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Is anyone else dissapointed? Not that there were no aliens, or super-secret spyplanes, but that the mystery is lost? Area 51 was the fuel for imagination, the "what if" moments that it gave rise to. I, for one, shall miss the curiosity and sence of wonder when looking at the photographs and just imagining....

We're reading about things that were built 50 years ago.

If you want the sense of wonder back, ponder what they're doing now.

And keep your ears open for sonic booms tracking over California in the general direction of Nevada over the past few years.

although I'm knowledgable in basic medicine and human anatomy, I don't have a degree in that field. furthermore it's a topic of heated debate mixed up with many urban legends and anecdotal evidence.

I believe the first historic story on the matter I read was about a scientist who was fascinated by the guillotine during or after the french revolution. he asked a prisoner sentenced to death, to help him with his studies.
once his head was chopped off, the scientist called the prisoner's name. The prisoner's eyes opened and he looked at the scientist. The scientist managed to repeat this 2-3 times within 30 seconds.
for the love of me, I can't remember the name of the scientist, nor the prisoner.

anyhow, it is my understanding that in a life and death situation, the body won't succumb to such "trivialities" like losing blood pressure. My point being, a human would be so fired up on adrenaline and, through the decapitation, shock, that the body would make the very most of the reserves it still has (as Ron Wright puts it: "After your head is cut off by a guillotine, you have 13 seconds of consciousness (+/- 1 or 2). [...] The 13 seconds is the amount of high energy phosphates that the cytochromes in the brain have to keep going without new oxygen and glucose.").
Life wants to live.

I guess the real question is, whether the person is still conscious or not. I guess the prisoner from my former example who reacted to the scientist calling his name could be seen as consciousness. But maybe the scientist had to bark his name loudly and it was just some reflex.

truth be told, I don't really know. Can we get some test-subjects here, please? ;)


http://www.boingboing.net/2008/11/17/dery-on-decapitation.html
http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/thefrenchrevolution/a/dyk10.htm
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=Dr.+Ron+Wright+guillotine&btnG=Search

• Division of power addresses corruption. Without oversight there will be, and there already is abuse.
• There was already a system in place for getting warrants on the fly with judicial oversight from judges with security clearance.
• The efficacy of the system has not been demonstrated. It's painfully easy to encrypt communications. Who do they think they're going to catch?

Warrant-less wiretapping and the patriot act represent consolidation of power KGB style. Society can go pretty dark places when power is consolidated. This is a *huge* long-term threat to our society.

He also said that money was a sign of poverty (The State of the Art).

Nope, it's a sign of TERRORISM!

Man detained, threatened and abused by TSA for flying with $4700 in cash
Here's a recording of Steve Bierfeldt, a US citizen who tried to board a domestic airplane while carrying $4700 in cash, and was detained by the TSA and subjected to abusive language and threats [...] The TSA agents threatened to turn him over to the DEA. He was returning from a Ron Paul event in St Louis, MO, and worked for the campaign. The cash on his person arose from sales of t-shirts and stickers at the event.

I found this regarding finding orphaned works and it gives some other information. Unfortunately, when I google for orphaned works, this whole Google things comes up - surprise, surprise.

Good point.

But nevermind schools - this is the UK, where taking photos of any buildings risks you getting reported or arrested as a terrorist... (e.g., see http://boingboing.net/2009/01/11/another-london-photo.html ; we even have advertising campaigns against it: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/04/london-cops-declare.html ).

Good point.

But nevermind schools - this is the UK, where taking photos of any buildings risks you getting reported or arrested as a terrorist... (e.g., see http://boingboing.net/2009/01/11/another-london-photo.html ; we even have advertising campaigns against it: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/04/london-cops-declare.html ).

Not so in downtown London: Another London photographer arrested for "terrorism"http://boingboing.net/2009/01/11/another-london-photo.html (i.e. "taking a picture of a public building").

Or one of these

Yeah, great. So what happens when people do things that use lots of bandwidth without realising it? They get absurdly big charges. That leads to stories like this one. Your argument is basically, if you have crappy customer service, it's OK to set bandwidth caps and allow tethering because you don't care if the customer gets screwed anyway. Wonderful.

Make it a hackintosh and have it autographed by Woz...

I was going to ask you for a reference to this story but thought I'd give Google a try first:

A short summary: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/20/teen-couple-who-phot.html
The summary also contains a link to a more authoritive source: http://news.com.com/Police+blotter+Teens+prosecuted+for+racy+photos/2100-1030_3-6157857.html
And a link to the legal opinion, to see for yourself: http://politechbot.com/docs/child.porn.laws.apply.to.minors.020807.html

I'm amazed this actually seems to be a TRUE story. Not even the Mythbusters could have proven that myth, yet it's true!

There may be no such stings now, but what about when they sign this super secret copyright treaty?

What exactly is your point?

Is your point that publishers should work to minimize infringing copies of their works while encouraging purchase of legal copies? Well, I'm with you there!

Or is your point that publishers need DRM to accomplish that? Why would you believe that?

There is copyright infringement of music. And major music labels swore on their bibles, torahs, korans, and stock options that they needed strong DRM, or else there would be rampant copyright infringement and no new music would ever be created.

Today the market has largely rejected DRM on music. It's easier than ever to make and distribute infringing copies of songs. There is absolutely nothing preventing infringing copies from being made. Yet the world hasn't ended. Music is still being made.

A combination of ways to discourage infringement and encourage purchasing legal copies were found: Lower prices. Watermarking of songs. Making the legal market more convenient than the illegal market. Ensuring that the legal versions were just as good as the illegal versions. Encouraging people to support the artists they like by paying for the songs. But DRM went out the window.

So if by "finding an acceptable solution" you mean "lowering prices, watermarking games, making the legal market more convenient than the illegal market, ensuring the legal versions are just as good as the illegal versions, and encouraging people to support developers whose games they like by paying for games," great! But if you mean "We just need to find the magical level of DRM," not necessarily.

The deal breaker for me is that a Steam game, like any DRMed game, is not as good as the illegal version. What if Steam goes out of business? Or moves to Steam2 and decides they don't want to support Steam1 anymore? I lose access to all of the games I "own." Surely I can trust a large corporation like Valve, right? Ha! Large companies who screwed their customers in exactly this way include Yahoo, Google (although you got a refund), Major League Baseball, Microsoft (temporary reprieve for a few years), Wal-Mart, and Sony. Given that lineup, why should I trust an itty-bitty little company like Steam/Valve?

(To be fair, I can actually see a DRM system I would whole heartedly support: a binding public commitment to strip the DRM from the game after a short period of time. Maybe 6 to 12 months. This would hamper illegal copies during the highest profit part of the games lifespan. The binding public commitment means that someone like me would buy sooner than later.)

This is something that has been on my mind more and more often. First let me qualify myself as an Apple user. I was raised on macs. I've been using a mac my whole life. I currently own a 13" MacBook and a custom built PC (for games).

Now let me say this: Their computer lineup sucks!
IMHO Mac OS X is the best consumer OS (I regularly use XP, OS X, and Linux) and I'd like to run it on future systems. I'm looking to replace my desktop and my wife's
laptop.

I want a ~$1000 desktop with a decent GPU (for games) and she wants ~$250 netbook running OS X. What are my options.

MacMini: $700 outdated and overpriced
iMac: $1200 (pos GPU, can't upgrade)
Mac Pro $2.5k (over the top CPU, pos GPU, overpriced $2.5k for a desktop?!)
MacBook: $999 (good laptop but not a netbook)
MacBook Air: $1700 (LOL @ price, 1 USB port? HAHAHA)

Apple should make a mid-range desktop with a comparable GPU and a cheap ($~250) netbook. Instead I'll be purchasing a Dell Mini 9 and loading it with OS X (sacrifice some stability for price). I want to give my money to Apple but they refuse to fill glaring gaps in their lineup.

Conclusion: I see what Ballmer is saying. You're paying more for lower specs and less options. But damn...the OS is nice!

I think the article refers to this story about not releasing details of a copyright treaty in the works.

Perhaps the speed limit of the road should be reduced, or the amber light lengthened, or a safety campaign started to try and convince drivers that it isn't worth risking running a red light to save 20 seconds.

Bolded the solution for you. What actually happens is that when the red light camera system isn't producing enough revenue (remember, they swear blind that it's for your safety) they drop the duration of the amber light until more infringements occur.

boingboing story
it happens in australia too

Oh grow up fanboy. They linked to someone elses story, with caveats.

Oh pull your head out. The Boing Boing headline

Manufacturer confirms chip: iPod headphones now have the Apple Tax

Remember that old saw about how "a lie travels around the world before the truth has a chance to put it's shoes on"? The original liar obviously deserves most of the blame, but that doesn't absolve everyone who spread the lie of responsibility.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/06/22/amazon-reader-review.html

The EFF article just quotes the iLounge article as its source -- it is certainly not independent confirmation of anything. The guys at http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/03/14/we-found-the-chip-in.html have pictures of an actual chip under the switch in the cable, but this also proves nothing about DRM. You presumably need circuitry in the cable to make this thing work: unlike the iPhone or iPod touch, this iPod reuses the earphone connector to sync the iPod!! My guess is that one of the functions of the chip in the cable is to simply identify what has been attached to the connector. I've seen no evidence that there's DRM involved.

Or use an Emergency (MC) Hammer.

[german] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6rpergeruchsprobe
You can check some facts in RL too: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/03/stasi-smell-museum.html

WB: strike one?

SONY: strike one?

FOX: strike one?

VIACOM: strike one?

DISNEY: strike one?

MPAA: strike one?

(let's not forget politicians)

SEN ORIN HATCH: strike one?

Won't work here and now, of course. It's not, after all, hard to rent a car and drive past a place to take pictures years before you hit it.

Oh, we in the UK are well ahead of you! Hardened terrorists like this man are trembling in fear at our powerful new anti-photography laws, despite the efforts of some bleeding heart liberals.

Sigh. Even the Russians are scoring points off us.

Apple's keeping the radical I/O expansion well under wraps! At first I was like... wtf... then I was like... cool.

As BoingBoing Gadgets' Rob Beschizza points out the fact of the matter is that the iPhone's not selling in Japan. You can argue all you want about why this is, but unless you're Apple's Japanese marketing director, it's largely irrelevant. No amount of ranting about perceived bias on Wired's part will change the numbers, all it does is prove that diehard Apple fans are immune to reality.

"I wonder how the authors -- who are supposed to be served by the Authors Guild -- feel about it."

John Scalzi
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/02/11/hello/

Cory Doctorow
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/25/authors-guild-vs-rea.html

Neil Gaiman
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/02/quick-argument-summary.html

Wil Wheaton
http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2009/02/wil-wheaton-vs-text-2-speech.html

because the oceans wont protect us from an impending calamity were it to strike earth

More like "because we've already turned them into a huge sewer."

There's 10 million square miles of trash just in the Pacific.

The problem is that Iran has a habit of doing things like photoshopping missiles. You can't trust their scientific achievements until they're independently verified, which will always keep them second class. Until they learn about transparency and start to have a human rights record that people can look at without revulsion, then Iran can start being looked at as an equal. As it is, they're a very violent, unstable country with a leader that spouts nonsense and has not given the world reason to take them seriously that has made a few interesting discoveries. But the few good things they have done does not automatically put them at par with the rest of the world. Our scientific capabilities didn't come in spite of our political situation... they came BECAUSE of it. And until Iran changes that, things won't really change.

This from someone who works for a website that believes they can actually "unpublish" something. Can I "unpublish" this comment after submitting it? No.

Yes, it's their website. Yes, they can do what they want with it. That's not the point. Anyone who believes they can just "unpublish" something after they've already put it out on the Internet for all to see isn't someone I would listen to about things like this.

You can bash the man if you like, but you'd be more convincing if you laid off the ad hominem attacks and got your facts straight:

This latest is just the gasp of a flunkie, uneducated has-been science fiction author whose work is so spectacularly bad that he had never had a commercially successful work.

On the contrary; his latest novel "Little Brother" made the New York Times Bestseller list (Childrens), reaching the #8 spot after 6 weeks. It's had multiple print runs, been published in both the US and the UK, where they've sold well, and has been nominated for and granted a range of literary awards.

I'd say that qualifies as a commercially successful work by any reasonable definition!

Worse than that - people are banned from wearing "obstructive headwear".

What about one of these?

Considering they already exist and are format neutral, can somebody tell me why solid state media, particularly USB keys and such, aren't viewed as the next logical step in all this? Hell, they've already done it with ghostbusters supposedly, with DRM even. Why wouldn't blockbuster just load up your USB key with whatever movie you rented that night if your connectivity sucked enough to not download it? Why wouldn't you buy "The Rock" on a key if it was important enough for you to own it?

I'm not saying it's perfect, and I'm sure the studios are drooling over streaming "pay-as-you-go" models, but Blu-Ray isn't exactly compatible with my laptop when I'm on a plane. And it's still a way to let me carry the bits home ("ownership") without Sony dictating the terms.

Of course, I may have answered my own question with that last part.

Partial facial paralysis hasn't done anything to Harm Sylvester Stallone's career.

Or the rest of Hollywood, for that matter. Cosmetic paralytics like botox give the appearence of fewer wrinkles and stop microexpressions from giving away lies or other unpleasant emotions, which is funny because they often cause a zombie-like facial expression. See: FoxNews.

Humans are striving to give facial movement to corpses while they give away their own facial expressions to look like corpses.

Maybe he meant 20.

Or he could be counting:
1) Windows 2.0
2) 95
3) Bob
4) 98
5) ME
6) XP Home
7-12) Vista

And, limiting ourselves to federal IP laws, it's actually impossible to pirate them, as they are public domain. Oregon would claim dominion over their state's codification of local law, though!

It appears people abandoning their cars to use this new system! http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/09/dubai-airport-clogge.html

six nothing! BoingBoing has listed 20 new versions of Windows 7!. Just what I needed, Windows for Voting Machines, just right to make sure your favorite Republicrat gets elected!

I've cured six people of lactose intolerance, but unfortunately I have just failed to cure one. It turned out she was actually allergic (as opposed to *believing* she was allergic, like most lactose intolerant people do).

So I'm modifying the recipe. First, apply whole milk to your skin for several days in the same place. If you get a skin reaction, you are really allergic, so stop now.

If not, eat yoghurt with live cultures every day for two months. It will be unpleasant at first, but then you will be cured and able to enjoy such delicacies as baked brie and milkshakes! Humans cannot digest milk without the aid of intestinal bacteria. It's just a matter of having the RIGHT intestinal bacteria.

"Has he caused any harm to any one? Has he stolen property? No and no. He just took a peek at something he was not authorized to look at. Big fucking deal"

No, but it's easier for some prosecutor to go after McKinnon than have to hunt down some real cyber criminals. They don't give a fuck if he is innocent or not, it's the guilty verdict that count.

One among many, what he actually did, was access some password-less WinNT machines and installed a remote desktop application. All in the pursuit of info on the US govs involvement in a UFO coverup. He once saw a pic of a flying saucer with US military markings but can't remember where exactly as a) he was on dialup and b) smoking a lot of dope at the time, not good for the intellect.

They 'caught' him (depending on who you believe) after c) system intrusions were detected or d) he would message them using WordPad and he used his own email to register the remote control app. Calling Gary a 'hacker' is equivalent to referring to a McDonald's burger flipper as a Chef de Cuisine ..

Payment Processor Breach May Be Largest Ever

TJX Confirms Largest Credit-Card Breach Ever

When a jupiter sized planet moves into a terrestrial orbit it EATS the planet already there.

Om Nom Nom Nom

http://boingboing.net/images/cookienebula.jpg

And of course "The One" can be trusted to keep official communications off his Blackberry. Yeah, sure. Imagine the kerfuffle were it revealed there were no recorded communications between Bush 43 and oh say Karl Rove on any known official e-mail system, the ACLU and the Dhimmicreeps would go berzerk.

Um, I don't really get the point of your post. The Bush administration had a pretty solid record of keeping things secret. They had a policy to hide information, use non-government email servers for government communications, and invoke "presidential privilege" at the drop of a hat. People that are interested in transparent government don't like that.

Obama has already enacted a policy of greater transparency and made it clear to his administration that he intends to operate more openly. Maybe he'll actually follow it. Maybe he won't. But things are looking up.

And "The One" and "Dhimmicreeps"? This foaming-at-the-mouth categorical hatred is just as stupid on the "right" as it is on the "left."

> You have your messiah in the White House now.

You're damn right we do!
http://www.boingboing.net/images/x09/DSC_4696.jpg

No, but you do need a photo ID or go through extra screening. If you refuse to show ID, you will not be allowed to board and might be arrested.

This already happened like a year ago. A couple had a picture of themselves and it was sent via email. http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/20/teen-couple-who-phot.html

And here's the ruling that Child Porn laws apply to minors, that will probably be referred to in the current case. And this all was at the start of 2007. http://politechbot.com/docs/child.porn.laws.apply.to.minors.020807.html

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/20/1624253

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/21/1543234

It was also on Wired: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/encryption-stil.html

Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/21/cold-boot-disk-encryption-attack-is-shockingly-effective/

Schneier's blog: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/cold_boot_attac.html

Information week: http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206801184

The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/21/cold_boot_utilities/

Cnet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10003167-83.html

PC World http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,762-page,1-bid,0/video.html

Boing Boing http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/19/cold-boot-encryption.html

It was even on reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS163325+27-Feb-2008+PRN20080227

It's not an obscure thing, you are just ignorant of major technology news. Perhaps the summary should define "CPU" and "linux" for you as well, just in case you don't what they are either.

Obama actually voted to strip telecom immunity from the bill. It's true

Notice: In no way shape or form did he endorse illegal wiretapping

Your splitting hairs. I appreciate his vote for the amendment to remove the provision but the fact remains that he voted for the final bill which contained that provision. In what world do you live in that a 'Yey' vote isn't an endorsement of the language contained within a bill?

Yes, be upset with him. No, don't lie and exaggerate his support.

I'm not exaggerating anything. And the reason I'm upset with with him extends far beyond his support. The fact that he pledged to support a filibuster of any bill containing the immunity provision and then reversed himself on that pledge (conveniently right after securing the Democratic nomination) is the reason that I'm upset with him. If he had been honest from the outset I wouldn't have voted for or campaigned for him during the primaries. On that day he exposed himself as the typical sleazy politician and revealed just how empty his promises of "change" really were, IMHO. My only regret is that I was too stupid to see this from the beginning.

Yes, in the good ol' days we had DC power transmission lines, but the last ones were decommissioned last year. So sad. And we just learned the benefits now.

And no one ever was wrong about the next product that would knock Apple out of the lead in a niche:

http://gizmodo.com/384440/rim-engineers-call-touchscreen-blackberry-apple-killer
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/08/songbird-the-open-so.html
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081215/amazons-mp3-store-one-year-in-no-itunes-killer-probably-wont-be/
http://www.allfacebook.com/2007/10/facebook-to-launch-itunes-competitor/
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/appleaday/blog/2008/07/dells_ipod_killer_revealed_pro.html
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1027_3-5183692.html

but the fact that no one cares about your identity OR your porn collection

If that's true, why is there malware out there to steal it?