] CNET News.com caught up to Mann at his home lab in
] Toronto, where he was planning a pair of "DECONism"
] events, featuring music controlled in part by brain
] waves. An electrode attached at the base of a
] participant's skull reads electrical impulses, which a PC
] can use to alter audio characteristics such as volume or
] tempo.

Declan McCullagh catches up with Steve Mann.

CNET | Cyborgs unite!

Elonka Sanborn research update: Various photographers (some who wish to remain anonymous) have been sending me pictures of the Antipodes sculpture at the Hirshhorn.

For those who have been following the story in my blog, this sculpture was particularly intriguing because it appeared to have the complete text of the Kryptos sculpture upon it, *and* the complete text of the Cyrillic Projector, and an additional 20% or so of other ciphertext in both languages.

It was my hope that perhaps there was extra text on the English side which would shed a clue towards cracking Kryptos. As it turned out, there *is* some additional ciphertext on the Cyrillic side, which does not appear anywhere on the Cyrillic Projector. On the English side though, it is just a mix and repeat of the code sections that are already on the Kryptos sculpture.

It's still useful though, because it is reassuring to see that Part IV is exactly the same length on Antipodes, as it is on Kryptos. There'd been some speculation that Kryptos part IV might only be the first part of a lengthier code, with the rest of the ciphertext "sucked into the whirlpool", but Antipodes seems to show that this is not the case.

Pics are now online, along with some additional info about the sculpture. Big hugs and thanks to all you anonymous photographers out there! :)

Sanborn's Antipodes Sculpture

] This weekend, a denial-of-service attack took down the
] Web site of The SCO Group, which is caught in an
] increasingly acrimonious row with the open-source
] community over the company's legal campaign against
] Linux.

Most under reported story of the day...

Hackers cut off SCO Web site | CNET News.com

] Scientists have been given the biggest ever grant to
] build a "conscious robot". The work will not only bring
] the scores of intelligent, self-aware machines that
] populate science fiction a step closer, it could also
] provide valuable clues on how human consciousness
] develops.
]
] "Consciousness is perhaps the last remaining mystery in
] understanding what it is to be human," said Owen Holland,
] who will lead the work at Essex University. "By
] attempting to build physical systems which can produce a
] form of artificial consciousness, we hope to learn more
] about the nature of consciousness."

Guardian Unlimited | Life | Scientists start work on thinking robot

] Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, has announced
] plans to give the public full access to all the corporation's
] programme archives.

] "I believe that we are about to move into a second phase
] of the digital revolution, a phase which will be more
] about public than private value; about free, not pay,
] services; about inclusivity, not exclusion.

BBC to Open Archives

] Mars holds court in the sky this week as the Red Planet
] makes its closest approach to Earth since our ancestors
] lived in caves.
]
] "It is amazingly bright," said David Hudgins, a lecturer
] in astronomy at Rockhurst University. "You cannot
] possibly miss it."

Mars is very, very bright. Even from city parks and streets -- where very few stars are visible at all -- Mars is unmistakable.

Decius: Oh, BTW, the ancient Babylonians thought that a passing of mars like this would lead to plauges and wars.

Kansas City Star | 08/24/2003 | Red star at night is their delight

] An anonymous reader writes "Mike Benham of
] thoughtcrime.org has started a cool project for sharing
] information and building community in San Francisco.
] From the website: "Unfortunately, the traditional library
] system doesn't do much to foster community. Patrons come
] and go, but there is very little opportunity to establish
] relationships with people or groups of people. In fact,
] if you try to talk with someone holding a book you like -
] you'll probably get shushed. The Distributed Library
] Project works in exactly the opposite way, where the very
] function of the library depends on interaction." It
] looks like the software is now available for other
] cities."

Slashdot | The Distributed Library Project

] This time, the RIAA will file the subpoena the way MIT has
] asked: through the federal district court in Boston, instead
] of Washington, D.C. MIT says it will comply with a subpoena
] issued through the Boston court.

] MIT says it has identified and notified the owner of the
] computer alleged to have been illegally offering the
] recordings, based on logs provided by the Theta Delta Chi
] fraternity, where the computer was located.
]
] MIT originally suspected a 'young lady' living
] at TDC over the summer as being the computer's
] owner, said an MIT official. But now, based on
] examination of the logs provided by TDC, MIT has decided
] a different individual is the computer's owner.
]
] MIT officials say they are not sure the owner is actually
] the person who was allegedly infringing the RIAA
] members' copyrights by distributing recordings on
] KaZaA.

RIAA Will Issue Second Subpoena For Identity of Music Distributor

] Recent election problems have sparked great interest in
] managing the election process through the use of
] electronic voting systems. While computer scientists, for
] the most part, have been warning of the perils of such
] action, vendors have forged ahead with their products,
] claiming increased security and reliability. Many
] municipalities have adopted electronic systems, and the
] number of deployed systems is rising. For these new
] computerized voting systems, neither source code nor the
] results of any third-party certification analyses have
] been available for the general population to study,
] because vendors claim that secrecy is a necessary
] requirement to keep their systems secure. Recently,
] however, the source code purporting to be the software
] for a voting system from a major manufacturer appeared on
] the Internet. This manufacturer's systems were used in
] Georgia's state-wide elections in 2002, and the company
] just announced that the state of Maryland awarded them an
] order valued at up to $55.6 million to deliver touch
] screen voting systems.

The press claims this paper is discredited because Avi Rubin was involved with an electronic voting company. Read it for yourself and see what you think.

Analysis of an Electronic Voting System

] Roxanne Jekot, a 51-year-old computer program developer from
] Cumming, said she and a few expert friends could crack Georgia's $54
] million touch-screen voting system in a matter of minutes.
]
] Bring it on, said state election officials.

Well, that's a nice change from the we-will-sue-you-into-quiet-submission thing that so in vogue these days..

ajc.com | Metro | Dare accepted on electronic voting machines