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Wil Wheaton (and his GTA obsession) profiled in GEEK. (Boing Boing)

Bonnie Burton interviews actor, author, gamer, and geek-er Wil Wheaton in this month's edition of GEEK. Snip: Geek: (...) I need to know how far you?ve gotten in Grand Theft Auto IV.

Wil Wheaton: I haven?t been playing GTA IV that long since the game came out?maybe five hours so far. My progress meter is at like eight percent or something like that. I?ve gotten to a point where the story took a rather shocking and unexpected twist. The character that you control in the game is a very conflicted guy with a pretty complicated and dark history. The guy is more real and has more depth to him than any of the other characters I?ve controlled in GTA. Until last night, I may have played one or two story missions to advance the game, but I really just spend the rest of my time driving around and crashing into cars. I drive cars until they catch on fire. I like to go driving through the parks and hit the pedestrians. I?ve noticed a couple of things like if you?re going really fast and you hit a wall or a tree something like that you?ll fly through the front windshield of the car. So I drove really fast down the wrong side of the street on the expressway and hit a car head-on, and the driver shot through the windshield and landed on the hood of my car. That level of detail is just remarkable. But it suddenly felt weird just driving around the city mowing down pedestrians.

Has it started to warp your sense of reality when you?re stuck in traffic yet?

I hate driving. I absolutely despise it. I particularly hate driving in Los Angeles. I?ll be out somewhere with my wife and point out things, and tell her if this was Grand Theft Auto we wouldn?t have to sit here like this. We could just drive over that median. Wil Wheaton [ Geek Blog / Geek Magazine. Disclaimer: I have been profiled there previously. ]
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Where the Linear Crosses the Exponential: Kevin Kelly (Boing Boing)

Snip from an essay published by Kevin Kelly today over on his Technium blog: All extropic systems -- economy, nature and technology -- are governed by self-accelerating feedback cycles. Like compounding interest, or virtuous circles, they are powered by increasing returns. Success breeds success. There is a long tail of incremental build up and then as they keep doubling every cycle, they explode out of invisibility into significance. Extropic systems can also collapse in the same self-accelerating way, one subtraction triggering many other subtractions, so in a vicious cycle the whole system implodes. Our view of the future is warped and blinded by these exponential curves.

But while progress runs on exponential curves, our individual lives proceed in a linear fashion. We live day by day by day. While we might think time flies as we age, it really trickles out steadily. Today will always be more valuable than some day in the future, in large part because we have no guarantee we'll get that extra day. Ditto for civilizations. In linear time, the future is a loss. But because human minds and societies can improve things over time, and compound that improvement in virtuous circles, the future in this dimension is a gain. Therefore long-term thinking entails the confluence of the linear and the exponential. The linear march of our time intersects the cascading rise and fall of numerous self-amplifying exponential forces. Generations, too, proceed in a linear sequence. They advance steadily one after another while pushed by the compounding cycles of exponential change.

Balancing that point where the linear crosses the exponential is what long-term thinking should be about. Where the Linear Crosses the Exponential [Kevin Kelly]
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Video: documentary on Showbiz animatronic band (Boing Boing)

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For eleven years, the Rock-afire Explosion was the animatronic house band for Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants. The musicians' story is a touching tale of technical expertise, marketing muscle, and, er, "concept unification." (See the Wikipedia page for more on that.) Chris Thrash Window Pictures (director Brett Whitcomb / writer Brad Thomason) are making a full-length documentary on the Rock-afire Explosion, and the new preview trailer is itself a must-see. Rock-afire Explosion trailer (YouTube, thanks COOP and Rodney Ascher!)

UPDATE: Rodney just found a video of Rock-afire Explosion, programmed by Chris Thrash, playing Usher's "Love In This Club." YouTube

UPDATE: The film is actually about Chris Thrash. More info at the movie's MySpace page.
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UK Home Secretary green-lights harassment of photographers in public places (Boing Boing)

Jacqui Smith, the British Home Secretary has sent a letter reported on by the British Journal of Photographers stating that the practice of harassing photographers who take pictures in public places is legitimate, though there is no law against it. 'First of all, may I take this opportunity to state that the Government greatly values the importance of the freedom of the press, and as such there is no legal restriction on photography in public places,' Smith writes. 'Also, as you will be aware, there is no presumption of privacy for individuals in a public place.'

However, the Home Secretary adds that local restrictions might be enforced. 'Decisions may be made locally to restrict or monitor photography in reasonable circumstances. That is an operational decision for the officers involved based on the individual circumstances of each situation.

'It is for the local Chief Constable, in the case of your letter the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force, to decide how his or her Officers and employees should best balance the rights to freedom of the press, freedom of expression and the need for public protection.' Link (Thanks, Michael!)
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Toronto gallery hangs show of art in opposition to the Canadian DMCA (Boing Boing)

Toronto's Edward Day Gallery has a wonderful response to Canada's proposed new copyright law, Bill C-61, which mirrors (and exceeds) the American DMCA. They've hung a show called Appropos featuring art that the new bill criminalises. The locks will prevent artistic, legitimate and legal uses of media. The Appropriation Art Coalition, a coalition of art professionals across Canada oppose Bill C-61, advocating that if the new legislation is passed, it will make it "illegal to access existing material, modify it, comment on it and/or publicly display it. Criticism, parody and satire, under Bill C-61 become criminal acts." A National Post comments reader, GeofG, suggests that since the Bill prohibits circumventing digital locks, "taking a clip from DVD for purposes of parody or political criticism is outlawed; unlocking your cell phone is banned?as is watching overseas DVD?s". Another response to the Bill from Dala concludes that "A future with digital locks is one where works go into the Disney vault and never come out again".

The Appropos group exhibition is based on the work of artists whose use of imagery integrates existing popular culture products/icons. One of the purposes of the exhibition is to emphasize the crucial relevance of appropriation to contemporary visual artists and their studio practice. As revisions to Copyright Act legislation, known as the Act to Amend the Copyright Act, are currently underway by the Canadian government, there are valid concerns that the elements of contemporary artistic practice such as appropriation and "quoting" could potentially be outlawed by draconian legislation.
Link (via Geist)
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The Phoenix TV series (Boing Boing)

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The Phoenix was a short-lived 1982 TV series starring Judson Scott as an ancient astronaut named Bennu of the Golden Light. Extraterrestrials had left Bennu behind as a "gift to mankind" but he was woken too early and didn't know his mission on Earth. The show was kind of a cross between The Incredible Hulk and Erich Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods Around 1982, I was really into both of those, so it's no surprise I thought The Phoenix was a real gas. Here's the opening sequence. The Phoenix (YouTube)
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Tattooed living zombie (Boing Boing)

Bizarre magazine interviews a Montreal gentleman named Rick who is tattooing his entire body to look like the living dead. From the interview (photo by Neville Elder): What look are you trying to achieve with your tattoos?
They?re about the human body as a decomposing corpse ? the art of a rotting cadaver. It?s also a tribute to horror movies, which I love.

What influenced your tattoos? When I was a kid I was a big fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and I wanted to be a ninja turtle and live in the sewers. But as I got older I fell in love with zombies and wanted to become one. Oh, and I love George A Romero?s Living Dead movies.

Anyway, the closest thing I could get to becoming a zombie was to get tattooed like one.
Zombie tattooed man (Bizarre)
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Stross's new novel: Saturn's Children, a late Heinlein homage (Boing Boing)

Charlie Stross's new novel, Saturn's Children, is out -- this is Charlie's Heinlein tribute, and unlike everyone else who does classic, adventure -story Heinlein tributes, Charlie's written a novel in the style of the late, indulgent, sex-saturated Heinlein, from the period before a cutting-edge surgery fixed a problem with the blood-supply to his brain (seriously). Orbit, the book's UK publisher, has also put an excerpt online. Today is the two hundredth anniversary of the final extinction of my One True Love, as close as I can date it. I am drunk on battery acid and wearing my best party frock, sitting on a balcony beneath a pleasure palace afloat in the stratosphere of Venus. My feet dangle over a slippery-slick rain gutter as I peek over the edge: Thirty kilometers below my heels, the metal-snowed foothills of Maxwell Montes glow red-hot. I am thinking about jumping. At least I?ll make a pretty corpse, I tell myselves. Until I melt.

And then ?
Link, Link to excerpt, Link to Saturn's Children on Amazon
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Some douche steals Ian Curtis' (of Joy Division) headstone (Boing Boing)

The headstone marking the final resting place of deceased Joy Division singer Ian Curtis is suddenly missing.

Whoever stole it is a total douche, and deserves a special place in hell where screaming emo demons torture them with burns from a thousand clove cigarettes, poke them with a million blunt eyeliner applicators, and blind their eyes with painfully asymmetrical hair extensions for all eternity.

The grave marker, wherever it is now, reads: "Ian Curtis 18 - 5 - 80" and the words "Love Will Tear Us Apart".

Here is a story in the Times UK, and above is a music video by Jonathan Beamish for the earliest recorded version of "Love Will Tear us Apart," produced as a John Peel Session for the BBC in 1979 (jesus! 30 years ago, wow).
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Serialization of The Deal, Chapter 5 (Boing Boing)

My friend Joe Hutsko contacted with the intriguing offer to serialize his novel, The Deal, on Boing Boing. I jumped at the chance. I read The Deal when it first came out in 1999 and loved the thrilling story about a Apple-like company's undertaking to create an iPhone-like device.

Here's a link to Chapter 05 as a PDF. (Here's chapter 1 and an introduction to the book, and here are the previous chapters)

To buy a paperback copy of the book, visit JOEyGADGET or purchase directly from Amazon.
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RIP, Thomas M Disch (Boing Boing)

Sf author Thomas M Disch committed suicide at his apartment on July 4. Patrick Nielsen Hayden's eulogy paints a picture of a man who was brilliant, noble, foolish, difficult and angry. I only knew him through his fiction, from which I learned a great deal. I certainly read him; his SF novels of the 1960s and 70s, particularly Camp Concentration and 334, had an enormous impact on me. But ?least read? may be true: according to publishing legend, his SF masterpiece On Wings of Song had a 90% return rate in its 1980 Bantam paperback edition. Despite that, he went on to hit bestseller lists with his 1991 horror novel The M.D. Just as unexpectedly, his children?s book The Brave Little Toaster was adapted into a popular Disney cartoon.

He could be hard to take, both in person and in his public interactions with the SF world. He played the game of literary politics hard, and sometimes lost badly. He frequently seemed to have no patience for his allies, much less his enemies. Of his other career, as noted poet Tom Disch, I can?t say much, except that to my mind the poetry was often good. In his later years he wrote a blog; after he began to post frequently on the depravity of Muslims and immigrants, I became unable to keep reading it.

The Disch I prefer to remember was no nicer than that, but much smarter: a brittle and brilliant ironist with a bright wit and no optimism whatsoever.
Link
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New eBoy Peecol figures (Boing Boing)

Images Promo 2008 07 July 0708 Kidrobot Peecols3
Our friends at eBoy, creators of BB's mascots including the lovely and talented Jackhammer Jill, released their latest in the Peecol line of toy figures. My favorite is Rilla, the diaper-wearing gorilla! They're $9.95 each from Kidrobot. eBoy Peecol (Kidrobot)
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Matchmaker service gets books from publishers to bloggers (Boing Boing)

Jim sez, "MiniBooksExpo is a neat matchmaker service for publishers who want to get review copies to interested bloggers and bloggers who want to review books. It's Canadian, and it's a model I'd like to see more of as an occasional reviewer and an indie publisher." Link (Thanks, Jim!)
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Lost scenes from Metropolis found (Boing Boing)

The original version of Fritz Lang's fantastic science fiction film Metropolis was first seen in Berlin in 1927. Shortly after, Paramount recut the film to (over)simplify the plot. From then on, it was thought that at least 1/4 of the whole film ended up on the editing room floor where it was swept into the dustbin of history. Recently though, much of the lost footage was rediscovered. According to ZEITmagazin, several of the rediscovered scenes are essential to the film's plot. The magazine has the story about how the missing reels ended up in the private collection of a film critic in the late 1920s or so, and eventually came to light again. From ZEITmagazin (poster image from Wikipedia): Among the footage that has now been discovered, according to the unanimous opinion of the three experts that ZEITmagazin asked to appraise the pictures, there are several scenes which are essential in order to understand the film: The role played by the actor Fritz Rasp in the film for instance, can finally be understood. Other scenes, such as for instance the saving of the children from the worker?s underworld, are considerably more dramatic...

The rediscovered material is in need of restoration after 80 years; the pictures are scratched, but clearly recognizable. Martin Koerber, the restorer of the hitherto longest known version of ?Metropolis?, who also examined the footage, said to ZEITmagazin: ?No matter how bad the condition of the material may be, the original intention of the film, including all of its minor characters and subplots, is now once again tangible for the normal viewer. The rhythm of the film has been restored.?
Lang's Metropolis rediscovered (ZEITmagazine, thanks COOP!)
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Laptop theft at Clarion West sf workshop -- donations needed -- UPDATED (Boing Boing)

Update: We've raised enough to replace all the laptops and then some! See this post for more.

Clarion West, the famed Seattle science fiction workshop, has suffered a terrible theft: four student laptops were stolen yesterday. Clarion West (like Clarion in San Diego) is a grueling, six-week intensive boot-camp for science fiction writers. Students often quit their jobs and save for years to attend and it goes without saying that they can hardly absorb the cost of a new laptop in the middle of the workshop.

I'm flying to Seattle tomorrow to teach the third week of the workshop and I'm keenly aware of the chaos this will have wrought on the students. The workshop's organizers are soliciting donations -- either hardware or cash -- to get the students up and running. The workshop is incorporated as a 501(c)3 charity, so any donations are tax deductible.

I am donating all of my teaching fee to the fund. I hope that some of you will be moved to chip in whatever you can afford, to help fund the instruction of the next generation of great science fiction writers.

Here's the note that organizer Leslie Howle has sent around: Four laptops were stolen July 4 from student rooms at the CW residence, and people in the SF community are responding swiftly and generously to help replace the stolen student computers.

If you'd like to donate to help the students replace the stolen laptops, please visit our Donate page and use the PayPal button, noting in the "Purpose" field that the donation is for "Computers."

This is the first time in our more than 25 years of workshops that something like this has happened, and we're doing all we can to get computers for students so they won't lose any writing time. The theft occurred while students were in class, and was discovered immediately afterwards. I called the Seattle Police Department to file a report, and we've taken steps to increase residence security.

News of the students' loss has spread quickly, and I deeply appreciate that friends, alumni, and writers in the community at large are offering donations to help students replace their computers. We'd especially like to thank Jay Lake for his generosity and for alerting others who might donate money or laptops.

This community is amazing and wonderful. Thanks for helping this year's CW writers, and for all your support. It means a lot to me, Neile, and all the rest of the CW volunteers and students. You guys are the best. Link
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Iran: death penalty for ?corrupt weblogs? (Boing Boing)

New legislation has been proposed in Iran that could make blogging a crime punishable by death. Cyrus Farivar has a story on today's edition of the PRI radio show The World: Iran considers harsh penalty for some bloggers (3:30).

Over at Global Voices, Hamid Tehrani writes: On Wednesday, Iranian members of parliament voted to discuss a draft bill that seeks to ?toughen punishment for disturbing mental security in society.? The text of the bill would add, ?establishing websites and weblogs promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy,? to the list of crimes punishable by death.

In recent years, some Iranian bloggers have been sent to jail and many have had their sites filtered. If the Iranian parliament approves this draft bill, bloggers fear they could be legally executed as criminals. No one has defined what it means to ?disturb mental security in society?.

Such discussion concerning blogs has not been unique to Iran. It shows that many authorities do not only wish to filter blogs, but also to eliminate bloggers!

A translated English copy of the proposed legislation is here. [International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran]

Image: "Women In Black," by Matthew Winterburn, who has some really neat photos of Iran in his Flickr stream.
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Interview with Charlie Angus, Canadian MP who's fighting the Canadian DMCA (Boing Boing)

Adam Reimer secured an interview with Charlie Angus, the ex-punk-musician turned Canadian Member of Parliament who'se leading the charge against the Canadian DMCA. Adam solicited interview questions from the web and got a great interview with a thoughtful, intelligent, and honorable politician. Link, Link to mirror (Thanks, Adam!)
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EUROPEANS! You have until MONDAY to contact your MEP and save the EU from a three-strikes ...

Back-room dealings in the European Parliament have resulted in a "three strikes" rule being included in a new telecoms bill -- the rule would force ISPs to kick people who've been thrice accused of copyright infringement off the Internet.

If this bill passes, then Europeans' access to the network that delivers freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, access to medicine, family, civic engagement, banking, government services, and the whole sweep of human online endeavor would last only so long as they avoided three unsubstantiated accusations of downloading music or video or software without permission.

Worse still, the bill is set to be voted upon on July 7 -- that's this Monday.

The Open Rights Group has instructions for contacting your MEP. If you live in the EU and you care about your future as a citizen of the information society, call right away and make sure your MEP knows that this matters to you. ?One week before a key vote in the reform of European law on electronic communications (?Telecom Package?), La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net) denounces a series of amendments aimed at closing the open architecture of the Internet for more control and surveillance of users..

?this set of amendments creates the unprecedented mechanism known as graduated response in European law; judicial authority and law courts are vacated in favour of private actors and ?technical measures? of surveillance and filtering. According to rules set forth by administrative authorities and rights holders, intermediaries will be forced to cooperate in monitoring and filtering their subscribers, or they will be exposed to administrative sanctions? Link

See also: Three false copyright accusations and we'll cut off your Internet access
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Cory's free talk/reading in Seattle this Tuesday (Boing Boing)

I'm giving a public reading and talk in Seattle this Tuesday as part of the excellent Clarion West reading series, through which all six instructors do free appearances (you can meet the Clarion West students at these, too!). There's also a public party on Friday. Where: University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE in Seattle
When: Tuesday, July 8, 7PM Link
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Clarion West laptops all replaced (Boing Boing)

Clarion West's Nisi Shawl writes, Thanks for Your Generous Response to Clarion West Dorm Burglary

Due to the swift and generous response of the SF community, Clarion West has now received nearly enough money to replace the four student laptops stolen July 4 from rooms at the workshop residence. Clarion West staff, volunteers, and students all express their thanks for your very timely help. They especially want to thank BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow, Jay Lake, and many more for their generosity and for alerting others to the need for money and laptops. Donations began coming in from around the world just hours after the theft.

"If we collect funds that are much in excess of the cost of replacing the stolen computers, we will return them proportionally to the donors," said workshop administrator Leslie Howle. "The use of PayPal makes this relatively easy to do." She added, "We are all overwhelmed, and the students are immensely grateful. They were devastated by this theft, and it's been amazing to see the community rally to support them." Link
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Bugs have creepy faces (Boing Boing)

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Dark Roasted Blend posted a fun gallery of "Ugly Bug Faces." The images above are from the Oklahoma Microscopic Society. The National Geographic Society also published a hardcover book titled Bug Faces.
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Body armor developer shoots himself (video) (Boing Boing)

This video is not new, but a friend just pointed it to me. It is noteworthy because it shows a dude shooting himself in the chest and not dying. Also, because it includes mock-pizza-boxes crafted for a robbery enactment on television. The mock pizzas appear to be made of palm thatch. How do they do that?

Richard Davis, former U.S. Marine and onetime pizza delivery guy in Detroit, survived a gun shootout (he killed three armed robbers when they attacked him during a delivery). He went on to develop new forms of concealable body armor using kevlar. Those products are now widely used by military and law enforcement personnel, and private sector folks who have reason to believe they will be shot. This video tells a bit of his life story.

Richard Davis: video
[ YouTube, via, thanks, Susannah Breslin ]
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Barlow's Forth of July message (Boing Boing)

Vinay sez, "John Perry Barlow is in Iceland for the Icelandic Foundation for Digital Freedoms' conference. We shot this Fourth of July talk with him at Thingvellir, the ancient site of Iceland's historic parliamentary republic, B. 930 AD, D. about 3 centuries later." Link (Thanks, Vinay!)
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As price of fuel soars, so does a dirigible renaissance? (Boing Boing)

Snip from an article in today's New York Times about a slew of designers and firms developing new models of airships. These passenger-carrying aircraft float on the wind, rather than being propelled solely by fuel (more precise explanation here). And, ah, hopefully they don't blow up in the sky or whatever. As the cost of fuel soars and the pressure mounts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, several schemes for a new generation of airship are being considered by governments and private companies. ?It?s a romantic project,? said Mr. Massaud, 45, sitting amid furniture designs in his Paris studio, ?but then look at Jules Verne.?

It has been more than 70 years since the giant Hindenburg zeppelin exploded in a spectacular fireball over Lakehurst, N.J., killing 36 crew members and passengers, abruptly ending an earlier age of airships. But because of new materials and sophisticated means of propulsion, a diverse cast of entrepreneurs is taking another look at the behemoths of the air.

Mr. Massaud, a designer of hotels in California and a stadium in Mexico, has not ironed out the technical details, nor has he found financiers or corporate backers for his project ? to create a 690-foot zeppelin shaped like a whale, with a luxury hotel attached, that he has named Manned Cloud. And, heh, my favorite quote here: ?A dirigible is something magical,? said Jérôme Giacomoni, who was 25 when he founded Aerophile with a friend. ?But most of the ideas are crazy.? Why Fly When You Can Float? [NYT]
Image: Jean-Marie Massaud.

Update: most LOLlable comment in this thread, #4 posted by Chris the Tiki guy... [I]f they're exploring whale shapes, why not other aquatic creatures, like the seacow? That way people can point and say "Oh, the huge manatee!" (...) [I]f Helium is in short supply, I doubt we'll be launching very many lighter-than-air craft any time soon, unless we can figure out how to make hydrogen just as buoyant but less explode-y.

Image: found floating (snort) around on the internet, provenance unknown Something Awful Dot Com's Photoshop Phriday.
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Anatomic model puzzles of surpassing loveliness (Boing Boing)

I just stumbled on Kikkerland's "Anatomic 3-D Puzzles" in a shop and was absolutely enthralled. These are snap-together models (calling them "puzzles" is a little weird, actually) showing the anatomy of various critters, from humans to cows, mammoths, and my favorites, beetles and snails. They're made out of plastic that feels just like the plastic they use for the anatomical models you had in senior biology class, with the same color schemes, but the sculpting is absolutely gorgeous, making them into stylish knick-knacks as well as interesting scientific instructional materials.

Kikkerland's online shop carries the whole line, albeit at about 10 percent higher prices than other webstores that carry one or two. My advice is to check out the items here, find the ones you want and google for a cheaper one at another store. Link
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Sf fans seek donations in the aftermath of a terrible car-wreck (Boing Boing)

John sez, "A few days ago, some fans en route to Westercon had a terrible car accident. Seattle's Roberta "Bert" Carlson was killed in the wreck. Nick Navota lost some fingers despite the airlift and had a couple re-attached that hopefully are going to take, Howazer was banged up some, Will Boyde is mostly OK as is Nez.

"Roberta was Rustycon's chair this year and will be greatly missed.

"Will Boyde, a long time fan and support staff volunteer in the Pacific Northwest who I've worked with, has purchased airline tickets for them to get back home since the car was totaled. Will isn't rich though, and any donations to help defray the return trips cost would be greatly appreciated. Any excess funds will be donated to Roberta's family. Donations can be paypal'd to : wboyde @ eskimo.com ." Link (Thanks, John!)
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Jesse Helms leaves the planet. (Boing Boing)

US Senator Jesse Helms died today. Here were his words in 1956, responding to criticism that a fictional black character in his newspaper column was racist: To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn't have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing. Jesse Helms quotes on life and politics [AP]
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Captain America, Fuck Yeah! (Boing Boing)

Happy Fourth of July, everyone. Blow some shit up!

Captain America Fuck Yeah
[YouTube; the song in this unauthorized and infringalicious fan video was lifted from the great Matt Stone and Trey Parker epic, Team America: World Police, referenced in these BB posts of yore: 1, 2.]
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Beaming sounds into your head (Boing Boing)

MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) is a device that uses microwave pulses to beam sound directly into someone's head. In development by the Sierra Nevada Corporation originally under a US Navy contract, MEDUSA can apparently fill your head with incapacitating "shockwaves" or possibly even whispered messages. From New Scientist: (Researcher Lev) Sadovnik says the technology could have non-military applications. Birds seem to be highly sensitive to microwave audio, he says, so it might be used to scare away unwanted flocks.

Sadovnik has also experimented with transmitting microwave audio to people with outer ear problems that impair their normal hearing. Microwave sound beam (New Scientist, more at Danger Room)
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America loves drugs (Boing Boing)

According to a new international study, the United States has the highest rates of pot and coke use, followed by New Zealand. The other 15 countries surveyed by the World Health Organization didn't even come close. Approximately 42.4 percent of those surveyed in the US say they've used marijuana, with 20.2 percent admitting to having tried the drug by age 15. From Alternet: The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy tried to dismiss the study, Bloomberg News reported:

Trying to find a link between drug use and drug enforcement doesn't make sense, said Tom Riley, spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington. "The U.S. has high crime rates but we spend a lot on law enforcement and prison,'' Riley said yesterday in a telephone interview. "Should we spend less? We're just a different kind of country. We have higher drug use rates, a higher crime rate, many things that go with a highly free and mobile society."

Funny, ONDCP takes precisely the opposite line whenever a state considers liberalizing its marijuana laws. In a March press release, deputy Drug Czar Scott Burns railed against a New Hampshire proposal to decriminalize marijuana, saying such a move "sends the wrong message to New Hampshire's youth, students, parents, public health officials and the law enforcement community," and would lead to "more drugs, drug users and drug dealers on their streets and communities." WHO drug use survey (Alternet, via Dose Nation)
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iPhone 3G?s screws may indicate 'User-Replaceable Battery' (Digg / Technology)

Two small screws on the bottom of the device on either side of the standard docking connector is a stark design change from a company that is known for hiding screws from sight on their handheld devices. Some have speculated that the screws may be removed for replacement of the battery and other components.

iPhone 3G line camping begins... now! (Digg / Technology)

It's going to be a long week. Anyone seen Greg Packer?

Yamaha YSP-3050: Single-speaker surround with improved HDMI support ( CNET News. ...

Yamaha YSP-3050 Digital Sound Projector

The Yamaha YSP-3050 boasts a small--but important--upgrade to the YSP-3000

(Credit: Yamaaha)

When CNET reviewed the Yamaha YSP-3000 Digital Sound Projector, we singled out its "limited video capabilities" as one of the main shortfalls of the virtual surround speaker system.

Yamaha must have listened, because the company has just unveiled an upgraded version that addresses that very issue. The YSP-3050 adds to the mix the conversion of analog to digital video, but it's essentially otherwise identical to its predecessor. That's not a bad thing, either: we've found that the Yamaha YSP line remains the best choice for delivering convincing virtual surround-effects from a single speaker, and its all-in-one design precludes the need to purchase a separate AV receiver.

According to the specs page on Yamaha's site, the YSP-3050 has a component and composite video input, in addition to its two HDMI ins.

...

Why Nonprofits Should Make Use of Social Networking Sites (Digg / Technology)

Simply Put - To get more exposure from a wider audience, that you never would've reached if it wasn't for Social Networking sites...

Why I Still Use Windows 95 (Digg / Technology)

The operating system I currently use on my primary computer is Windows 95 OSR2. Furthermore, not only do I use Windows 95 extensively, but I prefer it to Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, and Vista.

Week in review: Microhoogle intrigue (CNET News.com)

Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google are facing probes, proxies, and accusations of backroom politicking as their various attempts to link up come under scrutiny. Also: searching for content within Flash is becoming easier.

WTF?Internet addressing agency (ICANN) loses its addressess (Digg / Technology)

The nonprofit agency (ICANN) in charge of the Internet's addresses recently lost track of its own.

Voicemail is Dead. Please Tell Everyone to stop Using it (Digg / Technology)

Voicemail is dead. Please tell everyone so they?ll stop using it. When I first started out in the real world in the mid-nineties voicemail was an important productivity tool. But now an increasing number of people are just plain avoiding voicemail. It takes much longer to listen to a message than read it.

Vancouver Sun: Don't buy the iPhone (Digg / Technology)

If you don't like the price of an iPhone, don't buy it. One side-effect of the year-long wait for iPhones in Canada is that other gadgets, such as the much-talked about Samsung Instinct, are providing new competition.If Rogers finds it has priced itself out of the market, it won't take a petition to ring in lower prices.

Ubuntu 8.04.1 has been released! (Digg / Technology)

The first Long Term Support updated image for Ubuntu 8.04 has been released. This release contains all the security and bug fixes in the two months since it was released, including Firefox 3 final. If you tried 8.04 and had an issue with a bug, you may want to give it another try.

The iPhone's cross-border price clash (Digg / Technology)

"The summer launch of the iPhone in Canada was supposed to be a time for Rogers Wireless Communications Inc. to celebrate. Instead, the company with exclusive rights to the hottest new tech gadget finds itself on the defensive, stung by public criticism over pricing."

The Most Fantastic 3D Landscapes (Digg / Technology)

Hello folks! It looks like 3D CG community became more active lately. So we?re fasten our eyes on best of the best awesome 3D digital landscapes created by amateur and professional 3D artists. Let?s go!

The Miraculous Machine that Can Reproduce Itself (Digg / Technology)

The RepRap is a printer of three-dimensional objects. It's like the desktop printer you might have at home, but instead of printing on paper, the RepRap makes hard copy in three dimensions out of plastic from models designed on a computer. It's an extremely powerful technology that could give people the ability to create virtually anything.

The Line for iPhone 3G Has Started in Manhattan (Digg / Technology)

The line for the Apple iPhone 3G began to form Friday -- an entire week before the device goes on sale.

The 50 Plus Acquisitions of Google (Digg / Technology)

Sure everyone knows about DoubleClick, but Google has bought a lot more than just that company. Ever who they all are. Check out this Wikipedia list.

Thank you, Adobe Reader 9! (Digg / Technology)

Recently I wrote a blog entry about bloated software, and how much better Foxit PDF reader was than Adobe Reader. But I was using Adobe Reader 8. Little did I know how much superior version 9 would be.

Survey: 10,000 Laptops Lost or Stolen at Airports Per Week (Digg / Technology)

More than 10,000 laptops are lost or stolen each week at U.S. airports, says security industry executive Richard Stiennon in a blog for NetworkWorld.com. He cites a survey conducted by The Ponemon Institute, a monitor of privacy and security issues.

Sony's Stan Glasgow talks TVs, Blu-ray ( CNET News. ...

After navigating some rough seas, Sony's Electronics division has been starting to right the ship.

Over the past year, the company has been forced to rethink its product lineup and catch up to competitors in some cases, but now the Japanese electronics giant's U.S. division is looking ...

Sony unleashes three new ES receivers ( CNET News. ...

Sony STR-DA4400ES

Sony STR-DA4400ES: the flagship receiver in the company's 2008 lineup.

(Credit: Sony)

Sony has unveiled three new AV receivers in its flagship ES ("elevated standard") lineup. While the company's announcement is light on specifics, it looks as if some or all of the models will offer the lossless audio decoding for Blu-ray movies, graphical user interfaces, Sirius and XM satellite radio compatibility, automatic speaker calibration, and upscaling of analog video sources to 1080p HDMI output. Model-by-model details include:

...

Send Messages That Self-Destruct With Privnote (Digg / Technology)

Sending private messages through back channels is nothing new. We do it all the time with emails and direct messages on multiple services. However, sometimes information is just too sensitive to keep around once it's been sent.

Samsung Instinct Just Only Looks Like an iPhone (Digg / Technology)

Sprint Nextel's Samsung Instinct bears a resemblance to Apple's iPhone. But the Instinct doesn't come with features to rival those of the iPhone. Nor does its price, $229.99 before a $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year contract, offer a big discount over of Apple's creation.

Russian Hackers To Lithuania: All Your Base Are Belong To Us (Digg / Technology)

Hundreds of Lithuanian government and corporate Web sites were hacked and plastered with Soviet-era symbols and other digital graffiti this week in what appears to be a coordinated cyber attack launched by Russian hacker groups.

Princeton University to publish Kindle textbooks ( CNET News. ...

Another prestigious school is embracing Amazon's Kindle e-reader.

Princeton University has announced that it will start printing Kindle-edition textbooks this fall, according to a story in The Christian Science Monitor.

Princeton follows Yale, Oxford, and UC Berkeley in creating textbooks for the Kindle. In the United States, there are ...

Polymorph Robot Mimics 'Human Joints And Muscles' (Digg / Technology)

Using polymorph plastic, some curtain rods, electric screwdrivers, motors, and a whole lot of mad-scientist creativity, an Xrobots hobbyist created this organic-looking robot base. By using wooden sockets and curtain rings as hip joints, the designer is clearly going for a human-like creature of doom here. Knee joints are kept moving with four moto

PlayStation 3 gets firmware upgrade ( CNET News. ...

Update: Sony has suspended the 2.40 upgrade, following reports that it has fouled up some PS3 systems (see Joystiq for more). While the two PS3s we have here at CNET were able to install the update with no adverse effects, it appears that some users were considerable less fortunate....

Photos: Up close with the Blue Angels (CNET News.com)

News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman visits Florida's Naval Air Station Pensacola, home of the Blue Angels.

Photos: Top 10 reviews of the week (CNET News.com)

CNET Reviews rates the Garmin Nuvi 880 car GPS gadget, a Panasonic Viera flat-screen TV, the Asus Eee PC 901 laptop, and more.

Photos: Top 10 newly discovered species (CNET News.com)

What do a killer jellyfish, shocking pink millipede, and a duckbill dinosaur have in common? They're all species that were discovered in the past year.

Photos: Cracking Open the Apple Macintosh Classic (CNET News.com)

TechRepublic examines just what went into one of the most famous personal computers ever manufactured--and what tech was like in 1991.

Photos: Army designates year's best inventions (CNET News.com)

Every year, the U.S. Army designates a set of top inventions. This year's list includes a GPS-guided artillery shell and a new method for saving severely injured soldiers.

Optimize Ubuntu 8.04 for Speed (Digg / Technology)

So what if Ubuntu is a fast operating system?... There is always room for some more tweaking...

On the Web: Free Headsets and Rebates (Digg / Technology)

It's all out there: free cell-phone headsets, help getting refunds from big-name retailers, and, of course, cell phones making popcorn.

Laptop heralds Intel Centrino 2 mobile gaming ( CNET News. ...

Germany-based Cizmo is offering an Intel Centrino 2-based gaming laptop that shows what's in store for mobile gamers this summer.

Intel's newest crop of Centrino 2 Montevina mobile processors are slated for a July 14 rollout and will include the Extreme X9100 processor: the first Penryn-class mobile processor to break the 3.0GHz barrier.

Cizmo CX1730M packs an Extreme X9100 mobile processor

(Credit: Cizmo)

The Cizmo 17-inch CX1730M can be configured with an Intel X9100 Extreme processor running at 3.06GHz. A key feature of Intel X-class mobile processors is that they are designed to be overclocked.

The CX1730M can also take an Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX graphics chip.

Memory based on the new DDR3 standard is also offered. DDR3 SDRAM can be hooked up to Intel's faster 1066MHz front-side bus. Currently, Intel's front-side bus--which carries data between the processor and other silicon--runs at 800MHz.

Other specifications for the CX1730M include Intel's newest PM45 chipset. Intel stated last month that initially only the PM chipset--for discrete (standalone) graphics chips--would be available. The GM version with Intel integrated graphics will arrive in August.

...

KDE4 KWin has new Cube plugin! (Digg / Technology)

Compiz had it, and now so does KWin. The Desktop Cube!!!

Jobs 2.0 (Digg / Technology)

Apple is quietly grooming talent. Pity whoever has to follow Steve Jobs at Apple. Not every great company stumbles into oblivion after the departure of a visionary founder. The problem: Jobs has left once before, and until he came back, it looked like Apple would be one of those companies.

Google Changes Home Page, Adding Link to Privacy Policy (Digg / Technology)

The word ?privacy? now appears on Google?s home page, with a link to the company?s privacy policy.

Global TV Speaks the Truth About Rogers iPhone 3G Price Plan (Digg / Technology)

Global TV in BC's segment about Rogers pricing vs AT&T. One of the best segments revealing how Rogers is profiting off Canadians.

Former HP printing exec indicted ( CNET News. ...

A former vice president of Hewlett-Packard's printing division has been indicted by federal prosecutors for allegedly sharing with HP confidential information from his previous employer.

First reported by Wired, the indictment was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif. As director of sales and business ...

Firefox Users Most Secure on Internet, Study Reveals (Digg / Technology)

Mozilla Firefox fans might rest a little easier these days after a study released Tuesday revealed that its users are most secure on the Internet.

Firefox 3 Boosts Browser's Market Share Over 19% (Digg / Technology)

Firefox 3 has experienced rapid market share gains since its release in mid-June, helping to push the Mozilla browser's overall share to more than 19%, a Web metrics firm said Wednesday.

Do you see a black dot on your GMail too? (Digg / Technology)

What's up with the black dot that shows up on the top-left corner of GMail, do you know anything about it?

Digg Recommended Flaw: 31% of Homepage submitted by 10 Users (Digg / Technology)

A look at the last 500 front page stories on Digg reveals that 10 submitters control a mind-boggling 31.4% (157 out of 500). Some of the names on the list are familiar to the front page, while a few have found new success using Digg's new Recommendation Engine.

Daily Debrief: What to expect with the new iPhone release ( CNET News. ...

In Friday's edition of the Daily Debrief, CNET News.com's Tom Krazit and I talk about the July 11 release of the iPhone 3G. Apple has been notoriously tight-lipped about the details, but Tom says there are a few known factors. For one, every customer will have to ...

Blockbuster abandons Circuit City bid ( CNET News. ...

Movie-rental chain Blockbuster announced Tuesday that it has withdrawn its $1 billion bid for consumer electronics chain Circuit City.

Chief Executive James Keyes blamed "market conditions" for the demise of the proposed deal, valued at one time at more than $1.3 billion.

"Based on market conditions and the completion

...

BitTorrent Tracker Hosting Illegal Says Dutch Court (Digg / Technology)

Leaseweb, the former ISP of BitTorrent trackers such as Demonoid, What.cd and Waffles.fm lost the appeal against the Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN. The Amsterdam court concluded that Leaseweb has to permanently shut down the BitTorrent tracker everlasting.nu, and hand over the admin?s personal information.

Bandwidth caps could lead to ISPs benefiting from piracy (Digg / Technology)

As Time Warner begins experimenting with bandwidth caps, which are commonplace in other countries, the possibility now exists that ISPs will benefit financially from their customers burning through their monthly limits to keep grabbing P2P content.

At Yahoo, a Threat from Within (Digg / Technology)

The central complaint revolves around slow decision-making, a long-standing issue. New services still must run a gauntlet of meetings and approvals that can delay them for months. "It was difficult to get things done," says Greg Yardley, a product manager who left earlier this year.

Apple Manila Case - Dell to Ship All Computers (Digg / Technology)

Surprising everyone but industry guru Gene Munster, Dell has announced a partnership with Apple Inc. that will see the former licensing the latter's exclusive Manila Case technology to ship all their computer products and accessories, like their Dell Rubber Chickens and Dell Texas-Style BBQ Ribs. "It was bound to happen,"

Answer to Canadian iPhone Probs: Don't buy the iphone (Digg / Technology)

I agree, speak with your wallet, don't buy it, at the very least for a month. Encourage your family or friends who might to hold off."Don't buy the iPhone. Do what you, as sensible Canadians, will do when confronted by prices you can't stand: Leave the iPhone on the shelf."

3 Robots That Move Just Like Animals (Digg / Technology)

A number of developers are capturing the movement and grace of entire animals, giving us robots that crawl, walk, and swim just like their biological counterparts. If this research one day spawns an uncomplaining robotic mule to carry our physical burdens or dogs that can save children from fiery buildings without fear of harm.

22-foot tall robot crafted entirely from excess styrofoam (Digg / Technology)

The creature you see standing before you is a 22-foot tall Styrobot constructed entirely from spare polystyrene packing materials, and no, each piece didn't just show up that way. Michael Salter managed to whittle away on this beast until its completion

2010: the 5TB 3.5in HDD cometh (Digg / Technology)

Hitachi has pledged to release a 5TB 3.5in hard drive within two years, and it claims two of the drives will boast enough capacity to store everything in your brain.

10 things you might not know about robots (Digg / Technology)

The movie "Wall-E," a futuristic tale of a trash-compacting robot, has become a money-making machine at the box office. Here are some key components of robotics:

10 Gadgety Reasons To Love America (Digg / Technology)

And if you are still not convinced, just remember?you could be living in Canada.

'Netflix box' to carry more than just Netflix ( CNET News. ...

Turns out, the so-called Netflix box could be even cooler than initially thought.

The tiny black device from Roku was introduced to the world in May as the first box that could stream Netflix's "Watch it Now" option directly to a television.

But the company is saying there could ...

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