[Sponsor] Three new Limited Edition Mondaine Giant Watches of Switzerland were introduced at Watchismo this week. Check out the perfectly minimal raw steel and anthracite dial follow-ups to the popular 'Giant' collection use the instantly recognizable Swiss Railways clock dial, emulating a time-honored design present in every Swiss train station. The distinct Mondaine design is so easy to read that it serves its purpose at any size, but there is something majestic about these larger, domed-dial giants.
Swedish telcoms giant Teliasonera complicit in mass surveillance in the world's worst dictatorships EFF/Open Rights Group Speakeasy night in London, June 14 Hidden pint-glass QR code is only visible when filled with Guinness TSA frisks actual (but likely harmless) mass murdering serial bomber Miles Davis turned to Nancy Reagan and said... Alien Pez Shag's swinging Palm Springs art gallery (and Shag swag giveaway!) Elmo and Ricky Gervais blooper reel Visualizing GOP presidential candidate approval ratings as 3D printed buttplugs 7-year-old's threatening note regarding home PC security policies Gilbert Gottfried reads erotic best-seller "Fifty Shades of Grey" Behavioral economics at Starbucks: should paper cup users be penalized? Complexity's opposite, defined Annular solar eclipse this weekend: where to see it in the skies, and online Facebook vs. Twitter, and user privacy: slow and steady wins the race? Libya: Inside Gadhafi's secret surveillance network Do not freak out about the white babies Report from America's jailbreaking hearings Roasted gold-leaved foetus collection was for black magic Popular social networking service begins offering stock for public trading Touring indie band picks up hitchhiker who looks like John Waters. It was John Waters. HOWTO make cupcakewurst A Dallas Scooby-Doo enthusiast keeps sending white powder to churches & schools Typewriter skull Kevin Mack and Snow Mack art show in LA SpaceX readies for launch this Saturday, May 19, 2012 Lego marijuana art show What we teach children about police Associate editor of Elsevier's Genomics resigns, vows to devote energies to open access Swedish telcoms giant Teliasonera complicit in mass surveillance in the world's worst dictatorships
By Cory Doctorow on May 19, 2012 08:59 am The Swedish news show Uppdrag Granskning has posted an hour-long investigative journalism piece establishing the link between the giant Swedish telcoms company Teliasonera and oppressive regimes around the world. Teliasonera sold and supported network equipment that was used to spy on dissidents, journalists, political reformers, union leaders, and the general public in Belarus, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, ...
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By Cory Doctorow on May 19, 2012 05:05 am The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Open Rights Group will co-host a speakeasy event -- a kind of pub night -- in east London on June 14. I'll be there, with several ORG employees, supporters and volunteers, and so will Cindy Cohn, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's legal director and veteran of many of the Internet's ...
Read in browser Hidden pint-glass QR code is only visible when filled with Guinness
By Cory Doctorow on May 19, 2012 01:14 am A clever bit of advertising gimmickry from Guinness: these pint glasses bear QR codes than can't be read when the glass is empty, nor when it is filled with amber-colored beers. But when filled with black, murky Guinness, the revealed QR code can finally be scanned: "it tweets about your pint, updates your facebook status, ...
Read in browser TSA frisks actual (but likely harmless) mass murdering serial bomber
By Cory Doctorow on May 19, 2012 12:15 am Henry Kissinger's wheelchair considered harmful: "Kissinger was taken to the search area, was required to stand, and was given the 'full Monty.'"
Read in browser Miles Davis turned to Nancy Reagan and said...
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 10:41 pm In 1987, he was invited to a White House dinner by Ronald Reagan. Few of the guests appeared to know who he was. During dinner, Nancy Reagan turned to him and asked what he'd done with his life to merit an invitation. Straight-faced, Davis replied: "Well, I've changed the course of music five or six ...
Read in browser Alien Pez
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 09:39 pm Unsourced net.awesomeness: an Alien Pez dispenser. I'd buy that for (several) dollars. alien pez (via Wil Wheaton)
Read in browser Shag's swinging Palm Springs art gallery (and Shag swag giveaway!)
By Sarina Frauenfelder on May 18, 2012 09:30 pm Last weekend I went to Shag the Store in Palm Springs, California. A variety of art pieces by Shag were for sale, along with paintings up for a charity auction by artists who painted live at Coachella. Handbags, art books, home décor, and other items were also being sold. It was fun to walk around ...
Read in browser Elmo and Ricky Gervais blooper reel
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 09:00 pm Here's a blooper reel of Ricky Gervais and Sesame Street's Elmo cracking wise and crossing the line. Gervais + Elmo = Hilarity on 'Sesame Street' (via Metafilter)
Read in browser Visualizing GOP presidential candidate approval ratings as 3D printed buttplugs
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 08:00 pm Matthew Epler's Grand Old Party project takes the approval-rating curves of GOP presidential hopefuls and turns them into 3D solids, then turns those into buttplugs. Grand Old Party demonstrates that as a people united, our opinion has real volume. When we approve of a candidate, they swell with power. When we deem them unworthy, they ...
Read in browser 7-year-old's threatening note regarding home PC security policies
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 07:00 pm Redditor Surprisemailbox posted this image of a note left by a seven year old for her parents, regarding security policies at home: "If you put a pasword on that I will make your life a nitmare." The day Poesy leaves me a comparable note, I will have validation that all my parenting was not in ...
Read in browser Gilbert Gottfried reads erotic best-seller "Fifty Shades of Grey"
By Xeni Jardin on May 18, 2012 06:39 pm Were I anatomically capable of having a boner, Gilbert Gottfried's reading of the best-selling erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey would kill it dead. Forever. (collegehumor.com)
Read in browser Behavioral economics at Starbucks: should paper cup users be penalized?
By Xeni Jardin on May 18, 2012 06:38 pm Starbucks generates 4 billion paper cups a year, or 12 cups for every man, woman and child in America. The coffee giant knocks ten cents off beverage price for customers who bring in their own mugs, but Mark Gunther writes: "If Starbucks really wanted to save trees, it wouldn't offer discounts to people who bring ...
Read in browser Complexity's opposite, defined
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 06:18 pm Jamais Cascio meditates on complexity, culminating with: "In other words, the opposite of 'complex' is not 'simple,' the opposite of 'complex' is 'isolated.'" See also Kathryn Myronuk's "All complex ecosystems have parasites." (via Warren Ellis)
Read in browser Annular solar eclipse this weekend: where to see it in the skies, and online
By Xeni Jardin on May 18, 2012 05:50 pm The joint JAXA/NASA Hinode mission captured this image of the January 6, 2011 solar eclipse. On May 20-21 (this coming Sunday night through this coming Monday morning), sky-watchers in Asia and much of the U.S. will be able to view a "ring of fire" eclipse or a partial eclipse of the Sun, depending on their ...
Read in browser Facebook vs. Twitter, and user privacy: slow and steady wins the race?
By Xeni Jardin on May 18, 2012 05:28 pm The NYT's Nick Bilton compares Facebook and Twitter to the tortoise and the hare. "Facebook exploded because it slurped up endless amounts of data about its users," writes Bilton. "This race is not judged by speed, but a stopwatch with a much longer lifespan, one that is tied to trust."
Read in browser Libya: Inside Gadhafi's secret surveillance network
By Xeni Jardin on May 18, 2012 05:24 pm An excellent long read in the new Wired magazine: Jamming Tripoli: Inside Moammar Gadhafi's Secret Surveillance Network. Matthieu Aikins examines how activists suffered "greatly at the hands of Gadhafi's spy service, whose own capabilities had been heightened by 21st-century technology." By now, it's well known that the Arab Spring showed the promise of the Internet ...
Read in browser Do not freak out about the white babies
By Xeni Jardin on May 18, 2012 05:16 pm Shutterstock In a new Ill Doctrine video, Jay Smooth advises white Americans on "this baby thing"—the recent news that white births are now a minority in the US. Black, Hispanic, Asian and mixed-race births made up 50.4% of new arrivals in the year ending in July 2011. Watch the video at Animal New York, and ...
Read in browser Report from America's jailbreaking hearings
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 04:43 pm Wired's David Kravets reports from the Copyright Office's triennial hearings on exceptions to the DMCA's rules against breaking DRM. Every three years, public interest groups supplicate themselves before the Copyright Office and beg for our right to jailbreak our devices and look inside our own property. Every three years, entertainment lawyers show up and demand ...
Read in browser Roasted gold-leaved foetus collection was for black magic
By Rob Beschizza on May 18, 2012 04:25 pm Earlier today, a mysterious report from Thailand simply noted that a man was arrested for "possession of a foetus." The Telegraph has more: Six human foetuses which had been roasted and covered in gold leaf as part of a black magic ritual have been seized from a British citizen in Bangkok, Thai police said today. ...
Read in browser Popular social networking service begins offering stock for public trading
By Xeni Jardin on May 18, 2012 03:56 pm Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen on a screen televised from their headquarters in Menlo Park moments after their IPO launch in New York. (REUTERS) Shares of Facebook (FB) opened at $42.05 on today, up about 11 percent from the IPO price of $38. At this valuation, the company is worth around $115 billion. ...
Read in browser Touring indie band picks up hitchhiker who looks like John Waters. It was John Waters.
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 03:37 pm Indie band Here We Go Magic is driving across America on tour. Earlier this week, they spotted legendary director John Waters hitchhiking by the side of the road with a hat that said "Scum of the Earth." DCist has the story, and a followup interview with the band. So what happened once the car pulls ...
Read in browser HOWTO make cupcakewurst
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 03:00 pm What happens when you stuff sausage casings with cupcake-batter? That's what Stef from the Cupcake Project set out to discover. Short answer: sheer, heart-stopping deliciousness. Stef's produced a detailed HOWTO for making your own cupcakewurst. Suggested serving: "Serve warm on Long John doughnuts with raspberry sauce." It took a lot of experimentation to conquer Cupcakewurst. ...
Read in browser A Dallas Scooby-Doo enthusiast keeps sending white powder to churches & schools
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 18, 2012 02:43 pm Nick Rallo of the Dallas Observer alerted me to this report, written by Eric Nicholson, about someone who has sent nearly 400 packets of white powder to organizations in Texas. The FBI is offering a reward for her (or his) capture. The FBI finds last week's scare even less funny because agents believe the same ...
Read in browser Typewriter skull
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 02:18 pm Jeremy Mayer, the titan of typewriter-part sculptures, has sacrificed some more old beasts for a good cause, producing this wonderful 9"x12"x15" skull. Skull I (Thanks, Jeremy)
Read in browser Kevin Mack and Snow Mack art show in LA
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 18, 2012 01:54 pm Gweek podcast guest Kevin Mack and Snow Mack have an art opening this Saturday at the Barbara Mendes Gallery in Los Angeles. I love their work. Snow was in the 25th Anniversary show of La Luz de Jesus in 2011. Her painting, "Cheesy Rider" is included in the book La Luz de Jesus 25, The ...
Read in browser SpaceX readies for launch this Saturday, May 19, 2012
By Xeni Jardin on May 18, 2012 01:47 pm If all goes according to plan, tomorrow, Saturday, May 19th, SpaceX will become the first commercial space flight company in history to head for the International Space Station. You can watch online, live, at SpaceX.com starting at 1:15 AM Pacific / 4:15 AM Eastern / 08:15 UTC. You can also follow SpaceX founder and CEO ...
Read in browser Lego marijuana art show
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 18, 2012 01:45 pm The infamous art collective / brand, LA-GO has a show at Known Gallery in LA opening on May 26. It's called Legolize it, and features marijuana plants made from plastic hobby construction bricks.
Read in browser What we teach children about police
By Xeni Jardin on May 18, 2012 01:27 pm "Someone is causing a lot of trouble." Josh Stearns, a reporter who has covered the Occupy movement extensively, asks, "Why is this children's book teaching my kid about SWAT vehicles and Riot Control practices?" From his blog post: Visiting the local library yesterday my son picked out a book all about police. I was stunned ...
Read in browser Associate editor of Elsevier's Genomics resigns, vows to devote energies to open access
By Cory Doctorow on May 18, 2012 01:00 pm Winston Hide, is an associate professor of bioinformatics and computational biology at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was also -- until recently -- the associate editor of the prestigious (and expensive!) Elsevier journal Genomics. In a column in The Guardian, he explains why he resigned from Genomics: people are dying because scientists in ...
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