Thursday, September 2, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Creative Commons licensed banjo gospel

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:22 PM PDT

Copyfighting banjo-picker Patrick Costello has a new book of free/open banjo tunes: Songs for Sunday: "In this book you will find a selection of hymns, country gospel and even some blues songs arranged for frailing banjo. The arrangements presented here blend melody and rhythm so that you can sing along with the banjo and still be able to knock out a solo once in a while. The accompanying DVD contains video workshops where I walk you through each song." (Thanks, Patrick, via Submitterator!)

Debate with Nina Paley about noncommercial licenses

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:17 PM PDT

Recently, Nina "Sita Sings the Blues" Paley and I conducted a protected email exchange debating the merits of the Creative Commons "noncommerical" licenses (like those used on my novels and here at Boing Boing). It was an instructive and sometimes productive debate, and Nina's edited the thread and posted it.
Here's my perspective: the purpose of any cultural policy or regulation should be to encourage a diversity of both participation and works (that is: more people making art, and more kinds of art being made).

ISTM that your assertion amounts to: "Whatever forms of participation that come into existence as a result of the capitalization opportunities that accrue in an exclusive rights regime, they are dwarfed by the works that lurk in potentia should such a regime perish."

IOW: we unequivocally get *some* participation in culture as a result of exclusive rights regimes, some of which would not exist except for exclusive rights. You believe that if this regime and the works that depend on it was to vanish, the new works that would come into existence as a result would offset the losses.

I don't know how either assertion could be tested. We both have firsthand experience of both modes of creativity -- I know of works that wouldn't have been capitalized absent the higher returns expected in the presence of exclusive rights; I also know of works that could only have been made in their absence.

Paley & Doctorow argue over Non-Commercial licenses



Why natural history museum collections rock!

Posted: 31 Aug 2010 08:07 PM PDT

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Photo: Tom Goskar. Used with permission.

So far, it's been a very interesting experience in the month and a bit into my sabbatical at London's Natural History Museum. First off, there was that element of giddiness: coming back to an iconic institution that takes me back to my time as a kid in awe of dinosaurs, blue whales and all the sparkly stuff in the mineral exhibits. Next came, a weird sort of pride - like as if being in the museum's great hall, looking up at the beautiful ceiling, and standing in between a Diplodoccus skeleton and a statue of Darwin, made me feel privileged to be a scientist. I felt as if I was in the best-club-ever: one that carried on the work of so many pioneers whose efforts are housed in this museum. But then a strange feeling of discomfort settled in. This was because the science that goes on here, by and large, is quite foreign to the medically genetic driven projects of my own background. In other words, the bench tops here do not always require pipettemans and overpriced electronics. However, after having had the privilege of meeting some lovely people at the museum and viewing a few of these collections, I've come to really appreciate the importance of biological curation.

1. The collections serve as the physical and open portal to specimens needed for biodiversity research.

Here, the collections tackle the old adage that "people only really care about things they know." They provide a place for specimens to have a formal and accessible presence. In other words, when a new species is shared and characterized in the world of science (i.e. via a scientific paper), one of the required acts in this scientific culture is that multiple specimens of the new species must be deposited in a few institutions like the museum. Here, they are invaluable as a resource for making sense of the huge variety of form and function of the organisms on our planet (i.e. taxonomic studies). This can be done from the point of view of morphology, but also as a sort of tissue bank, so that people can perhaps later classify a specimen genetically.

I actually saw this facet in action, having had the chance to visit the museum's arachnid collection (spiders!), which was very cool. I asked the curator, Jan Beccaloni, how many spider specimens there were exactly, and she told me that they weren't entirely sure, but that it was something in the millions, or at least equivalent to "the number of legs you can count divided by eight!" She also described how specimens were always coming in and going out, like packets with legs, stored with things to discover. It was marvelous!


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Imagine multiple rooms filled with shelves of spiders like these. The one on the right is a Theraphosidae specimen (Tarantula type).

2. The collections have huge historical value: not only from a humanities angle, but also as a scientific record of the past.

Many of the collections at the museum are very old and/or span a huge timeline. In fact, they very nicely reflect aspects of the scientific process of different times in history, and therefore offer a wonderful window into the history of science. Here, I also had a chance to talk to Mark Spencer, curator of British and European herbariums, and in particular, he was kind enough to grant me an up close look at the Sloane Herbarium.


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Coolest book shelves ever! (and possibly one of the most expensive)

In case you didn't know, Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) was a fellow, a physician, a scientist who had amassed a massive collection of plants, many of which are impressively bound in the 265 volumes that are housed in a very cool book room within the museum (I should also mention that Sloane was an avid collector of many things - in fact his collections are essentially the initial core of what would be become the Natural History Museum as well as the British Museum).

As a small example of the historic relevance of the collection, let's consider Sloane's connection to chocolate:

While in Jamaica, Sloane was introduced to cocoa as a drink favoured by the local people. He found it 'nauseous' but by mixing it with milk made it more palatable. He brought this chocolate recipe back to England where it was manufactured and at first sold by apothecaries as a medicine. Eventually, in the nineteenth century, it was being taken up by Messrs Cadbury who manufactured chocolate using Sloane's recipe. (NHM website)

Essentially, Sloane had a key role in the popularity of "milk" chocolate. In fact, one of the original cocoa (Theobroma cacao) specimens first brought over to England can be seen in the Sloane Herbarium.

These historical collections also provide a scientific snapshot of the past, a sort of biodiversity record book. For this aspect, Johannes Vogel, Keeper of Botany at the museum, provided a great example of this. Here, I was told that the peregrine falcon eggs used to suggest DDT effects on eggshell breakage and population loss are primarily housed at the museum. This was largely work done by Derek Ratcliffe in the 1960s, that was eventually part of the argument used by Rachel Carson in her book "Silent Spring."

Furthermore, in his 1970 paper, "Changes attributable to pesticide in egg breakage and eggshell thickness in some British birds," Derek went on to provide a very nice study that confirmed this link. i.e. population numbers were closely attune to egg breakage within the nest of these birds; which was best explained by the apparent thinning of the eggshells; which closely correlated to the introduction and prevalence of synthetic organic chemicals such as DDT; which was verified by accessing the actual amounts of the synthetics in the various egg shells. Basically, this type of work could not have been done had there not been a collection available, a collection that house various Peregrine eggs from different points in time.

Finally, I should point out that this sort of example is particularly prevalent today. As climate change alters ecosystems and the geochemistry of our planet, these collections, especially ones that stretch far back in time, are providing valuable data on the past. Which is important: as it is this sort of data that helps us more effectively examine the present, as well as provide a possible window into the future.



Chic apartments for London birds

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 10:41 PM PDT

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Take a look at this art project entitled, "Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven"

In the sought-after London boroughs of Chelsea and Islington, inner city birds often have to claim their nesting space quickly! However, birds that are open to changing their wild ways might be convinced to try out the innovative bird-housing concept developed by the artists at London Fieldworks. The "Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven" opened recently as part of the Secret Garden Project by UP Projectsand hopes to develop into a haven of biodiversity and create a new public awareness of the ecological and cultural value of urban green spaces. (via Inhabitat)

These look very pretty, although I am curious as to how they fare when the tree moves or when it grows.

As an added layer of biodiversity speak, there's a bit of irony in the title of the project. Turns out the "Tree of Heaven" or Ailanthus altissima is actually a tree species of much botanical interest in London, and elsewhere in England generally. Essentially, a lot of folks are quite concerned that this ornamental turn invasive species is poised to rocket in numbers. It's one of the fastest growing trees around, it's allelopathic (meaning it produces a chemical that inhibits the growth or other plants), and its seed production capabilities are almost unmatched. In fact, the female tree is capable of producing upwards of 30,000 seeds per kilogram of tree! That would be akin to a small tree as heavy as me (at about 160 pounds), being able to produce 2.2 million seeds!

Why is this tree a particular interest these days? Well, over the years, climate has been steadily getting warmer and sunnier in England, and given that the Tree of Heaven is shade-intolerant, the extra sunlight is possibly giving the opportunistic tree the small push needed to expand greatly in numbers.

Anyway, perhaps this means more places for the birds to live?

Merry Cemetery celebrates the dead with gaily painted grave-markers

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 05:06 PM PDT

Michael sez, "The Merry Cemetery is a cemetery in north-east Romania (the Moldovan region). I visited it with my wife and parents-in-law this summer. nstead of a sombre and sad approach to death the Merry Cemetery celebrates life with colourful painted oak 'headstones' engraved with a picture and story of the life of the deceased."

The Merry Cemetery (Thanks, Michael!)



Undergrads crash NASA satellite

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 04:51 PM PDT

Undergrads at the University of Colorado sent a NASA satellite to its fiery demise on August 30th. But don't worry. They are not in trouble. In fact, they were specifically tasked with the job of decommissioning the satellite—figuring out where and when to send it screaming through Earth's atmosphere so as to ensure that any leftover bits land someplace where they won't do much damage—as part of a class. An incredibly awesome class.

Videos that prove the elites are really reptilian humanoids

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 04:54 PM PDT

I'm with my friend and senior editor of bOING bOING (the zine) Gareth Branwyn and he is showing me funny videos posted by people who think the world is ruled by reptilian humanoid shapeshifters (basically, the nonsense that David Icke perpetuates). The videos show politicians and other powerful people's tongue flicks, hisses, strange head tilting, and membrane eyelids that move sideways. Commentary from video above:

'HISSSING' at 1:35...HEAD TILT at 1:38...how many times have you seen a human tilt their head like a freakin animal?...look at her nose...it flatens an the nostrils are larger and farther apart...near complete morph...

Notice everyone, body language? She points to her face. The middle man tries to cover it up.... His voice tone gives it away. The Reptile even gives a Freudian Slip.... "the whole thing feeds on itself."...and are those the twin towers in the background?...more subliminal reptilan sh*t

Reptilian shapeshifter videos on YouTube

Ford Levacar model from 1961

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 04:33 PM PDT

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Over at Make: Online Gareth Branwyn writes about the latest issue of Model Cars Magazine.

I've never been a "car guy," but it was really fun to go through the issue (from January 2010) and see what the car model kit industry and hobby are up to these days. As in other areas of modeling, specialty kits are big, vintage kit comebacks, impressive scratch building, and stunning levels of finishing and detailing of kits, are all in evidence.

In this issue, one of the articles I got the biggest kick out of was on the AMT Ford Levacar kit, a promo kit version of the late 1950s Ford concept car that was straight out of The Jetsons. The Levacar kit even levitated! It had plastic tubes that you blew into to raise the car. The model, packaging, everything is to die for. Here's the page about the Levacar kit from Fantastic Plastic.

Model Cars Magazine



Mongoliad is live: Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear and friends create participatory, epic fantasy for the web

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 04:14 PM PDT

The Mongoliad is live! This is the collaborative, participatory shared-world project from Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, and pals. It's an epic fantasy novel about the Mongol conquest, told in installment form, with lots of supplementary material (video, stills, short fiction, etc), and a strong audience participation component in the form of a Wikipedia-style concordance, fanfic, etc. You can read the free samples without registration, but you need an account to edit the "Pedia."

For $5.99 you get a six-month subscription to the main body of fiction; $9.99 gets you a year (you retain access to the fiction after your subscription expires, but don't get any new material until you renew, which is a major plus in my view -- much fairer than most online "subscriptions" that lock you out once you let your sub lapse).

The first (paid) chapter went up yesterday, and I've just read it. The word here is epic, a swashbuckling swordplay novel with the sweep, charm and verve of the major Stephenson epics, such as System of the World. A very strong start and well worth the price of admission. This is a great experiment in new fiction business-models that welcome audience participation and work in a way that is native to the net.

These men were likely knights of the Shield Brethren--the ones she had been instructed to find. If there was anything to their reputation, they would have responded within days to the Khan's unlikely invitation. The Shield Brethren were scattered all about, but their closest branch was in Petraathen, an ancient crag-fort in the mountains south of Kraków, just a few days journey from here. Their instinct--the reverse of the Mongols--was to camp in the woods, and their scouts had spied this old monastery, long since abandoned. To her, it had the look of a converted pagan temple--perhaps Mithraic. Long ago, many of her people had been Mithraic. Now, it was an impromptu chapter house, a sanctuary where they could wait and train, while they reconnoitered the territory around the blood-soaked battlefield of Legnica and the great, stinking tent city that Onghwe had built there.

A horseman emerged from behind the graveyard wall riding a big blue roan stallion. Cnán flinched at the sight of a Mongol-style bow, striped and jointed like the leg of an insect, held out in the man's hands. But this was no Mongol: his hair was brown, long and full, and below his sharp nose drooped a luxuriant moustache. He pivoted his mount and galloped along the curve of outbuildings, then pivoted again and rode back and forth through the grass. His apparently aimless movements made no sense until she understood that he was practicing archery. When his eye fell on something that looked like it might serve as a target, he loosed an arrow from the bow, sometimes galloping past, sometimes away, or jerking his horse up short and shooting from a standstill.

She did not know these knights other than by reputation, but she saw the rider as one who had suffered under the power of the Mongols and had learned from them, adopting and adapting their weapons.

The Mongoliad



United Airlines and Dulles security treat Pakistani military officers as terrorists

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 04:16 PM PDT

United Airlines threw nine high-ranking Pakistani military officers off a Washington-Tampa flight on Sunday and turned them over to Dulles security, who detained and grilled the men. The officers were on a junket in the USA, and had been travelling extensively; one of them said words to the effect of, "I hope this is my last flight." This was interpreted as a terrorist threat by a flight attendant. Dulles security did not let the men contact their embassy or the US military officials who were hosting them.
The Pakistanis were finally released after police at Dulles determined they did not pose a threat. But instead of proceeding to Tampa, the delegation was ordered to return to Pakistan by their military superiors in Islamabad, in protest of their treatment, the Pakistani official said, adding that they were "verbally abused." The group of officers spent the next 48 hours in Washington, waiting for the next available flight home, and were scheduled to depart the United States on Tuesday evening.

The Pakistani officers were originally en route to U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa to attend the annual conference of the U.S.-Pakistan Military Consultative Committee, said Maj. David Nevers, a Central Command spokesman. He said Centcom officials hoped to reschedule the conference.

Pakistani officials leaving in protest (via Consumerist)



News stories about stupid young people make old people feel good

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 03:56 PM PDT

Dr. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick (Ohio State) and Matthias Hastall, (Zeppelin University, Germany) have published an article in the Journal of Communication with their research showing that old people love to read stories about young people doing stupid things because it makes them feel better about being old. The study was conducted using 178 German adults aged 18 to 30 and 98 between 55 and 60. I have no idea if this is a valid statistical sample, but since it confirms my own feelings about old people, I will trust its results.
All the adults in the study were shown what they were led to believe was a test version of a new online news magazine. They were also given a limited time to look over either a negative and positive version of 10 pre-selected articles.

Each story was also paired with a photograph depicting someone of either the younger or the older age group.

The researchers found that older people were more likely to choose to read negative articles about those younger than themselves. They also tended to show less interest in articles about older people, whether negative or positive.

But younger people preferred to read positive articles about other young people.

Older people enjoy reading negative stories about young (via /.)



Mainstream press throws Wikileaks under a bus in journalist shield debate

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 03:50 PM PDT

A new proposed federal journalist shield law is under debate in the USA, which sounds like a great idea, except that the traditional press have agreed to amendments that would exempt Wikileaks from any protection for its confidential sources, on the grounds that Wikileaks isn't journalism (ORLY?).
More generally, Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee, criticized WikiLeaks as "not journalism."

"It's data dissemination, and that worries me," she told Time magazine. "Journalists will go through a period of consultation before publishing sensitive material. WikiLeaks says it does the same thing. But traditional publishers can be held accountable. Aside from Julian Assange, no one knows who these people are."

Wait, what? You don't want to give confidential source protection to Wikileaks because Wikileaks has confidential sources? [Boggle].

Trying to exclude WikiLeaks from shield law stinks (via /.)



Reading list for new science fiction readers

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 03:45 PM PDT

IO9's Annalee Newitz has posted a great syllabus and book list for novice students of science fiction literature, filled with good suggestions for getting started in the field.

Mechanical wall-hung clockwork sculptures

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 03:43 PM PDT

Woody Guthrie pencils

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 03:57 PM PDT


These Woody Guthrie-themed pencils are emblazoned "This Machine Kills Fascists," the motto Guthrie famously inscribed upon his guitar. Not sure how they compare to Blackwings, though!

These machines kill fascists (Thanks, Sara the Teacher!)



Gardener fighting village busybodies for the right to grow tomatoes in her front garden

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 03:57 PM PDT

Dora Lyakhovetsky, a gardner from Northbrook, IL, is fighting her village Board of Trustees for the right to keep tomatoes and flowers in her front yard instead of turf. The local code prohibits growing anything but grass out front, even though Lyakhovetsky's back yard is overshadowed by big trees and can't be used to grow anything.

Lyakhovetsky showed up at the Board meeting with a basket of tomatoes for her neighbors and asked them to reconsider.

"This isn't a garden dispute -- this is a neighborhood dispute," said Goodman, who had circulated a petition in the neighborhood trying to drum up support for Lyakhovetsky's front yard garden on the 2700 block of Shannon Drive.

Somewhat of a community activist, Goodman told the board his petitioning job had never been so easy. The two people who objected most strenuously to Lyakhovetsky's garden, he said, did so because they did not like her.

Had someone else planted the garden, perhaps they would not have minded its prominent placement, he said.

"I know you think you can solve this by writing a new law," Goodman said.

But he said that wouldn't work because people would just find something else to complain about. Plus, he said, residents clearly don't want the village to do so.

Northbrook front-yard gardener brings some of her crop to Village Board (Thanks, JArmstrong via Submitterator)

(Image: Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)



Golf company has Ping trademark, domain (UPDATED: There's a deal)

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 02:35 PM PDT

ping1.jpg Apple's name for its new social network, Ping, is interestingly generic. With a long association to the sport of table tennis and a computer networking utility whose function resembles it, it carries a natural association with communication, responsiveness, and so on. But like many generic terms, if you do a search for "Ping" at the trademark office's website, you'll find many, many entries. Most recent filings are from Karsten Manufacturing Corporation, which makes golf gear. Interestingly many of its filings go beyond the sticks to include computer and internet-related stuff. This mark, for example, is for goods and services concerning "Communications software for electronically exchanging data." Though filed on April 7, 2010, it's already been abandoned. Most of the "Ping" trademark filings from Karsten, however, remain live. Ping.com is a well-manicured corporate site that touts the corporate twitter account. It even has an iPhone app. Then there's Ping.fm, a bona-fide social networking tool even closer to Apple's new thing. Owner Seesmic.com don't seem to have filed for any related trademarks. Here's some of Karsten's trademark filings for Ping: 85003420 Wireless communication devices for voice, data or image transmission. 85010415 Computer software, namely, file sharing software; communications software for electronically exchanging data, and graphics accessible via a computer network, etc. 85009569 Computer services, namely, providing search platforms to allow users to request content from and receive content to a mobile device or a computer; Providing user-defined generated content, etc. 85014001 Entertainment and educational services ... Providing an internet website for dissemination of historical information and current news relating to golf etc. 85003420 Broadcasting of video and audio programming over the Internet ... Electronic mail; Providing on-line communications links which transfer the web site user to other local and global web pages .. Providing an on-line forum relating to the subject of sports; Consumer telecommunication services, namely, communications services for electronically exchanging data and graphics via telecommunication networks, including mobile and wireless networks. UPDATE: There's a deal between the two companies. Press release follows after the jump! Thanks, Kristopher!



PING Golf Announces Trademark Agreement With Apple

PHOENIX, Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- PING and its parent company, Karsten Manufacturing Corporation, announced today that they have entered into an agreement with Apple under which Apple will use the PING trademark in connection with Apple's innovative new social music discovery feature in iTunes. Apple introduced the iTunes PING feature today.
Founded in 1959, PING is a famous premium brand that holds more than 1000 trademark registrations around the world, many related to golf equipment. The company also owns trademark rights in PING for social networking and other online services.
This announcement involves two companies that were founded by visionaries who created products that greatly impacted their industries. Karsten Solheim invented the PING® putter in his Redwood City, California garage and went on to revolutionize the golf equipment industry. The groundbreaking first Apple® computer was developed in nearby Palo Alto in 1976.
"We are pleased to enter into this agreement with Apple," said John Solheim, Chairman and CEO of Karsten Manufacturing Corporation and PING. "Like PING, Apple carries a reputation for innovation and quality. I have always had great respect for companies that have changed and improved the ways things are done and I continue to model PING along those lines. Apple is a truly great example of this kind of enterprise."
About PING
PING designs, manufactures and markets a complete line of golf equipment including metal woods, irons, putters and golf bags. The family-owned company was founded in 1959 in the garage of the late Karsten Solheim, a mechanical engineer with an extensive background in the aerospace and computer industries. His frustration with his putting inspired him to design his own putter, which created a "pinging" sound when striking a golf ball. This sound was the source of the name now synonymous with innovation, quality and service throughout the world of golf. Solheim and his company are credited with numerous innovations that became industry standards, including perimeter weighting, custom fitting and the use of investment casting in the manufacturing of golf clubs. His insistence on adhering to strict engineering principles and tight manufacturing tolerances raised the level of product performance and quality throughout the golf industry. Solheim is the only person to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame as a golf club manufacturer. Today, the Phoenix-based company is under the direction of Solheim's youngest son, John A. Solheim. PING game-improvement products can be found in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit www.ping.com.
PING is a registered trademark of Karsten Manufacturing Corporation. Other trademarks mentioned are properties of their respective owners.
Source: PING

Hands-on with new Apple TV and iPods; and notes on Ping, the iTunes social network

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 01:28 PM PDT

nano1.jpg Apple showed off the latest editions of its iPod lineup and the Apple TV earlier today. The new iPod Nano loses the physical controls and adopts a multitouch display. The iPod Shuffle, however, gets them back.


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The new Apple TV eschews local storage in favor of streaming HD movies and TV shows from the cloud. Netflix and network TV is on-board -- but only Fox and ABC for now. It'll also play stuff on your home network, via WiFi or Ethernet, piped to the set using HDMI.

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In a demo hosted by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the new Nano was depicted at one point as a fancy wristwatch.

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Jobs chats with journalists after the new gadgets were announced Wednesday in San Francisco.

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The new Apple TV is only a quarter of the size of the last one, and about four inches square. At $99, it is less than half its price.

Xeni spent time with the new gear after the announcement, and called in with her findings. Firstly, an Apple spokesperson said that the new Nano and Apple TV don't use iOS, the operating system used on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The lightweight tech gets custom software that still (in the Nano's case) incorporates multitouch.

The new TV box has a neat UI, but it is user-friendly connectivity -- with other computer gear as well as the touted HD movie rental/tv services --that holds the most promise.

"The UI is improved, and so is the ability to bounce back and forth from YouTube to your own local video collection, to NetFlix and iTunes," Xeni said. "That freedom of movement and the freedom to view that same stuff on your phone, Apple TV and your computer, was already technically possible but you'd need five different things on five platforms, and nothing really talks to anything else. What Apple can do is put it all together and make it more likely more people will adopt it."

Not everything will go down well, however, especially the loss of local storage options in the Apple TV box itself: "Cloud rental is being pitched as freedom from having to store, but I think there'll be a lot of grumbling because people like owning things."

But Xeni did like the Nano: "It's really sweet, so small. I wanna eat it. It's as big as maybe four keyboard keys. It's like a pill you might swallow. The clip's snug."

Also announced was Ping, a social network tightly integrated with iTunes. "The value of any social network depends on how fast it builds nodes on the network, " Xeni said. "Apple's launching a network with 160 million iTunes users from day one. This bodes well for Apple. That's momentum that is nearly impossible to build organically."

People are pointing out all over the 'net that Apple is making a sharp move on Facebook, but given its tight connection to music, Ping's landgrab lands more on MySpace's turf.

However, you can invite Facebook contacts, with their consent, to join the network, though no details on integration were offered.

Gunman at Discovery Channel headquarters

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 04:12 PM PDT

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A gunman has taken at least one hostage at Discovery Communications headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.

There's no official police statements about who the gunman is or what he wants, but there's a list of demands circulating on Twitter—said to be the gunman's manifesto. (Edit: The original site is now down, I'm linking to a version one of our readers saved.) I'm not sure what the original source of this list is, yet, but I'll let you know if/when I find out. The demands are centered around a proposed new programming lineup for The Discovery Channel, pushing Malthusian ideas on population and Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212. Seriously. This would be almost funny if it weren't for the whole hostage thing.

The Discovery Communications building is being evacuated. Here's hoping everybody makes it out safely.

UPDATE: According to DCist, the list of demands apparently dates to 2008, and is linked to James Jay Lee, a man arrested that same year for disorderly conduct while protesting at the Discovery Communications building. No one has any idea who the gunman is at this point, so it's unknown whether this is the same guy. WUSA9 TV in Washington D.C. first tweeted the old demands as being linked to the current gunman, but it's unclear how they came to that conclusion.

For now, let's assume they aren't linked. It's worth noting that Discovery Networks have received a lot of threats recently because of Animal Planet's Whale Wars show, which follows the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as it attempts to deter Japanese whaling ships.

UPDATE #2: Law enforcement officials are now saying that they believe the gunman is that 2008 protester, James Jay Lee.

UPDATE #3: Police have shot and killed Lee and freed the hostages.

Image of gunman taken by a colleague of Discovery employee Jason Divenere That colleague is now safely out of the building.

Or does it explode?: Reddit collection of laboratory disaster stories

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:00 AM PDT

There are eight million stories of chemistry laboratory disasters. They all end in explosions. (Except for the ones that end in accidentally making mustard gas.) You might think of this Reddit open thread as a public service—one read-through and you will never forget to wear safety goggles ever again.

Cyclops turtle

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:02 AM PDT

It's "Ask a Museum Curator" Day on Twitter

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 10:14 AM PDT

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It's Ask a Museum Curator Day, and museums all over the world are answering your questions on Twitter. Here in the United States, you can query curators of everything from various Smithsonian museums of science, history and culture in D.C., to the Art Institute of Chicago. It's a great way to learn about museum collections from the people who know them best, as well as ask a few burning questions you've just been waiting for an expert to answer.

Sadly, the #askacurator hashtag is full of spammy things that are making it mostly useless, so I'd recommend picking a specific institution and checking out it's Twitter feed. Some of the fun things I've learned today:

Renaissance Italy was the birthplace of the mazzocchio, a torus-shaped hat which is one of the Museum of Math's favorite bits of math-based fashion.

Stamps are occasionally issued jointly by two different countries—usually to commemorate some historical event or achievement that suits political purposes. The Smithsonian Postal Museum has, as an example, a stamp issued by the U.S. and Canada to mark the anniversary of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

According to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Hadrosaurus Foulkii were the common dinosaur species of New Jersey. Today, they're famous for being the first dinosaur to have its skeleton mounted for display.

Meanwhile, Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art correctly calls out the statue of Guanyin of the Southern Sea as a high point in their collection—but sadly fails to mention that the statue is part of an entire temple, taken apart piece by piece and reconstructed at the Nelson. They've got several rooms like that, all of which I loved as a kid.

Apple event, September 1: The Boing Boing Liveblog

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 06:11 PM PDT

Xeni's in San Francisco for Apple's press event today. Watch this space for live commentary from the event, and tune in to the live streaming broadcast from Yerba Buena at apple.com (the short version: to watch the HTTP Live Streaming, you gotta have a Mac/iPhone/ipod/iPad. But following Boing Boing? Pick any OS and hardware you like.)

Liveblog archive after the jump.


9:00AM: Big crowd of reporters gathered outside Yerba Buena. Ratio of dudes to women at all big tech events always seems so skewed. Today, 20:1, it seems! Tech media is so overwhelmingly male. But nice to see some familiar faces here, female and otherwise. If you're wondering if lady-reporters have a secret handshake we give one another at these things? We do. But if I tell you, I'll have to spray perfume on you.




10:00AM: Mr. Jobs takes the stage to applause. Steve Wozniak is in the house, Jobs calls him out, much applause. Talk of the new Apple store in Paris. And the second Apple store in China, in Shanghai. 40' high curved glass cylinder. Third store in London. Covent Garden. 300 stores, 10 countries. Spain store coming soon, which will make total number of countries with Apple stores 11.

"120 million IOS devices shipped. 230,000 IOS activations per day, not counting upgrades. 6.5 billion apps in App store. 200 apps downloaded per second. (beat) Whoosh! Another app sold."

"IOS 4.1 introduced today. A lot of bug fixes. Proximity sensor bugs, bluetooth bugs, iPhone 3g performance bugs. all the bugs we get emails about."

"Also new: HDR photos. High Dynamic Range." (Explains how HDR works.)

"Game Center: Multiplayer games. Challenge friends, or auto-match if you don't have any friends." (laughter in audience). "Compare scores, discover new games your pals are playing."

(Mike Capps, President of Epic Games, demos "Project Sword," sword-battle adventure. Staged trash-talking ensues between the game's designer and Mr. Capps).

( Jobs returns: IOS 4.1 next week.)

"Surprise peek at next release... IOS 4.2, coming later this year. All about iPad. Wireless printing. And AirPlay... stream photos, audio, video. More than AirTunes was capable of doing."

(cues Jack Johnson music... multitasks with email, browsing, and other tasks while stopping and starting music using multitask bar.)

"IOS 4.2 comes out in November. Free update for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch."

"Now... iPods. This is our music event where we unveil cool music products for the holidays -- and today's no exception. 275 million iPods sold..."

"New designs biggest changes ever in the iPod line. First: Shuffle... people miss the buttons, and liked voiceover playlists. New iPod shuffle is smaller than 2nd generation device, has buttons, voiceover, playlists, and it's really small..."

"Small, wearable, playlists, genius mixes, tells you when battery needs charging. 15 hours of music. It's really cute, 5 colors. New Shuffle will sell for $49."

"Now, let's look at the nano..." (walks through the 5 generations of Nano.) "This one is multitouch." (applause-o-meter loudest yet since Jobs walked on stage.) "46% smaller, 42% lighter. Clip, no more armbands, if you want to use for athletics. Volume buttons... 24 hour battery life." (demo includes ability to rotate display with touch gesture, to many whoops and claps.) $149 for 8 gig version, $179 for the 16 gig version."

"iPod touch has, in the past year, become the most popular iPod. A lot of people call it an iPhone without a phone... or an iPhone without a contract. It's the number one portable game player in the world. 1.5 billion game and entertainment titles downloaded. New iPod touch: even thinner. Even more beautiful. Has amazing retina display we pioneered with iPhone. 4x pixels 326 ppi, 24 bit color, LED backlit. Best display in the world. Apple A4 chip, same as powers iPhone. 3-axis gyro for gaming. ios 4.1 with game center. Facetime and front-facing camera and rear-facing HD, all in the new iPod touch. 40 hours of use."

"You edit your videos right on the phone." (Heh, Freudian slip!). Pricing: 8 gig for $229, 32 gig for $299, 64 gig for $399. All three products are available next week. Available today for pre-order, to ship next week." (Editor's Note: no iPod Classic mentioned, they must have aborted this from the line.)

"Wouldn't be Apple without some new ads... I've got some ads to show you."

(Cake song blasts, multitouch is the focus of this Nano ad... then the Shuffle and Touch featured in 2 more video ads.)


"Now, iTunes. 11.7 billion songs, 450 million TV eps, #1 online media store in the world. Today we're excited to launch iTunes 10. This is the venerable logo we've been living with for a decade... next Spring, iTunes will surpass CD sales, time to ditch CD in the logo...here's the new logo for iTunes 10." (LOL.)


"One of the big things we've focused on in iTunes is... discovery. Discovering new music... There must be a better way to share than email. We're announcing something new...


"Ping. A social network for Music.


"Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes."


"Social network all about music, built right into iTunes. follow your favorite artists and friends, discover what music they're listening to, talking about, and download it. Built right into iTunes. Here's a post by one of you're friends you're following... a post by Lady Gaga, an artist you're following... find people just by looking for their names. You get a custom top ten chart of songs and albums, customized to only the people you follow are downloading from iTunes."


"Here's Lady Gaga, an artist you're following. Here's a post from her. About concerts, posts she's written... here are posts from all he other artists you're following. Here's your friend Kevin Angel. Here's the concerts he's going to... here are the friends he's following.


"Most of us will live in the feed right here, and all of the people we follow will be delivered right to us. Ping is for social music discovery. Follow and be followed. An artist can say, follow me. You can say, follow me, and everyone can follow you. Or, you can follow me only if I approve, because I'm particular. Me and my ten buddies and that's it. And whenever any one of us hears a great song we'll post it and the ten of us will know instantly. Be as private or public as you want. Privacy is super simple to set up anyone can do it -- it's great."


"Privacy is easy. 17,000 concert listings, and you can connect with 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries immediately upon launch. We're starting with a very large base of itunes users."


(Demo begins. A knowing flutter of chuckles in the crowd upon privacy mention, clearly Apple learned from Facebook's epic failures in that arena.)


"Ping will be available not just on your computer, but on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch. It's a social network for music, built by Apple, built into iTunes 10, available today to those 160 million people. Free download starting today... I think it's gonna be pretty hot."


"We've got... one more thing.... one more HOBBY."


"Apple TV. Introduced 4 years ago. We've sold a lot of them... but never been a huge hit. Netiher has any competitor product. But we talked to people who use it, and they love it.


"What have we learned from our users? The number one thing they want is Hollywood movies and TV shows when they want where they want it. They don't want amateur hour. They want pro content, in HD.


"They'd like to pay lower prices. The lower the prices the more they'll watch. And they don't want computers on their TV. They go to widescreen TVs for entertainment, not for a computer. Consumers get it. They don't want to manage storage. They don't want to sync to a computer. Most haven't figured out what that is, too complicated. They want whatever hardware we have to be silent, cool, and small."



"So, we've made something new for them. This is the current Apple TV... and we are introducing the second generation today. It's really small, you can hold it in the palm of your hand. Power supply built in. HDMI. Ethernet. WiFi 802.11n. Don't need a hard network connection. Great remote. Beautiful aluminum remote. Easy. IT's about music, Tv shows, and streaming music from your computer... it's all HD when the content's available... we've gone to the rental model. Rent everything. Prices are more affordable. No storage problem. Rental prices are so cheap that you can watch a few times and it's still cheaper than if you'd bought it. No syncing. Stream from your computer."


"First-run movies day and date, from $4.99, the day they come out on DVD. Commercial-free television shows from ABC and Fox rentable for 99 cents. Other networks we hope will come on board.


"In addition, you can stream content from Netflix. And whatever you want on YouTube, including HD video. Flickr, and MobileMe photos, too. Stream content off your computer, Mac or PC. Music, photo, videos." (UI integrates Rotten Tomato reviews for movies... IMDB-style info on features... shows Netflix UI within Apple TV... computer access, sharing...) "It all comes out of this tiny little box, and it's pretty amazing." (Editor's note: No more purchases, all rental-model -- this is a big, big shift.)


"This is by far the best implementation of Netflix ever... easy to use. Quality's great." (Demo of photo-surfing features...) "We can surf AirPlay devices using Apple TV. So I have a movie on my computer, Up, and I'm going to play it on Apple TV. I can decide where to stream it to (which device in household, out of multiple screens), and I'm going to select Apple TV."


"You're going to be able to come home, select a movie on one device, and then choose to watch it in your living room on your Apple TV. Select a photo on your iPhone, then view it on Apple TV. Previous model was $229 price range, consumers weren't willing to experiment with that. Lowering the price today to $99. New Apple TV will be available in about 4 weeks, and you can pre-order today. "


"Let's review: strongest lineup of iPods ever. Beautiful nanos, fantastic for athletics... Shuffle... iPod Nano now so small and compact that it's wearable without an armband, clip and go. And new iPod Touch includes Facetime, not just between iPod Touches but iPhones and iPod Touches. Strongest line up of iPods we've ever had. And, we announced a new iTunes, with iTunes Ping, a social network for music. We think it's gonna be really popular very fast. Because 160 million people can turn it on today. And, IOS 4.2: HDR photos, Game Center, and more. And Apple TV: a phenomenal way to watch movies and TV shows in your living room whenever you want, and stream content from Netflix or your own computer right on your TV. They're all rolling out starting today."



"Now... we started iTunes because we love music. And whenever we have music events we like to remind ourselves why we do this. No better way to do this than to ask one of our favorite musical artists to perform... Coldplay. We asked Chris Martin and he graciously accepted."


(Chris Martin takes the stage, acoustic, accompanied only by piano)


Martin: "Wow, this is the toughest closing gig ever. I don't have any products to announce, and we haven't had nearly as many downloads... I'll just play a song, maybe another, until you feel like lunch."


(Martin's first number is "Yellow," and his second number is "Viva La Vida," the "Rule the World" song widely featured in Apple ad campaign. He relates a story of how their record label didn't think it was much of a hit song, and says perhaps they were right... but it became one after the Apple campaign. Directing his comment to Apple, he says...) "Your marketing people can sell anything."


Martin is wearing a Flaming Lips t-shirt. He goes into a schtick about his next album... "It will be called Coldplay 2.6... even our closest rivals have no idea about our song design... this is in the chord of iMinor." (He's sounding great. Odd to think of an Apple press event as an intimate performance environment, but there you go.)

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Controversy around "temporary marriages" in Iran

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 10:29 AM PDT

Controversy continues in Iran around legally-recognized Shi'ite marriage arrangements that permit a man and woman to marry for as little as one hour. As recently as last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought a law regulating such temporary marriages to the parliament where some of it was ultimately rejected. Human rights and women's groups have opposed parts of the regulation that, according to Haaretz Daily Newspaper, is "intended to help men and make it possible for them to marry another woman without the permission of their first wife, the tax that would be imposed on the dowry the woman would receive, and the registration of temporary marriages." From Haaretz:
The (temporary marriage) arrangement (has even been) significantly promoted as "a means to help women who have difficulty getting married for various reasons," as the former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, explained. The various reasons can include the fact that a woman is divorced, that she is unable to give birth, or that she has committed some transgression that makes it difficult for her to find a husband.

For some of the women who are forced to get married under an arrangement of this kind, as well as for young couples that are not officially married but require legal coverage to spend time together, this is the only arrangement that exists.

It is also convenient for thousands of students who go to the holy cities of Iran and want to have "legal" sex during their studies and before getting "actually" married.

"Iran's women defeat Ahmadinejad's 'legal prostitution' bill" (Thanks, Mark Pescovitz!)

Third largest gold nugget in the world discovered in Australia

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 09:35 AM PDT

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Journalist Jeroen van Bergeijk, who profiled me for a Dutch magazine a few years ago, has been keeping me up to date on his new life to Australia. His wife is taking a winemaking class there, and to pass the time, Jeroen has been prospecting for gold. He told me, "after weeks of metal detecting, I only found about 2 grams of gold, but hey, it's a start."

Another local gold prospector has gotten a bit more lucky. Says Jeroen:

A Perth-based goldbuyer bought and sold the worlds third largest nugget here recently. These things are EXTREMELY rare. This thing weighed 23 kg (gold value alone around 860.000 US dollars). There's only two in the world that are heavier. This particular nugget was sold privately to an undisclosed buyer in the US within 24 hrs.

The nugget had been found a couple of weeks ago with a metal detector somewhere in the goldfields around here. Through various tests it had been established that the thing has a 92% purity.

Jeroen put the full story on his website: The third largest gold nugget in the world



Tom the Dancing Bug: True Tales of False Romance

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 09:28 AM PDT

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Make your own ginger ale

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 05:48 PM PDT

Over on credit.com, I wrote an article about making ginger ale (from a recipe that Orli Cotel told me about). Here's an excerpt:
201009010922 Because I was unsure about the amount of fizziness the ginger ale would have, I put the bottle in the sink before uncorking it. With one hand over the top of the bottle to serve as a splash guard, I lifted the lever. A powerful jet of frothy ginger ale whooshed from the bottle, rebounding off my hand and splashing forcefully into the sink. The hissing fountain lasted for several seconds. The atomized beverage, strong with the essence of ginger, stung my eyes and my lungs. When the eruption subsided there was just a few ounces of liquid remaining in the bottle. I poured it into a glass and took a sip. There was no sweetness, and curiously, not much of a ginger taste either. I asked my wife to sip it and she almost gagged. She said it had an intolerable sulfur smell and taste. I hadn't noticed it but when I tasted it again I could sort of convince myself that there was a sulfurous tang.

I figured I'd used too much yeast, so for the next batch I used just an 1/8 of a teaspoon for one half gallon of ginger ale. I also used plastic screw top bottles instead of the lemonade bottle. I used a cup of sugar and about one-and-a-half times as much ginger as before.


UPDATE: Mark C posted what looks like a really good and safer ginger ale recipe.

Save Money and Have Fun Making Ginger Ale at Home

Boing Boing/Imaginary Foundation/Marshall McLuhan t-shirt

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:56 AM PDT

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I'm pleased to announce another co-designed t-shirt from Imaginary Foundation and Boing Boing! We hope you dig it! This design is a play on media theorist Marshall McLuhan's most famous soundbite, "The medium is the message." It's available in small-XXL. The front of the t-shirt is printed with a flock process, giving the blue text a lush texture. The back (above left) is a super soft "discharge" print with the BB and IF logos and the following text:
"Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media with which men communicate than by the content of the communication." –Marshall McLuhan, 1969

This design is a celebration of the t-shirt as a medium. We are all media, so we may as well get good at it.

Boing Boing/Imaginary Foundation t-shirt: The Message

Chewbacca, Han Solo and R2D2 drawn as if part of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh

Posted: 31 Aug 2010 08:01 PM PDT

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Illustrations by James Hance, used with permission.

I'm surprised I didn't catch this earlier, but James Hance has recently released a series of lovely images. Here, he re-imagines Han Solo as Christopher Robin, Chewbacca as Pooh Bear, R2D2 as Piglet, and even (this is cool) an AT-AT as Eeyore.

Definitely go to his Cartoon page to see the images in their full glory. Also this just in - James writes:

The first Wookiee the Chew book gets published today (September 1st) and will be available from either my website or comic stores in Jacksonville. My main hub is at Cafe 331, downtown Jacksonville. I'm there every Saturday with prints, paintings and books.
Link

10 Years Ago: The Wally Wood Letters

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 10:15 AM PDT

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From Boing Boing 10 years ago: In the late 1970s John Hitchock started up a mail correspondence with Wally Wood, inarguably one of the world's most gifted comic book artists. For a variety of reasons, Wood had fallen on hard times, but he was a generous man and wrote 18 replies to Hitchock's letters.

"So my advice is, don't be a creator. It's much more fun, and much more rewarding to be a defacer with a title . . . "Creative Director" or "Assistant Associate Editorial Consultant". If you're a creator, you'll find yourself at the mercy of a kid fresh from writing dirty words on walls, who will take work you have spent hours on and write the singularly revealing message "Kill This" across it in bold strokes of his big blue pencil."
The Wally Wood Letters
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