When I was in Boulder, CO last week I went for a walk in a city-owned "greenbelt" hiking trail. I saw this sign that read, "All bags and coolers subject to search. City of Boulder Rangers and Police Officers will be patrolling this area."

Are the police allowed to search your bags in a public park without a warrant? (I saw no police officers or rangers while hiking that day; in fact I saw no other hikers either.)

Apparently Plato wasn't a huge fan of innovation in music. James Boyle, who is working on the latest edition of the Tales From The Public Domain comic book has shared a nice little graphic that shows a quote from Plato, suggesting that he wouldn't be a big fan of remixed music...

"This is the point to which, above all, the attention of our rulers should be directed -- that music and gymnastics be preserved in their original form, and no innovation made. They must do their utmost to maintain them intact...."

Click through to see the whole quote and the comic that goes along with it...

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1sockchuck writes "Google has begun operating a data center in Belgium that has no chillers to support its cooling systems, which will improve energy efficiency but make weather forecasting a larger factor in its network management. With power use climbing, many data centers are using free cooling to reduce their reliance on power-hungry chillers. By foregoing chillers entirely, Google will need to reroute workloads if the weather in Belgium gets too warm. The facility also has its own water treatment plant so it doesn't need to use potable water from a local utility."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

My colleague Julie Steele, editor of The Geek Atlas, suggested I check out the Musée des arts et métiers on my recent trip to Paris. It's a true Maker's museum; I really don't know where to begin. It's got so much stuff a Maker could love:

• A remake of Lavoisier's laboratory
• Léon Foucault's apparatus for measuring the speed of light
• Punchcard-driven looms
• Pascal's adding machine
• and of course, bikes!

There's a lot more (computers, engines, planes, it keeps going on and on). Check out the museum's web site and this Flickr set.

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Limited numbers of our latest Boing Boing t-shirts, made by GAMA-GO, are still available. They're $24/each and come in men's and women's sizes. Every style is available in every color, as long as it's black. And if you spend more than $25 at GAMA-GO on any of their fine products, BB t-shirts included, domestic shipping is free! Thanks for your support! Boing Boing t-shirts

endikos writes "Apple updated iTunes to version 8.2.1. According to the changelog, it offers bug fixes and 'addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices.' In other words, 'Buzz off, Palm Pre. You ain't no iPhone.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The pettiness of Apple continues... Last month, Apple warned potential buyers of the Palm Pre that it might break that phone's ability to sync with iTunes. It didn't take long for Apple to follow through. In an upgrade to iTunes, which Apple claims was for "bug fix" but also to handle "verification" issues, it has blocked the Palm Pre from accessing iTunes. This is pure petty behavior on the part of Apple. When the original statement was made, some assumed that Apple was really just saying that it couldn't be responsible if an update broke the syncing, not that it would purposely break that ability. But Apple's comments suggest they cut off the Pre on purpose, noting that it wanted to stop devices that "falsely pretend" to be iPods or iPhones.

The Palm Pre is a nice phone according to many people, but it's not making any serious dent in iPhone sales. Blocking it out of iTunes is just silly. I don't have a Palm Pre or an iPhone... but I do use iTunes. But now that I know Apple is breaking software and removing features, I guess it's time to look elsewhere. How's Songbird these days? Other suggestions?

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Pop surrealist pioneer Todd Schorr has a retrospective exhibition opening Saturday at the San Jose Museum of Art and running until September 16. True believers will want to hit the museum tomorrow (Thursday) night though, when our pals at Hi-Fructose are hosting a Surreal Night opening bash including a panel with Schorr, Camille Rose Garcia, Last Gasp publisher Colin Turner, and tattoo/comic artist Mark Bode. Schorr will also be signing copies of his beautiful new American Surreal show catalog.

Jake von Slatt, of Steampunk Workshop, points us toward this nice round-up of commercially-available nixie clocks (top image). That article points to another round-up of homemade nixies (bottom image).

A Modern Take On Nixie Tube Clocks...
Nixie Clock Gallery

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SciGuy writes "I am a physics teacher for 9th graders. I really want to teach them modern electronics (something beyond the light bulb and battery). My hope is for a project that: 1) Is fun 2) Teaches about circuits that are relevant to their life. 3) Doesn't rely too heavily on a black box microcontroller. Individual components would probably be better. (I realize that #2 and #3 are probably contradictory. They will already be programming in my class but I want them to understand the circuitry behind modern tech.) 4)It must be as cheap as possible. Yay, public school. Unless some of the parts can be scrounged or found at home, I would probably want to keep the project around $5." What would you build?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It's really sad to see some of the struggles that legacy businesses go through in trying to adapt to a more modern world, but not all of it is the fault of those businesses themselves. Look, for example, at what's happening with Verizon. Subsidiary Verizon Wireless -- which is 55% owned by Verizon -- began a marketing campaign pushing people to ditch their landline phone and go completely wireless. That's not a bad marketing campaign (and, in fact, might be a very good marketing campaign these days). So what happens? The union that represents Verizon's landline telco workers flips out and accuses the company of trying to undermine the union by helping Verizon get out of the landline business, so it can get rid of those workers. Seriously. First of all, there's little evidence to suggest that's true. Like most traditional telcos, Verizon still sees its basic landline business as a useful cash cow that I'm sure it intends to milk for as long as possible. Chances are, since VZW is a separate company, the marketing plan had nothing to do with the parent's marketing efforts. But, either way, at some point the company should be pushing customers to ditch landlines and other older technologies and embrace better solutions. Not because it puts old union guys out of work, but because it's where the market is headed.

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Hmmm2000 writes "Recently several Visa card holders were, um, overcharged for certain purchases, to the tune of $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 on a single charge. The company says it was due to a programming error, and that the problem has been corrected. What is interesting is that the amount charged actually reveals the type of programming error that caused the problem. 23,148,855,308,184,500.00 * 100 (I'm guessing this is how the number is actually stored) is 2314885530818450000. Convert 2314885530818450000 to hexadecimal, and you end up with 20 20 20 20 20 20 12 50. Most C/C++ programmers see the error now ... hex 20 is a space. So spaces were stuffed into a field where binary zero should have been."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Above, one in a series of 112 small works on mylar (about 9.5" x 7.5") by artist Sophie Jodoin.

"Inspired in part by contemporary war imagery, grafitti, and comic-style silhouettes," this series of collages and drawings "question the numbness with which viewers are habituated to observing the carnage of war and domestic violence." (via @nopattern)

mulaz writes with this excerpt from The Register: "An update pushed out to BlackBerry users on the Etisalat network in the United Arab Emirates appears to contain remotely-triggered spyware that allows the interception of messages and emails, as well as crippling battery life. Sent out as a WAP Push message, the update installs a Java file that one curious customer decided to take a closer look at, only to discover an application intended to intercept both email and text messages, sending a copy to an Etisalat server without the user being aware of anything beyond a slightly excessive battery drain."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Let the fan comments fling forth like handfuls of monkey-poo, Richard Metzger is not afraid to tell you exactly how he feels about the new Harry Potter film, which opens in US theatrical release today:

Well, there is simply no beating around the bush about this one. No mitigating factors. Nope, none. The new Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is absolutely fucking terrible.

Not a disaster, just a total bore, which is worse. Please don't shoot the messenger, I sincerely expected to like it, but man oh man does it suck. It's mind-numbingly bad. The pacing is all wrong. It felt like we were in that theater for about seventeen hours. My wife hated it even more than I did.

After a fantastically conceived opening sequence (one of the finest I've ever seen, brilliantly executed) my first thought for this review was "Harry Potter franchise kicks it up a notch! Or two!" I was fantasizing about my blurby superlatives showing up on movie posters, but... sadly t'was not to be.

After the first ten minutes the film quickly dropped off in energy and intelligence. After 30 minutes, the suckiness picked up speed. Much of the script made no sense. Some-- like all the villains--characters' actions seem to have no motivation whatsoever. Aside from one or two action-oriented scenes (the Quidditch matches were remarkable), it was an absolute snoozefest.

Looks great, same great cast, all the right ingredients, I grant you that, but I will say it again: The new Harry Potter movie is godawful.

I know what you're thinking. Your kids will still love it. Guess again. Your kids will hate it and get restless after 30 minutes. So will you. No one would love it unless the studio was paying them to love it. I don't think the people who worked on it or acted in it love it. No one would like this movie. It's shite. The word of mouth will be horrible.

If you read this far and you still plan to see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"... as you are sitting there watching one of the worst big budget films in recent memory, a total piece of shit, remember this review and don't say I didn't warn you. Because I did.

And if you want to know how I really feel...

(Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.)

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More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com

Via this month's EMS Lab's Linkdump come these pics of sneakers with "bumper stickers" on them. When we were brainstorming stickers for The Maker's Notebook, somebody came up with idea of a set of robot bumper stickers ("Resistance is Futile (if > 1-ohm)," "My other bot is a Big Dog," etc). These reminded me of those.

Bumper stickers for shoes

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Last week, we wrote about a rather level-headed and quite interesting FT opinion piece written by The Pirate Party's Christian Engstrom, who now represents the Swedish Pirate Party in the European Parliament. While the entertainment industry has tried to paint the Pirate Party as a bunch of thieves who just want stuff for free, Engstrom's piece was quite sensible in explaining the real thinking behind the party: a focus on individual rights and worries about privacy invasion. Of course, the usual copyright supporters couldn't let such thinking go unchallenged...

Rick Carnes, the head of the Songwriters Guild of America wrote a letter to the Financial Times, responding to Engstrom, but the letter is odd, poorly supported, flat-out wrong in some spots and seems to have totally ignored what Engstrom was actually saying. Let's take a look:

Christian Engstrom of the Pirates party is absolutely correct in his assumption that Elvis's music does not belong to him. It belongs to great songwriters like Otis Blackwell, who wrote so many of Elvis's big hits such as "All shook up" and "Return to sender", and who fought for years to protect and strengthen US copyright law. Without copyright, Mr Blackwell would never have been able to create that "common cultural heritage" that Mr Engstrom wants to think of as his own.

First, this is a near total misreading of what Engstrom said. You have to assume that Carnes -- by no means an unintelligent person -- is simply deliberately misstating Engstrom's claims to further his own protectionist positions. Engstrom's point is just in noting how odd it is that we can't share a key part of our common cultural heritage. If you look at pretty much all of human history up until recently, part of what made a common cultural heritage possible was the ability to share it. Engstrom wasn't claiming that it was his own as Carnes states, but that as part of our common cultural heritage it makes sense that we'd like to share it with others. That's how culture works.

But, more importantly, Carnes is flat out wrong in claiming that Mr. Blackwell would never have been able to create those works without copyright. The incentives may have been different, but as we've been showing time and time again, there are tons of alternative business models for the creation of music that do not rely on copyright. And, given the massive demand for musical entertainment, it's pretty clear that such business models would certainly allow for compensation of songwriters as well. This assumption that copyright is the only way to pay songwriters is just silly and ignorant. It's just not true and has never been true. For someone who positions himself as a creative person, to insist that there's only one mechanism for songwriters to earn money is simply unbelievable.

He forgets that it isn't technology that "opens up new possibilities" -- it is the people who create the technology, the very people who earn their livings from patents and copyrights.

No, actually, Engstrom is quite clear that he does not forget the people. He's quite focused on actually supporting their individual rights. What he's against is the abuse of their rights via overly encroaching government monopoly. Furthermore, Carnes is again wrong in claiming that these people "earn their livings from patents and copyrights." They do not. They earn their living by putting in place (or working for a company that has put in place) a workable business model that involves providing goods and services that people or companies want and pay for. They may use patents and copyright as a part of that, but it is false and misleading to claim they earn their money from the patents and copyrights. The patents and copyrights, by themselves, pay nothing. In fact, the only way to get money from such intellectual endeavors is to offer people something they want in order to generate money in a business model. No one is trying to take that away. We just think that it need not have the gov't setting up unnecessary and limiting barriers.

Computer code, songs, artwork and drug patents don't appear "as if by magic". These people invest their lives, their dreams, their money, their time and all their hopes for the future in their work.

Indeed. No one has suggested otherwise. But part of that investing of lives, dreams, money and time is making sure they put in place a reasonable business model.

Creative people don't necessarily create only for money, but the money is necessary if only for them to continue to create.

Again, this is a total strawman. Carnes is pretending that Engstrom said that creators shouldn't earn money. He did not. He was pointing out that how they earn money may change, but no one is saying they shouldn't earn money. That Carnes seems to think that copyright is the only way to make money from content is either willful ignorance or blatant lying by someone whose job it is to push for greater protectionism for his constituents.

The real "restriction" on Mr Engstrom's access to an Elvis song is a paltry 99 cents for a download on iTunes. For that he wants us to abandon the copyright and patent laws that have been constructed over hundreds of years.

Again, this is a total misreading of Engstrom's comments. Engstrom's complaint isn't with the 99 cents one needs to pay to download a tune (though, I don't believe they use American money in Sweden...), but with the fact that he should have to pay to share and promote such a cultural artifact with others. It is only with intellectual property that such a restriction is placed on it, and it is a massive limitation on how people interact through culture these days.

Nor is the world "at a crossroads", as he claims. We will not face the apocalypse if people have to pay for music again. What is already causing serious cultural damage is the failure to enforce copyright law on the internet. I started making my own music at eight years old and by 13 I was making money at it. By 27 I was a professional songwriter and built a lifelong career as an "active" creator of musical culture; until, that is, I was put out of business by illegal downloading.

Again, Carnes seems to have misunderstood and is misrepresenting what Engstrom said (I don't believe he reflected him accurately once in the entire letter, which is impressive). No one is saying we will face the apocalypse if people "have" to pay for music again. He's simply noting that it's impossible to stop what technology has allowed. There is no such thing as people having to pay for music again. No one has to pay for anything. They make decisions in the marketplace -- and many are choosing not to pay for music anymore.

Furthermore, while Carnes may sincerely believe that "illegal downloading" put him out of business, the only thing that really put him out of business was his apparent inability to adapt to the changing marketplace. There is absolutely nothing stopping him from writing any more songs, other than an apparent lack of creativity in adjusting to a changing marketplace.

Mr Engstrom warns that "society has to make a choice" between total anonymity or totalitarian control on the internet. This is naive. The right choice is neither. Instead, we need to find some sweet spot in between. It is simple to conflate the ideas of privacy and theft. I could, for instance, claim that it is my right to wear a ski mask into a bank in order to keep my identity "private" from the prying eye of the bank security camera. The security guards might take exception to that, and for good reason.

Must we really explain the difference between copying and theft yet again? Engstrom is not talking about theft. He's talking about the ability to share and to communicate through content.

Similarly, while governments should limit intrusion into people's private lives they also have the responsibility to protect citizens from the theft of their property.

Indeed. They do. But this is not about theft, and it's not about property.

Laws are passed based on history, common sense and hopefully the common good. The internet is a new medium and the world is still trying to come to grips with the balance between privacy and security. I would ask Mr Engstrom to give that a chance to happen by toning down the rhetoric.

This is the most amusing of all, seeing as Engstrom's piece was rather devoid of inflammatory rhetoric, but was amazingly reasonable and level-headed. And speaking of rhetoric, it was Carnes who recently did an amazingly inflammatory interview where he used all sorts of bogus rhetoric. In it, he referred to the internet as "cyber somalia." He claimed the days of the stand alone songwriter were "over." He claimed that those who are sharing and promoting music online are "a mob of anonymous looters." He said he was hoping for "a 'bail-out' for all the songwriters who lost their jobs because their intellectual property was not protected by the US Government on the Internet." He calls Google "a real culture-killer." He called anyone who suggested that perhaps songwriters should explore new business models in a changed market "unbelievably arrogant and self-serving."

So... if we're talking about "toning down the rhetoric" perhaps Carnes should start with himself? At the very least, he might want to take a step back and try responding to what Engstrom and others are actually saying, rather than this straw bogeyman he seems to have set up in his mind.

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Meshach writes "An article in ars technia claims that 12% of internet users have actually responded to spam messages and tried to buy items. Although I find this hard to believe it does explain why my spam folder is always full." Also in spam news, wjousts links to a Technology Review article about how spammers get your e-mail address, writing "E-mail addresses in comments posted to a website had a high probability of getting spammed, while of the 70 e-mail addresses submitted during registration at various websites, only 4 got spammed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Guestblogger Marina Gorbis is executive director at Institute for the Future.

Whenever you are tempted to feel superior about our unique status as humans in the animal kingdom and our extraordinary achievements in building a sophisticated civilization, it is worth reading Frans De Waal, a Dutch primatologist who has studied apes for almost 40 years. Several years ago when I picked up his book "Our Inner Ape," it quickly occurred to me that this is probably one of the best management books I've ever read. (OK, so I don't like management books). Behaviors that we, humans, embellish with complex rationalizations and justifications, De Waal was able to observe with clarity among his subjects, apes. Making alliances to achieve power, engaging in acts of reciprocity to build and maintain social capital, puffing up to threaten the opponent and scare enemies -- so ape and so human at the same time. So if you are looking for an entertaining, yet humbling experience, above is De Waal's speech from 2004 at Pop!Tech.

Robert Ullman has a new art book out, called Atom-Bomb Bikini: The Lurid Art of Robert Ullman, which includes his charming sketches, pin-up art, and editorial illustrations. He's going to be selling it at the San Diego Comic Con, but you can also order copies from his web site.

Sample pages here.

Atom-Bomb Bikini: The Lurid Art of Robert Ullman

I've posted before about body integrity identity disorder, a condition in which an individual has an overwhelming desire to have a limb amputated. ABC Catalyst posted a fascinating short documentary about an man who purposefully destroyed his leg with dry ice so that a physician would have no choice but to cut it off. "The next time I woke up, it was absolute ecstasy," he says. "The leg that I wanted to get rid of for all those years was reduced to a little bandaged stump." Catalyst: Body Identity (via Mind Hacks)

The twice-monthly Lost Knowledge column explores the possible technology of the future in the forgotten ideas of the past (and those just slightly off to the side). Every other Wednesday, we look at retro-tech, "lost" technology, and the make-do, improvised "street tech" of village artisans and tradespeople from around the globe. "Lost Knowledge" was also the theme of MAKE, Volume 17

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This week, we look at an awesome, indigenous type of ocean mapping and navigation technology known as stick charts (aka Marshall Islands stick charts, Micronesian stick charts, or Polynesian stick charts).

The Wikipedia entry for Marshall Islands stick chart starts:

Marshall Islands stick charts were made and used by the Marshallese to navigate the Pacific Ocean by canoe off the coast of the Marshall Islands. The charts represented major ocean swell patterns and the ways the islands disrupted those patterns, typically determined by sensing disruptions in ocean swells by islands during sea navigation. Stick charts were typically made from the midribs of coconut fronds tied together to form an open framework. Island locations were represented by shells tied to the framework, or by the lashed junction of two or more sticks. The threads represented prevailing ocean surface wave-crests and directions they took as they approached islands and met other similar wave-crests formed by the ebb and flow of breakers. Individual charts varied so much in form and interpretation that the individual navigator who made the chart was the only person who could fully interpret and use it. Use of stick charts and navigation by swells apparently came to demise after World War II, when travel between islands by canoe halted.

An article on Jaime Morrison's wonderful blog, The Nonist, identifies three basic types of stick charts:

The "MATTANG" or "WAPPEPE" is a small, square-shaped chart which shows wave patterns around a single island or atoll and was used for teaching purposes only.

The "REBBELIB" is a general wave navigational chart mapping an entire chain, showing the relationships between the islands and the major ocean swells.

The "MEDO" covers only a few islands and is useful for specific voyages.

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Scott Rosenberg, the co-founder of Salon, has written an excellent new book called Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters.

It's well-researched and very entertaining. Scott interviewed me last year and there's an entire chapter about Boing Boing in it. He also has chapters about Justin Hall (who started the blog Links From the Underground in 1996), Dave Winer, Jorn Barger (who coined "weblog" for his Robot Wisdom blog), Blogger founders Ev Williams and Meg Hourihan, and Heather Armstrong of Dooce, among others.

Above, an interesting video in which Scott tries to identify the very first blogger. It's sort of like trying to find the first rock'n'roll song.

Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters

bfwebster writes "Over the last forty years, a small set of classic works on risks and pitfalls in software engineering and IT project management have been published and remained in print. The authors are well known, or should be: Gerry Weinberg, Fred Brooks, Ed Yourdon, Capers Jones, Stephen Flowers, Robert Glass, Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister, Steve McConnell, Steve Maguire, and so on. These books all focus largely on projects where actual software development is going on. A new book by Phil Simon, Why New Systems Fail, is likewise a risks-and-pitfalls book, but Simon covers largely uncharted territory for the genre: selection and implementation of enterprise-level, customizable, off-the-shelf (COTS) software packages, such as accounting systems, human resource systems, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. As such, Simon's book is not only useful, it is important." Read on for the rest of Bruce's thoughts on this book.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It's been quite some time since we last heard anything about the fascinating battle between the US and Antigua. It goes back a long time. We first wrote about this issue, nearly a decade ago, when the operators of online casinos in Antigua (where gambling is legal) were pretty pissed off to find out that the US claimed to have regulatory power over their online casino and could ban its use in the US. Antigua protested to the WTO, claiming that this was a violation of free trade agreements between the two countries. In 2004, the WTO agreed with Antigua, saying that because the US allows certain types of gambling, it's a violation of their agreement to ban Antiguan gambling sites. Of course, the US ignored the WTO and Antigua, recognizing that Antigua had little to no power over the US.

A year later, the WTO ruled again in favor of Antigua on this issue, though, amusingly, the US Trade Rep misleadingly claimed that the WTO had changed its mind. It had not. The US simply lied about what the WTO really said and declared victory, when it had actually lost again. The following year? The WTO again asked the US why it wasn't living up to its trade obligations on this point. In 2007, the WTO tried again and was ignored again.

In the midst of all this, a rather amusing and interesting suggestion popped up. In the random online discussions about how Antigua could actually flex its muscles against the US, someone pointed out that the WTO could allow Antigua to ignore US intellectual property, thereby allowing it to set up a cheap online download store. That idea gained traction at an incredibly fast pace, as lawyers jumped on the idea and set the wheels in motion. During that time, the US tried to unilaterally change its trade terms with Antigua to settle the matter, but that didn't get very far. Finally, at the end of 2007, the WTO agreed to letting Antigua ignore US intellectual property, but only to the tune of $21 million. Of course, the US quickly threatened Antigua not to go forward with any plans to violate US IP, but did little to rectify the situation. So last year, Antigua insisted it really (really, really, really!) was going to start ignoring US IP.

Since then? Well, it's been really quiet. Until now.

The LA Times has the story of a site called Zookz (from Carib Media), which claims to be taking advantage of the WTO ruling. It is, in fact, based in Antigua and is offering up unlimited music or movie downloads for $10/month -- or both music and movies for $18. Needless to say, the US government and the entertainment industry are vehemently opposed to Zookz interpretation of the WTO ruling -- especially when it comes to the fact that the Zookz service is apparently available outside of Antigua. Honestly, it seems like both sides are stretching the meaning of the ruling. The US and the entertainment industry basically want to completely ignore the WTO ruling, and interpret it to be entirely meaningless. That makes no sense, of course. The WTO wouldn't allow such sanctions unless there were a way to actually make use of them.

That said, it doesn't seem like the WTO ruling gave random private companies carte blanche to offer up music and movies. In fact, the Zookz interpretation gets even odder, where it interprets the $21 million to mean how much it can make, rather than the value "lost" to the industry. In fact, because of this Zookz claims that if it gets too close to selling $21 million (or if others enter the market, and combined they approach $21 million), they'll just have to start giving music and movies away for free to avoid going over the limit. While the WTO did want to give Antigua a weapon against the US, it's hard to believe that was what it meant. So, while this may be amusing to watch, the likelihood of Zookz lasting very long seems slim, at best.

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angrytuna writes "The Unique Identification Authority is a new state department in India charged with assigning every living Indian an exclusive number and biometric ID card. The program is designed to alleviate problems with the 20 current types of proof of identity currently available. These problems range from difficulties for the very poor in obtaining state handouts, corruption, illegal immigration, and terrorism issues. Issuing the cards may be difficult, however, as less than 7% of the population is registered for income tax, and voter lists are thought to be inaccurate, partly due to corruption. The government has said the first cards will be issued in 18 months."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

thehumanprinter is a group of people who will hand-render pictures for you in the style of a digital printer. "Throughout the printing process, thehumanprinter assumes the role of the machine and is therefore controlled and restricted by the process of using CMYK halftones created on the computer." Each of the human printers has his/her own unique characteristics. For example, one is "fast and inaccurate" while another is "quick and efficient, yellow tends to be faint." You can even choose black and white, full color, or spot color prints. Fascinating art project. thehumanprinter (Thanks, Mathias Crawford!)

The creators of Star Wars: Uncut sliced Star Wars: A New Hope into 472 fifteen second clips and invited anyone to pick a scene to recreate scenes. Once completed, all of the recreated scenes will be cut together into what will almost undoubtedly be a funny and weird crowdsourced fan remake. Star Wars: Uncut (via @BBVBOX)

theodp writes "Okay Tux fans, let's see how badly you want to see Feynman's Messenger Lectures on Physics. Bill Gates has the goods over at Microsoft Research's Project Tuva site. Also, CNET's Ina Fried has an interesting interview with Gates. He goes into why he spent his own money to make a series of classic physics lectures available free on the Web, talks about the possibility of Project Natal bringing gesture recognition to Windows, gives his thoughts on Google's Chrome OS, and discusses plans to patent 'cows that don't fart.' The last is a joke. I think."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If I announced tomorrow that some key technology in widespread use today was fundamentally broken, but (oh yeah) that I was selling a solution that would fix it all, don't you think most reporters would first try to track down an independent third party to find out if what I was saying was actually true? Apparently not all reporters feel that way. So take it with a grain of salt when PC Authority writes a gushing article about how one of the internet's original designers, Larry Roberts, claims the internet is fundamentally broken. Roberts has been pushing this line for a while, and it's rather important to note that this is part of the marketing campaign for his company, which is trying to sell a "solution" to the problem. Yet PC Authority focuses entirely on the idea that the internet is broken, checks with no other third party, and only mentions at the very, very end of the article that Roberts' company just happens to be trying to sell a solution. Whether or not you believe Roberts' claims, you would think that a reporter wouldn't put what seems like a blatant press release and pitch it as a news article without at least getting some third party opinions.

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Here at MAKE, we're lucky enough to have a rotating stable of interns who build and test most of the projects before we go to print each issue (and sometimes photograph any missing step shots). They also haul supplies from the warehouse, shop for tools and materials, and come up with projects of their own on a surprisingly regular basis. We also work them to near death before, during, and after each Maker Faire -- packing pallets and building projects to send to the fairgrounds beforehand; setting up booths and greeting the public for 12-plus hours a day during the event; and unpacking trucks when everything comes back to our offices after the fact.

In exchange, they get to have one of the most highly coveted jobs in the land. Seriously. I've had top-level editors ask if they could trade their job for an internship at MAKE, not to mention engineers, the parents of our interns, and just about anyone who gets a look at the Make: Labs, where the interns build, sew, hack, hammer, drill, and solder day in and day out.

Now we're offering our website readers a look into the fabulous lives of the MAKE interns. Twice a month, the current interns will offer up stories about the projects they're working on, the trouble they've gotten into, and what they plan on building in the near future.

Jacob McKenzie, one of our two original interns who began working for us in the fall of 2005, has always said that we've pretty much ruined him for life in terms of ever having a cooler job. Nonetheless, Jake left his internship in 2007 to finish his bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley. He graduated with a 4.0 GPA and a degree in mechanical engineering. During the 2008 winter break, we called him up and asked him to demonstrate a few of our previous projects for the TV show, Quest, which were well-received and a blast to see get filmed in our very own Make: Labs. Most recently, Jake was accepted at both Stanford and MIT for graduate school. After much thought, he chose MIT, where he'll begin the next part of his journey this fall. He's promised to keep in touch, and let us know if he ever finds a cooler job than MAKE Intern. He remains unconvinced that he will, but his future looks bright to us.

Tune in on Wednesday, July 29, for the first of many first-person accounts about interning at MAKE!

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These silicon spheres, manufactured by metrologists at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) as part of efforts to alleviate dependence on the International Prototype Kilogram, have properties that are as close to truly exact as measurable properties are likely to be for a long time to come: They weigh 1.0000000 kilograms, are smooth to the nearest 0.0000000003 meter, and are round to within 0.000000050 meters. One of them is even monoisotopic. Via boing².

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The episode of the Martha Stewart Show, with MAKE Editor-in-Chief Mark Frauenfelder, aired again today. If you're coming to MAKE for the first time as a result of seeing the show: Welcome! Make yourself at home. If you'd like to learn more about Maker Media, our magazine MAKE, our websites Make: Online and CRAFT, and our other projects, check out this introduction to Maker Media. If you're looking for more info on the projects Mark demo'd on the program, here's a link to the project PDFs.

And if you have any questions about what we do, feel free to post them in the comments below.

More:
MAKE Editor Mark F. on The Martha Stewart Show this Monday (with a link to the actual episode online)

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drunken_boxer777 writes with this excerpt from an AP report: "Six men emerged from a metal hatch after 105 days of isolation in a mock spacecraft, still smiling after testing the stresses that space travelers may face on the journey to Mars. They had no television or Internet and their only link to the outside world was communications with the experiment's controllers — who also monitored them via TV cameras — and an internal e-mail system. Communications with the outside world had 20-minute delays to imitate a real space flight."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Fine art and commercial photographers Alex and Cocco created a magnificent series of images documenting Parkour (l'art du déplacement). The photos, "as shot" with no retouching, are collected on their Distil Ennui site which, unfortunately, uses Flash navigation but they kindly updated me with a direct link. "Particle Parkour"

The Chinese Ministry of Health has allegedly put an end to the use of electroshock treatments as a treatment for teenage "Internet addiction." Apparently, a clinic in Linyi, Shandong has been conducting the "treatment." According to a China Daily article, "Internet addiction is a growing problem in China... Many adolescents... spend several hours each day playing computer games." That's it? From China Daily:

The China Daily reported last month that more than 3,000 young people were tricked or forced into in to the four-month long course. To enroll their children, parents or guardians had to sign a contract acknowledging that they would be given electric shocks of up to 200 milliamperes. The treatment cost 6,000 yuan ($878) per month. Patients were considered “cured” or “reborn” once they admitted to their addiction.

"Ministry halts controversial electrotherapy program for Internet addicts" (via Fortean Times)

Ben and Catherine Mullany were murdered while honeymooning in Antigua last July. MyDishBiz, an Ohio satellite dish company, used one of their pre-wedding photos in an advertising campaign, running a false testimonial below their photo.

The photo was downloaded from an internet tribute to the couple murdered two weeks after their wedding a year ago then used alongside the bogus testimonial.

The testimonial said: "We have made $1,080 alone with your MyDishBiz internet business opportunity.

"We are very happy with this program. This is the best opportunity we've seen online ever. Thanks again."

A spokesperson for MyDishBiz said: "We are trying to track down who sent the testimonial and picture for inclusion on our website."

I'll bet they're trying really hard.

MyDishBiz runs photo of murdered couple giving happy testimonial

Mark Mathson writes "Two Google Voice apps have been released for Blackberry and Android phones. The Android app is the most complete, and it takes over the native dialer, address book and call log. Users won't be bothered with accidentally dialing numbers through the device phone number. The Blackberry app is less integrated, accessing only the native address book, and uses its own dialer. Users can't simply go into the call log and return missed calls. They need to go back to the address book and select Google Voice to make the call. Still, it solves a big problem. The apps also allow users to access the core features of Google Voice. You can listen to or read voicemails and text messages (all voicemails are automatically transcribed), access call history, send SMS messages and place international calls at low rates."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry.

Condition: Critical is an amazing website that focuses on those affected by the ongoing war in eastern Congo. The site was created by Médecins Sans Frontières, otherwise known as Doctors Without Borders, an international medical humanitarian organization that works in 60 countries around the world to combat the tragic consequences of war, violence, and famine.

Condition: Critical turns the spotlight on war-torn North and South Kivu with videos, photos, and first-person testimonies from the men, women, children, and medical relief workers who are experiencing what is happening there firsthand.

Life isn't just hard in eastern Congo: this region is in critical condition. And things aren't getting any better. The destiny of everyone in this region is shaped by war and violence. The story of their struggle to survive needs to be told.

(Jeffrey Gettleman has been doing a remarkable job of chronicling the war for The New York Times. He reported on the use of rape as a war tactic in the DRC here and here.)

A new video series on Condition: Critical brings to life the tragedies being inflicted upon the region's children. In "Survive," "Express," and "Fight," we hear from children who are struggling to survive the conflict around them.

If you'd like to donate to MSF, you can do so here. The MSF YouTube channel is here.

Condition: Critical.

Toxel.com hosts these great pics of a museum pond outside Taipei, executed by sculptor Ju Chun. Via Neatorama.

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Chemistry Comes Alive! has about a dozen 1980s era videos of fun-to-watch chemical reactions, such as an ice bomb, a mercury "beating heart," a nitrogen triiodide explosion, and a thermite reaction.

Chemistry Comes Alive! (Via Evil Mad Scientists)

A company has been fined for using astroturfers to promote its products online, a US first. The company, Lifestyle Lift, also had a history of using trademark and copyright to threaten and silence its critics. The company settled with AG Andrew Cuomo's office for a mere $300K. I favor the corporate death-penalty here -- this company spent years defrauding the public and used the law to bully whistle-blowers. They don't deserve to be in business for one more second.

The company has aggressively guarded its online reputation. In 2007, it sued an Arizona man who maintained a consumer-oriented Web site that included criticisms of Lifestyle Lift, saying the site's use of the procedure's name infringed on the company's trademark and amounted to false advertising. A federal judge in Michigan dismissed the case last year, saying the site was commentary protected by the First Amendment.

But Lifestyle Lift also came up with another new way to fight back: Having staffers post glowing reviews, comments and testimonials that appeared to come from clients.

"I need you to devote the day to doing more postings on the Web as a satisfied client," employees were told in one internal e-mail, according to the attorney general's office. Another internal message directed a worker to "put your wig and skirt on and tell them about the great experience you had."

The disguised workers did that and more, sometimes pushing to get message boards to remove critical posts and even setting up pro-Lifestyle Lift Web sites that masqueraded as independent views, Cuomo's office said. The postings dated back to early 2007, the attorney general's office said.

NY AG: Facelift firm placed bogus online reviews (via /.)

A joint TSA/Delta airlines sting caught a TSA officer and a JFK baggage handler ripping off a laptop and phone from a decoy suitcase and then switching the suitcase tags, deliberately misrouting it to delay any investigation. Wanna bet they're not the only ones, and that this wasn't the first time they did it? Gee, thanks for taking away our suitcase locks, TSA. We're so much safer now that you're free to rob us.

Brian Burton, 27, and Antwon Simmons, 26, stole a laptop and cell phone from the decoy luggage as it moved through Kennedy Airport, Port Authority officials said.

Sting nabs sticky-fingered JFK airport workers going through luggage (via Consumerist)

MojoKid writes "Asus today launched yet another addition to their Eee PC netbook product offering. The Eee PC T91 is unlike any Eee PC we've seen before, primarily because the screen can be spun around and flipped down in the style of a tablet. This so-called 'netvertible' sector is still in its earliest stages, making the T91 one of the first netbooks available that also doubles as a full-fledged tablet PC. Unlike the Eee PC 'Seashell' line, which is largely just a sleeker take on the tried-and-true Eee PC netbook, the T91 takes a completely different approach to computing. Its 8.9" resistive touchscreen literally puts a new spin on the netbook and enables a new usage model."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thanks to reader eoinmonty for alerting us to the news that Ireland is debating a new data retention bill that seems to have similar problems to many other data retention bills: which is that it pays little attention to individual privacy rights or the fact that retaining the data is a costly mess for communications companies, and having all that data tends to make it more difficult to actually find the useful data. But a bigger point worth mentioning is the sheer hypocrisy of some supporting the bill. For example, politician Niall Collins trotted out the bogus "if you've got nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" line that is a sure sign a politician doesn't know what he or she is talking about. As if to prove the point, Collins was then asked if he would be willing to provide his mobile phone bills and data on his email usage for the past two years (as the bill requires) he claimed not to understand the question and then refused to do so. Obviously, based on his own logic, we can only conclude that Niall Collins has something to hide.

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Today at Boing Boing Gadgets, we had a special theme day on makeup. Stop by to read about: * three battery-operated mascaras; * why permanent makeup is scary; * how to look hot in high-definition; * a zit zapping gadget called the Zeno; * crazy transformer makeup kits; * a visual history of cosmetics gadgetry; * a video gallery of humanimals; and movie makeup tips. We also wrote about other cool stuff like a laser-cut wooden keyboard, new digicams from Samsung, ceramic knives inspired by cavemen, an ironing board that turns into a mirror, and a Pac-Man stapler.

Phyllis Gotlieb, the legendary Canadian science fiction writer, died yesterday. Phyllis was very old but very sharp -- I last saw her at an Ad Astra convention in Toronto a few years ago, and I followed her on a mailing list for Canadian sf writers, where she was a smart and funny poster. Phyllis wrote well into her old age, continuing her very long career in the field.

I first met Phyllis at Ad Astra, the Toronto area science fiction convention. She and I were co-panelists on the very first panel I ever sat on. I was 17 and I'd just sold my first story. Phyllis was well into her senior years. She was delightful. I don't remember what the subject of the panel was, but I remember the warmth and wit with which Phyllis engaged with little pipsqueak me, the welcome she made me feel as a freshman writer. I have never, ever forgotten that -- the author of O Master Caliban! deigning to notice me, much less treat me as a colleague.

Phyllis and her husband Kelly were palpably, achingly in love (Kelly once had my father in his university physics class, a class he never forgot). We had dinner together in 2007 at Ad Astra, and the two of them were the epitome of sweet old married coupledom, finishing each others' sentences, helping each other in a million tiny and affectionate ways.

By my reckoning, Phyllis was 82 when she died (I don't know the details of the death). I can only hope that when I'm 80, I'll be as sharp, productive and good-spirited as Phyllis was when I last saw her. Science fiction has lost one of its greats today, and Canada, too. My sincerest condolences to her family. You are missed, Phyllis.

Phyllis GOTLIEB

Phyllis's homepage

(Thanks, Lorna)

(Image: Sunburst Awards)

Recently on Offworld we saw things living in places we didn't expect, like Taito's fantastic looking formerly Japanese-only vector-sharp retro-futurist mobile phone game Space Invaders Infinity Gene making a surprise visit to the iPhone, demoscene group Braadworsten Brigade bringing a mini-rave to your copy of Microsoft Excel 2003, and Subatomic's iPhone tower defense hit Fieldrunners coming as a PSP downloadable. We also saw our first inside-the-gallery shots of French guerrilla artist Space Invader's NYC art exhibit, including his Rubik's Cube recreations of Daft Punk and Velvet Underground album covers, found no less than 100 brilliant 5-second art/glitch videos based on 'old video games' (above), and followed the latest in the copyfight between iPhone dev Mobigame, IGDA board member Tim Langdell, and anyone who has ever thought about stringing together the letters E-D-G- and E. Finally, our 'one shot's for the day: Florian Hufsky's pixel pirates, and, best of all, the world of Shaun of the Dead meeting the world of Left 4 Dead.

Paperclips respond to electromagnetism coming through floor of train in Japan. (Via Pink Tentacle)

Burnsy writes "During all the hype of Apple celebrating its 1.5 billion iPhone App Store downloads, some good advice on how to be successful and stand out in the App Store came out. One story describes how developers are increasingly coming up with various strategies to make a splash, employing everything from temporary discounts to guerilla marketing tactics. On the other hand, some successful developers, such as the creator of the Flight Control app, which has been the number one selling app in 20 countries, talk about the pitfalls of Apple's approval process for the App Store. They say it can take a developer up to three months to get an application approved and distributed on the App Store and that maybe the iPhone bubble is soon to burst." A related story at Wired points out that the games category — already crowded with over 13,000 entries — is getting even more competitive as the major game publishers push into the market.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Instructables is looking for more awesome projects for its Art of Sound contest, where you can win lots of audio goodies including handcrafted speakers and bzzt-boop toys from Bleep Labs. The competition is steep, but hopefully inspirational!

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From the MAKE Flickr pool

Flickr member drug123's MEGA-ISP shield turns an Arduino into an In-System Programmer for AVR Chips -

Prepared schematics and board layout of this Arduino shield during one-hour-long phone call. Spent another hour to create "physical interpretation".
Purpose of this PCB is providing ISP header to turn Arduino in full-functional programmer for AVR microcontrollers.
Firmware to turn your Arduino board into ISP programmer can be found here.
Connected device could be seen here.
All components on PCB were scavenged from old dead LAN cards.
I have released schematics for improved version of this board under CC BY-NC-SA license, you may find it here.

This could prove quite helpful as a backup for my USBTiny - I'll have to give it a go myself.

More:

HOW TO - use Arduino as a high voltage programmer

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Vincent Mariano, of the SPHS Solar Knights solar race car team out of South Plantation High School in Plantation, Florida, wrote in to ask us why we haven't written anything about the Dell-Winston solar car challenge currently underway at the Texas Motor Speedway. Because we hadn't heard from you yet, Vincent! Thanks, and good luck in the race.

The top-most picture is of the racing teams at the event. The other pictures are of the Solar Knights' vehicle. The first day of racing was yesterday, with races running through Friday. The Solar Knights placed third in last year's competition.

Vincent: make sure to write back and tell us how you guy's did.

Solar Knights Racing home page
Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge

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New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery company who posted fake reviews of their services on various websites, will have to pay $300,000 to the state of New York. Cuomo's office says this is the first US case to specifically target astroturfing on the internet. "Internal emails discovered by Attorney General Cuomo's investigation show that Lifestyle Lift employees were given specific instructions to engage in this illegal activity. One e-mail to employees said: 'Friday is going to be a slow day — I need you to devote the day to doing more postings on the web as a satisfied client.' Another internal email directed a Lifestyle Lift employee to 'Put your wig and skirt on and tell them about the great experience you had.' In addition to posting on various Internet message board services, Lifestyle Lift also registered and created stand-alone Web sites, such as MyFaceliftStory.com, designed to appear as if they were created by independent and satisfied customers of Lifestyle Lift. The sites offered positive narratives about the Lifestyle Lift experience. Some of these sites purported to offer forums for users to add their own comments about Lifestyle Lift. In reality, however, Lifestyle Lift either provided all the 'user comments' themselves, or closely monitored and edited third-party comments to skew the discussion in favor of Lifestyle Lift."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I have to admit that the most amusing part about this following story is how the players all act out their exact roles in proving the point. It starts with a NY Times article over the weekend, which opens with the provocative claim that "the traditional news outlets lead and the blogs follow, typically by 2.5 hours." That certainly plays right into the claims of some old school news journalists who want to insist that "bloggers are parasites" on the news. The only problem? It's not true. First of all, the whole idea that there's a real distinction between "blogs" and "mainstream media" is a bit misleading. Most mainstream publications have their own blogs, and certainly some "blogs" have built up followings bigger than some major newspapers. Blogs are just a platform. What people do with that platform is a totally separate question. It can be journalism. It might be commentary. It might be conversation. It could be something else altogether. To lump them all in as one homogeneous group because they all use a similar underlying technology doesn't really make much sense.

But the problems with the NY Times description of the report goes much deeper than that. First, Zachary Seward, at the Nieman Journalism Lab, digs into the actual report rather than the summary of it at the NY Times, and finds that the conclusions put forth by the Times leave out a few of the important details, which suggest not so much that the mainstream media beats less mainstream media, but that the two have created a neat symbiotic relationship, where they often feed off of each other -- and it's not so much that a mainstream publication "leads" with the story, but that a story bounces back and forth between sources before rising to a peak.

Even more important to understand is Scott Rosenberg's deconstruction of the methodology of the study. Jon Kleinberg, the professor who led the study, is one of the sharpest folks out there, so I tend to trust his work more whenever I come across it, but this particular effort seems to have some gaps in methodology. For example, the method for choosing what is a "blog" and what is a "mainstream" publication is whether or not the publication is included in Google News. Except that plenty of blogs are included in Google News, so it's not quite a fair breakdown, and basically hands over many of the true journalists who use blogs as their platform to the "mainstream press" side of things.

More importantly, it doesn't actually track the path of news stories, but the path of specific quotes by politicians during an election season. Can you spot the problem with extrapolating from that? The "mainstream press" are the folks following these politicians around, scribbling down their every word -- so it's no surprise that they would get those quotes out first. They're also given more access to those politicians, allowing them to get quotes first. But, the real issue is that the "quote" often isn't the real story. And, as Rosenberg notes, tracking just the quote doesn't follow the real story or see who's provided more analysis, originality and value -- things that the non-mainstream publications often value over immediacy.

In fact, the trajectory of this particular story does a beautiful job highlighting the point. Kleinberg and some grad students publish the report -- and the NY Times reports on it, summarizing it (incorrectly) as saying that newspapers "beat" bloggers by 2.5 hours on stories, lending credence to the idea that bloggers are somehow "parasites." But then folks like Seward and Rosenberg actually dig into the details of the study to point out why it's flawed and why the NY Times' summary is incorrect. Who actually added more value? Did Seward and Rosenberg parasite the story? Or were they any worse off for having it "later" than the NY Times? I'd argue not at all, and they actually provided a lot more value than the original news piece. Yet, as Rosenberg worries: "I fully expect to see it taken as conventional wisdom from this point forward that 'news starts with the traditional media and then moves into the blogosphere.'" Hopefully not..

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jamie points out that a new web service, hid.im, will encode a torrent into a PNG image file, allowing it to be shared easily through forums or image hosting sites. Quoting TorrentFreak: "We have to admit that the usefulness of the service escaped us when we first discovered the project. So, we contacted Michael Nutt, one of the people running the project to find out what it's all about. 'It is an attempt to make torrents more resilient,' Michael told [us]. 'The difference is that you no longer need an indexing site to host your torrent file. Many forums will allow uploading images but not other types of files.' Hiding a torrent file inside an image is easy enough. Just select a torrent file stored on your local hard drive and Hid.im will take care the rest. The only limit to the service is that the size of the torrent file cannot exceed 250KB. ... People on the receiving end can decode the images and get the original .torrent file through a Firefox extension or bookmarklet. The code is entirely open source and Michael Nutt told us that they are hoping for people to contribute to it by creating additional decoders supported by other browsers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Justin Fox's The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street is a book that chases down a provocative debate that the author discovered while working for Fortune magazine: the idea that the market is driven by fear, psychological quirks, fads, and other "irrational" factors, and as such, it does not represent a set of prices derived from the decisions of millions of actors, but rather a set of nearly impossible to predict fluctuations that are about as useful as a series of coin-tosses.

This hypothesis is a timely one, given the recent econopocalypse, but readers who (like me, I admit) turn to the book to find a snarky excoriation of the idiocy of the rational market ideologues who got rich while annihilating the economy will not find it here. Instead, what Fox has put together is a thoughtful, often fascinating, always illuminating history of the idea of market rationality, and the fortunes of the economists, bankers, regulators, philosophers and psychologists who've sought to explain the stormy seas of the market (and to get rich while doing it, of course).

If you've followed the behavioral economists and the exciting, weird and difficult-to-generalize conclusions they've reached since the crash (or the last one), Myth is a good grounding in the ideas that behavioral economics reacts against: the notion that a small group of fast-moving, informed investors can keep the market rational by exploiting the idiots and the suckers and the weirdos, taking all their chips and sending them away from the table.

Myth considers "rational" explanations for bubbles and crashes -- the fact that CEO and fund-manager compensation is structured such that a "rational actor" will do things that make the market go blooie -- and also the most pervasive "irrational" economic factor: overconfidence, which seems to be at the root of many, if not all, of the market's oddities.

By the end of the book, I was left with a much clearer understanding of how little I understood: how much of the technical jargon and specialized jargon of finance serves as window-dressing on a bunch of unproven and half-proven ideological assertions, and how little there is in the new "science" of behavioral economics to explain all of it (yet).

The overwhelming conclusion I came to when it was all done was this: if I was starting out at university right now, I'd go into behavioral economics and see what there is to be seen. It's a new territory, rich and barely mapped, and there's plenty to discover there.

The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Another great idea for a business card, Adrian's laser-cut card transforms into a handy little caliper. Plans are available on Thingiverse.

More:

Adafruit's business card makes art!

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Wired's Danger Room has a roundup of rifle accessories that would do any sniper couch-potato proud, including a cup-holder.

From iPhone Apps to Beer Holders, Killer Accessories for Your Guns (via Neatorama)

caitsith01 writes "ITNews reports that Australia's ever-unpopular Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy, has foreshadowed new action by the Australian Government to crack down on illegal file sharing under the guise of promoting the digital economy. Options apparently being considered include the controversial and previously reported French three-strikes approach and an approach which sounds suspiciously like New Zealand's even more dubious guilty-upon-accusation approach to filesharing. Needless to say, although the Government is consulting with 'representatives of both copyright owners and the Internet industry in an effort to reach an industry-led consensus on an effective solution,' arguably the most significant group — ordinary Internet users — are not being consulted. Senator Conroy is the man behind the crusade to 'protect' Australians from the horrors of the Internet with a mandatory, government-run blacklist, an effort which recently earned him the title of Internet Villain of the Year for 2009."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Flickr member six million dollar dan made clever use of a spring clamp for his garden timelapse camera -

clamp is standard spring clamp. it actually has a hole in it already that fits a #1/4-20 screw. #1/4-20 is standard size for camera mounts (in the USA at least). I added the red thumbscrew.

Thanks Dan - always good to have hacks like these in your arsenal.

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gehrehmee writes "A recent Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll on ISPs' use of traffic shaping suggests that 60% of survey respondents find the practice reasonable as long as customers are treated fairly, while 22% believe Internet management is unreasonable regardless. The major Canadian Internet and phone service provider Rogers, meanwhile, compared 'person-to-person file-sharing to a car that parks in one lane of a busy highway at all times of the day or night, clogging the roadways for everyone unless someone takes action.' Is there a lack of education about the long-term effects of traffic shaping on free communication? Or are net neutrality advocates just out of touch?" The poll found that only 20% of respondents had ever heard of traffic shaping. The article is unclear on whether the "60%" who found the practice "reasonable" are 60% of all respondents — most of whom don't know what they are talking about — or 60% of the minority who know. If the former, then the exact phrasing of the question is the overwhelming determinant of the response. At the CTRC hearings, which wrapped up today, Bell Canada executives revealed that the company "slows certain types of downloads [P2P] to as little as 1.5 to 3 per cent of their advertised speed during 9-1/2 hours of the day."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A few years back, we wrote about the rise of virtual sweatshops in China that involved "gold farming" in online worlds. The idea was that these shops would get people to do repetitive tasks in online games to create virtual wealth that could be sold in the real world for cash. Last month, there were some stories claiming that China was looking to crack down on gold farmers, but later analysis suggested it had less to do with gold farming and more to do with alternate currencies found online. Still, it's worth noting the reports claiming that World Of Warcraft has been down in China for a while, and no one's entirely sure why. The rumor is that the Chinese gov't believes that an agreement between Blizzard and another company is illegal, and during the investigation it has forced the site offline. Still, it does make you wonder what all those WoW gold farmers are going to be doing. Judging by how often they try to spam our comments, from Chinese IP addresses, they can't be handling the downtime all that well.

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Lynn, from ioBridge, sent us a link to this project by Matt Morey which uses the ioBridge IO-204 and the PHP Widget Control API to allow him to send commands to his home automation system via Twitter. Using this set-up, he can write messages to an LCD screen, get sensor values, and turn off the lights.

Introducing http://twitter.com/MattsOffice

More:

• Washing machine sends messages to Twitter when the clothes are done...
• A Twitter-enabled toilet
• HOW TO - Make your own Tweet-a-Watt

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Flickr user Mendicon received this netbook cosy as a gift from their girlfriend. The only thing missing is a function to recharge the battery when you press: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start.

[via gadgetlite]

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The dog days of summer are upon us, and you know what that means? Time to hit the beach? Well, maybe. But, it also means that it's time for some special deals in the Maker Shed. Each week we will feature a kit at a special "dog days" discount. The deal will last about a week, so take advantage of the savings while you can.

This week's dog days of summer deal is the Brain Machine kit by Mitch Altman. The kit sells for $34.99, but for the next week, it's only $24.49, that's 30% off. Only while supplies last.

Please note: The Brain machine in the picture above is a heavily modified version, with some extra components. You can learn how to hack your Brain Machine here. No animals were harmed in this promotion, and please don't use the Brain Machine on your dog!

More about the Brain Machine on sale now in the Maker Shed

Related:

Build: Hacking the Brain Machine

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One of the points we've tried to make over and over again is that if there's a demand for reporting on something, models will get created to cover it. This doesn't mean that participatory journalism will flat-out replace the legacy media. Instead, we believe that the two will just blend together, with roles for the pros alongside everyone else. But, one of the key points made by folks who insist that newspapers are the last bastion between the world and widespread corruption is the question: "but who would cover city council meetings if newspapers don't send reporters?" The idea is that no one really cares enough to cover such things. Except, that's not necessarily true. As Jay Rosen notes, it appears that when concerned citizens are interested in what's happening in their local governments, they appear to do an amazingly thorough job covering city council meetings -- perhaps much more thoroughly than the bored reporter using the gig as a stepping stone to a more exciting beat.

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Team Twiizer is able to inject custom graphics onto a DSi via an Arduino. There isn't a lot of information about this hack yet, but the teaser video is really cool. I'll post more about this project when the details are unveiled.

A full week of hacking is finally giving us some fruitful results. Enjoy this small tiizer video, and stay alert for what's yet to come! :)

A little more about Team Twiizers DSi Haxx

In the Maker Shed:


Make: Arduino

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Barence writes "Microsoft has confirmed it is preparing to launch a music streaming service. The service will be a direct rival to Spotify, hugely popular in the UK (but unavailable in the US), which allows users to stream music for free in return for listening to around a minute's worth of advertisements every half hour. 'It will be a similar principle to Spotify but we are still examining how the business model will work,' said Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN." The article claims that the new service will boost the popularity of the Zune player, though how this is to happen is not explained. There doesn't seem to be a close tie-in between device and service, as there is between the iPod and the iTunes Store.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mike from Uptownmaker has complied a list of "18 Essential skills for a Maker" - inspired by Geekdad's "100 Essential Skills for Geeks". Uptownmaker's list is geared towards electronics projects - good stuff. Here are some of my favorites...

2. Spot valuable salvage- Not only knowing where to get it, but knowing it when you see it. Finding it isn't too hard- curbs, alleys, and the classic dumpster dive. Deciding whether to keep it is the real trick: can it be broken down? Are there useful things inside (gears, motors, electronics, hardware, salvageable wood, springs, etc.)? Is trying to salvage parts of it a wise thing to do (upholstered items left outside are a great way to get bedbugs into your home)?

7. Know which glue to use, when- Elmer's white, spray mount, Uhu glue sticks, JB Weld, cyanoacrylate, and two-part epoxy all have their uses.

13. Strip, splice, and terminate wire- Trickier than it sounds. You should be able to splice wire using a crimp splice, a wire nut, and heat shrink + solder (note: electrical tape is NOT on that list). You should know how to use a wire stripper to strip stranded wire without cutting more than one or two strands. You should be able to attach a wire to your project in such a way that it will still be attached in two weeks, two months, or two years.

18. Program a microcontroller- nothing fancy, just something along the lines of the Arduino. Just enough to make it spin a motor on a trigger or light an LED or sound an alarm.

A good follow up would be links and resources for each of the items on the list, books, sites, pages in MAKE... post up your "Essential skills for a Maker" in the comments!

This could become an interesting list that we could expand on MAKE if there's enough interest.

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Last week, we noted that the DC Appeals court had rejected a challenge to the Copyright Royalty Board's rates set for satellite radio. Michael Scott notes that the same court has also rejected the challenge to webcasting rates. Of course, this is mostly a moot discussion, because just days before the decision, SoundExchange and some big webcasters worked out a deal -- though there are serious questions about how reasonable these rates really are to webcasters. Still, this latest ruling once again highlights just how out of touch the Copyright Royalty Board is with reality. If the current negotiated rates threaten to put a lot of webcasters out of business, and the CRB's original rates were even higher, doesn't that suggest a pretty serious problem both with the CRB and with the appeals process? Separately, it looks like the court had no problem at all ignoring the constitutional questions about the Copyright Royalty Board for a second time. It's as if no one wants to actually follow what the Constitution says...

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Uptown Maker's "18 Essential Skills for a Maker" is a damned good list; reminds me of Heinlein's "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

2. Spot valuable salvage- Not only knowing where to get it, but knowing it when you see it. Finding it isn't too hard- curbs, alleys, and the classic dumpster dive. Deciding whether to keep it is the real trick: can it be broken down? Are there useful things inside (gears, motors, electronics, hardware, salvageable wood, springs, etc.)? Is trying to salvage parts of it a wise thing to do (upholstered items left outside are a great way to get bedbugs into your home)?

3. Spot eminently hackable, cheap Chinese crap- The glut of crap from China occasionally brings some real gems with it. Woot.com recently sold some rotating LED-based "police lights" for $3, which connect to USB and can be turned on and off by pressing a key on the keyboard...

7. Know which glue to use, when- Elmer's white, spray mount, Uhu glue sticks, JB Weld, cyanoacrylate, and two-part epoxy all have their uses.

8. Know which tape to use, when- Duct, masking, Scotch, foam-two-sided, and (occasionally) electrical tape all have their uses...

14. Create fairly neat holes of arbitrary size and shape in sheet metal, plastic, and wood- Nibblers, step-bits, tin-snips, chisels, awls, drill bits, and the appropriate Dremel bit all play crucuial roles here...

18 Essential Skills for a Maker (via Make)

Graeme West writes "A group of tech lawyers has announced the release of the inaugural issue of the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review (IFOSS L. Rev.) — a place for high-level discussion of issues and best practice in the implementation of FOSS. You can view the announcement, or skip straight to Volume 1, Issue 1. A downloadable PDF file is also available. The journal is open access, and articles are CC licensed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jeffrey A Carver sez, "The prologue to my SF novel Sunborn (Tor Books), narrated to an animated video sequence drawn from a slew of NASA images from Hubble, Chandra, etc. In the case of this particular prologue, the astronomical images actually do reflect the story of one Deeaab, explorer from across the brane-boundary. I think it's pretty cool, which is not entirely bragging, as the real video wizardry was done by a fellow named Adam Guzewicz. Created for a local arts festival, I decided to see if it might be an interesting way to introduce a book to new readers."

Video Narration of Sunborn (Thanks, Jeffrey!)

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Interesting article over at Fast Company, The Desktop Manufacturing Revolution by Jamais Cascio - The end of the current production-manufacturing economic model may be on the horizon. But what if nothing's ready to replace it?

Clay Shirky recently described revolutions as situations in which "...the old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place." He was talking about newspapers, but the insight can apply much more broadly. Advertising, for example, seems to be going through its own revolution, with existing models falling to tatters without a clear successor waiting in the wings. Education is another example, and some would argue that a similar process is underway in the realm of international power and politics.

Shirky's observation came to mind while watching a recording of Bruce Sterling's closing keynote for the ReBoot conference last month. Late in the talk, Bruce tosses out this line: "Objects are print-outs." He goes on to discuss how to rethink one's relationship with material possessions in an increasingly precarious world, but the "objects are print-outs" line stuck with me. It encapsulates not just an attitude towards material possessions, but--in one pithy phrase--one possible shape of the next economy.

The article and the closing talk from Bruce Sterling are both worth a read/listen...

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Flickr user Happy Monkey has a set of "Tapecraft" objects: "Crafts constructed from simple invisible tape and colored with permanent markers."

Tapecraft (via Evil Mad Scientists)

A baby goose with a homemade leg brace, balanced on the liminal threshold between cute and creepy.

Here is the world's first bionic Goose. The two-week old gosling was found with a broken leg, but vets did not have the heart to put it down.

Instead, they decided to operate on the young creature, named Betty, to give her a bionic leg.

She was fitted with steel pins, nuts and bolts to build a leg brace which soon got her back up and waddling around.

The orphan, found at Watermead, Buckinghamshire, has already learned to walk again at nearby Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital.

Goose gets a bionic leg in world-first operation (via Medgadget)

(Image: JEFF MOORE)

The Crucible's 9th annual Fire Arts Festival is kicking off on July 15 from 8pm to midnight, don't miss it!

Each July The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival celebrates creativity through fire and light with a spectacular open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast.

The Crucible's 9th Annual
2009 Fire Arts Festival
July 15-18, 2009
8pm-midnight

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Barry sez, "No, Michael Jackson did not sell 750 million albums, so says an interesting article in the WSJ. The WSJ article generously spins the error as a misinterpretation of songs sold versus albums -- but that's giving a PR flack way too much credit. Those of us who earn our living in the economic trenches deciphering PR spin know a good bullshit tale when we see one. 750 million albums sure as hell qualifies!"

Off-the-Wall Tallies of Jackson's Sales (Thanks, Barry!)

Bonnie sez, "Artists, comic book creators, toy designers, and celebrity fans are getting out their markers, paint brushes and glue guns to transform blank Mighty Muggs into one-of-a-kind Star Wars art to be auctioned by The Make-A-Wish Foundation. These highly-collectible urban vinyl toys have been available in a variety of characters from Star Wars and Indiana Jones, among other comic book and film franchises. For this special project, called The Empire Muggs Back, Lucasfilm asked popular artists, comics book creators, toy designers and celebrity fans to take blank Mighty Muggs (donated by Hasbro) and transform them into their favorite Star Wars characters, scenes, ships and more."

StarWars.com | The Empire Muggs Back: Art for a Mighty Good Cause (Thanks, Bonnie!)

It really is amazing sometimes to see how many people think that Google "owes" them something. For example, we've had a few different stories about companies suing Google because they don't like how Google ranks them. That makes little sense. Google doesn't owe anyone a spot in its index. It determines its index by figuring out what it thinks people will like best, and it's always tweaking it. If it fails to figure that out properly and someone else (like Microsoft) does figure it out, then Google will lose business. So, it seems a bit odd that some anonymous "well known exec at one of the largest sites on the Internet" is suddenly demanding transparency into how Google ranks content, suggesting that it's somehow unfair and arbitrary in its rankings -- and only by opening up the details of its algorithm will "fairness" be restored.

Ryan, who alerted us to this story, has written up a biting, but reasonable, response, where he notes that being ranked highly in Google is no one's right. And demanding that Google be transparent about its algorithm is meaningless (while being especially ironic, given that this "well-known exec" is demanding transparency while wanting to remain anonymous himself). The key point Ryan makes:

You want an algorithm, here it is:
1.) Sites that are useful to visitors will rank high.
2.) Popular sites that are useful to visitors will rank higher.
3.) Sites that don't offer any value to the web or are irrelevant to the query won't rank well.
4.) Sites that are harmful or spammy won't be included in the index.

Seriously, that's Google’s algorithm in plain English. There's your disclosure. The weighting factors and code behind it don't matter -- these principles are all you really need to know.

Indeed. Create useful sites with useful content that people use, and don't be spammy, and you'll most likely rank well in Google. You don't need to force Google to reveal the nuts and bolts of its algorithm. That doesn't change anything. If you're trying to craft your websites to the specifics of the algorithm, you're already lost. If you're creating websites that match the "plain English" code above, you're going to be just fine.

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Aurispector writes in with news that the Yale team that recently discovered an attractive force between two light beams in waveguides has now found a corresponding repulsive force. "'This completes the picture,' [team lead Hong] Tang said. 'We've shown that this is indeed a bipolar light force with both an attractive and repulsive component.' The attractive and repulsive light forces Tang's team discovered are separate from the force created by light's radiation pressure, which pushes against an object as light shines on it. Instead, they push out or pull in sideways from the direction the light travels. Previously, the engineers used the attractive force they discovered to move components on the silicon chip in one direction, such as pulling on a nanoscale switch to open it, but were unable to push it in the opposite direction. Using both forces means they can now have complete control and can manipulate components in both directions. 'We've demonstrated that these are tunable forces we can engineer,' Tang said."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook says Obama can't be president because he hasn't proven he was born in the United States. Therefore, he refuses to be deployed to Afghanistan.

[Cook] and his lawyer Orly Taitz have filed a lawsuit so the Major does not have to go to war and fight in Afghanistan because that would be, ”in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President’s command.”

Birthers insist that a giant conspiracy has taken place. The birth certificate showing that Obama was born in Honolulu in August 1961 is fake, they say. Birthers are also certain that some kind of time travel treachery has been undertaken by shadow pinko government agents, who warped themselves back to 1961 to insert notices in the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star Bulletin saying that "Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama" gave birth to a son on August 4, 1961.

Birther Soldier Refusing to Deploy

TiVo and EchoStar (DISH) have been involved in a long and convoluted patent battle over basic DVR functionality. TiVo's certainly been winning. Personally, the whole thing is pretty ridiculous to me. The market is better served by competition, and having multiple players focusing on providing better DVR functionality (and, trust me, having used both their DVRs, they could both stand for some significant improvements) rather than spending money on lawyers. Either way, TiVo seems to be shooting for the moon with its latest demand that Dish pay up $1 billion dollars (Dr. Evil laughter inserted here), which is a lot more than the hundreds of millions most folks expected. One doubts they'll actually get that much -- the number is probably more of an effort to get EchoStar to just settle. But, if they do get numbers like that, you have to admit that buying that cow in Texas was a great investment.

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Researchers of a study published in the March 28 May 11, 2007 issue of Neuroscience discovered that injections of a soil bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae, increased the activity of serotonin-producing neurons in mice. (The paper is titled “Identification of an Immune-Responsive Mesolimbocortical Serotonergic System: Potential Role in Regulation of Emotional Behavior.")

Lowry and his colleagues studied another set of mice, who were subjected to a stress-response test. They dropped each mouse into water for five minutes and timed how long it would take the animal to switch from active swimming to passive floating. Control mice swam for an average of two and a half minutes, while the M. vaccae–injected animals paddled for four. Researchers already know that antidepressants increase active swimming and decrease immobility. The bacteria “had the exact same effect as antidepressant drugs,” Lowry explains.

The results so far suggest that simply inhaling M. vaccae—you get a dose just by taking a walk in the wild or rooting around in the garden—could help elicit a jolly state of mind. “You can also ingest mycobacteria either through water sources or through eating plants—lettuce that you pick from the garden, or carrots,” Lowry says.

Maybe this explains some people's craving for eating dirt? From a CDC article titled "Eating Dirt":

Among children, too, it seems eating dirt might have immunologic consequences. Maternal immunoglobulins are secreted in breast milk shortly before birth and for 1 year or more afterwards. Children often begin eating dirt a year or two after birth. As maternal immunity wanes, eating dirt might “vaccinate” children who are losing their maternal IgA, which could stimulate production of nascent immunoglobulins, especially IgA. Eating dirt might also help populate intestinal flora.

Discover magazine asks: "Is Dirt the New Prozac?" (Via Seth's Blog)

Link to complete image. What's the name of the guy who does these? I'm sorry, but I do not know Created by the extremely funny Doogie Horner. (via @galadarling via @reversecowpie)

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In what I can only describe as a shocker, the Judge in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum has, on her own, issued an order questioning whether the jury will be allowed to decide the 'fair use' issue at all, or whether the Judge herself should decide it. Judge Nancy Gertner's decision (PDF) notes that the courts have traditionally submitted the fair use defense to the jury, but questions whether that was appropriate, since the courts have referred to it as an 'equitable' — as opposed to a 'legal' — defense. This decision came from out of the blue, as neither party had raised this issue. IMHO the Judge is barking up the wrong tree. For one, all across the legal spectrum in the US, 'equitable' defenses to 'legal' claims are triable to a jury. Secondly, as the Judge herself notes, the courts have traditionally submitted the issue to the jury. It also seems a bit unfair to bring up a totally new issue like that and give the parties only 6 days to do their research and writing on the subject, at a time when they are feverishly preparing for a July 27th trial."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We CAN’T just fix HTML every 10-15 years with a 5-10 year process. This is the only shot for a generation. That is a huge responsibility not just for those directly responsible for the specification, but all of use who take more than a passing interest in these issues.

#

"Royalty-free vector icons, glyphs and symbols based on the Helvetica Bold typeface." Wonderfully simple icons, and an ingenious preview reveal. #

A South African wine company looking for help with a small Twitter API project. Potential job perk: "If the pages are any good, I might send you a case of Noble Hill wine!". Now that's enticing. #

A growing number of Iranian mobile phone consumers are boycotting Nokia after the release of reports that the mobile phone maker participated in "collaborations" with the Iranian government:

Wholesale vendors in the capital report that demand for Nokia handsets has fallen by as much as half in the wake of calls to boycott Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for selling communications monitoring systems to Iran.

There are signs that the boycott is spreading: consumers are shunning SMS messaging in protest at the perceived complicity with the regime by the state telecoms company, TCI. Iran's state-run broadcaster has been hit by a collapse in advertising as companies fear being blacklisted in a Facebook petition. There is also anecdotal evidence that people are moving money out of state banks and into private banks.

Nokia is the most prominent western company to suffer from its dealings with the Iranian authorities. Its NSN joint venture with Siemens provided Iran with a monitoring system as it expanded a mobile network last year. NSN says the technology is standard issue to dozens of countries, but protesters believe the company could have provided the network without the monitoring function.

Siemens is also accused of providing Iran with an internet filtering system called Webwasher.

Iranian consumers boycott Nokia for 'collaboration' (Guardian UK, thanks Sepideh)

It still doesn't make much sense that the FBI got involved in trying to track down and arrest a guy who uploaded a pre-release version of Guns 'N Roses' long awaited new album before it was released. If anything, it should have been a civil matter -- and, honestly, there's little indication that the upload caused any harm whatsoever. In fact, it was the arrest, not the uploading that seemed to alert more people to the fact that the download was available in the first place. Should the FBI now investigate itself for better promoting the pre-release download?

That said, the guy who uploaded the songs, Kevin Cogill, agreed to a plea bargain. While the FBI still pushed for jailtime for Cogill, it looks like he's getting two months of house arrest (plenty of time to sit at home and listen to the new GNR, I guess) and has agreed to make a propaganda video for the RIAA. I'm not quite sure what the RIAA thinks such propaganda will accomplish, other than alerting more people to how ridiculous the RIAA's anti-piracy campaign has been.

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