Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Randall Munroe's Android bug-reports

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 02:11 AM PST

I am an extremely happy Android NexusOne phone-owner (fast! open!) but even I have to admit that Randall "XKCD" Munroe's Android bug-reports raise some real concerns about the platform:
* Sometimes, when arranging home screen icons, you feel sad and you're not sure why...

* If you stop for gas, sometimes navigation suspends, but doesn't resume when you start driving again (or just disappears without notifying you), so you miss the upcoming turn and think you're already on I-95, and by the time you discover your mistake and turn around you've lost enough time that you totally get to the conference too late to catch Richard Stallman doing his acapella Bad Romance cover which is the whole reason you paid the entry fee in the first place.

Android Bug Reports, Songs, Rovers

(Image: Bambuser for Android, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from tomsun's photostream)

Previously:


Google refuses to censor Australian YouTube

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 01:59 AM PST

Google is seemingly bent on making a clean sweep of the Pacific Rim in its new anti-censorship campaign: first it refused to go on censoring its services at the behest of the Chinese government; now it has refused the Australian government's (batshit crazy) request to censor YouTube videos that Canberra's censor board put into its "refused classification" bucket.

The minister who made the request, Stephen Conroy, apparently missed the memo on Google and China, as he cited Google's erstwhile willingness to censor on behalf of Beijing as reason enough for the company to help him censor videos about safe drug use and painting graffiti, or those that advocate euthanasia. These subjects are all prohibited by Australia's government of the day, which apparently believes Aussies to be such soft-headed sheep that they can't possibly be exposed to ideas it doesn't like, lest they be tempted into wickedness.

"Google at the moment filters an enormous amount of material on behalf of the Chinese government; they filter an enormous amount of material on behalf of the Thai government."

Google Australia's head of policy, Iarla Flynn, said the company had a bias in favour of freedom of expression in everything it did and Conroy's comparisons between how Australia and China deal with access to information were not "helpful or relevant".

Google has recently threatened to pull out of China, partly due to continuing requests for it to censor material.

"YouTube has clear policies about what content is not allowed, for example hate speech and pornography, and we enforce these, but we can't give any assurances that we would voluntarily remove all Refused Classification content from YouTube," Flynn said.

Google baulks at Conroy's call to censor YouTube (via Resource Shelf)

(Image: YouTube/Refused Classification blog)

Previously:


Old Nintendo NES system and five games sell for $13,105 on eBay

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 11:19 PM PST

Screen Shot 2010-02-10 At 11.13.05 Pm

John Park says: "Some woman had an old Nintendo and a few random games for sale. Turns out one of them was a super rare collectors dream game, so it went for around $13,000!"

Up for auction is an original Nintendo NES gaming system with 1 hand control.  There are 5 games with it. They are, Family & Fitness Stadium Events in the original box with the dust jacket inside of the box, Major League Baseball in the original box with the dust jacket inside of the box, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 the arcade game in the original box with the dust jacket inside of the box, Super Mario 3 in the original box with the dust jacket inside of the box and the original game, Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt.  I have had this stored in the closet for years for my kids to play but the way that electronics come & go and change from one year to the next they wanted all of the new hot items of their own now and now it's time to get rid of things that are no longer being used or wanted.  This system worked perfect when i stored it but somehow over the years, we have managed to misplace the AC cord & the television hook up.  I am listing this and selling without hook up but it I find them, i'll send them along with the rest at no additional charges to you. Please keep in mind though that any ac cord will work with this and the hook up from a VCR would hook it up just as well as the original cords!
Old Nintendo NES system and five games sell for $13,105 on eBay

Kirkus Review saved by NBA owner

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 12:40 AM PST

Kirkus Review, one of the major sources of book-reviews for libraries and the publishing trade, has been rescued from bankruptcy by an unlikely white knight: it is now property of Indiana Pacers owner Herb Simon. (via Resource Shelf)

U Georgia official arrested for demanding bribes to make RIAA copyright notices go away

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:48 PM PST

The University of Georgia has fired Dorin Lucian Dehelean, a security analyst who was responsible for passing on RIAA copyright infringement notices to the student body, alleging that he demanded bribes from students to make the record of their supposed infractions go away.
According to UGA campus police chief Jimmy Williamson, Dehelean "offered to make the situation go away in exchange for money." He promised not to inform Judicial Programs, so the student in question would be free from any kind of disciplinary measures the University usually takes in similar cases.

The student in question didn't have any money and alerted a University employee who called in the police. The police decided to look into the case and sent over an undercover officer who went over to Dehelean, impersonating the student.

After Dehelean accepted the payment he was fired immediately and taken into custody for extortion practices. According to the campus police, Dehelean may have tried the same trick with other students, and they believe that at least one other student paid up.

UGA Security Analyst Fired For Extorting File-Sharer
Previously:


TSA detains Middle-Eastern Studies major for carrying Arabic-English flashcards

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:45 PM PST

Nicholas George, a senior in Middle-Eastern Studies at Pomona College, was detained, handcuffed, and intensively questioned by the TSA while trying to catch a flight back to school from Philadelphia. The TSA guards found English-Arabic flashcards in his luggage and said that because Osama bin Laden spoke Arabic, "these cards are suspicious." The FBI was called in, and an agent called him a "fucking idiot" when he asked why he was being held. After being asked if he was a communist or a Muslim, he was released. He was not read his rights at any time.

The ACLU has taken on his case, and they're suing.

TSA supervisor: "You know who did 9/11?"

George: "Osama bin Laden."

TSA supervisor: "Do you know what language he spoke?"

George: "Arabic."

TSA supervisor: "Do you see why these cards are suspicious?"

Student Handcuffed for English-Arabic Flashcards Sues TSA, FBI (Thanks, Rob!)
Previously:


Canadian thinktank withdraws copyright "research" that plagiarised US lobbyists, publishes new balanced recommendations

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:33 PM PST

The Conference Board of Canada is a respected think-tank -- or it was, until it was discovered that it had cooked its research in a report on Canadian copyright that had been funded by copyright industry bodies (they discarded the empirical research that suggested there was no problem and instead plagiarised a lobbying document produced by its sponsors and presented it as "research").

Now, the Conference Board has finally officially withdrawn its fraudulent initial report and published a new one, reversing many of its earlier recommendations. From Michael Geist:

The new report, which weighs in at 113 pages, was completed by Ruth Corbin, a Toronto-based IP expert. Corbin started from scratch, reading a broad range of materials, conducting interviews, and leading a private roundtable on the issue (I participated in the roundtable and met separately with her). While there is much to digest, the lead takeaway is to marvel at the difference between a report cribbed from lobby speaking points and one that attempts to dig into the issues in a more balanced fashion. Three examples:

First, the report puts intellectual property policy into perspective as just one portion of the innovation agenda, noting that over-protection can be lead to diminishing returns:

Furthermore, protection rights are not the only policy option for the big-picture goal of improving Canada's innovation track record. Indeed, statistical evidence demonstrates a non-linear relationship between strength of intellectual property rights and a country's record of innovation. There are diminishing returns to rights after a certain point of "strengthening" ("the more the better" loses validity at some point), and countries have other policy means of encouraging innovation. Intellectual property rights should thus not become the whipping boy of debate. They are a necessary component, but not the sole guarantor of Canada's innovation ranking and economic competitiveness. That conclusion should allow other considerations to enter the debate, such as compatibility with foreign policy, attraction of investment capital, consistency with privacy laws, business soundness, and common sense.

Conference Board of Canada Releases New IP Report, Backs Away From Prior Recommendations (Thanks, Michael!)
Previously:


HOWTO use a touch-screen without shucking your gloves (use a sausage)

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:22 PM PST

According to this Korean news site, shilly Koreans have figured out how to use their iPhones and other electrostatic touchscreen devices without removing their gloves: instead, they use miniature sausages, which are close enough to a human finger in composition to trick the screen into responding.

IPhone frenzy in the mini-sausages 'maekseubong' a special (via Kottke)

Previously:


Belarusian clone of "The Big Bang Theory"

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:17 PM PST

gATO sez, "Forget about the Turkish Star Wars, this is the stuff! Apparently, there's a Belarusian clone of The Big Bang Theory, called 'The Theorists,' which mimics very closely the characters and plots from the original series."

Belarus, of course, is one of the few remaining largely unreconstructed Soviet-style republics (it's also where my grandfather was born), notorious for its totalitarian hard-line government.

TBBT Belarus version OMG!!!

Video clips

(Thanks, gATO!)

Previously:


Highlights from TED 2010, Wednesday: "We can eat to starve cancer"

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:17 PM PST

Here's my round up of highlights from the first day of the TED presentations.

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One of my favorite presentations of the day was by Dr. William Li, a cancer researcher from the Angiogenesis Foundation. Angiogenesis means the growth of blood vessels. Your body usually knows how to regulate the growth of blood vessels, but sometimes there are defects in blood growing and pruning. Too little angiogenesis can lead to things like wounds that won't heal, heart attack, and other diseases. Too much angiogenesis leads to other bad things such as blindness, arthritis. It's is a common denominator of many diseases. It's also the "hallmark of every type of cancer."

In autopsies of people who died in car accidents, doctors have found microscopic cancers in 40% of woman (breast) and 40% of men (prostate). Something like 70% of older people have microcancers in their thyroid. But the cancer is harmless -- "cancer without disease." If you block angiogenesis the cancer can't grow. "It's a tipping point between harmless cancer and deadly one."

Li showed a photo of a poor dog with gnarly tumor hanging off its side. The vet gave the dog three months to live. They started antiangiogenesis drugs. In a few weeks, the tumor shrank away completely. They also cured a dolphin of mouth cancer and saw a complete remission of a deadly lip cancer on a horse.

Today there 12 different antiangiogenesis drugs available for people and dogs. They are quite effective for many cancers, but not much for liver, lung, and breast cancers. The problem with these cancers is that by the time they are detected they have progressed too far for antiangiogenesis drugs to do their work.

The good news, Li says, is that "we eat to starve cancer." Lots of foods contain naturally occuring inhibitors of angiogenesis, and many are even better than drugs for blocking angiogenesis (see image above).

Angiogenesis also plays a huge role in obesity. "Adipose tissue is highly angiogenesis-dependent." You can cycle the weight of mice by inhibiting and promoting angiogenesis. "We can't create supermodel mice -- it takes them to normal weight."



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Daniel Kahneman at TED2010, Session 1, "Mindshift," Wednesday, February 10, 2010, in Long Beach, California. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson

Daniel Kahneman, the founder of behavioral-economics talked about the differences between "experience happiness" and "memory happiness." His presentation brought to mind the 1966 Philip K. Dick novelette, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (which was the basis for the not-so-good movie, Total Recall).

Kahneman started off by listing a number of baked-in "cognitive traps" people have that make it hard to think straight about happiness. Happiness is complex and confusing. People tend to think that having happy experiences in your life and being happy about your life are one and the same, but they are actually different. When your doctor asks you, "Does it hurt when I touch you here" she is asking your "experiencing self." When she asks, "How have you been feeling lately?" your "remembering self" answers.

Your remembering self is a "story teller. What we keep from our experiences is a story." To illustrate, Kahneman showed pain-over-time charts of two colonoscopy patients who reported the intensity of the pain they were experiencing each minute during a colonoscopy. One patient experienced severe pain for 10 minutes. The other experienced the same level of pain for 10 minutes, followed by gradually decreasing pain for an addition 10 minutes. When each patient was later asked to recall the experience, the first patient said his experience was more painful, even though he experienced less pain than the second patient. "The way that stories end matter." The first patient's pain was at its peak at the very end, so it made for a worse story.

Another example: you have great experience listening to music at a live performance. A loud screetch at the end ruins the memory of the experience.

A thought experiment: say you are about to take a vacation, but before you leave, you are told that all memory of the vacation will be wiped out as soon as you get home. Would you take the same vacation or take a different one? If you think you'd take a different one, your "experiencing self" and "remembering self" are not aligned.

Research concludes that "happiness is mainly being satisfied with being with people that we like."


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Jake Shimabukuro at TED2010, Session 1, "Mindshift," Wednesday, February 10, 2010, in Long Beach, California. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson

Ukulele Virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro got a standing ovation for his performance this morning, which included a masterful instrumental arrangement of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Quotes: "The ukulele is underdog of all instruments." "If everyone played ukulele, the world would be a better place." "What the world needs now is more ukulele." "Ukulele is the instrument of peace."

I interviewed Jake (and will post the interview soon) and he is extremely nice. If the uke made him that way we have an answer to all the world's problems.



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Michael Shermer at TED2010, Session 1, "Mindshift," Wednesday, February 10, 2010, in Long Beach, California. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson

Michael Shermer showed a gadget a called the ADE651. It's a black box with an antenna. The manufacturer claims it can detect both bombs and drugs up to 1000 meters away. It sells for $40,000. The Iraqi government bought 800 of them. Shermer's friend James Randi says:

the ADE651 is a useless, quack, device which cannot perform any other function than separating naïve persons from their money. It's a fake, a scam, a swindle, and a blatant fraud. The manufacturers, distributors, vendors, advertisers, and retailers of the ADE651 device are criminals, liars, and thieves who will ignore this challenge because they know the device, the theory, the described principles of operation, and the technical descriptions given, are nonsense, lies, and fraudulent.

(Does that mean he doesn't like it?.)

Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, and columnist for Scientific American. He talked about patternicity -- the evolved tendency for people to find patterns, even in meaningless noise, and agenticity -- the belief in souls, spirits, gods, ghosts, government conspirators, and aliens who more advanced than us, and are either coming to save us or enslave us. Even idea that the government can rescue us is a form of agenticity.

9/11 is a conspiracy (people planned the attack in secret), but truthers think it was an inside job by the Bush administration. "But we know that can't be true because it worked."

Mark Dery on jock culture

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 02:33 PM PST

Over at True/Slant, former BB guestblogger Mark Dery asks "How Gay is the Super Bowl?" But last Sunday's spectacle is just a launching off point for a classic Deryan rant on jock culture, his own high school gym class, and the "wavering borderline between homosociality and homosexuality" in the locker room. It ends with a great, er, kicker. From the essay:
During the run-up to Super Bowl Sunday, anchorclones, talkshow hosts, politicians, and the rest of the chattering class act as if we're one big happy congregation gathered in solemn veneration of the Gipper's jockstrap, displayed in a monstrance. It's the sheer presumptuousness of the sports-crazed majority that galls the unbeliever most—an obliviousness to the possibility, even, that not everyone shares the One True Faith. It's the same genial arrogance that makes evangelical Christians so monumentally irritating to those of us who prefer a good exfoliating body scrub to being Washed in the Blood of the lamb. (The religious reference is apt: in our national religion, sports is one aspect of the Holy Trinity, the other two being the Free Market—whose invisible hand, like God's, moves in mysterious ways, but always for the betterment of all—and Christianity, which in the American vernacular is a bizarre amalgam of self-help pep talk, Left Behind doomsaying, and theocratic fascism). From the gridiron metaphors in your pastor's sermon to the scripted locker-room banter of local TV newsdudes, joshing about who's gonna open a can of whupass on who, to the Fantasy Games geek at the office watercooler maundering on about who had six touchdowns and no interceptions in 12 pass attempts this season, posting a 124.3 passer rating, while outside of the red zone his rating on play-action was only 79.7 and his five touchdowns have to be measured, after all, against nine interceptions, the assumption that every red-blooded American—or at least every red-blooded American guy who isn't a wussy—would give his Truck Nutz for Super Bowl tickets is as unconsidered as it is ubiquitous.
"Jocko Homo: How Gay is the Super Bowl?"

Previously:


Cheap Chinese appliance imports drive British burglars to switch to iPod muggings

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 02:24 PM PST

A criminologist from England's University of Leicester claims his research shows that UK burglars are switching to mugging because cheap Chinese imports have crashed the market for used DVD players and other pawnables:
"Cheap labour in China has had an impact on the type of crime that's committed in the UK and the type of goods that are stolen today. Gradually, the prices of such goods has fallen so low as to they almost have no resale value. If you can buy a DVD player for £19.99, it's simply not worth stealing..."

"While DVD players for example, got cheaper, certain consumer items became smaller and were very, very expensive and sought after and so the latest mobile phone, or the latest ipod, which people carry about them, have become targets for robbers."

It is these expensive, personal items, which are the most attractive to thieves today as they still retain value and can therefore be sold on, igniting a career change for criminals from the more traditional household burglaries to personal muggings.

Burglars Have Changed Their 'Shopping List', New Research Reveals
Previously:


Low IQ second-highest predictor of heart disease (after smoking)

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 02:18 PM PST

The British Medical Research Council funded a large study on causes of cardiovascular disease that concluded that, after smoking, low IQ is the largest predictor of cardiovascular disease:
The findings, published in the February issue of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, are derived from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study, a population study designed to investigate the influence of social factors on health. The present analysis was based on data collected in 1987 in a cohort of 1145 men and women aged around 55 and followed up for 20 years. Data were collected for height, weight, blood pressure, smoking habits, physical activity, education and occupation; cognitive ability (IQ) was assessed using a standard test of general intelligence...

The investigators note "a number of plausible mechanisms" whereby lower IQ scores could elevate cardiovascular disease risk, notably the application of intelligence to healthy behaviour (such as smoking or exercise) and its correlates (obesity, blood pressure). A further possibility, they add, "is that IQ denotes 'a record' of environmental insults" (eg, illness, sub-optimal nutrition) accumulated throughout life.

Low IQ Among Strongest Predictors of Cardiovascular Disease -- Second Only to Cigarette Smoking in Large Population Study

(Image: Left ventricular aneurysm, apical four-chamber echocardiography view, Patrick J. Lynch/Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution License)

Previously:


Snow dalek attacks!

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:46 PM PST


Mary Robinette Kowal sez, "Neil Clarke, editor of the Hugo nominated Clarkesworld Magazine, was slain on his front lawn by a snow dalek, while his young son watched. We are deeply saddened by his loss and suggest that people living in the path of the coming Snowpocalypse beware that it is merely a cover for a Dalek invasion."

The Day the Snow Dalek Visited the Clarke House (Thanks, Mary!)

Previously:


Iraq kicks Blackwater employees out

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 01:58 PM PST

Iraq today ordered former employees of the mercenary machine formerly known as Blackwater (now "Xe") to leave the country.

Flattr: new micropayments system from Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 07:05 PM PST

Peter Sunde, whom you may know as one of the guys who created The Pirate Bay, is launching a new micropayment system called Flattr. Above, a video explaining how it works. "Many large streams will form a river."

Wake-up call for Nasa Space Shuttle Endeavor astronauts

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 01:35 PM PST

This is what Space Shuttle Endeavor astronauts just woke up to: Also sprach Zarathustra, by Richard Strauss. @Astro_Nicholas requested it. I'm listening live on Soma FM's Mission Control channel, and loving it.

Chatroulette! random videochats

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 02:15 PM PST

Images Uploads Chatroulette-At-Your-Own-Risk-490X496 Thumb Chatroulette! is a new videochat site that leaves you with an undeniably WTF feeling. It randomly connects you with another stranger, and there seem to be thousands online. Don't like who you're looking at? Just hit "Next" and you'll be linked to another user. I'd say that the participants are 65 percent dudes in dorm rooms, 30 percent men masturbating, and 5 percent "other." In ten minutes of clicking the "Next" button I saw multiple individuals rapping into the camera, holding up signs urging women to bare their breasts, and an endless variety of penis sizes and shapes.
Chatroulette! (Thanks? Tara McGinley!)

A Diesel Sweeties Valentine

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 01:16 PM PST

Google's getting into the broadband business

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 01:11 PM PST

Google says: "We're planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections."

Carnivorous plant photo gallery

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 12:40 PM PST

Images Drosera-Regia-Carnivorous-Plants-6
Smithsonian posted a lovely slideshow of ten carnivorous plants. Of course, classics like the Venus Flytrap and Pitcher plant are featured, but so are several I wasn't familiar with such as the Waterwheel, Rainbow plant, and King sundew, pictured above:
Though the king sundew (Drosera regia) grows only in one valley in South Africa, members of the Drosera genus can be found on all continents except Antarctica. Charles Darwin devoted much of his book Insectivorous Plants to the sundews. Sticky mucilage on Drosera plants traps prey--usually an insect attracted to light reflecting off drops of dew or to the plant's reddish tentacles--and eventually suffocates it. Digestive enzymes then break down the plant's meal.
"Ten Plants That Put Meat on Their Plates"

Previously:


Iran to block all Google services, will offer "national email service" as Gmail alternative

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 02:10 PM PST

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Snip from Wall Street Journal article on crackdown today by Iranian authorities in advance of antigovernment protests planned for Thursday:

Iranians have reported widespread service disruptions to Internet and text messaging services, though mobile phones appeared to be operating normally Wednesday. Iran's telecommunications agency announced what it described as a permanent suspension of Google Inc.'s email services, saying instead that a national email service for Iranian citizens would soon be rolled out. It wasn't clear late Wednesday what effect the order had on Google's email services in Iran.

Guess they weren't too psyched about the Buzz launch, huh? No comment yet from Google.

As Teresa Nielsen Hayden points out, this may be Iran's biggest misstep yet. They will live to regret the day they promised nationalized email. Two words: TECH SUPPORT.

[Image: "Martians over Yazd," billboard on top of a computer store in Iran. A Creative Commons-licensed image shot by Paul Keller.]

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Anthrax-laced heroin kills users

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 12:25 PM PST

Heroin laced with anthrax has killed nearly a dozen people and sickened many more in the UK and Germany over the last three months. From The Guardian:
The surge of cases – the most serious anthrax outbreak in the UK in recent times – has puzzled police and health experts, who remain uncertain how or where the heroin became infected. The frequently lethal bacteria is mostly found in animals in Asia and Africa, and very rarely occurs in Europe.

They are investigating whether the heroin was contaminated at its likely source in Afghanistan, perhaps from contaminated soils or contact with infected animal skins, or was infected by a cutting agent used by drugs dealers or traffickers closer to Europe...

Dr Arif Rajpura, the director of public health with NHS Blackpool, repeated warnings to heroin users to stop taking the drug or watch closely for unusual symptoms, including rashes, swelling, severe headaches or high temperatures.

"Anthrax-contaminated heroin kills drug user" (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

Frank Magid, creator of "Action News," has died

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 12:24 PM PST

"We do recognize that we're going to incur the wrath of the traditionalists. New ideas are always in danger of being beaten to death by those whose apple carts they upset."—Frank Magid, the television executive credited for inventing "Action News" and making local TV news insipid and formulaic. He died last Friday of lymphoma at age 78. (via telstarlogistic)

Fisher Price's Bigfoot the Monster

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 12:59 PM PST

Big Foottoyyyy
The character above may look like a Muppet dropped into the Land of the Lost, but it's supposed to be Bigfoot. Fisher Price's Bigfoot the Monster will make his debut at the Toy Fair trade show this weekend in New York City. The remote-controlled beastie is cute, but I ain't never seen a Sasquatch with blue eyes before. Cryptomundo: Toy Fair 2010's Bigfoot

Dolph Lundgren Facts

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 12:08 PM PST

douchelundgren.jpg Actor/director/model/martial artist/smug bastard Dolph Lundgren can sing and play drums while karate-chopping glass bricks, surrounded by flappers in gogo boots. As one YouTube commenter aptly put it, he's "as charismatic as a maniac cyborg assassin." And as another asked, "sweet Jesus, why?"

Video Link. The ass-kicking starts around 2:38. I wonder if he'll become governor of California sometime soon. (thanks, Antinous!)

Report from TED 2010

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 11:58 AM PST

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I'm at the TED conference this week, held in Long Beach, California. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and it is an annual gathering of amazing ideas and stories. Here's a list of TED 2010 speakers.

In past years, I've posted summaries of all the presentations, but this year I'm going to write a daily wrap-up instead. I'll post my first this evening.

The highlight of TED each year is the TED prize. The winner of this year's prize is celebrity chef and international nutrition advocate Jamie Oliver, who gets $100,000 and "the opportunity to present his wish to change the world." CNN is live streaming Oliver's talk, "in which he will reveal his one wish to change the world." You'll be able to watch it here at 8:50 p.m. (ET).

I was happy to learn that Intelligentsia Coffee is making espresso drinks for everyone at TED, and our pal Kyle Glanville, Intelligentsia's director of espresso research and development and first place winner of the National Barista Championship, is pulling shots. Kyle just made me a mind bending double espresso!

Ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro is about to perform, so I'm signing off to enjoy his performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Above, a multiscreen, ultrafast Google Earth station, called Liquid Galaxy. I shot a video that I'll upload later. Photo by Marla Aufmuth, an old Wired colleague of mine.

Kitten neuroscience

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 09:48 AM PST

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day belongs on a metal album cover

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:32 AM PST

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Yeah, that's lightning. On an exploding volcano. It's enough to make me want to bring back the original umlaut in "Körth".

Where's the lightning coming from? APoD says:

Why lightning occurs even in common thunderstorms remains a topic of research, and the cause of volcanic lightning is even less clear. Surely, lightning bolts help quench areas of opposite but separated electric charges. One hypothesis holds that catapulting magma bubbles or volcanic ash are themselves electrically charged, and by their motion create these separated areas. Other volcanic lightning episodes may be facilitated by charge-inducing collisions in volcanic dust.

Understanding climate change: There's an app for that

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:37 AM PST

Skeptical Science has an iPhone app that allows you to browse common critiques of climate science and arguments against climate change, and read expert responses. Perfect for both the curious, and the argumentative-on-the-go.(Thanks to Steve Easterbrook for the tip!)
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