Boing Boing

Canadian customs refuse to disclose laptop border search policy

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:18:46 PST

Greg from the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association sez,

It's not just the U.S. border guards who want to search the files on your laptop and cellphone. The Canada Border Services Agency has been doing the same thing for years. From U.S. journalist Amy Goodman to a Canadian gay couple whose collection of porn got border agents all hot and bothered, the CBSA likes to look just as much as its counterpart in the U.S.
The biggest difference between U.S. border guards and the CBSA is that the CBSA hasn't made their policy for laptop searches public. Judging by how they've handled the BC Civil Liberties Association's Access to Information request, they'd like to keep it that way.
Back in October 2009, the BCCLA filed an Access to Information Request with the CBSA looking for their policies on searching personal electronics and copying data from them. We got a polite acknowledgement, and we settled in to wait for the 30 days allowed by the Access to Information Act.
On November 30, 2009, we got another letter from the CBSA saying that they'd need another 60 days to meet the request, because a timely response would "unreasonably interfere with the operations of the government institution" and "consultations are necessary to comply with the request." We settled in to wait again.
February 1 came and went. Three months after the original request was filed, the CBSA remains unwilling or unable to provide a single document in response to our request.
We've written up an overview of the file and put the correspondence online. We'll be posting more about this over the next few weeks, and we'll be putting documents online as soon as we get them.

CBSA delays laptop search Access to Information request (Thanks, Greg!)

(Image: Pacific Highway crossing, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from scazon's photostream)

Previously:

Make: Online series: Maker Business

Mark Frauenfelder — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:21:09 PST

Gareth Branwyn says:

We're kicking off our Maker Business series with this piece by Jeffrey McGrew, who along with his wife Jillian Northrup, and their trusty CNC machine named Frank, are a two-person (and a bot) design and fabrication juggernaut. From their design-build studio, Because We Can, in Oakland, CA, they do custom interior design, furniture, and create such artistic wonders as the "Art Golf" course they've set up at Maker Faire. Here, Jeffrey shares some words of advice to those who may be thinking of going "Maker Pro."

Make: Online series: Maker Business

Video podcast infinite recursion

Mark Frauenfelder — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:37:39 PST

Look what happens on this podcast when the host clicks the button to play the podcast.

Phone texts in Nigeria urged mass murder

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:56:28 PST

"War, war, war. Stand up and defend yourselves. Kill before they kill you. Slaughter before they slaughter you. Dump them in a pit before they dump you." — One of many mass-text-messages sent last week in Nigeria, inciting people to murder. And they did: some 350 were killed in Christian/Muslim violence. (textually via Bruce Sterling)

The Lost Lizard People of Los Angeles (1934)

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:32:39 PST

Snip from 1934 Los Angeles Times article about lizard people who lived in tunnels under the city 5,000 years ago. This legend is a long-lived chestnut. A hi-rez scan, more at Strange Maps, and: Reptoids! The Flickr uploader, vokoban, has lots of great stuff.

NASA JPL working on radar project to map earth movement in Haiti

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:20:26 PST

"We're hoping to get some idea of how the earth relaxes, or releases stress, after an earthquake. This is just one tool to improve our understanding of the mechanisms in earthquakes and volcanoes."— Dr. Scott Hensley, principal investigator for NASA JPL's aerial radar project to map movements in quake-devastated Haiti.

ACLU on Google + NSA

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:45:21 PST

"The news that the NSA and Google are working on a deal for the military agency to help protect the information giant's data networks comes at a time when the NSA is angling to get a major piece of cybersecurity action. The only problem is, despite what the agency would have us believe, the NSA is mainly a spy agency, not a cybersecurity agency."—Michael German, at the ACLU blog.

Angry Norwegians in scuba gear chase after Google Street View car

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:54:43 PST

News story, auto-translated to English in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. More on Google Maps. (thanks, BB reader Kjetil Rydland in Norway!)

Teaching Shakespeare to a toddler

David Pescovitz — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:53:47 PST

Video link. Actor Brian Cox attempts to teach Shakespeare's most famous soliloquy to Theo, age 2 1/2. (Thanks, Lisa Mumbach!)

Patent for a screw-in coffin

Mark Frauenfelder — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:39:24 PST

Donald Scruggs of Chino, CA was awarded a patent in 2007 for a self-boring coffin. (Via Random Good Stuff)

A tale of two Buzzes

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:02:51 PST

Google Buzz. Why does name that sound so familiar? Ah, of course, it's because Yahoo Buzz launched almost exactly two years ago.

Beaker (of the Muppets) performs "Dust in the Wind" for mean YouTube commenters

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:16:52 PST

The official Muppets Studio channel on YouTube just keeps getting better and better. First "Bohemian Rhapsody," now this: Beaker performing the Kansas prog-rock classic "Dust in the Wind," and being pelted by caustic overlay annotations from anonymous strangers. Video Link: Beaker's Ballad.(via Laughing Squid)

Launder clothes in a giant kickable candy-striped ball

Lisa Katayama — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:51:07 PST

A Munich-based design studio is proposing a unique alternative to washing clothes by hand in developing countries. Swirl is the concept design for a giant candy-striped ball that you can stuff your clothes in; roll it around using removable handlebars or by kicking it around, and that rolling motion launders the clothes inside. It has the added benefit, the studio claims, of doubling as a giant soccer ball and a water transporter. What do you guys think? Good idea? Bad idea?

Swirl main page (via Inhabitots)

People who are frightened by pink Ouija Board

Mark Frauenfelder — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:15:23 PST

This article reports on people who think that playing with a pink Ouija Board can "leave a person's soul vulnerable to attack." Just think: this is the 21st century, and people who believe (or pretend to believe) this are currently walking the Earth. It's as amazing as discovering a lost tribe of Neanderthals.

It's designed for young girls ages 8 and older, but some say the mysterious product is a "dangerous spiritual game" that opens up anyone, particularly Christians, to attacks on their soul.
"There's a spiritual reality to it and Hasbro is treating it as if it's just a game," said Stephen Phelan, communications director for Human Life International, which bills itself as the largest international pro-life organization and missionary worldwide. "It's not Monopoly. It really is a dangerous spiritual game and for [Hasbro] to treat it as just another game is quite dishonest."
Phelan, who has never played the game, said the Bible explicitly states "not to mess with spirits" and that using a Ouija board will leave a person's soul vulnerable to attack.

Pink Ouija Board Targeting Young Girls Riles Critics (Via The Agitator)

Wireless power through magnetism, lasers, or RF

David Pescovitz — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:16:34 PST

New Scientist surveys the latest in wireless power, from highly directional lasers to magnetic induction. Paging Nikola Tesla -- your meme is ready! From New Scientist:

The idea of wireless power transfer is almost as old as electricity generation itself. At the beginning of the 20th century, Nikola Tesla proposed using huge coils to transmit electricity through the troposphere to power homes. He even started building Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island, New York, an enormous telecommunications tower that would also test his idea for wireless power transmission. The story goes that his backers pulled the funding when they realised there would be no feasible way to ensure people paid for the electricity they were using, and the wired power grid sprang up instead.
Wireless transmission emerged again in the 1960s, with a demonstration of a miniature helicopter powered using microwaves beamed from the ground. Some have even suggested that one day we might power spaceships by beaming power to them with lasers. As well as this, much theoretical work has gone into exploring the possibility of beaming power down to Earth from satellites that harvest solar energy (New Scientist.
Long-distance ground-to-ground wireless power transmission would require expensive infrastructure, however, and with concerns over the safety of transmitting it via high-power microwaves, the idea has been met with trepidation.

"Unplugged: Goodbye cables, hello energy beams"

Previously:

How to levitate by standing next to a wet spot on the sidewalk

Mark Frauenfelder — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:00:44 PST

I like this illusion.

Deep zoom into Mandelbrot set

Mark Frauenfelder — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:31:38 PST

From Forgetomori: "After a trip of 10 minutes inside this Mandelbrot fractal (be sure to check the HD version on Vimeo), the original image you saw would be "billions and billions" of times larger than the whole Universe."

The final magnification is e.214. Want some perspective? a magnification of e.12 would increase the size of a particle to the same as the earths orbit! e.21 would make a particle look the same size as the milky way and e.42 would be equal to the universe. This zoom smashes all of them all away. If you were "actually" traveling into the fractal your speed would be faster than the speed of light.

You might like to know that this animation took me about two days to set up. My computer then rendered day and night non-stop for just over a month to produce the animation. The resulting twenty-eight anti-aliased 1280x720 AVI files (each just under 2GB) were each watermarked at full frames (uncompressed) Then I stitched them all together uncompressed. I also added the audio track at the same time. This was all done in Virtual dub. (except watermarking) The final watermarked Avi with audio is a whopping 46GB - Then I compressed it to 495mb so I could upload it onto vimeo. I think it still looks fairly crisp
With the compression settings adjusted to achieve the highest quality, the resulting file size was about 1.5GB and looks absolutely sweet!

Zooming into a fractal bigger than the Universe

Scifi "disaster" Valentine cards

Lisa Katayama — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:38:19 PST

(by Garrison Dean for io9)

Toledo strip club gives "lap dances for Haiti"

Lisa Katayama — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:30:29 PST

Under its "lap dances for Haiti" fundraising initiative, an Ohio strip club donated $1,000 towards a local charity that provides food and clothing for the relief effort. It probably would have been more effective if they had donated cash directly, even if it came in the form of 1,000 $1 bills. Still, as the general manager of the club says: "You don't hear much about strip clubs giving back to the community."

Our mood affects our facial expressions, but also vice versa

David Pescovitz — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:18:54 PST

Often when we frown, it means that we're sad or grumpy. But how much does the frown also exacerbate the bad mood? To study this, University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology PhD candidate David Havas tested individuals who had received Botox treatments to stop brow-wrinkling. The subjects were asked before and after Botox treatments to read statements that were angry, sad, or happy. The Botox seemed to slow down the time it took the subjects to read and understand the angry and sad statements but not the happy ones. This supports the theory that facial expressions do affect the brain's ability to process some emotions, a concept Mark looked at in 2008 in a guest essay on Good. From the University of Wisconsin-Madison:

"There is a long-standing idea in psychology called the facial feedback hypothesis," says Havas. "Essentially, it says, when you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. It's an old song, but it's right. Actually, this study suggests the opposite: When you're not frowning, the world seems less angry and less sad."
The Havas study broke new ground by linking the expression of emotion to the ability to understand language, says Havas' adviser, UW-Madison professor emeritus of psychology Arthur Glenberg. "Normally, the brain would be sending signals to the periphery to frown, and the extent of the frown would be sent back to the brain. But here, that loop is disrupted, and the intensity of the emotion and of our ability to understand it when embodied in language is disrupted."
Practically, the study "may have profound implications for the cosmetic-surgery," says Glenberg. "Even though it's a small effect, in conversation, people respond to fast, subtle cues about each other's understanding, intention and empathy. If you are slightly slower reacting as I tell you about something made me really angry, that could signal to me that you did not pick up my message."
Such an effect could snowball, Havas says, but the outcome could also be positive: "Maybe if I am not picking up sad, angry cues in the environment, that will make me happier."
In theoretical terms, the finding supports a psychological hypothesis called "embodied cognition," says Glenberg, now a professor of psychology at Arizona State University. "The idea of embodied cognition is that all our cognitive processes, even those that have been thought of as very abstract, are actually rooted in basic bodily processes of perception, action and emotion."

"Can blocking a frown keep bad feelings at bay?" (Univ of Wisconsin-Madison)

Previously:

Why Darwin Would Have Loved Botox - Boing Boing

A place for rear load garbage truck fetishists

Lisa Katayama — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:24:39 PST

This is part of a series of over 2,000 photos in the Flickr group called World of Rear Load Garbage Trucks. There's a group for front load garbage trucks, too. (via Telstar Logistics) Photo via Pip Wilson's Flickr

Google launching "Google Buzz"

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:38:56 PST

I'm following a live stream of the Google press conference taking place in Mountain View this morning. They're launching a new product called "Google Buzz," a Twitter-like client that sort of acts like Friendfeed inside Gmail. Gizmodo has a blip, far more to follow.

The Garry Shandling Movie Poster Project

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:23:42 PST

Funnyperson Tim Heidecker has collected a bumper crop of photoshopped movie posters with Garry Shandling puns.

The 3D Chocolate Hills of Mars

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:07:48 PST

Above: 3D image of Martian rock formations, from Road to Endeavor blog. (via William Gibson, Paul McAuley)

UFOs: a wealth of possible explanations

David Pescovitz — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:15:17 PST

Are UFOs nuts-and-bolts spacecraft flown by extraterrestrials who traveled a long way (very long) across space to observe us? Repeatedly? For millennia? Er, maybe. But probably not. (For more on that, see BB contributor and heretical UFO researcher Jacques Vallée's 1990 paper "Five Arguments Against the Extraterrestrial Origin of Unidentified Flying Objects," available as a PDF here.) Fortean Times does a quick survey of more than two dozen other theories of the origin of UFOs, some quite far out and others that even a die-hard skeptic could love. Here are a few:

AWAKENINGS
At a point close to sleep, visual and auditory hallucinations are common, according to psychological studies. False awakenings, where a dream that includes a UFO encounter is misperceived as a waking memory, are also known. Some cases involving alien contact and bright lights seen outside bedroom windows have been successfully proven to fit these vivid experiences to which everybody is prone.

IFOs
After investigation, analysts agree that between 90 and 95 per cent of all UFO sightings prove to be Identified Flying Objects. Over 300 different things have been misperceived as UFOs - including a bin bag, a shaggy dog and a telegraph pole. The Null Hypotheses proposes that all of the remaining unsolved cases would become IFOs given enough study and sufficient evidence. However, statistical analysis (like that conducted by the Battelle Institute and French aerospace researchers GEPAN) has indicated differences between solved and unsolved cases that challenge this proposal.
KOOKS
After eliminating other options, a die-hard sceptic might offer the premise that 'kooks' see UFOs because of an innate desire to promote the mystical within their lives. They do so by introducing magic to mundane events so as to elevate their status amongst peers. No significant evidence has been published that more than a few witnesses are so motivated and most psychological profiles of UFO witnesses suggest they are stable individuals who sincerely believe that they have seen something odd.
LENTICULAR CLOUDS
Unusual cloud formations have been proven to create some UFO sightings. Lenticular clouds with their disc or cigar structure can be especially impressive, and though rare in Britain they can form anywhere - one encounter occurred in Rochdale. Rarer cloud types such as noctilucent (which reflect the sun from below the horizon when the local area is in darkness) have also provided plenty of reports.
MULTIVERSE
Physicists have attempted to explain some of the latest problems of cosmology by developing a theory of multiple interlocking universes. This proposes a series of universes that can be linked via subspace but where our limited perception restricts awareness of all but our own. Some universes could be closely aligned to ours and others would have evolved very differently. Rather than aliens coming to Earth from another planet, more advanced humans from a parallel universe might have found a way to cross the divide, with their transient presence in our own universe causing UFOs.

"An A to Z of UFO Theories"

Neat mixtape of country music covers in foreign languages

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:20:08 PST

Eric Steuer, best known for his work with Creative Commons and for his music project Meanest Man Contest, made a guest mixtape for the awesome LA-based country music blog "When You Awake." The playlist is a blend of country and western classics covered in other languages. It is verifiably awesome.

Guest Mixtape: Other Countries [When You Awake]

Above, a YouTube smush-up of one of the tunes Eric selected: Inger Lise Rypdal belting out "Fru Johnsen" (1968), a Norwegian cover of "Harper Valley PTA." (Wikipedia, IMDB, DVD) YouTube uploader Anewargentina paired the song with film footage from the movie of the same name (which spawned a TV sitcom). How do you say yee-haw in Norwegian?

Star Wars galaxy posters

David Pescovitz — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:20:59 PST

Justin Van Genderen designed a sharp series of minimalist posters representing various locations in the Star Wars galaxy. Terrific work! (via Laughing Squid)

Why is the UK TV regulator planning to allow BBC DRM?

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:14:27 PST

In my latest Guardian column, "Why did Ofcom back down over DRM at the BBC?" I look at how lamentably credulous both the BBC and its UK regulator, Ofcom, have been in accepting US media' giants threats to boycott the Beeb if it doesn't add digital rights management to its broadcasts. The BBC is publicly funded, and it is supposed to be acting in the public interest: but crippling British TV sets in response for demands from offshore media barons is no way to do this -- and the threats the studios have made are wildly improbable. When the content companies lost their bid to add DRM to American TV, they made exactly the same threats, and then promptly caved and went on allowing their material to be broadcast without any technical restrictions.

How they rattled their sabers and promised a boycott of HD that would destroy America's chances for an analogue switchoff. For example, the MPAA's CTO, Fritz Attaway, said that "high-value content will migrate away" from telly without DRM.
Viacom added: "[i]f a broadcast flag is not implemented and enforced by Summer 2003, Viacom's CBS Television Network will not provide any programming in high definition for the 2003-2004 television season."
One by one, the big entertainment companies - and sporting giants like the baseball and American football leagues - promised that without the Broadcast Flag, they would take their balls and go home.
So what happened? Did they make good on their threats? Did they go to their shareholders and explain that the reason they weren't broadcasting anything this year is because the government wouldn't let them control TVs?
No. They broadcast. They continue to broadcast today, with no DRM.
They were full of it. They did not make good on their threats. They didn't boycott.
They caved.

Why did Ofcom back down over DRM at the BBC?

Previously:

Enter button doormat

Lisa Katayama — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:15:23 PST

This lovely gray Enter key-shaped doormat is made of recycled crumbed rubber.

Link

US Trade Rep wants your input on ACTA

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:20:20 PST

The US Trade Representative -- who has been negotiating the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement without input from the American people or Congress -- is seeking public submissions on how to conduct US foreign copyright policy. This means that Americans can file comments with the USTR asking for ACTA to be made public

Under the Special 301 process the U.S.T.R. seeks input from U.S. copyright, trademark, and patent owners about whether policies and practices in foreign countries deny them adequate IP protection. The process has generally been used by IP holders to complain not only about lax enforcement in other countries, but also about limitations and exceptions in their laws that are beneficial to libraries, to education, to innovation, and to the public interest generally. The ability to comment in the Special 301 process is not limited to IP owners only. Any member of the public is free to file comments. If you believe in the importance of balanced copyright policies, file comments with the USTR and make your voice heard.
Comments can be filed electronically via http://www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2010-0003. You have to include the term "2010 Special 301 Review" in the "Type Comment and Upload File" field. More information about the Special 301 process is available here. Deadline for filing is February 16 by 5 p.m.

Tell USTR balanced copyright is important (via The Command Line)

Previously: