Friday, April 14, 2006

Mssr. Pollard: How to Save the World Reading List - Revised and Updated.  . . . The table of contents of all 150+ articles I've written about Saving the World is here. [How to Save the World] 11:25:23 PM    comment []

When Biotech Meets Fashion. The Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual meeting in Chicago shows off expected innovations in food, fuel and medicine. The fashion show is less predictable. In Bodyhack. [Wired News: Top Stories] 5:30:30 PM    comment []

Reading and Writing Get Arithmetic: A new project attempts to quantify the problems and opportunities facing the humanities. By Jennifer Howard, CHE (subscription required). A consortium of humanities organizations, led by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has concluded that it's time to stop lamenting and start diagnosing. The group's long-term data-collecting project, the Humanities Indicators, promises to replace anecdotal evidence and gut feeling with cold, hard numbers. "People are very eager to document exactly what the nature of the crisis is, if there is a crisis," says Patricia Meyer Spacks, a professor of English at the University of Virginia and co-chair of the project. "People still think that the humanities are not in such good shape, but the lack of hard data makes it very hard to think about that in anything but a hand-wringing fashion." The Humanities Indicators will provide those hard data. Who's getting degrees, and in which disciplines? What do they do with those degrees, inside and outside academe? What's the level of financial support for the humanities at the federal, state, local, and institutional levels? How do they fare in colleges and in schools, not to mention in society outside of academe? No data have been officially released yet. Leslie C. Berlowitz, chief executive of the academy, says that the first Humanities Indicators report "is probably a year away, at which point we will have some interesting facts and a conference ... to talk about trends." 2:39:51 PM    comment []

King Kaufman's Sports Daily: Two new stathead books go between, behind and beyond the numbers to solve some of baseball's mysteries. Almost everybody who's talking about baseball books this spring is talking about that book, the one about Barry Bonds and BALCO and steroids. I've been talking about it too, and reading it, but I've also been reading the book. Or actually, "The Book." It's one of two stathead books I've been reading as the first weeks of the season play out, and I'm recommending them both. ... [Salon] 9:12:45 AM    comment []

China continues to hold Hao Wu. It has now been 52 days. Global Voices Online Northeast Asia editor, blogger, and filmmaker Hao Wu still has not been charged or given access to a lawyer. We still don't know where he is. [Pajamas Media] 9:05:31 AM    comment []

AT&T Assisting NSA Surveillance. Interesting details emerging from EFF's lawsuit: According to a statement released by Klein's attorney, an NSA agent showed up at the San Francisco switching center in 2002 to interview a management-level technician for a special job. In January 2003, Klein observed a new room being built adjacent to the room housing AT&T's #4ESS switching equipment, which is responsible for routing long distance and international calls. "I learned that the person whom the NSA interviewed for the secret job was the person working to install equipment in this room," Klein wrote. "The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room." Klein's job eventually included connecting internet circuits to a splitting cabinet that led to the secret room. During the course of that work, he learned from a co-worker that similar cabinets were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego. "While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet (AT&T's internet service) circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal," Klein wrote. The split circuits included traffic from peering links connecting to other internet backbone providers, meaning that AT&T was also diverting traffic routed from its network to or from other domestic and international providers, according to Klein's statement. The secret room also included data-mining equipment called a Narus STA 6400, "known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets," according to Klein's statement. Narus, whose website touts AT&T as a client, sells software to help internet service providers and telecoms monitor and manage their networks, look for intrusions, and wiretap phone calls as mandated by federal law. More about what the Narus box can do. [Schneier on Security] 9:04:27 AM    comment []

Video: Cop gets social-engineered by escaped murderer, "just out for a run". Salon Video is hosting an 8-minute dashboard-cam clip of a cop questioning an escaped murderer who manages to convince the officer that he's just out for a jog, wearing rags, in the middle of nowhere. (Note: If you visit Salon via Boing Boing, you get to go straight to the page without having to visit the normal Salon ad-wall "day-pass") His dashboard camera captured (below) his questioning of Richard Lee McNair, 47, on Wednesday. Earlier that same day, McNair had escaped from a federal penitentiary at nearby Pollock, La., reportedly hiding in a prison warehouse and sneaking out in a mail van. Bordelon, on the lookout, stopped McNair when he saw him running along some railroad tracks. What follows is a chillingly fascinating performance from McNair, who manages to remain fairly smooth and matter-of-fact while tripping up Bordelon. The officer notices that the guy matches the description of McNair -- who was serving a life sentence for killing a trucker at a grain elevator in Minot, N.D., in 1987 -- observes that he looked like he'd "been through a briar patch" and had to wonder why he would choose appalling heat (at least according to that temperature gauge in the police car) to go running, without any identification, on a dubious 12-mile run. But he doesn't notice when McNair changes his story -- he gives two different names (listen for it) -- and eventually, Bordelon bids him farewell, saying: "Be careful, buddy." McNair remains on the loose. (Note: Video is more than eight minutes long but worth it.) Link (via Schneier) [Boing Boing] 9:04:03 AM    comment []

Open Source Mac - Free, Open-Source software for OS X: ree and open-source software is good for you and good for the world. This is the best OS X software that we know of. this is a great utility [Too many topics, too little time.] 9:03:10 AM    comment []

"The Wealth of Networks" Booklaunch with Yochai Benkler @ Eyebeam, NYC. "The Wealth of Networks" Booklaunch with Yochai Benkler Eyebeam April 14, 2006 - 6-8PM 540 West 21st Street New York, NY 10011 http://www.eyebeam.org Please join Yale Professor Yochai Benkler for the launch of his new book, "The Wealth of Networks," exploring how a new form of distributed collaboration is transforming the world economy. In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge and cultural production are changing and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves.  . . . "The Wealth of Networks" examines distributed collaboration’s transformation of the world economy, heralded by innovations such as: 1) Open Source software like Linux and Apache that have surpassed commercial software made by huge corporations 2) A free, collaboratively authored encyclopedia called Wikipedia that rivals Encyclopedia Britannica, and 3) Volunteer research projects like NASA Clicks that are as accurate as the work of paid scientists. Benkler does not see these projects as isolated examples, but rather as exemplars of an emerging mode of economic production. His book shows why labor done outside the constraints of free markets and giant corporations can still have a huge impact on the economy and social relations. He argues that a “third mode of production” offers the promise of a more free society, but only if we make the right collective decisions. "The Wealth of Networks" will be available for purchase in the Eyebeam bookstore the night of the event. This event is open to the public free of charge. Originally by Amanda McDonald Crowley from Rhizome.org Raw at April 11, 2006, 08:53, published by nicholas economos Keywords  social space, network, labor [unmediated] 9:02:36 AM    comment []

Copyfight symposium in NYC with Lessig, Lethem, Art Spiegelman.... NYU Humanities is throwing a copyright symposium with everyone from Larry Lessig to comics giant Art Spiegelman (Maus), McArthur-winning science fiction writer Jonathan Lethem (Fortress of Solitude), Judge Alex Kozinski, Siva Vaidhyanathan and the head of the Andy Warhol Foundation: A Search for Comity in the Intellectual Property Wars Friday, April 28 through Sunday, April 30, 2006 Free and open to the public Friday April 28, 7:30-9:30 p.m. Hemmerdinger Hall 100 Washington Sq. East Saturday 9:30-6:30 p.m. and Sunday 9:30-1:00 p.m. Hemmerdinger Hall 100 Washington Sq. East Panelists to include Lawrence Lessig, Art Spiegelman, Susan Meiselas, Jonathan Letham, Errol Morris, Geoff Dyer, and others. Link (Thanks, Siva!) [Boing Boing] 9:02:28 AM    comment []