While it's been quite natural for many folks to talk about the troubles facing the newspaper industry, it is worth noting that the newspaper business has remained quite profitable over the years. That, combined with a few other factors, has an analyst at Credit Suisse saying that the newspaper business is facing a cyclical slump, rather than as the result of a fundamental problem in the business. Thus, the analyst claims, the business should bounce back, perhaps as soon as towards the end of 2008. One factor in his argument is that troubles in the industry are due to the slump in real estate advertising, and newspaper fortunes should pick up as the real estate market begins to turnaround. While it does seem like pessimism over the newspaper business is overblown, this report is not particularly convincing. First of all, the downturn in newspaper stocks seems to have predated the real estate crisis by quite a large amount -- suggesting that the real estate troubles are only likely to exacerbate other problems. Furthermore, while the report does highlight how newspapers need to become more digitally focused, it's really not as simple as just "going digital." As we've seen time and time again, many newspapers have struggled with the transition, because they still view themselves as newspapers rather than news organizations, and they still seem to take a rather elitist view of themselves as gatekeepers, rather than as facilitators, helping people uncover what's important to them, rather than what the gatekeepers think is newsworthy. So, while we're hopeful that newspapers will figure it out, this particular report doesn't provide much support for the idea that newspapers are managing the shift well.

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Dan sez, "A nice Populux movie from Monsanto about the X-shaped House of the Future attraction at Disneyland. In the future, we won't have fridges, but 'cold zones' that descend from kitchen cupboards at the touch of a button; our plastic dishes will be washed with ultrasound; and best of all, we will have a nice view through our plastic windows of Sleeping Beauty's castle."

The Monsanto House is one of my favorite lost Disneyland attractions, the epitome of goofy, futuristic industrial optimism. The fridge even had a compartment for "irradiated food!" The plastic materials were so hardy that they reportedly stayed fresh and clean looking for decades, despite the trammelling of millions of feet, and the legend has it that the wrecker's ball just bounced off of it, necessitating deconstruction by force majeure (e.g., a blow-torch and chainsaws). Link to Part 1, Link to Part 2 (Thanks, Dan!)

A teacher working after hours in Roxbury, CT barricaded herself in a classroom and called in the police in force when she heard three teenagers (including the school custodian) performing a karaoke version of Guns N Roses's "Welcome to the Jungle" (Welcome to the jungle/You're gonna die") and mistook it for a death threat. The kids thought they were alone in the building.

State police say the teacher at Booth Free School barricaded herself inside a classroom Wednesday when she mistook someone singing a Guns N' Roses song over the public address system for a threat.

She was working after hours and thought no one else was in the building. Then she heard someone say over the loudspeaker that she was going to die.

Link (Thanks, Bill!)

Some of the Toronto members of the Fair Copyright for Canada group are planning a demonstration against the legislation next Tuesday. With the legislation dead (for now at least), this might just turn into a celebration!

Date: Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm
Location: Queen's Park
Street: 1 Queen's Park Crescent E
City/Town: Toronto, ON

Link to details on Facebook group

See also:
Canadian DMCA cancelled (again) (for now) Canadian DMCA to be reintroduced -- your action needed NOW!
Canadian DMCA stalled, won't be introduced (today, at least)!
Canadian DMCA rally in Calgary -- photos, videos, reports
O Canada! The Canadian DMCA version of the national anthem
Canadian DMCA introduced
CANADIANS! Tomorrow is your best chance to fight the Canadian DMCA! Event in Calgary, national phone-in
Canada's DMCA won't get any consumer rights added to it for a decade
Facebook group for fighting Canada's DMCA growing fast
Ranting hand-puppet tackles Canada's DMCA
HOWTO Fight Canada's coming DMCA copyright law
Canada's coming DMCA will be the worst copyright yet
Canadian DMCA: how it might have happened
CBC radio show needs your input for question with Minister responsible for Canadian DMCA
Canadian Industry Minister refuses to defend Canadian DMCA in public

Emily sez, "Taos Toolbox is a writer's workshop being run by Walter Jon Williams and Kelly Link in the summer of 2008. The workshop is an advanced workshop, aimed at grads of the Clarion/Odyssey science fiction/fantasy writing workshops to help them polish their skills and learn more about the business of writing. It'll take place in the beautiful Taos Ski Valley."

This is not a workshop for beginners. We won't teach you correct manuscript format or what an adverb is and why you shouldn't use one, because we'll assume that you already know. We want to concentrate on giving talented, burgeoning writers the information necessary to become professionals within the science fiction and fantasy field.

Though short fiction will be enthusiastically received, there will be an emphasis at Taos Toolbox on the craft of the novel, with attention given to such vital topics as plotting, pacing, and selling full-length works.

Link (Thanks, Emily!)

sapphire wyvern writes "One of geekdom's most popular authors, Terry Pratchett, has announced that he has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. The OBE-winning author of the Discworld fantasy series made the original announcement on the website of Discworld illustrator Paul Kidby. Pratchett remains optimistic: 'I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Baby's First Mythos is an ABC/123 picture book for kids that uses the mad, horrific imagery of HP Lovecraft to help you bring up your littlun right. Written by C.J. Henderson and illustrated by Erica Henderson. Link, Link to Geek Parenting review (Thanks, Amy!)

Here are several black and white videos from a 1978 B-52s show. Link

Love is forever. So is being undead. Excerpts from "Zombie Love," a film by Yfke Van Berckelaer which was recently released on DVD (special thanks to Ben Rodkin!).

Link to video and full post with comments thread on Boing Boing tv.

The clean-tech sector -- along with every other sector, company, and person who uses energy -- suffered something of a setback today at the hands of the United States Senate. By a vote of 40-59, federal tax incentives for clean-tech investments will be left to dry up at the end of next year. Using the 2007-2008 Senate math that most of us missed in 8th grade civics class, it now takes 60 votes to get anything done, including an extension of current renewable energy investment tax credits set to expire. These tax credits have played a big role in the surge of investment into wind, solar, and other clean energy technology. The votes of 40 Senators certainly don't reflect the feelings of their constituents (Americans are almost unanimous in their support for developing new sources of renewable energy) but the issue is more complicated than 39 Republican and one Democratic congresspeople who are sour on solar. The clean-tech incentives ran into a roadblock when supporters insisted on -- you'd better sit down for this -- paying for them. Specifically, the tax incentives would be paid for through the year 2016 by repealing billions of dollars of long-standing subsidies to fossil fuel companies. The escalating costs of energy are being felt by Americans who are paying significantly more to fuel their car, heat their home, and keep their lights on. Higher energy costs will eventually work their way into just about every product that we purchase and every service that we have come to enjoy. A near-decade-long extension of the federal incentives would have significantly leveled the playing field versus legacy energy systems and paved the way for continued acceleration of investment into clean-tech. The sector has seen false starts before as incentives have come and gone. Today's inaction dampens hopes that energy consumers will have alternatives any time soon, and leaves individuals, companies, and entire industries at the ongoing mercy of an aging and unstable fossil fuel infrastructure.

Dan DiPasquo is an expert at the Techdirt Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Dan DiPasquo and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Now here's something that never would have occurred to me: using ringed binders with zippered pouches inside to organize and store electronics and small hardware components.

Ultimate Parts Storage - Link

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An anonymous reader writes "There are reports that satellites have aided scientists in confirming why the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) exists. 'New data from NASA's Themis mission, a quintet of satellites launched this winter, found the energy comes from a stream of charged particles from the sun flowing like a current through twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Earth's upper atmosphere to the sun. The energy is then abruptly released in the form of a shimmering display of lights.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We've gone on at length over the years concerning safe harbors for online service providers, noting that service providers shouldn't (and usually don't, under the law) have liability for illegal actions performed by users of the service. However, many of the safe harbors that provide that protection make it clear that should the service providers be informed of illegal activities, the service providers need to take action to avoid becoming liable. However, if the service providers don't take action, what is their liability? We may soon find out, thanks to a new lawsuit involving eBay and the maker of of dollhouse furniture, Hansson. Hansson is upset that someone else is selling dollhouse furniture on eBay using Hansson's trademark. While, at first, this might sound like other such lawsuits against eBay for counterfeit goods, this case is different in a few important ways. First, Hansson actually is suing the company who is selling the counterfeit doll furniture. Second, while it is suing eBay, that's only because Hansson claims that the company sent eBay eight takedown notices and a cease-and-desist letter -- all of which were ignored. So, the question now becomes what kind of liability eBay faces if it's found that the company ignored the various notifications about infringing goods on the site. Eric Goldman, who wrote the story at the link above wonders why eBay would ignore all those notifications, but also questions whether or not it's wise on Hansson's part to drag eBay into the lawsuit just to get its attention. As he says, Hansson may get more of eBay's attention than it really wanted.

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In response to Mark's posting of the LM386 amp project on BBtv, this guy posted a link to his Minty Amps kit. I don't think we've ever blogged about this kit here. If you're lazy and want a kit version of this simple, low parts count project, these kits and PCBs look like a good way to go. If you're pathetically lazy, you can even get one pre-assembled for a mere $7.45.

Minty Amps - Link

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A few weeks ago, we asked everyone for nominations for the Open Web Awards. Thanks to all of those who nominated sites, they were tallied up. It is now time for the voting rounds. For each category, 11 sites were selected from all of the nominations from the 30 partner sites. We've created a voting page for each of these categories:

• Mainstream and Large Scale Networks
• Applications and Widgets
• Social News and Social Bookmarking
• Social Search
• Sports and Fitness
• Photo Sharing
• Video Sharing
• Start Pages
• Places and Events
• Music
• Social Shopping
• Mobile
• Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks

This round of voting closes on Sunday, December 16th at 11:59pm PST. After this, the top three sites in each category will go up against each other to determine the final winner. Happy voting!

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An anonymous reader writes "Pro-Linux reports that KDE 4, scheduled to be released in January 2008, consumes almost 40% less memory than KDE 3.5, despite the fact that version 4 of the Free and Open Source desktop system includes a composited window manager and a revamped menu and applet interface. KDE developer Will Stephenson showcased KDE 4's 3D eye-candy on a 256Mb laptop with 1Ghz CPU and run-of-the-mill integrated graphics, pointing out that mini-optimizations haven't even yet been started."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Chimera14 writes -

Remember does cool weapons that pretty much every alien in every sci-fi movie has? That awesome laser weapon he got straped to his arm and shoot without even touching? well now you can have one too! The Tunnel Glove has two modes, tunnel AND dot, and the best thing is that it's activated by clutching a fist so you don't even need to tuch it, just like in the movies!

DIY Laser tunnel glove - Link.

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Over the summer, we wrote about problems with the merger between AMD and ATI, and folks in the comments insisted we were being too harsh and not giving the deal nearly enough time (along with some words bizarrely suggesting that we were "in bed" with Intel for suggesting any problems at AMD). Turns out that AMD actually agrees with our assessment that the merger has been something of a mess. The company has admitted that it's going to do a material write-down on the merger, though it hasn't yet figured out how much. Either way, it's yet another reminder that merging two big companies isn't a particularly easy process.

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