The Latest from Boing Boing

When it comes to the Kindle, authors are focused on the wrong risk

Posted: 31 Mar 2009 02:53 AM PDT

My latest Guardian column, "Authors have lost the plot in Kindle battle," argues that the Authors' Guild is nuts to focus on the text-to-speech feature, and should really be paying attention to the fact that it's apparently possible to remotely disable features in the ebook reader.

Maybe I'm right and maybe I'm wrong, but the important thing is, we don't need new theories about copyright law to test the proposition. The existing, totally non-controversial aspect of copyright law that says, "Amazon can't publish and sell my book without my permission" covers the territory nicely.
But while we were all running our mouths about the plausibility of the singularity emerging from Amazon's text-to-speech R&D, a much juicier issue was escaping our notice: it is technically possible for Amazon to switch off the text-to-speech feature for some or all books.
That's a hell of a thing, isn't it? Now that Amazon has agreed with the Authors Guild that text-to-speech will only be switched on for authors who sign a contract permitting it, we should all be goggling in amazement at the idea that this can be accomplished.

Authors have lost the plot in Kindle battle

Previously:

Bank pushing 120% APR loans

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 11:57 PM PDT

The Dynamics of Cats blogger has noticed something fishy at a "large west coast bank, relatively well known including for some recent financial games with the Feds" -- tellers are pushing "direct deposit advances" that let you access deposited checks in real time for the low-low APR of 120%:

This time, the nice lady at the counter asked me if I needed immediate access to the deposit? Huh? Said I. Looking at the payeee - "I think the check will clear..."
Oh, it is not that, said she, it is just that some people need immediate access to their deposits, like same day, or tomorrow, and if you did we can expedite it.
Oh, that's nice, thought I, and said "no thanks, got enough balance to cover any outstanding transactions thanks, but been there..." so, I wandered off, and suddenly though - well was prompted by my better half to think - "expedited? at what price?"
So, I checked online - there is nothing about expedited access to deposits, rather a guarantee that deposits before 4pm are available same day... or next day. Unless: several reasons, none of which apply to me, nor, I sincerely hope, the payee.
But, there is "direct deposit advance". Interesting:
"The Finance Charge is a one-time transaction charge and is not dependent upon the length of time the advance is outstanding. The Finance Charge is $2.00 for every $20 that is advanced, which equates to an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 120%."

120% APR

DRM should be disclosed on game-boxes

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 11:54 PM PDT

Ars Technica has a report from the FTC's hearings on DRM, where Hal Halpin from the Entertainment Consumers Association proposed that game manufacturers should be required to disclose what kind of DRM they're using prior to purchase ("WARNING: World of Warcraft contains spyware called Warden to stop you from cheating -- it checks files and registry settings here and here, hides itself from the process manager, etc") and to stick to a set of standard EULA terms that everyday people can understand.

That's why DRM information needs to be front and center. "Disclosure is of paramount importance. People need to know what it is they're buying! We were joking before about information on food [Editors note: we referred to the proposed labels on gaming as "nutritional information" in a previous discussion] but some DRM is so invasive that you're buying a product and you need to know what's inside it, what impact it's going to have and how it may or may not be limiting the rights you believe you have, because there's now way to return it. That's the basis on which the FTC and your readers agree: disclosure, first and foremost."
This is important issue, and I asked Halpin if there are any other goods you can buy, not knowing what the product may do to other goods (your computer) when you use it, and that you can't return. "Not that I can think of. Anything else, if it's defective you can return it." That doesn't work at most retailers, where the employees won't take returns simply because of invasive DRM, if they even know what that term means.
"One of our primary goals, core to our mission, is education," Halpin tells Ars, and he strongly believes that if the FTC and the ECA is able to get this information onto game boxes, along with easy-to-understand, standardized licensing agreements, he can get the necessary information into the hands of consumers so that they can make better buying decisions and know their rights.

Hal Halpin to game devs: disclose DRM and standardize EULAs

Malthus: vampire slayer

Posted: 31 Mar 2009 12:35 AM PDT

Vampires can't be real or they'd be everywhere -- Laura McLay's ground-breaking research into vampire population dynamics demonstrate a dismal Mathusian character in vamp-growth that put the lie to the sucker:

This argument becomes even more overwhelming if you model a vampire population as a branching process or birth-death process and assume that each vampire in the population has probability Pj of producing j offspring (with j=0,1,2,… ). The vampire population would either explode or die out, depending on the expected number of offspring per vampire. But if you take into account the fact that vampires live many, many generations (they're virtually immortal) and may create thousands of offspring, the population explodes (if you assume that each vampire creates at least one vampire, on average, before it dies). With those numbers, vampires would not be living under the radar–they would be everywhere!

on vampires and stochastic processes (via Futurismic)

(Image: Vampires are real, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike image from Eyelash_divided's Flickr stream)

Hackerspaces around the world

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 11:44 PM PDT

Wired's Dylan Tweney has a great piece up on the world's burgeoning crop of Hacker Spaces -- clubhouses where members pitch in to share the rent in exchange for a role in governing a collectively managed collection of hacking kit: workbenches, tools, and components. I've visited hacker lofts in Vienna, San Diego, Los Angeles and elsewhere, and they always have a fantastic vibe, that palpable buzz you get from gathering a lot of smart, passionate, creative people inside each others' spheres of attention and set them to work, a cross-pollinated vigor.

At the center of this community are hacker spaces like Noisebridge, where like-minded geeks gather to work on personal projects, learn from each other and hang out in a nerd-friendly atmosphere. Like artist collectives in the '60s and '70s, hacker spaces are springing up all over.
There are now 96 known active hacker spaces worldwide, with 29 in the United States, according to Hackerspaces.org. Another 27 U.S. spaces are in the planning or building stage.
Located in rented studios, lofts or semi-commercial spaces, hacker spaces tend to be loosely organized, governed by consensus, and infused with an almost utopian spirit of cooperation and sharing.
"It's almost a Fight Club for nerds," says Nick Bilton of his hacker space, NYC Resistor in Brooklyn, New York. Bilton is an editor in The New York Times R&D lab and a board member of NYC Resistor. Bilton says NYC Resistor has attracted "a pretty wide variety of people, but definitely all geeks. Not Dungeons & Dragons–type geeks, but more professional, working-type geeks."
For many members, the spaces have become a major focus of their evening and weekend social lives.

DIY Freaks Flock to 'Hacker Spaces' Worldwide

Star Wars considered as an episode of Dallas

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 11:37 PM PDT

Bonnie sez, "After watching this fan-made Dallas-style intro of Star Wars, I'm beginning to wonder if J.R. and Darth Vader were one in the same."

Star Wars / Dallas opening (Thanks, Bonnie)

Max Barry's new novel,MACHINE MAN, serialized online

Posted: 31 Mar 2009 02:58 AM PDT

Matthew sez, "Max Barry, author of Jennifer Government (and a seriously funny guy if you ever get a chance to see him talk in person), is publishing his next book, Machine Man, in serial form, one page a day. You can get it via e-mail, RSS, or just on the web site. Eventually there may be some sort of payment scheme, but that doesn't seem to be particularly thought out at this point. So far, it's 9 pages in and I'm enjoying it already."

One Tuesday afternoon my left leg was severed. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. Well, it was. It was agonizing. There was a lot of screaming and flopping around and trying to tear my shirt into pieces to stem the bleeding. While I was busy with this, my co-workers stared through two-inch polycarbonate security glass and beat on the door. They couldn't get in. It was sealed for their safety. I had to apply my own tourniquet and try not to pass out for eight minutes. While I lay there, waiting for the time-release, I could see the top of what used to be my leg poking out from between two thick slabs of steel, gently dripping blood to the floor. I felt sorry for it. My leg hadn't asked for this. It had been a good leg. A faithful leg. And now look at it.
But in the weeks afterward, as I lay in my hospital bed, I came to see the bright side. I remembered that expression: A setback is just an opportunity in disguise. I decided that was true. Because while I was sad to lose my leg, now I could build a better one.

Machine Man (Thanks, Matthew!)

Dramatic readings of message-board posts about atheism from Christian fundamentalist message boards

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 11:31 PM PDT

If Atheists Ruled the World -- four minutes of dramatic readings from choice selections in various fundamentalist Christian online forums (see here for more).

If Atheists Ruled the World

Mark Ryden's first toy, photographed by Brian McCarty

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 09:18 PM PDT

Seen here is a Brian McCarty's splendid photograph of Mark Ryden's first ever toy, titled YHWH, on its way this summer from Long Gone John's Necessaries Toy Foundation. The figure stands 16" tall and keeps a constant vigil with its acrylic eyes. Brian's photo will grace the back cover of the forthcoming eleventh issue of Hi-Fructose magazine. Click the image to see it larger.

Yuri's Night "global space parties" happen from April 4-12.

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 07:15 PM PDT

( Image above: Aaron Muszalski, shot by Scott Beale, at Yuri's night 2007.)

The annual celebration of space travel known as the "Yuri's Night World Space Parties" happens this year on Saturday April 4, 2009.

The events, which take place in cities around the world each April, celebrate humanity's achievements in space. The parties mark the anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's orbital spaceflight, which was the human race's first foray into space (on April 12, 1961) and the first space Shuttle flight (on April 12, 1981). More than 150 events will take place this year on planet Earth.

I co-hosted one of the parties in Dallas, Texas, once, as the pic at left documents. Drunken cosmomauts (no, they were not drinking cosmopolitans) branded me with the head of Yuri Gagarin.

More about the Washington, DC edition of this event, from Yuri's Night global organizer Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides, the lovely and brilliant space diva who will be hosting that particular location's festivities:

The party this year at Goddard features live music from regional music stars Middle Distance Runner. Listen to multi-layered, indie-pop sounds through exploded views of galaxies and NASA exhibits. Dance next to the rocket garden to beats infused by DJ Scientific. A series of activities are guaranteed to entertain including NASA heavy hitters guiding you though space in the Science on a Sphere theater. Galactic attire is encouraged, silver, antennae, glow in the dark, sci-fi. Participants must be at least 21 years old and bring a valid ID. Beer, wine, and refreshments will be available for purchase and water, soda and chips provided.
Food Network will also feature a 2.5 ft high Hubble Space Telescope cake made for the occasion on their TV show 'Ace of Cakes' about Baltimore's own Charm City Cakes bakery and 500 lucky guests will get to sample Charm City's finest as we celebrate Goddard Space Flight Center's 50th Anniversary.

More info on events in all of the participating cities (I believe admission is $10 or less at each) is right here.

Previously:

Poor Timothy Geithner

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 04:35 PM PDT

Good Ol' Charlie Brown Timothy Geithner, as illustrated by the inimitable Drew Friedman for the New Republic.

Previously:

Elvis jams with Jimmy Page, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Keith Moon

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 04:35 PM PDT

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger.

Silicon brain

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 04:31 PM PDT

Researchers have built a chip with the equivalent of 200,000 neurons and 50 million synapses in an effort to mimic a human brain in silicon. I, for one, welcome our simple-minded overlords. From Technology Review:

Although the chip has a fraction of the number of neurons or connections found in a brain, its design allows it to be scaled up, says Karlheinz Meier, a physicist at Heidelberg University, in Germany, who has coordinated the Fast Analog Computing with Emergent Transient States project, or FACETS.

The hope is that recreating the structure of the brain in computer form may help to further our understanding of how to develop massively parallel, powerful new computers, says Meier...

FACETS has been tapping into the same databases. "But rather than simulating neurons," says Karlheinz, "we are building them." Using a standard eight-inch silicon wafer, the researchers recreate the neurons and synapses as circuits of transistors and capacitors, designed to produce the same sort of electrical activity as their biological counterparts.

Building A Brain On A Silicon Chip (Thanks, Marina Gorbis!)

Jobriath Boone: Rock's Fairy Godmother

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 04:05 PM PDT

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger.

If you've never heard of Jobriath Boone, don't worry, you're not alone. Obscure even by "rock snob" standards, Jobriath was the first really openly gay rock star. David Bowie and Lou Reed flirted with bisexuality, nail polish and make-up, of course, but Jobriath was in his own words, "a true fairy." He wasn't just "out of the closet" he was out like a police siren with the volume turned up to eleven! I've been a Jobriath freak for about 20 years when I stumbled upon his first LP at a New York City flea market. "What is THIS?" was my initial reaction to the cover, obviously influenced by the artwork for David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs." Clearly from the image on the cover, Jobriath was a 70s glitter rock wannabe. Make that perhaps a "neverwas," for aside from a massive advertising campaign that saw his image on 250 New York buses and a 40 foot high poster in Times Square, two solid LPs (recorded with the likes of Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Peter Frampton) and a memorable "Midnight Special" performance, Jobriath was a massive flop at the time. Too gay for mid-America in 1974? For sure, but that hasn't stopped Jobriath's Broadway showtunes meets glam rock oeuvre from being rediscovered by fresh ears this decade. Championed by Morrissey, Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys and singer-actress Ann Magnuson (who once told me that I was "the only straight guy in the world who's ever even HEARD of Jobriath" back in the early 90s), the tiny cult of Jobriath got a lot of new members when the CD compliation "Lonley Planet Boy" was released in 2004. His life was also a major part of the inspiration for Todd Haynes' "Velvet Goldmine" although few people realize that fact (the Maxwell Demon album covers are direct homages to the original Jobriath records). Admittedly, his music isn't for everyone --some people just HATE it-- but for those of you who embraced the equally obscure Klaus Nomi, you'll probably love Jobriath.

"I'maman" on The Midnight Special "Rock of Ages" on The Midnight Special "I'm Ready for my Close-Up" an informative Jobriath article from MOJO. Why You Should Like Jobriath

Errol Morris on a photo mystery

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 12:57 PM PDT

Packages Images Opinion 20090330 Morris Pic01-Humiston-Children

In a five part New York Times online series, documentary filmmaker and blogger Errol Morris tackles the fascinating mystery of this Civil War-era photograph. From the article, titled "Whose Father Was He?:

No name — but a soldier brave, he fell.
We shall find her, without a name;
This picture, sometime, will tell whence he came.
— Emily Latimer, "The Unknown"

The soldier's body was found near the center of Gettysburg with no identification — no regimental numbers on his cap, no corps badge on his jacket, no letters, no diary. Nothing save for an ambrotype (an early type of photograph popular in the late 1850s and 1860s) of three small children clutched in his hand. Within a few days the ambrotype came into the possession of Benjamin Schriver, a tavern keeper in the small town of Graeffenburg, about 13 miles west of Gettysburg. The details of how Schriver came into possession of the ambrotype have been lost to history. But the rest of the story survives, a story in which this photograph of three small children was used for both good and wicked purposes.

Whose Father Was He? (Part One)

Camera charts out of context

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 12:30 PM PDT

This image is one in a very odd series of photos. Well, odd if you're not familiar with video production. These photos are actually entries in a contest sponsored by the makers of color bars, gray scales, and other charts used to calibrate digital cameras. My friend Chris Courtney sent me a link to the contest because he's entered with this photo of his wife Nicole. Out of context though, the "Charts In Action 2009" page looks, as I said, rather odd.
Charts In Action Contest 2009

Laurie Anderson interviewed by Ken Goldberg

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 12:29 PM PDT

BB pal Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley engineering professor and artist, curates a fantastic free lecture series called the Art, Technology, & Culture Colloquium. At a recent event, Ken interviewed multimedia art pioneer Laurie Anderson. The audio of the interview is now available online:

This event was held in conjunction with Anderson's newest performance, "Homeland," which includes songs and stories that create a poetic and political portrait of contemporary American culture. Conceived as one long piece of music, "Homeland" moves through many worlds, from Greek tragedy to American business models, addressing the current obsession with fear, violence, and security.

Laurie Anderson in conversation with Ken Goldberg

America's bankers are oligarchs

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 12:48 PM PDT

Writing in the Atlantic, Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the IMF, takes a hard look at the econopocalypse and decides that the root of America's (and Europe's) economic woes is the cozy relationship between super-powerful bankers and government -- oligarchy. So, he says, we cannot fix the economy until we break up the banks, curb executive compensation in the finance sector, and turn it into "just another industry."

Typically, these countries are in a desperate economic situation for one simple reason—the powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks. Emerging-market governments and their private-sector allies commonly form a tight-knit—and, most of the time, genteel—oligarchy, running the country rather like a profit-seeking company in which they are the controlling shareholders. When a country like Indonesia or South Korea or Russia grows, so do the ambitions of its captains of industry. As masters of their mini-universe, these people make some investments that clearly benefit the broader economy, but they also start making bigger and riskier bets. They reckon—correctly, in most cases—that their political connections will allow them to push onto the government any substantial problems that arise...
The government needs to inspect the balance sheets and identify the banks that cannot survive a severe recession. These banks should face a choice: write down your assets to their true value and raise private capital within 30 days, or be taken over by the government. The government would write down the toxic assets of banks taken into receivership—recognizing reality—and transfer those assets to a separate government entity, which would attempt to salvage whatever value is possible for the taxpayer (as the Resolution Trust Corporation did after the savings-and-loan debacle of the 1980s). The rump banks—cleansed and able to lend safely, and hence trusted again by other lenders and investors—could then be sold off.
Cleaning up the megabanks will be complex. And it will be expensive for the taxpayer; according to the latest IMF numbers, the cleanup of the banking system would probably cost close to $1.5trillion (or 10percent of our GDP) in the long term. But only decisive government action—exposing the full extent of the financial rot and restoring some set of banks to publicly verifiable health—can cure the financial sector as a whole.
This may seem like strong medicine. But in fact, while necessary, it is insufficient. The second problem the U.S. faces—the power of the oligarchy—is just as important as the immediate crisis of lending. And the advice from the IMF on this front would again be simple: break the oligarchy.

The Quiet Coup (via Making Light)

"COME WITH US NOW ON A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME AND SPACE" --THE MIGHTY BOOSH ON AMERICAN TV!!!

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 12:02 PM PDT

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger.

PEOPLE OF AMERICA, LISTEN UP: From the fine folks who brought you "Tim and Eric Awesome Show -great job!," "Superjail" and "Look Around You," at long last, "The Mighty Boosh" have a berth at Adult Swim!!! Thrill to the psychedelic adventures of Vince Noir, "rockstar" --raised in a forest by Bryan Ferry, can talk to animals, a big Gary Numan freak-- and Howard Moon, "generic-looking" unpublished novelist and delusional "intellectual." The Boosh have landed in the US of A!!!! It's next to impossible to describe the riotous bubble gum confection of the audio-visual strangeness that is The Mighty Boosh, but, in brief, Howard and Vince, along with their friends Naboo the Enigma, mystical shaman and pot dealer, and Bolo the gorilla go on various surreal journeys. Along the way they meet meet killer kangaroos, violent hitchhikers, "mod wolves," and a hermaphroditic "merman" (with a "mangina"). Many of the episodes erupt into bizarre and elaborate music videos with inventive dance choreography. If any of this is starting to sound like something you might enjoy, grab yourself some herbal "entertainment insurance" (if you know what I am talking about, and I think you do --The Boosh are God's gift to stoners) and start watching The Mighty Boosh, Sunday nights on Adult Swim.

I have two favorite episodes: "The Priest and The Beast" (series 2, ep 2) where the boys go on a mystical journey to find "the New Sound"-- a comedic "Holy Mountain" meets a Carlos Santana concept album from 1973 (If that statement makes no sense, don't worry about it) and the series two closer (ep 6) "The Nightmare of Milky Joe," of which, my wife Tara remarked "There is 'Eraserhead' and then beyond 'Eraserhead' there is but 'Milky Joe.'" (Another friend said "These guys certainly carried that through to the end with the utmost conviction!" which is too true about this one, 'nuff said).

Gold computer chip ring

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 10:37 AM PDT

Over at Boing Boing Gadgets, Rob has the details on this 8-bit bit of bling, specifically an 18k gold ring cast from a 1981 Atari chip.
"1981 Atari Ring"

Hand-carved linocut animation

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 09:44 AM PDT

Mark sez, "This printed linomation (hand carved animation using Linoleum prints), was done using 296 individual pieces of carved linoleum which are 10 cm square each. This is a project for The Art of Lost Words. It's all about words in the English language and artists' interpretations of words that are not used so much anymore, and there are some pretty strange ones. I chose the word dehisce from a list of .ost words. 'Dehisce' means 'release of material by splitting open of an organ or tissue; the natural bursting open at maturity of a fruit or other reproductive body to release seeds or spores or the bursting open of a surgically closed wound.' It's made to a loop so it can go on forever! For YouTube I decided to loop it three times to show the gist of the looping. My friend Adam Dedman created the sound for the linomation."

Dehisce Linomation Print - Hand Carved Animation (Thanks, Mark!)

Today's anniversary of the pencil eraser

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 09:20 AM PDT

On today's date, 1858, Hymen Lipman was granted a patent for attaching a piece of rubber to the end of a pencil. While it was certainly a stroke of genius, the courts didn't think it to be as groundbreaking as one might think. From Smithsonian:

Unfortunately for Lipman, the patent would later be revoked, when the U.S. Supreme Court rules in 1875 that a pencil with an eraser is just a pencil with an eraser and not a new invention.

Hymen L. Lipman makes his mark in pencil history

For more than you ever wanted to know about the history of the pencil, don't miss Henry Petroski's book The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstances.

Science of the "laughing cure"

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 09:05 AM PDT

This month's Scientific American Mind surveys the possible physiological and psychological benefits of LOLing. From SciAm Mind:

Norman Cousins, the storied journalist, author and editor, found no pain reliever better than clips of the Marx Brothers. For years, Cousins suffered from inflammatory arthritis, and he swore that 10 minutes of uproarious laughing at the hilarious team bought him two hours of pain-free sleep.

In his book Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient (W. W. Norton, 1979), Cousins described his self-prescribed laughing cure, which seemed to ameliorate his inflammation as well as his pain. He eventually was able to return to work, landing a job as an adjunct professor at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he investigated the effects of emotions on biological states and health.

The community of patients inspired by such miracle treatments believes not only that humor is psychologically beneficial but that it actually cures disease. In reality, only a smattering of scientific evidence exists to support the latter idea—but laughter and humor do seem to have significant effects on the psyche, even influencing our perception of pain. What is more, psychological well-being has an impact on overall wellness, including our risk of disease.

Laughter relaxes us and improves our mood, and hearing jokes may ease anxiety. Amusement's ability to counteract physical agony is well documented, and as Cousins's experience suggests, humor's analgesic effect lasts after the smile has faded.

Cheerfulness, a trait that makes people respond more readily to laugh lines, is linked to emotional resilience—the ability to keep a level head in difficult circumstances—and to close relationships, studies show. Science also indicates that a sense of humor is sexy; women are attracted to men who have one. Thus, in various ways, life satisfaction may increase with the ability to laugh.

"How Humor Makes You Friendlier, Sexier"

Robber arrested at cop convention

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 08:31 AM PDT

Jerome Marquis Blanchett robbed a man in a hotel bathroom in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Friday. Problem is, the man he robbed is a retired police chief. Not only that, but the retired police chief was at the hotel for a police officers' convention where 300 other cops were gathered. From the Associated Press:

When (Blanchett) fled, Comparetto and some colleagues chased him. They arrested (the) 19-year-old... of Harrisburg as he was trying to leave in a taxi.

When a reporter asked Blanchett for comment as he was led out of court, he said, "I'm smooth."

"'Dumbest criminal in Pennsylvania' arrested"

HOWTO sell your publisher on releasing your work under a Creative Commons license

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 08:19 AM PDT

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from writers is, "How do I convince my publisher to release my book under a Creative Commons license?" It's a hard question to answer well, and luckily from now on I don't have to, because this amazing post at Digital Foundations has done a totally kick-ass job at it:

4. Pitch it with facts
Use case studies to argue with facts. It also helps for them to see that other reputable publishers have licensed books Creative Commons. O'Reilly has some a study on an Asterisk book that we used very effectively.
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/06/free_downloads.html
The Asterisk book sold 19k copies over two years (about what comparable books from O'Reilly were selling), but was downloaded 180,000 times from *one* of the 5 sites that mirrored it.
Also consider google as arbiter:
Results from google search breakdown of references to the two books in the oreilly case study (at the time of negotiation, early 2008): asterisk: 139,000 references in 2 years (2005-2007), or 70,000 per year
understanding the linux kernel, 42,000 references in 7 years (2000-2007), 6,000 per year
So there was 10x the press/blog/reference/hits for the CC licensed book.

HOWTO Negotiate a Creative Commons License: Ten Steps (via O'Reilly Radar)

Cat Shit One, the animated trailer

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 06:04 AM PDT

Here's an animated trailer for the anime series "Cat Shit One." Production: Studio Anima, Director: Kazuya Sasahara. Original Manga (released in the USA as "Apocalypse Meow"): Motofumi Kobayashi. Our pal Danny Choo has a related post here, and describes it as "Metal Gear Solid meets fluffy animals."

Video Link (Thanks, Jeremy Bornstein!)

Rainbow Bread ('80s footage of radio ad singer doing multiple takes)

Posted: 30 Mar 2009 06:01 AM PDT

Unidentified '80s radio jingle singers are the new girls-playing-ukeleles on Boing Boing! Andrew Swant says,

Bobby Ciraldo and I made the "What What In the Butt" video and Leslie Hall's "Zombie Killer" video. A friend just came across this video and it made us laugh out loud. I figured I should send it to Boing Boing in case you have any slow news days coming up. Or maybe this wouldn't be funny to most people and we just have a weird sense of humor? It's pretty long, but luckily the best stuff is at the beginning.

Rainbow Bread (YouTube). You can see where they've identified the singer in the comments, the story's pretty neat.