Archive for August, 2006

31
Aug

When Phallicism Goes Strange

By Cynapse 8 Comments
Categories: Media and Society

Ikea has a nice little controversy on their hands -

An IKEA catalogue with a photo that appears to show a dog with a larger-than-normal, human-like appendage has not been tampered with, according to the furniture giant’s Canadian office.

The first photo in the 2007 catalogue — a two-page, front-cover foldout — shows a young family lounging on a bed with a dog.

The dog, which appears to be a greyhound or whippet, seems to have one distinctly human male characteristic, prompting some to suggest the image had been tampered with by a mischievous employee using a program such as Photoshop.

ikeadog.jpg
Exhibitionist Dog Makes Computer Geeks Jealous…

Right … obviously some people have too much time on their hands (and obviously Cynapse is lacking inspiration today for propagating this story). At first glance, I thought this was the dog’s paw and nothing more. Only after reading the CTV story and a few other blogs did the idea of large human genitalia digitally grafted onto a dog for the cover of a furniture store catalog become semi-feasible. However a close-up on the dog appears to erase doubt.

ikeaclose.jpg
…For no readily apparent reason

As you can see, the appendage in question initially points to the dog’s head and folds back onto itself towards the dog’s posterior – precisely the position of a dog’s leg when laying down. It’s also very apparent that the appendage has fur on it, much like a leg and not much like a dog’s phallus.

So much for that, although I’m sure this issue will surface again. I still recall when hysterical parents thought that Disney was broadcasting subliminal messages to their children via the promotional artwork of The Little Mermaid.

lilmermaid.jpg

lilmermaidphallus.gif
The Castle Apparently Belongs to King Midas

People are very strange.

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30
Aug

The Morning After Pill – Sin or Savior?

By Cynapse 5 Comments
Categories: Ideas, Politics and Society

The American Food and Drug Administration is now allowing non-prescription access to the contraceptive Plan B, otherwise known as the “Morning After Pill”

Planned Parenthood hailed Thursday’s decision by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday to allow nonprescription sales of the pills to adult women, saying expanded access could prevent up to 1.5 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions a year.
…
Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. has sold Plan B as a prescription drug since 1999. Nonprescription pill sales should begin by year’s end. The cost “could be slightly higher” than the $25 to $40 now charged, said Barr spokeswoman Carol Cox.

Naturally, abstinence advocates and religious types are up in arms about the proliferation of yet another birth control device (some liken it to abortion since the pill is designed to work after the point of conception). However, these people miss the big picture, as Shay of BookerRising eloquently delineates -

Responsible people will probably remain responsible, by protecting themselves while having sex in the first place. Plan B is also a backup measure for folks who are generally [sic] responsible, but occasionally exhibit irresponsible behavior. However, this especially helps society lower the social costs forced on us by chronically irresponsible people. We shouldn’t have to pay the costs of their actions, so better to cut the repercussions of their actions off at the pass very early on – by preventing conception in the first place – than us suffer later. As a pro-choice advocate, I ask pro-life advocates: would you rather chronically irresponsible folks resort to this pill…or get multiple abortions down the line? I know one woman who has had 10 – yes, 10 – abortions. Others, 3 to 6 abortions. I assume that you would rather that these women take the pill. You are picking the wrong battle to fight. Be pragmatic here.

Shay’s position deserves consideration – sometimes ideologues in the Pro-Life camp need to recognize not everyone is comparatively in love with their religious or absolutist doctrine. Abstinence may be 100% effective against unwanted or “socially unacceptable” pregnancy but so would sterilization. There are people who support both practices but obviously such solutions aren’t universally appealing.

The truth of the matter is that everyone – pro-life and pro-choice- has a role to play in preventing or dealing with unplanned/undesirable pregnancies. If the two factions could set aside their mutual hatred for a little while, they could cooperate to provide a powerful plan of attack:

  • Middle school sex education can be coupled with heavy abstinence programs. Most people would agree there is no benefit in preteen or early teen sex (and most women I’ve spoken to who engaged in such activity regret it)
  • High school education, allowing for the fact that some kids are obviously going to become sexually active, could add more pro-choice content: birth control pills, condoms, Plan B Pill etc. By high school age, nearly all young people are thinking about sexual activity and will at least contemplate exploring life beyond “just say no”. Society should at least implore them to do so responsibly.
  • Upon discovery of pregnancy where the Plan B pill does not apply, pro-life groups should be given the opportunity to promote alternatives to abortion. Adoption is the most obvious alternative and may appeal to distraught young women who do not want to “kill the baby” but also know they are not ready for motherhood
  • And finally, as a last resort, access to abortion

If such a plan were implemented effectively and with full cooperation between school systems / churches / governments, the number of abortions in North America could be dramatically reduced. Unfortunately, the game of politics would never allow side A to make a deal with the devil on side B. The losers of course are the women with unwanted pregnancies and to a lesser extent society. It is time for compromise.

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29
Aug

Napster Hacked!

By Cynapse 1 Comment
Categories: Technology

The Wire’s blog reports on the inevitable hacking of Napster’s core DRM protection scheme -

A user called “viodentia” on the the [name removed! - CU] message boards … has posted links to a program called FairUse4WM that is capable of cracking Microsoft’s DRM 10, which protects files offered by PlaysForSure-commpatible music stores. The program is an easy-to-use front end to an app called drmbg that strips DRM headers from “secure” WMA files. Although he apparently developed the program to allow people to play their legally purchased music on the device of their choice, the potential for abuse is fairly high.

Napster.jpg
Recall Napster was the original “free” peer to peer music (P2P) sharing system that had the record industry hysterical over the threat of online piracy. The semi-decentralized P2P network allowed users to search each others’ hard drives for MP3 music files which often contained copyrighted music and audio books. The network was eventually shutdown in 2001 via a court injunction The brand name later resurfaced as a pay service (fronting Roxio’s PressPlay) but by its release was already overshadowed by the commercial success of Apple’s Itunes.

Like the majority of commercial music services, Napster applies Digital Rights Management (DRM) to its music files. Designed to protect the interests of copyright holders, DRM typically restricts the number and types of devices upon which a downloaded file can be played. Restrictions can also be set on burning the file to audio CD and in some cases the number of times a file can be copied in any capacity. Many users object to the use of DRM, citing they should be able to play legally purchased files whenever and however often they like. It is on this premise that hackers “officially” release products like FairUse4WM to remove bothersome DRM and allow legal purchasers more freedom in the usage of their music. Similar hacks have been released to defeat DRM schemes from rival pay services like Itunes and Audible.com.

fairusewm.jpg

It was only a matter of time before Microsoft’s DRM was hacked. All forms of copy protection have to be decrypted by some sort of software algorithm before the song can be played, which provides an opportunity for hackers to duplicate the decryption technique or redirect the output of the decrypted data. Combined with Napster’s unlimited monthly subscription model, users could use FairUse4WM to remove DRM from hundreds or thousands of copyrighted songs and make the unprotected music files widely available via current P2P sharing systems … or at least this is what the record companies fear. What is more likely is that a moderate number of Napster users will make use of this hack to liberate their files for wider use, while the file trading community at large will ignore it past the novelty stage (most popular music is available on BitTorrent / IRC / FTP long before it reaches the pay services).

Hosting or linking to a circumvention tool like FairUse4WM would be suicidal for a site hosted in the United States, which is plagued with the draconian Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Hence, you’re on your own for finding the tool. Be creative.



Google



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26
Aug

President Harper

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: Media and Politics

Two indirect testaments to Canada’s elevated status in the political sphere since Canada came off the fence and became “relevant” on Middle East issues:

The Age
A critic proud to quote his critics
Steyn accuses many thinkers of refusing to call a spade a spade. What’s the common link with terror attacks around the world, from September 11, Bali, Madrid, the Toronto plot to kill the Canadian President and this month’s Heathrow plot? Not calling it like it is means “you corrode people’s faith in the institutions of the state,” he says. “They’ll simply say ‘these people are lying to us’.”

Jerusalem Post:
Canada’s pro-Israel premier lures Jews to Tories

Israeli and Australian journalists, listen carefully – Canada does not have a president or a premier (the latter exists for subsections of the country). Canada has a Prime Minister, and for all the kowtowing he’s been doing for the war effort (at considerable risk to both his political career and the nation’s spirited but limited armed forces), the least you all could do is remember the man’s title. Since Canada’s dogmatic conservatives are similar to America’s dogmatic leftists when it comes to fawning over the “moral superiority” of selected foreign nations, I bet virtually no one calls the JPost or The Age on their disrespectful oversights.

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25
Aug

Reader Beware – Fat Stats

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: Media

Critical analysis of media events is now a hot topic, thanks to several exposés of misleading information propagated through major news services. These criticisms are to be expected on highly emotional and divisive topics like the Middle East Conflict; however, news junkies and casual readers alike should be vigilant in dissecting articles on topics that at first may be seen as common knowledge. Consider a recent front-page article in the Globe and Mail concerning the perception of Canadian parents about the health of their children:

obesity.jpg
Click to Enlarge

Firstly, the terminology in the article is inconsistent. The title states that 9% of parents believe that their children are fat, whereas the article itself states that “9 per cent of Canadian parents believe their children are overweight or obese”. While these terms are sometimes used interchangeably in conversation they are not 100% congruent. “Fat” is a qualitative observation defined as having an unusual amount of fat. It is essentially a personal judgment call and what one person calls fat may not be fat to someone else. Conversely, “overweight” and “obese” have clinical definitions – having a body mass index (BMI) between 25 and 29.9 qualifies one as being overweight, while someone with a BMI of 30 or higher is defined as obese. This may seem like a small point, but one can easily be overweight without looking “fat”. Hence asking a parent if her child is fat is an indication of little more than her child’s appearance and her perception of what constitutes fatness.

More problematic is the interpretation of the numbers themselves. Let’s assume the inconsistency described in the previous paragraph is a non-issue. According to the article, 9% of parents think their children are fat, whereas 26% of children are actually obese or overweight. One could easily conclude that Canadian parents are clueless about the health of their children. However, the statistical comparison is invalid – a parent can have multiple children and make the same erroneous evaluation for each child. Consider the following example:

  1. Assume a population of 100 parents and a population 200 children. Each parent has 2 children.
  2. A survey of the 100 parents reveals that 9 of them believed their children were fat.
  3. A survey of the children reveals that 40 are in fact overweight or obese

Based on this scenario one could conclude that 9% of parents think their children are fat whereas 20% are actually fat. However, because each parent has 2 children, a maximum of 18% of children might actually be labeled as fat by their parents (the 18% is a “maximum” because a parent could conclude that only 1 of her children is fat). This makes the percentage figures misleading because the parents are almost certain to be portrayed as less knowledgeable than in reality. The article did not mention a 1:1 parent to child relationship in the survey, and for that matter mentions “children” several times in relation to parental opinions.

The point is that critical thinking should always be employed when reading news reported in the mainstream media or elsewhere. Distortions and misleading information (sometimes intentional, sometimes accidental or due to space constraints) are a natural part of human communication and we should actively filter this information rather than passively accepting more favorable sentiment as fact.

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24
Aug

Westside Survivor

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: Entertainment and Society

The Associated Press is buzzing about the twist in the upcoming season of the hit reality show Survivor:

Get ready for a segregated “Survivor.” Race will matter on the upcoming season of the CBS show as contestants will be divided into four tribes by ethnicity. That means blacks, whites, Latinos and Asians in separate groups.
The announcement was made on CBS’ Early Show. Host Jeff Probst says the idea “actually came from the criticism that ‘Survivor’ was not ethnically diverse enough.” He says the twist fits in perfectly with what “Survivor” does, saying the show is “a social experiment. And this is adding another layer to that experiment.” Probst says contestants had mixed reactions to the racial divisions.

Above all else, the latest competition configuration suggests that Survivor is finally running out of creative steam. This should come as no surprise – the recent failures of ABC’s “The One” and that silly treasure hunting show that looks like Tomb Raider (the name evades me) signal that the public is finally fed-up with these so-called “reality” shows. Perhaps it’s because the formula for these shows hasn’t changed since the felonious Richard Hatch slithered his way to victory in Survivor’s first season:

  • Put several slightly and severely dysfunctional people together in an enclosed or remote place not nearly large enough to contain their egos
  • Create activities and competitions that force some sort of cooperation
  • Leave loopholes that encourage duplicitous behavior
  • Count money while TV viewers gasp “I can’t believe she broke the alliance!”

Alas, Survivor has resorted to the race card to pique the interest of viewers. Who will win? I couldn’t guess, but rest assured the victory won’t be clean. No matter who wins, someone will complain and someone else will use the result as ammunition in his/her political vendetta.

(Warning: very un-serious predictions)

Whites Win –
Stormfront goes beserk. Conservative bloggers wait for Al Sharpton to complain so they can h/t each other to the top of the Alexa skewering him. Sharpton obliges, perhaps acknowledging that self-sacrifice is his only present contribution to political discourse.

Blacks Win –
Hip hop discussion boards go berserk. Black team members hit the lecture circuit expecting they will actually be able to convince gang members to stay in school by relating their experiences on Survivor. Gang members add one more long-shot path to pursue in lieu of going to school. Kathy Shaidle goes into cardiac arrest.

Asians Win –
Most Asians under 30 go berserk, unleashing a wave of testosterone-fueled aggression that betrays every “truth” we ever held about that culture. Steve Sailer writes a 3 volume book set on the season, claiming validation of his life’s work.

Hispanics Win -
La Voz de Aztlan goes berserk, promising America that this is “only the beginning”. Pat Buchanan spins the hysteria in the opposite direction, hoping to move more copies of State of Emergency. More Mexicans are convinced they can “survive” crossing the border and flood southern Texas.

Regardless of who wins –
Many bloggers will post nonsense about Survivor depending on its relative Technorati rank. Many TV viewers will be unmoved, citing Wife Swap played the race card to dramatic perfection long ago.

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23
Aug

Tutorial: DVD Movie Backups with DVDShrink (6 of 6)

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: Technology and Tutorials

Summary: DVD Shrink is a software program used to make backups of DVD movies. Using DVD Shrink, you can read data from one DVD then write it to a blank DVD or to your hard drive. The copied disc can be played in standalone DVD players or computers that contain a DVD-ROM with the appropriate DVD player software. Part 6 offers alternatives to the software packages discussed in the tutorial and offers further sources of information.

Note: This tutorial may not be used to illegally reproduce copyrighted materials. American readers should review the Digital Millennium Copyright Act before attempting to circumvent any form of copy protection.


What’s Next?

Software Alternatives

Please use the Google search bar to find the latest version of the software listed below.

Alternatives to DVD Shrink -

DVD Shrink is one of many transcoding tools available on the market. Other transcoding tools include the following:

Nero Recode
Slysoft CloneDVD
Rejig

Quality appears to be a religious battle, though DVD Shrink and the (apparently defunct) Instant Copy 8 appear to be the most frequently mentioned in online discussions.

Alternatives to DVD Decrypter -

DVD Decrypter was recently bought out by Macrovision Europe, which subsequently took to product off the market and forced most websites to cease distributing the install files. While DVD Decrypter is by far the best choice for ripping protected discs, there are several viable alternatives:

DVDFab Decrypter
SmartRipper
Vobrator
DVD43

Further Reading

The Doom9 website and forums are the best sources of information related to transcoding, encoding formats and other topics related to video.

Series Index:
Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – First Considerations
Part 3 – Software Installation
Part 4 – Performing a Regular DVD Backup
Part 5 – Performing a DVD Backup from a Disc Image
Part 6 – What’s Next

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