The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- UK Tory MP added a servant's wing to his house at taxpayers' expense
- Netherlands runs out of criminals, has to shut prisons
- Manga collector faces 15 years in jail because some of his comics included sexual images of children
- Cambridge study: DRM turns users into pirates
- Topsy: a search-engine whose results come from highly trafficked Twitter links
- Nominations open for IP3 awards: achievements in Internet protocol, information policy and intellectual property
- Cthulhu violates a Parsec science fiction award
- Infinite bookstore video
- Cigar box guitar no. 2
- Swamp Kirin coming to Maker Faire
- Guatemala: Entrevista Con El Tuitero @jeanfer
- Guatemala: Conversation With @Jeanfer, Twitterer Facing Up to 10 Years In Prison for One Tweet.
- Christopher Hitchens vs. Ken Blackwell of The Family Research Council
- The Sonics: "Psycho"
- Street Photography
- Teaching Copyright -- EFF curriculum for balanced copyright education
- Giant earthworms
- Using a 1964 modem to dial up to the Internet -- Boing Boing Gadgets
- Bugs getting it on
- Bach played by dancers running up and down the keys on a giant piano
- What will happen to your crypto-keys when you die?
- Kim Jong LOL
- Bicycle with oddly shaped wheels
- Mitch Kapor takes over chair of One Web Day
- Recently at Boing Boing Gadgets
- Cellular Automata at Work
- Lawsuit loser Airborne changes its packaging art
- Gummi Bear Surgery
- Lightning strike triggers 20 hours of vivid and bizarre hallucinations
- BB Video: "Dance Dance Revolution. With Flamethrowers. Pointed At You."
| UK Tory MP added a servant's wing to his house at taxpayers' expense Posted: 27 May 2009 10:20 PM PDT The latest installment in the British MP expense scandal, in which Members of Parliament have been revealed to have spent millions in "expenses" on things like having their moats cleaned, buying porn and/or tampons for their spouses, hiring private security guards, paying nonexistent mortgages, etc: A Tory MP called Sir John Butterfill from Bournemouth West, Dorset used his expense account to add a servant's wing to his country house. At first he denied that these people were servants, calling them his "gardener and his wife," but later, he said, "the mistake I made was that, in claiming interest [from the expenses allowance] on the home, I didn't separate from that the value of the servants' ... er the staff ... wing. I claimed the whole of that and the whole of the council tax related to that." John Butterfill claimed £17,000 MPs' expenses for servants' ... er, staff quarters (Image: www.johnbutterfillmp.co.uk) Previously: |
| Netherlands runs out of criminals, has to shut prisons Posted: 28 May 2009 03:43 AM PDT The Netherlands (where During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees.Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals (via Futurismic) |
| Manga collector faces 15 years in jail because some of his comics included sexual images of children Posted: 27 May 2009 10:12 PM PDT A US manga collector has plead guilty to possession of child pornography because some of the many thousands and thousands of comics he owns depict children in sexual situations. He now faces up to 15 years in prison and a life of being treated as a child molester, though there's no evidence he is a pedophile or has ever interfered with a child in any way.
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| Cambridge study: DRM turns users into pirates Posted: 27 May 2009 10:07 PM PDT A long and deep study of user behaviour in the UK by a Cambridge prof confirms that when an honest person tries to do something legal that is blocked by Digital Rights Management technology, it encourages the person to start downloading infringing copies for free from the net, since these copies are all DRM-free. Akester's new paper, "Technological accommodation of conflicts between freedom of expression and DRM: the first empirical assessment," does pretty much what its title implies. Akester spent the last few years interviewing dozens of lecturers, end users, government officials, rightsholders, and DRM developers to find how DRM and anticircumvention laws affected actual use...Landmark study: DRM truly does make pirates out of us all |
| Topsy: a search-engine whose results come from highly trafficked Twitter links Posted: 27 May 2009 10:04 PM PDT Rishab sez, Here's something neat - all the links posted by @Boingboing on Twitter, and for each link, all the things people are saying about them on Twitter. Its a result page from Topsy, a new site that lets you search through what people are saying about things. Topsy sees the Internet as a stream of conversations between people. It ranks each search result based on how much people are talking about it, and the influence of the people discussing it. Like Cory Doctorow's Whuffie, Topsy computes influence as something you can earn and spend. It does this based on how much you talk about other things and people, and how much other people talk about you. Of course @Boingboing is "Highly Influential" on Twitter (which is all Topsy's index has, for now).Topsy (Thanks, Rishab!) |
| Posted: 27 May 2009 10:03 PM PDT Art sez, "Public Knowledge is asking for nominations for its annual awards for achievement in intellectual property, internet protocol and information policy. We're sure Boing Boing readers would have lots of good ideas." It's that time of year again: time to nominate individuals for our annual IP3 awards. As you may know, each year, Public Knowledge selects three individuals to receive the IP3 Award. These winners are people who have advanced the public interest in each of the three "IPs:" Intellectual Property, Internet Protocol, and Information Policy. Previous IP3 winners have included everyone from EFF lawyer Fred von Lohmann and Virginia Congressman Rick Boucher to the band OK Go and Gnarls Barkley member DJ Danger Mouse. Be sure to nominate your picks by June 22nd and look out for list of winners in October.Nominations Now Open For the 2009 IP3 Awards (Thanks, Brad!) |
| Cthulhu violates a Parsec science fiction award Posted: 27 May 2009 10:01 PM PDT Brad sez, "At this year's Balticon, Earl Newton left his Parsec award for best video podcast unattended just long enough for the star of Calls For Cthulhu (the runner up for said award) to defile it in the most humorous puppet-on-inanimate-object way possible." Calls For Cthulhu - Balticon Sex Scandal (Thanks, Brad!) |
| Posted: 27 May 2009 10:00 PM PDT Jeff Vandermeer sez, "My video narrated by a visitor supposedly lost for days, showing just how ridiculously large and multi-faceted the Chamblin Bookmine is. Using stop-gap photos I recreated my path through the bookstore in Borgesian fashion. With incidental music by The Church. In a day and age when most bookstores are dying, this organic behemoth, which changes every day due to the volume of incoming and outgoing books, is still going strong..." The Chamblin Bookmine: A Bibliophile's Fevre Dream... (Thanks, Jeff!) |
| Posted: 27 May 2009 08:01 PM PDT  For my second cigar box guitar, I bought a six foot length of 1 x 2 oak from Home Depot. I made sure the piece of lumber was flat and straight. It weighed a lot more than the pine wood I’d used in my first cigar box guitar, and felt a lot better in my hands. I also bought a small metal miter box from a hobby store to cut the fret slots in the neck. This time, I made perfectly straight fret cuts. I shaved off the part of the neck that attached to the cigar box so that the surface of the fret board was flush with the top of the cigar box, unlike on my first cigar box guitar. Remembering Mister Jalopy’s dictum, “screws not glues,” I screwed the neck to the cigar box with three fasteners. This way, if I need to make changes or later want to swap in a new cigar box, it will be a simple matter to remove the screws. I made a couple of small mistakes, like drilling a hole in a spot that hit a screw going in a perpendicular direction to the hole, but this guitar build went very smoothly. The action is low, but not so low that it buzzes, and I can play the strings all the way up to the highest fret (the 20th) without interference. Many thanks to Steve Lodefink and the gang at Cigar Box Nation for the advice on this! |
| Swamp Kirin coming to Maker Faire Posted: 27 May 2009 06:35 PM PDT Dale Dougherty says: One of the more surprising entries coming to Maker Faire this year is from Seabat Studios from Fayetteville, Arkansas. It's called Swamp Kirin, a 9-foot tall, hoof to horn tip, four legged, moss covered thing. Swamp Kirin towers over the masses as it ambles lazily through the crowds. There is no age limit to the wonder that this creature is capable of inspiring.Maker Faire (makerfaire.com) is Saturday & Sunday, May 30-31st at the San Mateo Expo Center in the SF Bay Area. |
| Guatemala: Entrevista Con El Tuitero @jeanfer Posted: 27 May 2009 10:43 PM PDT  (Version en Inglés aquí) CIUDAD DE GUATEMALA: Hace un par de semanas, un usuario de Twitter fue arrestado, encarcelado y multado con el equivalente de un año de salario por haber publicado una opinión de 96 caracteres a Twitter. El tweet estaba relacionado a una crisis política que vive Guatemala actualmente, dada a raíz de alegatos hacia el Presidente Álvaro Colom, su supuesto involucramiento en el asesinato de un Abogado y denuncias acerca de funcionarios públicos del gobierno involucrados en transacciones ilegales y corruptas en uno de los bancos más grandes del país. Desde entonces, Jean Ramses Anleu Fernández, o @jeanfer como es conocido en Twitter (en la foto), ha sido liberado de prisión. Actualmente está bajo arresto domiciliario mientras el gobierno de Guatemala realiza las investigaciones para presentar cargos formales en su contra. Jean no es realmente una figura pública: es un hombre tímido y tranquilo, que trabaja en IT, con estudios de Ingeniería en sistemas y amante de la lectura. Desde entonces, se ha convertido en un popular héroe de la web, y el mismo Twitter se ha convertido en una fuerza de poder durante los recientes hechos en el país. El Superintendente de Bancos de Guatemala, Edgar Barquín, desea que Jean enfrente cargos de hasta 10 años en prisión por "Incitar al pánico financiero" mediante el tweet en cuestión. Barquín ha propuesto también varias restricciones nuevas para regular el uso de Internet en Guatemala - por ejemplo, que sea necesario presentar la cédula de vecindad (identificación nacional de Guatemala), en los Café Internet para poder navegar. Esta semana he entrevistado a @jeanfer acá en Ciudad de Guatemala. Entre algunos detalles, menciona que el Ministerio Público crea una cuenta de Twitter para "seguirlo", durante el interrogatorio realizado cuando su hogar es allanado, para conseguir evidencia. Y mientras estuvo en prisión, dice que sueña con Kafka, y deseó poder convertirse en cucaracha, para escapar. Las palabras finales de la entrevista de Jeanfer son: "El punto es que este caso representa algo que no debemos perder. Sin libre opinión no hay democracia. Este caso va a sentar un precedente sobre la libre emisión del pensamiento." He dejado la mayoría de la entrevista intacta, así que es bastante larga (2000+ palabras). Continúa en su totalidad luego del salto. (Gracias a @thevenemousone por su amable asistencia con la traduccion). @XENIJARDIN: Cómo había estado usando Twitter, y con quién se estaba comunicando? @JEANFER: Si, lo utilizaba sobre todo para compartir con mi circulo de amigos del grupo de lectores chapines, y otros del mismo ámbito de web e informática. (Continúa...)
@XENIJARDIN: Casi todos los posts de su blog, y todas las imágenes eran acerca de libros. Recuerdo que lo primero que pasó por mi mente al ver su blog personal fue que usted era alguien que realmente amaba los libros. @JEANFER: Con todo mi corazón. Tengo una bonita biblioteca. En mi casa, en mi dormitorio, en mi estudio, en el baño, en mi teléfono -- cada pared cubierto con libros. Leo varios tipos, pero novelas históricas sobre todo. Biografías, poesía, historia, teología... @XENIJARDIN: Usted fue uno de varias personas en Guatemala que estuvo hablando acerca de la crisis política de su país en Twitter durante la primera semana luego de que el video de Rosenberg fuera divulgado. @JEANFER: Si, uno más. @XENIJARDIN: Y usted publico este fugaz pensamiento sobre el crisis, y el banco. 96 caracteres. ¿Qué pasó? @JEANFER: Ocurrió que los ultimos días en Guatemala han sido muy convulsionados. Todos hemos estado tratando de saber que es lo que pasa, porque estamos preocupados por nuestra nación. Yo amo Guatemala. Y estuvimos intercambiando la información que conocíamos entre nuestro grupo, con quienes somos muy unidos. Entonces todos hacíamos pensamientos fugaces, mientras ocurrían las cosas. Ese día en particular, el 12 de mayo, comenzó con las noticias del MP (Ministerio Público) llegando al banco (parte 1 + parte 2). Ocurre antes, pero es publicada a las 10 con 03 minutos. La radio lo informa antes. Mi primer tweet relacionado se da a las 12, después del evento, dentro de un grupo reducido de personas que entienden que mi tweet no es una incitación -- es mas, he utilizado " ", comillas, para especificar lo que alguien mas ha dicho. Si te das cuenta, mi tweet tiene tres partes. 'Primera acción real' esto es el titulo con que designó a lo que ocurre en torno a todo. Hay una primera acción real. Segundo, "sacar el pisto de Banrural" -- la citación de lo que alguien mas dice. Y por ultimo lo que a mi juicio esa acción real pretende, 'quebrar al banco de los corruptos,' en donde no digo que el banco o sus funcionarios sean corruptos. Pero que quizás otras personas están infiltrando, o no se, pero -- la opinión de muchos en la comunidad. (Ellos) Toman esa información y hacen ver que lo he dicho, primero, en una audiencia publica; segundo, que se encuentra al alcance de cualquiera, y tercero que lo he hecho como una incitación. @XENIJARDIN: Así que al principio, solamente algunos amigos habrían visto esto. Pero unos días después, mucha gente fuera de tu círculo social comenzó a re-twittear este último tweet, y recuerdo que, de repente, casi todos los que estaban discutiendo la crisis estaban re-twitteando este mensaje específicamente. @JEANFER: Si, el día 14. Cuando la comunidad se entera y comienzan a hacerlo -- no a petición mía, no puedo comunicarme con el exterior. Ocurre de una manera espontánea, otra gente lo han amplificado... @XENIJARDIN: Usted está tratando de decir que no es una persona muy pública. @JEANFER: Así es. No tengo una personalidad así, de hecho trato siempre de evadirla.
@XENIJARDIN: ¿Cuándo comenzaron los problemas relacionados con este tweet? @JEANFER: El día 14 cuando (los oficiales) llegan a mi casa, con la orden de allanamiento. Yo me siento asustado por el despliegue policíaco, pero les digo que con todo gusto pasen adelante. Me piden que les señale en donde esta mi computadora y los llevo a mi dormitorio. Me preguntan si tengo un blog y les digo que si. Me preguntan si yo escribí los comentarios, los veo y les digo que si y les explico como se dieron las cosas. Les digo que mis tweets no tienen ninguna intención como ellos lo toman. Se reúnen por un largo rato, hablan y hablan, que si están los correos dicen. Vuelven y les explico nuevamente que eso solo puede verse si uno decide buscar la pagina de twitter, darse de alta, y decide seguir mi cuenta en Twitter... Y estar al pendiente de lo que digo momento a momento. @XENIJARDIN: ¿Entendieron ellos lo que es Twitter, a comparación con un blog? @JEANFER: No. Hay declaraciones en las que el fiscal sale de mi casa indicando a la prensa que han encontrado evidencia en mi computadora de los emails masivos que he enviado desprestigiando al banco. Y la realidad es que SI hay personas mandando emails que condenan a Banrural, o a Colom, tengo copias y yo odio esa clase de mensajes. Saturan el Internet. Cada vez que alguno llega a mi correo lo borro inmediatamente. @XENIJARDIN: ¿Qué pasó después? @JEANFER: Fui conducido a la torre de tribunales para que se tomaran mis huellas digitales. Estuve alli al menos dos o tres horas sin saber que iba a ocurrir. Comenzaron a llegar medios y de alli que existan fotos mias en el sotano de la torre de tribunales. Luego llega mi madre y mi hermana para acompañarme.
@XENIJARDIN: Tomaron ellos su computadora, o copiaron información de la misma antes de llevarlo detenido? @JEANFER: No. Ellos fueron a la fiscalía a crear un usuario de twitter, a buscar mi usuario, seguirlo, y buscar mis comentarios en el timeline para imprimirlos y presentarlos como prueba. Por eso se tardaron como 4 o 5 horas en volver. Me llevan directamente a los tribunales a esperar que mi caso sea conocido por un juez para que decida y como es de tu conocimiento ese mismo día por la tarde el juez define mi situación jurídica. @XENIJARDIN: ¿Determina entonces el Juez que usted es culpable de "incitar al pánico financiero"? @JEANFER: (El Juez determina) Que estoy ligado a proceso en primer termino lo cual significa es que el caso debe ser investigado por el ministerio publico, segundo que tengo arresto domiciliario. Luego que tengo arraigo. Soy llevado al preventivo y puesto en un lugar antes de ser colocado en el sector 1 con otros reos esa misma noche, la noche del 14. En la mañana del día 15 fui trasladado a temprano a la torre de tribunales alrededor de las 7am y confinado en un sitio con otros reos hasta esperar la audiencia de las 11 y 30, en donde se realizo el pago de la fianza por el préstamo que hizo una empresa y que ya representa para mi una deuda. Firme los documentos correspondientes a mi libertad, y pensé que me iba de una vez a casa pero debía regresar al preventivo una vez mas para esperar por el procedimiento carcelario que establece que se sale libre solamente a partir de las 23 horas. @XENIJARDIN: Y ¿Estuvo usted esposado durante todo este tiempo? @JEANFER: Si, casi todo el tiempo. @XENIJARDIN: Así que, en el mismo día de su arresto usted es llevado frente a un juez y este le impone a usted una multa equivalente a aproximadamente US $6500. @JEANFER: Si, al no tener el dinero de la fianza me llevan al preventivo en donde no tengo conocimiento de nada ni de que pasara conmigo, sin poder hablar con nadie. @XENIJARDIN: La empresa en donde labora eventualmente le presta el dinero para que usted pueda ser liberado. @JEANFER: Si. Una empresa que deseo mantener al margen. Al día siguiente a las 6am soy incluido entre los reos que serán trasladados a la torre de tribunales, esto es el día 15. Me llevan esposado, debo decir que hubo gente buena en todas partes y estas personas buenas se ocupaban de no ponerme las esposas muy apretadas, ya que me molestaban mucho al tener las manos detrás de la espalda. Una vez allá, mi abogada llega a las 10am y le pregunto que paso, que hay, que vamos a hacer? Y me cuenta lo del préstamo, luego al subir las gradas encuentro a mi hermana y mi madre, que me abrazan al verme nuevamente, pero cuando me ven parece que me ven cansado, y me abrazan y lloran. @XENIJARDIN: Ellas tenían miedo de lo que le podía suceder. @JEANFER: Todavía lo tenemos. @XENIJARDIN: Y como aprendió usted del apoyo de los otros tuiteros? @JEANFER: Subimos al cuarto nivel y allí encuentro también a mis amigos que me saludan y me abrazan. Al subir a tribunales en un momento que me encuentro esperando entrar con el señor juez y me encuentro divagando recostado en una pared veo a un lado y hay dos muchachos que están con sus rostros demudados. Se acercan a mi y los reconozco como amigos, y dicen que se han enterado, que están conmigo, que abajo hay 17 personas mas. Les pido que no suban y que no los vean, pero ellos insisten en quedarse, y es entonces cuando empiezo a conmoverme Cuando se quedan me siento conmovido -- me dieron ganas de llorar por su acto. Los abrazo y les agradezco. Me dicen que no les importa y que van a subir de dos en dos, y así lo hacen hasta el momento de presentarme ante el juez. Que se quedan como cinco en la audiencia y toman fotografías. Al momento del fallo me siento en shock por la resolución. No lo puedo creer. Y noto la reacción de otros -- y es igual. Luego ocurre lo que te he comentado de ir al preventivo, paso la noche allá, vuelvo a tribunales al día siguiente, se paga la caución económica, y debo volver al preventivo por el procedimiento. A las 11 de la noche recibo el llamado a libertad. Salgo haciendo varias paradas en varios puntos de control en donde soy interrogado sobre mi delito, el juez que resolvió, la sala que resolvió y la razón de mi libertad. Llegó a casa el día 16 a las 00:15. @XENIJARDIN: ¿Cómo fue cuando usted pasa por la puerta de su casa, regresando nuevamente? ¿Qué sintió? @JEANFER: Voy a mi estudio, veo mis libros, me pongo mis lentes y le doy gracias a Dios. Aunque la pesadilla no ha terminado, me siento como cuando uno sale de su país por varias semanas y extrañas a los tuyos. Extrañas tu casa, al perro del vecino, la ventana, el aire. No dormí. Me quede en mi cama, en una cama que tengo en el estudio, con la luz apagada, y los ojos abiertos disfrutando ese espacio que tenia. En prisión vi una cucaracha -- la vi rondar las paredes. Ir y venir, y luego escabullirse por la ventana a través de los barrotes e irse. Y pensé en el libro de Kafka, ["Metamorphosis"], y quise ser esa cucaracha. @XENIJARDIN: ¿Cómo han sido los días desde que ha regresado a casa - a servir arresto domiciliario - para usted? @JEANFER: No duermo bien. Tres horas diarias. No puedo leer otra cosa que no sea esto del caso. Tengo el libro de "Eleanor Rigby" sin poder abrirlo y estaba tan encantado de haberlo conseguido. Cuando trabajo, trato de hacer un block, y funciono. Pero solo por unas cuatro horas. Luego pierdo el focus. @XENIJARDIN: ¿Hay algún libro que le recuerde esta experiencia? @JEANFER: "Humillados y Ofendidos," de Dostoyevsky. Ahora trato de hacer mi vida normal en tanto esperamos que la investigación por parte del MP siga. Se ha abierto un plazo de 6 meses para tal efecto. Hemos presentado una reacusación con pruebas como tienen seis meses para buscar todo lo que quieran sobre mi y usarlo en mi contra en este caso para devolverme a prisión. El punto es que este caso representa algo que no debemos perder. Sin libre opinión no hay democracia. Este caso va a sentar un precedente sobre la libre emisión del pensamiento. # # # Relacionado:
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| Guatemala: Conversation With @Jeanfer, Twitterer Facing Up to 10 Years In Prison for One Tweet. Posted: 27 May 2009 10:42 PM PDT  (Version en Español aquí) GUATEMALA CITY: Earlier this month, a Twitter user in Guatemala was arrested, jailed, and fined the equivalent of a year's salary for having posted a 96-character thought to Twitter. The tweet related to an ongoing political crisis in Guatemala sparked by allegations that president Álvaro Colom ordered the assassination of an attorney, and claims made by this attorney that government officials engaged in illegal, corrupt transactions through the country's largest bank. Jean Ramses Anleu Fernandez, or @jeanfer as he's known on Twitter (at left), has since been released from jail. He is under house arrest while the Guatemalan government pursues charges against him. Jean is an unlikely public figure: a shy, soft-spoken I.T. guy who studies systems engineering and loves books. He has since become something of a popular hero online, and Twitter itself has become a force in the country's current upheaval. Guatemala's Supervisor of Banks, Édgar Barquín, wants Jean to face charges of up to 10 years in jail for "inciting financial panic" through the tweet in question. Barquín this week also proposed new restrictions on internet use in Guatemala -- for instance, that people who use internet cafés be required to present national IDs ("cedulas") before logging on. I interviewed @jeanfer this week, here in Guatemala. Among the details he shared: Guatemala's Ministry of Banks created a Twitter account to "follow" him, in the course of interrograting him at his home. And while he was in jail, he dreamed of Kafka, and wished he could turn himself into a cockroach, to escape. Jean's final words in the interview:
I've left most of the interview intact, so it's long (+2000 words). Continued in entirety after the jump. Special thanks to @thevenemousone for assistance with translation.
@XENIJARDIN: How were you using Twitter, and who were you mostly communicating with on Twitter when all of this happened? @JEANFER: I used to chat among a circle of Guatemalan friends in a book club I belong to, and others from the same social group who were interested in the web, and information technology. @XENIJARDIN : Nearly all of your blog posts were about books, too. I remember thinking when i first saw your personal blog that you were clearly a person who loves reading books. @JEANFER: With all my heart. I have a beautiful little library in my home. In my house, my study, my bathroom, even in my phone -- every wall is covered in bookshelves. I read lots of different kinds -- but historic novels are my favorite. I read biographies, poetry, history, theology... @XENIJARDIN : You were one of many people in Guatemala who were talking about the political crisis on Twitter in that first week after the Rosenberg video was released. @JEANFER: Yes, one of many. @XENIJARDIN: And you posted this one fleeting thought about the crisis, and the bank. 96 characters. What happened? @JEANFER: What happened was that these past days in Guatemala have been extremely turbulent. We have been trying to figure out what is going on, because we are worried about our country. I love Guatemala. So, we were exchanging the information we knew among our groups, with people we knew and were close to. We were all sharing fleeting thoughts as things were happening.
@JEANFER: That day in particular, May 12th, started with news of the MP (Public Ministry, government body charged with investigations) arriving at the bank (background here and here). My first tweet related to this matter is made at noon, after that happened. The only people following me were a small group of friends who understand that my tweet was not an incitation. I even used quotation marks, to specify that this was overheard dialogue. If you notice, my tweet has three parts. "Primera acción real" (First real action) is the title I use to designate what is happening around the whole #escandalogt issue. This was the first real action that had taken place after Rosenberg's video surfaced. Second, "sacar el pisto de banrural" (withdraw the money from Banrural) - is the quotation of what someone else is saying. And lastly, what I thought that first action meant to do: "quebrar al banco de los corruptos" (bankrupt the bank of the corrupt). Notice that I didn't mean that the bank or their officials are or were corrupt, but that maybe other people were infiltrating within the bank... I don't know. This was the opinion of many people in Guatemala. [The officials who arrested me] took this information and claimed firstly, that I've said it at a public hearing; secondly, that this information is at anyone's reach; and lastly, that it is meant to be an incitation. @XENIJARDIN : So at first, just a few friends would have seen this. But within a couple of days, anyone who was discussing the crisis was also retweeting it. @JEANFER: Yes. When the online community finds out about what happened with me, they start retweeting this en masse -- not on my request, since I could not communicate with the outside world [after I was detained]. It happened in a spontaneous way, and other people have amplified the message... @XENIJARDIN: You're not a very public person, you're saying. @JEANFER: Exactly. I am just not like that, in fact, I try to avoid situations like these. @XENIJARDIN : When did the problems related to this tweet begin? @JEANFER: It all starts on May 14th, when [the officers] arrive at my house with the search warrant. I feel somewhat frightened by the number of policemen that arrived, but told them they may come inside, and search for whatever they need to. They ask me to show them where my computer is, and I take them to my bedroom. They ask me if I have a blog, and I answer that I do. They ask me if I wrote the comments, I look at them and say that I did, and then I try to explain. I tell them repeatedly that my tweets have no intention to incite. They go and meet privately for a while, and they talk and talk, mentioning something about emails. They return and I try to explain once again that [the tweet] can only be seen if you decide to go to the Twitter site, create an account, and follow my account on Twitter... @XENIJARDIN : Did they understand what Twitter was, as opposed to a blog? @JEANFER: No. There are recorded declarations in which the attorney is outside of my house, explaining to the press that they have found evidence in my computer of mass emails I have sent that have damaged the bank's reputation. And actually, there ARE indeed people sending this kind of emails, condemning Banrural or Colom. I have received a couple myself, and I hate this kind of messages as they are nothing but spam. Every time a message of this kind gets into my inbox, I delete it immediately, as most people do. @XENIJARDIN : Then what happened? @JEANFER: I was taken into the Justice Court so my fingerprint records could be taken. I was there for at least two or three hours, without knowing what was going to happen. Some media started to come in, which is why there are pictures of me in the basement of the Justice Court. After a while, my mom and my sister arrived.
@XENIJARDIN : Did the authorities take your computer, or copy information from your computer, before taking you into detention? @JEANFER: No. They returned to their offices to create a twitter account (@ubag03), look for my Twitter account, follow me, and search my timeline of tweets to print and present them as evidence. This is why it took them 4-5 hours to return. Then, they take me directly to the Court to wait for my case to be heard by a Judge so a sentence can be made. As it is known publicly, that very same afternoon a Judge defined my current legal situation. @XENIJARDIN : The judge determined that you were guilty of "inciting financial panic"? @JEANFER: The Judge rules that I am to be subjected to a process, which means that firstly, the Public Ministry must investigate the case and secondly, that I am under house arrest. Then it means I am in confinement, and I cannot leave the country. I am taken then to the "Preventivo" [the local Guatemalan prison], and placed temporarily before being put in sector one with other prisoners that night, on the 14th. Then, on the 15th, I was transported back to the Justice Court at around 7am and confined in a place along other prisoners to wait until the hearing happened, which did at 11:30am. My bail was paid with the help of a loan made by a local company, which now represents a debt for me. I signed all documents I need to in order to ensure my liberty, and thought I was going to go home, but instead I had to return to the prison one more time and wait, since the prison procedure states that prisoners can only be released after 11pm. @XENIJARDIN : And you were handcuffed the entire time? @JEANFER: Almost the whole time, yes. @XENIJARDIN : So within a day of being arrested, you're taken before a judge, and he fines you the equivalent of about US $6,500? @JEANFER: Yes. Since I didn't have the bail money right away I am taken into the local prison, where I have no clue of what is going on or what will happen with me, and I have no chance to speak to anyone. @XENIJARDIN : Your employer eventually loaned the money so you could be released. @JEANFER: Yes, a company whose name I would like to keep out of the public eye. On May 15th, the day after, I was among the prisoners to be transported to the Justice Court. I was handcuffed, but I must say that there are very nice people everywhere and someone there helped loosen the handcuffs, because they were hurting me a lot when I had my hands behind my back for so long. Once in Court, my lawyer arrived at 10am and I ask her about what is happening, and what are we going to do. She tells me about the loan. Then, I go upstairs, and there, I encounter my mother and sister, who embrace me when they see me once again, but cry when they see how tired I look. They cried and hugged me. @XENIJARDIN : They were afraid for you. @JEANFER: We are still afraid. @XENIJARDIN: What happened after you were detained? How did you find out about all of the support for your case on Twitter? @JEANFER: We all go to the fourth floor, and I find some friends that came to support me, and they hug me as well. When I go up, there was a moment in which I was waiting to go into the hearing, and I'm just leaning on the wall. I look next to me and I see a couple of guys with concerned faces. They come closer, and I suddenly recognize them as some of my Twitter friends, who say that they have found out about the whole situation and that they are supporting me, that there are 17 more people just like them downstairs. I ask them (as a precaution to them) to not come up and be seen, but they all insist to stay and stick with me. This is when I began to feel extremely touched by all their actions. When they told me they were staying, I felt so touched - I wanted to cry when I saw what they were doing. I hug them and thank them, and they say that it's not a problem, and that they will be taking turns to come upstairs in pairs, which they do until the time my hearing with the Judge began. About five of them stay for the hearing, and take pictures of the process. When the Judge ruled his sentence, I was in shock. I could not believe it. And then, I noticed other people's reactions in the courtroom - all the same as mine. After this, I go back to the prison as I mentioned earlier, spent the night, go back into the courthouse the next day, pay the bail, and go back once more to the prison as the procedure states. At 11pm on May 15th I am finally released. I leave the prison making several stops in various checkpoints, in which I have to answer questions about my felony, the Judge that gave the sentence, the courtroom that resolved the issue and the reason for my being released. I finally arrive home on May 16th at 1:15am. @XENIJARDIN: What was it like when you came home? What were you feeling? @JEANFER: I go back to my study, see my books, put on my glasses and thank God. Although the nightmare is not over, I feel like one does when you leave the country for several weeks and miss your home. You miss your house, the familiar smells, the sound of your neighbor's dog, your window, air. I didn't sleep. I stayed in my bed, a bed I have in my study, with the lights off and my eyes opened, enjoying this space I have. When I was in prison, I saw a cockroach - I saw it crawl through the walls, come and go, sneak through the window's bars and leave. And I thought about Kafka's book, [Metamorphosis], and I wanted to be that cockroach. @XENIJARDIN : What have the days since you came home -- to serve house arrest -- began been like for you personally? @JEANFER: I don't sleep well. About three hours a day. I can't read anything that is not related to the legal case. I have the Eleanor Rigby book, unopened -- before all of this happened, I was so excited I had finally obtained a copy. When I work, I try to make a mental block and not think about all of this, and I work. But only for about four hours at a time. After that I lose focus. @XENIJARDIN: Is there a book that this experience reminds you of? @JEANFER: Humiliated and Insulted, by Dostoyevsky. Now I try to live my life normally while we wait for the investigation by the Public Ministry to continue. A six-month period has been established for them to do so. We have presented a challenge with evidence, but they still have six months to search anything they want about me and use it against me in this case, in order to put me back into jail. @XENIJARDIN: Why should people care what happens in your case? @JEANFER: The point is that this case represents something we must not lose. Without freedom of opinions and speech, there is no democracy. I hope this case sets a precedent about freedom of thought. # # # Previously:
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| Christopher Hitchens vs. Ken Blackwell of The Family Research Council Posted: 27 May 2009 03:07 PM PDT Ken Blackwell of The Family Research Council (Self-described as a "Christian organization promoting the traditional family unit and the Judeo-Christian value system upon which it is built") goes up against Christopher Hitchens on the topic of Christianity in America. I love the stray lock of hair dangling across Hitchens' forehead as he blithley shoots his deadly barbs. |
| Posted: 27 May 2009 01:43 PM PDT |
| Posted: 26 May 2009 01:31 PM PDT (Rudy Rucker is a guestblogger. His latest novel, Hylozoic, describes a postsingular world in which everything is alive.) I've always admired the work of great street photographers like Gary Winogrand.
This is a photo I happened to take myself a few months ago. To see quite a few more (by other people) just search Flickr for "street photography". Looking online, I've found endless discussion about the techniques and ethics of street photography. This discussion thread on Photo.net is interesting. And this PDF book by Chris Weeks, Street Photography for the Purist is quite rich, with illustrated intros by several other street photographers. I found both these links, by the way, in the Wikipedia article on Street Photography. |
| Teaching Copyright -- EFF curriculum for balanced copyright education Posted: 27 May 2009 01:10 PM PDT Rebecca from EFF sez, Teaching Copyright (Thanks, Rebecca!) |
| Posted: 27 May 2009 01:08 PM PDT  Forgetomori has a nice photo gallery of giant earthworms. I'm not sure if they are real or not. The worms in the images all look they are up to a meter in length, compatible with the recorded dimensions for the many species of the families we discussed. They are probably real, though exactly from where and what species my ordinary investigation didn’t come up with. Specialists, do enlighten us with further confirmation and identification! The first image of a girl holding up one, for instance, may not be of an earthworm but of a caecilian. |
| Using a 1964 modem to dial up to the Internet -- Boing Boing Gadgets Posted: 27 May 2009 01:07 PM PDT Over on BBG, our Joel's got a video clip of a man using the internet with an antique modem from 1964: Video: Connecting to the internet with a modem from 1964 |
| Posted: 27 May 2009 01:05 PM PDT  Webphemera has a great gallery of many species of insects making the beast with two backs, 18 legs and 96 eyes. Insects In Flagrante (Thanks, RJ!) |
| Bach played by dancers running up and down the keys on a giant piano Posted: 27 May 2009 01:02 PM PDT These two amazingly talented women run up and down the keys on the giant floor-piano at FAO Schwarz, belting out an astounding rendition of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Bach never sounded so good. |
| What will happen to your crypto-keys when you die? Posted: 27 May 2009 12:57 PM PDT I'm working out my will, power of attorney, literary executor and related logistics (I'm not sick or anything, it's just crazy to have a family and be intestate) and one thing that came up today is what to do with my GPG keys and (especially) the 128-bit AES keys on my user partitions on my various machines. Right now, I carry the passphrases around in my head, which is fine, unless I drop dead, get hit by a bus, etc. What do you-all do with your cryptokeys? Keep 'em with a lawyer and hope that attorney-client privilege will protect them? Safe-deposit box? Friends? Under the mattress? Do you worry that if your friends have your keys, they can be subpoenaed or suborned? |
| Posted: 27 May 2009 09:58 AM PDT  R. Stevens says, "North Korea apparently tested another nuclear weapon and my mind immediately goes to bad jokes. For those who don't get it: Fat Man & Little Boy. Xeni deserves part of the blame for asking if I knew any Kim Jong LOLs. You'd be surprised how hard these are to make without ripping off Team America or being racist!" |
| Bicycle with oddly shaped wheels Posted: 27 May 2009 09:37 AM PDT  Guan Baihua of China made this nifty bike with a rounded triangular wheel and a rounded pentagonal wheel. (Here's a video of a trike with square wheels.) |
| Mitch Kapor takes over chair of One Web Day Posted: 27 May 2009 09:28 AM PDT David sez, "Mitch Kapor's [ed: Founder of Lotus, co-founder of EFF] become the chair of One Web Day, plus the organization got a major grant from the Ford Foundation. The group, which sponsors an annual 'Earth Day' for the Web every September 22, was founded by Susan Crawford, who now advises the Obama White House on tech policy." As Board Chair, I will provide strategic direction and lead the Board in developing a plan for long-term growth. Nathan will manage day-to-day business of OneWebDay, build and support our network of volunteers, and develop our program plans for OneWebDay 2009. We would like the thank the Media and Democracy Coalition for Nathan's support leading up to the grant award, and we hope to build on our relationship.New Leadership for OneWebDay (Thanks, David!) |
| Recently at Boing Boing Gadgets Posted: 27 May 2009 04:29 PM PDT  Recently at Boing Boing Gadgets, we paid special homage to bridges. Come visit us for those posts and more: * An interview with Donald MacDonald, chief architect of the new Bay Bridge |
| Posted: 27 May 2009 12:28 PM PDT (Rudy Rucker is a guestblogger. His latest novel, Hylozoic, describes a postsingular world in which everything is alive. I've been interested in cellular automata (CA) for many years, and I helped program two different free, downloadable CA software packages for Windows: Cellab and Capow. If you just want a peek at these scuttling graphics, try Mirek Wójtowicz's Java-based MJCell program, viewable in your browser.
In the 1980s, my fellow cellular-automatist John Walker and I used to believe that CAs were poised to take over the worlds of video, fabric, and game effects. But the revolution is a little slow in coming... At least, as I discussed in a "Gnarly CAs" article in Make magazine last year, my former student Alan Borecky indeed managed to make a CA dress for his wife, Donna. And I keep noticing that a lot of the fabrics that I see people wearing these days could easily be designed by CAs.
Nosing around for further evidence for the advance of CAs, I found some mildly heartening signs. The blog Code-Spot has a tutorial on using CAs in games. The book Core Techniques and Algorithms in Game Programming has a little bit about using CAs to generate fire. And cellular automata have played a role in both SimCity and Spore.
I've long thought that digital musicians should lean more heavily on chaotic effects so as to avoid roboticity. KVR Audio Damage has released a CA-based device called Automaton: A glitch plug-in that uses a unique game of life style sequencer...capable of adding subtle, seemingly random fills and humanizing effects, but if you like, you can crank the sequencer up to eleven, and watch as your digital audio workstation becomes a petri dish while Automaton makes complete hay of the track you've inserted it to. |
| Lawsuit loser Airborne changes its packaging art Posted: 27 May 2009 08:58 AM PDT  Last year, Cory wrote that Airborne, a cold remedy ("CREATED BY A SCHOOL TEACHER!") lost a class action lawsuit for deceptive advertising and had to award its customers $23 million in damages. I just noticed that Airborne has also changed its packaging art, probably as a term of losing the lawsuit. The old art shows a man in a blue suit sitting next to a woman coughing into her fist. Behind him, a man is sneezing into a handkerchief. The man in the blue suit is looking fearfully at a menagerie of ugly germs floating overhead, no doubt let loose by the coughers and sneezers around him. In the new artwork, the coughing woman has been miraculously cured of her cold. She even sports some fashionable red lipstick. The sneezing gentlemen has traded in his snotty handkerchief for a petite napkin, which he uses to politely dab his lips while enjoying an airplane meal. The germs are gone. The blue-suited man, however, remains as frightened as before. This time, he's staring in shock at a gold emblem, which Airborne apparently awarded itself for "quality, purity, and safety" (See close up here). What is Airborne trying to tell us here? |
| Posted: 27 May 2009 08:23 AM PDT  I like this photo from the Instructables article on Gummi Bear Surgery. (Via Weird Universe) Previously:
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| Lightning strike triggers 20 hours of vivid and bizarre hallucinations Posted: 27 May 2009 08:18 AM PDT Vaughan of Mind Hacks came across a paper about a 23-year-old woman who was mountain climbing and got struck by lightning (a "bolt from the blue" in a sky that was "clear and sunny"). Upon waking from a three-day-long medically-induced coma, she experienced a series of hyperreal hallucinations that remind me of drawings from one of R. Crumb's sketchbooks. These exclusively visual sensations consisted of unknown people, animals and objects acting in different scenes, like a movie. None of the persons or scenes was familiar to her and she was severely frightened by their occurrence. For example, an old lady was sitting on a ribbed radiator, then becoming thinner and thinner, and finally vanishing through the slots of the radiator.Bolt from the blue triggers bizzare hallucinations |
| BB Video: "Dance Dance Revolution. With Flamethrowers. Pointed At You." Posted: 27 May 2009 10:51 AM PDT In today's episode of Boing Boing Video, we experience the funky flaming glory that is DANCE DANCE IMMOLATION, a pyro-parody of the popular arcade game in which one jumps around on touch-sensitive pads underfoot in rhythm with music. With DDI, you do this inside a flame-retardant suit. Miss a step, you get torched with a giant flamethrower. Dance Dance Immolation combines video games, music, and propane. You play DDR. A good performance wins you acclaim from flamethrowers. A missed step gets you a face full of fire! Yes, the fire is real. Put on a fireproof suit and give it a try!The contraption was created by the clan of happy mutant makers known as Interpretive Arson. We shot this at "How to Destroy the Universe," a yearly Industrial culture event which this year honored Throbbing Gristle's reunion tour. Laughing Squid has a related blog post here. We hear they're next performing at the "Smukfest" art confab in Denmark. (Update): Nicole Aptekar of Interpretive Arson pops in with more on the upcoming .dk gig:DDI next heads across the pond to burninate the Scandinavians, where we have been gleefully booked for the Smukfest music festival in Skanderborg, Denmark, August 5-9. It's a beautiful setting for our first European run, within a lush green forest. However, trees are flammable so DDI will run on a custom-constructed raft floating in the middle of a lake. We've had to skip our normal West Coast circuit to do it, but it might just be worth it if we get to shoot Kylie Minogue with fire. CREW NOTE: About this episode's host, Aaron Muszalski (aka SFSlim): He's a Burning Man builder, visual effects artist and educator, and a wandering polyglamorous anarcho-Dada Buddhist biker punk. He's on Twitter. In this episode, you'll also see our delightful recurring guest host Charis Tobias, who is all of 18 years old if memory serves. And thanks to our SF-based shooter-producer Eddie Codel who did a fine job capturing the madness on this piece, yet again. (Photo below by Kristen Ankiewicz, courtesty Interpretive Arson)
 Sponsor shout-out: This Boing Boing Video episode is brought to you in part by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "will influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside." |
He will repay £40,000 to cover the tax, after designating the property to the inland revenue as his main residence but designating it to the Commons authorities as his second home, allowing him to claim allowances. 
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