Brian of dotboom fame takes on Ben Stein and the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. (Sorry, the vid can’t be embedded so you’ll have to click the link to watch.)
Archive for » April, 2008 «
Creepy Portal-esque video
30
Apr 2008
via Geekologie
Category: gaming, video, youtube
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Tourist or Terrorist?
30
Apr 2008
According to this article from The Memphis Flyer be weary of taking photos in Memphis. You just might be a terrorist.
A man walking through Tom Lee Park pauses to snap a photo of the iconic Hernando DeSoto Bridge. Another man shoots pictures of numerous downtown buildings.
Many would assume the men are tourists taking in the city’s sights, but law enforcement officials say they could be terrorists staking out possible targets.
The scenarios were described at an anti-terrorism town hall meeting last week hosted by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. The meeting, held at Cordova’s First Assembly of God Church, was one of four public meetings that occurred in conjunction with Operation Sudden Impact, a new local anti-terrorism initiative.
"You may think a guy is just shooting pictures, but if you report it to us, we’ll send it on to the FBI and they may have four or five other reports of the same thing," said Richard Pillsbury with the Tennessee Fusion Center, a collaboration between the Department of Safety and the Department of Homeland Security.
Shelby County sergeant Larry Allen warned attendees at the meeting to look for people who appear to be doing surveillance outside public buildings, such as shopping malls.
I’m glad I got my photos of Graceland a few years ago.
Category: law, photography
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Doctorow & Scalzi are doin’ it for the kids
30
Apr 2008
Category: authors, books, corydoctorow, video, youtube
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The War on Photography: NYC
29
Apr 2008
I’ve been reading more and more stories about police and government warring on photographers who are well within their rights to do what they’re doing. As a photographer myself I’m starting to get a little nervous. Until now I’ve failed to post much about this issue but that stops here. I can’t not share this video.
via Boing Boing
Category: law, photography
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UKULELE – BLITZKRIEG BOP
29
Apr 2008
The next time I play this in Rock Band I might not be able to keep a straight face.
Category: funny, music, video, youtube
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Little Brother has landed!
29
Apr 2008
Today the day for the new Cory Doctorow novel Little Brother. Click on the cover art to buy your copy now. In fact, buy a copy for every teenager in your life. (I ordered one for me and one each for the two 15 year-olds in my life.)
Not sure what it’s about? Check out these words from authors John Scalzi and Neil Gaiman.
Now, here’s my question: Since I’ll be in Colorado this weekend I had my copies shipped there. I was hoping to download the traditional free copy to my Sony Reader today in order to be able to get started on the book tonight. Hey Cory, where’s the downloadable CC-licensed copy?
Oh, and there’s a how-to blog based on the book too. w1n5t0n [INSTRUCTABLES] If you can’t understand the name of the blog, you’re too old 
UPDATE: It looks like Cory will be posting the ebook version "just as soon as I get back to London (I’m presently in Toronto, visiting my family with my newborn daughter). It’ll likely be Monday or so — there’s a bunch of little clean-uppy things I need to do with the Little Brother distribution site that I need to be in my office with uninterrupted time to accomplish."
Additionally, there’s a DRM-free audio version available which "comes with my own sampling license: once you own it, you’re free to take up to 30 minutes’ worth of material from it and remix and then redistribute it as much as you like, provided that you do so on a noncommercial basis, make sure that it’s clear that this is a remix and not the original, and make sure that you tell people where to find the original. This is in addition to all the fair use remixing that you’re allowed to do without my permission (of course!)." Maybe I’ll buy that tonight and listen to it on the drive to CO. That sounds like a great plan.
Category: books, corydoctorow, creativecommons
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ICIW2008: Closing thoughts
26
Apr 2008
Well, the conference is over. Here’s the thoughts I’ve been left with.
When military folks talk about "open source" they’re not talking about "OpenSource" as we know it i.e. OpenSource software. What they mean is non-military sources i.e. the mainstream media. Once I came to this realization several things I’d head in the past two days had completely different meanings.
This was my first "academic conference" and it’s not what I’m used to. What I’m used to us presentations about software, and events, and "here’s what we did". At this conference it was 20 minute presentations of the research presented as papers in the conference proceedings. I understand that this is the standard for academic conferences but I’m just not used to it. That doesn’t mean didn’t enjoy the conference but it was a tad frustrating hearing "and you can read more about it in my paper" in most of the sessions.
Overall I enjoyed my time over the past two days. I thought I was going to be in over my head but surprisingly I wasn’t. (Except for that last session.) It’s always interesting to step out of your comfort zone and learn some new thing and new perspective.
Category: conference, iciw2008
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