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Posted AIG necropsy: taxpayer billions, direct to their pockets. to Boing Boing
"The very design of the federal assistance to A.I.G. was that tens of billions of dollars of government money was funneled inexorably and directly to A.I.G.'s counterparties." A necropsy of the AIG deal, in the NYT. Spoiler: we lose. (lifted from Mitch Kapor)...
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Posted Google and TiVo team up, strike terror into the nonexistent hearts of TV execs to Boing Boing
Seach and TV/online ad behemoth Google today announced an agreement to subscribe to TiVo's user data. "Here's where the fear and loathing come in. Google promises that advertisers pay only when their ads are seen. But TiVo lets viewers fast-forward through commercials. Now, with TiVo's data, collected from millions of digital video recorders across the country, Google can tell exactly which of those commercials are being bypassed."...
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Posted Sarah Palin Parking Lot to Boing Boing
Video: Chase Whitestead and Erick Stroll of New Left Media speak to Sarah Palin fans at her book signing in Columbus, Ohio. More at Dangerous Minds. Related: Over at The Awl this past weekend, Rudy live-blogged his reading of Sarah Palin's memoirs (so you don't have to). This follows a month-long build-up where he reviewed the entire canon of vice presidential memoirs. You're welcome. (via Jason Wishnow) Previously:Heavy Metal Parking Lot Dark Carnival of the Soul: Gathering of the Juggalos 2009...
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Posted Star Wars Double shot: Band Names, Facebook Updates to Boing Boing
A double shot of timewastey STAR WARS funs: Band Names (hashtag's here, @johnmoe started it), and Facebook Updates (via @bonniegrrl )...
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Posted African leaders advise Bono on reform of U2, warn of poverty in "listenable songs" to Boing Boing
"An expert commission of African leaders today announced their plan for comprehensive reform of the rock band U2." (via Ethan Zuckerman)...
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Posted Hope is fading to Boing Boing
T-shirt: Freshjive (via Raymond Roker)...
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Posted Gentleman arrested by fashion police at LA airport for wearing his living lizard suit to Boing Boing
A fashionable gentleman wearing 15 live lizards strapped to his chest was arrested by fashion police at LAX as he attempted to enter the country from Australia. US Customs agents said something about "smuggling," and claim the two geckos, eleven skinks, and two monitor lizards were worth a total of $8,500....
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Posted Animated map of US unemployment stats since 2007 (spoiler: we're fading to black) to Boing Boing
What's scariest about this animated visualization of American jobless rates? The animation doesn't include the figures released just last week, which would make the final frame even darker. The Decline: Geography of a Recession, by Latoya Egwuekwe (American Observer, via Jason Calacanis) Previously:Unemployment stats in the USA just got worse - Boing Boing...
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Posted Tweeting While Incarcerated (TWI): Oscar-winning screenwriter/director Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction, Beowulf) to Boing Boing
Oscar-winning writer/director Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction, Beowulf) is serving a year in prison for vehicular manslaughter and DWI. Apparently, he's tweeting from prison: @avary. I'm not sure how one tweets while incarcerated (TWI?) in the US, since internet access is not generally afforded to prisoners. Perhaps he's permitted a cellphone with a texting plan. Update: All is explained in the comments. (via Shane Nickerson)...
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Posted New worm targets jailbroken iPhones for Dutch online banking customers to Boing Boing
There are reports of a new worm that targets jailbroken iPhones and behaves like a botnet. It targets people in the Netherlands who use their iPhones for online banking with the Dutch bank ING, and the worm affects devices with SSH installed. (via Bruce Sterling)...
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Posted Much loved photo supply store B&H sued for job discrimination against women to Boing Boing
B&H, the photo and video gear company much-loved by photogs and filmmakers worldwide, is in hot water over employment discrimination claims - again. Four women claim they were denied sales positions because of their gender. According to reports I'm seeing, there are historically no female sales staff at B&H? Also: earlier this year, the store paid $4 million to Latino warehouse workers who claimed they were denied promotions. CBS, NYT, The Photo Forum. (via becthomasphotography , via Joseph Linaschke)...
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Posted Redhead 12-year-old assaulted over Facebook message citing South Park episode? to Boing Boing
LA County detectives are investigating an assault on on a 12-year-old boy which may have been incited by a Facebook group message referencing a 2005 South Park episode. "The boy was kicked and hit in two separate incidents (...) by as many as 14 of his classmates." The attack followed a Facebook message promoting that date as Kick a Ginger Day." Sadly, not the first time for such stupidity....
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Posted The Glenn Beck Party? to Boing Boing
Fox News spokesdouche Glenn Beck is seeking a more direct role in American politics, though it sounds mostly like a clever marketing campaign: "He will promote voter registration drives and sponsor a series of conventions across the country featuring conservative speakers, all leading up to a rally in Washington in August to coincide with the release of his book on conservative proposals for the country."...
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Posted Thus you shall go to the stars: Michæl Paukner to Boing Boing
Sic itur ad astra = Latin for "thus you shall go to the stars". Yet another beautiful work from artist Michæl Paukner. "I used some scans of old astronomy maps from the 17th century," he says. You can buy prints of his work now! I want the Aztec Calendar print so bad. And Luna, too. I want every single one he's selling, but then I'll need to buy some more wall space, too. Previously: The space-soteric graphic art of Michæl Paukner Beautiful infographic: "The Ancient Hebrew Conception of the ......
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Posted Hugo Chavez, cannibalism apologist to Boing Boing
Is Bruce Vilanch writing for Hugo Chavez now? 'Cause the Venezuelan leader's comedy material is pretty good lately: now he's a cannibalism apologist. In a recent speech, Chavez praised Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the late Ugandan dictator Idi "Butcher of Uganda" Amin. Said Chavez: "We thought he was a cannibal... I don't know, maybe he was a great nationalist, a patriot." (thanks Antinous)...
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Posted Heroes and sociopaths: behavioral twins? to Boing Boing
Behaviorally speaking, heroes and serial do-gooders have a lot in common with sociopaths, according to this paper on psychology and neuroethics: "their personality traits are very similar, with only a few features to distinguish them."...
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Posted Spray Paint The Walls: The Story of Black Flag to Boing Boing
[Click for larger image.] I was lucky enough to see Black Flag play live a number of times in the '80s, around the time Glen E. Friedman shot the photo that graces this book's cover. I was an underage teen sneaking into grownup punk clubs, high on moshpit fumes (and, truth be told, lots else). The band, and that subculture that surrounded them, changed my life. Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag explores the history of one of the most important bands, if not the most important, in American punk history. Snip from observations by writer Joe Carducci, who was long associated with SST Records (some links added): "[The book is] very well reported and assembled by Brit music writer Stevie Chick, author of the better of the recent Sonic Youth books. Neither Greg Ginn nor Henry Rollins sat for interviews but their voices are included from earlier interviews, and more importantly Chuck Dukowski spoke to Chick - a first I believe. The story, laid out from the band's earliest practices in 1976 to its end ten years later, makes a far more dramatic book than the usual shelf-fillers with their stretch to make the empty stories of various chart-toppers sound exciting and crucial and against the odds. " Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag (Amazon, book comes out later this month) Here's a related post on photographer Glen E. Friedman's blog. You may also be interested in some of Carducci's own writings on the subject of music and fandom. After the jump: Glen E. Friedman shares an exclusive sneak peek at the back cover, with an '80s photo of Greg Ginn....
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Posted Demi claims missing hipflesh is for real. But $5,000 says it's Moore photoshopping. to Boing Boing
Photographer Anthony Citrano recently pointed us to a possible Photoshop Disaster on the cover of W magazine's December issue, in which Demi Moore (aka @mrskutcher) appeared to be missing a chunk of flesh from her hip. This reminded me of the Ralph Lauren debacle. Many blogs and news sites picked the item up. Over at Jezebel (they posted about it before BB), W magazine fessed to having altered the image, but "nothing out of the ordinary." Yesterday, Mrs. Kutcher herself tweeted, "Here is the original image people my hips were not touched don't let these people bullshit you!" Anthony Citrano replies: "I feel bad that Demi is on defense - she should not have to defend other people's mistakes; W Magazine should be addressing this rather than her." Citrano offers $5,000 to the charity of her choosing if the image she tweeted is provably the unretouched original. Citrano's full reply and details on the thrown-down-gauntlet follow. All of this, by the way, IS VRY SRS BIZNESS....
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Posted A programmer's lament on the Apple App Store to Boing Boing
"How much of the goodwill Apple once had with programmers have they lost over the App Store? A third? Half? And that's just so far. The App Store is an ongoing karma leak." — Paul Graham....
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Posted EFF takes on Volomedia's stupid attempt to patent podcasting to Boing Boing
A company called Volomedia just got the US Patent Office to grant them exclusive rights to patent podcasting. Say what? The Electronic Frontier Foundation is fighting, and is putting out a call for help for all the O.G. podcasters out there. Paging Dave Winer and Adam Curry! Snip: The Volomedia patent covers "a method for providing episodic media." It's a ridiculously broad patent, covering something that many folks have been doing for many years. Worse, it could create a whole new layer of ongoing costs for podcasters and their listeners. Right now, just about anyone can create their own on-demand talk radio program, earning an audience on the strength of their ideas. But more costs and hassle means that podcasting could go the way of mainstream radio -- with only the big guys able to afford an audience. And we'd have a bogus patent to blame. In order to bust this patent, we are looking for additional "prior art" -- or evidence that the podcasting methods described in the patent were already in use before November 19, 2003. In particular, we're looking for written descriptions of methods that allow a user to download pre-programmed episodic media like audio files or video files from a remote publisher, with the download occurring after the user subscribes to the episodes, and with the user continuing to automatically receive new episodes. You can read the entire prior art request here, and if you have something that could help, please send it to podcasting_priorart@eff.org or fill out the form on our Volomedia page. EFF Tackles Bogus Podcasting Patent - And We Need Your Help (thanks Peter Kirn)...
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