Last month's Dorkbot Vienna featured a killer talk on hacking video games and pinball machines by Martin Pichlmair:

summary: games are a defining medium of our time. the majority of them is produced by multinational corporations, designed to appeal to the mass audience, locked on drm-protected and region-coded data media, and sold, shrink-wrapped in plastic. yet resourceful hackers and artists are working on the liberation of this medium. serious games, homebrew games, and game art are results of their great efforts. martin pichlmair and his guests will present a number of game machine hacks - from a modified pinball machine dating back to the 70s to musical instruments running on the nintendo ds. let's crack open the game machine a bit further.

Link (Thanks, Johannes!)

Pink Tentacle describes the practice of growing giant rice-paddy illustrations "by growing a little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru-roman variety." There's a fantastic gallery of these illustrations, ranging from "36 Views of Mount Fuji" to various demons, gods and traditional illustrations, as well as the Mona Lisa. Link (Thanks, Karen!)

British designer Jennifer Collier makes all manner of impractical garments out of unlikely material (a dress made from teabags!). What got me was this miniature dress sewn from vintage letters and envelopes. Link (via Craft)

Bruce Sterling is blogging as Harvey Feldspar, a free-wheeling, globe-trotting geoblogger from the year 2017. There's a ton of eyeball-kicks here, vividly imagined and sharply critical visions of what a world built out of objects that know their location in space and time would look like. Look on the page for the material about Feldspar's Congressional testimony about the obsolescence of passports and the rise of the European cell-phone-based border crossings (and don't miss the trenchant commentary on the notional Berlin geohacker scene of 2017!).

The US should do what the Japanese do: track every foreigner's mobile. If he does anything freaky, jump on him.

"But Mr. Feldspar, suppose this international criminal doesn't carry a mobile?" demanded representative Chuck Kingston (R-Alabama). It would have been rude to point out the obvious. So I didn't. But look, just between you and me: Anybody without a mobile is not any kind of danger to society. He's a pitiful derelict. Because he's got no phone. Duh.

He also has no email, voicemail, pager, chat client, or gaming platform. And probably no maps, guidebooks, Web browser, video player, music player, or radio. No transit tickets, payment system, biometric ID, environmental safety sensor, or Breathalyzer. No alarm clock, camera, laser scanner, navigator, pedometer, flashlight, remote control, or hi-def projector. No house key, office key, car key... Are you still with me? If you don't have a mobile, the modern world is a seething jungle crisscrossed by electric fences crowned with barbed wire. A guy without a mobile is beyond derelict. He's a nonperson.

I didn't say any of that to the politicians. They don't want to be taught things by bloggers in public. They consider it an act of enmity.

Link

From Wikipedia:

The Mull of Kintyre test was an unofficial guideline said to have been used by the British Board of Film Classification in the United Kingdom to decide whether an image of a man's penis could be shown.

The BBFC would not permit the general release of a film or video if it depicted a phallus erect to the point that the angle it made from the vertical (the "angle of the dangle" as it was often known) was larger than that of the Mull of Kintyre, Argyll and Bute, on maps of Scotland.

Link (Via Sexoteric)

(Click on thumbnails for enlargement)

The wonderfully talented Amanda Visell has a new art book, called Popping Through Pictures. In Amanda's world, children play with nanny robots and hide under their covers from closet-dwelling beasties, animals sit on the porch and play old timey music, and elephants happily swallow English double decker buses.

Her use of gouache (opaque water color paint) brings to mind the whimsical work of Disney concept artist Mary Blair.

She'll be at the ComiCon in San Diego, signing copies of her book and selling her "What did I eat? -- Ephunt" set which includes a unique hand painted sculpture and print, in a limited edition of 25 for $300.

Visit her at the Munky King booth #4639 Friday and Saturday 11-12, and at the Baby Tattoo booth #601 Friday at 4.

$16.50 at Amazon.com

Mary Lou Jepsen, CTO of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, has announced that the foundation may sell its ruggedized "$100" laptops in the developed world next Christmas, marking them up to either $350 or $525. When I first heard about the OLPC, I immediately said, "I'll buy three for a developing country if I can buy one more for myself" (once I got to play with one, I grew even more convinced that I wanted this!). I think that the high pricetag might turn people off, though -- instead, they should market this as "Buy three OLPCs for kids in poor nations, and we'll sell you one for your own use." That would be a killer Christmas gift.

The One Laptop Per Child Foundation's rugged XO laptop could initially sell for just $350, or twice its production cost, although the group is also considering a $525 price tag, said OLPC chief technology officer Mary Lou Jepsen.

If the XO laptop does make its way onto the market this year, it could surprise personal computer makers who have already spent months planning their strategy for the 2007 holiday season.

Link (Thanks, Wayan!)

John sez, "An armed gang of four kidnapped one of the world's top RPG gamers after one criminal's girlfriend lured him into a fake date using Orkut, Google's social network. After sequestering him in Sao Paulo, they held a gun against the victim's head for five hours to get his password, which they wanted to sell for $8,000. And yes, the story gets even better."

According to the police, the captive is the world leader in GunBound, a turn-based RPG-style multiplayer online game. Developed in South Korea, in this artillery game you get more experience points, offensive and defensive capabilities depending on your skills during battle, as well as money to buy more weapons, armor and all kinds of gear for your multiple avatars. You can only play with one of your avatars each time, but all of them belong to a single account.

The game looks to be quite popular, so the four gangsters decided they could make some quick cash if they kidnapped him to steal his user. Their plan: use one of the criminal's girlfriends, called Tamires, to get him into a date using Google's online social network Orkut, which is also extremely popular in Brazil. After contacting and seducing him, she told the GunBound wizard to meet her in a shopping mall.

Link

Furni, makers of a DIY digital clock kit, are running a contest to design the coolest possible clock with it. You can either buy a real kit, or download and print out a paper dummy version. Link (via Watchismo)

Statetris is a Flash-based Tetris played with falling US states. Get 'em into the right spot or the US will overflow into Canada and everyone gets socialized medicine! Link (via Neatorama)

EFF's Derek Slater sez, "Major copyright holders are backing a legislative proposal to make colleges do their dirty work. The Higher Education Act is supposed to make going to college more affordable, but, under a last-minute amendment, certain schools would risk losing federal funding for student aid if they don't divert funds away from education and toward policing corporate copyrighted content on their campus network. Twenty-five schools will annually be singled out, required to police their students with 'technology-based deterrents' (read: network surveillance technologies), and forced to provide evidence to the Secretary of Education about their efforts to stop file sharing. This amendment may come up for a vote tomorrow or later this week, so please call your Senators now using EFF's Action Center." (Thanks, Derek!)

Video of a sweet pet hippo named Jessica. Link (Via Woodring Monitor)

Kerry bought some flip flops for $2.44 at Wal Mart. After wearing them for a while, she noticed a tingling sensation on her feet. She immediately stopped wearing the flip flops. Soon after, her skin turned red and blistery.

When she took the matter up with Wal Mart, they told her to take it up with the Chinese manufacturer.

Apparently, Wal Mart is still selling the flip flops. Link (Thanks, Joanna!)

WFMU is reprinting some of the letters that members of the Archie comic book fan club sent in to the "Everything's Archie" newsletter. Here's one from August 1979:

Dear Archie,

I'm Starchild and the school I attend is called the Space Dome. The school floats on a cloud and is in the shape of an egg. The school starts at the fibus (5th) grade and goes to colony (college). Here at the Space dome, fibus and colony are only 4 grades apart. The reason for that is the highly programmed computers we have teaching us are most effective. We have recess every cardi (3 hours) and of course, lunch time is great. Just push a button and it's anything your heart desires! Subjects consist of Mathdust, Language and Job Careers, Historic Events, and Science 5. We write with small machines similar to calculators. We don't have any books because we use mini-recorders. Imagine what would happen to all of our learning if accidentally we stepped on our mini-recorders & squashed them!

Brenda Dobson
13541 Kaslo Drive
Woodbridge, Va. 22193

Brenda (Starchild)'s letter was the winner of the five dollar grand prize this issue.

Link

In his latest Weekend Projects video, MAKE's Bre Pettis shows you how to make a Jam Jar Jet, as designed by William Gurstelle. Link

Toronto street artist Posterchild has been installing planter boxes of Celosias in various spots around Kensington Market. (image left) Link, Link, and Link

His guerilla gardening reminds of my friend Shannon Spanhake's project where she planted tiny gardens in potholes across the city of Tijuana, Mexico. (image right) Shannon documented the project in the book Tijuana: A Fantasy of Absolute Place. Link to project page, Link to buy the book

Caddis fly larvae usually form their protective sheaths by spinning silk with sand, minerals, plant particles, and bits of bone they find in their aquatic environments. French artist Hubert Duprat collects the larvae, carefully strips their shells, and then puts them in aquaria filled with stuff like pearls, rubies, gold, and diamonds. The larvae make new coverings out of these materials.



From Cabinet:

Duprat traces his work with the caddis fly larvae back to pioneering nineteenth-century entomologists such as François-Jules Pictet and Jean-Henri Fabre, who both conducted experiments in which structure-building insects were given alternative, non-indigenous materials. Seen within the context of the artist’s work—a practice that has often addressed aspects of mimesis in the realms of both nature and facture through his conceptual sculptural activities—the caddis fly larvae project is an example of Duprat’s ongoing interest in productive collisions between organic forms and technologized materials.

Link

The October 7 episode of The Simpsons will feature underground comic icons Art "Maus" Spiegleman, Alan "Watchmen" Moore, and BB fave Dan "Eightball" Clowes. The artists will play themselves! From Entertainment Weekly:

The plot is all about our beloved Comic Book Guy (pictured), who gets some competition in Springfield from a new store, "Coolsville Comics & Toys," run by "hipster" Milo, voiced by Jack Black.

Link (via Fantagraphics Flog!)

The Tokyo Commuter Alarm Clock has dials for the major Tokyo rail lines. The clock is updated wirelessly in real-time with the position of trains on each line, so you know exactly how long you have to catch your subway. Link (via OhGizmo)

Update: Russell sez, "The clock listed only gives the times for a single line--the Yamanote Line. This line loops around Tokyo with stations roughly two minutes apart. It does go through many major stations including Shinjuku, Tokyo, Akihabara, Ueno, Ikebukuro, and Shinagawa. The Yamanote line is only one of many JR Lines (Japan Rail was privatized but previously run by the government). There are also many subways and private lines."

Update 2: Dan sez, "Unfortunately, it doesn't keep real-time information about where the trains are, it just syncs to a radio frequency clock signal broadcast in Japan to keep accurate time."

Ethan Persoff has a scan of a weird anti-drug comic from 1970 called Users are Losers. I imagine kids enjoyed reading it while stoned.

The first panel seems to be a swipe of William Steig's "People are no damn good" cartoon.

Link

I frequently think that some of the surreal, curious, and downright bizarre things I blog on BB would make good comix. Along those lines, Mental Floss posted a fun quiz called "Ripped From Headlines Or Plot From Scooby Doo?" Here's a sample:

Question 8 Police were baffled by the case of the silent grandma. In what may have been the perfect crime, an elderly woman who sat entirely still for an entire afternoon got up while a cash box was unattended and walked away with it, undetected by security.

Real Story? Scooby Doo Lab?

Link

Click through to this optical illusion and focus on the twirling dancer. Keep watching for a while and eventually she'll appear to change direction from clockwise to counterclockwise. No, it's not faked.
Link (via Mindhacks)

• Mr. Angry and Mrs. Calm optical illusion Link
• Illusion zen Link
• Dragon Optical Illusion Link

Media Bistro has a nice interview with Jesse Thorn, host and producer of the tremendously good podcast/radio show The Sound of Young America.

MEDIA BISTRO: Do you believe newspapers are going to die? If so, when?

JESSE THORN: They tell me that they are, and who am I to disagree? My hope is that if and when that happens, news that isn't tied to a deadline cycle will grow. The internet makes scoops important, but once someone has the scoop, everyone else has to do analysis, which I think is kinda great.

Cable news is unwatchable to me, and many newspapers are equally lame but I enjoy listening to public radio news. I think it's because in public radio, there's no deadline culture--partly because they were incapable of breaking news in the early days, since they had so few reporters. The joke motto was "report it a day late, call it analysis," but I think it's of much greater service to the citizen to convey information in context than it is to "break" a story. For most stuff, what day you find out is much less important than what you find out.

In other words: what the fuck do I know? I'm not a real journalist. I didn't even write for the high school newspaper.

Link

My friend Bill Barminski of WalterRobot.com created this short animated video for my book, Rule the Web. It's about a couple of space aliens who visit Earth and discover they're low on saucer fuel. He did an amazing job! Link

A company called Custom Receipts sells phony ATM receipts so you can trick people into thinking you have a lot of money in the bank. A one-year supply (52 receipts) costs $15. Creepy. Link (Thanks, Hudson!)

Here's a great little collection of famous poems rewritten as limericks, including my favorite, Poe's Raven.

There once was a girl named Lenore
And a bird and a bust and a door
And a guy with depression
And a whole lot of questions
And the bird always says "Nevermore."

Link (via MeFi)

A Flickr user named Subspace visited Kentucky's Ventriloquism Museum and documented the results in this chilling photoset -- these dummies all seem poised to take on independent life and begin pronouncing oracular doom. Link