Danny sez,

Last year, WIPO looked like it had acknowledge the letters from podcasters, and leading tech companies complaining about the language of its Broadcast Treaty --- which would have created a whole new layer of IP for broadcasters to claim on even public domain and CC-licensed content streamed over the Net. They said they'd dump the old format, and narrow the treaty to what it was supposed to be about -- outlawing outright piracy of transmitted signals.

This May, the WIPO chair put forward a new version of the treaty that - tada - contained exactly the same enclosure act IP rights, and even included language that would mean every PC would have to be crippled to prevent it decoding encrypted transmissions.

EFF and others are at WIPO this week: they'll be delivering this Dear WIPO petition to let the IP apparatchiks know they're being watched. Sign it now!

Link (Thanks, Danny!)

Joel sez, "Ellen Datlow and the Sci Fi Channel's acclaimed webzine Scifiction stopped putting up new content in 2005, but the archives have remained available ... until now. Now, the site has the notice: 'As of Friday, June 15, 2007, SCI FICTION will no longer be available on SCIFI.COM. SCIFI.COM would like to thank all those who contributed and those who read the short stories over the past few years.'"

Man, this sucks. What: hosting all that ASCII was too expensive for NBC? Charlie Stross and I had a story up there, a romp called Jury Service that was our first collaboration. There are zillions of links to it -- all of which will die on the 15th. Link (Thanks, Joel!)

Update: SciFi's Craig Engler sez, " "Just a quick response to your note about the Sci Fiction archive. The hosting costs are not an issue but there are rights issues around various stories that crop up from time to time. Given how few people visit the Sci Fiction archive it makes more sense to remove it rather than have someone continue to track the rights to all the stories year after year. For instance, although zillions of people may link to Jury Service, in May we recorded only 48 complete visits to it (by that I mean visits to all 4 HTML pages of the story). And for the record we are not using nuclear weapons on Sci Fiction -- one of our coders will gently remove the files from the server." "

Ever wonder how the copyright wars started? I think it has a lot to do with the national frenzy over the "information revolution" in the 80s and 90s and the certainty that the future would be all about selling bits. I argue this case in my new Information Week column, and show how trading the US manufacturing sector to preserve the entertainment industry was especially dumb in the "information age," because from here on it, it's just going to get easier and easier to copy information.

Not too long ago, back in 1985, the Senate was ready to clobber the music industry for exposing America's impressionable youngsters to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. For America, that was nothing new. Through most of its history, the U.S. government has been at odds with the entertainment giants, treating them as purveyors of filth.

Not anymore. The relationship between the entertainment industry and the U.S. government today is pretty cozy. Entertainment is using America's clout to force Russia to institute police inspections of its CD presses, apparently oblivious to the irony of post-Soviet Russia forgoing its hard-won freedom of the press to protect Disney and Universal. The U.S. attorney general is proposing to expand the array of legal tools at the RIAA's disposal, giving the organization the ability to attack people who simply attempt infringement.

How did entertainment go from trenchcoat pervert to top trade priority? I blame the "Information Economy."

Link

Shawn P. Wilbur blogs,

Lucifer the Lightbearer, aside from having one of the more provocative and wonderful names ever, was an important anarchist newspaper. Originally the Kansas Liberal of Valley Falls, and eventually the American Journal of Eugenics, it was, throughout its incarnations, it was concerned with marital and sexual freedom, as well as more strictly political aspects of anarchism. I have made a number of issues available in scanned pdf form.

Link, which points to PDF scans and partial transcripts. The sex stuff is interesting, and there's an anti-war love poem that pulls on familiar strings. But my favorite part was a rant about evil coal companies gaming the price of fuel and artificially constricting supply -- the writer warns of a forthcoming peak coal crisis. Here's how it begins:

The time was in this country when the question of fuel was not one of absorbing interest to the great mass of population. The abounding forests furnished what seemed a never-ending supply of material for heating the dwellings of the people, as well as for driving machinery, smelting ores, etc., etc.

To monopolize and control this seemingly exhaustless supply of fuel appeared quite impossible, and hence the question of whether a monopoly of the supply of coal was within the power of the conscienceless speculator did not greatly trouble the average householder or small manufacturer.

Looks like this was also recently blogged on Reason. (thanks, John)

The SPY Act, a new anti-spyware law, makes it impossible for consumer rights groups to sue DRM companies for putting spyware in their DRM (like Sony did last year, with its rootkit DRM). The irony is that spyware is already illegal, so all that this act does is immunize big media companies that sneak spyware onto your computer.

This has already passed the House, but EFF has an action alert for writing to your Senator to stop this before it becomes law.

The SPY Act is supposed to help stop spyware, deceptive adware, and other malicious software, but it is unlikely to do any good and could actually make things worse. If enacted, it would block lawsuits similar to the one EFF brought against Sony-BMG for infecting customers' computers with privacy-invasive copy protection. Don't let badware makers off the hook -- tell Congress to go back to the drawing board and draft a more sensible law.

Both the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have said that they already have the authority they need to go after badware vendors, and this bill doesn't add any funds or significant tools for federal enforcement.

At the same time, the bill would stunt states' enforcement, preempting most of their stricter badware laws. For acts covered by the bill, state statutes (including consumer protection laws) wouldn't be available to consumers themselves as grounds for a lawsuit. And it leaves enforcement exclusively in the hands of federal bureaucrats, specifically barring private citizens and organizations like EFF working on their behalf from using the new law to fight back in the courts.

Link

A 115-130-year-old "bomb lance" fragment was found in a 50-ton whale killed in Alaska last month.

The bomb lance fragment, lodged a bone between the whale's neck and shoulder blade, was likely manufactured in New Bedford, on the southeast coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling center at that time, Bockstoce said.

It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around 1890. The small metal cylinder was filled with explosives fitted with a time-delay fuse so it would explode seconds after it was shot into the whale. The bomb lance was meant to kill the whale immediately and prevent it from escaping...

The 49-foot male whale died when it was shot with a similar projectile last month, and the older device was found buried beneath its blubber as hunters carved it with a chain saw for harvesting

Link (Thanks, Jennifer!)

My book, Rule the Web: How To Do Anything and Everything on the Internet -- Better, Faster, Easier, is officially available in stores and online. In addition to running a blog about cool Web-based productivity tricks, I'm also hosting a live call-in show on BlogTalkRadio. Last week I interviewed Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani.

Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 4pm Pacific time) I'll be interviewing Good Experience founder Mark Hurst about his new, excellent book, Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload.

I expect Mark and I will be talking a lot about handling email overload. Mark's book lays out a plan for managing inboxes that are bursting at the seams.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a link to Merlin Mann of 43 Folders entry about "the strange allure (and false hope) of email bankruptcy," which is Lawrence Lessig's last-resort method for getting out from under thousands of emails waiting for replies.

Mark read the post and emailed the following to me:

sorry, but i feel compelled to write you about this... merlin is a good guy, and larry lessig is a good guy, but they are sadly out-of-step on this point.

there's no excuse for e-mail overload - there's a simple solution - people can choose not to practice it, if they want, but at least they should stop advancing counterproductive ideas like e-mail bankruptcy. people can read "Bit Literacy" in a few hours and be done with this problem forever.

If you're curious about Mark's email method and other productivity tips and techniques, visit BlogTalkRadio at 4pm Pacific Time and call us at (646) 915-8698.

P.S. Merlin Mann is my guest on July 18, so I'll give him a chance to explain his method for working through his daily gusher of email. (I suspect their methods are very similar, actually.) Link

Pioneering TV science educator Don Herbert, AKA Mr. Wizard, passed away this morning. He was almost 90 years old. Link to Mr. Wizard Studios, Link to Los Angeles Times obituary (via Cryptomundo)

Send the Warp Your Room people an exact plan for your walls, showing where your doors, windows, pictures, and electrical outlets are, and they'll generate a custom wallpaper for you that "warps" the pattern around everything that protrudes through the paper. Link (via Negatendo)

University of Cincinnati attorneys claim that former student Virgil Tuttle, 48, is "stalking" the institution. He's been arrested 22 times in the last five years for trespassing on the campus. Tuttle is apparently a fixture on campus, having been busted asleep in a restroom, napping in a math lounge, drunk in the bushes, attending lectures, and conducting research in the library. According to the university registrar, Tuttle was last enrolled in 2004. According to Tuttle, he's still a student. The case has been continued until June 22 when the judge will likely make his ruling. In court yesterday, Tuttle represented himself. From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Two of his witnesses didn't show. One who did said she was "pretty sure" he'd once viewed pornography on a UC computer. Another, Director of Judicial Affairs Daniel Cummins, said no, he'd never handled complaints about Tuttle - because "my jurisdiction is only limited to students."

Eventually, Tuttle called himself as a witness and testified about the UC clubs he'd joined and the cops who didn't like him and how he has the right to continue his education. Finally he told the judge: "I'm not that bad a guy. I know it looks bad, but I'm not that bad a guy."

Link (Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!)

David from IPac (a political action committee devoted to copyright reform) sez,

IPac has created a survey covering top issues and proposals for fixing copyright reform, patents, Internet and cable openness, wireless competition, and other impediments to creativity and tech innovation.

They're looking for feedback on which are the most important issues, so they can push U.S. Presidential and Congressional candidates to take positions on the issues that matter to us.

Link (Thanks, David!)

University of Washington physics professor John Cramer couldn't get research grants to fund his work on a very weird fundamental paradox of quantum physics. Then an article about his ideas ran in the newspaper and more than $35,000 from donors nationwide began to stream in. Unlike Stephen Hawking and almost every other physicist, Cramer doesn't believe that time can only move forward. He thinks that's how quantum entanglement, in which the quantum states of two objects can be linked no matter the distance between them, is possible. According to Cramer, "It could involve signaling, or communication, in reverse time." From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

He has proposed a relatively simple bench-top experiment using lasers, prisms, splitters, fiber-optic cables and other gizmos to first see if he can detect "non-local" signaling between entangled photons. He hopes to get it going in July. If this succeeds, he hopes to get support from "traditional funding sources" to really scale up and test for photons communicating in reverse time...

"I'm not crazy," he confirmed. "I don't know if this experiment will work, but I can't see why it won't. People are skeptical about this, but I think we can learn something, even if it fails..."

...When word of his funding plight went out across the Internet a few months ago after a Seattle P-I article, people...began contacting the UW to see if they could lend some support.

"Heck, if it works we can go back in time and get our money back," laughed John Crow, a (donor of $3000) who splits his time between his gas-and-oil business in Shreveport and a home in Port Angeles.

Link (Thanks, Jason Tester!)

This Paul Nicklen photo shows a cyberpunk walrus with a satellite radio tracker attached to his tusk -- the image is striking, like the poor lunker is being remote-controlled by sinister technocrats. Link (Thanks, Will!)

Update: Cassidy sez, "About 18 months ago I caught this snapshot of a remote-controlled sea lion down in Santa Cruz. The other sea lions didn't seem to want to hang out with him, for some reason. Why, I don't know... maybe his programmers didn't update him on the latest sea lion slang, yo."

Phil sez,

This thing is the fruit of god-knows-how-many trips to self-service car wrecking yards- a car-battery-powered boombox with dual rabbit-ear-style power antennae, lighters, ashtrays, flashing taillights, 8-track-player, cupholder, the works. Intended as an homage to the homemade boomboxes of the early breakdancing era and heavily influenced by my old friend and partner-in-art-crime Dan Goodsell aka Grickily of ImaginaryWorld fame.

Link (Thanks, Phil!)

Freakonomics rounds up several recent surveys of popular pet names in the US and the UK. The UK list overlaps heavily with the most popular boys' names.

The results show that, among these relatively high-end pet owners at least, “Molly” is the No. 1 name for both cats and dogs (as well as being the “Whitest Girl Name in America” as per Freakonomics). Note that “Muhammad” is nowhere to be found...

...Here are the results, along with each name’s corresponding rank on the list of child names:

TOP DOG NAMES:
1. Molly (24), 2. Max (29), 3. Charlie (10), 4. Holly (26), 5. Poppy (30), 6. Ben (11), 7. Alfie (16), 8. Jack (1), 9. Sam (8), 10. Barney (-)

TOP CAT NAMES:
1. Molly (24), 2. Charlie (10), 3. Tigger (-), 4. Poppy (30), 5. Oscar (47), 6. Smudge (-), 7. Millie (20), 8. Daisy (25), 9. Max (29), 10. Jasper (-)

Link

The US Patent and Trademark Office has just granted a particularly ludicrous patent: Carfax now owns the idea of searching for cars that have clean titles. Somehow, this didn't qualify as "obvious."

A method of searching for used vehicles comprising:

* Using VIN numbers to look up the title status of a vehicle;
* Storing the title status of the vehicle in a database; and
* Providing a list of vehicles based on title status to users who search for them online.

Could this be any more obvious? Even the patent itself admits that methods of compiling title information on used cars have been around since 1991. So what's the novel aspect of this invention?

Why does stupid stuff like this matter? It matters because every click and every idea is becoming someone's property. It doesn't matter if we've been doing it forever (like querying databases!), or if it's totally obvious, someone ends up owning it. The USPTO is open for anyone who wants to claim ownership of any idea (no wonder -- their funding comes from filing fees for patents), and once those patents end up in the hands of patent trolls, it's open season on the firms and people who make great stuff.

We all pay: we pay for the legal costs of fighting patent battles, built into the price of our stuff. We pay for the technologies that never come to market because of patent fears. We pay for all the ridiculous "defensive patents" filed by startups (there's no such thing as a defensive patent: having a patent doesn't mean that the USPTO won't give the same patent to someone else, and then your "defense" consists of not running out of money to fight the patent in court), which then turn into patent-troll armaments when the startups tank.

Astroturfing companies run bogus sites like this one, where they argue for "patent reforms" that consist of not reforming anything. Sites like Patent Fairness are a good place to get the real story.

Link

Teasmade, the iconic British suburban frankenkettle that combines a tea-kettle with an alarm-clock, is making a comeback:

The peculiarly British invention combined an alarm clock with a kettle, and promised owners they could wake up each morning to a fresh cup of tea without having to leave the comfort of their bed. At the height of their popularity, two million households had one...

Paul Martin, John Lewis's electrical buyer, said: "Every time I go round a branch, it's the same thing: 'When are you going to restock a Teasmade?' In the run-up to Christmas last year we were getting at least 12 complaints a day. I have relented."

Mr Martin is now seeking an electronics company to make a contemporary model. "We are still in early stages, but hope to have Teasmades back early next year," he said.

Link (via We Make Money Not Art)

My friend Kevin Bankston is the EFF attorney who runs a lot of the privacy stuff for the organization; ironically he is also a magnet for Internet surveillance cameras!

When Amazon A9 rolled out its (now defunct) street-search program, they caught Kevin out front of EFF's San Francisco office, sneaking a cigarette. Now, Google Street View has caught Kevin again, a couple blocks from EFF, walking to work. Link

Update: Google won't take down Kevin's pic without a photo of his driver's license and lots of other info, and Google doesn't have any apparent privacy policy governing the use of all that info you give them to protect your privacy.

Attach a clear, readable copy of a valid photo ID (e.g. driver's license, national ID card, etc). If you are requesting removal of an image of a location, attach a copy of a document demonstrating your association with that location ( e.g. business card or letterhead).

Len says:

Doevtailing off your weird popsicle creations, here is something I ran into at our local drugstore. As I was checking out, I came across these American Idol candies. I thought they were real people from the show, but as I inspected closer, I realized they were just generic people who looked like they should be on the show. There was the Generic Non-Threatening Black Guy. The Ultra-Cool, Ultra-White White Guy. And The Non-Offensive Bland White Chick. What I like the best is that the head are on this weird hingy PEZ mechanism that gives them this automaton look. I'll have to take more pictures when I bust one of the packages open.

Link

For just $99, you can get the new White Stripes album on two cute anthropomorphic thumb drives ($57 will get you Jack or Meg alone).

Limited edition USB flash drives containing The White Stripes new album, Icky Thump.

These figures have removable hats that reveal a USB port. Each USB 2.0 flash drive has a 512-megabyte capacity and are Windows and Mac compatible. The Jack and Meg figures are available separately, or you can purchase the set at a discount. They are produced in a limited edition of 3,333 Meg drives and 3,333 Jack drives.

Each drive contains the complete Icky Thump album in the Apple Lossless format.

Link (Thanks, Greg!)

Christine says: "Along the same lines of capturing the often overlooked beauty and wonder of everyday activities slowed to a crawl, TechEBlog reveals the hidden majesty of milk droplets colliding into coffee."

Photos are by Irene Müller Link

Ma Yanjun, a farmer in China's Shaanxi province, reportedly built a DIY solar water heater out of 66 beer bottles. According to Weird Asia News, water flowing through the bottles is heated by the sun and then routed into the bathroom for showers. Apparently, ten other families in his village. Qiqiao, have since built similar systems. From Weird Asia News:

“I invented this for my mother. I wanted her to shower comfortably,” says Ma Yanjun, of Qiqiao village, Shaanxi province...

Ma says it provides enough hot water for all three members of his family to have a shower every day.

Link

Previously on BB:
• HOWTO use a BBQ grill to heat a pool Link

Lambert says: "Story in Dutch, but better quality footage of Bush losing his watch." Link

Reader comment:

Kurt says: "It was not stolen in Albania, as NBC News demonstrates."

It took Etch-A-Sketch fine artist George Vlosich III five hours to create this illustration of LeBron James. Watch a time-lapse video of the piece appearing as he twists the knobs.
Link

Previously on BB:
• Etch-A-Sketch art by George Vlosich III Link
• Mouse-controlled Etch-A-Sketch Link
• Automated Etch-A-Sketch Link

Cannabinoids, found in marijuana and also produced by the body, may be a possible treatment for skin allergies. Researchers from the University of Bonn noticed that genetically engineered mice lacking cannabinoid receptors developed allergic reactions that others didn't. From News@Nature:

The results suggested that cannabinoids produced by the body might help protect the animals against skin allergies. To find out whether the compounds could produce the same effect when applied externally, Zimmer's research team applied a cannabinoid to the skin of mice before and after they were exposed to a chemical (called 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene), which is known to produce an allergic response. Mice that had received the cannabinoid had a diminished allergic response, with about 50% less swelling, than did those that had not received the compound...

But no therapeutic application is certain until the experiments have been repeated in humans, cautions Roman Rukwied, who studies pain and inflammation at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. "We are far before the day when we could say 'oh, I have a nickel allergy. I will smoke marijuana and I won't have it anymore'," he says. "That is definitely not the case."

Link