sexta-feira, 24 de setembro de 2004

Boris Mandel nudes. Xeni Jardin: A tranquil little online gallery of female nudes shot by Tel Aviv-based web designer Boris Mandel. Link (contains nudity, duh -- via indienudes) [Boing Boing] 10:51:09 AM    comment []

Bushism DVD out. Xeni Jardin: Bushisms the book is now Bushisms the DVD -- hosted by comic uber-genius Brian Unger of The Daily Show. The DVD features Al Franken and others commenting on nucular-strength malapropisms from the presidentiary such as: # "War is a dangerous place." # "Karyn is a West Texas girl, just like me." # "Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning." Link (Disclaimer: I'm proud to be Mr. Unger's colleague/co-contributor on the NPR show "Day to Day"). [Boing Boing] 10:49:38 AM    comment []

Photos of fossilized '80s Russian Space Shuttle knockoff. Xeni Jardin: BoingBoing reader TabulaRasa in Germany says, "In the late 1980s, the Russians tried to develop their own Space Shuttle. Well, actually -- one even ended up flying into space just one time -- Buran. After this flight, the hangar where it was housed in Baikonur collapsed and destroyed the craft. "This is an online photo gallery of Buran 002, another prototype that was sold to an Australian businessman named David Hammer. During the Olympic Games in Sydney, the prototype was part of an exhibition. Then it was sold to a company in Singapore, and was shipped to Bahrain, where it became stranded somewhere in the desert. "Eventually it was sold to a German museum, and will soon be shipped one last time -- to become part of an exhibition. Some things are still working, as you can see from the photos in this online image gallery. Guess I'll have make a visit to this museum when the shuttle has arrived!" Link to image gallery from Der Spiegel magazine (text in German) [Boing Boing] 10:48:17 AM    comment []

Prelinger Archive gems. Cory Doctorow: Rick Prelinger, who curates the Prelinger Archive (the largest video archive in the world, comprising thousands and thousands of "ephemeral films" like VD shorts, industrial training footage, and other great mix-and-match material -- all licensed under Creative Commmons licenses), sends us three fantastic links to material in the Archive: PANORAMA EPHEMERA (2004, 89:35 min., color and black and white) is a collage of sequences drawn from a wide variety of ephemeral (industrial, advertising, educational and amateur) films, touring the conflicted landscapes of twentieth-century America. The films' often-skewed visions construct an American history filled with horror and hope, unreeling in familiar and unexpected ways. PANORAMA EPHEMERA focuses on familiar and mythical activities and images in America (1626-1978). Many creatures and substances that we hardly notice because we feel so used to them take center stage, including pigs, corn, water, telephones, fire, and rice. At first resembling a compilation, it soon reveals itself as a journey through the American landscape over time, and the story begins to emerge between the sequences. Link, Torrent Download Link And: This site contains theatrical trailers for feature films. What, another movie trailer site? Well, this is a special one -- SabuCat Productions specializes in collecting, preserving and distributing high-quality 35mm materials, and the trailers in this collection are unlike anything you're likely to see online. Top titles: "5000 Fingers of Dr. T," "Amazing Transparent Man," "Conquest of Space," and of course "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman." Link And: Growing collection of educational films originally targeting so-called "GenXers." Like Prelinger Archives films on the same site, but made for younger audiences in the Open Classroom era. Memorable titles: "Last Prom," "Why Doesn't Cathy Eat Breakfast," and "If Mirrors Could Speak: Self-Image Film." Link (Thanks, Rick!) [Boing Boing] 10:46:26 AM    comment []

Art/culture of computer viruses. David Pescovitz: BB friend Alessandro Ludovico of Neural.it magazine points us to "I love you (rev.eng): The Aesthetics of Computer Viruses," an exhibit he's involved with that premiered in Germany and is now on view at Brown University in the US: "I love you [rev.eng]" is divided into four investigative areas - political, cultural, technical and historical - and focuses on the controversial positions of security experts and hackers, of net artists and programmers, of literature experts and code poets... What can visitors to the "I love you [rev.eng]" exhibition expect? - Force computers to crash with "Sasser" or "Suicide" - Experience a global virus outbreak in real time via a 3D world - View security concepts and methods for preventing global network attacks - Witness computer viruses as works of art like "biennale.py" and "The Lovers" - See films by hackers on their subculture - Learn about programming languages as the material for contemporary poetry - Juxtapose experimental literature and code poetry Link (to Brown exhibition details) Link (to Wired News article) [Boing Boing] 10:43:39 AM    comment []

Strange Horizons: Hugo-nominated sf webzine. Cory Doctorow: Jed sez, Strange Horizons is a Hugo-nominated online speculative fiction magazine that pays pro rates for fiction. We've published fiction, nonfiction, and poetry every week for the past four years, and other material (including art) a couple of times a month. Almost everything we've ever published is still available for free in our archives, including the wildly popular April Fools article about Installing Linux on a Dead Badger, as well as our Author Focus week on Cory. We're funded entirely by donations; most of our budget goes to paying for the material we publish, 'cause all 30 of our staff members are volunteers. We're currently in the middle of our twice-annual fund drive -- the model is a lot like public radio, except that we don't interrupt our content to ask for money. We're a 501(c)(3) literary nonprofit, so if you pay taxes in the US, your donation is tax-deductible. We'll take donations in any amount; I'd love to see the magazine funded entirely by hundreds of $5-$10 donations. A donation of any size gets you a chance to win one of our fund drive prizes. Larger donations get you a spiffy membership card and other premiums. So if you'd like to stop by and help us out, we'd appreciate it. But even if you don't want to donate, come take a look at the magazine. Enjoy! [Boing Boing] 10:42:17 AM    comment []

Highest icefields will not last 100 years, study finds. Life: China's glacier research warns of deserts and floods due to warming. [Guardian Unlimited] 10:40:21 AM    comment []

Kinnock joins Europe campaign. Politics: Heavy hitters recruited to argue for EU constitution. [Guardian Unlimited] 10:39:20 AM    comment []

Art into ashes. James Meek on why so much was put at risk in the Britart inferno. [Guardian Unlimited] 1:18:13 AM    comment []

Iran bloggers' censorship protest. Iranian internet users start an unusual campaign against censorship - renaming blogs after banned newspapers. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition] 1:17:08 AM    comment []

Relaying rat brainwaves for search and rescue. David Pescovitz: Researchers from the University of Florida are outfitting trained rats with neural implants and a wireless radio so that the rodents can scurry through collapsed buildings searching for survivors. The electrodes are implanted in the rat's olfactory cortex, motor cortex, and reward center. When a rat--trained to seek out the smell of human--finds its target, the "aha! moment" can then be wireless transmitted back to headquarters. From a New Scientist article about the DARPA-funded work: The researchers trained the rats to search for human odour by stimulating the reward centre when it found its target smell. Once the rats were trained, they were set to forage for the target smell, while electrodes recorded their neural activity patterns. This allowed researchers to identify the brainwave patterns associated with finding that smell. They were also able to train the rats to sniff out the explosives TNT and RDX – key after terrorist attacks that may leave buildings harbouring unexploded bombs. Link [Boing Boing] 1:16:01 AM    comment []

Relaying rat brainwaves for search and rescue. David Pescovitz: Researchers from the University of Florida are outfitting trained rats with neural implants and a wireless radio so that the rodents can scurry through collapsed buildings searching for survivors. The electrodes are implanted in the rat's olfactory cortex, motor cortex, and reward center. When a rat--trained to seek out the smell of human--finds its target, the "aha! moment" can then be wireless transmitted back to headquarters. From a New Scientist article about the DARPA-funded work: The researchers trained the rats to search for human odour by stimulating the reward centre when it found its target smell. Once the rats were trained, they were set to forage for the target smell, while electrodes recorded their neural activity patterns. This allowed researchers to identify the brainwave patterns associated with finding that smell. They were also able to train the rats to sniff out the explosives TNT and RDX – key after terrorist attacks that may leave buildings harbouring unexploded bombs. Link [Boing Boing] 1:15:47 AM    comment []

Sign onto the Geneva Declaration, change WIPO!. Cory Doctorow: Last weekend, I represented EFF at a meeting in Geneva of several disparate activit and non-govermental orgs, working to draft a joint doc called "Future of WIPO," (or, more formally, "Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization"). This doc is a call to arms to orgs that would see WIPO revisit its role in the world, to take into account the public interest when formulating and promulgating IP policy. The doc has been finalised and is online -- we're collecting signatories for it, and you're invited. Humanity faces a global crisis in the governance of knowledge, technology and culture. The crisis is manifest in many ways. * Without access to essential medicines, millions suffer and die; * Morally repugnant inequality of access to education, knowledge and technology undermines development and social cohesion; * Anticompetitive practices in the knowledge economy impose enormous costs on consumers and retard innovation; * Authors, artists and inventors face mounting barriers to follow-on innovation; * Concentrated ownership and control of knowledge, technology, biological resources and culture harm development, diversity and democratic institutions; * Technological measures designed to enforce intellectual property rights in digital environments threaten core exceptions in copyright laws for disabled persons, libraries, educators, authors and consumers, and undermine privacy and freedom; * Key mechanisms to compensate and support creative individuals and communities are unfair to both creative persons and consumers; * Private interests misappropriate social and public goods, and lock up the public domain. Link to declaration, Mailto link for signing on (via Copyfight) [Boing Boing] 1:13:26 AM    comment []

Fave music site: Oddio Overplay. Mark Frauenfelder: Todd Lappin sez: "The Oddio Overplay website is one of the true jewels of the Interweb. Dedicated to odd, obscure, and out-of-print music, the site is packed with free, downloadable retro-themed mp3s. The special compilations are a hoot, and exploring the links to other free music sites is an activity that's guaranteed to gobble up hours and hours of otherwise productive work time. The latest Oddio find made my day: A downloadable LP of the in-store background music played in S.S. Kresge five-and-dime stores during the early 1960s. It sounds like a perfume counter. And it makes me want to spend money!" Link [Boing Boing] 1:12:03 AM    comment []

© Creative Commons 2004 Antonio C-Pinto. Last update: 26.09.04; 18:56:33.