Glyn sez, "I am loosing count of the number of different way that have been tried to bring software patents into Europe. I thought by now just about everyone knew they where a bad idea."

"European Commissioner McCreevy is pushing for a bilateral patent treaty with the United States. This Tuesday 13 May in Brussels, White House and European representatives will try to adopt a tight roadmap for the signature of a EU-US patent treaty by the end of the year. Parts of the proposed treaty will contain provision on software patents, and could legalise them on both sides of the Atlantic." Link (Thanks, Glyn!)

The Interstitial Arts Foundation (promoting "art made in the interstices between genres and categories...disciplines, mediums, and cultures") is celebrating the anniversary of the release of the Interfictions Anthology with a charity auction featuring jewelry made by Interfictioneers and inspired by the stories in Interfictions. This is a fascinating gang of science fiction/fantasy people who are really breaking new ground!

(Pictured: 'Willow Pattern' by Elise Matthesen, based on the story 'Willow Pattern' by Jon Singer.)

To celebrate the anniversary of Interfictions, we invited jewelers/beaders to create wearable art based on the 19 stories in our first original anthology. Come bid on some amazing pieces by many talented artists, including Elise Matthesen, JoSelle Vanderhooft — and Interfictions authors Leslie What, Rachel Pollack, and K. Tempest Bradford, who have created one-of-a-kind, collectible wearable interpretations of their own work!

New pieces go up every two days and auctions last for 4-7 days. Bid early and often–bids start as low as $10! All proceeds will go to supporting Interstitial Arts projects, including the second Interfictions volume, Interfictions 2, to be published in Fall 2009

Link (Thanks, Ellen!)

Budgens, a London supermarket chain, secretly records biometric facial photos of people who buy cigarettes and alcohol and compares it to a database of known underage buyers, and they're hoping to link their database with other grocery chains around the country. This means that just bringing a bottle up to the till means that your likeness and details will be added to a nationwide database, recording your movements and purchasing habits.

They'll probably be forced to drop the "secrecy" bit in the end, but that will not bring an end to the practice. Instead, they'll just put a sign up next to the till saying, "By buying alcohol here, you agree that we can violate your privacy and share your information with anyone we feel like." After all, that's what they do with the CCTV signs in London already.

If successful, it could be rolled out across the country to create a database of youngsters who try to buy alcohol.

The system alerts a cashier if it 'recognises' someone who has previously been unable to prove they are 18.

It is believed to be the first time a British retailer has used the technology in this way.

The software takes measurements between key points on the face to make a template of a person's features that is stored as a "token".

Customers' images are monitored and relayed to a control centre to be compared with under-18s already on record.

Future options include other retailers linking the scheme to their shops to create a giant database.

Link (Thanks, Frank!)

iDial adds an old timey rotary phone dial interface to your "jailbroken" iPhone.
Link (via Michael Leddy's Orange Crate Art)

A newly published letter reveals that Albert Einstein viewed religion and religious works as "childish," and "primitive works."

In the letter, dated January 3 1954, he wrote: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.

"No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this..."

"For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people."

Link (Thanks, Modeling Promotions Girl!)

Gweeds sez,

The NNDB Mapper is a visual tool for tracking the connections of more than 32,000 famous people- linking them together through family relations, corporate boards, tv shows, political alliances and shadowy conspiracy groups.

Creating a map with the NNDB Mapper tells a story about the world through connecting the lives of billionaire executives, scientists and inventors, politicians and activists, writers and musicians, and even Hollywood stars.

These stories are shared by saving the maps for others to explore- from San Francisco's political landscape, to Hollywood sex charts, to who rocks more: Ozzy vs Slayer?

Link (Thanks, Gweeds!)

Andy sez,

This afternoon, an NPR colleague of mine and I were almost arrested at Washington DC's Union Station for taking panorama photos with a Gigapan, a robotic camera mount developed by Carnegie Mellon University originally for the Mars Rover. The university had sent us a loaner of the robot for us to evaluate.

Though we were initially allowed to take photos, they unexpectedly changed their minds, demanding that we delete our pictures and cease taking pictures, or face arrest. They didn't seem to care I was Twittering their comments throughout the incident, though. I've posted a summary of what happened, as well as the resulting half-gigapixel panorama photo, on my blog.

Link (Thanks, Andy!)

Alex sez,

Thomas Denton of comic blog Say It Backwards has a nephew who was diagnosed with cancer. A charity called Candlelighters helped his family out. Thomas decided to use his connections in the comics world to organize some charitable auctions featuring original artwork by various artists to give something back to the organization. Apparently Time Warner (who own DC comics, who in turn own Superman, Batman and most of the cool superheroes who wear capes) objected to the selling of the pieces featuring their copyrighted and trademarked characters on eBay, specifically Superman from what I understand.

Using characters owned by the major comic book corporations is pretty common in charity auctions at comic book conventions. This is not to mention that if you go on eBay right now there are a lot of auctions for artwork featuring those same characters, none of which Time Warner seems to be going after.

Thomas has posted a statement apologising to everyone involved in the affair (artists, bidders), but it doesn't seem right that he's been left holding the bag for trying to something for sick kids. Some letters to Time Warner's PR department might make them think twice about sending out cease and desist orders so wantonly, and who knows, might even prompt them to kick some cash Candlelighters' way.

Link

In today's New York Times, a piece by John Schwartz on the cultural movement embodied in Maker Faire -- and its ties to Burning Man, and other tech/counterculture threads....

At first blush, then, this festival, sponsored by Make magazine, is a gathering place of pyromaniacs and noise junkies, the multiply pierced and the extensively tattooed. But wander awhile, and the showy surface gives way to a wondrous thing: the gathering of folks from all walks of life who blend science, technology, craft and art to make things both goofy and grand.

“We are grabbing technology, ripping the back off of it and reaching our hands in where we are not supposed to be,” says Shannon O’Hare, who has brought his three-story Victorian mansion on wheels, one of the most prominent examples of the anachronistic style known as steampunk, to the Faire. He is holding forth in a vintage British military uniform and pith helmet, and is gesturing with a hand that holds a sloshing tankard of ale.

“We’ve been told by corporate America that we cannot fix the things we own,” says Mr. O’Hare, who goes by Major Catastrophe and works as a fabricator for the stage and businesses. “All we can do is buy their stuff and like it.” Cars have become too complex to work on under a shade tree, and people have no idea what is inside their cellphones and cameras. “All this technology, and it’s not ours. It’s somebody else’s,” Mr. O’Hare says. “ Make is about taking that back off and making it yours.”

Link to the article (disclaimer: in which Pesco and I are quoted), and some cool multimedia stuff. Image above (Peter Da Silva, NYT) -- "At the Maker Faire, center. Justin Gray and his turbine robots, right, and a physics show participant fighting arcs from a Tesla coil, left."

Clayton Cubitt, whose photography I've blogged about a bunch of times here on BoingBoing, writes...

“Lagos Calling”, (above right) mixing African tribal style with working class British skinhead punk style. My good friend and constant collaborator, René Garza, and I had this idea about five years ago, and just finally got around to doing it last year. It felt good to get it out of our heads.

I don’t know when the idea for the Gnarls Barkley video “Going On” (above left)  was hatched, or shot, but it’s just coming out now and bears a striking resemblance to our inspiration. I think this is a lovely happenstance, and it’s happened to me before.

I’m a firm believer in artistic “multiples”, as Malcolm Gladwell writes about scientific discovery in The New Yorker...

But then, later, Clayton updates his post:

It looks like I spoke too soon. Turns out the production people for the Gnarls Barkley video were taking their inspiration from our shoot after all, and even contacted my stylist Rene’ in April to ask him where he had sourced the beaded African accessories. They didn’t bother hiring him for the job though, or crediting either of us for the advance “art direction.” You’re welcome anyway, Gnarls! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all.

Link, includes text of an email from the producers.

Dianne Stevens says: "When I heard the Magic Carpet miniature golf course here in Tucson was closing, I thought about that big Tiki Head and wondered what would become of it. It looks like it's destined for the landfill, but I thought you'd enjoy the photos."

Link (Here's some backstory)

Jake Adelstein was the first US citizen to work as a crime reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper, but he quit after getting death threats from the Yakuza. He has a book coming out called Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan. This is an article about his experiences reporting on the Yakuza for The Washington Post.

I have spent most of the past 15 years in the dark side of the rising sun. Until three years ago, I was a crime reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper, and covered a roster of characters that included serial killers who doubled as pet breeders, child pornographers who abducted junior high-school girls, and the John Gotti of Japan.

I came to Japan in 1988 at age 19, spent most of college living in a Zen Buddhist temple, and then became the first U.S. citizen hired as a regular staff writer for a Japanese newspaper in Japanese. If you know anything about Japan, you'll realize how bizarre this is -- a gaijin, or foreigner, covering Japanese cops. When I started the beat in the early 1990s, I knew nothing about the yakuza, a.k.a. the Japanese mafia. But following their prostitution rings and extortion rackets became my life.

...

On May 18, 2001, the FBI arranged for Tadamasa Goto -- a notorious Japanese gang boss, the one that some federal agents call the "John Gotti of Japan" -- to be flown to the United States for a liver transplant.

...

Three years ago, Goto got word that I was reporting an article about his liver transplant. A few days later, his underlings obliquely threatened me. Then came a formal meeting. The offer was straightforward. "Erase the story or be erased," one of them said. "Your family too."

I knew enough to take the threat seriously. So I took some advice from a senior Japanese detective, abandoned the scoop and resigned from the Yomiuri Shimbun two months later. But I never forgot the story. I planned to write about it in a book, figuring that, with Goto's poor health, he'd be dead by the time it came out. Otherwise, I planned to clip out the business of his operation at the last minute.

I didn't bargain on the contents leaking out before my book was released, which is what happened last November. Now the FBI and local law enforcement are watching over my family in the States, while the Tokyo police and the NPA look out for me in Japan. I would like to go home, but Goto has a reputation for taking out his target and anyone else in the vicinity.

Link

This Saturday, May 17, the SF in SF reading series will host authors John Shirley and Daniel Marcus in conversation with Terry Bisson. These free readings in San Francisco are some of the best science fiction events going anywhere in the world, and these are two great authors.

JOHN SHIRLEY "known for astonishingly consistent and rigorously horrifying work, addresses the terrible ease with which we modern Americans have learned to look away from pain and suffering... And while the matter of his stories is often shocking, his manner is calm, restrained, the prose attitude-free and precise, its characteristic sound a minor chord of sorrow and banked anger. His fiction, however, is only sometimes recognizably horror, as Shirley was also one of the primary cyberpunk writers, in company with William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker." His "lost cyberpunk novel" Black Glass, is due out in August from ESP books, with the urban fantasy novel Bleak History from Simon & Schuster to follow. John Shirley also wrote several suspense novels including Spider Moon and The Brigade, and won a Bram Stoker Award for his collection Black Butterflies. His best-known science fiction novels are City Come A-Walkin', the Eclipse trilogy, and A Splendid Chaos.

DANIEL MARCUS has published around twenty short stories in literary and genre venues, including Witness, Asimovs, Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, ZYZZYVA, and F&SF. Most of these stories will be collected in Binding Energy, appearing soon from Elastic Press. A finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, his short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and placed in the Asimov's Readers' Poll Top 10. His nonfiction has appeared in Wired, the San Francisco Chronicle, on Boing-Boing, and he is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. After a spectacularly unsuccessful career attempt as a saxophonist, Daniel earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from U.C. Berkeley. Currently a technology executive for a digital multimedia firm, Daniel lives in Berkeley, California, and he has authored more than twenty articles in the applied mathematics and computational physics literature, although the three are not mutually exclusive. Binding Energy is already garnering high praise, such as this from Mike Driscoll at The Fix: "If he deploys the mechanics of SF and fantasy, it is as a mean to explore worlds and mental landscapes defined by disconnectedness and isolation, by degradation and deceit, by love and its absence. This is not to say that these stories are filled with gloom and despair. Quite the contrary, most of them, despite their degraded physical or spiritual terrain, are marked by a sense of hope and possibility."

Lounge and cash bar open at 6:00 PM
7:00 PM readings
The Variety Preview Room
The Hobart Building, 1st Floor
582 Market St. @ Montgomery & 2nd, by Montgomery St. MUNI/BART
Entrance to the Hobart Bldg. is between Citibank and Quiznos

Link (Thanks, Rina!)

Joshua sez, "DefectiveByDesign.org has published an open letter urging libraries to embargo the use of DRM immediately, as well as a template for citizens to personalize letters to their local libraries urging them to stop using DRM technologies."

Libraries that use DRM are submitting patrons to the onerous and unethical legal terms involved with purchasing, installing, and using software such as Microsoft Windows and the Windows Media Player. In the case of Microsoft Windows, this entails agreeing to terms that allow Microsoft to delete software and data that the user legally owns and has created or installed on their own machines. For a library to require their patrons to agree to such End User License Agreements as a prerequisite for gaining access to its collection is an injustice.

These software requirements drive the sales of DRM technology vendors, such as Microsoft and OverDrive, providing an incentive for patrons to discontinue using software and materials that do not impose DRM. The common argument that DRM and proprietary software are necessary because publishers require them becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the library is using its own market power to encourage their use, hurting the emergence of competing alternatives in the process.

Link (Thanks, Joshua!)

This week's Science News discusses several real scientific research projects inside Second Life. For example, Drexel University neurobiologist Corey Hart (no, not that Corey Hart) is building a virtual frog to study the neural pathways involved in hopping. Meanwhile, Robert Amme, a physicist at the University of Denver, is modeling a nuclear reactor as a training tool. Indeed, many research institutions are leveraging the simple sim tools of SL to create immersive science learning experiences. From Science News:

“Early on, when SL really got going, it looked like it was going to be a huge playground,” says Amme. “I thought personally, who needs a second life unless you don’t have a first one?”

Although SL retains a large recreational component, with fantasy, racy nightclubs and sex, the science islands have distinguished themselves as places to connect with the “outside” world. Scientist-avatars guide students through formal university educational programs — such as the University of Denver’s master’s degree in environmental engineering — or create exhibits designed to demonstrate scientific principles. Navigational tools let users zoom in and around objects, making SL a convenient place to investigate phenomena that would otherwise be hard to visualize or understand. Avatars can, for example, initiate chemical reactions with a touch of their hand, watch a tsunami form or stroll through the internal structures of a cell.

Link

George W. Crane, MD, was a marriage counselor and wrote a syndicated national newspaper column called "The Worry Clinic." He developed a test in the late 1930s called the Marital Rating Scale -- Wife's Chart. Here's the fist page of the test.

The test was designed to give couples feedback on their marriages. Either husbands or wives could take the test, which rated wives in a variety of areas. For instance, if your wife "uses slang or profanity," she would get a score of five demerits. On the other hand, if she "reacts with pleasure and delight to marital congress," she would receive 10 merits. The test taker would add up the total number of merits and demerits to receive a raw score, which would categorize the wife on a scale from "very poor" to "very superior."

Link (via Mind Hacks)

Kevin Kelly recommends the most recent episode of This American Life, which is about the housing mortage crisis. I heard a short version of it on NPR a few days ago and am looking forward to the full-length podcast.

By far the best explanation I've heard of the Housing Mortage/Credit Crisis is -- improbably -- a podcast from the motherlode of story-telling on NPR, This American Life. This podcast is a bit different from their usual slice-o-life stories in that they try to explain something extremely complex and abstract -- but in personal stories. The episode is called The Giant Pool of Money and it's worth at least an hour of your time on your next commute. Hearing the agents all along the "chain" of events describe what they [were] thinking in their own words is about 100 times better than reading about it.

Link

Our friends at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories created a fun e-paper device with a 1970s analog chart recorder and a Fisher-Price Doodle Pro.



What do you get when you mix a 1970's style analog chart recorder, an 8-bit microcontroller, and a Fisher-Price Doodle Pro? A truly 21st century toy: An analog PlotBot with e-paper display technology!

...

So is it really e-paper? It turns out that it is. Strictly speaking, this is a magnetic display, not an electronic display. However, magnetic fields can be generated with electronics, so that point is negotiable. Much more importantly, it has all the hallmarks of electronic paper: it is a high-contrast, daylight-readable display that reflects ambient light much like regular paper. It is flexible, erasable, and it requires no electricity to maintain an image on the screen. And as it turns out, variations on this technology are actively being explored for use as electronic paper, as evidenced by a growing number of patents on the subject.

This particular one happens to be a big and flexible e-paper display-- not bad for fifteen bucks! Link

Boing Boing Gadgets' John Brownlee spotted this fantastic Flickr set comparing real photos of New York City with computer graphics from Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City. Link

Apparently, the sport of bowling isn't taken as seriously anymore because various ball and lane technologies can have a tremendous impact on scores. That's according to the United States Bowling Congress (USBC), who just completed a two-year study on the dynamics of high-tech bowling balls. The USBC is now launching an audit of the entire "System of Bowling" and hope to come up with some standards to, er, level the playing field. From Motion System Design:

The testing process officially began in summer 2006 after the formation of the USBC task force. A total of 59 particle and reactive resin bowling balls were used for the study conducted in the USBC testing center, Greendale, Wis., which includes eight lanes in a climate-controlled building. USBC's robotic ball thrower, nicknamed “Harry,” was used to roll the test balls. The data was measured using “Super C.A.T.S.” (computer aided tracking system) to record the velocity of the bowling balls as they were rolled down the lane. The system is made up of 23 small electronic sensors installed on the lanes.

Link (Thanks, Steve Steinberg!)

Previously on BB:
• Blind bowler gets perfect score Link

On March 25, Arwel Hughes, 27, of Holyhead, UK, assaulted two members of the Jedi faith church who were holding mock lightsaber duels in a garden. Hughes, wearing a black plastic garbage bag and screaming "Darth Vader," jumped a fence and hit Barney Jones and Michael Jones in the head and leg, respectively. The incident was captured on video. Hughes was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. From the BBC News:

Hughes told police he had no memory of the incident as he was drunk.

District Judge Andrew Straw said the publicity his case had received was perhaps a good thing, and a "wake up call" to deal with his alcohol problem.

Link to article and video (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)

Previously on BB:
• UK Church of the Jedi Link
• Jedi Bootcamp on BBtv Link

Robert Rauschenberg, a pioneer of multimedia art in the truest sense of the phrase, died last night. He was 82.

"It is impossible to have progress without conscience." -Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008).


Link to NYT obit, Link to Wikipedia entry (Thanks, Jeff Cross!)

I'm skeptical about a "talking R2D2 ice bucket," but I'm utterly sold by the fact that it comes with a Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite ice-cube mold! Now that'd be a classy cocktail! Link (via OhGizmo)

Fred sez, "Carrie Brownstein, formerly of Sleater-Kinney, now has a blog on NPR's website. She put together a mix of songs, and wanted to include a track from the Dead (since the songs are on the NPR site, she asked permission, unlike every other MP3 blog in the world). Look what happens:"

"An interesting tidbit: This mix was supposed to have the Grateful Dead on it, whose music I really love, but they refused unless we promised to do a piece on them on All Things Considered. In addition, we would need to run a feature on The Dead on the site. Here's a sentence I've never written: Someone needs to take a bong hit and chill out. Just a simple "no thanks" would have sufficed. Are The Dead really in need of publicity? Because I swear there's a dancing bear sticker on every third car I see in Portland. And now I've written a paragraph on them anyway, for free, not even in exchange for a song. Doesn't that count?!"

Link (Thanks, Fred!)

Neil sez,

Some oceanographer friends of mine were encouraged to apply for TWIC cards so that they could access research vessels in port without escorts. Because they're, y'know, researchers.

That's not how the TSA rolls, though, and they received nice letters on TSA letterhead explaining that "I have determined that you pose a security threat."

It's a good thing we found this out now, before the NSF, MIT, and WHOI agreed to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for them to study here.

So let's review:

* Foreign students on F-1 visas are under no circumstances eligible for TWIC cards, even if they have a legitimate need to access US ports and research vessels.
* They shouldn't worry though, because anybody who has a TWIC card can still escort them (or anybody else) into "restricted" areas. Even though the TSA doesn't trust you, as long as someone they do trust trusts you, that's good enough.
* When the agency that's responsible for inspecting your shoes and liquids at the airport calls you a security threat, you shouldn't worry: it's not like there could possibly be far-reaching repercussions.

I feel better already.

Link (Thanks, Neil!)

Fred sez, "Nice article explaining how the end of analog TV in the U.S. in Feb. 2009 is going to unleash DRM troubles on a lot of unsuspecting consumers."

This is great for the studios, but it's not how the audience thinks (or should think) of their product. Paying for some form of content should directly connect to real received value: a performance of a movie in a theater. A DVD with additional commentary and deleted scenes. And yes, convenient on-demand availability, when appropriate. But too often, the "value" is based upon an indirect conspiracy to make it difficult or impossible to use the media you've already paid for, making the end result a tax on the technological have-nots.

Link (Thanks, Fred!) --

Kevin Kelly is one of the most fascinating people I've ever had the honor of meeting. For today's episode of Boing Boing tv, I visited his Bay Area home to learn more about the stories behind the stunning images that comprise Asia Grace, one of my favorite books by Kelly (there are many others).

Before he helped launch Wired 15 years ago, and served as the publication's founding editor, the onetime "nomadic photojournalist" wandered throughout Asia with a backpack crammed full of film -- and little else.

The resulting images, most of which were taken in the 1970s, form the body of Asia Grace. We see worlds that no longer exist: Afghanistan and Iran before wars that changed them forever; and traditional lifestyles in Tibet, Nepal, China, and India that fade further into history with each passing year.

Here's an Amazon link for the book.

In part two of today's episode, Kelly explains his hypothesis of "A thousand true fans," an idea that generated much debate and discussion on Boing Boing recently when we pointed to his blog posts on The Technium (which you should read regularly, if you don't already). His question: in the internet age, can an artist subsist on the micro-patronage of a thousand true fans?

Link to Boing Boing tv episode with discussion and downloadable video.

Last week, I told you about my donations program for my new book, Little Brother. Every time I put a book online for free, I'm inundated by offers of cash "tips" from people who got the ebooks for free. I don't want anyone's money (cutting my publisher out of the loop isn't good for them or me), so I came up with an alternative. I asked librarians and teachers who wanted free copies to step forward and put their names down, and now I'm looking for would-be "donors" to step forward and send them copies of the book.

The project's been a smashing success so far: dozens of librarians, teachers and related trades put their names down for free copies, and we've started to fulfil the orders at a good clip. There's plenty of open orders left, though -- if you're one of those people who wants to compensate me for the free ebook, here's your chance! Link