Monday, June 21, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Modern gadgets made in 1977

Posted: 21 Jun 2010 05:13 AM PDT

varanese.jpg Alex Varanese's sunset-hued walnut burl wonderland is a place I'd be happy to spend my evenings. From a blog post announcing his latest trip to the old-school:
This project is undoubtedly my most conceptually ambitious work to date. It comprises 14 full-sized, 18x24" prints that explore the awesomely absurd idea of time travelers who return to the late 1970's to release the technology of 2010 and dominate the world of consumer electronics. I re-imagined four modern products as if they existed over 30 years ago and tried to bring them to life through fake print ads, abstract glamour shots, and even a characteristically pretentious type treatment or two.
It also shows how modern 'retro' gadget designs are often quite half-baked compared to the real (fake) thing. If you're going to go retro, you should either be so good at understanding the timeless that few even notice what you're up to (consider how Apple often channels Braun) or basically do what Alex did here, which is make everything out of wood and spidery LEDs. Gallery [Behance via Waxy]

Economic reality versus ideology: spending cuts and recovery

Posted: 20 Jun 2010 09:59 PM PDT

In this week's New York Times column, Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman debunks the idea of heavy government cuts as a way to economic recovery:

The key point is that while the advocates of austerity pose as hardheaded realists, doing what has to be done, they can't and won't justify their stance with actual numbers -- because the numbers do not, in fact, support their position. Nor can they claim that markets are demanding austerity. On the contrary, the German government remains able to borrow at rock-bottom interest rates.

So the real motivations for their obsession with austerity lie somewhere else.

In America, many self-described deficit hawks are hypocrites, pure and simple: They're eager to slash benefits for those in need, but their concerns about red ink vanish when it comes to tax breaks for the wealthy. Thus, Senator Ben Nelson, who sanctimoniously declared that we can't afford $77 billion in aid to the unemployed, was instrumental in passing the first Bush tax cut, which cost a cool $1.3 trillion.

That '30s Feeling (via Making Light)

(Image: Library of Congress)



Hello Kitty motor oil

Posted: 20 Jun 2010 09:38 PM PDT


I have it on the best of authority (well, not really -- just a post on a random blog) that this Hello Kitty 30-weight motor oil is a real product. Vroom, vroom. Meow.

Hello Kitty Engine oil - Yes its for real



Was alleged Wikileaks leaker Bradley Manning's crisis also one of personal identity?

Posted: 20 Jun 2010 08:58 PM PDT

manning.jpgYesterday, I published a what purported to be more detailed versions of IM logs between alleged whistleblower US Army PFC Bradley Manning and hacker Adrian Lamo, revealing specific countries and issues implicated in military documents Manning is alleged to have leaked to Wikileaks.

Journalists such as Washingtonian's Shane Harris have speculated that the "adjustment disorder" for which Manning was reportedly about to be discharged might indicate a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" issue within the military.

But these logs may also suggest that Manning's state of crisis involved a different gender identity issue.

Shortly after I published the logs, a comment appeared on my post:

"I had no idea Bradley Manning was a transsexual until I read this. That's got to put a fellow into a strange headspace in the first place."
I asked our moderators to not publish the comment, in keeping with our moderation guidelines. It appeared to be off-topic, and an attempt at a personal attack. But shortly after that comment appeared, someone I do not know who identified themselves as a transgender person tweeted at me:

Congratulations. You just outed Manning.

As transgender? Two pings one after another, from apparently different readers? What was going on, and what could I have failed to see? What could I have missed in the chat logs?

I went back to the logs, to try and make sense...

(1:11:54 PM) bradass87: and... its important that it gets out... i feel, for some bizarre reason
(1:12:02 PM) bradass87: it might actually change something
(1:13:10 PM) bradass87: i just... dont wish to be a part of it... at least not now... im not ready... i wouldn't mind going to prison for the rest of my life, or being executed so much, if it wasn't for the possibility of having pictures of me... plastered all over the world press... as boy...
(1:14:11 PM) bradass87: i've totally lost my mind... i make no sense... the CPU is not made for this motherboard...
(1:14:42 PM) bradass87: s/as boy/as a boy
(1:30:32 PM) bradass87: >sigh<
(1:31:40 PM) bradass87: i just wanted enough time to figure myself out... to be myself... and be running around all the time, trying to meet someone else's expectations
(1:32:01 PM) bradass87: *and not be
(1:33:03 PM) bradass87: im just kind of drifting now...
(1:34:11 PM) bradass87: waiting to redeploy to the US, be discharged... and figure out how on earth im going to transition
(1:34:45 PM) bradass87: all while witnessing the world freak out as its most intimate secrets are revealed
(1:35:06 PM) bradass87: its such an awkward place to be in, emotionally and psychologically


The phrase around "as a boy" and the use of the verb "transition," jumped out, and reading through again, dots seemed to connect: is Manning struggling with gender identity? If these chat logs really are authentic, and if Manning wasn't punking Adrian Lamo, could Manning ("bradass87") have meant,


"I can accept prison or the death sentence as punishment for
leaking these documents, I just can't accept the possibility
of going through that before I've fully transitioned to being
seen by others as female, which is how I already see myself."


When I read the "somewhat less redacted" Lamo/Manning logs before publishing them on Boing Boing, I thought the use of the word "transition" meant transitioning from military to civilian life -- nothing more. Manning said he was about to be discharged from the military. The "as a boy" line struck me as odd, but the notion that any of this had anything to do with transgenderism never entered my mind. But now, that passage suggested that the Boing Boing commenter and the person on Twitter might be on to something.


The phrases that seemed to support the commenters' theory that Manning was pre-transition transgender were redacted from Boing Boing. A note that a redaction had taken place was added to the post.

News reports have typically describe the logs as 'boasting,' but that seems far from a complete picture of Manning's tone in these exchanges.


I don't have access to complete, verifiably authentic chat logs between Manning and Lamo. None of us, probably not even the people who do have access to those logs, have a clue as to what Manning's motives might have been. While speculation runs wild, we don't know what, if anything, Manning actually leaked to Wikileaks.

But if the personal crisis suggested here were true, it would certainly broaden the scope of Manning's motives and state of mind, and reveal a wealth of internally conflicted human drives that recontextualize the story.


We still wouldn't know why Manning may have done what he is reported to have done. But we might have a better idea of factors contributing to Manning's distress, and why he might "confess" to Lamo, who is reported to have then turned Manning in to authorities.

Was Bradley Manning a transgender person unable to transition because he was active duty military? Did Manning, in isolation and distress while stationed in Iraq, reach out to Adrian Lamo in part because Manning believed Lamo —whom the internet-searchable public record shows has been an active member of the LGBT community—would be empathetic to a fellow geek going through a gender identity crisis?


There's no evidence suggesting this other than what we believe to be Manning's own ambigious IMs to Lamo, which may have have been a kind of gambit.

We can't very well ask Manning, who is now reported to be in military detention in Kuwait.


"To me, the most telling line is 'The CPU is not made for this motherboard," said a source with deep ties in the LGBT community.


"It's such an unusual phrase, and it's the one that jumps out at me most strongly, besides the use of the word 'transition,' which is very prevalent among trans people. We even use it as a verb. That portion of the exchange is pretty tightly packed with trans code words and lingo and analogies."


"It doesn't sound like it's just about gender identity, either, but also about Manning's identity as an aspiring hacker, as a military person, and this transition of social identity from military to civilian. All of it suggests the profile of a person who is clearly at a crossroads in life. And they've unfortunately taken a very troubling path."



(Rob Beschizza contributed to this report)

Mickey Mouse, amphetamine shill

Posted: 20 Jun 2010 09:23 AM PDT




In the 1950s, speed was legally sold as "pep pills" to help improve your mood and vigor, and Mickey Mouse got in the act with a series of strips in which Mickey pimped amphetamine to kids and grownups who needed a little pick-me-up.

Mickey Mouse on Speed (via IO9)



Carrot rainbow

Posted: 20 Jun 2010 06:50 AM PDT

Nine things you need to know about the net

Posted: 20 Jun 2010 06:47 AM PDT

John Naughton's feature in today's Observer, "The internet: Everything you ever need to know," is a fantastic read and a marvel of economy, managing to pack nine very big ideas into 15 minutes' reading. This is the kind of primer you want to slide under your boss's door.
4 THINK ECOLOGY, NOT ECONOMICS
As an analytical framework, economics can come unstuck when dealing with the net. Because while economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources, the online world is distinguished by abundance. Similarly, ecology (the study of natural systems) specialises in abundance, and it can be useful to look at what's happening in the media through the eyes of an ecologist.

Since the web went mainstream in 1993, our media "ecosystem", if you like, has become immeasurably more complex. The old, industrialised, mass-media ecosystem was characterised by declining rates of growth; relatively small numbers of powerful, profitable, slow-moving publishers and broadcasters; mass audiences consisting mainly of passive consumers of centrally produced content; relatively few communication channels, and a slow pace of change. The new ecosystem is expanding rapidly: it has millions of publishers; billions of active, web-savvy, highly informed readers, listeners and viewers; innumerable communication channels, and a dizzying rate of change.

To an ecologist, this looks like an ecosystem whose biodiversity has expanded radically. It's as if a world in which large organisms like dinosaurs (think Time Warner, Encyclopaedia Britannica) had trudged slowly across the landscape exchanging information in large, discrete units, but life was now morphing into an ecosystem in which billions of smaller species consume, transform, aggregate or break down and exchange information goods in much smaller units - and in which new gigantic life-forms (think Google, Facebook) are emerging. In the natural world, increased biodiversity is closely correlated with higher whole-system productivity - ie the rate at which energy and material inputs are translated into growth. Could it be that this is also happening in the information sphere? And if it is, who will benefit in the long term?

The internet: Everything you ever need to know


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