California is loaded. From Disneyland to farmland, we've got Scientology and superstars, Silicon and silicone, crips and bloods. The border. Krunkin' Clownin' Jerkin'. The surf and the turf. The boom and the bust. California is humanity run amuck and then packaged, branded and sold. California Cuisine, California Love, California Casual, California Gold, California Girls, and of course, California Dreams. If it exists in the world, it exists here and it does so with pizzaz.

Obviously, we love this stuff. That's why we're doing this project. Simply put, California is sensational. And the closer we look the better it gets: words and images, stories and songs, opinions and ideas. This project is ongoing. We hope you like what you see and say so. We plan to post often. So until that day, when we finally float off into the Pacific, California is a place. Stay tuned.

The first video is on Scraper Bikes.

California is a place.

What can government do to ensure that users have control of their own information, which might live on indefinitely on the Web? Would regulation work? Or should government stay out of this arena?

Should Government Take On Facebook? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com

This is a repost of something I wrote a long time ago:

Filtering creates four problems.

First, it requires building an infrastructure that can be used for the censorship of any content. A different government elected to power could quickly react to a "crisis" situation by blocking access to international news sources. They could literally move from decision to implementation in hours. So the infrastructure represents a significant threat to liberty regardless of how it is being used today.

Second, it is usually overbroad in practice. The system in the UK seems very carefully maintained and so it is the exception to the rule. But even they ran into a problem where they literally blocked anonymous editing of Wikipedia for the entire country. Typically these lists are not well maintained and sites end up being listed that should not be listed. In most cases these lists end up containing sites that are blocked for politically motivated reasons.

Third, there is a lot of different kinds of content that western governments deem illegal. Gambling, information about narcotics, "hacking tools," torrent lists, etc. Once the system exists there will be political demands to expand its application and there is no clear limit to what might be filtered. Once the list begins to expand the risk of accidental or politically motivated blocks increases.

Fourth, to filter is to surveil. You can't block peoples web traffic without inspecting it. When it comes to something like child porn you'd be remiss if you didn't investigate hits on your filters. So these filtering systems constitute a defacto surveillance system. At least in America you'd have to square that with the principal that you don't spy on people without probable cause, and other countries claim to uphold similar values. I think in the US they'd argue out of this corner using the rationale applied in Illinois v. Caballes - that you've no expectation of privacy in regard to evidence of your guilt, but I don't personally agree with the conclusions of that case - I think it opens pandora's box for surveillance technology.

Child porn is bad, the police ought to go after it, but that doesn't mean that and any and all approaches are equally reasonable. A total internet censorship infrastructure is a step too far in my view. I think the threat that it represents to liberty outweighs its usefulness as a law enforcement tool.

Why I don't think mandatory ISP Content Filtering is a good idea.

Representing for East Oakland, Calif., at this year's Maker Faire Bay Area (May 22nd and 23rd at the San Mateo Fairgrounds), is the Original Scraper Bike Team.

Update on Scaper Bikes.

Make: Online : Maker Faire: Original Scraper Bikes

I bet she will grow up to be a huge bitch.

YouTube - TLC Summer: Toddlers & Tiaras Sneak Peek

“Do your friends a favor. Tell them to “batten down the hatches” because there’s a HARD RAIN coming. Tell them to get out of debt and sell anything they can sell (and don’t need) in order to get liquid. Tell them that Richard Russell says that by the end of this year they won’t recognize the country.

Bears Come Roaring Forth | The Big Picture

The premise of The Vader Project is simple -- simply awesome, that is: 100 of the best underground artists and designers working today rethink the iconic black helmet that defined Darth Vader. What started as a simple idea in 2005 became a record-setting exhibition in 2009. Now for the first time, these unique pieces of art will be available to the public in an auction.

Here's the website.

The Vader Project

Trent Reznor:

More

How To Destroy Angels

For years I've been suggesting the possibility of a Prius virus - that spreads over bluetooth between Priuses when they pass eachother on the road. Finally a serious look at the issue.

You should expect that various entry points in the automotive environment are no more secure in the automotive environment than they are in your PC,” Mr. Savage said.

A couple key excerpts from the paper:

We created a “Self-Destruct” demo in which a 60-second count-down is displayed on the Driver
Information Center (the dash), accompanied by clicks at an increasing rate and horn honks in the last few seconds. In our demo, this sequence culminated with killing the engine and activating the door lock relay (preventing the occupant from using the electronic door unlock button). This demo, which we tested on both cars, required fewer than 200 lines of code added to CAR SHARK, most of them for timing the clicking and the count-down.

In our car we identified no fewer than five kinds of digital radio interfaces accepting outside input, some over only a short range and others over indefinite distance. While outside the scope of this paper, we wish to be clear that vulnerabilities in such services are not purely theoretical. We have developed the ability to remotely compromise key ECUs in our car via externally-facing vulnerabilities, amplify the impact of these remote compromises using the results in this paper, and ultimately monitor and control our car remotely over the Internet.

Cars’ Computer Systems Called at Risk to Hackers - NYTimes.com

Our main finding is that higher per capita GDP growth is significantly negatively linked to the support for extreme political positions. While estimates vary between specifications, we find that roughly a one percentage point decline in growth translates into a one percentage point higher vote share of right-wing or nationalist parties.

The global crisis and political extremism | vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists