Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Save Troy Davis from death row

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 04:35 AM PDT

Fiona from Amnesty UK sez, "Troy Davis has been on death row in Georgia, USA for 19 years convicted of a crime he maintains he did not commit. He has already faced execution three times. A recent decision by a federal district court puts him back on track for execution, despite unresolved doubts about his guilt. No physical evidence links Troy to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses on whose evidence he was convicted have since changed their testimony. Options are running out for Troy so please add your name to the petition and forward the link to your friends."

Anti-ACTA rap

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 02:27 AM PDT

Copyfighting rapper Dan Bull (he of Dear Lily Allen fame) has just released a new track, "Death of ACTA," about the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a privately negotiated super-copyright treaty. He says, "I wrote it after reading about the terrifying implications of ACTA. I want it to raise awareness and make people act directly, by joining lobby groups (eg EFF and ORG) and putting pressure on their political representatives. The video was made on a zero budget, filmed and edited with the voluntary help of friends and colleagues. Directed and produced by Russ Houghton, and filmed at the Golden Hinde in Southwark. I'm an unsigned, unsignable geek rapper and activist, determined to make a living out of my music whilst sharing it all for free. Not sure how that will work yet, but working it out is all part of the fun."

Dan Bull - Death of ACTA

Sunlight for ACTA

Open Rights Group | Take action

(Thanks, Dan!)



Minecraft music video

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:33 PM PDT

Wagner James Au sez, "Brett, who recently created the epic 8 mile Minecraft highway, has a new video, and this time, he's hacked Minecraft into a machinima platform to make this incredibly beautiful music video. To make the steady tracking shots, for example, he built a Minecraft rail system made of glass."

Minecraft Machinima: Beautiful and Innovative New Video from Maker of the 8 Mile Minecart Viral Hit (Thanks, James, via Submitterator)



Florida foreclosure mill owner who chucked out 70,000 families in 2009 is unspeakably rich

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:29 PM PDT

David J. Stern is a Florida lawyer who operates a foreclosure mill, a firm that foreclosed on more than 70,000 homes last year. According to a deposition from Tammie Mae Kapusta, a former employee, Stern's firm cut many corners, foreclosing on homes without serving notice, ignoring mortgage payments that would have prevented foreclosure, and "yelling at" employees who talked to homeowners on the phone, because that was "giving them too much time."

Apparently, it's working for Stern, who just bought the mega-mansion next to his mega-mega-mansion on a private island so he could tear it down and install a tennis court. Seriously, this guy sounds like the villain in a Carl Hiaassen novel, except Hiaassen's villains are more believable and less evil.

But while the banks are ultimately responsible, the root of the problem appears to lie with "foreclosure mill" law firms like Stern's. These operations process foreclosure cases on behalf of lenders, and their business model is based on moving the paperwork through as quickly as possible. That's why such firms have pioneered practices like "robo-signing" -- whereby their employees process thousands of court documents in pending foreclosures without ever actually reviewing them, as the law requires. Of course, it's in the banks' interest for their contractors to move quickly, because the faster a foreclosure moves, the less time a struggling borrower has to fight it...

His $15 million, 16,000-square-foot mansion occupies a corner lot in a private island community on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. It is featured on a water-taxi tour of the area's grandest estates, along with the abodes of Jay Leno and billionaire Blockbuster founder Wayne Huizenga, as well as the former residence of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. (Last year, Stern snapped up his next-door neighbor's property for $8 million and tore down the house to make way for a tennis court.) Docked outside is Misunderstood, Stern's 130-foot, jet-propelled Mangusta yacht -- a $20 million-plus replacement for his previous 108-foot Mangusta. He also owns four Ferraris, four Porsches, two Mercedes-Benzes, and a Bugatti -- a high-end Italian brand with models costing north of $1 million a pop.

Is David J. Stern the poster boy for the foreclosure mess? (via Lowering the Bar)

(Image: Sign Of The Times - Foreclosure, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from respres's photostream)



EFF announces Pioneer Award winners: Stephen Aftergood, James Boyle, Pamela Jones and Groklaw, and Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:18 PM PDT


The Electronic Frontier Foundation has awarded its annual Pioneer Awards for leaders on the electronic frontier who are extending freedom and innovation in the realm of information technology. This year's winners are Stephen Aftergood, James Boyle, Pamela Jones and Groklaw, and Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru, and the awards will be presented in San Francisco at a ceremony at the 111 Minna Gallery on November 8.

I was honored to be one of this year's judges, and I'll be emceeing the awards in San Francisco on the 8th. I hope to see you there as we honor these wonderful activists. The Pioneer Awards are nominated by the public, and awarded by a panel of independent judges. Click through for full bios of the winners.



Steven Aftergood directs the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Project on Government Secrecy, which works to reduce the scope of official secrecy and to promote public access to government information. He writes and edits Secrecy News, an email newsletter and blog that reports on new developments in secrecy and disclosure policy. Secrecy News also provides direct public access to various official records that have been suppressed, withdrawn, or that are simply hard to find. In 1997, Mr. Aftergood was the plaintiff in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency that successfully led to the declassification and publication of the total intelligence budget for the first time in 50 years.


James Boyle is William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law and co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School. Professor Boyle is recognized for his exceptional scholarship on the "second enclosure movement" -- the worldwide expansion of intellectual property rights -- and its threat to the rich public domain of cultural and scientific materials that the Internet might otherwise make available. An original board member of Creative Commons and co-founder of Science Commons, Professor Boyle has worked for over 20 years as both an academic and institution builder to celebrate and protect the values of cultural and scientific openness.


When Pamela Jones created Groklaw in 2003, she envisioned a new kind of participatory journalism and distributed discovery -- a place where programmers and engineers could educate lawyers on technology relevant to legal cases of significance to the Free and Open Source community, and where technologists could learn about how the legal system works. Groklaw quickly became an essential resource for understanding such important legal debates as the SCO-Linux lawsuits, the European Union antitrust case against Microsoft, and whether software should qualify for patent protection.


Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru is a security researcher in India who recently revealed security flaws in India's paperless electronic voting machines. He has endured jail time, repeated interrogations, and ongoing political harassment to protect an anonymous source that enabled him to conduct the first independent security review of India's electronic voting system. Prasad spent a year trying to convince election officials to complete such a review, but they insisted that the government-made machines were "perfect" and "tamperproof." Instead of blindly accepting the government's claims, Prasad's international team discovered serious flaws that could alter national election results. Months of hot debate have produced a growing consensus that India's electronic voting machines should be scrapped, and Prasad hopes to help his country build a transparent and verifiable voting system.

Transparency Activist, Public Domain Scholar, Legal Blogger, and Imprisoned E-Voting Researcher Win Pioneer Awards

Sales-model of a Fuller geodesic home

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:11 PM PDT


This Buckminster Fuller geodesic home model (auctioned off by Wright for $7,500) was a portable model employed by salesmen who went around trying to sell people on the idea of having one built for themselves.

Geodesic Home model (via Core77)



Octopus made from typewriter parts

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:04 PM PDT

Feds forced to admit that it's legal to take pictures of federal buildings

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:00 PM PDT

The New York Civil Liberties Union and Libertarian activist Antonio Musumeci just won a court case that affirms the right of photographers to take pictures and record video out front of federal courthouses. The US federal government settled the case by apologizing to Musumeci for his arrest, acknowledging that it is legal to record at courthouses, and promising to issue guidelines to federal officers explaining this fact to them.
"Not only will this settlement end harassment of photographers outside federal courthouses, it will free people to photograph and film outside of all federal buildings," said NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn, lead counsel in the case. "The regulation at issue in this case applies to all federal buildings, not only courthouses, so this settlement should extend to photography near all federal buildings nationwide.
NYCLU Settlement Ends Restriction on Photography Outside Federal Courthouses (Thanks, Harkina, via Submitterator)

(Image: Federal Courthouse, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from seanmcgee's photostream)



R2D2, the bathing-suit edition

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 09:52 PM PDT

A Special Necklace For Your Special Lady

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 04:26 PM PDT

Girl with a Pearl Necklace.jpeg

Some say that a piece of jewelry can say "I love you." This says something kind of like that. Massachusetts-based multitalented artist Leah Piepgras has created a pearl necklace that is made of sterling silver and contains no pearls.

"A visual marker of chaos turned perfection through an act of beauty and lust."

Each one is handmade and is available in two sculpted variations. They aren't cheap but you don't expect to say "I love you" with a gift and spend only pocket change.

ProTip: When you hear me say "special lady" you should not be thinking about your mom. Only I can think about your mom when I say that.

Bea Arthur's breasts launch impromptu cancer research fundraiser

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 04:46 PM PDT

beasboobs.jpg

Mike Monteiro has background wallpaper on his Twitter account that's based on artist John Currin's famous topless painting of Bea Arthur. When a Twitter follower asked Monteiro* to preserve the eyes of children by taking down Bea's boobs, Monteiro turned his refusal into a fundraiser for breast cancer research.

It started out, as you can see in the screen cap, with Monteiro offering to donate 10 cents for every person who favorited his defense of naked Bea. Then, more people signed on to match his donation. At the time I'm publishing this blog post, every time you favorite Monteiro's tweet, the American Cancer Society earns $2.10.

Between that per-click rate and the people who've donated lump sums, Bea Arthur's boobs have pulled in more than $10,000 in pledges since this morning. (Of course, half of that came from one donor, Mike Lee.) Clicks still count through midnight Eastern. Or, drop Mike a tweet if you want to add another 10 cents to the pledge.

I'm just happy somebody is doing something more productive with social media than those stupid "where I like to leave my purse" games on Facebook.

Fundraising > Tangential awareness.

*If you follow this link, you will see boobies. Fair warning.

(Thanks to Noah Gray for the tip-off!)

How to make Mexican Dia de los Muertos sugar skulls

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 04:14 PM PDT

Via the BB Submitterator, Internet sock-puppet pal Monkey says, "It's time to crack out the big bag-o-sugar & the molds to make this years batch of dia de los muertos sugar skulls. You'll be glad you did." As always, Monkey's instructions are straightforward enough to be accessible for younger people, and the photos really help. Link: Do it Yourself Sugar Skulls.

Are drug companies paying your doctor? Find out with this database.

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 02:40 PM PDT

The investigative reporting project ProPublica has released a searchable database of MDs who take payola from drug companies. Are the drug companies paying your doctor, and possibly influencing his or her decisions about your medical needs? Search here: Dollars For Docs.

Elvira: "I'm Not a Witch."

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 02:58 PM PDT

Video Link. The Christine O'Donnell ad remake you've all been waiting for.

NSA's CryptoKids and /b/'s PedoFriends: Separated at Birth?

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 02:11 PM PDT

Noah Shachtman from Danger Room points us to a newly discovered collection of NSA mascots, designed to promote "cybersecurity awareness" to young citizens of the motherland.

The NSA CryptoKids poster lacks names, though, so Rob Beschizza added them, below...





Above, the "corrected" version of the NSA poster (thanks, Beschizza!).

And below, all of this reminded me of a "PedoFriends" graphic of /b/ provenance, shared earlier by my friend (and frequent Boing Boing guestblogger) Sean Bonner.

The Rent is Too Damn UP: A Remix

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 01:37 PM PDT

HRP-4C: THE HERPENATOR

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 02:47 PM PDT

Earlier today on Boing Boing, my colleague Pesco published an upbeat little post about a cute Japanese female robot dancing with cute Japanese female humans. Well, the party's over, people. Our friend Keef Bartkus (editing South Park is his day job) says:

Everyone is so excited about the new dancing, singing robot from Japan, the HRP-4C, affectionately know as "Herpe". But what no one knows is it's really a killing machine sent from the future to destroy us all!
Video Link.

English Heritage claims it owns every single image of Stonehenge, ever

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 12:29 PM PDT

SteveMars sez, "Every photo image library got this by email today. 'We are sending you an email regarding images of Stonehenge in your fotoLibra website. Please be aware that any images of Stonehenge can not be used for any commercial interest, all commercial interest to sell images must be directed to English Heritage.' Here is one image library's response:"
It's kind of them to think of us, but this raises a number of questions.

Firstly, what legitimacy do they have for this claim? Is there any law that states that it is illegal to use images of Stonehenge for any commercial interest? Can someone direct me to it?

Secondly, if an image of Stonehenge is so used, how could they possibly police the usage? A quick browse through a number of rights-managed and royalty-free online picture libraries produced the following:

iStockPhoto (a US owned company) has 513 images of Stonehenge
Fotolia (US) has 648 images of Stonehenge
Dreamstime (US) has 670 images of Stonehenge
Shutterstock (US) has 737 images of Stonehenge

All the above sites sell images on a royalty free, unrestricted usage basis. If anyone buys a royalty free image from one of these suppliers then he'll be using it as, where and when he likes, without asking English Heritage's permission. How will they stop that?

Stonewalling Stonehenge (Thanks, SteveMars, via Submitterator!)


Robot and humans do pop dance routine

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 11:16 AM PDT


Seen above is a dance routine featuring humans and the Japanese HRP-4C robot. They performed together at at last week's Digital Content Expo in Tokyo. "Robots and Humans Dancing Together – The World is Getting Weirder" (Singularity Hub) (Thanks, Sean Ness!)

Abandoned bowling alleys

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 11:09 AM PDT

My friend Noel Kerns likes to crawl around in abandoned buildings, light them up and photograph them. (I've written about him on Boing Boing, here.) The results are lovely, and the dereliction of the buildings always tugs at my heart a little -- all that promise, all that future, all used up. But the emotional punch of photographs like these is a little glancing, it seems to me. You can imagine the buildings when they were shiny and new and invested with the owners' hopes and dreams, and probably invested with their actual money too. But you rarely get to see them in that early, optimistic phase. That's why I was so excited when these pictures of derelict bowling alleys popped up at WebUrbanist.

bowling_alleys_2a.jpg (Photos by cityeyesphoto)

These gorgeous, empty images are the end result of an entropic process whose hopeful beginnings were documented in this spectacular 1960 promotional film for the Brunswick company. (It was, like most films of its kind, rescued from obscurity by master archivist Rick Prelinger.) From this to that, in just 50 years.

Does Michelle Obama Control the Fashion Industry?

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 11:39 AM PDT

No, this isn't another vast right-wing conspiracy. I think. Nevertheless, Harvard Business Review is glad you asked. obama-hbr.gif (slideshow)

Little Librarian playset

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:40 AM PDT


SalJake sez, "Parents of future librarians, take note. There is an adorable wee little kit just for kids. It comes with book pockets and check out cards. You can even send out overdue notices."

Welcome to Little Librarian! (Thanks, SalJake, via Submitterator!)

Brothers Quay documentary about the Mutter Museum

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:34 AM PDT

Images 2010 10 17 Arts Quay-1Span Quay-1Span-Articlelarge
The Brothers Quay, creators of phantasmagorical stop-motion animation, are shooting a documentary film about the College of Physicians of Philadelphia's Mutter Museum, the incredible wunderkammer of antique wax anatomical models, pathological specimens, and antique medical instruments. (If you can't make it to the museum in person, the gorgeous Mutter Museum coffee table book and Mutter Museum 2011 Calendar are the next best things.) the From the New York Times:
Wordpress Wp-Content Uploads 2009 08 11Mutt-Slide3 The brothers were touring the Mütter Museum, a 19th-century repository of curiosa at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, garbed somewhat disappointingly in chinos and sweaters. They were filming manikins, anatomical anomalies and bizarre surgical instruments for an as-yet-untitled documentary on the museum and its adjoining 340,000-volume library. Next fall the short will be screened as part of a symposia at the Mütter, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and, in Los Angeles, at the uncategorizable Museum of Jurassic Technology. Bankrolled by a $287,000 grant from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the project is the latest attempt by a museum to expand its audience by enlisting artists to interpret its collection...

Timothy (Quay) hinted that the film's framing device would be the tale of Harry Eastlack, whose skeleton is on display at the Mütter. He died at 39 of a rare, progressive, inflammatory disease that turned the connective tissue in his body to bone. During his final days he became a kind of living statue. After his death, in 1973, his sister often dropped by the museum to see his exhibit. The Quays shot a dreamy re-enactment of a visit.

"We hope it will be illuminating," Timothy said.

"Gently and poetically illuminating," Stephen (Quay) said.

"Animators Amok in a Curiosity Cabinet"



Peter Serafinowicz rings the NASDAQ opening bell

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:18 AM PDT

British funnyman and Boing Boing favorite Peter Serafinowicz rang the opening bell at NASDAQ on Monday. He's currently starring in the Fox comedy series Running Wilde, with Will Arnett.

Slideshow of antique natural history museum dioramas

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:16 AM PDT

Diorama Boing
Our pal Ben Cosgrove at LIFE posted a gorgeous slideshow of ye olde natural history museum dioramas. Seen above, an 1898 "Beisa Antelope Oryx diorama" by taxidermist Carl Akeley, from the collection of the Field Museum. "Wild Dioramas Back In The Day"



Paleolithic diet included starchy, carb-y cattail flour

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:15 AM PDT

Anthropologists investigating the diets of our paleolithic ancestors at sites in Europe now believe cattail flour was a regular component. I've actually tasted the stuff before! I was studying Native American food preparation in California, and cattails grow here, too. Anyway, the point is: folks who eat nothing but raw meat and berries in an attempt to mimic a typical paleolithic diet may be missing an important element, for authenticity's sake and for nutrition. Proto-carbs! (via Bonnie Powell)

Artist Tara McPherson talks about her new work: video

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 09:34 AM PDT


Tara McPherson talks about her latest paintings, which she'll have on exhibition at New York's Jonathan LeVine Gallery (October 23 - November 20 2010). Her work keeps getting better and better!

Tara McPherson video by FWL on Babelgum

HOWTO make edible Hallowe'en eyeballs

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 09:20 AM PDT

Here's a supremely icky Hallowe'en recipe: glistening gelatin/marshmallow eyeballs: "Dissolve lemon gelatin in 1 cup water in double boiler, add marshmallows and stir to melt. Remove from heat. Add pineapple juice and cream cheese. Beat until well blended. Cool slightly. If you have a truffle candy mold or round ice cube trays, spary them with non-stick cooking spray first, then pour the mixture in the molds and leave to set in the fridge. Otherwise pour into a deep ceramic dish and chill until thickened or firm enough for scooping into eyeballs. Using a melonballer, scoop full balls of the mixture and set aside for decoration. To decorate, use liquid food coloring and an old detail paintbrush and get creative. You will need black food coloring for the pupils. Also, if you are in a hurry, instead of painting the colored irises, you can carefully dip the ball in a small pool of food coloring to approximate the iris, but still paint on the pupils. Note: if you are using the melonballer method, you might need to add one package of plain gelatin to your mixture. The molds work fine with just the lemon gelatin to make gently squishy eyeballs."

Eerie Eyeballs (via Super Punch)



Understanding the legal sleaze behind the bulk copyright lawsuits

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 09:16 AM PDT

Cnet's Greg Sandoval interviews Cindy Cohn, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on the bulk copyright lawsuits coming out of big US law firms. Cindy is my favorite legal explainer in the world (she's one of the people who changed my mind about DRM!), and this is her in great form:
Q: You guys have challenged Dunlap on several issues and said it is wrong to name thousands in one lawsuit. Tell me why that's wrong?

Cohn: We've attacked them on a couple of principles. We filed a brief on Friday in one of Dunlap's cases on misjoinder (the legal term for the inclusion of parties in a single legal action). It's a fundamental principle of law that you should be judged on your behavior. If you lump a bunch of people together it's harder for each individual to have their case heard and evaluated on the merits. By lumping thousands of people together in the same lawsuit, you put each one of those individuals at a disadvantage. And you, I think, increase the pressure on them to pay you some shakedown money to make the thing go away rather than actually address the case on the merits.

Again, joining thousands of people together is only one of the techniques. We've see two or three different techniques these trolls are using to try to make sure these people just pay them the money rather than fight. Another technique is suing people in random places. This isn't where they live or even where the filmmaker is. The two places you think about suing someone is where the plaintiff is or where the defendant is. But the Dunlap suits, they've sued in Washington DC and there's nobody in Washington DC except for Mr. Dunlap, the lawyers. I don't know who is in West Virginia (where several porn studios filed copyright cases against a combined 5,000 people last month. The lawyer handling those cases is based in West Virginia).

Talk about ratcheting up the pressure. Finding a lawyer in West Virginia to even make an appearance on your behalf is very, very difficult. It's a small place, a small bar. We have a list of lawyers who are willing to help people and I wonder if we have anybody in West Virginia. If we do I suspect it's very few people. Again, you're really just creating a situation where people don't have any leverage to raise any defenses. You are stacking the deck.

EFF's Cohn fights copyright's 'underbelly' (Q&A)


Web-font cold-war over? No DRM, universal access, embedded licenses

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 09:15 AM PDT

Glenn Fleishman writes,
After more than a decade of disagreements about how to let Web designers use real typefaces, the impasse was broken last year, and it's coming to fruition now. Instead of DRM, font foundries have agreed to something like "font streaming." No locks, compatibility across all browsers, and embedded text that explains the legitimate use of the font. Microsoft, Mozilla, and Opera brought the spec to the W3C, for crying out loud; Safari, WebKit, and Chrome are all signed on. The W3C accepted the WOFF spec in July; in September at the annual international type conference, there was much rejoicing. I explain more in the Economist's Babbage blog today.

The success here is that foundries, protective of a market that doesn't have monopoly properties (there is plenty of competition), and makers of something that's easily copied even over low-bandwidth connections, have accepted that DRM doesn't work. Instead of relying on encryption and creating incompatible standards that require ridiculous infrastructure, type houses have opted to build a market in which they can make money by making it easy for designers to use their fonts. Who would have thought?

True to type (Thanks, Glenn!)

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