## Tuesday, August 2, 2005

### Looking for a San Diego based writer

Are you a freelance writer who lives in the San Diego area? If yes, and you are interested in writing about the 8th International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition for Make, drop me an email. The event will be held from Thursday to Sunday, August 4-7. Email Mark

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:57:39 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Lyttle Lytton bad lit openers: 2005 winners

Like the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, only shorter. Here's the 2005 roundup of exceedingly horrible bad opening sentences for novels. Among them, this turgid prize-seizer from a writer identified as B. Waldorf:

> The spaceship was crashing, but, more importantly, John and Greta were having sex in it.

Link (Thanks, Ryan)

Previously: Carburetor breast fantasy wins award

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:18:20 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Video of Cisco tearing Mike Lynn presentation out of Black Hat proceedings

After Cisco strong-armed Mike Lynn's employer into forcing him to abandon his planned presentation on vulnerabilities in Cisco routers at the Black Hat conferences, they sent employees down to literally rip Lynn's presentation out of the program books. Here's video of the presentation disappearing down the memory hole. Video Link at Make Blog, Link to Mike Lynn Defense Fund and mirrors of his presentation, Link to original Mike Lynn/Black Hat post

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:48:15 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Nominations open for free software award

John sez, "The Free Software Foundation has put out a call for nominations for the 2005 Award for the Advancement of Free Software, which is given each year to a person nominated by the community who has made a lasting and central contribution to the development of the free software world. Please take a little time out and send us your nominations!" Link (Thanks, John!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:39:16 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Bottled water is evil

As a confirmed bottled-water nut, it was sobering to read Tom Standage's excellent NYT piece on the total absence of any benefits to drinking bottled water over tap water -- it's not better for you, doesn't taste better, and is rotten for the environment:

> It cannot be the taste, since most people cannot tell the difference in a blind tasting. Much bottled water is, in any case, derived from municipal water supplies, though it is sometimes filtered, or has additional minerals added to it.

> Nor is there any health or nutritional benefit to drinking bottled water over tap water. In one study, published in The Archives of Family Medicine, researchers compared bottled water with tap water from Cleveland, and found that nearly a quarter of the samples of bottled water had significantly higher levels of bacteria. The scientists concluded that "use of bottled water on the assumption of purity can be misguided." Another study carried out at the University of Geneva found that bottled water was no better from a nutritional point of view than ordinary tap water.

> Admittedly, both kinds of water suffer from occasional contamination problems, but tap water is more stringently monitored and tightly regulated than bottled water. New York City tap water, for example, was tested 430,600 times during 2004 alone.

Link (via Kottke)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:37:33 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Helsinki street fashion

Hel Looks is a Finnish website that documents Helsinki street fashion -- Finnish kids are actually a pretty well-dressed lot, and don't seem to dress in highly stylized flocks. Link (via Ahtisaari)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:33:14 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Fighting a crooked tow truck company and winning

On Saturday, I pointed to a NYT article about predatory tow truck drivers in Los Angeles. I was especially interested in this incident:

> Scott Shulman, a television photographer, said he raced to a pet store parking lot in West Hollywood last year after a tower hooked up his daughter's car when she went to a nearby automated teller machine instead of directly into the pet store.

> Mr. Shulman blocked the tow truck with his car. The truck driver called a second truck to tow Mr. Shulman's car; Mr. Shulman called the sheriff's office.

> "It was like the O.K. Corral," Mr. Shulman said. "I don't own any guns or anything, but I can see where this could get ugly." His daughter's car was released.

It turns out Xeni knows Scott Shulman, so I called him and asked him for the details. He kindly shared his story with me.

About a year ago, Scott and his wife were driving around the Venice area of Los Angeles on a Sunday morning when he got a frantic phone call from his daughter. She told him that she had driven to a mini-mall to shop at her favorite pet store, located in the mini-mall. She'd parked in the mini-mall lot. (Scott told me that there were only one or two other cars in the lot at the time, and that the lot has about 100 parking spaces. So the lot was almost empty.)

After parking, Scott's daughter walked to the ATM, which was adjacent to the mini-mall. After a 90-second stop at the ATM to get cash to spend at the pet store, she returned to the parking lot to find that her car was hitched to a tow truck. The driver had been hiding around the corner, waiting for an opportunity like this.

Scott's daughter pleaded with the tow truck driver to speak with her father on the phone, and the driver finally agreed. He said he'd "drop the car" if Scott came immediately with $200, cash only. "I'm ready to pull out," he warned. Scott was about four miles away and he told the driver to wait, and he drove as quickly as he could to the mini-mall.

"When I got there," says Scott, "the first thing I did was block him in with my car. I told him, 'I'm not moving until you drop my daughter's car.'" The driver was unhappy about this, and warned Scott that he'd called another tow truck to haul away Scott's car unless he moved his car out of the way immediately. Scott told the driver that he was going to call the Sheriff, which he did.

Twenty minutes later, says Scott, two "very nice" deputies arrived and assessed the situation. They told Scott that they'd had a lot of trouble with this particular towing company, but could not order the driver to drop the car, because the lot was private property.

Around this time, the owner of the towing company showed up. He, too, refused to drop the car, even when the owner of the pet store came out and requested that they drop it.

By now, Scott's daughter's car had been held captive for an hour and a half. The deputies told Scott that they would happily appear in court to testify on his behalf against the towing company, and that Scott would very likely win a quadruple damages judgment (about $800). At this point, the tow truck driver angrily called it quits and dropped the car.

That week, Scott called the West Hollywood City Council and learned that towing companies are required by law to accept credit cards, even though most of them insist on cash (imagine how many people would dispute the credit charges from a towing company!) and that they cannot charge more than the police garage charges (around $130).

Lesson? Do everything you legally can to keep the tow truck driver from driving away with your car. You just might win.

Reader comment: Tara says: NOTE: this is not legal advice, but... One other requirement (at least in CA) is that the owner of the property give consent for each specific tow (and not just generally to tow vehicles) and be present at the time of towing. See California Civil Code Sec. § 22658. The property owner must also display "in plain view at all entrances to the property, a sign not less than 17 by 22 inches in size, with lettering not less than one inch in height, prohibiting public parking and indicating that vehicles will be removed at the owner's expense, and containing the telephone number of the local traffic law enforcement agency."

If a towing company violates these provisions (or any of the other requirements of § 22658), you should totally sue in small claims court! You can get quadruple the amount the shady company charged you.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:43:41 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Cocky playwright pens Holy Phallus

Responding to the Hebrew-language version of the Vagina Monologues, Israeli playwright Rafael Milo-Amar has written a one-man show called The Holy Phallus. The performance, starring Yuval Cohen, has apparently been getting mixed reviews. From Reuters:

> According to the (Jerusalem Post), The Holy Phallus is an extended monologue touching on rape, passion, handicaps, homosexuality and loneliness...
> "At the end of shows people come and tell me, 'Wow what a great penis you are.' I take that as a compliment now," Cohen told the Jerusalem Post.

Link (Thanks, Mark Pescovitz!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:27:29 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Go Ask Ogre: Letters From A Deathrock Cutter

"Go Ask Ogre" is a dark, funny, and touching collection of letters that an 80s goth teen named Jolene Siana wrote to Nivek Ogre (Kevin Ogilvie), the frontman of industrial band Skinny Puppy. Ogre kept the hundreds of letters and, three years ago, shipped them all back to Siana in a single box. The resulting collection is the first publication from Process Media, a new company launched by Feral House publisher Adam Parfrey and Dilettante Press co-founder Jodi Wille. From a Los Angeles Times article about "Go Ask Ogre: Letters From A Deathrock Cutter":

> Written on Valentine's Day, 1987, that first letter wasn't the usual sort of fawning fan mail. There was one reference to liking the way Ogre looked; the rest was about herself. Penned, in part, during a ceramics class, the letter introduced Siana as a "senior at an extremely boring high school." She told him she was so bored she wanted to scream. She said she hated school and that her mother hated her. She told him that her grandparents died and that her stomach hurt. She said she wanted to be a journalist and travel to England, that she liked art and looking "really gothic and artsy." It was, in a word, rambling, but the letter was also pure, lucid and engaging.
> Without receiving any response, Siana wrote Ogre again 12 days later, and again the day after that, and two days after that, and so on. He wrote her back only once — two months to the day after she wrote her first letter.
> What he wrote isn't included in the book, per Ogre's request, but a journal entry indicates he wanted to meet her. A month later, they met backstage at a Skinny Puppy show, where Ogre told Siana her letters were "fascinating and very creative" and encouraged her to "keep 'em coming."
> And so she continued writing letters that were increasingly personal, suicidal and oftentimes decorated with drawings made from her blood, using a calligraphy pen she dipped in her wounds.

Link to LA Times article, Link to Go Ask Ogre site (Thanks, Alan Rapp!)
UPDATE: Jolene Siana's blog is here. (Thanks, Demian Ginther!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:51:33 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Penguin Classics Library complete collection

Amazon.com is selling the Penguin Classics Library, all of it, for $7989.99, saving $5,324.75 off the cover prices. The 2005 list includes 1,082 paperbacks titles, from Edwin A. Abbott to Emile Zola, from The Complete Pelican Shakespeare to The Portable Sixties Reader. The collection weighs 700 pounds. Fortunately, it qualifies for free shipping. Link (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:59:41 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Mark Chorvinsky, founder of Strange magazine, RIP

Mark Chorvinksy, founder of the excellent Strange Magazine, died of Cancer last month. He was 51. From Loren Coleman's obituary:

> In the early 1980s, Chorvinsky devoted endless hours categorizing the data collection of the International Fortean Organization, while running his commercial bookstore, Dream Wizards, in suburban Rockville, Maryland. (He) founded and became the editor of Strange Magazine in 1987. His magazine reflected Chorvinsky's journey in Fortean investigations, at first publishing detailed overview articles on phenomena, but then slowly moving to more skeptical and debunking articles on cryptozoological and unexplained subjects, as well as the occasional sympathetic pieces...
> One of Mark Chorvinsky's favorite Charles Fort quotations was from New Lands: "There is not a physicist in the world who can perceive when a parlor magician palms off playing-cards."

Link to obituary, Link to Strange Magazine

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:37:37 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Hijack passing car's Bluetooth

Carlo Longino, guestblogging this week at Gizmodo, posts about the Car Whisperer hack to hijack a car's Bluetooth. Carlo writes:

> The Car Whisperer (is) a tool that lets somebody with a Linux laptop and a directional antenna send audio to nearby cars with Bluetooth handsfree systems that aren’t being used. Many built-in systems use just a standard, widely known passkey as the only form of authentication that’s needed. While some people see that as a security risk, it’s merely an invitation to invade a passing car’s stereo and ask the driver how he manages to steer with his head stuck where the sun don’t shine.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:28:02 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Carburetor breast fantasy wins award

For more than two decades, San Jose State University has held a contest honoring "bad opening sentences to imaginary novels." This year's winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is Dan McKay, 43, from Fargo, North Dakota. The winning words:

> As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual.

Link (Thanks, Mark Pescovitz!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:23:10 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Battery-powered LED road-flares

PowerFlare manufactures incredibly bright ruggedized LED roadflares that can be programmed to blink SOS and and be run over by cars without being hurt.

> Ideal to keep in the trunk of your car or in a first aid kit, etc. Uses a Lithium CR123 battery that has a 10 year shelf-life and won't leak in harsh temperatures. Features 7 user-selectable flash patterns, including Coast Guard "SOS" Morse code for rescue and solid-on (lantern) mode for use as a lantern or power-fail light. LED colors: red, amber/yellow, blue, green, white, and infrared (IR). Outer shell (housing) color options: yellow, orange, yellow-green, and olive drab (OD).

Link (via Gizmodo)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:01:02 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Airport security wand delivers debilitating shocks

New Scientist reports on a new kind of airport-scanner wand that delivers debilitating shocks. It is intended for use against suicide bombers who, on discovering that they've been found out, try to blow themselves up.

> If the passenger is a suicide bomber who realises the wand has found something, the guard might not have enough time to pull out handcuffs or a gun. So the new wand will have a hidden secret - a transformer which steps the detector's battery power up to 100 kilovolts and feeds it to disguised metal electrodes at the end of the wand.

> If the wand gives a silent warning of explosives, the guard can then subtly slide the pads onto the passenger's neck or hands and press a shock button. The patent reassures that the effect is "temporary and reversible".

> So an innocent traveller who "happened to have a significant amount of metal on his person or happened to treat explosives legally" should wake up shaken but unharmed.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:37:13 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### New spray laminates dog turds so they don't squish when you scoop

Dog Poo Spray is the winning entry in this year's Student of the Year award at London's Central Saint Martins College. Dog Poo Spray laminates your dog's shit to a stick so that you don't need to scoop it up with a baggie and feel it squish revoltingly between your fingers. The contest was sponsored by the aerosols industry. Link (via We Make Money Not Art)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:13:21 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Fire-breathing Arthurian motorcycle

Daniel Echeverria is an Argentine motorcyclist who is obsessed with Arthurian legends. He has created the "Excalibur Bike," a motorcycle decked out like a medieval horse (by way of a Vegas strip hotel) with a fire-breathing dragon on the front. Kingsley, who ran into him in the West Village, sez, "Daniel is on a quest for the legendary Camelot castle (which he firmly believes in). He says it took him 3 years to armor his bike. He has a cart full of promotional materials (like posters etc.), and a collection jar." Link (Thanks, Kingsley)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:49:15 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Two guys in Gundam suits on rollerblades fighting

This Flickr photoset depicts "two guys dressed in full Gundam suits on rollerblades battling it out in a parking lot in the mountains of rural Japan." Link (Thanks, Josh!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:01:05 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Anti-software-patent site taken down by software patent advocates

FFII.org is the home of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, the activists who helped kill software patents in Europe earlier this summer.

Nutzwerk is a software company (they make "SafeSurf" among other products) who advocate for software patents.

Nutzwerk sent a bogus takedown notice to Teamware, who host the DNS for FFII.org, and got them to remove the DNS record for FFII.org. FFII is now seeking a new host, but in the meantime, the bogus threats of Nutzwerk, combined with Teamware's careless cowardice, means that a pro-software-patent lobbyist has used the law to silence its critics:

> This afternoon, Nutzwerk's lawyers sent a letter threatening Teamware with a preliminary injunction based on a page where we reported about the preliminary injunction handed down by the Hamburg District Court for Nutzwerk on June 28th. Our report of course couldn't avoid quoting some of the 8 sentences forbidden by that court. Moreover, Nutzwerk pointed to some forbidden sentences in some automatically-generated PDF files, which had not been updated (and which are rarely read, because they are assumed to be identical to the HTML pages, just formatted for printing).

Link (Thanks, Lu!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:37:42 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Anti-skateboarder lumps for your precious concrete

Under the rallying cry, "What is deemed by skaters and bikers as 'creative expression' is costing you money," SkateStoppers sells bolt-on anti-skateboarding lumps that cause skaters trying to grind down your bench-edge, concrete shelf, or staircase to fall over and break their heads. The FAQ is full of dry stats about what happens to your marble floors when skaters abuse it, but no cool revenge-porn about the chaos these little babies sow among unsuspecting skaters. They remind me of the thin, anti-pigeon spikes you see on top of signs and ledges in train stations. Link
(via Beyond the Beyond)

Update: AV sez, "There's a constant battle between the skaters and the installers - they actually rent power equipment and grind the stuff off!"

> They're not bluffing. Skateboarders routinely conduct guerrilla missions to remove what they call "Nazi knobs" from their favorite skate spots. They use saws and power tools, and sometimes cellular phones to connect the demolisher to the lookout.

> "One dude cuts and one dude's watching and one dude is ready to run with the generator," said Rob Dyrdek, a professional skateboarder who admits to removing Skatestoppers. "It's pretty ridiculous."

> Once, while Loarie was installing Skatestoppers at a school in Orange County, a young skateboarder walked up to say he'd be back to tear them out over the weekend. Later, Loarie said, the Skatestoppers had been hacked off and human feces smeared across the wall. Three weeks later, Loarie installed a new kind of Skatestopper with an experimental anchoring system.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:24:29 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Monsanto patents pigs

Brian sez, "Monsanto is seeking to patent not just the breeding methods for a specific herd of pigs, but the herd itself and all its offspring. If you breed a pig with similar characteristics, you may owe royalties to Monsanto -- for characteristics they didn't invent, bred by techniques they didn't invent, simply because they've claimed the patent rights: the pigs are not genetically engineered, and their genetic makeup bears nothing original to Monsanto Corporation. Scary."

> In one application (WO 2005/015989 to be precise) Monsanto is describing very general methods of crossbreeding and selection, using artificial insemination and other breeding methods which are already in use. The main "invention" is nothing more than a particular combination of these elements designed to speed up the breeding cycle for selected traits, in order to make the animals more commercially profitable. (Monsanto chirps gleefully about lower fat content and higher nutritional value. But we've looked and we couldn't find any "Philanthropic altruism" line item in their annual reports, despite the fact that it's an omnipresent factor in their advertising.)

> According to Then, "I couldn't belive this. I've been reviewing patents for 10 years and I had to read this three times. Monsanto isn't just seeking a patent for the method, they are seeking a patent on the actual pigs which are bred from this method. It's an astoundingly broad and dangerous claim."

Link (Thanks, Brian!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:10:05 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Radon "health therapy" spas making a comeback?

Boing Boing reader "Bland Bore" says,

> Back in April, BoingBoing reported on old radium baths and radon mine soaks. Apparently, they're still around and have been upgraded with free high-speed wireless internet access.

> The Free Enterprise Radon Health Mine in Boulder, Montana boasts: "A proven modality for those seeking a complement or alternative to current methods of disease symptom management of immune system disorders -- to ease or eliminate chronic pain and to break reliance on pharmaceuticals."

> They go on to list a ton of diseases and conditions that Radon cures. My favorite is: "Effects on neuro-transmitting and thinking systems through increase of key enzymes and hormones." The Mine Motel has eight units. Pets welcome. No smoking though; it's a carcinogen.

Link.

Previously on Boing Boing:
Past tense health tech: radium baths, radon mine soaks

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:35:50 AM permalink | blogs' comments

### Poop toy gadgets

Snapshots of two "toy poop dispensers" spotted at a store in Ohio by Boing Boing reader Leah, who squeals, "The best part is, you get to eat their jellybelly feces!"

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:30:19 AM permalink | blogs' comments

## Monday, August 1, 2005

### Teapot temples of Malaysia demolished

The odd temples of a teapot-worshipping religious sect in Malaysia have been destroyed by authorities. The group's leader, Ayah Pin, is on the lam; his wives have been arrested, and his devotees are distraught. The crime:

> The [local] Islamic affairs department had put them on the wanted list for being involved in teachings deviant to Islamic beliefs. (...) Ayah Pin was declared an apostate for leaving Islam and had spent 11 months in jail in 2001 for his activities.

Shown here, a snapshot of the Sky Kingdom compound and structures taken on on June 6. Link to Malaysia Star newspaper story. (Thanks, dan oconnor)

Previously: Malaysian teapot cult in hot water

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:55:10 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Phytoplankton "explosion" in the Baltic Sea

This European satellite image shows a boom-bloom of phytoplankton occuring in the Baltic Sea. There's so many of the critters, they've turned the sea green.
Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:46:22 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Florida airport sells biometric security pass for $80/year

Michael "QBurnsAbstractMessage" Donaldson tells Boing Boing:

> Orlando International Airport is in the midst of a 'security experiment'. For a fee of about US$80.00 a year you can submit yourself to a biometric scan (fingerprint and iris data will be taken) and well as a personal Homeland Security 'threat assessment'.

> If you are determined not to be a danger to society then you will receive a credit card sized ID with a computer chip containing all of your biometric information. For the length of your 'membership', you will be allowed to circumvent the long security lines in favor of a much shorter access line. You will be asked to present your card to a machine that will match it to a fingerprint and/or iris scan.

> This system is called CLEAR. It's only being tested in Orlando right now but is supposedly going to spread to other airports around the country.

> As part of my weird job [Ed. note: famous globetrotting techno deejay] I fly in and out of Orlando at least once a week. The regular security lines are filled with families and screaming kids leaving from their Disney vacations. I have to admit, this VIP line would save me time and be much less of a headache. However, the idea of a collection of biometric information combined with a personal threat assessment is a scary one. The libertarian in me is fighting with my desire for quick and easy travel.

Link

Reader comment: Jon Feldman says,

> This sounds like an expansion of DHS's registered traveler program. They are piloting the program via three or four contractors in several airports - I'm part of EDS's Boston pilot at the American Airlines terminal. Each contractor seems to have different rules about how much it costs and how the system actually works. In boston the registration, biometric scans, background check and parking during the registration were free. In the end the pilot program is a bit of a bust - basically it bumps you to near the front of the frequent flyer line with a stamp on your ticket indicating you are less of a threat. In my experience it didn't provide any material advantage to just getting in the frequent flyer line.

And Garmt van Soest says,

> I noticed you posted an article submitted to you about the airport in Florida which collects biometric data. It may surprise you to know that the Amsterdam airport (Schiphol) has been providing a similar service since 2002/2003. Iris-data is collected and stored onto a chipcard. The service is privacy-concern-aware, as the data which is collected is ONLY stored onto the card (I believe Dutch law prohibits companies storing information such as irisscans). Upon renewing my card (once every 3 years or so) you have to go back to have your eye re-scanned and imprinted upon a new card. For me, it's pure heaven - not only does it allow you to shortcut security and customs lines, you also get special parking spots close to the terminal and can use business-class check in for a number of airlines. My monday-morning-commute was shortened from 2.5 hours house-to-plane to 1 hour house-to-plane (especially because I didn't have to be early to be sure I was in time) once I started using it. When the system is broken (happened twice, so far) you get the ultra-elitarian-treatment: a security guard recognises your card, escorts you to the front of the line and shoves the hour-long queue of mere mortals aside for you. I just love the comfort too much to allow my but-shouldn't-customs-be-a-public-service-and-therefore-equal-too-all-attitude to get in the way.

> For more information - check out www.privium.com.

Dersk adds,

> It's EUR 99 a year for biometric immigration, EUR 120 for the full package.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:38:53 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### To do in LA Tuesday: hothot RESbian action, pixels, and free beer

RESbians flaunt their alternative digital lifestyle at another monthly screening, Tuesday night in Hollywood. This month's edition features animation to celebrate Siggraph '05, which is also happening this week in LA. At the RES screening, expect lots of animated shorts, new music videos, free beer, afterparty mit deejays, did I mention cerveza gratis, all on August 2, 8:00 PM, at the Egyptian Theater. Link to tix, and link to more info.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:30:29 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Bollywood diva Asha Bhosle praises weed on Kronos record

Kronos Quartet's new CD You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood includes vocals from the great Indian diva Asha Bhosle. Sepia Mutiny blog parodies the album cover art, poking fun at the fact that the first devotional song on the record, Dum Maro Dum, is about, like, getting totally baked. And by that I mean inhaling marijahoochie. Torching trees. Singing Raag Ganja. Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:24:30 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Flickr auto-finds coolest photos, related photos

Flickr has just released two new, amazing features: "interestingness" and "clustering."

Interestingness creates a daily map (with the usual Flickr clean and easy user interface) of the most interesting photos posted to Flickr, as determined by an algorithm that considers how many users have added the photo to their favorites, how many have commented on it, and what the explicit and implicit relations are between the viewers and the poster (so that getting your wedding photo favorited by 300 attendees doesn't embarrassingly vault it to the front of Flickr's page for the day).

Clustering is a major improvement to Flickr's "tagging" feature, whose main failing to date has been the ambiguity in tags -- some people tag photos of bushes with "bush," others tag pictures of the President with "bush." Clustering to the rescue -- it automatically finds the congruences in tags and groups them according to the discovered relationships, so "cute" gets broken in to "cute kittens," "cute puppies," "cute babies" and "cute smiles."

This is brilliant stuff -- I can tell already that I'm going to lose a lot of productive hours to playing with it. Link (Thanks, Stewart!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:20:46 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Latest State of the Blogosphere

Technorati's David Sifry has begun to post his quarterly "State of the Blogosphere" report (which will continue all week), wherein he sums up this quarter's stats about blogging as derived from the Technorati data-set:

> * Technorati was tracking over 14.2 Million weblogs, and over 1.3 billion links in July 2005

> * The blogosphere continues to double about every 5.5 months

> * A new blog is created about every second, there are over 80,000 created daily

> * About 55% of all blogs are active, and that has remained a consistent statistic for at least a year

> * About 13% of all blogs are updated at least weekly

(Note: I am a proud member of Technorati's advisory board) Link (Thanks, David!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:10:11 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Layperson's intro to the Copyfight

Scott Kleper, inspired by EFF's blog-a-thon, has created a great introduction to the Copyfight aimed at information civilians:

> Copyfighters aren’t saying that information should be free. We are saying that as consumers of media (film, television, software, literature, etc.) we have certain rights that we would like to protect. One of these rights is Fair Use. Fair Use means that you can reuse copyrighted work without permission as long as you are commenting on it, or copying/parodying the original. Fair Use is what allows you to quote song lyrics when writing a review of a new CD. Another right is First Sale. First Sale means that when you buy something, you own it and are thus entitled to sell it to someone else. First Sale is what allows you to buy a book, read it, then sell it on half.com for someone else to enjoy.

> Most of all, we simply want the right to use the products we buy in the way that we see fit. We don’t want to be sued by a manufacturer for opening up a product to see how it works or sued by a media company for moving a file from one device to another. We believe that when we buy a CD, we should be able to convert it to another format to play on another device. We shouldn’t have to pay again to turn it into a ring tone.

Link (Thanks, Scott!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:07:27 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### To do in Munich: Spiders

Katinka Matson creates large-scale photographs of living things with digital flatbed scanners. An exhibit of her work called "Spiders" just opened in Munich. Snip from review in Suddeutsche Zeitung (Germany's largest newspaper):

> The flower images by the New York artist are different for their exactness and completeness: the surreal aura of her pictures come from their enormous clarity.

As lovely as the higher-res jpegs may be, they don't do justice to the buttery beauty of their richly printed counterparts. The image shown here is in fact a massive 6' x 4' print -- pretty stunning when viewed in person. Link to Katinka's website, with details on the Munich show. (Thanks, John Brockman!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:06:59 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Moment of unfortunate news headline zen

Young Boys Wankdorf Erection Relief is the title of a surprisingly worksafe news article on ESPN's "soccernet" site about a new stadium for a Swiss soccer team. Link. (Thanks, Ben Lee)

Reader comment: Boing Boing reader Sharon says,

> I used to work for espn.com, in the NBA sector, one floor down from the soccernet boys. Trust me, this in no way was unintentional. Those guys are sick, twisted, witty, brilliant, etc. I'm sure they laughed all night long and didn't think it was unfortunate.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:33:27 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### James Randi puts text of "occult-debunk" encyclopedia online

The self-appointed guru of anti-woowoo has released the full text of his Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural online for free. James Randi hopes the move will boost sales of the print edition.

> When I decided to place the entire text (...) on the Internet, it was suggested to me that this could cut into the sales of the printed version. However, experience has shown that, in the publishing business, making a book available on the Internet only stimulates sales of the actual book! Another mystery.

Link. (Thanks, John)

Hey, unicorns!

Lit agent Ted Weinstein says,

> Also of similar interest, and online for years BEFORE it was published as a book, is my client Bob Carrol's Skeptic's Dictionary

(Ed. note: yeah, but are there any unicorns in it?)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:14:13 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Mister Jalopy builds world's largest iPod

I spent last Friday with the amazing Mister Jalopy of Hoopty Rides and he showed off his latest build: a wireless computer / hi-fi system built in an old stereo cabinet. It's a fantastic device -- you can play LPs on the turntable and convert them to MP3s with the built in Mac Mini. Mister Jalopy has written an article about the making of this thing for Make, and it will appear in the next issue of the magazine.

> It all started when I wanted to hear Dinah Washington's version of Drinking Again. And I hate buying iTunes songs as I know the DRM will eventually bite me in the ass. De-authorizing. Phooey. And why spend $13 on a CD when you could build a wildly complicated mega machine to digitize records? This is what passes for logic at Hooptyrides.

> Inside that $15 Farnsworth radio cabinet is a Sansui tuner, a replacement Panasonic turntable, a Griffin AirShark, an 8 port USB hub, a cheap-o LCD panel, a Griffin iMic, a Griffin Powermate, a Logitech wireless keyboard transmitter, a power strip, a Griffin AirClick, a Sony bookshelf speaker, a Mac Mini and enough patch cables to encircle the world 7 times.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 05:39:25 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Paper steam engine

I've seen some amazing papercraft mechanisms, but I've never dreamt that someone would build a functional (for certain values of "functional") steam-engine out of paper.

> This paper steam engine is based on his cad drawing of a Riches and Watts nominal 2 ½ horsepower vertical A-frame double acting simple slide-valve steam engine circa 1870-75. The original engine was used to drive a water pump to irrigate the fields of Norfolk. If this model had a scale, it would be roughly 1:19. I had to double the size of the eccentric and strap in order to make it buildable. Everything else is close to scale, but changed in design and apprearance because, well, paper isn't iron.

> Everything will work on this engine, the flywheel turns, there really is a slide valve in the valve chest, the piston works, the cranks and the connecting rods, eccentric and strap all work if built carefully. This is the first version available. I am hoping that if you download it and build it, you will give me feedback, and help me to inprove the buildability, and correct any errors in the model. The final model stands about 12 inches high. I hope you have as much fun building it as I had designing it.

Link (via Paper Forest)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:29:48 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### One 3 min MP3 = 5'9" high stack of punchcards

In case you were wondering: how many punchcards it would take to store an MP3:

> "Assuming a non-Hollerith encoding with eight bits per column, and an MP3 file encoded at 128kbps CBR, there would be 36,864 cards in that deck, and the card reader would need a throughput of 205 cards per second. It might be wise to include an 8-column sequence number, however, so that a misordered deck can be repaired by a card sorter; with 72 data columns per card, the total is precisely 40,960 cards (40K cards), requiring a 228 card/second throughput." The 21 boxes of cards needed would by 5 feet 9 inches tall. That such a huge leap in technology is well within living memory astonishes Y.

Link (via Waxy)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:25:41 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### German Harry Potter fan-translation in 45 hours

A Boing Boing reader writes, "German fans of Harry Potter employ a distributed translation effort, collaboratively translate the entire novel in 45 hours rather than waiting 3 months for official German-language translation. Copyright issues pending as publisher strikes ominous pose.... "

> To avoid any legal threats, the fans have pledged not to distribute their efforts to any third parties...

> The "Harry in German" internet club is plastered with messages from members praising the idea. One member, Starlight, said: "My best friend thought translating some HP would be a good way to practise my English."

> But it is not only students who have contributed to the patchwork translation. A 50-year-old mechanic said he took part to "prevent the brain from rusting"...

> Spokeswoman Katrin Hogrebe told German news portal Netzeitung: "We would not cast judgment if we were talking about a group of people translating together in their kitchen."

> She added that any violation of copyright laws would be legally acted upon.

Link to Harry in German club, Link to Guardian coverage

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:09:57 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Xeni on CNN Showbiz Tonight: TMI syndrome

Today's edition of the CNN Headline News program "Showbiz Tonight" will include a segment on the tendency many have to share way more personal / icky / inappropriate details via online communications than they would face-to-face or via phone. You know -- like when you're surfing a business networking service online and you see "Harvard MFA seeking CFO role" "makes excellent vegan burritos", and "likes BDSM play" all in the same user profile. Also, the cc: field is not always your friend, and some things are better left unblogged. Airs at 7/11pm ET, 4/8pm PT. Here's a related article by Olivia Barker from USA Today: link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:22:32 PM permalink | blogs' comments

### Laurie Lipton's charcoal drawings

Ultra creepy/cool drawings from Londoner Laurie Lipton. Shown here: Haunting (2005).
Link (thanks, Carol!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:37:47 AM permalink | blogs' comments

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