Friday, May 13, 2011

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Don't look down!

Posted: 13 May 2011 04:52 AM PDT

Jellyvampire made a comic: Born/Evolve/Bloom like an artist [nettserier.no]

Empire Strikes Bike: a Star Wars-themed cruiser

Posted: 12 May 2011 11:38 PM PDT


A Skywalker Ranch staffer created "The Empire Strikes Bike," a Star Wars-themed, heavily modded classic cruiser bike with loads of Star Wars tchochkes affixed to it in funny and delightful ways:
Literally created in a residential garage, the frame, wheels, and crank were acquired directly from an official Skywalker Ranch staff bike. From there it was a matter of accessorizing the bare-bones frame and wheels with pieces found on eBay to give it an Empire spin: fenders, chain guard and skirt guards came from various 1940s cruisers, including a J.C. Higgins Colorflow and Monark cruiser; the springer forks were pulled from a 1960s Sears Spaceliner; the tank combined a '60s Roadmaster body with a Hasbro AT-AT head rigged to "fire" its reciprocating chin guns with lights and sound; Master Replicas FX lightsabers were gutted and re-worked to become the headlight (Luke's) and taillight (Vader's) with lights and sound activated by switches on the lightsaber handgrips; the luggage rack was a modified 1982 Kenner Rebel Transport toy, now with swing-back rear to stow gear; a Hasbro Titanium Series Slave I worked nicely as a fender ornament; finally, the chrome Vader handlebar topper was lopped off a giant PEZ dispenser, having the added bonus of built-in light-up eyes, music and dialog from the films. Chrome tail, leather streamers, and torpedo pedals were added for flai
Building the Empire Strikes Bike (via Craft)

Report: Comcast helped figure out what was wrong with Pirate Bay

Posted: 13 May 2011 04:41 AM PDT

Comcast, dismayed at being blamed for Pirate Bay's downtime, apparently helped fix it. Torrentfreak reports:
Initially The Pirate Bay team suspected that Comcast might be filtering PMTU responses, but Comcast looked into this and ruled it out. ... Comcast reached out to Serious Tubes Networks, who deliver transit to The Pirate Bay, and they were able to correct the issue. "Comcast emailed our NOC about their users complaining about not reaching The Pirate Bay. We resolved the issue and TPB can now be reached from Comcast," the CEO of Serious Tubes Networks told TorrentFreak.
Companies that sell blanks and hoses have always known their customers are pirates. But this hose also happens to be the majority stakeholder in NBC.

Beautiful, out-of-phase pendulums

Posted: 12 May 2011 11:42 PM PDT

This Harvard physics apparatus uses a series of pendulums of varying lengths, swinging together, to make a mesmerizing dance:

The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. The length of the longest pendulum has been adjusted so that it executes 51 oscillations in this 60 second period. The length of each successive shorter pendulum is carefully adjusted so that it executes one additional oscillation in this period. Thus, the 15th pendulum (shortest) undergoes 65 oscillations.

Our apparatus was built from a design published by Richard Berg [Am J Phys 59(2), 186-187 (1991)] at the University of Maryland. The particular apparatus shown here was built by our own Nils Sorensen.

Pendulum Waves (via Kottke)

Coming to Milton Keynes and Oxford on May 18

Posted: 13 May 2011 02:19 AM PDT

I'm taking a day off from writing next week to speak at the Open University and Oxford. On May 18, I'll give a talk on technology, regulation and general-purpose computing at the OU in Milton Keynes and at the Oxford University Scientific Society. Both talks are open to the public. Here are the details for each one:

Open University:
Date/Time: 18 May 2011 at 2PM
Venue: Jenny Lee Room 1 (Ground Floor, entrance via balcony)
Seating is limited, so if you plan to attend please email Mary McMahon (M.McMahon@open.ac.uk) as soon as possible so we can advise you if there is sufficient space.

Oxford:
Wednesday, 18th May 2011, 8.15 PM
University of Oxford, Inorganic Chemistry Lecture Theatre, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QR, UK
Talks are FREE for members and cost £2 for non-members. Refreshments will be served after the talk. Each lecture is followed by a reception with drinks, snacks, and the opportunity to talk to the speaker. If you would like to come to dinner with the speaker beforehand, please email the President (aguharoy@gmail.com) before 12 midday on the day of the talk.

China's shonky Disneyland-a-like park closed

Posted: 13 May 2011 02:10 AM PDT


A Disneyland look-a-like theme park outside of Beijing called Shijingshan has been shut down by Chinese authorities, apparently as a consequence of the deal to open a Disneyland Shanghai park. Shijingshan sported some intensely crappy rides and attractions that seemed to have been designed by making wild guesses about the equivalent rides in the actual Disney parks (amusingly, the "American Adventure" ride was a haunted house).

Shijingshan management claim that they aren't copying Disney, merely taking their inspiration from the same sources. It's an interesting example of the difference between copyright and trademark; from the particulars I can see online, I don't think there's much merit to a copyright claim here -- though there are a few examples where there are clear derivative works, most of the design is merely generically derived from public domain sources such as castles and fairy tale characters. On the other had, there's a very strong trademark case here, since the use of distinctive ride-names and such seem deliberately chosen to confuse customers about the nature and origin of the park's designs.

Deputy general manager, Yin Zhiqiang, said: "The characters in our park just look a little bit similar to theirs. But the faces, clothes, sizes and appearances are different."

"We do not have any agreements with Disney."

Despite the striking similarities to foreign characters, Yin insisted the Beijing park's are all locally designed.

"Take our Cinderella as an example. The face of Disney's Cinderella face is European, but ours is a Chinese. She looks like a young Chinese country girl," he said.

Fake Disney Theme Park in China forced to Close (The Disney Blog)

'Fake' Disney park faces closure (Metro.co.uk)

(Image: DSCF6882, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from maxview's photostream)

Police arrest gentleman dressed as Batman hanging off side of building with weapons

Posted: 12 May 2011 09:33 PM PDT

Petoskey Batman.grid-7x2.jpg

Police in a small Michigan town arrested "Batman" Wednesday after discovering him "hanging off the side of a building and carrying concealed weapons including a baton and a can of chemical irritant spray." Mark Wayne Williams, 31, was also carrying a pair of lead-lined gloves. Reuters:

Williams was charged with several counts of carrying concealed weapons, one count of carrying a gas-ejecting weapon and another count of creating a disturbance, said John Calabrese, public safety chief in Petoskey.

"He really didn't offer us any explanation," Calabrese said when asked why Williams was in costume. "Our officers did not interrogate him at any length."

Calabrese said it was not the first time Williams has appeared in public in costume. A few years ago, he caught the attention of police by dressing as the Crow, a figure from a graphic novel.

Dig the pitstains.

(photo: Petoskey Department of Public Safety via WDIV-TV)

That $500 million Google set aside for the DoJ? Relates to AdWords revenue from illicit 'net pharmacies

Posted: 12 May 2011 08:14 PM PDT

Remember that odd disclosure on a Google 10-Q form this week of $500 million (more than 20% of their bottom line) set aside for a possible settlement with the Department of Justice? The Wall Street Journal reports that Google "is close to settling a U.S. criminal investigation into allegations it made hundreds of millions of dollars by accepting ads from online pharmacies that break U.S. laws."

Trump explains hair

Posted: 12 May 2011 08:07 PM PDT

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Donald Trump explains how his hair works: "Do I comb it forward? No, I don't comb it forward." He pushes the leading edge of the flying wing of his hair back, to show where the hairline is. "I actually don't have a bad hairline. When you think about it, it's not bad. I mean, I get a lot of credit for comb-overs. But it's not really a comb-over. It's sort of a little bit forward and back. I've combed it the same way for years. Same thing, every time."

Facebook outed as source of anti-Google PR smear campaign

Posted: 12 May 2011 06:29 PM PDT

Facebook is reported to have hired public relations firm Burson-Marstellar to generate negative stories about Facebook competitor Google— specifically, "urging [journalists] to investigate claims that Google was invading people's privacy." Well that's rich.

One of their targets was Christopher Soghoian, a security researcher and blogger, who is no chump. Things did not work out as planned.

Dan Lyons chronicles the epic "Keystone Kops"-like routine at The Daily Beast.

Soghoian has posted the email exchange he had with Burson-Marstellar here.


At Wired News, Sam Gustin writes,

In the annals of shady public relations stunts, Facebook's attempt to surreptitiously plant negative -- and highly misleading -- stories about Google into leading media outlets will surely go down as one of the most ham-handed in recent memory.

Ham-handed it may be, but as Declan McCullagh of CNET noted on Twitter today, there is precedent.

(Image: Facebook, a Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivative-Works (2.0) image from fbouly's photostream)

 


How did Osama bin Laden email without the US discovering?

Posted: 12 May 2011 07:22 PM PDT

osama.jpg

"It was a slow, toilsome process. And it was so meticulous that even veteran intelligence officials have marveled at bin Laden's ability to maintain it for so long."

How did the world's most wanted terrorist managed to maintain email communication with his far-flung web of associates without being detected by US spooks, who were working awfully hard to sniff his headers out?

With an epic sneakernet. We know now, because after assassinating him, the US Navy SEALs departed bin Laden's Abbottabad home with about 100 flash memory drives that officials say appear to archive emails between bin Laden and his al Qaeda network around the world. From a report published today by the Associated Press:

Holed up in his walled compound in northeast Pakistan with no phone or Internet capabilities, bin Laden would type a message on his computer without an Internet connection, then save it using a thumb-sized flash drive. He then passed the flash drive to a trusted courier, who would head for a distant Internet cafe.

At that location, the courier would plug the memory drive into a computer, copy bin Laden's message into an email and send it. Reversing the process, the courier would copy any incoming email to the flash drive and return to the compound, where bin Laden would read his messages offline.

"How bin Laden emailed without being detected by US" (Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, reporting for AP)

Related reading: This Time article ventures analysis on what bin Laden's family life was like. The short version: Big Love.

Clever Coffee Dripper

Posted: 12 May 2011 01:08 PM PDT

Clever_Coffee_Dripper4_1 WEB.jpegI've used this manual drip cone for a year now. It adds yet another twist to the seemingly simple task of brewing coffee. I've used the previously reviewed Melitta cone as well as everything from the previously reviewed Aeropress to a French Press. This drip cone is, well, clever. It combines the ease and cleanliness of drip brewing with the long extraction of french press brewing. The difference is a spring loaded stopper on the bottom of the cone. To brew coffee you add a paper filter, coffee and hot water. Instead of placing the cone over your cup immediately, the spring loaded stopper keeps the coffee inside until you place the cone on a mug to lift up the stopper and drain your brew.

This difference allows you to directly control the immersion time of the brew to your taste. The result is a wonderfully rich and full cup of coffee. Previous versions were lacking one key feature: a lid, and required you to place a plate or saucer over the cone to keep the coffee hot while it brewed. The newer version is perfect with a built in lid.

I didn't think I needed yet another tool for brewing coffee, but I'm hooked on the Clever Dripper now.

--Tim Hollosy

Clever Coffee Dripper
$21

Don't forget to comment over at Cool Tools. And remember to submit a tool!

Retroreflective streetwear

Posted: 12 May 2011 01:30 AM PDT

Alex sez, "I'm a grad student at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. For my wearable technology course, I developed streetwear made with retroreflective elements. Myself and many of my classmates are cyclists, and everyone wanted one. So, I put it on Kickstarter."

The great thing about We Flashy items is that it reflects light on busy streets, but is barely noticed in normal indoor environments. It's versatile enough to wear to school, work, or out for a drink.

We Flashy uses industrial-grade reflective material--the same kind that crossing guards, police, and firefighters use. If lit by a light source such as headlights, the reflective material returns the light back to its original source, reaching the motorist's eye.

It also sends light directly back to a camera during flash photography, causing the garment to glow in photographs, making for stunning nightlife pictures.

We Flashy: Reflective Clothing For Modern Times (Thanks, Alex)

Toronto mini-Maker Faire documentary: what does it mean to be a maker?

Posted: 11 May 2011 10:23 PM PDT

Ryan Varga created "Makers," a 7-minute mini-documentary on the Toronto mini-Maker Faire. It's a very nicely shot, nicely edited piece that highlights the ingenuity and creative spirit on display at the event.

Held at Evergreen Brickworks, the Toronto Mini Maker Faire celebrated the culture of making, crafting, DIY-ing, tinkering, hacking and sharing. It was a weekend where makers of all kinds shared their projects and thoughts. Exhibits on display included robots, laser cutting, letterpress printing, a 3D print gallery and kinetic sculptures.

I visited the Toronto Mini Maker Faire at the Evergreen Brickworks to find out what it means to make things - to be a 'maker'?

This film is about that question. It is about the relationship between people and technology and how they merge through the act of making. Call it "craft in an age of digital fabrication".

Mini Maker Faire Mini Documentary. (Thanks, Justin!)

Vegan Black Metal Chef: growling your way through dinner

Posted: 11 May 2011 10:19 PM PDT

Brian Manowitz is the Vegan Black Metal Chef. Clad in demonic armor ("Btw, all of the armor is rubber, not leather."), he demoniacally growls his way through a vegan recipe for Pad Thai. Subtitles are included for those who find it hard to parse out growlspeak.

Vegan Black Metal Chef Episode 1 Pad Thai (Thanks, Fiver and Zutroy!)

Trailer for Zero Charisma - a movie about D&D players

Posted: 12 May 2011 11:16 AM PDT


[Video Link] Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews raised over $15k in preproduction costs on Indiegogo for their movie about Dungeons and Dragon players, called Zero Charisma. The trailer is funny!

The Story:

Scott Weidemeier spends his time in exactly three ways: working a menial job at a local donut shop, caring for his abusive grandmother, and running The Greatest Dungeons & Dragons Game of All Time. Though overbearing and short-tempered, Scott is a hero to his fellow players--that is, until neo-nerd hipster Miles Butler joins the game, fueling Scott's rampant insecurity and alienating him from his own players. Can Scott overcome his contempt for the mainstreaming of nerdery, or will this clash of the subcultures come to a head?

Why We're Doing It:

The video you can see above is a teaser trailer specifically made to launch our IndieGoGo campaign, that we think shows the rough story and feel of our vision. Though the topics of gaming and nerd culture are close to our hearts, our real passion for this story lies in the main character. Over the last year, we have taken great care to write someone who is neither your typical leading man, nor the archetypal nerd who exists only for laughs. And that's the challenge we are excited to take up: evoking a range of emotions from the audience--from revulsion to delight to fear to sympathy--for the most unlikely of characters.

Zero Charisma: An indie comedy about the greatest Dungeon Master ever

Boing Boing's 1st International Meetup Day: "Wonderful Things" 7 June 2011

Posted: 12 May 2011 10:47 AM PDT

meetup-day.jpg

We are excited to announce Boing Boing's 1st International Meetup Day!

The theme is "Wonderful Things." The goal is for happy mutants in cities around the world to self-organize various cabinets of curiosities.

It's easy to participate: Start by visiting the Meetup page to join or start a "Wonderful Things" Meetup in your city. On June 7, bring your favorite significant object, coveted curiosity, conversation piece, or mysterious item to the Meetup (Don't bring something that has a lot of intrinsic value). Then tell the other happy mutants about it!

While you're at the Meetup, share your thoughts on the items that you see, and if you are so inclined, offer up a swap! Don't forget to tweet your photos, videos, and details on any exciting swaps using hashtag #BoingBoingMUP.

Boing Boing's Wonderful Things Meetup day is 7 June 2011

Low plays Toto's Africa

Posted: 12 May 2011 10:27 PM PDT


The new album from Low, titled C'mon, is rather excellent. Sadly not on the album is Low's cover of Toto's Africa, performed here for the AV Undercover series. I truly dig this. Not even ironically. "Low Covers Toto"

Vindictive lumber baron's far-flung heirs inherit, 91 years after his death

Posted: 11 May 2011 10:05 PM PDT

12 descendants of Wellington R. Burt, a long-dead, vindictive lumber baron, have split a $100-$110 million inheritance that the plutocrat left to be disbursed to his descendants 21 years after the last of his living grandchildren had died.
Press accounts imply that Wellington Burt experienced familial conflicts, which led to the unusual will. Burt had left his children $1,000 to $5,000 annually, relatively small amounts, except for a "favorite son" who he gave $30,000 annually, according to The Saginaw News.

Burt, however, cancelled a $5,000 annuity to one of his daughters over a disagreement about her divorce, the newspaper reported.

Through a trust, he left his secretary $4,000 annually and a cook, housekeeper, coachman and chauffeur each received $1,000 annually.

$100 Million Finally to Be Split Between Descendants, 92 Years After Rich Relative's Death (via Consumerist)

Exploding frame clockwork sculpture, the sequel

Posted: 12 May 2011 09:38 AM PDT

I've featured Brett Dickins's exploding frame kinectic sculptures here before, and his latest, called "What The F...? - What's Up?" appears to be the last word in totally ass-kicking exploding-frame-clockwork sculptures. Woah.

What The F...? - What's Up? (Thanks, Brett!)

Man lives after head impaled

Posted: 12 May 2011 10:02 AM PDT


Last Thanksgiving, Andrew Linn of Cedar City, Utah crashed his car into a chain link fence. A two-inch diameter fence pole impaled him, going through his mouth and exiting his neck. He lived. Apparently, he also remained alert enough to attempt to text message someone while on the gurney. "Ex-Marine who survived impalement: 'Just a lucky guy'" (MSNBC)

 


Chester Brown slide show and signing at Strand Bookstore in NYC tonight, 12 May 2011

Posted: 12 May 2011 09:26 AM PDT

ChesterNewYork.jpg

Chester Brown, author of Paying For It: a Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John, will be at Strand, my favorite NYC bookstore tonight to for a slideshow, conversation, and signing. He'l be joined by the inimitable Benjamen Walker (Host of WFMU's Too Much Information) and Tracy Quan (author of Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl).

I interviewed Chester about his book last week. Here's the MP3 of the interview.

Chester Brown has never shied away from tackling controversial subjects in his work. As the cartoonist of the autobiographical The Playboy and the biography Louise Riel, Paying For It is a natural progression for Brown as it combines the personal and sexual aspects of his autobiographical work with the polemical drive of Louis Riel. Paying For It offers an entirely contemporary exploration of sex work-from the timid john who rides his bike to meet his escorts, wonders how to tip so as not to offend, and reads Dan Savage for advice, to the modern-day transactions complete with online reviews, seemingly willing participants, and clean apartments devoid of cliched street corners, drugs, or pimps.

Tracy Quan, a columnist, TV guest and author of Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl and many other books, will join Chester Brown on the Strand Stage.

Chester Brown, Paying For It, with Tracy Quan May 12: 7:00PM - 8:00PM

Roll cloud over Dorset, England

Posted: 12 May 2011 01:22 PM PDT

This magnificent acrus cloud, a rare "roll cloud," turned up over Weymouth and Portland in Dorset, England last weekend. Many residents were concerned that the cloud was a tornado. From Dorset Echo (photo by Peter Minster):
Storm.Jpg.Display Met office forecaster Michael Lawrence told the Echo: "It was a roll cloud. It's a relatively rare, low-level, horizontal, tube shaped cloud that's completely detached from the base of a thunder cloud.

"It's most frequently observed on the leading edge of thunderstorms. The cloud rotates about its horizontal axis. They are not tornadoes.

"Rare roll cloud makes its way over Portland and Weymouth" (via Fortean Times)

 


Send the puppets to WorldCon!

Posted: 12 May 2011 09:14 AM PDT

Writer and puppeteer Mary Robinette Kowal sez, "Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, has invited my puppet company, Other Hand Productions, to perform our production of Whatnot at the 2011 WorldCon in Reno this August. We'd like to go. The only problem is that there's not enough money in the budget to make it affordable, so we're running a Kickstarter campaign. We could use some help getting there." (Be sure to check out the $1,000 level reward -- woah!)

Locus Award finalists announced

Posted: 11 May 2011 10:00 PM PDT

Locus magazine has announced the finalists for this year's Locus Award, a popular science fiction, fantasy and horror award voted on by the magazine's readers. I reviewed several of these; I've hotlinked them to their Boing Boing reviews, in case you're interested:
Science Fiction Novel
* Surface Detail, Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
* Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
* Zero History, William Gibson (Putnam; Viking UK)
* The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (Pyr; Gollancz)
* Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

Fantasy Novel
* Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay (Penguin Canada; Roc)
* Kraken, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey)
* Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
* The Fuller Memorandum, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
* The Sorcerer's House, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

First Novel
* The Loving Dead, Amelia Beamer (Night Shade)
* The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
* Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
* The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz; Tor)
* How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu (Pantheon)

Young Adult Book
* Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
* Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
* Enchanted Glass, Diana Wynne Jones (HarperCollins UK; Greenwillow)
* I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; HarperCollins)
* Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

Click through for the rest of the shortlist.

2011 Locus Award Finalists (via Tor.com)

Lebanese '90s television emulator: telfezion.com

Posted: 12 May 2011 09:18 AM PDT

Screen-shot-2011-05-12-at-8.47.jpg

Watch it: telfezion.com. It's like Nam Jun Paik on vacation in Beirut after dropping acid with a falafel chaser. Created by Nadim Kobeissi, aka @kaepora. He tells Boing Boing how the project came about, below.

Nadim says:

I grew up in Lebanon and didn't move to Montreal until I was 18. I had very strong memories of how Television in Lebanon was during my childhood in the 90's, and made telfezion.com as a project to emulate those memories as accurately as possible.

I spent days looking through YouTube/obscure Arabic websites for the footage, which is highly nostalgic Lebanese ads, political videos, cartoons that were popular in Lebanon during my childhood, etc. I've sent it to Lebanese friends - many got tears of nostalgia.

Some facts:

* "Telfezion" is how television is referred to in Lebanese Arabic
* Contains almost an hour of footage, adding more every day.
* It uses sessions and a sorting algorithm to queue the footage randomly but with proper spacing

I plan to find and add more news/political footage, as Lebanon was only
beginning to emerge from a highly political 25-year civil war in the 90's.


My motive for making this site is just that it's so much fun. All my
Lebanese friends recognize how valuable it is - it's so weird for them
see the Internet mirror intimate and highly relevant childhood memories
and I love working on that.

Pakistani Starfleet Explorers

Posted: 12 May 2011 09:03 AM PDT

Screen-shot-2011-05-12-at-8.33.jpg

Allow me, please, to introduce you to The Pakistani Starfleet Explorers, a project by Kenny "Hassan" Irwin, an artist based in Palm Springs, CA:

[M]illions of courageous men and women heroes that span the cosmos who know no bounds, no limits and explore in a bold way as far as their Bedford Truck Starships will take them to the very ends of galaxies we know so little about to learn more about & in turn learn more about ourselves. There is literally 1000s of stories to be told about these adventurous heros who comprise the flagship of Earth based Starfleets under direction of UNIPASA [United National Inter Planetary Space and Air Association], A galactic village of federal star-travel achievers represented by countless 10,000s of intelligent species which include humans. Yes, indeed.............we must not forget the Pakistani Starfleet have saved more lives than you can imagine from fate less than kind to sowing the seeds of new emergency civilizations to making new friends they knew they never had with life never seen before. They are true bold achievers where others may ask "what is out there?" and the people of the Pakistani Starfleet say......."we shall see".

View the massive Flickr set here. I think this one is my favorite so far.

You can purchase prints of his work here.

(via Tim Bailey)

The epic photoshopper behind this project is also the guy behind the awesome "outsider news" YouTube channel Dovetastic Microwave Theater (via this BB comment).

Screen-shot-2011-05-12-at-8.30.jpg

The Fracking Song: "My Water's On Fire Tonight"

Posted: 12 May 2011 08:24 AM PDT

Video Link, more about the project here. And read the investigative report that inspired this video "explainer" at ProPublica (* warning, major bummer alert).

A snip from the lyrics:

Fracking is a form of natural gas drilling
An alternative to oil cause the oil kept spilling
Bringing jobs to small towns so everybody's willing People turn on their lights and the drillers make a killing

Water goes into the pipe, the pipe into the ground
The pressure creates fissures 7,000 feet down
The cracks release the gas that powers your town
That well is fracked..... Yeah totally fracked

But there's more in the water than just H2O
With names like benzene and formaldehyde
You better keep 'em far away from the water supply

"My Water's On Fire Tonight" is a product of Studio 20 NYU in collaboration with ProPublica.org. The song is based on ProPublica's investigation on hydraulic fractured gas drilling. Music by David Holmes and Andrew Bean, vocals by David Holmes and Niel Bekker, animation by Adam Sakellarides and Lisa Rucker.

(via Jay Rosen)

Osama bin Laden rejected proposal for al Qaeda Monster Truck Rally of Death

Posted: 12 May 2011 09:12 AM PDT

jihadford.jpg
Image, via Wired, said to be from the al Qaeda-affiliated magazine "Inspire," which may also be a recursive psyops folly concocted by Western spies. Or, you know, maybe not.

Wired Danger Room reports on a proposal published last summer in a purported al Qaeda publication, "Inspire" magazine, which "was all about convincing U.S. Muslims to do whatever they could locally for the jihad."

One suggestion: constructing an "ultimate mowing machine" -- tricking out a pickup truck by welding "blades" to the grill, to "mow down the enemies of Allah." Baroque proposals like that fuel speculation in national security circles that Inspire may be the work of a western security service -- a spoof on terrorist propaganda, rather than an authentic vehicle for it. If so, Osama bought it hook, line, and three-quarter ton sinker.

Osama bin Laden "did not endorse" the Ford F-150 of Doom, and "seem[ed] taken aback," according to a U.S. counterterrorism official quoted by ProPublica.

"He complains that this tactical proposal promotes indiscriminate slaughter. He says he rejects this and it is not something that reflects what al-Qaida does."

More: "New Details in the bin Laden Docs: Portrait of a Fugitive Micro-Manager" (ProPublica)

"Osama Drew The Line at Building a Ford F-150 of Death"

"Qaeda Pushes Snack Attacks, 'Ultimate Mowing Machine'" (Danger Room)


"Al Qaida's English-language Terrorism Blueprint" (Investigative Project)

Update, 9am PT: Mother Jones published a related item on this earlier today, with more analysis.

All Your Pics Are Belong to Us: at image hosting services, Terms and Conditions always apply

Posted: 12 May 2011 11:22 AM PDT

gotl.jpg Smartphone apps make it trivial to snap a photo, upload it to a host, and post a link to Twitter, sometimes in a single step. But by storing a photo on a hosting service to display via Twitter and beyond, you're assigning some subset of your copyright to that sharing site. Since the 1970s, copyright is inherent in the act of creation, no matter whether it's a snapshot or your life's work. There's a conflict when you present some license for your work to parties which you have only a slender thread of a relationship. This came to a head last week and this due to changes made at the popular TwitPic service. On May 4th, TwitPic updated its terms of use. Before May 4th, the statement about copyright read:
All images uploaded are copyright © their respective owners.
This was modified to include a lengthy section on copyright that raised hackles because it seemed to give TwitPic an enormous grant of rights, even while assuring users that they owned their work. The motivation was likely to clarify policies after Agence France-Presse (AFP) used Haitian photographer Daniel Morel's images of the aftermath of the earthquake without permission. Morel uploaded images to TwitPic, which were then duplicated by another person, and AFP distributed them. A lawsuit is long underway. TwitPic's copyright information shown at that time was more ambiguous about who owned what. Nonetheless, the new copyright terms raise more questions than they bury. One point of contention was a sloppy paragraph that said once you'd uploaded a picture to TwitPic you couldn't license it to the media, agencies, or other parties and have those groups retrieve it (with your permission) from TwitPic. On May 10th, the terms were revised again and that graf removed.

But other troubling rights assignments remain. While TwitPic still says, "You retain all ownership rights to Content uploaded to TwitPic," it also receives a free worldwide non-exclusive license to reproduce your works. Ostensibly, that's to cover its ass in duplicating your images to its servers, pushing them to smartphone apps, and covering other future uses. But it's awfully broad. With those rights, TwitPic could publish books, license your photos, and otherwise reap financial rewards without additional permission or any compensation. (The full copyright terms excerpt is below.)

And a deal announced with World Entertainment News Network (WENN) shows at least one worst-case scenario. WENN, which has a deal with Plixi as well, will act as a licensing agency for TwitPic. WENN's CEO told Amateur Photography in January in relation to the Plixi deal that he "did not rule out selling on other types of Twitter images to the wider media, such as pictures of a breaking news story, if it were brought to its attention, whether featuring a celebrity or not."

Ostensibly, the celebrities will be participants in such licensing and cut in on deals for their photos. But there's no discussion of that in either article, and it may explain the rise of WhoSay, an invitation-only photo-hosting site designed specifically for the famous (and their publicists) to manage and distribute photos for social media and handle associated rights.

Now, I am not a lawyer, although I've been reading copyright agreements for decades and have amassed non-systematic knowledge of the subject. I called Carolyn E. Wright, who goes by the moniker Photo Attorney. Wright, an accomplished nature photographer, publishes regular free advice for shooters on her site, and works closely on rights licenses with her clients. She's highly concerned about TwitPic's terms and similar terms from other organizations.

"I've been trying to warn my blog readers for a long time, you need to read the terms of service, you have to be sure they're not getting too broad a license," she says. She doesn't impute that TwitPic has ulterior motives. "Sometimes I think that this is just poor writing on the terms of service. Or, it's an aggressive lawyer, and it's just the safest thing to do." But the way the current revised terms are written, she says to photographers, "don't use that service."

Wright cites Mobypicture as an example of a copyright statement that she feels protects photographers' rights. That site's terms note, "All rights of uploaded content by our users remain the property of our users and those rights can in no means be sold or used in a commercial way by Mobypicture or affiliated third party partners without consent from the user."

Wright says that while professionals may have the most to lose, casual photographers could be equally exploited.

TwitPic didn't respond to a request for comment for this article.

The question at stake here isn't whether we trust TwitPic or other services or not to explain their intent. The intent is in the contract we agree to when we upload our images. If push comes to shove, that's where those firms' lawyers point, and that's where we lose. I've always said in negotiating contracts, "I trust you, or I wouldn't sign a contract with you. But I'm also signing a contract with the person who replaces you in your job, or the company that buys you. It's them I'm worried about."

I've taken a set of scissors to collect the copyright section of the terms of service for many popular services below to compare. Many have quite similar language to TwitPic; others foreswear all rights.


TwitPic

All content uploaded to TwitPic is copyright the respective owners. The owners retain full rights to distribute their own work without prior consent from TwitPic. It is not acceptable to copy or save another user's content from TwitPic and upload to other sites for redistribution and dissemination.

By uploading content to TwitPic you give TwitPic permission to use or distribute your content on TwitPic.com or affiliated sites.

To publish another TwitPic user's content for any commercial purpose or for distribution beyond the acceptable Twitter "retweet" which links back to the original user's content page on TwitPic, whether online, in print publication, television, or any other format, you are required to obtain permission from TwitPic in advance of said usage and attribute credit to TwitPic as the source where you have obtained the content.

You retain all ownership rights to Content uploaded to TwitPic. However, by submitting Content to TwitPic, you hereby grant TwitPic a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and TwitPic's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.

You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service. The above licenses granted by you in media Content you submit to the Service terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete your media from the Service provided that any sub-license by TwitPic to use, reproduce or distribute the Content prior to such termination may be perpetual and irrevocable.

You understand and agree, however, that TwitPic may retain, but not display, distribute, or perform, server copies of your media that have been removed or deleted. The above licenses granted by you in user comments you submit are perpetual and irrevocable. Deleted images are only accessed in the event of a legal issue.


Flickr

Yahoo! does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Yahoo! Services. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Yahoo! Services, you grant Yahoo! the following worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s), as applicable:

...With respect to Content other than photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Yahoo! Services other than Yahoo! Groups, the perpetual, irrevocable and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed.


img.ly

The images shared on img.ly are belongings of their respective owners.


Instagram

Instagram does NOT claim ANY ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, applications, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") that you post on or through the Instagram Services. By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the Instagram Services, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content not shared publicly ("private") will not be distributed outside the Instagram Services.


Mlkshk

We do not claim ownership of the materials you post on, upload to or otherwise place on the Site. However, by posting, uploading or placing such material, you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use material. This license ends when you delete the material or your account unless the material has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.


Mobypicture

All rights of uploaded content by our users remain the property of our users and those rights can in no means be sold or used in a commercial way by Mobypicture or affiliated third party partners without consent from the user.


Posterous

You shall retain all of your ownership rights in your submissions; however, by submitting material to Posterous you grant Posterous fully transferable rights to use, reproduce, distribute, modify, transmit, prepare derivative works of, display and produce the material in connection with Posterous and Posterous's business, but solely in accordance with these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.


Yfrog (ImageShack)

By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the ImageShack Services, you hereby grant to ImageShack and other users a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content marked "private" will not be distributed outside the ImageShack Services. ImageShack and/or other Users may copy, print or display publicly available Content outside of the ImageShack Services, including without limitation, via the Site or third party websites or applications (for example, services allowing Users to order prints of Content or t-shirts and similar items containing Content). After you remove your Content from the ImageShack Website we will cease distribution as soon as practicable, and at such time when distribution ceases, the license to such Content will terminate. If after we have distributed your Content outside the ImageShack Website you change the Content's privacy setting to "private," we will cease any further distribution of such "private" Content outside the ImageShack Website as soon as practicable.
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