WATCHISMO TIME MACHINES - Timing is everything...
The Google-Kenya ripoff Author Diane Duane's bank account cleaned out by ATM skimmers, buy her ebooks at 20% off to help her out! New horror podcast for Friday the 13th RAW quote: restriction of freedom (1975) Lawrence Weschler on Bullseye Sound it Out #13: Sharon Van Etten "Serpents" World's smallest known vertebrate From The Mouth Of The Sun: lovely droning ambience New record: toilet paper folded 13 times! Twins: Nature, nurture, and epigenetics North Dakota tries to be cool, fails Woman calls police to report that she was sold sugar, not crack, by her crack dealer Google bulking up in China; could censor/surveillance-compliant Android Market be next? That call center you reached? If they're in the US, the person speaking may be a prison inmate Big news in small things: new nanotechnology findings found by IBM researchers New Yorker on new Pirate Bay religion, the Missionary Church of Kopimism Burglars abandon CDs and DVDs A literally broken heart RAW Week: Douglas Rushkoff to Robert Anton Wilson Ferdinando Buscema on magic and management In former Soviet state of Georgia, an iPad knockoff for police Arduino-controlled interactive punching-bag MAKE Volume 29: DIY Superhuman! Death Cab for Cutie vs. Bill Barminski Congressman who wrote SOPA is a copyright violator A Friday the 13th party in 1940 Dirty cops will love SOPA Sheriff deputy punches mentally challenged woman in head, allegedly threatens man who taped it Sneak look at the fifth volume of Karl Schroeder's triumphant Ashes of Candesce Colbert on Obama's signing of bill allowing indefinite imprisonment of US citizens without charges or trial The Google-Kenya ripoff
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 13, 2012 10:32 am Mocality is an African startup that has a Kenya-wide business directory. There is no Kenyan yellow pages, so the directory was crowdsourced, paying thousands of Kenyans to help create and validate its database. When the businesses in Mocality's database started asking them about the premium service they were offering with Google, Mocality was puzzled. They ...
Read in browser Author Diane Duane's bank account cleaned out by ATM skimmers, buy her ebooks at 20% off to help her out!
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 13, 2012 09:24 am Much-loved fantasy and science fiction author Diane Duane has had a lot of bad luck lately, but this takes the cake: her ATM card was skimmed and the joint account she and her husband share has been zeroed out, and she has no money left at all to cover daily bills while her bank tries ...
Read in browser New horror podcast for Friday the 13th
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 13, 2012 06:51 am Tony from Starship Sofa sez, "Launching today Friday 13th sees a new horror podcast from StarShipSofa called Tales To Terrify. This will be a sister show to the Sofa but dealing with scary character driven horror stories. The host of this weekly podcast is award-winning writer and narrator, Lawrence Santoro."
Read in browser RAW quote: restriction of freedom (1975)
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 13, 2012 06:23 am "More stringent security measures. Universal electronic surveillance. No-knock laws. Stop and frisk laws. Government inspection of first-class mail. Automatic fingerprinting, photographing, blood tests, and urinalysis of any person arrested before he is charged with a crime. A law making it unlawful to resist even unlawful arrest. Laws establishing detention camps for potential subversives. Gun control ...
Read in browser Lawrence Weschler on Bullseye
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 13, 2012 03:57 am Jesse Thorn says: Lawrence Weschler is on this week's Bullseye to talk about his great new book The Uncanny Valley, which is a collection of his narrative non-fiction for the New Yorker and other outlets over the last twenty years or so. I talked to him about a bunch of that stuff in the main ...
Read in browser Sound it Out #13: Sharon Van Etten "Serpents"
By Amy Seidenwurm on Jan 13, 2012 12:45 am There are quite a few talented musicians playing on Sharon Van Etten's new record Tramp (out 2/7), including dudes from The National, Wye Oak and The Walkmen. It's a big-sounding album with lush production. The funny thing is that despite an all-star cast of many, you still feel alone in a room with Van Etten ...
Read in browser World's smallest known vertebrate
By David Pescovitz on Jan 12, 2012 10:18 pm Above is the world's smallest known vertebrate, Paedophryne amanuensis. Researchers found the frog in 2010 in southern Papua New Guinea and just announced the discovery yesterday. From National Geographic: Scientists locate the teensy animals by listening for their calls and trying to zero in on the sources of the sounds—no mean feat, since the high ...
Read in browser From The Mouth Of The Sun: lovely droning ambience
By David Pescovitz on Jan 12, 2012 10:05 pm From The Mouth Of The Sun - Like Shadows In An Empty Cathedral* by experimedia From The Mouth of The Sun lie somewhere on the ambient spectrum near Eno's Music for Airports and Tim Hecker's (stunning) Ravedeath, 1972. Their debut, "Woven Tide," is available later this month from Experimedia. The music can also be heard ...
Read in browser New record: toilet paper folded 13 times!
By David Pescovitz on Jan 12, 2012 09:36 pm For years, it was thought that a piece of paper could not be folded in half more than seven times. Back in 2002 though, then-high school student Britney Gallivan folded a piece 12 times. And later, Mythbusters tackled the same issue. Now, students the St. Marks School, a Massachusetts prep school, completed 13 folds. From ...
Read in browser Twins: Nature, nurture, and epigenetics
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 12, 2012 08:58 pm National Geographic has a really interesting story on what we can learn about human biology and human culture from studying the lives of twins. (Last week, Mark blogged about some of the photos in the story.) The story explains the chance beginnings of the now-massive Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart; introduces you to twin ...
Read in browser North Dakota tries to be cool, fails
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 12, 2012 08:04 pm We all probably had at least one friend who attempted to reinvent themselves after high-school in a way that was so not them that it just made you feel pity. You know what I'm talking about. Like the goody-goody who tried so hard to change their squeaky clean reputation, but would clearly never be a ...
Read in browser Woman calls police to report that she was sold sugar, not crack, by her crack dealer
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 12, 2012 07:49 pm 47-year-old Suzanne Basham of Springfield, Missouri called police to report that she had paid $40 for crack cocaine that turned out to be sugar, and wanted her dealer arrested. She is now in jail.
Read in browser Google bulking up in China; could censor/surveillance-compliant Android Market be next?
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 12, 2012 07:38 pm "Google, which has taken a principled stand by refusing to censor its search results in China, may be slipping to the dark side as it considers launching the Android Market there. The Chinese government censors apps, and so an Android Market launch could mean the company will bow to the censorship demands of China's ruling ...
Read in browser That call center you reached? If they're in the US, the person speaking may be a prison inmate
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 12, 2012 07:29 pm MSNBC reports: "When you call a company or government agency for help, there's a good chance the person on the other end of the line is a prison inmate. The federal government calls it "the best-kept secret in outsourcing" — providing inmates to staff call centers and other services in both the private and public ...
Read in browser Big news in small things: new nanotechnology findings found by IBM researchers
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 12, 2012 07:23 pm Markoff in the New York Times: "Researchers at I.B.M. have stored and retrieved digital 1s and 0s from an array of just 12 atoms, pushing the boundaries of the magnetic storage of information to the edge of what is possible." And, what is possible has big implications on the future of computing.
Read in browser New Yorker on new Pirate Bay religion, the Missionary Church of Kopimism
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 12, 2012 07:18 pm Cory blogged earlier about the Missionary Church of Kopimism, Sweden's newest registered religion. Now there's a feature about it in the New Yorker, by Rollo Romig: The Missionary Church of Kopimism picks up where Piratbyrån left off: it has taken the values of Swedish Pirate movement and codified them into a religion. They call their ...
Read in browser Burglars abandon CDs and DVDs
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 12, 2012 07:10 pm British burglars have stopped stealing CDs and DVDs because, yeah, who needs 'em? "...thefts of entertainment products like CDs and DVDs have collapsed in England and Wales, to the point that they are now taken in just 7% of all burglaries in which something is stolen..." (Thanks, Bruce!)
Read in browser A literally broken heart
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jan 12, 2012 06:55 pm A recent study of 2000 heart attack patients found that people who have recently lost a loved one have a greater risk of heart attack—even if they had no other risk factors for coronary medical problems.
Read in browser RAW Week: Douglas Rushkoff to Robert Anton Wilson
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 12, 2012 06:23 pm [Video Link] Our friend, author Douglas Rushkoff, fills the late Robert Anton Wilson in on what he's missed since passing away on February 11, 2007. Fnord
Read in browser Ferdinando Buscema on magic and management
By David Pescovitz on Jan 12, 2012 06:22 pm Ferdinando Buscema is a stage magician and also a management/leadership consultant for large organizations. I really enjoyed his TEDxVenezia talk in which he links magic, magick, and management.
Read in browser In former Soviet state of Georgia, an iPad knockoff for police
By Xeni Jardin on Jan 12, 2012 06:20 pm An employee demonstrates a "Police Pad" at the Algorithm factory in Tbilisi, Georgia, on January 11, 2012. Five thousand police officers will receive portable field computers, equipped with features that will assist them with their work, assembled at this factory, according to local media. From the Tbilisi-based Georgian language newspaper Rustavi 2: Five thousand police ...
Read in browser Arduino-controlled interactive punching-bag
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 12, 2012 06:01 pm Summer interns at the Open University's computer science department created this interactive punching bag, then figured out how to play Ode to Joy on it: The 'interactive punching bag' is a conventional punching bag that has been enhanced to provide various forms of stimulus and feedback (such as sound, lights, and displayed images or information). ...
Read in browser MAKE Volume 29: DIY Superhuman!
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 12, 2012 05:47 pm [Video Link] Make Vol 29 is hitting newsstands any day now. Here's a video glimpse of what in this issue. We have the technology (to quote The Six Million Dollar Man), but commercial tools for exploring, assisting, and augmenting our bodies really can approach a price tag of $6 million. Medical and assistive tech manufacturers ...
Read in browser Death Cab for Cutie vs. Bill Barminski
By David Pescovitz on Jan 12, 2012 05:45 pm "Walter Robot" -- aka BB pal Bill Barminski and writer Christoper Louie -- directed the new Death Cab For Cutie music video "Underneath the Sycamore." It's a terrific piece of neo-noir animation! And what really delights me is the backstory: According to DCfC bassist (and delightful happy mutant) Nick Harmer, he was first turned on ...
Read in browser Congressman who wrote SOPA is a copyright violator
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 12, 2012 05:33 pm See the background photo on the archived, pre-SOPA version of US Congressman Lamar Smith's website? Jamie Lee Curtis Taete of Vice says: I managed to track that picture back to DJ Schulte, the photographer who took it. And whaddya know? Looks like someone forgot to credit him. I contacted DJ, to find out if Lamar ...
Read in browser A Friday the 13th party in 1940
By David Pescovitz on Jan 12, 2012 05:14 pm Tomorrow is the first Friday the 13th of 2012. To celebrate, LIFE.com posted a terrific gallery of photos from a "Friday the 13th Party" that took place December 13, 1940, in Room 13 at the Merchants & Manufacturers Club of Chicago. "Chicago's Anti-Superstition Society, 1940"
Read in browser Dirty cops will love SOPA
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 12, 2012 05:10 pm Ken at Popehat examines Google's report on the number of police departments and governments that have requested removal of police brutality videos shot by citizens, and asks what will happen once the Stop Online Piracy Act makes spurious takedown even easier.
Read in browser Sheriff deputy punches mentally challenged woman in head, allegedly threatens man who taped it
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 12, 2012 04:32 pm [Video Link] On Monday night, Jermaine Green, a recently returned US Army veteran (who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan), videoed an LA County Sheriff Deputy strike a mentally handicapped woman in the head. The incident took place on a city bus. The deputy then approached Green and ordered Green to hand over ...
Read in browser Sneak look at the fifth volume of Karl Schroeder's triumphant Ashes of Candesce
By Cory Doctorow on Jan 12, 2012 04:08 pm Tor.com has a sneak peek at Ashes of Candesce, the fifth volume in Karl Schroeder's astounding, heroic Virga series, about a post-Singularity civilization mining a pocket solar-system where the last pocket of human-comprehensible engineering knowledge has been preserved. This is hard-sf-meets-space-opera, full of big ideas and exciting low-gee, kerosene-fuelled pirate ships made of stunted lumber ...
Read in browser Colbert on Obama's signing of bill allowing indefinite imprisonment of US citizens without charges or trial
By Mark Frauenfelder on Jan 12, 2012 04:06 pm [Video Link] Colbert's funny/scary take of Obama's weaselly handling of the NDAA.
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