We've talked a lot about how copyright is used to censor things someone doesn't want, but Michael Scott points us to a story where it's claimed that copyright is being used against censorship. It's over in South Korea, where the authors of a history book are suing their own publisher, after it altered their text based on government demands. The government apparently didn't like sections of the book A Modern and Contemporary History of Korea, and ordered them "revised." The publisher obliged, and the authors are now suing, claiming that it was copyright infringement. Of course, to me, it seems a lot more like this could easily be handled contractually, rather than with copyright law, but if someone wants an example of copyright being used for good, here you go...

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Barence writes "The British government's official figures on the level of illegal file sharing in the UK come from questionable research commissioned by the music industry. The Radio 4 show named 'More or Less' examined the government's claim that 7m people in Britain are engaged in illegal file sharing. The 7m figure actually came from a report written about music industry losses for Forrester subsidiary Jupiter Research. The report was privately commissioned by none other than the UK's music trade body, the BPI. The 7m figure had been rounded up from an actual figure of 6.7m, gleaned from a 2008 survey of 1,176 net-connected households, 11.6% of which admitted to having used file-sharing software — in other words, only 136 people. That 11.6% was adjusted upwards to 16.3% 'to reflect the assumption that fewer people admit to file sharing than actually do it.' The 6.7m figure was then calculated based on an estimated number of internet users that disagreed with the government's own estimate. The wholly unsubstantiated 7m figure was then released as an official statistic."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We already pointed to the rather questionable situation in Florida where Connected Nation was "chosen" to run the broadband mapping project (and get a bunch of stimulus cash) over a competitor, despite issuing a bid that was more than twice as high, and without any local endorsements (and... oh yeah... one of the voters, the one who voted on CN by the highest margin just happened to have worked at one of the telcos that now backs CN). It looks like something fishy is going on in Minnesota too. According to Broadband reports, Minnesota's governor, Tim Pawlenty has already signed a letter supporting Connected Nation for mapping broadband in Minnesota... totally pissing off a member of the state's Ultra High Speed Task Force, who the governor (at the demands of the legislature) appointed to look into this very matter. But, why wait for them to investigate the details and choose wisely, when you can just select who you want. Again, Connected Nation has done an amazing job getting politicians to sing its praises, despite serious questions about how its mapping process works.

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Steel 'Velcro' @ New Scientist...

For all its usefulness, Velcro hardly inspires excitement. But German engineers have taken inspiration from the mild-mannered fastener to create a version of the hook-and-loop concept with enough steely strength for extreme loads and environments. A square metre of the new fastener, called Metaklett, is capable of supporting 35 tonnes at temperatures up to 800 ºC, claim Josef Mair and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. And just like everyday Velcro it can be opened up without specialised tools and used again.

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jellomizer writes 'I am a manger of a small Software Development department, looking to hire some more developers. By edict of the CEO, the search must be made globally, so we are dealing with different cultures and different ideas of truth and embellishment, etc. To try to counteract this, we give the potential employees tests where I watch what they do, to see if they actually know what they say they know. However, it seems a lot of applicants drop out when I mention that this test is mandatory. Is this a sign that we caught them in a lie, or are we weeding out good people where we shouldn't be? Would you be willing to take a test as part of an interview? If so, is there any type of heads up you would like to know beforehand to make the decision of whether to take the test easier?' What other difficulties have people seen while trying to hire from many different cultures?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Joe Sabia says "I drove 10,000 miles from England to Mongolia this summer in a piece of shit Fiat Seicento (.899cc engine). I filmed this in Kazakhstan: "Tupac in Kazakhstan." Dozens of real Kazakhs, pieced together in the most inspirational video ever created."

Pretty neat. Maybe they should rename the place Tupacstan, now.

Cleveland math teacher Arthur Gugick recreated Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring in a mosaic comprised of pre-printed Lego tiles.

As far as I know I'm the only one currently producing these types of Lego mosaics. (My next one is Jimi Hendrix) There's been only one other person who's ever made this type of mosaic. He did a portrait of a girl in 2005/2006. He never attempted another such mosaic. I'd like to think that I came up with the idea independently (my first decorated tile mosaic was of Jerry Garcia and seen at BrickFest 2006).

See Guckick's Flickr page for more projects like this.

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The Onion strikes again! Seven years ago, we wrote about how a Beijing news program believed a story in The Onion concerning threats by Congress to move to a new Capitol building (with a retractable dome). The latest is that two Bangladeshi newspapers apparently reprinted the "news" from The Onion claiming that astronaut Neil Armstrong was convinced that the moon landings were faked after reading some conspiracy theory sites online. You can almost forgive foreign reporters for not knowing that The Onion is satire, but it just reinforces how little fact checking the supposedly "professional" press does anywhere around the world.

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Today, a federal appeals court ruled that former Attorney General John Ashcroft may be held liable for the wrongful detention of people held as witnesses after the 9/11 attacks. The ACLU filed the lawsuit. Snip from New York Times:

In a harshly worded ruling handed down Friday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called the government's use of material witnesses after Sept. 11 ''repugnant to the Constitution and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history.''

The court found that a man who was detained as a witness in a federal terrorism case can sue Ashcroft for allegedly violating his constitutional rights. Abdullah Al-Kidd, a U.S. citizen and former University of Idaho student, filed the lawsuit in 2005, claiming his civil rights were violated when he was detained as a material witness for two weeks after 9/11.

Appeals Court Rules Against Ashcroft in 9 / 11 Case (NYT)

The court also ruled that the federal material witness law can't be used to "preventively" detain or investigate suspects. The ACLU represents al-Kidd in the case, al-Kidd v. Ashcroft. Snip from their press release:

Writing for the majority in today's decision, Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr., wrote, "Framers of our Constitution would have disapproved of the arrest, detention, and harsh confinement of a United States citizen as a 'material witness' under the circumstances, and for the immediate purpose alleged, in al-Kidd's complaint. Sadly, however, even now, more than 217 years after the ratification of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, some confidently assert that the government has the power to arrest and detain or restrict American citizens for months on end, in sometimes primitive conditions, not because there is evidence that they have committed a crime, but merely because the government wishes to investigate them for possible wrongdoing, or to prevent them from having contact with others in the outside world. We find this to be repugnant to the Constitution, and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history."

Ashcroft Can Be Held Accountable For Post-9/11 Wrongful Detention, Court Rules (ACLU)

TED is an annual conference where speakers are given about 15 minutes to present something amazing they've done or know about. I've been to the last few TED conferences and I find them to be both awe-inspiring and humbling. Most of the talks area available for viewing at the TED site.

Here's a spreadsheet someone put together that lists every TED talk available for viewing. It includes a short summary of each talk. While browsing it, I found one talk I missed: Eames Demetrios presenting a history of the work of his grandparents, Charles and Ray Eames.

Spreadsheet of every TED talk as of 9/2/2009 (Via Economists Do It With Models)

An anonymous reader writes to mention that Cushing Academy has decided to leap into the future by getting rid of all the books in their library and going completely digital. Instead of dusty stacks, the library is spending close to half a million dollars to install all the hallmarks of a digital learning center. Flat screen TVs, "laptop friendly carrells," and a coffee shop are just the first step in building an area that allows students access to millions of books as opposed to several thousand. Of course, not everyone is completely sold on this move: "[Keith Michael Fiels, executive director of the American Library Association] said the move raises at least two concerns: Many of the books on electronic readers and the Internet aren't free and it may become more difficult for students to happen on books with the serendipity made possible by physical browsing. There's also the question of the durability of electronic readers. 'Unless every student has a Kindle and an unlimited budget, I don't see how that need is going to be met,' Fiels said. 'Books are not a waste of space, and they won't be until a digital book can tolerate as much sand, survive a coffee spill, and have unlimited power. When that happens, there will be next to no difference between that and a book.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

By way of Solarbotics' twitter feed comes this demo for using programmable spring actuators to create robot legs with built-in stepping reflexes.

A walking robot using programmable springs

For more details on Programmable Spring Actuators

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These enterprising blacksmiths make their wares using bellows made from cement bags.

[via afrigadget]

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As The Pirate Bay gears up for the appeal of its trial in Sweden, it's worth noting that the judge chosen to hear the trial happens to be the same one who was removed from reviewing the fairness of the original trial because she happens to belong to the same pro-stronger copyright group as the original judge. How is that fair?

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The Brothers Quay are hypertalented stop-motion animators whose incredibly surreal, moody, and macabre work is influenced by Cezch and Polish animators and puppeteers from the early 20th century and writers like Franz Kafka and Belgian playwright Michel de Ghelderode. Parsons the New School for Design in New York City is currently exhibiting set, propos, and characters from the Quays' films. The show, titled "Dormitorium: Film Decors by the Quay Bros.," runs until October 4. Morbid Anatomy's Joanna Ebenstein visited the exhibit last night and took a series of lovely photos that posted on her blog. From her post:

"Dormitorium" is much more than just a collection of props and artifacts; instead, the "décors" you see on view here are something of a revelation, leading one to a greater understanding and appreciation of the Quay Brother's artistry. Having the luxury of time to study these décors in their static state allows the viewer to see things impossible to grasp amidst the thrust and drive of the films; namely, the obsessive and beautiful detail in the source materials. The more one looks, the more one comes to realize that this attention to detail and minutia is what gives the Quay's work so much of its character and mise en scène--at least as much as their lurchy, atmospheric, uncanny stop-motion animation technique. Details such as exquisite and varied typography and calligraphy, a judicious application of dust and grime, the seductively hand-made feel of the materials, and wall hangings, hidden figures, archaic signage and other easy-to-miss details adorning the spaces; of these elements is the Quay's compelling and absorbing universe composed.

"Dormitorium: Film Decors by the Quay Bros. (Morbid Anatomy)

Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers, a career-spanning retrospective of their films, is available in a two-disk DVD set for $30 from Amazon.

Al writes "It might not please many environmentalists, but a major energy company is adding solar-thermal power to a coal plant and says this could be the cost-effective way to produce energy while lowering CO2 emissions. Abengoa Solar and Xcel Energy, Colorado's largest electrical utility, have begun modifying the coal plant, which is based near Grand Junction, Colorado. Under the design, parabolic troughs will be used to preheat water that will be fed into the coal plant's boilers, where coal is burned to turn the water into steam. Cost savings comes from using existing turbines and generators and from operating at higher efficiencies, since the turbines and generators in solar-thermal plants are normally optimized to run at the lower temperatures generated by parabolic mirrors."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

San Francisco experimental art space The LAB is hosting a 3 day art/tech festival this weekend. The festival features art exhibits, lectures, DIY workshops, demos, and a variety of performances. The whole program looks terrific! The Lab's Michael Delong pointed me to several interactive videogame sessions that he's especially jazzed about:

-1pm on Saturday Shawn Wallace will demo Fluxly, a game in which participants make their own microcontrollers to compete in wizard duels, while The Lab serves post-brunch mimosas

-5pm on Saturday Retronyms will give a talk and then lead a game of Seek 'n Spell, an iPhone app game that is essentially a giant interactive version of Scrabble, while The Lab will run a 2-for-1 Hangar One Vodka drink special

-4pm on Sunday Nick Lally will invite the audience to use their whole bodies as avatars in an open source game called Silhouettes

The LAB's art.tech festival

The Skeleton Dance is a delightful 1929 cartoon directed by Ub Iwerks for Disney. A close friend/collaborator of Walt Disney for many years, Iwerks is arguably the "true creator" of the Mickey Mouse character. He later took a job at Columbia and reimagined The Skeleton Dance in color as Skeleton Frolic (1937). I much prefer the original. I posted about it a few years ago, but the video I linked to then was yanked. Bastards. (Thanks, Takuan!)

Remember that Washington Post reporter last month who got all sorts of attention for claiming that a Gawker writer "ripped off" his story, despite linking to it multiple times? Many mainstream press folks sided with Shapira, in using this as an example of how blogs "parasite" newspapers. Yet, as the actual numbers show, the real relationship is quite symbiotic, with stories moving back and forth across alternative media and traditional media. And... it seems pretty clear that alternative media is a lot more likely to give credit and/or link to an original story. We've highlighted a few different cases of those traditional newspapers taking stories from bloggers without credit.

Charles Vestal points us to another such case, but in this one, the reporter confessed and noted that it was company policy not to credit bloggers. In this case, it involved a local New York City blog that goes by the charming name NewYorkShitty.com. Last month, it reported on an illegal gym in the neighborhood. A little over a week later, the big News Corp/Rubert Murdoch-owned NY Post wrote an article covering just that story that seemed pretty obviously taken straight from the original.

So, the author of the blog post, one "Miss Heather" contacted one of the NY Post reporters, who quite openly admitted to using the blog post for his story, and then said it's against corporate policy to credit bloggers with scoops. Apparently, the same applies at the NY Daily News as well:

Post policy prevented me from crediting you in print. Allow me to do so now. You did a fantastic reporting job. All I had to do was follow your steps (and make a few extra phone calls).

I won't discuss at length the policy of not crediting blogs (or anyone else). I'll just briefly explain that as long as we can independently verify every bit of info, we don't credit.

Now, this isn't a surprise, but how come that Washington Post reporter's claims of blogs being "parasites" got so much attention a few weeks ago, when it involved a clear case where the blog quite deliberately cited and linked to the original -- but a situation like this, where the NY Post blatantly got the story from a blog and admits it, doesn't get any attention at all?

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Barbara Gilhooly, a St. Paul, Minnesota artist, repurposes old Erector set girders to make art.

As an artist I use found objects, wire, wood and many recycled or re-purposed materials to create. I have been known for my wire sculptural work and one of the forms I create in wire are 3-D hearts.

The erector set hearts began as a small experiment in my studio using the long girder pieces from an old erector set I formed a three dimensional heart about 10 inches long. What interests me is combining the industrial material and hardware with a very organic or soft form. This contrast appeals to me as a metaphor, as well. The whole 'broken heart' idea turned into a durable 'industrial heart"!

In terms of making the hearts: I use mostly vintage Erector sets with the original hardware and some pop rivets. Most were found on ebay. I've made over a dozen hearts and the sizes range from 18" to 5" in length. I bend the girders and shape with my hands and rubber mallet to form the curves. I work intuitively, I make the overall shape and then fill in with cross bracing.

To learn more about Ms. Gilhooly's work check out her etsy store or www.lisafontanarosa.com.

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Hugh Pickens writes "Business Week reports that security experts plan to recruit victims and other computer users to help them go on the offensive and hunt down hackers. '"It's time to stop building burglar alarms to keep people out and go after the bad guys," says Rowan Trollope, senior vice-president for consumer products at Symantec, the largest maker of antivirus software. Symantec will ask customers to opt in to a program that will collect data about attempted computer intrusions and then forward the information to authorities. Symantec will also begin posting the FBI's top 10 hackers and their schemes on its Web site, where customers go for software updates and next year the company will begin offering cash bounties for information leading to an arrest. The strategy has its risks as hackers who find novices on their trail may trash their computers or steal their identities as punishment. Citizen hunters could also become cybervigilantes and harm bystanders as they pursue criminals but Symantec is betting customers won't mind being disrupted if they can help snare the bad guys. "I'm convinced we can clean up the Internet in 10 years if we can peel away the dirt and show people the threats they're facing," says Trollope.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

First, it's wonderful that so many people are trying out River2. I really mean that. Thanks for giving it a try.

But please post your questions on the Howto page so it's possible other people could help with the answer. Thanks.

I'm just one person, and ideally I should be able to spend my time fixing bugs, writing docs, and building new stuff. If I have to support every user personally, well that just doesn't scale. :-)

Let's have fun!

My latest Locus column, "Special Pleading," talks about the damned-if-you-do/ damned-if-you-don't nature of free ebook scepticism. When I started out giving away my print novels as free ebooks, critics charged that it only worked because I was so obscure that I needed the exposure. Now that I've had a book on the NYT bestseller list, a new gang of critics claim my strategy only works so well because I'm established and can afford to lose sales to free ebooks. The arguing tactic is called "special pleading," and it's a dirty rhetorical trick indeed!

The Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom experiment really pissed people off. It was denounced as a breaking of ranks with authors as a class, and as a stunt that I could only afford because I had so little to lose, being such a nobody in the field with my handful of short story sales and my tiny print run -- at least when compared to the big guys. Free samples were good news if no one had heard of you, but for successful writers, free downloads were poison.

To "prove" this, critics often pointed to Stephen King's experiment in online publishing, "The Plant," which King gave up as a bad job after earning a mere hundreds of thousands of dollars in voluntary payments, and which he never returned to. A genuinely successful writer like King had nothing to gain from the publicity value of free downloads, they said (ironically, this appears to be the story that Charles referred to in the July Locus, citing it as proof of the success of free downloads).

Special Pleading

Despite the UK gov't insisting recently that a policy of kicking file sharers off the internet was off the table, a nice dinner between UK Business Secretary Peter Mandelson and Hollywood bigshot David Geffen created a sudden new interest in the subject, which quickly turned into it being right back on the table -- creating massive complaints from just about everyone not associated with the RIAA or MPAA. Mandelson has tried to defend the idea, but his reasoning came up short, and demonstrated that he got his talking points direct from Hollywood and that he hasn't actually spent much time actually understanding the issue at all.

But, it's not just Mandelson in the gov't pushing this now. The UK's Intellectual Property Minister, David Lammy, got to hang around with the MPAA and gave a speech "defending" kicking people off of the internet. Now doesn't that seem strange? It's the MPAA that's among those pushing for such a plan in the first place. So, Lammy is preaching to the choir. Why not "defend" the plan in front of actual consumers or ISPs or musicians who are up in arms about this idea? You don't "defend" the idea to the people who already want it and who were already wining and dining you to get it back on the table after you'd taken it off.

And, yes, I said musicians who are up in arms about this -- and not just small indie musicians either. Michael Geist notes that folks like Paul McCartney and Elton John have come out against the proposal as well. So, ISPs think it's terrible. Music fans think it's terrible. Musicians think it's terrible. Who's left? Oh, just some dying industries who have done everything possible not to innovate for a decade. But they sure do spend money on lobbyists.

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Yum, nothing like homemade dumplings, but where to find a gyoza press? Why, your nearest 3D printer (or 3D printing service like Shapeways)! Delicious, by mr_seeker on Thingiverse.

More:

Ice Cream Gyoza on CRAFT

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RainbowBrite writes "The YikeBike is the invention of a New Zealander aiming to alleviate city congestion. 'It might look like a collision between a praying mantis and a child's scooter, but it's the result of five years of work to reinvent the wheel, with one important addition: an electric motor. It's a bicycle, but not as we have come to know it. For a start, you sit upright and steer with your hands at your side.'" The YikeBike weighs in at a measly 22 lbs but has a hefty price tag of almost $5,000 US (£3,000). The expected lifespan is only 1,000 charges but has a projected range of around six miles.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I just added a changes.xml for my rssCloud server.

http://static.scripting.com/rsscloud/changes.xml

Now you'll see a whole bunch of cloud-enabled feeds that weren't there before. They're feeds for the 1151 people and organizations that I follow on Twitter.

They're automatically produced by an app that I've had running since the beginning of 2009 that keeps an XML-based backup for everyone I follow. This is just another form of that stream.

If you follow any of these people in River2, and you have notification turned on, you'll get updates within a minute, knock wood.

This is another piece of the loosely-coupled 140 character network.

PS: Another way of saying this is if I follow you on Twitter, you now have a cloud-enabled feed. Try updating on Twitter, and refreshing changes.xml in a minute. If all goes well you should see your feed at the top of the list.

Luis Ortiz sent me a copy of his new book, Cult Magazines: A to Z: A Compendium of Culturally Obsessive & Curiously Expressive Publications, which he co-edited with Earl Kemp. It's a remarkable history of special interest magazines from the 1920s to the 1990s, arranged alphabetically.

As you might imagine, "special interest" mainly means magazines with photos of unclothed women, and this category is well represented here, but there are also lots of lovingly-written entries on magazines about science fiction, adventure, the occult, detective stories, music, comics, humor, and movies.

The entry on bOING bOING, the zine, is very accurate. I have no idea where they got these details, but they included things I'd completely forgotten about, and things I didn't think I'd ever told anyone before. (The only bit that's incorrect is that our last issue was 15, not 16.) Luis kindly gave me permission to run bOING bOING's entry here:

BOING BOING

The zeitgeist of the 1980s through 1990s was full of people attempting to meld computers, technology, sex, literature, and art. The science fiction sub-genre cyberpunk was one offshoot of this mating, and it served as the hot core of many new magazines. Mondo 2000, Black Ice (from England), N6, Nonstop, SF Eye, Future Sex, and bOING bOING were all 'zines that shared much of the same mindset, and some of the same writers.

In 1988, Mark Frauenfelder and his then-girlfriend (now wife) Carla Sinclair, began putting together a fanzine full of fun technology, freaky comics, Silicon Alley gutter-curb culture, cyber-science fiction culture, and all manner of posthuman irreverent things. Frauenfelder, while working as a mechanical engineer, had discovered Factsheet 5, a review for do-it-yourself magazines, and was inspired to create his own zine. He used a dot matrix printer and the copier at his office to publish the first 32-page issue of bOING bOING, which included an interview with Robert Anton Wilson, a piece on brain machines by Sinclair, and comics by Frauenfelder. The couple sent copies to Factsheet 5, and the review there brought the 'zine to the attention of Ubiquity Distributors in New York City. Soon Fine Print and Dessert Moon distributors, who were all looking to get into the zine boom of the early 1990s, picked it up.

Paul Di Filippo's "Ribofunk" ran in the second issue, along with work by Gareth Branwyn who joined the editorial staff. By the fifth issue, the self-styled "neurozine" began running color covers, and carried ever-changing mottos: "The perpetual novelty brain jack" or "The brain mutator for higher primates." It didn't take long for bOING bOING to find its audience (a group made up of alternative comics fans, first generation cyberpunks, and computer geeks), and the magazine was soon selling over ten thousand copies an issue, even though it is quite probable that none of its readers could describe the magazine to non-readers. A sort of editorial/manifesto appeared in the eighth issue: "How can our paranoid one-maze monkey brains integrate new structures and patterns? Where is the hard reset button on our nervous systems that'll allow us to flavor our thinking with new epistemological spices? One of bOING bOING's purposes is to explore metanoia (the ability to simultaneously incorporate multiple tunnel realities) and discover some of the countless ways to achieve this fun state."

bOING bOING was put together by geeks for geeks. Frauenfelder was also the magazine's main illustrator, and utilized a cartoony style that appeared cribbed from the spare 50s television cartoons of Gene Deitch. The writers included a mulligan stew of science fiction authors and tech-heads like Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, Richard Kadrey, John Shirley, Charles Platt, and Rudy Rucker. Circulation reached 17,500 by the 16th issue [should be the 15th issue -- Mark], but the bankruptcy of Fine Print Distributors left Frauenfelder and Sinclair in the hole for $30,000. The distribution aspect had always been on shaky ground and when another distributor collapsed Frauenfelder and Sinclair attempted to sell the magazine directly to readers with mixed results. In the magazine's last year, the couple were working on books and internet projects that would eventually replace bOING bOING. Frauenfelder was an editor at Wired from 1993-1998 and founding editor of Wired online. bOING bOING was a website for a while, before turning into the popular web blog it is today. In an interview, Sinclair said, "bOING bOING always comes back."

Cult Magazines: A to Z: A Compendium of Culturally Obsessive & Curiously Expressive Publications

We've been talking about ways that individuals and organizations can better connect with fans... while also highlighting examples of what not to do, so it should come as little surprise that many of you sent over the news that the Washington Redskins have sued well over 100 season ticket holders, after those fans faced financial hardship and were unable to pay up for new season tickets, despite having signed long-term contracts at some point. The article is long and detailed, and reading through the examples, the Redskins management appears about as heartless as can be. The Redskins chief lawyer tries to come up with excuses on each case, and it just makes the team look petty. Even worse, is that he claims that every team does this, but the Washington Post found most of the teams they contacted do not, and the few that do, only do so in the rarest of circumstances.

Meanwhile, the local baseball team, the Nationals, refuses to sue fans, and notes that it's pretty simple to deal with people who fail to live up to their contract: you take away their tickets and resell them. And, just for comparison purposes, we're talking about the Nationals, who are averaging one of the lowest average attendance rates in all of baseball. Compare that to the Redskins, who have a stunning record of selling out every home game since 1968. In other words, if anyone had a reason to go after those not paying, it would be the Nationals. The Redskins can easily resell the tickets.

And... actually, it is reselling those tickets for a nice profit while still collecting huge cash awards from those who couldn't pay -- some of whom are now declaring bankruptcy and blaming the team they used to love. On top of that, there are suggestions in the article that the Redskins used surreptitious (and potentially illegal) tactics to trick some fans into signing long term contracts when they thought they were signing yearly contracts. In at least one case, it appears that the team checked off a box for a fan, committing him to six years. In other cases, the team appears to be totally heartless. For example, the team was informed that a delinquent fan was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic -- and two months later they sued him.

If you want a lesson in how not to treat fans, check out the Redskins.

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theodp writes "What are you doing on Oct. 22? Microsoft is putting a Tupperware-style twist on the upcoming Windows 7 rollout, launching a new initiative to encourage thousands of employees, partners and technology enthusiasts to throw parties in their homes and communities to demonstrate and help spread the word about its new OS. People accepted as official launch party hosts will get their own copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, and a chance to win a computer. Host spaces are very limited, so apply now, kids. Hey, what could possibly go wrong?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

the preservation of favoured traces | ben fry via Waxy.

We often think of scientific ideas, such as Darwin's theory of evolution, as fixed notions that are accepted as finished. In fact, Darwin's On the Origin of Species evolved over the course of several editions he wrote, edited, and updated during his lifetime. The first English edition was approximately 150,000 words and the sixth is a much larger 190,000 words. In the changes are refinements and shifts in ideas — whether increasing the weight of a statement, adding details, or even a change in the idea itself.

The second edition, for instance, adds a notable “by the Creator” to the closing paragraph, giving greater attribution to a higher power. In another example, the phrase “survival of the fittest” — usually considered central to the theory and often attributed to Darwin — instead came from British philosopher Herbert Spencer, and didn't appear until the fifth edition of the text. Using the six editions as a guide, we can see the unfolding and clarification of Darwin's ideas as he sought to further develop his theory during his lifetime.

Made with processing (Arduino IDE's mutant cousin)....

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In this installment of our ongoing series of video interviews with notable Makers and scientists, sponsored by Dow Chemical, paleontologist Louise Leakey talks about the challenges involved in finding fossils, and outlines her plan to crowdsource the search. Louise comes from a long line of Leakeys in Kenya, and is co-founder of the Turkana Basin Institute there.

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Sophia Dembling of Psychology Today interviewed Dr. Laurie Helgoe, author of a book called Introvert Power. Helgoe says while 57% of Americans identify themselves as introverts, most of them pretend to be extroverts because the culture in the United States frowns on introverts.

SD: What do you think is the most troubling general misconception about introverts?

LH: Wow -- it's hard to choose. I am very troubled by the tendency to define introverts by what they lack. Introversion is a preference, not a fallback plan. Introverts like being introverts. We are drawn to ideas, we are passionate observers, and for us, solitude is rich and generative. Think of all that goes on in the playground of solitude: daydreaming, reading, composing, meditating -- and just being, writing, calculating, fantasizing, thinking, praying, theorizing, imagining, drawing/painting/sculpting, inventing, researching, reflecting. You get the idea.

Interview with author of Introvert Power

New Scientist put together a slideshow of interesting experiments in microgravity, like you would experience on the International Space Station (ISS). (Of course, my favorite microgravity experiment is depicted in the the classic 2003 video where astronaut Don Pettit "eats" High Tea on the ISS with chopsticks.) Here's the description of the images above, from New Scientist:

Microgravity tends to produce rounder, cooler flames, as this comparison of combustion in normal gravity (left) and microgravity (right) illustrates. Unlike on Earth, hot, less-dense air does not rise in microgravity. As a result, other processes, like the diffusion of particles from a high temperature to a low temperature area, dominate.

"Giant crystals and spherical flames: science in microgravity"

ciaohound writes "The Baltimore Sun has a story about 'unschooling,' which is like homeschooling except, well, without the schooling. '...unschooling incorporates every facet of a child's life into the education process, allowing a child to follow his passions and learn at his own pace, year-round. And it assumes that an outing at the park — or even hours spent playing a video game — can be just as valuable a teaching resource as Hooked on Phonics.' If you have ever been forced to sit in a classroom where no learning was taking place, you may understand the appeal. A driving force behind the movement is parents' dissatisfaction with regular schools, and presumably with homeschooling as well. Yet few researchers are even aware of unschooling and little research exists on its effectiveness. Any Slashdotters who have experience with 'unschooling?'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The MACH64 programmable logic starter kit takes you from mystery to mastery in the black art of Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs). Learn to turn Software into Hardware with this incredible technology! The MACH64 kit comes complete with everything you need to learn, experiment, design and program with CPLDs. The included 250+ page manual starts off with the technology of CPLDs and then eases you into the ABEL Language used to program CPLDs.

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As you may remember, last year, thanks to lots of lobbying from the entertainment industry, Congress passed the totally unnecessary "ProIP" act, which made copyright even more draconian. Luckily, the most ridiculous parts of the bill -- like getting the Justice Department involved in civil litigation over copyright -- was dropped. But there was still plenty of bad stuff in there -- including the establishment of an "IP Czar" or "Copyright Czar" who would basically be the entertainment industry's personal representative in the White House, in charge of "coordinating" (i.e., "driving") strategy on making sure that the entertainment industry's obsolete business model is always protected directly from the White House.

Earlier this year, the Senators who pushed this through got antsy and pleaded with the White House to hurry up and appoint someone to the post. In response, the White House sent Joe Biden to an industry gathering, where he promised that the White House would pick "the right person" to represent the industry's interests. And yet... since then, there's been nothing.

It's been a poorly kept secret that Victoria Espinel is likely to be the IP Czar -- and, as former IP person at the USTR (who has always been strongly in support of stronger IP), it definitely seems like the industry will be happy with her. But why has it taken so long? Michael Scott points us to a report from last month that the "problem" is that the White House can't figure out where to place this role:

• A stand-alone office. While this is probably the most desirable in terms of making the position as prominent within the Administration as IP owners would like, it remains [an] uphill battle.
• Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). OSTP is known for espousing views that are less then favorable to the IP community. Placing the IP Czar within OSTP would make no more sense than coupling Oscar and Felix (or for a more modern reference, coupling Harry Potter with Voldemort).
• Office of Management and Budget (OMB). If a stand-alone office is not in the cards than this may be the best alternative. While OMB does not usually establish policy, it does coordinate with numerous agencies on various projects, which is certainly within the purview of the IP czar.

Of course, OSTP is the department that makes the most sense -- but as the writeup notes, the folks in OSTP are actually more technologically focused, and are believers in openness and collaboration -- and are the sorts of folks who are skeptical of the need for greater IP protection (and, yes, some of them read Techdirt). But... given the role, it does seem like the most reasonable spot. In fact, it seems rather problematic that the White House would agree not to put it there, just because the entertainment industry is afraid that OSTP isn't going to just bend over for the copyright industry's interests. If Hollywood is basically getting their own representative in the White House, at the very least it seems fair to temper that position by putting it in a department that will at least debate how strong copyright protection needs to be.

The fact that the White House hasn't simply placed the role in OSTP certainly feels like it agreeing not to do that because the industry lobbyists who pushed for the role in the first place won't like it. That doesn't seem like the way government should be run.

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I dig these Bones Salt & Pepper Shakers by designer Chris Stiles. They're $30 from Matter.
Bones Salt & Pepper Shakers (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!)

David Markland of Metblogs Los Angeles was driving in the Hollywood Hills when he came across this stretch limo that had gotten stuck, completely blocking traffic. "My usual shortcut around Highland traffic was impeded by this limo," writes David, "whose front fender had gotten stuck on a curb. His attempts to back out of the trap only caused the back tires to spin and burn rubber."

I wonder how they got the limo unstuck?

Limo gets stuck in the Hollywood Hills, blocks traffic

Tennessee teen Calvin Inman has a medical condition that causes him to cry tears of blood. The only context in which I've ever seen or imagined this is vampire novels and TV shows, like the HBO series "True Blood." I had no idea this happened in real life to non-vamps.

[Inman's mother] hoped that once doctors finally witnessed the phenomenon, there would be answers. But that wasn't the case. "The people at the hospital said they had never seen anything like it," Mynatt recalls. She says her son underwent an MRI, a CT scan and an ultrasound, but none of the tests had abnormal results. "'We don't know how to stop it,'" Mynatt remembers being told by doctors. "It just has to run its course."

Dr. Barrett G. Haik, director of the University of Tennessee's Hamilton Eye Institute, says there is an answer, sort of. He says "crying blood," a condition called haemolacria, is common in people who have experienced extreme trauma or who have recently had a serious head injury. But a case such as Inman's is still a medical mystery. "What's really rare is to have a child like this," Haik says. "Only once every several years do you see someone with no obvious cause."

Via CNN, here's the related CNN segment video on YouTube.

drunken_boxer777 sends us to The Wall Street Journal for a lengthy article on a small tech company, Palantir Technologies, that is making the CIA, Pentagon, and FBI take notice. The submitter adds, "And yes, their company name is a reference to what you think it is." "One of the latest entrants into the government spy-services marketplace, Palantir Technologies has designed what many intelligence analysts say is the most effective tool to date to investigate terrorist networks. The software's main advance is a user-friendly search tool that can scan multiple data sources at once, something previous search tools couldn't do. That means an analyst who is following a tip about a planned terror attack, for example, can more quickly and easily unearth connections among suspects, money transfers, phone calls and previous attacks around the globe. ... With Palantir's software 'you can actually point to examples where it was pretty clear that lives were saved.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hidden messages in the ROM of 8-bit console games (warning graphic language!)... Magweasel writes -

Programmers for 8-bit consoles, whether American, European or Japanese, stuck hidden messages — sometimes accessible, sometimes non- — in their games all the time. One of my favorite has always been the one thrown into Pachi-Com (????), a very primitive pachinko simulation released for the Famicom in 1985 from Toshiba EMI. You can load the .NES ROM up in any hex editor to see a long message right at the top of the image, written in romaji

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If you're thinking of taking a MAKEcation (learning to solder, hacking your cooler, or building a trebuchet), this weekend is your last chance! The long weekend will give you plenty of time to do a project, with time left over for the BBQ! Documentation is due next Wednesday, September 9 in the MAKE Flickr pool (tagged "MAKEcation").

Top prize in each category: $100 Maker Shed Gift Certificate

Runners up: The Best of MAKE or The Best of Instructables

Teach your family to solder:

• Super learn-to-solder roundup
  
• MAKEcation learn to solder bundle in the Maker Shed
• Toolbox: Soldering essentials, part 1
  
• Toolbox, Soldering tools, part 2
  
• Let the MAKEcation solder-fest BEGIN!
  

Cooler hacking challenge:

• Brainstorming cooler hacking ideas
  
• Hack your cooler: Mobilize it!
• Hack your cooler: Air chillers
• Hack your cooler: Other cooler hacks
• MAKEcation Cooler Hacking Challenge
  
• Patio cooler
  
• Ice Cooler Lightbox
  

Family trebuchet challenge:

• How to build a catapult part 1
• How to build a catapult part 2: triggers and releases
• How to build a catapult part 3 - Hollywood inspirations
• Maker Workshop - Portable Trebuchet on Make: television
• MAKEcation trebuchet bundle in the Maker Shed
  
• Altoids tin trebuchet
  
• Make a Trebuchet - Make: Video Podcast
  
• Make a Trebuchet - Make: PDF Podcast
  
• The MAKEcation Family Trebuchet Challenge!  

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Intellectual Ventures, of course, is the Nathan Myhrvold company that has been building up a huge portfolio of patents with which to get big tech companies to pay many millions of dollars to not get sued -- and, according to many, to get a cut of future deals as well, making the whole thing sound suspiciously like a pyramid scheme. However, the company has been quite careful to avoid actually suing anyone (despite setting up all sorts of shell companies commonly used in such lawsuits). From what we've heard from people who have been in or around IV, this has been a conscious decision to avoid attracting too much ill will and scorn. It lets the company pretend to take the high road, when people point out that its actions seem like the commonly defined "patent troll" on steroids. "But we haven't sued anyone" it can claim. As if the threat of being sued isn't a big enough weapon.

But, a year ago, we noted that the company appeared to be getting antsy. While it was bringing in some hefty fees from a small group of companies who bought into the equity pyramid (which neatly lets the world outside be confused over what's "investment" and what's "revenue"), there was concern that investors were getting impatient. Pouring billions of dollars into a company that isn't doing much can make some investors a little anxious. And while we still don't know of any direct lawsuits, Zusha Elinson has noticed that Intellectual Ventures' former patents are starting to show up in court, often involving some of the most well known names normally associated with "patent trolling." Now, it's clear that IV sold the patent, but what's not clear is if it still has a financial interest in it. The thinking is that IV may have "sold" the patent, with part of the terms being that it gets a cut of any money obtained via that patent. This way, IV gets to have its cake and eat it too. It still can claim it doesn't sue anyone, but it brings in revenues from exactly those types of lawsuits.

As Joe Mullin notes in the last link above, this is one of the massive problems with the way patent infringement lawsuits work today. Via different shell companies, those who have an interest in a patent can be hidden to protect their "good name" while still allowing them to actively have companies sued via that patent.

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Diabolus Advocatus alerts us to an article Cory Doctorow has up on guardian.co.uk, addressing what cloud computing really means for the average consumer: "The tech press is full of people who want to tell you how completely awesome life is going to be when everything moves to 'the cloud' — that is, when all your important storage, processing and other needs are handled by vast, professionally managed data-centers. Here's something you won't see mentioned, though: the main attraction of the cloud to investors and entrepreneurs is the idea of making money from you, on a recurring, perpetual basis, for something you currently get for a flat rate or for free without having to give up the money or privacy that cloud companies hope to leverage into fortunes."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Matt sez, "This story has it all: a tiny, flyblown town rising up against their own draconian police force, a gang of cops shooting a fireman in front of a judge, it's utterly unbelievable. I'll never drive through Jericho, Arkansas, that's for sure."

It was just too much, having to return to court twice on the same day to contest yet another traffic ticket, and Fire Chief Don Payne didn't hesitate to tell the judge what he thought of the police and their speed traps.

The response from cops? They shot him. Right there in court...

It was anger over traffic tickets that brought Payne to city hall last week, said his lawyer, Randy Fishman. After Payne failed to get a traffic ticket dismissed on Aug. 27, police gave Payne or his son another ticket that day. Payne, 39, returned to court to vent his anger to Judge Tonya Alexander, Fishman said.

It's unclear exactly what happened next, but Martin said an argument between Payne and the seven police officers who attended the hearing apparently escalated to a scuffle, ending when an officer shot Payne from behind...

Prosecutor Lindsey Fairley said Thursday that he didn't plan to file any felony charges against the officer or Payne. Fairley, reached at his home, said Payne could face a misdemeanor charge stemming from the scuffle, but that would be up to the city's judge. He said he didn't remember the name of the officer who fired the shot.

Fire chief shot by cop in Ark. court over tickets (Thanks, Matt!)

Paul McCartney, Elton John and other prominent British musicians have spoken out against the government's ridiculous proposal to disconnect people who've been accused of infringing on copyright from the Internet, calling it 'expensive, illogical and "extraordinarily negative".' Damned right. Cutting entire families off from access to e-government, health information, work, education, friends, family, and freedom of expression freedom of assembly and freedom of the press because someone accused one member of infringing copyright is terrible.

The UK government's own research shows that households without Internet access operate at a huge disadvantage, paying more for basic necessities than online counterparts -- everything from premiums on their phone- and gas-service because they can't opt for electronic statements to missing out on jobs and other opportunities. To treat the Internet as a luxury item that can be taken away from whole housefulls of people because one member has been accused of a civil infraction flies in the face of justice, proportionality and due process. Civilised countries don't engage in collective punishment.

In a statement seen by the Guardian, a coalition of bodies representing a range of stars including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John and Damon Albarn attacks the proposals as expensive, illogical and "extraordinarily negative".

The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (Basca) and the Music Producers Guild (MPG) have joined forces to oppose the proposals to reintroduce the threat of disconnection for persistent file sharers, which was ruled out in the government's Digital Britain report in June.

The plans have already been attacked by privacy campaigners, internet service providers and a range of MPs, some of whom accuse the business secretary of being influenced by secret meetings with senior figures from the music and film industry, a charge he denies.

The coalition accuses the government of being backward looking, saying there is "little support from logic" in proposals to cut off file sharers - a move welcomed by the record companies and UK Music, the umbrella body for the entire industry.

The statement says: "We vehemently oppose the proposals being made and suggest that the stick is now in danger of being way out of proportion to the carrot. The failure of 30,000 US lawsuits against consumers and the cessation of the pursuit of that policy should be demonstration enough that this is not a policy that any future-minded UK government should pursue."

YouTube and PRS make peace as musicians protest about plans to punish file sharers

stelt writes "On Oct.2–4 Google will host the international conference on Scalable Vector Graphics at its campus in Mountain View, California. The SVG Open conference schedule shows developers and designers of various backgrounds. Major brands, open source projects, universities, and individuals are presenting on a variety of subjects like interactive scientific visualizations, mobile web animation art, internationalization and localization in print, geo-systems, etc. A couple of weeks back we discussed Google's adding SVG support to IE, and details of this project will be presented during the keynote 'SVG in Internet Explorer and at Google.'" Early-bird registration has already ended for this conference, but the pricing is not steep.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It looks like the concerns over copyright holders taking advantage of people online in Germany by doing things like sending threatening letters based on weak evidence, or even putting up their own files to try to find file sharers is worrying some consumer advocates. A consumer advocacy group in the country is now promising to help those who get such pre-settlement letters to respond to them while protecting their rights. It's good to see more people recognizing that at least some of these organizations appear to be taking advantage of the ability to send legalistic letters.

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Face Removal Services brings us the GPS Beatmap -

Looping musical phrases are represented on a map as overlapping circular territories. As the vehicle approaches the center of a circle, the volume increases. In areas of the map where territories overlap the vehicle generates dynamic mixes of the overlapping musical phrases. By exploring a very large map of many overlapping territories the Beatmap creates complex, dynamic mash-ups.

The map can be explored on foot, by plane, boat, train, or automobile. In this footage the map is explored by car on the Bonneville Salt Flats, allowing the user to freely accelerate, swerve, and slam to a stop for optimum musical control of the instrument.

A bit more description available on their site. [via CDM]

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Nerdcore rapper superstar MC Frontalot sez, "I am playing the mainstage at PAX tonight, and JoCo [ed: Jonathan "Nerd Troubadour Extraordinaire" Coulton] is playing tomorrow, so I woke up early and posted a new single from my CD Final Boss. It is called Diseases Of Yore and it features Mr. Coulton. It is PAX synergy. Synergism?"

Diseases of Yore MP3

Final Boss CD

(Thanks, Frontalot!)

Mark sez, "Growing pears inside a Buddha-shaped plastic form yields much fruit love!"

Como fazer peras em formato de buda! (Thanks, Mark!)

Thorfinn.au sends along big physics news: magnetic monopoles have been detected at low temperatures in "Dirac strings" within a single crystal of Dysprosium Titanate. Two papers are being published today in the journal Science and two more on arXiv.org, as yet unpublished, provide further evidence. "Theoretical work had shown that monopoles probably exist, and they have been measured indirectly. But the Science papers are the first direct experiments to record the monopole's effects on the spin-ice material. The papers use neutrons to detect atoms in the crystal aligned into long daisy chains. These daisy chains tie each north and south monopole together. Known as 'Dirac strings,' the chains, as well as the existence of monopoles, were predicted in the 1930s by the British theoretical physicist Paul Dirac. Heat measurements in one paper also support the monopole argument. The two, as yet unpublished, papers on arXiv add to the evidence. The first provides additional observations, and the second uses a new technique to determine the magnetic charge of each monopole to be 4.6x10-13 joules per tesla metre. All together, the evidence for magnetic monopoles 'is now overwhelming,' says Steve Bramwell, a materials scientist at University College London and author on one of the Science papers and one of the arXiv papers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tyler Too writes "The MPAA is once again trying to badger the FCC into approving Selectable Output Control, which would plug the 'analog hole' during broadcasts of some prerelease HD movies. MPAA bigshots met with seven staffers from the FCC Media Bureau last week, calling the petition a 'pro-consumer' (!) move designed to 'enable movie studios to offer millions of Americans in-home access to high-value, high definition video content.' At least the studios are now acknowledging that SOC would break the functionality of some HDTVs, an admission they were previously unwilling to make: 'What's interesting about the group's latest filing, however, is that it effectively concedes that the output changes it wants could, in fact, hobble some home video systems. "The vast majority of consumers would not have to purchase new devices to receive the new, high-value content contemplated by MPAA's" request, the group assures the FCC.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Candy tin fume absorber helps keep your air clean and your lungs healthy.
Thanks go to Marc de Vinck for the original article in MAKE, Volume 19.
To download The Mini Fume Extractor click here or subscribe in iTunes.
Check out the complete Mini Fume Extractor article in MAKE, Volume 19
and you can see that in our Digital Edition.

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Candy tin fume absorber helps keep your air clean and your lungs healthy.
Thanks go to Marc de Vinck for the original article in MAKE, Volume 19.
View the PDF of this project. and then subscribe to MAKE Magazine for other great projects
you can do over the weekend.

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We've been arguing for a while -- often in great detail -- that a newspaper paywall doesn't give anyone a reason to buy. There's no added value and the competition is massive. Just setting up a paywall doesn't mean that people will suddenly rush to give you money. But, for all the long essays on the subject, I don't think the concept could be summed up any better than Jay Rosen's short twitter message simplifying the issue:

Journalist: hey, I made a snowman.
Inuit: nice!
Journalist: it took me all day.
Inuit: what's your point?
Journalist: that'll be five bucks.

It's not how nice the content is. It's not how long it took or even how much money it cost. It's understanding the basics of how a market functions. Demanding money without providing additional scarce value, in a market where the competition is plentiful and free is as much of a non-starter as the journalist's demands in the tweet.

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MAKE subscriber Ross sent us info on this rather powerful pneumatic ping-pong ball gun, built by Ron Kessinger and presented at Denver's Club Workshop -

You can think of this as a variation on a potato cannon, however his is built to run on compressed air, and it runs on much tighter tolerances.
[…]
It runs off of a compressed air line and a standard wall outlet. After firing a few "dry" rounds, he proceeded to shoot off a few (ok a LOT) of ping pong balls filled with water. These things might not weight a lot, but they are moving FAST. A sheet of drywall was no match for them, and even particle board failed spectacularly when faced by a 1" sphere of water.

Dang! That'd make for one rough game of table tennis … a very short game as well - eep! =( For more pics, vids, and info, head over to the TINYenormous blog

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Lucas123 writes "Intel is planning to launch its native flash memory module, code named Braidwood, in the first or second quarter of 2010. The inexpensive NAND flash will reside directly on a computer's motherboard as cache for all I/O and it will offer performance increases and other benefits similar to that of adding a solid-state disk drive to the system. A new report states that by achieving SSD performance without the high cost, Braidwood will essentially erode the SSD market, which, ironically, includes Intel's two popular SSD models. 'Intel has got a very good [SSD] product. But, they view additional layers of NAND technology in PCs as inevitable. They don't think SSDs are likely to take over 100% of the PC market, but they do think Braidwood could find itself in 100% of PCs,' the report's author said."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Central Florida firemen Jeff Ponds and Jimm Walsh have an ongoing section of their site vententersearch.com called "What's in your Pockets?" where they showcase some of the more interesting improvised tools of the trade sent in from readers.

[via Matt Billings]

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The freakbits guys have a nice interview up with Dutch indie record label Beep! Beep! that has all the music from all of its artists available via BitTorrent, with help from Mininova. In the interview, the guy from the label says that giving away music for free is no impediment to getting paid for it, as you're getting exposed to a much larger audience, many of whom are happy to pay for stuff. Two interesting points (though, neither is that surprising):

• They seem a bit frustrated that distributors shun them. Apparently plenty of distributors are worried that by giving away their music for free no one will buy. Of course, plenty of bands have seen the opposite is true, but some myths are hard to dispel.
• They're quite worried about the recent ruling demanding that Mininova block content, as it may harm their ability to get content out via Mininova:

  But now they have this new thing, where they are taking off all the illegal content on Mininova. For example if Universal comes in and says, "You have to take off this show" they do it immediately. And that is different between what the Pirate Bay does. It's a shame because I'm afraid it might be the end of Mininova.
  
  Pirate Bay provides everything, so why go to Mininova when you can already get everything from the Pirate Bay. Even if the Pirate Bay will be shut down then there will always be another torrent site, someone will come along and fill the gap.

It's an interesting point that I hadn't really thought much about. As the entertainment industry keeps trying to wac that mole, it's really quite annoying for those who legitimately embraced these tools for distribution, as they're forced to move around as well.

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BluePeppers writes "The Guardian has a story, primarily about a deal that allows YouTube to broadcast music videos again, but also covering a coalition of artist unions that are opposing new legislation in the UK that would punish file sharers more severely. From the article: 'A coalition of bodies representing a range of stars including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, and Damon Albarn attacks the proposals as expensive, illogical and "extraordinarily negative." The Featured Artists Coalition, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and the Music Producers Guild have joined forces to oppose the proposals to reintroduce the threat of disconnection for persistent file sharers, which was ruled out in the government's Digital Britain report in June.""

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

John has created something of an update to the music box with an Arduino Duemilanove

The disc is laser-printed on an HP LaserJet 4 (with duplexer) that I got from FreeCycle. It's a PostScript program that I run via The GIMP and then print as a 600dpi bit-map. The filled-in sectors on the inner three tracks are done with a Sharpie as required.

The clamp will be replaced by a hinge when I've finalised the location of the arm relative to the disc.

There are at least a few parts here that you could scavenge out of computer CD drives or scanners.

There's more coming: code, schematics, sample audio.

Related:

• Handheld sequencer converts image to MIDI
• Arduino theremin-like musical instrument

In the Maker Shed:

Arduino Duemilanove

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The tech press is excitedly discussing the fact that YouTube is looking to work with movie studios to allow movie rentals, with many talking up how this is a way for Google to put in place a new business model for YouTube. But here's the thing: everyone seems to forget that, back when Google first launched Google Video (which was a competitor to YouTube before Google bought YouTube and merged the two), it was based on this very idea. You could "buy" videos on the site to watch. And what happened? It failed pretty miserably. People just weren't interested. Instead, they flocked to YouTube to get all that free content and community, and Google quietly changed around Google Videos' entire business model and concept, and then eventually realized that it couldn't compete, and so it bought YouTube.

So why would people suddenly be willing to pay when something that sounds nearly identical a few years ago failed to get much interest at all? Perhaps culture or technology has changed (it's easier to watch downloaded movies on a TV screen, certainly). But, I have to admit to being rather skeptical of this as a big business opportunity. We've already seen this movie, and it didn't end well.

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Alice sez, "I've always wondered what Neil Gaiman's library looked like, but it is more extensive and incredible than I ever imagined."

Shelfari adds, "Naturally we'd assumed that someone whose work is filled with references ranging from literary to mythological would have a fairly extensive library but even so, we were a bit unprepared for the scope of what he sent us. In the basement of his house of secrets we find a room that's wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with books (along with a scattering of awards, gargoyles and felines)."

Neil Gaiman's Bookshelves (Thanks, Alice!)

miller60 writes "One of the largest Web hosts has scrapped data transfer quotas on all its shared hosting plans, retiring one of the oldest metrics in the hosting industry. With its latest move, 1&1 Internet has gone all-in on 'unlimited' hosting, a controversial practice viewed by many as a gimmick that promises more than it can deliver. Yahoo and Go Daddy have also experimented with unlimited plans, as the shared hosting sector responds to a tough economy, tough competition, and predictions that it will be made obsolete by cloud computing."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The recent helicopter-crash death of Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy (known as YSR), a popular Indian politician who held the office of Chief Minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has sparked a round of suicides and deaths from "shock" from distraught fans. The death toll stands at 60 and is apparently rising.

In the wake of reports that about 60 persons either committed suicide or died of shock after hearing the news of the death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister YSR Reddy, his son Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday appealed to the people not to resort to such extreme steps.

"Due to such acts (suicides) my father's soul will not rest in peace. He had an ever-smiling face and worked for uplift of the poor. They (people) should not resort to such acts," an emotional Jagan said in a statement.

According to media reports, eight persons suffered cardiac arrest after hearing the news of Reddy's death in a chopper crash.

60 YSR fans die of shock, son appeals for restraint

When Senator Al Franken was confronted by an angry mob of teabagger/anti-healthcare-reform types, he calmly, rationally and intelligently talked them down, setting an example for how to conduct reasoned discourse that relies on facts and rationality rather than jingoism.

Franken talks down angry mob at State Fair

Etsy seller hamsterguppies has a "Kitschy Record of The Month Club" featuring mixed CDs of tracks ripped from vinyl thrifted in Singapore. Given hamsterguppies' awesome collection of thriftjunk for sale, I'm betting these kick ass.

Can't get enough kitsch music in your life? Love receiving mix cds? Sign up to be a member of this elite squad, and you'll receive a CDR of kitschy music (ripped straight from vinyls!) in the mail every month! From girl pop to Bollywood, instrumental to really-bad cover versions, there's no telling what you'll find. Each CDR will consist of songs from a variety of vinyls, so you'll get minimum of 10 songs per CDR. This is a year's subscription, so you'll get 12 kitschy music CDRs in total!

Kitschy Record of The Month Club

Sergey Maximishin's pictures of Russia are incredible, from the kitschy to the haunting to the just plain freaky.

Sergey Maximishin Photography (Thanks, Josh!)

This short video is a "5th-grader-friendly" tour through the history of special effects from 1900 to 2008:

1900 - The Enchanted Drawing
1903 - The Great Train Robbery
1923 - The Ten Commandments (Silent)
1927 - Sunrise
1933 - King Kong
1939 - The Wizard of Oz
1940 - The Thief of Bagdad
1954 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1956 - Forbidden Planet
1963 - Jason and the Argonauts
1964 - Mary Poppins
1977 - Star Wars
1982 - Tron
1985 - Back to the Future
1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit
1989 - The Abyss
1991 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
1992 - The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
1993 - Jurassic Park
2004 - Spider-Man 2
2005 - King Kong
2006 - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
2007 - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
2007 - The Golden Compass
2008 - The Spiderwick Chronicles
2008 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Visual Effects: 100 Years of Inspiration (via Kottke)

Today on the Worth1000 photoshopping contest: Marvel/Disney Hybrids.

Marvel/Disney Hybrids

Spencer sez, "This guy is a former Penguin Books designer who's posted a couple of collections of images that are downright mouthwatering if, like most designers, you're a fan of Penguin Books' design."

Penguin Books (Thanks, Spencer!)

I still can't quite figure out what sort of leverage the various music labels and collections societies think they have over YouTube. Musicians who have embraced YouTube have found that it can help boost their careers and turn out more fans at their shows. And, without music videos, YouTube still gets a ton of traffic. The only ones who lose out with the music taken off the site are the musicians and the labels -- and that was seen in the way the musicians who first complained that Google wasn't paying them enough then freaked out that Google took down all their videos in the UK, after being unable to agree on a payment scheme. Clearly, the musicians valued the exposure a lot more than Google needed to have those videos.

It only took about six months, but PRS for Music (the UK collection society) and Google have finally worked out a deal so that the music videos will return to YouTube. It's not entirely clear what the details are, but it certainly sounds like it was PRS who caved (which makes sense, given the leverage situation). Google is paying a lump sum, rather than a per stream fee. PRS had been pushing for per stream fees that were significantly higher than anything Google could have made on ads. So it certainly seems like PRS folded here, and Google tossed them some spare change just to get them to stop whining and get the videos back online.

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CNN is running an interview with Eran Egozy and Alex Rigopulos, founders of Harmonix, about the long road that eventually led them to the creation of Guitar Hero and Rock Band . It wasn't an quick or easy process, and the two worked on a number of unsuccessful concepts before arriving at the games that redefined a genre. Quoting: "I was watching people interact with our product, and the realization came crashing down on me — we had spent 18 months on a music system that was fundamentally flawed. Karaoke isn't about personal expression. It's about people reproducing the songs they know as accurately as they can. The whole notion of adding improvisation elements just wasn't connecting. So I retreated to my hotel room and was depressed for the next two days. The company was on the rocks. We had zero revenue. We had been trying for four years to make something work. We were out of ideas. Those first four years had been a graveyard of mis-starts and product concepts that never made it anywhere. Worse, there was adequate information about two years into those four years to realize that our big concept was fatally flawed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Computational photography researchers at Stanford have developed this open-source 'Frankencamera' using a sensor from a Nokia n95 cell phone, Canon camera lenses, and an ARM development board. Their goal is to create a future where your digital camera is no different than any other computer, and you can load new programs into it in order to change how it works. Of course, you can kind of do that now with Canon cameras by using CKDK, however their approach is from the ground up and should be much more versatile.

I love my Nikon camera, but I would love to be able to open it up and reprogram it at my bidding!

[via technabob]

More:

• Inside the Elphel open source camera
• HOW TO - Canon Hacker's Development Kit
• Weekend Project: Scanner Camera

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DynaSoar writes "The Prisoner is one of the most influential and enduring TV shows to have appeared during the 1960s. This single-season (1967-68), 17-episode series, starring its co-writing, co-directing executive producer Patrick McGoohan, maintains a steady fan base and gains more with each syndication re-release. For over 40 years there have been announced intentions and projects to resurrect this surreal psychodrama combining science fiction, allegory, and spy thriller in a new series or movie (but always without McGoohan, who adamantly refused, saying 'he'd done it'). Finally, since December 2008 a remake has been in the can. In November 2009, AMC will begin airing an original six-part mini-series of The Prisoner starring James Caviezal as the spy who resigns only to find himself abducted and transported to 'The Village,' where he is renamed (or rather renumbered) Number Six, and where the minds behind his incarceration attempt to pry and/or trick secrets from his brain. Chief among those minds is the visible face of the administration, Number Two, played by Ian McKellen. Unlike the original, with a new Number Two in each episode, McKellen appears throughout. To promote the upcoming release, AMC is presenting (along with a ton of 'additional material') the entire original 17 episodes, free for the streaming."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This was making the rounds a couple months ago, but I don't think we posted it on MAKE - Rob Spence is a filmmaker who lost his eye and decided to replace it with a wireless video camera...

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Sigma has announced an image-stabilized telephoto zoom in the shape of the 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG OS. Suitable for use on both APS-C and full frame cameras, this lens incorporates Sigma's Optical Stabilization technology allowing hand-held shooting at shutter speeds up to 4 stops slower than usual, along with a circular diaphragm for attractive rendition of out-of-focus backgrounds. The minimum focus distance is 1.5m giving a maximum magnification of 0.26x; unlike Sigma's non-stabilized 70-300mm zooms there's no extended macro focusing option. The lens will available for users of Sigma, Nikon, Canon, Pentax and Sony SLRs at a SRP of £399.

According to this post on science fiction blog io9, the network I still spell out in my mind as "SciFi" -- recently rebranded as "SyFy" -- may be considering cooking shows for future programming. I don't know why they're bothering -- the fan-created show Klingon Food Kritik, above, pretty much pwned the genre. Anyway, snip from io9 post:

We heard from a source who's had meetings with Syfy execs recently, in which they said they were trying to get away from the "genre stereotype" of science fiction. And rather than being interested in developing new science fiction programs, the execs allegedly said they were looking at developing a cooking show and a talk show for the newly renamed network

TV.com picked up the item, and added even more analysis and snark.

SyFy does have reality shows, which include Ghost Hunters and its kin. But no one would argue that Ghost Hunters still falls under the science-fiction umbrella. And I would rather watch hours of Mansquito and Boa vs. Python than a minute of a show where some goon dresses up as a Vulcan and teaches me how to toss a Romulan Salad (snicker).

What I wanna know is: your thoughts on what shows they should cook up. Please pitch your series ideas in the comments.

I found the Klingon cookin' video in this funny post about science fiction and food at seriouseats.com. (thanks, Todd Lappin)

The cover sheet of the daily "Incident Action Plan" for firefighters battling the Station fire still burning in Los Angeles contains an odd warning: "No energy drinks." Officials say the high amounts of caffeine these beverages contain can be particularly dangerous under these working conditions. Snip from LA Times article:

"It's been a concern," said Nathan Judy of the U.S. Forest Service. "When they drink those things, it dehydrates them."

Judy said that during a previous fire some years back, a firefighter consumed four cans of Red Bull in one day and went into diabetic shock. Since then, fire officials have warned crews to re-energize in other ways, he said. "Drink water, drink water, drink water," Judy said. He also said that the meals served to firefighters each day are high in calories because firefighters are "going through calories like crazy on the line."

In related news -- the Station fire has been determined to have been caused by arson. Two firefighters died fighting the Los Anglees blazes, so the arson investigation will also a be homicide investigation.

Boing Boing has made it into the only dictionary that matters. Yes, thanks to Andrea Mangini, the phrase "Boing-Boinged" is in the Urban Dictionary! Here is the entry in full:

Boing-Boinged To have your random cat video, or steampunk mouse armor, or technique for weaponizing bacon posted to BoingBoing.net.. People send all kinds of random and amazing stuff to Boing Boing, and the editors decide which stuff is the best and then post it, along with a trackback to the person who sent the submission. Getting "Boing Boinged" virtually assures you will at least 15 milisceonds of nerdy fame, along with a host of new Twitter followers, new hits on your blog, or whatever.

"OMFG! The video of our wedding party doing the Thriller dance just got Boing-Boinged!"

Urban Dictionary: Boing-Boinged (Thanks, Chris Arkenberg!)

Back in 2006, as part of an effort to make our sea ports safer, Congress banned financial institutions from accepting money from online gambling sites, effectively outlawing online gambling (no, I don't understand what that had to do with port safety, but that's just how Congress rolls, apparently). Since then law has been challenged -- but hasn't had much success. The district court tossed it out saying the bill was perfectly Constitutional, and now an appeals court has said the same thing. The groups fighting the law made two claims, neither of which the court agreed with: first, that the law breached users privacy rights to gamble in their own homes, and second that the law was too vague. It seems likely that this will be appealed yet again, but who knows if the Supreme Court will care. In the meantime, every few months there are stories about Rep. Barney Frank promising to legalize online poker... but they never seem to get anywhere.

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David Orenstein writes "Stanford Computer Science researchers are developing Frankencamera, an open source, fully programmable and finely tunable camera that will allow computational photography researchers and enthusiasts to develop and test new ideas and applications — no longer limited by the features a camera manufacturer sees fit to supply. Disclosure: The submitter is a science writer for Stanford and wrote the linked article."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Last May, Tristan Shone brought a couple of his Sound Machines to Maker Faire Bay Area, where I met him. As a mechanical engineer with a love of heavy metal, his instruments embody that intersection. Shone's pieces combine engineering and art, with an emphasis on physicality, giving heavy metal much literal meaning. From his site:

Drone Machines are custom made machines fabricated from raw materials and utilizing open source circuitry. The devices draw heavily on aspects of industrial automation, robotics and mechanical tools and devices, focusing on the eroticism of interaction with machine. The machines require significant force from the performer, aligning he or she with the plodding drone and doom influenced sounds that are created.

Shone's new body of work are his three Dub Machines, Headgear, Rack & Pinion, and Rails, shown in action above and in detail below. While he place most of the emphasis on the electromechanical design of the instruments, all three of these are Arduino-based controllers. Shone uses a USB cable off of the back of each to program and communicate with Ableton Live. Check out his site for details on the fabrication and function of his works.

Ground Control Magazine shot this video interview of Tristan in his studio. You can see some of his Drone Machines in action and get a better feel for what he's putting down:

If you're in the Los Angeles area, check out Shone's Drone Machines, on display at the Compact Space gallery until September 19th. Shone performs under the name Author & Punisher and recently returned from Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he performed at the File Festival, an international electronic arts gathering.

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This is the final post in our series on intellectual property in China and India. Feel free to read through the whole thing.

The continued development of the knowledge economies in both China and India requires thoughtful, practical policies that will give the needed incentive and capacity to innovators while providing benefits to as many as possible. In contrast to the beliefs of many, further strengthened intellectual property rights are unlikely to provide a positive impact on the economies of China and India. Instead, the two emerging giants should dedicate maximum attention to the other ingredients of a knowledge economy while structuring, to every extent possible under international treaty obligations, their domestic intellectual property regime to provide the optimum balance between incentives and access, bearing in mind that to diffuse the gains from existing innovations, the latter is to be favored.

Perhaps the single-most beneficial thing China and India can do to promote innovation and a dynamic knowledge economy is to provide high-quality education for all. This can be done in numerous manners, but it is important that science and technology education is promoted, perhaps even subsidized, to make it more attractive and affordable. Developing highly-skilled workers will provide the creativity and drive essential to the invention, adoption and productive utilization of new technology. While providing training for scientists and engineers, China and India must also create a strong managerial class to absorb and adopt technologies from around the world (Maskus 2000).

Additional policies can promote innovation, as well. Labor laws, especially in India, should be restructured to create maximum mobility and provide competitive salaries for the best and brightest. Government procurement laws, the rules of science and technology ministries and funding sources can be reformed to provide the incentives that intellectual property seeks to create, but without the unintended consequences of limited access and monopoly prices (Graff 2007). Universities, an important source of knowledge, should be connected with industry and receive funding for basic and applied research. Further, economic policies should encourage open competition, macroeconomic stability and a robust ICT infrastructure.

China and India should seek to structure their respective intellectual property regimes to best promote their individual interests, not an unclear global compromise that is driven by nations far wealthier than themselves. China and India are unique due to their size in which advanced capabilities exist in parallel with deep-seated poverty. Although existing international treaties largely confine China and India, they do have some room for flexibility. For example, TRIPs leaves room for domestic standards regarding novelty, nonobviousness and the scope of patent protection (Abramson 2007). This can be used to tilt the intellectual property regime towards second-comers, especially domestic innovators (Reichman 1997). For example, nonobviousness should be interpreted widely, allowing Chinese and Indians to legally utilize overly blatant foreign patents. Disclosure should be strengthened, leading to additional information spillover. And competition laws can be used to curb many of the adverse effects of IP. In the face of overly-strong intellectual property abroad, China and India should structure their legal incentives to encourage long-term competitiveness, establishing an innovation system that will be increasingly attractive to MNCs who find innovation difficult in the West.

A number of specific recommendations are possible, as well. Think tanks and research institutions focused on issues concerning intellectual property should be established with independent, objective and well-trained staff. Both existing IP systems should be run efficiently and with social interests in mind. This means training judges, administrators and bureaucrats in the nuances of intellectual property and their costs and benefits. When addressing university commercialization, India and China should fund and manage research in the public interest, mandating transparency, avoiding exclusive licensing unless necessary for commercialization, and potentially retaining government use rights for resulting innovations (So 2008). Although it has not been the focus of this paper, on the topic of traditional knowledge, China should follow India’s lead in actively defending the public use of exiting knowledge by fighting attempts to reappropriate the public domain through marginal changes to traditional knowledge. India’s successful challenge of patents on neem and Basmati rice provide useful examples (Boldrin 2008). Finally, the capacity of domestic institutions to support limited intellectual property should be strengthened, most prominently by prosecuting misuses of the IP regime (Okediji 2006 PDF).
    
With increased global prominence, China and India should accept their rightful place in the international system. As far as it is in their populations’ interests, they should resist further elevation of intellectual property, seek expanded compulsory licensing capability, and promote exceptions and limitations for educational materials for students.

Above all, China and India should seek consistency and transparency in their intellectual property policies to create a business environment conducive towards investment and innovation. IP should not be strong; IP should be efficient. As an imperfect tool, it should be used pragmatically and critically.

Robust, clear and enforced intellectual property is very likely a part of a successful knowledge economy, but the advantage of strengthened IP is frequently overstated. In contrast to the other parts of a knowledge economy, intellectual property has a tendency to be misused to the detriment of the economy. For both China and India, placing faith in exclusive rights will limit the ability of the impoverished masses to find productive employment and threaten the long-term sustainability of their innovativeness.

---

Other posts in this series:

• Do China And India Really Want Stronger Intellectual Property?
• A Brief History Of Intellectual Property In China And India
• Why Might China And India Want To Strengthen National Intellectual Property Policy?
• Why Increased IP In China And India Is Likely To Disproportionately Benefit The Developed World
• In China And India, Stronger Intellectual Property Is Unnecessary
• There Is No Harmony In A Patent Thicket
• The Way Forward On Intellectual Property For China And India

Kevin Donovan is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Kevin Donovan and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Harry Potter fans should recognize John McKerrell's Weasley Clock right away. He replaced the brains of the clock with an Arduino fitted with an ethernet shield, and pointed it at his mapme.at feed, allowing it to show his current location in real time. Check out his site for a nice write-up about the project. Excellent work!

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Ah, Diebold. One of the "big three" e-voting providers out there, its name was the first one that got associated with the problems of e-voting machines, despite problems being found across the board in players in that space. I could never understand why the company continued to fight and deny problems with its machines after so much evidence was presented against them. The smart move would have been to admit that the machines had problems, work with security experts to solve them, and come out with better, safer machines. But that's not what happened. Instead, it stonewalled, denied problems, mocked those who exposed security flaws and kept pushing out questionable machines. Eventually, the stories got so bad, that Diebold realized it was having a seriously negative impact on its other lines of business (including ATMs), so it renamed the e-voting division "Premier Election Solutions" (as if people would forget) and went about trying to sell the thing off -- though, for years it couldn't find any takers.

It took a while, but Diebold has finally found a buyer. ES&S has purchased Diebold's e-voting business for a mere $5 million plus some outstanding revenue. In classic Diebold fashion, the company has announced that it "would not be answering questions about the sale" -- because that's how you go about rebuilding trust.

Meanwhile, it's not like ES&S is any better. It, too, has had massive problems with its e-voting machines, while the company has a history of stonewalling attempts by gov't officials to review their code. Oh, and there's this: company memos showed that the company knew about some of the problems with its voting machines that were used in elections. And the most fun of all? When we questioned why e-voting companies didn't allow independent security researchers to examine machines, an ES&S employee showed up in our comments to call us all idiots.

Now, with the combined ES&S/Diebold/Premier, a ridiculous large percentage of the country's e-voting machines now belong to one company, with an amazingly long family tree of faulty machines and a history of attacking anyone who points out those flaws.

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Ponca City, We love you writes "The Telegraph reports that men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive. This leads to speculation that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks. Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study after one of them was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived. Researchers recruited 40 male heterosexual students and had each one perform a standard memory test. The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test. The results showed that men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.