I just spent ten minutes cracking up in a bookstore over a copy of Goodnight Bush, a satirical remix of the classic Goodnight Moon that wishes the Commander-in-Chief a hearty farewell (and don't let the door of history hit you in the ass on the way out). I couldn't take a copy home because all the store's copies were spoken for -- apparently they can't keep it on the shelf. Link

Science fiction writer Elizabeth Hand has written a thoroughgoing and thoughtful eulogy for Thomas M Disch for Salon today; Disch, one of the grand talents of science fiction, committed suicide on July 4.

Few people make a successful career of contemplating death and suicide; fewer still approach the subject with the genuine ebullience and elegant despair of the prolific, criminally underappreciated writer Thomas M. Disch, who shot himself in his Union Square apartment, in New York, on the Fourth of July. Disch was a seminal figure in science fiction's New Wave, the iconoclastic 1960s movement that gave the genre a literary pedigree and popularized the term "speculative fiction." His books influenced writers such as William Gibson and Jonathan Lethem; his dystopias "Camp Concentration" and "334" are considered science fiction classics, along with his greatest novel, "On Wings of Song," a beautiful, dark meditation on the power and limits of transcendence through art.

An openly gay man for most of his working life, Disch wrote mysteries, historical novels and neo-gothic satires; children's books, including "The Brave Little Toaster" and its sequel; at least five collections of short fiction; 15 volumes of poetry, always as Tom Disch; plays and libretti; four volumes of nonfiction; screen adaptations, novelizations and one of the first interactive computer games. He edited anthologies; he wrote book reviews, theater reviews, art reviews, music reviews. He wrote collaboratively and pseudonymously; he kept a popular blog, Endzone, in which he shared new poems, some unpleasant post-9/11 screeds, and witty discourses on the meaninglessness and minutiae of life. In his most recent novel, he wrote in the voice of God, and on his publisher's Web site answered questions from readers. He wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote, for the sheer joy of it and for an even more primal impulse: to tell a story to the dark.

Link

See also: RIP, Thomas M Disch

Mousewrites sez, "Steampunkwallpaper.com is a collection of wallpapers with a steampunky theme. I've taken it into my damn fool head to make one wallpaper a day for the next year, (15 so far) and I realized that I don't have quite enough ideas (my list of ideas is around 130 right now). I know that there's some people that don't like steampunk, but hell, there's some people who don't like coffee, either. No accounting for taste, I suppose! I love Boing Boing, and was hoping that the collective might give me some ideas? All my wallpapers are Creative Commons remix licensed, as well." Link (Thanks, Mousewrites!)

Craphound, the first short story I ever published in a professional market, has been turned into a fine little audio reading by Literal Systems (using the Creative Commons license), read by Rosalia Triana.

Craphound had wicked yard-sale karma, for a rotten, filthy alien bastard. He was too good at panning out the single grain of gold in a raging river of uselessness for me not to like him -- respect him, anyway. But then he found the cowboy trunk. It was two months' rent to me and nothing but some squirrelly alien kitsch-fetish to Craphound.

So I did the unthinkable. I violated the Code. I got into a bidding war with a buddy. Never let them tell you that women poison friendships: in my experience, wounds from women-fights heal quickly; fights over garbage leave nothing behind but scorched earth.

Craphound spotted the sign -- his karma, plus the goggles in his exoskeleton, gave him the advantage when we were doing 80 kmh on some stretch of back-highway in cottage country. He was riding shotgun while I drove, and we had the radio on to the CBC's summer-Saturday programming: eight weekends with eight hours of old radio dramas: "The Shadow," "Quiet Please," "Tom Mix," "The Crypt-Keeper" with Bela Lugosi. It was hour three, and Bogey was phoning in his performance on a radio adaptation of _The African Queen_. I had the windows of the old truck rolled down so that I could smoke without fouling Craphound's breather. My arm was hanging out the window, the radio was booming, and Craphound said "Turn around! Turn around, now, Jerry, now, turn around!"

Link (Thanks, Bri!)

Etienne Meneau's "Strange Carafes" are pricey, hand-blown art-glass wine-decanters in the form of roots, or upside-down antlers. Pretty awesome -- though I'm fairly certain I'd turn mine into deadly shards (natural clumsiness) within minutes. Link (via Neatorama)

Canadian copyfighter Howard Knopf has suggested (presumably with tongue firmly planted in cheek) that recording artists whose music is played by torturers in Gitmo are owed performance royalties:

Leaving aside the legal niceties about whose law if any applies in that dreadful place, one can only wonder if ASCAP might not want a piece of the action. After all, it went after the Girl Guides not so long ago. And if it could try to make a buck off Girl Guides, who are nice people, why not alleged terrorists? Why should terrorists enjoy free music?

Link (Thanks, Howard!)

Neil Gaiman and his publisher have published the results of their free online release of his novel American Gods earlier this year -- the conclusion? Giving away ebooks for free sold books:

The Indies [ie. independent booksellers -- Neil] are the only sales channel where we have confidence that incremental sales were driven by this promotion. In the Bookscan data reported for Independents we see a marked increase in weekly sales across all of Neil’s books, not just American Gods during the time of the contest and promotion. Following the promotion, sales returned to pre-promotion levels.

Link (Thanks, Neil!)

See also: Free download of Neil Gaiman's American Gods

The aptly-named Bálla Powder is "scented scrotum talc for men." It's $15 via Amazon. From the product description:

Blla Powder for Men is the ideal anti-chafing and anti-wetness solution for clammy sacks. Guaranteed to prevent the dreaded "bat wing" syndrome, Balla Powder for Men is lightly scented with a masculine fragrance, for anyone else who plans to work in your close quarters. Can be sprinkled into your fudgies for all-day-long comfort and dryness. A fabulous post-workout treatment, Balla Powder for Men can also be used between your cheeks, as well as on fetid feet and aromatic armpits.

Bálla Powder for men's balls (Amazon)

BB pal Jess Hemerly attended the US Air Guitar: San Francisco Regional Championship a few weeks ago. As she astutely points out, it's quite a testament to the, er, premise that a show where the performers pretend to play invisible musical instruments sold out a mid-size rock venue. Over at SF Jukebox, Jess posted about the pandemonium. Her piece is accompanied by Jonathan Koshi's terrific photos. Seen above, winner Shred Begley, Jr. From the post:

For those unfamiliar with the magic and mystery of air guitar, it is an annual collection of freaks, wannabes, amateur comedians, and rock lovers who "play" air guitar on stage. Sometimes a contestant seems to be completely disconnected from both his body and the music. Other times, a contestant is so good that it's as if a guitar will materialize in his hands any second....

The evening began with the ceremonial air-ing of "War Pigs," where master-of-air-emonies and retired contestant Bjorn Turoque invited audience members to join him on stage and play air bass and air drums as he sang (really sang, not air sang) and aired lead guitar.

US Air Guitar: San Francisco Regional Championships (SF Jukebox)

Previously on BB:
• Photos from San Francisco Air Guitar Championship 2007
• Air guitar t-shirt

Here at BB, we've been carefully monitoring the story of the unattached feet that keep turning up on British Columbia shores. Five have washed ashore so far since last August. Last night, police reported on DNA tests revealing that two of the feet once belonged to the same male and one of the feet was from a female. All of the feet found seem to have disconnected from their owners' bodies via natural decomposition. From CNN:

The five feet were found in running shoes. Four of the shoes were made between 2003 and 2004, according to police, and the other was made in 1999. The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) released photos of the shoes hoping someone can help identify the remains.

"We are asking anyone who may have had their loved one last seen wearing this particular pair of shoes to contact us immediately," (RCMP Constable Annie) Linteau said.

Feet found at shore (CNN)

Previously on BB:
• Severed feet washed up in Canada
• More severed feet in British Columbia
• 5th Foot Found Washed Up In BC
• 6th Foot Found Is A Hoax

Tom Stern was commissioned to make a video for a Russian heavy metal band called ANJ. It's funny-strange and worth watching. From Stern's description:

When I saw the lyrics it seemed to be an earnest tribute to Mikael Gorbachov (that's how the Russians spell it), so I was a bit confounded about what the video concept should be, but then I had a brainstorm to take it way over the top and I think it was just the thing. Suffice to say it's half Russian History allegory as told through an old zombie movie made in the Soviet Union, and half animated Soviet Propaganda posters.

Gorbachov: The Music Video (Vimeo, thanks Vann Hall!)

For the GetBack music blog, Gil Kaufman posted "5 Reasons Why... Devo Are The Coolest Nerd Band Ever." How many people remember their appearance on the short-lived Square Pegs, the 1982-1983 high school sitcom starring Sarah Jessica Parker? The band performed at Muffy Tepperman's Bat Mitzvah party.
5 Reasons Why... Devo Are The Coolest Nerd Band Ever (Yahoo!)

Previously on BB:
• Devo sues McDonalds
• Video: DEVO and Jermaine Jackson
• Video of DEVO on SNL in 1978

If you ever doubted, even for a second, that non-Newtonian goo (e.g., cornstarch and water) is from a totally different (and infinitely preferable) universe, behold! Cornstarch paste + subwoofer == proof positive. Link (via Neatorama)

My friend Joe Hutsko contacted with the intriguing offer to serialize his novel, The Deal, on Boing Boing. I jumped at the chance. I read The Deal when it first came out in 1999 and loved the thrilling story about a Apple-like company's undertaking to create an iPhone-like device.

Here's a link to Chapter 06 as a PDF or a text file. (Here's chapter 1 and an introduction to the book, and here are the previous chapters)

To buy a paperback copy of the book, visit JOEyGADGET or purchase directly from Amazon.

Casimir sez,

This is a video that illustrates a very simple food hack that anyone can do at McDonalds. Essentially, McDonalds employs the same oppressive menu rules as most fast food establishments and delis. You can't have breakfast food after 11am. And you can't have lunch food before that.

Attempting to undermine their arbitrary temporal laws of eating, we made a short video essay that documents an easy way to combine lunch and breakfast in spectacular futuristic (in the future, you'll be able to have whatever genre of meal at any time) fashion.

Fascinating in concept, but I don't know that I agree with calling any of this stuff "food" or a "meal." Link (Thanks, Casimir!)

The Ontario Privacy Commissioner is urging Google to fight a ruling that will force it to turn over the logs of YouTube downloads to Viacom, stating that copyright enforcement should not be a used as the rationale for surveillance:

In an open letter to Google, the Ontario Privacy Commissioner encourages Google to challenge the ruling and states, “business should not, in my opinion, rely on the surveillance of consumers to protect their copyright interests. It is not acceptable to allow copyright enforcement to come at the expense of users’ privacy.”

Link, PDF Link to letter (Thanks, Chad!)

Salon's Patrick Smith, author of the excellent Ask the Pilot column relates the incredibly frustrating -- and quintessential -- story of the day a surly TSA screener confiscated the airline-issue, safe-certified knife from his luggage (part of his hotel stayover emergency kit):

"No, this is no good. You can't take this."

"Why not?"

"It's serrated." He is talking about the little row of teeth along the edge. Truth be told, the knife in question, which I've had for years, is actually smaller and less sharp than the knives currently handed out by my airline to its first- and business-class customers. You'd be hard-pressed to cut a slice of toast with it.

"Oh, come on. It is not."

"What do you call these?" He runs his finger along the minuscule serrations.

"Those ... but ... they ... it ..."

"No serrated knives. You can't take this."

"But sir, how can it not be allowed when it's the same knife they give you on the plane!"

"Those are the rules."

"That's impossible. Can I please speak to a supervisor?"

"I am the supervisor."

There are those moments in life when time stands still and the air around you seems to solidify. You stand there in an amber of absurdity, waiting for the crowd to burst out laughing and the "Candid Camera" guy to appear from around the corner.

Except the supervisor is dead serious.

Realizing that I'm not getting my knife back, I try for the consolation prize, which is getting the man to admit, if nothing else, that the rule makes no sense. "Come on," I argue. "The purpose of confiscating knives is to keep people from bringing them onto planes, right? But every person on my flight was legally handed one of these knives with their meals. How can you ... I mean ... it just ... At least admit to me that it's a dumb rule."

"It's not a dumb rule."

Link (via Schneier!)

Xeni and Pesco visit TCHO, a homebrew chocolate technology startup hacked together by a space shuttle technologist, Timothy Childs, and the founder of Wired, Louis Rosetto.

In part one of Boing Boing tv's multi-part exploration of Tcho, we begin in the lab, and learn about the origins of chocolate: it's a weird looking fruit with biological roots in faraway tropical lands. How this fruit is cultivated, harvested, and cured determines the flavor of the final product, and we learn about the hedonics -- the sensual nuances -- of this exotic and temperamental element.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Link to Boing Boing tv episode with discussion and downloadable video, and instructions on how to subscribe to the BBtv daily video podcast.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Related: read a feature about TCHO by David Pescovitz in the current issue of MAKE Magazine, Timothy and the Chocolate Factory.

Here are some iPhone snapshots from Xeni on Flickr: TCHO, Boing Boing tv.

(Special thanks to Amy Critchett, and Wayne & Breanna)

Two high-school crafters on Cape Cod, Katheryn Maloney and Brady Cullinan, are making jewelry out of the ubiquitous remains of the local 17-year cicadas, who did their thing this year:

Yesterday, amid the tents of baked goods and vegetables at the Sandwich Farmers Market at Oakcrest Cove Field off Quaker Meetinghouse Road, their table featured earrings and necklaces made with colored beads, sea glass and dead bugs.

The business partners, both 17, residents of Sandwich and seniors at Sandwich High School, crafted the dainty pieces from the bodies of the insects that have covered areas of the Cape this summer for the first time in 17 years.

(Thanks, Andrew!)

(Image ganked from Cape Cod Times/Merrily Lunsford -- original here)

Here's a 40-minute talk that Neal Stephenson gave to Gresham College in London last May, discussing the nature of "literary genres" and why these distinctions are melting away. It's a fascinating noodle on a subject close to my heart -- is there such a thing as genres anymore, and is science fiction a genre? Link (via Beyond the Beyond)

Boing Boing reader Lee sez, "Now that my own government has killed the 4th amendment, how do I protect myself? I know the basics of file encryption; I've even started to use Tor. I use OSX 10.5 at home, and Windows 2003 behind a corporate network at work."

Good question. I use Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon and have some nice disk encryption tools, ssh tunnels for my email and other routine communications, and Tor for firewall circumvention and rudimentary privacy, but I'd love to know more, too. Go to it in the comments.

Today on the Worth1000 photoshopping contest: remixing every movie as a Christmas flick. Link

Alex sez, "I am public lead of Creative Commons in Poland (and a sociologist of new media). I'm running a study on CC license use at Flickr, and part of it involves a survey of Flickr users. The survey is really short and will only take several minutes to take part in. I don't know if you publish such information, but getting Boing Boing readers to participate would significantly increase the chances of understanding what it means that Flickr has offered CC licensing several years ago as an option." Link (Thanks, Alex!)

Scott Hoffenberg, who lives in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado, is growing a vegetable garden in the space between the sidewalk and the street on University Avenue. A neighbor complained about the trellises and fencing in the parkway, and Hoffenberg has been ordered to remove them or face a $2,000 per day fine.

[L]ast month, an enforcement officer from Boulder’s Environmental and Zoning Enforcement office showed up and said a neighbor had complained about the garden.

“She said to take it all down — the tomato cages, the trellises, the posts, the basketball hoop, everything,” Hoffenberg said.

...

Hoffenberg has until July 14 to take down the trellises and fencing. At that point, Arthur said, he could be cited, and a judge could impose a fine. Or the city could remove the impediments, since they’re on public property, Arthur said, if they’re not able to reach a compromise.

Boulder, curbside gardeners spar over right-of-way (Boulder Daily Camera) (Thanks, Nina!)

Seattle's incredible Roq La Rue Gallery is celebrating its tenth anniversary with an extravaganza of Pop Surrealism. The 10th Anniversary Group show opens tomorrow and it will spank your eyeballs. Featured artists include: Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, Femke Hiemstra, Brian Despain, Travis Louie, Scott Musgrove, Lisa Petrucci, Shag, Liz McGrath, Andrew Hem, Glenn Barr, John Brophy, Viktor Safonkin, Anthony Pontius, Tin, Kay Tuttle, Ronald Kurniawan, Chris Crites, Johnny Bergeron, Mia Araujo, Mike Leavitt, Christian Vanminnen, Gabe Marquez, and Lori Earley. (At top, Ryan Heshka's "Humants" (detail); above left, Mark Ryden's "Turkey Baby," above right, Liz McGrath and Morgan Slade's "Death Before Dishonor" sculpture; below Scott Musgrove's ""Great Lesser Plant Sampler- Extinct ca. 1877.") Congratulations, Kirsten Anderson!!! From the show description:

Roq la Rue is ten years old!

The gallery opened with a small gallery space in Belltown in the summer of 1998. Owner Kirsten Anderson had no previous gallery experience, but felt compelled to create a space where countercultural art could be seen and enjoyed in Seattle. At that time, there were only about 5 galleries in the world catering to a subversive new art movement tongue-in-cheekly called "Lowbrow", while ten years later there are almost too many to count, with a "Lowbrow/Pop Surrealist" gallery in almost every major city in the US and many major european cities. Since then, the gallery has hosted some of the world's most well known and regarded underground cartoonists and Pop Surrealists and is considered one of the top galleries world wide for the Pop Surrealism/ New Contemporary genre. (The "Lowbrow" moniker has since morphed into the term "Pop Surrealism" after the publication and success of the book "Pop Surrealism" published in 2004 by Last Gasp Books (selling 20,000 copies at last count) that Anderson compiled and edited.) In addition to hosting approximately 110 openings, the gallery has moved four times over the past decade, finally ending at it's largest and most posh digs yet in the Belltown neighborhood.

For our anniversary exhibition we asked a host of artists artists to participate. Some are old favorites, some are vibrant new talents the gallery is thrilled to have brought on board. All share the technical excellence and rapacious imagination that characterizes the artistic vision Roq La Rue has striven to promote over the past decade.

Online preview of Roq La Rue 10th Anniversary Show

Rick Kleffel sez, "John W. Campbell Award winning author Jay Lake will be in the studio on Saturday, July 12 for GeekSpeak, to be interviewed by RIck Kleffel, Lyle Troxell and Sean Cleveland. We'll be taking your phone calls at 1-800-655-5877, or you can email me your questions in advance (agony@trashotron.com). We'll be talking with Jay about his latest novels, Mainspring and Escapement and the widespread interest in the the Steampunk aesthetic. We want your live voices on the air, so be sure to call!" Link (Thanks, Rick!)

See also: Jay Lake's "Mainspring": Clockpunk adventure

Several months ago, I posted about the capture of 13 "penis thieves" in the Congo who allegedly stole, or shrank, their victims' members. In the June issue of Harper's Magazine, Frank Bures tells of his travels to Africa in search of the penis thieves. During his quest, he riffs on the idea of "culture-bound syndromes" and "the interplay among culture, mind, and disease." From Harper's Magazine:

Wasiu, Bad Teeth told me, had gotten on the bus and sat down next to this woman. He didn’t have a watch, so he asked her what time it was. She didn’t know. Then the conductor came around and asked her for her fare. She didn’t have that either. As she stood up to get out of the bus, she bumped into Wasiu.

“Then,” he said, “Wasiu Karimu felt something happen in his body. Something not right. And he checked and his thing was gone.”

“Was it gone,” I asked, “or was it shrinking?”

“Shrinking! Shrinking! It was getting smaller.”

And as he felt his penis shrink, Wasiu Karimu screamed and demanded the woman put his penis back. The conductor told them both to get off the bus, and a crowd closed in on the accused, not doubting for an instant that the woman could do such a thing. But as soon as she saw trouble coming, Bad Teeth said, she replaced Wasiu’s manhood, so when the police took him down to the station, they thought he was lying and arrested him instead.

Penis thieves (Harper's Magazine, thanks Vann Hall!)

Previously on BB:
• Accused penis thieves captured

(Click on thumbnails for enlargement)

Sarah says: "Spotted this en route to work this morning at the bodega out front of my house in the East Village NYC. Any ideas? I was in too much of a hurry to take the bait."

It reminds me of Mister Jalopy's "Pocket Guide to Life & Death with Modest Automobiles," which can be purchased for $1 from a vending machine at Coco's Variety, or as a PDF at Boing Boing's Digital Emporium.

In the comments after yesterday's DEVO/Jermaine Jackson post, BAT21 pointed to this delightfully strange video of Conway Twitty performing "When You're Cool" on David Sanborn's Night Music TV show. The back-up dancers are none other than The Residents. Conway Twitty and The Residents (YouTube)

BB readers are responding with mad skillz to today's BB post about a bad photoshop job from the Iranian defense ministry. Below, my two favorites so far; here is the comment thread where folks are uploading their entries.

Below, from BB commenter JIMH.

Below, from BB commenter SIMONFT.

Below, from BB commenter NERAK.

An editorial in today's NY Times asks Congress to make Homeland Security stop seizing the laptops and phones of US citizens returning from overseas travel. Like that will ever happen.

There have been widespread reports of the government searching — and often seizing — laptops, BlackBerrys, iPhones and other portable electronic devices at airports. It is not clear how often these searches occur, and the government will not say. The Association of Corporate Travel Executives says that of 100 people who responded to a survey it conducted this year, 7 said they had had a laptop or other electronic device seized.

...

Laptop owners rightly complain that the program violates the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. Their legal objections, however, have not fared well. In April, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco upheld a laptop search at Los Angeles International Airport. After this disappointing decision, Congress needs to act.

Link

Meat Puppet Derrick Bostrom has kindly scanned and uploaded a bunch of odd, funny, and frightening newspaper clippings he's saved since the 1980s. Things I Should Throw Out: Clippings From The Eighties (Bostworld)

The University College London placed a tray of jello in the shape of St Paul's cathedral in an anechoic chamber and recorded the sound it made when it wobbled.

Sound artist Douglas Murphy, who recorded the sound says: "It is refreshing to explore the sonority of a much neglected physical property: the wobble factor. Jelly entices us into a strange but compelling world of organic sounds. The sonic wobble is captured in two ways: by carefully recording the results of gentle coaxing and by expressing the wobble frequency as physically powerful base tones." Sound of jelly wobbling (Telegraph)

Tinselman says:

In 1968 women wore "futuristic" helmets during house cleaning. After cleaning, wearing the fashionable helmets to shopping and lunches was considered a must. My own mother couldn't afford a helmet, so my dad constructed one out of cardboard and duct-tape. He painted it gloss white. I thought it looked authentic, but she finally stopped wearing it when she noticed some of the neighbor ladies laughing behind her back.

Thankfully, such strict standards are no longer required.

Lestoil moon helmet ad (Tinselman)

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets... well, look. We're not going to lie to you. If you hate Apple and its products, today at Boing Boing Gadgets was your own personal Goatse.cx.

I mean, not that we didn't try to space the iPhone 2.0 / App Store news out with some less Jobs-centric filling. There were pet-tormenting insect bots and 12 volt USB power adapters. We observed the 46th birthday of satellite television and looked at a solar power Nissan. We looked at a truly beautiful laptop box. We checked out the first ever Commodore 64 LAN party and his-and-her Wiimote dildos. We even looked at totally stupid weaponry, a naked gyrating Wii Fit beefcake and a vintage 1982 news report on "The Pac-Man".

But Apple, Apple, Apple. Man, did we talk about Apple. You never saw so much Apple! We examined how Apple keeps third-party accessories off market with special licensing fees. We looked at turning your iPhone or iPod Touch into a neat little iTunes remote. We found out how Apple salesmen are supposed to hypnotize you into buying an iPhone. We wondered to do with an old, button-cute indigo iMac G3. We read some ebooks on our iPhone. We wondered which was the better iPhone app: ToDo or To Do? And Joel even spent all afternoon playing with iPhone apps and calling it work.

And the iPhone 3G hasn't even been released yet. Yeesh!

Link

Lisa Katayama will be signing her wonderful book, Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan, at Double Punch in San Francisco this Sunday, July 13. Lisa Katayama book signing (Tokyo Mango)

William Smith, proprietor of Hang Fire Books, reviewed "A really fascinating novel" from 1943 called I Am Thinking of My Darling by Vincent McHugh. I just bought a copy on Amazon for 12 cents.

Originally published in 1943, the book is about a happiness virus that spreads across New York City like a plague. The disease makes the afflicted lose their inhibitions, act like they perpetually have 2-3 drinks under their belt (without slurring or clumsiness, they're sharper in fact), and extremely resistant to doing anything they don't want to do.

Sounds more like a paradise than a plague right? Problem is that only 10-20% of the populace feel like doing their jobs anymore so law enforcement, public safety, garbage collection etc, go right out the window. And--though the author's description of crowd euphoria is appealing and not conservative or reactionary--some people's euphoric impulses are dangerous to themselves and others.

The protagonist of the novel is a civil servant who's promoted to acting Mayor when the former gets the virus and heads back to Westchester to build model trains. He loves the city in all its particulars and he loves his job (which is why he keeps going even when he gets the virus himself). His wife is an actress who evades him for the entire novel (because her bliss is to take on a series of elaborate character parts) and the chase takes us on a grand tour of the uninhibited city.

The novel feels extremely contemporary and realistic in the city's response to a disaster (so much that I almost put it down after the 50th motion was put before a board, argued about, voted and passed). And the author's descriptions of euphoria and ideas about what happiness means are entertaining and thought provoking.

The book is basically a zombie novel except instead of a walking corpse the infected turn into Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby.

I Am Thinking of My Darling (Hang Fire Books)

kraftwerk2010 says: "Frank Converse (with a little help from ultra cool girl band The Cake) recites 'She's Leaving Home' William-Shatner-style on the 1967 TV program Popendipty." (via A Hole in the Head)

If you are at a loss for what book to read, check out Art Garfunkel's list of over 1000 books he's read, from June 1968 to present.

Since the 1960's, Art Garfunkel has been a voracious reader. We are pleased to present a listing of every book Art has read over the last 40 years. To view a list of Art Garfunkel's favorite books, go to Favorites. This book list has been divided into several pages to allow easy downloading. Each page indicates the author, title, date of publication and number of pages (when available).

Art Garfunkel's library (artgarfunkel.com)

Or perhaps the headline of this post should read, "American media: you suck at fact-checking."

Iran's state-run media agency has been accused before of having digitally manipulated images released to foreign media. This week, as word spread of purported missile tests in Iran, the validity of an image of four missiles shooting into the sky turned out to be photoshopped -- but not before a bunch of big news organizations printed it as legit.

From the NYT blog The Lede:

Unfortunately, it appeared to contain one too many missiles, a point that had not emerged before the photo appeared on the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com and many other major news Web sites.

Agence France-Presse said that it obtained the image from the Web site of Sepah News, the media arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, on Wednesday. But there was no sign of it there later in the day. Today, The Associated Press distributed what appeared to be a nearly identical photo from the same source, but without the fourth missile.

This morning, Agence France-Presse retracted the image as “apparently digitally altered.”

Here's the caption on the NYT illustration above:

In the four-missile version of the image released Wednesday by Sepah News, the media arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, two major sections (encircled in red) appear to closely replicate other sections (encircled in orange).

Boing Boing readers are invited to further manipulate the image, whip up nuclear cat macros, or create topically specific fan-remixed versions of YOU SUCK AT PHOTOSHOP.

Post links in the comments, and our digital manipulation ambassadors will evaluate as hastily as a nuclear missile seeks the heavens.

UPDATE: And the winner is... BB commenter CORPSE1, who says, "Here's my rendition. I fixed up a number of inaccuracies for them."

UPDATE 2: And the hits keep rolling in. More photoshoppery from BB readers after the jump; I'll update this post as more hijinks ensue.

Matt sez, "On Sunday, July 13, 2008, every hour on the hour for eight hours beginning at 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 AM Pacific time, 'Brave Men Run' author Matthew Wayne Selznick will be reading a brand new, original short story set in the first year of his 'Sovereign Era' universe. These stories — official Sovereign Era canon — are from some of the most respected authors of podcast fiction, including J.C. Hutchins, Mur Lafferty, Nathan Lowell, Matt Wallace, J.R. Blackwell, P.G. Holyfield, Jared Axelrod. This will be in celebration of the paperback release of Matthew's novel 'Brave Men Run.'" Link (Thanks, Matt!)

New Babbage is Second Life's magnificent steampunk city, "bringing together the combined interests of Steampunks from around the world to a place they can roleplay and be creative." Link to video, Link to New Babbage homepage (Thanks, Josh!)

Bob Geldof's editorial against the new British law that suspends habeas corpus by making it possible for the authorities to lock us up for 42 days without charging us with anything ( (even more than the old law that suspended habeas corpus by letting them do it for 25 days) really nails it:

Still today, 800 years later, Magna Carta resonates: "To no man will we deny, To no man will we delay, Justice and Right." Is that not grand, worthy of your vote? Is habeas corpus to be traduced in one sad moment of political expediency? Do we not clearly deny and delay Justice and Right when we imprison a person for 42 days without charge?

What existential threat do we face greater than those of the past 800 years? What great terror exists today that not civil war, not world war, nor recent other terrorisms could make our forefathers change the fundamental basis of this state? What is so dangerous that our oldest statutes could be upended for such a ha'p'orth of momentary panic?

Link (via Blogzilla)

"Jeff" (the brother of the editor of Photoshop Insider) is pretty sure that the "plain-clothes security-guard" who approached him in a store in Italy to enforce the store's no-photography rule was a petty con-man who just wanted to steal the memory-card out of Jeff's camera.

As they were walking around, Jeff saw some interesting looking produce and pulled out his Canon G-9 Point-and-Shoot and took a few pictures. Within a few minutes a man came up dressed in plain clothes, flashed a badge, and told him he couldn’t take photos in the store. My brother said “no problem” (after all, it’s a private store, right?), but then the guy demanded my brother’s memory card.

My brother gave him that “Are you outta your mind” look and said, “No way!” Can you guess what happened next? The guy simply shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

My brother saw him in the store a little later, and the guy had a bag and was shopping. My brother made eye contact with him, and the guy turned away as though he didn’t want Jeff looking at him. Jeff feels like this wasn’t “official store security,” but instead some guy collecting (and then reselling) memory cards from unsuspecting tourists (many of whom might have just surrendered that card immediately).

Link (via Schneier)

Simon from Bloggasm interviewed some of Tor's authors who've given away their books for free online while they were available in stores and asked them if they believed the giveaways had sold more print books, and what made them think so:

“‘Scientifically’?” he [Scalzi] wrote to me in an email. “Probably not, unless you somehow managed to control (or at least account for and factor in) every incident of someone discussing your work and or going down a decision path to acquire the work, which is probably more work than it’s worth. But I don’t think that ’scientifically’ is the standard required here; I think ‘heuristically’ is probably better. If you consistently see a rise in sales of an author’s work after the release of a free e-book, then heuristically you have a good idea it’s beneficial.”

In his case, Scalzi watched sales of his book shoot up by 20 percent. But what’s even more interesting is that the sequel to Old Man’s War saw an increase of over 30 percent. Both he and Buckell benefited more from sales of books later in their series.

Link

Austrian subversive art collective monochrom present an all-new installment of the philosophical sock puppets Kiki and Bubu on today's episode of Boing Boing tv.

These fuzzy logicians ponder the true nature of individual identity in capitalist societies, and connect the dots between Star Trek fandom, Sesame Street characters, Broadway musicals, and racy jpegs.

Link to Boing Boing tv episode with discussion, downloadable video, and instructions on how to subscribe to the daily BBtv video podcast.

Previously:

* Nazi Petting Zoo
* Fisch Interview
* Orwell's 1984 deconstructed by puppets
* Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets
* Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical
* Monochrom: Campfire at Will
* Monochrom: Falco Stairs
* Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial
* Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor
* Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig

Via Cartoon Brew, word of a cool new show at New York's Children’s Museum of Manhattan -- “Golden Legacy: Original Art from 65 Years of Golden Book”. Snip from the show description:

Among the artists who contributed to the series were greats of the European émigré community such as Garth Williams, Feodor Rojankovsky, and Tibor Gergely who had gathered in New York as the situation in Europe worsened during World War II; alumni of the Walt Disney Studios such as Gustaf Tenggren, Martin Provensen, J. P. Miller, and Mary Blair; and American aritsts Leonard Weisgard, Eloise Wilkin, Elizabeth Orton Jones, Richard Scarry, and Hilary Knight.

Golden Legacy: Original Art from 65 Years of Golden Books, through August 28, at CMOM, 212 West 83rd Street, NYC. Image: work from the artist Mary Blair, whose illustrations for Golden Books will be featured in this show. [ Thank you, John Walsh! ]

UPDATE: Wow, awesome, this exhibit will be presented in a number of US cities, not just NYC! Tour info. [ Thanks, Mark Rowan ]

Randi sez, "Perhaps you would be interested in a 17 foot tall Gandhi avatar made out of cardboard? An artist by the name of Joseph DeLappe made this for his Eyebeam spring residency. Should you want to make your own, the process is well documented on Instructables."

After walking with Gandhi in Second Life for 240 miles I decided it would be interesting to extract my avatar from this online world and recreate him in monumental scale. This instructable takes you through the process of creating the 17' tall cardboard Gandhi using a variety of readily accessible (mostly free!) software tools, cardboard and a hot glue gun. The production of this sculpture took a total of 4 weeks, 6 days a week, 9-11 hour days with the assistance of an intern for two-three days of each week.

Link (Thanks, Randy!)

This Rube Goldberg machine makes sheer delight out of the process of mixing a Falling Water ( 30mls (1Oz) 42BELOW Feijoa Vodka, lemonade, long slice of seedless cucumber, ice) -- it comes from Joseph Herscher, the same genius who made the Cadbury Creme Egg smasher. Link (Thanks, Sacha!)

See also: Rube Goldberg Cream Egg killer

Stephen sez,

NY Times has reported that the Senate just approved a bill extending the warrantless wiretapping program AND giving the telcos immunity from prosecution for violating the law and the rights of their customers for compliance in earlier illegal warrantless wiretapping.

And Barack Obama voted for it!

Listen to your phone calls? Record your conversations?

Yes we can, yes we can...

That sound you hear? It's the Bill of Rights being torn in half. Talk about losing the war on terror. Who needs external forces threatening your way of life when your elected lawmakers are doing such a good job of it? Link (Thanks, Stephen.)