deemed unsuitable or harmful to the reputation of PodShow or the Licensor."

That's just crazy, of course: since when does the guy who makes the record for your radio station get to tell you what kind of subject you can discuss on your show?

In response to blog posts about this, Curry posted new terms of service in September 2005 (I just found out about it now, though) that take a lot of the offensive stuff out. The new terms even let you make mashups.

There are still some problems with the new terms that would keep me from ever using Podshow music in one of my podcasts, namely:

"It's called "Mr. Bumper", and it's a larger-sized limited edition vinyl, maybe 7 inches in length. The chassis of the vehicle actually lifts off of the driver, revealing that he's not actually driving a sentient amphibian, but is in fact an 8-legged frog wearing an ornate cowl. This is a prototype; the gloss on the final version will be a little toned down."
Link

Those old Life editors sure were a bunch of cool guys to run this stuff in a national general interest magazine. Maybe the magic mushrooms that Time Life founder Henry Luce took had a trickle down effect that inspired the editors to run Artzybasheff's work.

Lileks says: "Note how the swastikas look like the limbs of Alien face-huggers; I wonder if H. R. Giger saw his work growing up, and it had the same impression on him as a copy of Playboy to ordinary kids. Would explain a lot. "

Wikinews, the collaborative online journalism project from Wikipedia's parent organization, just published new details about Wikipedia edits made by Capitol Hill staffers. Using computers connected to the senate's network, staffers have been editing entries -- in some, whitewashing unflattering facts away; in others, inserting nasty blurbs about political foes.

What's interesting here is that Wikinews seems to be doing a better job at connecting the data dots than some of the larger commercial news organizations covering the story. Not because Wikinews volunteers have access to facts that mainstream media reporters don't, but because Wikinewsers might just be looking harder for those facts in the right places.

And although some dirty digital deeds were done, Wikinews reports that many edits (and there were lots of 'em) attributed to Capitol Hill computers were benign. While one could argue Wikinews reporters are more likely to report favorable facts about Wikipedia, publicly accessible historic data supports that assertion. Snip:

Using the public history of edits on Wikipedia, Wikinews reporters collected every Senate IP which had ever edited on Wikipedia as of February 3 and examined where the IPs came from, what they edited, and of what those edits consisted. IP, or Internet Protocol, addresses are unique numbers electronic devices use to communicate with each other on an individual basis.

IP address mapping: The U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms owns the IP block 156.33.0.0 to 156.33.255.255. Requests to learn the mapping of these thousands of IPs were not responded to at press time.

However, the lower 100 blocks of addresses appear to be mapped to the 100 Senators based on their state's alphabetical listing. This was partially confirmed using e-mail responses from the offices of Senators; where the originating computer was connected to the network directly and was not a part of block 222 (a section which seems to be reserved for servers), the IP addresses matched the prediction pattern.

When examining the edit behavior of IPs it also tended to match the predicted pattern. IPs which were assigned to Florida had edits to Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez and other Florida-related pages primarily, while those assigned to California had edited Dianne Feinstein. Edits coming from the U.S. House of Representatives were less traceable because they came through a proxy server---meaning they all showed up under one IP address.

Link to full text of entry, which breaks down Wikipedia edit history linked to staffers for Joe Biden, Dianne Feinstein, Tom Harkin, Norm Coleman, and Conrad Burns (his fondness for the word "ragheads" was excised by a staffer, according to this report). (Thanks, Jimmy Wales)

Previously:
Capitol Hill Wikipedia hijinks: why don't we know more?

Reader Comment: As is often the case with political matters, there is some debate over whether the Wikinews report reflects partisan bias. More about that here, on the article's talk page: Link.

[Deputy District Attorney Hoon Chun said Francis] is pleased the ordeal is over. In exchange for the plea, the additional counts of burglary, kidnapping for ransom and carjacking were dismissed. Riley admitted breaking into the victim's home on Jan. 22, 2004. During the preliminary hearing, Francis testified that Riley first wanted $100,000, then increased his demands to $300,000 and $500,000 and threatened to put the videotape on the Internet if he did not pay. Francis testified he was released after being driven a short distance in his Bentley. Francis also testified that he learned who his assailant was in December 2004 when his ex-girlfriend Paris Hilton pulled him aside at a party and told him what she had learned about the defendant.

[It is] stark, grainy. The color is garish, almost fluorescent, possibly from too many generations of loosely authorized copying. A shirtless male figure lies face down on a mattress, his head resting on a pillow. His eyes flutter at half-mast. His mouth is puddled in a stuporous grin, and he looks very, very high. The camera pans to reveal his pants dragged down around his knees and a pink vibrator resting on the crest of his buttocks, lazily gyrating with an irritating whine. The mood is hardly erotic. The man on the screen looks like a hostage in one of those videos streaming out of war-ravaged Iraq: disheveled, sleep-deprived, disoriented, and, just maybe, fearing something on the order of an on-camera beheading. “My name is Joe Francis,” he says repeatedly in a damaged monotone, slurring his words in a continuous stream. “I’m from Boys Gone Wild, and I like it up the ass.”

"Frankly, the guy's work gives me full-body heebie-jeebies; as it says on the page," said Lileks. "I have nightmares that look like his stuff, and they're all directed by Tim Burton."
Link

The LSD Symposium started on Friday morning with a talk of about 20 minutes by Dr. Hofmann, alchemist extraordinaire and discoverer of the LSD molecule. After being introduced and cheered, the magic started. Uncle Albert is a petite, but relatively unwrinkled 100 year old genius who has no problem in talking (in German, but translated on headphones) for more than 20 minutes without going ahem or ahh and without consulting any written notes. It's unbelievable. He feels that the LSD molecule "called to him" and he tells us that the only reason he discovered it is because he didn't "work correctly."

These 20 free tracks from San Francisco's own original mash-up party (bootiesf) are unbelievably Bootie-licious.

My favorite is Gwen Stefani vs. Snoop Dogg vs. ZZ Top - "Hot Rich Girls Dropped In A Grange."

Almost as amazing are "S.L.H. (Sri Lanka High)" (M.I.A. vs. The Ramones) and "Do You Wanna Cuz It's Tricky" (Franz Ferdinand vs. Run-DMC vs. The Knack).

Reader comment: Charles Vestal says,

I hadn't seen a mirror set up anywhere, so I plopped it on my webspace courtesy of the infinitely speedy dreamhost. The original link seems to be going pretty fast still, but figured a mirror wouldn't hurt: Link

Try to search on Google for

olly hits snake

[Ed. Note: do not place quotes around those three search terms.] Scroll down all the way to the bottom of the page, where you'll read the text

"In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 2 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org."

Originally this was found by one of the fravia's board members -- ollydbg is a debugger (like SoftIce), but i think it has nothing to do with the complaint.

Wendy Seltzer at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and chillingeffects.org says

You posted a story to BoingBoing on Google's DMCA-based removal of links. While it's unfortunate, at least Google is being transparent about the process by sending the takedown notices to Chilling Effects and linking over there when it removes a result from its search. We hope more search engines will do the same!

You can find more than 1000 takedown demands sent to Google here, and more background on the DMCA here.

You'll notice that a great deal of the takedown demands to Google are for child pornography. Over the past several years of searching for child pornography there have been only a few cases where these takedowns actually prevented me from finding the specific page for which I was looking. My guess is that most of the successful takedowns were against American sites, whereas most child pornography is hosted in Europe and Asia. I would be interested to hear whether non-American users of Google encounter similar filtering.

Thomas at Milezero is a musician who has written a number of interesting tutorials about composing with Electroplankton. Electroplankton is a Nintendo DS title that lets you make amazing music by moving around little digital lifeforms. (Here's my previous entry about it.)

I used Electroplankton to compose the intro music for my interview with Douglas Rushkoff about his comic book, Testament.
Link

Monster and MonsterTRAK made the product changes you describe in order to help companies comply with the new OFCCP rule regarding the definition of an "Internet Applicant". According to the rule, all affected federal contractors and subcontractors must retain "any and all expressions of interest through the internet or related electronic data technologies as to which the contractor considered the individual for a particular position.”

Job seekers still have the ability to provide employers with updated resume information simply by reapplying to the same position. However, the old resume must also be retained for a minimum of two years to ensure that the employer has a record of exactly how the document appeared at the time of submission.

Compliance to this new rule is required of employers, not online job boards.

Monster consulted with industry experts, legal advisors and the OFCCP to design a system that makes it easy for employers to comply with the rule. I hope this clarifies any questions you may have.

Here Lies Love – A Song Cycle deals with the life of Imelda Marcos, co-ruler of the Philippines in the 70s and 80s, as well as the life of Estrella Cumpas, the woman who raised her. Through a series of songs written by David Byrne, with musical contributions from Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook), Here Lies Love – A Song Cycle presents Imelda Marcos meditating on events in her life, from her childhood spent in poverty and her rise to power to her ultimate departure from the palace. In particular, the production looks at the relationship between Imelda and a servant from her childhood, Estrella Cumpas, who appeared at key moments in Imelda's life.

Image: "Activity in the amygdala while watching the FedEx ad. The ad lasts 45 seconds and the caveman crushing is shown toward the end (approximately where the black arrow is). There is a large increase in neural activity in the amygdala when the dinosaur crushes the caveman." (Thanks, John Brockman!)

Previously: This is your brain on Super Bowl Ads

Reader comment: Luke The Obscure says,

Great article, the only thing missing are the actual ads, which can be found here at Google video. Also included are two GoDaddy commercials that were apparently rejected due to content.

Yesterday, I blogged about The IT Crowd, and the fact that Channel 4 has the vision to put the first two episodes online in advance of the show as a promotion, and the foolishness to lock them in a proprietary streaming Microsoft format that meant that I couldn't watch them. I've now successfully downloaded the episodes through the Bittorrent tracker The Pirate Bay, and I can't remember when I've laughed so much.

Creator Graham Linehan has produced a cast of characters who exemplify everything I loved about Father Ted: complete, over-the-top silliness, likable villainy, and great comic foolishness. The setup for the show is as silly as Father Ted's: two IT geeks in the basement of a large, abusive corporation get a new boss, a woman who lied about her IT experience on her resume. What follows isn't funny because of its intricate plotting, but because of its willingness to lard absurdity on absurdity, so that each episode gets progressively weirder as it progresses (for example, in episode two, there's a screamingly funny running gag about a fire that's broken out in the basement, which has to be hidden from the abusive CEO when he comes down to check on everyone's morale).

I'm so glad that this show exists. I've waited all my life for a truly geeky comedy, and I think that this is it. Link

Like Kelly's first collection, Stranger Things Happen (now available as a free Creative Commons download), Magic for Beginners is sly, funny, and moving. Kelly's gift is to use plain, spare language to describe mind-crogglingly weird things that revolve around people experiencing heart-wrenching and/or uplifting emotions.

In a collection as full of wonderful work as this one, it's hard to pick a single story as the standout, but for me it was the title story, Magic for Beginners. In Magic for Beginners, we meet Jeremy Mars, the son of a horror writer who compulsively shoplifts books from the local bookstore and reupholsters sofas in his spare time. Jeremy's mother is a librarian who writes checks to the local bookstore to cover the losses from her husband's sticky fingers.

Jeremy is addicted to a guerrilla TV show, a kind of uber-Buffy-cum-Twin-Peaks that appears at irregular intervals, unannounced, on the snowy upper slopes of cable. He and his group of friends (so lovingly well-drawn that I've been pining for my high-school chums since reading it) chase this show, as do sizable numbers of bloggers, fans, and weirdniks.

The fandom is perfect and passionate, and the best thing, the very best thing, is how Kelly describes the show, giving us tantalizing bits and pieces of what sounds like the greatest television show anyone has ever imagined.

It's absurdist magic realism, like Douglas Coupland wandering through a Marquez novel.

The short story collection is an endangered species -- hardly the kind of thing you're apt to find at the airport. But Kelly Link is the best argument for working to preserve the species. No writer can match her for sheer Kelly Linkiness -- she's utterly original and a pure delight.

This is one of the best things about The Library, the way the cast swaps parts, all except for Faithful Margaret and Prince WIng, who are only ever themselves. Faithful Margaret and Prince Wing are the love interests and the main characters, and therefore, inevitably, the most boring characters, although Amy has a crush on Prince Wing.

Fox and the dashing-but-treacherous pirate-magician Two Devils are never played by the same actor twice, although in the twenty-third episode of The Library, the same woman played them both. Jeremy supposes that the casting could be perpetually confusing, but instead it makes your brain catch on fire. It's magical.

You always know Fox by her costume (the too-small green T-shirt, the long full skirts she wears to hide her tail), by her dramatic hand- gestures and body language, by the soft, breathy-squeaky voice the actors use when they are Fox. Fox is funny, dangerous, bad-tempered, flirtatious, greedy, untidy, accident-prone, graceful, and has a mysterious past. In some episodes, Fox is played by male actors, but she always sounds like Fox. And she's always beautiful. Every episode you think that the Fox, surely, is the most beautiful Fox there could ever be, and yet the Fox of the next episode will be even more heart-breakingly beautiful.

On television, it's night in The Free People's World-Tree Library. All the librarians are asleep, tucked into their coffins, their scabbards, priest-holes, button holes, pockets, hidden cupboards, between the pages of their enchanted novels. Moonlight pours through the high, arched windows of the Library and between the aisles of shelves, into the park. Fox is on her knees, clawing at the muddy ground with her bare hands. The statue of George Washington kneels beside her, helping.

Update: w00t! The title story of this collection is online free in six parts: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6

The O'TOM® hooks (also marketed in USA under the trademark "TICK-TWISTER®" ) allow tick removal from the skin of animals and people.

They are always sold in a two pack (the large hook for the medium and large ticks, the small hook for small and very small ticks) , and are currently the most efficient tools to remove all ticks, any size and location,

* without leaving the mouth-parts of the tick planted in the skin

* without compressing the abdomen of the ticks, minimizing the transfer agents (Lyme's disease, babesiosis...)

*without ether or other products

*in a few seconds, without pain.

The headline in Popular Mechanics magazine saluted a manufacturing triumph in Los Angeles: "Tortillas Meet the Machine Age." It was 1950, and the El Zarape Tortilla Factory, among the first to automate the production of tortillas, had used a tortilla-making machine for three years.

Corn and flour disks poured off the conveyor belt more than 12 times faster than they could be made by hand. At first many came out "bent" or misshapen, as company President Rebecca Webb Carranza recalled decades later, and were thrown away.

[T]he fraction of total box office that comes from the blockbusters (top 25 films) has been steadily falling, even as the cost of making those films (expressed here as a percentage of total box office revenue) has been rising.

Bottom line: even in Hollywood, the home of the blockbuster, hits are losing their power. It's not nearly as dire as in music, but it's trending in the same direction. Does this mean the end of movies? Not at all--there have never been more films made, just as there has never been more music available than today, despite the fact that the bestsellers sell less.

It's not that people aren't watching films and listening to music, it's that they're watching different films and different music--we're just not following the herd to the same hits the way we used to. I'd guess that most of the decline in box office is due to the rise of the DVD, not a loss of interest in movies. Likewise for music, where the ubiquitous white earbuds suggest that music has never been a bigger part of our culture, despite the fact that CD sales are back to mid-90s levels.

World of Warcraft's moderators have been shutting down banning in-game advertisement gay-friendly guilds in the game on the tortured grounds that letting people mention that they're gay will encourage jerks to say nasty things about gay people, and since saying homophobic things violates WoW's policies, ignorant jerks shouldn't be tempted into being homophobes.

The Lambda Legal letter takes Blizzard to task for this bizarre ruling and warns them that this is a legally and morally dubious stance to take:

In order to avoid any similar incidents in the future, we ask that you inform all of Blizzard’s system administrators that they are not to discipline any players for mentioning or discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in a non-insulting fashion. We also ask that Blizzard confirm that LGBT-friendly guilds are allowed to announce their existence in the same manner as any other guilds. Of course, Lambda Legal would be more than happy to offer any advice we can to assist Blizzard in crafting a nondiscriminatory clarification of the terms of service for W.O.W., or in providing guidance to the administrators enforcing Blizzard’s anti-harassment guidelines. We ask that you respond within thirty days of the date of this letter to avoid the need for further action.

Update: Josh sez, Shimmre, the original founder of the GLBT friendly guild in World Of Warcraft posted this on the official forums today:

Blizzard Apoligizes to GLBT Friendly Guild!!! That's right! I have received an email from the head of Global Customer Service which included an apology for the way that their staff characterized my conduct, and that it was an unfortunate interpretation of their policy. They have removed the warning from my account. I will be posting the letter that Blizzard sent me on the guild website sometime this week so that you can see that advertising for your glbt friendly guild is NOT violating the TOS!!!

However, they say that their current policy (which I actually DIDN'T violate, thank you very much) is under review. What this means. . . we don't know. Are they reviewing it with their employees to make sure they don't make this awful mistake again? Are they reviewing and re-writing it? Whatever the case, Lambda Legal has sent them a letter offering to assist them in making sure the policy stays glbt friendly.

The BBC has photos of period v-mails along with audio of soldiers reminiscing about their v-mail adventures.

[T]he soldiers wrote their letters on a form provided and it was then photographed onto microfilm which was simply flown to the USA. A reel of 16mm microfilm could contain 18,000 letters and in terms of bulk and weight the roll of film took up only a fraction of what 18,000 real letters would take. Upon arrival in the USA the letters were printed from the film and then posted onward to the addressee.

This clever method was employed at the suggestion of the US Army Postal Director Col. Bill Rose who actually copied the idea from a system then currently in operation in the British services which was called an ‘airgraph’.

The process might seem to be laborious with the collection of mail, the actual photographing of thousands and thousands of letters and a similar process at the other end of re-printing the photographs, addressing envelopes and mailing them on. It did really all boil down to a space issue and it is on record that for every 150,000 letters microfilmed like this over a ton of shipping space was saved.

One of the more interesting things we ever found out the flea market was a giant collection of bubble gum wrappers - not the kind for gum cards but actual bubble gum. It was in two volumes titled GUM BOOK 1 & 2. There were probably over 500 wrappers and packages, many cut down and all taped in the album. The earliest stuff was from 1974 and the last stuff from 1991. These 66 pages are the earliest and most interesting. Almost everything is dated.

The settlement provides relief for persons who bought, received or used SONY BMG CDs with either XCP or MediaMax software. Under the settlement, any person in possession of an XCP CD can exchange it for a replacement CD, an MP3 download of the same album, and either (a) cash payment of $7.50 and one (1) free album download from a list of 200 albums, or (b) three (3) free album downloads from that list. Purchasers of CDs containing MediaMax 5.0 software will receive a free MP3 download of the same album and one (1) additional free album download. Purchasers of CDs containing MediaMax 3.0 software will receive a free MP3 download of the same album.

Previous installments of the Sony DRM Debacle Roundup: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V

(Sony taproot graphic courtesy of Sevensheaven)

Just as powerful as the preservation aspect of Google Book Search is the fact our venture will result in a magnitude of discovery that seems almost incomprehensible. I could not have imagined that in my lifetime so much diffuse information literally would be at my fingertips.

It is an educator’s dream, knowing that the vast body of information held in the libraries of Michigan, Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and the New York Public Library will be universally searchable and, in the case of public domain works, accessible.

My parents were both teachers. My mother would take me and my two sisters to the public library in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and I remember it was like opening the doors to a different world with each trip we made. I was forever discovering entire new veins of titles, books that were simply enchanting to impressionable young girls.

Later on, as an undergraduate in college, I all but lived in the library. If I wasn’t holed up and reading in a carrel, I was simply roaming the stacks and uncovering new subjects and ideas.

I cannot tell you how exhilarating – and how humbling – it is to know that this digital enterprise, with our university’s books, will provide that same joy of discovery for people everywhere, from Iowa to Indonesia.

This seems petty to me. Nick Flynn, the tripper, is a regular at the museum, and he had what truly sounds like a freak accident; falling down a flight of stairs and accidentally shattering three priceless vases that had been insecurely displayed there is the kind of thing I can see myself doing. Maybe he was a jerk about it, but it sounds from this like he was truly sorry.

"I have had a letter from a Duncan Robinson," Flynn said. "He is the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and he has written to me asking me not to visit the museum again in the near future."

After the platform was completed we mounted it on the sander itself, now decked out custom stickers and an agressive racing strip, through a small screw on the top, giving a very clean and airy looking. The only real modification was some guide wheels to keep 'er from hitting the sidewalls (the tracks are 12" wide). The name was actually the last thing we came up with, it seems so obvious now, we like to think it was fate...

Sophi contacted me through IM, asking if I still hired escorts for exorbitant amounts of money. Well: I do. People who don't understand that, don't see this site is going to make me rich. I replied to her IM, we had a chat, and a few days later we settled on a L$3700 deal.

She was a tough negotiater. However, I did manage to include a picture in the deal (hurry up Sophi, everybody’s waiting now). She also said no transcripts, after she had already agreed, so I’ll only put a few lines here.

The Day the Saucers Came

That day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,
Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,
And the people of Earth stood and stared as they descended,
Waiting, dry-mouthed to find what waited inside for us
And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow
But you didn't notice it because

That day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,
Was the day that the graves gave up their dead
And the zombies pushed up through soft earth
or erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,
Came towards us, the living, and we screamed and ran,
But you did not notice this because

“It’s as close to the Garden of Eden as you’re going to find on Earth,” marveled Bruce Beehler, vice president of CI’s Melanesia Center for Biodiversity Conservation and a co-leader of the expedition. “The first bird we saw at our camp was a new species. Large mammals that have been hunted to near extinction elsewhere were here in abundance. We were able to simply pick up two Long-Beaked Echidnas, a primitive egg-laying mammal that is little known.”

The discoveries solved one major ornithological mystery – the location of the homeland of Berlepsch’s Six-Wired Bird of Paradise (seen here). First described in the late 19th century through specimens collected by indigenous hunters from an unknown location on New Guinea, the species had been the focus of several subsequent expeditions that failed to find it.

On the second day of the recent month-long expedition, amazed scientists watched as a male Berlepsch’s bird of paradise performed a mating dance for an attending female in the field camp. This was the first time a live male of the species had been observed by Western scientists, and proved that the Foja Mountains was the species’ true home.

KBR would build the centers for the Homeland Security Department for an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space, company executives said. KBR, which announced the contract last month, had a similar contract with immigration agencies from 2000 to last year.

...

Halliburton executives, who announced the contract last week, said they were pleased.

As a remodeling contractor, I benefit greatly from a well-designed tool. One tool I especially like is the Tibet Almond Stick. I always have one in my toolbox. It is a remarkable quick fix for minor scratches in wood finishes. One swipe and the scratches disappear (or are greatly diminished!) Great for touching up wood floors, furniture, wood countertops, trim, etc. I have no idea how it works. -- Rock Heindel

Reader comment: Bob says:

Saw your boingboing post on Tibet Almond Sticks--yeah, great for blending in wood finish scratches, but there's an even cooler "off label" musical use that a folk singer/guitar player turned me on to 30 years ago (before Gore-Tex coated guitar strings).

The light oil and fine grit impregnated into the wrapped cloth "stick" are perfect for rejuvenating old guitar strings. Just run the stick up and down the strings. Snap them against the fret board a few times and then wipe off each string to remove the residue. It'll make an incredible howling sound as you pinch each string with a clean cloth and go up and down its length. This gets the build up of dirt, grit, sweat, and "finger cheese" out from between the strings' windings. What's left behind is a light, slick coating of oil that inhibits rust and tarnish on the steel strings. Makes a set of old acoustic guitar sound new and brilliant again.

I think the formulation for the Almond Sticks has changed a little over the years (thanks, EPA), but it still works.

Sorry, won't make much difference on nylon uke strings!

The rockers in postwar Britain were called "Teddy Boys" because they adapted Edwardian-era styling cues (drainpipe trousers, long coats, etc.) to American rockabilly fashion. It's a scene that survived the fifties, kept going through the sixties, seventies, and is still around today.

In this case, "Teddy Girls" are women in the scene who opted for the male elements of the style, like short pompadour haircuts and trousers.

I've never seen these photos before, but it's interesting for the butch "drag king" elements, which seems pretty daring for the era.

Also, the photos are by genius gonzo director Ken Russell!

Link

Reader comment: Devin says: "The pink dinosaur is still in Vernal. It was moved to the other end of town. I was born and raised in Vernal. It is so surprising to see the pink dinosaur on Boing Boing. I don’t remember which MTV Road Rules (I think it was 2 season) one of their challenges was painting that dinosaur. The motel was shut down in the late and eighties, but the pool was great to skate. I will get some pics of her in her new home."

Not that the legendary anchorman's appearance in Iraq should surprise anyone. Wherever news is, so is Ron Burgundy. Link (Thanks, Jenny, and Coop!)

Boing Boing readers may have missed this on Digg, but I thought they'd get a kick out of it: Link.

In a press pic of Bush touring sooper sekrit NSA headquarters, a way cool, wargames-looking big screen display is in the background with all sorts of cryptic worldwide threat intel: Link.

But that's actually a volunteer-run computer security portal that anyone can display through a web browser: Link to SANS.org
(Ed. note: SANS, btw, does not stand for "Sekrit-Ass-NSA-Stuff.").

Click here to launch your own NSA Global Threat Display. I'm so leet, I have it running on LCD #4 right now!

No matter how many times soldiers and marines say they're not interested, there's always someone trying to wrap them up in heavier, hotter, more uncomfortable armor. Reader AS points to the latest culprit: MTek Weapon Systems, which is pushing Stormtrooper-esque "facial armor" for our troops. The mask weighs 1.3 pounds, is compatible with ballistic eyewear, and will stop a bullet from a .44 magnum. So far, there seems to be one marine corporal using the thing in Iraq. We'll see if more emerge.

Bonus, work-safe round: Hulk goatse sticker for kids (thanks, Gwen), Duploatse (Hint: duplo is lego for toddlers; thanks Aaron)

GONZALES: It's an early warning system designed for the 21st century. It is the modern equivalent to a scout team, sent ahead to do reconnaissance, or a series of radar outposts designed to detect enemy movements. And as with all wartime operations, speed, agility and secrecy are essential to its success.

TRANSLATION: Remember the robot probe in The Empire Strikes Back? It’s like that.

GONZALES: While the president approved this program to respond to the new threats against us, he also imposed several important safeguards to protect the privacy and the civil liberties of all Americans. . . . As the president has said, if you're talking with Al Qaida, we want to know what you're saying.

TRANSLATION: If you’ve got nothing to hide, then there should be no problem with us listening to you. If you’ve got something to hide, then . . . well . . . we should listen to you.

Aerogel (also called 'frozen smoke' because of its hazy blue appearance), is a truly remarkable material. It is the lightest and lowest-density solid known to exist, and holds an unbelievable 15 entries in the Guinness Book of World Records, including best insulator and lowest density solid.

Aerogel is composed of 99.8% air and is chemically similar to ordinary glass. Being the world's lightest known solid, it weighs only three times that of air.

Reader comment: Eric says:

United Nuclear is a really cool site. I recently bought some powerful neodymium magnets, and they were a lot of fun. But not from United Nuclear. What they sold for $75, someone else was selling for under $17, and most of their other prices, at least on magnets, are similarly inflated. Nobody else lists the larger super magnets, but the other sites I saw have a custom order sheet.

After a little comparison shopping, I went to magnet4less.com to get a 1" thick by 2" diameter N40 magnet, among other things. I do not have a united nuclear magnet to compare, but I was happy with what I got at a fifth the price. I have never purchased anything from united nuclear, so other than their prices and blinking web pages, I have no complaints.

United nuclear is a great clearing house of fun (dangerous) toys, but the price is not right. Shop around first. A quick search did not, in fact, reveal any other vendors of aerogel. And in the nasa articles it sounded somewhat expensive, like $1000 per liter. I expect someone else will have it for sale at less than half the price soon though.

Just a warning note, if you want to make a bracelet, get the magnets that are NOT magnetized through the thickness. I made that mistake, and while still fun, the little magnets I got did not like the bracelet shape. At magnet4less you have to custom order cylinders magnetized through the diameter, while other sites have caught on to the bracelet fad.

United nuclear also list grade N45 as the strongest grade, while other sites have N50 grade magnets. And the other sites do not require the signed disclaimer, which sounds like marketing hype. Even my smaller magnet could hurt someone if not respected, but a signed disclaimer? Anyway, enough debunking.

"I was dumbfounded. I had to look twice," the waitress recalled after firefighters spent two hours freeing Edwin Geller from the nearly 16-inch by 16-inch vent. City police said Geller, 40, a convicted burglar who resides in North Toledo, was caught in the act - literally.

Even though the grill was turned off Tuesday afternoon, it was hot inside the insulated vent. "He was saying, ‘Give me water,’" Ms. Addis said.

Geller was in serious condition last night in the intensive care unit of St. Anne Mercy Hospital with skin burns and other injuries. He declined an interview with The Blade.

I don't have a link exactly, but instead this email that I received today from the career services dept. at Columbia University. It's pretty scary. The Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) office is requiring Monster.com (which provides online resume/job search services for our career office at Columbia) to keep all copies of the resumes that we submit to Monster.com. From the letter attached below, it appears that this applies not only to Monster.com but to ALL online job listing companies. It doesn't provide any explanation for why our resumes (and hence our personal job/life history) is being recorded.

From: careereducation@columbia.edu
Subject: IMPORTANT INTERVIEWTRAK CHANGE
Date: February 6, 2006 3:48:31 PM EST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Dear Students,

We are writing to inform you of an important change to InterviewTRAK. Due to new federal legislation requiring MonsterTRAK, and all online job listing companies, to record a "snapshot" of a candidate's resume once it has been submitted, you can no longer update, replace or delete your resume once it has been submitted it to an InterviewTRAK event.

If you have updated or replaced your resume prior to February 6, 2006, the employer received the correct submission and you do not need to act.

However, after Monday, February 6, 2006, please be very careful when submitting resumes to InterviewTRAK events, because once you have submitted a resume to an event, you will no longer be able to update, replace, delete or remove a resume and therefore will not be able to alter or delete the resume submitted for that event. If you have any questions or need technical assistance, please email student.monstertrak@monster.com.

If you would like more information on this new ruling by The Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), please visit MonsterTRAK's OFCCP site at [Link]

Thank you for your cooperation.

Reader comment: Geoff says,

Here's a presentation developed by the DOL on "The New Internet Applicant Recordkeeping Rule". Link

This is why applicant data is tracked for contractors with the government. Not a big deal, really:

The OFCCP is tasked with the responsibility of making sure that federal contractors demonstrate fair hiring practices with respect to race, gender and ethnicity. To help ascertain and measure "fairness," the OFCCP has defined a set of strict data collection and reporting guidelines. The definition of an “Internet Applicant was developed to help companies limit the amount of data that they need to collect and report on. Only those candidates who meet the strict definition of an "Internet Applicant" are required to be included in an Adverse Impact Analysis which is submitted to the government in the event of an audit.

explanatory PDF Link

The ex-security guard became a minor celebrity after a string of TV appearances — in which he sported a “wig” made out of black gaffer tape.


He would eat six fried eggs, bacon and a whole loaf of bread for breakfast and scoffed seven cream cakes in a sitting.

William Gibson Science Fiction Writer
If I had that word, it would be the title of my next book. I think cyberspace is past its sell-by, but the prob­lem is that everything has become an aspect of, well, cyberspace.

Katy Börner Director, InfoVis Lab, Indiana University
A global brain, dominated by implants that merge biological creativity with digital resources and speed.

Cory Doctorow, author, co-editor of Boing Boing
Chattergoods: Cyberspace is the "place of the mind." The world of intelligent, networked, self-optimizing, plentiful objects is a world where everything around us is continually negotiating its place and role: advertising service-queues, determining available RF spectrum to occupy, negotiating to share load, storage, and functions. Chattergoods are goods that converse with one another, all the time, the network chatter of the physical environment.

Ross Mayfield, CEO, Socialtext
On: When kids use the Net, they are either On, using it as a conduit for social interaction, or Off, a way of not being present. We need to retain Off as a right.

The AUV scanned the scattered cargo and created a topographical sonar map while collecting thousands of high-resolution digital images, without ever physically touching the shipwreck. In all, 7,650 images were collected on four dives. WHOI archaeologists and engineers are assembling those images into mosaics that depict the minute features of the shipwreck with unmatched clarity and detail...

Much of the true value in cargo ships such as the Chios wreck is the information they provide about the networks that existed among the ancient Greeks and their trading partners. The wreck is "like a buried UPS truck. It provides a wealth of information that helps us figure out networks based on the contents of the truck," said (MIT professor David) Mindell.

Chibi-Robo is a four-inch-tall domestic cleaning robot, a gift to a young girl from her father, an out of work roboticist. Besides attending to tasks like scrubbing up muddy dog prints off the floor with a toothbrush (and accumulating "Happy Points" for doing so), Chibi-Robo explores the house, learning snippets of a meta-story involving a no-good robotics company out to harm the family. My daughter is fascinated by the unfolding meta-story, as am I.

Both the music, which is lighthearted, and the set design, which is seen from the ground-level perspective of Chibi-Robo, add greatly to the charm of this non-competitive title.
Link

PLFM also prints lovely, small paperback daybooks that map each day of the Mayan calendar on to our 365-day calendar. Next to each "regular" day, you see the corresponding glyph in the Mayan day count, and the names for that day in the three most-spoken Mayan languages. The book also contains history and a glossary of day descriptions. You can order them for $5 each (while supplies last -- they don't print a ton of 'em), plus postage, by emailing your order request to [info (at) langlink.com].

This link has more info on the immersive language courses. In addition to the Mayan courses, they also offer terrific Spanish courses in Guatemala, too. Alas, there's no info online about the agendas Mayas, so just email for details.

Reader comment: Robert says,

Please please please don't by those so-called "sweatshop free" shoes that are made in china! There's no such thing as sweatshop free in china. Buy the real hemp sneaker with recycled rubber soles, union-made ( not made in china, cause unions are banned there ). Link

Reader comment: jonathan says,

If you dig those eco sneaks you posted about. I think you’ll really like the shoes from “no sweat” -- Link. They have similar sneakers, but much better colors and styles. They also have sandals made by tsunami victims and profits go towards tsunami victims, theyre called tsong thongs.

I really liked what I saw upon visiting the "Ecosneaks" site you posted about on BoingBoing, right up until I tried to purchase some of their shoes: that's when I noticed their entire checkout procedure is completely unsecure (it looks like they don't even use https when collecting credit card information). I was concerned even further when I saw a disclaimer on the site which included this:

[...] THIS SITE'S OWNER WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM THE USE OF THIS SITE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES.[...]

It would probably be a good idea to give your other readers a heads-up before someone inadvertently ends up giving up their credit card information.

the ecosneak is environmentally responsible with water based adhedsives and hemp blended uppers, cruelty free, and socially responsible. although manufactured in china, they are manufactured under rigorous standards free from child labor and industry recognized definitions of sweatshop conditions.

each consumer is free to choose whether to purchase products from asia under their own ideals, but for readers to categorically slander our products is simply childish. no other company has invested so much time and money into the design and development of ethical footwear. consumers are free to choose from over 30 additional styles that are manufactured outside of china. again, no other company offers ethical footwear consumers such a broad range of styles and price points.

your readers are free to question us directly at info@shoeswithsouls.com rather than trash our reputation without any background on our company. thanks again.

Shoes With Souls, Inc.
9040 Carroll Way Suite 6
San Diego, CA 92121

phone 858-653-3741
fax 858-653-3742

Update: Mr. Brian replies:

Regarding site security: this site was designed in 2004 prior to all the current security encription logos ect... however, the site is encrypted and all transactions are secure. customers can also phone in orders to 1.858.653.3741 if they prefere. in addition, our return policy is 15 days for a full refund or exchanges within 30 days.

Snip from Dr. Iacoboni's report:

Who won the Super Bowl ads competition? If a good indicator of a successful ad is activity in brain areas concerned with reward and empathy, two winners seem to be the 'I am going to Disney' ad and the Bud 'office' ad. In contrast, two big floppers seem to be the Bud 'secret fridge' ad and the Aleve ad. What is quite surprising, is the strong disconnect that can be seen between what people say and what their brain activity seem to suggest. In some cases, people singled out ads that elicited very little brain responses in emotional, reward-related, and empathy-related areas.

The upshot to of all this is that now when you search Critiki to locate some contemporary or long-vanished temple of Polynesian-pop, you not only get reviews, photographs, the joint's location on Google Maps, and an array of signature tiki mugs linked to the establishment in question, you also get beaucoup-cool imagery from their menu, like this great cover for The Luau cocktail lounge in Beverly Hills.

Update: Nick sez, Andre Torrez links to the original creator, Ludwig Gatzke."

Update 2: Nick sez, Valleywag is running a mashup contest for this graphic.

Consumerist has notes on its ongoing investigation into the "Manchurian Fans" scandal. A former employee of AEG, a firm that specializes in tricking people into thinking that its employees are regular users who talk up products because they plain like them, has been hired by Nvidia, but he won't answer Consumerist's questions. Nvidia's PR person won't return their calls either.

It looks pretty grim for Nvidia: I hope that if they have something to say in their defense that they say it soon, because it really looks like they're just waiting for this to blow over.

I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums.

I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.

Update: Ryan sez, "The Penny Arcade post linked to in that article was a follow-up to their earlier post where they were basically accusing Electronic Arts of doing the exact same thing to promote some of their crappier games."

Update 2: Mike sez, "Back when I was desperate to get out of retail, I once interviewed for a 'web content' job. During the interview, I learned it wasn't so much web content as going into internet chat rooms and guerilla marketing this guy's audio speaker company. As a journalist (and, of course, a gamer), I thought that was pretty crazy, and told him so. 'Don't you think people will rebel against you invading their, albeit virtual, space just to sell your product?' I asked. His defense was something I will never forget. With a straight face, he pointed out that it wasn't that hard a sell: 'Hell, I heard about guys picking up little twelve year old girls on chat rooms. If they can get little girls to meet them in real life just from a chat room, you better believe we'll be able to sell speakers.' It was the first time that, by the end of the job interview, I no longer wanted the job."

Update 3:Gawker's Joel sez, "To my knowledge, the anonymous poster on Penny-Arcade isn't necessarily an AEG or Nvidia employee. We're just trying to connect the dots. The Nvidia claims come from the enthusiast websites we linked. While the Penny-Arcade poster is talking about the same sort of hanky-panky, we do not yet (and may never) know who was trying to hire him."

Update 4 Two followups to this have appeared on Consumerist.

Update 5 JCA sez,

Viral marketing via message forums has been around for a while now. In fact, the practice has a name: Ashleeturfing

Roughly a year ago, I got tired of our forums being endlessly spammed by "shills" posing as fans working on behalf of very large media companies, including the likes of MTV, Court TV, and The Discovery Channel. I decided post about it on MetaFilter.

The final straw came via an infamous viral spam post about Ashlee Simpson just after her SNL lip-sync debacle and Orange Bowl appearance -- it was so ridiculous I had to call attention to it:

"I just read about Ashlee in us weekly. Those guys at the football game were total jerks." -- mandyc19

MTV (or the marketing company working on their behalf) was trying to draw attention to the upcoming season premiere of Ashlee Simpson's MTV reality show. I Googled the text of the post from "mandyc19" to find the exact same message had been posted on countless message forums. The person even used the same "mandyc19" username on each forum.

It works -- it really works. The heart has two settings, slow and fast, and both of them calm me down in a way that's comparable to having a purring cat buzzing under your hand (but it's easier to put My Beating Heart on a shelf for the weekend than it is leaving a cat behind.)

At $120, I don't think I would have bought this for myself, but I do think I'll keep on using it once in a while now that I have one. Link

First on the agenda is stretching. For decades stretching has been seen as an essential preliminary to a workout. But according to Dr. Ian Shrier of the faculty of Medicine at McGill University, and past president of the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine, that's old, and bad, advice. Research has shown that pre-workout stretching decreases performance and doesn't protect against injury.

Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health has studied people who pack all their exercise into one weekend binge. She discovered that if you have any risks for heart disease, being a weekend warrior is as bad as getting no exercise at all.

Most surprising is that exercise can have no effect at all on some people. Dr. Claude Bouchard, Executive Director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, discovered early in his career that there's enormous variation in how people respond to cardiovascular exercise, with some not responding at all.

Karl has blown my mind every time we've had a conversation, ever since I first met him in a writers' workshop at 16. He was the first person to tell me about fractals, chaos, Unix, gopher, and evolutionary psychology. His interview roams over numerous themes and subjects and provides some key insights into how he accomplishes his amazing, wildly imaginative world-building. He even talks about what it was like growing up as a Mennonite tech-geek. Link (Thanks, Bazooka Joe!)

There has been an increase in the overall noise level in the blogosphere, most notably in the number of spam and fake pings that are sent - what I call "spings". These spam pings are fake or bogus notifications that a blog has been updated; in some cases, these spings can amount to a denial-of-service attack, and can sometimes account for as much as 60% of the total pings Technorati receives. However, we've built a sophisticated system that mitigates the spings, and helps to keep spam blogs out of our indexes. Beyond that, about 9% of new blogs are spam or machine generated, or are attempts to create link farms or click fraud. Technorati continues to take an ecosystem approach to solving this problem, working closely with other players like Amazon, AOL, Ask Jeeves, Drupal, Google, MSN, Six Apart, Tucows, Wordpress and Yahoo, and there will be another Web 2.0 Spam Squashing Summit this spring, building on the success of the previous two summits.

The Radical Six Part Toaster rotates and heats the toast in single compartments. The compartments lift from the main assembly and swing open to allow toast to keep warm and crisp on its hot plates.

Monday, February 13, 2006, 5PM
Down and Out at MIT: An Evening with Cory Doctorow
MIT Bartos Theater (E15), 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Sponsored by MIT Comparative Media Studies, MIT Office of the Arts

Wednesday, February 15, 2006, 6PM
Set Top Cop: Hollywood's Secret War on Your Living Room
Harvard Emerson Hall, Rm 105
Sponsored by Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Computer Society, Harvard FreeCulture

Thursday, February 16, Noon
0WNED -- How Hollywood Plans on Making the Future Subservient to the Past
Olin Auditorium, Olin College, Needham, MA

Friday, February 17, 2006 - Sunday Feb 19, numerous panels, readings, signings and lecutres at Boskone.

Link

Have you ever looked into the vanity mirror, to see your own reflection many times over? Well, this watch projects the same image. By using mirrors, the electroluminescent coated hands and dots reflect over and over again in an Infinitive manner. Not only that, when pressing the button the Black light sets the watch aglow. Quite a unique concept.

Next, beat the eggs with a fork, but don't add salt. (The grains of salt will tear the structure of the eggs, causing them to disintegrate on contact with the water.) Let a covered pot filled with about four inches of water come to a low boil over moderate heat, then remove the cover, add a little salt and stir the water in a clockwise motion. After you've created a mini-whirlpool, gently pour the eggs into the moving liquid, which will allow them to set suspended in the water rather than sink to the bottom of the pot, where they would stick... After saying a quick prayer and adding the eggs, cover the pot and count to 20. Almost instantly the eggs will change from translucent to opaque and float to the surface in gossamer ribbons. This all happens very quickly, and by the time you lift the lid, they should be completely cooked.

Update: The toxicity of ingested Teflon is disputed by Dupont.

Update 2: Tim sez, "Though DuPont may dispute health effects, they agreed last week to a voluntary phase-out of these Teflon chemicals. My organization has been leading the fight on Teflon, propelled mostly by internal DuPont documents we obtained that show that they were fully aware of potential health effects after workers at a facility that makes Teflon had children with serious birth defects. The problem with the Teflon chemical is that it has been classified by the government as a "Likely Human Carcinogen," it *never* breaks down in the environment, and it has been found in the blood of 99% of newborns in a recent independent Johns Hopkins University study. We found the same thing in our own 'BodyBurden' study where we looked for 400+ industrial chemicals in newborn cord blood."