Dave, the main character in this graphic novel, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book (Fantagraphics), is an illustrator living in Cape Town, South Africa. He often gets frustrated by the freelance assignments he must accept to make a living (like drawing bricks for a catalog that the client insists must be "curious," "unique," "tasteful," and "reliable). He also has feet like a monkeys, which enable him to easily climb trees and buildings.
His best friend is Paul, who seems to have been permanently altered by ingesting too many psychedelics. Dave and Paul have good hearts, but they end up getting themselves into odd and dangerous predicaments that are never quite what they seem to be on the surface.
Joe Daly, the creator of of the characters, is a terrifically gifted artist with an ability to depict an environment that rivals Herge's. I loved studying the scenery when Paul and Dave drive through the city and hills of Cape Town, while they are engaged in long, funny conversations.
The two well-crafted mysteries contain twists that tricked me until the end. The first story involves a menacing Mexican man who lives in Dave apartment and wants to kill him. The second story starts with a hunt for an escaped capybara that leads to the discovery of a plot to destroy some wetlands to make room for a housing development. Daly's fondness for absurd situations might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you liked The Big Lebowski or Pulp Fiction, you'll have no problem with Daly's brand of storytelling.
Interestingly, the artwork (especially the coloring) is tighter and more polished in the second story, as if Daly gained technical chops between drawing the first story and the second. But no matter, both stories are a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to more from Daly, who was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2007 for his other book, Scrublands.
The unintentional comedians of Conservapedia are at it again: this time, they're planning on producing an expurgated Bible that's had all "liberal bias" removed from the teachings of Christ and the gospels.
Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;[3] defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle"
Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots";[4] using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census
Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
The inaugural Reading and Democracy National Reading Summit is coming up in Toronto on Nov 12-13, and I'm coming to Toronto to speak at it. The plan is to "create a national reading strategy for Canada" -- a noble goal.
The TD National Reading Summit will engage participants in crafting a blueprint for a reading Canada. Over two days, delegates will hear from an impressive line-up of speakers from across the country and around the world. Ana Maria Machado (Brazil), Ingrid Bon (Netherlands), Elisa Bonilla (Mexico), Richard C. Anderson (USA), Cory Doctorow (UK/Canada), Tom King (Canada), Charles Pascal (Canada), and others will explore what it means to be a reader in a democratic society and share their research and experience in developing reading promotion programs. Conference sessions will inspire delegates to collaborate and lay the groundwork for new provincial and federal programs that will ultimately foster a reading culture in Canada.
Margaret Killjoy from Steampunk Magazine writes, "One of the founders of modern steampunk thought, Professor Calamity, is facing multiple felony charges after having been accused of running a twitter account that communicated with protesters during the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh last month. To add insult to injury, they raided his house in Queens, confiscating everything from hammers to copies of SteamPunk Magazine."
EFF has all the court documents on this.
We put our hands out where they could see them. They ordered us out of bed. They wouldn't let us dress, but they did put a random assortment of clothes on some people. We were handcuffed, and although the upstairs and downstairs groups were kept separate initially, we were soon all together, sitting in the living room, positioned like dolls on the couches and chairs. We were in handcuffs for several hours, and we were helpless as our little bird, a Finch we had rescued and were rehabilitating, flew out the open door to certain death, after his cage had been battered by the cops in their zeal to open the upstairs bedroom doors by force. We shouted at them, but they stood there and watched.
And they stood and watched us for hours and hours and hours. 16 hours to be precise, 16 hours of the NYPD and FBI traipsing through our house, confiscating our lives in a fishing expedition related to the G20 protests of September 24th and 25th. The search warrant, when we were finally allowed to read it, mentioned violation of federal rioting laws and was vague enough to allow the entire house to be searched. They kept repeating that we were not arrested, that we were free to go. But being free meant being watched by the FBI, monitored while using the bathroom, not allowed to make phone calls for hours or to observe them ransacking our rooms. Being free meant they took two of us away on bullshit summonses, and even though this was our house, where we lived, if we left, we could not re-enter.
Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit, was investigated by the FBI for participating in a project to take the publicly owned US court records from the PACER database (where they were very expensive to access) and put them on the web. He's requested his FBI file and put it on the web:
AARON SWARTZ has a profile on the website LINKEDIN, at www.linkedin.com/in/aaronsw. SWARTZ is listed as a writer, hacker and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. SWARTZ's education includes Stanford University, Sociology, 2004. SWARTZ's experience includes the following:
SWARTZ has a profile on the website FACEBOOK. His networks include Stanford '08 and Boston, MA. The picture used in his profile was also used in an article about SWARTZ in THE NEW YORK TIMES.
SWARTZ's personal webpage, www.aaronsw.com, includes a section titled "Aaron Swartz: a life time of dubious accomplishments". In 2007, SWARTZ began working full-time as a member of the Long-Term Planning Committee for the Human Race (LTPCHR).
February 19, Manassas, VA:
On February 17, 2008 [sic], SA [REDACTED] received an email from [REACTED] Administrative Office of the US Courts, with links to two published articles regarding the compromise of the PACER system.
On February 12, 2009, [REACTED] published an article in THE NEW YORK TIMES titled "An Effort to Upgrade a Court Archive to Free and Easy". For the article, [REDACTED] interviewed [REDACTED] and AARON SWARTZ regarding the compromise of the PACER system.
For your $19k - minus a potential $7,500 from the federal government - you get a compact two-seater that "when it makes a donut, it doesn't even leave a hole," Korchin said. Above all, this is a city car. There is no tremendous get-up-and-go in the Whip, but it performs just fine in city traffic.
Bottom line, according to the review: it's "solid." You won't be winning any cross-country speed races in this thing, but it sounds like a nice choice among NEVs -- that's shorthand for "neighborhood electric vehicles." Here's a PDF from Wheego with more specs.
To prepare for the book's launch, Mr. Fulcher is "sticking it" to a number of cities, quite literally, in a series of internet videos which feature the comedian giving the finger to all that we love and hold dear.
First: Hollywood.
(A special nod to Boing Boing Video editor Eric Mittleman, who shot and directed this fine piece of work, and to background dancer Ruth Waytz, whose moves are described as "Fosse-esque.").
It takes about 4 hours to install a Pronto4 System autonomous vehicle kit onto almost any car. After that, the car can drive itself.
Vehicles retrofitted with the Pronto4 System can perform flexible roles in a tele-operational or semi-autonomous mode. The ProntoMimic Software Suite has a series of path creation / following interfaces that perform the task of path creation and maintenance using numerical data or aerial images and path execution in the form of GPS waypoint following.
Drew sends us The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, "An occasional webcomic detailing the adventures of Babbage and Lovelace. Much of the dialogue and ideas taken from Babbage's autobiography and Lovelace's letters, thereby proving that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. The artist is an animator and it shows in the splendid life and expression of the artwork."
The British Psychological Society asked world's leading psychologists to reveal one nagging thing they still don't understand about themselves. Their answers (in 150 words or less) are a lot of fun to read.
Sue Blackmore says she is still fooled by the idea that she has a "soul, a spirit, a mystical entity."
Paul Broks has gone from asking himself the "preoccupying question, What am I? to another, What should I do?"
David Buss is surprised that he succumbs to "well-documented psychological biases, even though I'm acutely aware of these biases," such as "believing that I will be happy for a long time after some accomplishment (e.g. publishing a new book), when in fact the happiness dissipates more quickly than anticipated."
Robert Cialdini says his "most nagging error" is overcommitting. "With that threshold crossed, I've no longer had the time or patience to plan, think, or toil hard enough to be proud of the resultant work."
Stephen Kosslyn asks, "Why am I a Satiator in some cases, and an Addict in others?"
Paul Rozin says, "Every night, I bring home a pile of work to do in the evening and early morning. I have been doing this for over 50 years. I always think I will actually get through all or most of it, and I almost never get even half done. But I keep expecting to accomplish it all. What a fool I am."
Norbert Schwarz says incidental feelings still affect him, even though he is aware of them. "Some 25 years ago Jerry Clore and I studied how gloomy weather makes one's whole life look bad -- unless one becomes aware of the weather and attributes one's gloomy mood to the gloomy sky, which eliminates the influence. You'd think I learned that lesson and now know how to deal with gloomy skies. I don't, they still get me."
George Norris, a 66-year-old retiree who ran a home-based orchid business was imprisoned for two years in a federal penitentiary because "he had failed to properly navigate the many, often irrational, paperwork requirements the U.S. imposed when it implemented an arcane international treaty's new restrictions on trade in flowers and other flora," reports claims the The Washington Times, in a story titled, "Criminalizing everyone." (The orchids themselves were legal.)
When 60-year-old Kathy Norris asked court officials why U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's very own SWAT team had raided and ransacked her home, they helpfully explained, "You don't need to know. You can't know."
The judge who sentenced Mr. Norris had some advice for him and his wife: "Life sometimes presents us with lemons." Their job was, yes, to "turn lemons into lemonade."
The judge apparently failed to appreciate how difficult it is to run a successful lemonade stand when you're an elderly diabetic with coronary complications, arthritis and Parkinson's disease serving time in a federal penitentiary.
UPDATE: Read the comments for more context to the story. There seems to be more going on here than what the The Washington Times is reporting.
Here's an interesting post from 2004 about George Norris from Pollenatrix, a "botanical discipline" blog:
George Norris, a crusty old orchid grower from Texas, has yet again found himself squarely in the sights of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the Department of Homeland Security.
George, along with his business associate Peruvian grower Manuel Arias-Silver, is charged with conspiracy to smuggle endangered phragmipediums (orchids) into the U.S. Since Manuel is one of only three growers to have been given permission by the Peruvian government to artificially propagate the newly discovered phragmipedium Kovachii, it appears that the U.S. government has singled out the pair for special attention over suspicions that this is the species they were smuggling. There appears to be little evidence of this, though it is likely the pair were taking some shortcuts on paperwork because of the challenges of importing other, legally propagated species, into the U.S.
In the orchid world, the CITES treaty is almost universally denounced; the charge is that it does nothing to stop habitat destruction, and actually encourages illegal smuggling of wild-collected plants because the regulations make it so difficult to trade in artifically-propagated specimens.
The tiny Asian citrus psylid is killing citrus trees in California (High res image from UC Davis here).
Homegrown Evolution has an interesting story about Asian citrus psylid, and ant-sized insect that could spell doom for California citrus.
The Asian citrus psylid is not a problem in itself, but carries an incurable bacterial disease called huanglongbing (HLB). HLB, first reported in Asia in 1919, renders citrus fruit inedible and eventually kills the tree. Parts of Africa, Asia and South America are infected with HLB and in some regions of Brazil the disease is so bad that they've given up growing citrus altogether. HLB is in Florida and is adding to a nightmarish collection of other diseases afflicting citrus in the Sunshine State. Now California growers are panicking with the appearance of the psylid.
The State of California is taking all sorts of measures to stop the spread of the pest (including spraying dangerous pesticides), but Erik and Kelly of Homegrown Evolution are taking a Stoic approach to the problem.
Seneca [author of Letters from a Stoic] would say, do what is in your power to do and don't worry about what you can't fix. Taleb [author of The Black Swan] would advise always maximizing upside potential while minimizing exposure to the downside. My unsentimental conclusion: don't try to grow citrus. If I had a mature tree I'd leave it in place and rip it out at the first sign of HLB. Despite the state's offer to replace any HLB infected tree with a free citrus tree I wouldn't take them up on the offer. In our case we have three small, immature citrus trees that are already chewed up by citrus leafminers. I'm pondering pulling them up and replacing them with fruit trees unrelated to citrus. This follows our stoic, get tough policy in the garden. Planting a tree entails a considerable investment in time. It can take years to get fruit. Why not plant pomegranate instead and let other people worry about citrus diseases? If a pomegranate disease shows up, rip it up and plant something else. Following this approach will eliminate habitat for the psylid and negate the need for pesticides.
Bassam Tariq is a Boing Boing guestblogger who is the co-author of 30 Mosques. A blog celebrating the NYC mosques during the Islamic month of Ramadan. He lives in Harlem, NY.
Dear boingers,
These past two weeks have been nothing short of amazing. Thanks for letting me share my stories and experiences with all of you. I will be contacting those who won the haiku competition via private message to coordinate the giveaway. I would like to stay in touch with everyone, so please feel free to follow me on Twitter or even add me on Facebook if that's not weird.
Next up for me? I will be leaving to Pakistan shortly to start filming a documentary on Abdul-Sattar Edhi. For those who do not know his work, here's a decent article on his work. In the 1950's he bought an old blue van and began transporting the sick and dead to their fated destinations. This small van called The Poor Man's Van was the first ambulance in the history of Pakistan. Though Edhi single-handedly created one of the most successful health and welfare network in Asia, he never lost his simplicity. He owns only two tunics to his name, sleeps on the floor of his foundations office in Karachi, and eats only a piece of stale bread every morning.
I met Edhi in August when he was on his yearly visit to New York. He shared with us the plight of the Internally Displaced People in Pakistan and said he never saw a situation so bleak before in his life. Edhi has been with Pakistan since its inception and has seen many leaders and governments come and go. There is not very much written about him in English, but you can find a translated copy of his autobiography at Desi-store.com. I remember asking him if he could sign a copy of his autobiography for me. Edhi doesn't speak or write much English, but he took his pen and wrote in English, "love human beings." As I read aloud what he wrote on the flap he looked to me, smiled, and said in Urdu, "it's really that simple."
Film maker Rosemarie Reed has been in touch with me about a film she's planning called Byron and Babbage: A Calculating Story. Based on Ada Lovelace's letters, it will be a feature-length documentary with some dramatic readings and will air on PBS National.
Rosemarie needs to gather letters of support from the community - from people who feel that Ada is an important figure.
Rosemarie says, "I need letters from people stating how important a film like Ada is and how they through their networks can help to publicize the film. It would be great if the women have organizations they work or belong to. If they are software developers or computer experts, this would be great. It would be best if they were Americans, as the NSF (National Science Foundation) is American."
Letters should be sent by the end of October to:
Rosemarie Reed
On the Road Productions International, Inc.
310 Greenwich Street, 21F
New York, NY 10013
Bassam Tariq is a Boing Boing guestblogger who is the co-author of 30 Mosques. A blog celebrating the NYC mosques during the Islamic month of Ramadan. He lives in Harlem, NY.
Above, is a video piece Musa Syeed and I produced for TIME.com a couple of months back on Domestic Crusaders.
The Domestic Crusaders is a two-act play in its last week at the Nuyorican Poet's Café in New York City. I strongly recommend anyone in New York City that has a chance to see the play to catch it. Though it's not perfect, I can't think of a better glimpse into the Pakistani Muslim American life. I caught the play opening night on September 11th and enjoyed every minute of it. Every character in the play falls into a certain Muslim archetype, from the mildly racist yet caring mother to the head-wrap wearing over zealous daughter. And all these archetypes are awfully close to reality. Without a doubt, I am Ghaffur, the slightly naïve, college-aged Muslim poster boy.
One of the most interesting aspects of folk religion in America is the enduring figure of Saint Expedite - a youthful, Roman-garbed saint barely tolerated or acknowledged within the upper echelons of the Catholic Church but the subject of loving circles of worship throughout Latin America and many parts of the United States. (I've encountered his statue in a Catholic Church in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.) Simply put, Saint Expedite is the patron of those who need help in a hurry: with jobs, relationships, money, etc. In Brazil, he is the venerated helper of people looking for work; in America, so says Wired magazine, he is the "patron saint of the nerds," i.e., a figure who can help untangle internet connections and the keep communications networks flowing; to church authorities he is merely an icon of "popular religiosity" who never historically existed.
The story of Saint Expedite's existence dates back to logs of martyrs kept in the Roman Empire, where the surname appears. Some speculate that the Saint Expedite cult got started when a box containing the statue of an unnamed Roman sentry got labeled "expedite" for shipping purposes and fell into the hands (and hearts) of a Paris convent. Whatever the case, church authorities step carefully around Saint Expedite, not wanting to alienate his devoted following among many Latin American Catholics; Saint Expedite is also a focus of devotion among practitioners of the African-American magical tradition called hoodoo, among some New Agers, and followers of Santeria.
Melvin Monster was the creation of John Stanley, one of the principal writers on Little Lulu, Nancy and Sluggo, and others. Melvin is firmly in the Addams Family/St Trinnian's vein, a macabre and sweet kids' comic about a monster-boy whose parents (Baddy, a Frankenstein's monster, and Mummy, a mummy) urge him to do a bad deed every day, make him play with the family's vicious pet alligator, and demand that he follow in the family tradition of dropping out of school in kindergarten.
There's plenty of two-edged humor in Melvin Monster, stuff that parents will appreciate that might go over the heads of kids who are enjoying the slapstick. The art is fantastic, in a Marc Davis/Haunted Mansion vein, and the reproduced pages have been cleaned up just enough to make them neat without being sterile, some of the newsprint texture remaining in the scans.
Seth's book design, with wonderful tessellated Melvin endpapers and an embossed cover, make for a great package, perfect for a gift or for long-term love on your shelves.
The Marseille Figs are fast becoming my favorite new artists of the decade, if not the century. The eclectic trio play a startling variety of instruments in an indescribable blend of styles, reminding me of peak Violent Femmes at times, Tom Waits at others, with some Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Cash Family for country cred.
Their new EP, Jumbo, is a superb addition to their canon. Jumbo's title track, a cross between Sergio Leone cowboy soundtrack and Godzilla monster music, has overtones of sinister circus music as well, a menacing, uptempo song about an elemental force that threatens the Earth.
The remaining five tracks keep the heat on: My Latest Mistake is a sweet C&W-inflected song with a stompin' clappin' back-beat about a complete screw up who fails at everything; Bad Bad Baby is more explicitly country, opening with "You done me wrong again and you done me wrong again," and hews to the heart-broke formula except when it doesn't, breaking into a roller-disco bridge that works in a way that is totally unexpected and altogether delightful; The Human Tragedy is another countrified screw-up's lament with accordion and hilarity; the standout on the album is the ballad The Long Goodbye, a drinker's anthem with a slow tinkling piano intro, transitioning into a swaying, horn-heavy drinking song.
My friend Stef, who introduced me to the Figs, calls them a "small big band," a trio whose prodigious musical talents and strange arrangements make them a genre unto themselves.
Jumbo is for sale on CD, digital download and 12" vinyl.
I met Edhi in August when he was on his yearly visit to New York. He shared with us the plight of the Internally Displaced People in Pakistan and said he never saw a situation so bleak before in his life. Edhi has been with Pakistan since its inception and has seen many leaders and governments come and go. There is not very much written about him in English, but you can find a translated copy of his autobiography at 
One of the most interesting aspects of folk religion in America is the enduring figure of Saint Expedite - a youthful, Roman-garbed saint barely tolerated or acknowledged within the upper echelons of the Catholic Church but the subject of loving circles of worship throughout Latin America and many parts of the United States. (I've encountered his statue in a Catholic Church in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.) Simply put, Saint Expedite is the patron of those who need help in a hurry: with jobs, relationships, money, etc. In Brazil, he is the venerated helper of people looking for work; in America, so says Wired magazine, he is the "patron saint of the nerds," i.e., a figure who can help untangle internet connections and the keep communications networks flowing; to church authorities he is merely an icon of "popular religiosity" who never historically existed.
Back in February, 
