randomwalks/dj

ESPN: Contenders Ullrich, Basso barred from Tour de France:

"The enemy is not cycling, the enemy is doping," tour director Christian Prudhomme said.

That's a pretty statement. What if cycling is doping? This should put all of Lance Armstrong's doubters to bed for good. Not only is Lance the most decidedly un-doped athlete in history, having repeatedly been assumed guilty and proven innocent, now his top two career rivals have been found guilty of doping.

There's more news over at the Tour De France blog, which is the best blog on the internet for these three weeks every year.

Originally from hello, typepad by David Jacobs reBlogged on Jun 30, 2006, 11:02AM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on June 30, 2006 12:13 PM

More evidence to support my theory that sugar is the best substance in the world: A research group at the UW Madison has just released a report on more efficient and less costly means of converting fructose (fruit sugar) from biomass into a chemical compound used for producing plastics, fuel-additives and biofuel (called HMF).

According to UW Madison's own news source:

The new process goes beyond making fuel from plants to make industrial chemicals from plants...Dumesic's research group made a series of improvements that raised the HMF output, and also made the HMF easier to extract.

Once made, HMF is fairly easy to convert into plastics or diesel fuel. Although the biodiesel that has made headlines lately is made from a fat (even used cooking oil), not a sugar, both processes have similar environmental and economic benefits, Dumesic says. Instead of buying petroleum from abroad, the raw material would come from domestic agriculture. Expanding the source of raw material should also depress the price of petroleum.

The idea itself is not new, and in fact, Madison has long been a hotbed for research into biomass conversion for kicking the petroleum habit. Professor James Dumesic and his team, however, have broken new ground in terms of creating a process that can compete economically with the more conventional and unsustainable models.

According to a Wired article on the subject:

Initially, producing plastics this way might require some investment, but the long-term gain would be that the process is much cleaner than petroleum-based methods. While using petroleum dumps new carbon dioxide into the air, the carbon dioxide released when extracting chemicals from plants is created from molecules that are already in the ecosystem. As long as the biomass of plants remains relatively stable around the world, the balance of carbon dioxide naturally occurring in the atmosphere should remain, and global warming should not be significantly affected.

From the sound of it, if the patent pans out, the process will not only be groundbreaking in terms of economic viability for biomass-produced material, but also for the sheer breadth of products that could be made in this way. Considering that polymers comprise nearly every material thing we interact with in the world, it's a pretty vast arena.

This reminded me of Plantic, a biodegradable, non-toxic plastic that was recently spotted in the blogosphere as someone's rather surprising snack. I suspect, however, that these fructose-derived polymers will not have much to offer in the culinary department.

(Posted by Sarah Rich in A Newly Electric Green – Sustainable Energy, Resources and Design at 03:57 PM)

Originally from WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future by Sarah Rich reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 7:57PM

Originally posted by Sarah Rich from WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future, on June 30, 2006 12:10 PM

Byrne demonstrates a tag widget - something I would love to see implemented into Movable Type as a Transformer plugin. Vox's tagging mechanism is very similar.

Originally from Movalog Sideblog reBlogged on Jun 27, 2006, 8:02AM

Originally from Movalog Sideblog, on June 30, 2006 12:10 PM

James reviews Movable Type 3.3 and concludes it was well worth the wait. Movalog has been on the bleeding edge of Movable Type updates every night, the fact that Movalog is still alive is a testament of the quality of Six Apart releases (even those unofficial)

Originally from Movalog Sideblog reBlogged on Jun 30, 2006, 3:47AM

Originally from Movalog Sideblog, on June 30, 2006 12:10 PM

Did you know that green tea is an Umami-rich food? Now you do, thanks to the Umami Information Center. One of their recent articles describes the complexity of choosing, preserving, and cooking with konbu, although there is little in the way of concrete advice offered to the home cook.

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 8:30AM

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket, on June 30, 2006 12:08 PM

Wine 101: A Sensory User's Manual ... using chemistry, physiology, physics and psychology to develop a wine palate, and this list of recommended books on wine. Also see this recommended article, Intro to Wine Tasting by Lauriann Greene-Sollin, Sommelier-Conseil.

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 8:30AM

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket, on June 30, 2006 12:08 PM

It seems that as people age, they get better at perceiving happiness, and worse at perceiving fear.

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 8:30AM

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket, on June 30, 2006 12:08 PM

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to try and find out whether the US goverment is using brain scan lie detection technology on suspected terrorists.

The most likely technology to be used for anti-terrorism purposes is Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), which can produce live, real-time images of people's brains as they answer questions, view images, listen to sounds, and respond to other stimuli. Two private companies have announced that they will begin to offer "lie detection" services using fMRI as early as this summer. These companies are marketing their services to federal government agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, the National Security Agency and the CIA, and to state and local police departments.

While fMRI is certainly a hot-topic at the moment, EEG-based lie detection technology based on the same principle has been around for almost two decades now, and has the advantage of being more portable and considerably cheaper.

It's interesting that it's still not clear (publically at least) whether fMRI has any advantages over the existing EEG method, so it will be interesting to see if anything comes out of these enquiries.

Link to ACLU press release (via /.)
Link to actual Freedom of Information Act request.

Originally from Mind Hacks by vaughan reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 5:47AM

Originally posted by vaughan from Mind Hacks, on June 30, 2006 12:08 PM

Art meets geekery with this laser-etched Powerbook featuring Rene Magritte’s The Son of Man…

Originally from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog by Johnny reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 10:42AM

Originally posted by Johnny from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, on June 30, 2006 12:06 PM

Hack your way out of writer's block, from 43 Folders. Minus points for the egregious (even in 2004) misuse of "hack" but extra plus points for having useful tips. What usually works best for me is moving on to write something else for a while, even if it's just a paragraph or two.

Originally from cheesedip.com reBlogged on Jun 30, 2006, 11:24AM

Originally from cheesedip.com, on June 30, 2006 12:05 PM

blog.myspace.com/kaiserjan

The genius behind the “Jan Ullrich myspace page” says the fun's over, and he's incredibly disappointed that Ullrich, who he loves for his class and humanity, has at the very least lied about his involvement with the Madrid clinic:

This is a disappointment on many levels for me, but it's a slap in the face to everyone who loves the sport, to every CAT racer out there grinding it out in Nowhereland for a place on a rickety plywood podium, and everyone who just gets out and rides.

If I'm going to cheer for anyone, I'm going to cheer for David Millar, who has been brutally honest about what he did, and is now trying to ride the Grand Boucle without anything in his bloodstream, unlike God-knows-how-many other riders in the peloton.

Thanks for reading, let's hope Jan and Ivan get themselves straightened out, and lets hope for the best Tour de France in 20 years.

rec.bicycles.racing | My own twisted vision ...

it is this collection of rights : rights to a presumption of innocence ; right to fair and free access to justice ; right to contradict the organs of state - these rights are being dismembered. By the press, the state, the ASO and UCI.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY - by the members of the public *especially in this forum* who think they have the moral qualifications to intuit truth, form judgments, castigate others, all without having enough knowledge to tie their own shoelaces.

This is turning into an event of mobocracy, with all kinds of actors of all spheres.
My opinion - the dopers (whoever they are) have done less damage to cycling that have all the above. Yeah - I suppose lots of you plan to burn the witches.

Originally from Tour de France 2006 by Frank Steele reBlogged on Jun 30, 2006, 9:46AM

Originally posted by Frank Steele from Tour de France 2006, on June 30, 2006 12:05 PM

CNet has an in-house GoogleFS clone called Haystack.

Originally from Hack the Planet reBlogged

Originally from Hack the Planet, on June 30, 2006 12:04 PM

the woman that Jerri Blank from "Strangers with Candy" is based on; don't miss the insane LSD video [via] 

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Jun 30, 2006, 4:09AM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on June 30, 2006 12:04 PM

Eyal Burstein has designed a series of objects he calls Progress Bar. They measure long terms goals or wishes, creating an emotional link to the passing of time. There's a model that runs for 18 years with each band represents one year. Other models span over a shorter period of time, like one month. The Progress Bar serves as a gentle reminder, requiring very little attention or upkeep.
Video on the designer's website.

I asked Eyal a couple of questions:

How does it work exactly?
1. you make a wish,
2. set the time by turning the top cap
3. Leave to do its thing

What makes it better than websites such as 43 things?
It is very much in that world. Though this object measures promises and wishes which are very hard to quantify. i.e. wishing to move country, be thinner, be a better person. These ideas are 'Big' they change your life but also they do not occupy it constantly, the progress bar serves as a gentle reminder.

If i have three wishes, i need 3 measurers?

I think this object is a gift, it is a gift from someone close, someone who understands the significance of a certain event or decision. So you may end up with many but I would imagine you would have only one.

Also by Eyal Burstein: the Bubble Screen.

Originally from we make money not art by Regine reBlogged on Jun 30, 2006, 5:29AM

Originally posted by Regine from we make money not art, on June 30, 2006 12:03 PM

My husband writes an open letter to Michael Pollan about my growing food obsessions. Of course he exaggerates: the lot is in the East Village, not Queens; the cow is really just a calf; and our neighbors aren't complaining, they've all joined my CSA!

Originally from megnut.com blog by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Jun 28, 2006, 2:07PM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on June 30, 2006 12:03 PM

Foie gras and lobster are not at the heart of the real tough issues of animal welfare, says Michael Pollan. I agree, and that's why I view the recent bans as more of a gesture than anything attempting to effect actual change.

Originally from megnut.com blog by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Jun 28, 2006, 3:43PM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on June 30, 2006 12:03 PM

I'm off for the long weekend. Have a great Independence Day and I'll see you back here on the 5th.

Originally from megnut.com blog by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Jun 30, 2006, 10:33AM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on June 30, 2006 12:03 PM

Name the subject, originally uploaded by david.

Not only can DavidJacobs draw a pretty damn good Lincoln on his Nintendo DS Lite, he is the first person I know who has his Brain Age at 20. A question for DavidJacobs: What brain age did you start at and how long did it take to get it to 20 years old?

You are my friend, but I might bludgeon your head to break it open to steal your developed 20 years old prefrontol cortex. You can have mine - it's sitting at 28 right now.

Originally from Hi Tricia! by Tricia Wang 王 圣 㨗 reBlogged on Jun 30, 2006, 11:34AM

Originally posted by Tricia Wang 王 圣 㨗 from Hi Tricia!, on June 30, 2006 12:02 PM

The former New York police commissioner would admit to improperly accepting a gift of apartment renovations.

Originally from NYT > Home Page by WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM from NYT > Home Page, on June 30, 2006 12:01 PM

City health officials are seeking to vaccinate thousands of drug users and others in and around Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Originally from NYT > Home Page by RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA from NYT > Home Page, on June 30, 2006 12:01 PM

Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Francisco Mancebo were suspended or withdrew from the race because of fresh evidence of involvement with banned performance-enhancing techniques or drugs.

Originally from NYT > Home Page by EDWARD WYATT reBlogged on Jun 30, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by EDWARD WYATT from NYT > Home Page, on June 30, 2006 12:01 PM

Second part of a two-part interview with designer Michael Bierut. "I've found that any reluctance I've had to doing more of this 'political design' has to do with my own fear that things like T-shirts and posters are usually feeble tools to address the enormous problems we face as a society today." Read part one.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 3:29PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on June 29, 2006 7:05 PM

Many have wondered about the history behind the little red building on 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue. The New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company building, also home to Edwin Litchfield’s Brooklyn Improvement Company and lovingly nicknamed Pippin after the radiator company that last inhabited it, received individual landmark status on Tuesday.

According to the Commission’s report, the building was one of the first concrete structures in the nation. Built between 1872 and 1873, it was designed by William Field and Son to serve as the main office of the Coignet Stone Company and was meant to highlight Coignet (artificial) stone, which was really a type of concrete invented by Francois Coignet in the mid-19th century.

The building currently stands in solitude on the corner of 3rd and 3rd but will have a new neighbor at some point in the future – Whole Foods.

Commission Landmarks Brooklyn Office Building [LPC]

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Corie reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 10:44AM

Originally posted by Corie from Brooklyn Record, on June 29, 2006 7:03 PM

You gotta love a good conspiracy theory. We had to share this blog post that discusses some strange goings-on at 80 Hanson Place in the early 1980s:

"Anyone who lived here during this time will remember that when you walked down Hanson Place at night, the howls of monkeys in pain could be heard up and down the street and that security at the building was odd for a block that was dominated by the crack trade... Was Brooklyn home to a BioWarfare Lab? Maybe they were developing biological agents like AIDS, or maybe they were putting the finishing touches on Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds. Shame on them for unleashing either one of these things on the world."

We weren't patrolling crack dens of Hanson Place in the early '80s (this editor was hooked on canned Gerber food at the time), but can anybody back this story up?
Bio-Warfare @ Brooklyn Acamedy of Music? [JeepBastard]
Photo by John Threat/JeepBastard.com

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Jun 27, 2006, 12:24PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on June 29, 2006 7:03 PM

Filed under: Internet, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX)

The idea of user-generated, ranked and organized content is the obsession d'jour among both start-ups and incumbent portal sites. Digg goes mainstream; Netscape clones Digg; Yahoo does a Wikipedia twist with Answers; social bookmarking site del.icio.us spawns sites like Kaboodle, Plum and Prefound.  All of these functionalities will clearly soon find themselves embedded into mainstream portals, but how important will they be in the long-term?

Jaron Lanier (father of virtual reality, Discover magazine columnist, technology philosopher nonpareil) had an interesting essay in the online magazine Edge last month: Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism.  He begins with an amusing anecdote about how someone kept adding "filmmaker" to his Wikipedia biography; as Jaron made exactly one small film long ago and doesn't consider himself to be a filmmaker, he took it out -- but the well-meaning contributor kept putting it back in. (Now that Jaron has written about it, "filmmaker" finally seems to be removed from the bio.)

He goes on from this to challenge some of the "wisdom of crowds" thinking that underlies many of the social ranking, tagging and pointing sites, ultimately suggesting that without some sort of evaluative, value-driven framework, many of these systems end up producing the lowest-common-denominator output.   It's a far too complex argument to summarize here, and the Edge site also includes some very thoughtful rebuttal, so it's worth a serious read.

What does this mean for the current Web 2.0 goldrush and the portals?  Continue reading....

 

I'd argue that we're already seeing some of these lowest-common-denominator issues arise.  Take Digg, for example -- even before its latest version, the earliest Digg enthusiasts were already complaining that its technology focus was being diluted and (horrors!) it was turning into Fark. Beyond that, it's well-known that coordinated groups of users can (and do) regularly manipulate Digg ratings. Or look at MySpace, whose corporate owners are spending more and more time and money trying to keep it from spinning into a place known more for porn stars, sexual predators and unwisely publicized teen exploits than a true community of users. 

This isn't to say that user generated and/or tagged, ranked and pointed content isn't important--it's clearly as much a part of the Internet as "professionally" produced or mediated content.  But like most new developments on the Web, it's currently being seen as a far bigger piece of the puzzle than it actually is.

So what's the next piece of the puzzle?  I think it's the rediscovery of the value of professionally-produced content.  Several commentators, for example, have recently noted that the entire blogosphere basically exists on the substrate of the traditional media outlets that do the actual (and often expensive) reporting. The blogosphere, along with Google, Yahoos and all the other aggregators, pointers, rankers and taggers, are thriving on the Internet; the traditional media are not. Sooner or later, I suspect that the content owners are going to exercise their property rights a little more aggressively, and begin to make it more difficult for that huge layer of companies that generate ad revenues off their links. 

In terms of the portals we watch here, MSN has long created some original content, and AOL and Yahoo are beginning the process as well. (AOL, of course, also has the Time Warner family from which to draw content). Google, so far, seems the least interested in original content and arguably has done the most to alienate content owners, through both minor gaffes (Google News) and major actions (the Google Library Project). It will be most interesting to see how these various DNAs play out if content once again becomes king in Web 3.0. 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Originally from Blogging Stocks by Michael Rogers reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 8:41AM

Originally posted by Michael Rogers from Blogging Stocks, on June 29, 2006 7:02 PM

Fed up with 'Flash'? Getting annoyed with animated gifs? Well, why not try an alternative - CSS Flick Animation

Originally from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs by exiledsurfer reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 4:46PM

Originally posted by exiledsurfer from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on June 29, 2006 7:01 PM

I am clearing out my Marsedit "draft" posts. Incoherence follows. As Chris says:

Away from my keyboard, I "write" exemplary posts to my mind's blog. It occurs to me that a shunt for the mentally unpublished would be nicer software for me to help build.

Hey Six Apart, get on that!

From The New Yorker:

"Superman" doesn't have enough conviction or courage to be solidly square and dumb; it keeps pushing smarmy big emotions at us, but half-heartedly. It has a sour, scared undertone. And you can't help being aware that this is the sort of movie that increases the cynicism and sense of futility among actors. In order to sell the film as star-studded, a great many famous performers were signed up and then stuck in among the plastic bric-a-brac of Krypton; performers who get solo screen credits, with the full blast of trumpets and timpani, turn out to have walk-ons. Susannah York is up there as the infant Superman's mother, but, though Krypton is very advanced, this mother seems to have no part in the decision to send her baby to Earth. York has no part of any kind; she stares at the camera and moves her mouth as if she'd got a bit of food stuck in a back tooth. Of all the actors gathered here—all acting in different styles—she, maybe, by her placid distaste, communicates with us most directly.

Pauline Kael's review of Superman could have been written about nearly any blockbuster between then and now, and indeed she wrote this message into her reviews and reviews over and over. Today Kael looks like a literary giant next to the numbskulls currently reviewing films for the The New Yorker, but here she is simply dead wrong. The original Superman is a masterpiece. (Via kottke.)

Neither your friend nor your boss will be impressed when you quote [Oscar] Wilde. Yet he has yet another one-liner to describe this process: “Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.” Asking students to draw the line was my lesson plan.

From a nice post by my Mom about a presentation she gave to other English teachers this month.

Nicolas Nova's essay "Guy Debord and how IT renews the urban experience" is an uneven but worthy read.

Rebecca has been compiling summer reading lists. They're all worthy, but the Interaction Design summer reading list caught my attention.

KRS One has a myspace page.

Bill "Spaceman" Lee, on when he hurt his elbow once and was given drugs by the Red Sox:

They're going, 'Here, take this, take this, take this.' Afterwards, I've got sterazolidin, butazolidin, Clenerol, Indicin. I've got everything in me. I can pitch in the American League, but I couldn't run in the Kentucky Derby. Holy cow, I'm glowing in the dark. Now all of a sudden (current players) are doing it on their own and now it's a crime?!

That's a quote from the Baseball Prospectus' 5000th article, a landmark worthy of note from the best sports site on the Internet. Bill Lee also said:

The other day they asked me about mandatory drug testing. I said I believed in drug testing a long time ago. All through the sixties I tested everything.

This should give you an idea of how dramatically the discussion around drugs in Baseball has shifted.

Finally, ramps pizza at Otto's.

Originally from hello, typepad by David Jacobs reBlogged on Jun 29, 2006, 3:36PM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on June 29, 2006 6:30 PM

Third rail leaps!

Just a brilliant piece of the NYC graf pioneers in their own words (with some add-ons from the peanut gallery of 'experts' like this old peanuthead) assembled by Dimitri and Gregor Ehrlich, in the same magazine that brought graf to "serious" attention 23 years ago with graffiti's first great advocate, Richard Goldstein. Wish they had gotten PHASE 2 or JAMES TOP or covered the mid and later 80s perhaps with the help of the great folks from At 149th, but still, all in all, a must-read!

Originally from zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric by Jeff reBlogged on Jun 27, 2006, 11:37AM

Originally posted by Jeff from zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric, on June 29, 2006 12:14 AM

Everybody Coffins produces coffins that are easy to assemble without tools, IKEA-style, and ship flat easily. They've built them for emergencies, but I think they will probably see another big market from people who want economical coffins, unlike those gilt mahogany extravaganzas that funeral homes try to push upon the bereaved.

Originally from Caterina.net by noemail@noemail.org (caterina) reBlogged on Jun 27, 2006, 4:52PM

Originally posted by noemail@noemail.org (caterina) from Caterina.net, on June 29, 2006 12:14 AM

Fri 23/06/2006 09:08 LifeRecorder007

Originally from ChristianLindholm.com by Christian Lindholm reBlogged on Jun 23, 2006, 4:25AM

Originally posted by Christian Lindholm from ChristianLindholm.com, on June 29, 2006 12:14 AM

From www.mapstraction.com:

Mapstraction is a library which provides a common API for Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft's javascript mapping APIs to enable switching from one to another as smoothly as possible. The aim of Mapstraction is mainly to protect companies building commercial products on top of Google Maps from changes to terms and conditions, the introduction of ads, or the emergence of a competing library with better maps, different imagery or preferable licensing terms. (Via Gabor)

Seems like a good thing ...

Originally from Mashalist by Rick Burnes reBlogged on Jun 27, 2006, 11:23AM

Originally posted by Rick Burnes from Mashalist, on June 29, 2006 12:13 AM

"I'm uncomfortable in general with this node traversal. It's a lot like throwing a hand grenade into a group of children."

"Your ProfileManager class would be greatly improved if it adopted a concept from pinball. I recommend multiball."

"You don't seem to consider the effect this change would have on our nation's waterfowl. Also, consider other nation's waterfowl."

"Don't detect nulls. Instead, try having them be self-detectable."

"I think Hitler once wrote this."

Originally from massless by Chris Wetherell reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 3:04PM

Originally posted by Chris Wetherell from massless, on June 29, 2006 12:13 AM

Today might be a good day to look at the bright side of 'teh internet' life. Lawrence Lessig (author of Free Culture), Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), various advocates of the Free Culture network organisation and others are all meeting at the iCommons Summit in Rio to discuss Creative Commons, open networks, non-restrictives licenses, global Digital Commons and the fact that maybe, in 2006, 'Sharing is Daring'. A similar summit has been taking place earlier this month in Thailand, under the name of Asia Commons. I for one thinks it's extremely exciting to see all kind of artists, collectives and record labels using the CC licenses for the work they publish. After all, we now all live in a 'Remixed Culture', since everything we ever use was once part of something else, wasn't it? openDemocracy has been publishing a solid set of articles & a debate about the topic.

Originally from MetaFilter posts tagged with copyright by Sijeka reBlogged on Jun 23, 2006, 7:25AM

Originally posted by Sijeka from MetaFilter posts tagged with copyright, on June 29, 2006 12:13 AM

From Computer Arts, 50 ways to become a better designer. Usually, these lists are a lazy way to fill up an article, but this one's pretty good:

Despite their very different backgrounds, many of our designers offered the same advice – about reading the brief, and planning your work on paper. Design is a subjective thing, and we all have different ways of getting results, but take heed of the expert advice offered within the following pages and you’re sure to improve the way you work.

(Thanks to Mule Design for the link.)

Originally from ProNet by Anil Dash reBlogged on Jun 27, 2006, 8:22PM

Originally posted by Anil Dash from ProNet, on June 29, 2006 12:12 AM

During the June 23 edition of Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto, Bo Dietl, chairman and founder of the private investigation firm Beau Dietl & Associates, argued that the recent arrest in Miami of seven men on charges of conspiracy, which allegedly included plans to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago, illustrates that “we can’t go off … where we are going with [racial] profiling.” Referring to the men as a “crew of mutts,” Dietl suggested that “[t]he people that are coming in to our country” are “like a cancer” and “[w]e need some chemotherapy now.” He further stated that law enforcement officials should “[g]o into your 7-Elevens or go into one of these stores that keep rotating young men who are Muslims,” and say “identify yourself.” However, when host Neil Cavuto asked if “racial profiling [would] have worked” in the case of the Chicago plot, Dietl responded that it wouldn’t, because “[t]hey look like Americans.” Dietl then added: “[M]y point is that the attack will come from a Muslim person,” so law enforcement should go to Muslim communities, “knock on the door,” and say “[w]e would like you to identify yourself.”

Watch the clip for more douchebaggery. [ via ]

Originally from Turbanhead.com by Administrator reBlogged on Jun 27, 2006, 12:28AM

Originally posted by Administrator from Turbanhead.com, on June 29, 2006 12:12 AM

What is the relationship, if any, between biosemiotics and econophysics?

Soon come: reflections on a generalist's career prospects, some notes on Helsinki design culture, a mini Suspect Device on two objects I no longer wish to travel without, and a quick trip report on this savage sweep through the Bay Area.

Originally from v-2 Organisation | Adam Greenfield reBlogged on Dec 31, 1969, 6:59PM

Originally from v-2 Organisation | Adam Greenfield, on June 29, 2006 12:12 AM

Jonathan Givony of Draft Express is a freaking machine. He doesn't need notes. He just does this. Here he tells TrueHoop about "Spanish Chocolate," although he accidentally calls him white chocolate. (Maybe, this one time, he should have used some notes.)

Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald:

Just as [Jason] Williams was tagged White Chocolate because of his race and style, Rodriguez is now called Spanish Chocolate in Spain.

“Since I was a child I have been that kind of player,” said Rodriguez, who has played professionally since he was 15 and this year led the club Estudiantes (Madrid) into the first round of the Spanish League playoffs, where the team lost to eventual champion Malaga.

He acknowledges the Jason Williams comparison, though, “I want to play like Steve Nash. But Jason Williams does a lot of things I like.”

Rodriguez’ visit only reinforced what Danny Ainge liked when watching him in Spain.
“Sergio is going to be a terrific NBA player,” the Celtics’ director of basketball operations said. “Point guard workouts in particular are tough to evaluate, but he’s looked good.”

A player like that you want to see on video, right? Here you go:

• The kid could make some money on the AND1 tour.
• In which he embarrasses Turkey. In slo-mo. From every angle.
• The long and gauzy look.

Originally from True Hoop by Henry Abbott reBlogged on Jun 28, 2006, 2:30PM

Originally posted by Henry Abbott from True Hoop, on June 29, 2006 12:04 AM

Online web design magazine PingMag has rounded up 8 "invaluable" WordPress plugins.

In our recent web publishing poll, the overwhelming majority of Lifehacker's blogger readers said that WordPress was the only way to get their words out to the world (so much so that the poll actually seems to have broken). So if you're looking to improve your WordPress blog (on both the backend and frontend), these plugins are worth a look.

Since I'm sure many readers have their own favorites, why don't you give us a list of your favorite WordPress plugins in the comments or at tips at lifehacker.com. — Adam Pash

8 Invaluable Wordpress Plugins! [PingMag]

Originally from Lifehacker reBlogged on Jun 28, 2006, 2:30PM

Originally from Lifehacker, on June 29, 2006 12:04 AM

Mac User's Andy Ihnatko reveals half a dozen underappreciated, lesser known features of Mac OS X, including speech commands, Automator actions, Smart Folders and sharing printers, files and network connections.

Honestly I had no idea that I could speak commands into my Mac's built-in mic, or run an Automator script that sets NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day to be my desktop background, so I'm off to start talking at my Powerbook. — Gina Trapani

Underused and unappreciated [Mac User via 43 Folders]

Originally from Lifehacker reBlogged on Jun 28, 2006, 2:00PM

Originally from Lifehacker, on June 29, 2006 12:04 AM

Stuck with a couple of cold beers and no opener in sight? This (longer than it needs to be) YouTube video shows a technique for cracking open a bottle with another bottle.

This hott bottle on bottle action may come in handy at the 4th of July BBQ this weekend. — Gina Trapani

Make: How to open a bottle of beer the Scandinavian way [YouTube via College v.2]

Originally from Lifehacker reBlogged on Jun 28, 2006, 9:00PM

Originally from Lifehacker, on June 29, 2006 12:04 AM

Gary Aguirre, who was investigating insider trading charges, testified today to a Senate panel.

Originally from NYT > Home Page by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS reBlogged on Jun 28, 2006, 1:04AM

Originally posted by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYT > Home Page, on June 29, 2006 12:02 AM

Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams Rowboats beached along a shore are captured in an early color photographic process called Autochrome. Despite the long exposures and complex processing, this technique made National Geographic magazine one of the first periodicals to bloom with color photography. "Not too many people made Autochromes," says Society conservator Robin Siegel. "It was expensive and too much work."(Text adapted from "Behind the Scenes: Autochromes in Living Color," June 2000, National Geographic magazine)

Originally from National Geographic Photo of the Day by Maynard Owen Williams

reBlogged by Matthew Haughey

Originally from mathowie reBlog feed by Maynard Owen Williams reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 9:19AM

Originally posted by Maynard Owen Williams from mathowie reBlog feed , on June 26, 2006 1:27 PM

One hundred nations are collaborating on building the world's largest seed bank -- a storage facility for 2 million different varieties of plant life. It'll be located in frozen Svalbard, up in a section of Norway located above the Arctic Circle, and it'll be hermetically sealed with a couple of feet of concrete. The idea, as the Washington Post reports, is to provide a backup copy of our biodiversity -- so when the planet gets schmucked by a nuclear holocaust, an asteroid strike, or global warming, we can reboot and try again. Apparently there are already lots of seed banks around the world, but they're all pretty insecure and have collections that are really incomplete: "Svalbard is meant to be the bank of last resort," said Pat Mooney, executive director of ETC Group, a Canadian civil society organization focused on food security. "It's where you go if you can't go anywhere else. It's the backup for the whole world."

Originally from collision detection reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 9:56AM

Originally from collision detection, on June 26, 2006 1:27 PM

I’m in New Orleans and arrived safe and sound depsite the same travel problems that everyone else seemed to have. I’m in the Council information session listening to Leslie Burger talk about (I might say “defend”) her Library Corps idea which I have mentioned before in these pages. It was interesting to see some people’s [...]

Originally from librarian.net by jessamyn reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 10:45AM

Originally posted by jessamyn from librarian.net, on June 26, 2006 1:27 PM

Originally from del.icio.us/for/djacobs by axt reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 11:48AM

Originally posted by axt from del.icio.us/for/djacobs, on June 26, 2006 1:27 PM

Shoot the Freak, Coney Island. Photo by joe's nyc
Models, Photogs Invade B'stoner Home [Brownstoner]
Billyburg Short Film Festival [Free Williamsburg]
Tripping (and Falling) in Coney Island [Gowanus Lounge]
Sunset Park Scores Points with Bowling Alley [Sunset Parker]

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Jun 23, 2006, 5:07PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on June 26, 2006 1:25 PM

I’m not a Perl developer by any means (Python’s my poison) but I wanted to build a quick AIM bot, and Perl’s OSCAR.pm lets you do it in less than 20 lines of code. It’s insane how simple this is:

use warnings;
use strict;
use Net::OSCAR qw(:standard);
my $oscar;
$oscar = Net::OSCAR->new();
$oscar->set_callback_im_in(&im_in);
$oscar->signon($screenname, $password);
while(1)
{
$oscar->do_one_loop();
}
sub im_in {
my($oscar, $sender, $message, $is_away) = @_;
print "[AWAY] " if $is_away;
print "$sender: $message\n";
$response = "Hello";
$oscar->send_im($sender, $response);
}

I wrote a bot which executes a shell script that reads and writes to your todo.txt (more on that in a minute.) Mark ran with the idea and we discussed keeping a bot that can run other scripts on your computer, like “open VNC port” instead of using port knocking or leaving your server port open at all times. The trick is the bot only runs commands from authorized AIM names. I’m not sure how secure that is, but it is a neat idea.

Build Your Own AIM Answerbot [On LAMP]

Originally from Spun by Gina Trapani reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 2:35PM

Originally posted by Gina Trapani from Spun, on June 26, 2006 1:25 PM

Wow, it’s dead. You have to be sad when anything goes south that so many people have worked on so hard for so long. Still, I remember being told in the early Nineties, when I was talking up Unix servers, that I was silly and wrong because the Cairo object filesystem would make everything else irrelevant. And then years later, when I was selling search and content management for a living, being told once again that we’d all be casualties of the WinFS bandwagon. I wonder if, in other professions as in ours, the conventional wisdom is so often so wrong? [Update: Lots of thoughtful coverage: The OS Review, Developing on the Edge, The Fishbowl, Dare Obasanjo, Simon Phipps.]

Originally from ongoing reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 3:18PM

Originally from ongoing, on June 26, 2006 1:25 PM

"This site contains resources to help you debug stuff -- mostly software and electronic hardware, but other stuff, too. We'll publish and link to advice and stories about any kind of debugging or troubleshooting, including cars, furnaces, plumbing, and even human bodies."

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 4:33PM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on June 26, 2006 1:25 PM

Lampard twice had chances straight after to double the lead, first dragging a left-foot shot wide then failing to find Rooney in the box when he should have shot himself.

I only understand one part of this garbled nonsense. But, hear hear. They all should. Permed millionaires having a shoot-out in a stadium. I'd watch that.

Originally from the lady upgrade project by mr tibbles reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 4:14PM

Originally posted by mr tibbles from the lady upgrade project, on June 26, 2006 1:25 PM

expanded social network browsing and one-click app cloning  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 5:05PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on June 26, 2006 1:19 PM

a geographical map that conceptually represents "world awareness", by visualizing various visual information sources to their origin on a world map.
the online sources are parsed to create a world map of (webcam) images & various news feeds. this world map is mapped on a grid of 24 vertical slots by 15 horizontal slots. the 24 vertical slots provide a visual interpretation of the 24 hours, whilst the 15 horizontal slots are (still?) arbitrary.
reminds me of degree confluence & geograph & mappr.
[joeyvandijk.nl|thnkx Joey]

Originally from information aesthetics by infosthetics reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 6:08PM

Originally posted by infosthetics from information aesthetics, on June 26, 2006 1:19 PM

david posted a photo:

Originally from david's Photos by david reBlogged

Originally posted by david from david's Photos, on June 26, 2006 1:11 PM

A blogger at The Huffington Post was fired after accusing a site staff member of posting negative comments on his blog entries.

Originally from NYT > Technology by MARIA ASPAN reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by MARIA ASPAN from NYT > Technology, on June 26, 2006 1:11 PM

The Mannahatta Project is constructing maps of what Manhattan was like in 1609, before its "discovery" by Henry Hudson. "The Mannahatta Project will help us to understand, down to the level of one city block, where in Manhattan streams once flowed or where American Chestnuts may have grown, where black bears once marked territories, and where the Lenape fished and hunted." See also The Viele Map of Manhattan.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 12:11AM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on June 26, 2006 1:11 PM

I went to The Human Rights Watch Film Festival to see The Road to Guantanamo with my friend, Maggie. Michael Winterbottom is one of my fave directors and I was excited to see this film. The Road to Guantanamo is one of those heavy films that makes you want to run out and take action. Closing Guantanamo is within our grasp. Everyone in the room felt it. It was a great screening.

Afterwards, I was waiting for my friend in the bathroom when this 50 something white woman approaches me. She is strangely jittery and looks like an old acting teacher I had in college. “Excuse me, heh, heh, heh.” She is laughing nervously and I know I am looking at her like her hair is on fire. Still she proceeds, “This is really awkward.” She is going to say something moronic. I can tell. “I’ve been coming to this festival for years now and I was just wondering why more African Americans do not come to this festival?”

I know I rolled my eyes. I know I did. I did not want to be bothered with this and more importantly, I felt annoyed by the fact that I had just seen an amazing movie and had this great experience and now I am being marginalized by this old white lady. I know what she was thinking. On a conscious (or unconscious level), because I am the only African American person there, it is my job to “diversify” this experience for her and in order for it to be really worthwhile I needed to explain this one little thing to her. Just this one little thing. I should be approachable. I mean, I was the kind of black person that would be at something like this.

I did not reply. I just said I didn’t know and walked away. I could tell she was mortified. I’m not sure what experience she thought she was going to have exactly. Sure, I could have told her that maybe if Human Rights Watch Film Festival advertised somewhere else besides The New York Times and NPR, they might have more folks of color in the audience. But I don’t even know if diversity is their mandate. It may not be. And it really should not be my job to speak for the entire black race here.

In any case, it is the experience I always have. I am often the only African American someplace and at some point, someone has to remind me that I am in the minority, whether I like it or not. Just yesterday, L Britt and I went to see The Busy World Is Hushed at Playwrights Horizons (which was not that great but that is another entry). Anyway, there was another play in that same theater complex called Single Black Female and the ushers kept trying to direct us to that theater. We would go to the bathroom and get lost and they would just assume that that was the play we were seeing. (Honestly we should’ve seen that play!) It kept happening. It's like enough already. You say you want more black folk to go to the theater and when they come, you keep shuffling them off to be with their own kind.

So many “liberal white people” say that race does not matter. That it should not matter. But then those same people are able to use race to separate you, to marginalize you. They already think they know who you are because you are Black. They know what you are going to do and even what play you are going to see. And if they don’t know, it is your job as the chip in the cookie to explain it to them. It has been present in every part of my life. I can laugh about it but sometimes it is not funny. It is tiring.

To the old lady at Human Rights Watch, here is how this conversation could have gone:

Old Lady: What an incredible movie?
Me: Yeah, it was really moving.
Old Lady: I love seeing films here. I just feel really inspired to take action and learn so much about so many different places. Do you feel the same way?
Me: Yeah, there were a lot of great films this year and the diversity of films is impressive.
Old Lady: How did you hear about the festival? Have you been coming to the festival for a while?

Yes, I would have known where she was going with this but the difference would have been that she would be trying to find out what makes me, Angela, tick. I would have engaged her in discussion because I am a pretty open person as long as I am approached as a human being and not a demographic.

(P.S. I went to see The Refugee All Stars the very next night and there were a lot of black folk there. So now you know. It has something to do with the subject matter as well. It's really not rocket science folks.)

Originally from tuckergurl by Angela Tucker reBlogged on Jun 25, 2006, 2:19PM

Originally posted by Angela Tucker from tuckergurl, on June 26, 2006 1:09 PM

infosthetics just received the brand new book "Beautiful Evidence", on which Edward Tufte worked for 9 years. as with his previous books, it is packed with many illustrations, showing bad examples as well as carefully crafted revisions that support the sometimes provocative textual narrative. the visual lay-out, paper, printing & binding quality are in line with the book's challenging title (where was the time that books smelled good as well?).
more comments after the jump, but in short: this book is highly recommended!
btw: fans should not miss some Tuftian/Tuftesque(?) online resources, such as the excellent junk charts & presentation zen weblogs.
[order via edwardtufte.com or amazon.com|see edwardtufte.com]

Originally from information aesthetics by infosthetics reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 4:04AM

Originally posted by infosthetics from information aesthetics, on June 26, 2006 1:08 PM

I admit it: When I first saw the reviews for Phaidon Design Classics, I was hoping this authoritative 3-volume set would turn out to be over-rated. I live in New York, I have a book-buying problem, and I just don't have the room for yet another "essential" reference. But it looks like I'll be clearing some shelf space ... these enormous yellow volumes are not only useful, but utterly delightful. The 999 entries cover everything from the chopstick to the Atari joystick, beautifully tracing the evolution of design from the 1600s on. The appeal here lies not only in the definitive selection of objects, but also in the curation of images, which incorporate standard product shots as well as blueprints, patents, drawings and vintage ads for products from vacuum cleaners to Volkswagens. The only downside, ironically, is the design. The books come encased in an unwieldy and impenetrable exoskeleton, which photographs well, but fails to function as either a carrying case or a display.

Originally posted by noemail@noemail.org (June Cohen) from TED Blog, on June 26, 2006 1:07 PM

Lifespan: 43 hours

Originally from Wooster Collective reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 9:06AM

Originally from Wooster Collective, on June 26, 2006 1:07 PM

Chef/writer Anthony Bourdain turned 50 the other day so his friends threw him a big party; Michael Ruhlman surveys the scene.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 9:30AM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on June 26, 2006 1:07 PM

Clever photography technique: using a SLR camera to shoot through the viewfinder of a twin lens camera, which are typically older cameras with large viewfinders. Mr. E is an early practitioner of the technique.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 10:19AM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on June 26, 2006 1:07 PM

You're right.

Originally from Andrea Harner by Andrea reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 10:03AM

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on June 26, 2006 1:05 PM

A fun New Yorker piece by David Sedaris.

Originally from Andrea Harner by Andrea reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 10:00AM

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on June 26, 2006 1:05 PM

Now that a uniform citywide arts curriculum is in place, the challenge is to find money and manpower.

Originally from NYT > Home Page by ROBIN POGREBIN reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by ROBIN POGREBIN from NYT > Home Page, on June 26, 2006 1:05 PM

Here's another funk/soul set from DJ 3D, with yours truly mixing in Malcolm's voice over the tracks in honor of his birthday last week. Once again, please step up and help the world by ID'ing all these old records if you can. powered by ODEO Muchas gracias to Odeo.com for making us a featured "staff pick" podcast of the moment.....

Originally from hiphopmusic.com by jsmooth995 reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 3:25AM

Originally posted by jsmooth995 from hiphopmusic.com, on June 26, 2006 1:03 PM

Remember the hype surrounding Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML) and how all the next-generation Web browsers were going to be three-dimensional? Well, the 3D buzz is coming back -- but will it be more than just talk this time around?

New technologies, greater bandwidth and more computing power are behind the latest efforts to incorporate 3D into the browsing experience -- an effort that, its supporters say, was simply ahead of its time back in the '90s. An XML-based 3D coding architecture called X3D, along with 3D application support in the Windows Presentation Foundation (aka: Avalon) that's expected to be a part of the Vista OS, offer a new framework for 3D tools of all kinds. Also, a new generation of 3D browsers such as 3B offers rich browsing environments.

But beyond the technical improvements, 3D browsing is still hampered by the fact that, aside from certain uses, it remains the proverbial hammer in search of a nail. Most people are comfortable with the 2D browsing environment, and find three dimensions disorienting and unnecessary. Gamers and those already accustomed to 3D environments may find 3D browsers appealing (expect players in youth markets to take the lead in experimenting with 3D websites), and 3D browsing has a role in education and simulation training. But otherwise, 3D browsers will likely remain a niche item, used only in situations that call for a rich navigation space.

Source: Extremetech

Originally from FutureWire - futurism and emerging technology by Brian reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 12:03PM

Originally posted by Brian from FutureWire - futurism and emerging technology, on June 26, 2006 1:03 PM

While flipping through yesterday's Times, we were shocked and upset to learn that 20 percent of the city's public elementary schools don't have libraries. After all, some of our fondest grade school memories involve listening to our school librarian read in a soft voice from the books of Roald Dahl, Beverly Cleary, Shel Silverstein, and William Steig. Fortunately, the students of P.S. 107 are finally their literary fix. The Park Slope elementary school, which is often overshadowed by its neighbor, P.S. 321, organized a reading series that has featured Jonathan Lethem, Colson Whitehead, Paul Auster, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Rick Moody, among others, and the readings have raised $12,000. With the money, the school has built a new library, stocked with about 2,000 books.
Bright Literary Lights for a School in the Shadows [NY Times]
"blank">P.S. 107 John W. Kimball School [Inside Schools]
Photo by New York Architecture Images

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Jun 26, 2006, 12:46PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on June 26, 2006 1:03 PM