Someone Comes to Town is my weirdest book by far, a fantasy novel about a man whose father is a mountain and whose mother is a washing machine, who moves from small-town Ontario to Toronto to help build a citywide meshing wireless network with a crustypunk dumpster-diver.
Reading the book aloud was enormously satisfying. I hadn't read it through since I finished the final draft in 2004, and in many ways it was like coming back to it for the first time.
But even more satisfying was the participation from my readers. First there was John Taylor Williams, of DC's Wryneck Studios, who volunteered to master the audio for me, adding bed-music, editing out the gonks, and making it sound really good -- he started this around week 27, and it seriously improved the final 9 episodes.
Then Glenn Jones, a reader in the UK, decided to create a dedicated podcast feed for the book, with all 36 episodes, to make it easy to fetch and play in one gulp.
Im not sure what I'll podcast next -- I have a little more than a week to think about it -- but I'm really looking forward to it.
In LA's Koreatown district, two dueling billboards over on Wilshire Boulevard. Two enter, one leaves. Guess which?
At left, Consumer Watchdog's ad, arguing that you can't trust Mercury Insurance. Yup, you guessed it -- THAT billboard was dismantled last week when the subject of the ad issued lawyergrams.
At right, the Absolut vagina Mango ad, which still flaps proudly in the Southern California breeze:
"If you drive three to four blocks east of where ours was," said Jamie Court, "there's a huge Absolut Mango ad, and it's really not a mango."
Court said he was alerted by his wife, who happened upon it while driving and made the following observation: "There's a five-story vagina on a building."
So, happy mutants, lesson learned: You may or may not be able to trust Mercury Insurance, but you can trust humongous hoo-hahs.
I just climbed back down from my Brooklyn rooftop. An airplane has flown into the World Trade Towers. There's thick black smoke billowing out of several floors of both towers.
Let me pause for a moment to say with all the lucidity I can muster that it is the strangest sight I have ever seen in my life.
I can hear the sirens of multiple emergency vehicles, 360 degrees around. There were people on other rooftops in my neighborhood, some of them talking on their cellphones. Down in the street below me a workman was shouting in some language other than English for the rest of his work crew to come out of the house they're renovating and see what's happening. I couldn't make out a word of it, but there was no mistaking the sense.
Patrick called from the office. He says from where I'm standing I can't see the big hole in the side of one tower.
And Cory wrote:
The Internet's major news sites have been shut down by a massive flood of traffic as everyone in the world calls and emails everyone else in the world to tell them the news. God, this feels so apocalyptic. Five people have just called me to tell me about this, and more -- all flights in the US have been grounded, the Pentagon's been hit, the flights were hijacked commercial airliners... Holy crap.
What happened on Tuesday was an act of war. The American government and military should and will respond in kind. If law enforcement and national security agencies declare war on the American people in the process, they will give the terrorists a gift. The despicable people who planned this will triumph if we add to the damage.
Control freaks will dine on this day for the rest of our lives. Within a few hours, we will see beginning the most vigorous efforts to end what remains of freedom in America. Those of who are willing to sacrifice a little - largely illusory - safety in order to maintain our faith in the original ideals of America will have to fight for those ideals just as vigorously.
A $1-million reward has been offered by an anonymous source for information leading to the recovery of the paintings. Weisman, who was friends with Warhol, commissioned the silk-screen paintings in the late 1970s - a time when Warhol produced hundreds of pieces of work for wealthy patrons able to pay the roughly $25,000 he charged for portraits.
Update, 5:55pm PDT: Heard just now on Mission Control audio: "Home! (...) Welcome home Discovery, after a successful mission, stepping up science to a new level on the International Space Station." A beautiful touchdown at 5:53pm PDT, and damn tootin' we heard (and felt) the twin booms here in LA.
Southern California BB readers, here's your evening forecast: breezy with a chance of BEWMMMM! Expect a large sonic boom between 530-555pm PDT this evening if you're in one of the colored areas in the map embedded at left (click to see large size).
The so-called "deorbit burn" is scheduled to begin at 4:47 p.m. PDT for a 5:53 p.m. landing at Edwards in the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles, according to details published on NASA's website. The second opportunity for leaving orbit will come at 6:23 p.m., ending with a landing at 7:28 p.m.
The mission to deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station lasted 2 weeks and spanned 5.7 million miles. More: LA Times, NASA "Landing Blog."
Wooo! The deorbit burn is beginning as I type this blog post. Snip:
Discovery's orbital maneuvering system engines are firing now. This two-minute, 35-second deorbit burn will slow the orbiter's forward speed by about 267 feet per second, enough to begin its descent through the atmosphere.
# Everyone who comes after will never understand.
Not a new brand of New York provincialism but a cold fact. This is the place where the world seemed to end in a single morning. That day, as it was experienced here, was not televised.
# The jumpers will always be with us.
Faced with the most horrible of all human choices, the kind of riddle that grade-school children use to torture each other, many leaped rather than burn. And as the debris falling from the top anthropomorphized into human beings, people watching understood that for the time being, we were all beyond help. "I don't remember faces, just bodies jumping out," says Alexandra Rethore, a second-year analyst at Lehman Brothers. "And the girl next to me was hysterical. She kept saying, 'They're catching them, right?' I said, 'Yeah, they're catching them. Let's go.' " It was a noble act, a message to loved ones: "I'm gone but not lost. I'm still here. Find me."
The cheery-looking machine has long, multi-jointed arms embedded with an array of tactile sensors that help it optimize the lifting and carrying of humans. For safety purposes, RIBA's entire body is covered in a soft skin molded from an advanced lightweight urethane foam developed by TRI. The soft skin is designed to ensure the comfort of patients while they are being carried. In addition, the arm joints yield slightly under pressure -- much like human arms do -- further increasing the level of comfort and safety.
The robotic bear can also recognize faces and voices, as well as respond to spoken commands. Using visual and audio data from its surroundings, RIBA can identify co-workers, determine the position of those nearby, and respond flexibly to changes in the immediate environment. The motors operate silently, and a set of omni-directional wheels allow the robot to navigate tight spaces inside hospitals and nursing facilities.
It's too easy to describe anything that's kinda creepy as being "Lynchian," but I can't think of a more apt term for this old Scopitone video that Spike Priggen of Bedazzled sent me. It's the Freddy Bee 4 performing "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." Excuse me while I go in the corner to quake.
SF in SF & Tachyon Publications present
Nalo Hopkinson & Michael Kurland
Saturday, September 12
Doors and cash bar open at 6:00 PM
Authors read at 7PM; followed by
Q & A moderated by Terry Bisson, and schmoozing and booksigning will be in the lounge afterwards
$5 suggested donation goes straight to Variety Childrens' Charity - drop it in the donation box, or buy a beer!
The Variety Preview Room Theatre
The Hobart Bldg. 1st Floor - entrance between Quiznos and Citibank
582 Market Street at 2nd & Montgomery
San Francisco
Phone night of event - 415-572-1015
Questions? email sfinsfevents@gmail.com
I've never heard Michael read, but Nalo is an astounding performer of her own work (daughter of an actor, runs in the family). It doesn't hurt that her work is so goddamned good.
Lori sez, "UT Austin's Ransom Center has digitized their Edgar Allan Poe collection, and it's pretty cool. I especially like the copies of his books, with his notes in them."
Oh, there's tons of Poe treasure here. I'm in hog heaven.
The digital collection incorporates images of all Poe manuscripts and letters at the Ransom Center with a selection of related archival materials, two books by Poe annotated by the author, sheet music based on his poems, and portraits from the Ransom Center collections. Poe's manuscripts and letters are linked to transcriptions on the website of the Poe Society of Baltimore.
MAKE's marvelous editorial assistant, Laura Cochrane, told me about her recent visit to a discount surplus store called Mr. Stuff. I asked her to write a short piece about it.
A couple of weeks ago, I flew down to LA to visit my friend Alex. His mom recommended that we go to Brent’s deli in Northridge for breakfast one day. We did, and it was delicious.
After breakfast while walking back to the car, my eye caught on a store called Mr. Stuff. The sign was punctuated by a caricature of a regular-looking guy in jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt, with a cape and eye mask on. The sign promised: “All Kinds of Stuff!”
“We have to go in!” I announced. Alex -- a friend that kindly indulges all my random whims -- followed. The store lived up to its name: Mr. Stuff is filled with bizarre, random inventory, each object more ridiculous and hilarious than the last. I loved it! Of course thrift stores are pretty good for this sort of experience, but I’m partial to these closeout, just-fell-off-the-truck outlets.
Among Mr. Stuff’s treasure trove: Extra short screwdrivers and hammers, pots of fake dirt and moss (presumably for fake plants), talking Dr. Laura and Dennis Miller dolls, Colgate brand soap (?), blonde tape measures (with drawings of feet on them), unidentifiable Japanese hygiene products, scented canned oxygen, lots of tools, dusty TVs, $10 jeans, a mug that says "Ring bell for more coffee" (that had a bike bell attached to the handle), a mug that says “I have a crush on you!” (A mug seems like the wrong vehicle to convey that message), a wide selection of bolt cutters, machine oil (it must have been poured from a bulk container into many small containers because each label was hand-written), and lots of dishes that look like they had lead in them.
To me there’s something fascinating about surplus, unwanted products. Mr. Stuff will definitely be on my itinerary the next time I visit LA!
Sidenote: Mr. Stuff's tagline, “All Kinds of Stuff!” must have been where John Kricfalusi got the name for his blog. John likes getting names from things he comes across in the San Fernando Valley. He got the name for his George Liquor character from a liquor store called George Liquor, which amused him to no end.
But as former Nixon aide G. Gordon Liddy once told me (and he should know!), the problem with government conspiracies is that bureaucrats are incompetent and people can’t keep their mouths shut. Complex conspiracies are difficult to pull off, and so many people want their quarter hour of fame that even the Men in Black couldn’t squelch the squealers from spilling the beans. So there’s a good chance that the more elaborate a conspiracy theory is, and the more people that would need to be involved, the less likely it is true.
Why do people believe in highly improbable conspiracies? In previous columns I have provided partial answers, citing patternicity (the tendency to find meaningful patterns in random noise) and agenticity (the bent to believe the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents). Conspiracy theories connect the dots of random events into meaningful patterns and then infuse those patterns with intentional agency. Add to those propensities the confirmation bias (which seeks and finds confirmatory evidence for what we already believe) and the hindsight bias (which tailors after-the-fact explanations to what we already know happened), and we have the foundation for conspiratorial cognition.
Examples of these processes can be found in journalist Arthur Goldwag’s marvelous new book, Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies (Vintage, 2009), which covers everything from the Freemasons, the Illuminati and the Bilderberg Group to black helicopters and the New World Order. “When something momentous happens, everything leading up to and away from the event seems momentous, too. Even the most trivial detail seems to glow with significance,” Goldwag explains, noting the JFK assassination as a prime example...
Lakisha Hogue of Coatesville, PA was too stoned to drive so she had her 6-year-old daughter take over. Hogue is now in jail. From NBCPhiladelphia.com:
The woman... was sitting in the passenger seat, laughing, when a patrol officer pulled her over, said police. Hogue told the Officer (Robert) Keetch that she was teaching her daughter how to drive.
"Mom made me drive because she was sleepy," the girl told police.
Then police say the aunt asked her niece, "Was your mom smoking that stinky stuff again?" The girl replied "yes," say police.
This video of Canon 1 à 2 from J. S. Bach's Musical Offering (1747) being turned into a Moebius strip, then played in two directions at the same time would have been good to watch and listen to while I was reading the mind-bending Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid many years ago. (via cgr 2.0)
As you might imagine, "special interest" mainly means magazines with photos of unclothed women, and this category is well represented here, but there are also lots of lovingly-written entries on magazines about science fiction, adventure, the occult, detective stories, music, comics, humor, and movies.
The entry on bOING bOING, the zine, is very accurate. I have no idea where they got these details, but they included things I'd completely forgotten about, and things I didn't think I'd ever told anyone before. (The only bit that's incorrect is that our last issue was 15, not 16.) Luis kindly gave me permission to run bOING bOING's entry here:
BOING BOING
The zeitgeist of the 1980s through 1990s was full of people attempting to meld computers, technology, sex, literature, and art. The science fiction sub-genre cyberpunk was one offshoot of this mating, and it served as the hot core of many new magazines. Mondo 2000, Black Ice (from England), N6, Nonstop, SF Eye, Future Sex, and bOING bOING were all 'zines that shared much of the same mindset, and some of the same writers.
In 1988, Mark Frauenfelder and his then-girlfriend (now wife) Carla Sinclair, began putting together a fanzine full of fun technology, freaky comics, Silicon Alley gutter-curb culture, cyber-science fiction culture, and all manner of posthuman irreverent things. Frauenfelder, while working as a mechanical engineer, had discovered Factsheet 5, a review for do-it-yourself magazines, and was inspired to create his own zine. He used a dot matrix printer and the copier at his office to publish the first 32-page issue of bOING bOING, which included an interview with Robert Anton Wilson, a piece on brain machines by Sinclair, and comics by Frauenfelder. The couple sent copies to Factsheet 5, and the review there brought the 'zine to the attention of Ubiquity Distributors in New York City. Soon Fine Print and Dessert Moon distributors, who were all looking to get into the zine boom of the early 1990s, picked it up.
Paul Di Filippo's "Ribofunk" ran in the second issue, along with work by Gareth Branwyn who joined the editorial staff. By the fifth issue, the self-styled "neurozine" began running color covers, and carried ever-changing mottos: "The perpetual novelty brain jack" or "The brain mutator for higher primates." It didn't take long for bOING bOING to find its audience (a group made up of alternative comics fans, first generation cyberpunks, and computer geeks), and the magazine was soon selling over ten thousand copies an issue, even though it is quite probable that none of its readers could describe the magazine to non-readers.
A sort of editorial/manifesto appeared in the eighth issue: "How can our paranoid one-maze monkey brains integrate new structures and patterns? Where is the hard reset button on our nervous systems that'll allow us to flavor our thinking with new epistemological spices? One of bOING bOING's purposes is to explore metanoia (the ability to simultaneously incorporate multiple tunnel realities) and discover some of the countless ways to achieve this fun state."
bOING bOING was put together by geeks for geeks. Frauenfelder was also the magazine's main illustrator, and utilized a cartoony style that appeared cribbed from the spare 50s television cartoons of Gene Deitch. The writers included a mulligan stew of science fiction authors and tech-heads like Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, Richard Kadrey, John Shirley, Charles Platt, and Rudy Rucker.
Circulation reached 17,500 by the 16th issue [should be the 15th issue -- Mark], but the bankruptcy of Fine Print Distributors left Frauenfelder and Sinclair in the hole for $30,000. The distribution aspect had always been on shaky ground and when another distributor collapsed Frauenfelder and Sinclair attempted to sell the magazine directly to readers with mixed results. In the magazine's last year, the couple were working on books and internet projects that would eventually replace bOING bOING.
Frauenfelder was an editor at Wired from 1993-1998 and founding editor of Wired online. bOING bOING was a website for a while, before turning into the popular web blog it is today. In an interview, Sinclair said, "bOING bOING always comes back."
Filled with hundreds of tips, tricks, lifehacks and advice for practicing designers, the feature covers everything from office supplies to office snacks, from essential books to essential software, and from intellectual property and design research to conferences, working with the press, and creative hiring.
Here's a partial list of some of the items you'll find:
+ How to Make Your Client's Logo Bigger Without Making Their Logo Bigger, by Michael Bierut
+ Why Does the Firm Own Everything I Do? Intellectual Property & You, by Katy Frankel
+ How to Get Invited to Speak at a Design Conference, by Alissa Walker
+ Check Please: How to Learn About Your Clients From Their Table Manners, by Liz Danzico
+ On Being T-Shaped, by Tim Brown
+ 19 Books Every Design Professional Should Own, by Andy Polaine
+ The Definitive DIY Guide for Professional Designers, by Christy Canida
+ Core77's Guide to Unconventional Office Plants, by Lisa Smith
+ 5 Keys to Successful Design Research, by Steve Portigal
It's here, folks, the biggest DIY Halloween contest there is! This year's contest is sponsored by Microchip, and together we've got rad prizes to give to the best in microcontroller Halloween projects. Light up costumes, creepy decorations, candy-launching robots, we just can't get enough of Halloween; it's our all-time favorite holiday.
Here's a LIFE gallery of remarkable shots from NYC in its Golden Age, the 1940s, in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson first sailing up the river that bears his name, past the island that would be Manhattan. The Forties' art, music, sports, finance, technology -- what a time it was.
The Smithsonian Institution was established in 1846, and since then numerous weird urban legends have emerged about the buildings, the collection, and the organization's research efforts. Smithsonian Mangazine posted a fun collection of the myths and the realities. Here are two of my favorites:
Myth #4: The Smithsonian discovered Egyptian ruins in the Grand Canyon. Fact: It didn’t. Backstory: On April 5, 1909, the Arizona Gazette ran the following headline: “Explorations in Grand Canyon; Mysteries of Immense Rich Cavern Being Brought to Light; Jordan Is Enthused; Remarkable Find Indicates Ancient People Migrated from Orient.” The article includes testimony of one G. E. Kincaid who says that he, traveling solo down the Green and Colorado Rivers, discovered proof of an ancient civilization—possibly of Egyptian origin. The story also asserts that a Smithsonian archaeologist named S. A. Jordan returned with Kincaid to investigate the site. However, the Arizona Gazette appears to have been the only newspaper ever to have published the story. No records can confirm the existence of either Kincaid or Jordan.
Myth #5: Betsy Ross stitched the Star-Spangled Banner. Fact: Mary Pickersgill stitched the flag that inspired the National Anthem. Backstory: The making of the first standard of the United States is popularly attributed to Betsy Ross, a professional flagmaker who has become a national folk hero. The legend stems from Ross’ grandson, William J. Canby, who, in 1870, wrote down a story a relative had told him in 1857—well after Ross’ death. The account goes that in spring 1776, George Washington approached Ross with a rough sketch of a flag and asked her to make a national standard. With the United States preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary, the story about the birth of the national flag captured imaginations. There is, however, no documentation that links Ross with making the first flag, and the events described in Canby’s account take place a year before the passage of the Flag Act—the legislation that dictates the style and substance of the national flag. Visitors to the National Museum of American History sometimes ask if the Star Spangled Banner—currently on display after extensive conservation efforts—is an example of Ross’s work. That flag was stitched by Mary Pickersgill and flew over Fort McHenry during the 1814 Battle of Baltimore, inspiring Francis Scott Key to pen the poem that became our National Anthem.
Diana Alexander, director of operations for the GO Campaign says:
GO Campaign is a US nonprofit dedicated to bettering the lives of orphans and vulnerable children throughout the world. We believe education and vocational training can be inspiring and life-changing. The GO Ingenuity Award has been established to encourage the sharing of innovation and invention with marginalized youth eager for a better future.
GO Campaign announced they will award a maximum of five GO Ingenuity Awards (GIA) to artists, inventors, and small business entrepreneurs to stimulate the next generation of "makers" and turn makers into role models and sources of inspiration for children in their community.
Up to five GIAs will be awarded in amounts ranging from $500 to $2,500 each to selected applicants who are eager to share their skills with marginalized youth in developing countries in ways that educate and inspire youth to harness their own ingenuity.
The one-year, one-time fellowship grants emphasize the sharing of innovative artistry and technology in informal, hands-on learning workshops with youth.
Complete Guidelines and Application available at www.gocampaign.org/gia. Application deadline: December 1, 2009
I'm excited to be going to Baby Tattooville this year (as a member of the press) and hang out with a lot of my favorite artists. If you want to attend, hurry and sign up, as only nine slots remain.
Baby Tattooville is an unlike-anything-you've-ever-heard-of-before art extravaganza. It's like a high-roller's cross between a lively art fair, a down-to-earth studio visit with famous artists, and a 'round-the-clock private party... with lots of jaw-dropping gifts for the lucky few who are adventurous enough to attend.
The event takes place early next month (October 2-4, 2009) at the spectacular Mission Inn Hotel and Spa in Riverside, California. This year's artist lineup includes James Gurney, Michael Hussar, Audrey Kawasaki, Travis Louie, Elizabeth McGrath, Miss Mindy, Johnny KMNDZ Rodriguez, KRK Ryden, Greg "Craola" Simkins, Yoskay Yamamoto and a number of surprise guests (big surprise guests).
In order to insure that attendees are able to interact directly with their favorite artists, a total of only 45 tickets are offered for sale. As mentioned above, only 9 tickets remain available as of today.
The retail price is $2500 for an individual ticket, or $3000 for a two-person ticket (the two people must occupy the same hotel room and will receive one gift bag between them). The retail price includes 2 nights hotel accommodations, several meals (including a spectacular Sunday Brunch), access to a weekend's worth of social and creative interaction with all of the attending artists, and an unbelievable assortment of original art, limited edition prints and collectible merchandise. Go to babytattooville.com to learn more and register.
In addition to everything mentioned above, you will find yourself with an unparalleled networking opportunity since you will be spending a fun and stimulating weekend with top artists, other industry professionals and media insiders.
The American Prospect reviewed a couple of books about Wal-Mart, and included this charming anecdote about Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton
Around the time that the young Sam Walton opened his first stores, John Kennedy redeemed a presidential campaign promise by persuading Congress to extend the minimum wage to retail workers, who had until then not been covered by the law. Congress granted an exclusion, however, to small businesses with annual sales beneath $1 million -- a figure that in 1965 it lowered to $250,000.
Walton was furious. The mechanization of agriculture had finally reached the backwaters of the Ozark Plateau, where he was opening one store after another. The men and women who had formerly worked on small farms suddenly found themselves redundant, and he could scoop them up for a song, as little as 50 cents an hour. Now the goddamn federal government was telling him he had to pay his workers the $1.15 hourly minimum. Walton's response was to divide up his stores into individual companies whose revenues did not exceed the $250,000 threshold. Eventually, though, a federal court ruled that this was simply a scheme to avoid paying the minimum wage, and he was ordered to pay his workers the accumulated sums he owed them, plus a double-time penalty thrown in for good measure.
Wal-Mart cut the checks, but Walton also summoned the employees at a major cluster of his stores to a meeting. "I'll fire anyone who cashes the check," he told them.
Chris Davenport used the free "digital sketchbook" NodeBox to make the hairy text above. NodeBox is an easy way to create 2D graphics with Python. Davenport posted the code, titled Hair Peace, for others to play with too. From Creative Review:
"Nodebox is really accessible and very easy to pick up and fiddle with, it's aimed mainly at designers like myself who don't have vast programming experience," (Davenport) continues. "I managed to do it in a day after never using Python before. It's all well documented on the Nodebox site and there's a community that helps with problems...
Earlier this week, UK mentalist Derren Brown predicted the winning lottery numbers on live television -- watch it here. It was a neat trick, and people are still trying to figure it out.
The video above offers a plausible explanation of how he did it. Later today, Brown is going on TV to show how he really did it.
Holy cats am I ever enjoying listening to Mother Mother's song "Wrecking Ball" (off their O My Heart CD) today. It's the kind of song that makes me want to get out of my seat and bounce around the room, then sit down and write something UP.
This week's story on the Escape Pod science fiction podcast is a remarkable tale called "Mr. Penumbra's Twenty-Four-Hour Book Store" written by Robin Sloan and billed as a "short story about recession, attraction and data-visualization" and it is fabulous. It's a fantastic, magical realist tale about Google Book Search, magick with a K, an olde curiousity shoppe, and the power of data-visualization. The story was initially self-published on Sloan's blog and was recommended to the Escape Pod editors by a friend, who read it, loved it and bought it. If you enjoyed Ben Rosenbaum's The Ant King: A California Fairy Tale, you'll love this.
IT'S 2:02 A.M. ON A COLD SUMMER NIGHT.
I'm sitting in a book store next to a strip club.
Not that kind of book store. The inventory here is incredibly old and impossibly rare. And it has a secret--a secret that I might have just discovered.
I am alone in the store. And then, tap-tap, suddenly I'm not.
And now I'm pretty sure I'm about to snap my laptop shut, run screaming out the front door, and never return.
* * *
I SHOULD START AT THE BEGINNING.
I lost my job in the slumped-over spring of 2009. I applied for dozens of replacement gigs but was rebuffed, again and again. And I took only the coldest comfort when the companies doing the rebuffing were, themselves, forced out of business months later. I probably couldn't have turned them around single-handedly. Probably.
The job I lost was at the corporate headquarters of the New Amsterdam Bagel Bakery. I designed bagel marketing materials. Menus, coupons, posters for store windows, and, once, an entire booth "experience" for the bagel industry trade show.
I also ran the website.
Now, months into my unemployment, I'd started watching for "help wanted" signs in windows, which is not something you really do, right? I was taught to be suspicious of those. Legitimate employers use Craigslist.
Anaglyph sez, "I was going to do a post on my blog about Kraft's new Vegemite product and I visited their official site to find that before you can get access you're forced to agree to one of the the stupidest legal disclaimers I've ever read on the net. To whit: they expressly forbid anyone to link to them!"
You may access and display pages of the Site on a computer or a monitor, and print out for your personal use any whole page or pages of this Site. All other use, copying or reproduction of any part of this Site is prohibited (save to the extent permitted by law). Without limiting the foregoing, no part of this Site may be reproduced on any other internet site, and you are not authorised to redistribute or sell the material or reverse engineer, disassemble, or otherwise convert it to any other form that people can use. You are also prohibited from linking the Site to another website in any way whatsoever. [emphasis added]
This is like saying "You are prohibited from giving people directions to the Kraft factory." Putting a link to a URL on your site doesn't require permission of the linkee. You can say it all you want, but it doesn't make it true. Still, goes to show you that all the legendary brilliance and efficiency of the consumer packaged goods giants is vastly overrated -- what a pack of morons.
Randall Munroe, creator of the awesome XKCD webcomic, is coming to San Francisco to give a benefit appearance and reading for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Now that sounds like a kick-ass evening.
Monday, September 21st will be the second Geek Reading event to benefit EFF, at 111 Minna in downtown San Francisco. This time, the author in question is Randall Munroe, otherwise known as the writer and cartoonist behind the brilliant webcomic xkcd...
Reddit and Breadpig founder Alexis Ohanian will be emceeing the event, which will include a visual presentation as well as an interview portion, with questions culled from the top-voted comments on Reddit. Randall's new book "xkcd: Volume 0" we be available for purchase and signings as well.
The main event starts at 7 and tickets are $30. But you can also join the VIP reception ($100 donation) a bit earlier, at 6, for some extra face time with the man behind the most complex stick figures ever drawn. Numbers are limited, so get your tickets now!
Geek Reading: xkcd creator Randall Munroe
Monday, September 21, 2009
VIP Reception: 6:00
Reading: 7:00
111 Minna Gallery, 111 Minna Street, San Francisco
Dictator Wars is the latest game from GameLayers, the creators of the Nethernet (AKA Passively Multiplayer Online Game). Justin Hall sez,
In Dictator Wars you can arrest dissident bloggers, move the national treasury into your home, and subsidize the price of oil to create religious policemen. Players can ban threatening religions, develop domestic drug production, and ride around on aircraft carriers threatening larger nations.
Dictator Wars is a Facebook game merging social games with geopolitical extreme leadership. To be successful, you must collaborate with your co-tyrants in Foreign Affairs. And fighting other players means putting your winter and summer palace on the line. What kind of Dear Leader will you be?
Once again it's time for the annual Sysadmin of the Year award, and nominations are open. Of course, my vote -- as always -- goes to our very own Ken Snider, the very epitome of everything wonderful about sysadmins. Ken is level-headed and calm, technically skilled, bright and quick, tireless and impassioned. He cares about the systems and he cares about the people who use them. He has beaten DoS attacks, tuned and maintained our hardware to a startling level of reliability, and has gotten out of a warm bed more times than I can count to battle demon entropy. What's more, Ken cares about systems in general, with a deep commitment to justice and freedom on the network. Thank you Ken, you're the sysadmin of the century in my books.
We're talking about sysadmins here--the unsung rock stars of IT. The kind of sysadmin that plays the network blindfolded and upside down like Stevie Ray Vaughn, makes ch, ch, changes faster than David Bowie, smashes hackers like Pete Townsend does with guitars, keeps the show going like Bill Graham, and does it all with Ringo's good humor.
Sysadmins can really rock your world. Now it's time to rock it back.
The 2009 System Administrator of the Year contest is your opportunity to launch your organization's sysadmin rock star to superstardom. Simply nominate your sysadmin or IT rock star here. Be prepared to write a thoughtful, detailed description of why your sysadmin rock star deserves global acclaim.
South African athlete Caster Semenya (shown here holding a gold medal she's just won) has been the subject of gender-related cheating allegations. She was forced to take a gender test (perhaps more accurately, a "sex test"), and the results have been released: Semenya is intersexed.
For context: we're not just talking about deeply personal medical news becoming very public world news, we're talking about that happening before the person involved was informed or counseled on the results. And, she had no option to keep the very private information private.
Mainstream news coverage, within South Africa and worldwide, has reflected ignorance, and worse. Here's a snip from a news article that describes her with the derogatory term "hermaphrodite":
The athletics governing body is also expected to advise her to have surgery to fix the potentially deadly condition, the paper reported. The IAAF would not comment on the results that have yet to be released.
Someone please tell me how the f*ck her natural condition -- which is that of a superb physical athlete -- is deadly? Thankfully Semenya wants no part of this.
Update: Some BB commenters have pointed out that the "potentially deadly condition" of which they they speak may be the belief that having male sexual organs "embedded" within the body means elevated cancer risk in intersexed people. Another BB commenter who says they're an intersexed person argues the purported risk is a ruse to pressure intersexed people towards altering themselves through surgery.
Semenya, who identifies as female, says,
"God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself," she told [South Africa's] You Magazine, which ran a photo spread. "I don't want to talk about the tests. I'm not even thinking about them."
The Prime Minister has released a statement on the Second World War code-breaker, Alan Turing, recognising the 'appalling' way he was treated for being gay. Alan Turing, a mathematician most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes, was convicted of 'gross indecency' in 1952 and sentenced to chemical castration.
A wonderful infographic over at the LA Times of pot dispensaries throughout greater Los Angeles. I love this. You can even see which have licenses, which don't, and how close some of them are to schools, or to other dispensaries.
I live in an LA neighborhood in which there are far more weed dispensaries per square mile than Starbuckses. Almost without exception, the ones around here are shady, creepy and not professionally run. My favorite is either the one where the "clinic" is split into two parts, one of which doles out 420, the other Botox and Juvederm injections (same doctor doing the prescriptions for both, apparently). Or, the other one where bikini-clad, hard-eyed Euro-hos jump right out at you in the street, grab you by the arm, and squeal, "Hiyeee! Doo yoo vant to get leeegal?" No: I want to punch you.
I don't use the stuff at all (I don't drink or use any recreational drugs), but I'm all for straight-up legalizing pot -- if only to banish the recent proliferation of these gray-market dispenaries, which I believe are directly linked to a spike in crime and black-market drug activity around my 'hood. It's all I can do to not flip those pot-hawkers the bird when I walk by.
The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, a massive anthology of old comic book stories for kids, is a big hit around my house. My six-year-old loves it so much she reads it to herself. The oversize format and 350 pages make for a delightful reading experience.
Art Spiegelman (creator of Maus) and his partner Francoise Mouly (art editor of The New Yorker) selected 60 terrific stories from comic books published between the 1930s and the 1960s. Characters include Sugar and Spike, Dennis the Menace, Little Archie, Little Lulu, Pogo, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Melvin Monster, Gerald McBoing Boing, and a bunch of others who are new to me. Spiegelman and Mouly picked stories that are smart, funny, and warm. Thankfully they didn't concern themselves with finding stories that are overly simple -- the have engaging plots and I enjoy the stories as much as my kids do.
In his introduction to the book, Jon Scieszka writes, "Wow, 'Treasury' is right. You have just entered the bank, the mint, the Ali Baba cave full of gold, silver, ruby, emerald, and diamond toons." I couldn't agree more.
Conservative television dirtbag Glenn Beck, formerly of CNN, now of FOX, is none too happy with the domain name glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com (website is down). Beck's lawyers are attacking this satirical website, which has only been up for one week, on the grounds that the very domain name is defamation. That's right, the url, apart from the contents. Apparently the whole thing started with Fark and Gilbert Gottfried. I'm confused, but Ars Technica has an exensive post up: Can a mere domain name be defamation? Glenn Beck says yes(via @EFF)
Los Angeles tagger "Buket," aka, Cyrus Yazdani, was today sentenced to 3 years and 8 months in California state prison. He gained online fame when he tagged a sign over an LA freeway in broad daylight, and vandalized a bus.
Yazdani became something of an Internet sensation when he plastered his "Buket" bomb 20 feet above the busy Hollywood Freeway -- vandalism that was captured on videotape and posted with a rap soundtrack on YouTube and numerous tagger-related blogs.
Yazdani must also pay $117,196 in restitution fines.
Daredevil street artiste or reckless egomaniacal douchetard? Not sure. Either way, I feel badly for the guy. He's going to do that kind of prison time, for a nonviolent crime? Seems harsh. Maybe part of the logic was that he could have caused accidents in the freeway incident, leading to injury or death. But you can actually kill someone, under some circumstances, and do less time. Hash it out in the comments.
I can't tell if these are creepy, adorable, stupid, awesome, or all of the above. But because I can't tell, I am compelled to blog. Above, Lili the pug doing Padmasana, the lotus position. Yoga Dogs(via KodakCB)
Above, video of a glass sculpture of the AIDS virus being created by glass blower Kim George, designed by artist Luke Jerram. London's Smithfield Gallery is hosting an exhibit of Jerram's glass renderings of deadly microbials from Sep 22-Oct 3. The show is called "Viral Sculptures." Snip:
The question of pseudo-colouring in biomedicine and its use for science communicative purposes, is a vast and complex subject. If some images are coloured for scientific purposes, and others altered simply for aesthetic reasons, how can a viewer tell the difference? How many people believe viruses are brightly coloured? Are there any colour conventions and what kind of 'presence' do pseudocoloured images have that 'naturally' coloured specimens don't? See these examples of HIV imagery. How does the choice of different colours affect their reception?
The sculptures were designed in consultation with virologists from the University of Bristol using a combination of different scientific photographs and models.
Below: a most elegant representation of Swine Flu, from this series.
A New Yorker essay by George Packer on the death of Sultan Munadi, the "fixer" killed during a raid in which British commandos attempted to free him and New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell. One of the soldiers also died in the raid. Farrell was successfully freed. I have known a number of war correspondents, both personal friends and work colleagues, who've spoken about the inherent imbalance of power in this warzone relationship. One friend of mine saw "his" fixer mortally wounded as he walked out of a similar situation unharmed. Packer's essay echoes the sense of guilt I remember my friend articulating. Snip:
The relationship between fixers and foreign correspondents can be very close. Shared dangers and successes will do that, especially when the work done together, the tie between you, is what puts you at risk. In Iraq and Afghanistan and a growing number of other places, the foreign correspondent would be a target with or without the fixer, but the fixer is a target because he or she is with the foreign correspondent. Both are considered spies, but one is only an infidel, while the other is something worse--an apostate, a traitor. In my experience, this mutually voluntary risk is rarely a source of resentment on the part of fixers. They are generally young, cosmopolitan, quick-witted, stoical, tinged with idealism, implacable foes of their countries' extremists; and, after all, they understand better than anyone what they have signed up for. For the most part, the risk strengthens the bond. It becomes a cause of tension only when it's borne by just one side. In spite of the closeness, the relationship is troubled by a kind of imbalance of power.
Tickets for the second installment of Pop-Up Magazine, a live event on Sept. 25 in San Francisco, go on sale today at 12 noon PST.
What is Pop-Up?
A 75-minute reading/performance highlighting two dozen writers, photographers and filmmakers whose work appears in places like Wired, This American Life, New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly and Harper's. The evening is structured just like a magazine: short front-of-the-book bits, reviews, essays, columns, mini-features, photo essays, and features.
Issue 1, which debuted last spring, featured Michael Pollan, the Kitchen Sisters, Larry Sultan, Todd Lappin, Lisa Margonelli and more. While I can't reveal Issue 2's lineup, I will mention that once again I've been handed the Gallagher slot — i.e. the gadget portion of Pop-Up.
Tickets sold out fast last time. If you want to attend this intimate event at San Francisco's Brava Theater on Friday, Sept. 25 at 7pm, then I recommend you head on over to Pop-Up Magazine today at, or soon after, 12 noon PST. Tickets are $15. Oh, and If you do attend please be sure to come say hi after the show!
UPDATE: Tickets for 9/25 sold out in 1 hour, 44 minutes. To be put on the wait list should any tickets become available and/or to stay tuned for the next Pop-Up, email the following address:
Cincinnati.com is selling commemorative mugs and other memorabilia emblazoned with the face of James Orr. As you may recall, he is the gentleman who ate the contents of his colostomy bag in a futile attempt to delay his trial for robbing and kidnapping a woman and forcing her to withdraw money from an ATM. (He was sentenced to 37 years today, which means he could be enjoying prison food until he's 103.)
Rob Cockerham interviewed John Marcotte, a Sacramento man who filed a petition with the California Secretary of State to get a voter's initiative onto the 2010 ballot in California that would make it ban divorce.
RC: Are you going to hit the streets collecting signatures for the initiative?
John: We're going to set up a table in front of Wal*Mart and ask people to sign a petition to protect traditional marriage. We're going to interview them about why they thing traditional marriage is important, and then we'll tell them that we are trying to ban divorce.
People who supported Prop 8 weren't trying to take rights away from gays, they just wanted to protect traditional marriage. That's why I'm confident that they will support this initiative, even though this time it will be their rights that are diminished. To not support it would be hypocritical.
We're also going to collect signatures in front of "Faces," the largest gay nightclub in Sacramento.
Is the games industry missing an opportunity to let concept artists rule the roost? In his latest Ragdoll Metaphysics column, Jim Rossignol points to both success stories and missed opportunities where letting artists spearhead the game either did bring or should have brought the game closer to art, and calls for a new industry arms race to create the best "watercolour FPS games, painterly RTS games, and oil-painting strategies."
But 09/09's more prevalent significance to The Beatles didn't go unnoticed by groups other than Harmonix (with the unleashing of The Beatles: Rock Band), as chiptune collective 8-Bit Operators unveiled "WANNA HLD YR HANDHELD", a 20-track 8-bit Beatles cover compilation, nearly half of which they're streaming ahead of its release.
Here's a scene from American Casino, a new documentary about the subprime lending scandal and the resulting $12 trillion Wall Street bailout. Another consequence of the meltdown -- the swimming pools of foreclosed homes have become mosquito breeding grounds.
Bibliodyssey, a blog that scans and posts illustrations from old books, has a nice gallery of bee related images.
Illustration above is from Leben und Zucht der Honigbiene -
ein gemeinverständliches Lehrbuch über Behandlung der Bienen und
über Tätigkeit, Nutzen und Anatomie der Biene 1922 by Oskar Krancher.
Old bee book illustrations
The UK police watchdog is finally looking into the widespread use of anti-terrorism stop-and-search powers by cops. The event that spurred them into it? Two plainclothes cops stopped a 43-year-old man and his 11-year-old daughter and her six-year-old friend. They took the man's USB sticks, phones, camera and CD, made him stand in front of a CCTV to be photographed, and then they searched and photographed the children.
They never told the man where he could go to get his property returned. They never returned it. Where I come from, that's called "being mugged."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said todayit would "manage" the investigation into the incident in July, meaning that an independent investigator will control the inquiry conducted by the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards...
In a statement today, the IPCC said: "The complainant states that, when he asked under what legislation his property was being seized, he was told it was under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He also complained that he was given no information as to when he could retrieve his goods or who to contact in order to do so, and that there was no communication from police despite assurances that he would be told when he could collect his things."
Acephalous's DISTANCE LEARNING! is a notional Zork-like game that illustrates the daily round of a distance education instructor:
You are sitting at your desk with a cup of coffee, checking your online course webpage. There are twenty-three assignments that need grading.
> drink coffee
All is right with the world again.
> grade assignments
You have graded twenty-three assignments. You are sitting at your desk with a half-finished cup of coffee, checking your online course webpage. There are twenty-three assignments that need grading.
> drink more coffee
You curse the law of diminishing returns.
> grade assignments
You have graded twenty-three assignments. You are sitting at your desk with an empty cup of coffee, checking your online course webpage. There are twenty-three assignments that need grading.
> no all done
There are twenty-three assignments that need grading.
"I liked your mini-essay on culture, Dan. But it sounded a little like it was written from a dominant culture perspective. The notion of "basic civil rights" is culturally-constructed, just as clothing fashions are. Of course you know that, but there was that interesting bit where you spoke of stepping in to protect children from being flayed. But that's only relevant when you have the right sort of force at your disposal.
Pluralism is good policy not because there is no one true set of values (although the..."
"Yes, well unfortunately feral cats don't taste like beef or chicken for that matter so there's no convenient solution.
As for feral pigs, thats bacon with a mean temper and tusks to match, we should probably introduce Tigers to control the population.... and greenies who like to chain themselves to trees >.>..."
"The link directs to a sign-in page (looks like sign-in to edit the post), not to the next chapter. I'm getting the same error message when I enter my sign-in info, too.
Here's the current address to which the link is pointing:
http://mt.boingboing.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&blog_id=1
And here's the error message: "Our apologies, but you do not have permission to access any blogs within this installation. If you feel you have reached this message in error, please contact your Movable T..."
"Pfff...
Once again crying crocodile tears for an idiot who confessed to having invaded USG computers yet hoped he could walk away without any punishment. Nope, not gonna happen & you know what? He deserves a harsh punishment now for all the bull he has put everyone through attempting to avoid taking responsibility for his acts.
He was stoned while hacking? So what, If I drive drunk the fact that I was drunk excuses nothing.
He has aspergers? So what, he was still aware of the difference between right & w..."
""Sign in
Our apologies, but you do not have permission to access any blogs within this installation. If you feel you have reached this message in error, please contact your Movable Type system administrator."
am i missing something? the last few were on the boing site, not http://mt.boingboing.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi..."
"To Antinous and Loughlin:
Actually, I do understand the issue. It's been crammed down my throat by every blog I read for--what? Seven years now? I've read plenty on it.
I agree that 60 years is a lot for what he did, but regardless of whether the security was tight on the army computers or not, this is pretty much the most serious computer crime you can commit. Breaking into military systems during a war (no matter how unjust)? Yup, that's a big computer crime.
Furthermore, and further to the point, it's..."
"doubling their numbers every nine years, and despoiling the ecosystems
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought camels were one of the least damaging of the non-native species because they're desert herbivores and don't trash the ecosystem as badly as say, feral cats and pigs. That's not to say they're not damaging, but there are worse ones out there. Of course, I learned everything I know about the Australian ecosystem from Steve Irwin...."
"This is odd.. We were watching some show about the 'Tiger Island' attraction because it had adorable kittens on it, and I started research on animal infestation in Australia.. I'm sure most people know about the rabbit problem, they breed like rabbits of course and apparently must be killed like roaches.. There are large campaigns about house cat ownership because of fear that feral numbers will spread and diminish bird species, as well as kill the pet canaries.. Is it that Australia is just a really good p..."
"This further confirms the ages old belief that getting along well in Life is a matter of trial and error. But, although it's fun to browse and search and learn on the internet, it's obviously also important to interact with the normal, non-Internet physical world.
There's really nothing like allowing running water to flow through one's cupped hands...."
"Lol at all the people mocking Dougall for saying it's not ok to paint on private property by saying they like their houses graffiti'd. They're YOUR HOUSES. That was the point he was making.
#24, beautification...I first heard that word the first time I saw a Californian highway. "What are those weird, ugly little tiles they've put on the big grey wall in seemingly random places?" I asked. "Oh, that's beautification."
In such cases, yay graffiti. I really like the stuff you can see on the concrete river ba..."
36 weeks ago -- give or take -- I set out to read my 2005 novel 
The digital collection incorporates images of all Poe manuscripts and letters at the Ransom Center with a selection of related archival materials, two books by Poe annotated by the author, sheet music based on his poems, and portraits from the Ransom Center collections. Poe's manuscripts and letters are linked to transcriptions on the website of the Poe Society of Baltimore.
But as former Nixon aide G. Gordon Liddy once told me (and he should know!), the problem with government conspiracies is that bureaucrats are incompetent and people can’t keep their mouths shut. Complex conspiracies are difficult to pull off, and so many people want their quarter hour of fame that even the Men in Black couldn’t squelch the squealers from spilling the beans. So there’s a good chance that the more elaborate a conspiracy theory is, and the more people that would need to be involved, the less likely it is true.
GO Campaign is a US nonprofit dedicated to bettering the lives of orphans and vulnerable children throughout the world. We believe education and vocational training can be inspiring and life-changing. The GO Ingenuity Award has been established to encourage the sharing of innovation and invention with marginalized youth eager for a better future.
IT'S 2:02 A.M. ON A COLD SUMMER NIGHT.
Cincinnati.com is selling commemorative mugs and other memorabilia emblazoned with the face of James Orr. As you may recall, he is the gentleman who 
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