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Congressional staffers behind SOPA get shiny new jobs as entertainment industry lobbyists Senior Eurocrat praises the net Boombox "cluster" soundsystem Hollywood locates barrel's bottom US Supreme Court to rule on whether practicing medicine is patentable Norwegian butter supplies dip, prices spike, during high-fat diet mania Giant men in 1950s advertising Legal humor from the Pro Se files Gingerbread typewriter is entirely edible CNet's Download.com secretly installs adware with open/free downloads TCF bank penalizes kid with $4.85 in his account by charging him $234.95 in fees in two weeks HP: cat hair is a "biological hazard," voids your warranty Congressional staffers behind SOPA get shiny new jobs as entertainment industry lobbyists
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 11, 2011 12:55 pm Allison Halataei (former deputy chief of staff for House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas)) and Lauren Pastarnack (former senior aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee) have cool new jobs. Having written the Internet-destroying Stop Online Piracy Act for their bosses while drawing a salary at public expense, they've now accepted massive raises to go work ...
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By Cory Doctorow on Dec 11, 2011 05:45 am David Weinberger sez, "Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, has followed up her controversial observation that the current copyright laws do not seem to be making things better for creators or for culture with a talk that sketches a reasonable approach to helping the Net serve as an instrument ...
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By David Pescovitz on Dec 11, 2011 03:32 am Found at the "Boombox" entry on Wikipedia, this is a soundystem built from fourteen of the 1980s classic Sharp FG-909 boomboxes. The photo is labeled as from the "Zushi Beach Electro Old School Party 2005."
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By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2011 10:20 pm Ogodogodogod, I can't even bring myself to embed this at full-size. Kickstopper where are you when we need you? (Thanks, Fipilele. I guess.)
Read in browser US Supreme Court to rule on whether practicing medicine is patentable
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2011 08:59 pm The Supreme Court are poised to rule in Mayo v Prometheus, a case that concerns whether medical procedures for adjusting the dosage of an out-of-patent drug can be patented. If the Supremes rule in favor of the patentability of adjusting drug doses and other common medical procedures, it will make doctors liable as patent infringers ...
Read in browser Norwegian butter supplies dip, prices spike, during high-fat diet mania
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2011 07:48 pm Norway's supplies of rich creamery butter have bottomed out as a result of a national high-fat diet mania. I assume the diet is also low-carb but I'm not sure -- the article says that the butter shortage is causing trouble for families planning to do traditional (high-carb) Christmas baking. Perhaps the low-carbers caused the run ...
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By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2011 07:01 pm Vintage Ads group contributor extraordinaire write_light's rounded up a collection of "Giant Men" ads from the 1950s, looking like the covers for pulp Ayn Rand fanfic. Friday '50s: Giant Men
Read in browser Legal humor from the Pro Se files
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2011 06:28 pm Pro Se litigation -- where the plaintiff is her/his own lawyer -- is a hotbed of legal humor. Lowering the Bar rounds up some of the weirdest examples from recent history: Joan Newberger v. Department of Wildlife & Fishery, State of Louisiana: Lawsuit for ADA violations and wrongful seizure. The plaintiff's four service monkeys were ...
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By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2011 05:24 pm Patti from Baked Ideas made this amazing edible gingerbread typewriter for benefit of City Harvest, and it is displayed at NYC's Parker Meridien Hotel. So…. typewriter came to mind… a sort of gingerbread house for the letters that live inside!! Christmas unplugged, a letter to santa, granny's laptop …… it was fun to think about. ...
Read in browser CNet's Download.com secretly installs adware with open/free downloads
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2011 04:20 pm CNet's Download.com has been secretly installing adware alongside the free and open source software in its archive, in violation of its own stated policies, which claim "zero tolerance" for adware. EFF has some harsh words and stern advice for the company to make this right. So, CNET, here's what you need to do to really ...
Read in browser TCF bank penalizes kid with $4.85 in his account by charging him $234.95 in fees in two weeks
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2011 03:16 pm A young man left $4.85 in his TCF Bank account. TCF assessed him a $9.95 "maintenance fee" for not having enough money in his account. Then they charged him for being overdrawn by $5.10 (ten cents more than he was allowed by their rules). In less than two weeks, they'd assessed so many fees and ...
Read in browser HP: cat hair is a "biological hazard," voids your warranty
By Cory Doctorow on Dec 10, 2011 02:10 pm HP refused to service Chris's busted, warranty-covered Elitebook, because a small quantity of cat hair in the fan and on the board constituted a "biological hazard." He seemed to relent later, and he pretty much agreed with me, so he talked to his supervisor (to make an appeal). Then he gets back on the phone ...
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