The Latest from Boing Boing

Thoughtcrime Experiments: Remixable, CC-licensed science fiction anthology

Posted: 27 Apr 2009 03:14 AM PDT

Sumana sez, "Sumana Harihareswara and Leonard Richardson selected nine mind-squibbling SF and fantasy stories from the slush pile, commissioned five works of art, paid the authors and artists, and packaged the whole thing as a high-quality anthology that you're free to copy and remix. Artists include E-Sheep's Patrick Farley and fanfic darling Erin Ptah; authors include Mary Anne Mohanraj, Carole Lanham, and Ken Liu. We also wrote an essay describing the process, which you can read if you're interested in how we did it or what the SF/fantasy market looks like from the editor's perspective."

Thoughtcrime Experiments (Thanks, Sumana!)

Vernor Vinge predicts singularity by 2030

Posted: 27 Apr 2009 12:21 AM PDT

Destiny sez, "In a new interview, Vernor Vinge predicts the Singularity within 21 years. 'I'd personally be surprised if it hadn't happened by 2030,' he announces, saying humankind may become 'the only animal that has figured out how to outsource its cognition' to superintelligent machines. Since 1981 Vinge has been popularizing the idea of a massive technological shift which replaces 'the human era' with an advanced humanity augmented by artificial intelligence. 'It is very unsettling to realize that we may be entering an era where questions like 'What is the meaning of life?' will be practical engineering questions,' 64-year-old Vinge agrees. 'On the other hand, I think it could be kind of healthy, if we look at the things we really want -- and look at what it would mean if we could get them.'"

I'm on record as being a skeptic about this stuff, but man, Vernor's fun to read.

Singularity 101 with Vernor Vinge (Thanks, Destiny!)

MBAs: Most Bloody Awful, Aussie radio documentary on the problem with biz-school

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 10:03 PM PDT

In this superb Australian public radio documentary, "MBA: Mostly bloody awful," the idea of "scientific management" and "professional management" is subjected to an extremely critical look and comes up wanting. Focusing on the Harvard Business School and the circumstances that gave rise to it (America: "a corporation founded by a corporation"; "scientific" Taylorism and its focus on quantifying the unquantifiable, the fad to quantification in management, such as Meyers-Briggs). It looks at the difference between MBAs and real entrepreneurs, looking at all those successful founders who didn't get MBAs (Gates, Jobs, Bezos, etc), and at the pants-wetting insecurity on display in the number of times the word "leader" and its associated terms appear in the bumpf for management programs ("every leader needs to have a bunch of followers -- do we want a world of followers?"). This is extremely meaty stuff, funny and engrossing and refreshing at once. Definitely worth the listen.

MBA: Mostly bloody awful (via Justine Larbalestier)

Can't see the video? Click here

Can game-design promote human rights?

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 09:57 PM PDT

The Council of Europe has released a set of guidelines on the human rights of video-game players, calling on game-creators to design systems that encourage freedom of expression and creativity (many online games actually put up an "agreement" every time you patch them in which you promise not to assert your right to either). On the academic games blog Terra Nova, Ren Reynolds points out problems with this approach and sets out a course for improving it.

Providers (designers and publishers) of online games design and make available products which can promote the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the freedom to express, to create and to exchange content and communications while respecting the rights of others. Designed and provided in an appropriate manner, games can be powerful tools to enhance learning, creativity and social interaction, thereby helping users to benefit from the information society.
However, like other content, online games may also inadvertently impact on the rights and sensibilities of individuals, in particular children, as well as their dignity. The potential impact of such games may increase as they allow the gaming experience to become more creative and interactive (as the possibilities for expression, interaction and exchange of content with other gamers increase) and ever more realistic (as the visual effects of games develop).
Online games can play an important positive role in the lives and development of individuals, especially for children and young people. It suffices to consider the importance of rights and freedoms, values and dignity, into the embedded design and marketing of games. In this regard, it is recalled that the exercise of freedom of expression carries with it duties and responsibilities, in particular as regards the protection of health and morals and the rights of others, which publishers of online games are encouraged to bear in mind when deciding on the content of their games.

Human rights & the 'online game provider'

EU set to vote to remove neutrality from the net, give ISPs and govts the power to arbitrarily block site

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 09:52 PM PDT

Carsten sez, "On May 5, thus in only two weeks, the politicians in Brussels will vote on a package of laws regulating the Internet in EU countries. This is the so-called telecoms package. If the lobbyists' and bureaucrats' version is adopted, ISPs will be able to arbitrarily block sites to their customers, and governments will be able to impose three-strikes measures without involving the judiciary. A group of MEPs, among them the Swede Eva-Britt Svensson, are proposing some amendments which will effectively table a set of digital 'Citizen's Rights' which will effectively prohibit filtering and cutoffs unless as decided in a courtroom with adequate cause/proof. If the Citizens' Rights amendments are accepted, Europeans will gain important safeguards, if not, lobbies and governments and Network Neutrality-bashing ISPs will get a free ride."

Tell the European Parliament to vote against conditional access to the Internet! (Thanks, Carsten!)

500 million Indians prove their vote by flipping the bird

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 09:50 PM PDT

Rishab sez, "India's election commission has a sense of humour. It has insisted that when about 500 million Indians vote in the general elections this summer, they will be marked on their middle fingers with indelible ink to prevent double voting. The photograph shows the Chief Minister of Maharashtra state (and his wife) showing their middle fingers to the camera, apparently only realising later what it looked like."

The Election Commission is ensuring your message goes out loud and clear -- they are giving your index finger a go-by, and painting your middle finger with indelible ink instead. A Commission official said the change was necessitated by the recently-concluded elections to local bodies in some parts of the country. "Since these voters will still have their index fingers marked, we decided to uniformly mark the middle finger of the left hand," he said.
Not everyone's amused, though. In many places, politicians and celebrities smiled and posed for the cameras after casting their vote, but realisation dawned much later. A Pune-based Bollywood celebrity said, "I did not realise it when I posed for the cameras. But when I saw the photo, my pose appeared to be in poor taste."

Voters will now show middle finger (Thanks, Rishab!)

US refuses to let jet into its airspace because it is carrying a journalist who criticizes US foreign policy

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 09:42 PM PDT

Irene sez, "On April 24th, an Air France flight from Paris to Mexico had to make an unscheduled stop in Martinique when US air traffic controllers notified the jet that it would not be receiving permission to fly over US airspace. The plane was not en route to the US, just passing over some of it. On board the plane was Colombian Journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina, who works for the French left-wing journal Le Monde Diplomatique and wrote about US involvement in Latin America. Ospina and his publisher said they will sue for compensation."

What makes the whole incident even more interesting is that Air France had only sent its passenger manifest to the Mexicans, but now it is clear that Mexico shares this information with the United States.
Hernando Calvo Ospina has written articles about the United States involvement in Latin America, and is currently writing a book about he CIA. The exact reason for him being on the terrorist watch list is unknown, and we'll probably never know what criteria are used for adding people to it. Air France is considering asking the United States for compensation. Good luck with that.

Air France jet diverts after being told to stay clear of US airspace (Thanks, Irene!)

Canadian music pirates of 1897

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 11:44 AM PDT

This NYT article from 1897 about Canadian music piracy is awfully familiar sounding -- search-and-replace "Canadian" with "Swedish" and "post office" with "ISP" and you get...

The Long War: Music Piracy in 1897 (NYTimes)

Magnetic poetry-writer automaton

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 08:38 AM PDT

Today in London's Spitalfields Market, I was blown away by this wonderful little automaton, a tiny mechanical poet who writes graceful magnetic poetry when you spin a magnet beneath him. The proud maker -- who goes by Alefs in Wonderland -- let me shoot a little video of it (apologies for the crummy focus later in the shoot).

Miniature paper scribe

Economy will get a lot worse -- The Economist

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 07:17 AM PDT

Think the economy is showing signs of recovery? The Economist says it's going to get a lot worse, for a long, long time, before it gets better. Read it and weep.

Thanks to massive--and unsustainable--fiscal and monetary transfusions, output will eventually stabilise. But in many ways, darker days lie ahead. Despite the scale of the slump, no conventional recovery is in sight. Growth, when it comes, will be too feeble to stop unemployment rising and idle capacity swelling. And for years most of the world's economies will depend on their governments.
Consider what that means. Much of the rich world will see jobless rates that reach double-digits, and then stay there. Deflation--a devastating disease in debt-laden economies--could set in as record economic slack pushes down prices and wages, particularly since headline inflation has already plunged thanks to sinking fuel costs. Public debt will soar because of weak growth, prolonged stimulus spending and the growing costs of cleaning up the financial mess. The OECD's member countries began the crisis with debt stocks, on average, at 75% of GDP; by 2010 they will reach 100%. One analysis suggests persistent weakness could push the biggest economies' debt ratios to 140% by 2014. Continuing joblessness, years of weak investment and higher public-debt burdens, in turn, will dent economies' underlying potential. Although there is no sign that the world economy will return to its trend rate of growth any time soon, it is already clear that this speed limit will be lower than before the crisis hit.

A glimmer of hope? (via 3 Quarks Daily)

Landlord harasses murder victim's mother for early termination fees because her son was killed before his lease ran out

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 07:14 AM PDT

Danelle Eckert, the mother of Colin Byars, a 24-year-old teacher who died after being punched in the head, is being harassed by Colin's former landlord, who wants to impose an "early termination" fee on her because her son died before his lease ran out.

The landlord is CCRT Properties in Brookfield, WI.

She said the apartment's property manager told her that they knew Byars had been killed. But the woman told Eckert the management company had been advised by their legal representative that they should go after the rent and fees.
"I said you might be able to do this, but should you do this?" Eckert said. The early termination fee makes her especially angry. "How was my son supposed to know he was going to be killed?" she asked.
Byars was a popular young special education teacher and coach at McKinley Middle School. He was in his first year as a full-time teacher after graduating from college. He died when, according to witnesses, he got into a dispute outside a tavern and was struck in the head. The man who hit him, Martin Walker, has been charged with murder.