There hadn't been an eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula in nearly 800 years. A different volcano in Iceland erupted in 2010, spewing ash that caused long-lasting trouble for international air travel.
(Image credit: Icelandic Coast Guard/AFP via Getty Images)
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An LGR retrospective about Fujitsu's Fin Fin on Teo the Magic Planet, a (sort of) voice-controlled virtual pet for Windows PCs from 1996! Specifically the 1997 US Deluxe Edition that came with a plastic bird whistle and its own microphone. The press were enamored with FinFin for a time but it seems to have disappeared almost entirely from the public consciousness in the years since. So let's befriend this weird alien dolphin bird from the 90s!
Back in 2019, Techdirt wrote about a fascinating case involving a bogus CC license on a 3D scan of a 3000-year-old bust of Nefertiti. The person at the heart of the saga was the artist and open access activist Cosmo Wenman. His web site has some background on what he calls his "freedom of information projects":
For more than a decade, museums around the world have been making high-quality 3D scans of important sculptures and ancient artifacts. Many institutions freely share those 3D scans with the public, allowing us to view, copy, adapt, and experiment with the underlying works in ways that have never before been possible. But some keep their scans out of public view, and I've been trying to help them see the light.
Following his success in liberating the 3D scan of Nefertiti, Wenman is now trying to do the same with 3D scans of the works of the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Many of these scans have been created by the Musée Rodin in Paris. There is a long and entertaining article (in the original French and an English translation - pdf) about Wenman's pursuit of the 3D scans, and of the Musée Rodin's refusal to share them. Wenman took an interesting tack, claiming that the museum's 3D scans were documents subject to France's freedom of information (FOIA) laws. It worked:
In late 2018 I sent a formal demand to Musée Rodin for access to all its 3D scans, citing French freedom of information laws. When the museum refused to comply, I brought the matter before the French government.
In June of 2019 the French government agency that oversees FOIA matters announced its first-of-its-kind opinion, in my favor; 3D scans produced by French national museums are in fact administrative documents and are subject to public disclosure. Musée Rodin is required by law to give the public access to its 3D scans of Rodin's works.
Another victory for Wenman, then, but rather a hollow one. Despite the French government agency's ruling, Musée Rodin continues to withhold the 3D scans. Wenman went on to file a suit against the museum in the Administrative Tribunal of Paris. Wenman wants the court to compel the museum to comply with the law, and to impose "significant" financial penalties for any delay. After more than a year with no response, the court directed the museum to present a defense. At the time of writing, Wenman is still waiting. However, given the unequivocal nature of the rulings against the Musée Rodin, he is confident:
Musée Rodin is going to fight, but I expect to win. The outcome will affect every national museum in France, inform policies at institutions around the world, and have interesting effects on the art market.
I’m shooting for a victory for open access, and freedom and innovation in the arts.
The knock-on effects of one person's dogged pursuit of a few computer files could have a major impact on the wider availability of 3D scans of sculptures and ancient artifacts -- a real win for the public domain.
Enlarge / A Cricut maker in its natural habitat: a carefully staged table full of miscellaneous crafting bits. (credit: Cricut)
Crafting device-maker Cricut has completely abandoned a plan to start requiring all device owners to pay a monthly subscription fee following a week of sustained public blowback.
Cricut makes cutting machines for precise detail work used by millions of home crafters. The machines work much like printers, but in the inverse: you put a pattern into the software, send it to the device, and the machine slices your design into paper, vinyl, fabric, or a hundred other materials. Users who owned the machines have always been able to import as many of their own designs into the software, Design Maker, as they wish.
Last week, however, Cricut announced it was imposing a $7.99 monthly subscription fee for anyone who wished to upload more than a handful of patterns into Design Maker in a given calendar month. The subscription would apply not only to new users, but also to the millions of consumers who already laid out hundreds of dollars for a Cricut device and all its attendant accessories.
“Georgia shooting suspect attended church, was from Atlanta area.” — Original headline of a Reuters’ article about the man charged with killing eight women in Atlanta. The headline was eventually changed.
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Female Asian Massage Parlor Workers Tragically Perish Due to Unwise Career Choice
Local Christian Carried Away in Righteous Crusade Against Houses of Lust Seeks Forgiveness
Neglected Sex-Addict Within Failing Mental Health System Goes on Rampage
Georgia Man Steps Up and Takes Responsibility for Lashing Out After Bad Day
Model Minorities in Need of Upgrades? How Asian Americans Can Prevent Being Attacked
Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) episode 188: Shrek: Fairy Tale Freakdown. The Nerd just wants to watch Shrek... but he ends up reviewing one of the worst fighting games on the Game Boy Color based on Shrek... until he's eventually captured by some creepy Shrek cultists. There's a lot going on. Shrek is love, Shrek is life after all. This is the first episode of Season 15 of AVGN.
Skits by 3GI http://the3gi.com Created by Grant Duffrin Produced by Justin Silverman
![[Future update] Well, someone accidentally dropped an M&M in their cup of ice water, and we all panicked and scattered.](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/post_vaccine_party.png "[Future update] Well, someone accidentally dropped an M&M in their cup of ice water, and we all panicked and scattered.")
![Hobbes: "There is no sovereign! There are no rules, nothing is stopping us from a war of all against all!"
Kropotkin: "Chill out, we don't need a sovereign at all, why don't we all just cooperate? "
Hobbes: "How can we cooperate without the King threatening to kill us?! It's Impossible! It can't be done!"
Kropotkin: "Easy. Each of us will work in the mutual aid of the others. Some of us will fish, others build homes, others farm. At the end we will all share in the proceeds and live in peace and harmony."
Hobbes: "Hmm...that sounds pretty good. Yeah, let's try that! "
Kropotkin: "Great, so who knows how to fish?"
[silence]
Kropotkin: "To farm?"
[silence]
Kropotkin: "To build shelters? To hunt? To make clothes?"
[silence]
Kropotkin, annoyed: "Does anyone know how to do anything besides philosophy?"
Russell: "I am pretty good at predicate logic and mathematics. "
Kropotkin: "Good god, we are all going to die."](https://static.existentialcomics.com/comics/PhilosophersRebuildSociety2.png "\"See this is why the ideal republic has a horde of simpletons, who we lie to and they do all the hard work for us.\"")
