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| Flickr set for Stitch Wars, Star Wars-theme craft show
July 21, 2009 at 10:46 pm
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| Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine. A flickr set of Stitch Wars--a Star Wars-themed craft exhibit in Lauderdale, Florida--is now online. I know shit about Star Wars, but this little blue man with the white hat and the dead ram is kinda cute.  Link (via Daddytypes)
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| Video: Girl happily hula-hoops to a happy Geggy Tah track.
July 21, 2009 at 10:15 pm
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If the video above doesn't mellow you out, nothing will. Maddy says, "Geggy Tah has been in the news recently with a challenge over Pharrell's appropriation of their classic '90s gem 'Whoever You Are,' but this is a cute video of a gal doing a hula-hoop routine to one of their less known songs." Hooping to Geggy Tah's Holly Oak Tree. More about charges that Clipse/Pharrell ripped off Geggy Tah's work (and the resulting lawsuit): Stereogum, Daily Swarm, TMZ, Prefix, Velvet Rope. (Thanks, Doug!)
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| Classic video games reimagined as backyard "off your butt" games
July 21, 2009 at 9:01 pm
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Brian Crecente over at Kotaku has a terrific post up about backyard adaptations of classic video games. I can imagine playing them for lulz myself, but they're particularly cool for parents with bored kids at home on summer break: Here, mostly for my amusement, is a collection of games meant to be enjoyed outdoors. I've taken some of my favorite video games and tried to turn them into the sorts of games you play with friends on the lawn, in a park or anywhere there's space. Included are homages to Katamari Damacy, Super Mario Bros. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Frogger, and Metal Gear Solid. Enjoy, but don't blame me if you break something... even a sweat. Printable PDFs for 6 games here. Included: Katamari StickWithMe, Pac-Tag, Leapfrogger, Dodge Space Invaders, Metal Hear Hide and Sneak, and Super Hopscotch Bros. (hahahah!)
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| EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense International: 6 tips for protecting free speech
July 21, 2009 at 8:52 pm
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| | The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just published "Surveillance Self-Defense International: 6 Ideas For Those Needing Defensive Technology to Protect Free Speech from Authoritarian Regimes and 4 Ways the Rest of Us Can Help." Here's a snip from the introduction:  The Internet remains one of the most powerful means ever created to give voice to repressed people around the world. Unfortunately, new technologies have also given authoritarian regimes new means to identify and retaliate against those who speak out despite censorship and surveillance. Below are six basic ideas for those attempting to speak without falling victim to authoritarian surveillance and censorship, and four ideas for the rest of us who want to help support them. The document is also available as a PDF.
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| Ignite is coming to LA tonight, July 21, 2009
July 21, 2009 at 8:48 pm
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| Ignite is in LA tonight!  Ignite captures the best of geek culture in a series of five-minute speed presentations on topics ranging from The Best Way to Buy a Car to Hacking Chocolate. Imagine that you're on stage in front of an audience of hundreds of people, doing a five-minute presentation using a slide deck that auto-forwards every 15 seconds, whether you're ready or not. What would you do? What would you say? Could you stand the pressure? Every week, find out how some of the smartest minds on the planet dealt with this situation as your host, Brady Forrest, highlights a different talk from Ignites around the world.
Brady Forrest says: Ignite is coming to LA! As always speakers will get 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. We're going to be holding the geek event at Cinespace in Hollywood on 7/21. This will be the first Ignite in Los Angeles; it is co-hosted by LA Geek Dinner. The LA G33k dinner was kind enough to let us take over their July dinner to host the first Ignite. LA G33k Dinner, founded by Heathervescent brings people with a passion for technology and the internet together over a meal where conversations happen, friendships form, and collaborations on various projects occur. L.A. Geek Dinner is an inclusive event. Find them on Facebook. The event is free. We're hosting it at Cinespace on July 21: 6:30pm Geek Dinner starts 8pm-9:30 Ignite talks 10pm Cinespace opens to the eneral public for Dim Mak (you're welcome to stay for the band) While the event is free, you are responsible for paying for your own food/drinks from Cinespace if you want 'em. Please RSVP to the Geek Dinner list on Upcoming. Ignite LA is being organized by Brady Forrest, Matt Forrest, Dan Gould, and Heathervescent. If you're not familiar with Ignite check out some videos on the Ignite Show.
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| Shaq at the Shaolin Temple
July 21, 2009 at 8:45 pm
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|  Though that might have made a great Wu-Tang album title, it is simply an explanation of what you're seeing in the delightfully surreal snapshot above, TwitPic'd by @THE_REAL_SHAQ himself. Along with that photo, he texted: Ive been alotta place but being at the shaolin temple n china has brouhht a tear to my eye buddha blessed Reverent salutations to you, Mr. O'Neal.
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| John Hodgman: Seven roles in which he'd have been swell.
July 21, 2009 at 8:25 pm
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|  John Sellers over at True Slant has compiled a list of "Seven Roles John Hodgman Would Have Dominated." Number 1 is a shocker, but it works. Above, Number 7: The Professor from Gilligan's Island. I've always said that when life hands Hodgman coconuts, he makes solid-state analog shortwave radios. (thanks, Coates Bateman)
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| Yahoo launches new home page, now with more Boing Boing!
July 21, 2009 at 8:17 pm
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We are delighted to see that the new Yahoo front door design (previously code-named Metro) has gone live today, with Boing Boing as one of the featured content partners. You can add Boing Boing, Boing Boing Gadgets, BB Video, and Offworld feeds to your My Yahoo home page with a couple of easy clicks. Woohoo, Yahoo! (Special thanks to the Yahoo team who added Boing Boing to the revamped mix.)
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| RIP "Baby Paul" Cullen: Dogtown, Z-Boy, youngest member of the original Zephyr skate team.
July 21, 2009 at 4:58 pm
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Today on the way to my office in Venice Beach, I saw the following words spray-painted on the wall outside of a local skateboard shop: "RIP, Baby Paul." Skate/punk/hip-hop photographer Glen E. Friedman last night posted the very sad news about the untimely passing of an early skateboard culture icon: Paul "Baby Paul" Cullen is reported to have died of a heroin overdose this week, though his surviving family have not confirmed cause of death. He leaves behind a child. His brother, Brian Cullen, sends word that those who mourn his death are invited to attend a memorial service at Saint Monica's Catholic Church in Santa Monica, CA, this Saturday at 1030am. Friedman photographed "Baby Paul" in the 1970s as the young skater ascended to fame. He describes what it was like to see Paul in New York a few summers ago, some 25 years later. He was not well. He was here for only a few days with his girlfriend and new baby, and he was in sad shape. I felt really bad about seeing him like this, Since I didn't have change I gave him $20 instead of the $10 he asked for. We spent less than 15 minutes talking on a street corner. When I got home, i told my wife that night i'd probably never hear from him ever again. I never did.
He was several years younger than me. He was like a mascot for the original Zephyr team, he was a shredder, the original mini-shredder (before Bella Horvath, before Eric Dressen, before "Mini-Shred"). Photogenic, energetic, and a pure menace to society (I say that in the most admiring way).
We talked off and on over the years, like you do with people you've known for a long time that you do remain in touch with even if it's only rare. Particularly after the DogTown documentary came out but also a lot since i included a photo of him across the title page in The Idealist. I tried to encourage him to make amends with some of those he had trampled over, to clean up, or stay sober, but for someone like me it's never easy. Read the full blog post, with comments from friends and family, and view more early photos of Paul Cullen by Glen Friedman. Related thread at surfermag here.
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| Flashback to 1933: US ad industry digs Hitler
July 21, 2009 at 4:35 pm
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| Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine.  It's pretty well-known that Hitler and his propaganda minister, Paul Joseph Goebbels, looked to American advertising for inspiration. What I didn't realize was how proud the advertising industry was about it. In its July 20, 1933, issue, Printers' Ink, one of the lead advertising trade journals of its time, speaks approvingly of Hitler's methods: [Hitler] has depended almost entirely upon slogans made effective by reiteration, made general by American advertising methods...[S]logans on billboards and newspapers and in publications of national circulation have made a new Germany which has raised much excitement, made many changes. Many changes, indeed. And many more to come! It continues: "As is well known, the word propaganda in Germany is used synonymously with the word advertising. Although in this country and in Great Britain propaganda has the unfortunate connotation of being free instead of being paid for, this distinction does not exist in Germany." Ah, yes, that unfortunate connotation of freedom! Interesting that this is the only negative connotation of "propaganda" at this time. In fact, the (American) author makes sure to point out that in the Hitler speech that follows the word "propaganda" should be read as "advertising." Apparently, the trade mag wants credit for schooling the Führer. The article then goes on to quote Hitler at length talking about something that Americans who worked in advertising at the time already believed: that the masses are morons who respond only to simple messages repeated thousands of times (a perspective I discuss at length in my book). Seventy-some years later, this belief is as popular with the powers that be as it was in 1933. Which, if nothing else, provides a shred of evidence connecting the makers of the Head-On commercial to the Nazis.
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| Prominent Black professor arrested for entering own home while Black
July 21, 2009 at 4:34 pm
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|  Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Studies, was recently arrested at his own home in Cambridge, Mass. when a neighbor called the cops, presuming him and the also-not-white man he was with to be burglars. Gates described the incident as part of a "racial narrative" playing out in a biased criminal justice system. In this Washington Post article, he explains what happened. Gates was arriving home after a trip to China where he is working on a documentary film, and found the lock to his house had been tampered with. The Moroccan driver who had driven him home from the airport helped him push the door in. Gates's home is owned by Harvard so he picked up the phone to call the university's real estate maintenance office. Before he could finish the conversation, a police officer was standing on his porch and asking him to come out of the house. "Instinctively, I knew I was not to step outside," Gates said, describing the officer's tone as threatening. Gates said the policeman, who was in his 30s and several inches taller than him, followed him into his kitchen where Gates retrieved his identification. "I was thinking, this is ridiculous, but I'm going to show him my ID, and this guy is going to get out of my house," Gates said. "This guy had this whole narrative in his head. Black guy breaking and entering." After handing the officer both his Harvard and Massachusetts state identification, which included his address, Gates said he began to ask the officer this question, repeatedly. "I said 'Who are you? I want your name and badge number.' I got angry." According to Gates's account, the officer refused to give it. The police report says, however, that the officer identified himself. "I weigh 150 lbs and I'm 5' 7''. I'm going to give flack to a big white guy with a gun. I might wolf later, but I won't wolf then." But Gates did keep asking for the officer's name and said he began to feel humiliated when his question was ignored. He then said: "This is what happens to black men in America." Gates Says He Is Outraged by Arrest at Cambridge Home Gates is also founder of the Root.com, which is owned by The Washington Post. (via Ned Sublette)
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| Lego Microtome biological specimen slicer
July 21, 2009 at 4:30 pm
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A microtome is a small machine that biologists use to slice specimens into very thin sections to examine under a microscope. Instructables user lemonie made his own out of Lego! In this video demo, the device cuts garlic in slices just 250 microns thick. That's about twice as thick as a human hair. Seems like the Lego Microtome could be scaled up for slicing paper-thin prosciutto! Lego Microtome (Thanks, Christy Canida!)
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| Scenes from an oxytocin party
July 21, 2009 at 4:20 pm
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I don't know if this is real or not, but here is a video of a purported oxytocin party, where people take tablets of oxytocin, the love and trust hormone. Oxytocin has been in the press quite a bit in the last few years with nicknames like the bonding hormone, the trust hormone and the cuddle drug. Many studies have expanded our knowledge of the effects of oxytocin beyond its most known synthetic form Pitocin, given to induce labor in pregnant women. Literally translated in Greek to "quick birth," the neurotransmitter oxytocin (ox-ee-TOE-sin) is naturally released in women's bodies during childbirth, breastfeeding, nipple stimulation and orgasm. It is found in equal amounts in both men and women but its affects are felt more by women because of their levels of estrogen and prolactin, which increase the effects. Testosterone in men has the opposite effect, in turn negating many of the effects of oxytocin. Its presence in the body is associated with an increase in recognizing facial cues, bonding, the reduction of anxiety and an overall increase in levels of trust. As part of its anti-anxiety effects, it also helps relax and reduce blood pressure and cortisol levels. In men's, oxytocin may facilitate healthy erections and sperm ejaculation. Oxytocin Party (Via Dose Nation)
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| Official video for "88 Lines About 44 Women"
July 21, 2009 at 4:16 pm
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Marc Campbell of The Nails made a video of his song "88 Lines About 44 Women." In the 30 years since 88 LINES ABOUT 44 WOMEN was first recorded there has never been a video version authorized by THE NAILS. Of the dozens of videos on youtube that pay homage to the song, this is the only version created by a member of the band, me. So, here's the world premier of 88 LINES the video. Hope you enjoy it. I had fun making it. It was worth the wait! The video is NSFW in a 1950s National Geographic sort of way. (Via Dangerous Minds)
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| World's Greatest Internet Freakout Contest (win a microwave)
July 21, 2009 at 4:16 pm
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Videogum.com Senior Editor Gabriel Delahaye says, You know that kid who posted a video on-line about a month ago of his brother having a freakout because their mom suspended his World of Warcraft account? Well, that was a pretty good freakout, sure, but since then the two of them have posted four more freakouts. FAKE. And if you're going to post a fake freakout, then the freakout should really be a lot better. These guys have not stepped their game up. And I think the title of World's Greatest Freakout is being used a little loosely by them. They are teenagers just trying to have fun, sure, but they should be more careful. With words. That is why we are hosting the World's Greatest Freakout Contest. Let's beat that kid at his own game. Winner gets a microwave.
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| Secrets of the injection moulder
July 21, 2009 at 4:10 pm
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| Here's a fascinating post on the IDSA Materials and Processes blog about the things you can learn about injection moulding from studying the "ejection marks" on the surface of plastic objects: 
So I noticed the marks on the lid of my mother-in-law's trash can and thought about what that says about how this part was made and how this might be something an industrial designer would need to understand. What I was looking at was the ejection mark placed on an angled surface. Because this large HDPE (high-density polyethylene) part will be somewhat soft when it is ejected or pushed out of the mold, the molder needed to be able to bear on several points close to the perimeter of the part (because just pushing on the middle would probably permanently distort the warm part). Further inspection of this part also showed that the gates (injection points for the part) was on the underside, or opposite side of the part, which told me that the part probably rode back with the moving half of the mold and then was ejected after the side action (see the lip used to lift the lid?) retracted. What's That?: Ejection Mark On Angled Surface (via Beyond the Beyond)
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| NASA secretly launched a moon rock into space to celebrate lunar landing's 40th
July 21, 2009 at 4:09 pm
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Robert Pearlman of collectspace.com says, "Forty years to the day after it was found and collected by Neil Armstrong, a moon rock is helping NASA mark the anniversary of the first lunar landing from on-board a perch that is closer than any Apollo-returned lunar sample has ever come to its original home." Full story on Robert's blog here. Image above: The Apollo 11 moon rock, seen here before its launch, is now on the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA/collectSPACE).
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| A Johnny 5 Painting with Scrolling Text
July 21, 2009 at 2:36 pm
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| Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with a common-law wife, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap.
You don't see too many Johnny 5/El Debarge paintings around, right? I made one a while back I thought you might like to see-- it incorporates some LED scrolling text, which I think has been absent from painting for far too long.
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| UK cops threaten to bust woman who videos her boyfriend's search on terrorism charges
July 21, 2009 at 2:11 pm
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| Richard sez, "A woman was handcuffed, detained and threatened with arrest for filming officers on her mobile phone - who abused the abysmal UK terrorism laws." Atkinson's mobile phone recorded part of the incident at Aldgate East underground station on 25 March, one month after Section 58(a) - a controversial amendment to the Terrorism Act - came into force, making it illegal to photograph a police officer if the images are considered "likely to be useful" to a terrorist... The opening part of the mobile phone clip shows two uniformed police officers searching her boyfriend, Fred Grace, 28, by a wall in the station. Atkinson said she felt that police had unfairly targeted Grace, who did not have drugs in his possession, and decided to film the officers in order to hold them to account. Seconds later, an undercover officer wearing jeans and a black jacket enters the shot, and asks Atkinson: "Do you realise it is an offence under the Terrorism Act to film police officers?" He then adds: "Can you show me what you you just filmed?" Atkinson stopped filming and placed her phone in her pocket. According to her account of the incident, which was submitted to the Independent Police Complaints Commission that night, the officer tried several times to forcefully grab the phone from her pocket. Failing to get the phone, he called over two female undercover officers from nearby. Atkinson said he told the women: "This young lady had been filming me and the other officers and it's against the law. Her phone is in her right jacket pocket and I'm trying to get it..." A second female officer approached her and said, incorrectly: "Look, your boyfriend's just been arrested for drugs, so I suggest you do as we say." Atkinson claims the male undercover officer who initially approached her repeatedly threatened her with arrest, stating: "We believe you filmed us and that's against the law so we need to check your phone." When Atkinson protested, the officer replied: "I don't want to see myself all over the internet." After officers made calls to the police station, possibly for legal advice on the situation, the handcuffs were removed and Atkinson was released. She said the officers walked away - all but one of them refused to identify themselves to her. Woman 'detained' for filming police search launches high court challenge (Thanks, Richard!)
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| New research on shark repellents
July 21, 2009 at 1:47 pm
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| Chemist Eric Stroud is the proprietor of SharkDefense, a company that develops new shark repellents. His aim is to protect sharks from people, keeping them away from trawling nets and fishing lines. Apparently, approximately 12 million sharks are accidentally ensnared each year. Some of Stroud's experimental repellents are extracted dead sharks themselves. The odor, which smells like stinky feet, is quite abhorrent to the sharks. From Smithsonian:  Magnets made from iron, boron and neodymium are another promising repellent being developed by SharkDefense. Eric Stroud discovered their repellent potential by accident. According to Stroud, he and colleague Michael Hermann were playing with magnets near a research tank containing lemon and nurse sharks. After spotting a broken pump, Stroud set a magnet down on the tank's side, and the sharks took off. He thinks that the magnets may overload the sharks' Ampullae of Lorenzini. These tiny pits found along a shark's head are used to detect faint electrical signals emitted by prey, in the same way a doctor uses an EKG to detect the electricity generated by your pumping heart. The magnets are unlikely to cause pain, says Richard Brill, a SharkDefense collaborator at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. He and others hypothesize that it's equivalent to a bright flash of light. You wince because it's overloading the visual receptors in your eyes. "It's the same idea with the sharks, except it's overloading these electrical receptors, " Brill says. Stroud has been using stationary magnets so far, but he also sees potential in spinning magnets, which generate a greater magnetic field.
Stroud and his team are also working with electropositive metals, which produce a current when placed in seawater and also possibly affect sharks' electromagnetic sense organs. Scientists are testing the metal repellents as a solution for the dogfish bycatch problem. Researchers found that the metals, when attached to fishing lines, reduced shark bycatch by 17 percent in Alaskan fisheries. But when the experiment was repeated in the Gulf of Maine, the results were negligible. "We think the dogfish are just going after two different preys," says Stroud, who is completing a Ph.D. in chemistry at Seton Hall University. Rice speculates that the metals may not affect Northeast dogfish because the sharks are using smell more than their Ampullae of Lorenzini to detect prey.
"Stopping Sharks by Blasting Their Senses"
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| "Pop Music" performed by popping balloons
July 21, 2009 at 1:46 pm
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| | Ross Harris says: "My daughter and I made a video / song using only balloons and helium." Terrific. I wanted it to be longer.
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| Piglet with monkey face
July 21, 2009 at 1:35 pm
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| Here's another photo of the mutant pig with the "monkey face" that I posted about last year. From the London Paper:  The bizarre animal also has rear legs which are much longer than its forelegs, causing it to jump like a kangaroo instead of walk.
At the time, locals flocked to the home of Feng Changlin when news of the piglet spread in Fengzhang village.
"It's hideous. No one will be willing to buy it, and it scares the family to even look at it!" Feng said.
"Pig born with the face of a monkey" (via Fortean Times)
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| Building a mystery box
July 21, 2009 at 1:05 pm
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Make: television host John Edgar Park made a "mystery box" for his friend. The inspiration for this object (which contains something of interest that the recipient is supposed to never see) came from J.J. Abram's TED Talk about the mystery magic trick box from Lou Tannen Magic Store that he's own since childhood but has never opened. Here's what the fellow who received the box had to say about it: On the top of the box is a question mark and the bottom is the Greek letter Phi. The box even had a theme: One of the faces carries a picture of 16th-Century German mathematician Michael Maestlin, who was the first scientist to write about the Golden Ratio. Another face sports a golden spiral, which is another way of expressing that constant, yet another shows an image from Leonardo DaVinci's Divine Proportion applying the Golden Ratio to the human form. The panels of the box even conform to the ratio, being 3 inches wide by 4.85 inches high. Crazy nerdy. More esoterically, moving the box caused an intriguing rattle to sound from inside. Perfect. So what's next? I'm just going leave the box on my desk and admire its mysteriousness. I'm admiring the mysterious of it, too! Building a mystery box
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| Painfully Inane Adwatch: The Twix "Need a Moment" Campaign
July 21, 2009 at 12:58 pm
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| Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with a common-law wife, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap.
Since our book is about advertising, let's talk about some ads. Some awful ads.
If you could find someone totally unaware of what a Twix bar was (friendly alien, unfrozen pilgrim, etc.) and showed them these current crop of Twix ads, and then asked them what Twix bars were, I bet you'd get an answer like "Twix bars? Aren't they those crunch-activated time-stopping rods?"
And that assessment would be totally justified, based on these ads. They're relying on the tenuous idea that we're all not drooling idiots to take this literally, because the only qualities of a Twix bar demonstrated in these commercials are the ability of the Twix bar to stop time. There's nothing mentioned of the taste, the crunch, the dubious energy benefit-- all the usual candy bar selling points-- just the bold suggestion that these crunchy little logs have colossal power over the time-space continuum.
Before we get anything further, I should make it very clear that they can't stop time. I've said some truly awful, offensive things to people, and when I've tried to use a Twix bar in the demonstrated manner, I've just come off looking even more like an idiot, but this time an idiot with a dripping mouthful of half-masticated candy and a panicked, confused look in his eye.
Now, even beyond the strange misrepresentation of a candy bar as a long wished-for tool of profound power, there's one other really awful thing about these commercials: everything else. The Twix ad agency has managed to concoct that perfect cocktail of unfunny, misogynistic, and confusing all at the same time. In the ad above, what girl is going to be that swept off her feet by some jackass with a popped collar smarmily chiding his idiot man-child friend?
And this one, if possible, may even be worse:
It sounds like it was written by someone's 55 year old uncle who overheard about blogging from his niece when she was talking to a friend on that little Game Boy or whatever it is she's always fiddling with. Sure, maybe it's tongue-in-cheek, and they're aware how insipid it all sounds, but it's just not funny enough to really sell me on that. It has the same improbably stupid women, the same valueless, douchebag guys, the same deus ex candybar qualities for the product.
The real shame here is that Twix bars are really pretty good-- ever scrape away all the chocolate and caramel with your teeth, leaving that pale, perforated shortbread girder? It's fun. And, to the adfolks' credit, I do like the use of the two Twix bars as a pause icon. But, beyond that, Twix admen, "take a moment" for all of us and insert these two Twix bars in your anuses.
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| How-To: Read George Orwell's 1984 on your Kindle
July 21, 2009 at 12:53 pm
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Over at Make: Online, Phil Torrone provides a step-by-step for reading 1984 on your Kindle without fear of having Amazon sneak onto your device and zap it down the memory hole while you sleep. Once you arrive in Australia stop by this site and download a copy of 1984. Read the warning first: Under Australian copyright laws, copyright in literary works of authors, who died before 1955, has expired. These works are now within the 'public domain' in Australia and this is why the University is able to reproduce such works on this site. HOWEVER, works may remain copyrighted in other countries. If copyright in the work still subsists in the country from which you are accessing this website, it will be illegal for you to download the work. It is your responsibility to check the applicable copyright laws in your country. In particular, the works of George Orwell are still under copyright in the United States and the European Union, and therefore users in those countries should not download these works. Don't worry - you're in Australia, they're totally chill down under. How-To: Read George Orwell's 1984 on your Kindle
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| New Jim Flora print: Big Evening (1960)
July 21, 2009 at 12:25 pm
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Irwin Chusid has just published a new Jim Flora print. Only 25 copies were produced. (That horsey creature gives it a bit of a Guernica vibe.) Jim Flora Art has released a limited edition fine art print of a 1960 tempera titled BIG EVENING. The hyperactive tableau depicts a cavalcade of misshapen, multi-eyed mutants with bonus body parts. People just like you! New Jim Flora print: Big Evening (1960)
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| How Michel Choquette (almost) assembled the most stupendous comic book in the world
July 21, 2009 at 12:15 pm
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| The upcoming issue of The Comics Journal has a fantastic story about the greatest comics anthology that never was.  Issue #299 of The Comics Journal (in-stores August 2009, premiering at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con) unearths a long-lost treasure: Way back in 1970, satirist/editor Michel Choquette conceived a mammoth anthology of new comics from all over the world by just about every cartoonist imaginable circa 1970 (as well as such unimaginable cultural icons as Federico Fellini and Frank Zappa). All of the contributors were to riff on the 1960s, creating a comics snapshot of that decade, but the project kept growing in ambition until it reached a scale that scared off its publishers. Today, bookstore shelves are filled with comics collections and graphic novels, but in 1970, there was no Watchmen or Persepolis. Even Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer-winning Maus had yet to be published. To publishers of the time, Choquette's dream book was an enormous folly and one by one they backed out of negotiations, leaving Choquette, who had spent all his book advances traveling the globe enlisting contributors, to disappear into relative obscurity. But by the time publishers had gotten cold feet, Choquette had already assembled an astounding array of comics contributions from 190 of the most influential comics creators and cultural figures of the 1960s and '70s, including: Jack Kirby, William Burroughs, Harvey Kurtzman, Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner, Arnold Roth, Don Martin, Michael O'Donoghue, Ralph Steadman, Tom Wolfe, Wally Wood, Bill Griffith, Barry Windsor-Smith, Gahan Wilson, Moebius, C.C. Beck, Vaughn Bodé, Harlan Ellison, Shary Flenniken, Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny, Russ Heath, Doug Kenney, Patrice Leconte, Chris Miller, Denny O'Neil, Roy Thomas, as well as the aforementioned Fellini and Zappa. It was a legendary compilation of the comic art form that would give heart palpitations to anyone who ever loved comics or was alive in 1970, but no one has seen it all except for Choquette. Comics Journal writer Bob Levin tracked Choquette down and discovered that this long-lost El Dorado of comics still exists in storage. In an epic article, Levin follows Choquette's path across continents and countries as the would-be anthologizer encounters a cultural Who's Who of the '60s and '70s (Salvador Dali! Gloria Steinem! Jann Wenner! Jorge Luis Borges! Bianca Jagger!), collecting art that will, in part, see print FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER in the pages of this issue.
The Comics Journal #299 [Pre-Order]
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| Fresh Green: Rappers Against Car Idling, Pedal-Powered Monorails and More
July 21, 2009 at 11:49 am
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Photo Credit: Shweeb
Each week we're bringing you some of our favorite posts from our friends over at TreeHugger. Enjoy!
Rappers Say Get Outta Your Cars!
Anti-car-idling rappers flow about green issues in this quick street film.
Shark Attack Victims Head to Capitol Hill
"We've been finned...and it's not a good thing." A group of shark attack victims are sympathetic towards the ultimate predators, and head to DC to lobby Congress for tighter protections for sharks.
Wind-Powered Tank Uses No Fuel, Confuses Infidels
They had the right idea back in 1335 with this tank that looks like a windmill. Now that is something for Don Quixote to joust!
Get in a Tube and Pedal Across Town
A pedal-powered monorail idea makes you feel a little bit like you're in one of those air tubes at the bank that gets sucked up into the ceiling. But it could end up being the public transportation of the future.
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| Mark's Woot shirt -- $10 including shipping
July 21, 2009 at 11:37 am
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Here's my T-shirt for Woot. Only $10 and shipping is free! (Price skyrockets to $15 after 24 hours). My 11-year-old daughter Sarina gave me the drawing of Bun Bun and I traced it in Illustrator and submitted it as "my" T-shirt design. I suppose I'll have to give her a share of the royalties. (Here's Ape Lad's shirt. He is the curator / editor of all the shirts on Woot this week.) Bun Bun shirt by Mark (and Sarina)
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| Recently on Offworld: 8-bit Weezer, more ASCII Portal, first person Zelda
July 21, 2009 at 11:36 am
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|  Recently on Offworld, One More Go columnist Margaret Robertson reflects on why Final Fantasy XII is a game she can't help but return to, for its ability to let you "get closer to the ultimate goal of being a perpetual killing machine, a super-efficient, zero-emission, friction-free engine of domination" -- a loop of "preparing, witnessing and fixing" that's "one of the most compelling I've encountered in games." Elsewhere we listened to (on repeat, all day) Pterodactyl Squad's 8-bit Weezer cover compilation, which is already being heralded as one of the best chiptune introduction and gateway collections ever assembled, and watched the first video of the iPhone's retro-future shooter Space Invaders Infinity Gene. We also saw 10 more minutes of Cymon's ASCII Portal, every bit as mind-warping as the last, found new images of Björn Hurri's pixel-catburglar that we even moreso hope ends up a game, saw IGF winning backward-shooting rhythm game Retro/Grade coming to the PS3 with Rock Band guitar support, and dug further into one of the artists behind Uniqlo and Namco's awesomely designed Pac-Man 30th anniversary T-shirts. Finally, our 'one shot's: the original Legend of Zelda goes first person, falling in love with the majesty of colors from the cthulu-an perspective, pen-marker-magic sketches of BioShock, and gorgeously quick-sketched views from the world of Shadow of the Colossus.
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| The Most Wrenchingly Judgmental Game Over Screen
July 21, 2009 at 11:22 am
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| Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist, started a webcasting company, and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with a common-law wife, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap.
I recently was lucky enough to find a Nintendo Virtual Boy on Craigslist for $20-- it's a fascinating failure of a system, with LEDs and spinning mirrors, and the resulting images do look surprisingly 3D, like puppet show made of red cellophane.
But, more importantly, one of the games, Teleroboxer, has what I think is the most brutal game over screen I've ever seen (and sorry for the image quality-- I'm shooting this through one of the eyepieces):  Jesus, Rick. Worthless and weak? Come on, man. That hurts. That really hurts.
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| Juice company rips off Get Your War On
July 21, 2009 at 11:14 am
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| Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine.  The makers of Jamba Juice have ripped off David Rees' Get Your War On in a new ad campaign. To his credit, Ree's has taken the assault like a man, organizing a National Day of Prayer to "pray our way across America, destroying Jumby Juice franchises left and right..." Still, he has some words for the ad's creators: Whoever made this ad is probably a 22 year-old "creative" at some ad agency in Tech Valley, CA. Way to think outside the box, sonny. Have fun snorting cocaine at the nightclub you go to with your friends who work at Twitter or wherever. And no, Adult Swim will NOT buy your stupid cartoon you're developing with your housemates about four guys who work at an ad agency but are secretly lobsters.
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| Build Your Own Paper Robots: book with CD that turns into a badass articulated robot army
July 21, 2009 at 10:53 am
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|  Today I discovered -- joy of joys -- a new, sweet indie bookstore near my office, Clerkenwell Tales, in London's Exmouth Market (02077138135). The stock is still filling in, but as a former bookseller and confirmed bookstore junkie, I was delighted by what I saw. Case in point: Julius Perdana and Josh Buczynski's Build Your Own Paper Robots, a handsome hardback volume with an included CDROM featuring printable designs for 14 kick-ass articulated papercraft robots. Also included are scalable, layer-separated line-art versions of the bots, so that you can render them bigger or smaller, and color them to your own taste, assembling printable robot armies with your printer, some card-stock and glue. Clerkenwell Tales had a few copies left after I snagged one (and plenty more to like besides), but if you're not anywhere near London, there's also some copies available at Amazon UK. 
Build Your Own Paper Robots Paper-Replika's review
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| How NOT to raise an ape in your family
July 21, 2009 at 10:14 am
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| Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine.  I collect books by people who have raised apes in their homes. One of the first, The Ape and the Child, was written in by behaviorist W.N. Kellogg, a man with a peculiar brainstorm: that he should raise a chimpanzee as a twin to his own infant son, treating them in exactly the same fashion, and comparing their development. Kellogg was fascinated by case studies of feral children: if kids raised by wolves become wolf-like, he hypothesized, could a human such as he mold an ape to act human? Kellogg made four films of his studies and 1 of those films is now online. Results? Mixed. The chimp, Gua, took more quickly to her civilizing education than her brother. She appeared smarter, stronger, and more emotionally developed on a number of counts: she was better at using glasses and silverware, walked earlier (chimps generally don't walk upright), responded to verbal commands sooner, and was more cooperative and obedient. What we don't learn from Kellogg's study, however, is that chimps' "domestication" peaks around age 2, when humans' surpass them. And the reason we don't learn that is because Kellogg discontinued his study when his charges were around 2. Kellogg explained that he had accomplished his goal: he proved that environment matters. After all, you don't see a lot of chimps eating cereal from a spoon in the wild. But Kellogg's claim was a bit disingenuous. The fact that environment shapes animal development was already well understood. The real reason he abruptly halted the study, then, was likely because of results that Kellogg never anticipated: his son Donald started imitating the chimp. For example, though Donald had learned to walk before Gua joined the Kellogg family, he regressed and started crawling more, in tune with Gua. He'd bite people, fetch small objects with his mouth, and chewed up a shoe. More importantly, his language skills were delayed. At 19 months, Donald's vocabulary consisted of three words. Instead of talking he would grunt and make chimp sounds. Gua got sent back to the Yerkes center in Florida, where she promptly died. And Donald? Not much is known of his life, but, at 43, he committed suicide. This study got a lot of press when it was published, but Kellogg ended up deeply regreting it — not because of what it did to his son, but because it prevented him from being taken seriously as a scientist. Variations on this study were conducted repeatedly through the 20th century. There were a number of cases of people attempting to raise chimps in their homes as humans, and perhaps I'll write more about those later. But, to the best of my knowledge, no one ever used a human infant as a guinea pig again. Sources: The Ape and the Child by W. N. Kellogg and L.A. Kellogg, New York: Whittlesay House, McGraw-Hill, 1933 The Ape and the Child (W.N. Kellogg page at FSU) Comparative Tests on Human and a Chimpanzee... (1932) (Archive.org) I previously gave a talk on this as part of my Brooklyn-based lecture series, Adult Ed.
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| Kitchen appliance junkbot
July 21, 2009 at 8:45 am
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Colombian junkbot builder Mario Caicedo Langer made the "PROCTOR SILEX: DEFENDER OF THE KITCHEN" robot out of broken kitchen appliances, noting "when you grow up watching 'Transformers', 'Short Circuit', 'Batteries not included', 'Mazinger Z", 'Festival de los Robots', 'Bots Master', and every TV show and movie with robots, you finish thinking robot!" PROCTOR SILEX: DEFENDER OF THE KITCHEN (via Make)
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| HOWTO make an 8-track cassette walkman
July 21, 2009 at 5:38 am
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| Here's an "admittedly mad" Instructables project from XenonJohn: how to hack a portable 8-track tape walkman in the style of the original Sony cassette Walkman. 
This is an admittedly mad project to see what might have happened if Sony had invented the Walkman earlier than they did - and made it so it took 8 track tape cartridges (which came before cassette tapes were invented). In other words, can I make a personal 8 track player with just headphones in the style of a Walkman? How small can I make it? Bear in mind it needs quite a bit of power to move the tape loop around inside the cartridge. 8 Track Walkman-Pod thing (Retro-tech) (Thanks, Michael Chabon!)
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| Tiburon, CA will photograph and record license plate of every visitor to town
July 21, 2009 at 2:52 am
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| John sez, "The town of Tiburon, California (pop. 9,000) has a scheme to photograph and record the license plate number of every single vehicle that enters the municipality, in order to 'fight crime.' But don't worry: 'As long as you don't arrive in a stolen vehicle or go on a crime spree while you're here, your anonymity will be preserved,' said Town Manager Peggy Curran." h Melissa Ngo, a privacy rights attorney and consultant who publishes privacylives.com, said she is not aware of a situation where a town is keeping a record of all visitors. "The point is we live in a land where people are considered innocent until proven guilty," Ngo said. "Not a land where it's supposed to be -- prove that you're not doing anything wrong by letting us watch you do everything." Curled on the edge of the San Francisco Bay in Marin County, Tiburon is not a high-crime spot. In 2008, police report there were 99 thefts, 20 burglaries and two auto thefts. Town on SF Bay wants to photograph every car (Thanks, John!)
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| Glasgow steampunk fair at the world's oldest music hall, the Panopticon
July 21, 2009 at 2:50 am
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| Merlin sez, The Panopticon is the oldest music hall in the world (to the knowledge of the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall Trust). It was home to the early careers of many music hall legends such as Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame. The hall fell into disuse and disrepair after it closed in 1938 with the rise of the film industry and has since been reopened. A trust (aforementioned) has been established to renovate it and repair the insides The hall still needs donations to help foot the bill for renovations and as such the trust has opened it up for shows. It has been doing shows for some time now and is now reasonably successful. One of the upcoming shows [ed: on Aug 8] is a presentation/fare being arranged largely by the members of the Glasgow University Steampunk Society (G.U.E.S.S), who have managed to arrange food, stalls, acts (music, magic and maybe even juggling), a lecture on stage magic, the potential for the uses of a vintage magic lantern. The stalls will present steapunk mods, items of a steamy nature, jewellery, clothing and other things and trinkets. There will be a chance for visitors to join the Steampunk society/ their mailing list and amusement will be provided by the acts and the friendly and amiable members of G.U.E.S.S. The Britannia Panopticon is a piece of history. Please help us help it and create Victoriany goodness in Glasgow. GUESS presents "Glasgow By Gaslight" - Aug 8th - Maker Fair and Show (Thanks, Merlin!)
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| CCTV density-maps of the UK
July 21, 2009 at 2:47 am
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| John sez, "As a UK resident I am getting increasingly pissed off with the amount of cameras aimed at me. I live and work in central London and cameras are everywhere. I was amazed to see from this map of the UK showing number of CCTV cameras per 1000 that London did not beat all. This place is crazy." 
The borough of Wandsworth has the highest number of CCTV cameras in London, with just under four cameras per 1,000 people. Its total number of cameras - 1,113 - is more than the police departments of Boston [USA], Johannesburg and Dublin City Council combined. The statistics of CCTV (Thanks, John!)
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| Baltimore transit wants to use microphones to record all conversations on trains and buses
July 21, 2009 at 2:44 am
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| The Baltimore public transit system is trying to get the legal go-ahead to use microphones to record the conversations of passengers and drivers on the buses and trains. Shocking, huh? Watch how fast this becomes everyday -- just like CCTV. After all, if we can simply ignore the all-seeing, all-spying eye, why not the all-listening ear? The MTA is considering installing audio surveillance equipment on its buses and trains to record conversations of passengers and employees, according to a letter sent by the MTA's top official to the state Attorney General's Office... "As part of MTA's ongoing efforts to deter criminal activity and mitigate other dangerous situations on board its vehicles, Agency management has considered adding audio recording equipment to the video recording technology now in use throughout its fleet," Wiedefeld wrote. MTA thinking of listening in (Thanks, Patrick!)
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| Surgical sutures filled with stem-cells
July 21, 2009 at 2:40 am
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| Biomedical engineering students at Johns Hopkins have shown how to make sutures containing the patient's own adult stem cells to promote quicker healing:  "Using sutures that carry stems cells to the injury site would not change the way surgeons repair the injury," said Matt Rubashkin, the student team leader, "but we believe the stem cells will significantly speed up and improve the healing process. And because the stem cells will come from the patient, there should be no rejection problems."
Students Embed Stem Cells in Sutures to Enhance Healing (via Medgadget)
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| @BBVBOX: recent guest-tweeted web video picks (boingboingvideo.com)
July 21, 2009 at 1:50 am
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(Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.) - Andrea James: Not everyone was happy 40 years ago. Gil Scott-Heron's "Whitey on the Moon": Link
- Richard Metzger: Emotional Japanese Fangirls Shock Harry Potter and Ron Weasley Link #harrypotter
- Jesse Thorn: Tales of Fraud and Malfeasance in Railroad Hiring Practices. Probably the most important comedy sketch ever. Link
- Andrea James: Before the Civic-Minded Five was the Civic-Minded One: James Norcross, aka Super President! (thx Cal): Link
- Jesse Thorn: How much do I love this clip of P. Diddy dancing at the Q-Tip show in New York? Very much. Summer fun! Link
- Richard Metzger: Robot French Disco Pop inspired by Star Wars (1977) Have Daft Punk seen this? Link
- Jesse Thorn: Cheech & Chong discuss the economy, and then for some reason do a Tron parody of some kind. Brand new! Link
- Richard Metzger: The Lolita Question: Who was the real Humbert Humbert? Link
- Richard Metzger: The OFFICIAL video (30 years later) of "88 Lines about 44 Women" by The Nails' Marc Campbell NSFWish Link
- Jesse Thorn: I've been jamming to Bemba Colora by Celia Cruz & the Fania All Stars for about two weeks. Here's a great vid Link
- Andrea James: Mr. Tim does a live-looping demo: Link
- Richard Metzger: John Lennon on Monday Night Football w/ Howard Cosell (1974) Link
- Jesse Thorn: Buzz Aldrin punches Bart Sibrel, BS conspiracy theorist, in the face. (I don't think it was a sole puncher.) Link
More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com
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