Net neutrality is a complex issue, but as tends to happen with most things these days, it gets boiled down into easily consumable, though not wholly accurate, ideological soundbites from both sides. And even when people try to have an open, even-keeled discourse about the issue, they still run into problems explaining things well. For the most part, debate on net neutrality has glossed over the fundamental, but perhaps less incendiary issues, and been characterized by intellectual dishonesty and propagandizing from activist groups on both sides. It was hardly surprising, then, to read about a panel at the Supernova conference descending into a shouting match between a Commerce Department official (ie the "anti-regulation" guy) and "pro-net neutrality" supporters in the audience. Really, it's an apt characterization of the whole debate: a bunch of yelling, very little exchange of useful information, and nobody really moves from their previously established ideology. All this means is that, in the end, it's very unlikely for the right, or even a good, solution to emerge. Instead, it will just come down to whichever side can muster the most political clout -- which is pretty much how things have gone in telecom regulation anyway.

An anonymous reader calls to our attention a blog post about the way the iPhone's multi-touch UI will strain the interface conventions of Web 2.0. This looming clash comes clearer as Apple releases more details of the iPhone's UI. Much has been made about the iPhone including Safari to provide a full web browsing experience. But this reader is wondering how compatible certain sites will be with the iPhone's input. From the post: "[Web 2.0-style interaction] makes somewhat heavy use of 'onmouse' events and cursor changes... along with CSS a:hover styles. The iPhone challenges those particular Web 2.0 conventions, though, because it is a device that not only adds support for another pointer, but at the same time eliminates them as interface objects... [T]he user doesn't get to express their attention with the iPhone... They only get to express their immediate action." This reader asks, "What other pitfalls lurk in the multi-touch web? Do any Slashdot readers plan to adjust their sites to ensure they work with the iPhone, and can you think of any similar issues that will crop up with such a different browsing experience?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We still can't figure out why anyone thinks "bluespamming" is a good idea. Bluespamming, if you don't know, is setting up a system to look for phones with bluetooth enabled, and sending them an automatic message if they're nearby. It's spam, via bluetooth. Yet, for some reason, many organizations that are doing it, such as the US Navy don't seem to realize it's intrusive and annoying. The latest to dip into bluespamming are police in West Yorkshire who somehow think that bluespamming people reminders to lock their doors and windows will be effective. Perhaps it'll teach people to better lock up their mobile phones so bluespamming doesn't bother them instead.

Xeni Jardin:

The excellent Afrigadget blog has a post up today about a man named Peter Kahugu, in Banana Hill, Kenya (near Nairobi), who makes a living using his bicycle to sharpen knives for his neighbors:

AfriGadget reporter Afromusing and I had an opportunity to interview Peter who has modified his bicycle with a belt, a set of tensioning pulleys and a grinding stone to make it a knife-sharpening machine. By kicking the bike up onto its stand and engaging a gearing system, he is able to use “leg-horsepower” to drive a grinding wheel and sharpen knives while “on the move”.

Peter has been at this for 2 years now and he makes about Kshs 500 ( app. 10 US$) a day by riding his mobile workshop from client to client sharpening all their knives as he goes. The grinding stone he uses has lasted an astounding 2 years and he has had to replace his drive belt a couple of times but that is as simple as cutting up a long strip of rubber from an old car or bicycle tire inner tube.

Link, with some awesome video.

Spamicles writes "The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to subpoena documents from the Bush Administration related to the government's admitted eavesdropping on Americans' overseas emails and phone calls without getting court approval. In a 13-3 vote, the Committee decided to authorize its chairman to issue subpoenas for documents related to the NSA warrantless surveillance program. Nearly any request is going to be met with tough resistance from the White House, and the confrontation over the documents 'could set the stage for a constitutional showdown over the separation of powers.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It's pretty much par for the course that when a data leak gets disclosed, it's followed up a few weeks later with another announcement revealing that even more people's information was lost than first thought. Whether that's because it takes some time to figure out the extent of losses or is just a PR ploy is open for debate. In any case, you might remember the recent case in Ohio, where the personal information of all the state's 64,000 or so employees was lost when a storage device containing it was stolen out of an intern's car. True to form, the state's governor has issued an update, revealing that it's not just the state employees whose info was stolen, but a total of about 500,000 people, including welfare recipients, state employees' dependents, and taxpayers with uncashed income tax refunds. We noted earlier that the intern had the device as part of the state's security protocol, in which employees rotated taking backups home with them in case data on the state's system was lost. While storing backups off-site has some merit, this incident highlights the idiocy of just passing out devices to employees and having them take them home, rather than storing them in some more secure manner. The state has now ordered an end to the practice, while the state police have set up a post office box "in hopes that the storage device would be returned anonymously." Somehow, given the great job state officials have done to advertise the potential value of the device, that seems pretty unlikely.

Xeni Jardin:
- soyuz bags
- freitag f-cut
- chocochochouse
- floppy disk shoulder bag
- file folder messenger bag

Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Xeni Jardin: We, ah, (self-important clearing of throat) blogged that "Pentagon gay bomb" thing over two years ago -- so when the meme reappeared recently around the blogosphere, I swore to abstain. But this post from Noah Shachtman over at Wired's "Danger Room" finally broke me down:

Military technology has inspired some of history's greatest films: Firefox, Stealth, Crimson Tide... the list is practically endless.  But never, to the best of my knowledge, has a gay porn house dared to plat in this arena, strived to go head to head with these timeless classics.  Friends, I can now report that this imbalance has been rectified:

Following the controversial political parody of Gaytanamo, released to huge critical acclaim earlier this year, New York'??s most filthy-fun gay film studio Dark Alley Media today announced plans to kick the US Government while it'??s down.

Gay Bomb will take us into the future and the year 2012. George the Second has refused to step down as leader of the ??free world,? and the nations of Europe have banded together to fight the new American military dictatorship.

Desperate to fend off its attackers, the US launches the experimental gay bomb, designed to make the enemy forces drop their guns and turn fag.

But the winds of fate blow in a different direction, and soon America is brought to its knees.

Link

Valleywag has a story that Federated Media is paying "star writers" to recite a Microsoft marketing slogan.

I sent emails to several of the writers and Microsoft PR. I also asked John Battelle, the founder of Federated Media, if this is true. He said: "As usual, it's a bit more naunced."

I have reason to not trust Valleywag, they've said things in the past I've known were not true, so right now I don't know what to believe.

On the other hand the Federated Media site is for real, and it has quotes from the people Valleywag says are quoted. So some of it is true. Battelle didn't deny it.

Technical malfunctions at the major airlines seem to be growing in frequency, as this week saw a computer glitch at United lead to major disruptions. Specifically, the culprit was a computer system that's supposed to calculate the weight of each flight before takeoff (via Today in the Sky). Once it went down, operations ground to a halt, per FAA regulations. It didn't help that the airline's entire computer system was completely centralized, as that prevented it from failing at all elegantly. Problems such as this one are also exacerbated by the lack of slack in the system right now, which guarantees that any mishap will lead to a catastrophic chain reaction. Between these two things, brittle IT systems and a shortage of good infrastructure, it seems increasingly likely that flying will remain painful for some time.

Mark Frauenfelder: Travis Corcoran owns a how-to DVD rental service called SmartFlix. A while back, a DVD maker contacted Corcoran and told him to stop renting his DVD on SmartFlix. Corcoran said no, and the DVD maker hired a lawyer, with the almost-too-good-to-be-true name of Robert H. Tourtelot.

Tourtelot's methods of trying to get Corcoran to stop renting his client's DVD are unique. First, he joked with his client that Corcoran was under 5'6" tall (cc'ing Corcoran in the email). Next, the attorney challenged Corcoran to a fight (including an implied death threat):

Tourtelot: Dear Mr. Corcoran: I am in receipt of your e-mail to my client, Mr. XXX. I note your comments about me. I have a proposition for you. I will pay your way to California if you will agree to come and meet me in a gym, the address of which the limo driver who meets your flight will have.

Oh yes, the deal only includes a one-way ticket, as I do not believe you will be needing the return portion! Ciao, and have a good day. RHT

Corcoran: Are you proposing a boxing or MMA match?

I accept. I’ll pay my own way back, of course.

Any weekend in June works for me.

Please mail the airline ticket (departing from Logan Airport, in Boston) to the address I previously supplied.

I look forward to our bout (I usually do heavy bag work in my training sessions, but I’ll make sure to add some speed bag work to the mix over the next few weeks).

Shall we specify the same $1,000 wager that you suggested to Mr. XXX in your bet about my height?

Tourtelot: Plain and simple, pal. A street fight.! By the way, do you have a Black Belt also?

Corcoran: Please send the plane ticket.

Belive it or not, the story gets even better from here. Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Hilarious exchange between lawyer and SmartFlix

Albert Sandberg writes "According to a developer blog, it looks like Opera 9.5 (which has been code-named Kestrel) will be the first browser to fully support the CSS selector test (test is here). Finally! Weekly builds should start being available in a few weeks."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mark Frauenfelder: Some of the most interesting books in the world are being published by Feral House and Process Books. These independent publishing houses are run by Adam Parfrey and Jodi Wille in Los Angeles, and they have unique knack for discovering previously hidden worlds filled with interesting characters and amazing stories. Jode and Adam are insanely curious about forgotten, covered-up, and whitewashed history, and their books are full of mind blowing surprises.

They've just released a bunch of wonderful new titles. Here's a rundown of some of my favorites:

Jim Goad’s Gigantic Book of Sex, by Jim Goad

The author of the notorious ‘zine ANSWER Me!, Shit Magnet (Feral House), and the best-selling Redneck Manifesto (Simon & Schuster) lampoons every imaginable aspect of human sexuality in 224 hilarious, illustrated, full-color, R-rated pages.

Poop Culture: How America Is Shaped by Its Grossest National Product, by Dave Praeger

Is “The Origin of Feces” a Darwinian concern? Perhaps not, but it is the title to the preface of this tongue-in-cheek and unexpectedly revealing exploration of human behavior by the webmaster behind the popular PoopReport.com.

Mexican Pulp Art, from the Collections of Bobbette Axelrod and Ted Frankel

The lurid cover art of Mexican pulp novels is a pop culture revelation. Never before seen in an English or even Spanish-language collection are the often surreal and psychedelic images of extraterrestrials, robots, dinosaurs, dastardly killers, Zorro, Santo, and many other icons from stories involving suspense, mystery, romance and the supernatural.

Top Secret Tourism: Your Travel Guide to Germ Warfare Laboratories, Clandestine Aircraft Bases, and Other Places in the United States You’re Not Supposed to Know About, by Harry Helms

Here is the unseen America of government facilities and installations protected by a wall of secrecy, deception, and misinformation. It includes huge, isolated areas (some larger than the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island), along with innocuous office buildings located in the middle of major cities. This “other America” has an enormous impact on your life, but you probably have little idea of its extent, scope, and power.

American Hair Metal, by Steven Blush

There was a time -- not so long ago -- when pomp and spandex dominated MTV and pop radio playlists. American Hair Metal celebrates this orgy of flamboyance, androgyny and animal magnetism, of big-haired alpha males and the beautiful women who surrounded them. Rare photographs of the biggest bands and unsung heroes surround revealing quotes about the sex, drugs and Rock & Roll style of ‘80s American hair metal.

Guitar Army: Rock and Revolution with The MC5 and the White Panther Party, by John Sinclair

Guitar Army is the incendiary book that proclaimed “Rock and Roll is a Weapon of Cultural Revolution.” This 35th anniversary edition of Guitar Army includes two dozen previously unpublished period photographs, recent writings from John Sinclair, and an introduction from Michael Simmons. A bonus CD contains rare recordings of MC5 and other Detroit-area revolutionary bands, Allen Ginsberg, Black Panther Bobby Seale on the White Panthers, and original White Panther Party meetings.

And here a couple of upcoming books from Process and Feral House that look interesting:

The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, YaHoWha 13, and The Source Family, by Isis Aquarian and Electricity Aquarian

It was 1972, time of the cult-occult-commune explosion. By day, the Source Family served organic cuisine to John Lennon, Julie Christy, Frank Zappa and others at the famed Source restaurant. By night, in a mansion in Hollywood Hills, they explored the cosmos through the channeled wisdom of their charismatic leader, Father Yod. Father was an outlandish figure who had 14 “spiritual wives,” drove a Rolls-Royce, and fronted the rock band Ya Ho Wa 13, now considered by collectors to be one of the most singular psychedelic bands of all time.

Here are some photos of Father Yod and his commune.

The Secret King: The Myth and Reality of Nazi Occultism, by Stephen E. Flowers and Michael Moyniha

The Secret King is the first book to explode many myths surrounding the popular idea of Nazi occultism, while presenting the actual esoteric rituals used by Heinrich Himmler’s SS under the influence of rune magician Karl-Maria Wiligut, the “Secret King of Germany.”

David Pescovitz and I are going to visit with Adam and Jodi soon for an on-location podcast.

For many years, there's been a push for a "broadcast treaty" that would provide a new kind of intellectual property right. It would be a "broadcast right." Basically, it would be like a copyright, giving broadcasters total control over content they broadcast (and how others can broadcast it) even if they don't own the copyright to that content. Where this gets quite problematic is where it conflicts with copyrights. If a broadcaster were to take something in the public domain and broadcast it -- they could then effectively control it with this "broadcast right" even if they don't have the copyright on it. That's problematic for many reasons -- and luckily there's been enough pushback on it that the plan has gone nowhere for years. We can add some more time to that as the latest plans for such a treaty have fallen through after the various delegates couldn't agree on what level of protection to give broadcasters. This isn't over, of course, but it's nice to see that the attention directed at this issue has had enough influence to keep it from passing.

Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed has reversed himself completely over the charges against Brian Kelly, arrested for wiretapping after videotaping a police stop. Now let's see if they are good enough to compensate Kelly for the 26 hours he spent in jail and the anguish of the cloud over his future caused by a felony arrest. From the article: "... [DA] Freed said his decision will affect not only Brian Kelly, 18, but also will establish a policy for police departments countywide. 'When police are audio- and video-recording traffic stops with notice to the subjects, similar actions by citizens, even if done in secret, will not result in criminal charges,' Freed said yesterday. 'The law itself might need to be revised.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Last year, eBay announced that it would quit the Chinese market, as its auction service had failed to gain traction in the country. But since eBay didn't want to give up on such a large market entirely, it announced that it would partner with local firm Tom Online and another auction service at some point in the future. Now the company says it's close to bringing its partnership to fruition, although the relaunch has been slower than originally planned. Other than the fact that it's partnering with a well-known local company, it's not clear that anything will be different about the service. That being said, if it does take off, it would seem that most of the value is probably coming from Tom and not eBay, since that's the main difference. Seeing as the major US internet firms have had a tough time cracking the Chinese market, such partnerships have been and will continue to be popular. But if the local companies feel that they're bringing most of the value, they may begin to wonder why they're bothering to ally with US companies.