By David Pescovitz at 9:41 pm Friday, Sep 21
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The next issue of BB fave art magazine
Hi-Fructose features the psychedelically sweet artwork of the magical Yoko D'holbachie! Check out editors Attaboy
and Annie Owens's blog for some preview spreads in the next few days.
Link to the Hi-Fructose blog,
Link to d'Holbachie's Cosmos
(via Laughing Squid)
By Mark Frauenfelder at 3:44 pm Friday, Sep 21
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Naomi Wolf was on
The Colbert Report last night talking about her book,
The End of America, A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, which outlines ten steps that "fascist, totalitarian, and other repressive leaders [employ to] seize and maintain power, especially in what were once democracies.”
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law
Here's an essay on the 10 steps that Wolf wrote for the Guardian in April.
Link to Colbert video
By Mark Frauenfelder at 3:08 pm Friday, Sep 21
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That's How it Happened presents a puzzle to ponder before the weekend begins.
You're a cowboy, and get involved in a three way pistol duel with two other cowboys. You are a poor shot, with an accuracy of only 33%. The other two cowboys shoot with accuracies of 50% and 100%, respectively. The rules of the duel are one shot per cowboy per round. The shooting order is from worst shooter to best shooter, so you get to shoot first, the 50% guy goes second, and the 100% guy goes third, then repeat. If a cowboy is shot he's out for good, and his turn is skipped. Where or who should you shoot first?
(CC-licensed photo by Rick)
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 3:03 pm Friday, Sep 21
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Japanese scientists have created this cute-as-a-bug see-thru froggy.
the transparent frog is the result of breeding two specimens of Japanese brown frog (Rana japonica) that had a genetic mutation giving them pale skin. By selectively breeding their offspring, the researchers were able to create a frog that remains transparent for its entire life cycle. Most of the world’s known transparent creatures live underwater, and transparent four-legged animals are extremely rare.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 2:40 pm Friday, Sep 21
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Michael says:
"A man in Japan has been taking a photo of the same vending machine every day and intensely noting the changes. He compares to previous years, draws diagrams of movements, and keeps complete tabs on everything else. Also remarkable is how clean and unbroken it remains the entire time. How long could an outdoor machine like this last in America?"
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 2:25 pm Friday, Sep 21
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Amanda Visell created this snazzy "I Heart Tripods" cat shirt to help cover the vet bills of owners of cats that must have a leg amputated for one reason or another. It's $30.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 12:19 pm Friday, Sep 21
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Amy Crehore says:
I just came across an incredible resource for artists or anyone who loves Victorian illustration, humorous advertising and the color lithography of the late 1800's. I have shown only a few examples of Victorian Trade Cards here. The Trade Card Place is an online reference library of an amazing amount of unique and exciting images
Link
By David Pescovitz at 11:48 am Friday, Sep 21
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A friend of The Morning News's Pasha Malla knitted this amazing striped scarf. Look at it from a certain angle and a skull and crossbones pattern emerges from the stripes. Ysolda Teague developed the pattern and made it available free.
Link to The Morning News,
Link to video demo on YouTube,
Link to Ysolda Teague's pattern
(via Neatorama)
By Cory Doctorow at 11:32 am Friday, Sep 21
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AV sez, "Germany's parliament on Friday approved a copyright law, which makes it all but illegal for individuals to make save and make copies of television, films and music, even for their own use. It goes into effect in 2008."
Nice going, Germany -- between this and the new anti-hacker laws, you've managed to criminalize every productive member of the information society. Enjoy the caves and flint axes.
Germany's upper house of parliament on Friday approved a controversial copyright law, which makes it all but illegal for individuals to make copies of films and music, even for their own use.
The Bundesrat pushed aside criticism from consumer protection groups and passed the law, which makes it illegal for anyone to store DVDs and CDs without permission. The law also covers digital copies from IPTV and TV broadcasts.
Link
(
Thanks, AV!)
Update: Variety's reporting of this story seems to have gotten the story wrong. Check out the comments for this post, especially Sonja's, for more.
By David Pescovitz at 11:09 am Friday, Sep 21
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More research suggests that the "little people," the one-meter tall humans whose bones were discovered on the island of Flores, Indonesia in 2004, were a distinct species and not modern humans with a medical disorder. According to Smithsonian Institution anthropologist Matthew Tocheri and his colleagues, the little people's wrist bones are much more like those of an ape than a human. Their findings, published today in the journal Science, argue that this "hobbit" species split off at least 800,000 years ago from the evolutionary branch that led to humans. From the New York Times:
Dr. Tocheri and his colleagues said that the distinct species emerged from ancestors “that migrated out of Africa before the evolution of the shared, derived wrist morphology that is characteristic of modern humans, Neanderthals and their last common ancestor.”
But Robert B. Eckhardt, a professor of developmental genetics at Pennsylvania State University and one of several critics of the new-species designation, took issue with the new research. He said the wrist study appeared “to be an exercise in the presentation of misleading ideas in an obfuscatory manner.”
Link (Thanks, Xeni!)
Previously on BB:
• How Hobbits made tools
Link
• Hobbit brain
Link
• Fun on Flores
Link
• Own your own Hobbit skull model
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:01 am Friday, Sep 21
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Chris Colin, who wrote this short article
Mother Jones, says: "Extremely quietly, a Maryland school district has launched the first public high school in the country dedicated to teaching homeland security.
"From all I could tell researching the piece, this doesn't mean questioning assumptions about national security and so forth -- it means funneling 15-year-olds into a very profitable industry, and providing future workers for the companies that comprise it. Creepy/lousy."
Students will choose one of three specialized tracks: information and communication technology, criminal justice and law enforcement, or "homeland security science." David Volrath, executive director of secondary education for Harford County Public Schools, says the school also hopes to offer "Arabic or some other nontraditional, Third World-type language."
The school's main goal is to get its grads jobs in the booming $24-billion-a-year homeland security industry. It's certainly in the right location: Northeast Maryland has become a mecca for the military-industrial complex. The Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground is the county's biggest employer, and all manner of defense contractors have set up shop nearby, including weapons maker Northrop Grumman.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:51 am Friday, Sep 21
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Steve says:
After seeing the crazy and weird carny photos, I thought I'd link to a video my friend made while we were at the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee. Some guy goes around the country with his pig race spectacle. It's a bizarre scene that has a number of races including ducks, goats and pot belly pigs. I've linked to the very quick pig race. Never a dull moment at the State Fair.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:35 am Friday, Sep 21
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Brian says:
"Lawyers for two Gitmo detainees have been accused of smuggling their clients two pairs of 'Under Armor briefs and a Speedo bathing suit.' The lawyers respond in an open letter worthy of such a laughable accusation... especially considering that they haven't been permitted to actually visit their clients in over a year."
August 12, 2007
Re: Discovery of Contraband Clothing in the Cases of Shaker Aamer, Detainee ISN 239, and Muhammed Hamid al-Qareni, Detainee ISN 269
Dear Mr. Stafford Smith.
Your client, Shaker Aamer, detainee ISN 239, was recently discovered to be wearing Under Armor briefs and a Speedo bathing suit. Neither item was issued to the detainee by JTF-Guantánamo personnel, nor did they enter the camp through regular mail. Coincidentally, Muhammed al-Qareni, detainee ISN 269, who is represented by Mr. Katznelson of Reprieve, was also recently discovered to be wearing Under Armor briefs. As with detainee ISN 239, the briefs were not issued by JTF-Guantánamo personnel, nor did they enter the camp through regular mail.
We are investigating this matter to determine the origins of the above contraband and ensure that parties who may have been involved understand the seriousness of this transgression. As I am sure you understand, we cannot tolerate contraband being surreptitiously brought into the camp. Such activities threaten the safety of the JTF-Guantánamo staff, the detainees, and visiting counsel.
In furtherance of our investigation, we would like to know whether the contraband material, or any portion thereof, was provided by you, or anyone else on your legal team, or anyone associated with Reprieve. We are compelled to ask these questions in light of the coincidence that two detainees represented by counsel associated with Reprieve were found wearing the same contraband underwear.
Thank you as always for your cooperation and assistance,
Sincerely,
[Name redacted]
Commander, JAGC, US Navy
Staff Judge Advocate
Link
By David Pescovitz at 10:34 am Friday, Sep 21
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Malaysia's Department of Islamic Development issued a booklet with advice on observing the fasting month of Ramadan and other religious rituals in space. They provided the information to help two Malaysian Muslims who are involved in a contest for a ticket to the International Space Station. From the AFP:
The booklet covers Islamic washing rituals required before prayer, saying that if water is not available the astronaut can symbolically "sweep holy dust" onto the face and hands "even if there is no dust" in the space station.
There are also suggestions on how to pray in a zero-gravity environment.
"During the prayer ritual, if you can't stand up straight, you can hunch. If you can't stand, you can sit. If you can't sit, you should lie down," according to the booklet.
Muslims are required to eat food that is halal, which rules out pork and its by-products, alcohol and animals not slaughtered according to Koranic procedures are forbidden -- but again in Space there is flexibility.
"If it is doubtful that the food has been prepared in the halal manner, you should eat just enough to ward off hunger," the booklet said.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:23 am Friday, Sep 21
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Photographer Dean Shaddock writes:
"This was captured as I collected my things from airport security (Detroit Metro Concourse A). I think of it as something like a Rorschach test. Is an elderly Catholic nun being frisked by a Muslim security agent the celebration of blind justice? Or is it simply an admission of absurdity?"
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:19 am Friday, Sep 21
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Carl says:
Google Docs has expanded with presentation software. The functionality is so so. But they have a wicked paper-animation promo video! Someone at Google clearly loves Michel Gondry films.
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:14 am Friday, Sep 21
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Jordan says:
I got an interesting text message on my iPhone this morning: "AT&T FREE Msg: Good News, your messaging package now includes text, picture & instant messages al for the same price of $19.99 per month. No action required" IM and pix messaging are coming!
Link
By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:03 am Friday, Sep 21
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Vintage slideshow presenter Charles Phoenix recently returned from my hometown of Denver, Colorado, where he visited a few of the retro-highights that the Mile High City has to offer, including The Cruise Room (a 1933 art deco bar), Arapahoe Acres (a mid-century post and beam modern neighborhood), Rockmount Ranch Wear (a western clothing store owned by a 106-year-old fellow who still comes to work every day), and the famous "Mexican" restaurant, Casa Bonita:
My number one priority was having a delicious Mexican dinner (and it was delicious alright!) at one of the most over the top themed restaurants ever and timeless-classic monument to kitsch, CASA BONITA. This very well preserved, and still-amazing-after-all-the years, Americana classic of the highest order is a spellbinding time warp of the year it was built, 1973. It’s worth a trip from anywhere to experience. Eight or so individually themed dining rooms overlook a central two story waterfall where human divers take the plunge Acapulco style every twenty minutes. Each dining room is more amazing than the next. There’s the stalagmite and stalactite room; the western room; Aztec jungle room; the Cinderella and Prince Charming Room and several others. You can even have dinner behind bars in jail. They also have a baby-scale puppet theater, scary walk-through monster cave, temptation filled gift shop and beret-wearing caricature artist. I can’t wait to go back!
Charles is being kind about the quality of the food there. When I was a kid the owner of Casa Bonita made a TV commercial to quell the rumors that the restaurant prepared their dishes with dog food.
Here are some YouTube videos of Casa Bonita: Casa Bonita 2001, Cliff Diver at Casa Bonita, Casa Bonita Walk It Out
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 10:02 am Friday, Sep 21
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The postcards from BuildYourOwnChicago.com can be assembled into 3D papercraft "micromodels" of the great landmarks and transit vehicles of Chicago. The free samples on the site look very promising.
Link
(
Thanks, Mike!)
By Xeni Jardin at 7:43 am Friday, Sep 21
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Short version: it wasn't a "fake bomb" at all, it was a wearable tech jacket on the body of a friendly young technologist who would have been *way* better off wearing something else to the airport today. Authorities in Massachussetts who've been accused of overreacting to tech art misunderstandings before -- remember the
Mooninite Menace? -- are throwing the book at her.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A 19 year old female M.I.T. student was arrested at gunpoint after entering Boston's Logan International Airport with what authorities claim was "a fake bomb" strapped to her chest, according to wire reports. The device is said to have been some kind of computer circuit board with Play-Doh and wires attached, strapped over her black hoodie. Link to AP report on her arrest.
The young woman is identified as Star Simpson, shown in the image above left, and she is a sophomore from Hawaii.
Here is her MIT website, here's her homepage, here's one of her recent projects. She has a user account on Instructables.
Snip from her vanity site:
In a sentence, I'm an inventor, artist, engineer, and student, I love to build things and I love crazy ideas.
In a paragraph; I'm currently studying computers and how they work at MIT. I play at a student-run machine shop called MITERS. Before that, I lived for a long time in Hawaii, while traveling the world and saving the planet from evil villains with my delivered-just-in-time gadgets.
This being Boston, I'll be interested to learn whether this was a legitimate threat or a misunderstanding/overreaction by authorities, combined with poor fashion judgement on the young lady's part.
Here's a happy-fun quote from the AP item:
She's extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used," Pare told The Associated Press. "And she's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."
Image of the lovely and talented (seriously!) Ms. Simpson on a better day, with torch and mirror, from
this photoset of MIT tinkerers at the
MITERS student-run machine shop, shot by
George Lange.
Update: Law enforcement spokesperson at press conference being broadcast on CNN right now -- "She said it was a piece of art, and wanted to stand out on career day. I'm not sure why she had the Play Doh on her hands. She couldn't explain that.... there were wires attached to a battery that actually lit up... I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear such a device to the airport. We had someone with a submachine gun at the airport go right to the scene."
Update 2: Deja duh: Boston Globe referring to this incident as "Logan Hoax Arrest." And here's a photo of that gun.
Update 3: They're showing the LED hoodie on CNN right now (screengrab from a local TV report below).
Looks like the "improvised electronic device" consisted of a circuit board and a common battery that caused her sweatshirt, which had painted writing on it, to light up. Authorities referred to the paint as "putty."
The hoodie reads "Socket To Me / COURSE VI." A BB commenter familiar with MIT stuff says, "Course VI means she majors in Electrical Engineering / Computer Science."
Sheesh! Someone needs to not let these hyperintelligent hacker chirren out of the house wearing this kind of stuff when they're headed to airports in Boston. {shakes head}. Poor thing.
Update 4: She's being charged with "posession of a hoax device" (again with the hoax devices!) and disorderly conduct. But on the plus side, she's not dead.
Update 5: BB Discussions moderator Teresa Nielsen Hayden puts it in context. And the winner of the comment thread is BB reader Rob Cockerham:
I can't believe NBC is promoting Bionic Woman like this. What a terrible idea.
Update 6: Christy from
Instructables.com (Simpson is a
regular participant on the site) says:
Star was an intern at Squid Labs this summer, and is an all-around awesome geek who loves to build things. FYI, friends at MIT say she wears the hoodie on a regular basis- it's just unfortunate that she had it on while trying to pick a friend up at the airport.
MIT students don't really do mornings, or worry about what they're wearing, so I can't imagine she'd even think about her clothes before heading out to pick up a friend at the airport before 8am.
When Star gets out we'll have her do an Instructable on
1) how to get arrested at the airport without being shot, and
2) how to package your homemade electronics to look purchased.
Maybe BB and Instructables should start handing out some official-looking stickers and plastic covers to make breadboards look more commercial -- it will keep our readers away from automatic weapons.
I just put up a forum post on Instructables asking for design suggestions. If BB readers have any suggestions, just send them over and we'll print them up asap!
Update 7: Christy from
Instructables.com says (1125am PT),
I talked to Star briefly -- she's out on bail, is just fine, and thinks the whole thing is crazy.
Of course, they've impounded her sweatshirt, so she's got to do something else for Career Day.
Update 8: Bruce Schneier: "Definitely stupid police overreaction.
Refuse to be terrorized, people!"
And Chris Anderson, who, apart from being Editor in Chief at Wired Magazine is also a total UAV nerd, says:
Sorry to be late chiming in with support for Star, but I can confirm that
she's a world-class geek and otherwise cool person. While she was at
SquidLabs this summer, she helped with our UAV testing. Cracked one of the
imaging problems, too. Really sorry to see the lapse of judgment that led to
this arrest, but I'm sure she's got a glorious career ahead of her
regardless.
Update 9: BB reader
Sujal Shah says,
One clarification: Simpson did answer the original information desk staffer's question about what the art was. That there's no step between an answer that wasn't believed and guns drawn is a big issue to me. Innocent people will get killed this way.
Here's the post I left on Schneiers blog:
Just so we're all clear on this, she DID ANSWER the desk staffer who asked her what the contraption on her sweatshirt was. She responded that it was art. Link to local TV account. The employee had to repeat the question before she got an answer. This bit of info was missing in the original AP version, which made it sound like she refused to answer what the device was.
By Cory Doctorow at 6:36 am Friday, Sep 21
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Russian political life has been usurped by "siloviki" -- ex-spies -- who have apparently seized power from the small network of hyper-rich plutocratic "bankers" who rose to power after the Wall came down. The siloviki are a tight mafiyeh whose methods include high-profile international assassination of defectors (the assassins walk free and then
run for high office).
Virtually all key positions in Russian political life -- in government and the economy -- are controlled by the so-called "siloviki," a blanket term to describe the network of former and current state-security officers with personal ties to the Soviet-era KGB and its successor agencies. The unexpected replacement of former Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov by former Federal Financial Monitoring Service Director Viktor Zubkov is the latest consolidation of this group's grip on power in Russia. Although Zubkov is not an intelligence officer by background, he has become one de facto during his years at the Financial Monitoring Service, and he has intimate knowledge of where the country's legal and illegal assets are to be found.
The core of the siloviki group, led by former KGB officer and Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Vladimir Putin himself, comprises about 6,000 security-service alumni who entered the corridors of power during Putin's first term. Now, as Putin's second term winds down, their clout is virtually unassailable. Their locus of power is in the presidential administration: deputy chief of staff Igor Sechin cut his teeth in the KGB's First Main Directorate, which oversaw foreign intelligence operations and has since been transformed into the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). Fellow deputy chief of staff Viktor Ivanov worked for the KGB's main successor organization, the FSB, which is responsible for counterintelligence operations.
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 1:27 am Friday, Sep 21
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My latest Guardian column, "Free data sharing is here to stay," is live -- it's an argument about the "information economy," and whether restricting copying hurts or helps it.
It used to be that copy-prevention companies' strategies went like this:
"We'll make it easier to buy a copy of this data than to make an
unauthorised copy of it. That way, only the uber-nerds and the
cash-poor/time-rich classes will bother to copy instead of buy."
But every time a PC is connected to the internet and its owner is taught to use search tools like Google (or The Pirate Bay), a third option appears: you can just download a copy from the internet. Every techno-literate participant in the information economy can choose to access any data, without having to break the anti-copying technology, just by searching for the cracked copy on the public internet. If there's one thing we can be sure of, it's that an information economy will increase the technological literacy of its participants.
Link
