MIT Media Lab researchers have created a new type of ID tag which is tamper-resistant and difficult to forge. The little tokens are composed of plastic embedded with hundreds of tiny glass spheres. The patterns created when a laser shines through are the key to the uniqueness of these devices. The patterns are captured by a digital camera and converted into a binary number. Recreating the spheres that results in that number is difficult and the uniqueness of the tokens comes from comparing patterns created by shining the lasers at specific angles. They are working on making the system practical, creating readers and viable applications. (via Wired News)

In a sad NY Times article about the westernization of Nigeria’s standards of beauty, there is this wonderful passage: “Among the Calabari people in southeastern Nigeria, fat has traditionally held a cherished place. Before their weddings, brides are sent to fattening farms, where their caretakers feed them huge amounts of food and massage them into rounder shapes. After weeks inside the fattening farms, the big brides are finally let out and paraded in the village square.” While this ritual bears a disturbing resemblance to fattening up a prize cow for market, it’s a comfortable change from our U.S. “starve to fit in the dress” syndrome. The seamstress who altered my wedding gown was surprised that I didn’t want my dress taken in more. “Are you sure? Most girls wants me to make it really tight!” “Well, no, I actually want to be able to breathe on my wedding day, thanks.”

Booksfree.com is like Netflix for books. You pay a monthly fee to have a certain number of books out at a time and you mail them back in a postage paid mailer when you’re done. They only have paperbacks though, and most of the books I want and can’t get at the library are the new hardbacks that are immediately reserved and out for months. And for the lowest monthly fee ($6.99 for 2 books out at a time), I could buy 3-4 used paperbacks a month. I really enjoy browsing at the public library and used bookstores, so this concept, though I like it, doesn’t fulfill a need for me. (Washington Post article) (and don’t forget about booklend.net)

Collectively design a typeface with Typophile and be a part of a hive mind. (via memepool, which is it’s own kind of hive mind)

The biohazard symbol had to be “memorable but meaningless” says its creator, Charles Baldwin. He was working on containment systems for the Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health in 1966. The symbol was developed with the help of Dow Chemical’s marketing folks who surveyed people’s reactions and remembrances for various symbols. I always thought it looked like something out of a sci-fi TV show.

If mouse gestures do become the next big thing in user interfaces, I’d like mine to be customizable. Mozilla’s Optimoz has gestures and pie menus (which boil down to gestures) and the promise of Easter egg gestures (imagine that!). StrokeIt, a gesture recognition system for Windows, does have a learning mode. There’s an obvious junction between gestures and handwriting recognition and I hope it will be a seamless one.

Busy busy, so just this today: Nifty educational pieces on color: Causes of Color and Pigments through the Ages.

I noted here in January that Princess had started running an Alaskan cruise from San Francisco’s port. Now other cruise companies have seen the potential for attracting passengers who want to drive instead of fly to embark on their cruise. Cruises to Mexico are being planned and these will be winter trips, so you can take off on a cruise year-round from the city by the bay.

Stanford’s Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts has opened an exhibit of Venetian glass. These works of art were gifts to Leland and Jane Stanford from the Salviati and Company glassblowers. The Stanfords visited the Salviati shop in 1884 and struck up a friendship with employee Maurizio Camerino. He helped the family as a translator when Leland Jr died in Florence. Jane called on him to design mosaics for Memorial Church. Over time, Camerino sent Jane Stanford some 450 glass pieces. Sadly, many were broken in the 1906 earthquake. Some were sold to pay for museum restoration work. 245 are still owned by the museum and 120 will be on display in the exhibit.

Laquetta Shepard stands in silent defiance amid Ku Klux Klan members praying for white supremacy in Bowling Green, Ky. This photo had me stunned for many minutes. (news item with more details)