Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Junior TSA Screener sticker

Paul Saffo recently mailed me one of these terrific stickers that are given away free to young travelers at SFO. When Mark F. and I traveled back from OSCON in Portland, Mark asked the TSA screeners for stickers to give to his daughters as souvenirs but the PDX agents weren't yet aware of this wonderfully inspirational promotion.
Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:50:56 AM permalink | blogs' comments

NASA can't find moon landing tapes

NASA lost can't seem to find right now 13,000 original tapes of the Apollo moon missions, including footage of Neil Armstrong's "giant leap." Apparently, the quality of the raw reels is several times better than the ghosty images caused by reformatting for TV broadcast. From the Associated Press:

Until Tuesday, the search for the tapes was a spare-time deal and retirement hobby for (Goddard engineer Richard) Nafzger and the 81-year-old (retired NASA TV camera manager Stan) Lebar - not anything organized. Now with news reports of the lost tapes and NASA wanting data for its new lunar missions, the agency ordered a search of its cosmic attics...

Starting in 1970, the tapes were shipped to the National Archives' massive record center in Suitland, Md. And Lebar had hoped he hit pay dirt when he went to the record center, which he compared to the massive warehouse of long-forgotten boxes seen in the final scene of the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

But when Lebar got to the area the boxes were supposed to be, he found empty shelves. Later, he and Nafzger determined all the boxes were returned permanently to Goddard.

"They're not lost," Lebar said, "it's just we haven't gotten to the next step yet."

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:43:57 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Xeni's trek-blog: more road notes from Tibet, India, China.

A few recent entries on the "reporter's notebook" blog where I'm posting coredumps from a recent trip through Tibet, India, and China:

* Travel HOWTO: shots I gots, and altitude data sites

* Words I read on a door in Dharamshala

* Nonprofit offers vaccines to Gaddi villages in India

* China pledges "fight to the death" with Dalai Lama

* Windies vs. Tiggas

Previously, NPR Day to Day radio series "Hacking the Himalayas":

Part 1: The Gaddi of Dharamsala
Part 2: Connecting Tibet's Exile Community via the Web
Part 3: A Wireless Network for 'Little Lhasa'
Part 4: Tradition vs. Change in 'Lhasa Vegas'

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:24:34 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Hideous Heathrow experience

Tango from Designverb says:

I documented my three-day misery at London's Heathrow airport at perhaps the peak of chaos. Highlights included:

15 hours later, our plane was cancelled while sitting in the place and after they served food.
The plane cancelled flew to our destination without us, only to pick up more passengers, Boston to London.
I was behind the counter making reservations.
Many were crying on the floor.
The airline could not re-book for us, but we could call and re-book, what crap!

So, I went through 3 security checks but some unlucky individuals went through more if they were randomly selected. The security line was long, 2-3+ hours each. The first line was for checking in luggage, which was your only chance to check in everything and only carry on what was allowed (many people tried cheating this). The second line was the first security check to get into the terminals with x-rays, pat downs, and hand searches into your only plastic bag. This is also where a great deal of good were thrown away. There was a trashbag on the floor full of cell phones, ipods, cameras, jewelry, razors, notebooks, usb sticks, key fobs, lipstick, some really expensive pens, and many other items that would be hard to throw away.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:22:33 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Ze Frank describes political situation as a baseball game

Ze Frank's August 14 episode of his wonderful The Show is about politics as a baseball game. It's hilarious. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:12:04 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Scottish Max Headroom: Cyberned

Joe sez, "Top Glasgow-based fantasy author Mike Cobley (writer of the Shadowkings series) has posted a piece to YouTube called 'Cyberned' in which he looks a bit like a cross between a Glaswegian Max Headroom and Holly from Red Dwarf. BTW, a 'ned' in Scotland is like a 'chav' in England." I don't know if it's the dialog, the video, or the Glaswegian accent, but this is the most compelling nonsense I've ever seen. Link (Thanks, Joe!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:13:35 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Bruce Schneier Facts (in the style of Chuck Norris facts)

* Bruce Schneier doesn't need steganography to hide data in innocent-looking files. He just pounds it in with his fist.

* Bruce Schneier's secure handshake is so strong, you won't be able to exchange keys with anyone else for days.

* Most people use passwords. Some people use passphrases. Bruce Schneier uses an epic passpoem, detailing the life and works of seven mythical Norse heroes.

Link, here's why it's funny, and here's the Real Bruce Schneier. (thanks, John)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:09:34 AM permalink | blogs' comments

UK man faces jail over 'made-up' child porn images

Ken Kennedy says,

A computer expert in Great Britian has been told to “be prepared, at least, for a prison sentence”. His crime? He scanned photographs of adult porn stars into his computer, and photomanipulated them to reduce the size of their breasts and add schoolgirl costumes. Again...pictures *of adults* photoshopped. No actual children involved, and no one is asserting otherwise.

He pled guilty after being told "a pseudophotograph of a child is defined as an image, whether made by computer graphics or otherwise, which appears to be that of a child. Such an image is treated in law as showing a child even if some of the physical characteristics are those of an adult. "

At an earlier court hearing, even the judge the analogy of a “tarts and vicars” party...would photos from women at such an event be considered child pornography?
(Note: I originally found the link from a Second Life member's blog where they were discussing related issues as they are related to Second Life. A notable quote from that blogpost: I can't help thinking that his offence pales into insignificance next to the sort of activity that happens in SL. )

Link to UK Times story. Another interesting snip from that piece: computer forensic analyst Ray Savage, with the Cleveland police department -- "These images can be as crude as someone having pasted a cut-out of a child’s head on to an adult’s photo."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:01:35 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Gatwick lets no-ticket/no-passport 12-year-old onto a plane

Moritz sez,

People readily assert they are willing to travel without any hand luggage at all, undergo elaborate full-body, luggage (and shoe) screenings, dump all liquids together into collecting bins, including the soft drink purchased while waiting hours due to these procedures, or wait for the eventual retrieval of their piece of the at least 10000 misplaced bags of British Airways passengers gone missing since the beginning of the security alert, etc. -- all in exchange for an increased level security, of course.
To fool such a system, it takes a 12-year-old boy, as reported by newspaper FAZ (in German). He managed to get onboard a plane at Gatwick airport in London (at the origin city of the planned attacks) during the ongoing high-alert phase -- without even possessing a passport of ticket! The airport spokesperson stresses there was no danger for anyone -- maybe because the drink and snack that the boy was already consuming in the plane during the head count just before take-off (which finally revealed that there was one passenger too much and stopped the affair) had been offered to him by the crew and had not been smuggled into the cabin. The mother of the boy and the airline, however, have different opinions and are concerned about the fact this could happen at all. Apparently, the boy had run away from a care home and taken the train to London, again without ticket, prior to boarding 'his' flight to Lisbon.

10,000 lost bags? Woah. Now that's security. Link (Thanks, Moritz!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:49:06 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Would a hair-gel bomb actually work?

On Dave Farber's Interesting People list, a chemistry grad student posts his analysis of the implausibility of mixing acetone peroxides in and airplane out of ingredients smuggled aboard (his caveat: "I'm working entirely off of news reported by people who don't know the difference between soft drinks and nail polish remover, but the information I've seen has the taste of being real.")

What's really amazing is when he gets into why seizing liquids won't keep explosives off of planes, describing how you could make undetectable thermit canes, exploding baby-powder, deadly laptop batteries -- even explosive clothes.

A mix of H2O2 and H2SO4, commonly called "piranha bath", is used in orgo labs around the world for cleaning the last traces out of organic material out of glassware when you need it *really* clean -- thus, many people who work around organic labs are familiar with it. When you mix it, it heats like mad, which is a common thing when you mix concentrated sulfuric acid with anything. It is very easy to end up with a spattering mess. You don't want to be around the stuff in general. Here, have a look at a typical warning list from a lab about the stuff.
Now you may protest "but terrorists who are willing to commit suicide aren't going to be deterred by being injured while mixing their precursor chemicals!" -- but of course, determination isn't the issue here, getting the thing done well enough to make the plane go boom is the issue. There is also the small matter of explaining to the guy next to you what you're doing, or doing it in a tiny airplane bathroom while the plane jitters about.
Now, they could of course mix up their oxidizer in advance, but then finding a container to keep the stuff in that isn't going to melt is a bit of an issue. The stuff reacts violently with *everything*. You're not going to keep piranha bath in a shampoo bottle -- not unless the shampoo bottle was engineered by James Bond's Q. Glass would be most appropriate, assuming that you could find a way to seal it that wouldn't be eaten.

Link (via Schneier)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:17:33 AM permalink | blogs' comments

The Pirate Bay's backstory

Wired News just published part one of Quinn Norton's tremendous feature on the story behind Sweden's notorious Pirate Bay, and the political movement it spawned, The Pirate Party. Today's installment tells the story of the founding of the Pirate Bay and the yeoman technical effort undertaken by its runners when the MPAA coaxed Swedish police into seizing their servers, and the political backlash. Also included is an archive of documents showing that the MPAA was responsible for ordering the raids. The next installment promises to cover "A Nation Divided over Piracy" -- the Pirate Party its fortunes.

Founder Gottfrid Svartholm was working as a programmer for a security consultancy on a one-year assignment in Mexico City, when he volunteered to help a Swedish file-sharing advocacy group called Piratbyran set up its own BitTorrent tracker. Svartholm's spare bit of caseless hardware wasn't meant to be extraordinary -- it was just meant to be a specifically Swedish site.
He chose the name Pirate Bay to make clear what the site was there for: no shame, no subtlety. These people were pirates. They believed the existing copyright regime was a broken artifact of a pre-digital age, the gristle of a rotting business model that poisoned culture and creativity. The Pirate Bay didn't respect intellectual property law, and they'd say it publicly.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:11:12 AM permalink | blogs' comments

AOL will dig for buried platinum and gold in spammer's Mom's yard

AOL won a giant judgement against a spammer named David Wolfgang Hawke, and they suspect that Hawke's spam-fortunes were converted to gold and platinum bullion and buried on his parents farm. AOL plans on using bulldozers and geological teams to find and excavate the buried loot:

To win a judge's permission for the search, AOL submitted receipts reflecting large purchases by Hawke of gold and platinum bars, Graham said. The company indicated it believes Hawke buried the loot on his parents' property using a shovel.
Greenbaum said the family believes Hawke buried gold in the White Mountains 130 miles north of Boston. She said he once confided to her that he bought gold -- rather than expensive homes or cars -- because it would be more difficult to seize in lawsuits.

Link (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:03:06 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Lazyweb: That leaked AOL user info? Let's do crazy data-plots!

Paul Boutin says,

Is anyone plotting the AOL data in detail? A friend had a suggestion: Plot search terms by time against the phase of the moon. With three full lunar cycles and 658,000 subjects in the data, are there undeniable patterns of search terms that peak with the full moon?
You just know they do this stuff at Google.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:26:59 PM permalink | blogs' comments

New TSA restrictions and sex toys: whither the lube?

The new "no liquids or gels" restrictions mean you can't tote your KY jelly on-board (heavens to Murgatroid, whatever shall we do?), and you may want to think carefully about where you pack that vegan Hello Kitty bluetooth butt plug:

As far as packing non-vibrating sex toys and devices in carry on, use your own common sense. Some items, like nipple clamps and cock rings, may appear innocuous enough to escape a screener's scrutiny. But be aware that security officials are on heightened lookout for anything unusual, and you may find yourself in the awkward position of explaining what a penis pump is for. It's probably better to leave it in your checked luggage than have to mumble something about it being "a medical device" or wing a lame excuse about a "joke gift for a friend." Whatever you do, don't offer a demonstration - that will probably land you on the "no fly" list.
If you think you can beat the system by carrying your sex toys on your person, you might want to think again. Of course, you'll have to empty your pockets of anything metal and put the contents in a tray, and anything battery-powered like a vibe will be subject to extra scrutiny. Attempting to wear a strap-on through security is risky as well. The bulge in your crotch is likely to draw attention anyway, and if the harness has any metal rivets or buckles, it will set off the metal detector, and you'll be pulled aside for a pat-down. Likewise for any wearable clit vibrators. The one exception here might be a non-vibrating butt plug, inserted ahead of time. If you enjoy wearing a plug in public, it could help alleviate the tedium of a dull flight and long lines in the terminal.

Link to "Sex Toy Travel Advisory," dated August 16, 2006. Violet Blue has been covering this topic for years on her blog in detail: Link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:18:35 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Bundt pan shaped like a "fairytale cottage"

These "Fairytale Cottage" Bundt pans turn out little castle-lets of cake, ready for frosting. Low-carbers: substitute ground round for cake-batter. Link (via Cribcandy)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:00:43 PM permalink | blogs' comments

MC Escher remix contest

Today on the Worth 1000 photoshopping contest: remixes of MC Escher designs. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:54:40 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Fun with ticks and flesh-eating fish in C. America

Paul says:

Wendy and I went to Belize and Guatemala for our honeymoon and had a wonderful time, but we got bitten by bugs aplenty and went through almost half a tube of Benadryl Itch Stopping Cream. Before taking a shower one eve, I felt something foreign on my posterior nether regions-- I thought it was a flap of skin or perhaps, um, a "Klingon," until I pinched it off and saw that it was a large flat tick with a chunk of my pale butt-skin still visible in its mouth parts. Here's a photo I took of the tick, after it had released the chunk of skin.
A couple days later Wendy found a similar tick on her leg. Speaking of flesh-eating, we also visited Lake Petén Itzá about a week after I'd suffered a bad sunburn. My skin was peeling, and I found that the tiny fish in the lake loved eating the pieces of skin that were rolling generously off of my back at the time. Here's a pic of me feeding the fish. They crowded and jumped for every morsel.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:59:44 PM permalink | blogs' comments

To do in SF: Data surveillance performance art

Starting Thursday, August 17 for three nights, there’s a cool multimedia theater piece in San Francisco by the Builders Association: "SUPER VISION tells three stories about dataveillance, using a seamless blend of video, sound, new media, and theater design." Link, and here's a Wired story on an earlier edition of this show that ran at BAM last year. (Thanks, Melanie Cornwell)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:38:10 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Jill Carroll's story: part 3, "The First Video."

The Christian Science Monitor's 11-part series on journalist Jill Carroll's abduction in Iraq continues today with part 3:

After dinner they told me to put on a track suit they’d given me two days earlier, and remove my head scarf. I wanted to wear my hijab if they were going to film me; they said no, they wanted to make my hair messy, make me look bad.
They brought me back into the sitting room, and men began filing in, carrying AK-47s and RPGs.
Then the leader turned and coached me intently. I must say that they were mujahideen fighting to defend their country, that they wanted women freed from Abu Ghraib prison, and the US military, particularly the Marines, were killing and arresting their women and destroying their houses.
And I must cry, on cue.
I started to give my speech. A man standing behind the camera ran his fingers down his cheeks, to signal that I needed to cry.
It took me a while to work up to the crying part. But I had a lot of pent-up emotion and stress, and by the time we finished, I was crying for real.
As the taping ended, I put my head down and I just kept crying. I heard Abu Rasha behind me go, “ughh”, in a sympathetic way, like he felt bad that I was sitting there crying in front of them.
Ink Eye’s reaction was different. He showed no sympathy. And I knew his opinion of me – my personal character – might make the difference in whether I lived or died. He said, “We have to do this again.”

Link to "The First Video," and link to yesterday's installment -- part two, "A Spy With a Homing Device." Link to previous BB posts on Ms. Carroll.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 04:20:10 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Haunted Mansion with the lights on video

Ricky sez, "supernumber18 on YouTube has posted a couple of videos of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion with the lights on. While this would normally be news in itself (it's fairly rare to see the Mansion with the lights on), there's even more to the story. Evidently the kids were trying to steal something from the recently made-over attic scene."

Hot damn this is a kick-ass piece of video -- the Mansion with the lights on, it's like a cross between seeing your parents having sex and catching the hand of God rearranging the laws of physics while your back is turned.

On 08/13/06 we were riding Haunted Mansion at Disneyland when the lights suddenly came on. We later learned that it was because a few kids tried to steal a prop. They were escorted outside by CM's and dealt with by security.

Link (Thanks, Ricky!)

Update: Andrew sez, "I instantly thought of the video I had recorded of Space Mountain with its lights on, which I recorded on my trip to Disney World last week."

Update 2: This video has been flagged as private, so you and I can't watch it anymore. Man, that sucks.

Update 3: Ricky sez, "I've mirrored the Haunted Mansion lights-on videos from YouTube (snagged them before it went private) on my blog."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:30:42 PM permalink | blogs' comments

TSA will not touch your monkey.

Jonathan Abourbih says,

The TSA has a really informative article on how to bring service animals through airport security, including helper monkeys. Fortunately for us all, "TSOs have been trained not to touch the monkey during the screening process."

Liebe meine abst-monkey. Now is ze time on ze security screening when we dahnce.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 02:56:40 PM permalink | blogs' comments

One-eyed baby in Chennai, India: update

Scott Carney, a freelance tech journalist in Chennai, India, has been following the story of the baby girl born with one eye, no nose, and both brain lobes fused into one (link to previous BB post). He's posted some pretty intense photos and a short article here at Wired News. The images may be disturbing to some. Carney reports that a problematic anti-cancer drug may have caused the deformity.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:49:42 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Cory's WorldCon schedule

This year's World Science Fiction Convention starts a week Thursday, on August 24th, in LA. I'm doing a bunch of programming this year, as well as dusting off my tuxedo for the Hugo Awards ceremony, where I'm a finalist for my story I, Robot. I'm doing several signings, as well, but if you can't make it to WorldCon, you can pre-order custom-inscribed signed copies (with free US shipping, too!) from Borderlands Books. Hope to see you at the WorldCon!

Thu, Aug 24
* 11AM: Sign at Asimov's table, dealers' room
* 2PM: Sign at Borderlands table, dealers' room
* 4PM: Podcasting Science Fiction, with Stephen Eley, Paul Fischer and Evo Terra
Fri, Aug 25:
* 1PM: Bloggers as Public Intellectuals, with Kevin Drum, MaryAnn Johanson, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden and Phil Plait
* 3PM: Autographing
* 5:30: Can Science Fiction Change the World? with David Brin, Sean McMullen, Craig Newmark and Cecilia Tan
Sat, Aug 26:
* 1PM: Open Source Software, with Andrew Adams, Loretta McKibben and Eric S. Raymond
* 4PM: The Singularity -- What Is It And Why Should You Care? with Todd McCaffrey, David F. McMahon, MD, Mark L. Olson and Toni Weisskopf
Sun, Aug 27:
1PM: Kaffeeklatsch
2PM: Reading

(Thumbnail of Hugo Award from a larger image on an AwardWeb page)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:55:03 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Share YouTube video = share friend's email with Plaxo? UPDATED

"Natch" was among BoingBoing readers who've written in about this:

While debugging why YouTube videos are not working on one of my PCs, I tried the 'Share' link to try to get to the URL. In the popup that appeared, the NoScript extension was blocking some JavaScript. Clicking on the button to enable the code revealed that the JavaScript was hosted at -- gasp -- Plaxo (no linkee for them), the company that enlists its users to send spamalicious address book related emails. So from the looks of it, when you share a YouTube video with your friends, you may be unwittingly adding your friends' email addresses to Plaxo's databases. Slick. Or, should I say, slimy. At least it appears so. There is no confirmation that this is what is happening, but it certainly does look suspicious.

I emailed YouTube's media spokesperson yesterday evening about this question, and await a reply. I imagine YouTube's privacy policy / terms of use statement would address this possibility in some form, but I cannot access it to check -- the site is currently unavailable: JPEG screenshot.

UPDATE: No reply from YT, but Joseph Smarr, an engineer with Plaxo, explains that the answer the question in this blog-post's subject line is "no." Smarr says:

Nothing nefarious is going on here—no e-mails are being “unwittingly added to our databases”. YouTube is using our Address Book Access Widget so their users can easily pick people from their hotmail/gmail/outlook/etc address books to send video links to. It’s completely optional and no personal info is sent to Plaxo when our JavaScript loads on YouTube’s page. Furthermore, all the data we pass through as a result of using the widget is dropped as soon as the user is done selecting contacts. Lots of other sites are also using our widget (zazzle, break.com, etc.) so they don’t have to write their own auto-importers for the myriad address book services out there.
I’m not sure how many of your readers have been following Plaxo, but we’ve taken serious steps to curtail the amount of update e-mails our users send out, and we’ve publicly apologized to the people who were annoyed by the e-mails in the past. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about this effort, including from some of our toughest former critics, like Michael Arrington at TechCrunch. Our usefulness as a service has also increased a lot recently, with sync clients for Mac, Thunderbird, and AIM, an open API, and over 10M Plaxo members that provide up-to-date contact info automatically (no e-mails). So I hope people will take a fresh look at Plaxo!

UPDATE: YT never did reply, but their privacy policy is accessible again. IANAL, and this is sort of a moot point now since Plaxo already replied -- but the language would seem to prohibit the kind of data-sharing scenario "Natch" and other BB readers asked about.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:38:41 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Functional, full-sized dory-boat made from newspapers

A reader writes, "Reverend Rob Murray in Pinawa Manitoba Canada was pining for the ocean. He built a dory out of wall paper paste and the local newspaper. With a couple coats of varathane to keep the paper and water separate she floats! Unfortunately the closest salt water from his doorstep on the Winnipeg River is Churchill on Hudson's Bay." (No word on whether he remembered to pack a tin-opener for the pineapple slices.) Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:37:34 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Kevin Kelly's new blog: Street Use

"Street Use" is a new online project by the mastermind who most recently brought us "Cool Tools." Kevin Kelly explains:

This site features the ways in which people modify and re-create technology. Herein a collection of personal modifications, folk innovations, street customization, ad hoc alterations, wear-patterns, home-made versions and indigenous ingenuity. In short -- stuff as it is actually used, and not how its creators planned on it being used. As William Gibson said, "The street finds its own uses for technology." I welcome suggestions of links, and contributions from others to include in this compendium.

Heres an entry about improvised truck armor in Iraq:

It would be hard to find a better example of "street use" than these hardened street trucks outfitted for desert war. A guy named Defensor Fortis, who was stationed in Iraq, posted some photos on Flickr of truck modifications performed by contractors. These are desperate attempt to protect a factory-issue truck from roadside bombs or enemy fire. They also boast their own artillery posts to return fire. When asked about the effectiveness of the jury-rigged armor Defensor said, "I have seen no proof, but I imagine they're fairly safe from small arms fire and more than like fitted with "run flat" tires."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:14:45 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Adding Asimov's First Law to the GPL

Matt sez, "In an attempt to prevent military applications of their project to create networked P2P supercomputing clusters, the developers of GPU (Gnutella Processing Unit) have 'patched' their version of the General Public License to add Asimov's First Law of Robotics."

... "the program and its derivative work will neither be modified or executed to harm any human being nor through inaction permit any human being to be harmed."

It's a funny gag, but I'm inclined to believe that this is unenforceable -- it suggests, for example, that if you modify the software and add it to a pacemaker that fails because of a bug, you're violating the terms. The Hactivismo ~~Public License~~ Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement (thanks, Myles) tried a variant on this some years ago, adding a clause that prohibited weakening security, but there's no good empirical measure of whether one has weakened or strengthened the security of a system (for example, what if you increase the number of bits in your key, but accidentally introduce an implementation error that invites a new avenue of attack?). In both cases, making fundamentally innocuous steps can result in a license. If you believed that this license was enforceable, you'd be best off not using this software. Link (Thanks, Matt!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:14:08 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Malware targets your online gold

A Microsoft security person reports that a new breed of malware seeks to take over your characters in online worlds and steal their virtual gold and other loot:

Using malware or software designed to infiltrate a computer system, hackers steal account information for users of MMO games and then sell off virtual gold, weapons and other items for real money.
"Those of you who are working on massively multiplayer online games, organized crime is already looking at you," said Dave Weinstein, a Microsoft security development engineer at the company's Gamefest video game development conference...
"The police are really good at understanding someone stole my credit card and ran up a lot of money. It's a lot harder to get them to buy into 'someone stole my magic sword."'

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:06:43 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Cracked Magazine re-launches

An Internet-era VC has relaunched Cracked magazine, redesigned to look and feel like Maxim -- short articles, lots of photos. Good writers, too:

Even he wasn't convinced it was a good idea at first when a friend suggested he consider buying Cracked. "I said 'not interested. It's comics. It's for little kids,'" Sarhan recalls. But the seed had been planted and "for the first time I stopped thinking about Cracked for what it was and started thinking about Cracked for what it could be and what the potential was." ...
Sarhan, who is 33, has gathered a stable of contributors that includes writers for "Saturday Night Live" and Comedy Central's "Chappelle's Show," as well as the satirical author Neal Pollack and the actor Michael Ian Black, co-star of the former NBC comedy "Ed" and snarky commentator on VH1's "I Love The..." series.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:55:21 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Anthology: "It came from airport security" call for subs

Glen sez,

Following on the now-infamous pictures of confiscated liquids and gels being dumped into plastic bins, some other bloggers and I thought that this called for a new anthology of short fiction. We're launching a contest to find stories for a new anthology called "It Came From Airport Security."
In a nutshell - stories can be of any genre (and we mean *any*) as long as they deal with the results of someone (or something) being exposed to the chemicals in one of the confiscation bins. There are prizes (and room to add more prizes, should we come across any additional to give), and yes, there is a submission fee - but we've tried to keep it small. All stories must be licensed under a BY-SA 2.5 license, and the resulting anthology (and the website accompanying it) will be licensed the same. All entries - not just the top selections - will be considered for publication on the website.

Link (Thanks, Glen!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:52:20 AM permalink | blogs' comments

$10,000 jewel-studded pack of cigs

Nandini sez, "Bat International, a cigarette brand, has unveiled an 18ct white gold pack pack that comes studded with a single large diamond and a ruby. The limited-edition packs will be launched for exclusive sale at selected European airports only." And ten minutes later, your $10,000 pack of cigs will be confiscated by security teams on the alert for "diamond bombs." Link (Thanks, Nandini!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:21:49 AM permalink | blogs' comments

New story on Cory's podcast: Truncat, a sequel to Down and Out

After a long hiatus, I've started up my podcast again with my story Truncat, an indirect sequel to my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Truncat is a parable about warez groups and Napster, about generation war and the trouble with power-laws. In Truncat, the reputation-based Bitchun Society is stagnating, and the birth rate has dropped off so far that only a million kids are alive on the whole planet. These kids have hacked the consciousness-backup system and illicitly copy and load the backups of their elders, treating these backups as a kind of drug.

"Adrian, you have a million friends," his mother said. "That's an audited stat. I'm sorry if you feel isolated, but none of us are moving to Bangalore just so you can chum it up with this fellow."
Adrian fought to control his irritation. His mother was always cranky before breakfast, and a full-blown fight could extend that mood through the whole day. No one needed that. "Mom," he said, twisting his body in the narrow, three-person coffin he shared with his folks so that he could look her in the eye, "I'm not asking you to move to India. All I'm doing is explaining my paper."
His mother snorted. "_The Last Generation on Earth_, really! Adrian, if I were your instructor, I sure wouldn't graduate you on the strength of something like that. I don't really care if that boy in India has convinced the ITT people that his trendy little thesis holds water. The University of Toronto has higher standards than that."
It had been a mistake to even discuss it with his mother. At 180, she was hardly equipped to understand the pressures he and his miniscule generation faced. He should've just written it and stuck it in his advisor's public directory. Only just that he'd had the coolest idea in the night and he'd reflexively bounced it off of her: once his generation reached maturity, the whole planet would be post-human, and a new, new era would start. The Bitchun Society, Phase II.

Link, Podcast Feed

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:46:07 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Wolverine-claw temporary piercings

Freakboy had these temporary "Wolverine" piercings done at a shop in Brazil; I'm guessing that they're a little impractical around the house and on the toilet, but they're probably good conversation-starters at church and such. Link (via Warren Ellis)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:42:59 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Monday, August 14, 2006

Dell will recall 4 million batteries over immolation fears

Snip from BBC: "The world's largest manufacturer of personal computers, Dell, is to recall 4.1 million of its notebook computer batteries because of a fire risk." Link, and here's the NYT report. (Thanks, tim)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:37:09 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Ahmadine-blog a possible hoax? UPDATE: No, it is real.

Update: Some Persian speaking readers wrote in with word that the Iranian president's blog has been mentioned on television in Iran in official context -- it's real. I have no doubt now. But below the jump, reasons I thought it possible that the blog was a hoax. Look, I'd rather be foolishly skeptical than just plain foolish.

Reader Ehsan Nourbakhsh says, "It is not a hoax, the national TV has announced it, as I've heard. Also this one is a news article from ISNA news agency."

Scroll to the very bottom of this post for some insight from readers.
More...

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:25:48 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Photos: Shanghai "Adult Toys and Reproductive Health" Expo.

Link to photos and online videos shot at The Third China International Adult Toys & Reproductive Health Exhibition, in Shanghai. Images are more zany than dirty; most nudity is only plasticflesh. (Thanks, rain).

Update: Shanghaiist has some fun coverage here. (thanks, Wang Wei)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:32:42 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Google nastygrams media cos for using "google" as verb

The search giant distributed legal missives to various media organizations, demanding that they cease using the word "Google" as a verb. In the last two months, that word was added to both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: in the former, as a capitalized proper noun; in the latter, as a purportedly illicit verb. Snip from an article by Stephen Foley in The Independent:

A spokesman confirmed that it had sent the letters. "We think it's important to make the distinction between using the word Google to describe using Google to search the internet, and using the word Google to describe searching the internet. It has some serious trademark issues."
But although an attempt to protect the company's trademark, the letters have raised snickers after they were leaked on to the web. Bloggers have been making fun of the examples Google's lawyers deem acceptable. They included: "Appropriate: I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party. Inappropriate: I googled that hottie."

Link (Thanks, Mary Beth)

I just, ah, googled some related past posts by my blog-colleage Cory Doctorow:

* Can Anyone Own Web 2.0?
* Google's trademark counsel sending out dumb lawyer-letters over "to google"
* Trademarks, an essay on OpenP2P.com by Cory.

Reader comment: George Hotelling says,

I find it interesting that Google has a problem with people using "google" as a verb, since Pontiac ran an ad telling people to "Google Pontiac" and in response Google said "We are happy that Pontiac has featured Google search in their television ad campaign."

Kalle Alm says,

Hilarious. I wrote a blog entry about just this. The fact it's listed as a verb in Japanese dictionaries. As a "godan-verb of the Iku/Yuku special class", to be precise.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:18:16 PM permalink | blogs' comments

As with liquids, TSA bans motherfucking snakes from planes

"NO SNAKES OF ANY KIND WILL BE PERMITTED ON A PLANE. SNAKES ARE NO LONGER ALLOWED IN CHECKED BAGGAGE. This includes all pythons, boas, rattlesnakes, vipers, mambas, adders, and other known species of snakes.

Exception: some limited amounts of snakes may be allowed if Samuel L. Jackson is traveling; licensed snake charmers are allowed to have snakes in their check in baggage only if the name on the snake charming license matches the one passenger’s ticket; people who'se name is Snake will be allowed on board but only after full body cavity search

* Snakes purchased in the sterile area must be consumed before boarding because they will not be permitted onboard the aircraft.
* Passengers traveling from the U.K. to the U.S. will be subject to a more extensive screening process.

Some measures will not be visible to the public. In light of the elevated threat level, the Federal Snake Marshals Service (FSMS) will provide expanded mission coverage for flights from the United Kingdom to the United States."

Link to "Snake Threat Level Change for the Aviation Sector." (Thanks, Luke)

Previously: Liquids on a Plane

Reader comment: The Lizardman says,

I enjoyed the entry, and thought I might note that the TSA has actually banned snakes from planes for some time now. Back in 2002, I was looking into bringing along a snake I use in performances on a flight from Texas to Florida. The snake in question was an absolutely harmless rough green snake about 18 inches long - physically incapable of even biting a finger! When I called the airline I was told not to bring the snake and further referred to a local TSA contact who told me that if I even brought the snake to the airport it would cause a security shutdown of the terminal and I would be arrested. No explanation was given nor were alternatives suggested. In the end I drove to Florida for the gig and I have since found that some package carriers will transport for snakes under certain conditions - I guess their planes aren't afraid of snakes. Here's an image of the snake during the performance: jpeg link.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:00:45 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Report: X-Rays won't spot explosives. But let's still scan shoes!

Airport X-ray scans of airline passengers' shoes cannot detect explosives, according to a 2005 Homeland Security Department report on aviation screening. So why are authorities still scanning our shoes with outdated technology incapable of spotting what it's supposed to spot? Snip from AP item:

Findings from the report, obtained by The Associated Press, did not stop the Transportation Security Administration from announcing Sunday that all airline passengers must remove their shoes and run them through X-ray machines before boarding commercial aircraft. (...)
In its April 2005 report, "Systems Engineering Study of Civil Aviation Security — Phase I," the Homeland Security Department concluded that images on X-ray machines don't provide the information necessary to detect explosives. Machines used at most airports to scan hand-held luggage, purses, briefcases and shoes have not been upgraded to detect explosives since the report was issued.

Link (thanks, rich mogull)

Reader comment: Dr. Paul J. Camp says,

In World War II, the OSS used to send spies and saboteurs into occupied Europe with, among other things, knives concealed in the soles of their shoes. I doubt the trick has been forgotten, and if it is ceramic rather than metal, the knife wouldn't set off the metal detectors. You can easily obtain a ceramic knife blade at any of your higher end cooking-as-a-fashion-statement stores. Just because X-rays don't catch the terrorist-du-jour doesn't mean they are useless. Now that I've written this, the NSA will probably be listening in on all my future phone calls.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:42:58 PM permalink | blogs' comments

TATP: about that pyro stuff in alleged plane-bomb plot

Privacy-Loving Reader says,

Time Magazine identifies the explosive that the [alleged, would-be] plane bombers were going to use: TATP, according to UK investigators.
So I typed that into Google... number one result leads to a Wikipedia story about Acetone Peroxide, aka triacetone triperoxide, peroxyacetone, TATP, and TCAP.
Interestingly, "...TATP is used in a a toy pyrotechnic device known as a "torpedo", consisting of a twist of paper containing gravel coated with a small quantity of TATP. These are thrown onto the ground, producing a satisfying bang. These "torpedoes" are available legally in states that allow firework sales such as Louisiana and Wisconsin. They are sold illegally in the "Chinatown" districts of San Francisco and Los Angeles (California)..." (Ed note: see update below).
The fourth triacetone triperoxide Google result leads to this WikiBooks link, which actually spells out the procedure to making the stuff!
It may also have been used in the 7/7 London bombings and in Richard "Shoe Bomber" Reid's shoes, and is said to be a favorite of Hamas.
All the news organizations I saw refrained from mentioning TATP but it's an open secret. The public should know so they can pressure the government to seek ways to detect it. Researchers at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology claim to have done just that. That article also has some interesting data points on how TATP works:
"...The research team demonstrated that TATP exploded not by releasing thermal energy, but by suddenly breaking each molecule of TATP in the solid state into four molecules of gas. Although the gas is at room temperature, it has the same density as the solid, and four times as many molecules, so it has 200 times the pressure of the surrounding air. This enormous pressure – one-a-half tons per square inch – then pushes outward, creating an explosive force 80% greater than that of TNT..."

Correction/Reader Comment: Privacy-Loving Reader #2 whispers:

I would profess some expertise on the subject of TATP, as I have worked extensively with it under various contracts with the federal government. All are in the past, and well behind me- before 9/11, to be precise. However, I understand a great deal about the synthesis, handling, and testing of the compound in question.
That TATP is used in "snappers" or, as you cite from Wikipedia, "torpedos," is categorically false. The compound used in these is called silver fulminate, and the Wikipedia entry for that compound is quite accurate, noting that "Silver fulminate is used in "trick noise-makers", a popular type of novelty firework."
TATP would be of little to no use in toy noisemakers as the compound is prone to subliming, i.e.: going straight from the solid form to the gaseous form. Again, the Wikipedia entry is incorrect, stating that this compound goes from the trimeric form to the dimeric form. Instead, it simply forms vapor and disappears. From the Wikibooks page: "Storing acetone peroxide is not recommended, because it quickly sublimes." In this regard, it is the same as dry ice: it simply evaporates.

Reader sun-bin says,

I would appreciate insights from 'privacy-loving reader #2" on TATP
1) The dry-ice property means it is quite difficult to plant such bomb into check-in lugguage. (and easy to detect, just search for low temperature spots in the luggage.
2) similarly, even preparing it in airport terminal toilet is not easy. we can use (far) infrared sensor at the gate
3) if it can be detonated so easily (friction heat/etc), there is no point banning iPod and other batteries
a) one can use the eletric wire (eg short-circuiting the shaver outlet, or lights)
b) perhaps even striking 2 pieces of stones (disguised as jewel)
4) the key to detecting TATP preparation is plane is perhaps to look for coolants?
i think such discussion and analysis would help us improve the efficiency of TSA, and also eliminate the unneccesary hassles.

Privacy-Loving Reader #2 replies:

The similarity between dry ice and TATP ends with sublimation. TATP sublimes at room temperature not because it is cold, like dry ice, but because it its intrinsic properties. Its sublimation is slow, and can be reduced; I cannot comment on specifics, but Wikibooks notes the following: "But if it must be stored, it is recommended that it is stored under water and in a container without a cap with threads, as opening it could result in an explosion from crystalized [sic] acetone peroxide."
Ultimately, this is a passing fad; as with many issues, the government has to do something, and hope the problem gets better on its own. Realistically, there are tens or hundreds of ways to disrupt air travel; historically, it has been everything from the fake bomb employed by D.B. Cooper to nitroglycerin in Philippine Airlines flight 434 to Semtex in Pan Am 103. TATP is just the latest thing to get everyone all worried, until something new comes along. Then we'll hail the new detection schemes as being brilliant and effective and worry about the next problem.
Ultimately, all solutions to terrorism issues are political, not technological, as the origins are political. It took years for the British to figure this out; finally, they sat down with the IRA and said, "What the hell do you want?" The IRA had slowly progressed from blowing up people to blowing up cars to finally calling in bombs that were going to go off at 2 AM when the streets were deserted. "If you don't mind, please keep this bomb from going off. We found out killing people makes us unpopular. Thanks!"
A combination of arrests, killings, and negotiations brought the problem to a halt- not better bomb-detectors, or silliness about removing shoes before getting on planes.

Yet another reader, Alexander Ford, adds:

There's a serious misconception in the comments you recently posted by sun-bin. He seems to believe, due to PLR#2's analogy to dry ice, that because TATP sublimates it's solid phase must be very cold, which is obviously false. It's actually similar to naphthalene, the substance used in mothballs, in that it sublimates but can be a crystalline solid at room temperature.

Jim Hill says,

So it appears the Feds were anticipating that terrorists were going to bring the raw materials for acetone peroxide (acetone, hydrogen peroxide, and a bit of hydrochloric acid {I think]) and were then going to set up a laboratory where the AP would be synthesized, precipitated from solution, collected and dried before use? what was their cover story going to be - that they were making a cup o' noodles?
There are explosive compounds that exist and are used in the liquid state - Astrolite, for example (once touted as the world most powerful non-nuclear explosive) but Astrolite needs a blasting cap to set it off - otherwise it burns like charcoal lighter. Really bad smelling charcoal lighter, yes; but it won't just go boom unless it gets a high velocity shock wave propagated through it. That's why professionals like it - it is safe to handle and predictable.
What's next? Al qaeda buying up vast quantities of tincture of iodine to make nitrogen tri-iodide? Scraping the "good stuff" off of match heads? I didn't know the Anarchist's Cookbook was available in Arabic.
I was a high school chemistry geek back when it was legal.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:16:46 PM permalink | blogs' comments

RIAA's "abundance of sensitivity" ends harassment of grieving family

Last week, we posted about the family of a recently deceased defendant in a lawsuit by the RIAA being given 60 days to grieve before the RIAA went on to depose the dead man's children in a renewed suit against his estate. In the intervening days, the publicity about this despicable act -- suing the family of a dead man -- has mounted. Today, an RIAA spokesperson, Jonathan Lamy, contacted me today with this statement:

Our hearts go out to the Scantleberry family for their loss. We had decided to temporarily suspend the productive settlement discussions we were having with the family. Mr. Scantleberry had admitted that the infringer was his stepson, and we were in the process settling with him shortly before his passing. Out of an abundance of sensitivity, we have elected to drop this particular case.

I wrote back to ask him this followup question:

Where was the "abundance of sensitivity" when the RIAA failed to initially drop its case against the Scantleberry family following the death of the named defendant in the case? Given that this "abundance" only materialized within 24 hours of this story hitting several large news outlets and blogs isn't it fair to say that the RIAA is demonstrating sensitivity to its public image, and not its sensitivity to the Scantleberry family?

To which he declined to further comment.

This is par for the course with the RIAA. A year ago, the RIAA contacted me to say that a takedown notice sent on their behalf to RPG Films was a forgery. When I asked if they intended to sue RPG Films for real, and whether these forgeries were common, and whether the RIAA would investigate the forgery, RIAA Director of Communications Jenni Engebretsen promised me she'd get back to me with answers. After repeated emails and phone calls, I finally took the extraordinary step of calling her from a different, borrowed phone (suspecting that she was ducking my calls) and reached her -- only to be told that the RIAA had no further comment.

The RIAA's approach to PR is much like their approach to culture in general: read-only. The RIAA issues statements like the Pope emitting a bull, and we mortals may squabble over its meaning among ourselves, but they are not available to participate in any further discussion. This is reminiscent of the RIAA's approach to things like YouTube lipsynch videos: "our songs are released to be listened to and nothing more; should you dare to make them part of your life, we will use the copyright law we bought to break you."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:40:51 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Robin Williams plays Jon Stewart-like character in upcoming flick

In next month's theatrical-release film "Man of the Year," Robin Williams plays a Jon-Stewart-like fake newscaster comedian who runs for president as a publicity stunt -- and wins. The trailer on YouTube makes this look like a hell of a movie. I'd vote for Jon Stewart, if I was an American and he was a candidate. Link (via Digg)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:25:24 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Web Zen: Zine Zen

time cover art
jpgmag
beer frame
bad mags
suck.com
famous for 15mb
born magazine
esopus
bloodwars
magwerk
more zines

Web Zen Home, Store (Thanks Frank!)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:15:34 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Kuttab: Some evangelicals want to hasten Armageddon with bombs

Daoud Kuttab, an independent Palestinian journalist in Jordan (who is, btw, Christian -- and was raised in Bethlehem and Jerusalem) writes:

A small minority of evangelical Christians have entered the Middle East political arena with some of the most un-Christian statements I have ever heard. The latest gems come from people like Pat Robertson, the founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, and Rev. John Hagee of Christians United for Israel. Hagee, a popular televangelist who leads the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with the publication of his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," in which he argues that a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition for Armageddon (which will mean the death of most Jews, in his eyes) and the Second Coming of Christ.
In the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West. Shortly after the book's publication, he launched Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which, as the Christian version of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he said would cause "a political earthquake." With the outbreak of the war on Lebanon, he and others have called to their followers to pray for Israel, and for the continuation of the war on Lebanon. They have demanded that Israel not relent in what they call the need to destroy Hezbollah and Hamas. They seem to have completely forgotten the very core of the Christian faith.

Link to free version of the op-ed that Kuttab says ran behind the NYT "Times Select" paywall under the heading, "The Line of Fire." (Ed. note: a number of BB readers who are Times Select subscribers wrote in to say that they couldn't find the essay there. I asked Kuttab, and he says it did run, as explained above. I'm not a Times Select subscriber, so I can't verify that way -- if anyone from the NYT wants to confirm, we'd welcome that, for the record. But knowing Kuttab's work and character, I don't see any reason he would misrepresent this fact, so I'm taking his word for it. Maybe the discrepancy is the result of some weird nav glitch on nytimes.com.)

Link to previous BB posts about Daoud Kuttab's work.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:00:48 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Bacardi rips off Cacophony Society, beloved kooky SF pranksters

Scott Beale says,

Wow this is amazing, alcoholic beverage maker Bacardi totally ripped-off San Francisco’s infamous underground prankster group The Cacophony Society with their recent “Bacardi Salmon” television commerial.

Since 1994, The Cacophony Society has had their salmon running in the opposite direction during the annual Bay to Breakers 12K race through San Francisco. The salmon would enter at the mid point of the course and then spawn their way upstream. The salmon are mini-celebrities at the race and always get a huge cheer as they go by. This Cacophony event is known as Breakers to Bay and more salmon info can be found on Tribe.net, as well as photos on Flickr and video on YouTube.

So I was pretty surprised when I was sent a link to the “Bacardi Salmon” commerical. It was developed for Bacardi by the ad agency RKCR/Y&R (Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe, the UK office of Young & Rubicam) , who used the production company Hungry Man, with Jim Jenkins as the director of the spot. The ad steals the entire concept of The Cacophony Society’s Breakers to Bay event, featuring salmon spawning upstream during a foot race through New York (instead of San Francisco). They make no attempt to give any credit to the event’s origins or the person who came up with the idea for the event. In fact, I shot video of the 1996 Breakers to Bay salmon running and this commerical is eerily close to my footage (which has been in circulation for ten years), even including the salmon showing up at the bar at the end.

Well I guess if you can’t come up with something orginal, you can just follow Bacardi’s lead by co-opting someone else’s idea and “run upstream” with it. Oh yeah, be sure to drink a bunch of rum first.

Link to full text of Scott's post, with several updates.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:53:23 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Cellphone terror detainees: not guilty, just inconveniently brown

The FBI today said it has no reason to suspect terrorism ties for three Palestinian-American men arrested in Michigan and charged with "collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes." The men were stopped by authorities after buying 80 pre-paid cellphones at a Wal-Mart. Their van contained nearly a thousand such phones, and the men said they planned to re-sell them at profit.

Nearby, in Ohio, a prosecutor today said he lacked evidence to present felony terrorism charges against two more Arab-American men arrested in a similar incident last week over bulk cellphone buys. Link to AP story, via MSNBC (Thanks, Malik Mitchell).

Today's Detroit Free Press includes an interesting article on the cottage industry of buying and re-selling prepaid mobile phones -- apparently quite popular in Arab-American communities. Snip:

In Michigan, "you can talk to almost any family in the Arab-American community, and they all have some relative in the cell phone business," said Warren David, a Lebanese American from Northville. If police knew that, perhaps five Arab Americans would not have been arrested last week on terrorism charges after they bought hundreds of cell phones, said David, who recently sold his cell phone business to an Iraqi American.
"If they understood us a little more, they might not jump the gun so quickly," he said.
In Ohio on Tuesday, a store employee called police after two 20-year-old Arab-American men from Dearborn bought a large number of cell phones at a Wal-Mart. The same thing happened Friday in Caro after three Arab-American men bought 80 phones at one store. In the Ohio case, Osama Abulhassan and Ali Houssaiky were just trying to make money by buying cell phones so they could sell them to a distributor for a profit, family members said.
"The two young men were engaged in a perfectly legal practice based on the most fundamental principles of our free market economy," the Abulhassan family said in an e-mail.

Link. Let's hope this frees more anti-terror resources for the *real* fight -- pounding discount hair gel distributors into submission with the mighty fists of justice.

Previously on BoingBoing:
* Van full of cellphones leads to arrest of 3 on terror charges

Reader comment: KC says,

Caro, MI is only about 1/2 hour from Decker, MI, ( Link ) which is where Terry Nichols' brother's farm was, (known to the world from the Murrah Fed. Bldg. investigation).
In other words, it's pretty rednecky. I'm sure they see Arab-Americans from time to time, because one of the largest communities of people of Middle-Eastern descent outside the Middle East is in Dearborn, only a couple of hours away ( Link, and link ). They just don't see them that often, and my guess is that not everyone up there likes it when they do.
You don't ever read about the Police Chief of Dearborn being involved in things like this.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 06:22:53 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Flickr: Airplane drives into fuel truck by mistake

David Newberger says:

While I was sitting in Tulsa, Oklahoma waiting for a flight yesterday I saw this whole thing unfold. I could not believe my eyes. A mere 100 feet away from the terminal the ground crew was directing in a flight and they directed it right into the fuel truck.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:10:37 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Longtail tee - stamp out plumber's crack

The Longtail T is a tee-shirt with a long rear-part that covers your plumber's crack when you bend over. Link (via Long Tail)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:31:11 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Spell words with zombies

Spelling with zombies: enter any phrase, have it spelled out in letters made from zombies. Len sez, "I created an alphabet made completely of Zombies last night, and Dan Coulter took the images from Flickr to make this nifty tool allowing you to spell with zombies." Link (Thanks, Len!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:28:41 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Airport biometric station screens people for "hostile intent"

The Wall Street Journal has an article about a blood pressure, pulse, and sweat level measuring device being tested in US airport security checkpoints. It's made by an Israeli Company with the delightful name of Suspect Detection Systems Ltd.

[T]he system is generally designed to measure physical responses to hot-button questions like "Are you planning to immigrate illegally?" or "Are you smuggling drugs."
...
More than 80% of those approached are quickly dismissed, he says. The explanations for hiding emotions often are innocent: A traveler might be stressed out from work, worried about missing a flight or sad because a relative just died. If suspicions remain, the traveler is interviewed at greater length by a screener with more specialized training. SPOT teams have identified about 100 people who were trying to smuggle drugs, use fake IDs and commit other crimes, but not terrorist acts.
...
The company's goal is to prove it can catch at least 90% of potential saboteurs -- a 10% false-negative rate -- while inconveniencing just 4% of innocent travelers.

If they really want to use this to find terrorists, they're going to have to test every single person that gets on a plane. According to the TSA, two million people fly everyday. That's 730 million people a year. Let's assume that 10 of them are terrorists. With a 4% false-positive rate and a 10% false-negative rate, that means 29 million innocent travelers are going to be detained as suspects, and one out of the 10 terrorists will still make it through security to conduct his or her dirty work. Is it worth it, or would the money be better spent preventing terrorism through intelligence work?Link

Reader comment:

Gryftir says:

I took a upper division psychology class called Deception, the Brain, and Behavior not to long ago, which covered most of the techniques for mechanical lie detection, and related fields.
No device of the type described measures sweat levels. It instead measures Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) which are changes in the skin's electrical field tied to sweat production and stress. The idea is that the conductivity of your skin changes when you sweat, and you sweat when you are stressed or anxious. Of course, that also assumes you somehow unsweat when you are anxious, then tell the truth.
Second of all, such devices are fairly easy to beat when you know how. My class covered the fact that their are things you can do to degrade such devices accuracy to 50% or below (50% is chance). They might catch some illegal immigrants and untrained drug smugglers, but terrorists can use the many physical and mental countermeasures to such devices, and can even practice taking them. They may even utilize the devices in the airports themselves for training purposes, observing which techniques get them further questioning, and which allow them to pass.
This device will do nothing more then provide a false sense of security, while remaining permeable to terrorists and inconveniencing innocent travellers.>

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:50:14 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Pirate Party launches anonymous file-sharing service

The Swedish Pirate Party has launched a "completely anonymous" file-sharing system intended to allow users to share files without being subject to prying eyes, whether entertainment industry enforcers, snoopy coppers, or nosy employers.

"There are many legitimate reasons to want to be completely anonymous on the Internet," says Rickard Falkvinge, chairman of the Pirate Party. "If the government can check everything each citizen does, nobody can keep the government in check. The right to exchange information in private is fundamental to the democratic society. Without a safe and convenient way of accessing the Internet anonymously, this right is rendered null and void."

Link (via Digg)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:00:06 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Homeland Security nabs Free Stater

Anonymous says:

A member of the Free State Project, Russell Kanning, was arrested recently for attempting to distribute a flyer to IRS agents in his home town asking them to quit their job. The flyers contain anti-war content, criticism the Bush administration for its erosion of civil rights, and a form resignation letter addressed to President Bush, which he is asking IRS agents to sign. Kanning remains in a maximum security and will not be allowed visitors. The Free State Project recently passed 7,250 members more than 1/3 of its 20,000 person goal.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:39:13 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Eensy weensy pistol shoots itty bitty bullets

How adorable is this tiny real pistol, called the SwissMiniGun? The bullets shoot out of the barrel at 426.5 f/sec. Link (Thanks, SteveO!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:28:56 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Make a scarf-book to read on UK outbound flights

If you're not a high-level politician or multimillionaire, you can't bring books or magazines on flights out of the United Kingdom. But you are still allowed to wear clothes on planes, and the rules don't say anything about forbidding clothes with text on them. So why not print books (from Project Gutenberg, or ones that have been released under a creative commons license) onto iron-on transfer paper and put them on a very long piece of cloth.

If airport security says your long strip of printed cloth doesn't count as a garment you can either wrap it around your head like a giant turban, or you can print it on a narrow scarlet sash and tell them that it's an emblem of the Junior Anti-Sex League and proceed to wind it several times round the waist of your overalls, just tightly enough to bring out the shapeliness of your hips.

Reader comment:

Chris Knight says: Actually, at the 01sj.org conference on Saturday, a nice lady at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles demonstrated cloth specifically meant to be fed through a standard inkjet printer. The cloth has a stiff backing and is pre-treated to make the ink permanent. I was trying to think of an interesting art project using this technology (I'm currently thinking bar codes would be interesting, the resolution and clarity is good enough to support bar codes) but perhaps this would be a decent way to make something to read on the plane. I believe there are a variety of manufacturers, some of whom can produce long rolls of the stuff for continuous feeding through your favorite inkjet. Here is one.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:57:00 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Chertoff: We must "eliminate people who are susceptible to becoming killers"

Michael Norto (retired journalist: The AP and BBC, 1988-2004, in Haiti) says:

Heard Aug. 11, an NPR interview with Michael Chertoff, US cop of cops. The question he addresses is long-term anti-terrorist policy, the need for psychological studies of what makes "a person turn from an ordinary person to a bomber."
This is his answer:
"Clearly at the end of the day, we've got to eliminate that pool of people who are susceptible to becoming killers."
"Eliminate"? The interviewer did not ask him to elaborate.
Il a la tete de l'emploi, as one says in French.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 07:14:32 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Hello Kitty platinum card

Sanrio have released an 8%-14% APR Hello Kitty Platinum Visa. Link (Thanks, IZ Reloaded!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:58:19 AM permalink | blogs' comments

London Copyfighters: Speak at Speaker's Corner on Aug 27!

On Sunday, Aug 27, Londoners can attend the next installment of the London Copyfighters Drunkeen Brunch and Talking Shop. This is a monthly event wherein people interested in copyright reform, open source/free software, Creative Commons and related issues all gather in a pub, have a big friendly brunch, and then make their way to the amazing Speaker's Corner, where they give impromptu speeches about their subjects of interest. It's immense fun, and you haven't lived until you've given a speech at Speaker's Corner: if you can wow a crowd on the Corner, you can give a speech anywhere. The event is hosted by the activist Open Rights Group. Link

Update: David Goodman, pictured here, sez, "Man, I wish I'd worn a cooler t-shirt. I was actually reading out a letter that I wrote to my MP about ID cards and how they're a majorly bad idea."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:34:37 AM permalink | blogs' comments

TSA wins the war on lipstick

According to the Transport Security Agency, the laws of physics have changed since last Thursday, rendering lipstick safely non-explosive again. Whew.

Under the new rules, travelers can take up to four ounces of non-prescription medicine, glucose gel for diabetics, solid lipstick and baby food, the agency said.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:19:33 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Chertoff: Let's spy on and lock up more Americans

Eris Siva says:

The head of Homeland Security is pushing for more surveillance and the imprisonment of more innocent people in the USA - citing the 'liquid bombers' that were caught in the UK this past week. Scary stuff. He cites the fact that the British authorities were 'nimble' in their catching liquid bombers...Completely missing the fact that a neighbor was the one who betrayed them to the authorities, and that they were aware of the cell for months.
As we have seen from all the evidence, there is no decrease in this activity when we keep taking people's rights away. In fact, the terrorist activity keeps rising no matter how much they tap our phones, or check our bank account statements.
This is especially ridiculous seeing as how the 'liquid bombers' weren't even caught here in the US. So electronic surveillance and more imprisonment of innocent people here in the US isn't going to change anything.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:53:56 PM permalink | blogs' comments

Jill Carroll's story

The Christian Science Monitor today released the first portion of Jill Carroll's story about her 82 days of captivity in Iraq. The 11-part series will be published chapter by chapter in the coming weeks. Snip:

We drove to the second house, which appeared to be the home of one of the kidnappers.
They took me upstairs to the master bedroom. Within a few minutes an interpreter arrived, and an interrogation began.
They wanted to know my name, the name of my newspaper, my religion, how much my computer was worth, did it have a device to signal the government or military, if I or anyone in my family drank alcohol, how many American reporters were in Baghdad, did I know reporters from other countries, and myriad other questions.
Then, in a slightly gravelly voice, the interpreter explained the situation.
“You are our sister. We have no problem with you. Our problem is with your government. We just need to keep you for some time. We want women freed from Abu Ghraib prison. Maybe four or five women. We want to ask your government for this,” the interpreter said. (At the time, it was reported that 10 Iraqi women were among 14,000 Iraqis being held by coalition forces on suspicion of insurgent activity.)
“You are to stay in this room. And this window, don’t put one hand on this window,” he continued. “I have a place underground. It is very dark and small, and cold, and if you put one hand on this window, we will put you there. Some of my friends said we should put you there, but I said, ‘No she is a woman.’ Women are very important in Islam.”

Link to main page for series. There's a video trailer about it here. Interviews with Jill, her family and colleagues (videos). Jill answers questions from readers (video). Cast of characters here. Listen to a podcast of the story (Audible.com). (thanks, Hugo K. Smoter)

Previous BoingBoing posts about Jill Carroll: Link.

Technorati Tags: video

posted by Xeni Jardin at 05:23:51 PM permalink | blogs' comments