Today.

Thanks to Caitlin for showing me this

WOODEN HEART (sea of mist called skaidan)
We’re all born to broken people on their most honest day of living
and since that first breath... We’ll need grace that we’ve never given
I've been haunted by standard red devils and white ghosts
and it's not only when these eyes are closed
these lies are ropes that I tie down in my stomach,
but they hold this ship together tossed like leaves in this weather
and my dreams are sails that I point towards my true north,
stretched thin over my rib bones, and pray that it gets better
but it won’t won’t, at least I don’t believe it will...
so I've built a wooden heart inside this iron ship,
to sail these blood red seas and find your coasts.
don’t let these waves wash away your hopes
this war-ship is sinking, and I still believe in anchors
pulling fist fulls of rotten wood from my heart, I still believe in saviors
but I know that we are all made out of shipwrecks, every single board
washed and bound like crooked teeth on these rocky shores
so come on and let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember

I am the barely living son of a woman and man who barely made it
but we’re making it taped together on borrowed crutches and new starts
we all have the same holes in our hearts...
everything falls apart at the exact same time
that it all comes together perfectly for the next step
but my fear is this prison... that I keep locked below the main deck
I keep a key under my pillow, it’s quiet and it’s hidden
and my hopes are weapons that I’m still learning how to use right
but they’re heavy and I’m awkward...always running out of fight
so I’ve carved a wooden heart, put it in this sinking ship
hoping it would help me float for just a few more weeks
because I am made out of shipwrecks, every twisted beam
lost and found like you and me scattered out on the sea
so come on let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, just some tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember

My throat it still tastes like house fire and salt water
I wear this tide like loose skin, rock me to sea
if we hold on tight we’ll hold each other together
and not just be some fools rushing to die in our sleep
all these machines will rust I promise, but we'll still be electric
shocking each other back to life
Your hand in mine, my fingers in your veins connected
our bones grown together inside
our hands entwined, your fingers in my veins braided
our spines grown stronger in time
because are church is made out of shipwrecks
from every hull these rocks have claimed
but we pick ourselves up, and try and grow better through the change
so come on yall and let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, were just tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember

credits

from Wooden Heart Poems, released 06 July 2010

Yarn Bombed Bear in Griffith Park

Heard a story about the lady who does this on KPCC a few days ago. Good Stuff.

Good news about open wifi

From Boingboing.net

Federal judge: open WiFi doesn't make you liable for your neighbors' misdeeds
Cory Doctorow at 10:55 AM Tue
A Federal judge in Illinois has once again rebuffed a copyright troll's request for easy court orders to allow him to connect IP addresses with people. The judge said that open wireless networks and other factors make the connection between IP addresses and defendants difficult, and that making it easy to connect people and IPs would invite extortionate legal claims.

After the recent raids against people whose open wireless networks had been used by their neighbors to download child pornography, many people advised that this was evidence that leaving your wireless network open would make you potentially liable for the misdeeds of people who happened to use it.

But as this case shows, judges can be savvier than that (and they should be, too). Good law shouldn't punish people for being neighborly.

Baker then went on to cite a recent mistaken child porn raid, where an IP address was turned into a name--but the named person hadn't committed the crime. "The list of IP addresses attached to VPR's complaint suggests, in at least some instances, a similar disconnect between IP subscriber and copyright infringer... The infringer might be the subscriber, someone in the subscriber's household, a visitor with her laptop, a neighbor, or someone parked on the street at any given moment."

New Cyberpunk Novel Author Interview

Mac Vs. PC

Happy World Tapir Day!

Lessig on Science, copyright and the moral case for Open Access

From boing boing

Larry Lessig's talk at CERN on the way that copyright interacts with science publishing is a stirring call-to-arms to free up scientific discovery and inquiry. While artists debate the questions of exclusive rights, income, creativity and copyright, scientists operate in a different tradition. Since the Enlightenment, wide publication and review of scientific material has been the cornerstone of good scientific practice.

Whereas copyright tends to focus on protecting artists' ability to make money from their work, scientists don't use similar incentives. And yet, her work is often kept within the gates of the ivory tower, reserved for those whose universities or institutions have purchased access, often at high costs. And for science in the age of the internet, which wants ideas to spread as widely as possible to encourage more creativity and development, this isn't just bad: it's immoral.

James O'Keefe's Dance Video

This is the guy that "toppled" acorn and recently got NPR in to hot water- with the Chair resigning. You can find his face in the dictionary under fallacious argument. I can't stop laughing at this video

"Republicans know how to use the Internet now"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGXb8OFLlRs&feature=player_embedded

From Gawker:

Adrian Chen — You know how in the last few years it seems like every old person has tumbled onto the internet and, somehow, managed to learn how to forward emails of their pets to you? That basically has happened to Republicans, too. Get ready for the "social network primary."

After watching Democrats using all their cool Facebooks and Macintoshes to win elections, Republicans have finally gone down to the public library to take the free computer class. The New York Times writes that, "during last year's midterm elections, Republicans caught up with Democrats in using technology and social networks."

In fact, Republican presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty isn't so much a politician as a social media guru. For his 2012 campaign:

Mr. Pawlenty introduced an innovative twist: a social gaming layer borrowed from Farmville and Foursquare that awards badges and points to supporters who participate more fully in the campaign. As an example, supporters get 10 points for connecting their Facebook account to the campaign's Web site and 5 points for adding their Twitter account. If you post a message on your Facebook page or set up your own group, you get a badge.

Meanwhile, Obama has his big Facebook town hall meeting right now. Can we just decide the 2012 campaign based on how many "likes" each candidate's Facebook page has at the end? It would be so much easier and apparently about as accurate.

HOWTO dig a pirate cave

I think I'll go home and do this in my backyard after class today.

By Cory Doctorow at Boingboing.net

This 1929 Modern Mechanics HOWTO explains to young people how they can dig their own pirate's cave, complete with working fireplace. The author explains that mothers can allow their sons (yes, it was all pretty gendered back then in 1929-land) to build such a clubhouse without fear, because the design will prevent cave-ins. Articles like this fill me with sorrow and delight: sorrow because you couldn't include such a place in a work of fiction (letalone a factual article aimed at children) today; delight at the adventure that those who followed these directions back in the 20s and 30s must have had.

Save all the flat stones for the fireplace, unless bricks are available. The latter will make a better fireplace, however, without mortar. The roof or ceiling joists should extend at least a foot on each side of the excavation. The ridge support is made up of two two-by-fours laid one on top of the other, as shown in the diagram. The roof boards should be covered with tar paper or old canvas, or in a pinch, several layers of newspapers. At one end of the roof, tack heavy wire screen under the gable, and further protect this with a row of slats set at an angle. These are to partially support large stones placed against them to conceal the vent. If the stones are big enough they will not impede air circulation to any great extent. A trench is dug for the stove-pipe and, when this is laid, covered over again with dirt. Of course, it will be an advantage to have the chimney as far away from the cave as your supply of stove-pipe will permit. However, be sure that the top of the chimney is one or two feet higher than the stove. Otherwise your draft will be sluggish. Stones should be piled around the chimney to hide it, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to throw over the chimney itself some old junk, such as rusty washboilers, etc., that will not interfere with draft. In case a potential enemy sees smoke rising he naturally would assume it to be a rubbish fire.

The Littl' Bits

I am going to make a confession. I used to play hooky so that I could stay home and watch this strange Japanese cartoon. It could explain a few things presently. Sorry Mrs. Romine

A story without an Ending

A work in progress:

He rested his elbows on the countertop and regretted it instantly. It was sticky. Honey left over from a hasty cup of tea made by the roommate earlier.

The clock above the tiny kitchen’s window read 1:24. One twenty-four in the p.m. There wasn’t much of a justification for waking up so late any more. He’d gone to bed the night before early. Feeling tired and complacent.

“I love you and goodnight,” the roommate had said.

“Me too,” he’d said.

The roommate usually stayed up late. Talking on the phone, talking to the television, talking to the characters in whatever book she was reading.

She was gone when he got up. He looked at her side of the bed. It was perfectly made. He made sure of her absence, checking each room and all four closets in turn before pulling a stool up to the counter.

This morning was different, slightly. He knew this right away. He attempted to contemplate his day and failed. Again. Failure.

His heart beat quickly, like he’d had too much coffee, but his brain felt stagnant and refused to catch up. He loosened the necktie and unbuttoned the top button of the oxford he’d taken to donning in a semblance and mockery of professionalism.

“Christ,” he said out loud. “Christ on a cracker.”

Saying this made him smile and feel a little better. Alone or not, he liked saying silly things to ease tension. The roommate never got annoyed. This, however, annoyed her.

The weather outside was awful. It was already raining buckets. He decided it must be under 40 degrees and also that he wasn’t going to leave the house today. He might explore the garden, but that was enough.

Technically, but only technically, he was supposed to be going out to find a job today.

“Will you please look for a job tomorrow?” the roommate had asked.

“I hope so,” he’d said, a little too enthusiastically, raising the last syllable as he spoke.

Hoping so, he now reasoned, did not amount to a promise. That much was certain.

He and the roommate had argued the night before. It was the same topic of argument as usual. He hadn’t worked for three months. Exploring did not count as a gainful pursuit at this time. Nor did concocting. He was being slothful, yes similar to the slowest sloth, and not really using his brilliant creativity.

Thinking of this made him laugh. It was inappropriate, but made him feel better. Sloths, he thought, are very strange animals.

“Christ on a cracker.”

He slid open the kitchen door and stepped out onto the veranda. He regretted the fact that is was impossible to lick ones’ elbows. His were sweet at the moment and he needed sugar for his stubborn brain.

He turned and shut the door, seeing his reflection in the glass. He saw his reflection, handsome he’d been told, and decided he looked awful. He had a scraggly beard that extended haphazardly down his neck. His best shirt was stained and wrinkled. His eyes had bags from too much sleep.

“Obviously you two didn’t get the memo that sleep is good for you,” he told them.

He laughed at the joke. He knew he was starving for some sort of social contact.

“That will have to wait,” he thought.

He looked at the potted plants under the tin roofed patio. They looked unhappy despite all the water falling from the sky onto the garden just ten feet away. The tin roof tittered at their thirst, rain bouncing off its thin hull.

“Ah, yes,” he said, “you’d like some water, that can be arranged.”

It was his job to water the plants. The list on the fridge inside said so in bold letters. He clapped his hands and a notched stick fell from the sealing on a hinge. It set off a series counter-weights, levies, small canals, and old containers filled to the brim, watering the plants.

The runoff was negligible, he noted.

He’d left his job at the company for two very different reasons. He despised his boss, and, he wanted to be an inventor. An inventor of glorious inventions.

The roommate had been wary of this decision.

“How did you decide this in a day?” She had asked.

“Inventing is a noble pursuit, tantamount to the dreams of our forefathers,” he had said.

She’d told him that she wasn’t sure how it was help to pay the bills.

“I’ll invent a way to do that,” he’d responded.

“Good luck,” she’s said.

Really she was supportive, in the beginning at least. The truth was, most of his inventions to date helped him to avoid really doing chores around the house. Avoiding work, in other words. Lately she had not been so understanding. She’d taken to sliding job clippings from the paper under the bathroom door while he sat on the toilet then pretending to not know what he was talking about when he confronted her with them after his business.

“Must have been someone else, wasn’t me,” she always said.

Girl at Disneyland chooses the Dark Side

Much better freerunning gym in Scranton, PA

Freerunning gym in LA

Huh, didn't know you needed a gym for this crap.

Obama to hold facebook townhall on budget

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/05/obama-to-host-facebook-townhall_n_845148.html

Great video in LA downtown

Painting the Town from megamayd on Vimeo.

Bill upsets amateur radio operators

Great Falls Tribune-

WASHINGTON — When a tornado or wildfire hits Montana, the firsthand reports often come from ham radio enthusiasts, who provide crucial and timely information for the National Weather Service or local emergency responders.

"They're just a group of people that we can depend on to help us out in the communications end whenever we need them," said Vince Kolar, who heads Disaster and Emergency Services for Cascade County. "Definitely out here, we need 'em. (They're) knowledgeable, available and they've got those radio communication skills that you need."

There are nearly 5,000 amateur radio volunteers in Montana, and many of them provide a backup communication system that emergency responders in the Treasure State and across the country depend on if or when cellphones, satellite phones or other radio systems don't work.

"That's how we plan to communicate between hospitals and the Red Cross in the event of an emergency," said Ryan Nicholls, director of the Office of Emergency in Springfield, Mo. "We have it written into our emergency operations plan."

But this service, currently provided for free by amateur ham radio operators, could be in jeopardy under a measure Congress is considering.

The House bill, introduced by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., would strengthen the communications capabilities of America's first responders by reallocating certain frequencies — 758-763 MHz and 788-793 MHz — to public safety.

"Allocation of the D Block (of frequencies) to public safety will ensure that our nation's first responders have sufficient spectrum to develop a wireless broadband network," King said in a statement.

The 9/11 Commission, when investigating the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, cited the need for improved emergency communications among jurisdictions and agencies, and the issue has broad support from both parties, including from President Barack Obama.

It's a tiny clause deeper down in the legislation that has ham radio enthusiasts and emergency responders all worked up.

Under the bill, in the next 10 years the government would sell the 420-440 MHz frequencies, which is currently used by amateur radio operators, for commercial use. Selling the block of frequencies would raise money to offset the cost of setting aside the D Block of frequencies for first responders.

The 420-440 MHz band is not used only by hobbyists. It's also used by hundreds of thousands of Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers, severe-weather spotters working with the National Weather Service, weak-signal operations, thousands of repeater systems, mobile operators, amateur radio satellite communications, radio location beacons, amateur radio's nationwide system of digital and text communications, and more.

Amateur-radio enthusiasts, for the most part, spend their own money, use their own equipment, and spend hours of their time training and volunteering during emergencies. They say losing this frequency band would require costly changes to their infrastructure and equipment, and could jeopardize their ability to assist during emergencies.

"It would make it difficult in a lot of areas for our emergency communications, which are vital during any disaster, flood or heavy weather events — anything where we have to get out and help people," said Doug Dunn, the National Association for Amateur Radio's section chief for Montana. "We're usually there first. We fill a lot of slots."

On Father's Day 2010, as a tornado bore down on the eastern edge of Billings, amateur radio operators were there to spot the system, track it, relay the information to the National Weather Service so it could alert the public and help with the response after the tornado tore through the area, Dunn said.

It's a "boots-on-the-ground sort of a thing where we can describe damage and places to stay away from," he said. "It's important to us — and, I'm going to say, vital."

Kolar said ham radio operators provide another layer of assistance.

"During large wildland fires, we have them run our mobile communications van. They're used to running radio, so we have them operate the county radios and the command post, and it takes the pressure off the sheriff's office, off my office and we don't have to supply that manpower," he said. "It frees us up to do other things."

The American Radio Relay League — the national association for amateur radio — has lobbied members of Congress over the provision, which it calls "unacceptable."

"It is ... completely unnecessary to the creation of a nationwide public safety broadband network," ARRL spokesman Dan Henderson wrote in an email. "To be sure, ARRL will vigorously oppose this legislation in its present form."

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), which is a federation of more than a dozen public safety communications organizations, also has spoken out against the commercial sale provision in the bill.

In a letter, NPSTC Chairman Ralph Haller said the provision "needs to be amended to address the concerns of public safety and the amateur radio users."

Both groups said they support the underlying objective of the legislation.

The bill, which was introduced last month, is pending in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

ONI Releases Special Report on the Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors

By rebekah Heacock of ONI

The recent political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa has thrown into focus the information shaping, events-based blocking, and counter-control activities undertaken by governments throughout the region. New research by the OpenNet Initiative shows that many of these activities are supported by Western filtering tools and services.

The OpenNet Initiative is pleased to release its new special report, "West Censoring East: The Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors, 2010-2011" by Helmi Noman and Jillian C. York.

The report analyzes the use of American and Canadian-made tools Websense, McAfee SmartFilter, and Netsweeper for the purpose of government-level filtering in the Middle East and North Africa. The investigation found that nine countries in the region utilize Western-made tools.

Aggravation in Maine

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/28/maine-labor-mural-removes_n_841369.html

Ahem.

Steadman and Thompson: A Lovers Quarrel

Oct20'96
Owl Farm

Dear Ralph,

It never occurred to me that Jann was going to publish those ugly, denigrating cartoons you spit out a few months ago about my internal organs. I thought you had sent them to me as just another one of our shared hideous jokes. How the fuck did Jann get his hands on them?

In any case, I'm about to sever all relationship(s) with him -- and with You, if necessary -- if he prints that pasty bag of insults in RS. You might enjoy that Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas "celebration" in New York next month, but you'll enjoy it without me. Maybe you can do a cute cartoon about vultures feeding on my (absent) carcass.

Well.... your FAX isn't working tonight, so I can't send this stuff thru to you. Very clever, Ralph. But if yr. (admittedly) artistic cartoons of me appear in RS this week, you and I have had our last Scotch together.

Thanx for the laughs. Yrs,

Hunter

-----------------------

Dear Hunter

Before I even get into my ART let me ask you a question. Did you or did you not speak into a tape recorder and say those words which have been transcribed and accredited to YOU. Never agree to speak into a tape recorder if you know that those very words will be used as the ARTICLE. You, of all people know that the spoken word is not writing, never was, never will be, but it has its place on the stage of audio verite. You have used the tape recorder as long as I have known you. I even bought you a decent SONY once because I knew how much the specific quote meant to you, and the actuality of it being said, but the creativity lay in its use. Unfortunately, as a total creative contribution it is worthless and merely lets the writer off the hook of having to actually do some work - like write a few impressions maybe of how he or she feels about their subject - the interviewee.

I am not a writer, as you keep reminding me, but at least I could make a few decent observations, from the heart too, about how I was feeling, how I reacted and what you may or may not be to me as a fellow human being. It would be, at least, a common courtesy, if not the kind of current popular trend of merely repeating everything one said verbatim as though the subject was nothing less than a guru whose every word was holy wisdom.

You fucked up, and your vanity won't allow it. There is a great deal of fascinating stuff in what you have said, but not all of it. Like all conversations, 90% is gibberish, but I suspect that in a case like this, the writer with you should become involved, artfully expressing the nuance, a passing thought, moving the scenery around, and generally making himself useful., He should be the conduit to convey to others, the readers perhaps, who were not privileged to be in your presence, what it was you were doing your best to express one to one into a fucking microphone, which as you know picks up everything, even the bad grammar.

Which brings me to the ART. You have always applauded my ability to perceive. I am not an illustrator but I may be a cartoonist, and I may not always behave as a responsible citizen towards my chosen targets any more than you do. But I do get to it, under the skin as it were, to the real work, or don't bother. I don't think you taught me that but you made me aware of its importance. And it never ceases to amaze me just how irrational you become when somebody does it to you, like you have done it to me, and to everyone else you have ever bothered to write about.

So don't get pompous with me. I am not one of your goddamn sychophants or acolytes. I am the one you needed when you needed someone to say what cannot be said in words. That too is new and rare. I will take at random a few words from an old mentor of yours, Robert S. de ROPP. You read 'The Master Game' and this is from his last book, 'Self Completion'. Some of it is bullshit. Aint that the way, eh?

(Signed, 'Ralph')

Owned!

Buffett on Apple

Warren Buffett, the world's third-richest man, is still "wary" of investing in companies like Apple, according to a Bloomberg article about the billionaire.

Buffett isn't swayed by Steve Jobs' "magical" iPad and "revolutionary" iPhone 4. As far as investments go, Buffett said he is more likely to keep away from consumer electronics, as he has in the past, in favor of companies like Coca-Cola.

"Even though Apple may have the most wonderful future in the world, I'm not capable of bringing any drink to that particular party and evaluating that future," Buffett said during a visit to South Korea. "I simply look at businesses where I think I have some understanding of what they might look like in five or 10 years."

"We held very few in the past and we're likely to hold very few in the future," Buffett said of electronics makers. He noted that a company like Coca-Cola, on the other hand, is "very easy for me to come to a conclusion as to what it will look like economically in five or 10 years, and it's not easy for me to come to a conclusion about Apple."

Though Buffett may not be a techie, the Oracle of Omaha said in an interview last year that he actually spends more time at his computer than Bill Gates, passing over 12 hours a week playing bridge online.

See Buffett discuss his tech habits in the video below.

From Huffpost

Amateur Radio Sleuths intercept US Pysops Message to Libya

Check this out John, sounds like it applies to that project we were talking about.

The U.S. military has dispatched one of its secret propaganda planes to the skies around Libya. And that “Commando Solo” aircraft is telling Libyan ships to remain in port – or risk NATO retaliation.

We know this, not because some Pentagon official said so, but because one Dutch radio geek is monitoring the airwaves for information about Operation Odyssey Dawn — and tweeting the surprisingly-detailed results. On Sunday alone, “Huub” has identified the tail numbers, call signs, and movements of dozens of NATO aircraft: Italian fighter jets, American tankers, British aerial spies, U.S. bombers, and the Commando Solo psyops plane (pictured).

“If you attempt to leave port, you will be attacked and destroyed immediately,” the aircraft broadcasted late Sunday night.

It’s the kind of information that the American military typically tries to obscure, at least until a mission is over. But Huub is just a single node in a sprawling online network that trawls the airwaves for clues to military operations.

Huub, also known online as “BlackBox” and @FMCNL, has been monitoring longer than most — more than a quarter-century. A former member of the Dutch military, he says that he’s captured the sounds of everything from Air Force One to CIA rendition flights to the travels of Yugoslavian war criminal Slobodan Mlosevic.

“I just combine the global and free information on the Internet with my local received information from the ether,” Huub e-mails Danger Room. “[My] main goal to listen to this communication is to listen to ‘the truth,’ without any military or political propaganda.”

Military aircraft have to provide basic information about their position over unencrypted, unclassified UHF and VHF radio networks; otherwise, they’d risk slamming into civilian jets in mid-air. That allows savvy listeners like Huub to use radio frequency scanners, amplifiers, and antennas to capture the communications. Some spend thousands of dollars homebrewing their own DIY listening stations. Many others – Huub included – rely on handheld gear, much of which can be ordered through Radio Shack. Huub uses the ICOM R20 receiver and the Uniden UBC-785XLT scanner, both of which retail for a little more than $500.

But the type of gear is almost secondary, Huub writes. “I do not simply listen to ATC [air traffic control] or NATO frequencies,” he says. Instead, he monitors everything from aircraft transponder data to IRC chatrooms to pinpoint his planes. “I use a combination of live listening with local equipment, audio streaming, video streaming, datamining, intelligence, analyzing and the general knowledge of ATC procedures, communication, encryption, call signs, frequencies and a lot of experience on this!”

Huub, who ordinarily spends his days as a digital forensics manager in the town of Hilversum, has lately spent up to 16 hours a day, scanning for clues about the attack on Libya. Some of his Twitter followers aren’t so sure Huub should be devoting that much time to plucking military data from the sky.

“If you are not delaying your tweets by a WIDE margin, you are putting the pilots in harms way!!!!” tweets@Joe_Taxi. “When the sounds of the #operationoddesydawn aircraft are heard in #Libya it should be a complete surprise.”

Huub is hardly the only one eavesdropping on this operation, however. At least two others recorded the Commando Solo in action on Sunday, for instance.

And that shows just how easily average folks can now gather intelligence in ways once reserved for the best-funded spy agencies. Online sleuths now use Google Earth to find everything from North Korea’slaunch facilities to Pakistan’s drone bases. Plane-spotters scoured tail numbers to uncover the CIA’s torture flights. So it’s no wonder that the sounds of this newest air war are being broadcast online — even before the planes return to their airstrips.

From Wired.com

NASA open-source summit

Cool!

http://www.nasa.gov/open/source/

P.I.Z.Z.A

Politician Sues Facebook Over Election Loss

(NEWSER) – Majed Moughni lost Michigan’s Republican primary against incumbent Rep. John Dingell, who just so happens to be the longest-serving member of Congress. Even so, Moughni blames just one entity for his loss: Facebook. And now the attorney is suing the social networking site—not for money, but for an injunction that would halt premature account closing. Moughni, who came in fourth in the August primary, wants to know why Facebook shut down his page, cutting him off from his 1,600 friends, in June.

Moughni believes it was shut down because he criticized one of his opponent’s views (related to a ... baseball game), but a Facebook spokesperson tells the Detroit News it was shut down for suspicious behavior, and adds that Moughni would have been warned before the account was closed. Moughni had been adding 20 to 100 new friends a day at the time. He says he “had no chance without Facebook. They disorganized us in the middle of our campaign and we lost.” Then why, AllFacebookwonders, did did Moughni wait more than six months before filing a suit?

REMAP UCLA

Here is a link to a cool project at UCLA. The project is REMAP and it explores media, technology, and community among other things. Fabian Wagmister, Professor at UCLA, wants to make attempts to follow and aid the transition from personal computer to community computer.

http://bigriver.remap.ucla.edu/remap/index.php/Main_Page

Sesame Street for the last days of Discovery

From boingboing.net

Best of TED!

Check out this link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/01/the-best-of-ted-talks-tech_n_829368.html#s246860&title=Julian_Assange

John Stewart Mocks CNN

The Daily Show - The Biggest Newser
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Snow and Rainbows LA

From Boing Boing

What Watson might do after crushing humankind on Jeopardy

Bob Harris at 4:53 PM Fri

Bob Harris is a TV and travel writer, Kiva supporter, and dabbler.

Now that Watson has predictably used his inhuman buzzer skills to romp on non-inhumankind, what does the big lug do for a follow-up?

Stephen Baker, who has written a whole book and this blog about Watson, explains:

Consider Watson as a research assistant on a medical diagnostic team. A patient comes in with a puzzling set of symptoms. Watson launches a search through hundreds of thousands of journal articles and case studies. It returns with six possible diagnoses and its level of confidence in each one -- along with links to the evidence it studied. Let's say two of those six are far-fetched... [d]octors know enough to rule out a few others. Still, if even one of those six possibilities leads the team toward plausible answers they hadn't considered, the machine will have done its job.

I'm sure that's the rationale the maniacal cyborgs use in some sci-fi movie, too, back when they're first verging on sentience. But until the replicants destroy us all, it does sound pretty cool.

Fitting

The Computer Wore Menacing Boots

"I was hoping the people of the world might be united by something more interesting, like drugs or an armed struggle against the undead. Unfortunately, my father's team won, so computers it is." -David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

Part of me might be a luddite or technophobe. I'm not really sure. Its strange because I enjoy studying technology and media. However, some part of me fears computers while the other reveres them. It all sounds strangely pious.

I think it all has something to do with growing up in the dust belt. As kids and teenagers my friends and I tended to focus more on blowing things up and covertly causing mayhem then playing computer games or talking to perverts in chat rooms.

I have a clear memory of my friend Drew and I liberating some elderly macintosh computer monitors from our old elementary school. We were around 14 or 15 at the time. We took the computers to Willow Creek Park, to a massive sand stone tower built in honor of the adventurer Zebulon Pike. We hauled the monitors to the top of the tower, dodging wine cooler bottles and rude stains and scrawled suggestions along the way. Then we chucked them off the top. Watching them smash was one of the highlights of my high school career. Somewhere between smoking my first real cigarette and my first crazy girlfriend. I think this story is fairly indicative of my technological love-hate relationship.

I dabbled in gaming for certain. I tended to disappoint my nerdier friends, however, by getting side tracked during all night game-a-thons. I found it more interesting to off members of my own team and sneak out of the house then to stare at a screen all night eating absurd amounts of popcorn and making inexpert sexual jokes.

In college I became the owner of a laptop. Apparently. It tended to get left in my dorm unused. I had a printer, but it was never- to my knowledge- plugged in. I was a patron of the dusty computer lab in one of the older buildings on campus. It had a certain anachronistic je ne sais quoi. Took me back to my Pike's Peak tower days.

My shiny laptop was eventually pulverized by my roommate in a skateboarding accident. How fitting is that? Computers and I seem to have this sort of a relationship.

I got interested in Free Culture. More for arts' sake than technologies'. I picked up a few techie tips along the way, though. I read Lawrence Lessig and met lots of people with hands covered in popcorn stains who wore shirts exclaiming "Show me your Wits!" I minored in media and cultural studies and spent a few thousand hours a month on Facebook. After a long fight, I'm half ashamed, half-releaved, to say...I entered the matrix.

I still suck at using Excel.

We've come a long way. Sort of. Some of us anyway. Maybe not me.

Students for FC, they have a special place in my heart

Students for Free Culture Conference, NYC this Saturday!

Cory Doctorow at 8:19 AM Wednesday, Feb 16, 2011

Kevin sez, "The Students for Free Culture Conference 2011 is a gathering of student activists, intellectuals, artists, hackers, and generally interested people to discuss the latest issues in the free cultural world, with a focus on student involvement and participation. The conference will take place in New York City from February 19-20. It will feature keynotes from the creators of Diaspora, Brazilian professor and activist Pablo Ortellado, and professor and former Obama Administration advisor Susan Crawford, as well as panels on remix culture, open education, and fashion and copyright. The second day is an unconference where anyone is invited to pose a panel, discussion, gathering, or hack session. Registration is pay-what-you-want, and travel funding is available by request. See the complete conference schedule for more detail."

An Interesting take on Clintons Approach via Timothy Karr

Here is a response to Clinton's net stance from Timothy Karr of SavetheInternet.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/no-double-standard-for-cl_b_823614.html

Clinton calls for global recognition of Internet freedom- CNN

Though this might interest some of you

By Michael Martinez for CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/02/15/clinton.internet/index.html?iref=allsearch

Ramadan and Zizek on Egypt

Controversial Groupon Ad

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/06/groupon-tibet-super-bowl_n_819353.html

Sarah Palin copyrighting her name

From BoingBoing.net

Sarah Palin Circle-R wants a trademark on her name

Cory Doctorow at 9:01 AM Sun

Some details on Sarah Palin's crazed attempt to register a trademark in her name; apart from making stupid errors in her application, there's the curious business that she considers "running for election" to be the same as using her name in commerce. Also, turns out Bristol Palin also wants a trademark on her name, for "motivational speaking services in the field of life choices."

On November 29, the application was rejected for two reasons. First, the examiner pointed out, the fact that your name appears in a news article or on your Facebook page is not evidence that you are "providing a website" featuring political information. Second, Palin did not sign the application.

The examiner pointed out that if a mark is the name of a particular living individual, it can't be registered unless that individual has signed or there is some other record of consent. (The examiner cited cases involving "Little Debbie," who is in fact a real person, and "Prince Charles," who arguably is too.) Because Palin hadn't signed, the application could not be granted.

It seems like signing your name is not something you would forget when your name is what you're trying to trademark, but she's a busy woman.

An explanation, per the superbowl

Meet Asmaa Mahfouz and the vlog that Helped Spark the Revolution

Out the Window Call!

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Freewaves invites you to submit your work for our latest project.... OUT THE WINDOW About/By/In Los Angeles What do you know about Los Angeles? Want to share your knowledge on TV? Submission deadline March 1, 2011 Freewaves is seeking two-minute artists-activists-storytellers' videos about places in Los Angeles (home, street, hood) to show to I million riders per day on all 2,200 Metro buses in L.A. County in June and September-October, 2011. On Transit TV we will show animations, documentaries, narratives and experimental videos about, by and in Los Angeles. Riders include more women, more people of color, and more low income Angelenos. Demographics are linked at transitv. In a mobile environment with competing sounds, visuals are more important. Accepted videos will be included in a one-hour program of news, ads, cooking and quizzes. Videos will be shown for approximately 2 days as part of the June or September-October screening periods. Freewaves will post accepted videos on our web site (if you agree) for at least two years with a GPS location tag on our L.A. map. Freewaves will pay $100 - $300 per video. ($100 for pre-existing, $200 for custom editing, $300 for newly commissioned works). Freewaves will ask bus riders to text us in response to geo-tagged messages appearing on Transit TV about places in L.A. Curators: - Maryam Hosseinzadeh, a writer, collaborator and cultural planner - Karen Mack, Director of L.A. Commons, a public art organization - Adrian Rivas, Director and co-founder of g727 in Los Angeles - Jenn Su, artist and organizer - Paul Young, a writer, critic and video art curator at Young Projects OUT THE WINDOW is a multi-phase project. The first phase involves videos made by L.A. youth with Echo Park Film Center and Public Matters. UCLA REMAP is producing the technical interface. A Youtube video shows the youth phase: Transit TV prohibits nudity, sex, violence, alcohol, tobacco and weapons in its programming. Please fill in Entry form and send us a URL on your entry form or a DVD to: Freewaves 6522 Hollywood Blvd Los Angeles CA 90028 We will accept preview videos of any length and will ask that final selections be 2 minutes long. Application materials will not be returned. IMPORTANT DATES: Due date: 3/1/11 Notice of Acceptance: 4/15/11 Screening dates: June and September-October 2011 Click here to fill out the ENTRY FORM 6522 Hollywood Boulevard | Los Angeles, CA 90028 US

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