The end of Round 8 of our Three-Minute Fiction contest has finally arrived. We’ve read through more than 6,000 stories, and now our judge for this round, novelist Luis Alberto Urrea, has picked his favorite.

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Tiffiniy from Fight for the Future (standard-bearers in the fight against SOPA) sez,

Congressional hero of the SOPA wars, Senator Wyden, said about cyber security legislation (CISPA and Lieberman-Collins) that is expected to be taken up and passed in early June: “I believe these bills will encourage the development of an industry that profits from fear and whose currency is Americans’ private data. These bills create a cyber industrial complex that has an interest in preserving the problem to which it is the solution.”

Furthermore, privacy is awesome — it lets you be yourself without fear of unjust scrutiny. But, these bills would end meaningful privacy and install meaningful surveillance. But, we can change the game: www.privacyisawesome.com.

CISPA passed the house recently. That seems like a blow, but unless a similar bill passes the Senate, that means nothing. We have one week to kill CISPA indefinitely. The playbook for this is rolling out today. If we can get senators to just stop and think for a minute before they vote on the bill, the clock will run out on it. To do that, we need to call Senate offices in the thousands requesting meeting at and information on Memorial Day events and during the Senators’ recess, and get meetings in every state.

We’re looking for people who can help keep building the movement for internet freedom, and who want to help stop CISPA.

Privacy is Awesome. Kill CISPA. (Thnaks, Tiffiniy)

Musician Amanda Palmer, whose Kickstarter project for an all-singing, all-dancing tour plus album plus art book plus videos extravaganza is heading for the $1,000,000 mark, explains where all the money is likely to go, and how much she’ll make, and what she sees as the future of things. It’s a really good look at the economics of a “deluxe” self-funded entertainment product. One thing I think she’s missing from this is the extent to which all this stuff is more expensive and time-consuming when you’re doing it for the first time, and the likelihood that her next project will be a lot simpler/more streamlined when she’s only inventing one or two new things, rather than the whole shebang.

in no fucking case scenario do i get a check for $1,000,000 and laugh my way to the bank, then book a private jet to ibiza where a limo filled with hookers and blow will be waiting to escort me to a slamming nightclub called “la uno percento” where i then spend my time contemplating my handsome nose job in the darkened mirrored bathrooms (probably weeping).

and you know what else? if i wind up truly loaded someday, it means i’ll probably buy an abandoned church somewhere and turn it into a free 24-hour circus brunch bar for everybody. cross your fucking fingers. we’ll all win.

stay tuned.

this is just the beginning.

we’re all investing, dollar by dollar, pledge by pledge.

investing not just in the future of my little record and band, but in an idea whose time has come.

and this is a good thing.

LOVE,
afp

WHERE ALL THIS KICKSTARTER MONEY IS GOING, by amanda fucking palmer

Ilustrator Jed Henry is creating a series of Nintendo characters based on the style of traditional Japanese ukiyo-e woodcut prints. The images above depict Link from The Legend of Zelda and a sketch for an upcoming Mario Kart print.

[via technabob]

More:

• Block Printing 101 @Craftzine.com blog
• How-To: Block Printing @Craftzine.com blog
• HOW TO - Woodblock Printing @Craftzine.com blog

Matt Simmons, who writes the Standalone Sysadmin blog, has been wondering why there are ashtrays in airplane toilets, even though you aren’t allowed to smoke anywhere on or near an airplane, and you haven’t been allowed to do so for quite some time. It turns out that airplane toilet ashtrays are mandatory: “Regardless of whether smoking is allowed in any other part of the airplane, lavatories must have self-contained, removable ashtrays located conspicuously on or near the entry side of each lavatory door, except that one ashtray may serve more than one lavatory door if the ashtray can be seen readily from the cabin side of each lavatory served.” (Code of Federal Regulations for airworthiness). Simmons explains why:

The plane can not leave the terminal if the bathrooms don’t have ashtrays. They’re non-optional.

That’s an awfully strange stance to take for a vehicle with such a stringent “no smoking” policy, but it really does make a lot of sense. Back in 1973, a flight crashed and killed 123 people, and the reason for the crash was attributed to a cigarette that was improperly disposed of.

The FAA has decided that some people (despite the policies against smoking, the warning placards, the smoke detector, and the flight attendants) will smoke anyway, and when they do, there had better be a good place to put that cigarette butt.

Engineering Infrastructures For Humans (via Digg)

This is the ultimate in aspirational automotive paintjobs, surely. It’s more unsourced net.stuff — anyone know where it originated?

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Larger size here. And, Amazon link, if you’re so inclined. (Thanks, Joe Sabia, via Reddit)

Read the text of the “anti-Sharia” bill that passed in the Kansas state legislature last week. I’m no legal scholar, but it sure does seem like you could use this to make a case that it’s now illegal to ban gay marriage in the state of Kansas. If so, that would be an amusing bit of irony, no? (Via Slacktivist)

Here’s a blooper reel of Ricky Gervais and Sesame Street’s Elmo cracking wise and crossing the line.

Gervais + Elmo = Hilarity on ‘Sesame Street’ (via Metafilter)

In 1987, he was invited to a White House dinner by Ronald Reagan. Few of the guests appeared to know who he was. During dinner, Nancy Reagan turned to him and asked what he’d done with his life to merit an invitation. Straight-faced, Davis replied: “Well, I’ve changed the course of music five or six times. What have you done except fuck the president?”

Miles Davis: his wardrobe, his wit, his way with a basketball [The Guardian] (via Reddit)

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest has issued a preliminary injunction against the clause in the National Defense Authorization Act that gave the administration the power to arrest people and hold them indefinitely, without a trial, if they were believed to support terrorism. She dismissed the government’s arguments in support of the clause (NDAA §1021), which were just a rephrasing of Obama’s bullshit, georgebushian signing statement, which consisted of “Nothing to see here” and “I’m a good guy, don’t worry about it.”

“This court is acutely aware that preliminarily enjoining an act of Congress must be done with great caution,” she wrote. “However, it is the responsibility of our judicial system to protect the public from acts of Congress which infringe upon constitutional rights. As set forth above, this court has found that plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits regarding their constitutional claim and it therefore has a responsibility to insure that the public’s constitutional rights are protected.”

In a phone conference, the plaintiffs’ attorneys Bruce Afran and Carl Mayer hailed what they called a “complete victory.” “America is more free today than it was yesterday due to the courageous and righteous and very sound ruling by Judge Forrest,” Mayer said. “I think this is a hugely significant development… I think it’s also a testament to the courage of the plaintiffs here.”

One of those plaintiffs, O’Brien, was also jubilant in a separate interview.

“I am extremely happy right now, and what I’m most happy about it is that this ruling has given me trust,” O’Brien said, “Trust is the foundation of just and stable governments, and this ruling gives me hope that we can restore trust in the foundations of government.”

Judge Blocks Controversial NDAA (via Reddit)

(Image: NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from worldcantwait’s photostream)