Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Last month, this photo was released of an "uncontacted" tribe in the Amazon rain forest. It's an amazing photo, but it's now come out that the tribe had actually been known since 1910. The photographer, José Carlos Meirelles, went to where they were thought to live specifically to take their pictures. Meirelles works for Funai, the Brazillian Indian Protection Agency, and apparently was trying to attract publicity to help protect indigenous people in the area. Meanwhile, a post on the blog of Survival International, the indigenous rights group which works with Funai, denies that there's been any wrongdoing on their part at all. From The Observer:
Survival International, the organisation that released the pictures along with Funai, conceded yesterday that Funai had known about this nomadic tribe for around two decades. It defended the disturbance of the tribe saying that, since the images had been released, it had forced neighbouring Peru to re-examine its logging policy in the border area where the tribe lives, as a result of the international media attention. Activist and former Funai president Sydney Possuelo agreed that – amid threats to their environment and doubt over the existence of such tribes – it was necessary to publish them.
But the revelation that the existence of the tribe was already established will provoke awkward questions over why a decision was made to try to photograph them – a form of contact in itself – in order to make a political point. Link(Thanks, Sean Ness!)
From Survival International:
The only people who ever claimed that the Indians photographed were ‘lost’ or ‘undiscovered’ were…. the press, despite the fact that Survival has been campaigning for the protection of the many isolated Indian tribes on the Peru-Brazil border for more than twenty years.
Indeed, you might have thought that the fact that the Indians are living in a government reserve set aside for isolated Indian groups would tend to indicate that they weren’t exactly ‘unknown’.
For the avoidance of doubt, let’s just make it clear – yes, the tribe is uncontacted, that is to say, has no peaceful contact with outsiders. But no, they’re not ‘lost’ – they know where they are, and anthropologists, Survival, other NGOs and the Brazilian government have known that there are many isolated Indian tribes living in that region for decades. Link
Previously on BB:
• Uncontacted tribe in Amazon Link
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
The Heward Dental Lab in Salt Lake City specializes in "dental tattoos," which are actually custom hand-painted crowns. Owner and main artist Steve Heward is a traditional oil painter too. The artwork on a crown costs between $75 and $500. I don't think I'd want a painted crown in my mouth but I'd love to have a collection of them in my wunderkammer. Link(via Bizarre)
Previously on BB:
• Tooth Tattoos at 99-cent only store Link
The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City, by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, is a delightfully readable and very useful guide to front- and back-yard vegetable gardening, food foraging, food preserving, chicken keeping, and other useful skills for anyone interested in taking a more active role in growing and preparing the food they eat. I learned a great deal about composting, self-watering containers, mulching, raised bed gardens, vermiculture (worm composting), and raising chickens by reading this info-dense book.
Unlike many self-sufficiency books, this one isn't preachy, unrealistic, or dogmatic. Instead, it's honest and often humorous. Kelly and Erik (who run the Homegrown Evolution blog) are wonderfully lucid and accessible writers. They also walk the walk -- I visited their Los Angeles home and spent a wonder couple of hours touring their abundant vegetable gardens and henhouse filled with clownlishly entertaining chickens.
If you live in LA, you can meet Erik and Kelly at the Homegrown Evolution Book Signing and Lecture. It's this Thursday, June 26th at 7:30pm at the Los Angeles Eco-Village, 117 Bimini Place, LA 90004.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Environmental scientist Wallace Broecker proposes that the only way to fix global warming is by literally scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere and burying it. A professor at Columbia University, Broecker's written a new book on the subject appropriately titled Fixing Climate. He's also working with a company called Global Research Technologies to develop machines that would remove CO2 from the air on a massive scale. In the new issue of Smithsonian, Broecker talks about why these devices are our best hope. From the interview:
We need something that can be manufactured, like air conditioners or cars, by the millions. Each day, a unit would take about a ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere, liquefy it and send it out through pipes to wherever it's going to be stored. The developers are now envisioning a device about 6 to 10 feet in diameter, 50 feet high. It would be like a little silo, in that shape so the wind could blow through it from any direction.
CO2 emissions are going up faster than the highest scenarios. Developing nations are going gangbusters using fossil fuels, so they are eclipsing any savings that the rich nations are making. At some point we are going to have to get tough about it. There is going to be a demand to bring the CO2 level back down again because of the environmental damage it's doing. The only way to do that would be with this sort of device.
Link to Smithsonian interview, Link to buy Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal About the Current Threat--and How to Counter It
A source close to the plans tells BB that American Airlines plans to announce WiFi live on flights to/from JFK, LAX, SFO, and MIA as early as this week (elsewhere, launch dates in July are being reported). Virgin America also plans to launch wireless internet service within their fleet, but based on the unofficial chatter I'm hearing, sounds like a few months further down the line for them.
As airlines hard-hit by rising fuel costs scramble to create new forms of incremental revenue, I'd bet these two US carriers will be the first of many. Walt Mossberg has an item about this today at the Wall Street Journal, and Scott Beale has a related blog post. VA and AA are both using Denver-based provider Gogo.
I asked a Virgin America representative for clarification on their plans (disclaimer: Boing Boing tv is carried on their in-flight entertainment system, though it's not a source of revenue for us; VA also advertises on boingboing.net), and here's their reply:
1. Virgin America has made public that they are installing WiFi fleet-wide (unlike some other airlines – American & JetBlue who are only doing a few planes)
2. Virgin America has also made public that its product will be more than laptop session access; it will integrate with Red, its inflight entertainment system
3. Virgin America intends to offer products like air-to-ground IM (MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, google talk and Skype, plus SMS)
4. All Virgin America A320s and A319s already have wifi access points installed (2 per plane); the flight attendants currently use them for Red’s food ordering system.
5. Other US airlines (like JetBlue and American) may be first when it comes to touting a wireless product, but Virgin is taking its time to get the product offering right for its guests.
By #5, I think what's being referred to there is the need for airlines to optimize various aspects of the WiFi experience that one doesn't have to think through quite so meticulously on the ground. In the
absence of fast, perfect, constant bandwidth, airlines really need to think the client side (airborne apps) through -- what parts to cache, what parts to push through the pipe. A source at VA elaborates:
The ideal solution is to optimize user experience by pre-populating some things (like news for example) on airborne servers, instead of wasting bandwidth with everybody downloading the same thing.
We're also reaching out to AA for comment, and I'll be sure to post their reply in entirety, too.
Image: snapshot I took last week of a sign inside a cafe in Guatemala.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
George Lakoff is well known as a cognitive linguist who looks at how language affects culture, specifically how much the metaphors we use impact the way we think. During the last presidential election, he grabbed a lot of attention with his book Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, about how Republicans are masters at "framing" debates to their benefit. His new book, The Political Mind, explores the same territory but in the context of cognitive science. The New York Times reviewed The Political Mind yesterday and it sounds fascinating. From the NYT:
Lakoff blames “neoliberals” and their “Old Enlightenment” mentality for the Democratic Party’s weakness. They think they can win elections by citing facts and offering programs that serve voters’ interests. When they lose, they conclude that they need to move farther to the right, where the voters are.
This is all wrong, Lakoff explains. Neuroscience shows that pure facts are a myth and that self-interest is a conservative idea. In a “New Enlightenment,” progressives will exploit these discoveries. They’ll present frames instead of raw facts. They’ll train the public to think less about self-interest and more about serving others. It’s not the platform that needs to be changed. It’s the voters.
The basis of Lakoff’s theory is simple: the mind is the brain. Any connection that forms between your thoughts also forms between your neurons. As you internalize a metaphor, a circuit in your brain “physically constitutes the metaphor.” This parallel development continues as mental complexity increases. “Narratives are brain structures,” he proposes.
Link to NYT review, Link to buy The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain
Previously on BB:
• George Lakoff on how to argue with conservatives Link
• George Lakoff on why the conservatives seem to be winning Link
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This incredibly detailed Quake 3 Simpsons map looks like it'd be a hell of a lot of fun to play -- especially if you skinned the bad guys as Worker and Parasite.
Link
(via Waxy)
Consumerist's Meg Marco sez, "One of our readers describes flying with no ID under the new TSA policy, first hand:"
After about 15 minutes, the main supervisor, Laurie, arrived. Again, Laurie was exceedingly nice and professional, but seemed a little more concerned than Brenda. She asked if I was sure I didn't have photo ID, like a credit card with my picture on it, or even a CostCo card. I wound up going through my wallet in front of her to show that I didn't, and she pointed to various cards and receipts in it to ask if they were IDs. I wound up showing her everything to prove I was telling the truth. She repeatedly said they had no way of "verifying" that I was who I said I was, and that someone could have stolen my credit card and traveled under my name. I didn't want to mention that they shouldn't need to verify who I am, because I was afraid they could then say I wasn't cooperating and deny travel on that ground. In fact, I even mentioned several times that I wanted to fully cooperate with them because I was aware that was a component of the new regulation, and they assured me that I was.
Finally satisfied that I didn't have ID, Laurie took my boarding pass and went away. She came back a few minutes later having photocopied it, and also had an affidavit that she requested I sign. It asked for my name and address, and stated in small print at the bottom that I did not have to fill it out, but if I didn't I couldn't fly. It also said that if I choose to fill it out and then provided false info, I would be in violation of federal law.
Carey Burtt’s superb “Mind Control Made Easy or How to Become a Cult Leader” (2000).
It may be fun, but this is no comedy, it’s more like a documentary. Cults thrive on our vulnerabilities, and a good demonstration of just how vulnerable we all are was given in a series of experiments conducted by social psychologist Solomon Asch in the 1950s.
A 65-year-old man who owns a 2.5 acre island in the Shetland Islands in the North Sea has declared independence from the UK.
[Stuart] Hill, 65, has lived in the Shetland Islands on the edge of the Atlantic since 2001, when his boat capsized there during an unsuccessful attempted to circumnavigate Britain.
He is Forvik's only resident, and his home is a tent on the storm-battered island. He says on his website that he plans to create Forvik's own currency -- the "gulde" -- print his own stamps and raise his own flag.
"There will be no income tax, VAT (value added tax), council tax, corporation tax, or any of the other taxes instituted by the British government," Hill wrote.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Gelando Olivieri was caught on surveillance video attempting to rob a convenience store in DeLand, Florida. His weapon? A palm frond. A customer fended him off with a bar stool. Link(via Fortean Times)
Previously on BB:
• Man disguised as tree robs bank Link
• Robber disguised face with duct tape Link
Artist Marina Bychkova, a dollmakerr who was featured in Craft magazine, has created a new doll, called Mermaid Song.
Tattooed porcelain 13.5” tall
Materials: Articulated, porcelain, China paint, silk hair. The porcelain is engraved with a needle while still raw, fired and then china paint is rubbed into the grooves. Accents are added in additional layers.
I just set up a Twitter feed for Boing Boing tv, so Twitter users can receive a ping when we air a new episode (once or twice a day, depending on how productive our hamsters are). Ten! Ten followers already! Take that, Scoble and Calacanis, we're comin' to getcha.
There's one for Boing Boing, too. And if you're really feeling follow-y, I'm on Twitter and I update regularly; Mark has an active profile as well.
The mammoth StormWorm botnet has left off its usual strategy of using news headlines to lure people into clicking on badsite links that result in their computers being hijacked and added to the botnet -- now it is using intriguing fictional events to bait its hooks:
The emails contain such headlines as 'Eiffel Tower damaged by massive earthquake' and 'Donald Trump missing, feared kidnapped.'
The bodies of the emails contain links which claim to provide further information on the story.
However, the links direct to a page designed to resemble adult video site Pornotube. When users click on one of the supposed video links on the page, an executable is launched which installs the Storm malware.
"This clever social engineering technique plays on people's inquisitiveness about news of natural disasters and celebrities," said McAfee researcher Kevin McGhee.
"The emails also follow the simple format of some text and a link that looks fairly harmless to the uneducated user."
The emails mark a deviation for Storm from its usual tactic of spamming articles and videos of current events and holidays.
Last year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation created a new radio show, Search Engine, to chronicle the shifts being wrought upon global culture and politics as a consequence of technology. It was smart, funny, broke important stories, changed Canadian politics, won awards, and was a global success.
So the CBC cancelled it.
Now a group of Search Engine fans have created a Facebook group to save the show -- and they want you to sign up, too.
One of the best and most successful shows on CBC radio, Search Engine, an award winning newsmagazine about the Internet and cyberculture, is inexplicably being shut down by management.
Join us in registering our displeasure, sadness and frustration with the CBC's management, and petitioning that the show be allowed to live on.
Wil Harris from Channel Flip sez, "Take one remote control Dr Who Dalek toy, add a state of the art pinhole security camera, pair with wireless transmitter and hard disk recorder - and voila, an incognito security device for the geek office or home. This bot was made by a London security firm for an anonymous client and we got to play with it!"
Link
(Thanks, Wil!)
'70s punk star Wreckless Eric describes them as "a triumph of dysfunctionalness," and even Kylie Minogue (they've covered a hit song of hers) has become a fan.
The band says their mission is...
...to demonstrate that disability rocks. There are few genres left in music that have yet to be defined. Heavy Load have unwittingly created a brand new one.
The band is also behind a campaign called "Stay Up Late" which advocates for the right of cognitively disabled people to be allowed to go out, supervised, to live music shows and -- well, stay out late enough to actually see and hear the show. Again, from the band:
We play gigs all over the country and we have noticed that something strange happens at 9.00pm – people start to go home. Heavy Load are fed up with people with learning disabilities leaving club nights and gigs early because their staff finish their shifts at 10pm. This means they are missing out.
If this happens to you: You need to talk about this with your friends, support workers, family and advocates. Our ‘Stay Up Late’ campaign is to make managers and staff know that we want them to plan ahead and talk to us about what we want to do...
The full-length documentary premieres on the US cable network IFC on June 23rd, 9PM ET/10PM PT, and again on 24th June. (Special thanks to BB's Mark Frauenfelder, and to the film's director, Jerry Rothwell)
Michael sez, "Artist Fiddian Warman built some robots controlled by a neural network. neural networks can learn, so he's been playing them classic punk records in an attempt to turn them into robotic versions of his younger self. the robots are 2 metres tall and have the ability to pogo.
It all culminates in a gig at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (3-5 July 2008: bring your friends!). the artist has formed a punk band for the occasion: they're going to play to the robots and the audience and see if the robots dance."
Link
(Thanks, Michael!)
One of the best things about being an immigrant is that there's an entire nation's worth of wonderful and weird pop-culture to absorb. Case in point: last night, my dinner guests told me about the notorious Fred Dibnah, a British steeplejack who made a career out of televised, dramatic demolitions of giant industrial chimneys, a feat he accomplished without explosions. Dibnah also owned a pair of lovingly restored steam engines, and dug a replica coal mine in his back yard. There's a wealth of Dibnah videos on YouTube -- they're endlessly entertaining.
Having mastered his trade repairing chimneys, Dibnah became aware of the demand for a cost-effective demolition method and offered to remove them without the need for explosives. His technique was to cut an ingress at the bottom of the chimney, support the brickwork with wooden props and then burn the props so that the chimney fell, hopefully in the intended direction. Alongside his demolition work he also continued to work as a steeplejack. He has always maintained that, although most famous for demolishing chimneys, he much preferred to repair and preserve them.
Retrobrick sells "vintage" mobile phones and accessories -- I love the cognitive dissonance I get by typing the words "vintage" and "mobile phone" together, but given that these things have been around for decades, it's perfectly reasonable. My friend Jim Griffin likes to say "anything invented before you were 18 has been there forever, anything that turns up before you're 30 is new and exciting, and anything after that is a threat to the world and must be destroyed."
We pride ourselves on having the widest stocks of the most collectable and vintage phones. But, in the unlikely event that we don't have what you want in stock, we will do our best to source it for you.
Mobile phone collecting is still in its infancy around the world. These very recent antiques are becoming more and more popular and prices are set to rise dramatically. We predict a very large price increase, so any purchase made now could be a very wise investment
A reader writes, "Saturday night's Science Fiction Hall of Fame induction ceremony honored this Betty and Ian Ballantine (Literature Category), William Gibson (Literature Category), Richard M. Powers (Art Category), and Rod Serling (Film, Television and Media Category.)" That's a damned fine list of inductees -- congrats all 'round.
Link
Hurrah! The OpenTech conference is returning to London! I wish I was in town for it, but I'm going to be overseas. Co-organizer Sam Smith sez,
At the last OpenTech in 2005, the Open Rights Group was started. For 2008, the conference includes a State of the Nation from ORG and NO2ID, describing where we've come from, and a look forward to where we're going.
Also in the lineup is "Power to the people - Power of Information one year on" with participation from Richard Allan, William Perrin and Tom Watson MP on how Power of Information is changing the UK Government, and what we can do with it.
Plus, another 18 sessions on everything from Porn to Baird.
5th July, Central London, £5. We expect the event to sell out, so please book in advance.
Link
(Thanks, Sam!)
PingMag has a great interview with Kogoro Kurata, a Japanese ironsmith whose works range from staircases to robots to typewriters to bulldozers, all of which seem to have come from a rusty dimension of grim, skeletal force.
One thing that gets me once in a while is just that the colour of iron is always black! [laughs] Sometimes it can be boring, so I would rather use wood. My basic material is always iron, but I’ll use other materials as decoration to escape its monotone characteristic. On the other hand, I think the texture of iron is really important in my works so I don’t paint them either. I’ll probably always work with iron – as long as my body holds out! [laughs]
Survival International, the organisation that released the pictures along with Funai, conceded yesterday that Funai had known about this nomadic tribe for around two decades. It defended the disturbance of the tribe saying that, since the images had been released, it had forced neighbouring Peru to re-examine its logging policy in the border area where the tribe lives, as a result of the international media attention. Activist and former Funai president Sydney Possuelo agreed that – amid threats to their environment and doubt over the existence of such tribes – it was necessary to publish them.
Lakoff blames “neoliberals” and their “Old Enlightenment” mentality for the Democratic Party’s weakness. They think they can win elections by citing facts and offering programs that serve voters’ interests. When they lose, they conclude that they need to move farther to the right, where the voters are.
Rhonda Bullington snapped this photo somewhere in Arkansas. (Thanks, 
Gelando Olivieri was caught on surveillance video attempting to rob a convenience store in DeLand, Florida. His weapon? A palm frond. A customer fended him off with a bar stool.
One of the best and most successful shows on CBC radio, Search Engine, an award winning newsmagazine about the Internet and cyberculture, is inexplicably being shut down by management.
At the last OpenTech in 2005, the Open Rights Group was started. For 2008, the conference includes a State of the Nation from ORG and NO2ID, describing where we've come from, and a look forward to where we're going.
