Boing Boing

Hitler: football coach?

David Pescovitz — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:45:26 PST

The Scottish veterans charity Erskine surveyed 2,000 young people between the ages of nine and 15 about World War I and II. Apparently, five percent thought that Hitler was a German football coach; sixteen percent believed that Auschwitz is a WWII theme park; five percent said the Holocaust was a bash to celebrate the war's end. (STV News)

Ebook license "agreements" are a ripoff

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:29:47 PST

In today's Observer Business column, John Naughton discusses what a ripoff it is for ebook vendors to "sell" you books with abusive, multi-thousand word "license agreements," pretending that because you bought your book over the network, it wasn't a sale, and so you don't get to own it. These "licenses" aren't about upholding copyright (if they were, you could replace thousands of words of lawyerese with four simple words: "Don't violate copyright law"). They're about overriding copyright -- which has all kinds of guarantees for the rights of book-owners -- with a private law that gives every advantage to the publisher or retailer, converting you from a noble reader to a wormy, contemptible licensor who doesn't deserve to own books.

The Kindle EULA is a good example. Section 3, which deals with "Digital Content" (such as downloaded books), says that "Unless specifically indicated otherwise, you may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content." In other words, you are forbidden to lend or sell the book you've just "bought". In real-world terms, you can't lend your copy of 1984 to a friend or donate it to the school jumble sale.
Under the subsection on "Use of Digital Content', the Kindle EULA says: "Amazon grants you the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Device or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service and solely for your personal, non-commercial use."
Translation: you can't back up your electronic books on to any other device - which means that if your Kindle packs up, or if Amazon moves on to another technical standard, you're screwed: your entire digital library has effectively been vaporised. Then you look round your house and note the number of electronic devices that no longer work.

Kindle readers beware - big Amazon is watching you read 1984

Carrier bags made from Indian newspapers and Bollywood posters

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:23:53 PST

These newspaper carrier bags are made in India by an NGO that provides education and shelter to street kids. The bags themselves are very sweet and good for several uses before they're ready for the recycling box, and make good use of the striking designs from the newspapers they're folded from (I like the Bollywood poster ones, too!).

Newspaper Bags (Thanks, Alice!)

Toronto Star copyeditor edits memo announcing the elimination of copyeditor jobs

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:25:56 PST

A copyeditor at the Toronto Star greeted the news that union copyeditor jobs were being eliminated in favor of freelancers by heavily editing the publisher's memo announcing same, pointing out all the ways in which the publisher could benefit from editorial aid.

This is very funny stuff, but having looked at the markup, I have to say that I would ask for a different copyeditor in future. A lot of these edits ("avoid simplistic qualifiers" for "very") fall under the heading of "creative disagreement" not "helpful suggestion" or "correction." I've generally benefitted from copyeditors who know the difference, but on the rare occasion where I've had to deal with a couple hundred pages of redlines by a copyeditor who thought that he was my co-author, it's been quite a struggle.

Disgruntled Star Editor Takes Constructive Revenge (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Zoomquilt II: Flash zoom-through painting

David Pescovitz — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:43:07 PST

The Zoomquilt II, a 2007 sequel to the jarring Zoomquilt of 2004, is an even more hypnotic Flash zoom-through collaborative painting with bits from more than 30 different artists. Zoomquilt 2 (via @Chris_Carter)

What MP3 player should I buy?

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:28:51 PST

I'm in the market for a new MP3 player -- my second-gen iPod Nano is finally dead, and I don't want to buy another iPod, or any other player with DRM built in. I figure that any company that wants to devote its engineers to figuring out how to frustrate my desires doesn't really want my business.

Who'd got a suggestion? I'm looking for something:

* small (Nano-sized or smaller),
* low-capacity (8GB is fine, all I use it for is podcasts),
* chargeable and connectable with a standard USB cable,
* reasonably rugged,
* with an LCD,
* capable of marking some files as podcasts or audiobooks and remembering where you stopped playing them, and,
* most importantly, I'm looking for something that can be connected to a set of lanyard headphones like these

I don't care if it has WiFi or Bluetooth, or if it plays games, or if it has a "store" on the net that lets me get music for it directly. I just want a chunk of solid-state storage with a headphone jack and a decent menuing system and headphones I can wear around my neck so that they don't get tangled in things.

Suggestions? Feed the comments, below (don't send email, I'm taking a break from it for the weekend).

Tiny jack-o-lanterns carved in seed-pods

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:16:56 PST

Master haunt modeller Ray Keim sez, "After a little bit of experimentation and a lot of patience, I figured out how to carve Putka Pods [ed: small, pumpkin-like dried seeds] into extremely tiny jack-o-lanterns!"

Putka Pod Possibilities! (Thanks, Ray!)

Previously:

Saturday Morning Science Experiment: Surgery On a Beating Heart

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:50:29 PST

And Now, Some Ripped-From-the-Headlines Context.....

First, why a beating heart? Traditionally, if you had a clogged artery on your heart and doctors wanted to sew in some "bypass" arteries to get around the sluggish ones, the surgeon would shut your heart down, using a heart and lung machine to pump your blood instead. Less than a decade ago, though, doctors started collecting evidence suggesting that being on the pump could, occasionally, lead to strokes, memory loss and personality issues. Off-pump, beating-heart, bypass surgery became an alternative.

I'd had this video planned for the last couple of weeks. But, on Thursday, a big study came out that suggests off-pump isn't as great as everyone was hoping it would be--nor was on-pump as bad as everyone was worried about. The New York Times explains it thusly:

In the study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, 2,203 patients were randomly assigned to have their bypass surgery on pump or off. Because the study was sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the patients were mostly men. A year later, those who had had off-pump surgery had poorer outcomes. Fewer bypasses stayed open and patients were more likely to have needed a repeat operation or to have had a heart attack or to have died. They were no less likely to have had strokes or difficulty thinking.

Older 'Pump' Heart Bypass is Best, A Study Finds, from the New York Times

Thumbnail image courtesy Flickr user Gustty, via CC

Danish anti-piracy group gives up

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:03:39 PST

Christian sez, "Just now it has been announced in the press by the official Danish Anti-Piracy agency, Antipiratgruppen, that they are throwing in the towel and will seize their operations completely; to find and prosecute music copyright offenders. Here is a translation of the first published article in today's Danish press."

"We have to, because it is has been announced by the state court, that it takes very strong and concrete evidence to have these people prosecuted. We have simply not been able to establish the necessary evidence..."
An overview of Danish trials shows an extremely small possibility of getting sentenced - unless the the accused confesses. Four principal state court trials last year lead to three acquittals and only a single sentence for illegal file sharing. And this sentence only came into place because
"Out of the four cases we can establish, that the courts do not sentence owners of Internet connections simply because of technical identification of IP-adresses and technical recognition of files," they say.

Danish anti-piracy agency throw in the towel (Thanks, Christian!)

Corporate law firm targets whistle-blowers and anonymous commenters

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:34:09 PST

A British corporate law firm has created a new unit that will help easily offended corporate giants track down and sue anonymous Internet forum posters. They will also target whistle-blowers. They specialize in figuring out how to get ISPs to turn over their subscribers' personal information.

A spokeswoman for Wragge said: "Courts can compel Internet Service Providers or telephone service providers to make information available regarding registered names, email addresses and other key account holder information.
One growth area is identifying individuals involved in leaking confidential information, such as client or financial details, to competitor companies. With the help of employment law specialists, the team can assist both in finding the source of such leaks and advising on any subsequent employment aspects."

Birmingham Wragge team to focus on online comment defamation (via Futurismic)

Cats with fraudulent diplomas

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:28:44 PST

Skeptics who believe that a university is actually a diploma mill often prove their point by enrolling their cats in the university's program and seeing whether the cat can get a degree. Some enterprising Wikipedians have assembled a list of several such cats.

Colby Nolan is a housecat who was awarded an MBA degree in 2004 by Trinity Southern University, a Dallas, Texas-based diploma mill, sparking a fraud lawsuit by the Pennsylvania attorney general's office.[1]...
Ben Goldacre, a UK-based science journalist, obtained a diploma in nutrition from the American Association of Nutritional Consultants for his dead cat, Henrietta, while investigating allegations about fake qualifications.[5]

List of cats with fraudulent diplomas (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

(Image: Count the cats!, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike photo from Eva 101's Flickr stream)

Vampire/otherkin/energy worker Meetup in San Francisco

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:23:10 PST

If you're a self-identified vampire, "otherkin" or "energy worker," there's a Meetup for you in the Bay Area.

The Vampirism, Energy-work and Otherkin Society (VEOS) is a loosely-organized San Francisco based group. This group is open those identifying as vampire (sang or psy), donor, otherkin, and to those who wish to learn more about such topics. Other energy-workers are also welcome, so long as you have no problem with the vampiric side of energy work.
This group is NOT open to role-players, recruiters of any type, or those seeking to promote any form of religion (discussion about religion is OK, preaching is not).

You know, I bet it's actually a pretty nice night out. As one member says, "we are all nice people and we have a good time when we get together."

Welcome to Bay VEOS (via JWZ)

Previously:

Otherkin: Elves trapped in men's bodies - Boing Boing

DMCA takedown shirt

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:19:06 PST

We'll never know what was originally intended for this Techdirt tee, but we can see the aftermath of the takedown notice it attracted!

DMCA Takedown T-shirt (Thanks, Dennis!)

Teen sex belongs in teen lit

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:09:27 PST

My latest Locus column, "Teen Sex," explains why I think young adult literature should have sex -- and other "mature" topics -- in it.

There's really only one question: "Why have your characters done something that is likely to upset their parents, and why don't you punish them for doing this?"
Now, the answer.
First, because teenagers have sex and drink beer, and most of the time the worst thing that results from this is a few days of social awkwardness and a hangover, respectively. When I was a teenager, I drank sometimes. I had sex sometimes. I disobeyed authority figures sometimes.
Mostly, it was OK. Sometimes it was bad. Sometimes it was wonderful. Once or twice, it was terrible. And it was thus for everyone I knew. Teenagers take risks, even stupid risks, at times. But the chance on any given night that sneaking a beer will destroy your life is damned slim. Art isn't exactly like life, and science fiction asks the reader to accept the impossible, but unless your book is about a universe in which disapproving parents have cooked the physics so that every act of disobedience leads swiftly to destruction, it won't be very credible. The pathos that parents would like to see here become bathos: mawkish and trivial, heavy-handed, and preachy.

Cory Doctorow: Teen Sex

Tim Biskup's Darth Vader and Astroboy

David Pescovitz — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:43:34 PST

BB pal Tim Biskup has a show of paintings and sculptures opening at the Barracuda Shop in Los Angeles next Friday evening, November 13. The show, titled "I Hate Everyone But You," will also feature prints by designer Matt Goldman and runs until December 3. Dig Biskup's psychedelic Vader above? Check out his take on Astroboy after the jump.

Cheeseburger parts coaster set

David Pescovitz — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:50:05 PST

This "collectible" and curious coaster set from Wendy's is up for auction on eBay. The starting bid is $9.99. According the listing, "All pieces are in EXCELLENT condition except the corner of the cheese has a small chip but still very usable."
"Collectible Wendy’s Restaurant Hamburger Coaster Set" (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!)

Twitter o'clock

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:22:55 PST

Big Ben strikes Twitter: BONG!. [Thanks, Brian!]

The OpenOffice Mouse

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:03:51 PST

It supports Windows, Linux, and Macintosh operating systems, will retail for $74.99, and is not a joke. [OpenOfficeMouse]

Courage (and training) defined.

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:31:40 PST

What's courage? When the Fort Hood gunman turned and shot at her, she ran toward him. She ran toward the bullets, firing. NYT profiles firearms expert Kimberly Munley.

Stealthy anti-whaling powerboat

David Pescovitz — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:50:07 PST

That is not Batman's boat but rather Earthrace, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ultraslick bio-diesel-powered anti-whaling speedboat. It's 80-feet long and very stealthy. Next month, it will head out to the seas around Japan to, er, protest the country's whaling industry. Life magazine has photos of Earthrace currently docked in Auckland, New Zealand. (Click image to see full photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images.) "Superbad Anti-Whaling Stealth Boat"

The Great Grave Robberies

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:37:57 PST

The dead don't just get up and walk off. No. They need felonious help for that. Mental_floss has a fun piece on five great grave robberies (some more successful than others)--with guest corpses ranging from Charlie Chaplin to Abe Lincoln.

Hoax!

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:22:16 PST

An MSNBC headline twitter feed, hacked! But it's surely a clever hoax: known-legitimate accounts don't link to it.

John McCain vs. Baby Sea Turtles vs. Rachel Maddow

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:08:54 PST

John McCain does not love baby sea turtles. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow does. I'm gonna side with the @maddows on this one.

MacHeist

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:18:34 PST

MacHeist is giving away a set of Mac apps free of charge, including Writeroom and Twitteriffic.

Fort Hood Shooter bought "cop killer" at "Guns Galore"

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:59:29 PST

Alleged shooter in yesterday's Fort Hood massacre bought his "cop killer" pistol legally at Guns Galore, in Texas. The ammo can pierce bulletproof vests. (via Danger Room)

Octopus pretending to be seaweed

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:02:06 PST

BocasResearchStation sez, "This video shows an octopus cleverly trying to camouflage itself amongst seaweed in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Hiding is the primary defense mechanism for these creatures, and this little guy is making use of branches of algae to try to get by unseen."

An Octopus Pretending to be Seaweed (Thanks, BocasResearchStation!)

Previously:

World record for grape-o-lantern carving

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:02:17 PST

Thessaly sez, "For those who wish Halloween wasn't over: Caitlin Roper holds the record for making the world's largest collection of jack-o-lantern grapes. She cut the lids of six grapes and hollowed them out before hand-carving faces into each one. They may also possibly be the world's SMALLEST jack-o-lanterns, but this is not verified."

Largest Collection Of Jack-O-Lantern Grapes (Thanks, Thessaly!)

Documentary about paper folding

David Pescovitz — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:03:47 PST

The trailer above is for Between The Folds, a new feature documentary film presented by PBS's Independent Lens. You can view the whole film on PBS on December 8 or at one of Independent Television Service's free Community Cinema screenings upcoming around the country. From MAKE:

The film documents "a determined group of theoretical scientists and fine artists who have abandoned their careers and scoffed at their graduate degrees to forge new lives as modern-day paper folders."

Featured in the film are MIT's youngest-ever tenured professor Dr. Erik Demaine; mathematician, sculptor, puzzle maker, and self-taught computer scientist Marty Demaine; master free-style folder Vincent Floderer; pioneering Israeli educator Miri Golan; mathematics professor Dr. Tom Hull; trained artist and instructor Paul Jackson; one of the most technically accomplished folders in the world, Eric Joisel; one of only a few handmade origami papermakers in the world, Michael LaFosse; origami "hyper-realist" and physicist Dr. Robert J. Lang (who was profiled in CRAFT Volume 05); material artist with a masterful understanding of patterns and geometry, Chris K. Palmer; and the father of modern origami, Akira Yoshizawa.

More clips from the film after the jump!

Between The Folds (Thanks, Chi Do!)

UK stamps to feature famous album covers

Lisa Katayama — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:51:04 PST

Next year, the UK's Royal Mail will sell 1st class stamps that feature images of 10 famous British album covers. The postal service collaborated with music mag editors and design writers to come up with the list — interestingly, no Beatles albums were chosen, but artists represented include Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, David Bowie, and The Rolling Stones. I wish the USPS would do something like this instead of boring us with stamps decorated with bells and reindeers. Studio Dempsey via Creative Review

Face painting art

Lisa Katayama — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:35:44 PST

James Kuhn is a Michigan-based artist who likes to paint his own face in the most intricate, creative ways. I love the one where he puckers up to represent a dog's butt. I've always wondered what my mouth would look like as an anus. James Kuhn's Flickr via Web Urbanist