Nabokov Edits Kafka's Metamorphosis

By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:17 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Vladimir goes to work on Franz. Nice bug sketch!

Nabokov Edits Kafka's Metamorphosis

Twist Barbie

By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:42 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Not sure if this is Shonen Knife playing "Twist Barbie" but I like it.

Storm-sewer dwellers of Las Vegas

By Cory Doctorow at 10:13 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

The UK Sun (an admittedly sensationalist source) claims that hundreds of people are living in the storm sewers beneath Las Vegas, scraping by on coins left in slot machines. The underground community is documented in a recent book called Beneath the Neon.

It is estimated the population of the underground community could be as many as 700. As well as credit-hustling, they earn their money off the wildly excessive city above by begging and "dumpster diving" - raiding bins and skips.

There are around 350 miles of flood channels running under Las Vegas. Most inhabitants are in the area under the city's strip.

Another couple, Amy and JR, have lived in the tunnels for two years, having moved to Las Vegas in search of work, wealth and a slice of the famous Sin City action.

Putting down the Twilight vampire book she is reading for the third time, Amy, 33, explains: "My husband and I have been down here two years this week.

"We were living with my mom in California but the house was full and we had to leave.

"I heard Las Vegas was a good place for jobs. It's the city that never sleeps, with all the bright lights, and I'd always wanted to come.

"But it was tough and we started living under the staircase outside the MGM casino. Then we met a guy who lived in the tunnels. We've been down here ever since.

Lost Vegas (Thanks, Bas!)

(Image: AUSTIN HARGRAVE)

Anti-Cthulhu PSA for young netizens

By Cory Doctorow at 10:07 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

I don't know anything about this PSA advising young people to stay away from chat rooms lest the cute boy on the other end turn out to be Cthulhu, waiting to take their sanity, but I certainly support its message.

Cthulhu PSA

Al Franken reads the Fourth Amendment to DoJ official at PATRIOT Act hearings

By Cory Doctorow at 10:05 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Al Franken's Senate career just keeps on getting better: this week he read the Fourth Amendment ("no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.") aloud to a high-ranking Department of Justice official who was making the case for renewing the PATRIOT Act's provision for roving wiretaps.

"That's pretty explicit language," noted Franken, asking Kris how the "roving wiretap" provision of the Patriot Act can meet that requirement if it doesn't require the government to name its target.

Kris looked flustered and mumbled that "this is surreal," apparently referring to having to respond to Franken's question. "I would defer to the other branch of government," he said, referring to the courts, prompting Franken to interject: "I know what that is."

Kris explained that the courts have held that the law's requirements that the person be described, though not named, is sufficient to meet the demands of the Constitution. That did not appear to completely satisfy Franken's concerns.

Al Franken Reads the 4th Amendment to Justice Department Official (via Greg Laden)

Plants Vs Zombies fan-video

By Cory Doctorow at 10:02 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Here is an absolutely adorkable fan-video for Plants vs Zombies by some talented Australian plants and zombies.

A Lawn Defence at Any Hour (via Wonderland)

Daily photos of a healthy cervix for one month

By Cory Doctorow at 10:00 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

I love the citizen science motivation behind this doula/student midwife's project to photograph her cervix every day through one entire month: "to better understand my cycle and the changes in my cervix throughout the month."

Beautiful Cervix Project (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

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By Richard Metzger at 8:13 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Meet Kent French, champion hand clapper! Link

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By Richard Metzger at 5:42 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Akira Kurosawa the Bollywood Dance Number! Link

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By Sean Bonner at 4:22 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Dramatic reenactments of celebrity tweets. Link

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Rocket-shaped air blower for removing dust

By Mark Frauenfelder at 2:47 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

I've never used Giottos Rocket Blaster. I just like the way it looks.

From Cool Tools:

This rubber rocket doesn’t provide as much pressure as Dust-Off. But it does exhale a forceful-enough blast for dusting photo/electronic gear, and standing upright on its base sidelines as playful desk dressing/stress-relief toy. I squeeze the oblong bladder (the rocket’s body) and a burst of air entering through a hole at the bottom exits the narrow hard plastic red nozzle.

Dramatic Tweets

By Bassam Tariq at 2:44 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Bassam Tariq is a Boing Boing guestblogger who is the co-author of 30 Mosques. A blog that celebrated the NYC mosques during the Islamic month of Ramadan. He currently resides in Harlem, New York.

 

A dramatic reading of tweets. The guy reading Lohan is the best. Who do you think should be read next?  (thanks James, No You First)

Bravo Gustavo, an excuse to wave your iPhone around like a conductor's baton

By Mark Frauenfelder at 2:39 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

The LA Philharmonic has a brand new Guitar Hero-inspired conducting game that lets you pretend to be music director Gustavo Dudamel. It's available on iPhone and on the Web.

Bravo Gustavo

Spike Jonze Loves You So

By Bassam Tariq at 2:27 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Bassam Tariq is a Boing Boing guestblogger who is the co-author of 30 Mosques. A blog that celebrated the NYC mosques during the Islamic month of Ramadan. He currently resides in Harlem, New York.

Is anyone here following We Love You So? A blog Spike Jonze and Co. set up giving us a  nice glimpse into all the little insights and influences that helped bring Where The Wild Things Are to life. The photo above is from their Where the Wild Things Ought To Be Contest, a cute photoshop competition that has some really clever entries. 

Ch ch check it out- http://weloveyouso.com

Put a satellite into orbit for $8,000

By Mark Frauenfelder at 1:02 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

R.U. Sirius interviewed Randa Milliron, CEO of Interorbital Systems, "a 'rocket and spacecraft manufacturing company' that locates itself at the Mojave Airport and Spaceport in Mojave, California. They recently announced that they were offering to send people's personal satellites into low-earth orbit on a NEPTUNE 30 rocket for the low low low cost of $8,000."

The 8k Personal Satellite (and Other Space Adventures)

Hobbit advance payment fraud letter

By Cory Doctorow at 12:02 pm Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Stephen sez, "In re-reading the Hobbit, I realized that the opening chapters made it sound like Thorin was running a con. From there, I wondered what Thorin's pitch would look like if it were a modern con, which resulted in me writing a Nigerian 419 fraud letter for the Hobbit."

Dear MR BAGGINS, Fellow Conspirator,

I am Thorin Oakenshield, descendant of Thrain the Old and grandson of Thror who was King under the Mountain. I am writing you to discuss our plans, our ways, means, policy and devices for rescuing our treasure from the dragon Smaug.

During the reign of Thror our kingdom was a prosperous one. Kings used to send for our smiths, and reward even the least skillful most richly. Fathers would beg us to take their sons as apprentices, and pay us handsomely, especially in food-supplies, which we never bothered to grow or find for ourselves. Altogether those were good days for us, and the poorest of us had money to spend and to lend, and leisure to make beautiful things just for the fun of it, not to speak of the most marvellous and magical toys, the like of which is not to be found in the world now-a-days.

Hobbit 419

Brain wave specs made from kit

By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:55 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

I really like the way George's brain machine spectacles turned out! (More pics here.) He built them using Mitch Altman's Brain Machine Kit, available from Maker Shed.

Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour

By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:50 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Susan Olsen, who played Cindy ("the youngest one in curls") will be signing copies of her new book, Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, at the Santa Monica Public Library on September 26 at 1pm.

Derek Thomas of the LA Weekly calls The Brady Bunch Variety Hour "one of most hallucinogenically bad variety shows to have ever aired on television."

Susan Olsen ... tells all in Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour – including how Maureen McCormick was constantly coked up and why Robert Reed was totally okay with dressing up as Carmen Miranda.

Susan Olsen booksigning in Santa Monica

Iron Melies Moon fence yields teachable moment

By Cory Doctorow at 11:34 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Jeff sez,

An iron fence on W. 21st St. in New York depicts the classic image of a rocket crashing into the Man in the Moon from Melies' 1902 pioneering science fiction film, Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon).

The fence is across from the Clinton School of the Arts for Writers and Artists, and I happened to snap this photo during lunch break. After I was done shooting about 10 or so photos, I noticed that a crowd of kids had surrounded me and continued talking about the image as I walked away.

Soooo, teacher that I am, I went back and asked if any of them knew what it was. None of them did, but they agreed that it was "awesome" and wondered if the thing in his eye might be a bullet. I explained about the Melies film, its history, and what the image was supposed to be, all of which the kids said was even more awesome, so they asked me to repeat the title so they could watch the film on Youtube.

I remember being fascinated by a still of the original scene in a book when I was their age, um, many moons ago. Not only is the fence homage cool in itself, but it was wonderful to see that "A Trip to the Moon" continues to inspire.

Melies Moon Fence (Thanks, Jeff!)

Pro-literacy fundraiser sf/f anthology: LAST DRINK BIRD HEAD

By Cory Doctorow at 11:20 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Jeff VanderMeer sez,

What Is Last Drink Bird Head? That's the catalyst editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer provided to over 80 writers in creating this unique anthology, with all proceeds going to ProLiteracy.org. All each writer got was an email with "Last Drink Bird Head" in the subject line and the directions "Who or what is Last Drink Bird Head? Under 500 words." Like any surrealist writing game, it either sparked a response or it didn't.

The result? Last Drink Bird Head is a blues musician, a performance artist, a type of alcohol, a town in Texas, and even a song sung by girl scouts in Antarctica. Contributors include Peter Straub, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Brian Evenson, Henry Kaiser, Gene Wolfe, Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Rikki Ducornet, Holly Phillips, Stephen R. Donaldson, K.J. Bishop, Michael Swanwick, Ellen Kushner, Daniel Abraham, Jay Lake, Liz Williams, Tanith Lee, Sarah Monette, Conrad Williams, and Marly Youmans.

Famed designer John Coulthart did the interior, which features bobbing bird heads in the corners of the pages, so that the antho is also a flipbook.

LAST DRINK BIRD HEAD FOR CHARITY: Party, Pre-Orders, Awards, and More (Thanks, Jeff!)

Augmented iPhone app shows you crappy fast food joints

By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:01 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Bionic Eye is a $0.99 augmented reality app for the iPhone to help you find fast "food" chain restaurants.

From Cult of Mac:

Designed for the iPhone 3GS, Bionic Eye is an augmented reality app that overlays information about nearby points of interest over the iPhone’s camera. Hold the camera up to the building in front of you, and thanks the iPhone’s GPS and compass, the screen is overlaid with little virtual signs that say what’s inside. It also includes virtual signposts showing the way to the nearest subway station or Starbucks coffee shop.

Bionic Eye iPhone App Points the Way To the Nearest Hooters

Miruko: Wearable eyeball robot interface

By Mark Frauenfelder at 10:37 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Everybody needs a robot eye on their sleeve to look out for invisible monsters.

“Miruko,” a wearable eyeball-shaped robot with a built-in camera and wi-fi capabilities, is designed to augment human perception by sensing and reacting to objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

In this video, Miruko’s creators demonstrate how the robotic eyeball can be used as an interface for a virtual monster-hunting game played in a real-world environment.

Worn on the player’s sleeve, Miruko’s roving eye scans the surroundings in search of virtual monsters that are invisible to the naked human eye. When a virtual monster is spotted, the mechanical eyeball rolls around in its socket and fixes its gaze on the monster’s location. By following Miruko’s line of sight, the player is able to locate the virtual monster and “capture” it via his or her iPhone camera.

Miruko: Wearable eyeball robot interface

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By Richard Metzger at 10:32 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Anatomical Diagrams of Mythical Japanese Monsters Link

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By Richard Metzger at 10:30 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Carl Sagans’ Cosmos Autotuned (featuring Stephen Hawking) Link

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500 Pound Planet: Chapter Three

By Jesse Brown at 9:41 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Jesse Brown, a BoingBoing guest blogger, is the host of TVO's Search Engine podcast.

Professional animators script, record, and "lock" audio before animating a frame. Josh Dolgin and I are not professional animators.

We wanted 500 Pound Planet to have a loose, improvisatory feel. So we decided on a general plot outline, a handful of settings and scenes and a cast of characters. For each character, we animated a number of facial expressions, hand gestures and lip-positions, so that we could figure out what they're saying at any point and drop it in.

This "worked" in a sense, but also made for a lot of crazy, since everything was infinitely malleable. We could always record more, tweak a line, second-guess a plot point- whatever. The process became so maddening that we bickered constantly over every detail and bit by bit, that's what the film became about- our spiteful, imploding "marriage", which we kept alive for the sake of the children- our deformed, clay puppet kids. Enjoy!

Previously:

500 Pound Planet: Prelude

500 Pound Planet: Chapter One

500 Pound Planet: Chapter Two

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By Jesse Thorn at 8:45 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Little Boy Heroically Shoots, Mutilates Burglar (from The Onion) Link

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By Jesse Thorn at 8:22 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Imagine a world with animated walls, and you'll have half of this amazingness in your mind. Link

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30 Mosques Gets 1-Up'd

By Aman Ali at 8:12 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Aman Ali, a BoingBoing guest blogger, is the co-author of 30 Mosques, a Ramadan adventure taking him to a different mosque in New York City every day for a month.

For the month of Ramadan, my friend Bassam and I gave you guys an insight into how Muslims across the United States observe Ramadan with our project 30 Mosques in 30 Days. But Iranian-American Jason Rezaian gives an interesting and critical look at Muslims observing Ramadan in five predominantly Muslim countries. Rezaian talks about how local cultures can sometimes twist Islam's religious practices. Take his Dubai story for example:

Dubai tends toward gluttony every month of the year, but during Ramadan, things are even more over the top, with nearly every eating establishment offering an Iftar fast-breaking gut-buster at sundown. It's Dubai doing what it does best: using its limited resources for its own commercial advantage. Even American fast-food outlets in Dubai offer Ramadan Value Meals, usually adding a dessert to the already calorie-packed meal deal. At the Dubai Mall, McDonald's was the only major international food chain that didn't have a special offer, just a banner that read: "Ramadan Kareem"--"Happy Ramadan."

Slate: My Ramadan World Tour

Magritte painting swiped in daylight heist

By Mark Frauenfelder at 8:12 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Two armed thieves entered the Musée Magritte in Brussels at 10am this morning and made off with surrealist René Magritte's Olympia, valued at £3 million. One of the thieves rang the bell and asked to be let in. When he entered he pulled a gun and ordered the woman who answered the door to let his accomplice in.

A policeman said: “There were three museum workers inside at the time and two Japanese tourists. All five of them were ordered out the back and told to keep quiet by the man with the gun.

“In the museum the other person stole the painting and they both made good their escape. They seemed to know which painting they wanted to steal - they took the whole painting off the wall, including the frame.”

What usually happens to stolen paintings? Do the thieves hold them for ransom, do they sell them to private collectors who have secret museums in the homes, or what?

Armed thieves steal Magritte painting in daylight raid

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By Jesse Thorn at 7:00 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Horribly, distressingly, nightmarishly injured Americans against Obamacare. Link

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Comics in the Classroom

By Jesse Brown at 6:20 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Jesse Brown, a BoingBoing guest blogger, is the host of TVO's Search Engine podcast.

When I was a kid I was often reprimanded and sometimes even kicked out of class for drawing comics in school. Now, research has shown that comics are a great way to turbo-charge literacy in reluctant readers (especially in boys), and comics are suddenly being welcomed into classrooms all over the world.

With this in mind, my partners at Bitstrips and I have developed Bitstrips for Schools, an educational comic-making service. We piloted it last spring in a handful of Ontario classrooms, and the kids went crazy for it, creating almost 3000 comic strips in six weeks time (see video). Their creativity has astounded me, as have the incredibly cool and dedicated teachers I've had the chance to work with (link).

Bitstrips for Schools has since been licensed by the Ontario Ministry of Education, which means that 2 million kids now have at their fingertips the tools to make their own comics.

We also just introduced a "self-serve" option that lets teachers outside of Ontario buy cheap one-classroom licenses.

So yes, in interests of full disclosure, this is a plug for a website I have an interest in. But it's also a website I'm super proud to be a part of!

Bitstrips for Schools.

London cops finally apologise for mugging geek -- four years later

By Cory Doctorow at 3:34 am Thursday, Sep 24 • Comments • Share

Glyn sez, "In 2005, Boing Boing reported on the arrest of a London geek for the 'crime' of carrying a 'bulky' backpack (e.g., a laptop bag), wearing an 'unseasonably warm' coat (it was one of the coldest July days on record), and 'avoiding the police' (he was looking at an SMS on his phone when he went through the turnstiles and so didn't make eye-contact with the officers there). [Ed: his house was subsequently raided, his data and computers confiscated and examined] After four years the police have finally admited they should never have arrested him in the first place."

I would like to apologise on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service for the circumstances that arose on 28 July 2005 including your unlawful arrest, detention and search of your home. I appreciate this has had a deep and traumatic impact on your lives and I hope that the settlement in this case can bring some closure to this.

I shall ensure that the officers concerned are made aware of the impact of the events of that day and also the details of the settlement in this case.

Yours sincerely

[signature of Chief Superintendent Wayne Chance]

Borough Commander
Southwark

Innocent in London - 'Suspicious behaviour on the tube' (Thanks, Glyn!)