Michelle Espinoza thought a single photo was going to ruin her business. It was an image of one of the pearl cuff bracelets she designs that showed up on Pinterest, a site where users create virtual bulletin boards, grouping images in categories—whether it be chocolate desserts or bohemian jewelry. For 10 days in April, anybody who clicked on the photo ended up watching pornography or unwittingly downloading a virus. “I can’t gauge how many customers I lost,” says Espinoza, a resident of Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. “But I did have people messaging me asking, ‘Are you linked to spam?’ I was just distraught.”

When Pinterest debuted two years ago, e-mail was the format of choice for spam peddling diets, sexual enhancement, and get-rich scams. Better filters have since banished many of the unwanted missives from in-boxes. Instead, scammers are turning to social media sites that are often poorly equipped to deal with the influx. “Social spam can be a lot more effective than e-mail spam,” says Mark Risher, chief executive officer of Impermium, which sells anti-spam software. “The bad guys are taking to this with great abandon.”

Spammers create as many as 40 percent of the accounts on social-media sites, according to Risher. About 8 percent of messages sent via social pages are spam, approximately twice the volume of six months ago, he says. Spammers use the sharing features on social sites to spread their messages. Click on a spammer’s link on Facebook FB, and it may ask you to “like” or “share” a page, or to allow an app to gain access to your profile.

via ‘Likejacking’: Spammers Hit Social Media – Businessweek.

Strange Random Spam Quote:

No one bill will cure the problem of spam. It will take a combined effort of legislation, litigation, enforcement, customer education, and technology solutions. – David Baker

Related articles

• 40% of accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks are spam (bgr.com)
• Likejacking (consultkeith.com)
• Spammers invade Pinterest, other social media sites (business.financialpost.com)
• Spammers invade social media to sidestep e-mail (sfgate.com)
• Is it Really Just Social SPAMedia? (marketingpilgrim.com)
• Spammers using social media instead of email (neowin.net)
• Have You Been “LikeJacked” Lately? Shock Study: Almost Half Of All Social Media Accounts Are Spam. (wdok.radio.com)
• Friday Wrap #3: Rebirth of long-form content, a Bat Signal for the Net and social spam (holtz.com)

There’s a new Star Wars game called Star Wars 1313, and it just might be the game that gets me interested in Star Wars again. Details are very, very scant, and we’ll be waiting for E3 for any kind of blockbuster reveals, but here’s what we know so far: it’s a third-person action adventure game where you play a bounty hunter that makes his kills with gadgets and weapons rather than any “force nonsense.” People have speculated that it might star Boba Fett, and this has neither been confirmed nor denied.

And, most interestingly, it’s shooting for an “M” rating, according to Kotaku.

Star Wars has always been a clean world. The original, kid-friendly movies have set the tone for an entire universe that rarely strays too far from the PG-13 – sex is mostly represented through innuendo, laser weapons make blood a rare occurrence, morality is always binary, and so forth.

Which makes 1313’s decision to go for M exciting. Jedi are cool, don’t get me wrong. They move stuff with their minds and have lightsabers – these are things I can get behind. But the mythic, spiritual soldiers at the center of the Star Wars universe never interested me as much as the dirtier elements around the outside – smugglers, bounty hunters, crime lords, gas miners and the like.

via Star Wars 1313 is the Star Wars Game I’ve Been Waiting For – Forbes.

Strange Random Star Wars Quote:

I think my eyes are getting better. Instead of a big dark blur, I see a big light blur. – Han Solo, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Related articles

• Star Wars 1313 revealed, starring Boba Fett (gimmegimmegames.com)
• Star Wars 1313 officially announced, about Level 1313 on Coruscant (joystiq.com)
• ‘Star Wars 1313′ Official Details Released (gamerant.com)
• Star Wars 1313 Revealed And It’s All About Bounty Hunters (g4tv.com)
• There’s a New Star Wars Game, and it is Called 1313 [Update] [Star Wars] (kotaku.com)
• LucasFilm Announces Mature Video Game ‘Star Wars 1313′: Is It Related To The Live-Action TV Series? (slashfilm.com)
• LucasArts Unveils Star Wars 1313 (escapistmagazine.com)
• ‘Star Wars 1313′ targets older fans (variety.com)
• STAR WARS 1313 Officially Announced by LucasArts (geektyrant.com)
• Star Wars: 1313 revealed (e3.gamespot.com)

Your funky wedding and musical garage sale just got a little more expensive.

The Copyright Board of Canada has, for the first time, decided to charge fees to anyone who uses recorded music as part of a public event. That means anyone who plans on using tunes to get the party started will need to dig a little deeper before hitting play on the iPod.

The new rules include any event in which music is played – weddings, ice shows, street parties, circuses, parades and karaoke bars are all named in the official notice from the country’s copyright board.

“Recorded music is a vital part of the business model for many live events and, indeed, it is impossible to imagine a fashion show, festival, parade or karaoke bar without music,” said Martin Gangnier, Re:Sound’s director of licensing.

“[It] ensures that the recording artists and record companies who create this music are fairly compensated when their work is used at these events.”

While many of these events pay fees already, those fees compensate those who own publishing rights to songs. The tariff announced today is new and on top of what already exists, and will go toward compensating those who actually perform the music.

via Music played at public events to be subject to new copyright fees – The Globe and Mail.

Strange Random Copyright Quote:

“Men don’t like nobility in woman. Not any men. I suppose it is because the men like to have the copyrights on nobility — if there is going to be anything like that in a relationship.”

Dorothy Parker (American short-story Writer and Poet, 1893-1967)

Related articles

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• No More Karaoke? (businessattorneysacramento.wordpress.com)
• Music Royalties will start being paid for plays on YouTube (artistshousemusic.org)
• News-Abolish Music Copyright? (pluginin.org)
• A general question about copyrights (gearslutz.com)
• ASCAP Targets Farmers’ Markets and House Venues (eastbayexpress.com)
• Six Reasons Why Recorded Music Should Be Free (gizmodo.co.uk)
• The 5 Best Sources For Exploring The World Of Public Domain Music (makeuseof.com)
• Proposed Chinese Copyright Changes Would Encourage Re-Use (yro.slashdot.org)
• The Artistic Case for Abolishing Copyright (shareable.net)
• Copyright Kings Are Judge, Jury and Executioner on YouTube (federaljack.com)

ATLANTA (AP) — Fifty years ago, a group of 106 influential cultural and civic leaders from Atlanta traveled to Europe to visit famous museums and demonstrate the ascendant southern city’s commitment to culture.

The Atlanta area’s population in 1962 had recently hit a million people, but political and business leaders worried the growth wouldn’t continue if the city didn’t improve its museums and venues for theater and music. The city’s cultural development would be altered forever by the trip, but in ways that had to do more with its tragic end.

The group was on its way home June 3 when its chartered Air France plane crashed on takeoff at Orly Field in Paris, killing all but two flight attendants. It had been the worst single plane crash to date.

“The community was just in shock,” said Joe Bankoff, outgoing president and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta. “I mean, to lose over 100 people in a moment was just unbelievable. But to lose such a cross section of Atlanta was particularly important.”

On the flight were artists, company leaders, the first woman elected to the city’s school board and other leaders. Among the sites on their packed agenda were the Louvre in Paris, the Coliseum in Rome and London Bridge.

Out of the city’s grief grew a sense that something needed to be done to memorialize them, to improve on its tiny art museum in an old house and struggling art school.

“These people were heads of companies in Atlanta. They were the wives who did a lot of the volunteer work at the art association,” said Susan Lowance, who had traveled with the group but had decided to stay in Europe longer to visit friends.

She believes the development of the arts center is a fitting tribute to her friends.

“These were people who had a stake in what was going to happen, and what happened was wonderful,” Lowance said.

Atlanta is now home to a world-class art museum that has collaborated with the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Louvre, a Grammy-winning symphony orchestra and other top-notch cultural institutions.

via Paris plane crash spurs cultural growth in Atlanta – Yahoo! News.

Strange Random Culture Quote:

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future. – Albert Camus

Related articles

• The Louvre Mounts a Rare Exhibition of American Paintings (elliottingotham.wordpress.com)
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Robotic fish that can work together to detect and identify pollution in ports and other aquatic areas have been developed by scientists.

The fish are the work of Shoal, a pan-European ICT project made up of six organisations and partly funded by the European Union.

Luke Speller, project leader and a senior research scientist at the London-based BMT Group, said: “The fish can identify the source of pollution enabling prompt and more effective remedial action.”

The yellow-coloured robotic fish are 1.5 metres five feet long and are driven by a dual-hinged tail that enables them to make tight turns.

They are battery powered and can run for up to eight hours before they need to be recharged.

Each one has a range of sensors and programming that allows it to navigate and gather information which it can share with other fish and relay back to researchers.

Mr Speller said: “Chemical sensors fitted to the fish permit real-time in-situ analysis, rather than the current method of sample collection and dispatch to a shore based laboratory.

“Furthermore, the Artificial Intelligence which has been introduced means that the fish can identify the source of pollution enabling prompt and more effective remedial action.”

via Intelligent Robotic Fish Developed That Can Detect Pollution | Technology | Sky News.

Strange Random Robot Quote:

“I wish a robot would get elected president. That way, when he came to town, we could all take a shot at him and not feel too bad.” – Jack Handy

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• I’ll Be Bass: Pollution-Hunting Robot Fish Takes To The Water (huffingtonpost.co.uk)
• Autonomous Pollution-Hunting Robot Fish Introduced into Their (Un)natural Habitat [Robotics] (gizmodo.com)
• Robo-Fish: The Robotic Fish Designed To Detect Pollution (inhabitat.com)
• Intelligent Robotic Fish Takes to the Sea (i-programmer.info)
• Robotic ‘fish’ take to seas to catch pollution sooner (worldnews.msnbc.msn.com)
• Robot Fish Take To The Sea To Stop Pollution [Video] (inquisitr.com)

Income inequality is still rising in the U.S., as wealthy people continue to make and spend more. But they also work harder, according to a recent study by Orazio Attanasio, Erik Hurst and Luigi Pistaferri.

The study found that lower-educated people had much more leisure time than their higher-educated counterparts. Leisure time is a factor that plays heavily into a person’s health and well-being.

To find out how much leisure time the different demographics had, researchers compared data from the 1985 Americans’ Use of Time survey and the 2003-07 American Time Use survey. Highly-educated people are defined with those who have more than 12 years of education.

Here’s what they found:

First, in 1985, low educated men took only slightly more hours per week of leisure than high educated men. However, by 2007, the leisure differences between high and low educated men are substantial. Specifically, low educated men experienced a 2.5 hours per week gain in leisure between 1985 and 2007. High educated men, during the same time period, experienced a 1.2 hour per week decline in leisure. The new effect is that leisure inequality increased dramatically after 1985. Again, similar patterns are found for women.

via Leisure Inequality – Business Insider.

Strange Random Recreation Quote:

“Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.” – Thomas Jefferson

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Related articles

• Income Inequality and Leisure Inequality: Do the 1% Work Harder Than the 99%? (taxprof.typepad.com)
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• Attanasio et al. Have a Potential Resolution of the Consumption Inequality Puzzle (delong.typepad.com)
• The Pursuit of Well Being (jimdew.wordpress.com)
• Thoughts on Causes of Rising Inequality (delong.typepad.com)
• Leisure Time (shoutzone.wordpress.com)

“The guns are quiet now,” is the first line in John Huston‘s 1946 short film, “Let There Be Light,” which focuses on World War II veterans dealing with what we’d today call post-traumatic stress disorder.

Quiet, perhaps. But the echoes of those guns were still ringing in the minds of many returning soldiers — much as they still are with modern veterans.

Huston, himself a veteran and director of such films as “The Maltese Falcon” and “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” filmed soldiers being treated at Long Island’s Mason General Hospital for what at the time was called shellshock.

Film available online for streaming and download (for a limited time) at the National Film Preservation Foundation

Strange Random War Quote:

War does not determine who is right – only who is left. – Bertrand Russell

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• Film: Movie Review: John Huston’s Let There Be Light (avclub.com)
• Flag of his father: A Vietnam veteran wants to return a bloodstained Japanese flag his father took as a trophy during World War II. (mercurynews.com)
• Paul Fussell: Remember the dead but don’t honor war (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Memorial Day – Time to Ask Why (veteranstoday.com)
• Symbolic stamp would support veterans programs (stripes.com)
• Attleboro war memorials adds 82 names (wpri.com)
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Jubilee is one of the world’s oldest celebrations. Of course, in Leviticus it involved the reversion of all property to its divine Original Owner, which probably isn’t a custom Britons will wish to observe on the 60th anniversary of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. In place of ancient Hebrew land reform, there will be something more like Roman bread and circuses.

First, bread. If it doesn’t rain on Sunday, June 3—not a bet I’d like to take—neighborhoods across Britain will lay out long trestle tables with food and drink for the Big Lunch.

You can find your local feast at thebiglunch.com, though possibly not the menu. But I can tell you what the 10,000 guests at the royal concert at Buckingham Palace will be eating and drinking at their picnic the next day: Jubilee chicken, created by Heston Blumenthal and royal chef Mark Flanagan it will undoubtedly take its place in the foodie canon alongside Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume’s 60-year-old recipe for Coronation chicken, sauced with curry flavored mayonnaise, and Sandringham strawberry crumble crunch, with upscale supermarket chain Waitrose supplying the rest of the nosh. To drink: specially labeled fizz by royal-warrant-holding Moët & Chandon.

Now to the circuses. In a side ring on the Saturday, you have the elder Windsors attending the Epsom Derby. On the Sunday, you have the pageant, when the queen in her royal barge leads a thousand-boat flotilla to a point downriver of Tower Bridge. To quote the official site: “There will be an exuberance of historic boats, wooden launches, steam vessels and other boats of note.” And the London Philharmonic Orchestra will play appropriate music near Waterloo Bridge—if anyone can hear it.

In the main ring, though, is the concert given by some aged knights of British pop, like Elton John and Tom Jones, plus the odd-woman-out, American soprano Renée Fleming. At 10:30 p.m., the queen will light the “National Beacon” by dropping a diamond in a pot that ignites the flame of the torch in the Mall. This will be broadcast live on radio and TV—probably the wisest place to watch it, as London traffic is bound to be at a standstill.

via London’s Tea and Circuses | Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee – WSJ.com.

Strange Random Royalty Quote:

“Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions.” – Walter Bagehot (British political Analyst, Economist and Editor, one of the most influential journalists of the mid-Victorian period, 1826-1877)

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