recently interesting

The following are items I’ve recently shared via Google Reader and find interesting.

• WikiLeaks inspired "New media haven" proposal passes Iceland Parliament
  Shared on: June 16, 2010
  Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says: The WikiLeaks advised proposal to build an international "new media haven" in Iceland, with the world's strongest press and whistleblower protection laws, and a "Nobel" prize for for Freedom of Expression, has unaminously passed the Icelandic Parliament. 50 votes were cast in favor, zero against, one abstained. Twelve members of parliament were not present. Vote results. One of the inspirations for the proposal was the dramatic August 2009 gagging of of Iceland's national broadcaster, RUV by Iceland's then largest bank, Kaupthing Two changes were made to the proposal from its original form as per the opinion of the parliament's general affairs committee. The first of these altered slightly the wording of the first paragraph so as to widen the arena for research. The second of these added two new items to the list of tasks for the government: - That the government should perform a detailed analysis, especially with respect to operational security, for the prospect of operating data centers in Iceland. - That the government should organize an international conference in Iceland regarding the changes to the legal environment being caused by expansion of cloud computing, data havens, and the judicial state of the Internet. Video footage from the proposal's vote will be available here and here. Details of the proposal and press contacts.
• Gulf Oil Spill Shutting Down 134-Year-Old Oyster House
  Shared on: June 11, 2010
  Though BP may be not dragging their feet as slowly on getting out payments to businesses crippled by the huge oil slick that used to be the Gulf of Mexico, that money can only go so far toward keeping established businesses above water. One particularly sad example is the PJ Oyster Company in New Orleans French Quarter, which has been able to stay open for 134 years but doesnt look like it will survive two months of crude oil pumping up into the Gulf. Says the owner of PJ, who has had to lay off his shuckers and resort to buying pre-shucked oysters from Alabama: I dont have any prospects to get any oysters -- they closed one of the main areas where we get our oysters from... Barataria Basin is where PJ has made its name over the years, and that whole basin is now closed. If PJ is unable to survive by selling the imported mollusks, it will have to close its doors indefinitely. It could be quite some time until the undersea oil gusher is capped and even longer before the currently closed oyster harvesting areas are deemed safe to reopen. Oyster Shucking Ends at PJ Oyster On Rampart Street [WRNO] Thanks to Amanda for the tip!
• Spongebob, age 50
  Shared on: May 31, 2010
  via Sushi Bandit
• Butcher's cuts anatomical tee
  Shared on: May 14, 2010
  Penfold sez, "A useful t-shirt depicting the cuts of meat one might use to butcher a human. Ever wondered where your tenderloin is? This shirt is a great ice-breaker when meeting cannibals. It would also be handy for coping with a desert island/mountainous plane crash survival (Your friends' survival, obviously, not yours. Now that's altruism) situation." My physiotherapist has a funny habit of pointing to bits of my back and going, "Right, I'd like you to think about flexing this part right here under your left sirloin." Funnily enough, this turns out to be a pretty good way to align my conscious will with my prioperception. (Love this. Penfold, can you drop me an email please? I'd love to talk further with you about the possibilities for the design, but you didn't put your email in the submission.) They're made out of meat! Previously:Business cards made from meat Terry Bissons Theyre Made Out of Meat video
• Potato gun, lightning, and sonic magic: Unconventional speed tests for the browser
  Shared on: May 5, 2010
  Yesterday, we released a new beta for Chrome, and teamed up with a few creative minds to bring Chrome’s speed to life with an early preview of a series of fun, unconventional speed tests for the browser. As promised in my blogpost, here’s a follow-up video of the full results!(Watching web pages load at 2700 frames per second reveals unexpected artifacts. If you're interested in the technical details, read on in the video's description drop-down in YouTube).Posted by Mads Ager, Software Engineer
• Mos Dub
  Shared on: May 4, 2010
  Mos Def + Dub = Mos Dub
• Video: Conan O'Brien takes 60 Minutes for a ride in his '92 Taurus SHO
  Shared on: May 3, 2010
  Filed under: Sedan, Videos, Ford, Celebrities, Humor The Conan O'Brien SHO - Click above to watch the video after the jump If you thought Jay Leno was the only late-night talk show host who was into cars, think again. Sure, Jay's got the garage full of priceless automobiles and regularly contributes to Octane magazine, but Letterman is part owner of an Indy racing team, and Conan's had his share of four-wheeled shenanigans. If the Bugatti Veyron mouse shtick wasn't enough to convince you, have a look at the video after the jump. On a segment of the CBS news program 60 Minutes, Conan takes his interviewer around Los Angeles in a dirt-green 1992 Ford Taurus SHO. Check it out; it's worth a laugh of two. [Source: RideLust]Continue reading Video: Conan O'Brien takes 60 Minutes for a ride in his '92 Taurus SHOVideo: Conan O'Brien takes 60 Minutes for a ride in his '92 Taurus SHO originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 03 May 2010 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
• The Sharky Tea Infuser
  Shared on: April 22, 2010
  Me wanty this tea device, the Sharky tea infuser. You put your tea in the bottom compartment, attach the dorsal fin top, and set it afloat in your (preferably glass) cup. The effect of the tea infusing into the water from the shark appears both beautiful and exciting. In the words of the Argentinian designer Pablo Matteodo: INFUSION means to extract certain properties from an soluble ingredient such as tea leaves , herbs or fruit by soaking in liquid (water) until it gets saturated. So we can say that a infuser is the in charged of make this happen. This is a ludic point of view about the color given off from the phenomenon, which makes more interesting the waiting of the whole process.Making tea at home just got a little more dangerous. Duhn-duhn! We're gonna need a bigger kettle.Sharky Tea Infuser [Burstoid]
• Why the 13" MacBook Pro didn't get a Core i5 upgrade
  Shared on: April 18, 2010
  Fans of Apple's most diminutive professional notebook were let down this week when the newest 13" MacBook Pro revision didn't get an upgrade to Intel's latest processor architecture. The update to Nehalem-based cores, as well as a die shrink to 32nm, gives these Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 mobile processors clear performance advantages over the Core 2 Duo that Apple retained for the 13" MacBook Pro. So why didn't Apple give the 13" MacBook Pro some Arrandale love? It turns out that there are several reasons that factored into Apples decision, including cost, graphics performance, battery life—and the laws of physics. Read the comments on this post
• The politics of yakuza (or Q&A with Jake Adelstein pt 2)
  Shared on: March 18, 2010
  In part two of our QA series with Tokyo Vice author Jake Adelstein, we'll answer some basic questions about the yakuza: why people join, how they operate, and how much influence they have on mainstream Japanese culture. You will also find out why some parents might voluntarily send their kids to mobsters and how landing an innocent-seeming IT job could accidentally spiral you into a lifetime of crime. If you haven't read part one, which is a more intimate look at Adelstein's own experience as a crime beat reporter in Japan, it's here. Why do people join the yakuza? They're usually misfits from Japanese society. The word yakuza itself comes from a losing hand in gambling. 893 (ya-ku-za). It's the worst hand you can have. So when they refer to themselves as yakuza, they're referring to themselves as losers. It's a very self-deprecating term. In western Japan, there's still a lot of discrimination against burakumin, the outcast class. If you come from certain parts of the country, they might think you're inferior, dirty, and unclean. There are also a lot of Korean-Japanese yakuza because of the discrimination against them. It's getting better, but in the past, the job choices for Korean-Japanese were pretty much pachinko parlor, barbeque restaurant operator, sex club operator, or the yakuza. Some of them are just normal people who are basically running a very small home security business. They collect money from bars and clubs in the neighborhood and in turn provide a service. If there's an unruly customer, they'll beat the shit out of him without calling the cops. If someone doesn't pay the tab, the yakuza will go to their door and politely ask for the money. Do they come from broken families? Not necessarily. A lot of them are from wealthy families — sons of cops, bureaucrats. [My bodyguard and ex-yakuza boss] Mochizuki-sans grandfather was a cop, and his father worked for a government institution his whole life. Sometimes, if parents were worried about their kid's drug use, they would take him to the local yakuza and be like, beat some sense into this kid, get him off drugs, make him a man. And they would do it. And then the kid would join the yakuza afterwards. But I'm sure that's not what the parents wanted! Well at least their kids not on drugs, right? And he has a job. In fact, lots of normal people go to the yakuza to solve problems. In Japan, civil lawsuits take forever to get resolved, and even if you win the lawsuit nobody will enforce it — if a guy owes you money but wont pay up, police officers arent going to go out there to seize his assets. If someone owes you money or youre in a civil dispute, the yakuza will take half of whatever they can get out of the person who wronged you. But at last you get half, and its fast. Are there any misconceptions we have about the yakuza? Mochizuki-san is a wonderful father to his child. He's incredibly patient and never yells at him. Some yakuza parents make sure their children don't become yakuza. Some of them actually do charity work and contribute funds to orphanages and things. It's rare, but it always surprises me. The other thing that surprises me is that on their days off they're at home wearing Mickey Mouse t-shirts and sweatpants, and I'm like, wow. I never would have pictured you like this when you're off the job. I know one yakuza boss who is really into akachan play, where he gets diapered like a baby and sucks on a lactating woman's tits. I'm like, this is what this fearsome guy does for pleasure? From what you've told me about him, he seems like a perfectly decent guy. What made him join the yakuza? Excitement, thrills, the promise of women. He racked up huge debts in a Soapland — Japans legal brothels. He kept putting it on his tab until he couldnt pay it back. He was trying to raise money when the yakuza Soapland owners were like, why dont you work for these guys and you can pay me back? What happens a lot now is that people graduate college and go work for some IT startup, and then they realize it's being bankrolled by the yakuza. The yakuza go, hey, this guy's smart. He earns money. We could use him. So they'll say to him: how would you like to become a member? We'll make you a corporate associate so you don't have to spend two years cleaning the office and answering the phone. It's employment for life! Because of the reputation of the yakuza, most people would be scared and hesitant to refuse. When you're privy to knowledge of how a large front company works, it's kind of hard to back out. Do yakuza kill random people? The traditional yakuza value is: katagi ni meiwaku wo kakenai. We do not bother ordinary citizens. You can come to us for gambling, drugs, or sex, and that's our business. But we're going to leave ordinary citizens alone. We're not involved in robberies, thefts, or muggings, and we don't rape people. This doesn't hold true anymore. Now it's all about money. The ideals that held up the traditional system of meritocracy are gone. You can buy your way into power. The classic yakuza life scheme used to be that you started at the bottom doing whatever enterprises, loan-sharking or prostituion or drug-running or extortion blackmail, pretty standard yakuza stuff. Eventually there would be a gang war and you'd shoot up a member of a rival gang, go to jail, and come out after 10 years to a higher position with a better salary. But as gang wars have declined and the organizations have moved into financial crimes like stock market manipulation or running front companies that are listed companies, capital has become more valuable than honor. There used to be a premium paid on upholding codes of what was proper yakuza living, but nobody pays attention to them anymore. How involved are the yakuza in the way business in Japan is run today? In the financial markets, I'd say about 20% of listed companies are heavily connected to the yakuza. There's a hell of a lot more money to be made moving a million shares of stock than a hundred bags of speed on the streets. How about in politics? The Liberal Democratic Party was founded on yakuza money. Former prime minister Koizumi's grandfather was a member of the Inagawa-kai; he was tattooed all the way down to his wrists. According to magazine articles written in the nineties, the current minister of finance Kamei Shizuka received $400,000 from a yakuza stock speculator and certainly received donations from the emperor of loan sharks. What about in pop culture? A huge part of the entertainment industry is run by the yakuza. When a rather dumb cop accidentally leaked all the Metropolitan Police Department files on Goto-gumi in 2007, a company called Burning Productions — one of the most powerful production companies in the country — was listed as an organized crime front company. Nobody in the Japanese media will write that, though, because theyll lose have access to their stars. Its like Hollywood in the 50s when the mafia had a big share in everything. Do you think that will ever change? Will Japan ever run as a non-yakuza society? For this to happen, Japan needs a few things. There would have to be a criminal conspiracy law so you can prosecute people at the top for crimes committed by people below them. There would have to be plea bargaining so people at the bottom would rat out people above them, and a witness protection program so that the people who make plea bargains arent killed as soon as they get out of jail. You need wiretapping laws that allow you to wiretap — the laws are so stringent now that theyre almost never used. If you put all those things into place, then Japan could get rid of the yakuza groups. Theyd probably go underground but they would never be this powerful again. Part of the reason they are so powerful now is that they're so out in the open. You can look at the Yamaguchi-gumi headquarters on Google Maps. The Inagawa-kai office is across from the Ritz Carlton. Every year, the NPA releases a list of the 22 organized crime groups with their names and addresses. It's not a mystery who they are or where they are. What's preventing change from taking place? Polticians. They dont want a criminal conspiracy law in the books. I dont think there are any politicians who dont have any dirt of them. And if any politician starts coming down hard on organized crime — if they dont physcially kill him like they did the mayor of Nagasaki — theyll ruin his reputation. Here's the thing: Japanese people kind of like the yakuza. They admire them. There are movies about them, comic books about them, there are fan magazines... they're part of the culture. They promote traditional values. One of the reasons Japan has low street crime rates is because these guys are very good enforcers. In the neighborhoods where they're running businesses or collecting protection money, you won't see people getting mugged because the yakuza don't want people to be afraid to come there and spend money. They are a second police force and in that sense, and perform a valuable role in Japanese society. Over the next few months, we'll be collaborating with Jake Adelstein to bring you a series of Boing Boing exclusive yakuza stories. In a few weeks, we'll go behind-the-scenes with Adelstein and his yakuza buddies to watch how they do ordinary things like play video games, use the computer, and chop off body parts. Stay tuned! Photo by Ania Przeplasko; Model Lu Nagata, aerial performance artist and instructor Previously: Meet Jake Adelstein, a Jewish reporter who thinks like a Japanese ... US-born journalist threatened by Yakuza Mayor of Nagasaki gunned down by Yakuza Tattoo in Japan
• Jail Fight! Madoff Gets Beaten up in the Clink
  Shared on: March 18, 2010
  We’ve never spent any time in federal prison, but we imagine that in at least one regard, it’s a lot like serving as a soldier in a war zone. You’re bored, bored, bored until . . . things get extremely interesting. Our favorite convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff got a little taste of that back in December, when he was physically assaulted by another inmate, according to three people familiar with the matter. Click here for the story from the WSJ’s Dionne Searcey and Amir Efrati. Madoff is currently serving a 150-year sentence in Butner, N.C. On Dec. 18, Madoff was moved to the prison’s low-security medical center for treatment. At the time, the Bureau of Prisons said that rumors of an assault were false and that Madoff suffered from dizziness and hypertension. But that wasn’t the case, report Searcey and Efrati. According to an inmate at Butner, Madoff was treated for a broken nose, fractured ribs and cuts to his head and face. Another inmate who recently was released from Butner after serving time on drug charges also confirmed the assault, as did a third person familiar with Madoff’s situation. The former inmate said the dispute centered on money the assailant thought he was owed by Mr. Madoff. The Bureau of Prisons said it investigated the incident, a process that included an interview with Madoff. Traci Billingsley, a BOP spokeswoman had this to say: “In December he told staff he was not assaulted, and an investigation was completed following his statements, which corroborated his statements. Not one inmate has told staff he was assaulted.” Aside from the news of the assault, Efrati and Searcey’s story hits on some great details. Our favorite: According to one former inmate whose time overlapped with Madoff’s for a stretch, the inmate said he and Madoff talked financial advice. “He gave me ideas on my index funds.” Write Searcey and Efrati: Mr. Madoff advised him to diversify, saying he should invest in funds that track the SP 500 index of stocks “where my money would be on all the stocks instead of putting my eggs into one basket,” the former inmate said.
• Official investigation of runaway Prius begins to answer questions
  Shared on: March 15, 2010
  Filed under: Hybrid, Government/Legal, Recalls, Hatchback, Toyota A joint investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota into the highly publicized incident last week of a runaway 2008 Toyota Prius near San Diego, CA may begin to answer questions raised after the owner's credibility was challenged. In particular, the brakes reportedly exhibit a pattern of wear that's inconsistent with the story told by the vehicle's owner, James Sikes. According to a draft memo written for the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the condition of the brakes suggests that they "weren't applied at full force over a sustained period at high speeds" reports the Wall Street Journal, but rather "the driver may have intermittently applied moderate pressure on the brakes." Representatives from NHTSA and Toyota also couldn't duplicate the sudden unintended acceleration in testing that was allegedly experienced in the same car last week, though Sikes' lawyer claims these findings are not surprising: "I don't think that is surprising insofar as NHTSA has never been able to recreate these events and Toyota has denied that they even occur." Finally, Sikes said after the incident that his accelerator pedal was stuck to the floor and he was braking hard at the same time. His particular Prius, however, is fitted with a brake override system that cuts engine power if the accelerator pedal and brake are applied at the same time. Investigators from both NHTSA and Toyota reportedly tried to recreate the same scenario with the vehicle in question and failed due to the brake override system performing as it was intended. Toyota has announced a press conference for later today to share more of the investigation's results, which will likely further erode confidence in Sikes and his story. Some experts have questioned why Sikes didn't follow the advice of a 911 operator and shift his Prius into Neutral, as well as his explanation later of being afraid that the car would flip if he took it out of Drive. Also, Jalopnik.com reported last week that Sikes is some $700,000 in debt as well as behind on lease payments for the Prius in question. Puzzling behavior and circumstantial evidence aside, this investigation appears to offer the first hard evidence that what happened on Interstate 8 last week may not have been Toyota's fault. [Source: Wall Street Journal, CNN, Jalopnik | Image: Toyota]]Official investigation of runaway Prius begins to answer questions originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
• Meet Jake Adelstein, a Jewish reporter who thinks like a Japanese gangster
  Shared on: March 9, 2010
  Jake Adelstein is the author of Tokyo Vice, a new book that chronicles the authors crazy adventures as a crime reporter for Japans largest newspaper. During his 12 years at Yomiuri Shimbun, Adelstein made deadly enemies — and some lifelong friends — in the yakuza, the organized crime underworld that quietly controls a large part of Japan's political economy. The book (which I reviewed in January) chronicles his journey from naive young foreigner to one of the ballsiest reporters on the yakuza beat. Along the way, he discovered that one of the mob bosses, a guy named Goto Tadamasa, had made a deal with the FBI to go to the US and get a liver transplant at UCLA — an embarrassing scandal that Goto didnt want anyone to know about. When Goto found out that Adelstein was investigating, he figured he should just kill him. It was really terrifying, he says. I couldnt even walk outside without my lovable ex-yakuza bodyguard next to me. Fortunately for Adelstein, he found himself still breathing when Goto lost power in October of 2008. Today, he walks the streets of Tokyo with a titanium core umbrella ("a baseball bat would probably make people uneasy") and that keeps him safe... at least for now. Over the next two months, well be collaborating with Jake Adelstein to bring you a series of Boing Boing exclusive yakuza stories. Well kick it off with a two-part QA that gives us an inside look at his life and brings us up-to-date on yakuza influence on present-day Japan. After that, well go behind-the-scenes with Adelstein and his yakuza buddies to watch how they do ordinary things like play video games, use the computer, and chop off body parts. For part one of the QA series, I sat down with Adelstein over bacon waffles and coffee one morning in San Francisco to get some personal stories of Adelsteins connections with the yakuza. Read on to learn about how a Jewish-American from Missouri beat up a mobster with a golf club; the indelible link between gangsters and Buddhist priests; and how Adelstein came to incorporate the highest yakuza values into his daily life. How did you know that Goto Tadamasa wanted to kill you? On the day he got kicked out of the Yamaguchi-gumi*, one of the last things he said as he was getting into his car was: "That fucking American Jew reporter. I'd like to kill him." When I heard that, I thought, well it's nice to be recognized for your hard work. Goto has been connected to 17 unsolved murders. His people are responsible for the attack on film director Itami Jyuzo in 1992. Itami made a movie parodying the yakuza. It showed them as what most of them are, as a bunch of obnoxious sneaky lying thugs, and they didnt really like that. They didnt kill him at first — they just grabbed him as he left his house and slashed open his face in the parking lot. A few years later, he allegedly committed suicide. But what I heard from people who would know is that they dragged him to a rooftop, stuck a gun in his face, and said you can jump or well blow your face off. So nobody out there wants to put a gun to your head and make you jump? Well, I'm sure Goto would like to do it. The question is, what's the cost benefit of doing it? Right now [with the publication of Tokyo Vice] I'm such a public nuisance that whacking me would only bring more heat and might bring political pressure on Japan to close down the yakuza buildings and put them out of business. When you consider the risk of doing that, the analysis is, well, easier to let him live and be a pest rather than make a martyr out of some annoying Jewish-American. Are you scared of the yakuza? Of course I'm scared of them. Even the guys I'm close to I'm scared of. They're like wild animals. These are guys who make a living through violence, and they're very very tough. They just have incredible endurance and tolerance for pain. They're like the Energizer bunny; you can beat them and hit them with a hammer and they'd still come at you like the Terminator. I'm saying this from personal experience. You mean you've actually fought with one? In April 2008, I was trying to figure out how Goto knew that I was writing a book about his liver transplant. There was a yakuza real estate broker; he was a good source, and I had paid him. I remembered having a conversation with him a few months back, and he was asking how my book was coming along — I suspected he might have been sounding me out for information. So I went to his office and said, Listen, did you sell me out on Goto? Did you tell him Im writing a book? And he said, Yeah of course. He pays much more than you do. Why wouldnt I? Its not like were friends. Its nothing personal. He didnt even try to deny it. So I said to him, Remember a couple years ago when Sugiura got hit? Im gonna tell my friends in the Sumiyoshi-kai that you gave away his location. They may not believe me, but they might come ask you some questions, and when they do I dont think theyll be very nice to you. Nothing personal. And as I turned my back to leave, he jumped on me. He started hitting me really hard and kicking me. So I ran to the corner of his room and got a golf club, and kept hitting his knee until his knee broke. I was just running around in circles aiming at his knee. Even after his knee broke, he was still crawling at me. I was like, god! Why dont you just give up? What does it say about you? Don't you have to be a bit crazy to throw snarky comments at yakuza and break their knees with golf clubs? It would say that I have a bad temper. I was angry! I didn't make the first attack, though. That was totally in self-defense. What would you do if someone whom you thought was a friend was like, I planted heroin in your car and called the cops? I would probably be like, I'm in the wrong business. On the wrong beat. I'd probably get out. It was too late, you know? I was committed. Committed to the left lane. I was taking my driving test a few years ago and my instructor said, go to the right lane. And I told him, I can't. I'm committed to the left lane. But isn't there a point in a reporter's life where they realize, if I go any further than this, I'm going to be putting myself and the people close to me at great risk, and you either decide to go ahead or you don't? How did you make that decision? By the time I got to that point, I didn't have a choice. When the FBI and the National Police Agency were putting me under police protection in March 2008, one guy at the NPA whom I had known from my days of covering the police beat said to me, "Let me explain to you how this works. You're probably thinking, alright, I'll just go home. I wouldn't advise that. You've pissed off a guy who has very good connections in the United States. If you go home to your family he'll send someone to where you live and kill you; and if your family's around they will all be killed as collateral damage. If you ask, he'll just say, hey, it was just some crazy foreigner. Never meant for the family to be wiped too. So if you love your family, you're not going home until you resolved this." His advice to me was, "You're a writer. Time to write. He's angry with you now because you have information, but once it's out he'll have problems bigger than you to worry about." Do you worry about your family? I have a guarantee from someone up high in the Yamaguchi-gumi that they won't touch my family. Their word is pretty solid. It's a gentleman's agreement that they'll only kill me, which makes me feel better. Really? Sure, because there's less to worry about. What do you do to keep yourself centered? I meditate. Im going to get my Buddhist priest certification this year — thats what I originally went to Japan for. Ive been offered a meeting with Goto when I get that certification. Hes also a Buddhist priest now. Another boss promised that once they can be sure were not going to punch each others lights out, we should meet. Hes a changed man, he said. Im like, yeah, tell me another one. Is it a trend for ex-yakuza to become Buddhist priests? It's not uncommon. There are two reason for doing this. Once you set yourself up as a religious organization, you don't get taxed on your income. It's a great way to launder money. The other reason is that people love the bad guy becomes a good guy story. As soon as he left the Yamaguchi-gumi, there was an order out to hit him; but as soon as he becomes a Buddhist priest you can't kill him. Here's this guy trying to lead a good life and you killed him. You guys are evil. He's good. Goto leaked the Buddhist priest story all over the place. The priest robe is his bullet-proof vest. Is it your bullet-proof vest too? No, it's just something to do. I've got a lot of yakuza friends and cop friends and reporter friends. They all die early. It would be nice to be able to do their funerals for them. Is there anything about the yakuza that you admire? Unlike in America, where someones word is as light as a feather, some of the yakuza guys have demonstrated incredible loyalty. If they promise something — if they give their word — they honor it, even if that promise is no longer convenient or even detrimental to keep. Bushi ni nigon wa nai. ("A warrior does not have a double tongue.") Once you've said it, then you'll do it. A promise is a promise. It's so rare to meet anybody in this world who has any sense of honor, who puts actual importance in keeping their word. That's one of the nicer things about them. I was a very typical American when I started on this beat. Id say Id be somewhere and I wouldnt, I was late for appointments... To me those are typical American traits — sloppy, forgetful, doesnt honor their word, and doesnt remember the favors that have been done to them. Over time, Ive learned that if you say to one of these people, yeah Ill call you, then you better call them. Every time you say youll do something, you do it, and you build credibility with these people. Im willing to accept their codes of behavior and live by them. There's a lot of wisdom in the things that they've taught me. What's bad about that is that I'm probably a very hard person to be with. I'm a very hard person to date and to have as a friend because my expectations are high. As a result, I don't have that many close friends. I don't know if I'll ever date anyone again. Most of my closest friends are either cops or criminals. You've also said in the past that it's not safe for someone to be too close to you. I wonder if I should hand people a list that says: Hi, here are the risks of being close with me — like a warning on a cigarette pack — I have a dangerous job and I anger people and it might put you at risk if youre perceived as someone very close to me. I'm horribly overly paternal. I'm not a misogynist or a chauvinist, but I keep seeing women victimized. So with my friends who are female, I am overgenerous and overprotective to the point of being annoying. And there's guilt involved there. I probably care too much because I'm compensating for a time when I didn't care enough. I believe investigative journalists serve a function in society by correcting wrongs that the government or police won't address. It keeps society healthy. I believe in my cause, and am willing to risk personal injury to do that. I'd be setting a bad example for my children if I said, "When the bad guys yell in your face and threaten you, you run away." I like my job. I think I do some good in the world. Has this affected your health at all? You can toss around terms like PTSD, but that's not what it is. There's still a legitimate risk, however small, so I have to be careful. Sometimes I see someone who's walking behind me for too long or someone who just has that look and my fight or flight turns on. I think the psychological term is hypervigilance. When I walk into a restaurant I scope out the place. I almost always sit facing the door. I sleep in two to three hour shifts. I'm in lousy shape after smoking and drinking too much and being under constant stress. The other day, I had a migraine or a mini-stroke. It was ten in the morning, and I was Tweeting on my computer something funny that a yakuza boss had said recently when I noticed I couldn't see out of my left eye. I had a splitting headache and felt really nauseous. I tried dialing emergency but no words would come out of my mouth. So I walked to the clinic down the street, and they ran some tests. I had to cancel my flight to the US and book a new ticket. One of the things I love most about Japan is the public health care system. When I feel bad, I can go to the doctor without going bankrupt or worrying that my insurance company's going to drop me. If you had the choice, would you get out of this lifestyle? Yes, I would love to get out but I can't. I am trapped. How do I earn my living? I write. What's my next book about? It's about yakuza. Until I finish that book, I'm locked in. *The Yamaguchi-gumi is the largest yakuza group in Japan. The other two major ones are the Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai.
• Living with the Tesla Roadster Sport: One week in an electric light orchestra
  Shared on: February 23, 2010
  Filed under: Convertible, Coupe, Performance, Tesla, Reviews, Electric 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport - Click above for high-res image gallery After finally getting myself situated in the back of the Boeing, I notice the lady to my left wearing a Tesla fleece. As fate, the alignment of the stars and unbridled dumb luck would have it, I was seated next to Rachel Konrad, Tesla's Senior Manager of Communications... for the next 10 hours. After exchanging pleasantries, discussing each other's plans for the Frankfurt Motor Show and getting acquainted, the topic of conversation naturally turned to cars, and the Tesla Roadster, in particular. "It's not just about performance," an overly animated Konrad told me. "What journalists don't understand is how functional it is. Owners forget to clean their windshield because they never have to go to the gas station!" Okay, sure. But if you're selling a vehicle that starts at $109,000, you're interested in more than avoiding dirty hands at the pump. You want the full sports car monty. Power, poise, engagement, the lot. And a bit of green cred to boot surely doesn't hurt. So after several hours of discussion, I finally say, "Hand it over to us for a week. We'll give it a proper review on its day-to-day livability. No track tests. No slalom speeds. No smoky burnouts. Just a comprehensive assessment of functionality." A handful of phone calls and dozens of emails later, I arrive at Tesla's flagship dealership in Menlo Park, CA to pick up a full-kitted 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport. After a tutorial on the charging procedure, the internal computer and signing my life away, I was off. The Roadster was mine for the next five days, so I promptly pulled off into a bus stop, set a destination for the coast, disabled the traction control and laid a set of elevens down the street from the dealership. Ladies and gentlemen, it pays to fly coach. Follow the jump to keep reading... Gallery: Review: 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport Photos by Brad Wood / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.Continue reading Living with the Tesla Roadster Sport: One week in an electric light orchestraLiving with the Tesla Roadster Sport: One week in an electric light orchestra originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
• Pound for pound, bats can drink you under the table
  Shared on: February 3, 2010
  One of the very nice things about fruit is that it will often ferment all on its own. And a few animal species take advantage of this, deliberately seeking out fermented fruit with the objective of painting the jungle red and waking up in the natural equivalent of a ditch at the side of the road. This works well if you happen to be fairly safe from predators, but not many animals have this luxury. Fruit and nectar eating bats certainly don't fall under the heading of "immune from predation," so researchers wondered what happened to fruit bats that ate from the fermented fruit. Considering body weight and the amount of energy required to keep a fruit bat going, the researchers figured that even the low alcohol content of fruit should still be enough to mean that a night's feeding involved a substantial amount of imbibing.
• Prints of inside-out teddy bear photos
  Shared on: January 27, 2010
  Kent Rogowski takes portraits of cute teddy bears that are gutted and turned inside out to reveal their even more lovable sides. The series of photographs is compiled in the delightful 2007 book Bears. Today, 20x200 issued limited edition archival pigment prints of two of Rogowski's bears. The 14" x 11" editions are limited to 500 and sell for $50. Two 40" x 30" prints of each are also available for $2,000. Kent Rogowski "Bears" prints here and here. (Thanks, Alan Rapp!) Previously:Teddy bears turned inside-out: photo book by Kent Rogowski - Boing ...
• FreeDocumentaries Catalogs Free Documentaries for Your Viewing Pleasure [Movies]
  Shared on: January 9, 2010
  FreeDocumentaries is a large repository of documentary films that have been released by their respective copyright owners for public display. You wont be stuck watching dated old films however—the offerings at FreeDocumentaries are recent and intriguing. One of the problems with many of the free offerings you'll find on the internet, especially in the category of full length movies, is that they're rather lacking and often filled with outdated and boring films. FreeDocumentaries is packed with recent films that are quite interesting like Adam Curtis' The Century of the Self, Michael Winterbottom's The Road to Guantanamo, and Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me. You can browse the documentaries by topic, search by title or topic, or view films by the regions they document. Clicking on any film listing will give you a trailer, additional information about the film, and allow you to select the window size you want to watch the film in. FreeDocumentaries is completely free and requires no registration. Have a favorite site for watching free movies online? Let's hear about it in the comments. FreeDocumentaries [via WiseBread]
• The Kingpin
  Shared on: December 21, 2009
  An exposé of the world's most notorious wildlife dealer, his special government friend, and his ambitious new plan. Photo Gallery and more info.
• Man's ecstasy collection stolen
  Shared on: December 11, 2009
  A thief ripped off a man's collection of more than two thousand Ecstasy tablets. (Stock photo for illustration purposes only.) The 46-year-old, who lives near Amsterdam, Netherlands, contacted the police because he's afraid that someone might take some of the pills which he claims could be poisonous. From the Edmonton Sun: A report in De Volkskrant daily Thursday said the man claimed he was not a drug dealer or user. "I've tried it before but didn't like it," the report quoted him saying. "My passion for collecting comes from the varied collection of colours, shapes and logos that are printed on the pills." According to a police statement, the man gathered the pills over a 20 year period and carefully stored them in coin collecting folders. Ecstasy pill collection allegedly stolen (via Dose Nation) Previously:Obama ecstasy tablets Boing Boing Colorful ecstasy mimic tablets and cocaine in a ukelele - Boing ... MDMA and loud music affects rat sex life - Boing Boing
• One Year Later: A Glimpse At Bernie’s Life Behind Bars
  Shared on: December 11, 2009
  It sort of feels like the name Bernie Madoff has been a household one for about two decades. Hard to believe he’s only been gracing headlines for one year. But what a year it’s been. Twelve months ago, Madoff was still running his investment shop, still living with Ruth in his posh Upper East Side apartment, still gracing events in bespoke suits, still jetting off on exotic vacations whenever he felt so moved. Today, as WSJ reporter Dionne Searcey writes, Madoff is inmate no. 61727-054 in the medium-security federal prison in Butner, N.C. Searcey, in her story today, gives a good glimpse into what his life is like behind bars and prison wire. She writes: Inmate No. 61727-054 shares an unlocked cell at the medium-security prison at Butner Federal Correctional Complex with a younger man named Frank. He wears khaki prison garb and has been spotted walking on an outdoor track. He plays bocce, chess and checkers. He scrubs pots and pans in the prison kitchen. . . . The 71-year-old Mr. Madoff also is salvaging something that disappeared in the outside world the moment his fraud was exposed: respect. “To every con artist, he is the godfather, the don,” says an inmate interviewed earlier this week. Shortly after arriving at Butner in July, reports Searcey, Madoff told Nancy Fineman, who represented investors in a suit against his wife, that he was fending off inmates who wanted to make a buck off his notoriety. “People wanted his signature because they wanted to sell it on eBay, so he wouldn’t sign anything,” she says. Some of Madoff’s fellow inmates suspect he has money hidden somewhere and try to cozy up to him in hopes of learning its location. But correctional officers keep a close watch on Madoff and don’t allow groups to crowd around him. “He looks like the rest of us doing time,” says the inmate who asked not to be identified. “He just acts like a normal guy.” One of our favorite anecdotes in the story concerns the above photo. Kenneth Calvin “K.C.” White, whose prison sentence in Butner for bank robbery overlapped with Madoff’s for several weeks this summer, says he met him in the line where inmates await medication. White is an artist who painted several murals throughout the prison. Madoff struck up a conversation, saying: “You’re the guy who does all the pictures around here,” White recalls. According to White, Madoff chatted about the fraud’s aftermath, claiming he “carried” employees at Bernard L. Madoff Securities LLC for more than two decades, yet wound up with an astronomical prison sentence. “I guess he felt they turned their back on him,” White says. Still, Madoff seemed proud, walking around the prison with his head held high. “He carried on like he’d been doing time for years,” White says. Madoff asked White to paint his portrait, so the bank robber drew a fast sketch in the prison paint shop in which Madoff worked at the time, according to White. Madoff told White he didn’t want to be depicted in his prison khakis, White says, so he drew him in a suit and tie. Photo: Philly.com
• Major record labels rip off 300,000 songs for compilation CDs, may owe $60 billion in damages
  Shared on: December 7, 2009
  Commentary: Even large multinational corporations can infringe someone's copyright.
  Jazz great Chet Baker's estate is suing the major record labels for releasing his music on Canadian CDs without paying compensation (a common practice in Canada, where over 300,000 songs have been released on CD without compensation). The defendants -- Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada -- have admitted that they owe at least CAD$50 million, but Baker's estate is entitled to up to CAD$60 billion. The claims arise from a longstanding practice of the recording industry in Canada, described in the lawsuit as "exploit now, pay later if at all." It involves the use of works that are often included in compilation CDs (ie. the top dance tracks of 2009) or live recordings. The record labels create, press, distribute and sell the CDs, but do not obtain the necessary copyright licences... It is difficult to understand why the industry has been so reluctant to pay its bills. Some works may be in the public domain or belong to a copyright owner difficult to ascertain or locate, yet the likes of Sarah McLachlan, Bruce Cockburn, Sloan, or the Watchmen are not hidden from view. The more likely reason is that the record labels have had little motivation to pay up. As the balance has grown, David Basskin, the president and CEO of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd., notes in his affidavit that "the record labels have devoted insufficient resources for identifying and paying the owners of musical works on the pending lists." The CRIA members now face the prospect of far greater liability. The class action seeks the option of statutory damages for each infringement. At $20,000 per infringement, potential liability exceeds $60 billion. Geist: Record industry faces liability over `infringement'
• Scottish brewery launches beer with 32% alcohol content.
  Shared on: November 27, 2009
  'World's strongest' beer with 32% strength launched. A warning on the label states: "This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. In exactly the same manner that you would enjoy a fine whisky, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost." (from the BBC) So, who's in?