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Below are 20 journal entries, after skipping by the 80 most recent ones recorded in
Boing Boing's LiveJournal:
| Monday, April 1st, 2013 | |||
| 7:18 am | How to write about Muslims "The Western press and social media often seem to exercise two options for dealing with the Muslim population of the world: overt, unabashed Islamophobia or slightly subtler Islamophobia," writes contributor Belen Fernandez at Al Jazeera English. She has some suggestions on how to avoid clichés and stereotypes. 
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| 6:44 am | Rocket scientist who also made "a mean beef stroganoff" inspires debate on how to write about lady-s  Rocket scientist Yvonne Brill honored by President Obama. (Courtesy of Ryan K. Morris/National Science & Technology Medals Foundation) Yvonne Brill, a Canadian rocket scientist who developed jet propulsion technologies, died recently at 88, after a long career propelling human beings toward the stars. The New York Times obituary by Douglas Martin began with a quote about her cooking and mothering skills: “She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. ‘The world’s best mom,’ her son Matthew said.” Brill developed the concept for a new rocket engine, the hydrazine resistojet, but the paper of record starts off with her beef noodle skils. It's a sweet comment from her grieving son, yes; but obituaries of prominent male scientists don't open like that. And obituaries of prominent women in historically male-dominated professional fields very often do. After much public outcry—Douglas Martin must be punished!—the Times edited the lede to omit the stroganoff. Vegans and feminazis rejoiced. I kid, I kid. But seriously, the internet-drama over the NYT's crappy Brill obit leads us to something valuable: a discussion around how to write about female scientists. Ladies and non-ladies, in the spirit of the Bechdel test, from Christie Aschwanden writing at doublexscience: the Finkbeiner test.
To pass the Finkbeiner test, the story cannot mention Read the rest. Great stuff. Required reading if your name's Douglas Martin, and you're writing about Scientistesses.
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| 6:28 am | Online journalism consumers are "looters" Noted crankypants Bob Garfield, co-host of On The Media, likens current consumers of (mostly free, readily-shared) online news to "looters" who "enjoy an improved standard of living." Writing in a Guardian op-ed section ironically titled "Comment is Free," Garfield says that standard of living "only stays improved until the store is emptied out."
Those consumers cheerfully using the web to sample content from all over the world via news websites, blogs and aggregators are essentially picking the inventory clean. Oh, and when they get the stuff home, the goods aren't what they used to be. And some of the stuff has a sour smell to it. tl;dr anyone who cares about journalism should "pray for paywalls and other subscription models to take hold." Go read the rest. Apparently it's not an April Fool's joke, but a sincere rant. * You just got excerpted and aggregated, bro.
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| 6:53 am | April Fools now big business "The April Fool is dead," writes Alastair Macdonald. "Or at least the gentle jester of the common folk has metastised into a corporate colossus controlled by global marketing executives, bestriding the Internet to force familiar brands ever deeper into the collective consciousness." 
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| 5:50 am | The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: HP Lovecraft, much improved in graphic form. The dirty secret of the Cthulhu mythos is that their originator, HP Lovecraft, wasn't a very good writer. In addition to his unfortunate tendency to embrace his era's backwards ideas about race and gender, Lovecraft was also fond of elaborate, tedious description that obscured the action and dialog. Which is a pity, because Lovecraft did have one of the great dark imaginations of literature, a positive gift for conjuring up the most unspeakable, unnameable (and often unpronounceable) horrors of the genre, so much so that they persist to this day. Enter INJ Culbard, whose work adapting various Sherlock Holmes stories into graphic novels for Self-Made Hero press I've reviewed here in the past. Culbard is a fine storyteller and artist, and makes truly excellent use of the medium to deliver a streamlined Lovecraft, one where the protracted, over-elaborated descriptions are converted to dark, angular drawings that manage to capture all the spookiness, without the dreariness. This is really the best way to enjoy Lovecraft. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
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| Sunday, March 31st, 2013 | |||
| 7:37 pm | Why PLAY pie-anna when you can VAMP?
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| 5:35 pm | HOWTO turn a dead hard-drive into a cotton candy machine
Turning an Old Hard Disk Into a Candy Floss Machine [English, MicGadget] 技术宅拯救世界：用旧硬盘自制棉花糖机(图) [Chinese, tt.mop.com] (via Neatorama)
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| 3:22 pm | TSA routinely violates own rules and the law to discriminate against people w/disabilities Sai has "a neurological disorder that causes episodic muteness and muscle spasms" -- basically, he sometimes becomes mute and gets bad shakes. His doctor has advised him to have juice continuously available, and this helps control his condition. TSA rules allow him to bring any amount of juice through a checkpoint. Unfortunately, the TSA doesn't read its own rules. Instead, Sai is detained at checkpoints for endless, illegal questioning and searches of his personal papers, confidential business documents, etc. When he loses the ability to speak, he uses pen and paper to communicate, but the TSA takes the pen and paper away as soon as he cites language from a landmark legal case limiting their power to search him. He's videoed one of these encounters, with the TSA and its private contractors at SFO, and he's filed grievances with various agencies over that incident and another at Boston Logan. The TSA is illegally refusing to follow its own administrative procedures, so he's getting ready to sue them (he needs an ADA and/or FOIA-specialized lawyer qualified for the bar in MA and/or CA and/or federally -- any takers?). He's also trying to force them to disclose their secret procedures. The edited, subtitled video of his run-in at SFO is fantastically infuriating. The TSA and its private contractors are vindictive, lawless, brutal. But Sai is an inspiring example of calm under fire, a guy who knows his rights back and forwards, and doesn't let the fact that his physical condition is deteriorating -- you can see his tremors -- make him lose his cool (here's the unedited version, which runs to about an hour). Sai's site has plenty of ways you can help with this, including a petition to Congress and a questionnaire to help him with his Freedom of Information suit. And by helping him, you help everyone who has to fly -- and everyone who cares about freedom in America.
Problems with the TSA (via Hacker News)
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| 12:10 pm | Just look at this liquid nitrogen-dipped banana being shot with a steel bearing. I Broke my Banana (Thanks, Philip!)
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| 10:02 am | Out-of-date state nicknames, illustrated with comical hogs
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| 9:06 am | Imaginary Glorp Gum becomes a reality! Sort of! GLORP GUM! The only gum that comes with a free T-Shirt! (Thanks, Zack!)
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| 6:49 am | Disney World Luau bowl
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| 5:58 am | Nevada State Legislature poised to take regulation of Burning Man away from state and local cops M Otis Beard sez, "A bill gaining support in the Nevada State Assembly would make Burning Man hands-off for state and county law enforcement officials, and subject only to Federal authority." Each year, the local sheriff has been jacking Burning Man for increasing per-head fees, and the county's conservative lawmakers have been passing silly-season unconstitutionalities, like a law prohibiting a man from being naked in the presence of a child. It's combination of revenue generation and garden-variety harassment, and there had been rumbles about the festival taking up local native groups on an invitation to move it to Paiute land where the county wouldn't get a say.
Some of the problem stems from the fact that Burning Man is held just over a county line; all the on-the-way spending done by burners takes place in Washoe county, but once you turn off to head to the playa, you're in Pershing county, and that's also when the ban on (most) commerce begins. So the county doing the legislating has no real financial stake in the festival continuing. So the local law gets to screw the neighboring county, threatening its one of its major source of economic activity and win points with the voters by harassing hippies. The Man vs. the Man: Will Local Authorities Be Booted From Burning Man? (Thanks, M Otis Beard!)
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| 6:27 am | 2013 Hugo nominees announced [Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a [...] const-2012.pdf”>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] <p class='ljsyndicationlink'><a href='http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/PAO4rgA3814/story01.htm'>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/PAO4rgA3814/story01.htm</a></p><p class='ljsyndicationlink'><a href='http://boingboing.net/?p=222382'>http://boingboing.net/?p=222382</a></p><p> This year's Hugo Award nominees have been announced, and it's a great slate! Congrats to all the authors, artists, fans and editors who are up for the award in San Antonio, Texas this Labor Day weekend. <blockquote> <p> <img src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ku-xlarge4.jpg" align="right"> Best Novel (1113 nominating ballots cast) <br /> * <a href="http://boingboing.net/2012/10/30/kim-stanley-robinsons-23.html">2312</a>, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)<br /> * Blackout, Mira Grant (Orbit)<br /> * Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)<br /> * <a href="http://boingboing.net/2012/06/05/scalzis-redshirts.html">Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas</a>, John Scalzi (Tor)<br /> * Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW) <p> Best Novella (587 nominating ballots cast) <br /> * After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)<br /> * The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)<br /> * On a Red Station, Drifting, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)<br /> * San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats, Mira Grant (Orbit)<br /> * “The Stars Do Not Lie”, Jay Lake (Asimov’s, Oct-Nov 2012) </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2013-hugo-awards/">2013 Hugo Award Nominees Announced</a> <p> <span id="more-222382"></span> <hr /> <strong>Best Novelette</strong> (616 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *“The Boy Who Cast No Shadow”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (<em>Postscripts: Unfit For Eden</em>, PS Publications)</li> <br /> *“Fade To White”, Catherynne M. Valente (<em> Clarkesworld</em>, August 2012)</li> <br /> *“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi”, Pat Cadigan (<em>Edge of Infinity</em>, Solaris)</li> <br /> *“In Sea-Salt Tears”, Seanan McGuire (Self-published)</li> <br /> *“Rat-Catcher”, Seanan McGuire (<em> A Fantasy Medley 2</em>, Subterranean)</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Short Story</strong> (662 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *“Immersion”, Aliette de Bodard (<em> Clarkesworld</em>, June 2012)</li> <br /> *“Mantis Wives”, Kij Johnson (<em>Clarkesworld</em>, August 2012)</li> <br /> *“Mono no Aware”, Ken Liu (<em>The Future is Japanese</em>, VIZ Media LLC)</li> </ul> <p><small>Note: Category has only 3 nominees due to the minimum 5% requirement of Section 3.8.5 of the <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/PAO4rgA3814/%E2%80%9D" http:="" www.wsfs.org="" bm="" const-2012.pdf”="">WSFS constitution</a>.</small></p> <p><strong>Best Related Work</strong> (584 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *<em> The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature</em>, Edited by Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn (Cambridge University Press)</li> <br /> *<em> Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them</em>, Edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Sigrid Ellis (Mad Norwegian Press)</li> <br /> *<em> Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who</em>, Edited by Deborah Stanish & L.M. Myles (Mad Norwegian Press)</li> <br /> *<em> I Have an Idea for a Book … The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg</em>, Compiled by Martin H. Greenberg, edited by John Helfers (The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box)</li> <br /> *<em> Writing Excuses Season Seven</em>, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler and Jordan Sanderson</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Graphic Story</strong> (427 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *<em> Grandville Bête Noire</em>, written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse Comics, Jonathan Cape)</li> <br /> *<em> Locke & Key Volume 5: Clockworks</em>, written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)</li> <br /> *<em> Saga, Volume One</em>, written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)</li> <br /> *<em>Schlock Mercenary: Random Access Memorabilia</em>, written and illustrated by Howard Tayler, colors by Travis Walton (Hypernode Media)</li> <br /> *<em> Saucer Country, Volume 1: Run</em>, written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Ryan Kelly, Jimmy Broxton and Goran Sudžuka (Vertigo)</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form</strong> (787 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *<em> The Avengers</em>, Screenplay & Directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios, Disney, Paramount)</li> <br /> *<em> The Cabin in the Woods</em>, Screenplay by Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon; Directed by Drew Goddard (Mutant Enemy, Lionsgate)</li> <br /> *<em> The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</em>, Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro, Directed by Peter Jackson (WingNut Films, New Line Cinema, MGM, Warner Bros)</li> <br /> *<em> The Hunger Games</em>, Screenplay by Gary Ross & Suzanne Collins, Directed by Gary Ross (Lionsgate, Color Force)</li> <br /> *<em> Looper</em>, Screenplay and Directed by Rian Johnson (FilmDistrict, EndGame Entertainment)</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form</strong> (597 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *<em>Doctor Who</em>, “The Angels Take Manhattan”, Written by Steven Moffat, Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)</li> <br /> *<em>Doctor Who</em>, “Asylum of the Daleks”, Written by Steven Moffat; Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)</li> <br /> *<em>Doctor Who</em>, “The Snowmen”, written by Steven Moffat; directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Wales)</li> <br /> *<em>Fringe</em>, “Letters of Transit”, Written by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Akiva Goldsman, J.H.Wyman, Jeff Pinkner. Directed by Joe Chappelle (Fox)</li> <br /> *<em> Game of Thrones</em>, “Blackwater”, Written by George R.R. Martin, Directed by Neil Marshall. Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (HBO)</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Editor, Short Form</strong> (526 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *John Joseph Adams</li> <br /> *Neil Clarke</li> <br /> *Stanley Schmidt</li> <br /> *Jonathan Strahan</li> <br /> *Sheila Williams</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Editor, Long Form</strong> (408 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *Lou Anders</li> <br /> *Sheila Gilbert</li> <br /> *Liz Gorinsky</li> <br /> *Patrick Nielsen Hayden</li> <br /> *Toni Weisskopf</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Professional Artist</strong> (519 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *Vincent Chong</li> <br /> *Julie Dillon</li> <br /> *Dan dos Santos</li> <br /> *Chris McGrath</li> <br /> *John Picacio</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Semiprozine</strong> (404 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *<em>Apex Magazine</em>, edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Jason Sizemore and Michael Damian Thomas</li> <br /> *<em> Beneath Ceaseless Skies</em>, edited by Scott H. Andrews</li> <br /> *<em> Clarkesworld</em>, edited by Neil Clarke, Jason Heller, Sean Wallace and Kate Baker</li> <br /> *<em>Lightspeed</em>, edited by John Joseph Adams and Stefan Rudnicki</li> <br /> *<em> Strange Horizons</em>, edited by Niall Harrison, Jed Hartman, Brit Mandelo, An Owomoyela, Julia Rios, Abigail Nussbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Dave Nagdeman and Rebecca Cross</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Fanzine</strong> (370 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *<em>Banana Wings</em>, edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer</li> <br /> *<em>The Drink Tank</em>, edited by Chris Garcia and James Bacon</li> <br /> *<em> Elitist Book Reviews</em>, edited by Steven Diamond</li> <br /> *<em>Journey Planet</em>, edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Emma J. King, Helen J. Montgomery and Pete Young</li> <br /> *<em>SF Signal</em>, edited by John DeNardo, JP Frantz, and Patrick Hester</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Fancast</strong> (346 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *<em>The Coode Street Podcast</em>, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe</li> <br /> *<em>Galactic Suburbia Podcast</em>, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)</li> <br /> *<em>SF Signal Podcast</em>, Patrick Hester, John DeNardo, and JP Frantz</li> <br /> *<em>SF Squeecast</em>, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, Catherynne M. Valente (Presenters) and David McHone-Chase (Technical Producer)</li> <br /> *<em>StarShipSofa</em>, Tony C. Smith</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Fan Writer</strong> (485 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *James Bacon</li> <br /> *Christopher J. Garcia</li> <br /> *Mark Oshiro</li> <br /> *Tansy Rayner Roberts</li> <br /> *Steven H Silver</li> </ul> <p><strong>Best Fan Artist</strong> (293 nominating ballots cast)</p> <ul> <br /> *Galen Dara</li> <br /> *Brad W. Foster</li> <br /> *Spring Schoenhuth</li> <br /> *Maurine Starkey</li> <br /> *Steve Stiles</li> </ul> <p><strong>The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer</strong> (476 nominating ballots cast)<br /> <small>Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2011 or 2012, sponsored by Dell Magazines. (Not a Hugo Award, but administered along with the Hugo Awards.)</small></p> <ul> <br /> *Zen Cho*</li> <br /> *Max Gladstone</li> <br /> *Mur Lafferty*</li> <br /> *Stina Leicht*</li> <br /> *Chuck Wendig*</li> </ul> <p><small>*Finalists in their 2nd year of eligibility.</small> <img width='1' height='1' src='http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/35208/f/653965/s/2a2ecd91/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class='mf-viral'><table border='0'><tr><td valign='middle'><a href="http://share.feedsportal.com/viral/sendEmail.cfm?lang=en&title=2013+Hugo+nominees+announced&link=http%3A%2F%2Fboingboing.net%2F2013%2F03%2F31%2F2013-hugo-nominees-announced.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" /></a></td><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=2013+Hugo+nominees+announced&link=http%3A%2F%2Fboingboing.net%2F2013%2F03%2F31%2F2013-hugo-nominees-announced.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" /></a></td></tr></table></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~4/PAO4rgA3814" height="1" width="1"/> | ||
| Saturday, March 30th, 2013 | |||
| 6:08 pm | Assyrian Dalek, ca. 865 BCE File:Assyrian battering ram.jpg (Thanks, Justin!)
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| 2:54 pm | New Bob Basset mask with added angularity DW new. Steampunk Art Leather Mask
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| 12:21 pm | Embarrassingly obvious undercover cops take to Twitter looking for house shows [Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a [...] ">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] <p class='ljsyndicationlink'><a href='http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/BjOnT4upUic/story01.htm'>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/BjOnT4upUic/story01.htm</a></p><p class='ljsyndicationlink'><a href='http://boingboing.net/?p=222296'>http://boingboing.net/?p=222296</a></p><p> <img src="http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/tumblr_mk8nx8pHr31ryqafno1_500.jpg" class="bordered"><br /> Internet-savvy indie musicians organize "house shows," which are pretty much what they sound like: a fan lets the band use her or his house for a performance, and other fans come by and hear it. The shows aren't legal, but they're pretty fun*. <p> Boston cops have taken to Twitter, posing as punk kids, trying to get bands to tip off the location of their house shows. As Slate's Luke O'Neil points out, though, they're <em>really bad</em> at it, totally tone-deaf. It's created something of an Internet sport of "spot the undercover," which is almost as much fun as the house parties. <blockquote> <p> “Too bad you were not here this weekend,” “Joe Sly” wrote. “Patty's day is a mad house I am still pissing green beer.  The cops do break balls something wicked here. What's the address for Saturday Night, love DIY concerts.” He might as well have written “<a href="https://twitter.com/notpolice/status/306163189865934849"">Just got an 8 ball of beer and I’m ready to party</a>.”</p> <p>Is it possible that Joe Sly is a real Boston punk? Sure, though if so he’s the first Boston punk in history to brag about drinking lame St. Patrick’s Day green beer. As one of the many amused music fans <a href="http://lifes-halt.tumblr.com/post/46288017095/its-finally-happening-undercover-boston-cops">who scoffed at the screencap</a> as it was <a href="http://www.bostonmayhem.com/post/46297252138/sooo-who-else-remembers-the-undercover-cop-from">shared around on Tumblr</a> <a href="http://chelseadirck.tumblr.com/post/46312488975/bostonmayhem-meanxgirl-lifes-halt-its">pointed out, </a>“he/she said concerts ... concerts.” Anyone who's ever been to a concert like this knows that it's not called a <em>concert</em>. It’s a <em>show</em>.</p> <p>The Massachusetts band Do No Harm <a href="https://twitter.com/donoharmband/status/317331002383028224">also tweeted about receiving an email</a> from Joe this month. “whats the 411 for the show saturday?” he asked, apparently using some sort of slang-filter translator from the turn of the century.</p> </blockquote> <p> Of course, there may be <em>really good</em> undercovers trolling Twitter for house parties that we don't know about because of their perfect ninja stealth. If only disproving a negative was possible! <p> <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2013/03/boston_police_catfishing_indie_rockers_cops_pose_as_punks_on_the_internet.single.html">Boston Punk Zombies Are Watching You!</a> [Slate/Luke O'Neil] <hr /> <p> * Though I have some sympathy with neighbors who don't like the late night noise -- when <a href="http://www.easyflat.eu.com/">an illegal, unlicensed hotel</a> moved in next door to me and started drilling into my bedroom wall all night, and jackhammering against the wall for 8 hours straight on Christmas, it made me totally bananas. <img width='1' height='1' src='http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/35208/f/653965/s/2a2aaab4/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class='mf-viral'><table border='0'><tr><td valign='middle'><a href="http://share.feedsportal.com/viral/sendEmail.cfm?lang=en&title=Embarrassingly+obvious+undercover+cops+take+to+Twitter+looking+for+house+shows&link=http%3A%2F%2Fboingboing.net%2F2013%2F03%2F30%2Fembarrassingly-obvious-underco.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" /></a></td><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Embarrassingly+obvious+undercover+cops+take+to+Twitter+looking+for+house+shows&link=http%3A%2F%2Fboingboing.net%2F2013%2F03%2F30%2Fembarrassingly-obvious-underco.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" /></a></td></tr></table></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~4/BjOnT4upUic" height="1" width="1"/> | ||
| 9:13 am | South Korea lives in the future (of brutal copyright enforcement) The US-Korean Free Trade Agreement came with a raft of draconian enforcement rules that Korea -- then known as a world leader in network use and literacy -- would have to adopt. Korea has since become a living lab of the impact of letting US entertainment giants design your Internet policy -- and the example that industry lobbyists point to when they discuss their goals. One of the laws that Korea adopted early was the infamous "three strikes" rule, where repeated, unsubstantiated accusations of copyright infringement leads to whole families being punished through restriction of, or disconnection from their Internet connections. Now the Korean National Human Rights Commission has examined the fallout from the country's three strikes rules, and called for its repeal due to high costs to wider Korean society. Here's the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Danny O'Brien with more:
Korea's three strikes rules are similar to the "Six Strikes" rules that America's leading ISPs have voluntarily adopted and just put into effect. If you want to see the future of American Internet policy, and its fallout, look at Korea. Korean Lawmakers and Human Rights Experts Challenge Three Strikes Law
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| 7:55 am | Caturday  "That's the stuff: Ralph The Cat," a photo by Darren Sethe of Portland, Oregon, shared in the Boing Boing Flickr pool.
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| 7:50 am | Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," depicted in crayon
Boing Boing reader @ayleph tweeted at us: "Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album cover, depicted in crayon. Found at Sonic Boom in Ballard." [that's Seattle, WA]. Click pic to grande-fy.
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A Chinese engineer who operates a data recovery and hard drive repair center is being hailed as a genius after inventing a DIY candy floss machine made from a used hard disk. According to the instructions, all that is needed to create your own candy floss maker is a hard drive that can still power up, a round flat metal tin, six bicycle spokes, an aluminum can and a plastic basin. A series of photos demonstrating how to create this candy floss machine have made some sensation across China internet … 
I like the Puke State. Also, Utah's nickname was apparently "Utah." 
Zack sez, "Artist Brad McGinty (the "
A new piece from Ukrainian steampunk leather mask-maker Bob Basset. I like the angular forms here -- there's something a bit Roman in it, to my eye at least. 
