Friday, May 21, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Critical paths and self-publishing

Posted: 21 May 2010 04:25 AM PDT

In my latest Publishers Weekly column, I dig into the meat of the production on my forthcoming short story collection With a Little Help. In short it's going well, but the book-tour put a major crimp in it, as did some bad assumptions on my part about the critical path:
It turns out that a few tasks were dependent on earlier stages. And Murphy's Law being what it is, this meant delays. Specifically, as I wrote in March, typesetting delays meant that I couldn't get into final cover designs and proofing, nor could I get into prototyping for the limited edition hardcovers. The sound editing couldn't be done until the sound recording was done, and some of my readers had other priorities that took precedence (such as paying work!). In hindsight, I should have taken notice that the two tasks with the largest number of dependencies were also the tasks that required the most work from my collaborators.

Now, though, all the critical pieces are in place, and the book is definitely, finally, trembling on the verge of becoming a reality. And, I must say, when the typeset book arrived, it was absolutely glorious and well worth waiting for.

Closing In

Gundam Calling t-shirt

Posted: 20 May 2010 10:08 PM PDT

 System Product Images 2789 Original Robotrock Hires
From Chop Shop comes this fantastic "Gundam Calling" t-shirt playing on the Clash's London Calling album cover which itself was a tribute to the design of Elvis's self-titled first album. Available in men's and women's sizes from the Boing Boing Bazaar! "robotRock (or Gundam Calling) Tshirt"

JHEREG license plate

Posted: 20 May 2010 09:47 PM PDT


More scenes from a book tour: Steven Brust's kick-ass JHEREG license-plate, on proud display at BookPeople tonight in Austin (so awesome to see so many happy mutants there tonight!).

There's still plenty of schools, libraries, shelters and other worthy institutions hoping you'll donate a copy of For the Win to them!

Next stop is Raleigh, NC, with a reading and signing at the Barnes and Noble in Cary on Saturday the 23d at 4PM. After that, it's Chapel Hill, NYC, Brooklyn and Toronto.

Full tour sched



Tesla's death-mask

Posted: 20 May 2010 09:11 PM PDT


This death mask of Nikola Tesla is on display at a museum in Belgrade, Serbia. Does anyone know if you can have a death mask cast if you're also an organ donor? Does cornea, etc, harvesting interfere with the mask-making? Because I'm an organ donor, but man, I'd love to leave behind one of these babies.

Check out Nikola Tesla's super creepy death mask (via JWZ)



UK government promises immediate, sweeping, pro-liberty reform

Posted: 20 May 2010 09:07 PM PDT

Britain's new (and unprecedented) coalition government has promised a set of sweeping, immediate pro-liberty changes including a reduction in the use of CCTV surveillance, an end to the national ID card programme, reform libel law, end pointless data-retention and a commit to using free/open source software in large government IT projects.
* We will scrap the ID card scheme, the National Identity register and the ContactPoint database, and halt the next generation of biometric passports.

* We will outlaw the fingerprinting of children at school without parental permission.

* We will adopt the protections of the Scottish model for the DNA database.

* We will review libel laws to protect freedom of speech.

* We will further regulate CCTV.

* We will end the storage of internet and e-mail records without good reason.

* We will create a level playing field for open-source software and will enable large ICT projects to be split into smaller components.

* We will create a new "right to data" so that government-held datasets can be requested and used by the public, and then published on a regular basis.

* We will introduce measures to ensure the rapid roll-out of superfast broadband across the country. We will ensure that BT and other infrastructure providers allow the use of their assets to deliver such broadband, and we will seek to introduce superfast broadband in remote areas at the same time as in more populated areas. If necessary, we will consider using the part of the TV license fee that is supporting the digital switchover to fund broadband in areas that the market alone will not reach.

The LibDems have also promised to reform the dread Digital Economy Act, consistent with Bridget Fox's Freedom, Creativity and the Internet motion at the Spring Conference this year.

New UK govt to curb CCTV, scrap ID cards, help open source

Unified Policy Statement (PDF)



Electric fireflies

Posted: 20 May 2010 09:04 PM PDT


Tom Padula's solar-powered electric fireflies are just one example of the kind of awesome homebrew tchotchke coming to the San Francisco Maker Faire this weekend. These things sound great: tinsy, solar-charged intermittent garden-blinkers that give you the fireflies you always wanted.
"The slightest breeze moves them around, and the motion combined with the light is mesmerizing," says Padula, who will be selling his digital lightning bugs for $10 apiece at the fifth annual Maker Faire Bay Area, which will be held this coming Saturday and Sunday, May 22 and 23, in San Mateo, California. The annual event, put on by O'Reilly Media, is a celebration of DIY culture, arts and crafts, and will likely draw more than 70,000 attendees, organizers say.

Padula's fireflies weigh 0.2 ounces (7 grams) and are attached to an 18-inch monofilament line. Six solar panels charge NiMH batteries, and a microcontroller drives the LED. The units are dipped in epoxy for weather resistance.

"All the real work happens in the code, from determining ambient light level, to controlling the LED intensity and keeping track of how long the pattern has been active so as to turn off after two hours, like real fireflies do," says Padula.

Maker Faire Preview: Electronic Fireflies to Light Up Your Backyard

Metafilter users save two Russian girls from sex traffickers

Posted: 20 May 2010 08:58 PM PDT

A reader writes, "Members of ask.metafilter.com rescue two Russian girls from probable sex traffickers in NYC, in real time. You have to read through it to believe it."
My friend and former student K arrived in DC yesterday, along with a friend. She came over on some kind of travel exchange program put together by a Russian travel agency called 'Aloha'. They paid about 3K for this program.

The program promised a job offer in advance, but didn't deliver. They said they would send one via email, but failed there, too.

Her contact in the USA barely speaks English, doesn't answer her calls but does answer mine. He has asked her and her friend to meet in NYC tonight around midnight, with promises of hostess work in a lounge. Yes, I know how horrific that sounds- that's why I am working all possible angles here.

Help me help my friend in DC.

You had me at, "Free fainting goats"

Posted: 20 May 2010 07:54 PM PDT

My husband is so lucky that we no longer live in Birmingham, AL. If we did, I would totally have one of these free fainting goats in my backyard right. now. Second thought: I wonder what's wrong with them. Can you kick a fainting goat's tires?



BP Disaster: Oil reaches Louisiana marshlands

Posted: 20 May 2010 07:46 PM PDT

oil.jpg

Photo from Louisiana Gov. Jindal's tour of the environmental devastation in coastal marshlands caused by the BP oil disaster. As a friend said, this thing isn't a "spill," it's a fossil-fuel Chernobyl, unfolding in slow motion, thousands of gallons a day.

(Louisiana Gov.'s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, via Clayton Cubitt)

Google launches Google TV

Posted: 20 May 2010 04:56 PM PDT

From the Official Google blog:

googtvth.jpg Google TV is a new experience for television that combines the TV that you already know with the freedom and power of the Internet. With Google Chrome built in, you can access all of your favorite websites and easily move between television and the web. This opens up your TV from a few hundred channels to millions of channels of entertainment across TV and the web. Your television is also no longer confined to showing just video. With the entire Internet in your living room, your TV becomes more than a TV -- it can be a photo slideshow viewer, a gaming console, a music player and much more.
Guidelines for developers who wish to optimize their sites for Google TV are here. Google is working with Sony and Logitech to integrate TV sets, Blu-ray players and companion boxes with the offering, and compatible devices will go on sale this fall, at Best Buy stores throughout the USA. During today's launch event, Google execs showcased how Google TV will use the next generation of Adobe's Flash, which has been the subject of much controversy with Apple.

The Shroud Crowd: a dispatch from Torino, Italy

Posted: 20 May 2010 04:36 PM PDT

shroud-crowd.jpg

Since April 10th of this year, Torino, Italy has been crowded by a strange mob of tourists: endless streams of international and local people, old and young, pious and less pious. They are Catholics, and believers of other religions, too.

The Shroud Crowd walks the majestic straight streets under the portici of this city, the first capital of Italy. Italy is celebrating its 150th anniversary next year, in 2011. Actually, people in Torino are wondering if that event will become an official "celebration," since the right-wing government of premier Silvio Berlusconi is so eager to split the country between the north and south, the rich and poor, the locals and the foreigners. With the separatists of the Northern League in power, the unification of Italy is presented as a curse more than a benefit.

The crowd meandering the streets of Torino is not here for political reasons. They are here to see the shroud of Christ: a piece of fabric appertaining to the most famous martyr in the world, after his crucifixion. Now, that's the legend. The scientific and historic truth is that this frail and stained cotton wrapping, of obscure origin, was brought to this part of the world by Anne de Lusignan, Princess of Cyprus, and Duchess of Savoy. In the year 1452, Anne bought the Shroud from yet another woman, the widow Jeanne de Charney, in exchange for a minor castle.

Anne seems to have picked up this holy relic on a whim, for she was known for extravagance. However, Duchess Anne made one of the best tourism deals in all Italian history. The Shroud has been repeatedly proved a fake—it was very doubtful even in the 1400s—but that has never changed its importance. On the contrary: it has been kept in a box in a church in Torino, only to be exhibited every ten to fifteen years.

This is one of the good years: the Shroud is exposed in the central church on the central square, near the royal palace, until May 23. Tourists have made their reservations months in advance: queues are endless in front of the church, and all languages can be heard. The presence of the Shroud Crowd is so thick that they have even chased off the gypsy beggars who commonly man that locale. Don't ask me why. Perhaps all people become humble beggars before the miraculous fabric.


On May 2, the Pope himself visited Torino to honor the shroud. Unity between the Roman Church and the Italian state has rarely been so strong as today, perhaps because both Pope Benedict and his ally Silvio Berlusconi have been racked with endless sex scandals, involving either prostitutes or pedophilia.


During the Pope's one-day stay, many antipapal protests were held in this beautiful city: the Savoy capital, the Fiat industrial capital, and today the cultural capital of Italy. From atheists, Communists and anarchists to lay Catholics, gays and lesbians, people were protesting loudly and wittily in the collateral streets of Torino—the streets not closed because of the many pious visitors and the Pope.


The pious have a specific look these days in the new millenium. They don't act or look particularly pious any more: they consume a lot of Italian food, dress in lively colors, seem rather happy and wealthy by the modern standards of the debt crisis. Like all pleasure tourists, they buy a whole lot of souvenirs. A whole local industry was triggered by this occasion; from t shirts to wall pictures, calendars, blobjects, books....unimaginable designer fantasies connected to the piece of fabric with the face of Christ faintly bloodstained within it.


Surviving members of the former royal family of Savoy were sitting in the first row admiring the Pope. These former royals are rather unpopular in Torino today, a city of workers and engineers. The royals are resented for their tight historical connection to the fascism of Benito Mussolini, when the treaty between Mussolini and the Church was signed. Il Concordato delegated the control of many civil and human rights (such as abortion and divorce) to the ecclesiastical authorities.

The Savoy royals are living descendants of Duchess Anne de Lusignan, that woman who brought the Shroud and who bred 19 children for the dynasty in her 43-year lifespan. This amazing feat makes Anne the grandmother of all European nobility, though her role in snagging the Shroud is rarely mentioned today. This exotic Crusader princess, brought from her distant island in a marriage swap, seems to have been an eternal foreigner in the Savoy Alps and foothills.

Ever loyal to her palace clique of Cypriot emigres, Anne was a strong willed and beautiful woman who collected art and music as well as spare shrouds. Anne brought to Torino and maybe even Italy the biggest gift that any foreign spouse can bring: a token of global culture. It has proven to be an enduringly popular culture.






Previous essays by Jasmina Tešanović on BoingBoing:

Violence in Milan

Report from anti-Berlusconi demonstration in Rome

On Marina Abramovic, a "grandmother of performance art"

The Murder of Natalya Estemirova.


Less Than Human

Earthquake in Italy

10 years after NATO bombings of Serbia

Made in Catalunya / Lou and Laurie

Dragan Dabic Defeats Radovan Karadzic

Who was Dragan David Dabic?

My neighbor Radovan Karadzic

The Day After / Kosovo

State of Emergency

Kosovo

Christmas in Serbia

Neonazism in Serbia

Korea - South, not North.

"I heard they are making a movie on her life."

Serbia and the Flames

Return to Srebenica

Sagmeister in Belgrade

What About the Russians?

Milan Martic sentenced in Hague

Mothers of Mass Graves

Hope for Serbia

Stelarc in Ritopek

Sarajevo Mon Amour

MBOs

Killing Journalists

Where Did Our History Go?

Serbia Not Guilty of Genocide

Carnival of Ruritania

"Good Morning, Fascist Serbia!"

Faking Bombings

Dispatch from Amsterdam

Where are your Americans now?

Anna Politkovskaya Silenced

Slaughter in the Monastery

Mermaid's Trail

A Burial in Srebenica

Report from a concert by a Serbian war criminal

To Hague, to Hague

Preachers and Fascists, Out of My Panties

Floods and Bombs

Scorpions Trial, April 13

The Muslim Women

Belgrade: New Normality

Serbia: An Underworld Journey

Scorpions Trial, Day Three: March 15, 2006

Scorpions Trial, Day Two: March 14, 2006

Scorpions Trial, Day One: March 13, 2006

The Long Goodbye

Milosevic Arrives in Belgrade

Slobodan Milosevic Died

Milosevic Funeral



Your Olympic nightmares, the 2012 edition

Posted: 20 May 2010 04:13 PM PDT

london2012.jpgI'm not sure I agree with Fast Company's theory that the best Olympics have the worst mascots, mostly because I can't remember which Olympics were which. I mean, every Olympics I've ever seen has blended into a hazy melange of ski jumps and cute girls and either opening or closing ceremonies that seemed to focus on huge, vaguely sinister figural apparati being erected in stadiums while bad music played. But: If Fast Company is correct, the 2012 London Olympics are going to be awesome. Meet Mandeville and Wenlock, two shiny steel-ingot-based life forms:
We were created from the last two drops of British steel used for the London 2012 Olympic Stadium. That's why we're so shiny, reflecting the people, places and things we meet along the way as we travel around the UK. You might see yourself reflected if we meet you!
Yes: They have their own website.

You could argue that there's something charming about a country whose industrial glory days ended 100 years ago choosing steel ingots to represent itself. But the UK has made a rookie mistake here, because mascots made by animating inanimate objects are almost always terrifying. Check out Neve and Gliz (Turin 2006), a humanized ice cube and snowball, and tell me you won't have nightmares tonight. Britain should have stuck with animals, like we did in 2002 (Salt Lake City), with the cheery, cartoony Hare, Coyote & Bear. Animals are cute. People like 'em. Okay, maybe not coyotes so much. But Yogi? Bugs? Q.E.D., London Olympic Committee. Q.E.D.

Japanese conceptual "immortality artist" who designed anti-death buildings has died

Posted: 20 May 2010 04:12 PM PDT

shapeimage_6.jpg Japanese-born conceptual artist Arakawa, who created buildings designed to "stop aging and preclude death, died this week in Manhattan at age 73.
shapeimage_8.jpg "This mortality thing is bad news," [the artist's wife and collaborator Madeline] Gins said by phone from her studio on Houston Street.

She said she would redouble her efforts to prove that "aging can be outlawed."

Arakawa, who was known professionally by his surname, and Ms. Gins explored their philosophy, which they called Reversible Destiny, in poems, books, paintings and, when they found clients, buildings.

Arakawa, Whose Art Tried to Halt Aging, Dies at 73 (New York Times, thanks Marianne Shaneen)

The artist's website: reversibledestiny.org.

Easy to make jokes about the futility of trying to escape death, but their designs are amazing. Part of the idea is to create residences where everything is a little bit off kilter, and keep the residents in a state of constant negotiation and tentativeness with their environment, to avoid a kind of spiritual stasis and stagnation.

Rudy Rucker and Michael Shea in San Francisco this Saturday

Posted: 20 May 2010 03:18 PM PDT

Hey, San Francisco! Here comes the next SF in SF reading series event, with Rudy Rucker and Michael Shea! You lucky bastards.
The SF in SF May authors reading takes place on Saturday May 22nd. The guests will be the multi-talented Rudy Rucker, whose art exhibition has been running at our venue for the past six weeks, and the multiple World Fantasy Award-winning Michael Shea.

Doors and cash bar open at 6:00PM; proceeds and tips benefit Variety Children's Charity of Northern California Readings begin at 7:00PM As usual, books will be for sale courtesy of Borderlands. Rudy's art is for sale, and there will be prints available as well. 30% of all art sales will benefit Variety! Doors open at 6:00PM. Readings begin at 7:00PM, followed by Q & A moderated by Terry Bisson. Booksigning and schmoozing follow.

The Variety Preview Room, The Hobart Bldg.,582 Market St. @ 2nd & Montgomery, San Francisco. Entrance is between Quizno's and Citibank.

May Reading: Rudy Rucker & Michael Shea (Thanks, Rina!)

Space Oddities

Posted: 20 May 2010 07:24 PM PDT

Mary Roach - one of my favorite science writers - has a book coming out this August. It's sort of like "The Right Stuff." But it's more like the weird stuff. The funny stuff. The gross stuff. The unexpected stuff. It's called "Packing for Mars," and it's all about those things NASA doesn't delve into at press conferences: boozing in space, sex in space, peeing in space, etc. Mary - whom you might know from her book about cadavers (Stiff) or her book about life after death (Spook) or her book about bonking (Bonk) -- sent me an early copy for blurbage purposes. Here's the five most important space nuggets I gleaned: --The Japanese space program has an interesting way of screening candidates: Extreme origami. Potential astronauts have to make 1,000 paper cranes to see how they deal with pressure and monotony. --Among the historic trash left on the moon by the first human visitors: Four condom-like urine collection devices. Two were left by Neil Armstrong and two were left by Buzz Aldrin. By the way, two were large and two were small. "Who wore what is a matter of conjecture," says Roach. --Booze is officially banned in space. But some astronauts have managed to smuggle it on. According to Roach's sources, vodka is very useful when trying to get Russian astronauts to cooperate on projects. --Space makes you beautiful. It's known as the Space Beauty Treatment. "Without gravity, your hair has more body. Your breasts don't sag. More of your body fluid migrates to your head and plumps your crow's feet." --A flight surgeon once advised Apollo astroanuts to "self-stim" to prevent prostate infections. Unsurprisingly, today's NASA has no official policy on orbital masturbation. But a Russian cosmonaut Roach interviewed was willing to discuss the issue. "My friend asks me, 'How are you making sex in space?' I say, 'By hand!'"

The Human Centipede horror film

Posted: 20 May 2010 05:22 PM PDT



The Human Centipede: First Sequence is a newly-released schlock-horror film about a crazy surgeon who attempts to make a human centipede by sewing people together mouth-to-butt. Roger Ebert refused to apply the star system to it in his review. From the Sun Times:
 Wp-Content Uploads 2010 04 The-Human-Centipede-First-Sequence I have long attempted to take a generic approach. In other words, is a film true to its genre and does it deliver what its audiences presumably expect? "The Human Centipede" scores high on this scale. It is depraved and disgusting enough to satisfy the most demanding midnight movie fan. And it's not simply an exploitation film...

I am required to award stars to movies I review. This time, I refuse to do it. The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine.

Roger Ebert reviews The Human Centipede (Thanks, Lisa Mumbach!)

And here's The Awl's review, "Horror Chick: Do Not See 'The Human Centipede' Unless You Are a Sick, Sick Puppy, And Even Then Reconsider"

UPDATE: And the requisite Tumblr blog for this depraved flick, "Behind the Behind," from UPSO and pals.

Craig Venter creates synthetic life form

Posted: 20 May 2010 01:23 PM PDT

venter.jpg

Big news all over the place today about a huge scientific achievement led by Dr. J. Craig Venter, some 15 years and tens of millions of dollars in the making. A live press conference is taking place now, as I type this blog post (screengrab above), and you can watch the video online. "We've briefed the White House..." Venter says, as I click publish... followed by an audience question about bioterrorism concerns. This is big stuff. Snip from Edge.org announcement:

On May 20th, J. Craig Venter and his team at J.C Venter Institute announced the creation of a cell controlled by a synthetic genome in a paper published in SCIENCE. As science historian George Dyson points out, "from the point of view of technology, a code generated within a digital computer is now self-replicating as the genome of a line of living cells. From the point of view of biology, a code generated by a living organism has been translated into a digital representation for replication, editing, and transmission to other cells."

This new development is all about operating on a large scale. "Reading the genetic code of a wide range of species," the paper says, "has increased exponentially from these early studies. Our ability to rapidly digitize genomic information has increased by more than eight orders of magnitude over the past 25 years " This is a big scaling up in our technological abilities. Physicist Freeman Dyson, commenting on the paper, notes that "the sequencing and synthesizing DNA give us all the tools we need to create new forms of life". But it remains to be seen how it will serve in practice.

One question is whether or not a DNA sequence alone enough to generate a living creature. One way of reading of the paper suggests this doesn't seem to be the case because of the use of old microplasma cells into which the DNA was inserted -- that this is not about "creating" life" because, the new life requires an existing living recipient cell. If this is the case, what is the chance of producing something de novo? The paper might appear to be about a somewhat banal technological feat. The new techniques build on existing capabilities. What else is being added, what is qualitatively new?

While it is correct to say that the individual cell was not created, a new line of cells (dare one say species?) was generated. This is new life that is self-propagating, i.e. "the cells with only the synthetic genome are self replicating and capable of logarithmic growth."

On "Creation Of A Bacterial Cell Controlled By A Chemically Synthesized Genome" By Venter Et Al" (Edge.org)

Freeman Dyson, commenting on the paper on EDGE, wrote:

I feel sure of only one conclusion. The ability to design and create new forms of life marks a turning-point in the history of our species and our planet.
Documents from the J. Craig Venter Institute:
Press release on "The first self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cell."
Frequently Asked Questions
Fact Sheet: Ethical and Societal Implications/Policy Discussions about Synthetic Genomics Research (PDF)

Canada's sellout Heritage Minister ready to hand copyright to Hollywood

Posted: 20 May 2010 10:40 AM PDT

Michael Geist sez, "Reports in the Canadian media confirm what was reported in the blogosphere several weeks ago - out-of-touch Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore has won the internal fight for a Canadian DMCA. The reports say the Canadian government is likely to introduce the bill next week complete with digital lock provisions that mirror those found in the U.S. DMCA. The bill may also include some important new exceptions, but those will be subject to the use of a digital lock. In other words, they are new rights that come with a big caveat in that they can be eliminated anytime by a rights holder."

A translation for the layperson. In the USA, it's illegal to break a "digital lock," such as the one that prevents you from copying a DVD to your laptop or phone. This prohibition extends to activities that are otherwise legal: if there's a digital lock that stops you from buying unauthorized, third-party games or apps for your Nintendo Wii or Apple iPad, it's illegal to break that lock, even though all you're doing is buying copyrighted works from their authors (no copyright violations are taking place).

This has been the law in the US for ten years, and it's been an utter disaster. It hasn't stopped copying, but it has created monopolies through which hardware/service companies can lock out competitors and force creators to accept terrible terms in order to sell their works on their platform (see, for example, the terms on which apps are admitted to the iTunes Store).

Canada's Heritage Minister is so eager to kiss the ass of the American entertainment industry that's he willing to repeat the mistake, creating a Canadian version of this law. As a sop to the Canadian public (who overwhelmingly rejected this approach in a national consultation on Canadian copyright law), he's creating a few "exceptions" for copyright that give Canadians the right to do normal things like recording TV shows or ripping CDs.

However, he's also putting this digital locks business into play. So all of those exceptions can be overridden: if there's a digital lock (no matter how flimsy and ridiculous) that stops you from exercising your rights under copyright, those rights go away.

Nice work, Minister. Want some chapstick? All that puckering up for Hollywood is hard on a body.

National Post Reports "Heavy Handed" Copyright Law Coming Next Week



How male antelopes increase their chances of sex

Posted: 20 May 2010 10:01 AM PDT

100519112618.jpgMale antelopes trick female antelopes to increase their chances of having sex with them, a new study conducted by the University of Liverpool has found.
The study of topi antelopes in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve Park found that male antelopes snort and look intently ahead if an ovulating female begins to stray from their territory. This type of behaviour suggests to the female that there is predator danger ahead. Typical predators of the topi include lions, cheetahs, leopards and humans. When scientists examined the behaviour closely they discovered that the male antelope's snort and intent look were a false call made to keep the female in his vicinity and there was no danger nearby. Rather than risk any danger of a predator the female stays within the male antelope's territory, which increases his chances of mating with her.
It's the first time this type of behavior has been documented in animals in the wild. An earlier study on antelope sexual behavior found that female antelopes are more promiscuous than male antelopes.

Male antelopes deceive females to increase their chances of mating [New Scientist]

Image by Dr. Jakob Bro-Jorgenson via New Scientist

NYC sidewalk with a tourist lane

Posted: 20 May 2010 09:43 AM PDT

Charts of UK Parliamentary language usage, 1935-

Posted: 20 May 2010 08:28 AM PDT


Amy sez,
We analysed the use of language in UK parliament debates from December 1935 to March 2010. The terms of recent Prime Ministers are highlighted at the bottom of each graph for reference. It's also worth keeping in mind that Alistair Campbell became Director of Communications for the Labour Government in the year 2000.

We used the parliamentary debates raw data provided by the excellent They Work For You website. Common words (the, at, honorable, minister, in, of, order, debate, sir, and so on) and infrequently used words were removed, with the remaining words grouped into a database by year. Note that the data for the years 1935 and 2010 is incomplete -- we only used the data from the 26th November 1935 to 31st March 2010 -- and so the statistics for the first and final years may not be reliable.

Each year differs in the number of debates, and hence volume of data. Therefore, rather than analysing the absolute count of usage for each word, we instead compared the count of each word against the total number words recorded in our database for the year -- resulting in a percentage, which is more reliably comparable across years.

An Analysis of UK Parliamentary Language: 1935-2010 (Thanks, Amy!)

52 ways to die in a cave

Posted: 20 May 2010 07:46 AM PDT

Some upbeat reading for your coffee and donut time.

A couple of weeks ago, I read Blind Descent, a book about speleologists exploring the some of the deepest caves* on Earth. One of the things that struck me about the story was just how frequently potentially deadly accidents happened. Towards the end, it got to the point where somebody was cheating the Reaper every other page or so. But, really, that's kind of the whole deal with deep cave exploration—when the surface is a multi-day trek away, through constricting passages and up sheer cliffs, just about any injury can quickly become life-threatening.

In fact, author James Tabor was able to come up with a list of 52 different ways deep caving could kill you—and that's with lumping all "incapacitating injuries" into one entry.

*"Deep" in this case means depth from top to bottom of the cave, not depth below sea level. These were journeys into the Earth, but they tended to start up a mountain and end at the bottom of a river valley, rather than in the land of the mole-people. That distinction confused me through the first few chapters, and left me still wanting to know about caves that go deep below the surface of the Earth, as opposed to caves that are just deep.



NYC writer's space throws out last remaining typewriter user

Posted: 20 May 2010 07:36 AM PDT

Greenwich Village's Writers Room, a low-cost place for writers to rent workspace, has banned mechanical typewriters from its premises, giving Skye Ferrante, the sole remaining typewriter user the choice of switching to a laptop or going elsewhere. He's not going to switch. Ferrante's been using the Writers Room for six years, and is distressed at the news that he's got to leave.
"In the event that there are no desks available, laptop users must make room for typists," read a sign posted in the "Typing Room" for years.

When Ferrante returned to the Writers Room in April after an eight-month break, the sign was gone and his noisy typewriter was no longer welcome.

"I was told I was the unintended beneficiary of a policy to placate the elderly members who have all since died off," said Ferrante, a Manhattan native who's writing children's books. "They offered me a choice to switch to a laptop or refund my money, which to me is no choice at all."

Ferrante was peeved, but not completely surprised.

A growing number of scowls had replaced the smiles that once greeted the arrival of his black, glass-key typewriter.

Last typist refuses to switch to laptop, gets boot from Writers Room in Greenwich Village

(Image: Hagen/News)



The Gulf oil slick has a tail, and that's bad

Posted: 20 May 2010 07:27 AM PDT

tailofthebeast.jpg

See the the long, dangle-y trail of oil in this NASA photo taken May 17? It's a big problem—and not just for the obvious reason. The oil slick isn't simply spreading here, it's hitching a ride on the Interstate.

loop current .jpg

The Loop Current is a patch of warm, Caribbean water that pops up into the colder Gulf like a prairie dog sticking its head out of a hole. You can see it above as the orange parabola popping up into the blue. Water follows the path of that arch, up from the Caribbean, back to the Caribbean—and the water that gets back to the tropics can easily join up with the Atlantic Gulf Stream, seen above as the orange arrow rising along the Eastern Seaboard.

That tail of oil in the first picture has almost extended into the orange parabola of the second. So far, NASA says, the Loop Current isn't picking up the oil. But, if it does, the Deepwater Horizon slick could reach the straights of Florida in as little as eight days. And, beyond, the Atlantic.



John Scalzi on the changing face of space in the movies

Posted: 20 May 2010 07:06 AM PDT

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Great essay on 2001, Armageddon and how optimism became uncouth.

I do think that, to a very real extent, our film industry's portrayal of space and its exploration is tied into our relationship with actual real-world space travel. Nor is this a new thing; it goes back six decades, at the very least.

In the full rush of the space race and close to the climax of the Apollo program, which did in fact send men to the moon, 2001: A Space Odyssey reflected the confidence we had with our progress into space. It was optimistic but not unreasonable to think that just a couple decades into the (then) future we would have expanded our reach into space to orbital stations and moon bases and that Pan Am, one of the great airline companies, would, naturally, have service to them.

That optimism regarding space travel soured in the seventies, along with much of the U.S. optimism about, well, pretty much everything, and, by 1977, the can-do spirit of Destination Moon and optimistic technical assumptions of 2001 had been replaced by the cynical view of Capricorn One, in which a mission to Mars is faked owing to both a fatal flaw in technology and the need for the space program to have a "win" to keep its funding flowing. NASA had become just another government bureaucracy and its mission just another way for the public to be lied to by its government.

Spaceflight in the Real World vs. Armageddon and 2001

Image courtesy Flickr user Matthew Simantov, via CC



Eating well on food stamps isn't easy

Posted: 20 May 2010 06:57 AM PDT

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Food stamps might pay enough to keep a single hipster in organic arugula and fine chocolates, but faddish stories about young yuppies living high on the government dime make it easy to forget the millions of Americans who have to make that money feed a whole family for a month. And that is not a simple task.

The average family of four gets $275.53 a month in food stamps. That's $68.88 a week. I've pulled that off just fine when I was single, but one adult with a middlin' appetite is a universe away from feeding multiple children. The Associated Press recently challenged two professional chefs and a food magazine editor to try making a week's worth of healthy meals for four on that budget—one pulled it off, another almost made it and the third went $20 over.

The story ended up with some handy tips for meal planning, shopping and eating on the cheap, but I think the thing to take out of this is a reminder that most people aren't on government assistance because it provides an awesome lifestyle for no work.

Hear AP food editor Jason Hirsch and chef Jose Garces talk to New Hampshire Public Radio's "Word of Mouth"

Image courtesy Flickr user clementine gallot, via cc



For the Win tour comes to Austin tonight, Raleigh next

Posted: 20 May 2010 06:42 AM PDT

Hey, Austinites! I'm headed your way next on the For the Win tour: I'll be at Book People tonight at 7PM and then off to Whuffiefest, a benefit for EFF-Austin, from 9 on (technically, the party goes from 9 onward, but I'll probably turn into a pumpkin at 10PM in order to get some sleep before my flight the next morning to Raleigh-Durham). (Full schedule: RDU, NYC, YYZ)

Video game medal redux

Posted: 20 May 2010 06:19 AM PDT


Emanuel from Supermandolini has added some new pins to his collection of video-game-veteran medals "that celebrate the memories of endless epic battles, infinite high scores and numerous blistered fingers."

Console Wars Veteran V (Thanks, Emanuel!)



Kids in Uganda improvise a junk-radio

Posted: 20 May 2010 07:12 AM PDT

Survey of international science fiction

Posted: 20 May 2010 06:10 AM PDT

Writer Jeff VanderMeer solicited recommendations for sf from around the world, compiling it into "An Overview of International Science Fiction/Fantasy in 2009" for Locus magazine. It's a tantalizing glimpse into the sf that us dumb monolingual Anglophones are missing out on.
Finland, recommended by editor/writer Jukka Halme

Tornit (Towers) by Jyrki Vainonen (Tammi)
-- Finnish magical realism at its very best. After dismembering his dead (witch) mother, Henrik is taken by the great flood and carried into fantastical islands. Surrealistic fantasy about sex plants, dead witches and princesses with eyes on their backs. Vainonen dives ever deeper into the fantastical and weird, while coming up with trumps.

Karsta (Soot) by J. Pekka Mäkelä (LIKE)
-- The fourth novel by the man who translates Philip K. Dick into Finnish, is a another quiet masterpiece of bystander-sf. Humanity has lost the interstellar war and aftermath means cleaning up the places. Mäkelä solidifies his place as an important sociopolitical-sf writer.

Valeikkuna (False Window) by Leena Krohn (Teos)
-- In this future, the world is not plagued by overpopulation, but infertility. Many people live in virtual reality and take minute-long space travels. The barrier between dream and reality, possible and fantastical is blurred once more by the masterful language by Krohn.

An Overview of International Science Fiction/Fantasy in 2009

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