Last week's extraordinary leaked UK record industry memo on the Digital Economy Bill candidly asserted that the only reason Britain's retrograde, extremist new copyright law would pass Parliament is because MPs were "resigned" that they wouldn't have a chance to debate it properly. For context: Labour cancelled its anti-fox-hunt legislation because there wasn't time for proper debate, but they're ramming through this copyright bill even though it's far more important and far-reaching -- for one thing, a broken UK Internet will make it harder for people who care about fox hunts one way or the other to organise and lobby on the issue. Now, 38 Degrees is asking Britons to write to their MPs and ask them to call for a full debate on this law before they vote on it. It seems stupid that we'd have to ask our elected reps to actually give sweeping proposals consideration before turning them into law, but there you have it. No matter what side you come down on for the Digital Economy Bill, is there anyone who wants law to be made without debate? Dear [Insert MP Name] I'm writing to you today because I'm very worried that the Government is planning to rush the Digital Economy Bill into law without a full Parliamentary debate. The law is controversial and contains many measures that concern me. The controversial Bill deserves proper scrutiny so please don't let the government rush it through. Many people think it will damage schools and businesses as well as innocent people who rely on the internet because it will allow the Government to disconnect people it suspects of copyright infringement. Industry experts, internet service providers and huge internet companies like Google and Yahoo are all opposing the bill - yet the Government seems intent on forcing it through without a real debate. As a constituent I am writing to you today to ask you to do all you can to ensure the Government doesn't just rush the bill through and deny us our democratic right to scrutiny and debate. [Insert your Name] Don't rush through extreme web laws Previously: Leaked UK record industry memo sets out plans for breaking copyright LibDem rank-and-file make emergency motion for net freedom - Boing ... Add your name to "Save the Net" FB page, help the LibDems do the ... BREAKING: Leaked UK government plan to create "Pirate Finder ......


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This piano playing improviser is yet another example of how you can use Chatroulette in a fun and creative way, just like the Having Fun with Chatroulette video that was posted here at Neatorama a couple of weeks ago. Link [YouTube] – via bexschwartz
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Canon has finally posted the 2.0.3 firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR camera, with a particular emphasis on improved and additional FPS video recording settings.
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LG has announced a new partnership with Sky TV, with Sky picking up 15,000 3D TV screens for broadcasting live at public venues across the UK. Watching sports in a pub is about to get even more intense.
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When a major company is about to announce a new product, service or an enhancement to a product, I often get many pre-emptive email messages from PR people who are hoping to co-opt the larger company's launch messages by providing commentary before the fact. Quite often these are thinly disguised marketing pitches. From time to time, however, I receive a message that not only serves that purpose, but goes on to provide a useful bit of insight. I thought I'd share part of such a message here. Next week, Microsoft will release improvements to its Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), a viewing protocol for desktop virtualization, that will better support multimedia, streaming audio and rich media applications. It’s a welcome improvement,...
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AP - China without Google — a prospect that looks increasingly likely — could mean no more maps on mobile phones. A free music service that has helped to fight piracy might be in jeopardy. China's fledgling Web outfits would face less pressure to improve, eroding their ability to one day compete abroad.
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Bad news, friends: it has been confirmed that the HTC HD2 smartphone will not be making the upgrade to the Windows Phone 7 series when it finally debuts at the end of this year.
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The 5D Mark II gets video modes professionals have been craving. Is this a one-off fix or part of a shift to products that are continuously improved?
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The Swedish furniture retailer IKEA has an interesting showcase in Paris. They display some of their furniture collections at four major metro stations, allowing people to try out the products instead of only seeing them as prints on the walls. Link – via Pusha
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Intel launched its latest server chips designed for next generation data centers and is pitching a five month return on investment for customers using single core servers---a third of the customer base---and a 15 month payback for more modern machines.
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Amid the launch of its server chips, Intel dropped in a high-performance i7 processor for gamers and the overclocking crowd.
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There's a new look for News to Know and in this first post, we look at Intel's latest upgrade to its Xeon server chips and report from Microsoft's Mix event, where Windows Phone 7 is a hot topic.
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superapecommando writes in with news that in the UK, Liberal Democratic peers will soften their filtering amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, to allow those wrongfully accused of illegal filesharing to sue the rightsholders in court. The previous version of the Bill had drawn instant criticism from some of the world's largest technology companies, including eBay, Google, and Yahoo, who signed an open letter against the filtering proposal. Blogger Glyn Moody summed up opposition to the Bill, stating that in its previous form, it was "utterly one-sided, where the only winners are a music recording industry too lazy to change, and the losers are everyone else."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Palm has struggled to roll out ads that those in the enthusiast community find appealing, but this latest one looks to finally be a winner. Hopefully, Palm continues to roll out ads since they have a very good product in webOS and need to tell a better story.
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AFP - China on Tuesday again warned Google not to stop filtering its web search engine results, as speculation mounted about the company's plans following its threat to leave over censorship and cyberattacks.

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A Florida woman accused in the death of a lottery millionaire pleaded not guilty at a court hearing Monday in Hillsborough County, CNN affiliate Bay News 9 reported.
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Red Red Robots make murals for kids' room walls. In this "Fantastic Forest" mural, a girl's name, "Eliza," is spelled out by fanciful characters speaking the appropriate letters... But the "I" is being said by a robot. Gettit? Asimov, an inveterate punster, would have loved this. Red Red Robot Murals (Thanks, Arian!) Previously:Cory on Asimov's I, Robot Will Smith to star in big-screen adaptation of Asimov's "I, Robot ... I, Robot movie release sparks renewed interest in Asimov's 3 laws ... Asimov's 30 laws of robotics Do not board the elevator with robot Science fiction's contributions to science terminology...


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A gun recovered from this month's shooting at the Pentagon was once in the possession of the Memphis Police Department, a law enforcement official told CNN.
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A pair of earthquakes rattled coastal Chile overnight, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
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As I sat in a meeting tonight discussing ways to build public support for an upcoming vote on a school building project, talk naturally turned to the web. Obviously we'd post information on the district's website, but it's hardly a high-traffic operation. Our 52 followers on Twitter? Probably not going to rock the vote. But Facebook? Most of the parents felt like that was another story entirely. A lot of people use Facebook. In fact, Hitwise reports that Facebook beat Google for the top spot in American web traffic last week. Facebook also reaches a lot of adults, ranging from college grads to grandmas. It's a relatively simple forum for viral marketing with the easy creation of groups, pages, ads,...
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Anti-government protesters launched a blood drive Tuesday to collect enough samples to douse the ministers' offices.
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Operas mobile Web browsers shed their beta status and stand in as the new stable versions.
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A paper in Proceedings of the NAS showed that scientists were able to successfully predict who owned which keyboard and mouse based on the bacteria left behind on the keys. Each of us carries a wealth of micro-organisms (you've got 100 times more non-human cells in your body than human cells!) and that microbial nation is distinctive -- maybe as distinctive as a fingerprint. Wired talked to a microbiologist who wasn't impressed with the technique for criminal forensics (we don't know yet if microbial nations are static or if they change over time, nor how unique each one truly is), but they do note that microbes are useful in forensically distinguishing between identical twins. "The results demonstrate that bacterial DNA can be recovered from relatively small surfaces, that the composition of the keyboard-associated communities are distinct across the three keyboards, and that individuals leave unique bacterial 'fingerprints' on their keyboards," wrote Knight and his colleagues at the University of Colorado, Boulder in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences... "If humans are thought of as a composite of microbial and human cells, the human genetic landscape as an aggregate of the genes in the human genome and the microbiome, and human metabolic features as a blend of human and microbial traits, then the picture that emerges is one of a human 'supra-organism'," argued a 2007 Nature paper lead-authored by Peter Turnbaugh, a Harvard microbiologist. You're Leaving a Bacterial Fingerprint on Your Keyboard Forensic identification using skin bacterial communities (Image: Toshiba M30 keyboard cleaning -IMGP7931, a Creative Commons Attribution image from footloosiety's photostream) Previously:Medical transcriptionist melts keyboard with fingertips Viscous keyboard-cleaning goop Rii Mini Wireless Keyboard Today is a good day to type...with a Klingon keyboard - Boing ... Brando makes tiny HTPC keyboard, the spitting image of my ... Feeding the microbes within Microbes and obesity - Quirks and Quarks radio show HOWTO wash your hands and beat the flu...


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I'm intrigued by this Time Out review of Kitchen Front, a restaurant at London's Imperial War museum that serves accurate re-creations of the (mostly horrible) food eaten in Britain during WWII's rationing period. Time Out gave it two star for food quality and full marks for accuracy (in the print edition, at least -- they haven't recreated this online). It sounds like a uniquely wonderful and horrible dining experience, especially as the food is prepared by a well-loved firm of caterers who've really gotten into the spirit of things. Salt was the dominant flavour of 'Mrs Harwood's lentil and cheese pie'. It tasted floury and bland - my grandmother used to make the same dish. I couldn't fault it for authenticity. It came with a dollop of sludgy green pease pudding, just as it might have been in the war years. The baked potato, though, was quite good, served with a fishy filling and a proper 1940s salad - English lettuce, rings of spring onion, no dressing. Sweets include scones filled with 'mock cream' made from margarine beaten with caster sugar, tasting exactly as you'd imagine it to, ie nothing like cream at all... [B]e warned that for a more fortunate generation brought up on meat, sweets, fats and deftly used spices, the drabness of austerity cooking can come as a bit of a shock I've subscribed to the print edition of Time Out for a few years now here in London -- it's the only print magazine I still subscribe to, in fact -- and I just love it to pieces. As aspirational reading about all the things I would do if I wasn't all the time running around like my ass was on fire, it can't be beat. And every now and again I get to actually follow some of its advice (I've been trying a lot of the coffee mentioned in its Best London Coffee feature last month -- yum!) and I'm never disappointed. Kitchen Front Previously:WWII rationing ephemera Hospital Food Photo Blog Going For An English, classic Goodness Gracious Me sketch - Boing ... Fresh Green: Worst Packaging, Human Shrub Attacks English Town ... Terrifying huge breakfast is free if you eat it in 20 minutes ......


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Andrew from League of Steam sez, "A hilarious 3-minute web video in which the League of STEAM (steampunk ghostbusters/monster hunters) attempts to capture a mean little leprechaun. Slapstick humor, top-quality special effects, and cool steampunk gadgets and guns: the perfect geeky/sci-fi flick for St. Patrick's day! Enjoy!" Lovely work, guys -- nice use of the Wilhelm Scream! Adventures of the League of STEAM - "Fool's Gold"...


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ElectricSteve writes "Researchers have been searching for a highly targeted medical treatment that attacks cancer cells but leaves healthy tissue alone. The approach taken by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis is to use 'gold nanocages' that, when injected, selectively accumulate in tumors. When the tumors are later bathed in laser light, the surrounding tissue is barely warmed, but the nanocages convert light to heat, killing the malignant cells. ... Although the tumors took up enough gold nanocages to give them a black cast, only 6 percent of the injected particles accumulated at the tumor site. They would like that number to be closer to 40 percent so that fewer particles would have to be injected. They plan to attach tailor-made ligands to the nanocages that recognize and lock onto receptors on the surface of the tumor cells. ... The scientists at WUSTL have just received a five-year, $2.1M grant from the National Cancer Institute to continue their work with photothermal therapy." Note that Gizmag features a stupid Subscribe nag that covers your screen after about a minute; sounds like a job for NoScript. Last year we discussed somewhat similar research using titanium dioxide nanoparticles to target a particular kind of brain cancer.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Yvan Arpa's coprolite watch is a US$11,290 timepiece with a face made from fossil dinosaur turds and a band made from black cane-toad skin (normally poisonous, rendered inert through processing). The thing is, coprolites just aren't that valuable. Dinosaurs left behind a lot of crap. This site sells coprolite at $8 per pound (it makes a wicked gift!). Swiss luxury watch made of fossilized dinosaur feces, toad skin costs $11,290 (Photo) (Thanks, Jonathan!) Previously:Discovering the first Americans' bathroom Common outdoor climbing phobias and how to combat them...


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The Times of India reports that "Two people were on Tuesday morning involved in a shootout with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) security personnel around its high-security facility at Bylalu near Bangalore."...


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A federal judge sentenced an Illinois man to two and a half years in prison Monday for taping ESPN sports reporter Erin Andrews in the nude.
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Miles Davis called him "the most impressive musician in the world". He's Hermeto Pascoal from Brasil, and this is how he does it: Aside from Hermeto's infectiously liberated attitude, this performance is unique as an exploration of the physical edge of two sound mediums. He makes entirely underwater concerts seem tame by comparison. Full disclosure: when I was in high school I used to spend a couple of hours a day in the bathtub listening to what water did to different sounds - now I can see what a flute and an explosion of yellow butterflies would have added......


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AFP - Chinese film starlet Zhang Ziyi has taken the blame for an earthquake donation scandal in her first comments on a flap that sparked a firestorm of Internet criticism and questions about her honesty.

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Author and Internet researcher Jonathan Zittrain got hit with a mysterious but serious illness that doctors couldn't figure out. A friend created a blog (with Zittrain's identity veiled, for privacy) to crowdsource the investigation into why he was illin'—and it looks like they've figured it out. Zittrain is on the road to recovery, and is no longer in need of help finding out why. Yay, internet, and yay, smart doctors! Get well soon, Jonathan....


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Alex Ringis in Australia has been observing coverage of the "Red Shirt" protests in Thailand in recent days. Word on the street was that the anti-government protesters mixed up many tons of fish sauce (a stinky fermented condiment, like soy sauce only fishy-foul) and human feces as a sort of homemade non-lethal weapon. "Yep, fish sauce and SHIT. Anybody who gets in their way will have that lovely concoction hurled at them." Alex sends an update today: Our friends in Bangkok have said they're staying indoors and out of the way, as moving around in the city at this stage is pretty pointless, and nobody wants to catch any stray bullets, heaven forbid. Local Bangkokers at this stage seem to just be pretty bloody annoyed that a bunch of country bumpkins have rolled in and stopped them from going about their daily business, at least at this stage. Today the Red Shirts gathered outside the 11th Infantry Regiment's army base in Bangkok - said to be where PM Abhisit Vejajiva was holding up - he left via helicopter not long after they arrived. Interesting trivia is that the Military's way of dealing with them was playing them I'saan music over loudhailers, and it was also reported that they even addressed the crowd as "brothers and sisters", speaking in I'saan....


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It's pretty late right now, and in about four hours I have to wake up to make my 6 a.m. flight to Austin (yikes).

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Wired checks in with favorite '80s movie stars -- not the whiny dweeb protagonists, but the wheels, like the BMX in ET and Back to the Future's DeLorean.

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An act of Congress established the corps, and one of its first tasks was establishing the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

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There's a method to the March madness. Two engineers from North Carolina State have a strategy for scoring like a champ at the free throw line.

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AP - Twitter is working on a way to allow Chinese users to sign up to the social networking site in their own language, a co-founder of the site said Monday night, but access to the popular site remains blocked in the country.
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(YouTube link) Forty-four years after he recorded the song we’ve come to know as Trolololo (previously at Neatorama), Eduard Khil is offering to sing the song again, this time with lyrics! -via Buzzfeed
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(YouTube Link) Steve Hoefer made an arduino-controlled glove that can play rock-paper-scissors. Sensors on the glove determine what move the user makes while the glove offers its own. It learns patterns in the way that the user plays and tries to anticipate the user’s strategy. Hoefer provides building instructions and schematics at the [...]
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Reuters - HBO has put Sunday's first hour of its WWII mega-budget production "The Pacific" on its Web site. Don't get used to it, though, the other nine hours will air only on HBO (until the DVD release, of course).
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The U.S. special envoy for Middle East peace has delayed a visit to the region as the United States awaits a response to its demand that Israel reverse a decision on construction in disputed territory in East Jerusalem, according to sources.
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Toyota's findings call into question a driver's account of his "runaway" Toyota Prius in San Diego last week.
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We mentioned late last year how open source software called Ushahidi — which means 'testimony' in Swahili — developed for election monitoring in Kenya was being used to similar effect in Afghanistan. Now reader Peace Corps Online adds a report from the NY Times that Usahidi's is now becoming a hero of the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes. "Ushahidi is used to gather distributed data via SMS, email, or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. The program was developed after violence erupted during Kenya's disputed election in 2007. Ory Okolloh, a prominent Kenyan lawyer and blogger, had gone back to Kenya to vote and observe the election. After receiving threats about her work, she returned to South Africa where she posted her idea of an Internet mapping tool to allow people to report anonymously on violence and other misdeeds. Volunteers built the Ushahidi Web platform over a long weekend, and the site began plotting on a map, using the locations given by informants, user-generated cellphone reports of riots, stranded refugees, rapes, and deaths. When the Haitian earthquake struck, Ushahidi went into action receiving thousands of messages reporting trapped victims; the same happened following the Chile earthquake. The Washington Post also used Ushahidi during the recent blizzards to build a site to map road blockages and the location of available snowplows and blowers. 'Ushahidi suggests a new paradigm in humanitarian work,' writes Anand Giridharadas. 'The old paradigm was one-to-many: foreign journalists and aid workers jet in, report on a calamity, and dispense aid with whatever data they have. The new paradigm is many-to-many-to-many: victims supply on-the-ground data; a self-organizing mob of global volunteers translates text messages and helps to orchestrate relief; then journalists and aid workers use the data to target the response.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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AFP - US regulators have unveiled details of an ambitious plan designed to vault the United States into the ranks of world leaders in high-speed Internet access over the next decade.

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At MIX10, Microsoft is talking to two audiences. Developers are packing into conference rooms for deeply technical nuts-and-bolts sessions. But a second, larger audience is looking over their shoulders for clues about what Microsoft's next generation of gadgets will look like. Here are five trends I spotted by reading between the lines on those PowerPoint slides.
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House Democrats wary of the Senate health care plan have to decide: Do they vote on the Senate bill, trusting the fixes will be made?
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PC World - When the U.S. Federal Communications Commission officially releases the nation's first national broadband plan Tuesday, the document will be just the start of a long process to extend broadband service to millions [m] of U.S. residents.
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• SXSW killed the news.
• FCC wants your broadband to be 25X faster than it is now. Good!
• Microsoft Phone 7 in the news. Where is the Zune phone?
• Twitter expands service.
• Apple wants you to pay $107 for an iPad battery.
• 10 Dotcoms that are dot-gone.
• Dell sues LCD makers.

Show presented by e-Harmony. Get a date.
Go to www.eharmony.com
and use the code EHTECH for a great discount.

click ► to listen:

 

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AFP - A US decision to ease sanctions on Cuba and two other countries to allow exports of Internet services is intended to "destabilize" the communist island, Cuba's government has said.

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PC World - Twitter CEO Evan Williams announced Monday that the company plans to introduce a new platform called "@anywhere." The new service will allow Twitter users to connect to their Twitter accounts through third-party Websites such as The New York Times and eBay -- similar to the way Facebook Connect allows Facebook users to sign into other Websites using their Facebook accounts.
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The Mars Express recently made some historically close passes to Mars’ moon, Phobos, and managed to snap some detailed close-up shots. These are the closest views of the rock we’ve seen… or is it a rock? The Mars Express flybys, which happen every five months, may also determine if Phobos is a fragile pile of rocky [...]
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It’s the ultimate Power Wheels toy car. This custom-built Ferrari was built for the opening of the first Ferrari dealership in Moscow. It’s powered by an 80 cc engine and sized to fit two children. The car is on sale in New York City for $25,000. Link via DVICE | Photo: Hemmings
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conner_bw writes "XML co-founder Tim Bray has taken the job of 'Developer Advocate' at Google. Don't other companies call that position 'Evangelist?' Because he sure doesn't mince words against the iPhone in his first sermon: 'It's a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord's pleasure and fear his anger.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Reuters - Venezuela is not planning to censor the Web or to shut down social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, officials said on Monday, after President Hugo Chavez called for regulation of the Internet.
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Reuters - U.S. regulators released a blueprint for upgrading Internet access for all Americans, with Internet speeds up to 25 times the current average, expanded coverage and more airwaves for mobile services.
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On paper, it's a no-brainer: Prisoners have mobile phones they are using to run gangs, call friends, and intimidate witnesses. It's technically possible to jam the phones, but the 1930s law setting up the nation's telecommunications bureaucracy makes this illegal -- and a bill that would allow it is in legislative limbo.

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Reuters - Yahoo Inc's head of North American revenue and market development is leaving the company to join private online content start-up Demand Media, becoming the latest executive to depart the Web giant's ranks.

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MikeChino sends in this excerpt from Inhabitat: "China already has the most advanced and extensive high-speed rail lines in the world, and soon that network will be connected all the way to Europe and the UK. With initial negotiations and surveys already complete, China is now making plans to connect its HSR line through 17 other countries in Asia and Eastern Europe in order to connect to the existing infrastructure in the EU. Additional rail lines will also be built into South East Asia as well as Russia, in what will likely become the largest infrastructure project in history." They hope to get it done within 10 years, with China providing the financing in exchange for raw materials, in some cases.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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AFP - Google expects its Android mobile operating system to "flourish" in China, Google's chief financial officer said Monday amid a two-month standoff with Beijing over Web censorship and cyberattacks.

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A trendy California sushi restaurant charged by federal authorities with serving whale meet offered an apology Monday, saying it "ignored its responsibilities" to endangered species.
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Like Gabe at Videogum, I haven't enjoyed the new HBO "Funny or Die Presents" series. At all. But this 16-minute (!) short film by Tim and Eric is amazing. It includes RC-controlled model helicopters, violence, creepy, angst, and pizza. I'm surprised and pleased that HBO is allowing this to be freely embedded. Also: If Mama Noodles is real, I am ordering a large pie tonight. (via Eric Wareheim) Previously:Insane "Tim and Eric" moment Tim and Eric Season Cinco Tim and Eric's new season premieres tonight Tim and Eric: New "Awesome Show" DVD, new music video dir. by Eric ... Dr. Steve Brule New MGMT video directed by Eric Wareheim, photo by Kristin McDonald...


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At Mix, we learn that Zune HD's wireless sync to home networks continues, but operators will be able to bill customers, and the Zune Pass might be changing.
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In the modern world it's super easy to create, but harder to throw things away, which may be setting up big costs for us down the line.
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Twitter CEO Evan Williams announces a plan to bring status updates to a variety of other websites. His keynote presentation at SXSW does not get a wow from his audience, Many critics weigh in on -- ironically -- Twitter.

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Bethesda Softworks took advantage of the recent Game Developers Conference to take the wraps off a new game called Hunted: The Demon's Forge that they're partnering with development studio inXile to create. It's planned for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3, though no release window has been set. It's a third-person action game with a swords & sorcery setting, and it features two heroes as they fight their way through monster-filled dungeons. The game is designed such that two users can play together online (no split-screen), each controlling one of the heroes. ShackNews summed it up thus: "From what I saw, Hunted rolled up ideas from a number of different games to create its modern reinterpretation of the dungeon crawl. There was the raw action appeal of wading through waves of goblins, spiders, and related denizens. The skill system and weapon upgrades bring in the character development side from a role playing game. And the co-op design with its warrior and archer dynamic introduces the reward of playing together like an MMO."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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A report in The Wall Street Journal suggests there is tension in Redmond over the love some employees have for the iPhone. Are some people at Microsoft overreacting?
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Reuters - Google Inc said that it expects the rates that companies pay for search ads on mobile phones could surpass the rates of its existing PC-based ad business thanks to the growing popularity of powerful smartphones.
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PC World - The average U.S. consumer loves to read news online, but only one in five is willing to pay for it. And if your favorite news site suddenly erects a pay wall that requires subscription or pay-per-article fees, more than four of five of you would simply get your news elsewhere.
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Staying true to yourself may help improve your relationships, a new study suggest
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AP - THE PROPOSAL: Bring high-speed Internet access to more areas of the country and make existing connections faster.
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AP - More corners of the country would have high-speed Internet access and existing connections would become much faster under a sweeping proposal to overhaul U.S. broadband policy that is being unveiled Tuesday.

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AP - Cuba says a U.S. ruling that makes it easier for companies to provide Internet communications services on the island is meant to destabilize the country, not loosen Washington's 48-year economic embargo.
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superapecommando writes "Copyright holders have given up legal efforts to force Norwegian ISP Telenor to block filesharing site The Pirate Bay, one of the parties to the case said. The copyright holders, led by Norway's performing rights society TONO and by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Norway (IFPI Norge), have lost two rounds in the Norwegian court system, and have now decided against appealing the case to Norway's supreme court."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Hello! I'm Meara O'Reilly. My thing is auditory perception. I've been exploring this through making instruments, heirloom science demonstrations, auditory illusions, and singing. I write and build things for Make and Craftzine.com. I was in the band Feathers, and have played a lot in Brightblack Morning Light and with Michael Hurley, but now I do my singing alone, sometimes with a chladni plate. Right now I'm trying to make a glass vocoder and I live with the people from Encyclopedia Pictura, at our experimental woodland creative dojo. These next couple of weeks, I'm going to write about new musical instruments and technologies, auditory perception, and inspirational approaches to farming and land management. I'll also profile some incredibly unique musicians and composers that maybe you haven't heard yet. Thanks to Mark for inviting me here, I'm really excited to be a part! (Photo: Aubrey Trinnaman)...


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Headline: "Apple iPad orders drop sharply." Actual story: "as submitted by volunteers at Investor Village ... based on 120 orders." The science, of course, is far more interesting than attention-seeking headlines spun from it....


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The FCC is to present the first ever national broadband plan to Congress Tuesday. It's an ambitious, carefully crafted plan, but it lacks the revolutionary zeal some had hoped for.

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NewsFactor - In an international Internet drama, Google seems closer to ending operations in China after threatening two months ago to pull out of the market. Google's Chinese-language search engine is the only major foreign competitor in the communist nation.
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The PC maker has accused five LCD panel makers of colluding on prices.
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PC World - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will seek to take back 120MHz of spectrum from U.S. television stations in the next five years and reallocate it to wireless broadband providers in a voluntary program that would allow the stations to share or keep spectrum auction revenues, under a national broadband plan that will be officially released Tuesday.
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Reggie Watts in F_CK SH_T STACK (LOOSEWORLD x Waverly Films. More about Reggie Watts here. (via Glen E. Friedman)...


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The communities of bacteria on your skin may transfer to your keyboard and mouse, creating a unique, living marker of your identity.

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Authorities believe assassins targeted a pregnant woman and two other people connected with a U.S. consulate who were killed in drive-by shootings over the weekend, Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said Monday.
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As the Web generation descends on the South by Southwest Interactive show in Austin, several location-based start-ups try to put themselves on the map.
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In an new study, infants engaged in more rhythmic movements, or dancing, when exposed to drumbeats and other rhythmic stimuli than they did to speech.
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An anonymous reader writes "The domain COM was installed as one of the first set of top-level domains when the Domain Name System was first implemented for use on the Internet in January 1985. The internet celebrates a landmark event on the 15th of March — the 25th anniversary of the day the first .com name was registered. Of the 250 million websites, there are over 80 million active .com sites. In March 1985, Symbolics computers of Cambridge, Massachusetts entered the history books with an internet address ending in .com (however, on 27 August 2009, it was sold to XF.com Investments). That same year another five companies jumped on a very slow bandwagon. Here is a list of the 100 oldest still-existing registered .com domains."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The answer to whether you can do many things at once on the new device is not a simple one. The phone supports multitasking, but developers won't have free reign.
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With its @Anywhere technology launched as part of SXSWi, Twitter is trying to make its presence spread even further across the Web.
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High-end energy monitor from Powerhouse Dynamics aims to give circuit-level details on electricity use to help people cut energy waste at home.
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The SSD can speed load times for operating systems and applications.
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Hugh Pickens writes "At the peak of a magnetic storm, the number of highly energetic 'killer electrons' strong enough to damage electronics and human tissue can increase by a factor of more than ten times, posing a danger to spacecraft, satellites, and astronauts. Killer electrons can penetrate satellite shielding, so if electrical discharges take place in vital components, a satellite can be damaged or even rendered inoperable. For many years, the mechanism by which killer electrons are produced has remained poorly understood, in spite of physicists' attempts at solving this puzzle. Now the ESA reports that data shows the increase in the creation of a substantial number of killer electrons is due to a two-step process. First, the initial acceleration is due to the strong shock-related magnetic field compression. Immediately after the impact of the interplanetary shock wave, Earth's magnetic field lines began wobbling at ultra low frequencies. In turn, these ULF waves effectively accelerate the seed electrons (provided by the first step) to become killer electrons. 'These new findings help us to improve the models predicting the radiation environment in which satellites and astronauts operate. With solar activity now ramping up, we expect more of these shocks to impact our magnetosphere over the months and years to come,' says Philippe Escoubet, ESA's Cluster mission manager."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Unmanned A160T Hummingbird demonstrates ability to conduct autonomous resupply operations, a preview of front-line operations of the not-too-distant future.
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Sean Bonner made this coffee-themed t-shirt (the line is a Big Lebowski reference). Boing Boing reader Paul Martin suggests an alternate version explaining how things work In Soviet Russia, shown after the jump......


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Bacteria communities are unique to individuals' hands; could be used in forensic science.
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In the video above, the guy the internet knows now as "Mr Trololo," whose real name is Eduard Khil, is interviewed by Russian journalists in Saint-Petersburg while he watches and comments on a number of fan-videos created by his internet admirers. Watch the video. Among the funnier remixes of the original clip is "Trololo guy without Autotune," from College Humor. (via Ethan Zuckerman, thanks weaponx) Previously:Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой...


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Babies love a beat, according to a new study that found dancing comes naturally to infants.
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It's mostly sizzle and not a lot of steak, but Google plans to remove the unique ID that had been annoying data privacy advocates after the first update check.
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Hans Pandeya, the controversial Swedish businessman who attempted to acquire The Pirate Bay last year, buys small printing company.
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Microsoft on Monday revealed details on third-party apps for Windows Phone 7 Series.

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You've got nine days left to file comments for Victoria Espinel, the Obama administration's new copyright enforcement czar, and her department's inquiry on how the US should best enforce copyrights. Given that the president himself has spoken out in favor of the secret and sinister Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (AKA ACTA -- a punishing copyright treaty that seeks to expand the American DMCA and push it around the world), and that he plans to bring it down by executive order, without an act of Congress, this is especially urgent. The good folks at Public Knowledge have worked up a tool to help you file comments, along with a good, easy-to-follow briefing on issues that Ms Espinel needs to hear about. The Joint Strategic Plan should carefully examine the basis for claims of losses due to infringement, and measure credible accounts of those losses against all of the consequences of proposed enforcement measures, good and bad. Measures like cutting off Internet access in response to alleged copyright infringement can do more harm than good. Internet connections are not merely entertainment or luxuries; they provide vital communication links, often including basic phone service. This is even more clearly unfair in cases where users are falsely or mistakenly accused. Internet service providers should not be required or asked to violate users' privacy in the name of copyright enforcement beyond the scope of the law. Efforts to require or recommend that ISPs inspect users' communications should not be part of the Joint Strategic Plan. Alert: Tell the Government to Support Balanced Copyright! (Thanks, Sherwin!) Previously:US Copyright Czar wants your thoughts on how to measure and reduce ... ACTA "internet enforcement" chapter leaks ACTA leak shows US Trade Rep lied about "3-strikes" Biggest-ever ACTA leak: secret copyright treaty dirty laundry ... ACTA leak: Now we know who is against transparency - USA, Korea ......


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J.D. Roth of the excellent personal finance blog, Get Rich Slowly, read an advance copy of my forthcoming book, Made By Hand, and wrote a great post on the rewards of spending more time making things. He starts off his essay with an homage to his late father, who was a very handy guy. J.D.'s father built an electricity generating wind turbine, a sailboat, a telescope, his own accounting software, an electric sprinkler system for his (failed) nursery business, a line of wheat grinders and food dryers, and more. When Kris and I decided in 1993 that we wanted to start our own vegetable garden from seed, my father helped me build a small greenhouse. We didn’t use any blueprints; he was the blueprints. One long Saturday, we bought lumber and nails and plastic sheeting, and he stood around watching me, telling me what lengths to trim the two-by-fours and at what angles. He didn’t sketch anything out on paper — he just told me what to do and I did it. That greenhouse is still standing. But all of these things barely scratch the surface. These are just the things I remember, and mainly his successes. My father did more: He wrote poetry (mostly bad poetry), played guitar, drew funny pictures, spent a couple of summers raising 40+ acres of wheat, flew airplanes, sailed boats, and more. When he contracted the cancer that eventually killed him, he bought a microscope so that he could draw his own blood and look at his dwindling supply of white blood cells. Made by Hand: In Praise of Amateurs...


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One of the most anticipated talks at SXSWi failed to deliver on that energy. After the @Anywhere news was announced, the audience left in droves.
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CWmike writes "Nokia asked a federal judge last week to toss out Apple's antitrust claims, saying the iPhone maker indulged in 'legal alchemy' when it tried to divert attention from its infringement of Nokia's intellectual property. The filing was the latest salvo in a battle that began in October 2009 when handset maker Nokia sued Apple, saying the iPhone infringed on 10 of its patents, and that Apple was trying 'to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation.' Apple countered in December with a lawsuit of its own that not only claimed Nokia infringed 13 of its patents, but that Nokia also violated antitrust law by legally attacking Apple after it declined to pay what it called 'exorbitant royalties' and refused to give Nokia access to iPhone patents. 'These non-patent counterclaims are designed to divert attention away from free-riding off of Nokia's intellectual property, a practice Apple evidently believes should only be of paramount concern when it is the alleged victim,' Nokia charged in the motion. Apple is on a legal roll, having also recently sued the maker of Google's Nexus One, HTC, for patent infringement."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Researchers in Italy develop robotic arm whose movements show promise in helping stroke survivors re-learn how to use their hands, arms, and even shoulders.
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Internet censorship, a runaway Toyota Prius, and .xxx domains are in the news today. We also talk FCC broadband speed test tools, and what the best job in America is right now (hint: it's tech related!)
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The company's big announcement at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival was its new way to integrate Twitter data into partner sites.
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A study in Australia found that more than half of stories in mainstream newspapers were fed to them by PR entities: "Many journalists and editors were defensive ... Most refused to respond, others who initially granted an interview then asked for their comments to be withdrawn out of fear they'd be reprimanded, or worse, fired." [Crikey via The Awl]...


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An anonymous reader writes with this quote from 1Up: "Trouble is brewing in Rapture. The recently released Sinclair Solutions multiplayer pack for BioShock 2 is facing upset players over the revelation that the content is already on the disc, and the $5 premium is an unlock code. It started when users on the 2K Forums noticed that the content is incredibly small: 24KB on the PC, 103KB on the PlayStation 3, and 108KB on the Xbox 360. 2K Games responded with a post explaining that the decision was made in order to keep the player base intact, without splitting it between the haves and have-nots."

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Joseph Casias has sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor and takes medical marijuana, which is legal in Michigan. He was fired from the Michigan Walmart where he had been working for the last five years after he failed a drug screening test there. At his doctor's recommendation, Casias says he legally uses medical marijuana to ease his pain. "It helps tremendously," he says. "I only use it to stop the pain. To make me feel more comfortable and active as a person." During his five years at WalMart, Casias says he went to work every day, determined to be the best. "I gave them everything," he says. "110 percent every day. Anything they asked me to do I did. More than they asked me to do. 12 to 14 hours a day." But last November, Casias sprained his knee at work. Marijuana was detected in his system during the routine drug screening that follows all workplace injuries. Casias showed WalMart managers his state medical marijuana card, but he was fired anyway. Walmart fires medical marijuana patient for using medical marijuana (Thanks, Jason!)...


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Behold Larriva's wind-up tribute to the great Carl Sagan, "It is cast in rock hard, Durham's Water Putty and is hand painted in acrylics. The hair is wool and the metal parts are from a wind-up toy." It is sold out on etsy, but you can purchase Larriva's Hopgoblin wind-up toy if you wish....


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(Video Link) Maggie and Mildred is a short film by Holly Klein about the make-believe adventures of two little girls. She cross stitched all of the characters and scenes, and then animated them. In an interview about the project, Klein wrote: It took me about nine months to stitch all of the elements. I [...]
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An anonymous reader writes "Michael Seringhaus, a Yale Law School student, writes in the NY Times, 'To Stop Crime, Share Your Genes.' In order to prevent discrimination when it comes to collecting DNA samples from criminals (and even people who are simply arrested), he proposes that the government collect a DNA profile from everybody, perhaps at birth (yes, you heard that right)." Regarding the obvious issue of genetic privacy, Seringhaus makes this argument: "Your sensitive genetic information would be safe. A DNA profile distills a person’s complex genomic information down to a set of 26 numerical values, each characterizing the length of a certain repeated sequence of 'junk' DNA that differs from person to person. Although these genetic differences are biologically meaningless — they don’t correlate with any observable characteristics — tabulating the number of repeats creates a unique identifier, a DNA 'fingerprint.' The genetic privacy risk from such profiling is virtually nil, because these records include none of the health and biological data present in one’s genome as a whole."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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A newly discovered species of ancient amphibian may represent one of the earliest examples of land-based vertebrate life, scientists announced.
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Perhaps you missed Boing Boing's interview on Friday with South African rap-rave zef gangsters Die Antwoord? And the news that the recently-minted internet stars shook hands (and pinched cheeks) with Interscope Records, tapped District 9 helmer Neill Blomkamp to direct their next music video, they'll likely be performing at Coachella, and they're developing a movie? Read the Boing Boing Die Antwoord interview here. After that, they went off to meet David Lynch. The band says, Ninja called David 'Dad'. David said "You turned out alright son." David also said, "I was a bit worried about you for a while there, but you turned out alright." Ninja said "I'm a lucky duck." David said, "You're a good guy." Image: A photo shot last night in New York City by Clayton James Cubitt. "Yo-Landi jumps on bed while Ninja tries to nap."...


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Joanne Bradford, senior VP of U.S. revenue and market development, plans to leave company for post at online content upstart Demand Media.
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Above, Boing Boing debuts the new video from David Byrne with Santigold, "Please Don't," from Here Lies Love, a musical biography of sorts about Imelda Marcos. David Byrne explains, We did a photo session for a magazine the other day, and I told the interviewer that on this song, by the time you get to the chorus, she owns it -- she's turned it into a Santigold song. Perfect. There are six of these videos that have been completed for this project. Most, like this one, use news and archival footage to, well, show that every word of the song is true! Most of the lyrics on this one are lifted gently from interviews and quotations -- the "please don't" chorus especially. At some point as first lady, Imelda began to feel that she could help Philippine interests by charming world leaders into seeing things her way. "Handbag diplomacy" she called it -- as she liked to imply that to solve a problem, she could bypass President Marcos and just grab a handbag and hop on a plane with some of her assistants. It sometimes worked! There was, for example, an Islamic-backed insurgency rising in the south of the Philippine archipelago, and she thought that a leader in that part of the world, Qaddafi in this case, might help pull the plug on that support if he saw things her way. Apparently he did -- the funding stopped and the insurrection lost momentum, and she later described him as a pushover, a mama's boy. David Byrne: Here Lies Love, and you can purchase the music and book set here. The album is available in multiple formats (MP3, FLAC, Apple Lossless, and CD/DVD). (thumbnail: portrait of David Byrne by Clayton James Cubitt) Previously:Here Lies Love: New David Byrne project David Byrne turns a building into a musical instrument David Byrne: Playing the Building TV David Byrne's live show: the highlight of the year BB Video: "The People Tree," David Byrne / NASA Project David Byrne's snapshots of UK police posters. Interview with David Byrne BB exclusive: new track from David Byrne + Brazilian Girls (audio ... David Byrne: I was BoingBoing-blocked at Denver airport. David Byrne and Brian Eno's kick ass new album in a million ......


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Trailrunner7 writes "Robert Hansen, a security researcher and CEO of SecTheory, has been gleaning intelligence from professional attackers in recent months, having a series of off-the-record conversations with spammers and malicious hackers in an effort to gain insight into their tactics, mindset and motivation. 'He's not the type to hack randomly, he's only interested in targeted attacks with big payouts. Well, the more I thought about it the more I thought that this is a very solvable problem for bad guys. There are already other types of bad guys who do things like spam, steal credentials and DDoS. For that to work they need a botnet with thousands or millions of machines. The chances of a million machine botnet having compromised at least one machine within a target of interest is relatively high.' Hansen's solution to the hacker's problem provides a glimpse into a business model we might see in the not-too-distant future. It's an evolutionary version of the botnet-for-hire or malware-as-a-service model that's taken off in recent years. In Hansen's model, an attacker looking to infiltrate a specific network would not spend weeks throwing resources against machines in that network, looking for a weak spot and potentially raising the suspicion of the company's security team. Instead, he would contact a botmaster and give him a laundry list of the machines or IP addresses he's interested in compromising. If the botmaster already has his hooks into the network, the customer could then buy access directly into the network rather than spending his own time and resources trying to get in."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, botanist Dr. Declan Doogue of the Royal Irish Academy says that there may not be enough shamrocks for the celebration! The shamrock was “hit hard” by the severe winter weather and “won’t be easily found” this week, said Doogue, who also stated the national plant was under threat because of modern [...]
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Ben Goulding of Pig Jockey has a list of the world’s longest place names, including Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateahaumaitawhitiurehaeaturipukakapiki maungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu. That’s a hill in New Zealand. Because it’s such a long name, most people just call it Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu for short. Link via The Presurfer | Photo: Maggga.blogspot.com
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Pulling from the subscription service's vast library of more than 7 million songs, the newly announced apps for iPhone and Android will let users download as many as their phones will hold.

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Statistician Nathan Yau of Flowing Data put together this infographic presenting famous movie quotes as data charts. You can view eight more at the link. Link via Popped Culture
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Twenty-five years ago today, Symbolics Computers of Cambridge, Massachusetts, registered Symbolics.com as a URL. It was the first such claim in computing history: That same year another five companies jumped on a very slow bandwagon. It took until 1997, well into the internet boom, before the one millionth dotcom was registered.[...] It is unlikely that the early [...]
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The NCAA basketball tournament brackets were finalized last night. I am happy to see that Kentucky is a #1 seed, and the management at mental_floss is happy to see that Duke is also a #1 seed. But there are 64 teams in the tournament; some aren’t that easy to place. In Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at [...]
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The good people at NASA dropped a lightweight helicopter from 35 feet to watch it crash. This was the same helicopter that was dropped in December for crash testing. The first time, the helicopter suffered minimal damage due to a new "expandable honeycomb cushion" that absorbs the impact. This time, the helicopter was not outfitted with the cushion. The result was more like what you might expect. From NASA: "Three, two, one, release," said the technician on the loudspeaker at the Landing and Impact Research Facility. With that countdown the helicopter smacked hard into the concrete. Its skid gear collapsed, its windscreen cracked open and its occupants lurched forward violently, suffering potentially spine-crushing injuries according to internal data recorders. The crash test was all in the name of research to try to make helicopters safer. "The goal of any research program that has an element of impact dynamics is to develop an understanding of the crash response of the vehicle," said Karen Jackson, an aerospace engineer who oversaw the test. "Once we understand that response we can look at ways to improve the crash performance..." Researchers say the "g" forces the MD-500 experienced more than tripled those recorded in the previous test. But that doesn't mean the research is over. Engineers have gigabytes of data to analyze to confirm exactly what impact the new honeycomb cushion technology might have for helicopters in the future. "Chopper Crash Test a Smash Hit"...


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If I were a lawyer, I would be a Space Lawyer, as long as that could be printed on my business card. During the next academic year, Sunderland University students can sign up for a course module devoted legal questions surrounding space exploration, tourism, safety, and off-world commercial ventures. From The Guardian (NASA image): Topics already arising in the field include gaps in health and safety for potential space tourists, and damage to satellites from other objects orbiting the Earth. Looking further ahead, some lawyers have raised questions about land titles on the moon or other planets. Chris Newman, one of the lecturers who will be teaching the module, said: "It is a growing area which has relevance across commercial, company, property, environmental, intellectual property and IT practice sectors. We think that our qualification will offer valuable knowledge in a fascinating area." The syllabus is likely to draw on earlier attempts to extend legislation into uncharted areas, such as the arguments between nations over huge sections of Antarctica. "Space law course to tackle final frontier"...


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Today marks the 25th anniversary of the registration of the first .com domain name in the history of the Internet.
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waderoush writes "E Ink, which makes the monochrome electrophoretic screens used in the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Sony Reader line, and other e-readers, is gearing up to supply manufacturers with the first color versions of its displays by early next year, according to an Xconomy interview with T.H. Peng, a vice president with Taiwan's Prime View International, which bought E Ink last year. Peng argues that E Ink has nothing to fear from the e-book apps on the Apple iPad and other devices with color LCDs, which, in his view, produce more eye strain and aren't as suitable for digital reading. Nonetheless, the company says its first color screens in 2011 will have newspaper-quality color, followed within a couple of years by improved versions that can handle magazine-style content."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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In this two-year-old classified Army Counterintelligence Center report (hosted on wikileaks.org, where else?), American spooks set out to destroy Wikileaks by intimidating its sources. They cite as justification for this the fact that Wikileaks has outed American embarrassments and crimes including "US equipment expenditure in Iraq, probable US violations of the Chemical Warfare Convention Treaty in Iraq, the battle over the Iraqi town of Fallujah and human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay." The governments of China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and several other countries have blocked access to Wikileaks.org-type Web sites, claimed they have the right to investigate and prosecute Wikileaks.org and associated whistleblowers, or insisted they remove false, sensitive, or classified government information, propaganda, or malicious content from the Internet. The governments of China, Israel, and Russia claim the right to remove objectionable content from, block access to, and investigate crimes related to the posting of documents or comments to Web sites such as Wikileaks.org. The governments of these countries most likely have the technical skills to take such action should they choose to do so Wikileaks.org uses trust as a center of gravity by assuring insiders, leakers, and whistleblowers who pass information to Wikileaks.org personnel or who post information to the Web site that they will remain anonymous. The identification, exposure, or termination of employment of or legal actions against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others from using Wikileaks.org to make such information public. Wikileaks.org - An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, Or Terrorist Groups? Previously:California judge shuts down wikileaks Wikileaks reveals secret blacklist behind proposed Great Firewall ... Wikileaks publishes anti-counterfeiting treaty doc that tries to ... Wikileaks publishes massive archive of private 9/11 pager messages ... Wikileaks publishes large cache of US neo-Nazi group's emails ... Britain's postal-code database online at Wikileaks: produced at ... Wikileaks.de domain-owner's house raided over publication of ... Wikileaks needs your help...


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Snakes "see" heat by employing the same gene that humans use to taste spicy mustard.

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Pew pew pew! NSFW (bewbs), but awesomeschlock. (thanks, Tara McGinley!)...


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An anonymous reader writes "This document is a classified (SECRET/NOFORN), 32-page US counterintelligence investigation into WikiLeaks (PDF). 'The possibility that current employees or moles within DoD or elsewhere in the US government are providing sensitive or classified information to Wikileaks.org cannot be ruled out.' It concocts a plan to fatally marginalize the organization. Since WikiLeaks uses 'trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whistleblowers,' the report recommends 'The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the Wikileaks.org Web site.' [As two years have passed since the date of the report, with no WikiLeaks' source exposed, it appears that this plan was ineffective.] As an odd justification for the plan, the report claims that 'Several foreign countries including China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have denounced or blocked access to the Wikileaks.org website.' The report provides further justification by enumerating embarrassing stories broken by WikiLeaks — US equipment expenditure in Iraq, probable US violations of the Chemical Warfare Convention Treaty in Iraq, the battle over the Iraqi town of Fallujah and human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Brian Stelter of the New York Times reports on the International Amateur Scanning League, consisting of volunteers who are copying the 3,000 DVDs at the National Archives and Records Administration. The videos will be uploaded to the net for all to enjoy. Dust off a disc. Maybe it's video of a Bob Hope Christmas show, or maybe it's the Apollo 11 moon landing. Insert a blank disc. Duplicate. It sounds monotonous because it is. But every time Liz Pruszko presses the start button on a DVD machine, she knows she is helping to unlock the thousands of videos tucked away in the National Archives. "It just seems like such a shame to not have this content out there," Ms. Pruszko said. When she says "out there," she is talking about the Web, where it might seem that every conceivable video clip of federal importance is already stored, just waiting to be searched for. That is far from true. But she is nudging the government in that direction. Ms. Pruszko is a volunteer for the International Amateur Scanning League, an invention of the longtime public information advocate Carl Malamud. The league plans to upload the archives' collection of 3,000 DVDs in what Mr. Malamud calls an "experiment in crowd-sourced digitization." International Amateur Scanning League makes obscure DVDs available online (Thanks, Steve Silberman!) Previously:International Amateur Scanning League will rescue our video ......


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Weather Underground member Bill Ayers (the guy Palin and McCain were referring to when they said Obama "pals around with terrorists") has re-written his book, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, as a graphic novel. It will be published in May. It's called To Teach: The Journey, in Comics and is illustrated by Ryan Alexander-Tanner. Brian Heater says, "In April Ayers will be appear at the MoCCA Fest in New York to discuss activism in comics on a panel with Peter Kuper, Tom Hart, Josh Neufeld, and Ward Suttton. I will be moderating. In preparation for the panel, I spoke with Ayers over the weekend. He was on his way back from a political rally in Detroit." In a sense, you’re structuring the classroom as a laboratory of sorts. I think of the classroom as a laboratory for discovery and surprise, absolutely. And I think every classroom should be like that, whether it’s a geography classroom in high school or a physics classroom in college, or a kindergarten, it ought to be structured as a laboratory for discovery and surprise. And you can add other metaphors to that. You can say it also ought to be a performance space. It ought to be a place you can come to tell your story. It ought to be an artist studio. It ought to be a museum. But notice, all of the metaphors that you and I are coming up with aren’t it ought to be a factory [laughs]—it can be a workshop, but not a factory. The Daily Cross Hatch -- Interview: Bill Ayers Pt. 1 [of 4]...


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A tear to the Achilles' tendon can take months to heal, not something soccer star David Beckham or his fans want to hear.
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Several months ago I told you about a website that offers updates on which films/TV shows are coming soon to Netflix's "Watch Instantly" feature. Sadly, the site no longer works -- but Pop reader Amanda found a replacement.

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South by Southwest is underway, and I wish I were already in Austin. Alas, as I've learned from experience, this body just can't handle all three super-powered festivals (interactive, film and music) at one time.

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New features in the planned update will let users play locally stored songs, leading to better performance and longer battery life. Get an early look at tweaks in the pipeline.

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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has promised Haitians he is focused on maintaining donor solidarity as the quake-torn nation struggles to rebuild, the organization said.
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"Strategic communications" firms flourish in the post 9/11 media environment, straddling the line between public relations, propaganda work and private security contracting. What's up with rogue intelligence operations, contract fraud, reporters gathering intel and the shaping of news stories coming out of war zones -- and who's tracking?

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SHANGHAI/BEIJING - Google says it remains in talks with Beijing about censorship of its Chinese-language search portal but is adamantly opposed to the practice amid mounting signs the company could soon shut the site.

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Women given testosterone act nicer to others than those given a placebo, a new study finds.
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The idea that March 15 is unlucky goes back to ancient traditions and superstitions.
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The just-launched free iPhone app lets users share media locally. One potential application that's perfect for South by Southwest: LoKast acts like an invisible demo that bands can give to fans at shows.

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Apple's iPad will be out in a few weeks, and you can pre-order it now. It's not too early to pre-order the accessories you'll probably want to use with it.

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Arctic reindeer lack built-in daily body clock to deal with perpetual night and day.
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Testing of "runaway" Prius finds nothing more than a bankrupt realtor.
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This is coming late because I was off Friday -- forgive me! But you guys had much to say about last week's bombastic Ben episode, so I couldn't ignore our top 10 roundup.

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The Pop Five is a series of Pop Candy readers' top five lists. Today's contribution is from Karyn C. (C-Money) in St. Paul, Minn.:

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In a support document, Apple tells us that when you eventually send your iPad in to have its battery replaced, Apple will just send you a new iPad instead. The Battery Replacement Service will cost $100.

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Good morning, and happy SXSW week! I apologize for my absence last week, but family duties called (you know how it goes). On the plus side, my sister-in-law's wedding went beautifully, and I came home with a belly full of biscuits and grits, so everyone was happy.

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Avi Abrams of Dark Roasted Blend has a neat collaboration with National Geographic Channel. In his post, The Great Sperm Race: The Most Extreme Race on Earth, Avi has got exclusive images and videos from "Sizing Up Sperm" – a NatGeo feature that uses real people to represent 250 million sperm on their quest to [...]
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