Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels over the years: a coiled cable-keeper in a shop in Melbourne (though the coil bore a label saying MADE IN USA). The cable came down from the ceiling to the cash-register, protecting the Ethernet cable that ran down from a drop-ceiling. I've been responsible for more than my share of truly ugly cable-runs with sudden drops in the middle of the room where the data needed to be -- a handsome little gizmo like this could have made my fugly hacks into decor. Link

The FBI is denying the existence of a file that details a program whereby US officials stole nuclear weapons secrets for eventual sale to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia -- but there's plenty of evidence for the file's existence:

Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office.

She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

One of the documents relating to the case was marked 203A-WF-210023. Last week, however, the FBI responded to a freedom of information request for a file of exactly the same number by claiming that it did not exist. But The Sunday Times has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file.

Edmonds believes the crucial file is being deliberately covered up by the FBI because its contents are explosive. She accuses the agency of an “outright lie”.

Link (Thanks, Bill)

(Image: NAM---Mk-5-Nuclear-Bomb, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike photo from Marshall Astor - Food Pornographer's Flickr stream)

This hand-felted Pong pendant is on sale by its maker, Madebymoxie, through Etsy. Just the thing for the pretty retro-gamer in your life. Link (via Wonderland)

Collage artist Stephen Rothwell makes astounding steampunk-scented Victorian apocalyptic fancies that tickle me to my toes. I could look at this stuff all day. Link (Thanks, Tom!)

The Seminole County Florida School District -- which recently signed up (and then had to cancel) McDonald's-sponsored report-cards has also approved a pilot program for school-bus audio advertising:

The company serves a sonorous mix of inoffensive music, public service announcements (buckle up, kids!) and a few harmless advertisements (maybe McDonald's?) to over 1 million children in 23 states. Bus Radio is based in Needham, Massachusetts, but lost its contract with the Needham school district after uppity parents objected to the crass commercialization of something as innocent as a bus ride.

Link

This low-cost attic staircase was built out of stacked pine boxes, filling a space too narrow for regular steps. Plenty steep but damned cool. Link (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Greg sez, "I just came back from the Heathrow Terminal 5 trials. Aside from all the regular kind of snafus to be expected when running such a trial and all the regular kinds of annoyances of dealing with airports, one particular problem stood out.

"In a brand new terminal built in the 21st century, BAA has managed to build departure waiting areas with not a single passenger-accessible power outlet. Rows and rows of hard plastic benches with armrests which prevent you from lying down--kind of makes you feel like you're in a Greyhound bus terminal and not a single power outlet.

"The nearest outlet was in the far wall near some fire equipment. The only way a laptop user could use it would be if he or she sat in the hallway obstructing people walking by." Link (Thanks, Greg!)

See also:
Montreal airport denies electricity to laptop users
Power outlets in airports wiki
Pay-per-use electricity in Dallas/Fort-Worth airport

(Image: 2006-12-12_19-10-47.jpg, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike photo from Avinash Meetoo's Flickr stream)

Flickr user Pilllpat (Agence Eureka) has uploaded 150 scanned high-resolution pages from beautiful old French papercraft activity books. This is worth printing on heavy paper and giving to a kid you love (omitting the pages with questionable racial content). Link (via IZ Reloaded)

Players have discovered that a programming decision in World of Warcraft puts a hard limit on how much in-game wealth a player can acquire: 2^31 gold pieces are all you can have. I wonder how long the gold farmers have know about this?

Today, while skimming over various WoW sites, I noticed two forum posts about the same topic: Players have discovered that there's a cap on how much money you can carry in the game. Apparently that amount is 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 48 copper. After you reach that lofty sum, you'll no longer be able to receive money from any source in the game. While some responses to the original posts claim that this exact limit had previously been theorized to exist, there have been no reports of anyone in the game actually achieving this amount via legal means.

Dorgabas on the official forums and meth on MMO-Champion's forums both reported the discovery today, each with a screenshot to provide veracity to their claims. You can check them out by clicking here. The shots are of two different players, one of whom is on a German-speaking server. In the shot you can read his conversation with a GM, which supposedly translates to him asking the GM about the limit and the GM scratching his head in response.

Link (via /.)

Larry sez, "Four giant waterfalls will be erected in New York for three months this summer as part of a public arts project. The waterfalls, including one that will fall from the famed Brooklyn Bridge, are the brainchild of Danish artist Olafur Eliasson."

Three of the waterfalls will cascade into the East River and New York Harbor from free-standing scaffolding towers that Eliasson said were part of his artistic vision, mirroring the scaffolding towers that sprout up throughout New York. The falls will be in place from mid-July to mid-October.

City officials are hoping to emulate the success of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's project, "The Gates," which drew around 1.5 million visitors to the city in February 2005 to view about 7,500 saffron panels draped through Central Park.

Link (Thanks, Larry!)

The July, 1940 edition of Popular Science heralded the miraculous appearance of a bold new means of packaging pickles: "Transparent rubber!"

Pickles, packaged in envelopes of a transparent rubber product, have been introduced by a leading American food packer. The water-tight container, which is protected by a cardboard box, holds neatly arranged sweet pickles which are packed in fluid just as when they are sold in glass bottles. Besides increasing the attractiveness of the commodity, the new method of packing is reported to eliminate bottle breakage and to reduce the weight of the containers.

Link

Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels: The Shop of the Forbidden City (with ice-cream freezer), Beijing, China. Love the sign -- sounds like an installment in the Indiana Jones franchise. Link

In the Christmas episode of sf writer Spider Robinson's delightfully eclectic podcast (I'm running a little behind in my podcasts right now), Spider introduced the work of American bluesman Paul Pena, playing a couple of his tracks. I was blown away.

Pena, a blind musician, was captivated by the sounds of Tuvan throat-singing, which he encountered for the first time on a late-night shortwave transmission. He taught himself to throat-sing, and met with and befriended Kongar-ol Ondar, forming the band Genghis Blues, which merged throat-singing with Delta blues in a marvellous and haunting way.

Pena died tragically after a misdiagnosis of pancreatic cancer led to his being addicted to -- and then brutally denied -- heavy painkillers, and subsequently died from pancreatitis and complications from diabetes. (Set sez, "He was never brutally denied painkillers -- after he found out that the first Dr. made a mistake in diagnosis, he finally found a competent and good Dr. who helped him manage his pain, quite compassionately, up until the end. ")

His music is a rich legacy, though. The combination of Tuvan throat-singing and the blues is not to be believed -- or missed. MP3 link to Spider's podcast (Pena segment starts about 5:20), Genghis Blues DVD, Genghis Blues CD

Information on Genghis Blues, Paul Pena homepage, Paul Pena on Wikipedia,

Spider Robinson podcast

Flickr user Sweet Juniper has a heartbreaking, gorgeous and horrifying set of photos of a rotting Detroit school book depository, where mountains of yellowing, damp, torn schoolbooks moulder, right in the middle of town:

This is inside the building right next to the Michigan Central Station. Apparently at one time it was a post office, and then it was used by the Detroit Public schools to store textbooks and materials. The columns in here are particularly beautiful. I think I read somewhere that the building was designed by Albert Kahn, but I haven't been able to verify that.

All those metal bars once supported pallets where all those papers and books were stored. This is the state I found it in.

Link (via Making Light)

Rogue archivist Carl Malamud sez,

There is an interesting discussion brewing on the Open Government discussion list. It all started when Aaron Swartz posted information about a new Library of Congress initiative with Flickr called "The Commons." This initiative is important because (if it continues) will allow people to tag images on Flickr as public domain, something you can't do today.

As a result of this discussion, Public.Resource.Org has put an unsolicited proposal into the Smithsonian Institution proposing they join the party by donating 2,000 public domain images to the pool. Yahoo! has not yet said if they would allow the Smithsonian to participate, but we figured they might let them in the door. To make the offer of a joint venture a serious one, we've put $50,000 on the table.

Needless to say, if we're successful in this venture, we'll also make tarballs available for FTP for those who just want to download instead of navigate.

Link

Young adult fantasy writer Tamora Pierce and Julie Holderman are planning a science fiction convention for young adults -- and young adult sf, and are planning it all on a LiveJournal group. Love this idea -- when I started going to cons, there was an enormous group of bratpack kids like me in attendance. These days, it seems like most of the kids were dragged along by their parents. Eventually, the parents will die off -- and then where will we be?

But when it comes to the presence of kidlit authors at conventions? Our favorite conventions welcome writers of content for younger readers, but these writers are in the minority at the con. Often kidlit writers are treated by members of adult F&SF cons in a manner that is patronizing at best, snubbing or scornful at worst. In recent months this has been a growing burr under our saddles, until chance remarks after a recent con got us to talking about the place of YA and kids' F&SF in the literary world in general.

Ours is an outsider arena--not mainstream enough for the purely kidlit crowd, not adult enough for the F&SF purists. And yet, most F&SF readers were introduced to the genres as kids and still re-read their favorites, if they don't continue to read the new F&SF which is being published for younger readers! We run into as many adult readers of kidlit at cons as we do actual, real, well--you know--kids and teens!

Following a long and fruitless hunt for a kidlit con, we started talking about making our own. Think of it, folks. Your dream date: writers, editors, star booksellers, artists, critics, art, videos, anime, and a dealer's room filled with treats. Panel topics about the art you love, discussions on publishing books for children and teens, what works (what lasts) in movies for kids. A con for the well-read, regardless of age, featuring the writers who changed your life.

That's what we're doing here. A project of this size needs a lot of active participation in its planning and execution. In other words, we need help, in the form of volunteers, ideas, and funding. This is where we open the floor to you all for suggestions, recommendations, and all of the assistance we can get. Do you know anyone who might provide us with grant money? (Can you write grants?) Are you willing to work on a con committee, and in what capacity? Have you started a convention and are you willing to give advice on starting a convention? Who would you like to see, as guests and as the first Guests of Honor (writer and artist)? Your input is welcome!

Link to LJ group for the convention, Link to introductory post (Thanks, Alice!)