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Impotent futurism: the design of Allende's cyber-utopian boondoggle

Greg Borenstein sez, "This is a video version of a paper I delivered with Jem Axelrod at the 2009 PAMLA Conference about Project Cybersyn, an early 70s socialist pseudo-internet built by British cyberneticist Stafford Beer in Chile. The video explores how Beer's writing, infographics, and industrial design worked together to create a science fictional narrative of omniscience and ominpotence for Salvador Allende's socialist government." Free As In Beer: Cybernetic Science Fictions (Thanks, Greg!) Previously:Futurism, fictional and science fictional - rambling and inspiring ......

Just look at this awesome banana slicer.

Just look at it. Banana Slicer Previously:Just look at this awesome banana bunker. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome banana saver clip. HOWTO disassemble a banana - Boing Boing Robber uses banana as "gun" - Boing Boing Hemant "The Friendly Atheist" Mehta Interviews Ray "The Banana Man ... Giant vintage banana lamp - Boing Boing 11 students suspended for banana prank - Boing Boing Forlorn bananas of London - Boing Boing Peeling bananas from the other end is easier - Boing Boing...

Photographers win British war on photography?

Is Britain's war on photography coming to an end? After the Independent newspaper got senior officials to admit that anti-terror legislation was being "widely abused...to question and search innocent photographers," the Association of Chief Police Officers has sent out a strongly worded memo to all officers ordering them to cease the practice. The harrassment of photographers by police officers is said to have senior officers "exasperated, depressed and embarrassed," and they characterize officers' belief that anti-terror laws prohibit photography as an "internal urban myth." Chief Constable Andy Trotter, chairman of Acpo's media advisory group, took the decision to send the warning after growing criticism of the police's treatment of photographers. Writing in today's Independent, he says: "Everyone... has a right to take photographs and film in public places. Taking photographs... is not normally cause for suspicion and there are no powers prohibiting the taking of photographs, film or digital images in a public place." He added: "We need to make sure that our officers and Police Community Support Officers [PCSOs] are not unnecessarily targeting photographers just because they are going about their business. The last thing in the world we want to do is give photographers a hard time or alienate the public. We need the public to help us. "Photographers should be left alone to get on with what they are doing. If an officer is suspicious of them for some reason they can just go up to them and have a chat with them - use old-fashioned policing skills to be frank - rather than using these powers, which we don't want to over-use at all." Section 44 of the Terrorism Act allows the police to stop and search anyone they want, without need for suspicion, in a designated area. The exact locations of many of these areas are kept secret from the public, but are thought to include every railway station in and well-known tourist landmarks thought to be at risk of terrorist attacks... Police U-turn on photographers and anti-terror laws (Thanks, Mutant Rob!) Previously:Current TV on photo bans in UK - Boing Boing UK cop: 'War on terror means no pictures of police vans in ... UK mall bans grandparents for trying to photo their grandkids ... UK man hassled by cop for not having a "camera license" - Boing Boing BBC photographer prevented from shooting St Paul's because he ... London cops declare war on photography - Boing Boing UK Home Secretary green-lights harassment of photographers in ... Another London photographer arrested for "terrorism" (i.e. "taking ... BBC photographer prevented from shooting St Paul's because he ... London's Spitalfields market: shoot the architecture, we take away ......

For iPhone in C minor

A group of students at the University of Michigan has formed a smartphone orchestra. Attached to the musicians' wrists, each iPhone runs an app recreating a selected instrument: "Now everybody has a smartphone, the question of how you get an instrument into people's hands has disappeared." [BBC]...

Latest lame UK gov't excuse for supressing drug policy report: "if we release it, it will be hard to manage the news"

The British government has reached new heights of absurdity in stonewalling the release of a report on the efficacy of drug prohibition. The report was commissioned from independent academic researchers, and various activist and citizen groups have spent years filing four separate Freedom of Information requests for it. The government has manufactured excuse after excuse, going out on such bizarre limbs that even the Economist has taken notice. The reason is that next March the National Audit Office (NAO), a public-spending watchdog, is due to publish a report of its own on local efforts to combat drugs. The Home Office says that to have two reports about drugs out at the same time might confuse the public, and for this reason it is going to keep its report under wraps. This is believed to be the first time that a public body has openly refused to release information in order to manage the news better. The department argues that releasing its internal analysis now "risks misinterpretation of the findings of the [NAO] report", because its own analysis is from 2007 and predates the NAO's findings. The argument uses section 36 of the FOI act, which provides a broad exemption for information that could "prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs". The information commissioner, who polices the FOI act, declined to comment because the case was still open. But his predecessor, Richard Thomas, who stepped down in June, questioned the novel defence. "Certainly my office was always quite sceptical of anything which said publishing information is going to confuse the public. If that's the case, normally you need to put out some extra material alongside it to provide adequate explanation. It's not a reason for withholding something." Transform Drug Policy Foundation: Media Blog: Transform FOI vs Home Office suppression of research - Part V (in The Economist ) (Thanks, Steve!) Previously:BB Video: United Nations Drug Policy- the Skeptics Chime In ... Will Obama continue failed drug war policies? - Boing Boing Govt's self-justifying marijuana policy - Boing Boing The Narc Who Got High: What In The Heck Is The Big Deal? - Boing Boing Drew Carey on medical marijuana - Boing Boing Drinking and smoking worse than acid and X - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Anti-drug war video Erowid drug information site goes nonprofit - Boing Boing Lawmakers read script written by biotech/drug giant's lobbyists ... Afghanistan: Karzai's drug-dealing bro has been on CIA payroll for ... Crashed drug plane owned by US Government? Boing Boing DC-area mayor whose dogs were shot dead in botched drug raid to ... UK MPs to hide their expenses from Freedom of Information requests ... UK govt's "What to do about fraud" page "withheld because of ... Keyword-based RSS feeds of UK Freedom of Information requests ... Band "shoots" video by sending Data Protection Act requests to ... UK Freedom of Information requests blog - Boing Boing...