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Below are 20 journal entries, after skipping by the 120 most recent ones recorded in
Boing Boing's LiveJournal:
| Friday, March 29th, 2013 | |||
| 12:09 pm | Minneapolis SkepTech conference, coming April 5/6 Next week, I'll be speaking at the SkepTech Conference, a new gathering put together by University of Minnesota students. The lineup features some great folks from the science and skeptic communities, including bloggers PZ Myers and Hemant Mehta, and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoonist Zach Weinersmith. Registration is free. Come check it out! 
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| 12:21 pm | Do GMOs yield more food? The answer is in the semantics
Today, on Twitter, I learned something new and interesting from environmental reporter Paul Voosen. Over the years, I've run into reports (like this one from the Union of Concerned Scientists) showing that genetically modified crops — i.e. Roundup Ready corn and soybeans, which is really the stuff we're talking about most of the time in these situations — don't increase intrinsic yields of those crops. But I've also seen decent-looking data that seemed to suggest exactly the opposite. So what gives? Turns out, this is largely an issue of terminology. "Intrinsic yield" means something very specific, and something different from what most of us think when we hear the word "yield". Because of this, both those sets of data that I've seen can be right, at the same time. The UCS is correct that GMOs plants don't seem to produce higher intrinsic yields — that is, there aren't more kernels per cob. But the data that shows GMO plants can produce more than conventionally bred plants is also correct, because that's looking at a bigger picture of "yield" — one that takes into account the fact that it's easier to protect those plants against pests. Fewer pests = fewer lost plants = a higher bushel-per-acre yield. Even if the plants, themselves, aren't yielding more. Jon Foley, a scientist who is also the director of The University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment agreed with this distinction between "yield" and "intrinsic yield". He also told me that the overall yield data on GM crops isn't as simple as "yes, it produces higher yields" or "no, it doesn't". For instance, he pointed to a paper published this February in Nature Biotechnology which shows that GM corn sometimes out-produces conventionally bred corn and sometimes under-produces in comparison. The key is in the environmental context. The years where GM corn was producing similar or lower yields than conventionally bred corn were average years, when it came to factors like the weather, disease, and pests. It was in bad years that you can see a significant, positive, difference for GM corn. When the situation was bad, GM corn had greater yields. I'm not really posting this information because of the GM thing — although I suspect that will get more people to pay attention. What I think is most interesting about this is that it handily illustrates something I've seen in a lot of different conflicts based around science. When you're getting conflicting information, one of the best ways to start figuring out who is right is to look at the language and the semantics. Often, everybody's right. They're just right in different ways. Unless you look closely, you won't see the difference. Image: Corn-JollyRoger-8343, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from graibeard's photostream 
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| 12:30 pm | Read the previously unpublished letters of Charles Darwin More than 1000 letters written between Charles Darwin and botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, including 300 never before published, are now available free online for your reading and research pleasure. 
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| 11:03 am | Gas masks for babies, 1940 GAS DRILL AT A LONDON HOSPITAL: GAS MASKS FOR BABIES ARE TESTED, ENGLAND, 1940 (via Kadrey)
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| 10:10 am | Ouya, $100 Android game console, ships to early backers  Ouya, the $100 game console, is already shipping to Kickstarter backers who helped the Android-based project get going last year. For the rest of us, there's an official retail release date: June 4. Bloomberg: About 55 games will be available with today’s release, according to [Ouya founder Julie] Uhrman. The cube-shaped player uses a version of Android that requires developers to create applications and games just for the device. Games must be free, offer a free trial or have free add-ons, the company said. ... Ouya plans to keep 30 percent of game sales, with developers getting the rest. You can preorder an Ouya at Amazon and at the official store.
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| 10:02 am | Apple's security problems At The Verge, Tim Carmody reports on Apple's seeming inability to get to grips with account security.
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| 9:47 am | Airlines should charge passengers by weight, says economist Reuters: "Bhatta put together three models for what he called 'pay as you weigh airline pricing.' The first would charge passengers according to how much they and their baggage weighed. It would set a rate for pounds (kg) per passenger so that someone weighing 130 pounds (59 kg) would pay half the fare of 260-pound (118-kg) person." 
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| 9:54 am | Florida polo tycoon has difficulty adopting his 42-year-old girlfriend in order to keep assets away A Florida polo tycoon named John Goodman has hit a hitch in his plan to adopt his 42-year-old girlfriend so that his kids and ex-wife won't be able to keep him from writing her into his will. The court says he failed to disclose important information, but there's no word on whether that will have have any bearing on his manslaughter appeal stemming from his conviction for a drunken hit-and-run killing in 2010, or on his apparent plan to keep his assets from the family of the dead man by transferring them to his girlfriend/daughter. What an enterprising gentleman Mr Goodman appears to be.
What's the Point of Being a Polo Tycoon If You Can't Adopt Your Girlfriend?
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| 9:54 am | Eating out makes your children overweight The Center for Science in the Public Interest reports that most childrens' meals offered in U.S. restaurant chains contain too many calories, salt and fat: "Most chains seem stuck in a time warp, serving up the same old meals based on chicken nuggets, burgers, macaroni and cheese, fries, and soda," wrote CSPI nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan.
Enjoy their delicious, salty report on how eating out encourages childhood obesity. [cspinet.org, PDF]
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| 9:12 am | When US money was nice to look at
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| 9:17 am | Grouching about Google Andrew Leonard has a tick-tock in Salon explaining how and when Google lost its cool. "Google Reader is gone. Google is banning ad-blocking apps. Google Alert doesn't work. The Google backlash is on." [SALON] 
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| 9:40 am | Listen to Neverwhere free online, then see it in person Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is one of my favorite novels; now you can listen to it free online on BBC Radio 4 and enjoy it in person at Robert Kauzlarik's stage production, which opens next month in LA after runs in Chicago and elsewhere. The story of a good-hearted Scotsman who finds a dreamlike alternative London Underground, it was originally released as a BBC TV show and an accompanying bestseller. "It's hard to put into words how magical it is to have the chance to step into the skin of a character you've loved for years," says Paula Rhodes, who plays Door, Richard's connection to the underworld, in the new production. " ... Door is a wonderful mixture of strength and fragility and I'm absolutely in love with her and her world." The official site has tix and cinemagraphs. 
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| 7:49 am | Groups across America call on Congress to fix DMCA Boing Boing is a co-signatory to an open letter (PDF) to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, calling on them to fix the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's ban on jailbreaking and unlocking your devices. This laudable effort was spearheaded by Public Knowledge:
Public Knowledge Asks Congress for a Permanent Fix to Cell Phone Unlocking
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| 8:08 am | Watch the latest video posts in our Boing Boing video archives  We've gathered fresh video for you to surf and enjoy on the Boing Boing video page. The latest finds for your viewing pleasure include:
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| 6:59 am | Kickstarter to save the brilliant zine store READING FRENZY Reading Frenzy, the astoundingly great zine store in Portland, OR, lost its lease. They need to raise $50K to reopen. The store's founder, Chloe Eudaly, writes,
This is one of the best bookstores I've ever visited. The world needs it! Chloe is a brilliant bookseller, too, and as she points out, if not for the rotten luck of losing a lease, the business would be humming along merrily, and also spinning off more projects like its zine-creator's makerspace, the Independent Publishing Resource Center.
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| 7:44 am | Laotian all-women bomb clearance team, "most dangerous job in world," to speak in U.S.  In the photo above: "Manixia Thor (left) and a member of her all women’s bomb clearance team head into the field to clear unexploded ordnance in the Lao countryside." In April, Manixia is on a speakers' tour in the US, focused on the urgent need for funding of bomb clearance and survivor assistance efforts in Laos.
As a bomb clearance technician and the leader of an all-women’s bomb clearance team in Laos, Manixia Thor has one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Unexploded ordnance removal is perilous and the days are long, but she knows that her work clearing bombs will make Laos safer for her two-year-old son and for future generations. For nearly ten years, millions of bombs rained down on the tiny country of Laos, making it the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. The bombings ended 40 years ago this year, but more than 20,000 Laotians have been killed or injured by decades-old ordnance that litter the otherwise beautiful landscape. With support from the U.S. Department of State, Manixia and Thoummy Silamphan, a Laotian bomb accident survivor and victim assistance advocate, will be touring the United States on a speakers tour with the U.S.-based group LEGACIES OF WAR to raise awareness about the unexploded ordnance issue in Laos and the urgent need for further funding of clearance and survivor assistance efforts.Dates and details here. (thanks, James Hathaway)
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| 7:29 am | In photographs, North Korea "leaks" plan to attack US  A map of the USA's West Coast, with caption, “Plan to hit US mainland.” Photos in North Korea's state-run newspaper, taken at an "emergency meeting" Friday morning with Kim Jong-Eun and military advisors, show the leader signing an order for North Korea's strategic rocket forces to be on standby to fire at US targets. Behind him, there are large-scale maps and diagrams of the spots he'd attack. [Telegraph] The KCNA feed includes an item describing the "photo session with the participants in the meeting of information workers of the whole army," who "enthusiastically welcomed [Kim Jong-Un] with rousing cheers of 'hurrah!,' looking up to him, who is leading the all-out action for defending the sovereignty of the country and the dignity of the nation to victory after making a final decision to demonstrate the resolute will of the KPA with practical military actions to cope with the grave situation where the U.S. anti-DPRK hostile acts have reached the brink of a nuclear war."
They're really into run-on sentences over there. The release continues:
Acknowledging their enthusiastic cheers, he extended a warm salute to all information workers who are registering great achievements in improving and strengthening the ideological work in the KPA, bearing deep in mind the noble mission and duty they assumed before the times and the revolution. 
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| 6:25 am | Sri Lanka: crowd led by Buddhist monks attacks Muslim warehouse in Colombo In Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, a group of Buddhist monks led a crowd of hundreds in an attack on "Fashion Bug," a Muslim-owned clothing warehouse. "The attack comes as hard-line Buddhist groups step up a campaign against the lifestyles of Muslims," according to the BBC. "Five or six" journalists covering the incident were injured, including one cameraman who needed stitches. [BBC News, thanks Antinous] 
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| 6:51 am | How children become "cannon fodder" for Mexican drug cartels Wired's Danger Room blog points to this new report [PDF] by the NGO International Crisis Group, which details how Mexican drug cartels recruit and coerce kids as young as 11 years old to kill. Narcos “have recruited thousands of street gang members, school drop-outs and unskilled workers” over the last decade, and the report claims “cartel bosses will treat the young killers as cannon fodder, throwing them into suicidal attacks on security forces.” [Wired.com] 
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| 6:32 am | Bill Gold, the master of the movie poster It’s rare that any of us gets to start at the top: Brandon Crawford’s first hit for the San Francisco Giants was a grand slam, Tatum O’Neal’s first movie, Paper Moon, netted her an Oscar for best supporting actress at the tender age of 10. It happens, but not that often. Rarer still are those who start on top and stay there (for the record, I have great hopes for Crawford). But a charmed life on the high plateau describes the career of Bill Gold, who designed a couple of thousand movie posters for Warner Bros. over the course of 70 years. Now 92 and retired for most of the 21st century except when it came to creating posters for Clint Eastwood films, Gold began his encampment at Warners with a movie that’s synonymous with the word “classic.” “Casablanca was the first thing I worked on,” Gold says when I spoke with him over the phone recently. “Yankee Doodle Dandy followed right after that. They were almost simultaneous.” Not bad, to be 21 and have a film starring Humphrey Bogart and another starring James Cagney drop into your lap. But that sort of thing would happen a lot to Gold. Which is not to say that everything he touched turned instantly to his namesake metal. Like the rest of us, he had to work at it. “We had finished the poster,” he recalls of the first iteration of Casablanca, which featured a full-color bust of Bogart in the foreground, wearing his trademark fedora and overcoat, with Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid and the rest of the cast rendered in a smoky pink behind him. “Warner Bros. looked at it for a while, and after few days they said, ‘Is there anything we can do to make this more exciting? More dramatic? It just kind of sits there.’ And I said, ‘Well, maybe. Let me take it back to the office.’ I brought it back the next day; I had put a gun in his hand.” Gold had left the gun out, he says, because Bogart didn’t use a gun in the movie, “until the end,” he reminds me, “in the airport scene when he shoots the Nazi. I didn’t want to reveal that, or the relationship between the two stars. I didn’t want people to know there was a secret love affair until they came to see the film.” In the years that followed, Gold would put a lot of guns in the hands of a lot of leading men, especially Clint Eastwood, for whom he designed some 40 posters. Drafted in 1942, Gold spent part of World War II in the Air Force Photography Unit before returning to Warners in 1946, pretty much picking up where he left off. By 1948, he was the art director of the studio’s in-house advertising department, and during the 1950s, he created posters for a string of who’s-who of directors, from Alfred Hitchcock (Strangers on a Train, Dial M For Murder, The Wrong Man) and Elia Kazan ( A Streetcar Named Desire, Baby Doll, East of Eden) to George Stevens (Giant) and John Ford (Mister Roberts). Some of these posters were traditionally Hollywood in their style, such as the cheery, red-white-and-blue composition for Mister Roberts, while others, such as his poster for The Prince and the Showgirl starring Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier, exude Mid-century Modern cool.
After Warners pulled the plug on its in-house ad unit in 1959, Gold started his own shop, with Warners as a major client. Unlike contemporaries such as Saul Bass (“We worked together in the early ’60s, I don’t remember what year it was.”), who was known for his distinctive, graphic approach, Gold was something of a chameleon, pushing his posters into realms that had more to do with the nature of the film than his personal aesthetic. Thus, Splendor in the Grass, starring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty, used typography and photography, respectively, to tell and sensationalize the film’s lurid story, while Gold’s decision to hire illustrator Bob Peak to create the central image for My Fair Lady perfectly suited the romantic sentimentality of that George Cukor chestnut, which was the second of six films Gold worked on that won the Academy Award for best picture. Gold most famous collaboration with Peak came in 1967 for the musical Camelot. While Peak is often credited as the poster’s designer, it was Gold who decided Peak was the right artist to execute the narrative collage the cinematic spectacle demanded. It was also Gold who directed Peak to take his inspiration from Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss,” which resulted in the illustration’s metallic hues, as well as the secondary image of Guinevere with her head bent back in the arms of Lancelot. An even more fruitful partnership began in 1971. “The head of advertising at Warner Bros. came to me and said, ‘You know, Clint Eastwood is looking for somebody to do the campaign on Dirty Harry. I’d like to bring your work to his attention. The producer, Don Siegel, is going to be there. You’ll get to meet them.’ Well, I didn’t get to meet Clint that time, but they took the campaign we did for Dirty Harry to Clint’s office, and Don Siegel was there. Now Siegel was famous for hating everything, but he looked at the campaign and said, ‘Don’t change a thing. I love it.’” Apparently Gold had long since learned his lesson about leading men and guns. In fact, one poster for the campaign actually put Eastwood’s character, Harry Callahan, a bit to the side and behind his .44 Magnum. “Don was a very creative guy,” Gold says. “He knew what he was looking at, he knew where the possibilities were. After that, they wanted me on everything.” As it turned out, the first-time’s-the-charm serendipity of Dirty Harry was a bit of a fluke. “In the case of Clint’s movies, he’s the trademark. But each time you do a campaign, it requires a different kind of idea. One of the reasons, I think, why Clint wanted me on every movie he did was that I always gave him alternatives, sometimes 20 or 30 of them. He totally enjoyed that.”
While the impact of the Dirty Harry poster was driven by its emphatic graphic design, as was Gold’s black-and-white composition for The Exorcist, other movie campaigns lent themselves to illustrations similar in approach, if not style, to those Bob Peak had created for My Fair Lady and Camelot. For these, Gold turned to another illustrator, Richard Amsel, who worked with Gold on posters for McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and The Sting, to name a few. Gold also worked with airbrush artist Philip Castle, who did the sinister illustration of the Malcolm McDowell character, Alex, on the poster for Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. For any given movie campaign, numerous posters were produced. For the domestic release of Deliverance, Gold delivered an image of two arms rising out of the water, holding a shotgun aimed at three men in a canoe. The tagline on the poster read, “What didhappen on the Cahulawassee River?” It worked for U.S. audiences, but what about Europeans? For those potential viewers, Gold stuck with the tagline and the canoers, but had them emerging from a wide-open eyeball, giving the plot suggested by the tagline a sense of surrealism the American version lacked. To hear Gold tell it, the rest of the century was an almost endless stream of tight deadlines, followed by the inevitable revisions, for films as diverse as Alien and Unforgiven. Little wonder that these days, the details have begun to blur. “They all blend into one montage in my mind,” he says now with a laugh, “one big, horrible montage.” Still, Gold knows he’s had it good, having the opportunity to form an enduring relationship with Eastwood, as well as the chance to meet true Hollywood royalty like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. “Sure, I met them both,” he remarks casually, adding that it wasn’t like they were best of friends, or anything. “I was just a poster guy,” he says. “They didn’t know how many posters I was going to do.”
For the last word about Bill Gold, check out Christopher Frayling’s 450-page Bill Gold: Posterworks (Amazon), which was published in 2010 by Reel Art Press as a limited edition of 1,500 copies, each weighing more than 16 pounds. On DVD, The Best of Warner Bros. 100 Film Collection, 2013, includes a poster featuring a collage of 100 of Bill Gold’s most iconic Warner Bros. posters. And on April 2, the studio’s latest DVD set, The Best of Warner Bros. 20 Film Collection: Romance, will be released. The collection includes only three pre-Bill Gold titles (Gone With the Wind is one of them), plus gems like Casablanca, Rebel Without a Cause and The Bodyguard.
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From the Imperial War Museum in London, a couple of incredible photos of nurses testing out infant gas-masks: "Three nurses carry babies cocooned in baby gas respirators down the corridor of a London hospital during a gas drill. Note the carrying handle on the respirator used to carry the baby by the nurse in the foreground." 
