Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Video: Annual bean-throwing festival in Japan

Posted: 03 Feb 2010 04:02 AM PST

In Japan, February 3rd is Setsubun no hi. Technically the day symbolizes the first day of spring, but this year, with snow from Monday night still lingering on rooftops, it hardly felt like it. Most of us who grew up here think of Setsubun simply as the annual bean-throwing festival. It's a sort of follow up to New Years — to bring good luck in and keep bad luck out, we throw roasted soybeans inside and out while reciting the mantra: "Oniwa soto! Fukuwa uchi!" or, Demons out! Good luck in! After the ceremony, everyone gets to eat the same number of soybeans as his or her own age.

This year, for the first time in at least a decade, I happened to be home in Tokyo for Setsubun so I took a short pilgrimage to a shrine in the city where celebrities gather every year to throw good luck soybeans at the crowds. That's where I took this video just a few hours ago. The people in ceremonial coats on top of the balcony are TV stars, athletes, and singers who have been invited to partake in the festivities; the guy in the shiny cone hat is the head priest at the shrine; and the dozens of paper bags and hats being held up from below belong to those of us who went there in hopes of scoring some extra luck for the year 2010.

The video is a bit long, but if you stick around (or skip) to the end you can see me pick up a bean from the ground and eat it.

Back to the Moon... in Lego

Posted: 03 Feb 2010 03:40 AM PST

moonlegocool.jpg President Obama's proposed budget may have put the brakes on NASA's return trip to the moon. But a girl can still dream...

In Lego.

The image is a new addition to the Vintage Ad Browser, a German Lego ad from 1983.

Rough translation? "Base to space cruiser, we're prepared for your landing."

Judge censured for ordering class-action lawyer to take pay in $125,000 worth of gift-cards

Posted: 03 Feb 2010 02:12 AM PST

I think this judge had the right idea: if the members of a class action settlement are expected to be happy with a card that they have to use at the store that screwed them over in the first place, why not the lawyer?
Last year, Los Angeles County Judge Brett Klein was presented with a proposed class-action settlement in which the plaintiffs' attorney would get $125,000, but class members would get only a $10 gift card, usable only at the store that allegedly violated the law in the first place. That is an example of the much-maligned "coupon settlement," in which a defendant can end up profiting from breaking the law because a consumer must buy something from the defendant to redeem the coupon. These can sometimes be okay, but Judge Klein didn't think this settlement was fair.

A Gift for You! Another L.A. County judge, Susan Bryant-Deason, had tentatively approved the settlement, but she became ill and Klein ended up presiding over the fairness hearing. In a ruling that caught my eye when it came out last year, he ordered that the attorney also be paid in $10 gift cards, just like the people he represented. Under Klein's order, Neil Fineman was to receive 12,500 gift cards that he could put toward the purchase of any merchandise he liked, as long as he liked the women's clothing at Windsor Fashions.

Censure for Judge Who Ordered Attorney Be Paid In Gift Cards, Like Class Members

(Image: Gift cards, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from robinsonsmay's photostream)

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Kerouac in space: Geoff Landis's "Still on the Road" podcast

Posted: 03 Feb 2010 01:47 AM PST

This week on the excellent Escape Pod science fiction podcast, a perfect little short-short story by Geoff Landis (a no-foolin' NASA engineer who worked on the Mars rovers) that brings Kerouac to space travel and vice versa. Enchanting stuff-o-roonie.
Turns out, you know, that old dharma bum never made it off the wheel of karma. He had too many attachments, to the road, to words; and if you love the things of the world of Mara too much you fall back into the world, like gravity pulling back a rocket that doesn't reach escape velocity. Two, three thousand years later, he's still on the road. Really, nothing's changed. And Neal, that old prankster, Neal never really did want to transcend, he loved to see it all streaming past the window, a constant moving circus disappearing in the rear-view mirror, loved to talk, loved it all.
EP236: Still On the Road

MP3 link

Podcast feed

(Image: kerouac On the Road scroll, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from emdot's photostream)

Previously:


Obama has yet to fill empty seats at civil liberties watchdog committee

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 10:03 PM PST

It's been a year and Obama has yet to fill the empty seats on the government's main civil liberties oversight committee:
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was recommended initially by the bipartisan September 11 commission as an institutional voice for privacy inside the intelligence community. Its charter was to recommend ways to mitigate the effects of far-reaching surveillance technology that the federal government uses to track terrorists...

On Friday, two leading Democrats -- Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Jane Harman of California, chairman of that panel's subcommittee on intelligence, information sharing and terrorism risk assessment -- sent a letter to Mr. Obama demanding action.

"We write to urge you to appoint individuals to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board immediately. Your FY2010 budget appropriates funds for this board, but it remains unfulfilled," the lawmakers wrote.

The two Democrats noted that previous letters to Mr. Obama, including one from Mrs. Harman and Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, "remain unanswered."

The lawmakers said the need for the oversight panel is particularly urgent in light of proposed changes to terrorist-screening rules at airports after the attempted Christmas Day attack on a Northwest jet bound for Detroit.

Liberties oversight panel gets short shrift (Thanks, Marilyn!)

(Image: Cerberus: entry for Bruce Schneier's TSA logo competition, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike image from bazzr's photostream)

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Steampunk leather mask with a breathing tube beard

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 09:53 PM PST


Another sweet creation from Ukrainan steampunk leather mask-makers Bob Basset, this one with a cute little breathing-tube beard in the style of the Pharaohs.

Leather mask "F"

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Zombie/NPR fanfiction

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 09:49 PM PST

Kirby sez, "Spot on parody of the NPR News Quiz Show during a Zombie Apocalypse. Peter Sagal, Carl Kassel, Mo Rocca, Paula Poundstone, and Tom Bodett don't miss a beat as they broadcast their last show before retreating to the cave system. The author gets the personalities perfect. You can imagine that this is exactly how the panelists would handle zombies."
PETER: To play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Our first and only listener-contestant is on the line. What's your name?
ZOMBIE: Brains?
PETER: Actually, according to my card here, your name is Steve Ryerson, from right here in Chicago! Steve is, or I should say was, an investment banker, and we all know they were the first to be targeted and converted into mindless zombies.
TOM: You mean they weren't before?
MO: It explains a lot about the financial collapse.
PETER: Let me introduce you to our panel this week. First, a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning, Mo Rocca!
MO: Hi, Steve.
STEVE: Brains.
PETER: A humorist and author of the new audio book "It's Just Like I Told You: Twenty-Five Years of Comment and Comic Pieces," Tom Bodett!
TOM: Hi there, Steve.
STEVE: Brains.
PETER: And finally, a comedienne whose CD "I Heart Jokes" is available at paulapoundstone.com, at least until the internet fails us, Paula Poundstone!
PAULA: Brains?
STEVE: Brains.
PAULA: I thought you might say that, Steve.
Wait Wait Don't Eat Me (Thanks, Kirby!)
Previously:


Derelict hotels around the world

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 09:44 PM PST

Here's a collection of photos of 24 rotting, abandoned hotels around the world, some of them looking like horror movie sets, others like enormous follies, and still others like faerie palaces. Rotting stuff kicks ass.

Graham Hotel: You don't normally think of people seeking out gold in Georgia but that's exactly what happened in the town of Auraria before everyone started to head west. When the California gold rush happened, Auraria became a ghost town just like many western towns eventually became. There remain a few 19th Century buildings there today, including the abandoned Graham Hotel sometimes just called the Auraria Hotel.
Photos of 24 abandoned and decayed hotels from around the world (Thanks, Mr Jalopy!)
Previously:


Liquid glass will change your life, eliminate detergent profits

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 09:32 PM PST

A Turko-German consortium has announced a liquid glass product "that will revolutionize everything" (it's a "new kind of glass," as Mr Wolfram might put it). Seriously, it sounds like the applications for this stuff are endless, and yes, that's what everyone said about aerogel and the Segway, but maybe this time... They're shipping to the UK soon, but "many supermarkets, may be unwilling to stock the products because they make enormous profits from cleaning products that need to be replaced regularly, and liquid glass would make virtually all of them obsolete."

Goddammit, Big Detergent is screwing up my future again!

Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products.

The liquid glass spray (technically termed "SiO2 ultra-thin layering") consists of almost pure silicon dioxide (silica, the normal compound in glass) extracted from quartz sand. Water or ethanol is added, depending on the type of surface to be coated. There are no additives, and the nano-scale glass coating bonds to the surface because of the quantum forces involved. According to the manufacturers, liquid glass has a long-lasting antibacterial effect because microbes landing on the surface cannot divide or replicate easily.

Other organizations, such as a train company and a hotel chain in the UK, and a hamburger chain in Germany, are also testing liquid glass for a wide range of uses. A year-long trial of the spray in a Lancashire hospital also produced "very promising" results for a range of applications including coatings for equipment, medical implants, catheters, sutures and bandages. The war graves association in the UK is investigating using the spray to treat stone monuments and grave stones, since trials have shown the coating protects against weathering and graffiti. Trials in Turkey are testing the product on monuments such as the Ataturk Mausoleum in Ankara.

The liquid glass coating is breathable, which means it can be used on plants and seeds. Trials in vineyards have found spraying vines increases their resistance to fungal diseases, while other tests have shown sprayed seeds germinate and grow faster than untreated seeds, and coated wood is not attacked by termites. Other vineyard applications include coating corks with liquid glass to prevent "corking" and contamination of wine. The spray cannot be seen by the naked eye, which means it could also be used to treat clothing and other materials to make them stain-resistant. McClelland said you can "pour a bottle of wine over an expensive silk shirt and it will come right off".

Spray-on liquid glass is about to revolutionize almost everything (Thanks, Rick!)
Previously:


Trolls and the nuclear option

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 06:44 PM PST

Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky explains why they shut down their comment system : "They're not coming here to talk about technology. They're coming to incite arguments ... One guy posted page after page of 'fuck you, bitch' to one of our female editors."

Truck driver forgets to lower his trailer

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 04:19 PM PST


This is why I'm not a truck driver. I'd forget to lower my trailer on day one. Does anyone know if the people on the pedestrian bridge survived this?

iPad, now with cameras

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 04:32 PM PST

roncassel.jpg Spotted on Gawker's image server via @gruber. Who's the artist? If the filename's meaningful, it's one Ron Cassel. Update! This is Ron Cassel's winning entry in a competition hosted by Gizmodo to find the 77 iPad Updates That May or May Not Please the Critics.

Fantastic photography of Michael Paul Smith

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 03:11 PM PST

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You will learn something surprising about this photo by Michael Paul Smith after the jump.


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These photos are from Michael Paul Smith's model photography on Flickr.

What started out as an exercise in model building and photography, ended up as a dream-like reconstruction of the town I grew up in. It's not an exact recreation, but it does capture the mood of my memories.

And like a dream, many of the buildings show up in different configurations throughout the photos. Or sometimes, the buildings stay put and the backgrounds change.

Visually, this is heading towards the realm of ART. NO PHOTOSHOP WAS USED IN THESE PICTURES. IT'S ALL STRAIGHT FROM THE CAMERA.

It's the oldest trick in the special effects book: line up a model with an appropriate background and shoot.

The buildings are 1/24th scale [ or 1/2 inch equals a foot ]. They are constructed of Gator board, styrene plastic, Sintra [ a light flexible plastic that can be carved, and painted ] plus numerous found objects; such as jewelery pieces, finishing washers and printed material.

Fantastic miniature photography of Michael Paul Smith (Via Fogonazos)

Video of Devo playing in 1973

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 03:01 PM PST

On-site recycling, now with more potty jokes

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 02:39 PM PST

Behold, The White Goat: A machine that turns shredded office waste paper into toilet paper. Sadly, the return on investment is crap. It would take about 11 years and 200,000 rolls before the Goat pays for itself.

Also sad, the Good Blog beat me to the Arthur Anderson jokes.

Cheetahs catch impala, and release it alive

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 03:32 PM PST

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In a moment reminiscent of the classic children's book The Tawny Scrawny Lion , a wildlife photographer caught a pack of cheetahs in a remarkably benevolent mood—sparing the life of a young impala. In fact, after the cheetahs chased down and trapped the impala, they only subjected it to some light batting about, licking and nuzzling before allowing it to flee.

Officially, it's a rare example of what happens when cheetahs catch an animal they're too full and tired to eat.

No word on whether said impala has five fat sisters and five fat brothers, or whether they were able to convince the cheetahs to become pescetarians. And, yes, I know it's the Daily Mail. But come on, it's cute. And there's photographic evidence. Go check out the rest of the pics.

Edited: Sadly, I may have been led astray. A couple commenters posted a link to the full series of photographs. It looks like (brace yourselves) the Daily Mail made the story up and (again, brace) the cheetahs actually ate the baby impala after all. Photos (at least, the pre-death ones) are still cute, though. And The Tawny Scrawny Lion is still an awesome book.

Daily Mail: Pictured: Three Cheetahs Spare Tiny Antelope's Life

Military brass takes a stand against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 02:15 PM PST

Admiral Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates—the top defense officials in the United States—have come out in support of allowing openly gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans to serve in their country's military. Both criticized the current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, and Gates has appointed a team to figure out how the military would have to change things like housing and benefits in order to accommodate queer soldiers. Interestingly, Gates seems to be planning on taking action whether or not Congress formally repeals "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", at least making application of the law "more fair" by no longer discharging service members who get outed by someone else.

Rushkoff's Digital Nation documentary tonight on PBS

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 02:18 PM PST

BB pal Douglas Rushkoff's new Frontline documentary airs on PBS tonight. Titled "Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier," the program looks at how constant connectivity is changing the way we work, live, and think. Check local listings or watch the entire program online. From the show description:
Digitalnattttt-1
Within a single generation, digital media and the World Wide Web have transformed virtually every aspect of modern culture, from the way we learn and work to the ways in which we socialize and even conduct war. But is the technology moving faster than we can adapt to it? And is our 24/7 wired world causing us to lose as much as we've gained?

In Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, FRONTLINE presents an in-depth exploration of what it means to be human in a 21st-century digital world.... "In the early days of the Internet, it was easy for me to reassure people about what it would mean to bring digital technology into their lives," says Rushkoff, who has authored 10 books on media, technology and culture. "Now I want to know whether or not we are tinkering with something more essential than we realize."
Frontline: Digital Nation - Life on the Virtual Frontier

Star Wars sneakers by Adidas

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 01:58 PM PST

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Adidas released a line of Star Wars trainers. Some of them are inspired by various characters or spaceships, like a Stormtrooper, Tie Fighter, or X-Wing pilot (above). One style has several iconic scenes emblazoned right on the shoes. Each pair comes in a blister pack, inspired I guess by the old action figures. I can't decide if I like the line or find it ultra-cheezy, or both, but one thing I'm certain of is that the ones priced at $200/pair are rather spendy. The adidas Originals Star Wars Collection for 2010

Geek graffiti in bathroom

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 01:38 PM PST

Graffiloadd
I got a chuckle out of this geek graffiti in the bathroom of a Chinese restaurant near UC Berkeley. I've seen this gag before in San Francisco, but larger on an outside wall.

Previously:


Esther Pearl Watson's paintings of UFOs "and such"

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 01:35 PM PST

Paintball Email
Esther Pearl Watson's Unlovable is a terrific comic somewhat based on a 1908s teenage girl's diary Watson found in the bathroom of a Vegas gas station. I first read the strip in Bust magazine, and Fantagraphics published Unlovable (Vol. 1) as a hardcover in 2008. Unlovable (Vol. 2) is due out next month. Watson is also a fine art painter, and she has a show of new work opening on February 12 at the Webb Gallery in Waxahachie, Texas. Several pieces from the show titled "Space is the Place: Paintings of UFOs and Such," are also viewable online. Above, "Garland, Texas Something New Near the Paintball Field" (20 x 30", acrylic on board). From the Webb Gallery:
A strong narrative sense runs through the paintings in her new exhibition Space is the Place:Paintings of UFOs and Such by Esther Pearl Watson. Charming and funny, they chronicle her life growing up in a series of small Texas towns, with an eccentric father who was always trying to build spaceships in the yard, often with disastrous results. Part fantasy, part puzzle (find the family cat, Pooter), and part homage to the past, these works feature glittery spaceships hovering over tilted and flattened perspectives of rural landscapes--some idyllic, some trash-littered and neglected--with extended titles written in childlike printing.

Executed in acrylics, graphite, silver leaf, glitter and spray paint, Watson's works combine a sophisticated use of mixed media with an assumed unschooled style in which Watson adopts the vernacular of Outsider Art.

"Space is the Place: Paintings of UFOs and Such" by Esther Pearl Watson

Evoke: alternate reality game to help young people solve poverty, hunger, disaster relief

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 12:51 PM PST

Master alternate reality game designer Jane McGonigal's latest venture is Evoke, a project to connect young people in Africa to their counterpars in the the developed world "to empower young people all over the world, and especially in Africa, to start tackling the world's toughest problems: poverty, hunger, sustainable energy, water security, conflict, disaster relief, health care, education, human rights."

The game's motto is "If you have a problem, and you can't solve it alone, EVOKE it," and it's reminiscent of Warren Ellis's fantastic comic Global Frequency -- a loose network of people with diverse skills working for everyone's mutual benefit to solve real-world problems.

Urgent Evoke - A crash course in changing the world (via Wonderland)

Previously:


Locus recommended reading for 2009

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 12:31 PM PST

Locus Magazine has published its annual recommended reading list for 2009, a handy-cheat sheet for those of you who haven't done your Hugo voting yet, and also a fine reading list in its own right.

Australian censorship law collapses under public disapprobation

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 12:26 PM PST

South Australia's thin-skinned candy-ass politicians passed a law prohibiting any anonymous political commentary on blogs (but not "real" news-sources) prior to elections on penalty of a fine of AU$1250. Defending the measure, South Australia's Attorney General, Michael Atkinson claimed that a poster on AdelaideNow, Aaron Fornarino, was a fictional construct created by his political opponents to smear him. Turns out that Mr Fornarino lives just down the street from Atkinson's office. Humiliated, Atkinson rescinded the censorship law: "From the feedback we've received through AdelaideNow, the blogging generation believes that the law supported by all MPs and all political parties is unduly restrictive. I have listened. I will immediately after the election move to repeal the law retrospectively... It may be humiliating for me, but that's politics in a democracy and I'll take my lumps."
"I'll give you an example: repeatedly in the AdelaideNow website one will see commentary from Aaron Fornarino of West Croydon. That person doesn't exist," Atkinson said on the air. "That name has been created by the Liberal Party in order to run Liberal Party commentary."

This morning, AdelaideNow took great delight in posting a picture of Fornarino posing with a Mac and his young daughter. He's a second-year law student who moved to the area last year and "lives in a flat on Port Rd, about 500m from Mr. Atkinson's electorate office."

Internet uprising overturns Australian censorship law

(Image: AdelaideNow)

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Video: Timothy Leary at Folsom Prison

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 01:31 PM PST



From the Internet archive, bOING bOING patron saint Timothy Leary interviewed in Folsom Prison. "My main message is 'Use your head!'" It was in prison that Tim wrote my favorite of his books, Terra 2: A Way Out and Neuropolitcs. Internet Archive: Timothy Leary Archive (Thanks, Chris Arkenberg!)

Wade Davis on voodoo, the Haiti quake, and Pat Robertson

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 01:19 PM PST

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Anthropologist Wade Davis is an incredibly engaging and eloquent explorer of the world's cultural diversity, what he calls the Ethnosphere. He has written a slew of amazing books about the dangers faced by disappearing cultures, both to the people whose vibrant cultures are getting wiped out, and to us. His latest book is The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, based on his CBC Massey Lectures last year, but he is perhaps best known for The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985), an illuminating study of Haitian voodoo and zombis. National Geographic interviewed Davis about the earthquake in Haiti, voodoo, and Pat Robertson's idiocy. From National Geographic:
What do you think of Pat Robertson's recent remarks that this month's earthquake in Haiti was God's revenge for a pact Haitian slaves made with the devil to overthrow French colonists in the late 1700s?

Cruel, ignorant, unforgivable, the ravings of a lunatic. He doesn't even know what he's talking about.

What happened--according to both historical record and the founding history for the Haitian state--was that there was a voodoo ceremony where the symbol of freedom sang out, which was the sound of the conch trumpet [spurring African slaves to rebel against French coffee and sugar plantation owners in 1791].

In the same way that we speak so reverentially of Washington crossing the Delaware, that was the catalyst of the slave revolt. It was the only successful slave revolt in history [to have won control of a country], and it's said to have begun with a voodoo ceremony.

So Pat Robertson is saying by that comment that voodoo itself is the devil. Voodoo is not a black magic cult, nor does it have anything to do with a Christian notion of the devil.

All he's saying by that comment is that all African religion is devil worship, and he's revealing not only his ignorance about what voodoo really is, but also his bias that any religion not his own is devil worship.

For a man who aspired to the presidency he revealed himself to be remarkably unschooled in American history.

Had it not been for the revolutionary slaves of Haiti, we might well be speaking French in much of what is today the U.S.A.

Napoleon at the height of his power dispatched the greatest military force ever to sail from France. Its mission was twofold: Crush the slave revolt in Haiti, and then proceed up the Mississippi, hem in the expanding 13 Colonies, and reestablish French dominance in a continent that only 30 years before at the Treaty of Paris had become British North America.

Thanks to the Haitian patriots, the French armada never reached New Orleans [and Napoleon decided to sell much of what is now the western U.S. via the Louisiana Purchase.]

"Haiti Earthquake & Voodoo: Myths, Ritual, and Robertson"

Previously:


Cute teddy bear exploited as shroom mule

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 10:55 AM PST

teddyshroom.jpg

Over at the Smoking Gun today, a series of photographs that show a teddy bear rescued from enslavement by drug traffickers who stuffed its plushy little nether-orifices full of nearly a dozen bags of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Septic tank truck packed with crap and marijuana

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 11:23 AM PST

Police busted a drug smuggler trying to shuttle more than 700 pounds of marijuana in a septic tank truck filled with human shit. From CNN:
2010 Crime 01 29 Arizona.Marijuana.Bust Story.Septic.Drugs.Azdps "Yeah, that really does suck," Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves told CNN. "It's a long way to go to make a bust..."

An officer pulled over the septic tank truck Wednesday after a check of the license showed it was invalid, police said...

After the stop, the officer discovered that the commercial vehicle markings on the truck were also invalid. A subsequent search revealed the bales of marijuana in red and orange packages amid the waste.

"743 pounds of marijuana found in septic tank truck, Arizona police say"

Same-sex marriage is bad, but Prop 8 lawyers don't know why

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 10:52 AM PST

gaymar.jpg BB reader Laszlo Thoth writes,
I've always been puzzled by the strong opposition to same-sex marriage. I just don't see what's so bad about it. I have no idea what the harm is. I've talked to many supporters of CA Prop 8 but they haven't been able to tell me either.

Last night I was reading an October 14 transcript from Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the case that's deciding the constitutionality of CA Prop 8. I was surprised to discover that apparently *nobody* knows what the problem is with same-sex marriage. Not the plaintiffs, not the defendants, and not the judge, who seems more than a little surprised by this.

The whole transcript is 104 double-spaced pages (PDF Link), all of which are worth reading, but I've excerpted the good bits.

[PHOTO - "intolerance," CC-licensed image by Joseph Robertson. "Spotted this stencil on the back of a truck down by the fish processing plant. This appears to be the truck owner's genius contribution to the debate involving Oregon state ammendment 36, which passed last year, altering the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriages."]

15.5" Sony E-series looks good for netbook refugees

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 08:33 AM PST

e970green.jpg Sony's new E-series laptop is much bigger and better than the W-class model, but only a little more expensive: good for people tired of netbook performance who want to head in the opposite direction to that taken by all these newfangled tablets. It's $700 and up, has a 15.5" display and optional Blu-Ray drive, HDMI output, 3 USB ports, eSata, Wifi-N and Bluetooth, and Windows 7. It comes in glossy green, blue, white, pink, black and matte shades of brown, white and gray; big pictures follow after the jump.

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