week of 02/18/2007

Best muscle-rub ever

Sports Akileine Start Cream is the best muscle-rub I've ever tried -- even better than my beloved Tiger Balm, which I adore so deeply that I have often considered brushing my teeth with it.

I first tried this stuff after really wrenching my neck while on holidays in France -- the pharmacist at the local shop recommended it and it saved the trip. Instead of lying down with an icepack all week, I was running around, having fun. Minutes after applying it, I felt a deep, deep warmth in my muscles, and one by one they loosened themselves, relaxing away from the punishing spasm.

I've gone through two or three tubes since, and I just polished off my last one, after hurting my back while doing something foolish (occupational hazard -- after two days this week on airplanes, it's no wonder that my back is rebelling). Ten minutes ago, I wanted to lie down and die. Now my back is a warm, comfortable thing.

A little googling turned up an American distributor for the cream -- they mark it up 300 percent, but I still ordered another tube. This stuff is worth its weight in gold. Link

Update: Here are some cheaper places to shop for the magic sauce, courtesy of Michael and Matthew: Link, Link

Update 2: Yang adds, "And if you're in Canada, the Sports Alkileine cream is available from Mountain Equipment Co-op, also without ridiculous mark-ups." That's the wrong cream, sorry!

 

Lectures from Cory's USC class: podcast

I've just posted the first six lectures from my undergrad class at the University of Southern California: "Pwned: Is Everyone on Campus a Copyright Criminal?" The lectures were recorded by Garrett Sergeant, a volunteer who is a local director/producer/videographer, and we'll be putting up new lectures as they're available. The whole thing is available as a podcast feed, or you can download them from the Internet Archive, where they're available as Oggs, MP3s, streams and so on. Feed, Podcast Subscribe Link, Internet Archive repository
 

Mac program can erase your home directory if you use a pirate serial

David sez, "a Mac program called Display Eater that has been set up by its developer to respond to the use of pirated CD keys by 'erasing something' -- apparently this is, in some instances, the home directory of the infringing Mac. Response over on Versiontracker, amongst other places, has been rather irate -- the PR disaster has already occurred" Link (Thanks, David!)

Update: Jason sez, "Display Eater's developer posted a public letter on his website saying that it was all a hoax. Also, this isn't new to the Mac community. A similar incident occurred in 2004."

 

Crocheted Dalek

Livejournaller Shigella has created the world's most awesome Dr Who crafting project: the crocheted Dalek shaving-cream cozy. I want to buy one of these for every bottle on my bathroom counter. Link
 

Egypt: blogger Kareem Amer gets 4 years for insulting Islam


An Egyptian court this week sentenced blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman (pictured above) to four years in prison. He is the first person in Egypt to be jailed for internet-based journalism.

He was charged with "inciting hatred of Islam" and insulting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his blog, where he wrote under the pseudonym of "Kareem Amer": Link (Arabic), here is his Blogger.com profile, and here are writings he posted on a discussion forum: Link (Arabic).

The sentence comes three years after Mubarak announced he would abolish the practice of imprisonment for "press offenses."

Snip from AP coverage of the sentencing on Thursday:

Nabil [Kareem Amer], wearing a gray T-shirt and sitting in the defendants pen, gave no reaction and his face remained still as the verdict was read. He made no comment to reporters as he was immediate led outside to a prison truck.

Seconds after he was loaded into the truck and the door closed, an Associated Press reporter heard the sound of a slap from inside the vehicle and a shriek of pain from Nabil.

Snip from Reporters Without Borders statement:
As a result of this conviction, which clearly confirms Egypt's inclusion in our list of Internet enemies, we call on the United Nations to reject Egypt's request to host the Internet Governance Forum in 2009. After letting Tunisia, another violator of online freedom, host the World Summit on the Information Society, such a choice would completely discredit the UN process for debating the future of the Internet.

Suleiman, who was arrested on 6 November 2006, got three years for inciting hatred of Islam and one year for insulting the president. The judge dismissed the charge of "spreading rumours liable to disturb the peace" which had been included in the prosecution's indictment. Suleiman's blogs regularly criticised the government's religious and authoritarian excesses. He also criticised Egypt's highest religious institutions including the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, where he studied law. Egypt is on the list of the 13 Internet enemies which Reporters Without Borders compiled in 2006 (Link). The government wants to host one of the stages of the Internet Governance Forum, a series of UN-sponsored negotiations about how to regulate the Internet (see: Link).

On 23 February 2004, the newly-elected president of the Union of Egyptian Journalists, Galal Aref, made an important announcement: President Mubarak had just telephoned him and had formally undertaken to abolish prison sentences for journalists in connection with their work. In effect, he was promising a major overhaul of the laws concerning press offences. Three years later, nothing has changed. Journalists still risk being imprisoned despite the semblance of a reform last year. (For more on this: Link).


Link to the "Free Kareem" website set up by his supporters.

Human rights organization Amnesty International condemned the sentence, and also calls for Kareem's release: Link.

More on Reuters, AP, BBC, Gulf News.

Glenn Reynolds has been following this case for a while at Instapundit: Link 1, Link 2, and he points to an extensive feature on Kareem's case here: Link 3.

One of those posts points to a blogger in Egypt called "Sandmonkey," who wrote this troubling update:

[Embattled Egyptian Blogger] Abdel Kareem’s father announced today that he is disowning Abdel Kareem, and that he would like to see Sharia Law applied to his son, in which he would have 3 days to repent at the end of which if he is not repentant, he would be killed.
Image: Associated Press.
 

Golden-age stewardess glamor shots


Avi has assembled a fantastic collection of vintage glamor shots of stewardesses from the golden age of aviation. Link (Thanks, Avi!)

See also:
Plane Crazy: Musical about golden age aviation and the Pill
Inside look at producing a musical

 

Interactive copyright navigator to help cram for law finals


Sarahfenix sez, "My copyrights Professor at Southwestern School of Law made a great guide to help the students cram for finals. It's an interactive Copyright Navigator that goes through the fundamentals of U.S. Copyright Law." This is pretty groovy -- and a pretty intuitive way fo exploring what copyright does and doesn't do. Link (Thanks, Sarahfenix!)
 

PS3-betrayed gamers make anti-Sony song, video

Tom sez, "You know that sappy The Fray 'How to Save a Life' song that's replaced Vitamin C's 'Friends Forever' song as the most annoying high school song ever? The one that starts off with 'Step 1 you say we need to talk,' followed by step 2 of you turning your TV/Radio off? Yeah, that one. Well a Sony hater took the tune from that song and made up his own Sony slamming lyrics to go along with the melody. It's good to finally see a gaming music video that's calm and serious instead of just a bunch of white rapping dudes who figured out that Wii, PS3, and 360 all rhyme with each other.'" Link (Thanks, Tom!)
 

Gizmodo: Boycott RIAA in March

Will sez, "Gizmodo has decided to declare war against the RIAA, rightly noting that they get their money from us (the consuming public) and that if we don't like what they do, we can do something about it. It's a good rant, and they offer nice alternatives to buying RIAA controlled music like attending concerts and buying music from emusic."
Alright, we've been following the RIAA's increasingly frequent affronts to privacy and free speech lately, and it's about time we stopped merely bitching and moaning and did something about it. The RIAA has the power to shift public policy and to alter the direction of technology and the Internet for one reason and one reason alone: it's totally loaded. Without their millions of dollars to throw at lawyers, the RIAA is toothless. They get their money from us, the consumers, and if we don't like the way they're behaving, we can let them know with our wallets.
I've always been skeptical of entertainment industry boycotts -- I question how big a popular movement you can build by telling people not to listen to popular music -- but maybe it's time. I haven't bought anything from an RIAA member in six months (the new Beatles Love mashup disc), and before that, I'd probably gone six more months. They just aren't making anything I want anymore, and there's so much stuff out there in Internet land from creators who aren't set on destroying democracy, privacy and free speech that it's almost impossible not to boycott these bastards.

Link (Thanks, Will!)

 

Net Neutrality video - WOW!

SaveTheInternet.com -- the activists who killed the 2006 Senate attempt to destroy Net Neutrality -- have just released an amazing video in support of a new law that would make Net Neutrality the law of the land. I've never sen a more lucid, more BS-free, and more entertaining treatment of the question. If the people around you don't understand Net Neutrality, show them this. Show this to five friends this weekend, sign them up, and Save the Internet. Link (via Lessig)
 

Light-saber umbrella

The Lightsaber Umbrella has an illuminated stalk running up the middle, so that you glow like an eerie mugger-beacon as you stalk the wet streets of town, blinded by the night-vision- destroying light-source inches from your face. Link (via Shiny Shiny)

Update: Thanks to everyone who pointed out that these are reminiscent of the Blade Runner brollies.

 

Coffee mug with a pistol grip

The Mugnum -- a design competiton entry by Mohd Fizea Zaukefli -- is a coffee mug with a handgun grip for people who don't like mornings. Link (via Neatorama)
 

Warren Ellis on Second Life: Please stop doing that to the cat

Snip from the latest Second Life Sketch by Warren Ellis for Reuters. In this episode, Mr. Ellis discovers uninvited avatar-strangers having sex in property he's recently purchased:
In return for allowing her avatar to be animated into bump-and-grind moves around The General, she got paid Linden Dollars. Not a lot, but hers was a free account, which means the system doesn’t give her a stipend in return for paid membership. She could leave her computer running for a couple of hours, making sure her Second Life connection didn’t time out, and earn enough Linden Dollars to get through the week — mostly spent on styling her av and helping with the rent on the land she and her friends called home. Which doesn’t sound a million miles away from the life of a real-world dancer, subtracting the need for food.

That Second Life can replicate that sort of blank existence would seem reason enough to take a good look at what kind of experience the world is really fostering. But that is really the soft edge of sex in Second Life.

There have been attempts, recently, to downplay the role of sex in Second Life. Anyone’s who’s spent more than a day in-world knows those attempts to be disingenuous at best. The mainland is divided into Mature and PG areas, and any tour of the Mature regions will inevitably feature a collision with the sex business. A longer tour will illustrate how little of it is vanilla.

Link

Previously on BoingBoing:

  • Second Life: Drew from "Toothpaste for Dinner" tries it.
  •  

    Armed America on new blog That Ain't Art

    That Ain't Art is a new group blog that my friend Kirsten Anderson, curatrix of Seattle's Roq la Rue Gallery and editor of Pop Surrealism, launched with several of her art mafia pals. That's where I found out about this forthcoming book Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in their Homes by Kyle Cassidy. The book doesn't come out until summer, but Cassidy's site has an excellent selection of the photos. Seen here is "Howard with his C. Sharps Arms Co. Model 1874 in .45-70." Howard says, "I love history and I love old mechanical devices -- guns are both. I also enjoy target shooting."
     Howard Howard1
    From the book's introduction:
    The question of gun ownership in America is a fractious one. Even the number of guns in the country is in significant debate. The National Rifle Association (NRA), the country's largest pro-gun lobbying group, quotes the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE)'s estimate that in 1999 there were about 215,000,000 guns in America and one gun in about half of the households in the country. The Brady Campaign (the nation's leading anti-gun coalition) estimates there are 192,000,000 guns in America, owned by 39% of the population.

    This isn't a book about guns. It's a book about people.

    Whether it's 39% or 50% of Americans, it's still an awful lot of people. I started wondering just who they were, what they looked like, and how they lived.
    Link (via That Ain't Art)
     

    Recording the Beatles book

    200702231738
    Coop says: "Just got this today, highly recommended. Insanely exhaustive documenting of EVERYTHING related to the Beatles recording sessions, including beautiful, almost-pornographic photos of every mixing board, mic, tape deck, etc. ever used in a Beatles session. A staggering amount of detail. The obsessive impulse at its finest." Link
     

    Senior citizen offs mugger with bare hands

    A 70-year-old tourist in Costa Rica killed an armed mugger with his bare hands on Wednesday. Approximately a dozen US tourists on a cruise stopover were exploring a beach in Limon, Costa Rica when three robbers in masks approached them. One had a gun and the other two wielded knives. That's when the 70-year-old, a US military vet trained in self-defense, sprang to action. From the Associated Press:
    (Limon police chief Luis) Hernandez said the American, whom he refused to identify, struggled with the robber, breaking his collarbone and eventually killing him. Police identified the dead man as Warner Segura, 20. The other two assailants fled.

    Afterward, the tourists drove Segura to a hospital, where he was declared dead. Sergio Lopez, a Red Cross auxiliary, examined Segura's body and said he died from asphyxiation.

    Costa Rican officials interviewed the Americans, and said they wouldn't charge the U.S. tourist with any crime because he acted in self defense.

    "They were in their right to defend themselves after being held up," Hernandez said.
    Link (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)
     

    Make your own "Dharma Initiative" snacks

    Picture 3-25 The kind folks at Insanely Great Tees have PDFS that you can download to make your own Dharma Initiative food labels (from the TV show Lost) Link (Via Neatorama)
     

    Steampunk walking robot

     ~Takakuni Image Stwalker1 This steam-powered walking robot has a boiler for its head and an engine in its belly.
    Link to Japanese site, Link to short video, Link to Babelfish translation (via MAKE: Blog)

    Previously on BB:
    • Steampunk robotics Link
    • Radio-controlled steam-powered toy vehicles Link
     

    NASA procedure for nuts in space

    If you're a NASA astronaut and you totally flip out in space, your crewmates are instructed to restrain you with duct tape, tie you down with bungee cords, and inject you with the anti-psychotic drug Haldol or a tranquilizer like Valium. The plan is outlined in 1,000+ page document that the Associated Press obtained this week outlining how to deal with medical emergencies. From the Associated Press:
    Space station medical kits contain tranquilizers and anti-depression, anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic medications. Shuttle medical kits have anti-psychotic medication but not antidepressants, since they take several weeks to be effective and shuttle flights last less than two weeks.

    The checklist says astronauts can be restrained and then offered oral Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug used to treat agitation and mania, and Valium. If the astronaut will not cooperate, the drugs can be forcibly given with a shot to the arm. Crew members are instructed to stay with the tied-up astronaut to monitor vital signs.

    Space station astronauts talk weekly via long-distance hookup to a flight surgeon and every two weeks to a psychologist, so any psychiatric disorder would probably be detected before it became so serious that the astronaut had to be brought home, (NASA spokesperson James) Hartsfield said...

    U.S. astronauts at the space station keep a journal for a study by a researcher. But (former NASA psychiatrist Dr. Patricia) Santy said the diaries will not help detect mental illness.

    "What astronaut is going to tell you they're feeling homicidal?" she asked. "They're very conscious that if they say the wrong thing they could get grounded."
    Link

    Previously on BB:
    • Jealous astronaut song and cartoon Link
    • More on the diapered astronaut Link
     

    Three-year-old fingerpainting prodigy (fake?)

    Picture 2-32 Look at this little kid using finger paint to create a pointillist painting of a Mutant Ninja Turtle. Link

    Reader comment:

    Peter says:

    As much as I wanted to believe it was real, I'm pretty sure that video is faked. It's just a doll's arm or something. The only time you see the kid's fingers move is the shots where he's filling in solid areas or "blending." I'm sure they sped it up so it wouldn't look as fake. Plus the site at the end of the video (turtlekid.com) is to promote the new movie.
     

    Fool politician wants to ban truck nuts

    A foolish politician with nothing better to do has introduced legislation to ban novelty truck testicles. Doran says
     Images Yellow Maryland Delegate LeRoy E. Myers Jr. has filed legislation to ban the display of those oh-so-chic Truck Nuts and "anatomically correct" human or animal genitalia from the back of pick-up trucks.

    From the WaPo story:

    "People are making a joke out of it," Myers said yesterday. "But I think it's a pretty serious problem. You have body parts hanging from the hitches of cars. We've crossed a line."

    Link (Via Obscure Store)
     

    Video of biotech artist awaiting trial

    Jim Fetterley and Angie Waller produced a 15 minute video about artist Steve Kurtz. Jim says:

    "In July 2006, Angie Waller and Jim Fetterley decided to visit Steve Kurtz in Buffalo and make a candid video about him awaiting trial for mail fraud. "Steve Kurtz Waiting" can provide an active introduction to his grand jury case for those who have never heard of it, while also providing a valuable account of where he stands at this time for those of us who have been following the work of Critical Art Ensemble for years.

    "Since May 11th 2004, Steve's life has drastically changed and the outcome of his case will affect all US citizens."

    200702231438 On May 11, Steve Kurtz phoned 911 to report his wife of 20 years was unresponsive. When paramedics came to his house, one of them noticed that Kurtz had laboratory equipment, which he used in his art exhibits. The paramedics reported this to police and the FBI sealed off his house.

    Authorities later said that Kurtz's wife had died of "heart failure," but he wasn't allowed to return to his home for two days while the FBI confiscated his equipment, and biological samples. They also carted off his books, personal papers and computer.

    The contradiction between the charges for possessing harmful substances and the county health commissioner assessing that no hazardous substances were found in the house leaves only the conclusion - that ideas, when misunderstood or disagreeable, are toxic.

    Kurtz is one of the founders of the Critical Art Ensemble, a group whose beginnings in filmmaking over a decade ago have evolved into public performances and videos that educate the public about the politics of biotechnology. All of CAE's museum and public performances are meant to not only inform the public about the ways their lives are affected by biotechnology, but also to dispel public paranoia that is generated by the media and a lack of understanding.

    Steve became the victim of this paranoia, and through the extended powers of the US Patriot Act, he still awaits trial for mail fraud. If found guilty, could face up to twenty years.

    Link
     

    Torontonians: win the right to name a character in my book

    The Sunburst Award is holding a charity auction next weekend at Ad Astra, Toronto's regional science fiction convention (I'm one of the guests of honor, which is amazingly cool, given that Ad Astra is the first con I ever attended, volunteering as a gofer in exchange for free admission).

    The Sunburst honors the best Canadian sf book of the year with a $1,000 cash prize and national prestige (my first short story collection, A Place So Foreign and Eight More, won the prize a few years back). It's an award I'm glad to support -- Canadian sf is incredibly vibrant and exciting.

    I've donated naming rights for one of the characters in a forthcoming novel to the auction -- the book that was partially syndicated under the title Themepunks last year on Salon. It'll be out from Tor in 2008, and the winning bidder can have slap her/his name on either the female or the male lead.

    Hope to see you at Ad Astra -- and at the auction!


    - 10th-anniversary statue of The Sandman, new in his box, all 12½ inches of him, with signed certificate of authenticity
    -signed copy of Neil Gaiman's novel Fragile Things (hardcover, first U.K. edition)
    —signed first edition of Windflower, by Nick Bantock and Edoardo Ponti
    —signed copy of Jeff Hoke’s non-fiction book The Museum of Lost Wonder, with special bonus not available in stores!
    —two signed prints donated by Martin Springett: one from Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham and one Guy Gavriel Kay-related image
    —AND a character named after the winning bidder in Cory Doctorow's next novel.
    Link
     

    Free legal representation for fair-use filmmakers

    Documentary film-makers are often hobbled by copyright -- the insurers and studios won't let them release their movies until every single copyrighted component is licensed, no matter that they're clearly legal fair use. American University’s Center for Social Media released the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use tries to appress this by helping insurers and filmmakers understand what is, and isn't fair use.

    Now, Stanford's Fair Use Project has announced that it will provide free legal services to films that follow the guidelines:

    As reported just over a year ago, American University’s Center for Social Media released the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use. This fantastic report outlines principles to guide filmmakers in the fair use of copyrighted material in their films. It was an important step towards helping to clarify this unruly area of the law.

    Working with Media/Professional, and Michael Donaldson, the Fair Use Project has now found a way to insure films that follow the Best Practices guidelines. For films that are certified to have followed the Best Practices guidelines, Media/Professional will provide a special (read: much lower cost) policy; Stanford’s Fair Use Project will provide pro bono legal services to the film. If we can’t provide pro bono services, then Michael Donaldson’s firm will provide referrals to a number of media lawyers who will provide representation at a reduced rate. Either way, filmmakers will be able to rely upon “fair use” in the making of their film. The Fair Use Project and Donaldson will defend the filmmakers if their use is challenged. Media/Professional will cover liability if the defense is not successful.

    This is a huge breakthrough. As many of us have been arguing, the real constraint of fair use comes not from the courts, but from those in the market who are trying to avoid any risk of copyright exposure. This market-based solution will now clear the way for many films to be released which before could not secure insurance. And we are eager to use the inevitable cases that will emerge to solidify the fantastic Statement of Best Practices developed by the Center for Social Media.

    The project has an advisory board: filmmakers Kirby Dick, Academy Award-nominee Davis Guggenheim, Arthur Dong and Haskell Wexler; professors Peter Jaszi and me; and intellectual property attorneys Michael Donaldson and Anthony Falzone.

    Link
     

    Anti-drug puppet-show remixed into stoner video

    Ryan sez, "This is an old Anti-Drug PSA from TVOntario, it somehow found its way to a Boston public library, where a couple of amateur film makers remixed and recut it into the most surreal thing I've ever seen."

    I don't know if this would be quite so satisfying to someone who didn't grow up with TVOntario's shows, as I did. This runs a little long -- as does most surrealism -- but it has moments of pure stoner brilliance. Link (Thanks, Ryan!)

     

    Pulp Fiction as typography

    In this short movie, the audio from "What does Marcellus Wallace look like?" scene from Pulp Fiction is illustrated with animated typography, to excellent effect. Quicktime Link, Mirror,

    Update: Jorge P sends in "another typographical interpretation of the Marcellus Wallace scene. It's quite different from the one you posted, but just as fun."

    Update 2 Jarratt Moody made the original video.

     

    HTML tags illustrated

    Here's a collection of found photos used to illustrate HTML tags in a series of visual puns. Link
     

    What Steve Jobs's DRM announcement means

    I've got a new feature article up on Salon today, talking about what I think Steve Jobs's music DRM memo really means. I've been asked to talk about this subject everywhere I've been for weeks now, so when Salon asked me if I wanted to write about it at length, I jumped at the chance.
    Although Apple's DRM is wholly ineffective at preventing copying, it does manage to raise the cost of switching from an iPod to a competing device. Every iTunes song you buy for 99 cents amounts to a 99 cent tax on switching from an iPod to a Zune. That's because your iTunes songs won't play on your Zune -- or on any other player, save those made or licensed by Apple. Jobs tries to skate around this in his memo, suggesting that only a tiny fraction of the music on iPods comes from his music store, and so the anti-switching effects are minimal.

    While it's true that most of us haven't loaded our 10,000-song iPods with $9,900 worth of iTunes songs, it doesn't follow that the switching cost for even casual iTunes customers is negligible. If you'd bought just one iTunes track every month since the launch in 2003, you'd have rung up $82 in lock-in music. Throw in a couple of $9.99 albums and maybe an audiobook or two and you can easily find yourself in $150 down the lock-in hole.

    That's $150 you kiss goodbye if you buy a sexy little Creative Labs Zen or a weird little no-name from the wildly imaginative entrepreneurs of Malaysia. Not only won't your iTunes Store music play on those devices, it's illegal to try to get it to play on those devices.

    Link
     

    Mix-n-Mash: Brit video remix contest from Creative Commons and Google

    Christian sez, "Creative Commons UK has launched a film remix competition in association with Google UK. Its a cool hack for Creative Commons to work with Google Video. If you like mixing and mashing enter the contest and if you win your film will be screened at the National Film Theatre in London. The theme is 'Britannia Rules, Britannia Sucks'." (Disclosure: I am a judge for this contest)
    Britain: home of fish and chips -- and of the battered Mars Bar. You can get real ale in a 14th-century pub, but don't expect to drink there past bedtime. It's been called the land of hope and glory, but to others it's the land of embarrassment and breakfast. Show the world what rocks your boat about Britain … and what you'd send overboard.
    Link (Thanks, Christian!)
     

    Swarm of Angels voting round

    A Swarm of Angels is a project to raise small sums of money from lots of people and make a feature film without studio involvement. Matt, the project's founder, sez,
    Our global member community are taking part in a voting round right now for our groundbreaking participative cinema project. The votes are to help finalize some media production, and initiate others.

    Notably we're preparing to gather video footage from our members to create video teasers for our feature film project.

    We are also in the final stages of creating our remixable trailer (Angels just voted recently on their favourite version: Geometry)

    Link (Disclosure: I am a proud advisor to the Swarm of Angels project)

    See also:
    50,000 angels will fund £1 million film: A Swarm of Angels
    Kleptones podcast for A Swarm of Angels
    Kleptones join Swarm of Angels film project
    Swarm of Angels film project holds its first vote

     

    RIAA declares war on open WiFi

    The RIAA is asking a judge to rule that anyone who provides bandwidth should be responsible for all the activities of his users. This would doom open WiFi -- and all other public networking efforts. But who needs anonymous speech, anyway? After all anonymity fuels irresponsible behavior, like founding the United States.

    The RIAA just wants to stand up for freedom. First they convinced Russia to force licensing and 24-hour inspection of presses, now they want to eliminate anonymous speech here at home.

    Record companies are quick to cite the First Amendment when someone suggests banning music with "suggestive" lyrics, but they're not so big on free presses and anonymous speech. It's like they love free speech, but not enough to share it with the rest of us.

    Predictably, the RIAA has filed a "motion for reconsideration" of Judge West's decision to force the RIAA to pay for Foster's legal fees. In the motion, the plaintiffs emphasize a key point: They want the judge to rule that the owner of an ISP account is responsible for all activity on that account, which could have a chilling effect on public wireless access and open hotspots. (The appeal also made the point that Foster should be held liable if she was aware of the infringement occuring via her account; in the case of someone with an open Wi-Fi network, that could constitute something as simple as experiencing traffic slowdowns.)
    Link (Thanks, Daniel!)
     

    Nerdy hood ornament made from D30

    Alexander sez, "Frank made a hood ornament out of a d30, a few tiddly d6s and a rare earth magnet. Sweet nerdly goodness!" Link (Thanks, Alexander!)
     

    Puretracks "DRM-free music" mystery explained

    This morning, I blogged about Puretracks, a Canadian downloadable music store that announced that it was going to be selling 50,000 of its tracks as DRM-free MP3s. Users who visited that site were given messages telling htem that they weren't able to get the tracks because they lacked Windows. What's more, every band I checked had only DRMed music. Now the mystery is solved.

    Isabelle sez, "I'm the director of marketing at Puretracks and a big fan of BoingBoing. I wanted to give you an update on your post about our MP3 offering that just rolled out. The first thing to mention is that we really do have 50,000 MP3s for sale in Canada . But we don't have Mac support at the moment. This is a side effect of our business reality. The entire first version of the store was based around the WMA (DRM'd) format, and it has been a monumental task switching our database and everything to support the new format. Several of these pieces, including our Download Manager, are still based on ActiveX controls and other non-Mac-friendly mechanisms so Mac users cannot purchase and downloads songs from Puretracks as of yet. But we WILL support the Macs, and the MP3 rollout is our first step towards being able to actually do that." Link

     

    Ikea's Slabang alarm clock

    Gord Fynes has good things to say about Ikea's $13 Slabang alarm clock.
    200702222055[T]his small, battery-operated, brick-shaped clock is wrapped in a funky yellow rubber, so it can handle being smacked and/or knocked off of the nightstand and still look good while doing so. It’s large face does not illuminate unless you hit the oversized snooze bar (another bonus), so no more glancing and keeping track of what times you woke up during the night. Like most clocks, it has an adjustable volume switch for its alarm, but here’s the best part: you can record up to seven seconds of your own sounds using it’s built-in microphone. For fun, the first thing I did was record the chorus of Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You, Babe” so that I could channel Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.
    Link
     

    Electroshock therapy for China's "Internet addicts"

    The Chinese government is imprisoning and giving electric shocks to people it thinks have become addicted to the Internet.
    Alarmed by a survey that found that nearly 14 percent of teens in China are vulnerable to becoming addicted to the Internet, the Chinese government has launched a nationwide campaign to stamp out what the Communist Youth League calls "a grave social problem" that threatens the nation.

    ...

    Led by Tao Ran, a military researcher who built his career by treating heroin addicts, the clinic uses a tough-love approach that includes counseling, military discipline, drugs, hypnosis and mild electric shocks.

    Tao said the clinic is based on the idea that there are many similarities between his current patients and those he had in the past.

    In terms of withdrawal: "If you let someone go online and then he can't go online, you may see a physical reaction, just like someone coming off drugs." And in terms of resistance: "Today you go half an hour, and the next day you need 45 minutes. It's like starting with drinking one glass and then needing half a bottle to feel the same way."

    Link (Thanks, CB!)
     

    Police blow up profanity-spewing CD players found in church

    Taking a tip from Boston's "if it blinks or makes noise, blow it up" policy for dealing with things that blink or make noise, police in Santa Fe, New Mexico blew up two CD players that had been taped under pews at the Roman Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

    The players were programmed to play sexually explicit language during Ash Wednesday mass.

    The recordings, made on store-bought blank discs, featured people using foul language and "pornographic messages," [Capt. Gary] Johnson said. He would not elaborate because of the ongoing investigation.

    Church staff members took the CD players to the basement and called police, who sent the bomb squad, Johnson said.

    The bomb squad blew up two players outside and kept the third one to test for fingerprints or DNA and trace its components, he said.

    There's no explanation why police didn't blow up all three players. It seems to me that they were taking a big chance by playing Russian Roulette like this. Link

    Update:

    Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, police discovered a -- gasp! -- tape dispenser in a rail station. You can guess what happened:

    The Army carried out a controlled explosion on the object which was declared safe. Traffic in the town was severely disrupted for several hours while the operation took place. A police spokesperson said: "As with any object that cannot readily be accounted for, we have a duty to be wary in order to ensure the safety of all in the vicinity," they added.
     

    Susie Bright on RU Sirius show

    The RU Sirius Show just ran two consecutive really sharp and funny interviews with my friend, the great sex writer Susie Bright. Then they published a transcript of the first show on 10 Zen Monkeys. (They say part two will be posted in about a week.)
    Susie Bright: … some of us have started Bet on Ted [betting pool]. You just pick your date. We're going to give it a year. Any time this year. And to win, something has to happen with Ted [Haggard] that gets into the news or into the courts. We've come up with a list of things -– all of them involve Ted cracking, and it hitting a news report. If you have the lucky date, then you win half the pot and the other half goes to our worthy cause: LYRIC.. If nobody gets the right date -- or Ted sneaks by all year and nothing comes out -- then the whole pot will go to LYRIC too. So bet on Ted! I'm hoping we get somewhere with it.
    Link to part 1 | Link to part 2
     

    W.W.G.W.B.D.? flow chart

    200702221553
    This chart nicely sums up the Bush presidency. Link (Via Why, That's Delightful!)
     

    Photos of people wearing fezzes

    Picture 1-46A flickr pool of Fez-wearing humans for your gawking pleasure. (One can only guess what this mischievous-looking duo did to get arrested.) Link (Via Eye of the Goof)
     

    Blog with "nothing but pictures of cute girls at tea"

    200702221539 Tea Birds is a blog that posts photos of women drinking tea. Link (Via this Dadanoise blog entry that also has links to not-always-safe-for-work photos of women reading books and woman asleep)

    Reader comment:

    Mariana says:

    Michael Kelly did it first. :)

    He is a British humorist who might be best known for this satiric article: French Intellectuals in Afghanistan.

     

    Terence McKenna's library destroyed in fire

    This is very un-wonderful news: the late Terence McKenna's library of rare books and personal notes was destroyed in a fire started in a Quizno's sandwich shop in Monterey, California.
    200702221418 Terence's brother Dennis owns an index of Terence’s collection, which will at least give us an overview of his library—sorta like a playlist without the MP3s. But even this valuable document will not replace the body of knowledge itself—a body that had become, in the weird ways of the memetic world, a kind of second body for Terence’s fabulous and fascinating mind. No budding head will ever be able to poke through this collection again, with its faintly perfumed volumes on Chinese alchemy and butterflies and hash. And the world has one fewer 1659 folio of Isaac Casaubon’s A True and Faithful Relation of what passed between Dr. John Dee and some spirits, and one fewer old-school copy of Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, which Terence swapped for a pound or two of yummies back in the day. The content of these books, at least, is reproducible; Terence, of course, was one-of-a-kind.
    Link (Thanks, Jennifer!)
     

    Stolen laptop recovered thanks to SETI@home software

    Kimberly Melin got her stolen laptop back after police traced the IP address her computer was using to send SETI@home data to the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

    SETI@home is a program that analyzes deep space radio wave data collected by the Arecibo radio observatory in Puerto Rico. Kimberly's husband, James, installed the program on her computer. He's one of over a million people who have SETI@home running on their computers in the hopes of finding non-human intelligent life in the universe. SETI stands for "Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence."

    Melin monitored the SETI(at)home database to see if the stolen laptop would "talk" to the Berkeley servers. Indeed, the laptop checked in three times within a week, and Melin sent the IP addresses to the Minneapolis Police Department.

    After a subpoena to a local Internet provider, police determined the real-world address where the stolen laptop was logging on. Within days, officers seized the computer and returned it. No one had been arrested as of Wednesday and the case remains under investigation, said Lt. Amelia Huffman of the Minneapolis Police Department.

    Kimberly's writings were safe, and the thieves didn't appear to have broken into her e-mail or other personal folders. But the returned computer contained 20 tracks of rap music with unintelligible lyrics, possibly from the person who stole the computer or bought it on the underground.

    "It's really, really horrid rap," Melin said. "It makes Ludacris look like Pavarotti."

    Link (Thanks, Jay!)
     

    Chimps use spears to hunt for vertebrates

    Jill Pruetz at Iowa State University has observed chimpanzees using spears to hunt for bushbabies. Says New Scientist, "It is the first time an animal has been seen using a tool to hunt a vertebrate."
    Chimps were observed thrusting their spears into hollow trunks and branches with enough force to injure anything inside the holes, Pruetz’s research team says. The chimps used a “power grip” and made multiple downward stabs – much the same way as a human might wield a dagger.

    Ten different chimps in the population were observed to perform this behaviour in 22 bouts. In one case the researchers saw a chimp remove a dead bushbaby and eat it.

    Link (Thanks, Matt!)

    Previously on Boing Boing:
    Club-wielding chimpanzee spotted in LA suburb
    Jane Goodall on human-like behavior in chimps
    Chimps attack humans at ape sanctuary
    Video: Chimp plays Ms. Pac Man
    Oliver the Humanzee

     

    Shapeshifting aircraft

    An article in the new issue of Air & Space looks at how future aircraft could "morph," altering wingspan, wing area, and other characteristics as needed while still in the air. From the article:
    One promising approach is aimed initially at helicopters, not airplanes, and takes after one of nature’s creations: plants. Flowers angle their stems by shifting fluid from one cell to another. Lithium batteries also change shape as ions flow in and out of them when they are charged and discharged. You may not notice the batteries changing shape, but “your cell phone designer and your iPod designer know about it and design around it,” says Yet-Ming Chiang, a professor of materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    Chiang and colleague Steven Hall took advantage of the shape-changing nature of batteries by building the same materials into a model of a Blackhawk helicopter blade. They found a small dose of energy could reshape the blade, altering the angle of its trailing edge to give it more lift. That’s great for hovering, but the blade doesn’t need as much lift in flight mode. A morphing blade could simply return to its original shape when it’s time for the helo to fly away.
    Link
     

    Weird photographic effect -- can you explain it?

    Charles says:
    Img00005(Click on thumbnail for enlargement) Long time boingboing reader, first time emailer.

    I thought I'd solicit the help of the boing boing community in explaining a weird optical illusion in a photo I took.

    I was travelling in a Bombardier turboprop plane recently, looked out my window and saw the propeller. Thought it would make a nice picture, so I took out my cameraphone.

    The picture is attached. Unphotoshopped. There are propeller blades that appear to be floating, and that appear in a path that is outside the normal path of the propeller. Not sure what to make of it.

    I've got a few other photos showing the same thing, but I'm enclosing the most dramatic one. Can anyone explain what's going on?

    Link (Please don't email me about this. Post your explanation here.)
     

    HOWTO make a steampunk keyboard

    Keyboardpunksteam Jake von Slatt, proprietor of the Steampunk Workshop, made this magnificent keyboard from a 1989 IBM Model M keyboard, cut brass, and antique typewriter keys. He posted his build notes online so you can make one too. Jake is profiled in the new issue of MAKE:, Vol. 09, rich with tales and projects from the Fringe.
    Link | Mirror Link (via MAKE: Blog)

    Previously on BB:
    • HOWTO make etched brass steampunk journals Link
    • Steampunk casemod with a "furnace" Link
    • Steampunk robotics Link
     

    Small world in your head

    Inspired by the same mathematics behind "six degrees of Kevin Bacon," neuroscientists are creating models of how the human brain work. In this "small world" architecture of the brain, clusters of cells link to their nearest neighbors with some neurons connecting to distant clusters. It's the same phenomenon that social networking pioneer Duncan Watts of NYU and Steven Strogatz of Cornell previously showed emerges in the electric-power grid, relationships between professional actors, and the brain cells of worms. According to Strogatz and Watts, this kind of small world structure boosts the power and efficiency of the system. Often, the networks behave chaotically. From Science News:
     Articles 20070217 A8153 1723 ...Scientists are looking for small-world setups within the brain's massive, interconnected cell networks and for moment-to-moment electrical manipulations that, they suspect, foster thinking and learning. Their efforts are a sharp departure from popular brain-imaging efforts to pinpoint neural niches that specialize in particular mental capabilities.

    "Researchers have just begun to apply a huge arsenal of approaches to understanding how brain networks are patterned, how they evolve and grow, and how they generate dynamic structures," says neuroscientist Olaf Sporns of Indiana University in Bloomington...

    The notion that the brain thrives on chaos, in a mathematical sense, comes as no shock to neuroscientist Walter J. Freeman of the University of California, Berkeley. For the past 20 years, he has argued that the brain churns out a cascade of chaotic electrical activity that serves as a "get ready" state. From there, he theorizes, vast expanses of brain tissue shift into electrical-activity patterns that organize thought and perception.
    Link
     

    Wooden keychain speaker

     Images Idearspeaker2 I'm sure it sounds awful, but I like the styling of this i.Dear Wood Speaker from Korea. It's 1.5W and runs on a rechargeable battery. The i.Dear sells for approximately $25.
    Link to Korean language Funshop (via Red Ferret Journal)
     

    HOWTO upholster a tree stump

    Artist Madelon Galland launched the STUMP project several years to decorate tree stumps on New York City sidewalks as a way to "honor that which had been diminished, and bring it back into relationship with the neighborhood." From her HOWTO at SuperNaturale:
     Img Articles 199 3633This really began as unauthorized public art, and is not intended as something to have, but rather as a gesture to give. The street stumps are anchored and framed with firm roots and city masonry as they are, and what we do is contribute, care, and dignify that which has been diminished thus giving vitality again to spaces usually below the pedestrian radar. Working in the urban areas is quite easy because these small sidewalk plots, where the tree stumps are found, have an ambiguous jurisdiction and allow for engaged activity without provoking upset, only occasional curiosity. I tend to act spontaneously and from a perspective that where something is obviously blighted, one shouldn’t have to ask permission to care, nor sponsorship to make and exhibit art. So it’s best to work in places that its quite obvious that no one is taking responsibility for the care of the space or tree stump. Engaging to care for something in public space is a radical gesture indeed; it changes our measurement of responsibility into simply, the ability to respond.
    Link (via MAKE: Blog)
     

    Colossal squid caught

    Commercial fishers caught this 990 pound Colossal Squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) in deep Antarctic waters. According to the BBC News, if the squid was cooked into calamari, the rings would be the size of tractor tires. The squid was munching away on a Patagonian toothfish when it was brought to the surface. From the BBC News:
    Squidcolossss Colossal squid, which are found deep in Antarctic waters, are thought to be about the same length as giant squid (Architeutis dux) but are much heavier...

    The squid was frozen in the ship's hull and brought back to New Zealand for scientific examination.

    "The colossal squid has just arrived in New Zealand and it is likely that it is the first intact adult male colossal squid to ever be successfully landed," (New Zealand Fisheries Minister Jim) Anderton said.
    Link (via Cryptomundo)

    Previously on BB:
    • Giant squid caught by Japanese Link
    • Giant squid caught on film for first time Link
    • That's one collosally big damned squid Link
     
    week of 02/18/2007