Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

French cops use racial profiling for stop and search

Posted: 02 Jul 2009 04:54 AM PDT

Chris sez,

In France, there's no provision for monitoring ethnicity under the law. This is not an altogether bad thing, but it makes it impossible for anyone to get data about police 'ethnic profiling' [what us Brits call 'racial discrimination'] in the way that they treat members of visible minorities.

With no official data to go on, and no official co-operation, French researchers surreptitiously staked out areas of heavy police presence, and then noted the ethnicity of people stopped, before approaching them and conducting their own follow-up interviews. Their methodology needed to be pretty robust to make sure that this rather innovative way of collecting data did not bias the sample.

The results are pretty conclusive: even allowing for the nature of the population in the public space, if you are of Black appearance, you are more than six times more likely to be stopped than in you look White. People who look like Arabs are more than seven times more likely than Whites to be stopped.

What's to be done? The report makes a number of practical suggestions.

Profiling Minorities: A Study of Stop-and-Search Practices in Paris (PDF) (Thanks, Chris!)

Elderly retired boxing champ beats six kinds of crap out of drunken burglar neighbour

Posted: 02 Jul 2009 02:21 AM PDT

A British hard-partying 24-year-old bartender got upset that his elderly neighbour called the cops over all the noise he was making, so he got drunk and broke into the 72-year-old's house, wielding some kind of Mall Ninja knife that incorporated brass knuckles. What he didn't know was that the neighbour was a retired boxing champ, and the older man beat the everloving crap out of the would-be assailant. The judge in the case sentenced the burglar to four and a half years and said, of the beating, "You got what you deserved."

As Waxy notes, the inane Facebook photos make this story even more delicious.


A mug shot released by the Thames Valley Police reveals the results after Corti disarmed his attacker, let loose with two punches to the face and restrained McCalium until the police arrived on the scene...

Corti, a veteran of the British armed forces, was at home with his wife during the mid-morning attack, according to testimony in the case. McCalium, a bartender, may have held a grudge over a noise complaint lodged by the Cortis earlier that morning, the Daily Mail reported.

24-year-old burglar Gregory McCalium beaten by 'victim' - elderly retired boxer Frank Corti (via Waxy)

Voyageur, a storied guitar made from legends

Posted: 02 Jul 2009 02:40 AM PDT


Yesterday's episode of CBC Radio's As it Happens celebrated Canada Day with an interview with Jowi Taylor, author of Six String Nation: 64 Pieces, 6 Strings, 1 Country, 1 Guitar. The book chronicles the creation of Voyageur, a remarkable guitar that was inspired by the near-separation of Canada as a result of a close referendum in Quebec. Taylor crisscrossed the country, collecting artefacts to build a guitar from, from the national (former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's canoe paddle) to the local (the handle from the oyster shucking knife of a champion Míkmaq shucker); from the wonderful (a piece of a spruce tree held sacred by the Haida) to the tragic (a piece of the Westfahl, Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children). It combines everything from a piece of a hockey-stick from the most famous hockey game ever played (Canada vs. USSR, 1972) to a piece of Newfoundland's floating X-ray clinic, established to treat the post WWII TB epidemic.

After the guitar was built, by master luthier George Rizsanyi, Taylor took to the road again, getting all manner of people to play it, from Canadian musical legends (Gordon Lightfoot on his birthday, in his home) to world-famous musicians touring the country, to hundreds of ordinary people, who were all able to touch, hold and play this remarkable instrument (it has a case that is every bit as storied, of course -- part of it is sewn from the trousers of veteran hockey announcer Don Cherry!).

The net effect is of an instrument -- an artefact -- that is sacred and profane, precious and invaluable, common and unique. Marketers try to imbue their products with stories in order to create emotional ties with customers (think of Apple's Think Different campaign, or the mythology spun around Walt Disney), but this is the genuine article, a genuinely storied thing that is as much socially constructed as it is physically crafted.

I've asked the publisher for a review copy of Six String Nation (it comes out at the end of July) and if it's as good as it sounds, I'll have a review of it up as soon as I can.

Six String Nation: 64 Pieces, 6 Strings, 1 Country, 1 Guitar (Amazon)

Six String Nation (site)/Guitar Explorer

As it Happens show notes

MP3 Link

Life During Wartime video from Stop Making Sense

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:59 PM PDT

Robbie sez, "I have no other reason for sharing the link to this video of Life During Wartime than I can't stop watching it. It's from the Talking Heads concert film for _Stop Making Sense_, directed by Jonathan Demme. The music and choreography are mindblowing. My mind is blown right now."

Mine too. This is the best concert movie I've ever seen, one of the greatest albums ever recorded, and the amazing thing is that the trajectory of the band and its components went up from there. I've been listening to the new Byrne/Eno for weeks on heavy rotation and going crazy over it.

I'm really hoping to get to the David Byrne show in London next month!

Talking Heads - Life During Wartime

Stop Making Sense CD

Stop Making Sense DVD

Previously:


Cuddly felted Jabba the Hutt

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:53 PM PDT


Flickr user Kit Lane's created this beautiful felted Jabba the Hutt (with bunny rabbit). I could cuddle the slimy little bastard all day!

Jaba the Hutt - The Early Years (via Neatorama)

Proposal to raise book royalties, lower advances

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:51 PM PDT

Writer John Green makes a compelling case for reforming the way that publishers calculate advances and royalties, lowering the former and raising the latter. Doing this would -- he argues -- create a less blockbuster-focused, less risky venture that would be good for authors and publishers.
The agent is really high on The Unicornians. She thinks it's the next Twilight. So she submits it to several editors at once. Editor 1 comes back offering $300,000 for three books. Editor 2 offers $30,000 for three books but with a significantly better hardcover royalty. (Say, 20% instead of 10%.)

Putting aside the (very important) questions of which editor would be a better fit and which publisher is doing a better job with Unicornian-esque books, I would argue that the author of The Unicornians is always better off signing with Editor 2.

Let's say that The Unicornians is not a tremendous success. The first book in the trilogy sells 8,000 copies in hardcover; the second two sell 6,000*. With Editor 1, the author gets her $300,000^^, but The Unicornians comes up $240,000 short^^^ of earning out. With Editor 2, the author only makes $80,000 on the series, but $50,000 of that is royalty, and the publisher has also made a (modest) profit. The publisher will likely ask the author for another series, perhaps something focused in on the werewolf dude...

Okay, so now let's say The Unicornians IS successful. Let's say the first book sells 250,000 copies in hardcover**, because they make a movie, and teens squeal about how hot the unicornian boy's horn looks. The second and third books also sell 250,000.*** With Editor 1's deal, the author earns back her advance and makes $1.2 million, for a total of 1.5 million dollars. With Editor 2's deal, the author earns out and makes $2.7 million in royalties, for a total of $3 million.****

Book Advances and Marketing and the Cart and the Horse

Really Long & Boring Post about Book Advances and Publishing

(via Scalzi)

Zombie short film festival call for entries

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:49 PM PDT

Robbo sez, "Talented Toronto writers & filmmakers, Jim Taylor & Cory Laffin, have announced the first Zombie Short Film Festival and are calling for submissions. The festival will be held in Toronto, at the glorious Revue Cinema (in my friendly neighbourhood Parkdale) on October 30th. The criteria for submissions is pretty straight forward: 1) It must be a short film with a maximum running time of 20 minutes; and 2) It must involve zombies. Further details can be found on their web site."

Zombie Short Film Festival: Call For Submissions (Thanks, Robbo!)

(Image: Toothless Zombie, a Creative Commons Attribution licensed photo from Ateo Fiel's Flickr stream


Running fiber through a city sewers with a model sub

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:44 PM PDT


Francesco sez, "Italian Company uses an RC scale model Submarine to lay fiber through city's sewage system. The submarine used is the NETPUNE SB-1 produced by Taiwanese company Thunder Tiger. It costs ca $600 and can be found in many US hobby shops. The NEPTUNE SB1 adopts a static diving system driven by a ballast tank with pump & motor unit. Start the pump to induct the water into the ballast tank. Control the amount of water in the ballast tank, the submarine can dive from the surface and stay underwater in static. Using the propulsion power unit and full elevator and rudder control, you can drive the submarine graceful sailing underwater."

Focus e Modellismo: Neptune, il sottomarino radiocomandato della Sabattinicars, posa i cavi ADSL nelle fognature

Google Translate's English version

Japanese cops hassling foreigners on the street for urine drug tests

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:40 PM PDT

Francisco sez, "Few weeks ago Japan Police started to take random drug tests to foreigners on the streets of Shibuya and Roppongi. Basically from what report on several online sources 99.9% of tests are done to foreigners not Japanese people."
Hello I've been in japan about a year now, and live near roppongi. In the past couple of weeks, police have been stopping late night/early morning revellers when they are leaving bars and clubs, and asking them to provide urine samples. Essentially they are testing for drug use/abuse. Whilst i have nothing to hide, i cant help but think this is an invasion of my personal liberty/human rights. It also concerns me that things are quite easily added to drinks without people knowing much about it. its not much surprise, that out of the 40 or 50 that i saw being pulled on fri night, all bar one were gaijin. I just wondered if they are within their rights to be doing this? thanks...

It's confirmed. Called Asabu Police Station today (03-3479-0110(代表)) in Roppongi and talked to an officer Teshima. He admitted that yes, they are carrying out urine tests on people. He denied that they were targeting foreigners, but he refused to divulge what sort of criteria they use to select their testees. Separate blog entry on this by midnight tonight. Arudou Debito

Tokyo police raiding Roppongi, stopping NJ on Tokyo streets for urine tests (UPDATED) (Thanks, Francesco!)

Blackest material ever created. Again.

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:37 PM PDT

Eduard Driessen, MSc, and Dr Michiel de Dood's new paper in Applied Physics Letters identifies a new contender for the blackest material that ever existed. No word on whether it's any blacker than the last three Spinal-Tap-joke-inspiring none-more-black materials we've covered here since 2003.
Two researchers, Eduard Driessen, MSc, and Dr Michiel de Dood, have demonstrated that at a thickness of 4.5 nanometer niobiumnitride (NbN) is ultra-absorbent. They have recorded a light absorption of almost 100%, while the best light absorption to date was 50%. This research brings the ideal light detector a step closer.
Blackest Black Ever: Ultra-thin Material Absorbs Almost 100% Of Light (Image: Blue'n'black, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike photo from szeretlek_ma's Flickr stream)
Previously:


Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society's magnificent spread

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:31 PM PDT



Wired's Raw File blog has a beautiful photo-gallery of the magnificent model railroad spread at the Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society, under construction since 1974: "The society's control systems are a steampunk fantasy: a roomful of vintage 1930s magnetic relays once used to route phone calls, clacking like mechanical dominoes with every move the amateur engineers make. A full complement of 30 members can run 10 individual trains simultaneously on the layout, though only a dozen or so are required for basic operation."

Giant Model Railroad Is an Analog SimCity

Web Zen: Travel Zen

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 07:10 PM PDT

@BBVBOX: recent guest-tweeted web video picks (boingboingvideo.com)

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 06:35 PM PDT

(Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.)


More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com

Chinese iPhone knock-off looks just like an iPhone, barely works

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 06:02 PM PDT


Video of an iPhone knock-off from China. It looks OK, but as you might guess the software is slow and sucky. Apparently, some poor guy bought it on eBay and now wants his money back.

Counterfeit iPhone 3G stops by MacMedics by way of disputed eBay auction

Hugo voting deadline!

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 02:03 PM PDT

Diane from the World Science Fiction Convention sez, "Just wanted to drop you a quick note to say that the voting deadline for the Hugo awards is this Friday. Eligible voters must vote online by July 3rd, 23:59PM EST. People should vote as early as possible in case of computer problems and to ensure their ballot is received before the deadline."

You get a vote if you're signed up to attend the WorldCon (it's in Montreal this year). It's one of the best Hugo ballots I've seen in all my years as an sf reader. And yes, I'm eligible twice, once for best novel (Little Brother) and again for best novella (True Names, with Ben Rosenbaum).

Final Ballot for the 2009 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award

Previously:



200 Characters from Dick Tracy 1931-1977

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 01:35 PM PDT

Tracydicc

In 1978, the Museum of Cartoon Art hosted an exhibit on Dick Tracy. The Mike Lynch Cartoons site posted fantastic pages from the back of the exhibition catalog, a gallery of "200 Characters from Dick Tracy 1931-1977." (via Drawn!)

CIA's former bin Laden expert: "The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States."

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 12:59 PM PDT


A grand piece of thinking from ex-CIA Michael Scheuer who told Glenn Beck: "The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States." Scheuer is the former head of the Bin Laden unit at the CIA under Clinton and Bush.

Michael Scheuer on US Security

How to determine the value of a book

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 12:20 PM PDT

Bookride, a dryly funny and informative blog about the rare books trade, has a good entry about using the Web to check the value of a book.
200907011219 The mistake most people make when valuing books on the web is to take their price form the highest or the mid range. None of the books listed have sold and if you had to buy one you would choose the cheapest in decent condition; only a mad man would choose to pay more than necessary. Take your price from the low end of books in comparable condition.

...

Who are these guys with absurdly high prices? Generally they have had unhappy childhoods, uncles who drank, boorish parents or have been educated at unpleasant and expensive schools.

I've noticed the same inflated thinking with comic books. When I worked at a comic book store as a teenager, people would come in with old comics that had torn or missing covers and be flabbergasted to learn that we would give them about 1/100th the amount they'd get for the same comic in near mint condition. A good rule of thumb for people who think they have a valuable collectible is, "if it's not in perfect condition, it's worthless to a collector."

Checking book values on the Web

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 01:16 PM PDT

gdgtlaunches.jpg

• Lisa took a first look at GDGT, the newly-launched social network and gadget database.

• There was a curious rainbow-flicked LED life mask.

• Steven found a bag that inspires patriotic beer swilling.

• Sony's $1,000 iPod dock is so pretty it's almost worth the price tag.

• Craftsquatch makes RSS Pillows -- and more besides.

• Artist David Hockney has taken to iPhone fingerpainting.

• Mnemosyne is the strangest thumbdrive on earth. And it costs as much as 7 Sony iPod docks.

• Smalltalk got its own issue of Byte Magazine in August 1981.

Discuss these stories and more at BBG.

Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 11:20 AM PDT

Loubrooks Shows Proportwheel Loubrooks Shows Portfolio Loubrooks Shows 0830060086
Drawger's "Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies" is a delightful place where "tools of the trade that have died or have just about died a slow slow death are cheerfully exhibited." Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies (Thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Pockets banned for airport staff

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:58 AM PDT

Kathmandu's Tribhuvan airport has banned pants with pockets for employees. Authorities hope it will help prevent bribes. From BBC News:
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) said it had sent a team to the airport to "observe the growing complaints about the behaviour of airport authorities and workers towards travellers".

"We discovered that the reports were true," spokesman Ishwori Prasad Paudyal told the AFP news agency.

"So we decided that airport officials should be given trousers with no pockets."
Nepal bans airline staff pockets (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)

HOWTO drive a Model T

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:50 AM PDT



Ed Hebb, a volunteer at the Henry Ford Estate, shows how to start and drive a Ford Model T. Now I know. (via BB Gadgets)

Previously:


Video games good for the brain?

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:39 AM PDT

Scientific American surveys new research on whether playing videogames might be good for our brains. For example, one recent study by University of Rochester cognitive scientist Daphne Bavelier that I've blogged about previously suggests that games can exercise and enhance certain core vision functions. From SciAm:
It is appealing to envision video games being utilized in the rehabilitation of patients and the prevention of cognitive decline, promotion of brain fitness, and development of fundamental skills. However, more careful studies like those of Bavelier and colleagues are needed to realize such a goal. To date, much of the claims around this rapidly growing area of technology-supported medical interventions are insufficiently supported by scientific data.

In this context, a major advantage of video games is the fact that they can be made entertaining and engaging. Motivation is a powerful driver of brain plasticity. The highly realistic and engaging nature of these games allows the gamer to immerse themselves and "feel" like the simulation is really real (e.g. the intensity of combat). Such realistic engagement and the resulting enjoyment promotes brain changes.

Of course, a video game is not the same as the real thing. The motor plan to throw a football accurately (e.g. grip strength, depth perception, tracking the running receiver) versus the right sequences of touches on a game console are two different things. The development of systems that more realistically simulate motor actions and responses will probably be important.

It is likely that the functional impact of the brain plasticity induced by greater technology dependence will be different for different behaviors. For example, playing video games will train certain visuo-motor skill but also affect social development and interpersonal relation skills.
"Take two video games and call me in the morning"

Previously:


Citizen surveillance videos of litter louts

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 10:29 AM PDT


A neighborhood group in the UK has been videotaping people who litter and posting the videos on YouTube with a request for information about the "litter louts." My favorite part of these videos is where they repeat the act of littering in slow motion. (I think the videos need an ominous music soundtrack, however, like the kind used for the Diff'rent Strokes opener.) (Via Arbroath)

Suspected "bomb" turns out to be air freshener

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 09:29 AM PDT

A Royal Air Force parade was recently cancelled in Lincolnshire, England when a possible bomb was found in a telephone booth. The bomb turned out to be an air freshener. From BBC News:
A BT spokesman said air fresheners had been installed in enclosed phone boxes for years without problems...

The BT spokesman said: "We do put air fresheners in some phone boxes - we like to make the environment as pleasant as possible for people using a payphone to make a call.

"Some people have been known to use phone boxes for reasons other than wanting to phone someone.
Air freshener disrupts RAF parade (via Fortean Times)

Today on Offworld: glum busting, retro Soviet arcades, domestic violence

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 09:20 AM PDT

glum500.png As seems to be the case time and time again, indie devs have given us some of the best in surrealist/dreamscape gaming, and the latest -- featured today on Offworld -- is Justin 'CosMind' Leingang's Glum Buster, an intricately constructed PC pixel platformer that is as traditional as it is relentlessly alien -- think Eric Chahi's Another World/Out of this World -- and is being sold via an altruistic charity-ware setup. It'll certainly go down as one of the finest indie developments this year. russiansubgame.jpg Elsewhere we took a fantastic look inside Moscow's Soviet Arcade Games Museum via their new Art Lebedev (he of the Optimus Maximus OLED keyboard) designed website that not only gives us near-pornographically beautiful shots of previously unseen 70s era Soviet arcade design, but also recreates a number of the games in Flash to play directly on the site. We also played Noonat's Queens -- a game built for a competition dealing with the theme of 'domestic violence' that manages to cleverly skate the thin ice there, and fell in love with Puit Wars, a micro/massive pixel wargame that proves hiphop emcee Aesop Rock should be making music for games, followed Nintendo DS cult puzzler star Professor Layton on Twitter, and took a new look at the mysteries of SUPERBROTHERS' rustic pixels in his Kurosawa-inspired Alpinist.

Shaming Congress into voting against the industries who bribed them to stop public healthcare

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 08:40 AM PDT

Adam sez,
Lawrence Lessig's new anti-corruption organization Change Congress recently used online ads to shame Sen. Ben Nelson in his home state for opposing President Obama's public health insurance option while taking $2 million from the health and insurance interests that are leading the fight against it. And it worked. After an 11-day public fight, Nelson switched from calling the public option "a deal breaker" to saying he is open to it and promising not to join Republicans in a filibuster against it.

Now, Lessig has set his sights on Sen. Mary Landrieu, who also opposes the public option and took $1.6 million from the same special interests. Today, Change Congress announced a new TV ad targeting Landrieu and they are asking the public to chip in to help air it in Louisiana. Democracy for America and MoveOn.org are also partnering on this ad. It features Karen Gadbois, a local hero who helped root out corruption after Hurricane Katrina -- who shares her compelling personal health care story:

Help us get this ad on the air in Louisiana! (Thanks, Adam!)

Taibbi on Goldman Sachs: "Planet-eating Death Star," "Vampire squid"

Posted: 01 Jul 2009 08:41 AM PDT

sachs.jpg
Goldman Sachs staff will receive the biggest bonuses in the firm's 140-year history this year. In Matt Taibbi's epic Rolling Stone piece this month, he describes the financial firm as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity"; and "the planet-eating Death Star of political influence". Sounds about right. Rolling Stone doesn't have a copy online, but there's one here. It's a must-read. (via Bob Lefsetz)

Book review: The Day-Glo Brothers, The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors

Posted: 23 Apr 2009 04:06 PM PDT

Day-Glo-Brothers

I absolutely loved Chris Barton's book, The Day-Glo Brothers, The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors. It's a children's book about the two brothers who invented fluorescent paint and Day-Glo paint. Joe Switzer wanted to be a magician when he was younger and he started fooling around with a black light that he and his brother Bob learned to make from a 1930s issue of Popular Science (I'm guessing it was this PopSci article from 1932).

They shined the light on the chemicals lining the shelves of their father's pharmacy and noticed that some of them glowed vibrantly. They started buying and mixing chemicals and eventually developed a number of different kinds paints that gave fluoresced under black light. Later, after much experimentation, the stumbled on paint that fluoresced under white light, which they dubbed "Day-Glo." The discovery made them very rich.

The book is illustrated by Tony Persiani, and it makes good use of Day-Glo ink, natch.

The world needs more fun history books like this!

The Day-Glo Brothers, The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors
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