Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Brits: ask your MP to demand a debate on new copyright law before voting!

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 03:41 AM PDT

Last week's extraordinary leaked UK record industry memo on the Digital Economy Bill candidly asserted that the only reason Britain's retrograde, extremist new copyright law would pass Parliament is because MPs were "resigned" that they wouldn't have a chance to debate it properly.

For context: Labour cancelled its anti-fox-hunt legislation because there wasn't time for proper debate, but they're ramming through this copyright bill even though it's far more important and far-reaching -- for one thing, a broken UK Internet will make it harder for people who care about fox hunts one way or the other to organise and lobby on the issue.

Now, 38 Degrees is asking Britons to write to their MPs and ask them to call for a full debate on this law before they vote on it. It seems stupid that we'd have to ask our elected reps to actually give sweeping proposals consideration before turning them into law, but there you have it. No matter what side you come down on for the Digital Economy Bill, is there anyone who wants law to be made without debate?

Dear [Insert MP Name]

I'm writing to you today because I'm very worried that the Government is planning to rush the Digital Economy Bill into law without a full Parliamentary debate.

The law is controversial and contains many measures that concern me. The controversial Bill deserves proper scrutiny so please don't let the government rush it through. Many people think it will damage schools and businesses as well as innocent people who rely on the internet because it will allow the Government to disconnect people it suspects of copyright infringement.

Industry experts, internet service providers and huge internet companies like Google and Yahoo are all opposing the bill - yet the Government seems intent on forcing it through without a real debate.

As a constituent I am writing to you today to ask you to do all you can to ensure the Government doesn't just rush the bill through and deny us our democratic right to scrutiny and debate.

[Insert your Name]

Don't rush through extreme web laws
Previously:


London restaurant serves WWII rationing cuisine

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 10:40 PM PDT

I'm intrigued by this Time Out review of Kitchen Front, a restaurant at London's Imperial War museum that serves accurate re-creations of the (mostly horrible) food eaten in Britain during WWII's rationing period. Time Out gave it two star for food quality and full marks for accuracy (in the print edition, at least -- they haven't recreated this online). It sounds like a uniquely wonderful and horrible dining experience, especially as the food is prepared by a well-loved firm of caterers who've really gotten into the spirit of things.

Salt was the dominant flavour of 'Mrs Harwood's lentil and cheese pie'. It tasted floury and bland - my grandmother used to make the same dish. I couldn't fault it for authenticity. It came with a dollop of sludgy green pease pudding, just as it might have been in the war years.

The baked potato, though, was quite good, served with a fishy filling and a proper 1940s salad - English lettuce, rings of spring onion, no dressing.

Sweets include scones filled with 'mock cream' made from margarine beaten with caster sugar, tasting exactly as you'd imagine it to, ie nothing like cream at all... [B]e warned that for a more fortunate generation brought up on meat, sweets, fats and deftly used spices, the drabness of austerity cooking can come as a bit of a shock

I've subscribed to the print edition of Time Out for a few years now here in London -- it's the only print magazine I still subscribe to, in fact -- and I just love it to pieces. As aspirational reading about all the things I would do if I wasn't all the time running around like my ass was on fire, it can't be beat. And every now and again I get to actually follow some of its advice (I've been trying a lot of the coffee mentioned in its Best London Coffee feature last month -- yum!) and I'm never disappointed.

Kitchen Front

Previously:


Steampunk St Patrick's day video

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 10:33 PM PDT

Andrew from League of Steam sez, "A hilarious 3-minute web video in which the League of STEAM (steampunk ghostbusters/monster hunters) attempts to capture a mean little leprechaun. Slapstick humor, top-quality special effects, and cool steampunk gadgets and guns: the perfect geeky/sci-fi flick for St. Patrick's day! Enjoy!"

Lovely work, guys -- nice use of the Wilhelm Scream!

Adventures of the League of STEAM - "Fool's Gold"

Luxury watch made from dinosaur crap

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 10:27 PM PDT

Yvan Arpa's coprolite watch is a US$11,290 timepiece with a face made from fossil dinosaur turds and a band made from black cane-toad skin (normally poisonous, rendered inert through processing).

The thing is, coprolites just aren't that valuable. Dinosaurs left behind a lot of crap. This site sells coprolite at $8 per pound (it makes a wicked gift!).

Swiss luxury watch made of fossilized dinosaur feces, toad skin costs $11,290 (Photo) (Thanks, Jonathan!)

Previously:


Visual Asimov pun in a kids' room mural

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 12:04 AM PDT

Red Red Robots make murals for kids' room walls. In this "Fantastic Forest" mural, a girl's name, "Eliza," is spelled out by fanciful characters speaking the appropriate letters... But the "I" is being said by a robot. Gettit? Asimov, an inveterate punster, would have loved this.

Red Red Robot Murals (Thanks, Arian!)

Previously:


Microbes on keyboards can be used to identify typists

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 10:51 PM PDT

A paper in Proceedings of the NAS showed that scientists were able to successfully predict who owned which keyboard and mouse based on the bacteria left behind on the keys. Each of us carries a wealth of micro-organisms (you've got 100 times more non-human cells in your body than human cells!) and that microbial nation is distinctive -- maybe as distinctive as a fingerprint. Wired talked to a microbiologist who wasn't impressed with the technique for criminal forensics (we don't know yet if microbial nations are static or if they change over time, nor how unique each one truly is), but they do note that microbes are useful in forensically distinguishing between identical twins.
"The results demonstrate that bacterial DNA can be recovered from relatively small surfaces, that the composition of the keyboard-associated communities are distinct across the three keyboards, and that individuals leave unique bacterial 'fingerprints' on their keyboards," wrote Knight and his colleagues at the University of Colorado, Boulder in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

"If humans are thought of as a composite of microbial and human cells, the human genetic landscape as an aggregate of the genes in the human genome and the microbiome, and human metabolic features as a blend of human and microbial traits, then the picture that emerges is one of a human 'supra-organism'," argued a 2007 Nature paper lead-authored by Peter Turnbaugh, a Harvard microbiologist.

You're Leaving a Bacterial Fingerprint on Your Keyboard

Forensic identification using skin bacterial communities

(Image: Toshiba M30 keyboard cleaning -IMGP7931, a Creative Commons Attribution image from footloosiety's photostream)

Previously:


Shootout at space facility in India

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 10:11 PM PDT

The Times of India reports that "Two people were on Tuesday morning involved in a shootout with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) security personnel around its high-security facility at Bylalu near Bangalore."

Música da Lagoa

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 09:47 PM PDT

Miles Davis called him "the most impressive musician in the world". He's Hermeto Pascoal from Brasil, and this is how he does it:

Aside from Hermeto's infectiously liberated attitude, this performance is unique as an exploration of the physical edge of two sound mediums. He makes entirely underwater concerts seem tame by comparison.

Full disclosure: when I was in high school I used to spend a couple of hours a day in the bathtub listening to what water did to different sounds - now I can see what a flute and an explosion of yellow butterflies would have added...

Jonathan Zittrain is on the mend, thanks in part to the internet

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 09:33 PM PDT

Author and Internet researcher Jonathan Zittrain got hit with a mysterious but serious illness that doctors couldn't figure out. A friend created a blog (with Zittrain's identity veiled, for privacy) to crowdsource the investigation into why he was illin'—and it looks like they've figured it out. Zittrain is on the road to recovery, and is no longer in need of help finding out why. Yay, internet, and yay, smart doctors! Get well soon, Jonathan.

Tim and Eric: Father and Son (from HBO's "Funny or Die Presents")

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 04:01 PM PDT

fathersonth.jpg Like Gabe at Videogum, I haven't enjoyed the new HBO "Funny or Die Presents" series. At all. But this 16-minute (!) short film by Tim and Eric is amazing. It includes RC-controlled model helicopters, violence, creepy, angst, and pizza. I'm surprised and pleased that HBO is allowing this to be freely embedded. Also: If Mama Noodles is real, I am ordering a large pie tonight.

(via Eric Wareheim)

Previously:


iPad: 150k pre-sold. Maybe!

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 02:52 PM PDT

Headline: "Apple iPad orders drop sharply." Actual story: "as submitted by volunteers at Investor Village ... based on 120 orders." The science, of course, is far more interesting than attention-seeking headlines spun from it.

Reggie Watts: "F_CK SH_T STACK"

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 02:31 PM PDT

Reggie Watts in F_CK SH_T STACK (LOOSEWORLD x Waverly Films. More about Reggie Watts here. (via Glen E. Friedman)

Tell the copyright czar how US enforcement should work: 9 days left!

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 12:58 PM PDT

You've got nine days left to file comments for Victoria Espinel, the Obama administration's new copyright enforcement czar, and her department's inquiry on how the US should best enforce copyrights. Given that the president himself has spoken out in favor of the secret and sinister Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (AKA ACTA -- a punishing copyright treaty that seeks to expand the American DMCA and push it around the world), and that he plans to bring it down by executive order, without an act of Congress, this is especially urgent.

The good folks at Public Knowledge have worked up a tool to help you file comments, along with a good, easy-to-follow briefing on issues that Ms Espinel needs to hear about.

The Joint Strategic Plan should carefully examine the basis for claims of losses due to infringement, and measure credible accounts of those losses against all of the consequences of proposed enforcement measures, good and bad.

Measures like cutting off Internet access in response to alleged copyright infringement can do more harm than good. Internet connections are not merely entertainment or luxuries; they provide vital communication links, often including basic phone service. This is even more clearly unfair in cases where users are falsely or mistakenly accused.

Internet service providers should not be required or asked to violate users' privacy in the name of copyright enforcement beyond the scope of the law. Efforts to require or recommend that ISPs inspect users' communications should not be part of the Joint Strategic Plan.

Alert: Tell the Government to Support Balanced Copyright! (Thanks, Sherwin!)
Previously:


J.D. Roth on the rewards of making

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 12:57 PM PDT

J.D. Roth of the excellent personal finance blog, Get Rich Slowly, read an advance copy of my forthcoming book, Made By Hand, and wrote a great post on the rewards of spending more time making things. He starts off his essay with an homage to his late father, who was a very handy guy. J.D.'s father built an electricity generating wind turbine, a sailboat, a telescope, his own accounting software, an electric sprinkler system for his (failed) nursery business, a line of wheat grinders and food dryers, and more.
201003151255 When Kris and I decided in 1993 that we wanted to start our own vegetable garden from seed, my father helped me build a small greenhouse. We didn't use any blueprints; he was the blueprints. One long Saturday, we bought lumber and nails and plastic sheeting, and he stood around watching me, telling me what lengths to trim the two-by-fours and at what angles. He didn't sketch anything out on paper — he just told me what to do and I did it. That greenhouse is still standing.

But all of these things barely scratch the surface. These are just the things I remember, and mainly his successes. My father did more: He wrote poetry (mostly bad poetry), played guitar, drew funny pictures, spent a couple of summers raising 40+ acres of wheat, flew airplanes, sailed boats, and more. When he contracted the cancer that eventually killed him, he bought a microscope so that he could draw his own blood and look at his dwindling supply of white blood cells.

Made by Hand: In Praise of Amateurs

Trololo guy watches fans imitate him on YouTube

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 01:02 PM PDT

trololoth.jpg In the video above, the guy the internet knows now as "Mr Trololo," whose real name is Eduard Khil, is interviewed by Russian journalists in Saint-Petersburg while he watches and comments on a number of fan-videos created by his internet admirers. Watch the video.

Among the funnier remixes of the original clip is "Trololo guy without Autotune," from College Humor.

(via Ethan Zuckerman, thanks weaponx)

Previously:


Guest blogger: Meara O'Reilly!

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 02:53 PM PDT

Hello! I'm Meara O'Reilly. My thing is auditory perception. I've been exploring this through making instruments, heirloom science demonstrations, auditory illusions, and singing.

I write and build things for Make and Craftzine.com. I was in the band Feathers, and have played a lot in Brightblack Morning Light and with Michael Hurley, but now I do my singing alone, sometimes with a chladni plate. Right now I'm trying to make a glass vocoder and I live with the people from Encyclopedia Pictura, at our experimental woodland creative dojo.

These next couple of weeks, I'm going to write about new musical instruments and technologies, auditory perception, and inspirational approaches to farming and land management. I'll also profile some incredibly unique musicians and composers that maybe you haven't heard yet. Thanks to Mark for inviting me here, I'm really excited to be a part!

(Photo: Aubrey Trinnaman)

Study finds 55 percent of newspaper stories are placed

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 12:39 PM PDT

A study in Australia found that more than half of stories in mainstream newspapers were fed to them by PR entities: "Many journalists and editors were defensive ... Most refused to respond, others who initially granted an interview then asked for their comments to be withdrawn out of fear they'd be reprimanded, or worse, fired." [Crikey via The Awl]

In case you missed it: Die Antwoord, the Boing Boing interview

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 11:58 AM PDT

_MG_3516bgsm-1.jpg

Perhaps you missed Boing Boing's interview on Friday with South African rap-rave zef gangsters Die Antwoord? And the news that the recently-minted internet stars shook hands (and pinched cheeks) with Interscope Records, tapped District 9 helmer Neill Blomkamp to direct their next music video, they'll likely be performing at Coachella, and they're developing a movie?

Read the Boing Boing Die Antwoord interview here.

After that, they went off to meet David Lynch. The band says,

Ninja called David 'Dad'. David said "You turned out alright son." David also said, "I was a bit worried about you for a while there, but you turned out alright." Ninja said "I'm a lucky duck." David said, "You're a good guy."
Image: A photo shot last night in New York City by Clayton James Cubitt. "Yo-Landi jumps on bed while Ninja tries to nap."

Red Shirt protests in Thailand

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 09:24 PM PDT

Alex Ringis in Australia has been observing coverage of the "Red Shirt" protests in Thailand in recent days. Word on the street was that the anti-government protesters mixed up many tons of fish sauce (a stinky fermented condiment, like soy sauce only fishy-foul) and human feces as a sort of homemade non-lethal weapon. "Yep, fish sauce and SHIT. Anybody who gets in their way will have that lovely concoction hurled at them." Alex sends an update today:

Our friends in Bangkok have said they're staying indoors and out of the way, as moving around in the city at this stage is pretty pointless, and nobody wants to catch any stray bullets, heaven forbid. Local Bangkokers at this stage seem to just be pretty bloody annoyed that a bunch of country bumpkins have rolled in and stopped them from going about their daily business, at least at this stage.

Today the Red Shirts gathered outside the 11th Infantry Regiment's army base in Bangkok - said to be where PM Abhisit Vejajiva was holding up - he left via helicopter not long after they arrived. Interesting trivia is that the Military's way of dealing with them was playing them I'saan music over loudhailers, and it was also reported that they even addressed the crowd as "brothers and sisters", speaking in I'saan.

What's transpiring is very interesting - the Red Shirts clearly want some
kind of a confrontation, or violence, to prove that the "evil" government
intends to repress and harm them. But so far, the Military and the
government have been on their best behaviour.


The question remains, what will the extreme elements within the red shirts
(who were said to have started the violence in April 09's protests) do
when they realise that the Military is not going to fire the first shot?
Latest reports have the Red Shirts saying that Government Ministers will
have to "Walk across one thousand liters of blood" to get to work at
government house tomorrow - so it remains to be seen what they mean by
that.

Today news that four M-79 grenades were fired into a military batallion
outside the State TV headquarters, and STILL no military crackdown. This
is incredible and unprecedented - the army are quite obviously on their
best behaviour. The Bangkok Post reports that arrests have been made in
connection with the case.

So far, our direct sources in Bangkok seem to be the best source of
information. The Nation and The Bangkok Post (the two main English
Dailies) are respectively suspiciously quiet, and suspiciously biased, so
I'm thinking there's multiple gag orders in play, though I do get some
decent tidbids now and then from my favorite Bangkok blog - 2bangkok.com

The rumour at present is that Thaksin Shinawatra is in Montenegro - both
Germany and the UK have said that they would not accept him, and if he was
recognised in their country, he would be detained. The man is literally on
the run, as it were.


And finally, my personal feeling is that the "mainstream media"
organisation that seems to be offering the absolute best coverage on the
situation so far is - surprise surprise - Al Jazzeera's English service.
Im guessing their primary interest is based on the fact that Thaksin
Shinawatra was a resident of Dubai for the past twelve months or so - in
any case, they are covering the story closely, and it's been on the front
page for over 12 hours.


Also - I watched a video of a Red Shirt speaker ("Arisman") in an
upcountry pep rally ranting against the government last night. I won't
bother posting the link here - it's all in Thai and there's no subtitles,
but in a nutshell, the notable talking points were some bizarre conspiracy
theories about the government involving bio-weapons, and more
interestingly, he was inciting red shirters and saying that if the
government did not give into their demands, that they would "wipe off the
face of Thailand" all the governments "sensitive sites", including Siriraj
hospital. Siriraj hospital is where the ailing King Bhumipol Adulyadej is
and has been treated for many months. Yes, they are "peaceful" protesters,
apparently.

Let's hope that tomorrow is as peaceful as Sunday turned out to be.

An oldie, but relevant : this was me rather tipsily interviewing some people about the Red Vs Yellow situation in Thailand, back in May last year. FYI, this guy is a TYPICAL "Red Shirter" - lower class, menial laborer - lovely guy. I often joke with friends that if they just instituted a minimum wage in Bangkok, this entire political mess would go away overnight. But sadly, it's true.


And another video: First Civilian victim of a "Red Shirt" Protestor. FYI the cameraman is
shouting "POLICE! POLICE!", and when the Police enter they shout "STOP,
STOP NOW PLEASE, STOP!"

Video of Red Shirt operatives handing out money to protesters. It should be noted that a) The guy handing out the money has a literal WAD of 1000 Baht notes (1000 THB = roughly AU$33 - enough to eat in Bangkok for over a month) and b) The guy on the loudhailer appears to be shouting in either Lao, or Isan - two dialects not native to Bangkok - probably due to the large number of "up country" people who have been bussed in for the protests.



David Byrne with Santigold: "Please Don't," from "Here Lies Love" (a BB exclusive)

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 11:51 AM PDT

Above, Boing Boing debuts the new video from David Byrne with Santigold, "Please Don't," from Here Lies Love, a musical biography of sorts about Imelda Marcos. David Byrne explains,

david_byrne.jpg We did a photo session for a magazine the other day, and I told the interviewer that on this song, by the time you get to the chorus, she owns it -- she's turned it into a Santigold song. Perfect.

There are six of these videos that have been completed for this project. Most, like this one, use news and archival footage to, well, show that every word of the song is true! Most of the lyrics on this one are lifted gently from interviews and quotations -- the "please don't" chorus especially. At some point as first lady, Imelda began to feel that she could help Philippine interests by charming world leaders into seeing things her way. "Handbag diplomacy" she called it -- as she liked to imply that to solve a problem, she could bypass President Marcos and just grab a handbag and hop on a plane with some of her assistants. It sometimes worked! There was, for example, an Islamic-backed insurgency rising in the south of the Philippine archipelago, and she thought that a leader in that part of the world, Qaddafi in this case, might help pull the plug on that support if he saw things her way. Apparently he did -- the funding stopped and the insurrection lost momentum, and she later described him as a pushover, a mama's boy.

David Byrne: Here Lies Love, and you can purchase the music and book set here. The album is available in multiple formats (MP3, FLAC, Apple Lossless, and CD/DVD).

(thumbnail: portrait of David Byrne by Clayton James Cubitt)

Previously:


Video of NASA dropping helicopter to watch it crash

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 10:50 AM PDT



The good people at NASA dropped a lightweight helicopter from 35 feet to watch it crash. This was the same helicopter that was dropped in December for crash testing. The first time, the helicopter suffered minimal damage due to a new "expandable honeycomb cushion" that absorbs the impact. This time, the helicopter was not outfitted with the cushion. The result was more like what you might expect. From NASA:
"Three, two, one, release," said the technician on the loudspeaker at the Landing and Impact Research Facility. With that countdown the helicopter smacked hard into the concrete. Its skid gear collapsed, its windscreen cracked open and its occupants lurched forward violently, suffering potentially spine-crushing injuries according to internal data recorders. The crash test was all in the name of research to try to make helicopters safer.

"The goal of any research program that has an element of impact dynamics is to develop an understanding of the crash response of the vehicle," said Karen Jackson, an aerospace engineer who oversaw the test. "Once we understand that response we can look at ways to improve the crash performance..."

Researchers say the "g" forces the MD-500 experienced more than tripled those recorded in the previous test. But that doesn't mean the research is over. Engineers have gigabytes of data to analyze to confirm exactly what impact the new honeycomb cushion technology might have for helicopters in the future.

"Chopper Crash Test a Smash Hit"

US spooks plotted to destroy Wikileaks

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 10:28 AM PDT

In this two-year-old classified Army Counterintelligence Center report (hosted on wikileaks.org, where else?), American spooks set out to destroy Wikileaks by intimidating its sources. They cite as justification for this the fact that Wikileaks has outed American embarrassments and crimes including "US equipment expenditure in Iraq, probable US violations of the Chemical Warfare Convention Treaty in Iraq, the battle over the Iraqi town of Fallujah and human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay."
The governments of China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and several other countries have blocked access to Wikileaks.org-type Web sites, claimed they have the right to investigate and prosecute Wikileaks.org and associated whistleblowers, or insisted they remove false, sensitive, or classified government information, propaganda, or malicious content from the Internet. The governments of China, Israel, and Russia claim the right to remove objectionable content from, block access to, and investigate crimes related to the posting of documents or comments to Web sites such as Wikileaks.org. The governments of these countries most likely have the technical skills to take such action should they choose to do so

Wikileaks.org uses trust as a center of gravity by assuring insiders, leakers, and whistleblowers who pass information to Wikileaks.org personnel or who post information to the Web site that they will remain anonymous. The identification, exposure, or termination of employment of or legal actions against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others from using Wikileaks.org to make such information public.

Wikileaks.org - An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, Or Terrorist Groups?
Previously:


Coffee makes you

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 01:13 PM PDT

coffeeshirt.jpg

Sean Bonner made this coffee-themed t-shirt (the line is a Big Lebowski reference). Boing Boing reader Paul Martin suggests an alternate version explaining how things work In Soviet Russia, shown after the jump...

russiashirt.jpg

Wind-up Carl Sagan

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 12:22 PM PDT


Behold Larriva's wind-up tribute to the great Carl Sagan, "It is cast in rock hard, Durham's Water Putty and is hand painted in acrylics. The hair is wool and the metal parts are from a wind-up toy."

It is sold out on etsy, but you can purchase Larriva's Hopgoblin wind-up toy if you wish.

Walmart fires employee with inoperable brain tumor for legally using marijuana outside of work

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 12:24 PM PDT

Joseph Casias has sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor and takes medical marijuana, which is legal in Michigan. He was fired from the Michigan Walmart where he had been working for the last five years after he failed a drug screening test there.
At his doctor's recommendation, Casias says he legally uses medical marijuana to ease his pain.

"It helps tremendously," he says. "I only use it to stop the pain. To make me feel more comfortable and active as a person."

During his five years at WalMart, Casias says he went to work every day, determined to be the best.

"I gave them everything," he says. "110 percent every day. Anything they asked me to do I did. More than they asked me to do. 12 to 14 hours a day."

But last November, Casias sprained his knee at work. Marijuana was detected in his system during the routine drug screening that follows all workplace injuries. Casias showed WalMart managers his state medical marijuana card, but he was fired anyway.

Walmart fires medical marijuana patient for using medical marijuana (Thanks, Jason!)

Flip flops that double as a flashlight

Posted: 13 Mar 2010 05:23 PM PST

tevaillumf.jpg

Sandal company Teva has a new product coming out in May called the Illum. It's basically a super comfy waterproof microsuede sandal with tiny LED lamps in the middle of each foot that lights up the path you're walking on. Pretty neat! I would have loved to have worn these when I went camping on the beach in Hawaii last year. The lights detach from the shoe and clip into a keychain, too, so you can use them to look at things other than what's in front of your feet. Available this spring for $60.

Lazer Tits

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 10:05 AM PDT

NYT on Carl Malamud's International Amateur Scanning League

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 09:48 AM PDT

Brian Stelter of the New York Times reports on the International Amateur Scanning League, consisting of volunteers who are copying the 3,000 DVDs at the National Archives and Records Administration. The videos will be uploaded to the net for all to enjoy.
Iasl.Banner.WebDust off a disc. Maybe it's video of a Bob Hope Christmas show, or maybe it's the Apollo 11 moon landing. Insert a blank disc. Duplicate.

It sounds monotonous because it is. But every time Liz Pruszko presses the start button on a DVD machine, she knows she is helping to unlock the thousands of videos tucked away in the National Archives.

"It just seems like such a shame to not have this content out there," Ms. Pruszko said.

When she says "out there," she is talking about the Web, where it might seem that every conceivable video clip of federal importance is already stored, just waiting to be searched for. That is far from true. But she is nudging the government in that direction.

Ms. Pruszko is a volunteer for the International Amateur Scanning League, an invention of the longtime public information advocate Carl Malamud. The league plans to upload the archives' collection of 3,000 DVDs in what Mr. Malamud calls an "experiment in crowd-sourced digitization."


International Amateur Scanning League makes obscure DVDs available online (Thanks, Steve Silberman!)

Previously:


Space law

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 10:45 AM PDT

Images Small Gpn-2003-00095
If I were a lawyer, I would be a Space Lawyer, as long as that could be printed on my business card. During the next academic year, Sunderland University students can sign up for a course module devoted legal questions surrounding space exploration, tourism, safety, and off-world commercial ventures. From The Guardian (NASA image):
Topics already arising in the field include gaps in health and safety for potential space tourists, and damage to satellites from other objects orbiting the Earth. Looking further ahead, some lawyers have raised questions about land titles on the moon or other planets.

Chris Newman, one of the lecturers who will be teaching the module, said: "It is a growing area which has relevance across commercial, company, property, environmental, intellectual property and IT practice sectors. We think that our qualification will offer valuable knowledge in a fascinating area."

The syllabus is likely to draw on earlier attempts to extend legislation into uncharted areas, such as the arguments between nations over huge sections of Antarctica.

"Space law course to tackle final frontier"

Daily Cross Hatch interview with Weather Underground member Bill Ayers about his graphic novel

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 09:35 AM PDT

Billayersfullcomic

Weather Underground member Bill Ayers (the guy Palin and McCain were referring to when they said Obama "pals around with terrorists") has re-written his book, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, as a graphic novel. It will be published in May. It's called To Teach: The Journey, in Comics and is illustrated by Ryan Alexander-Tanner.

Brian Heater says, "In April Ayers will be appear at the MoCCA Fest in New York to discuss activism in comics on a panel with Peter Kuper, Tom Hart, Josh Neufeld, and Ward Suttton. I will be moderating. In preparation for the panel, I spoke with Ayers over the weekend. He was on his way back from a political rally in Detroit."

In a sense, you're structuring the classroom as a laboratory of sorts.

I think of the classroom as a laboratory for discovery and surprise, absolutely. And I think every classroom should be like that, whether it's a geography classroom in high school or a physics classroom in college, or a kindergarten, it ought to be structured as a laboratory for discovery and surprise. And you can add other metaphors to that. You can say it also ought to be a performance space. It ought to be a place you can come to tell your story. It ought to be an artist studio. It ought to be a museum. But notice, all of the metaphors that you and I are coming up with aren't it ought to be a factory [laughs]—it can be a workshop, but not a factory.

The Daily Cross Hatch -- Interview: Bill Ayers Pt. 1 [of 4]
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