Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

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Spousal irritation checklists for marital bliss, ca. 1930

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 12:26 AM PST


These old data-collection checklists were used as part of a 1930s project to enable husbands and wives to give one another constructive feedback and end seething resentments by identifying and tabulating frequent sources of irritation.
In the 1930s, [Scientific Marriage Foundation founder George Crane] went around to a bunch of husbands and said, "Hey husband, what does your wife do that annoys you?" And then he added all those complaints up and created a handy chart that let you rate your spouse against the generic ideal/anti-ideal. That's what you see in the chart above.
Happy Valentine's Day! Try Out This Marital Rating Scale (via Neatorama)
 


Space beer is less bubbly and more flavorful

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 11:16 PM PST

Sydney's 4 Pines Brewing Company has created a beer optimized for microgravity consumption, to be trialled by vomit-comet riders in Florida. It's intended for eventual consumption by space tourists:
"In space your whole entire face, including your tongue, swells," says Jaron. "It becomes a lot harder to taste things in space."

"With all the swelling all of your taste buds become almost a bit numb, in a way," he says.

"Astronauts have been known for years to throw handfuls of salt and bottles on Tabasco sauce on their meals..."

"On earth when you burp, due to the gravity that's acting on your stomach, the gas and the liquid separate," he says.

"However in space... the gas and the liquid can both come up during a burp."

First batch of astro-beer brewed and ready for testing (Thanks, Thesloob, via Submitterator!)

(Image: Hon!....Is there anymore beer?, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from mikebroatch's photostream and Astronomy, Light Echoes from V838 Mon, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from 34053291@N05's photostream)

 


Old comic book ad for public libraries

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 02:14 AM PST

How the world phones: handsets with multiple SIMs

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 12:20 AM PST


Here's a really interesting look from Younghee Jung at the global phenomenon of multi-SIM phones that can talk on multiple networks at once. Some people get these SIMs because they want to take advantage of low-cost calling within an single network (which means that you have to keep track of which network each person in your address book uses!). Others use it to establish priority -- a business man who has a "private number" for his best customers that he always answers. Sometimes, it's just a way to get a bargain, loading up prepaid minutes on different SIMs depending on who's got the best deal. A sketch from a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana depicts an "ideal phone" that holds four SIMs.
Many mobile network operators offer cheaper rates for inter-network calls, especially in markets where competition among network operators is high. Highly cost-conscious consumers naturally get multiple numbers for cheaper calls. While it may not take too much effort to acquire the new number itself, this comes at a cost of efforts and skill: Remembering, or identifying who in your social network has the number belonging to a specific network operator. People develop a tactic, such as indicating the network operator in the name stored on the phonebook. This is not an exclusive behavior only for the developing economies, however. When the 3G network was newly introduced in Japan several years ago, many Japanese consumers also owned two numbers, one from 3G for cheaper messaging & data connection, another from existing network for cheaper voice calls.
Use of Multiple Mobile Phone Numbers (part 1) (via Kottke)
 


Tahir Square's spontaneous kindergarten

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 10:47 PM PST

Mosa'ab Elshamy -- a photographer and pharmacy student who attended the Tahir Square rallies in Egypt -- describes the volunteer-run kindergartens that spontaneously popped up in the square to care for the children who came with their families for the rallies:
It's difficult to estimate numbers, but I think not less than 10 percent of those present in Tahrir were families. They added a special spirit to what we started calling Republic of Tahrir. Some of the kids would do their own marches around the square, with people applauding and smiling at them. They were quite an integral part of the place and everyone took care of them. When Tahrir would get crowded and a kid got lost from his parents for a while, we would quickly mention their name in the large microphones set in the square and the parents would easily find them.

I wouldn't say the kindergarten idea was set up by specialists. But there were people of all professions in Tahrir which obviously included teachers. But many of those working on the kindergarten were ordinary mothers who would take care of the kids and look over them while they were painting or reading. It was usually set in the safest area of the square, just in case anything would happen, and the kids were being kept at a distance from any possible tension. But obviously it wasn't professionally set up. I mean, it didn't have working hours or a fixed schedule, because the place was quickly developing and changes were taking place from day to day. Still, the main core was maintained and any kid could join, play with others for some time, and indulge in children's activities for a while. It was quite heartening to say the least.

Did You Know There Was a Pop-Up Kindergarten in Tahrir Square? (Thanks, Rufusstripe, via Submitterator!)

(Image: children creating art in tahrir, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Yasmin Moll's photostream)

 


My essential Mac applications, part 5

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 06:30 PM PST

I recently bought a new iMac computer, and I installed about 30 different applications on the first day. They are applications I consider essential (or at least mighty desirable for my purposes). I've covered programs 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, and 16-20. Below, applications 21-25.


viewfinder-logo.jpg21. Viewfinder (OS X, £15) This is a pretty specialized application that I use to search through Flickr for Creative Commons licensed images that I can run on Boing Boing. I enter keywords (the example shown here is a search for "cigar box guitar") and Viewfinder returns all the Flickr images it can find that have the keywords in the tags, titles, or descriptions, and can be used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. I've been using the demo version for many months and it has all the functionality I require.


viewIt-logo.jpg22. ViewIt (OS X, $22) This is a super-fast image organizing and viewing utility. It's much faster than iPhoto or Preview, and offers thumbnail and full-screen viewing modes. I use it to go through my massive image folders that I've filled with the retro illustrations I've snorked off the Web over the last 15 years.



appZapper-logo.jpg23. AppZapper (OS X, $12.95) I try out a lot of apps, and I delete most of them within minutes of opening them for the first time. But when an app is dragged to the trash, the extra files associated with the application stay on the hard drive. I don't know why OS X doesn't get rid of these orphaned files automatically. I use AppZapper to make sure all the preference and support files get zapped along with the application file.



camouflage-logo.jpg24. Camouflage (OS X, free) This menu bar utility doesn't do anything but make all the icons on your desktop disappear. I use it when I give a Keynote presentation, so that when the audience sees my desktop, they are fooled into thinking I'm a tidy person.



diskinventory-logo.jpg25. Disk Inventory X (OS X, free) This gives me a visual indication of the amount of storage space the files on my hard drive are taking up. It's a great way to find hard-drive hogs (like big movie files I don't want any longer) and delete them.

1961 was the year of the Batmobile

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 02:14 AM PST


Judging from the 1960 Mechanix Illustrated preview of the 1961 Detroit auto lineup, 61 was the year of the Batmobile. It's all bubble roofs, tailfins, huge anthropomorphic grilles, and go-faster curves.
So far as the standard lines are concerned, the biggest change for 1960 will be the virtual abandonment of fins by the finniest company--Chrysler. Sweeping fender lines will be seen on the 1961 Plymouth rather than the upraised extensions of the past; there will be a complete re- vamping of that line's body shell in the wake of its not-fully-successful 1960 selling season.

The smoothing and new treatment of the Plymouth will be echoed in variations on the other Chrysler Corp. cars; the fin treatments on those other cars will be reduced to a bare minimum. And the daddy of big fins, Cadillac, is going to de-fin if reports are true.

What some stylists call "blades" will tend to replace fins all through the industry, blade treatment being what you saw this past year on Ford and Chevrolet.

The Chrysler wedge shape will continue but less exaggeratedly. GM bodies will provide more headroom. Ford's bodies will be more square at the corners than heretofore; their blades will slant upward a little more than was the case in 1960. Ford will introduce a kind of grille treatment at the rear, embellished with bull's-eye taillights like those of past years.

PREVIEW OF THE 1961 CARS (Jul, 1960)
 


Video: a tribute to Gap-Tooth Women (1987)

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 09:28 PM PST


A trailer for Les Blank and friends' 1987 tribute to "Gap-Toothed Women." From LesBlank.com:

A charming valentine to women born with a space between their teeth, ranging from lighthearted whimsy to a deeper look at issues like self-esteem and societal attitudes toward standards of beauty. Interviews were conducted with over one hundred women, including model Lauren Hutton and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
"Gap-Tooth Women" (Thanks, Gabe Adiv!)

Simple 2-string guitar

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 04:58 PM PST

cantar-views.jpg

I'm conducting a couple of simple-guitar building workshops this year (one at Ohio State University in early April and one in Brussels on June 1), so I designed this fretless, 2-string guitar that requires no glue and just one screw (other than the small screws that come with the tuners). Right know I am calling it a cantar, but I'm hoping a Boing Boing reader can come up with a name that's more fun. Here's what it sounds like.

More photos after the jump.


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cantar-10.jpg

Long arm of law wants public penis on shorter leash

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 02:50 PM PST

From AFP:
Penisleash French police say they have arrested a 63-year-old woman who was leading her 40-year-old companion along a busy shopping street by a leash attached to his exposed penis...

The couple admitted to being sex addicts and said they were in the middle of a game when arrested, police said on Thursday.

"Penis-leash couple nabbed at shops"

Join the fun! (Amazon)

Scott D. Wilson medical/monstrous/insectoid artwork

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 02:28 PM PST

Image-2 Image
Los Angeles artist Scott D. Wilson creates gorgeous insect drawings, faux taxidermy chimeras, and micro-wunderkammern all the while bringing "tenderness to what most people find repugnant," says artist/blogger Stacey Ransom who pointed me to these fine specimens. Scott D. Wilson's Ideal Monsters

Mark Laita's controversial "Created Equal" photo diptychs

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 03:49 PM PST

Polypimp
Photographer Mark Laita's "Created Equal" is a series of portraits of Americans juxtaposed in rather provocative diptychs. Pairings include the likes of marine/war veteran, Baptist churchgoer/white supremacist, pedophile/child, and, seen above, polygamist/pimp. Turnstyle interviewed Laita and presents a selection of the Created Equal photos:
How did this project come about and why did you want to work on it?

Mark Laita: Created Equal is different from my other work in that it's not politically correct. Perhaps it's a reaction to all the years of working for advertising clients, producing work that was pleasing to look at. Almost all commercial work has a committee or focus group making certain that the end result is "nice." I felt the need to produce something that was raw and real, as life truly is, not just what we aspire to. The more shocking to our sense of what's "right," the better. That's why I sought out the worst pedophile I could find (with a list of the most horrible convictions you can imagine) and a beautiful and innocent little girl (photographed with her mother's consent of the pairing of images). If the viewer cringes from the pairing that's great. I think a lot of us don't think what you see in Created Equal exists in our city, but take a look at your neighborhood's Megan's list website sometime and tell me how "nice" your town is. Every city in the U.S. has sex offenders, prostitutes, drug addicts along with wonderful humanitarians, philanthropists and leaders. I aimed to depict our country as it is, not as we would like to think it is.

"Slideshow: Mark Laita's Created Equal"

Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 01:57 PM PST

dr bronner.jpeg Dr. Bronner's soap is a staple in my bathroom. Widely known for its eccentric label that espouses the moral philosophy of the soap's now deceased maker, Emmanuel Bronner, it is a testament to a simple product made well. The potent soap is vegetable-oil based (including jojoba, coconut, and hemp oils) that when diluted can be used in a number of different ways. When I spent four months traveling through China it replaced my shampoo, face and body wash, deodorant, laundry detergent, and, when I ran out of it, my toothpaste (but only once as it overwhelmed my mouth). Using it meant I could pack less and lighten my load. I have also brought it camping to clean pots and pans where the use of harsher soaps and detergents would sully sensitive environments.

Outside of being multi-use, Dr. Bronner's is also an extraordinarily pleasant soap. I have yet to find another cleaning product that leaves my skin as tingly and fresh feeling as the peppermint variety (be warned, it can be frighteningly intense on sensitive parts of the body). It also doesn't contain any lathering agents or synthetic chemicals like sodium lauryl sulfate that some people have a sensitivity to. Instead the soap relies on an ingredients list that is predominantly organic and fair-trade certified.

The liquid soap can be purchased in a variety of different sizes, up to a gallon at a time. While travelling for four months my girlfriend and I used about 12 oz of the stuff, but that included showers, laundry, and deodorizing. So keep in mind that a little goes a long way. Though I have only used the peppermint and lavender varieties, they also offer the soap in eucalyptus, citrus, tea tree, almond and a mild formula for babies.

[Note: Outside of Amazon, you can find it inexpensively at Whole Foods and most health food stores, many of which will allow you to refill your own bottle at a discount. --OH]

--Oliver Hulland

8 oz of Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap
$6.39

1 Gallon of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castille Soap
$50

Be sure to check out some of the the comments over at Cool Tools. And don't forget to submit a tool!

Trailer for the Marx Brothers' Horse Feathers

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:56 PM PST

Dia de los Muertos skulls of Kermit the Frog, Alien, Pac-man, etc.

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 01:59 PM PST

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5449050224 338E1C5D31 B Inspired by the Dia de los Muertos celebrations in San Francisco's Mission District, my friend Jonathan Koshi designed his own series of calaveras, the decorated skulls associated with the Day of the Dead. Along with Pac-man and Alien above, the series includes the crania of Spy vs. Spy, Kermit the Frog, a unicorn, and other characters. Koshi had fifty 12" x 12" letterpress prints made of each design and they're available at $40/print via his blog. "Get Your Sugar"

Philly homeowner forecloses on Wells Fargo

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 01:08 PM PST

Patrick Rodgers, an independent music promoter in Philadelphia, has won a judgment against his mortgage lender, Wells Fargo, which Wells hasn't paid, and so he's foreclosed on them and arranged for a sheriff's sale of the contents of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, 1341 N. Delaware Ave to pay the legal bill.

Rodgers made all his mortgage payments on time, but Wells decided out of the blue that he had to carry insurance for the full replacement value of his home -- $1 million -- and started to charge him an extra $500 a month in premiums. When Rodgers sent a formal letter to the lender questioning this, they did not answer in good time, so a court awarded him $1,000 in damages, which Wells wouldn't pay. So the court is allowing him to sell the contents of the lender's office to make good on the bill.

Hoo-ah!

"It's a completely unreasonable demand," says Irv Ackelsberg, a mortgage expert at the Philadelphia law firm Langer, Grogan & Diver. "Their interest is in protecting their mortgage, not ensuring that the house is rebuilt."

Rodgers' next step put him at some risk, he concedes now. He refused to renew the higher-cost policy. Instead, Wells Fargo bought him so-called forced-placement insurance - a policy that typically costs much more than ordinary coverage and only protects the mortgage-holder's interests.

But he fought back with his suit under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). Last month, Wells Fargo sent him more than $1,000, and Menke says it intended to fully satisfy the judgment. "We had considered this matter closed," he says.

What about Rodgers' four-page letter demanding answers about how much Wells is trying to charge him - charges that have added $500 a month to his statement?

Menke says Wells Fargo sent a written response "within the last month." As of Monday, Rodgers hadn't seen it.

Phila. homeowner wins judgment against Wells Fargo over mortgage fees
 


Help Wanted ad of the day: "Censorship Executive," Dubai

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 12:38 PM PST

Out of a job? Do you "work well under pressure"? Here's an interesting job opening in Dubai, UAE. (via @mayousef)

Excellent sushi commercial

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 01:13 PM PST

[Video Link] (thanks, Vince Fogerty)

UPDATE: Steven Leckart alerts us to the fact that this commercial was directed by Daisuke Izumi. Lisa Katayama wrote about him here on Tokyomango, and here are a couple of other wonderful spots he created: one, two.

Ecuador: court rules Chevron guilty of polluting the Amazon, fines oil giant $8 billion

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 12:15 PM PST

Mike Gaworecki of Rainforest Action Network tells BB:
An Ecuadorian court just found Chevron guilty of polluting the Amazon with over 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste. Chevron has been ordered to pay $8 billion to clean up its oil contamination and restore human rights for the 30,000 affected peoples. This is an unprecedented moment for corporate accountability. Here's the joint statement by Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch. Here's the LA Times/Reuters piece. Here's a blog post that I've just put up on RAN's Understory blog.

Photo (more here), at top: A hand covered in crude from one of the hundreds of open toxic pits Chevron (formerly Texaco) abandoned in the Ecuadorean Amazon rainforest near Lago Agrio.
Photo, below: Cofan Indigenous leader Emergildo Criollo smell the petroleum contaminated river hear his home in the Amazon rainforest. The Cofán people have suffered numerous health and environmental problems due to oil production on their lands began by Texaco (now Chevron) in the late 1960s. Now the water is polluted, crops don't grow, and new illnesses and cancer have been introduced.

(Caroline Bennett / Rainforest Action Network)



In-browser genetic algorithm for evolving a car

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 02:03 AM PST


BoxCar 2D is a genetic algorithm program that runs in your browser to evolve a car that's capable of overcoming various obstacles in its path. It's hypnotic to watch as it progresses from its first stumbling attempts to something quite advanced, and it's hard not to root for the little guy as he finds his way in and out of various pitfalls and local maxima.

BoxCar 2D (via Kottke)

 


Global Pillow Fights: Apocalypse Down (a BB big photo gallery)

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 12:41 PM PST


(REUTERS/Susana Vera) Revelers take part in a pillow fight outside Madrid's Royal Palace February 14, 2011. The pillow fight was a flash mob event organised by "MadridMobs" with the only rules being to have fun and clean up after yourself. By the way, if you want to invite someone to a "pillow fight" in Madrid, the phrase is "guerra de almohadas." Here's more about pillow fight flash mobs, and apparently there is a very large global smackdown planned for April, 2011. Oh, and here is a splendid flickr set of yesterday's pillow fight in San Francisco, plus video, by Boing Boing reader Bhautik Joshi.


More photos from around the world, this year and in pillow fight fests of years past, below.




People fight with pillows during the second International Pillow Fighting Day in the center of Budapest, on March 22, 2008. (REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh)


Revelers enjoy a massive pillow fight during the second International Pillow Fighting Day in Union Square, New York March 22, 2008. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)





Around 400 people fight with pillows during a world record attempt in pillow fighting in Stuttgart April 8, 2006. The participants failed to make a new world record for the most people taking part simultaneously in a pillow fight. (REUTERS/Michaela Rehle)


Revelers take part in an outdoor urban pillow fight in Toronto, in 2008. (Mark Blinch / Reuters)




Pillow fighters battle in Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome April 27, 2008. Hundreds of people turned up to join the massive pillow fight. (REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi)




People fight with pillows during the second International Pillow Fighting Day in the centre of Budapest March 22, 2008. (REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh)



Participants take part in a pillow fight event during water festival at Port Dickson, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Kuala Lumpur April 16, 2006. (REUTERS/Zainal Abd Halim)


Students from South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand attempt to break the world record for the biggest pillow fight. Students from South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand attempt to break the world record for the biggest pillow fight at the University grounds in Johannesburg September 28,2004. They fell well short of the current record of 2500, with only 806 showing up for the event. (REUTERS/ Juda Ngwenya)


Pillow fighters battle in Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome April 27, 2008. Hundreds of people turned up to join the massive pillow fight. (REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi)


Revelers enjoy a massive pillow fight during the second International Pillow Fighting Day in Union Square, New York March 22, 2008. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

Make mine hibiscus

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 11:45 AM PST

I can think of a lot of reasons why New York City rules, and today there's one more: Soda Party! Anton Nocito, the proprietor of Brooklyn's P&H Soda Co., will cater your birthday party, wedding or other event with hand-made sodas from his own artisanal syrups, in ginger, hibiscus, lime and cream flavors. (He offers seasonal specials as well, and plans to add more flavors to the permanent lineup.) Nocito also hosts soda-making/history classes; there's one this week at The Brooklyn Kitchen. The Food Curated blog recently visited with Nocito, a guy who looks like he absolutely loves his work.

P&H Soda Co: Refreshing All Natural Syrups for Soda Lovers from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

Radiohead's new album, King of Limbs, ready for download Feb. 19

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 12:24 PM PST

TKOLPackshot.jpg

Who has five thumbs and is totally ecstatic about the new Radiohead record due out this week? This blogger. Hey, don't judge on the thumbs part. So you don't get to pay what you want like with the last Radiohead record, but I love how they're managing this: $9 for MP3s and $14 for higher-quality WAVs. "The King of Limbs" will also be available in a format the band is calling a "newspaper album"—a CD, two vinyl discs, and various arty ephemera. That bundle costs $50, and will ship on May 9 (if you buy it, you can also download the digital files on Saturday, so you don't have to wait to hear the tunes). Some additional thoughts on the "newspaper album" bit here.

Radiohead: The King of Limbs.

Video expose of towing company scam

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 11:14 AM PST


[Video Link] A couple of creeps -- Vincent Cardinalli, 67, and his son Paul Greer, 33 -- who ran a towing scam involving 2,000 small claims lawsuits, dozens of counts of fraud, perjury, and extortion were recently put behind bars.

From the Morgan Hill Times:

Though Cardinalli and Greer hadn't towed a car in years - they operated separate companies - they were awarded $232,000 in judgments over an 18-month period ending in August 2006. Those awards represented 111 cases - less than a quarter of the cases they filed in the Santa Clara County. And when defendants didn't pay, the duo marshaled the power and blessings of the small claims court to raid bank accounts, garnish paychecks and arrest elusive defendants.

It turns out the tow truck drivers appear to have been in cahoots with a San Jose court commissioner, Gregory Saldivar.

I never paid much attention to towing companies until I read Tom Wolfe's novel A Man in Full, which has a bit about a hapless fellow who gets into a conflict with a jackass tow truck operator and ends up in jail. Ever since, I've noticed quite a few stories in the news involving shady tow truck companies.

(Via Cockerham)

Previous

• Fighting a crooked tow truck company and winning

• Woman takes revenge on tow truck driver

• Tow truck driver charged with killing car owner

• Boing Boing: Tow Truck Drivers Push Cars into Tow-Away Zone then hold cars for ransom

• Tian's car vandalized shortly after capturing crooked tow truck driver on camera

• News report on crooked tow truck companies

• Tow truck hauls away car with 85-year-old man inside, leaves him in sub-zero weather

• Cracking down on predatory tow truck companies

• Damage-causing tow truck driver caught on camera

AI vs. IQ: IBM's Watson takes on the meatbags on Jeopardy

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 11:04 AM PST

This week on "Jeopardy!," various champions of the popular television game show face off against the new IBM computer, Watson, which was developed to compete in human brain games. It's not a supercomputer, per se--some TV show hosts and bloggers have misidentified it as such--but it is a very interesting application of AI.

Over at PBS NewsHour, science correspondent Miles O'Brien did a fun piece where he challenged the machine to a "Jeopardy!" duel. The segment aired last night, and is embedded above (video link / transcript). As an aside, the piece includes often-Boinged personalities Marvin Minsky and Ray Kurzweil, and as a bonus, includes some wonderful old sci-fi film clips (can you ID them all?)

Below, watch Miles, Watson and David Gondek (one of Watson's creators at IBM) do battle over "unusual animal phobias, presidential tongue twisters and laundry detergent brand names." (video link). I don't want to spoil too much for you, but: Miles is a smart guy, and Watson pummeled him. It ends in a sad, sad zero on one of their scorecards.

If you've read this far, you'll also want to watch this NOVA feature on "The Smartest Machine on Earth." And you may want to revisit this excellent Boing Boing post last week from guestblogger Bob Harris on the science behind Watson's silicon brains.


Night two of the man-vs-machine challenge airs tonight on Jeopardy.

Canadian copyright collecting society uses lies to pit creators against schools

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 10:47 AM PST

Access Copyright, which collects license fees from libraries and schools on behalf of Canadian creators, has produced a shameful piece of FUD regarding Canada's proposed copyright law, Bill C-32, and its provisions on education.

Canada's fair dealing (analogous to US fair use) allows certain people to make brief quotations without permission. Journalists and critics are among these protected users. Educators are not. This means that it's not legal for teachers to make brief quotes in handouts or online materials. For example, teachers need permission to include a brief quotation on an exam, or to copy a portion of a painting for study in an art class.

Under the new exemption proposed in C-32, teachers would join journalists and critics as one of the protected groups who can make brief quotes (provided such quotes don't comprise a "significant" portion of the work) for a narrow set of purposes. This is pretty commonsensical -- not least because teachers have been doing this forever, and every writer and artist learned her or his craft from teachers who made use of this facility, legal or not.

But a few multinational publishers -- who've opposed every kind of fair dealing in various forums all over the world -- have convinced creators that this new rule will allow classrooms to make wholesale copies of their work without compensation. And now Access Copyright -- who would love to charge nonsensical license fees for inconsequential copying -- are leading the charge in driving a wedge between creators and educators and kids.

Embarrassingly, Access Copyright funds this activity with funds collected on my behalf. For the record, I do not approve of this use of my money, and I'm sad and furious that these people are attacking Canada's schools and misleading Canadian creators in my name.

Canadian Writers Speak Out on Copyright

No iBooks for jailbroken iPhones?

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 10:44 AM PST

Jailbreak your iPhone, lose the ability to read your iBooks. [Ars]

Brazilian telcoms regulator raids, confiscates and fines over open WiFi

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:29 PM PST

The latest in a series of reversals from Brazil's new government is an attack on open WiFi. The Brazilian telcoms regulator claims that it is empowered to raid the homes of people with open WiFi networks and seize their routers and then issue hefty fines. This is part of a general series of attacks on sharing and openness in Brazil, including attacks on free content and open culture -- a heartbreaking turn from a nation that has led the world in respect for the open Internet, shared culture, and freedom for most of the century.
On January 27 , Anatel (Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency), the regulatory agency responsible for regulating, executing and supervising the telecommunications sector, seized equipment and fined an internet user R$ 3,000 (approximately $ 1,810 USD) for sharing his wifi connection with neighbors in the city of Teresina, Piauí state (Northeast of Brazil). [GV note: one of the poorest states in Brazil.]
Brazil: Criminalization of Sharing Internet via Wifi (Thanks, Gmoke, via Submitterator!)

(Image: Anatel, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from hapoptosis's photostream)

 


Outsider cinema: Neil Breen, Vegas real estate magnate turned sci fi auteur

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 10:45 AM PST

[I Am Here....Now (trailer) from Cinefamily]

Hadrian Belove of the Los Angeles-based cult cinema society Cinefamily shares the totally wack video above with Boing Boing, and explains:

iamherenow_200_270.jpg One of our in-house guys cut a really hilarious trailer for Neil Breen's latest crazy fucking masterpiece of accidental weirdness. The trailer itself is hilarious. If you don't know him, writer/director/actor/caterer Neil Breen is a millionaire real estate agent in Las Vegas who self produces these indescribable movies, casting his friends from the biz...total outsider madness. This guy is so different he has four dots in his ellipses.
I'm getting a The Room meets Birdemic vibe here. But with more chicks and messianic aliens.

In "I am Here.... Now" (note the four dots!), Breen plays


A messianic alien Being angered at the greed and corruption of the human species, particularly our lack of renewable energy and environmental consciousness -- oh, and business-man crucifixions and time-stopped gang wars..and...well, as Neil put it himself, "This thought-provoking supernatural film is filled with surprising mystical metaphors, exciting twists....and a stunning dramatic conclusion."

Video link, more on Cinefamily's screening this Saturday in Los Angeles, and more on Breen.

"He'll be here in person on Saturday to answer all of our questions," adds Hadrian. "And we'll have some."


(I believe they're planning to film the Q&A, and if so, we'll post here on Boing Boing for those who can't make it to the event in person.)

Small Romanian town's major industry is online fraud

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 09:17 AM PST

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee's Wired feature "How a Remote Town in Romania Has Become Cybercrime Central" tells the curious story of Râmnicu Vâlcea, a tiny Romanian town with the nickname of "Hackerville," though most of the cybercrooks who live in this mosseisley aren't really hackers -- they're phishers and fraudsters and launderers and bagmen.

Bhattacharjee paints a picture of a town that specialized in one weird, creative industry due to mysterious forces, the same way that, say, Hollywood became the center of filmmaking. Someone had modest success with online fraud in Râmnicu Vâlcea, and so his friends tried their hands at it, and expertise began to accumulate, until this remote town became a weird anomaly of Western Union outlets and Mercedes dealerships.

Bhattacharjee's contacts -- some local cybercops, a dour and uncommunicative crime boss -- aren't able to shed more light on the cause of Râmnicu Vâlcea's odd specialization, but between them, they paint a vivid portrait of a strange, Hammetesque burg where crime is the local business, and business is good.

Driving past a block of low-rise buildings with neatly trimmed hedges, Stoica notes a couple of apartments owned by people currently under investigation. "I don't know if the people of Râmnicu Vâlcea are too smart or too stupid," Stoica says grimly. "They talk a lot to each other. One guy learns the job from another. They ask their high school friends: 'Hey, do you want to make some money? I want to use you as an arrow.' Then the arrow learns to do the scams himself."

It's not so different from the forces that turn a neighborhood into, say, New York's fashion district or the aerospace hub in southern California. "To the extent that some expertise is required, friends and family members of the original entrepreneurs are more likely to have access to those resources than would-be criminals in an isolated location," says Michael Macy, a Cornell University sociologist who studies social networks. "There may also be local political resources that provide a degree of protection."

Online thievery as a ticket to the good life spread from the early pioneers to scores of young men, infecting Râmnicu Vâlcea's social fabric. The con artists were the ones with the nice cars and fancy clothes--the local kids made good. And just as in Silicon Valley, the clustering of operations in one place made it that much easier for more to get started. "There's a high concentration of people offering the kinds of services you need to build a criminal scheme," says Gary Dickson, an FBI agent who worked in Bucharest from 2005 to 2010. "If your specialty is auction frauds, you can find a money pick-up guy. If you're a money pick-up guy, you can find a buyer for your services."

How a Remote Town in Romania Has Become Cybercrime Central

(Image: Nick Waplington/Wired)

 


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