K.benton

My friend Aaron Swartz's suicide, just over six months ago, brought attention to MIT's role in his prosecution over downloading scholarly articles from their network. JSTOR, the service that hosted the files Aaron was accused of downloading, dropped its case against him, and it was widely reported that the only reason the Justice Department was able to go ahead with its threats of decades of time in prison for Aaron was MIT's insistence on pressing the case against him. MIT's administration was so shaken by the negative publicity following Aaron's death that they commissioned professor Hal Abelson (a good guy, in my experience) to investigate the university's role in his prosecution.

Now, though, MIT has blocked a Freedom of Information Act suit by Wired's Kevin Poulsen aimed at forcing the Secret Service to release their files on Aaron. A court recently ordered the Secret Service to stop screwing around and release Aaron's file, but before that could happen, MIT intervened, arguing that if the world could see the files, they would know the names of the MIT employees who insisted that Aaron deserved to go to jail for what amounted to checking too many books out of the library. MIT argues that its employees would potentially face retaliation (though not, presumably, threats of felony prosecutions, million-dollar fines, and decades in prison) if their names were known.

MIT claims it’s afraid the release of Swartz’s file will identify the names of MIT people who helped the Secret Service and federal prosecutors pursue felony charges against Swartz for his bulk downloading of academic articles from MIT’s network in 2011.

MIT argues that those people might face threats and harassment if their names become public. But it’s worth noting that names of third parties are already redacted from documents produced under FOIA.

I’ll post MIT’s motion here once it’s filed.

I have never, in fifteen years of reporting, seen a non-governmental party argue for the right to interfere in a Freedom of Information Act release of government documents. My lawyer has been litigating FOIA for decades, and he’s never encountered it either. It’s saddening to see an academic institution set this precedent.

I agree with Poulsen. This is a dark day in MIT's history. Today, the administration devalued the reputation of every student, alumnus and faculty member. The "MIT" on your resume is in danger of becoming a source of shame. MIT's stakeholders must demand better of their administration.

MIT Moves to Intervene in Release of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File [Kevin Poulsen/Wired]

The NYT's John Schwartz, who is himself from Texas, live-tweeted the dramatic proceedings yesterday in the Texas Senate surrounding one of the strictest anti-abortion measures in the country. The law was pushed forward by governor Rick “The louder they scream, the more we know that we are getting something done” Perry.

No surprise: it passed. Read John's coverage today, and weep.

The bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and hold abortion clinics to the same standards as hospital-style surgical centers, among other requirements. Its supporters say that the strengthened regulations for the structures and doctors will protect women’s health; opponents argue that the restrictions are actually intended to put financial pressure on the clinics that perform abortions and will force most of them to shut their doors.

Perry thanked lawmakers for passing the bill: “Today the Texas Legislature took its final step in our historic effort to protect life.” A funny thing to say about a law that puts the lives and health of women in unprecedented danger, along with the lives and health of their children. And stranger still, by the governor of the state with the highest death penalty stats in the U.S.

In case you missed it, the final hours in the Texas Senate chambers last night were full of craziness.

Again, from John Schwartz's piece:

The Senate took up the bill Friday afternoon, and people had begun lining up for seats in the third-floor Senate gallery early in the morning. Department of Public Safety officers, their numbers swelled in anticipation of crowds and tumult, searched every bag and confiscated anything that could be thrown — including, for part of the day and until the practice became an object of derision online, tampons. Department officials said the searches had turned up jars “suspected to contain” urine, feces and paint, along with glitter and confetti, but offered no proof.

For shame, America. For shame.

Previously on Boing Boing: "Texas Republicans fail to pass restrictive abortion bill, after long night of filibuster, debates over parliamentary procedure, and 'unruly mobs'"

Before vote, @DavidHDewhurst asks that "we not forget to love each other. As Christ loved the church as we love all of those unborn babies."

— John Schwartz -- NYT (@jswatz) July 13, 2013

Leaving the post-vote speech: "take this state back"--@WendyDavisTexas pic.twitter.com/CeIaMlOpkc

— John Schwartz -- NYT (@jswatz) July 13, 2013

Outside the Capitol, @kirkpwatson lauds the democratic caucus. pic.twitter.com/PB4zDk70wA

— John Schwartz -- NYT (@jswatz) July 13, 2013

#HB2 will force Texas women "to make dangerous, sometimes deadly decisions." @WendyDavisTexas

— John Schwartz -- NYT (@jswatz) July 13, 2013

The final speech before the vote, by @WendyDavisTexas pic.twitter.com/F3E0phfnUT

— John Schwartz -- NYT (@jswatz) July 13, 2013

Lawmakers pushed to pass the law quickly, says @WendyDavisTexas, "So they won't be delayed in their climb of the political ladder."

— John Schwartz -- NYT (@jswatz) July 13, 2013

Closing her speech, @WendyDavisTexas says, “The fight for the future of Texas is just beginning.”

— John Schwartz -- NYT (@jswatz) July 13, 2013

Congressman Mark Takano (D-Riverside) is a former high-school teacher, and he put his paper-marking skills to good use redlining GOP Speaker Boehner's letter trying to scare legislators off of the comprehensive immigration reform bill. It's a devastating bit of snark. Be sure you click through for page 2.

A draft letter by Republican members to Speaker Boehner is circulating congress looking for cosigners. (via Hacker News)

I’ve always loved Mermaids, and I’ve always kept an eye out for a great mermaid sculpture wherever I go. Particularly when I show up in places like San Francisco, Seal Beach, or the Outer Banks, where mermaids abound. I’ll always run across a couple in little shell shops or maritime bookstores. But I’ve never found the one I’m looking for – the right combination of fluid, cute, sexy, and hopefully with some sea friends nearby. But you know what? I’ve never found her. The ones I stumble across are always lacking something – they’re sorta stiff, or have rather dire faces. Sometimes they’re pretty good, but attached to a lamp or a wooden sign that has beachy witticisms like, “In dog beers, I’ve only had one.”

So I’ve never found my mermaid. Till now.

For all of you who may have had a similar experience, I proudly introduce Nimue, the mermaid sculpture I’ve been looking for.

Nimue (“Nim-way”) is the first collaboration between myself and Anders Ehrenborg (www.andersehrenborg.com), who sculpted her. Anders works in New Zealand, which means he’s beset by mossy trolls and tiny glowing sprites that play tricks on him, stealing his coffee mugs and enticing him with bewitched objects that if touched, will enslave him to the fairy kingdom for a thousand years.  Imagine. Even with all that distraction and danger, Anders created this object of fluid beauty that, as far as I am concerned, finally got it right.

How many sailors would have given their last weevily biscuit to capture such a creature in their sea-chests? Anders based this sculpture on a mermaid drawing from “Sketchbook 3.” However, credit for this goes entirely to him; translating a sketch into a dimensional sculpture is the realm of genius and witchcraft, if you ask me.

Also, I owe the creation of this to Jessica Steele, who is also a creature of the deep. She spends most of her time with dolphins and sharks, and was sick and tired of my whining about the failings of seaside shell shop mermaids, and thus pushed me to find a way to produce one that will keep me quiet. Her notes and advice were invaluable as Nimue took shape. Jessica knows all things in the ocean, and kept me properly focused on fins and scales and hair that maintained fluidity.

Nimue is a limited-edition resin. She is 7.25 inches tall, and comes in four versions. Blonde hair with blue tail and blue shark, green hair with green tail and grey shark, and a topless variant of each, for those that like their mermaids without shells. The baby manta ray is a slightly darker blue on the green version. Jessica named the fat baby shark Clarence.

So that makes four versions to choose from. I’ll post the topless variants tomorrow. The ones pictured here are the prototypes, and they will be in San Diego if you happen to pass by our booth (which is #5534, just like last year). We will be taking pre-orders in our online store.  Statues will ship starting January 2014.

I read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game for the first time back in January, and I loved the novel so much that I changed my online avatars to a teaser poster from the forthcoming movie. What I didn't know, however, until someone on Twitter yelled at me for supporting the work of a homophobe, is that Orson Scott Card is a terrible person. I checked with Steven Lloyd Wilson to confirm, and he ended up writing an amazing piece on the fall of Orson Scott Card. It read, in part:

And thus Orson Scott Card's gradual descent into a poisonous brand of politics has been nothing short of tragic to anyone who has read the masterpiece of Ender's Game. His main focus has been on homosexuality, though he has ranged across the entire landscape of small-minded and hateful political issues over the last decade. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the vicious dreck Card has blathered onto the Internet over the last decade ended up being a performance art demonstration of the hateful populism that Demosthenes used to great effect in Ender's Game.

Naturally, in light of Card's homophobia, many have taken to boycotting the upcoming movie, though the studio and people behind the film are trying very hard to distance themselves from the author. Card, a Mormon and National Organization for Marriage board member, finally spoke to the issue in Entertainment Weekly.

Ender's Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984. With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state. Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.

Oh, I SEE. He wants us to afford him -- and other opponents of gay marriage -- the tolerance that he and those didn't afford us for supporting gay marriage. How so very hypocritical of the douchebag.

Here's the thing, too: I know many people who are suggesting that we should separate the movie/book from the author, and in many cases, they're absolutely right. But maybe they're not as right when it comes to Ender's Game because, as Steven noted in his piece, while the book didn't espouse Card's views on homosexuality, through his Peter character, he did in a way promote his anti-democratic values,

And in retrospect, it's Peter who really announces what Card thinks about the way the world works. Peter's the character who subverts the government, who takes over the world behind the scenes, with pseudonyms and back door deals to gather power like a pile of poker chips, before ruling the world for the rest of his life as a supposedly benevolent dictator. The contempt for democracy, the loathing for the very idea that the people should make their own decisions about their futures, is staggering in Ender's Game once noticed.

Something to consider.

Andy from the Royal Institution made a large, suspended Möbius strip out of rare-earth magnets, then cooled down another magnet until it became a superconductor, and set it levitating and running around the track. The result is amazing, plus Andy's explanation is cogent and fascinating. Plus, gravity-defying levitation!

Levitating Superconductor on a Möbius strip (Thanks, Ed!)

Well that's terrifying. A democratic senator says "It’s long past time for Congress to create a federal law that defines" who is a journalist. So the government can "protect" them, of course. Protect them from awful, traumatizing leaks, I suppose. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Janet says, "Despite what the official statistics say, metastatic (stage IV) lung cancer is NOT an automatic death sentence. Newer therapies and personalized medicine now offer such patients months or even years of quality time to spend enjoying family, friends, hobbies, even travel and work. Yet insurance companies and doomsday doctors still tell many patients there's no point in pursuing further treatment. I'm an engineer, a writer, and a stage IV lung cancer patient, and I received a letter from my insurance company [ed: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois] saying there was no need for me to have another biopsy because I was going to die anyway. This blog post is my response to that letter."

I was lucky to have enough slides from a 2011 biopsy to have the University of Colorado test my tumor for the relatively new ROS1 genetic mutation in my tumor tissue. Because I tested positive for ROS1, I was able to enter a clinical trial for the targeted therapy crizotinib, a drug which inhibits my ROS1-driven cancer. The trial treatment eliminated both nodules and has given me No Evidence of Disease Status for five months. I am once again able to enjoy traveling, writing, and doing things with my family. If I had not had leftover biopsy slides, an EMN biopsy would have been my only opportunity to obtain enough tissue to test for ROS1. Without that ROS1 trial and crizotinib, I might be dead by now.

Doctors who don’t keep current on new treatment options and then decide a biopsy “is not going to affect long-term health outcomes” for metastatic lung cancer patients are insuring those patients will die sooner rather than later.

That’s not the kind of health insurance I want. Do you?

Insuring the Terminal Patient

/* by matija */

Laser Bat! Subscribe for more of Vi Hart's genius musical experiments with stop-motion animation and math. (thanks, Joe Sabia!)

Listen, I grew up with an obscene number of Barbies. There is a time and a place for tiaras, tutus and as much pink as a little girl could hope for. But that's not all little girls are made of. I remember when the GoldieBlox: Engineering Toy for Girls Kickstarter launched a year and half ago. I'm delighted to see how much progress they've made including this completely kick-ass ad campaign below. Because little boys and little girls should be able to play with whatever they damn well choose, that's true. And there's nothing wrong with being a princess. But isn't it nice to see an ad that harkens back to this era?

It is. Also, Purple Helmet Girl? You're my hero.

P.S. It was a sh*tty night for women in Texas and across the nation. I needed this.

A group of Idaho "gun enthusiasts" have created a line of ammunition meant to fight Islamic extremists. The bullets are coated in pork-infused paint. Apparently some people think that halal dietary laws are somehow related to lycanthropy.

The Adult Review

Monsters University, the prequel to Monsters, Inc., and the latest Pixar film, continues the studio's streak of stellar mediocrity and sequel cash-ins that seem to have dominated the post-Disney era of the once flawless studio. It's not that Monsters University is bad; it's that there's nothing novel or original about it. There's none of the old Pixar magic: It's a brilliantly animated, smartly voiced, and uninspired prequel, amiable enough, but certainly nothing unique. It's just another animated film, a space-filling ATM, capable of keeping the kids occupied, but not likely to inspire infinite re-watchings.

It's disappointing only in that we've come to expect so much more from Pixar, and where the studio was once capable of making movies that delighted the parents as much as the kids, they're now at the point where even the kids are shrugging their shoulders. Monsters University is the equivalent of a sixth season episode of "West Wing": You really love those characters, but they no longer have the same wit or imagination as they once did.

The prequel follows Mike and Sully's relationship in college, where Sully is an innately talented goof off, while Mike is a studious dreamer with very little scaring talent. The entire film essentially follows the Revenge of the Nerds formula: After screwing off for a semester, Sully is forced to join forces with Mike in a loser fraternity, the laughingstock Greek house of the school, where they are mocked and bullied by the university's Ted McGinley, voiced to perfection by Nathan Fillion (really, the highlight of the film). They must engage in a scare competition. Because of a bet with the headmistress of the school, if they win, they get to continue on in the school's scare program. If they lose, they're booted from the university. You can guess how it ends, though there is a twist, but it's not a particularly interesting one.

The film is cheerful and genial, boasting a decent line here or there, but there's not a special moment in the entire movie. It's hollow, peopled with a few characters we care about because of Monsters University who are put into contrived, predictable situations that provide little pay off. It's a safe, conservative film, hewing close to formula and offering little in in the way of memorable moments. It's more Disney than Pixar, although that line is becoming less clear.

A Nearly-6-Year-Old's Review, By Way of an Interview

Pajiba: What did you think of Monsters University?

Lil Pajiba: I liked it. (Note, he also "likes" greens, tomatoes, and things I spend a great deal of time preparing, because he's polite and doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.)

P: Did you like it better than Monsters, Inc.

Lp: No, Monsters, Inc. was way better. But Daddy, isn't it funny that the first movie came out in the theaters second, and the second movie came out first?

P: That is funny. They call that a prequel. There are prequels to the Star Wars movies, but they're not very good. What did you like about Monsters University?

Lp: I really liked the end (the tag, after the credits), and the snail was really funny (he had literally 45 seconds in the film), and then it was bad, and then it was good again, and then it was bad, and then bad some more.

P: Did you not like the ending?

Lp: No. I didn't like the way that it ended, and I didn't like the scary parts.

P: Oh, I see. Did you like it better than Epic?

Lp: No. Epic was awesome.

P: What about The Croods?

Lp: Epic was way worse than The Croods. The Croods is at the very top with Star Wars. Then Monsters, Inc.. Then Epic. Then Monsters University is in the middle. (He really likes to rank things.)

P: What about the Phineas and Ferb movie?

Lp: That was the BEST. Except for the zebra who calls everybody Kevin, because I don't like him at all.

P: If your friends asked if they should see Monsters University, what would you tell them?

Lp: They should see it.

P: What if they could go to the beach or see Monsters University, which one would you choose?

Lp: Definitely, definitely the beach.

P: What about the park?

Lp: Definitely the park. It's real, and sometimes Monsters University is scary.

P: What if you had to choose between Monsters University and playing with the iPad?

Lp: Hmmm. That's hard. Monsters University.

P: Why?

Lp: Because it lasts longer, and I usually don't get to play the iPad that much, and because I get M&Ms at the movie.

P: Oh, I see. That makes sense. OK. One last question. If you could only see Monsters University if you had to clean up your sisters' room first, would it be worth it?

Lp: If it were a little bit of a mess, maybe. If it were a big mess, then no way!

P: Awesome. Thank you very much. You can go play now.

Lp: Can I play with the iPad?

P: Only if you clean your sisters' room first.

Lp: Grrrr. *loud sigh* Fine.

The casting descriptions for the forthcoming Star Wars film are all we have to go on so far in trying to piece together what the film might be about, and from what I can gather by the new characters is that they all have to be "fit," except for the old guy, because no one cares what the old guy.

Casting calls are like spring training, y'all: As long as you fit one of the descriptions, you all have a chance! Unless you're overweight, then give up those dreams.

Here are the seven new character descriptions.

Late-teen female, independent, good sense of humour, fit.

Young twenty-something male, witty and smart, fit but not traditionally good looking.

A late twentysomething male, fit, handsome and confident.

Seventy-something male, with strong opinions and tough demeanour. Also doesn' t need to be particularly fit.

A second young female, also late teens, tough, smart and fit.

Forty something male, fit, military type.

Thirtysomething male, intellectual. Apparently doesn't need to be fit.

(Bleeding Cool via Vulture)

James Gandolfini, Emmy winning actor best known for his role as Tony Soprano in "The Soprano" has died, according to reports from Deadline. Gandoflini reportedly suffered a heart attack while in Italy. The Park Ridge, New Jersey native leaves behind a wife, Deborah Lin, a one year old daughter, and a son from a previous marriage.

Gandofini was last seen in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Zero Dark Thirty and Killing Them Softly and was filming another mafia pic, Animal Rescue, with Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace.

R.I.P. Mr. Gandolfini. 51 is too damn young.

Here's his great appearance in In the Loop.

"Suicide. It's so beautiful, you guys." -- the most dangerous thought that can occur to a person / a gleefully accepted suggestion in Vice's last content meeting.

Well, as you may have heard by now, Vice, in its latest Fiction issue, decided to create an entire fashion spread dedicated to female authors who've committed suicide (and Dorothy Parker because she ded, whatevs). Each meticulously staged photo was complete with fashion credits (you, too, can purchase the stockings Sanmao used to hang herself! Wear them with a cute herringbone skirt!) and the death details of each author (but not, like, mentions of her work or anything unnecessary like that, because all that matters is live fast, die young, literary girls do it well, I suppose).

I don't want to shock you. But pretty pictures depicting the suicides of severely ill women who left a legacy of much more than death did not sit well with the internet.

Only after the firestorm (about fourteen hours of it) did Vice make the goodhearted sacrifice of pulling the images from their website.

"Last Words" is a fashion spread featuring models reenacting the suicides of female authors who tragically ended their own lives. It is part of our 2013 Fiction Issue, one that is entirely dedicated to female writers, photographers, illustrators, painters, and other contributors.



The fashion spreads in VICE Magazine are always unconventional and approached with an art editorial point-of-view rather than a typical fashion photo-editorial one. Our main goal is to create artful images, with the fashion message following, rather than leading.



"Last Words" was created in this tradition and focused on the demise of a set of writers whose lives we very much wish weren't cut tragically short, especially at their own hands. We will no longer display "Last Words" on our website and apologize to anyone who was hurt or offended.



--VICE

As always, it only seems like a good idea to pull the offending piece after an internet shitstorm. Also, it's still in the published magazine, so enjoy the suicide, I guess.

I mean, I don't have to say things like "as someone whose family has been affected by suicide blah blah blah" right? I don't need to point out that for young artsy teens who go through life unable to fit in, the idea that suicide is somehow poignant is incredibly dangerous and this photo shoot literally glorifying its glamour is horrifically negligent? I don't need to point out that a spread that basically says "Elise Cowen jumped out a window. Buy these shoes for $600!" is really fucked up, right? Cool. Just making sure we're on the same page.

Joel Santo Domingo, reviewing the new 13-inch Air:

Road warriors and jet travellers rejoice, we’ve found a laptop that will last all day and well into the night. The newest Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Mid-2013) lasted an astonishing 15-and-a-half hours on a battery test that makes most current mainstream ultrabooks and ultraportables cough and die after four to six hours. The fact that the system gives up very little if any day-to-day performance is astounding.

Not bad.

"Kristjan Loftsson, CEO of the the company Hvalur hf." Photo: News of Iceland.

Icelandic news outlets are reporting that an Icelandic whaling company, Hvalur hf, "caught its first fin whale yesterday evening," after sailing out yesterday with two boats, both due back in port today.

Fin whales are the second-largest whale, and are classified as an Endangered species.

From News of Iceland:

The whale quota is for 154 fin whales but 20% of unused quota from last season can be added to that number, so possibly a total of 180 whales will be caught. Since 2009 there has been in effect a five year licence to catch the species so that licence expires this year. All of the products from the fin whales will be sent to Japan, except for the fish meal and the fish oil, they are for human consumption. Around 200 people will be employed because of the whale hunting, at land and sea. The products will be processed at three locations in Iceland: Hvalfjord, Hafnarfjord and Akranes.

The Animal Welfare Institute, one of many animal advocacy groups protesting the hunting of this endangered species in Iceland, issued a press release condemning the kill:

Susan Millward, executive director of AWI, said, “Contrary to statements from Icelandic government officials, these majestic animals, second in size only to blue whales, are not ‘Icelandic’; they belong to no one country. Fin whales are highly migratory, endangered, and are protected under a number of international treaties.Today’s killing of an endangered fin whale makes it absolutely clear that years of international diplomatic efforts have failed, and that Iceland is determined to act as a rogue whaling nation, no matter the cost to this species, and to the country’s own tourism and seafood industries.”

From Agence France Press:

Fin whales are the second largest whale species after the blue whale. Iceland also hunts minke whales, a smaller species. That hunt began in May, and so far seven minke whales have been harpooned, whaling officials said.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a global moratorium on whaling in 1986 amid alarm at the declining stock of the marine mammals. Iceland, which resumed commercial whaling in 2006, and Norway are the only two countries still openly practising commercial whaling in defiance of the moratorium.

Japan also hunts whales but insists this is only for scientific purposes even if most of the meat ends up on the market for consumption.

Fine artist Angela Palmer takes CT/MRI scanner of people and animals, engraves the data onto thin glass sheets that are then combined into 3D sculptures. Recently, she's used the same technique to reproduce data from the Kepler telescope too.

"Angela Palmer: Life Lines"

"Kepler: Goldilocks" (NASA)

I'm not sure if Ken Levine -- a former "Cheers," "Wings," and "M*A*S*H" writer/producer, as well as the guy who wrote the awesome Tom Hanks movie, Volunteers and, er, Mannequin: On the Move -- is officially retired from writing, but of late, he mostly blogs, and he's really good at it. He's like a blogging pundit now, talking at length about the industry, about his time on the many sitcoms he's written for, weighing in on the Dan Harmon stuff, and even slamming Zach Braff for his Kickstarter. For a 63 year old coot, he's pretty f*cking fantastic, and his blog is always a great source of intelligence and amusement.

This falls into the latter category, as I guess Ken Levine woke up this morning, having had a fever dream about Christopher Nolan remaking Mary Poppins, and he committed the idea to a blog post. Check out the whole thing here, but here's an excerpt:

It now takes place during the bombing of London in World War II. Let's take some creative historical license and blow up Big Ben and the Parliament building. We have the means to do that in a very cool way. To punctuate the moment cut to an Englishman saying "SuperFUCKINGcalifragilisticexpialidocious!" as a double decker bus almost decapitates him. We can still say two fucks and keep our PG-13.

Bert, the street performer, is a loner with a dark past. Dick Van Dyke was fine for his day but I see Steve Buscemi. He should always be an ominous presence. He himself was abused as a child and we must always be afraid when he is around children.

His fellow street people are all damaged due to the horrors of World War I. There might be some comedy in seeing them act silly as long as we understand it is because they are deeply traumatized.

There will be no singing, dancing, or animation in this new version. Anything to take us out of the reality of innocent people being slaughtered is counter-productive. Modern children don't want fuzzy bedtime stories. They want to be scared shitless. Let's do that for three hours.

I would so watch that movie, though as someone pointed out in the comments, there is a recut trailer for Mary Poppins as a horror movie, which is also great.

The US Patent and Trademark office has awarded Microsoft a patent on a wearable “electrical device” that uses your arm or finger as “transmission channel” to "transfer data through direct physical contact with another device like a computer, smartphone, or even a game console and controller," writes Gloria Sin at Digital Trends blog. "The idea is that your body part acts as a conduit for the data to travel through, rather than beaming the information wirelessly, which makes it prone to hacking." (via @greatdismal)

A briefing offered to US senators by senior intelligence officials on the NSA surveillance programs "failed to attract even half of the Senate, showing the lack of enthusiasm in Congress for learning about classified security programs." [TheHill.com]

The story goes like this: Young Enve and Lope meet as friends in class, exchanging doodles and notes of affection. The relationship grows through time and is strengthened by a shared love of poetry, music, design, European travel, and, of course, love notes.  The culmination of the story – marriage. We sat down with Ms.Enve and Mr.Lope to talk about how they fell in love through notes and letters.

Q. Lope, what was the first thing you noticed about Enve?
A. Her hot pink bow from across the room. We were just kids, but, like a fish to a lure I was hooked. I wanted to write her a note to see if she’d notice me.

Q. Enve, what made you pay attention to Lope?
A. First of all, he thought I was pretty! Plus he noticed that my favorite color was pink. How many boys notice pink?

Q. Lope, what’s your favorite gift from Enve over the years?
A. She made me a mix tape that was all about us being together. I’ve got an old cassette player hanging around to listen to it because it’s timeless, just like Enve.

Q. Enve, how’d did you choose the songs?
A. I was feeling very much in love, so I chose songs about how we were meant to be. And a song all about how he was so super-fine.

Q. Have you ever been apart?
A. Enve: Yes, I lived in Paris for a time. While I enjoyed everything about my visit, I missed Lope all the while. Our love letters helped me feel like we weren’t so far apart.

A. Lope: While Enve was away, I loved being able to make and send her little surprises. I wanted to let her know I was thinking of her, no matter where she was.

Q. Do you have special nicknames for each other?
A. Lope: Yes. Ours aren’t that unique, but Enve will always bee the Queen of my heart.

A. Enve: And Lope has been my King from the start.

Q. Lope, how did you propose?
A. With a love letter of course!

Q. Enve, did you say yes right away?
A. Certainly! Even though we’d been writing love letters for years, that was the official start of our union, “Envelope”.

Stay tuned for more marriage news coming soon from Enve + Lope!

The Story of Enve+Lope: How the Envelope Came to Be, is the newest envelope promotion from Mohawk. You can order yours today here on mohawkconnects.com.

Photos © 2013 StudioAlex

Marco Arment:

Apple has set fire to iOS. Everything’s in flux. Those with the least to lose have the most to gain, because this fall, hundreds of millions of people will start demanding apps for a platform with thousands of old, stale players and not many new, nimble alternatives. If you want to enter a category that’s crowded on iOS 6, and you’re one of the few that exclusively targets iOS 7, your app can look better, work better, and be faster and cheaper to develop than most competing apps.

Jim Lynch:

The minute that you enter the iOS 7 home screen, you realize that it has been designed for a gaggle of giggling 13 year old girls. Most of the icons are a mishmash of pastels that exude emotionally incoherent inconsistency. Some of the icons use gradients (camera, weather and messages) and shadows (the settings icon), while others have a more flat design (newsstand, compass and stocks).

The color scheme is almost unbearable if you’re a man that appreciates the stronger, richer and more detailed icons in iOS 6.The first time you see the iOS 7 icons, it feels like somebody kicked you in the balls with no warning and for absolutely no reason.

Lynch mentions the following words and phrases several times in his piece:

• Balls: 6
• Cock: 1
• Estrogen: 2
• Masculine: 7
• Gay: 3
• “Soft, limp nothingness”: 1

The problem isn’t women in tech. It’s men.

Nilay Patel on Phil Schiller’s “performance” at the recent WWDC keynote:

“Can’t innovate anymore, my ass,” he said — a line directed not at his audience of sympathetic Apple developers, but at the nattering nabobs of negativism that have accumulated at the base of Apple’s sliding stock price.

For reference, I’ve collected some quotes from those “nattering nabobs” Patel mentions:

“The numbers beat Wall Street analyst estimates, but don’t provide a definitive rebuttal to rumors that iPhone demand is slowing down — in this quarter last year iPhone sales were up 88 percent, compared to a bump of just seven percent this quarter. Looking to next quarter, Apple is not expecting strong results.” - Nilay Patel

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“The results narrowly beat the consensus Wall Street projections, which had Apple posting a $12.8b profit on $54.8b in revenue. Apple also beat its own estimates, which were $11b in profits on $52b in revenue. Even still, that may not be enough for investors, who are hammering the stock in after-hours trading for being ‘light on revenue.’” - Nilay Patel

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“Apple posts record $8.2b profit on $36b in revenue for Q4 2012, still misses Wall Street expectations

26.9 million iPhones and 14 million iPads is a lot of money, but not enough for the Street” - Nilay Patel

Moving right along:

And the new Mac Pro is indeed innovative. It’s shockingly small and enormously beautiful in person, and it’s the sort of thing only Apple builds: the company spent significant energy reinventing a product for the smallest market it serves, even when pro customers would have been happy with updated processors in the existing model.

If Patel honestly believes all it takes to appease a very demanding, picky market like professionals is to pop in a few new processors, he’s sorely out of touch with the professional market.

Apple’s stock hasn’t slid because it’s been putting out uninspired hardware — it’s slid because the company hasn’t been able to enter any major new product categories in years, and major software efforts like Siri and iCloud have faltered in extremely public ways.

As the kids say, your mileage may vary with Siri. There are reliability and speed problems in its current iteration and it isn’t as powerful as other voice recognition software available. However, Apple did claim increased speed and utility in the new version, so I’m hopeful.

iCloud has also been a bit of a mess on the reliability front and Apple hasn’t exactly made it easy for developers to do much about it. From personal experience, I’ve lost one too many documents to THE CLOUD than I’d care to.

But it’s the first part of that sentence from Patel that tells the real story here: pundits are bored and want the new shiny. They want a watch and a television and no matter how much Apple actually gives them in the form of real, shippable products, it’s not nearly as interesting as what they’ve concocted in their minds.

The only new web services Apple presented at WWDC were iTunes Radio and a browser-based version of the iWork suite, both of which are beautiful but neither of which particularly disrupts the crowded market they enter.

Only? Knowing Apple’s track record with online products, I’m glad it only demoed two Web-based services. Any more and I would’ve worried it was stretching itself thin, what with that brand new Mac Pro, iOS 7 overhaul, OS X Mavericks, and new MacBook Airs. How much more is expected from one company during a two-hour keynote meant for developers?

iOS 7 features a flashy and controversial new design, but there were few significant examples of how iCloud would expand or enhance the experience of using an iPhone beyond a handful of feature updates, and nothing to address the growing trend of power users with homescreens full of third-party replacements for core apps.

Craig Federighi demoed 10 new features of iOS 7 - again, it was a two-hour keynote - but there was a lot he didn’t talk about due to time, and many of those features are Web-related.

And while I’d love to set a third-party app as my default for email or reminders, look at all the jailbreak tweaks and checklist items Apple did knock off with the new iOS:

• Improved multitasking with better control
• Control Center
• Improved search
• Improved Notification Center
• Live-updating icons
• More gestures
• Multi-page folders
• Activation lock

And a whole lot more.

Under Jobs, Apple did an extraordinary job of changing how entire markets worked: music, movies, smartphones, tablets, laptops, all of it. But it’s been a long time since Apple offered any change on that scale, and a visually refreshed iOS 7 and the new Mac Pro aren’t proof that it still can, regardless of how bright the neon icons are or how cool those auto-illuminating port labels might be.

The iPod debuted in 2001. Six years later came the iPhone. Three years after that, the iPad was unveiled. If you’re going to invoke Jobs’s death, understand he passed away two years ago and up until just recently, the products coming out of Cupertino were part of his roadmap.

Apple is in the process of reinventing its identity with brand new versions of its products and we saw that new identity this past Monday. We don’t know if Apple will ever release a watch or a television and no amount of “sources” will make those rumors true. Obviously, Apple has work to do in beefing up its Web offerings - no doubt about it - but it is naïve to think Apple can’t reinvent a market whenever a pundit feels a particular itch isn’t being scratched at that moment.

Based on what I saw at WWDC, I’m not worried about Apple’s new direction. This is as confident and sure of itself as I’ve ever seen it. The quarterly results speak for themselves: people love Apple and they aren’t missing what they don’t have.

It's not good to let someone lick your eyeballs. Y'know, conjunctivitis, corneal abrasions, that kind of thing. That said, "worming" or "oculolinctus" is not only a sexual fetish as you might expect, but apparently a fun classroom activity among some pre-teens in Japan, according to japanCrush. There are also YouTube videos of the practice. The video above does not show the licking, but it is titled "Oculolinctus" and the description reads "Just begging for a lickin'."

"I don't ask just anyone to do it," Elektrika Energias, 29, told the Huffington Post. "Guys I like a lot are more likely to not think it's so weird. I've never had anyone turn me down though. I got some weird offshoot of TB in my eye once. I ended up with corneal ulcers and I spent like a month in the hospital."