elliott bledsoe web edition » In/outputs

IN/OUTPUTS for 23 to 29 January

elliott — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:15:46 +0000

In/outputs - a taste plate of stuff that’s passed through my feeds this week

Magic Mushrooms Could Treat Depression What happens at the merge point of sustainability, waste management, re/upcycling, community gardening, whole foods/farmer’s markets, locavore consumption, slow food and alternative food distribution? Back to the Roots is what! It’s a farming operation in California that uses recycled coffee grounds to grow gourmet mushrooms. But the waste upcycle story doesn’t end there, Back to the Roots’ own waste is given away to anyone who wants it. Turns out the mycelium, the mushroom root left over after harvest, is a composters wet dream! What started as two guys — Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez — growing mushrooms in an old paint tin in an UC Berkeley frat turned into a complete cylce sustainable profitable for-profit-not-evil!
↷ Sarah Stankorb on GOOD.is 24 January 2012.
Magic Mushrooms Could Treat Depression Still on mushrooms, it would seem that magic mushrooms might be making a horizontal shift beyond just recreational drug use into the same kind of space as medicinal marijuana. You see it turns out that when you be tripping on psilocybin — the active ingredient in magic mushrooms — rather than the mind-altering experience referenced in anecdotes and popular culture opening up synaptic interaction between sensory-orientated parts of the brain, Discovery News, reporting on scholarly research recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, states that “… psilocybin appears to shut down activity in two key areas of the brain that regulate our sense of self and integrate our sense of awareness with our sense of the present” while decreasing activity in “… the default mode network, which is believed to be involved in maintaining a balanced sense of consciousness and ego through self-reflection…” In short, “Besides helping explain how magic mushrooms induce hallucinogenic adventures of the mind, the results suggest that, in controlled settings, psilocybin might be a useful tool for treating depression and other psychiatric problems.”
↷ Emily Sohn on Discovery News 23 January 2012. ♥ via Culture Club UQ Facebook Group.
A 375-Year-Old French Bank Forgives Debts of Paris’ Poorest Crédit Municipal de Paris, a sort of ‘bank for the poor’ and one of the oldest examples of ethical and responsible banking, has opted to celebrate it’s 375th birthday by wiping clear the debt of 3,500 clients (with debts of €150 or less (about A$186)). But this celebratory charitable gesture is no token one-off; the bank has granted low-interest loans to the poor, secured against goods and chattel, since it was founded by doctor, journalist and philanthropist Théophraste Renaudot to give the needy access to fair banking. The idea was simple, “… give the poor people of Paris loans they could reasonably hope to repay, at decent rates for the time (about 10 percent annually) against whatever collateral they could produce: pots and pans, linens, silverware, artisans’ tools…” The model was so successful that these types of banks were eventually granted a state monopoly on pawn-broking loans, which still stands; something Australia could well do with exploring given the drastic increase of payday lending. An amazing model for a financial institution and an awesome gesture, especially in light of Standard and Poor’s recent downgrade of France’s credit rating!
↷ Isabelle Roughol on GOOD.is, 23 January 2012.

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IN/OUTPUTS for 2 to 8 January

elliott — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:29:27 +0000

In/outputs - a taste plate of stuff that’s passed through my feeds this week

Tiny wire to have big impact on computers Quantum computing is one step closer with the development of a wire 10,000 times smaller than a human hair that has the same electrical resistivity of copper wiring. The wire was created by the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at the University of New South Wales and measures just four atoms wide and one atom tall. While the quantum computer is still awhile off yet, this technology marks as significant addition to the components needed to make one.
↷ Mitchell Nadin in The Australian, 6 January 2012.
From Andy Warhol to Mark Twain, 400 Years of New York Diaries The history of New York City is well documented. There must be thousands of books published that recount the Big Apple through the ages. But Rockmelt‘s social reading feature helped me find out about one that I would really love to get my hands on. New York Diaries: 1609 to 2009 (2012, Modern Library) clusters together journal entries of New York residents over the past four decades. Editor Teresa Carpenter has curated personal musings from famous and ordinary people alike. I also really like that she’s ordered the entries by the day of the year, giving the reader a snapshot of what that day was like across the decades. There are some extracts on Brain Pickings.
↷ Maria Popova on Brain Pickings, 6 January 2012. ♥ via Sarah Jansen‘s Rockmelt social reading list
WikiLeaks Supporters Lose Court Bid to Protect Twitter Records The WikiLeaks saga continues with supporters Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Jacob Appelbaum and Rop Gonggrijp unsuccessful in their attempt to appeal a decision not to protect their Twitter records from American investigators that ultimately hope to prosecute WikiLeaks for publishing secret and sensitive government documents. The trio took action in response to a subpoena served against Twitter back in December 2010 as part of a Grand Jury investigation looking at possible criminal charges against the whistleblowing site. Pursuant to 18 USC § 2703(d) a court order may be issued where “… the governmental entity offers specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the contents of a wire or electronic communication, or the records or other information sought, are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation,” even where the people targeted in the records are not suspected of criminal wrongdoing themselves. The US Justice Department is seeking the full contact details for the Twitter account holders, associated credit card and bank account information, IP addresses used to access the account, records of session times and durations and data transfer information (Although, as Threat Level points out, some of this isn’t collected by or is technically possible in Twitter). Judge Liam O’Grady of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied the appeal of Judge Theresa Buchanan’s decision that the trio lacked standing to challenge the government’s request for the records because the government was not seeking the content of the Twitter accounts.
↷ Kim Zetter on Threat Level, WIRED, 5 January 2012.

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IN/OUTPUTS for 28 November to 4 December

elliott — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:22:53 +0000

In/outputs - a taste plate of stuff that’s passed through my feeds this week

DEEDI and QPS websites licensed under CC BY The use of Creative Commons by Government agencies in Australia is huge. The number of Australian government licence users dwarfs (almost) every other jurisdiction, and today that number ticked just a little higher. The ccAustralia blog published an entry about two Queensland Government departments that have applied Creative Commons to their online content: the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) and the Queensland Police Service (QPS).agencies have adopted the Australian Creative Commons Attribution licence (3.0 and 2.5 respectively). Please welcome DEEDI and QPS to the Commons!
♺ Cheryl Foong on Commons News (Australia), 28 November 2011.

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IN/OUTPUTS for 21 to 27 November

elliott — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:18:25 +0000

In/outputs - a taste plate of stuff that’s gone through my feeds this week

Faker to give new album away for free In an open letter on their website, Sydney band Faker have announced they will release their third studio album Get Loved for free from their website from midday on 2 December. The letter, penned by front man Nathan Hudson, starts, ”We are giving our record away. For free.” Hudson continues, “The point and excitement in writing and releasing Get Loved is in danger of being missed.” While as yet I haven’t been able to find out anything about the licensing of the release, I think the move clearly demonstrates how confused and disjointed the music industry is right now. I hope the free download is everything you want it to be Faker!
♺ on Triple J Music News, Triple J, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 24 November 2011.
Too-white TV must tune in to the real Team Australia Suzy Freeman-Greene looks at how White the people on Australian TV screens are. While we have seen some diversification of the faces on our TVs, as she notes, “More than 2 million Australians were born in Asia and our Indian-born population has more than trebled in a decade, but mainstream television, other than SBS, rarely reflects this fact.” In true journalist form, Freeman-Greene poses a question – Is this an innocent case of the blonde leading the bland or a subtle form of racism? – but never actually answers it. Still, worthwhile just to see the lack of identity diversity there is on broadcast TV.
♺ Suzy Freeman-Greene on theage.com.au, 26 November 2011. → my Summify for 26 November 2011 ♥ via Richard Watts (@richardthewatts) and Esther Cole (@_esther) on Twitter.
Google Now Censors The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, 4Shared and More Further additions of “piracy-related” terms have been added to Google’s autocomplete and instant search blacklist, including “thepiratebay,” “the pirate bay,” “isohunt” and “btjunkie,” as well as the names of a bunch of cyberlockers previously unfiltered, including “4shared,” “filesonic” and “fileserve.” In short this means terms like ‘torrent’, ‘BitTorrent’ and ‘The Pirate Bay’ do not return suggestions and search results as a user types their search terms. While you can still return results after typing the full term and hitting enter, the data indicates a significant drop in searches for the affected terms. Interesting timing on Google’s part, given the recent release of Google Music.
♺ Ernesto on TorrentFreak, 23 November 2011. → my Summify for 26 November 2011 ♥ via Peter Black (@peterjblack) and Mark Pesce (@mpesce).

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IN/OUTPUTS for 14 to 20 November

elliott — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:42:20 +0000

In/outputs - a taste plate of stuff that’s gone through my feeds this week

Could Checking Facebook in Class Help Students Focus? Another link from GOOD, this time from the Education section. It shouldn’t come as a shock that technology is being blamed for why children can’t focus for more than about three minutes. That’s why Professor Larry Rosen, professor of psychology at the College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences at California State University, Dominguez Hills, is calling for tech breaks during teaching. While Rosen is not overjoyed about the idea, allowing students to check their phones to see who SMSed them or what’s been posted on Facebook helps them refocus. Although, like Liz Dwyer, I just don’t see schools and universities making time in the schedule for this to happen.
♺ Liz Dwyer on GOOD, 14 November 2011.
Star Wars Fans + Carbon Fiber Enthusiasts = Carbon Fiber Stormtroopers A group Star Wars fans and carbon fiber engineering technicians used excess materials from San Diego Composites to create ace replica storm trooper (A New Hope era).
♺ Ali Kleiman on Carbon Fiber Blog, 15 November 2011.
Turn On, Code In, Drop Out: Tech Programmers Don’t Need College Diplomas GOOD‘s Technology section is running a feature on why recruiters shouldn’t be looking for a programers scholarly achievements first. As the authors note, ”… a Harvard-educated accountant is a lot more likely to be a good hire then a self-taught one. But programming isn’t accounting.” The crux of the argument; in an environment where “Businesses from Fortune 500s to neighborhood bars need a digital presence to compete… just aren’t enough programmers to go around,” so technology hiring practices will have to change. And so they should!
♺ Erin Biba and Bobby McKenna on GOOD, 17 November 2011.
First Spanish CC movie premieres in Spanish cinema: Interferències Add Spanish film Interferències (2011) to the list of feature films available under Creative Commons. The film follows a young activist theater company riding high on the success of their first play, who are struggling to keep their band together as they develop and rehearse a new play about the state of global economics. (Very timely, given the proliferation and frustrations of the Occupy movement). Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike (BY-NC-SA) 3.0 Unported licence, the film was released in the Alexandra Cinemas (map) and Girona Cinemas (map) in Barcelona on 18 November. The same day the first chapter of the film was released online, with subsequent chapters being released until the full feature is available on 20 December. The project was produced by the Observatori del Deute en la Globalització (Observatory on Debt in Globalization) (ODG) and Quepo Foundation in collaboration with 150+ film professionals, audiovisual companies, social organizations and public institutions. Check out the trailer on Vimeo or donate to the project on Verkami crowdfunding platform.
♺ Jane Park on Commons News, 18 November 2011.

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IN/OUTPUTS for 7 to 13 November

elliott — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:20:47 +0000

In/outputs - a taste plate of stuff that’s gone through my feeds this week

New Neurons From Stem Cells Get Us Closer to Treating Parkinson’s 80beats has a post about new research published in Nature that reports successful (and very positive) treatment in mice and rats that may lead to a treatment for Parkinson’s. It’s a degenerative disorder that results from the death of dopamine-generating cells which affects motor functions. The researchers turned stem cells from human embryos into neurons that produce dopamine and injected 100,000+ of these neurons into the brains of mice suffering a rodent disease that also results in damaged dopamine-producing cells. The exciting bit: “Over the course of three to five months, the transplanted neurons thrived, connecting with surrounding brain cells, and the mice’s motor function greatly improved. When the team repeated the experiment in rats, the result was the same…” So with any luck in a few years Michael J Fox might be able to sign those limited edition Nike Mags from Back to the Future Part II (1989).
♺ Valerie Ross on 80beats, Discover Magazine, 8 November 2011.
Timetable for Future Australian Elections I know that ~~no one~~ most people don’t thinks about when the next government election will be, but just in case you were, you’re in luck. Anthony Green, the ABC’s election go-to guy, has taken the time to list out the fixed or potential dates of the federal, state and territory elections. Chronologically there will be elections in Queensland, the Northern Territory, the ACT, Western Australia, federally, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and then New South Wales. Not only is this a really useful list, but it also means that as a new resident to New South Wales, I have until 28 March 2015 to familiarise myself with crazy NSW politics before I have to cast a state vote.
♺ Anthony Green on Anthony Green’s Election Blog, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 12 November 2011.

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IN/OUTPUTS for 24 to 30 October

elliott — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:03:41 +0000

In/outputs - a taste plate of stuff that’s gone through my feeds this week

You are the Power of Open: 2011 Creative Commons Annual Campaign On 25 October Creative Commons launched the 2011 fundraising campaign. It’s my first fundraising campaign not as a staffer at Creative Commons Australia but I still urge all the readers of this blog to consider donating. If you don’t have your own reasons, a quick poke through the wiki of case studies and The Power of Open book should provide you with able compelling reasons to support the growth of the global Commons.
♺ Jane Park on Commons News, Creative Commons, 25 October 2011.
Contagion movie review: cold, clinical and compelling While what I’ve seen/heard of Steven Soderbergh’s new film Contagion (2011) hasn’t really inspired me to go and see it, Luke Buckmaster’s review has convinced me to give it a go. I mean, what’s a deadly virus film without a zombie outbreak, right? But Buckmaster paints a picture of a complicated film that is simultaneously obsessed with how such events become politicised and intensely humanised. “In some ways Contagion is a daring film: no three act structure, no anchor performance, no sentimental resolutions and plenty of compelling moments…” Buckmaster says, “… In others it emits a deathly waft of bland, sometimes plain bad writing, particularly in a structural sense.” Sounds like it has a similar feel to Children of Men (2006), and I don’t know about anyone else, but that makes me really want to see it.
♺ Luke Buckmaster on Cinetology, Crikey, 25 October 2011.
Who Wants A Republic? 12 years on from the republic referendum and it would seem that Australia is no closer to being a republic (according to Ben Raue). As Raue rightly notes, for a referendum to be successful in Australia it needs to be a hot policy issue and have a “yes” endorsement from the major parties. Of course, an Australian referendum has neither at the moment. Interestingly, Raue extracts the figures from a recent Newspoll on the issue that shows a 52% support for a republic in the 35-49 age group. Most of these people weren’t eligible to vote at the time, but remember when it was a hot topic.
♺ Ben Raue on NewMatilda.com, 28 October 2011.

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IN/OUTPUTS for 17 to 23 October

elliott — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:36:25 +0000

In/outputs - a quick look at what’s passed through my feeds this week

Artist Revenue Streams The Future of Music Coalition has launched a research project to “… gather crucial information about the ways that US-based musicians and composers are currently generating income from songs, recordings or performances, and how this has changed over the past five years. The research will be informed by a combination of interviews, financial data and a survey. The Coalition hopes to use the research to: understand how musicians are making money in the music industry; inform advocacy and lobbying activities; and asses the value of new technologies/services available to musicians. They are seeking contributions to the survey, which is open until 28 October.
♺ Future of Music Coalition on FutureBlog.
Eye Roller Geoff Manaugh has written about GroundBot, “a remote-controlled, all-weather polycarbonate sphere” that broadcasts live video captured by two side-mounted cameras. The controller can view the footage in 3D via an augmented reality user interface. A very cool new gizmo from Swedish service robots developer, Rotundus!
♺ Geoff Manaugh on BLDGBLOG.
Introducing Flow Visualization: visualizing visitor flow Google Analytics will be rolling out a new, interactive “… tool that allows you to analyze site insights graphically, and instantly understand how visitors flow across pages on your site.” Explore how a user got to your site, their path through your pages and where they were when they left your site.
♺ Phil Mui on Google Analytics Blog.
Street view hits stunning Swiss Alps railways The Google Maps Street View trike was mounted to the front of a Rhaetian Railway train to capture the scenic Albula-Bernina line that cuts through the UNESCO World Heritage Site Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscapes in the Swiss Alps. “As the train travelled along the line, cameras facing nine different directions captured still photos of the surrounding areas that we’re now stitching together into 360-degree panoramic views.” Expect the new addition to Street View soon.
♺ Ulf Spitzer on Google LatLong Blog.
The case for piracy Nick Ross has written a long, detailed piece that looks at the kinds of business and social behaviours that push would-be legitimate consumers of professional entertainment content to illlegitimate means of consuming it. He says, ”A great deal of copyright infringement does not stem from criminal behaviour. Much of it occurs simply because there is all-too-often no other way to legally access the content you want – even if you do want to pay for it.” While it’s nothing new for me, it’s good to see arguments like this being pushed in high-visibility media sources.
♺ Nick Ross on ABC Technology and Games blog.

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IN/OUTPUTS for 8 to 14 May

elliott — Mon, 10 May 2010 06:09:18 +0000

In/outputs - a taste plate of stuff that’s passed through my feeds this week

{Video codecs} Accusations flying in the aftermath of Steve Jobs’ email While other commentators responding to Steve Job’s threats against open source video formats are sceptical it will come to anything, Florian Mueller isn’t so sure. “… certain patent holders may have refrained from legal action in the past but we may now have reached (or be nearing) a point where at least some of the relevant patent holders may indeed be prepared to strike,” he warns. He points at the litigious area of patents over mobile phone technologies as a trend that may leach into other areas where strict enforcement of soft/hardware patents has been more lax. As he says, “All right holders will prefer to achieve their objectives without suing, which is always just a last resort, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a safe assumption that they aren’t prepared to sue.”
On the potential of an anti-trust claim being made against the proprietary formats, Mueller notes that, “the only obligation that regulatory authorities could impose on MPEG LA under competition rules would be to make its IP available on a RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory) basis,” not the dissolution of the entire monopoly.
↷ Florian Mueller on FOSS Patents, 10 May 2010.

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IN/OUTPUTS for 3 to 9 May

elliott — Wed, 05 May 2010 06:33:38 +0000

In/outputs - a taste plate of stuff that’s passed through my feeds this week

Software patents: Stifling innovation with threats and bluster Continuing the responses to Steve Job’s threatened attack on open video standards, Karsten Gerloff, the President of FSF Europe + has also spoken out, effectively claiming that Job’s is bluffing. Gerloff is unconvinced the matter would get to court because even the big software players don’t check to make sure they aren’t infringing others’ software patents. Any litigation undertaken by a patent pool would be forced to place the patents they are alleging have been infringed in front of a court which will leave them vulnerable to be invalidated given how messy the software/hardware patent environment is. He thinks that Jobs is just attempting to create market uncertainty in open video formats.
↷ Karsten Gerloff on Karsten on Free Software, 5 May 2010.