Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

SoCal school district bans the dictionary

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 05:06 AM PST

Southern California's Menifee Union school district has banned the Merriam Webster's 10th edition from use in fourth and fifth grade classes, over this salacious definition of "oral sex": "oral stimulation of the genitals".
"It's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature," district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the paper.

While some parents have praised the move - "[it's] a prestigious dictionary that's used in the Riverside County spelling bee, but I also imagine there are words in there of concern," said Randy Freeman - others have raised concerns. "It is not such a bad thing for a kid to have the wherewithal to go and look up a word he may have even heard on the playground," father Jason Rogers told local press. "You have to draw the line somewhere. What are they going to do next, pull encyclopaedias because they list parts of the human anatomy like the penis and vagina?"

'Oral sex' definition prompts dictionary ban in US schools (via JWZ)
Previously:


Video: one possible scenario for the future of dating

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 05:04 AM PST

In this kooky video, Finnish interaction designer Mikko Pitkänen imagines a future in which augmented reality helps us find romantic partners through a cone-shaped device called the Love-O-Scope. Perfect for those of us who hate dating... I think.

The Love-O-Scope (via NotCot)

Human-powered ferris wheel in Nepal

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 04:38 AM PST

At the Hindu Swasthani Mela festival held in Kathmandu earlier this month, I spotted a small ferris wheel that appeared to be non-functional. It consisted of four octagonal open-air cages and a simple metal frame. When two kids climbed into one of the octagons, though, a man got up on the other side and started jumping up and down, eventually getting the thing to turn like any other ferris wheel. Apparently this is pretty common in parts of Asia where electricity is not always readily available — like this much bigger two man-powered version filmed in India. The merry-go-round you see in the right corner of the above video, by the way, was powered by a used car battery.

Public Domain Manifesto

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 01:23 AM PST

Paul sez,
Over the last few months a couple of academics and free culture activists working together in the Communia network have drafted a manifesto about the public domain in the digital age.

This public domain manifesto was launched yesterday and we are looking for signatures (we already have quite a lot of them).

The manifesto underlines the importance of the public domain as a shared resource and established a number of principles for the public domain in the digital age. The first principle is:

The Public Domain is the rule, copyright protection is the exception. Since copyright protection is granted only with respect to original forms of expression, the vast majority of data, information and ideas produced worldwide at any given time belongs to the Public Domain. In addition to information that is not eligible for protection, the Public Domain is enlarged every year by works whose term of protection expires. The combined application of the requirements for protection and the limited duration of the copyright protection contribute to the wealth of the Public Domain so as to ensure access to our shared culture and knowledge.

Read the rest of the manifesto (and sign it!) at www.publicdomainmanifesto.org.

The Public Domain Manifesto (Thanks, Paul!)
Previously:


No D&D for US prison inmate serving life

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 10:25 PM PST

Noting that "punishment is a fundamental aspect of imprisonment, and prisons may choose to punish inmates by preventing them from participating in some of their favorite recreations," a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ban the playing of Dungeons and Dragons by a US prison inmate serving life for first-degree murder:
Singer, 33, has been a devoted player of the fantasy role-playing game since he was a child, according to the court ruling. After the ban went into effect, prison officials confiscated dozens of Dungeons & Dragons books and magazines in his cell as well as a 96-page manuscript he had written detailing a potential scenario for the game that players could act out.

Prison officials enacted the ban in 2004 after an inmate sent an anonymous letter expressing concern about Singer and three other inmates forming a "gang" focused around playing the game.

Singer was told by prison officials that he could not keep the materials because Dungeons & Dragons "promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling," according to the ruling. The prison later developed a more comprehensive policy against all types of fantasy games, the court said.

Game over: Wisconsin inmate can't play Dungeons & Dragons (Thanks, Factotum!)

(Image: Wulfgar on his warhorse, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Benimoto's photostream)

Previously:


Thinking about time makes you sway

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 10:18 PM PST

People who are thinking about the past sway backward, people who are thinking of the future sway forward
University of Aberdeen psychological scientists Lynden Miles, Louise Nind and Neil Macrae conducted a study to measure this in the lab. They fitted participants with a motion sensor while they imagined either future or past events. The researchers found that thinking about past or future events can literally move us: Engaging in mental time travel (a.k.a. chronesthesia) resulted in physical movements corresponding to the metaphorical direction of time. Those who thought of the past swayed backward while those who thought of the future moved forward.
Moving Through Time: Thinking of the Past or Future Causes Us to Sway Backward or Forward

(Image: Leaning, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from vonSchnauzer's photostream)

Previously:


US gov't data-laundering: using corporate databases to get around privacy law

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 10:11 PM PST

"Buying You: The Government's Use of Fourth-Parties to Launder Data about 'The People'," a paper by Columbia Law School's Joshua L. Simmons in the Columbia Business Law Review, describes the way that US government agencies circumvent the fourth amendment and privacy statutes by outsourcing their surveillance to private credit reporting bureaux and other mega-databases. He argues that the law should ban the use of this improperly gathered information, binding paid government informants to the same rules that the government must follow.

Your information is for sale, and the government is buying it at alarming rates. The CIA, FBI, Justice Department, Defense Department, and other government agencies are at this very moment turning to a group of companies to provide them information that these companies can gather without the restrictions that bind government intelligence agencies. The information is gathered from sources that few would believe the government could gain unfettered access to, but which, under current Fourth Amendment doctrine and statutory protections, are completely accessible.

Fourth-parties, such as ChoicePoint or LexisNexis, are private companies that aggregate data for the government, and they comprise the private security-industrial complex that arose after the attacks of September 11, 2001. They are in the business of acquiring information, not from the information's originator (the first-party), nor from the information's anticipated recipient (the second-party), but from the unavoidable digital intermediaries that transmit and store the information (third-parties). These fourth-party companies act with impunity as they gather information that the government wants but would be unable to collect on its own due to Fourth Amendment or statutory prohibitions. This paper argues that when fourth-parties disclose to law enforcement information generated as a result of searches that would be violations had the government conducted the searches itself, those fourth-parties' actions should be considered searches by agents of the government, and the data should retain privacy protections.

Buying You: The Government's Use of Fourth-Parties to Launder Data about 'The People' (via Resource Shelf)
Previously:


Giant working Blythe doll heads

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 10:03 PM PST


Crafter user gorgaus produced these giant, operations (i.e. blinking) Bylthe doll heads (a hairdresser made the six-foot wigs) and put on a catwalk show with them. They're made from fiberglass: "They are quite light, they have a stem at the back of the neck that leads down to the waist where there is a back brace so all the weight is on their hips. The wigs are heavier than the heads, especially the geisha style one. They used dancers instead of models cause they thought they might have more strength and balance."

ENORMOUS DOLL HEADS that you can WEAR! With fluttery eyelids!! Cool! (via JWZ)

Previously:


Giant spider plush toy

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 09:57 PM PST


Etsy's Undead Ed continues to produce nightmarishly wonderful plush toys, like this "from scratch" hairy spider.

Kellandra The Spider Gremlin Ooak Plush (via Super Punch)

Previously:


Chris Anderson: "In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits,"

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 09:54 PM PST

In a long, thoughful and exciting piece entitled "In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits," Wired's editor-in-chief Chris Anderson describes the way that networks, 3D printers, and other technologies are reinventing business, from garage hackers to Chinese knock-off factories. Chris's most provocative thesis, a recapitulation of Bill Joy's argument: "working within a company often imposes higher transaction costs than running a project online. Why turn to the person who happens to be in the next cubicle when it's just as easy to turn to an online community member from a global marketplace of talent?"

It's fascinating to see this essentially anti-corporate position emerge from a former Economist editor who now runs a major Conde-Nast publication. It's one of the things I like best about Chris's work: he's multidimensional and willing to challenge all sorts of received wisdom.

One place he doesn't go here is what corporate giants will do in the face of this sort of "creative destruction" -- are they going to roll over and play dead, or will they fight back with the indiscriminate savagery of a cornered record executive?


Alibaba's chair, Jack Ma, calls this "C to B" -- consumer to business. It's a new avenue of trade and one ideally suited for the micro-entrepreneur of the DIY movement. "If we can encourage companies to do more small, cross-border transactions, the profits can be higher, because they are unique, non-commodity goods," Ma says. Since its founding in 1999, Alibaba has become a $12 billion company with 45 million registered users worldwide. Its $1.7 billion initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007 was the biggest tech debut since Google. Over the past three years, Ma says, more than 1.1 million jobs have been created in China by companies doing ecommerce across Alibaba's platforms.

This trend is playing out in many countries, but it's happening fastest in China. One reason is the same cultural dynamism that led to the rise of shanzhai industries. The term shanzhai, which derives from the Chinese word for bandit, usually refers to the thriving business of making knockoffs of electronic products, or as Shanzai.com more generously puts it, "a vendor, who operates a business without observing the traditional rules or practices often resulting in innovative and unusual products or business models." But those same vendors are increasingly driving the manufacturing side of the maker revolution by being fast and flexible enough to work with micro-entrepreneurs. The rise of shanzhai business practices "suggests a new approach to economic recovery as well, one based on small companies well networked with each other," observes Tom Igoe, a core developer of the open source Arduino computing platform. "What happens when that approach hits the manufacturing world? We're about to find out."

In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits

(Photo: Leon Chew, Wired)

Previously:


Corporate developers abandon "underwater" property -- why not individuals?

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 09:45 PM PST

Tishman Speyer Properties and its co-investors just walked away from the largest real-estate deal in US history, simply defaulting on the properties and the loans that bought them and leaving their creditors in the lurch. The properties, Manhattan's 56-building, 11,232-unit Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, were "under water" (worth less than the debt hanging over them), so the corporate developers elected to simply jettison them.

They're not alone -- Morgan Stanley recently dumped five San Francisco office buildings, stiffing their creditors when the buildings went underwater.

As a business-strategy it makes sense: why repay loans secured by assets that are worth less than the loans? Just turn the assets over and cut your losses.

But individuals are shamed, bullied, and counselled not to do this when it's their private homes that fall underwater. Everyone from former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to credit counsellors to the Mortgage Bankers Association tell you that defaulting on underwater property is low and dishonest (unless you're a Wall Street player -- then it's just "protecting shareholder value").

Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson once said: "And let me emphasize, any homeowner who can afford his mortgage payment but chooses to walk away from an underwater property is simply a speculator - and one who is not honoring his obligations."

The head of the Mortgage Bankers Association, John Courson, played up the moral argument against walking away, telling the Wall Street Journal last month: "What about the message they will send to their family and their kids and their friends?

But corporations and businesses don't play by those rules. Like CalPERS's McKinley said, "You come to a point where you write it off or stay in the game. If you want to stay in you got to put in more capital. We reached our limit on that. It was not a prudent thing to put more money into it.

"You get to a point where you can't keep throwing good money after bad," he said. "These are illiquid investments. You gotta fish or cut bait."

As for homeowners walking away en masse -- perhaps lenders' biggest housing-related fear -- McKinley added: "We're hopeful that won't happen."

Don't Look Back: Major Players Continue To 'Walk Away' From Poor Mortgages (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

(Image: Friendly's Underwater Restaurant, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike image from nlnnet's photostream)

Previously:


Keep Calm and Carry Yarn

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 09:35 PM PST

Intro to TOR: how you can be an anti-censorship activist in your sleep

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 09:31 PM PST

Here's a nice little introductory article on TOR, The Onion Router, a privacy-enhancing technology that helps you to circumvent national, corporate and school firewalls and enhance your anonymity. Originally developed by the US military to help communications get in and out of countries that heavily filter their networks, TOR is free/open software and is maintained by many volunteers around the world, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

TOR works by passing your traffic through several (theoretically) unrelated computers all over the Internet, using cryptography to keep the origin, destination, and intermediary steps secret from each computer it passes through.

You can run TOR on your own computers and they'll become part of this array of intermediary hosts all over the net, making your network connection into a tool for privacy and free access to information.

Bill McGonigle, of Lebanon, New Hampshire, decided to become a Tor volunteer when he learned that people in Iran were protesting the results of their June Presidential election. They were using the Internet to organize their meetings. The Iranian government was trying to censor their messages to one another. "I have a soft-spot for people trying to gain liberty for themselves," he wrote in an email, "especially against tyrannical regimes. It became known that they were using Tor to get around the censorship, so at that point I put up a relay....The people I'd like to help are those living under violence-based oppression, most commonly orchestrated by dangerous and corrupt individuals posing as legitimate governments. I'd like to see an end to oppression wherever it exists."
Volunteer Your Computer for Global Privacy (Thanks, Rhona!)
Previously:


Word-map of net-censorship in China

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 09:23 PM PST

Librarians for Fair Access resists exclusive content contracts

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 07:21 PM PST

such a bitter pill to take
Library database vendor EBSCO now has exclusive deals with content providers -- Time, Inc., and Forbes. Libraries who had been getting access to this same content through other vendors will have to pay up or lose electronic access to popular titles such as Sports Illustrated, Time and People. Gale, a competing vendor, has responded with their Fair Access campaign including the Librarians for Fair Access facebook group.

tl;dr version: If your library doesn't have EBSCO and wants to continue to offer electronic access to some magazines, they will have to get EBSCO. Previously, most magazines were aggregated and sold by many companies, more about the specifics here.

According to Gale: "If you currently receive Time Inc. or Forbes periodical content electronically from Gale or any provider other than EBSCO, you and your patrons will lose access to that content over [2010]."

What changed? EBSCO responds, in Library Journal "In many cases, an exclusive relationship is the only way you can have the content in your databases." They were the top bidder in an RFP put out by Major Magazines who felt that they were losing revenue because too many people read their magazines in the library for free. That said, EBSCO is no stranger to the idea of exclusive contracts.

What can librarians and patrons do about this? A list from The Book of Trogool.

  • Talk to your librarian now, not later. If you need to protect access to a particular journal, the time to talk to the bibliographer/selector/liaison/serials librarian responsible for decision-making in your area is now. After a journal is cancelled is too late.
  • Self-archive. You need those citations, especially as article-level metrics begin to thrive, and some citations come from people for whom if it's not online and immediately available, it doesn't exist.
  • Choose, use, and evangelize open-access journals. If you're going to wind up limited substantially to what you can find freely online, isn't it to your advantage to increase the amount of material available freely online?
  • Support open-access policies where they're in play. Whether at your institution, in your scholarly society, or nationally, open-access policies are springing up like weeds. Support them. Vocally. If they're not happening where you are, you can start the ball rolling!
  • Be aware of what's going on where you publish, and where your scholarly societies are positioning themselves. A librarian can help you with this, saving you research time.

AppleWatch: Great Touchspectations Shirt

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 06:38 PM PST

tablet.jpg

Boy, I sure hope we don't get sued for leaking these trade secrets! R. Stevens says,

Apple is a very secretive company. But not even Steve Jobs himself is more powerful than a trained psychic with a Mental Amplifier Helmet and a mission. In order to cut through all the hype and rumor, I descended into a sensory deprivation tank filled with Dr. Bronner's Magic Peppermint Pure-Castile Soap and put my mutant brain to work.

This t-shirt lists every single feature of the impending Apple tablet computer with stunning 900,000 percent accuracy. Each piece of information was plucked from the skulls of the designers by Richard Stevens III, American's Most Vigorous Psychic and is guaranteed stranger than fiction.

Free desktop image or $16.99 t-shirts here. (thanks, R. Stevens).

Computers Should Be More Like Toasters: Farhad Manjoo on All Apple's Eve

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 05:04 PM PST

Slate's Farhad Manjoo says his hope for the big Apple announcement this week (which I'll be live-blogging from San Francisco) is "a tablet that's as easy to use as an appliance."

BBC pimps chimps' glimpse

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 04:55 PM PST

chimp.jpg

On Wednesday, January 27, the BBC will air what is described as "the world's first film shot entirely by chimpanzees," as part of a natural history documentary called "Chimpcam."

The apes created the movie using a specially designed chimp-proof camera given to them by primatologists. The film-making exercise is part of a scientific study into how chimpanzees perceive the world and each other.
Finally, a novel solution to spiraling payroll: chimpanzees! Benefits of using chimps over human video content producers: pay in bananas, labor laws inapplicable, they never tire of the board of governers.

Movie made by chimpanzees to be broadcast on television (BBC.)

HOWTO: Thrive as a Musician Without Suing Your Fans

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 04:05 PM PST

Via EFF, Mike Masnick of TechDirt, offering advice to music biz lawyers at Midem: "Stop worrying and learn to embrace the business models that are already helping musicians make plenty of money and use file sharing to their advantage, even in the absence of licensing or copyright enforcement. In simplest terms, the model can be defined as: Connect with Fans (CwF) + Reason to Buy (RtB) = The Business Model."

iPhoning his way to retirement $0.70 at a time

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 04:05 PM PST


Brady Forrest writes:

My friend Eugene Lin wanted some iPhone App Store money. So he made one iPhone app that was eventually accepted, then another that was rejected and then he found a hit with the racy Peek-a-boo. Along the way he learned the ins and outs of the App Store approva process and made quite a lot of money in Japan.

He shared his findings on this episode of the Ignite Show. Eugene was filmed at Ignite Seattle 8 in the funniest talk of the evening.

Leica to release limited edition camera for People's Republic of China 60th anniversary

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 03:53 PM PST

leicaprc.jpg Boing Boing reader Linda Constant writes,
Some pretty surprising and offensive news from Leica, via this post on Leica Rumors: Leica is actually releasing special edition cameras for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China! I've worked a lot in international human rights policy and the role that culture plays in these matters, and I really cannot believe that this edition was okayed by the Leica team!
Assuming the rumor's true, perhaps these cameras are equipped with automated lens-smashers or umbrella cops, to foil any photographic documentation that might run afoul of Communist Party censors?

This Week in Space, with Miles O'Brien

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 03:54 PM PST

Miles O'Brien has released a new episode of "This Week in Space", a weekly web video produced with Spaceflight Now. In this edition...

A decision nears from President Obama on the future of the manned space program, Elon Musk of SpaceX VEHEMENTLY denies his rockets will be unsafe for astronauts, the clock ticks down to the launch of the shuttle Endeavour, the rover Spirit moves (but just a little), and Miles checks out the lunar inspired artwork of moonwalker Alan Bean

The unbearable awfulness of pine mouth

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 03:57 PM PST

Pine_nuts_pinemouth.jpg Serious Eats is curious if you've ever experienced Pine Mouth, a long-lasting metallic taste in your mouth after eating pine nuts.

Roger Hyam's blog post outlines the issue and links to a medical article which confirms the syndrome but offers no obvious cause. Are Chinese pine nuts to blame?

Tips for avoiding Pine Mouth. Reports from Chowhound & Yelp. Official position from the International Nut and Dried Fruit Foundation.

[Image: Nuno Tavares via Wikimedia Commons, cc licensed]

The S From Hell: a documentary by Rodney Ascher

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 03:26 PM PST



Remember the Screen Gems stylized "S" logo that appeared at the end of such great TV shows as Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Monkees, and Partridge Family? My old friend Rodney Ascher was so traumatized by that graphic that he made a documentary/horror film about it, based on interviews with other "survivors" of The S From Hell.

Previously:


Helveticookies

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 05:58 PM PST

helveticookies.jpg

cookiesonplateth.jpg These Helvetica cookie cutters designed by Beverly Hsu make delicious, serif-free pastries. I'd like to eat a sentence-full right now.

(via Jason Fields, photographed by Drew)

Begian Senator proposes Hadopi-like law

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 01:05 PM PST

From @pendrift: Belgian Senator Monfils plans to submit proposals for a three-strikes copyright law. [English translation]

Gnop: Avoid Hitting Paddle For High Score

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 06:26 PM PST

gnop.png Gnop might be the most austere game you play all week, though not necessarily the simplest: Bit Battalion have (as you'll follow from the title) turned Pong on its head by giving you control of the ball, rather than the paddle, and wrapped it in light poetic metaphor. The most surprising thing about it, though? That it took 38 years for someone to pull off such an obvious role reversal. Gnop [Bit Battalion]

If Steve Jobs gave the State of the Union address

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 12:15 PM PST

Christopher Beam and Josh Levin of Slate imagine Steve Jobs giving the State of the Union address:
201001251214 Thank you for coming. And thank you to President Obama for asking me to deliver this year's speech. We're going to make some history today.

You know, it was just a year ago that we announced our economic plan for 2009. We said we were going to turn around the recession. We said we'd create jobs. And we said we'd do it in 12 months. What happened? We did it in three. It was the most successful period in the history of the United States. And 2010 is only going to be better. How awesome is that?

(APPLAUSE.)

How did we do it? Simple. We made a stimulus package. It had the most features of any package we've ever created—more jobs, more money, more everything. We could have stopped there. We could've said, Hey, that was great. Let's go do something else. But you know what? It wasn't enough. The American people deserve something even better and more revolutionary.


The iState of the Union

ASCII heart necklace

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 11:42 AM PST

Incredible miniature photography

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 11:03 AM PST

201001251100
201001251101

Sean Michael Ragan of Makezine writes: "Matthew Albanese [is] a photographer who builds meticulously detailed landscape models and then lights and shoots them to achieve amazing realism. My personal favorite is the Martian landscape made from paprika and charcoal." Also show here: Tornado made of steel wool, cotton, ground parsley and moss.

Matthew Albanese's Strange Worlds
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