techyum ::

The BBC reports that Russian prosecutors are considering charges against Coca-Cola, which is accused of blaspheming against Orthodox Christianity in a recent ad campaign in Nizhny Novgorod, southeast of Moscow.
Says the BBC:

The protesters – mostly Russian Orthodox Christian believers – allege that Coca-Cola adverts in Nizhny Novgorod are insulting to their beliefs. …. “Coca-Cola uses all these Orthodox symbols in a blasphemous way by placing images of Coca-Cola bottles inside the pictures,” the complaint said, according to Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency. … “Some images are deliberately turned upside down, including the crosses,” it said.
An inverted cross is considered to be one of the symbols of satanism.

Link.
Image via Wikipedia.

Image from F-Secure’s Weblog, who recently keynoted the Information Security Forum’s 18th annual world congress in South Africa. They took the above pic at the airport. Nice! (Thanks, Jonathan!)

The Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has put together a list of the top ten ethics scandals of the past year; I think the list should be an even dozen to include the CIA interrogation tape destruction scandal now rocking the headlines, plus the wiretapping scandal — which is just as egregious to me as the other corruption stories. Here are my snipped faves, but click here for more:
– Senate Ethics Committee looking into Sen. Larry Craig, but not Sen. David Vitter: Craig, R-Idaho, is defending himself against charges that he solicited sex from an undercover male law enforcement officer in an airport restroom. Vitter, R-La., was outed as a client of an alleged prostitution ring run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey of Vallejo, the “D.C. madam,” after his phone number appeared in her records.
– Millions of missing White House e-mails still unaccounted for: CREW and the National Security Archive are seeking information and backup copies of more than 5 million e-mails deleted from White House computer servers between 2003 and 2005.
– White House possibly covering up its role in the firings of the U.S. attorneys: Congressional investigations of the firing of nine U.S. attorneys have been stymied as the White House keeps key players, including former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Chief of Staff Josh Bolten from testifying.
– No Child Left Behind funds directed to Bush fundraisers who provide inadequate reading materials for kids: A Department of Education inspector general’s probe found that Bush-connected companies and donors got contracts for providing reading materials found to be of questionable value.
– FEMA knowingly let Katrina victims live in hazardous trailers: Records indicate the Federal Emergency Management Agency had cautioned its workers about trailers contaminated with formaldehyde. But the agency has been accused of delaying testing for the substance in trailers occupied by people left homeless by the hurricane. Link.

Image via the Praemedia Private Collection.
Just in time to miss my last post, Boing Boing reports on a collection of wax cylinder Xmas tunes available online for free. Let all media rise from the dead so the great Zombie Xmas Apocalypse may begin!

I love the concept of Christian theme parks, but the reality never lives up to my high hopes. When I read about creationists endeavoring to create a multi-million dollar Christian theme park in Britain, I immediately envisioned the Red Seas parting every hour (like at Universal), Pirates of the Carribean style rides through Sodom, and at least one awesome biblical Scrambler ride threatening to eject children (or the vomit of innocents) every 15 minutes. Let’s just say I was really let down when I saw that,

The latest salvo in creationism’s increasingly ferocious battle with evolution is about to be fired in Lancashire. Not in a fiery sermon preached from the pulpit, but in the form of a giant Christian theme park that will champion the book of Genesis and make a multi-media case that God created the world in seven days.
The AH Trust, a charity set up last year by a group of businessmen alarmed by the direction in which they see society heading, has identified a number of potential sites in the north west of England to build the £3.5m Christian theme park.
The trust claims it already has a number of rich backers who are keen to invest in the project, which will boast two interactive cinemas, a cafeteria, six shops and a television recording studio, allowing it to produce its own Christian-themed films and documentaries.

Link.
Multimedia theme park? “Interactive cinemas”? Yaaawn. They should really pay attention to the lessons of Orlando, Florida’s failing, money-hemorrhaging Holy Land Experience — which even after losing 100 employees, their board president, and they sit in $8 million in debt, still manage to have actors in Centurion garb publicly whip Jesus’ ass for popcorn-snarfing brats and blue-haired retirees every afternoon. I mean, if they can’t make it in Orlando…
Entertain thyself and check out the pictures on Holy Land’s website, featuring totally accurate recreations of the Jerusalem street market full of smiling, white non-Jewish people — and wonder about the “largest indoor model of Jerusalem in the world” [exhibit] circa AD 66, which was mysteriously “altered to fit the message of the park”.

The last century gave us quite an avalanche of formats for sound and vision and while some folks peer into the future by taking bets on the Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD fiasco, many people are finding niches in mediums past. Sidestepping the obvious and ongoing strength of vinyl sales, Reel Recordings has just begun releasing magnetic tapes again, specializing so far in an appropriate array of experimental seventies music. Only slightly more surprising is the astonishing array of underground cassette-only releases at Mimaroglu Music Sales. Perhaps even more entertaining are the format mash-ups, such as the floppy CDR or the VinylDisc (thanks Jonathan!). Personally, I like to gather the family around ye old wire recorder while we work at the art of homemade wax cylinders, the visage of Edison glowing from a frame above the hearth.
Well, except for we don’t have a hearth and since we live in San Francisco, we’d rent it out for a pretty penny if we did.

It just doesn’t get any better than this: Pirate Bay’s online collection of legal threat letters and their responses. The response to Billy Corgan/Warner (of Smashing Pumpkins and quaintly aging misogyny) says it all:

> First Notice of Infringement and Declaration
“First Notice of Infringement”? Is that kind of like when I don’t pay my
bills on time? “First notice”, “Second notice”, “Third notice”, “WE KILL
YOU!”, then a package with the sawed-off head of a pig? (…)
(…) > IMMEDIATELY REMOVE ALL UNRELEASED AND UNAUTHORIZED MATERIAL IN
> CONNECTION WITH BILLY CORGAN.
IMMEDIATELY STOP SCREAMING. You may also consider not using red,
underlined HTML. (…)
(…) We are well aware of the fact that The Pirate Bay falls outside the
scope of the DMCA – after all, the DMCA is a US-specific legislation,
and TPB is hosted in the land of vikings, reindeers, Aurora Borealis and
cute blonde girls.
> I make this declaration conscientiously, believing it to be true and
> correct, and in accordance with the laws of each of the countries
> listed
> above. I am aware and agree that the contents of this statement may
> be relied upon against me in any court or arbitration proceeding.
So it’s OK with you if we bring legal action against you for
a) claiming that we host any infringing files, which we don’t,
b) claiming that DMCA has any relation what so ever to the activites of
the site,
and
c) making my eyes bleed by writing in UPPERCASE, underlined, and red
text?
> Fictionally,
>
> Dorothy Sherman
> Digital Signature: Verisign
I fixed the typo for you.

But don’t stop there, read more. (Thanks, Courtney!)

Yes, Gizmodo posted about them yesterday and Wired hit them today (with an *annoying float ad*), and MSNBC has a decent article — but their video, and its player, is ass. So check out the long, talking-head free video of the glowing kitties I embedded after the jump. And wonder if, like previous genetic “breakthroughs” from South Korean scientists, if this is yet another fake.

Read more…

I love dream-decorating my apartment on the internet. This is a cherry for sound and design: the Phonofone II. Slated for release in Spring 2008, it uses horn acoustics to amplify sound from earphones, and has a built-in iPod dock. It claims to produce its own power source (not sure exactly how from the designers’ description), but it’s so beautiful I’d be fine with a cord. (Thanks, seventeenstars!)
* Phonofone II
* Phonofone II @ Canadian Design Resource (more images)

The title pretty much says it all. National Geographic, Afarensis and Science (who will be publishing the research) are reporting on the new discovery. Adding to the joy is the fact that the entire thing has been captured in amber, in situ, so to speak;

The fossil fungi used hyphal rings as trapping devices and are preserved together with their prey, small nematodes.

I feel touched by His noodly appendage just thinking about it.
That said, the yearly onslaught of Best-of lists is upon us, so everyone take shelter. If you really need a fix, stick to things like the top Bigfoot stories of 2007 or the anticipatory Disquiet’s Best of 1996-2006 (is the net really that old?). You can also prepare your ears for the coming year with a free 12K sampler, if you’re a fan of such anachronistic mediums as the compact disc.