magpie's shiny things

In the I won­der who was after what depart­ment. The judge in the Pirate
Bay tri­al is a mem­ber of a copy­rights advo­ca­cy group. And this is just
com­ing out? Either the PB lawyers are incom­pe­tent (mis­tri­al,
incom­pe­tent defense) or clever (mis­tri­al, judge not impartial)
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/judges-conflict-of-interest-surfaces-after-pirate-bay-trial.ars

Fabulously beau­ti­ful Japanese depic­tions of nature.
http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2009/04/nature-of-utamaro.html

Half a mil­lion pacemakers.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/23/not-all-gadgets-suck-50000th-pacemaker-successfully-installed/

Play with your food. Nice visu­al trib­ute to the most aggra­vat­ing “game” ever.
http://sleepmachine.tumblr.com/post/99570542/extramegane-london-paris-jinakanishi

The ASIFA Animation Archive is always a good place to waste some time.
This sam­pling of old­er glimpses into the future has a nice retro feel
and an occa­sion­al bit of brilliance.
http://www.animationarchive.org/2009/04/theory-our-dreams-of-future.html

A cut and tape pin­hole cam­era. If for no oth­er rea­son than you really
need a cam­era with this much col­or on the *out­side*
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/04/world_pinhole_camera_day_camer.html

Obsession in the ser­vice of cool.
http://www.dinosaursandrobots.com/2009/04/incredibly-detailed-bridge-layer-model.html

more Monday,

Black and White is old skool and that’s good.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruipalha/

I prob­a­bly qual­i­fy for “life expe­ri­ence cred­it” for this course but
you all might want to con­sid­er it.
Internet Age Writing Syllabus and Course Overview, by Robert Lanham
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2009/4/20lanham.html

Earth Day link — an unob­tru­sive rain water cap­ture system
http://www.aquascapeinc.com/why_rainxchange

Wow — that’s like, so, Elvis on Black Velvet
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/04/golden_girls_in_glitter.html

PBS streams NOVA. So much for today’s productivity.
http://www.pbs.org/video/program/979359664/

Steam toy on sale at Bonhams. (I send you to Dinosaurs and Robots
because Bonhams web­site is a mess.)
http://www.dinosaursandrobots.com/2009/04/scratch-built-automaton-of-fairground.html

more tomor­row (and pos­si­bly lat­er to day)

To fuel the OO vs. every­one else debates. Manga about Ubuntu. (Get ’em
ear­ly while they are still impressionable…)
http://doctormo.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/ubunchu-the-ubuntu-manga-is-now-in-english/

The last dinosaur will soon be extinct. (Thank God, the thing is creepy)
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/21/pleo-extinct.html

I love the ways peo­ple are find­ing to put the arti­facts of excess to use.
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/04/recycled_catalog_dollhouse.html

Lovingly recre­at­ed decals for old machin­ery. To be used by restorers
of such gems as those pro­duced by Red Fox and Buffalo Forge. To be
enjoyed for their per­fect design by the rest of us.
http://wiki.owwm.com/(X(1)S(51ovfv45xcn1iq45xouil2ft))/Default.aspx?Page=Decals&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Unesco’s Digital World Library is now online. A nice­ly done interface
to approx 1200 doc­u­ments. Excellent and deeply researched annotations
in sev­er­al lan­guages. I hope they con­tin­ue to add more material.
http://www.wdl.org/en/

Oblig. motor­ized con­cept of the day:
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/04/put-some-ev-per.html

Does any­one know of good sites/blogs for find­ing good motorcycle
design news? Most of the ones I read are heav­i­ly 4‑wheel oriented.

Best Link of the Day:
Isabella Rossellini, sci­ence, and paper­craft. Describing reproductive
tech­niques of var­i­ous ani­mals. NSWF if limpet repro­duc­tion is the sort
of thing that gets your boss all hot and bothered.
http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno/

more tomor­row

Kind of icky because it’s about bugs (ants) but the pho­tos are fab.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/24826

Can any­one tell me what I am being warned against? “Cause that’s the
scari­est squir­rel I have ever seen.
http://sleepmachine.tumblr.com/post/98430660/tsuyatsuya

Two from the tech news.

Oracle to buy SUN. The MySQL forums will be utter­ly use­less for at
least a week. Let the wail­ing begin.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/04/oracle-acquires-sun-ars-explores-the-impact-on-open-source.ars

More tech for devel­op­ing coun­tries. Portable cell phone based ultra-sound.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/20/winmo-smartphones-now-work-as-medical-tricorders-with-usb-based-imagers/

Oblig LEGO post. Visual pun ahead.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/20/lego-photo-box-lego.html

I love the idea of guest cura­tors and now a musi­cian (Brian Eno) is
being giv­en the chance to curate a music fes­ti­val. Very high cool
factor.
http://www.bonnaroo.com/news/2009/04/20/david-byrne-first-artist-to-curate-stage.aspx

Spend some time look­ing at what Winfried Baumann can do with a simple
alu­minum con­tain­er. Housing, offices, can­teens. Click on “WORKS” in
the top bar.
http://winfried-baumann.de/

No words just a wicked con­cept bike picture.
http://insomnio.org/post/97944795/tron‑2–0

The mania for recre­at­ing the pho­to­graph­ic expe­ri­ence of cheap old
cam­eras con­tin­ues. The Russian LOMO
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/20/the-disturbing-beauty-of-oversaturated-pictures/

A cou­ple of infrastructure/communications posts.

First a guide to what’s hang­ing out on the util­i­ty pole.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/17/a‑field-guide-to-pol.html

And ille­gal but inge­nious use of satel­lites for bounc­ing ham radio
sig­nals in Brazil.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2009/04/fleetcom?currentPage=all

The Internet Archive is ask­ing the judge for per­mis­sion to intervene
in the Google/Authors Guild settlement.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/internet-archive-wants-book-copyright-indemnity-like-google.ars

And final­ly for every lit­tle girl you know, Niel Gaiman’s pray for his
god-daughter. Blueberry Girl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4lyJWa_84

That’s all for now, more tomorrow,