Comic about upcoming referendum on muni broadband in Longmont, CO

Chris from Telecommunications as Commons Initiative sez, "There's an upcoming referendum in Longmont Colorado on providing municipal Internet service over existing fiber. We know that the incumbents (mostly Comcast) will spend a lot to derail it, so I'm hoping this comic can make the rounds and 'prime' people so the anti-government mailers and robo-calls will be less effective."

I think it's a pretty good freshman effort; I like the GYWO style! This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 10:31 am and is filed under Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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My "Story About Steve" in Business Week

By Mark Frauenfelder at 4:06 pm Friday, Oct 7

[Video Link] BusinessWeek asked me to write my "Story About Steve." I never met Steve, but I had a story to tell. Here it is.

In May 2002 I got a call from my friend Alberta who asked if I'd like to be in an Apple TV commercial. Alberta had a friend who was an art director at Apple, and he needed people in Los Angeles who'd switched from a Windows machine to a Mac. That was me.

The next day, I got calls from Apple and Chiat/Day, and they e-mailed me a thick stack of forms to sign. Most of them swearing me to secrecy.

The day after that, I drove 15 minutes to a soundstage in Hollywood. At least 100 people from Apple and Chiat/Day were on the set. Errol Morris, the director, was hiding inside a white tent on the far end of the warehouse-like soundstage. I could hear his voice booming through an amplifier. Someone on the set told me he was using his invention called the Interrotron to interview the switchers. "Just wait until you see how it works," she said.

My taping was scheduled for 12 p.m. I was a little early, so I grabbed a bagel from craft services and looked for a place to sit. All the chairs on the set were occupied, but not by people. The Chiat/ Day workers had set their laptops and backpacks on all the chairs with hand-drawn signs that said "DON'T TOUCH." I asked a young woman in a smart gray outfit where I could sit. "Someplace outside," she said.

Read the rest: Mark Frauenfelder: My Story About Steve

Tags: Jobs Tribute, steve jobs

Where not otherwise specified, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States and other countries.

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Animated video about the placebo effect

[Video Link] The Professor Funk made a fun video about the placebo effect. Now excuse me while I shoot up my morning dose of saline.

Laughing Squid: The Strange Powers of the Placebo Effect This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 9:42 am and is filed under Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Texas abolishes “special meal” option for prisoners about to be executed

No more fancy feasts for death row prisoners who are about to be killed in Texas. The state is doing away with them. The meals. And, you know, also the death row prisoners.

Brian Evans of Amnesty International, playing the role of Captain Obvious in this Reuters item:

"It's a minor thing compared with the fact that they are killing him. The cruelty of the whole process is much larger than whether you get to pick the last meal that you eat."

This meaningless political stunt was sparked by the lavish last meal requested by Lawrence Russell Brewer, the unrepentant white supremacist gang member who dragged James Byrd to death in Jasper, Texas, and was killed by lethal injection last night. Others have made similarly eccentric last meal requests:

James Edward Smith, who was executed in Texas in 1990, requested "a lump of dirt. (...) Instead of the lump of dirt, which Smith said he wanted to perform a "voodoo ritual," he got a small container of yogurt.

Yeah, well. Same diff.

Full story here.

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Design fiction about cities divided by international borders

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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The Man with the Golden Sun: Video about solar efficiency

My husband sent me this video, a truly inspired entry in Environment Minnesota's solar power video contest. The contest is meant to promote solar energy in Minnesota—a goal that makes a bit more sense than you might think. Minnesota can't really rely on solar, and solar alone, to meet its energy needs, but it does have the potential to replace some of the dirty coal the state currently uses. And here's the cool thing you'll learn in the video: This is partly possible because solar panels actually convert sun to electricity more efficiently here than they do in the really hot climates we usually associate with solar power. It's an interesting lesson, and a clever video, made by a team of more than 50, led by husband and wife Steve and Lisa Fait.

Of course, there's a flip side to this, once you get past the pro-Minnesota message. This video also serves as a handy reminder that solar panels do not convert all the energy they absorb into electricity. The most efficient solar cells available to buy today can only harness about 21% of the energy they absorb. And that's in the lab, as individual cells. When you gang cells together into panels and expose them to real-world conditions, like high temperatures, you lose some more of that efficiency. In fact, part of the reason solar power is so expensive today (in general, it's the most expensive form of energy available, although that does vary a lot by location) is because of that low conversion efficiency. In order to produce a set amount of electricity, you're forced to buy more solar panels than you otherwise would have to if the panels could convert sun to electricity more efficiently.

Video Link

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Zahra’s Paradise: graphic novel about Iranian uprising is a story and a history

Zahra's Paradise, a new book from FirstSecond, collects in one volume the serialized (and brilliant) webcomic, written by two pseudonymous Iranian dissidents. It's the gripping story of a Medhi, a young man kidnapped by Iran's secret police during the election-season demonstrations of 2009, and it is a heart-rending tale of loss, hope, technology, revolution, politics, bravery and resilience. Told form the point of view of Medhi's blogger brother (who has previously been arrested for publishing political material), it features an in-the-round look at the power and limits of technology to effect revolution. Its cast includes bloggers, secret policemen, brave copy-shop/Internet cafe owners, influence peddlers, disgraced bourgeois, broken prisoners and a family devastated by loss.

And while Zahra's Paradise is an informative (if fictionalized) account of the Iranian election uprising and a vivid condemnation of the stern, joyless Khomeniest version of Islam, it is also a fantastic story, a graphic novel that races to its conclusion. The webcomic was serialized in 12 languages (including Farsi and Arabic) and the print edition is available in a dozen countries from today.

Zahra's Paradise

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Australian TV show challenges agencies to make TV commercials about banning religion

[Video Link] Do you think a network in the USA would run something like this?

"The Pitch" is a segment on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) TV's The Gruen Transfer where two ad companies compete to "sell the unsellable." Past example of selling the unsellable include invading New Zealand, compulsory? euthanasia for the elderly, cosmetic surgery for children and introducing a parent license.

This week, the two companies have to sell the idea of "banning all religion."

(Via Blame it on the Voices)

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Documentary about company that made Scar Stuff, Vampire Blood, and Evil Teeth

One day shortly after Halloween, when I was 10 or 11 years old, I went with my mother to a King Sooper supermarket in Boulder, Colorado and came across a bargain bin loaded with tubes of Vampire Blood and Scar Stuff. The price been reduced from $0.49 per tube of Vampire Blood and $0.79 per container of Scar Stuff to $0.05 per item. I felt like I had discovered a treasure chest. This stuff was like gold to me and everyone else my age in the neighborhood.

I had a couple of dollars so I bought 20 tubes of Vampire Blood and 20 containers of Scar Stuff. It is still one of the highlights of my life. In truth, the blood wasn't very realistic, but the package design was to die for.

Today a fellow Vampire Blood aficionado, Kirk Demarais, alerted me to this documentary about a company called Imagineering, which manufactured these items. Watching it has become another highlight of my life.

"Do you remember Scar Stuff, Vampire Blood, or Evil Teeth?" This is the story behind Imagineering -- the great kid make-up company. Produced by Daniel Roebuck and David Hansen-Sturm. Directed by Daniel Roebuck. Filmed and edited by David Hansen-Sturm.

Imagineering!

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9/11 Stories: “No One Talks About That”

Susannah Breslin reaches out to a Wall Street corporate lawyer turned yoga instructor, journalists and writers, and a former Army combat medic for their stories about how the terrorist attacks of September 11 changed their lives: 9/11 Stories: No One Talks About That - Forbes.

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The Postmortal: very creepy thriller about a cure for aging

The Postmortal, by Drew Magary, is the first-hand account of what happens when a cure for aging is discovered. The story is told to us by 29-year-old John Farrell, an estate lawyer who, in the year 2019, visits a doctor who performs the cure on him for $7,000. The cure is not a fountain of youth. If you take the cure at the age of 65, you will remain 65 years old indefinitely. Also, The cure does not prevent you from dying from cancer, heart attack, alcohol-induced liver failure, or other illness. However, almost everybody who hears about the cure, wants it, even though it is expensive and painful.

Some of the people who don't want the cure lobby the government to prohibit the cure, saying it will spell the end of the human race. But their voices are drowned out by the majority of people who demand it. Eventually, the United States government joins Brazil and the Netherlands in lifting the ban. Other countries soon follow. (China, however, continues to prohibit the cure. They tattoo the arms of everyone with their birth year so they can detect if somebody takes the cure.)

At first, Farrell is elated that he has halted his aging process. But as the consequences of having the entire world stop aging take their toll on the environment, Farrel's euphoria is replaced by dread and depression. Most everyone who takes the cure feels the same way. Partly they are affected by the resource shortages caused by overpopulation, but the personal aspects of quasi-immortality are surprisingly bad, too. People who received the cure when they were old realize they will have to go back to work and never retire. Married couples start to wonder about the “till death do us part” vow they made with their spouses. Parents have to deal with kids who feel no pressure to go out and find a job after going to college, and are faced with having to support them, and their grandchildren, and their great grandchildren, indefinitely.

When the world runs out of gasoline, things get worse. As the population continues to explode, the price of a glass of tap water in a New York City restaurant is $5. Internet trolls, once satisfied tormenting people online, take their griefing into the physical world and throw lye into the faces of people who have gotten the cure. Army deserters form gangs and raid houses for food.

The Postmortal is a dark, bleak tale, but it's also an exciting page turner, with bits of black humor thrown in to keep it from becoming bottomlessly depressing (ala Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which I had to abandon very soon after I started reading it because it felt like being crushed to death). I found myself staying up past my bedtime to finish it, tearing through the pages to find out what happens to Farrell over a span of 60 years.

Drew Magary is an excellent writer. This is his first novel but he tells the story masterfully, interspersing Farrell's diary entries with TV news transcripts, Huffington Post style link roundups, and online magazine articles. His scenarios depicting the ramifications of a society that stops aging and keeps reproducing are terrifying. The world in which The Postmortal takes place reminds me of the world in Children of Men –- where civilized society still functions, kind of, but is losing power with each passing year. The most frightening thing about The Postmortal is that this could really happen -- it's not a supernatural story, but it's even more terrifying than zombie apocalypse. I finished The Postmortal a few days ago and I'm still spooked. It also made me realize that if I were given the opportunity to take the cure (and I probably would) I'd end up regretting it.

The Postmortal, by Drew Magary on Amazon (It's called The End Specialist in the UK)

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Advice for self-publishers: why should anyone care about your book?

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Tor: DigiNotar Debacle, and what you should do about it

Security researcher and Tor Project member Jake Appelbaum has been writing about the DigiNotar hack I blogged about yesterday. He's been on it for some time now, and has a couple of posts up on the Tor blog addressing how this affects the Tor anonymity/privacy proxy system. Here's a snip:

This incident doesn't affect the functionality of Tor clients or the Tor Network itself, since Tor doesn't use the flawed CA system. The Tor network uses a much simpler and flatter trust design that protects us from many of these CA issues. Further, Tor's distributed-trust design limits the damage from compromise of any given network component.

But the incident does affect users that are attempting to reach The Tor Project's infrastructure: with one of these bogus certificates, an attacker could convince your browser that you were talking to The Tor Project website, when really you were talking to the attacker.

We have taken direct action in an attempt to stop this kind of attack in the future with two major browser vendors and we hope to integrate a fix with all other willing browsers. Please contact us if you ship a browser and you'd like to help your users to be proactively secure when visiting our sites

Read the whole thing: "The DigiNotar Debacle, and what you should do about it." And, "DigiNotar Damage Disclosure."

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Finally, an extinct species you can feel good about

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“Unarmed But Dangerous” (aka “Kung Fu Flid”): exploitation film about disabled cage fighter

[Video Link]

"Unarmed But Dangerous" or "Kung Fu Flid," starring Mat Fraser, is a 2009 exploitation film about a disabled cage fighter with phocomelia: a byproduct of prenatal thalidomide use.

Trailer above, more out-takes below.

You can buy it on Amazon.co.uk, but I'm not seeing any US-based sellers.

If you're in NYC, you can see Mat Fraser perform live with other storytellers, spoken-word artists, and comedians at an I Am Not Lying stage show on Sunday August 28 at Brooklyn's Union Hall.

(Thanks, Jeff Simmermon)

[Video Link]

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And now, a few words about brain-eating amoebas

This summer, Naegleria fowleri is the new great white shark. A freshwater-dwelling amoeba that can invade the human nervous system and, on rare occasions, kill, N. fowleri (or, as they are more commonly known, "brain-eating amoebas") have apparently succeeded in making everybody a little more afraid to get in the water.

But is the fear justified?

Most of you can probably guess that the answer is, "No." But why, specifically? Julia Diebol at the Risk Science Blog does a nice job of clearly laying out why these amoeba are so attention-grabbing, and why they shouldn't keep you up at night.

Shorter version: Just being in amoeba-infested waters doesn't mean you'll get one up your nose. Or, at least, it doesn't mean that you'll die. The amoebas have only killed 129 Americans since 1937. That's more than I'd previously thought, but not remotely enough to justify a panic. Especially given that the risk of infection doesn't seem to be increasing.

Granted, there's a lot we don't know about N. fowleri. Key question: Why can hundreds of people swim safely in lake water that leads to amoeba infestation and death for one person? Nobody knows yet what factors make some people susceptible and others, apparently, not. But we do know this: On your list of things to worry about, brain-eating amoebas should be near the bottom.

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