The shirts are nifty, but I could do without the blatant Philips promos.

At least 150 researchers were pressured to tailor their reports on global warming to fit the Bush administration's scepticism

via email, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 1/26/07:

EFF Warns ABC to Back Off Blogger

Bogus Copyright Infringement Claims Violate Law

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned ABC, Inc. Thursday not to pursue its bogus copyright infringement claims against 'Spocko' -- a blogger who sparked nationwide debate over a San Francisco radio station -- and asked the media giant to retract its baseless threats.

The free speech battle began when Spocko posted audio clips of what he deemed to be offensive talk-radio rhetoric from ABC-owned and San Francisco-based KSFO-AM on his blog at www.spockosbrain.com. In response, ABC, Inc. sent a threatening letter to the blogger's hosting company, claiming that copyright law prevented Spocko from posting the clips. The hosting company responded by shutting Spocko's website down, forcing him to move to a different provider. In a letter sent to ABC, Inc. Thursday, EFF warned that further false copyright claims could compel Spocko to take action to protect his free speech rights.

"Copyright law is not designed to silence speech that you dislike," said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "ABC and KSFO know that their legal threats were absolutely groundless. Their time and efforts are better spent explaining why they think Spocko is wrong, and letting the public decide, instead of resorting to thuggish legal tactics."

EFF's letter to ABC is the latest development in its ongoing campaign to protect online free speech from the chilling effects of bogus copyright claims. In November, EFF reached an agreement with the corporate owners of the popular children's television character Barney the Purple Dinosaur to withdraw meritless legal threats against a website publisher who parodied the character.

For the full letter to ABC:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/spocko/spockolettertoabc.pdf

For more on Spocko:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/spocko/

more from the NYTimes [Select]:

Bloggers Take On Talk Radio Hosts
By NOAM COHEN
Published: January 15, 2007

A San Francisco talk radio station pre-empted three hours of programming on Friday in response to a campaign by bloggers who have recorded extreme comments by several hosts and passed on digital copies to advertisers.

The lead blogger, who uses the name Spocko, said that he and other bloggers had contacted more than 30 advertisers on KSFO-AM to inform them of comments made on the air and to ask them to pull their ads.

The comments were also posted on Spocko's Web site, spockosbrain.com. In response, ABC Radio Networks, which owns KSFO and which in turn is owned by the Walt Disney Company, sent letters to the site's service provider, demanding the clips be taken down from its servers. The provider complied, raising the issue of what constitutes fair use of copyrighted material by a critic.

In an unusual cap to a simmering controversy, four talk radio hosts at KSFO-AM themselves played the clips on Friday, which had, in some cases, drawn national attention for language considered racially insensitive, religiously intolerant or containing violent imagery. The broadcast contained the occasional carefully measured apology for language that ''could have been put more elegantly,'' as one host, Melanie Morgan, described her comment -- ''We've got a bull's eye painted on her big wide laughing eyes'' -- about Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, who is from San Francisco. ''But Ms. Morgan added that her words were obviously a political metaphor that had to be distorted by critics to appear violent. [...]

Filed under: Laptops

Alright, now we're feeling a little left out. It was one thing for Japan to get the Vaio G before everyone else, it is Sony's home turf after all, so how can we begrudge them launching this skinny little number there first? But now that Europe is getting its very own version of the Vaio G, the G11, we're starting to think Sony doesn't love us anymore. All the same, undeserving as Europe might be, there's some fancy new stuff in the G11, so we'll try not to get too caught up in the unfairness of it all. The most notable aesthetic difference is that new black lid color, but there's more to this case than meets the eye: there's a 90cm drop rating (Europe's elitist way of saying 35-inches) thanks to the carbon fiber casing, which is pretty dang good for a laptop with no visible signs of toughening. Sony gives this laptop an "on-the-road" battery rating of 9 hours -- as if Europe has roads -- but Japan was rating its own at 6 and 12.5 hours, so we're not sure what's changed. Improvements under the hood include a speedier Intel ULV Core Solo U1500 1.33GHz processor and a 100GB HDD. There's also a super-multi DVD burner, 12.1-inch XGA LCD with LED backlight technology, and Windows Vista Business preloaded. The standard VGN-G11XN/B model comes with 1GB of RAM, while the VGN-G11VN/T boasts of 2GB and swaps the gray lid for brown one. No specifics on price, but with specs like these and a business-oriented target market, it ain't going to be cheap.

[Via Core Duo News]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Hawt.

Up for pre-order here.

Flickr is taking a beating in two key forums right now over their decision today to force "old skool" flickr users to merge with Yahoo accounts and new limits on both number of contacts and tags allowed on Flickr. Check out some of the quotes here. Warning, some offensive language.

OMG.

Sorry. I had to post this. He commanded me to.

GigaGamez says:

According to a study by Nickelodeon, 86% of kids ages 8-14 play games online. Today, MTV owned Nickelodeon launches Nicktropolis, a virtual playground for kids.

Wowza, that's a lot of online gamers.

With as many casual game sites as there are, how many of them actually focus on kids? That’s the idea behind Nicktropolis, Nickelodeon’s new virtual playground, as it opens its doors today and is gearing up to entertain. The virtual playground is to feature video, games and chat geared towards children and offering Nickelodeon branded activities. With this latest release, Nickelodeon hopes to provide service to children and young adults in a monitored, safe environment.

That's quite the public service, you'd think.

Check it out here.

Reuters - A stuffed squirrel clutching a fishing rod. A dead badger hefting a football for a winning pass. Other ex-rodents enjoying a carousel ride.

French environmental group L'Alliance pour la Planète is urging people all over the world to turn out their lights and other electrical gadgets for five minutes at 19:55 (GMT+1hr -- that's 13:55, or 1:55 PM Eastern time) tomorrow, February 1, to give the planet and electrical grids a break and raise awareness about global warming. The "blackout" has been timed to fall on the eve of the release of the fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change, which will happen in Paris on Friday, February 2. While the event will have a much more dramatic effect in Europe (since it'll still be daylight here in the States), it's still worth lending the IPCC (and the planet) a show of solidarity and unplugging for a few minutes; we encourage TreeHuggers around the globe to mark your calendars and unplug for five minutes tomorrow. It isn't quite as wacky as World Jump Day, and, at least this time, we know for sure what'll happen when we synchronize to ease up on carbon emissions. ::L'Alliance pour la Planète via ::Hippyshopper

Hey reBlog Readers,
We're delighted that you're reading reBlog, taking in the best of art & technology from around the web. In case you didn't know, Eyebeam also sends out a weekly eblast sharing info on the activites here at our labs and studios in New York and projects and exhibitions with our artists and alumni around the globe. We're going to start posting it and see what you all think. All activities below take place at Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st Street in NYC, unless otherwise noted. Hope you find something fun to take part in.
Thanks,
Perry
Eyebeam Communications

This Week at Eyebeam:
- Now Accepting Applications of Summer 2007 Residencies
- February Is Create-A-Thing-A-Day Month!
- Light Criticism from the AAA & GRL
- Cat Mazza at American Museum of Art and Design
- Cory Arcangel at Hangar Bicocca - Milan

Upcoming:
Feb. 7-10 - Graffiti Research Lab at Art Rotterdam
Feb. 10 - Shopdropping Workshop with AAA

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Summer 2007 Residencies
Now Accepting Applications
Eyebeam is now accepting applications for six-month Residency opportunities. Artists, hackers, designers, engineers and creative technologists are invited to apply to be Residents at Eyebeam, to work for six months on projects or research of artistic endeavor or creative expression. The ideal Resident has experience working with and generating innovative technological art and/or creative technology projects and has a passion for interdisciplinary exchange.

Residents will be selected from an open call, based on the work/research being proposed, the availability of the necessary tools and skills to support them, and in consideration of the overarching research themes and activities of the organization.

The application deadline is February 26, 2007 at 12pm EST.

For more information on this call, current residents and fellows and links to complete the online application form please visit http://www.eyebeam.org/production/production.php?page=air

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February Is Create-A-Thing-A-Day Month!

Join Eyebeam artists, residents, fellows and staff in a collective creative sprint to get your creative energy going and challenge yourself to make something out of all these ideas in your head.

Organized by Eyebeam R&D Fellow Mouna Andraos you're invited you to join in a daily creative endeavor where everyone involved produces one thing (project, sketch, exercise) per day and shares them online on a collective blog. Take advantage of the opportunity to share ideas and receive constructive advice while developing new work.

- For 4 weeks starting on Thursday the 1st of February,
- Participants create one new work/exercise a day.
- Choose your own themes, one per week,
- Work in any medium.
- And post your work on the group blog every day.

If creating 28 things is too daunting a challenge we still hope you'll drop by the blog site to post comments, give feedback and join in the fun. For more information visit http://itp.nyu.edu/~hf35/creativeact/

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Light Criticism from the AAA & GRL

Light Criticism is the first collaboration between the Anti-Advertising Agency and the Graffiti Research Lab.

"Advertising is the mindless vandalism of the Fortune 500. And despite that, we still don’t like it."

To view the project visit http://www.antiadvertisingagency.com/wp-content/video/lightcriticism.mov

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Cat Mazza at American Museum of Art and Design Jan. 25 - June 17, 2007

Former Eyebeamer Cat Mazza is featured in Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting exhibition now open at the American Museum of Art and Design. Cat's amazing Knitoscope, a computer software that translates video images into "knitted" images to educate about sweatshop labor, is among the provocative work by international artists using fiber in unexpected and unorthodox ways.

For more information visit http://www.madmuseum.org/site/c.drKLI1PIIqE/b.1506945/k.3AD7/Radical_Lace__Subversive_Knitting.htm

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Cory Arcangel at Hangar Bicocca- Milan Feb. 2 - Mar. 15, 2007

Cory Arcangel, Eyebeam Honorary Senior Fellow, is featured in the upcoming exhibition COLLATERAL When Art looks at Cinema at Hangar Bicocca in Milan. COLLATERAL is the first exhibition in Italy to offer an in depth exploration of the many possible similarities between art and cinema.

For more information on this exhibition visit http://www.hangarbicocca.it

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Graffiti Research Lab at Art Rotterdam Feb. 7 - 10, 2007

Calling all writers, street artists, prankster, bikers, protesters, citizens and untouchables! The Graffiti Research Lab has been invited to Art Rotterdam Feb. 7 -10 and they're taking control of the Renzo Piano KPN Telecom Building and turning the Kop Van Zuid into the People’s Revolutionary Green Laser Light District. The GRL is turning a 37 x 72 meter screen into a place to display your uncurated animations and graphics. The back-side of the KPN is becoming a giant open wall you can write on with a BFL (big fucking laser). And throughout the week, the GRL will venture outside the green zone on sorties to laser tag and projection bomb the city of Rotterdam on the BORF riot bike. Join in the action!

For more information visit http://graffitiresearchlab.com/

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Shopdropping Workshop with Anti-Advertising Agency Feb. 10, 2007

Eyebeam is pleased to present a daylong Shopdropping Workshop led by the Anti-Advertising Agency. Shopdropping (the opposite of shoplifting) is a tactic used by artists and activists to clandestinely place objects in retail stores. “Dropped” objects are usually versions of consumer products altered or recreated to detourn the retail experience. Shopdropping is a fun and easy form of culture jamming, gently subverting dominant cultural forms to create new meanings.

Starting at noon, participants will receive a shopdropping overview, including artists’ shopdropping projects information and demonstrations of the necessary tools for shopdropping, and time will be given to test out some of the techniques discussed. Immediately following, participants will head into the field to help distribute a new, unreleased Anti-Advertising Agency project (as well as some creations of their own) into stores around Manhattan. This workshop will begin at Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st Street (between 10th & 11th Aves), and is open to the public free of charge. If you have a digital camera of any kind, please bring it.

For more information visit http://www.eyebeam.org/engage/engage.php?page=unique&id=115

Filed under: Portable Audio

Well hello new iPod shuffles. Breaking free from their bleak battleship-grey origins, the $79 iPod shuffle now hits in your choice of pink, green, blue, and even a new tasty orange flavor. Still 1GB, still 12 hours of battery, and yes... available with free laser engraving just in time for Valentines Day.

Update: We got so distracted by all those flashy colors, we forgot to mention the neatest part of the announcement. You might remember the (minor) public outcry at Apple's failure to include those snazzy new iPod headphones with its 2G shuffle, especially considering the fact that the first time we got our hands on one, Apple was showing it off with the new headphones in tow. Well now it looks like Apple has finally gotten with the program and is including the new headphones with the 2G shuffle. Thanks, Christopher K. for pointing this out.

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Reuters - President George W. Bush said on Monday he did not intend to insult Democrats by failing to pronounce their party's full name in his State of the Union address.

french robots in wales

Amazing Japanese hand-mime action-scene reproduction of a classic (it's amazing how easy it is to recognize the Millenium Falcon, suspiciously close to "live long and prosper."

AP - The City of Light wants to soon become a city of bicycles. Paris City Hall announced it has selected French outdoor advertising firm JCDecaux SA to operate a new free bicycle service in the capital.

Got an old scanner? Jpitz31 shows you how to make a desk lamp -

"This instructable shows you how to make a desk lamp out of scrounged scanner parts and a few extras from Home Depot.

I have set up a small solar array, controller and a storage battery. I wanted to make some low power lighting that I can use in my office that would not consume a lot of power.

I had a bunch of scanner parts lying around and decided to put them to good use."

- Link.

Related:

• Lamp projects @ MAKE - Link.
• Scanner projects @ MAKE - Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Calling all writers, street artists, prankster, bikers, protesters, citizens and untouchables! The Graffiti Research Lab will be in Rotterdam from February 7th through the 10th. We're taking control of the Renzo Piano KPN Telecom Building and turning the Kop Van Zuid into the People's Revolutionary Green Laser Light District. We are turning the 37 x 72 meter screen into a place to display your uncurated animations and graphics. The back-side of the KPN is becoming a giant open wall you can write on with a BFL (big fucking laser). And throughout the week, the G.R.L. will venture outside the green zone on sorties to laser tag and projection bomb the city of Rotterdam on the BORF riot bike. To find out how to join us click here.

Scientists from around the world gathered in Paris today to finalize an authoritative report on climate change, expected to be a grim warning of rising temperatures and sea levels worldwide. Daily Mail

A judge in Montana is fed up with mobile phones ringing in his courtroom and has done something about it, reports HTLounge.

"Judge Jeffrey Sherlock, of the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse in Helena, Mo., has announced that he will immediately issue a $5 fine to anyone whose mobile goes off during one of his trials.

During a recent trial, the judge collected US$25 from perpetrators.

Sherlock, who is in his mid-50s, said some of the worst offenders were people his own age, who should know better."

Reuters - For Anglicans who still haven't found what they're looking for, the Church of England is staging its first "U2-charist" communion service -- replacing hymns with hit songs by the Irish supergroup.

Here's a great list of Flickr hacks from Thomas Hawk, he writes -

"One of the nice things about Flickr is that because of their open API a whole host of developers have built more and more interesting things to do with the site. It's interesting to me today that so many of the ways that I use Flickr are not even through the site as designed by Yahoo, but instead through the work of outside developers who are constantly creating new and interesting ways to experience the site. Today I thought I'd share what I think are the top 10 Hacks on Flickr." - Link.

I think my favorite is Flickr Leech, super easy to manage a ton of photos at once - Link.

Not on the list, but very useful - "Pool Cleaner" quick and easy way to delete photos if you manage a photo pool - Link.

Related:

• HOW TO - "Photocasting" with Photocastr - Link.
• Use the Kodak Wi-Fi Camera with Flickr - Link.
• Flickr printable books and posters - Link.
• Doing things with Flickr.... - Link.
• More... Link.

More:

• We're now stocking our Hacks books series in the Maker store, including Flickr Hacks. Flickr Hacks expands the fun and the utility of Flickr, Yahoo!'s popular digital photo-sharing service, by customizing this cutting-edge technology to store, sort, and share photos. The book adopts the game-like appeal of the Flickr site, in individual projects ranging from easy to advanced - Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Goodness, there are over 1,200 photos from the Carts of Brooklyn racing association's IDIOTAROD shopping cart race - Link.

Pictured here, a couple great action shots from Flickr member Dogseat.

Related:

• Carts of Brooklyn racing association's IDIOTAROD shopping cart races - Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Raising soil acidity to a pH level of 5.8 to 6 to help alpine pennycress absorb heavy metals from soil doesn't harm beneficial soil microbes, according to a recent study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators.

Hollywood has been very successful at making them scary, but in reality, sharks have a lot more reasons to be afraid of us than we have to be afraid of them. Between 100 and 200 million sharks are killed each year, mostly for their dorsal fins (to make soup, popular in parts of Asia, particularly Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and now China) and their jaws (sold to ignorant or unscrupulous collectors). Sharks play an important role in marine ecosystems and the fact that many of the 350 species of sharks are facing extinction is not to be taken lightly. WildAid estimates that that shark sales around the world went from 3011 tons in 1980 to 11,732 tons in 2000, but in reality it's probably a lot more than that since statistics are not always available. Jean-Michel Cousteau, the son of the world-famous explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, is trying to raise awareness about the problem.

Much like our old friend bamboo, it seems that cardboard can be used as a replacement for many conventional materials, without chopping down trees or otherwise using virgin materials, and usually incorporates a good deal of recycled material. It makes great furniture, can be used for lighting and makes beautiful and interesting art. Here are some of our picks for cardboard. 1) The Cardboard Chair Co. makes some beautiful multi-layered creations. 2) For a slightly more conceptual seat, check out Julian Lwin's biotube bench. 3) The cardboard lamps by G|O|E Design help create light and use up the firm's waste packaging. 4) Mothercare's rocking eco-crib is lightweight, easily portable, recyclable and inexpensive. 5) Artist Chris Gilmore likes James Bond (and cardboard) so much that he built a model of Bond's Aston Martin DB8 out of cardboard and other common recycled items, and named it "Pussy Galore." Meow.

Xeni Jardin: Sandwichgirl is stationed at McMurdo, in Antarctica. She took a trip from there to the South Pole, and in this photo she is doing cartwheels in a bathing suit at that site: - 25.5° F, -44.7° F windchill, 9.4 knots. This chick's got some major cojones. Link. (thanks, T. bias!)

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Your car may become just another household appliance if a Japanese vehicle developer and former rally driver gets his way.

(after e-waste campaigns such as http://www.e-waste.ch/ this greenpeace initiative, targetted at apple, seems to be the next level, focussed on the production, and no longer on the recycling economy and the management of the waste side of computer use. geert) http://www.greenmyapple.org We love Apple. Apple knows more about "clean" design than anybody, right? So why do Macs, iPods, iBooks and the rest of their product range contain hazardous substances that other companies have agreed to abandon? A cutting edge company shouldn't be cutting lives short by exposing children in China and India to dangerous chemicals. That's why we Apple fans need to demand a new, cool product: a greener Apple. We're Greenpeace, and we want a fresh green Apple. Right now, poison Apples full of chemicals (like toxic flame retardants, and polyvinyl chloride) are being sold worldwide. When they're tossed, they usually end up at the fingertips of children in China, India and other developing-world countries. They dism

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A consumer poll on Friday exposed the worst kept secret in the business world: Internet companies are becoming more important to people than firms that operate in the real world.

Two structural engineers pick their ten favorite man-made structures.

Xeni Jardin: Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan says,

After just over two years, Google has finally defused the "Google Bomb" that has returned US President George W. Bush at the top of its results in a search on miserable failure. The move wasn't a post-State Of The Union Address gift for Bush. Instead, it's part of an overall algorithm change designed to stop such mass link pranks from working.

Link, more here and here.

I miss Florence.

2007-01-23: Resveratrol, which has protected lab animals from heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, seized the public imagination in November when two prominent studies showed that mice taking the compound lived longer and ran farth

Mobile phones DO fry your brains, according to The Inquirer.

"According to a leak on a study to be published later this year in the International Journal of Cancer people who regularly used mobiles for 10 years and more were up to 40 per cent more likely to develop nervous system tumours - gliomas - on the side of their head where they hold their phones.

.

.. A recent Finnish study by the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority found that people who had used a mobile for 10 years or more were 39 per cent more likely to sprout a glioma on the side of their head they held their phone."

Reuters - Hold the Dead Sea salts and tea-tree oil. An Israeli health and beauty spa has introduced a new treatment to its menu -- snake massage.

A great action in NYC, taping placards over those outdoor video billboards attached to subway entrances. The typography is composed of holes in the board, illuminated by the video ad beneath. The project is Light Criticism, brought to you...
Originally from Social Design Notes