Cory Doctorow at 5:50 pm Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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The Writer is a 240-year-old automaton in the form of a boy; created by a Swiss clockmaker, he has about 6,000 parts and is programmable. By loading stacks of metal cards, the Writer could be coaxed into writing different letters with a pen that it dipped into an inkwell; the cards also specified the pressure of the pen. The BBC Four documentary Mechanical Marvels: Clockwork Dreams produced this beautiful video of the Writer in motion, narrated by Simon Schaffer.
The Writer
(via Colossal)
Cory Doctorow at 5:35 pm Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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"Million Mask Marches" were planned for 400 cities, through which people in Guy Fawkes masks took to the streets, in protest of many causes, "from corruption to fracking." Russell Brand attended the London rally: "Whatever party they claim to represent in the day, at night they show their true colours and all go to the same party." See more at #MillionMaskMarch.
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Mark Frauenfelder at 5:27 pm Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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Matthew says: "Liam Morgan uses snowboarding techniques while skateboarding down some of the long, steep, twisting roads in the coastal canyons of Los Angeles." Videos: 1 | 2 | 3
Cory Doctorow at 4:29 pm Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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As previously mentioned, I’m doing a six-week stint with Disney Imagineering in Glendale, and today I got to spend the day hanging out at Disneyland for the launch of Disneyside, an initiative that asks Disney fans to share photos and videos of themselves having fun at the Disney parks.
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Mark Nixon at 3:57 pm Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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Ted
| Age: 24
| Height: 9"
| Belongs To: Helen Lyons
Much Loved started as a very simple idea: to photograph some "loved to bits" teddy bears for an exhibition in my studio, which happily has a gallery space.
I got the idea from watching my son, Calum. I was struck by how attached he was to his Peter Rabbit, the way he squeezed it with delight when he was excited, the way he buried his nose in it while sucking his thumb, and how he just had to sleep with Peter every night. I vaguely remembered having similar childhood feelings about my own Panda.
The photographer I admire the most is Irving Penn. His portrait work, from the 1940s and 1950s especially, made me want to become a photographer. With his still-life work, I loved the alchemy of his Street Material series, how he could take pieces of trash and cigarette butts off the street, photograph them, and turn them into works of art. The idea of making an everyday object, something so familiar that it's invisible, become visible again appealed to me.
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Cory Doctorow at 3:12 pm Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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![shutterstock_93588025](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20131106060421im_/http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/shutterstock_93588025-300x200.jpg)
"A green budgie sitting on a human finger." Thomas Skjaeveland/Shutterstock.
The Patriot Act provides for secret warrants to spy on ISPs' customers. These "Section 215" warrants come with gag orders that mean that the company can't disclose their existence. This lack of transparency is ripe for abuse and is bad for ISPs' business. Apple is fighting back with a "warrant canary": they've published a transparency report (PDF) that states "Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge an order if served on us." If they are served with a 215 order in future, their next transparency report will drop this language, omitting any mention of 215, and keen-eyed watchers will know that they've been subjected to a secret order. I proposed a more ambitious version of this in September, though I was hardly the first person to suggest it. Good for Apple for using it.
Mark Frauenfelder at 3:11 pm Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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Spotted at Costco. And thats not all! 1 | 2 | 3
Lisa Rein writes, "I recorded
this dubstep track with a producer/musician friend of mine
(who would like to remain anonymous for now) in honor of today’s Million
Mask March going on in Washington D.C. and all over the world. This brand
new remix, based on a song I first wrote in September 2011, when the Anons
joined in solidarity with Occupy, is a thank you to Anonymous for
reminding me that there is strength in numbers, and that we can all look
out for each other and still do what’s right."
— Cory
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Mark Frauenfelder at 2:24 pm Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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Good times in New Mexico, courtesy a police department high on the war on drugs:
Eckert's attorney, Shannon Kennedy, said in an interview with KOB that after law enforcement asked him to step out of the vehicle, he appeared to be clenching his buttocks. Law enforcement thought that was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity. While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.
The lawsuit claims that Deming Police tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was "unethical."
But physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted.
While there...
1. Eckert's abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.
2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.
3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.
4. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
5. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
6. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.
8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert's anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics were found.
Don't Appear to Be Clenching Your Buttocks When Pulled Over For Not Coming to a Complete Stop or Be Tortured by Doctors: America, This is Your War on Drugs
As the story of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford continues to unravel, everyone's pulling out their dirt on old Mayor Laughable Bumblefuck. Vice has
a detailed email chain between Ford's communications director and a hacker for hire who was allegedly hired to delete the video of Hizzoner smoking crack and making racist and homophobic remarks from a cloud storage provider that may have belonged to a local gang, who were allegedly blackmailing him.
— Cory
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Jason Weisberger at 11:59 am Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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Click for larger size screenshot. The network told The Verge it was an internal production error. I kinda liked it better that way.
Mark Frauenfelder at 11:03 am Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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PBS Digital Studios’ Blank on Blank web series is a great idea - they animate old audio interviews with notable people. Here's one with the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia on the "Acid Tests" - concerts where LSD was handed out to attendees.
We’d set up the equipment, everybody got high, and stuff would happen,” Jerry Garcia tells veteran record executive Joe Smith in an interview from 1988. November 27 marks the anniversary of the The Grateful Dead’s first-ever performance at the infamous Acid Test parties in Santa Cruz, when they still went by the name The Warlocks. The music legend talks about the Acid Tests and explains: “That was the most important six months as far as directionality [for the band].”
(My favorite Blank on Blank is with Farrah Fawcett)
Jerry Garcia on The Acid Tests - PBS Blank on Blank series
Mark Frauenfelder at 10:36 am Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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Fantagraphics (who are tied with Drawn and Quarterly as my favorite publisher) just announced a Kickstarter to fund their 2014 spring season. The premiums they are giving away are amazing. I got myself a signed copy of Heroes Of The Comic Books: 75 Portraits Of The Pioneering Legends Of Comic Books, by the great caricaturist Drew Friedman!
Fantagraphics 2014 Spring Season: 39 Graphic Novels & Books
Cory Doctorow at 10:22 am Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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Nina writes, "In honor of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, five acclaimed science fiction writers deconstruct their creative process and tell us what motivates them to write."
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Xeni Jardin at 10:04 am Tue, Nov 5, 2013 •
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![4289474_c7b19f0efbb320ef57b1f0ab0720ad50_wm](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20131106060421im_/http://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/4289474_c7b19f0efbb320ef57b1f0ab0720ad50_wm-300x213.jpg)
A guard walks through a cellblock inside Camp V, a prison used to house detainees at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, March 5, 2013. Photo: Reuters.
Post-9/11 detainee interrogration policies of the US Defense Department and CIA forced medical professionals to abandon the ethical obligation to "do no harm" to the humans in their care, and engage in prohibited practices such as force-feeding of hunger strikers, according to a report out this week. "Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror" [PDF Link] was produced by 19-member task force of Columbia University's Institute on Medicine as a Profession and the Open Society Foundations. The LA Times has a summary here.