The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Free dial-up ISP for Libyans
- Saif Gadaffhi, plagiarist - UPDATED
- Google App to help locate people in Christchurch quake - UPDATED
- Overcome information overload by trusting redundancy
- Gadaffhi Junior's PhD celebrates "soft power," democracy
- Realtime analysis of Libya tweets
- EFF takes on trademarkers of term "Urban Homestead"
- Metaphotos of landmarks made from hundreds of superimposed tourist snaps
- Materials, Structures, Standards
- Libya's UN mission asks world to defend Libyans from Gadaffi
- Operation "Libya White Fax"
- Music download analysis reveals mood of Bahrain 'Triumphant,' 'Warlike,' 'Metal'
- Rheingold U: higher ed for happy mutants
- Iran: crackdown on anti-government protesters grows more violent
- WTF cartoon: I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You
- Mystery behind two Libyan fighter jets landing in Malta, revealed
- Pakistan: American arrested after shootings worked for CIA
- Report: military aircraft are firing at protestors in Libya
- Coffee Common Launches
- Anti-government protests around the world (big photo gallery)
- Armed Services Edition books: abridgements and pocket-editions for doughboys
- Fgsfds.ly
- Take Me to Jamaica -- infectiously fun mento compilation revels in ska/reggae's roots
| Posted: 22 Feb 2011 03:55 AM PST  XS4ALL, a fantastic, hacker-friendly ISP in the Netherlands, has thrown open all its modem lines for free use by people in Libya when and if their network access gets blocked by the government. DPCosta sez, "It's expensive (international call), but can be very handy in an emergency. The number is +31205350535 and the username/password are xs4all." XS4all biedt Libiërs internet/XS4ALL provides Internet Libyans (Thanks, DPCosta, via Submitterator) |
| Saif Gadaffhi, plagiarist - UPDATED Posted: 22 Feb 2011 03:25 AM PST Saif Gadaffhi's not just the scion of a lunatic dictatorial legacy, and not just the ironic recipient of a PhD from the London School of Economics in 'The Role of Civil Society in the Democratisation of Global Governance Institutions' -- he's also a plagiarist! An anonymous source at the LSE sez, "There appears to be some *at least* minor plagiarism in this thesis. If you look at the bottom of p45 there is a passage that goes: 'The expansions of the IMF's membership, together with the changes in the world economy, have required the IMF to adapt in a variety of ways to continue serving its purposes effectively'. If you plug this sentence into Google you get a link to the IMF Wikipedia page. I caught this within 60 seconds of opening the thesis. There's one more I found a page later. I tried twice with a hit rate of two out of two. Readers may want to look for more. My impression is the thesis is generally OK - the plagiarism may only be limited to boilerplate factoid stuff like this on the IMF. But it would be good to alert readers to comb through it using Google." Consider yourselves alerted.
Update: Here we are, a Wiki to track instances of plagiarism in Junior's homework (Tx, Wheezer!) |
| Google App to help locate people in Christchurch quake - UPDATED Posted: 22 Feb 2011 02:14 AM PST The simple tool above provides a low-tech bodge to help people locate missing friends and family in Christchurch following today's terrible earthquake. In every disaster, those on the outside all worry about our loved ones and those within all want to assuage the worries of their friends away. Update: Some more tools for people in Christchurch and their loved ones: * canterburyearthquake.govt.nz (information resource) (Thanks, @Tobiasopdenbrou)
Person Finder: Christchurch Earthquake, February 2011 (Thanks, imorgan73, via Submitterator!) |
| Overcome information overload by trusting redundancy Posted: 22 Feb 2011 01:36 AM PST My latest Guardian column, "Information overload? Time to relax then," describes a technique for overcoming "information overload" by letting go of the idea that if you overlook something in your inbox, RSS reader, or other feed that it'll disappear forever. The faster your feeds get, the more the good stuff gets repeated -- trust the redundancy and embrace non-deterministic information consumption! Information overload? Time to relax then (Image: Web 2.0 icons, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from zipckr's photostream) |
| Gadaffhi Junior's PhD celebrates "soft power," democracy Posted: 21 Feb 2011 11:43 PM PST Saif Gadaffhi, son of Muammar, deliverer of speeches in which he pledges to hold dictatorial power until he has expended his last bullet, did his PhD at the London School of Economics on "THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE DEMOCRATISATION OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS: From 'Soft Power' to Collective Decision-Making?" "THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE DEMOCRATISATION OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS: From 'Soft Power' to Collective Decision-Making? (PDF) Is this Irony or Absurdity?: Saif al-Islam Al Qadhafi's Disseration Saif al-Islam Gaddafi: LSE-educated man the west can no longer deal with |
| Realtime analysis of Libya tweets Posted: 21 Feb 2011 10:37 PM PST  Trendsmap's Libya page is a real-time dashboard for all the media emerging from the Libyan uprising, with handy charts showing which subtopics are rising and falling (e.g., Venezuela's down, Tripoli is peaking). Libya Trends - Trendsmap (Thanks, Bufferout, via Submitterator!) |
| EFF takes on trademarkers of term "Urban Homestead" Posted: 21 Feb 2011 06:20 PM PST The Dervaes Family of Pasadena trademarked the terms "Urban Homestead" and Urban Homesteading" and then sent DCMA takedown notices to Google and Facebook, which resulted in the shut down of many Facebook pages. The EFF has stepped in to represent the publisher and authors of the book Urban Homesteading, who have been harmed by the Dervaes' accusations. Today, the EFF's Corynne McSherry, Intellectual Property Director at EFF, wrote the following commentary: Riding the Fences of the "Urban Homestead": Trademark Complaints and Misinformation Lead to Improper Takedowns Previously: |
| Metaphotos of landmarks made from hundreds of superimposed tourist snaps Posted: 21 Feb 2011 03:26 AM PST  Swiss artist Corinne Vionnet plunders online image searches for hundreds of similar tourist shots of the same landmarks, then layers them on top of one another to create metaportraits of well-known buildings. Hundreds of Tourist Photos Weaved into One (18 total) (via Neatorama) |
| Materials, Structures, Standards Posted: 21 Feb 2011 01:13 PM PST  This book, also known as MSS, is an outstanding work of architecture reference. It is 264 pages of impeccably drafted architectural and design elements with a wonderfully accessible style. It is full of annotated scale drawings designed to convey as much information as possible using few words. I've used this book for the past two years in my side job designing theatrical scenery. Whenever I need to know how high a hand rail should be, or how deep a chair should be, this book is my first stop. If I need to know how long an average adult male's torso is, or how high the surface of a counter should be, MSS sits right on my desk. MSS has a depth of visual information broken up into six chapters: The "Measuring and Drawing" section includes information about drafting standards and techniques. "Proportion and Form" includes information on human scale, basic design and residential spaces. "Codes and Guidelines" is basically a code/accessibility primer. The "Systems and Components" chapter covers a wide range of component interactions (the sections on doors, windows and stairs have been very useful to me). "Characteristics of Materials" discusses the characteristics of wood, masonry, metals and more with lots of pictures and tables. Lastly, "Compendium" is an interesting guide to historical architecture and architectural elements. MSS puts an enormous amount of useful information in a small, easy to read reference book. Information is easy to find because the drawings are large and are easily spotted while skimming through its pages. I recommend it as a desktop companion for anyone who occasionally dabbles in architecture or interfaces with architects. --Dave Seltzer Materials, Standards, Structures: All the Details Architects Need to Know But Can Never Find
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| Libya's UN mission asks world to defend Libyans from Gadaffi Posted: 21 Feb 2011 11:28 AM PST Libya's UN ambassadors have joined the ranks of Libyan diplomats around the world to denounce Gadhafi's brutal crackdown on the popular uprising across the country. The entire Libyan UN diplomatic has appealed to the Security Council to defend their countrymen from the crackdown. Libya's UN ambassadors are calling for leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi to step down. (Image: Colonel Gadaffi is a great leader!, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from quinnanya's photostream) |
| Posted: 21 Feb 2011 11:04 AM PST  After observing the growing unrest and correspondingly violent crackdown in Libya, a group of hackers conceived and launched Operation Libya White Fax: while the internet and data connections are being throttled, cut off and censored, phone lines are still open, and fax machines are still working. So, with a list of numbers that have fax machines on the other end, and one fax document packed with timely info, time-sensitive information on how to route around censorship can get to people inside Libya. The information document is online [PDF mirror] and so is the |
| Music download analysis reveals mood of Bahrain 'Triumphant,' 'Warlike,' 'Metal' Posted: 21 Feb 2011 10:54 AM PST  "The most popular song in Bahrain within the past hour or so according to Last.fm is Fates Warning's 'The Ivory Gate of Dreams pt. 3,' a heavy metal song that appears quite indicative of the mood in that country." Listen below, or you can buy it on Amazon, if you like. (thanks, Eliot van Buskirk!) |
| Rheingold U: higher ed for happy mutants Posted: 21 Feb 2011 10:32 AM PST Howard Rheingold sez, "Rheingold U. is a totally online learning community, offering courses that usually run for five weeks, with five live sessions and ongoing asynchronous discussions through forums, blogs, wikis, mindmaps, and social bookmarks. In my thirty years of experience online and my six years teaching students face to face and online at University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, I've learned that magic can happen when a skilled facilitator works collaboratively with a group of motivated students. The first course, 'Introduction to Mind Amplifiers,' ran in two sessions in January, February, and March, 2011. Live sessions include streaming audio and video from me and from students, shared text chat and whiteboard, and my ability to push slides and lead tours of websites. Future classes will cover advanced use of personal knowledge tools, social media for educators, participatory media/collective action, social media issues, introduction to cooperation studies, network and social network literacy, social media literacies, attention skills in an always-on world." |
| Iran: crackdown on anti-government protesters grows more violent Posted: 21 Feb 2011 10:22 AM PST In Iran, tens of thousands of opposition demonstrators took to the streets Sunday calling for the end to the Islamic Republic's rule. "In response, the government unleashed what witnesses said was an extraordinary number of security forces to violently battle the crowds. Witnesses said mobs of anti-riot police and plainclothes Basij militia lined the streets and on several occasions fired directly into the crowd and beat protesters with steel batons. In one neighborhood, the Basij took over a commercial building and dropped tear gas canisters from the roof onto the protesters, witnesses said." (Wall Street Journal, thanks @cyrus) |
| WTF cartoon: I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You Posted: 21 Feb 2011 10:26 AM PST Dean spotted this remarkable 1932 Max Fleisher cartoon in which Betty Boop and pals are menaced by African savages, who morph into Louis Armstrong and members of his band. |
| Mystery behind two Libyan fighter jets landing in Malta, revealed Posted: 21 Feb 2011 10:24 AM PST  AP reports that two Libyan air force jets arrived in Malta today. Military officials say their pilots have asked for political asylum amid a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters in Libya, in which air force pilots were ordered to fire on civilian demonstrators (see previous BB post). Apparently, these pilots refused to follow those orders. Above: a Libyan airforce pilot walks next to his Mirage F1 fighter jet after landing at Malta International Airport outside Valletta today.
Two Libyan fighter jets and two civilian helicopters landed unexpectedly. The office of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said at the time it was not clear whether the two fighter pilots intended to ask for asylum—they later did. They initially had asked to refuel.
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| Pakistan: American arrested after shootings worked for CIA Posted: 21 Feb 2011 10:30 AM PST  From The New York Times: "The American arrested in Pakistan after shooting two men at a crowded traffic stop was part of a covert, C.I.A.-led team of operatives conducting surveillance on militant groups deep inside the country, according to American government officials." At the request of the U.S. government, the Times previously held the fact that he was CIA. Only after the UK's Guardian newspaper published this fact, and the White House gave the Times the okay, did the above-linked details go live at the Times.
(REUTERS/Athar Hussain, above; Mohsin Raza, below) |
| Report: military aircraft are firing at protestors in Libya Posted: 21 Feb 2011 10:25 AM PST Reuters, on the violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrators in Libya: "Military aircraft fired live ammunition at crowds of anti-government protesters in Tripoli, Al Jazeera television said on Monday." UPDATE: Two air force pilots have apparently defected to Malta, rather than follow orders to fire on civilians. |
| Posted: 21 Feb 2011 02:46 PM PST  (photos by Kyle Glanville) I take my coffee pretty seriously. So the idea of some of the most respected names in the coffee business—who, under normal circumstances, consider one another competition—coming together to work towards a common goal is very interesting to me. As a consumer I'm always trying to get my hands on really delicious coffee. As an enthusiast, I'm constantly annoying my local baristas with questions. As an advocate—well, my advocacy work to date has consisted mostly of caffeinated rants to friends. But a few months ago, the opportunity to explore that a little deeper presented itself.
In December, my friend Stephen Morrissey, who works at Intelligentsia, called with a crazy idea. In 2010, they provided coffee services for the TED conference in hopes of spreading the word about really good coffee. Stephen also happened to be the 2008 world barista champ; he knows about really good coffee. His idea for this year: rather than just serving coffee, the goal would be education. Rather than employees of a single company, the bars would be staffed by some of the best baristas in the business from all around the world. Rather than beans from one roaster, various skilled and talented roasters would be contributing the best they had to offer. This wouldn't be advertising for a single company, it would be advertising for coffee itself. But does anyone really need to learn about something as ubiquitous as coffee? And would something this weird even be possible? Turns out the short answer to both questions is yes.
In fact, the whole reason something this weird needs to exist is to help with that education. It's worth noting that coffee—at just about every level, from farm to cup—is a mystery to most of the millions who consume it each day. For example: coffee grows on a tree and is the product of a cherry. Each cherry yields two "beans", the seed of the fruit. For the best farms, each tree, spaced meters apart, will yield only a pound of roasted, defect-free and delicious coffee. After the coffee is planted and matures, it endures a vast and complex chain of custody during which any weak link can destroy all the intrinsic qualities the coffee has to offer. Only the smallest fraction of coffee grown on the planet can be considered "specialty quality," and few people have the pleasure of ever tasting it.
But that's just scratching the surface. We're hoping to dig in much deeper. Who's we? When Stephen first told me about this crazy idea, he also explained that he was pulling together an all-star team, inlcuding Kyle Glanville, Brent Fortune, Peter Giuliano and Nicholas Cho— all with the shared goal of producing an amazing coffee experience for TED 2011.  And all would be associated not with any single coffee company, but rather the top names in the business all working together to show off not just how amazing coffee could actually be, and why it's important for people to know what happens with it before it reaches their cup. At the TED event, yes, but also well beyond after that to broader audiences. Stephen asked me to join them, and before long Tim Williams, Brian Jones and Alex Bogusky would get roped in as well. Yes, that Alex Bogusky. We knew what we wanted to do, but not what we wanted to call it. Coincidentally, Alex had just announced the launch of Common, a new collaborative brand that would be rethinking capitalism and injecting some social responsibility. This made way too much sense, and almost immediately Coffee Common was born.
Just this weekend, coffeecommon.com was launched and the coffees we'll be presenting at TED next week have been finalized. For the few of you readers who will be attending TED in person, some of the top baristas in the world will be on hand to expertly prepare one of the following:
Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters: Abangakurushwa, Rwanda
For everyone else, we're going to be putting up a ton of information, photos and videos, on the site over the coming days, as well as after TED. We're looking at this as the first of many awesome steps Common Coffee will be taking. I'll be guest-blogging about it here from time to time as well. We've got some amazing stuff planned. I am confident that we're about to change everything you think you know about coffee. For the better. It's going to be awesome.
(photos by Kyle Glanville) |
| Anti-government protests around the world (big photo gallery) Posted: 21 Feb 2011 10:02 AM PST  A girl attends Friday prayers in front of an army tank in Tahrir Square. Egyptians held a nationwide "Victory March" on Friday to celebrate the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule one week ago, to protect the revolution and to remind new military rulers of the power of the street. Hundreds of thousands joined the rallies, which are also a memorial to the 365 people who died in the 18-day uprising, with many Egyptians expressing their intention to guard their newly-won prospect of democracy. (REUTERS/Suhaib Salem)
A demonstrator shows his T-shirt that features the star and crescent symbol and reads "Yes We Can" during a protest against the regime of Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi outside the Libyan Embassy in Berlin, February 21, 2011. (REUTERS/Thomas Peter) More photos follow, from Algeria, Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, and other nations throughout Africa and the Middle East where the "revolution virus" is spreading.
A demonstrator spits at a picture of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi during protests outside the Libyan Embassy in London February 20, 2011. Libyans protesting against Muammar Gaddafi's rule appeared to control the streets of Benghazi on Sunday despite the security forces killing dozens in the bloodiest of multiple revolts now rocking the Arab world. (REUTERS/Luke MacGregor)
A nurse smashes a picture of Bahraini Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa at Salmaniya hospital in Manama February 20, 2011. Thousands of anti-government protesters camped overnight in a Manama square that has come to symbolise their cause, as calm returned ahead of talks on Sunday between the opposition and the Bahraini crown prince. (REUTERS/Caren Firouz)
A boy watches as pro-democracy supporters gather in Tahrir Square in Cairo February 18, 2011. Egyptians held a nationwide "Victory March" on Friday to celebrate the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule one week ago, to protect the revolution and to remind new military rulers of the power of the street. Hundreds of thousands joined the rallies, which are also a memorial to the 365 people who died in the 18-day uprising, with many Egyptians expressing their intention to guard their newly-won prospect of democracy. (REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany)
Protesters set fire to tires as they block a road in Abobo, Abidjan February 19, 2011. Ivorian security forces fired live bullets and teargas on Saturday to disperse protesters in Abidjan calling for incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo to step down, wounding at least one of them, witnesses said. His rival, Alassane Ouattara, has called for Egypt-style mass protests to oust Gbagbo, who has refused to step down as leader of the world's top cocoa grower after a Nov. 28 presidential election that U.N.-certified results show Ouattara won. (REUTERS/Luc Gnago)
Staff members of the NRT satellite channel and security personnel inspect the channel's damaged television station in Sulaimaniya, 260 km (160 miles) northeast of Baghdad February 20, 2011. Gunmen raided and set fire to the television station in northern Iraq on Sunday, shutting down broadcasts of protests inspired by unrest around the Arab world, station and government officials said. (REUTERS)
An anti-government protester holding flowers shouts slogans in front of riot policemen during a demonstration in Algier February 19, 2011. Algerian police in riot gear on Saturday surrounded about 500 protesters trying to stage a march through the capital inspired by uprisings in other parts of the Arab world in defiance of a ban. (REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra)
Nurses sit on gurneys as they wait for injured people at the Suleimanieh Central hospital in Manama February 18, 2011. Bahraini security forces shot at protesters near Pearl Square on Friday and wounded at least 23, a former Shi'ite lawmaker said, a day after police forcibly cleared a protest camp from the traffic circle in Manama. (REUTERS/Caren Firouz)
A protester cries as he reaches Pearl Square in the Bahraini capital of Manama February 19, 2011. Bahraini riot police retreated from Pearl Square on Saturday and thousands of anti-government protesters streamed back into their former stronghold in Manama. Crowds had approached Pearl Square from different directions. They stood facing riot police for half an hour. All of a sudden police ran to their buses and retreated. (REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed)
Veiled women, who are a part of the Moroccan Islamists group, hold signs during a protest demanding broad political reforms in Rabat February 20, 2011. Thousands of protesters gathered in the Moroccan capital on Sunday to demand that King Mohammed give up some of his powers and clamp down on government corruption. (REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal)
Egyptians gather round a shrine for the victims of the riots in Tahrir Square in Cairo February 18, 2011. Egyptians held a nationwide "Victory March" on Friday to celebrate the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule one week ago, to protect the revolution and to remind new military rulers of the power of the street. Hundreds of thousands joined the rallies, which are also a memorial to the 365 people who died in the 18-day uprising, with many Egyptians expressing their intention to guard their newly-won prospect of democracy. (REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih)
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| Armed Services Edition books: abridgements and pocket-editions for doughboys Posted: 21 Feb 2011 01:07 PM PST  Literature on the Frontlines: The History of Armed Services Edition Books (Thanks, Enoch_Root, via Submitterator!)
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| Posted: 21 Feb 2011 08:53 AM PST  Saif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and operator of an unhinged Twitter account, gestures as he speaks during an address on state television in Tripoli, in this still image taken from video, February 20, 2011. Saif al-Islam said Sunday the army stood behind his father as a "leader of the battle in Tripoli" and would enforce security at any price. His comments were the first official reaction from the Libyan authorities since the unrest began. Photo: Libyan TV |
| Take Me to Jamaica -- infectiously fun mento compilation revels in ska/reggae's roots Posted: 21 Feb 2011 09:13 AM PST  My three year old loves to sing, and so do I -- and she shares my trick memory for silly lyrics. So every day, I rack my brains for a new ridiculous song to teach to her. Last week, I scored a major hit with Harry Belafonte's Man Piaba, which sent me to Wikipedia to look up Belafonte's life, which in turn sent me to the entry on mento, a Jamaican precursor to ska and reggae. It sounds a lot like calypso, but with horn and rhythm sections I identify with early ska, like the stuff collected on the Trojan box set (another big favorite around our house). The references section in the Wikipedia entry recommended Take Me to Jamaica: Story of Jamaican Mento, a 24-track tour through the early years of recorded mento, featuring Lord Tickler, Lord Composer, Lord Flea, Chin's Calypso Sextet, and a bunch of other artists I'd never heard of but have been enjoying immensely. This stuff has resurfaced plenty in pop culture -- Animaniacs fans will recognize The Monkey Song, which apparently started out life as Lord Messam and His Calysonians's Monkey, and is even more fun in its original incarnation; almost as much fun as the Belafonte standard "Hold 'Im Joe" (performed here by Lord Fly). In fact, if I were to make a tag-cloud of all adjectives that occurred to me while thoroughly enjoying this CD, it would be dominated by the word "fun." Songs like "Names of Funny Places" (by Hubert Porter) and "Let's Play Ring Jamaican Style" are so much fun to listen to and sing along with that they're practically criminal. I love that the world has entire genres of music that I love waiting for me to stumble upon them. Take Me to Jamaica: Story of Jamaican Mento
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First, as explained in more detail in a letter EFF sent today on behalf of three of the targets (Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, authors of The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City, and their publisher, Process Media), the legal claims are baseless. Even assuming the registration is valid - there are reasons to question it -- the term "urban homesteading" is commonly understood to refer to a popular movement and related set of practices. Our clients -- and anyone else -- are free to use it in that descriptive sense, and that is exactly what they did. 
Dabbashi urged the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent mercenaries, weapons and other supplies from reaching Gadhafi and his security forces. 
Enoch_Root sez, "The blog The Art of Manliness has a great post about Armed Services Edition (ASE) books produced during World War II. The idea was to print as many books as cheaply as possible and get them into the hands of GIs for free. There was also the considerations of ruggedness and size for wartime use. The titles range from Plato to contemporary westerns. Perhaps the best part of the article is the poster at the top 'Books cannot be killed by fire' and 'Books Are Weapons In The War of Ideas.'" | You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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