Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

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CWA: Two interesting perspectives on Islam and polygamy

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 09:02 PM PDT

CWA is the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Now in it's 63rd year, the conference brings together scientists, politicians, activists, journalists, artists, and more for a week of fascinating conversations. It's free, and open to the public. Think of CWA as the democratic version of TEDtalks. I'm at the conference all this week and will be posting and tweeting about some of the interesting things that I learn.

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On Tuesday at the Conference on World Affairs, I watched a panel about Sharia Law. I'm indulging my inner cultural anthropologist and trying to attend panels outside my areas of work. (Also, I keep ending up speaking on panels during the same time slot as the science-centric panels I'd like to watch.)

The three speakers—Tricia DeGennaro, a political scientist and mid-east expert with the World Policy Institute; Pakistani geopolitics researcher Azmat Hassan; and Oberlin College Islamic studies professor Mohammad Mahallati—all focused on the aspects of Sharia Law that aren't well-understood or talked about in the West.

Namely, the fact that Sharia Law isn't really one monolithic thing. What the concept of "Sharia" means, what the laws are, who practices it, even whether it's enshrined in civil law at all, or simply followed on a personal household-by-household basis—the speakers said it all varies from place to place and from time period to time period.

In modern Iran, women are stoned to death in the name of Sharia Law. But the same law was responsible for granting women rights that were, in historic times, unprecedented—such as the right to own property. In one place, Sharia Law are government-mandated policies that restrict personal freedom. In another place, Sharia has nothing to with the government, and is about how individuals choose to define their relationship with their god. There's a lot of irony here. And a lot of contradictory beliefs about what Sharia Law is, which, primarily, boil down to differences in local culture and context.

One part of Sharia Law that you're probably familiar with—it allows a Muslim man to have up to four wives. Azmat Hassan and Mohammad Mahallati offered two different ideas of what this law really means. The differences between their interpretations—and between the way most Westerners understand it—are a great example of how diverse Sharia really is.

According to Azmat Hassan, the provision for polygamy is really more of an ethical lesson—almost a non-narrative fable—than a law. Sharia Law says a Muslim man can have four wives, but it comes with conditions. You can have four wives IF you love, care for, and treat them all equally. Up to, and including, having houses for each of them.

The Koran is trying to make a point here, Hassan says, and it's not that having four wives is awesome. Instead, you're to understand that it's impossible to be that fair to multiple spouses at once, and thus, understand why you should only have one. This interpretation is common, he says. In fact, he claims it's a big part of why polygamy isn't particularly popular in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Mahallati came at the polygamy law from a different angle. He talked about the historical context—why the law was written to begin with, and what it probably meant to the people who first read it.

When the Koran gives thumbs up to polygamy, he says, it's in the context of talking about how the community should care for widows and orphans. In a world where it was difficult for a woman to provide for herself—and where there were no formal social programs to fall back on—encouraging financially stable men to protect widows and orphans through marriage made sense.

3D printing with "wood flour"

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 04:17 AM PDT

University of Washington Open3D student Meghan Trainor and her colleagues Juliana Meira do Valle and Kate Lien are experimenting with 3D printing using "wood flour" made from finely ground walnut and pecan shells and wood bark. They're also expanding into 3D printing with iced tea!
A year ago Open3D student Meghan Trainor started doing tests on 3D printing in wood. Later on students Juliana Meira do Valle and Kate Lien took over the experiments and worked to improve the results. The team now 3D print in black walnut shell flour, pecan shell flour, wood bark flour & wood flour. The team uses a powder based 3D printer which is basically a hacked version of a commercial system. In this case the team has used UF glue as a binder. The recipe for 3D printing in wood is to use 4 to 5 parts wood or nut flour and 1 part UF glue. The initial results are intriguing and prove once again that the Open3DP team is really pushing the envelope on hacking and improving 3D printers and 3D printing materials.
3D printing in wood flour
 


Science fiction movie produced in 48 hours

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 04:10 AM PDT

Precision is a great little science fiction short film that was written, shot, scored, and edited in 48 hours as part of a filmmaking challenge. It's an inspiring example of how digital storytelling is changing in the face of new, nimble tools that lower the cost of experimentation and production:

Precision was always going to be restricted by the nature of the 48 hour challenge, very short time to conceive, write, shoot, edit and score! Not to mention the restriction of a prop, title and dialogue that had to be included in whatever we created. We did not let that stop us though and thought ambitious thoughts.

With the 'All the Kings Horses' team assembled we registered for SCI-FI LONDON 2011. When the challenge weekend arrived I went along to the briefing and pulled out from a hat our three restrictions:

Prop: red or green liquid inside a clear bottle with no label

Title: Precision

Dialogue: It is just a glitch in the time continuum, it will sort itself out in a minute. Just hope it won't wipe you out in the mean time.

Paradox Malt - 'Precision' behind the scenes (Thanks, @sizemore!)
 


European Commission wants ISPs and online services to act as copyright cops, snoops and censors

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 03:01 AM PDT

The European Commissioners are meeting today to decide the future of EU copyright policy. French Commissioner Michel Barnier is pushing for a set of control measures aimed at ISPs, web-hosts, social networking services, and related services that would force them to act as private police for the entertainment lobby, who would be able to direct them to spy on and block domains and users without judicial oversight or due process:
After the failure of mass-repression against online file-sharers, these same interest groups are now attempting to put repressive policies at the core of the network. By turning technical intermediaries (access providers, online service providers) into a private copyright police, these intermediaries would then be compelled to censor their networks and services by filtering their users' communications to prevent potential infringements.

Such a reversal of the legal framework would inevitably cause severe harm to fundamental freedoms, and in particular the right to privacy and to freedom of expression. By encouraging the circumvention of judicial authorities in order to set up direct blocking and filtering of the Internet and its services, European decision-makers would be laying the ground for a censorship infrastructure similar to that used for political purposes in authoritarian regimes.

Such a policy would run decisively contrary to our democratic values and the rule of law. It can only be explained by the blindness - if not the laziness - of European policy-makers listening solely to those segments of the entertainment industry whose economic models are still based on controlling copies. The Commission continues for instance to relay industry-originated figures that the U. S. Government Accountability Office has described in a recent report2 as mere fantasy.

European Copyright Law: Collusion for the Control of the Net (Thanks, Jeremie!)

(Image: London riot police, November 2010, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from hozinja's photostream)

 


Haunted Mansion Hitchhiking Ghosts go digital, play high-tech pranks on riders

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 03:48 AM PDT

Inside the Magic has an early look at the latest revision to the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion, where they have replaced the venerable (and wonderful) post-climactic "Hitchhiking Ghosts" scene with a high-tech version. The original used half-silvered mirrors to make it appear as though a ghostly apparition was sitting in your "Doom Buggy" with you as you headed for the offload area; the new version uses extremely clever digital "mirrors" and sensors that allow the ghosts in your cart to interact with you -- swapping heads with you, dancing around in and on your car, and playing other tricks. I always like the original's elegance: a very simple trick, executed so well that it never failed to delight. But the new version has an unabashed technical virtuosity that is unquestionably delightful; the problem, I fear, will come in a few years when this sort of trickery is common in your living room (thanks to Kinect systems and their successors), making this stuff all commonplace. Unless Disney commits to continuously revising and upgrading the digital systems to stay ahead of the household equivalents, I think it'll staledate much faster and more dramatically than the old analog systems.

First Look: New Haunted Mansion animated Hitchhiking Ghost mirror scene effects materialize at Walt Disney World playing pranks on guests (via Neatorama)

 


Augmented reality toys that change pants and personality

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 01:36 AM PDT

London design firm Berg and Japanese ad agency Dentsu have announced a line of augmented reality toys called Suwappu. The little figurines have swappable heads and bodies; depending on how they're configured, they interact differently and draw different environments for themselves in the augmented reality world.

Suwappu is a group of characters that can take lots of different forms. Primarily (or initially), the toys seen in the film - a set of collectible and swappable figures, readable by connected devices, opening up a layer of content. The Suwappu's head signifies his personality, and his pants signify his environment - the app produces content according to its reading of each half.

Beyond these toys, we think Suwappu is a new kind of content platform, with various exciting social, creative and commercial possibilities.

Our project name for this has been Haitsu. Haitsu is the art of hybrid communications, a made-up idea that we find useful. It's a little bit philosophical (the belief that combining advertising, content, media and product is the future of communications), and a little bit practical (looking for interesting hybrid clashes, like analogue and digital). Project Haitsu is part of the Making Future Magic series of collaborations.

Introducing Suwappu! | Dentsu London

 


Recording industry lobbyist appointed head of copyright for European Commission

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 01:29 AM PDT

Maria Martin-Prat, who took a leave from her job at the European Commission to work as Deputy General Counsel and Director of Legal Policy and Regulatory Affairs for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI -- thee international version of the RIAA, CRIA and BPI, though they're all basically the same companies), has returned to the EC to run its copyright unit. While Martin-Prat was enjoying her holiday as a lobbyist for the industry she now regulates, she took a number of extremist copyright positions, including lobbying against the private copying exemption (part of European Fair Dealing), and arguing that it should be illegal to break the DRM on the media you buy, even if you don't violate copyright in doing so.

Christian Engström, Pirate MEP, writes, "Welcome to the European Union, where the big business lobby organizations are calling most of the shots at the Commission, and where citizens are just seen as a nuisance to be ignored. I guess the only real news is that they don't even bother to try to hide it any more."

Two MEPs are openly questioning Martin-Prat's appointment. Liberal Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake and Swedish Pirate Party MEP Christian Engström have written to the European Commission, asking, "Does the Commission not see any problems in recruiting top civil servants from special interest organisations, especially when being put in charge of dossiers directly related to their former employers? If not, why not?

"Does the Commission feel that such an appointment would help to build confidence with the European Parliament and the general public that the Commission can be trusted to handle copyright-related issues in a fair and balanced manner?"

Maria Martin-Prat reported to replace Tilman Lueder as head of unit for copyright at European Commission (via /. and Ars Technica)
 


Floating pig's head or possibly a turtle paralyzes town

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 01:12 AM PDT

The English town of Bridgwater ground to a halt yesterday as a crowd gathered around the Town Bridge to speculate on the nature of a mysterious floating object -- possibly a pig's head, or maybe a turtle -- in the river.
Julie Benson, from Taylors Barbers, said he thought the object was a stone, while Jamie Meakin thought it was a dog.

But the consensus, supported by Adam Brame, Craig Little, Steve Chinn and Lewis Teather was that it was a pig's head.

Some people waited for around two hours and said they did not see the object removed and believe it is still in the river.

Mercury reporter Angela Brennan returned to the scene today and could find no sign of the object.

UPDATED: Mystery object brings town to standstill (Thanks, Wokka, via Submitterator!)

(Image: fresh pig, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from goosegrease's photostream)

Old-school computer company logo t-shirts

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 09:53 PM PDT

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Abandonwear sells t-shirts of old computer-related company logos. According to the site, it's "a history of silicon valley failure written in t-shirts." They're even taking requests! Abandonwear (via @Chris_Carter_)

Prince of Persia chopper dance

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 07:25 PM PDT

Suggested by several Boing Boing readers as a necessary counterpoint to last week's epic Game Deaths video, YouTuber jtd786's "Chopper Dance" -- recorded from Jordan Mechner classic game Prince of Persia -- has a similarly predictable ending.

New Thundercats trailer

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 07:06 PM PDT

Thundercats are on the loose again! (On Cartoon Network, later this year) [TV Guide]

Visualizations of online dating language

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 09:35 PM PDT

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BB readers may remember musician/artist R. Luke DuBois' 2005 song "Billboard," in which he combined nearly 1,000 Top 100 songs into one piece of music. His latest project, "A More Perfect Union," was spawned during several years of online dating. DuBois became fascinated with the language used in the profiles. So he overlaid data from 19 million online dating profiles onto US maps. Turnstyle talked to DuBois about "A More Perfect Union." From Turnstyle:
Looking at the Naughty map (image above), DuBois said that from this image he can tell that no one in Wyoming used "naughty" in their profile, but bigger amounts of women in Colorado used "naughty. In addition, all the purple on the Nice map suggests that both men and women use "nice" in their profile.

Other maps that DuBois puts next to each other include, "Marriage vs. Techno," Dominant vs. Submissive," and "Funny vs. Sarcastic..."

In addition to color-coded maps by gender, he also scanned a Rand-McNally Road Atlas into his computer and replaced the city names with unique words. "Not the word people used the most [in their dating profiles] – but the word that was used uniquely in that place – the word that shows up there more than anywhere else," said DuBois.  The atlas maps are labelled with 20,000 unique words. He rattled off some combinations:

Dallas – "rich"

Houston – "symphony"

Santa Cruz – "liberal"

Atlanta – "God," "company," "coca," "jazz," "protestant"

"19 Million Profiles Later… Online Dating Lingo Tapped and Mapped" (TurnStyle)

"A More Perfect Union" (LukeDubois.com)

Cyril Diaz & His Orchestra's calypso voodoo taboo

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 02:47 PM PDT

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Here's Cyril Diaz & His Orchestra playing Margarita Lecuona's "Tabu," circa 1958. This terrific track, along with three other Diaz tunes from the era, is included on the newly-issued Cyril Diaz & His Orchestra "Voodoo EP" vinyl from Sound Way. If you buy the 10" vinyl for £7.99, you get the MP3s for free. Smart. From Soundway Records:
This four track EP, limited to 1500 copies, sees Soundway head to Trindad for 4 original 1950s instrumental calypso recordings from Cyril Diaz who became renowned for the "rich and smooth tone" of his tenor sax playing. On this EP Soundway presents four of his tracks including the traditional Cuban standard 'Tabu', the Haitian inspired 'Voodoo' and 'Serenal' with it's alternate version 'Chive Soup Merengie' both derived from Trinidad's Latin music tradition; parang.
Cyril Diaz & His Orchestra's "Voodoo EP" (via Dusty Groove America)

Central U.S. prepares for earthquakes

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 02:20 PM PDT

The earthquake risk in the Midwest has always been interesting to me. Both for the obvious self-interest reasons ... and because it feels like such an oddity. There are faults here, but you can't see them from the surface. Huge earthquakes have happened here in the past. But most of us are a lot more worried about preparing for tornadoes. (Quite reasonably, because they happen more often.) The Midwest gets tornadoes. We know what to do. We've been prepped for that kind of disaster our entire lives. But earthquakes? Not so much.

Until now. This is the first year that Americans in the Midwest—and parts of the South—will participate in an earthquake drill. Called the Great Central U.S. Shakeout, it's scheduled for April 28 (April 19 if you're in Indiana). But states are already getting geared up for it. At the Under Indiana blog, David Orr talks about preparedness efforts in his home state. Particularly as it relates to liquefaction—when an earthquake turns once-solid soil into temporary quicksand.

In Indiana, and other states, liquefaction during an earthquake could cause lots and lots of damage. Orr recommended the video above, where a resident of Christchurch, New Zealand cleverly demonstrates how liquefaction happens by pushing a wheelbarrow full of dirt around a bumpy walk.



3D-printed architectural skull ring

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 01:26 PM PDT

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Adelaide, Australia-based designer Duann created this elegant "structural skull ring" that's then made with a 3D printer at Shapeways. According to Duann, "The structure of the skull is reduced to the minimum number of connecting lines to describe the form in a triangulated gestalt manner." It's $30.20 and stainless steel.

Structural Skull Ring (Shapeways)

Freerunning academy in LA

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 10:12 PM PDT

The Tempest Freerunning Academy is a new LA-based gym and training facility for freerunners; it's a kind of huge indoor obstacle course filled with whimsy and potential death: "No matter your age, skill, or athletic level, The Freerunning Academy is a place for you to explore the evolution of movement, increase your fitness level, pioneer an ever-growing sport and meet some amazing people in the process."

Tempest Freerunning Academy (via JWZ)

 


Richard Branson launches Virgin Oceanic: deep-sea exploring submarines

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 02:19 PM PDT

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[ Video link | image: click for large]

Today, Sir Richard Branson, American sailor, pilot and explorer Chris Welsh, and submarine designer Graham Hawkes launched Virgin Oceanic, a project to explore "the last frontiers of our own Blue Planet: the very bottom of our seas." .

The project includes a partnership with Google: "Using their mapping technology, Google hopes to chronicle the dives as they happen and share discoveries, footage and record breaking achievements with the world."

Full launch announcement follows, along with more artist's conceptual images of the submarine and accompanying catamaran. Click each image for large.

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"Virgin Oceanic will expand the reach of human exploration on our planet. By promoting and utilising new technology Virgin Oceanic will aid human kind's ability to explore our Oceans, assist science in understanding our eco system and raise awareness of the challenges facing our Oceans."  Sir Richard Branson April 2011
 

Tuesday 5 April, Newport Beach, CA:  


Sir Richard Branson and explorer Chris Welsh today announced plans to take a solo piloted submarine to the deepest points in each of the world's five oceans - the first time such a feat has ever been attempted.   

More men have walked on the moon than have explored the depths of our planet - many more men.  Virgin Oceanic will see the world's only submarine capable of taking a human being to such extreme depths make five dives over a two-year period, set up to 30 Guinness World Records and, by working with leading scientific institutions, open the eyes of the world to what lies in vast areas of the oceans for the first time in history.
The Virgin Oceanic Submarine and her pilots will travel deeper and explore further than any one in history.


Each dive will be piloted by different commanders with Chris Welsh diving to the Mariana Trench (36,201ft) with Sir Richard as back up pilot, and Sir Richard piloting to the Puerto Rico Trench (28,232ft) - the deepest trench in the Atlantic, which has never been explored before - with Chris Welsh acting as back up.  The Virgin Oceanic sub has the ability to 'fly' underwater for 10km at depth on each of the five dives and to fully explore this unknown environment. 



Five Dives, Five Oceans, Two Years, One Epic Adventure

Mariana Trench                   Pacific Ocean                        11,033m     36,201ft

Puerto Rico Trench             Atlantic Ocean                         8,605m      28,232ft

Diamantina Trench             Indian Ocean                           8,047m      26,401ft

South Sandwich Trench      Southern Ocean                      7,235m      23,737ft

Molloy Deep                        Arctic Ocean                           5,608m      18,399ft



The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration believe that the deepest point of the Mariana Trench is 36,201ft - a depth not yet reached by humankind. Some experts believe that it will be impossible to reach a depth much below the current record of 35,911ft (set by a submersible that didn't have the capability to manoeuvre or explore) because of millions of year's worth of biological 'soup' at the bottom of the trench.  They may well be correct but we simply don't know - with Virgin Oceanic's submarine's capability to explore at the bottom of the trench we aim to find out and, if possible, go deeper.  The Puerto Rican trench is the deepest point in the Atlantic and no one has attempted to explore it before now.
 


The Virgin Oceanic submarine represents a transformational technological advance in submarine economics and performance. The submarine provides the currently unequalled capability to take humans to any depth in the oceans and to truly explore. It utilises the latest in composite technology and a completely unique flying wing to literally fly within the Ocean environment; creatures living here such as dolphins, whales and rays have shown us this winged approach is the best and most elegant way to range the seas. The submarine is many times less expensive to manufacture and operate than any of its less capable counterparts and is in harmony with its environment.


The submarine was originally commissioned by Sir Richard's close friend and fellow adventurer Steve Fossett who had intended to complete the first solo dive to the depths of the Mariana Trench. Sir Richard intends to finish what his friend started and then go on to help explore and unlock the wonders of the Oceans still unknown to humankind or science. 

Sir Richard Branson on the launch of Virgin Oceanic:  "What if I were to tell you about a planet, inhabited by 'intelligent' beings that had, in the 21st Century, physically explored 0% of its deepest points and mapped only 3% of its oceans by unmanned craft, when 70% of that planet's surface was made up of water.  Then I tried to convince you that only 10% of the life forms inhabiting that unknown world, are known to those on the surface - you'd think I'd fallen asleep watching the latest sci-fi blockbuster!  Then you discover that planet is Earth...   

With space long ago reached by man, and commercial spaceflight tantalisingly close, the last great challenge for humans is to reach and explore the depths of our planet's oceans.  The submarine will travel to the deepest trenches in our oceans and will allow its pilot not only to reach these depths but to explore for 10 kilometres on each of the dives.


Virgin Oceanic is working with some of the most eminent scientific institutions in the world to collate data and catalogue life forms that will never have been seen before by human eyes and are unknown to science. The ability to go deep and then explore has been a dream of these great Oceanic Institutes - that dream is now close to becoming reality.     


We are also proud to be partnering with Google.  Using their mapping technology, Google hopes to chronicle the dives as they happen and share discoveries, footage and record breaking achievements with the world.

We may well set a few Guinness World Records while we're at it - up to 30 I believe!  Each dive will be the world's first solo dive to the bottom of the five deepest trenches in the world.  So there's 5 just to start with!  We will discover a whole new world.  A world full of undiscovered species and for those who dream, a world where Spanish galleons have lain unplundered for centuries!"


Chris Welsh:

Sir Richard Branson's partner in the venture and Virgin Oceanic's chief pilot is Chris Welsh, an American sailor, pilot and explorer: "The submarine is a unique design made from 8,000 pounds of carbon fibre and titanium. The pressure at the bottom of the deepest trench is 16,000 PSI or over 1,000 atmospheres - the quartz dome alone is under 13 million pounds of pressure, the weight of three space shuttles. No leak is tolerable; a leak would cut through stainless steel or human flesh and mean certain death. The depth is beyond the capabilities of any other craft, so rescue is impossible. It's like being on the dark side of the moon. Full pressure testing is to be carried out over the coming months and should it fail the mission will obviously have to be re-evaluated.

"Why go? Why not send a robot? Pictures of the top of Everest or, for that matter, the Moon are all interesting - but no substitute for actually going there!  The view from the sub is extraordinary, like a fighter pilot's view. This gives the ability to truly explore. The Virgin Oceanic sub is a game changer for undersea exploration - with the ability to venture anywhere in our Oceans, with a modest mother ship and a fraction of the resources normally needed to explore regions like this."

I've had a personal interest in the oceans and enough understanding of science to appreciate the chance this gives for oceanographers everywhere to learn, examine, and prove theories they have been working on for years. We can do this for them. We've created a unique program of going to all of the institutions and offering our capabilities for all to share. They've told us what to seek out, where to go, and what results will have the most value.  The HD video alone will add dramatically to the little knowledge of the deep that we have. It's exciting that the Virgin Oceanic Expedition will make this kind of difference."


About the Virgin Oceanic's Submarine:

Virgin Oceanic's Submarine, designed by Graham Hawkes, is the only piloted craft in existence that has 'full ocean depth' capability. The one person craft has an operating depth of 37,000ft (7 miles) and is capable of operating for 24hrs unaided. Once fully descended, the submarine's hydroplanes (the equivalent of wings for submarines) and thrusters will allow it to 'fly' up to 10km over the ocean floor whilst collecting video and data, something submersibles could only dream of.  


At these depths, each individual part of the sub must be able to withstand enormous pressures, 1500 times that of an aeroplane, and protect its pilot from the extreme conditions just inches away. As Sir Richard and Chris each pilot the sub to the bottom of our planet, they will be aware that should anything go wrong, there is no rescue team that can reach them; whilst backed up by a mission crew, once at depth, the pilot and craft are alone.


Full pressure testing will be conducted over the next three months. 


The craft will cruise at a max of 3 knots and can dive 350ft per minute, with a dive to the bottom of the Mariana trench and back estimated to take five hours.


Scientific understanding:

As well as offering the chance for human endeavour and exploration, the Virgin Oceanic Expedition offers an unprecedented opportunity to conduct scientific research and to expand our knowledge of the unique conditions, ecosystems and geology that exist at the bottom of the oceans.


Virgin Oceanic will be working with a range of internationally renowned scientists, researchers and institutions to offer monitoring, data and sample collecting opportunities during the five dives.

Tony Haymet who has been Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences, and Dean of the Graduate School of Marine Sciences at University of California, San Diego, since September 2006. Scripps will be one of VOE's key science advisers. Tony says:  "It is high time that the ocean community return to the exploration of the ocean depths and the abyssal plains, the largest ecosystem on our planet.  Scripps Oceanography looks forward to working with all the ocean community to marry our new generation of robotic ocean explorers with exciting new emerging technologies that will restart regular deep ocean exploration. We honor Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh by continuing the exploration they started at the Mariana Trench on January 23, 1960."


Another member of the team is Dr Katrina Edwards, the director of the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) at the University of Southern California (USC). Dr Edwards' work is primarily focused on geomicrobiology and microbal life; the study of how, and what type, of life survives and thrives in sediments and rocks at the bottom of the ocean.


Dr. Edwards commented on the opportunities Virgin Oceanic provides: "From the scientific perspective, my view is that this endeavour offers the opportunity to observe and make measurements in an environment that is otherwise not accessible to human exploration.  This expedition offers a lens into microbial and other species' diversity at depth in our oceans, the most poorly accessible habitat on earth."
 


Further researchers and scientific partners involved in the Virgin Oceanic Expedition include:

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego - Microbiologist Dr Doug Bartlett is hunting for novel microbes and DNA present in the deep trenches and deep sea engineer Kevin Hardy is designing the lander vehicles that will help sample and bring back the microbes, water and possibly other small creatures from the depths.
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) / University of Alaska, Moss Landing Marine Labs and University of Hawaii - Dr Geoff Wheat, Dr Sam Hulme and Dr Patricia Fryer respectively studying how tectonic plates interact through examining the rocks, mud flows, gases and liquids that are released on the floor of the trenches.
Ocean Research and Conservation Association - Senior Scientist and MacArthur Fellow Dr Edith Widder, a specialist in bioluminescence (the light produced by many ocean organisms) and novel ways to quantify and observe this activity unobtrusively.


The Future:

Virgin believes that the Oceans offer exciting possibilities for human exploration and scientific research.  Our vision through Virgin Oceanic is to explore the possibilities of enabling adventurers and pioneers to participate in oceanic exploration.
 


If we are successful in our mission with this innovative design of submarine, then we will have proven that a vehicle can be built to withstand the extreme pressures of the oceans and that it is possible to take humans at far reduced risks to the bottom of our Oceans. The submarine we unveil today will likely finish its days on display in a museum here in the US but if we can prove the design, Virgin may explore the possibility of future missions involving other submarines that can collect samples and operate tools or equipment to facilitate science and research. When we have developed the ability to explore, we will shortly afterwards require the ability to study, learn and innovate, reacting to the lessons and the opportunities that we discover in vast areas of our planet that we currently have no knowledge of. This is our vision.


About Virgin Oceanic's partnership with Google 

"Our mission for Google Earth is to create an interactive virtual globe and enable users to visit places they've never explored, including the world's oceans," said John Hanke, Vice President of Product Management at Google. "More than 70% of the planet's surface is made up of water, yet only 5% of the world's ocean has been explored. We're excited to support Virgin Oceanic's plans to travel to parts of the planet where no one has gone before and be able to share their discoveries using Google Maps and Google Earth."


About Virgin Oceanic:

Virgin Oceanic was formed by the Virgin Group to act as a sponsor of and partner on the Five Dives Expedition.  Chris Welsh, though his company Deep Sub LLC, owns and will operate the submarine.  The expedition will require various regulatory approvals, including export licenses, which Deep Sub LLC will obtain.


About Graham Hawkes sub designer:

Graham Hawkes, has designed and built over sixty manned submersibles and over 350 Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs). Hawkes is known for his forward-thinking solutions and his innovative use of materials and systems. His underwater vehicles include the innovative Atmospheric Diving Suits (ADS) and ROVs, which dominated the offshore oil industry segment in the 1970s; the Deep Rover series for science and exploration, most recently used by filmmaker, James Cameron in the IMAX film, "Aliens of the Deep;" the Deep Flight series of submersibles; and the design/build of the experimental protoype DeepFlight Challenger, the only full ocean depth manned vehicle. He is recognized world-wide as a pioneer in innovating state of the art solutions for ocean access.


Key dates and timings:

Virgin Oceanic's first dive will be to the Mariana Trench later in 2011, and a further four dives are scheduled over the next 24 months, subject to receipt of all required regulatory approvals.

http://www.virginoceanic.com/

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Alex Metric & Steve Angello: "Open Your Eyes," feat. Ian Brown (dir: Peter Serafinowicz)

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 12:05 PM PDT

[Video Link / YouTube Link]

You may know Peter Serafinowicz as an actor and funny dude. He is also a fine director, as this music video (in which he also stars) proves. The song is 'Open Your Eyes' by Alex Metric & Steve Angello, featuring Ian Brown, and will be released on iTunes on May 8th.



Bradley Manning "British by descent" says U.K. govt

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 11:37 AM PDT

british-ish.jpg In a letter raising "concerns" to Washington over the pre-trial treatment of alleged military whistleblower Bradley Manning, the U.K. government asserted that he is "British by descent" after campaigners lobbied for the U.S. to allow his mother (who is from Wales) to visit him.
In a parliamentary debate late on Monday, the Foreign Office minister Henry Bellingham said staff at the British embassy in Washington had expressed concerns to the state department on 29 March about the treatment of Manning, who has not been tried or convicted. In response to the debate, he said, "we will instruct our officials at our embassy in Washington again to report our concerns to officials in the state department". While acknowledging that Manning's lawyer has stated that he does not hold a British passport or consider himself to be British, the minister stressed that the soldier "is British by descent" despite being born in the US, thanks to his mother's nationality.
Bradley Manning supporters welcome UK government's expression of concern [The Guardian]

Scott Walker gives cushy $85.5K/year government job to major donor's young, underqualified son

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 10:26 PM PDT

Scott Walker's administration is all about cutting costs, which is why it gave the largely unqualified son of a major campaign donor a $81,500 senior managerial job in the state Commerce Department. A state official confirmed that the young gentleman got his job after his daddy put in a good word for him. As ThinkProgress points out, Walker's anti-union legislation allows him to directly appoint dozens more people for high-paying gubmint jobs.
Today, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveals that Walker is using state funds to pay more than $81,500 a year to the 26-year-old son of a major campaign donor with no college degree and two drunken-driving convictions.

Despite having almost no management experience, UW Madison college dropout Brian Deschane now oversees state environmental and regulatory issues and manages dozens of Commerce Department employees. After only two months on the job, Deschane has already received a 26 percent pay raise and a promotion.

Scott Walker Gives $81,500 Government Job To Top Donor's 26-Year-Old College Dropout Son (via Reddit)

(Image: NO WALKER, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from brotherxii's photostream)

 


Band manager who went chicken little over piracy can't own up to his mistake

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 10:19 AM PDT

Ay yi yi yi yi. A day after One Soul Thrust's manager had the entire Internet explain to him that his band's music wasn't being downloaded 100,000 times on BitTorrent sites, he's still in deep denial. Today's post is all about how the pirates attacked him "[b]ecause a debut album by an independent Canadian band is listed on torrent sites around the world and we had the audacity to point that out." Um, no it's not. It's not listed on any torrent sites. As far as anyone can tell, not one human being on this planet has torrented this band's CD. Dude, you made a mistake, you freaked out, you looked a little naive. Now you're looking like an ass. Quit while you're ahead, maybe?

The archives of David Foster Wallace

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 10:08 AM PDT

dfwpostcard.jpg At The Awl, Maria Bustillos explores David Foster Wallace's recently-opened archives, which contain his personal manuscripts and hundreds of extensively-annotated books.
Wallace committed suicide in 2008. There has been a natural reluctance to broach questions surrounding the tragedy with his family and friends, just as there was reluctance to ask him directly about his personal history when he was alive. But there are indications--particularly in the markings of his books--of Wallace's own ideas about the sources of his depression, some of which seem as though they ought to be the privileged communications of a priest or a psychiatrist. But these things are in a public archive and are therefore going to be discussed and so I will tell you about them. One surprise was the number of popular self-help books in the collection, and the care and attention with which he read and reread them. I mean stuff of the best-sellingest, Oprah-level cheesiness and la-la reputation was to be found in Wallace's library. Along with all the Wittgenstein, Husserl and Borges, he read John Bradshaw, Willard Beecher, Neil Fiore, Andrew Weil, M. Scott Peck and Alice Miller. Carefully.
Inside David Foster Wallace's Private Self-Help Library [The Awl. Thanks, Choire!]

Ed Yong's "Science writing worth paying for"

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 09:37 AM PDT

Every month, science blogger Ed Yong posts about the online science writing that he thinks deserves your financial support. Ed donates £3 to each author. You can donate whatever you want. All the articles represent great reporting that writers created for free. This month, you'll find an article by award-winning journalist Deborah Blum on the Radium Girls, scientist Jason Goldman writing about the digitization of Jane Goodall's work, and more!

Watch the Conference on World Affairs from home

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 09:31 AM PDT

CWA is the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Now in it's 63rd year, the conference brings together scientists, politicians, activists, journalists, artists, and more for a week of fascinating conversations. It's free, and open to the public. Think of CWA as the democratic version of TEDtalks. I'm at the conference all this week and will be posting and tweeting about some of the interesting things that I learn.

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A couple of people have asked about whether it's possible to watch, or listen to, recordings of Conference on World Affairs panels online. I'm pleased to report that this is, in fact, the case. There's a live stream—available in video or audio-only versions—from two of the 12 venues this week. Today, you can use it to tune in to panels like:

• 11:00 am Mountain Time on the UMC Center Ballroom stream: Free the Slaves — a plenary speech by sociologist Kevin Bales. I talked with Bales quite a bit last night, and I think you'll find his approach to the issue of slavery very interesting. One of his current projects—using computer algorithms to identify predictive social and political factors that lead to slavery—is a story that I hope to bring to BoingBoing later this year.

• 2:00 pm Mountain Time on the UMC Center Ballroom stream: Swarm Activism: Social Media and Revolution.

• 3:30 pm Mountain Time on the UMC Center Ballroom stream: What's Up, Doc: Documentaries in the 21st Century

• 4:00 pm Mountain Time on the Macky Auditorium stream: Ebert Interruptus showing of "A Serious Man". This is a long-standing feature of the Conference on World Affairs. Usually lead by Roger Ebert—although he's turned over duties to Jim Emerson this year—the Interruptus is a movie screening where anyone in the audience can, at any time, call for the film to stop so that they can ask questions or make comments.

There's also audio and video from lots of past years available online in the CWA archives.

Farewell, LCD Soundsystem: an interview with James Murphy (video)

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 09:25 AM PDT

[Video Link] Ari Kuschnir of m ss ng p eces points us to this 2006 interview with James Murphy; a small antidote to the pangs of withdrawal fans are going through this week. After 10 years and three Grammy nominations, LCD Soundsystem played its final show this past weekend.

About the video, Ari says: "It was a 30 minute interview which we've cut into 9 minutes for your viewing pleasure. Murphy shares his thoughts on musical discovery, the future of taste, artistic value in the face of technology and what he did with our plot device, something."

Islamic scholar: Difference is a blessing

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 08:58 AM PDT

"Difference is a blessing, not a challenge. We define ourselves by knowing other people. We know our world by learning about difference. What is the word we often use? Tolerance. Is that a positive notion? Not really. 'For the time being, I will tolerate you?' I'm against that concept. It means difference is a threat. Difference is a blessing and you don't tolerate a blessing. You embrace it." — Mohammad Mahallati, presidential scholar in Islamic studies at Oberlin College. This quote comes from a Conference on World Affairs panel about Practicing Religion in a Pluralistic Society.

Scarring Party: megaphone songs, sea chanteys and dark vaudeville tunes

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 10:39 PM PDT

The Scarring Party plays great old-timey sea chanteys and megaphone numbers; they're a self-financed indy band that's just raised money on Kickstarter to finance an upcoming tour with their new album, Losing Teeth. I've been enjoying their MySpace streams this morning (be sure to play their cover of Leonard Cohen's Everybody Knows!), as well as the song they wrote for Matt Haughey, who was a Kickstarter patron on their fundraiser.

Bring the Scarring Party to the West Coast

Losing Teeth (Onion AV Club)

CWA: Your language is your worldview

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 08:49 AM PDT

CWA is the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Now in it's 63rd year, the conference brings together scientists, politicians, activists, journalists, artists, and more for a week of fascinating conversations. It's free, and open to the public. Think of CWA as the democratic version of TEDtalks. I'm at the conference all this week and will be posting about some of the interesting things that I learn.

 sign language.jpg

In English, we use "I am" statements to describe our current biological state, things that are happening to us, or events that we are experiencing. We say, "I am hungry." We say, "I am dying."

But that's not how it works in Irish. Yesterday, during a panel called There's Perception, and Then There's Reality, Irish storyteller Clare Murphy talked briefly about how the language you speak alters the way that you perceive the world. The Irish equivalents of "I am hungry" and "I am dying", for example, would literally translate into English as, "Hunger is upon me" and "Death is beside me."

I was a little disappointed that this topic wasn't explored further during the panel session, but the cool thing about the Conference on World Affairs is that the conversations I have outside the panels are every bit as interesting as the official discussions.

Over the course of the day on Monday, I spoke with several people—panelists, as well as conference volunteers and organizers—about the links between language and worldview. In one of those conversations, Emily Gunther, a conference volunteer and sign language interpreter, told me about some of the ways that Deaf culture and American Sign Language intertwine.

One of the most interesting things Gunther told me about: A lot of hearing people often describe Deaf people as "rude". Not because of how the deaf communicate, but because of what they say.

Unless they're born into a Deaf family, Gunther told me, most deaf people grow up being at least somewhat excluded from the spoken conversations going on around them. Someone may translate for them, but details are often left out—especially when hearing people try to be socially polite.

Think of all the times we try to describe a person without talking about a characteristic that we're worried it might be offensive to mention. A big schnoz becomes, "You know, that guy. You'll know him when you see him." If your friend shows up with too much makeup on, you might say, "Wow, you're really dressed up today."

It's difficult to translate that unspoken context that ASL without just saying, "That guy who has a big nose." Or, "You're wearing too much makeup." Because of that&mash;and because a lifetime of exclusion from hearing conversations has made many deaf people wary of leaving out information—it's completely normal within Deaf culture to just say things that come off as rude to the hearing.

Image: Some rights reserved by The Accent

The Computers Club Drawing Society

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 10:26 AM PDT

CC_189.png Welcome to the Computers Club. Be sure to see the gallery page for its drawing society. Pictured here is Internet Dream, a work by Jeremiah Johnson. Here we have all that a high school or community college computer art class, circa 1990, may offer, invested with all the wisdom of world twenty years older. I would attend myself, but I'm too busy playing Cube. [Thanks, Joel!]

Closing down Borders sign: "No toilets, try Amazon"

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 08:41 AM PDT

An anonymous wag at a closing-down Borders store in Chicago put up this sign advising customers where they should try to find toilet facilities. It's funny, but if Borders' best pitch is, "We have less selection than Amazon, but you should see our toilets!" then I think I might be able to put my finger on at least one of the firm's problems. For one thing: if you've got an address to which Amazon might deliver a book, presumably there is a working toilet at that same address, one that is even more convenient than the toilet Borders used to let you use while shopping there.

Closing Borders Store Tells Customers Where To Find A Restroom

 


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