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So why was it Yahoo, not Microsoft, that revealed to the Wall Street Journal's Matt Karnitschnig that the latter was no longer interested in a full-blown acquisition of the former? Because Yahoo surely wanted to get the word out before any more shareholders punched their ballots, while Microsoft surely enjoyed the idea of Carl's slate getting as many votes as possible.
The Yahoo statement not only begs for the event to be seen as the end of the saga, but also for a good parsing.
Yahoo: Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, today announced that discussions with Microsoft regarding a potential transaction -- whether for an acquisition of all of Yahoo! or a partial acquisition -- have concluded.
Translation: We're absolutely, positively sure that this time this is actually the end.
Yahoo: The conclusion of discussions follows numerous meetings and conversations with Microsoft regarding a number of transaction alternatives, including a meeting between Yahoo! and Microsoft on June 8th in which Chairman Roy Bostock and other independent Board members from Yahoo! participated.
Translation: We tried really hard. And adult supervision was present.
Yahoo: At that meeting, Microsoft representatives stated unequivocally that Microsoft is not interested in pursuing an acquisition of all of Yahoo!, even at the price range it had previously suggested.
Translation: We're still dreaming of $37 in May of 2008. They're now dreaming of $17 in May of 2009.
Yahoo: With respect to an acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business alone that Microsoft had proposed, Yahoo!'s Board of Directors has determined, after careful evaluation, that such a transaction would not be consistent with the company's view of the converging search and display marketplaces, would leave the company without an independent search business that it views as critical to its strategic future and would not be in the best interests of Yahoo! stockholders.
Translation: It was never consistent with that view, but we were willing to make that sacrifice to stay independent."
Yahoo: Yahoo! remains focused on maximizing value for stockholders by continuing to execute on its strategy of being the "starting point" for the most consumers on the Internet and a "must buy" for advertisers.
Translation: Though we've heard rumors another company may already occupy those positions.
Yahoo: The online advertising industry is projected to grow from $40 billion in 2007 to approximately $75 billion in 2010...
Translation: The growth of the industry will outpace our ongoing share losses within that industry.
Yahoo: ...and the company believes it has the right assets, strategic plan, Board of Directors and management team to capitalize on this growth opportunity.
Translation: It was all just a bad dream. We're so grateful to back in Kansas.
AFP - The head of the US Senate's antitrust panel has pledged a "careful review" of the joint venture on online search advertising announced by Yahoo and Google.
We'll be talking with Brendan at 11 Eastern in #boingboing. Click here to join the conversation or join #boingboing on chat.freenode.net in your client of choice.
We'll post the transcript here after we're done.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 Monsters and Critics.com | Astronauts prepare for shuttle landing Saturday Reuters - By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts checked space shuttle Discovery's landing systems and packed gear for a planned Saturday landing after a successful mission to deliver a Japanese laboratory to the International Space ... Concerns as Object Floats Past Shuttle NASA engineers inspect floating object, protrusion |
 Slippery Brick | Analyst: PS3 to Outpace 360 in June Next Generation - By Kris Graft May NPD numbers just released, but one analyst is already saying that PlayStation 3 will outsell Xbox 360 in the US for another month. May sales: GTA IV #1 with a bullet; Nintendo rules the rest NPD: May 2008 Game Sales Herald Bumper Year |
Reuters - The world's No. 2 cellphone maker
Samsung is seeking to grow in Finland, the home of top player
Nokia, with touch-screen phones, the company said on Friday.
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 Citizen | I shall call it... a Plutoid Ars Technica - By Matt Ford | Published: June 13, 2008 - 09:06AM CT Almost two years ago, a meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague changed how scientists define a planet. Meet Pluto, the Plutoid PLUTO JA ERIS virallisesti PLUTOIDEJA |
 ABC News | MySpace: My Portal? BusinessWeek - News Corp. wants its popular social networking site to be a gateway to the Internet—and go head-to-head with Yahoo and Google by Catherine Holahan Just as Yahoo! New face for MySpace as site upgrades MySpace revamping Web site to help boost usage |
Brendan I. Koerner, author of "Now the Hell Will Start," will be joining us in the #boingboing IRC channel tomorrow at 11AM Eastern time to discuss his book and the story of Herman Perry. 
AP - Yahoo Inc. became Microsoft Corp.'s takeover prey largely because Google Inc. established such a commanding lead in the Internet's lucrative search advertising market.
 NewsOXY | Yahoo Strikes Ad Deal with Google The Mac Observer - by Jeff Gamet , 8:40 AM EDT, June 13th, 2008 Following Yahoo's news that it has formally ended buyout discussions with Microsoft, the Internet search company has now revealed that it struck a paid advertiser deal with Google. Yahoo says Google deal a faster track to growth Yahoo breaks off talks with Microsoft, strikes deal with Google |
 dBTechno | Mozilla's mobile browser due out in September CNET News - While the world rightly awaits Firefox 3.0 with anticipation, it's actually the mobile Firefox browser Fennec that I am looking most forward to seeing. Mozilla Girds for Mobile Browser Warfare Firefox 3 to Launch With a Bang |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Reuters - News Corp's MySpace plans a global
redesign next week in an attempt to widen its demographics and
boost user engagement on the site, the social networking site
said on Friday.
 Javno.hr | Internet companies to block child porn sites Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Sprint (SN: Quote, Profile, Research) and Time Warner Cable (TWC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) have agreed to block Internet bulletin boards and websites nationwide that disseminate child ... ISPs: We're limiting our own Usenet groups, not blocking others Three ISPs, France, Other Countries to Block Child Porn Web Sites |
 ABC News | US still tops world on science and tech Reuters - By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States retains its global preeminence in science and technology, with a big boost from foreign students, scientists and engineers, a RAND Corporation report issued on Thursday said. Study: US retains lead in worldwide science and technology US still leads the world in science and technology – RAND study |
 dBTechno | NASA taps Oceaneering to build spacesuits for moon Reuters - By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA has turned to a new lead contractor to build spacesuits for its revived lunar exploration program that aims to land astronauts on the moon again by 2020, officials said on Thursday. Nasa awards Moon suit contract NASA Has Found Its Spacesuit Manufacturer |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 E Canada Now | Palm jumps as Verizon Wireless to sell Centro BusinessWeek - Palm Inc. shares climbed Thursday after the company and Verizon Wireless said the smart phone maker's low-priced Centro device is launching on Verizon's cell phone network. Native Facebook app for Palm OS smartphones TouchLauncher makes your Palm OS device feel like an iPhone |
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UK-based Russell Porter chronicles alt music culture in the Porter Report with aggressive wit and offbeat charm. In today's episode, Russell has a sit down chat on a stoney beach with eclectic melodramatic pop musician, George Pringle.
Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion and downloadable video.
Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring Russell Porter. (special thanks to Jolon Bankey).
Judge Alex Kozinski is a friend of free speech. Now bloggers have discovered his secret online porn stash -- and forgiven him for it. Yes, there's naked women painted like cows, a man fellating himself, and two women hiking their skirts under a "Bush for President" sign...Link (Thanks, Moe!)But the L.A. Times' "neutral" editorial language made it all sound much more sinister than it really is. Looking at the photos, they're clearly standard-issue viral emails. (Apparently his music directory even included two Weird Al Yankovic mp3s and Monty Python's "Lumberjack Song.")
The judge says he didn't know the directory was world-readable, and that many of the images belonged to his college-age son.
The internet has not only changed politics, media, and freedom speech -- it also made it easier for the judge to get caught in an embarrassing situation. But I also wonder if all the MySpace/Digg/Fark users in the world will give the judge a knowing wink, and we can all finally stop being hypocrites?
Update: Some thoughtful commentary on this from Lessig:
Here are the facts as I've been able to tell: For at least a month, a disgruntled litigant, angry at Judge Kozinski (and the Ninth Circuit) has been talking to the media to try to smear Kozinski. Kozinski had sent a link to a file (unrelated to the stuff being reported about) that was stored on a file server maintained by Kozinski's son, Yale. From that link (and a mistake in how the server was configured), it was possible to determine the directory structure for the server. From that directory structure, it was possible to see likely interesting places to peer. The disgruntled sort did that, and shopped some of what he found to the news sources that are now spreading it...His son set up a server to make it easy for friends and family to share stuff -- family pictures, documents he wanted to share, videos, etc. Nothing alleged to have been on this server violates any law. (There's some ridiculous claim about "bestiality." But the video is not bestiality. It lives today on YouTube -- a funny (to some) short of a man defecating in a field, and then being chased by a donkey. If there was malicious intent in this video, it was the donkey's. And in any case, nothing sexual is shown in that video at all.) No one can know who uploaded what, or for whom. The site was not "on the web" in the sense of a site open and inviting anyone to come in. It had a robots.txt file to indicate its contents were not to be indexed. That someone got in is testimony to the fact that security -- everywhere -- is imperfect. But this was a private file server, like a private room, hacked by a litigant with a vendetta. Decent people -- and publications -- should say shame on the person violating the privacy here, and not feed the violation by forcing a judge to defend his humor to a nosy world.
When it comes to government invasions of our privacy, we are (and rightly) a privacy obsessed people. We need to extend some of that obsession to the increasingly common violations by private people against other private people. There is nothing for Chief Judge Kozinski to defend because he has violated no law, and we live in a free society (or so he thought when he immigrated from Romania). A free society should feed the right to be left alone, including the right not to have to defend publicly private choices and taste, by learning not to feed the privacy trolls.
Painters Chris Crites and Chris Reccardi are having a joint show at Seattle's Roq La Rue Gallery opening tomorrow, Friday June 13.
Reccardi, known in the animation world for his work on Ren and Stimpy, Powerpuff Girls, and Spongebob Squarepants, paints space age daydreams he calls "psy-fi." Crites generated quite a buzz in recent years with his paper bag paintings of vintage mugshots. For this new show, he created an entire series of firearm portraits. They resemble screenprints, but actually each color is hand-painted separately with no overpainting at all. The Roq La Rue show runs until July 5 and all of the work is also viewable online. At top, Reccardi's "Miss Mono" (acrylic on board). Below that, Crites's "M16" (acrylic on pine).
Link to Reccardi gallery, Link to Crites gallery
Previously on BB:
• New psi-fi paintings by Chris Reccardi Link
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comBefore you can take your rover to the moon, you need to test it on Earth.
This week, NASA engineers did just that at Grant County ORV Park in Moses Lake, Washington, which they chose for its similarity to the moon's terrain.
As NASA takes its first steps to establish a permanent lunar outpost -- the first step in a journey that will eventually take humans to Mars -- testing like this will be critical to the safety and success of its missions. It's been almost 36 years since humans were last on the moon, and under Project Constellation the next journey is planned for 2020. It may seem a long way off, but the timeline is short, given the work that needs to be done for such a monumental task.
Included in the tests were lunar rovers, robots, space suits and shelters. Click through the gallery to see this previously untested equipment in action. Take away the clouds and sky, and you can almost imagine how the actual mission will look.
Left: Adrian Emry, 7, of Moses Lake, gives a thumbs-up sign to NASA engineer Bill Welch after wrapping up a day of lunar-related experiments.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comThe NASA Autonomous Drilling Rover (Scarab) navigates a crater. The rover was built by Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute and is designed to drill up to a meter into the moon's polar regions.
This design won't actually be traveling to the moon, but it's an intermediary model for a future design that will. A drilling rover must be lightweight to conserve power but also strong enough to drill through the lunar rock (regolith).
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comThe NASA ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer) Rover is stated to be the vehicle of choice for future lunar explorers. The robot comprises a base and legs below an interchangeable cabin, which is mounted on top. The legs are quite versatile: They can walk across rocky terrain, step up ledges, lift payloads, drill and perform assembly tasks.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comATHLETE rovers can even work together to lift heavy objects with their well-articulated legs.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comThe ATHLETE's legs can also collapse entirely, gently lowering their payload to the moon's surface.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comThe NASA Lunar Crane is designed to be a lifting- and precision-positioning device to give astronauts a hand during early lunar outpost construction.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comNASA engineers Bill Welch, left, and Kevin Groenman watch the K10 robot from the Crew Mobility Chassis during a test. The astronauts' perches can pivot 360 degrees providing the operators an excellent view of the surrounding landscape.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comIn order to keep the Crew Mobility Chassis from becoming stuck in lunar dust or barreling straight down a steep crater, each set of wheels on the truck can pivot individually in any direction. The vehicle can drive sideways, forward, backward and any direction in between, allowing it to zigzag down hills and parallel park at docking stations.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comNASA engineer Bill Welch takes a moment to walk around the Crew Mobility Chassis and stretch.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comNASA engineer Kevin Groenman photographs a test.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comNASA engineer Kevin Groenman's visor reflects the control panel on the Crew Mobility Chassis.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comNASA engineers Bill Welch, left, and Kevin Groenman discuss operations during a test on the sand dunes.
: Photo: Ingrid Barrentine/Wired.comThe NASA K10 lunar robot surveys simulated lunar landing sites. The robot runs on Red Hat Linux and performs highly repetitive, long-duration tasks such as site mapping and science reconnaissance that would be difficult for a human crew to conduct manually.
Little green men might shock the secular public. But the Catholic Church would welcome them as brothers.
That's what Vatican chief astronomer and papal science adviser Gabriel Funes explained in a recent article in L'Osservatore Romano, the newsletter of the Vatican Observatory (translated here). His conclusion might surprise nonbelievers. After all, isn't this the same church that imprisoned Galileo for saying that the Earth revolves around the sun? Doesn't the Bible say that God created man -- not little green men -- in his image?
Indeed, many observers assert that aliens would be bad for believers. Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research, once wrote that finding intelligent other-worldly life "will be inconsistent with the existence of God or at least organized religions." But such predictions tend to come from outside Christianity. From within, theologians have debated the implications of alien contact for centuries. And if one already believes in angels, no great leap of faith is required to accept the possibility of other extraterrestrial intelligences.
Since God created the universe, theologians say, he would have created aliens, too. And far from being weakened by contact, Christianity would adapt. Its doctrines would be interpreted anew, the aliens greeted with open -- and not necessarily Bible-bearing -- arms.
"The main question is, 'Would religion survive this contact?'" said NASA chief historian Steven J. Dick, author of The Biological Universe. "Religion hasn't gone away after Copernican theory, after Darwin. They've found ways to adapt, and they'll find a way if this happens, too," Dick says.
The central conundrum posed to Christianity by alien contact would involve the Incarnation -- the arrival of Jesus Christ as God's representative on Earth, his crucifixion and the absolution of humanity's sins through his forgiveness.
"It would still be true -- but if there are other races and intelligences, then what is the meaning of this visit to our race at that time?" asked Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno, who in 2005 penned the booklet Intelligent Life in the Universe?
Some propose that the Earthly incarnation of Jesus some 2,000 years ago redeemed all intelligent creatures, in all places and -- since a space-faring race is likely older than us -- in all times. Others have suggested that Jesus could take multiple forms.
"Just as Jesus is human like you and I, you would find an alien-specific Jesus," said Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary professor Ted Peters.
But Peters and others also say that aliens may not have fallen into sin, instead existing in a state of grace, neither having nor needing Jesus. In that case, missionaries would have no call to convert them.
"Would sin be the same on another planet as we conceive of it here? Would there even be sin, or would God be present to that species in a completely different way?" says Richard Randolph, a Kansas City University ethicist.
All this, however, assumes that humanity not only encounters new forms of life but also understands them. Other intelligences may be incomprehensible to us, thus intensifying another doctrinal question: What does it mean to be made, as the Bible proclaims, in God's image?
Many astrotheologians argue that God's image refers to our spiritual nature, with our physical forms being irrelevant. Not everyone, however, agrees.
"If there are aliens, the Bible specifically does not say that they were created in his image," said Mark Conn, pastor of the Noble Hill Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri. "God created many other intelligent beings on this planet, and they were not created in His image."
Conn's church recently met to discuss the issues posed by extraterrestrial contact, ultimately deciding that "if they're there, they're there. It doesn't change a whole lot."
Unlike Peters, Conn suggested that missionary work may be required, something the aliens may not welcome -- especially if, as many postulate, they are technologically superior to humanity and do not have religions of their own.
"Maybe they'll say that they used to need religion but have outgrown it. Some people say that would be a great blow to religion, because if an advanced civilization doesn't need it, why do we?" said Douglas Vakoch, director of interstellar message composition at SETI.
"I don't buy it, though. I think religion meets very human needs, and unless extraterrestrials can provide a replacement for it, I don't think religion is going to go away," he continued. "And if there are incredibly advanced civilizations with a belief in God, I don't think Richard Dawkins will start believing."
First, we all had mild Asperger's. Now, Internet addiction disorder? Give a geek a break. In the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Jerald Block proposed that Web abuse be added to his field's bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Block cites research from South Korea, where, he says, the affliction is considered a serious public health problem, and the government estimates that 168,000 children may require psychotropic medications. In China, the Beijing Military Region Central Hospital puts the number of teenage pathological computer users at 10 million.
Like other addicts, users reportedly experience cravings (for better software, faster machines), withdrawal (logging off may cause irritability), a loss of sense of time (wee-hour fixes), and negative social repercussions (it's so much easier to date an avatar). Sound familiar? Your friend the World Wide Web may be a monkey on your back. Or not. Just ask yourself this: If Google were a drug, would I smoke it?
1983: Pioneer 10 becomes the first human-made object to pass outside Pluto's orbit and leave the central solar system.
Pioneer 10 must be considered one of the most successful spacecraft of all time. Designed for deep-space exploration, which at the time of its launch in 1972 meant pretty much anything beyond the moon, Pioneer 10 achieved a number of firsts while sending back valuable data along the way. Among the milestones:
Following liftoff, Pioneer 10 achieved a breakaway speed of 32,400 mph, making it the fastest human-made object to leave the Earth. It shot past the moon in a mere 11 hours and crossed Mars' orbit in just 12 weeks. By the time it reached Jupiter on Dec. 3, 1973, Pioneer 10 was moving along at a crisp 82,000 mph.
On July 12, 1972, Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt. NASA described this as a "spectacular achievement" and, considering that asteroids the size of Alaska hurtle through the belt at 45,000 mph, there's no reason to dispute the claim.
Upon reaching Jupiter, Pioneer 10 sent back the first direct observations and close-up images of the solar system's largest planet. It was data from Pioneer 10 that confirmed that Jupiter is mostly a liquid planet.
After clearing Pluto's orbit (considered the boundary of the planetary solar system in the decades before astronomers decided Pluto isn't really a planet), Pioneer 10 continued to send back valuable data regarding solar wind, until its scientific mission ended in 1997.
All attempts to contact Pioneer 10 were terminated following the spacecraft's last transmission of telemetry data on April 27, 2002. Nevertheless, NASA's Deep Space Network received a final, faint signal on Jan. 22, 2003. It's been silence ever since.
Although lost to contact forever, Pioneer 10 continues its endless journey through interstellar space. It's headed in the general direction of Aldebaran, the brightest star in constellation Taurus, forming the bull's eye. According to NASA, it will take about 2 million years for Pioneer 10 to reach Taurus.
So Pioneer 10's mission, originally intended to go 21 months, lasted 25 years and change. As project manager Larry Lasher said, "I guess you could say we got our money's worth."
Source: NASA
The bill makes it flatly illegal to break any kind of digital lock, or to violate terms in one of those absurd end-user license agreements that make you promise to agree to let the record industry kick your teeth in and drink all your beer, just for the dubious privilege of paying for a song at iTunes or watching a video on Viacom's website. This amounts to private law: under Prentice's plan, Parliament would get out of the business of making copyright law, simply enforcing whatever copyright law the entertainment industry itself dreamed up.
This is even worse than the approach the US DMCA took ten years ago, and look where that's got them. Tens of thousands of Americans have been sued, key innovative technology companies have been destroyed, computer scientists have been jailed, and what did it get them? Certainly not an end to infringement -- file-sharing is up in every country in the world. And for all the money the record industry has harvested from tech startups and music fans, not one dime has been paid to an artist.
Here's your chance to tell your Member of Parliament what you think. Kat sez, "Copyright for Canadians ) has a handy tool that makes it easy to email your MP about bill C-61. After you send your email, print it out, address an envelope and send a physical copy, too--no stamp necessary! Here's the address:
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A0A6"
Link
(Thanks, Kat!)
Ten volumes of Diesel Sweeties! w00t!
Link
(Thanks, R!)
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