Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Three strikes law reintroduced in New Zealand

Posted: 16 Dec 2009 04:04 AM PST

The New Zealand government has reintroduced its controversial "three-strikes" Internet law, Bill 92A. Previously defeated after widespread outcry, the new 92A was introduced minutes before Parliament recessed for the holidays, and makes no substantial improvements over the initial proposal. Under the revised proposal, if anyone in your house is accused of three acts of infringement (without any proof of wrongdoing), your entire household loses stands to lose Internet access for six months, and/or pays a NZ$15,000 fine (the previous version of the bill would have taken away your family's internet for life). The major change in the bill is the opportunity for a counter-notice, if you believe the accusation is false.

This "revised" law is still fundamentally flawed. The two important mistakes that this law makes are:

1. Assuming that taking away your household's Internet access is a just punishment for copyright infringement.
Even if you're guilty of infringing copyright, kicking your family off the Internet is a punishment vastly disproportionate to your crime. The Internet is increasingly tied to our earning power, our participation in civic affairs, our dealings with government, our education, and our connections to our community and families. Taking away your Internet access doesn't just deprive you of one means of copying movies or music: it could deprive your kids' of their ability to complete their homework; it could cost you your living; it could exclude your family from civic affairs such as Parliamentary hearings, local council initiatives, etc, and impair your ability to interact with government services from health to building permits.

And, of course, it is fundamentally unjust to punish an entire household for the deeds of one person.

2. It contains no real penalties for false accusations.
Earlier Internet copyright initiatives, such as the "notice-and-takedown" system for removing content from websites, have made no provision for punishment in the event of a false accusation of infringement. In the absence of such penalties, companies and other rightsholders have treated these copyright laws are carte blanche to send out abusive, sloppy, or spurious notices, because the cost of their mistakes would be borne by ISPs and web-site creators.

The record on this is clear: giving one group of people the power to punish another group without penalty for abuse of this power leads to abuse. As I've pointed out here before, Universal Music would never go for this law if it cut the other way -- if Universal stood to have all its New Zealand offices kicked off the Internet in the event that it makes three false accusations -- but without some check on power, terrible abuse is inevitable

Update: Thanks to commenter StuartM for pointing to a better source on the bill. While the bill retains the two fatal flaws above (collective punishment, no penalties for false accusations), it does contain some major improvements over the original 92A:

* Guilt must be proven to a copyright tribunal

* The definition of ISP has been narrowed to exclude universities, employers and other institutions that provide Internet access

* Rightsholders must pay a (unspecified) fee to file compliants.

Govt reveals revamped Section 92A (Thanks, Nic)

(Image: DSC_0723.JPG, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Br3nda's photostream)

Previously:


Translated.by: crowdsourced volunteer translations to Eastern Euro languages

Posted: 16 Dec 2009 02:32 AM PST

Translated.by is a service for groups of volunteers working to group-translate texts into their native language, intended primarily for use on magazine articles, blog posts, and other short works. Presently, the language options are English, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian, though the creator, Ruslan Grokhovetskiy notes that he can switch on other languages "on request." Ruslan and friends have used the service to translate a bunch of my articles and stories into Eastern European languages, and they're on the lookout for others interested in playing along!

Translated by humans (Thanks, Ruslan!)

Previously:


Joke Band Respect: Surf Punks, Upper Crust

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 05:04 PM PST

Many people, including close friends and family of mine, hate joke bands. I understand the sentiment. Music has an almost sacred ability to break through left-brained chatter, reconnect you to the present and to emotional truth, and lift your spirits-- so it seems almost profane to turn the whole thing into a joke-- to drag it back into the domain of distancing, cleverness, and the inauthentic. But some joke bands have meant a lot to me, and I sincerely love them-- with The Surf Punks and The Upper Crust at the top of the list.

The Surf Punks were primary stars of my teen years. One of my favorite concert experiences ever was seeing them with my friends Ed and Peter at Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, probably around 1982. They set up an entire beach scene on stage, complete with a lifeguard station. For their finale, guitarist Drew Steele donned an emergency life vest, stood in a kiddie pool, and let drummer Dennis Dragon (who also played on his brother's The Captain and Tennille albums) poured the following over his head: maple syrup, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, marshmallow Fluff, and several boxes of breakfast cereal. Now, that's entertainment! Steele then took the life vest off and threw it into the crowd, and Ed caught it. I believe that this {price-, worth-}less piece of rock history still resides in a paper bag in the back of a closet at Ed's parent's house. Here is a short taste of Surf Punk magic, a video for their 40-second song "New Lead Guitar."

The Upper Crust, champions of faux-aristocratic "roque music," played songs like "Monarchy In The U.S.A." wearing breeches, stockings, and powdered wigs. If you know the AC/DC song "Big Balls" then you have a sense for what the Upper Crust's songs are like-- but the Crust develops the concept further. They put on a fantastic show which I enjoyed at Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco about 10 years ago, but I missed seeing them with original member Lord Rockingham, who had left the band to write speeches for Bill Clinton. Here is a video of their rousing "Let Them Eat Roque" (2:48). Enjoy!

100-word fiction contest: Vote for the winner!

Posted: 16 Dec 2009 12:40 AM PST

Response to our 100-word fiction contest, "Found in Space," was overwelming: some 80,000 words of entries! Having gone through them as best we can, we've whittled it down to a handful of finalists. Forgive us if we've missed something magical: With such a vast number of entries, it's easy to miss a beat!

Frankly, making decisions is hard. Whim guides our hand. So why don't you make the final decision? Read the finalists, then vote below on who gets the HP MediaSmart server. Poll closes in 24 hours.

P.S. -- there are runner-up prizes, too!

 

By Drew826:

"Daddy, look! It's winking at us!"

A metallic mass glinted in the bright red sunlight, its irregular shape reflecting occassional pulses of light through the heavily tinted windows of a lunar transport shuttle, catching the eye of a young girl accompanying her father to work. As usual, the Luna School System was observing the semi-annual lunar eclipse by having students "shadow" their parents at work. "Shadow days" were perfect for spotting forgotten pieces of junk floating out in space, just beyond the shadow cast by the Earth.

"Daddy, do you think it can see me? I winked back."


 

By acrocker:

He knew that his owners loved him, but that was about it. Benny, a golden retriever, certainly wasn't clever enough to see the irony of his owners only putting up 'lost' signs a mile from his home while he was a great many orders of magnitude further away. Nor was he smart enough to know even the basics of the exotic physics that brought him here in .037 seconds.

He didn't even know where here was, he just knew it looked a little like a place he could call home: green grass, lots of squirrels, three suns in the sky.


 

By Thought Grime:

We'll go no more a-roving, the immortal words of Byron,
the tattered moon is out of bounds since they brought back the pylon.
Loudly, since the probe returned, the scientists implored,
Daedelus offered secrets that could never be ignored.
Eight months they argued who was best to undertake the study,
to clean the wretched thing because it was so freakin' cruddy.
Finally they started to remove the dense, moon-sand,
excruciatingly because they cleaned it all by hand.
At last the pylon stood revealing secrets from afar,
all Earth was still as they were read, the English words; "We Are".

 

By Garry Cook:

Reversing thrusters, gaze dropping to the object in his hand, the child glided to a stop in the entrance bay.

When was the last time humans had touched these? Some might consider him a hero, as this could really turn things around for our race. Or it could lead us right back down the path we were on three centuries ago, when the population was ten billion, not ten thousand. An adrenaline rush chilled him to the bone.

His grip faltered and the doors slid closed as it floated back into the ether, unsure if letting it go was intentional.

 

By femaletrouble3:

Finally: contact. Humanity's ultimate question was answered.

A metallic sphere, roughly 3m in diameter, polished to a mirror. Nondescript otherwise except for an iridescent arrow indicating a recessed palm-sized red button.

The StarFreighter HMS Darwin approached the sphere and gently brought it aboard. The harbinger was "weighted", photographed and measured while the various crews of the armada impatiently paced and speculated.

Eventually came the day where the only thing left to do was push the palm-sized red button.

...

It took the light from the explosion four years to reach Earth.


 

By toryhoke:

10 INPUT "Please enter your username: ", U$

20 IF U$ != "Amanda" THEN GOTO 160

30 PRINT "My dearest Amanda,"

40 PRINT "I thought I'd never see you again."

50 PRINT "You've grown."

60 PRINT "I guess I've stayed the same."

70 PRINT "I may not be everything you want me to be."

80 PRINT "But I loved you first, and I loved you best."

90 PRINT "There was a time you loved me, too."

110 INPUT "Come back to me? ", A$

120 IF A$ = "N" OR A$ = "n" THEN GOTO 150

130 PRINT " <3 <3 <3 "

140 GOTO 130

150 END

160 PRINT "Invalid username: "; U$

170 PRINT "You cannot access this space."

180 GOTO 10


 

By Andvaranaut:

He rose. First slowly, then a little faster. His feet detached slightly from the ground, and then -- as if rushed forward by a colossal slingshot -- he began flying. At 0.99c, things seem weird, collapsing and color-shifting at whim; but he was not distracted. Mars came zooming past. A myriad asteroids. Jupiter. Enceladus. C'mon. Neptune. Almost there. There it was: Voyager I, glorious in its shine. Farthest human object ever made. Makes your head spin. He could almost touch it, that Sagan golden record in the cold of space...


 

By ueannossioba:

The first kiss was careful, tentative, almost as if Will Robinson was testing the unknown temperature of one of his mother's meals. But Mom and Dad were long gone, as was Sis and the Major. For years it had just been the two of them and his growing curiosity. Now, at an age when he was nearly too old to be an object of desire, Dr. Smith had finally succumbed to the younger man's clumsy seduction.

Far off, in a dusty corner of the Jupiter 2, the barely functioning positronic brain of a long forgotten robot processed one word: danger.


 

By justi121883:

I don't know how long I stared at that cow. I think she must have escaped from the farm down the hall. It was after midnight on the third-deck workspace and I was alone. She lumbered in and tore a frond from my hydroponic fern. Then she leaned into my desk and it tipped into the air like a ship. I watched in disbelief, paralyzed, as my monitor crashed to the floor. Before, she was just another cow in a spaceship. But now she made history: she was the first ever cow in a spaceship to go on stampede.

He opened his eyes, and it all was gone.

 

By sanborn:

We drifted over Greenland, in the old polar orbit. I spread myself thin, enjoying the cold of space. I could tell she was looking for something. "What is it?" I asked. She didn't answer. Then we passed out of the Earth's umbra, changing from icy cold darkness to glaring sunlight. Suddenly, there was a glint of light. "I see it!" she cried, propelling herself forward. It was a small stainless-steel capsule in orbit, filled with dust. She formed herself around it. "What do you want with that old thing?" I asked. "You wouldn't understand," she said. "It was my body."

 



How bad hyperinflation can get

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 10:02 PM PST

The remarkable story about Zimbabwean hyperinflation:
The cumulative devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar was such that a stack of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (26 zeros) two dollar bills (if they were printed) in the peak hyperinflation would have be needed to equal in value what a single original Zimbabwe two-dollar bill of 1978 had been worth. Such a pile of bills literally would be light years high, stretching from the Earth to the Andromeda Galaxy.
Shadowstats' John Williams: Prepare For The Hyperinflationary Great Depression (via Kottke)
Previously:


SFPD won't investigate hit-and-run car-v-bike accident

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 09:57 PM PST

Two months ago, I blogged about the hit-and-run driver who ran down JWZ and friend on their bicycles in San Francisco. The victims lavishly documented the crime, including getting witness names, a photo of the license plate and so on. They filed a report with the SFPD, and waited. And waited.

After two months, they've been told that the SFPD doesn't intend to investigate the crime. Apparently, driving your car into a cyclist, causing injury, and failing to remain at the scene isn't a serious crime in the SFPD's books. JWZ thinks that this is part of a pattern of the SFPD ignoring motor-vehicle crimes against cyclists and pedestrians.

John called SFPD, went down to the police station in person and filed a report (case 091-062-114), and after several followup phone calls over the next few weeks was told:

"No action has been taken on your case, but you can call the DMV and get the person's plate if you want to file a civil suit."

Apparently prosecuting hit-and-run drivers is beneath the notice of our police department, and the piece of shit driver who almost killed us both gets off scott free.

SFPD hates bicyclists
Previously:


Geek Xmas tree in the style of a Velleman kit

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 09:55 PM PST

Michael sez, "As a followup to our Geek Wreath from a few years ago, we decided to make a Geek Tree inspired by the Velleman 3D tree kit."

Geek Tree (Thanks, Michael!)

Previously:


Copying Isn't Theft video needs YOUR music!

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 09:47 PM PST

Nina Paley (of "Sita Sings the Blues" fame) writes,"I just released her first animation since Sita Sings the Blues, and it's about copyright! Specifically, that Copying Is Not Theft. This is the first in a series of "Minute Memes" I am producing with nonprofit QuestionCopyright.org. But 'Copying Is Not Theftl isn't finished yet, because the audio is just a scratch track of my unprofessional voice (I'm a professional animator, not a professional singer!). That's where you, Musicians of the Internet, come in. You are invited to arrange and re-record the song, add your name to the credits, and share the results however you like. The high-resolution video file is at archive.org. It's Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licensed, so you can do anything you want with it except restrict its use. Yes, you can even use it commercially. Go crazy!"

Hi-rez video file (Internet Archive)

Minute Meme #1: Copying Is Not Theft (Thanks, Nina!)

Previously:


Type n Walk mobile app

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 05:55 PM PST



The Type n Walk iPhone app enables you to see in front of you, via the iPhone's camera, while typing. I haven't tried it yet, but it's a cute concept. I'd imagine their lawyers wouldn't let them call it Type n Drive. Type n Walk (Thanks, Jason Tester!)

Approaches To A Just World Order

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 03:37 PM PST

I was at Columbia the same time that Barack Obama was there-- he was a senior when I was a freshman-- and although I never met him, I would guess that we have a formative experience in common: Saul Mendlovitz's "Approaches To A Just World Order" class.

Some upperclassmen pals whom I sang with clued me into this class, which had a cult following on campus. It was a huge lecture course out of the Political Science department, but people from all majors took it-- and that's how Professor Mendlovitz wanted it. The class was basically about solving great problems on a global scale, formulating optimal world governance-- in other words, Saving The World. Mendlovitz openly described his class as indoctrination, and he often repeated this point: You young people, sitting in this room, are the leaders of tomorrow. You will inherit the world some day, and you will be able to change it and make it better. So aim high-- agree that this is what you want to do, know that you can, conspire to make it happen, and stay true to your vision.

It was an absolute thrill for me to hear this message, and it has stayed with me ever since. Star professor Mendlovitz, on 5-year loan from the University of Chicago, was also a great lecturer. He combined tall, grey gravitas with idealistic zeal and a great sense of humor. He obviously loved being around young people.

The poli sci majors who dug deeper became involved with the World Order Models Project, co-founded by Mendlovitz and Princeton professor Richard Falk. I remember looking through the WOMP books and seeing things like diagrams of what the layout and seating scheme should be for a world governance chamber-- like the UN's General Assembly chamber, but presumably better. Things like this seemed a little wanky, but they didn't put me off from the underlying ideals.

Around the same time, I was also immersing myself in the ideas of Fundamentalist zinester Jack Chick (and others) who viewed world government as the great plot of the Anti-Christ, signaling the End Times. But this didn't seem like a good thing to bring up in class.

Anyway, it was a wonderful, inspiring class. I have not lost the hope that it instilled in me, and listening to Obama's words has several times made me think, "Wow-- he must have taken Mendlovitz, too! Mendlovitz was right!"

 

Church daycare drugged kids?

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 03:17 PM PST

Police are investigating Cincinnati's Covenant Apostolic Church day care for allegedly giving kids Melatonin mixed with candy to get them to sleep at naptime. Perhaps they were out of sacramental wine. From Cincinnati.com:
"The investigation has just begun and the Springfield Township Police Department does not know definitively at this time which staff members were involved in providing the dietary supplement to the children and which children were given (it)," (Police Chief David Heimpold) wrote (in a letter to children's parents). "However, we are providing this information to you at this time so that you can take whatever actions you deem necessary to protect your child or children in the event that they were given Melatonin on one or more occasions..."

The daycare remains open today, but church officials have not responded to several requests for comment. Pastor Shelly Hendricks told WKRC-TV (Channel 12 News) on Monday night that the workers who allegedly gave the drug to the children no longer work there.

"Probe: Did daycare kids get sleep aids?" (Thanks, Rick Pescovitz!)

New York: Mark Dery lecture on Satan and Santa

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 03:07 PM PST

What do Satan and Santa have in common? Former BB guestblogger Mark Dery will speak on the topic Saturday evening at the Observatory alternative art/lecture space in Brooklyn, New York:
Archives Images Krampus-1 In "Satan and Santa: Separated at Birth?," Dery, a cultural critic and book author, takes a look at the Jolly Old Elf's little-known role as poster boy for officially sanctioned eruptions of social chaos, as well as his current status as a flashpoint in "the Christmas Wars"---cultural battles between evangelicals, atheists, conservatives, and anti-consumerists over the "true" meaning of Christmas. Along the way, Dery considers New Age theories that Santa is a repressed memory of an ancient Celtic cult revolving around red-capped psychedelic mushrooms; Nazi attempts to re-imagine Christmas---a holiday consecrated to a Jewish baby, for Christ's sake---as a pre-Christian invention of tree-worshipping German tribes, in some misty, Wagnerian past; and the suspicious similarities between Satan and Santa, connections that have fueled a cottage industry of conspiracy theories on the religious right.
"Satan and Santa: Separated at Birth?"

Previously:


20 ways to get better gas mileage

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 04:58 PM PST

Deleted. Y'all are right. There are way too many errors in there and I didn't pay nearly enough attention to ferreting them out before I decided to post. My bad.

As penance, I offer you this image of a Scutigera coleoptrata being eaten by a Venus fly trap. It's no unicorn, but it does a good job of summing up my failure nicely.

YUMscutigera.jpg

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BLOGGERS WHO ARE WRONG ON THE INTERNET

Image comes from Plant Systematics Resources site of San Diego State University.

Welcome to the See-Easy

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 12:40 PM PST

Pervasive surveillance is a funny thing, and I wonder how it will affect dress. All those cameras are sharpening the difference between public and private spaces, so how about this scenario:

The beautiful people, who feel the most threat from paparazzi, bored security guards, and network-based voyeurs, cover up and disguise themselves in public places. Others soon follow the trendsetters, adopting the glamor of incognito. As status indicators, the well-toned face and body that come from the ample leisure time give way (outside of private spaces or posted no-camera zones) to a language of elegant, concealing garments, like you see in more modest countries.

Teenage girls become statistically less fearful about body image, and anorexia rates drop. Rifts develop between groups with different attitudes towards concealment. A tipping point is reached, and in the Prisoner's Dilemma of female modesty, power is taken back by the unionized-sisterhood strength of concealment over the winner-take-all competition of the freer playing field. Male attitudes toward women change as a result.

Meanwhile, law enforcement and the intelligence community don't want faces covered, with all their face-recognition and tracking software. So anti-concealment laws are put in place. The cool rebel kids (along with true criminals) also push in the direction of concealment. A mini industry springs up of wearable concealing devices, analogous to radar jammers and license plate concealers, with a similar "arms race" between laws and the innovations designed to circumvent them. Welcome to the see-easy; check your headcover at the door.

(I'm guessing that there's Sci Fi and Gender Studies out there that has a lot like this, and would love any pointers. Again, I feel lucky to access the firehose of BoingBoing community knowledge.)

Phaidon books celebrate a century of product design

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 01:54 PM PST

500x_146_leica_camera.jpg

Gizmodo has a great gallery of photos from a design book series published by Phaidon called Pioneers, Mass Production, and New Technologies. It's a three-volume set showcasing 333 of the best designed products from the past century, including Lockheed's Blackbird aircraft, Technics' turntables, and the Etch A Sketch. Pictured here is the Ur-Leica camera, designed in 1913; it was the predecessor to the Leica 1 and one of the first cameras to take single shots using cinematic film.

Pioneers, Products From Phaidon Design Classics on Amazon [via Gizmodo]

Comical legal case names

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 01:09 PM PST

Comical legal case-names are pretty damned funny:
United States v. 11 1/4 Dozen Packages of Articles Labeled in Part Mrs. Moffat's Shoo-Fly Powders for Drunkenness, 40 F. Supp. 208 (W D.N.Y. 1941) (holding product misbranded because it was not in fact a cure or treatment for drunkenness).

I Am The Beast Six Six Six of the Lord of Hosts in Edmond Frank MacGillivray Jr. Now. I Am The Beast Six Six Six of the Lord of Hosts IEFMJN. I Am The Beast Six Six Six of the Lord of Hosts. I Am The Beast Six Six Six of the Lord of Hosts OTLOHIEFMJN. I Am The Beast SSSOTLOHIEFMJN. I Am The Beast Six Six Six. Beast Six Six Six Lord v. Michigan State Police, et al., File No. 5:89:92, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8792 (W.D. Mich. July 12, 1990).

Batman v. Commissioner, 189 F.2d 107 (5th Cir. 1951), cert. denied 342 U.S. 877 (1951).

Schmuck v. United States, 489 U.S. 705 (1989).

United States v. Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins, No. 05-56274 (9th Cir. Mar. 17, 2008).

United States v. Article Consisting of 50,000 Cardboard Boxes More or Less, Each Containing One Pair of Clacker Balls, 413 F. Supp. 1281 (D. Wisc. 1976).

Comical Case Names

Study reports fructose damages metabolism

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 01:54 PM PST

Fructose can "damage human metabolism and is fuelling the obesity crisis," reports the Times. Scientists found that cheap fructose syrup may cause "the disruption of mechanisms that instruct the body whether to burn or store fat."

Polanski and Kubrick: Two occult tales

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 12:31 PM PST

Archives Eyeswideshut Redemption
Jacques Vallee is a computer scientist, partner in a venture capital firm, and author of more than 20 books, including Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers, The Invisible College, and The Network Revolution.

In our age of rational science the occult has never been more in demand: Angels and demons are popular, the Da Vinci code and lost symbols fascinate audiences worldwide and Hollywood is eager to turn out more movies with a paranormal theme. So why is it that so many of these stories seem flat, and fail to reach the level of insight into hidden structures of the world true esoteric adventures are supposed to promise?

Images N Ninth-Gate-800-75Perhaps the answer has to do with the failure of gifted directors to come to grips with the enormity of the unknown issues of human destiny, or to pose the fundamental questions their esoteric subject would demand. We go away charmed by artistic visions, dazzled by the pageantry of cardinals in red capes and titillated by women in black garters but the Illuminati only scare us because of the blood they spill, not the existential issues they should transcend. They behave like any other gang of thugs, even if they utter their rough curses in Latin rather than street slang, cockney or modern Italian.

The circumstances that made this point clear to me arose when I watched again two movies within a few days, namely Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate.

I was struck by the suspicious similarities and the enormous differences between them. In earlier viewings both had thrilled me with the superb photography, the great acting, and the expansive landscapes. A second experience made me wonder about the themes themselves: the contrast was striking. The story line of Eyes wide shut turns out to be not only unbelievable but downright silly. It could be summed up as "Handsome young millionaire doctor tries to get laid in New York for three days and fails!" In the process he has joined a fake black mass and deciphered a few facile occult clues but there is no point to any of it. I do understand that Kubrick, like Umberto Eco in Foucault's Pendulum, was attempting to say something profound about magic and eroticism but he only produced clichés, vague references to tired grimoires and gratuitous gropings: those black garter belts again.


The Polanski movie, in contrast, is dangerous and captivating from the very first frame. It combines a profound understanding of hermeticism with the breathless beauty of a quest for infinity. It completes it with the exquisite aesthetics of an adept who knows what should be exposed and what should remain hidden. Polanski has recognized the power and genuineness of his cause, his story, his landscapes, while Kubrick only exemplifies the well-trained academic intellectual who scrutinizes the magical from the outside and just doesn't get it, flashing the conventional symbols before us like so many obligatory props. Occultism is not science-fiction. The splendid photography doesn't fill the emotional gap.


It was striking to me that both movies took the protagonists to very similar situations and to the same places - the region of Pontoise in fact, so charged for me in magical memories. Should we suspect that the scripts circulated from desk to desk in Hollywood, as is so often the case, and that both stories emerged from a bit of plagiarism? Let's not go that far: perhaps it was simply a case of lucky occult coincidence.





Previously:

EFF's fundraising video

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 12:07 PM PST

Tim from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "As EFF nears its 20th year of operation, we've asked some of our friends to reflect on why they joined the fight for civil liberties and put it all together in a video. Guests include Adam Savage of Mythbusters, and of course Boing Boing's own Cory Doctorow. Check it out!"

Support EFF this Holiday Season! (Thanks, Tim!)

"Unicorn Taxidermy: MAKE ME AN OFFER"

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 10:58 AM PST

stuffedunicron.jpg
"His horn sparkles with the shimmer of little rainbows from the inside out! His mane and tail blow softly in the breeze! He is attached to a base so that he will stand securely and not tip over. He was made from a baby lamb that died of natural causes shortly after birth. I crafted the piece into the likeness of a unicorn."
Etsy, the stuff of nightmares.

A Holiday Reading List from Ph.D. Comics

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 10:35 AM PST

I do not have a Ph.D. (Nay, even a Master's. All I got is one B.A. and one B.S. Guess which is journalism, and which is anthropology. Hint: Irony and poop jokes are involved.) But I love Ph.D. Comics. Currently, awesome artist/Ph.D.-holder Jorge Cham is offering a peer-reviewed, Christmas-themed reading list, for your vacation enjoyment. Suggested papers include:

  • Christmas Disease: A condition previously mistaken for haemophilia. British Medical Journal, December 27, 1952

  • Red Crabs in the Rainforest, Christmas Island: Biotic Resistance to Invasion by an Exotic Snail. Nordic Society Oikos, 1991

  • More Than a Labor of Love: Gender Roles and Christmas Gift Shopping. Journal of Consumer Research, 1990

Ph.D. Comics: Christmas Papers

Insert cheese-head joke here

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 01:27 PM PST

Assembly Bill 556: An act designating the bacterium Lactococcus lactis as the Wisconsin state microbe. Lactococcus lactis would be the bacterium responsible for turning milk into cheese. "We call those people who oppose it lactose intolerant," said Gary Hebl (D-Sun Prairie). (Via Microbe World)

Review: Joey Roth Ceramic Speakers

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 10:46 AM PST

1.jpg

No-one's going to spend $495 on Joey Roth's Ceramic Speakers because of audiophile considerations, then start fretting about whether they look good enough next to the iMac. People are going to buy them because of the looks, and then worry about whether the audio quality lives up to the price tag. So, does it?

It does, so long as you're happy paying a premium for design. The audio is clear and crisp, despite the small size: Roth writes that he used modified Tang Band W4-1052SD drivers, avoiding plastic and metal in the speakers' housing in favor of vibration-dampening materials like ceramic and cork. As long as you don't expect miracles, then, there's little chance of suffering "catalog remorse," as commonly experienced when buying stuff that looks great in print but doesn't live up to its looks.

The cones, vaguely reminiscent of gramophone horns, are gorgeous. They feel reassuringly heavy, and no part of the system shows a cut corner. It appears durable, too--though porcelain is what it is, so take care with setup and positioning. The technical simplicity suggests a respect for function that Roth's beautiful but unweildy Sorapot somewhat lacked.


Birch stands support the cones. The amp is made from sheet steel and sits on a block of cast iron. Plastic isn't used anywhere in the system except for cable insulation and interior electrics. It comes with all the required cables, including adapters, and a power brick.



There are limitations--obvious as they may be, with 15 watts per channel on 4-inch full-range drivers--which must be considered. If you like bowel-clearing bass, these are not the speakers for you. The amp's designed to make a show of the cabling, a choice at odds with the cones' clean vibe. There's a DC power input, standard stereo outputs for each cone, a single 1/8" stereo input, a volume slider and an old-school on-off knob, and no fancy features at all.

Most prominent of the product claims is that the Ceramic Speakers offer detail, that you'll be able to hear the difference between iffy MP3 files and lossless data. Cheap speakers are set up to make the most of noisy audio, whereas these are intended for use with quality sources.

Now, it's easy to slip into synasthesiac jargon when reviewing audio gear, but the ceramic speakers shape up in straightforward terms. Radio broadcasts and low-bitrate mp3 files sounded no better than with any half-decent (i.e. sub-$500) set of desktop speakers. Lossless digital audio and well-kept vinyl records, though, had a clarity I don't get with my $200 M-Audios. (I tried plugging an Akai Miniak into it -- live music! -- and that was another minor revelation compared to the mid-range headphones I'd been using) I don't have any "standard" similar kit in the Ceramic Speakers' price range, however: wait until hardcore audiophiles have had a listen if you count yourself in their numbers.

To be blunt, if you're concerned about the existence of equally good-sounding gear at lower prices, you're probably not the intended audience. The Ceramic Speakers are about marrying distinctive minimalist design with good quality and an open-minded approach to where in the home you stick them.

In any case, they look great either side of a big-ass computer display.

$495, Joey Roth Ceramic Speakers [Official site]



Swell Season on Boing Boing Video

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 08:56 AM PST

Download MP4 - View at YouTube

Two years ago, Glen Hansard, singer/guitarist for the Irish group The Frames, and Markéta Irglová, a teenaged classical pianist from the Czech Republic, starred in a small independent film about a busker (like Hansard himself) and an immigrant flower seller on the streets of Dublin. Director John Carney made the film, titled Once, for just $160,000. Hansard and Irglová wrote all the songs for the soundtrack. The film became a surprise hit. Hansard and Irglová won a 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song, the hauntingly beautiful "Falling Slowly."

Cut to 2009: Hansard and Irglová, backed by The Frames, are playing sold-out shows under the name The Swell Season at legendary venues like Radio City Music Hall. The group recently released Strict Joy, their first album since the Once soundtrack. More complex and lush than their previous work but just as emotional and brutally honest, Strict Joy is an intimate, orchestral song cycle that brings them even further into the realm of the great singer-songwriters like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Joni Mitchell.

When Swell Season came to Oakland's Paramount Theater last month, I had the opportunity to interview Irglová and Hansard for Boing Boing Video. I found them both to be refreshingly grounded, humble, and incredibly gracious. They're the kind of people you want to invite home for dinner. I was thrilled that Glen and Mar agreed to perform several songs for our cameras, including an unreleased new song they wrote while on the road. The group performs tonight in Dublin. In January, they play in London, Glasgow, Manchester, and New York City.

Boing Boing has a number of people to thank for the magnificent quality of this video, starting with my dear friends Scott Compton and Bart Nagel. Scott took a break from his Chuck Prophet documentary and myriad other projects at Remedy Editorial to direct the piece. Bart and Chris Valente joined Scott in shooting it. The masterful Phil Perkins recorded the audio. Chris edited at Remedy with assistance from Jeffrey Boyette. Finally, thanks to John Tosch and Carrie Tolles for making it happen.

Principles of Postmamboism

Posted: 14 Dec 2009 06:04 PM PST

Abre kuta guiri mambo.jpg Postmamboism is a portable theory that places music at the center of understanding and uses music to interrogate other fields of study.

While the premises and methods of Postmamboism are applicable across a wide variety of musics, the discipline begins with the study of African and African diaspora musics, given their historical centrality to the music of the world and their deep connection through slavery, neoslavery, and liberation struggles to fundamental questions of colonialism, capitalism, and civilization. Postmamboism calls for a thorough knowledge of music of the black Atlantic, and implicitly has much to do with the emergent field of Atlantic studies, but its techniques and perspective can work with any musical culture.

Postmamboism is urgently interested in the ancient history of all civilizations, including both that which is documented through archaeology in the dry, heavily excavated zones of the Mediterranean Rim and Asia, and that which rotted in the humidity and archaeological neglect of sub-Saharan Africa and must be studied by other means. The term Postmamboism derives from the Kikongo word imbú, likely used in Cuba from the 16th century on, that is variously translated as "word," "law," "song," or "important matter," and which is pluralized as ma-imbú, or mambo. The prefix "post" is understood to mean not "what replaced," but "what happened after the world was transformed by." Postmamboism says with Arsenio Rodríguez: Abre (open) kuta (ear) güiri (hear) mambo.

Postmamboism is closely allied with (but not limited to) history, anthropology, linguistics, literature and critical theory, cultural studies, religious studies, urban studies, communications, performing and plastic arts, and all manner of Africanist and Hispanist study, to say nothing of musicology and ethnomusicology. Overlapping with other theoretical perspectives, Postmamboism is intrinsically cross-disciplinary and bi-directional: if music provides a way to hear into history, history also provides a necessary grounding to the study of music.

Postmamboism acknowledges a dialectic between its essential reference point of music that is popular (literally, of the people, signifying music that springs from historical roots and, relying on memory and person-to-person transmission, is infinitely renewable), and pop, which is presentist and must be mediated, consumed and replaced. Postmamboism speaks in the vernacular, deprivileging jargon, cultic language, and hyperpolysyllabicism. Postmamboism values the testimony, experience, and vocabulary of cultural practitioners, because for Postmamboists as for musicians, theory must be connected to practice.

An essential quality of Postmamboism is that it cannot be only preached, but must also be practiced, through immersion in music. This implies the scholar's attainment of a level of socialization not required by other theoretical brands, and demands a commitment to the kinesthetic. Dancing is understood by Postmamboists to be a deep listening state inseparable from the associated musical experience. Working knowledge of a musical instrument is not absolutely necessary, but highly useful; Postmamboism's dynamic of scholarship combined with real-world musical practice entails ear training on an ongoing basis. Postmamboist conferences emphasize the direct experience of music as part of the discourse.

Postmamboism grew out of informal conversations among scholars and practitioners in Havana, New Orleans, New York, and other capitals of the Afro-Atlantic world. Without having a name, it has nonetheless been practiced by scholars in a wide variety of fields working with music as a central avenue or focus of investigation. Postmamboism is cynical about the existing university system, seeing it as a place where intellectuals are neutralized by rendering their ideas unintelligible, while students and aspirants to its Priesth.ooD. are systematically exploited and driven into debt as class divisions between the educated and the uneducated deepen.

Postmamboism is activist, in that it seeks not merely to describe the world but to improve it, by applying the corporeal, communitarian, and spiritual power of music to contemporary thought and action. Given the historical role of music as subaltern discourse, Postmamboism also reserves the right to deploy satire and mockery, and more broadly, to celebrate carnival in infinitely varying forms.

© 2009 Institute for Postmambo Studies

Previously:




Photographer beaten, detained in London for being "cocky" to policeman who implies she is a terrorist

Posted: 16 Dec 2009 03:14 AM PST

In this video, two British police officers come up to a young woman who is filming a building and harass her, imply that she is a terrorist, intimidate her, demand to see her footage. The policeman says that he's harassing her for being "cocky" -- punishing her for failing to cringe sufficiently. England's police chiefs have ordered policemen to stop harassing photographers, but this officer called for backup and 7 more officers converged on the photographer. The photographer was brutally detained -- she is covered in bruises -- and fined but she had the presence of mind to return to the scene and interview the witnesses to the assault.

i'm not a terrorist (Thanks, DavidB!)

Previously:


The Great Game Designer

Posted: 14 Dec 2009 05:11 PM PST

Allow me to dive in over my head here-- countless BB readers know way more about games than I do, and I want to learn from them/you. I'm fascinated at how complexity emerges from certain initial conditions, and independent actors competing within those conditions-- i.e. from a game's rules and its players. It's a magic meta-formula that underlies a zillion things.

Some day we may discover a formal test for playability-- whether a setup will go nowhere or explode into interestingness. (Which is probably also a function of mental capacity-- a greater intelligence might find chess as boring as we find Tic-Tac-Toe.) If and when these meta-rules are understood, and we can do things like simulate evolution to levels of real-life complexity, it should convince at least a few more evolution deniers. In Darwin's day, when timekeeping was a leading geek-magnet, theologists described God as the Great Watchmaker. If there is a God, I think "The Great Game Designer" would be more accurate.

I'm mainly talking about paper games here. In the same way that mathematical formulas distill and express universal laws of nature, simple board/card games capture essential social phenomena-- this is a major avenue of research in Economics right? Is there a game like "Monopoly" that distills the phenomenon of an investment bubble growing and bursting? Or a game in which competition between players creates an ever-expanding complex that grows to require all available resources, and constantly presses to extract more? If so, the rules of this game should inform legislation that might increase the efficiency of medical insurers, military contractors, and the like (which is what competition is supposed to do, but in these cases, there seems to be a rule or two missing that takes the systems into another direction).

There are many phenomena I would love to see or come up with essentializing games for, and most of them seem to fall under the categories of consensus, hierarchy, group affiliation, and mating. For different aspects of these, I have numerous half-baked notions about what a group of players in a room could do. For example, draw a new Tarot card every round, and then have to agree on a single narrative that includes all of them in order. Or build the most accurate model of what other teams know and don't know about a selectively concealed array of random numbers, communicating only through severely limited bandwidth.

Hopefully I'll get serious and actually create and try some such games, and although much can be done with things like cards, dice, and paper, I've also been dreaming up a simple platform that would enable more party games and related experiments. My current notion is a small microprocessor-controlled, programmable device that has one knob, an internal clock, a physical contact detector (just a 9V battery clip for clicking into someone else's), a visible LED and a hidden/secret LED. Zigbee for the wireless and Arduino for the control. The contact detector and clock could automatically measure things like "face time" in games where that's a valuable resource, for example, and the hidden and visible LED status indicators could be just that-- status indicators. Or anything else. You could also use the platforms for other things. Like, you could run "dial groups" the way political consultants get focus-group feedback on campaign ads. Or you could run some fun interactive theater experiments. Does anyone know if something like this already exists?
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