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

Here's a link to Chapter 22 as a PDF or a text file. (Here's chapter 1 and an introduction to the book, and here are the previous chapters)

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

GREETINGS. This is John Hodgman writing at the witching hour (5:48PM EST).

It is Hallowe'en, and thus time to CRACK THE CRYSTAL SKULL at last.

Please see the enclosed video.

That is all.

This is a fun TED talk: "The Inventables guys, Zach Kaplan and Keith Schacht, demo some amazing new materials and how we might use them. Look for squishy magnets, odor-detecting ink, "dry" liquid and a very surprising 10-foot pole." Keith Schacht & Zach Kaplan: Products (and toys) from the future

Are you willing to take on the responsibility that comes with bringing trillions of universes into existence, each teeming with sentient life? That's something to ponder before plunking down $20 for this make-your-own-universe kit, created by artist Jonathon Keats.

If two events are possible, quantum theory assumes that both occur simultaneously - until an observer determines the outcome. For example, in Schrödinger's famous thought experiment, in which his cat may have been killed with a 50 per cent probability, the cat is both alive and dead until someone checks. When the observation is made, the universe splits into two, one for each possible outcome. For example, Schrödinger's cat would be alive in one universe and dead in the other universe.

According to the theory, any kind of measurement causes the universe to split and this is the basis of Keats' new device. His universe creator uses a piece of uranium-doped glass to create a steam of alpha particles, which are then detected using a thin sliver of scintillating crystal. Each detection causes the creation of a new universe.

The make-your-own-universe kit

The Welsh portion of this sign reads, ""I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated."" Email error on road sign

Today on Boing Boing Gadgets, there was the usual spurting of Halloween themed posts: a little boy dressed as Wall-E's Eve, a spinal cord beer funnel, some cute Pac-Man pumpkins and the awesomest little boy mech walker costume.

Otherwise, we started the day by watching two robots box and do their best Lou Bega impression. We looked at a futuristic car straight out of an MGM cartoon, and as agony aunts cackled over Apple's blunders.

There was a baby carriage for larval Slim Pickens, and an examination of a modern-day masturbation table for the treatment of "hysteria" / "stress."

In realer tech news, Brownlee despaired that the new PSPs are hacker proof, while Rob looked at a joystick for sweaty gamers. Rob spotted a fax machine that can send and receive email, and a keyring that infinitely simulates the fun of popping bubble wrap. There was an expensive sudoku watch with only one puzzle, and Beschizza got all sweaty when looking at a tiny wireless router that plugs into any antenna.

Otherwise, Asus threw a customer in jail for threatening to report their shitty tech support to the press, and we stole a tank as Barack Obama. And, as always, much more besides.

Link

I love this child's mech walker costume built by one of his parents. Brownlee has more over at BB Gadgets. Beware the clomping of the candy-fueled Chicken Walker

Aaron Fotheringham, 16, earned a Guinness World Record last weekend as the first person to land a backflip in a wheelchair. (Click the image to see the full photo by Stephen R. Sylvanie/Special to the Home News.) From the Las Vegas Sun:

To achieve the trick, Fotheringham, rolled down a skatepark ramp to generate enough speed. He then went up another ramp and landed his flip on flat ground.

He first completed the trick in 2006, and has dozens of videos of his backflips, but had yet to make it official...

Aaron Fotheringham, who suffers from spina bifida and has been in a wheelchair since he was 13, came up short in his quest to set a record for most consecutive backflips in 45 seconds. His unofficial record is six back flips in a row, however, he could not get consecutive flips Oct. 25.

"I'm a little bit disappointed I didn't get the consecutive flips, but I guess I'm taking it for granted that I got in the book," Fotheringham said.

Wheelchair athlete's back flip lands him in record book (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)

What does it mean to be truly evil? Cognitive scientist Selmer Bringsjord is developing a virtual human that embodies their evolving definition of "evil." In development for several years, the character, named "E," is designed to interact with humans in a way that sounds similar to a chatbot, albeit a really demented chatbot. Bringsjord is even considering the ethics and "danger" of making an evil software program. (Brett Leonard, your meme is ready.) From Scientific American:

To be truly evil, someone must have sought to do harm by planning to commit some morally wrong action with no prompting from others (whether this person successfully executes his or her plan is beside the point). The evil person must have tried to carry out this plan with the hope of "causing considerable harm to others," Bringsjord says. Finally, "and most importantly," he adds, if this evil person were willing to analyze his or her reasons for wanting to commit this morally wrong action, these reasons would either prove to be incoherent, or they would reveal that the evil person knew he or she was doing something wrong and regarded the harm caused as a good thing...

Following the path of a true logician, Bringsjord's interest in the portrayal of virtuousness and evil in literature led to his interest in software that helps writers develop ideas and create stories; this, in turn, spurred him to develop his own software for simulating human behavior, both good and odious, says Barry Smith, a distinguished professor of bioinformatics and ontology at the State University of New York at Buffalo who is familiar with Bringsjord's work. "He's known as someone on the fringe of philosophy and computer science."

Bringsjord and Smith both have an interest in finding ways to better understand human behavior, and their work has attracted the attention of the intelligence community, which is seeking ways to successfully analyze the information they gather on potential terrorists. "To solve problems in intelligence analysis, you need more accurate representations of people," Smith says. "Selmer is trying to build really good representations of human beings in all of their subtlety."

Are You Evil? Profiling That Which Is Truly Wicked

Underground film director Rodney Ascher, whose work we've featured on BB and BBtv many times before, just completed a new horror spoof called Visions of Terror. A collaboration with Josh Fadem and also starring Zoe Jarman, Visions of Terror is a real laff-riot that takes the piss out of B-movie horror buffs, which Ascher is himself. Visions of Terror

Previously on BB:
• Jack Chick, animated: "Somebody Goofed," by Syd and Rodney
• Rodney Ascher's short film about a freefalling parachutist
• Babylon 6 Jamaican vacation promo

Monkeys outfitted with neural implants have learned to control temporarily paralyzed muscles in their arms. So instead of controlling a robot arm with its mind, the monkey controls its own muscles that have become "disconnected" from its brain. The research, conducted by the University of Washington and the Washington National Primate Research Center, is a step forward in the development of technology that routes around a damaged spine, enabling a patient to once again manipulate paralyzed body parts. From IEEE Spectrum:

In exchange for a reward of applesauce, the monkeys had been conditioned to create just the right amount of torque in their wrists to move a cursor on a display so that it hit a target. To conduct the experiments, the researchers used anesthesia to block signals in a nerve just below the shoulder of a monkey’s arm, temporarily paralyzing the rest of the limb. The brain cells that control wrist movement were still firing in response to the monkey’s desire to hit the target and get the payoff, but with the neural connection shut down, the wrist remained limp. The scientists implanted electrodes into the monkey’s motor cortex and fed the electrical signals they received from the monkey’s brain into a computer. The computer then translated the signals into a stimulating current that was fed to electrodes implanted below the nerve block in the monkey’s wrist. The monkeys were able to learn to manipulate their own brains to get their wrists moving.

New Brain-Machine Interface Reactivates Monkey's Paralyzed Muscles

Today on Boing Boing tv we continue a series of transmissions from Tokyo by our monster-hunting comrade Sean Bonner, who vanished mysteriously while seeking a legendary shrine devoted to the Kappa, a water-dwelling, ninja-turtle-like, child-sized creature who is fond of cucumbers and human colon meat, which it may access by grabbing up your butt.

In yesterday's installment, Sean hooked up with Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda, authors of the previosly-boinged book Yokai Attack: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide, and the quest began. But the team vanished mysteriously, and we haven't been able to reach Sean for a week.

Today, he reappears, with proof that he has touched the mummified hand of the cucumber-loving amphibious prankster. He also brings us irrefutable proof that some of Japan's greatest manga artists found a source of inspiration in Kappa art. Also on the streets of Tokyo, just outside the shrine, BBtv's yokai squad discovered MONSTER KITTEH.

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Link to Boing Boing tv post with instructions on how to subscribe to our daily video podcast. Here's the direct MP4 link in case you can't deal with Flash video. Here are some photos from Sean.

Previously: Hunting for the Kappa Monster in Tokyo, part 1

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As one you YouTuber put it: "Any simple task in Japan requires the effort of tens of aging men dressed in fluorescent jackets and hard hats." (Via Arbroath)

The UCLA Digital Library has a few interesting photos of Halloween in the 1940s. The caption for this one reads: "Stage and crowd at Halloween Slick Chick beauty contest in Anaheim, Calif., 1947." I wonder if Daisy Mae was the winner?

Here's another photo of the Slick Chick contestants, and here's one of children in costumes (including one girl in blackface). (Via Save vs. Death)

Short Attention Span Science Theater is a new Stanford University site that features "microdocs," two to four minute videos explaining scientific topics in a simple and engaging way. Groups of microdocs are packaged into "notebooks" on particular topics. From Stanford News Service:

The first Short Attention Span Science notebook demystifies ecological sustainability—the basis for the green movement around the world, (Marine Science professor Steve Palumbi) said: "What is sustainability? What promotes it? What threatens it? What are the tipping points that push an ecosystem into ruin or keep it functioning forever? The ecological sustainability notebook shows the elements of sustainability and explains how they apply to one of the most important and beautiful ecosystems on earth—coral reefs."

Palumbi serves as narrator and on-camera host of many of the microdocs, which were shot at research sites in Fiji, Samoa, the Caribbean, Micronesia and other coral reefs. "Navigating around the site is like a fast trip to the coral reefs of the world, with you in control of the journey," he said. "We present the problems facing reefs, and how they can recover and grow. We show the kinds of reefs, the species that live on them and efforts by local people all over the world to preserve them."

Short Attention Span Science Theater (Thanks, Jason Tester!)

Jonathan Carroll's latest novel, The Ghost in Love is the latest of thirteen genuinely magical fantasy novels in which the author makes magic the way Fred Astaire danced: effortless, simple, wondrous.

In the Ghost in Love, Ben and his girlfriend German have just broken up a long-term relationship that seems to have been as wonderful as love can be (Carroll has a special gift for bringing happy family relations to life). Now they are on the outs, and sharing custody of Pilot, their shelter-dog, and every time they meet to swap the dog, their hearts break anew.

Ben should have died the day he got the dog, when he slipped on ice and broke his head. But he didn't. So the Angel of Death sent Ben's ghost, Ling, to earth, to investigate why the universe has stopped obeying its divine destiny. Ling is hopelessly in love with German, and the ghost is also a fantastic cook (as is Ben), so whenever German is due to come over, Ling spends the whole day cooking elaborate, invisible meals for her, while chatting morosely with the dog (all ghosts speak Dog).

That's all in the first few pages. Then it gets weird.

Carroll's standard formula for his novels is to introduce us to wonderful people living magical blessed lives, lives so achingly rendered that you want to crawl into the page and snuggle under the covers with them. Then he smashes their lives like sand-castles, and his wonderful people fall apart while magic unmakes them, rewriting the rules of their world to reveal hidden truths about love, family, self-regard, self-loathing, and other emotionally charged subjects.

In Ghost in Love, Carroll does this again, but even moreso, using a kind of dreamlike fluidity to constantly rewrite the rules of his world and its magic as evil and good tear apart the lives of Ben, German, Pilot and Ling and the people around them. The story grows ever-more existential, allegorical and weird as the pages fly past.

But it's all handled so gracefully that the dream-logic never falters. Carroll is the omnipotent god of his characters and situations, and he is totally in control of every variable, so that we trust him throughout, even though he never plays fair.

And the message, the conclusion in the end? Without spoiling things, I'll say this: The Ghost in Love contains genuinely profound and illuminating truths about the way that we love others and ourselves, and about the power of owning up to your bad deeds, and about the danger and wonder of nostalgia for our simpler pasts.

I've read and enjoyed all thirteen of Carroll's novels, and this one is going right on the shelf with the others, and will occupy the same oft-visited part of my mental landscape wherein dwell his other magical books.

The Ghost in Love on Amazon, The Ghost in Love, author's site with free first chapter

(Photo by Wonkette operative “Dan the Man”.)

Wonkette posted this interesting photo of people worshipping the golden calf Wall Street bull in order to save the stock market. Here's what PZ Myers had to say about it:

Did you know that some Christian dingbat has dubbed today the “Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies?” Well here they are, at the Wall Street bull statue thing, praying to Jesus for money. The dingbat has explained, “We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the ‘Lion’s Market,’ or God’s control over the economic systems.”

Exodus 32:

8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

9And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

Jesus people pray that false idol will save God’s economy

Seen here is the magnificent cover of the new issue of MAKE:. The theme is, obviously, DIY spy tech. The cover and interior illustrations were created by none other than MAD Magazine art director Sam Viviano. Wow.
MAKE: Vol. 16, Spy Tech

Rob Harris, who wrote the wonderfully entertaining books Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy! and Who Hates Whom: Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up A Woefully Incomplete Guide took a trip to the North Korean border area and send his photos and comments to friends. He was kind of enough to allow us to run them on Boing Boing.

En route from Seoul, there are numerous large war monuments, which is hardly surprising, since technically the war still hasn't ended. Fortunately, most of the major ones are collected in one big depressing park, great for your getting-dispirited-about-the-human-condition convenience.

Here's one commemorating the "Ten Human Bombs":

I probably don't need to explain how the Ten Human Bombs met their end.

I also hope you don't see any resemblance to the overwrought posing of 1980s power-rock bands. That would be disresectful. Humming anything by Night Ranger, Twisted Sister, or Whitesnake while looking at this picture would be just wrong.

When you get up close to the border, the first thing you hit is Imjingak, where the Freedom Bridge is located.

That old railroad bridge is where 13,000 POWs were released by N. Korea and allowed to walk south. Thus the name.

The walkway to the bridge is now closed off, for obvious reasons. But if you peek through the coin-operated tourist binoculars, you can actually make out patrols in huts on the far side of the bridge.

There's a goofy sculpture of an armed peacekeeper at the beginning of the walkway, so it seemed fun to get my picture with it. Little did I realize where I'd be posing shortly.

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets, we learned that TiVo owners will get Netflix streaming, that Dell's making a new All-in-One desktop computer, and that people will go to any lengths in pursuit of gaming cake. Oh, and the eleventh commandment: Thou Shalt Not Use Caps Lock.

John found the Kangaroom gamer sofa saddlebag, a finger-mounted bolt tightener, and an awe-inspiring Russian speaker made from an old fire extinguisher. Mimes pretending to be Human vending machines did not please him, but the amazing Bickford, a razorblade robot, certainly did.

Rob spotted a shocking handheld game, a 3G Compaq netbook for Europe, and a nice bottle of USB Port. He donned a chainmail shirt from ThinkGeek, sat in a Hobart I-Cool supervillain chair, and throttled himself with a Papal USB Drive.

There was a handheld computer from Aigo; a gorgeous tech demo for a forthcoming Wii game; Lego halloween minifigs; and a crazy accordian refrigerator.

We read Lisa Katayama's explanation of why Japanese cell phones are no fun, listened to fantastic remixes of BBC theme tunes, and discovered Asus is making an Android phone.

Do you want to know what a rectal retractor is? Probably not.

Boing Boing Gadgets

My friend Pat Roberts has created a new kid's craft show which features Pat's ingenious creations made from everyday stuff. Here's a teaser video with instructions for making a cute owl. Magpie Time

The May 29, 1993 edition of The Onion has a preposterous fake story about a character named Roy the Forklift driver becoming a media darling of the conservative movement.

"Nation Eagerly awaits Ohio Man's Profound Insights into Current Events."

As if!

Roy the Forklift Driver

Joanna at the wonderful Morbid Anatomy blog posted this exquisite ivory anatomical manikin, circa 1500-1700. It's part of the National Library of Medicine's fantastic Dream Anatomy online exhibition. From the manikin description:

These manikins, between 6 to 7 inches in length, were made from solid pieces of ivory. The arms were carved separately and are moveable. The thoracic and abdominal walls can be removed, revealing the viscera. In some manikins the internal organs are carved in the original block and are not removable, while they are formed into separate pieces that can be removed.

Ivory anatomical manikin

Previously on BB:
• Antique ivory skull statuettes

Hard to believe this is real, but it sure seems like it. Sporty Babysitter of the Year

Jeff Staple posted photos of his co-worker's simple but effective iPhone stand -- a binder clipper. Crafty iPhone Stand

Oh, man, this is weird. How do we explain this? Okay. So, the Boing Boing tv team planned a series of episodes about Japanese monsters for Halloween, and for this purpose, we sent Sean Bonner to Tokyo, armed with a video camera. The plan was: meet up with Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda, authors of the previosly-boinged book Yokai Attack: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide, and hunt down the truth about mythical monstrous creatures from Japanese folklore.

We'd planned to start our Japanese monster series with a hunt for the Kappa, a water-dwelling, ninja-turtle-like, child-sized creature who is fond of cucumbers and human colon meat (I'm not making this up). Legend says the Kappa will reach into your butt to eat your colon, which is grosstastically awesome.

Anyway -- Sean made it to Tokyo, and shot evidence of the Kappa on Japan's urban streets (signs, blow-up Kappa dolls, stickers). But then, suddenly, the raw footage he was FTPing to us nightly just STOPPED. Bam. Just like that. And with it, all evidence we had of Sean's whereabouts and well-being.

Today's BBtv episode is part one of what we hope will be a two-part series on Kappa Hunting in Tokyo. IF HE SURVIVED. Sean, if you can read this, I sure hope you were armed with cucumbers. The alternative is too horrible to imagine.

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Link to Boing Boing tv post with instructions on how to subscribe to our daily video podcast. Here's the direct MP4 link in case you can't deal with Flash video. Whatever you do, don't miss Sean dancing the Kappa Dance at 05:41.

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Previously on Boing Boing:
Japanese monsters, and how to survive their wrath: YOKAI ATTACK

Veja magazine ran a series of advertisements featuring portraits of people composed of typographical characters. George Bush ads Flickr set (via Print)

The artful syringe photo from the United States Narcotic Farm that Mark posted earlier reminded Joel of this display at the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri. The museum holds memorabilia from the St. Joseph State Hospital, previously known as the State Lunatic Asylum #2. From Roadside America:

There is an imaginative arrangement of 1,446 items swallowed by a patient and removed from her intestines and stomach. She died during surgery from bleeding caused by 453 nails, 42 screws, safety pins, spoon tops, and salt and pepper shaker tops.

Glore Psychiatric Museum

This Cincinnati, Ohio gentleman snatched a cell phone from a lost, deaf woman who had gotten out of her car to look for a street sign. Later, Gary Walker, 24, took a phonecam shot of himself. A few weeks after the robbery, the victim, Ashlee Hutchens, downloaded her data from the phone network into a new handset and Walker's photo popped up. Police then sent it out to the media and subsequently arrested Walker. From Cincinnati Enquirer:

“All of a sudden his picture came up and (Ashlee) said, ‘Oh my god, Mom, that’s him and that’s the shirt he had on,’” Christine Hutchens said.

“I get very upset when the elderly, kids or handicapped people become victims of these offenses,” said Officer Tamar Skelly, who is with Crime Stoppers.

Cell phone suspect in cell (Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!)

Previously on BB:
• Guy who auto-uploaded pix of self turns in hot Mac
• Photo taken on stolen Nokia uploaded to Flickr

Creepy fake commercial for wrist cutting knives from the movie Tokyo Gore Police. (Via Japan Probe)

Scientific American has a slide show of old photos from the United States Narcotic Farm, a converted federal prison in Kentucky that housed thousands of drug addicts from 1935 to 1975, including Sonny Rollins, Peter Lorre and William S. Burroughs. I like this photo of syringes taken from volunteers admitted into the treatment facility.

UPDATE: Here are more photos, along with information about the book and documentary by JP Olsen, Nancy Campbell and Luke Walden.

Reaping a Sad Harvest: A "Narcotic Farm" That Tried to Grow Recovery (Via Mind Hacks)

Freebird Shears is launching a new line of hair dresser scissors influenced by tattoo art. The company's Dieter Scholtyssek tells me that the hammer-forged Japanese steel shears were "inspired by Elvis Crocker, a well known tattoo artist in Arlington, Texas (formerly of NYHC Tattoos)." Freebird Shears

Essay By Jasmina Tešanović; Photos by Bruce Sterling.

Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson performed a poetry session in Kosmopolis Barcelona. She was big on the screen from somewhere in US, while he was small and live in front of us, on the black and red stage, with a bunch of loose sheets of paper from which he was reading verses.

It was a weird session from this recently married couple, who have always had a huge audience all over the world. They were not singing but speaking of Catalonia, to the Catalans, using the words of Catalonian poets. Transgressive, brave, underground. angry verses of poor, gay, wronged, talented, wild personas -- translated into English. The verses rang around the packed crowd as an electric wave on the spine.

The sleepy spoiled bourgeoisie of the new mainstream, who came to see a celebrity punk dancing and singing, were shaken to their bones. Some applauded, some left, but the emotive response was visible.

Video: Made in Catalunya with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson (YouTube)

in his press conference Lou Reed said he was fed up with being asked about his darkness, about his bad boy attitudes. The Velvet Underground rockstar was fed up with the press, but the press is not dismissing him or his new book, just published in Spain.

Barcelona is the center of Spanish publishing, it is multicultural and leftist, and yet it is also separatist and nationalist, as proud and touch as right-winged poor illiterate cities . The Catalans claim their own language, their own culture and they want to split away from the rest of the Spain.

Kosmopolis is a Barcelona festival of literature, new media and politics: it invites prominent artists, writers and political activists from all over the world. The city is proud of their culture and of their literary guests. The streets outside the venue are full of tourists, street artists, Catholic beggars, pick pockets , transvestites, émigrés, music bands, cafes, young desperadoes and old jet setters. Lou and Laurie performed their "Made in Catalonia" show as gypsy jet setters -- a crowd who make Catalonia a nationalist region with cosmopolitan principles. The new nationalism smells of cosmopolitan elitism -- splendid separatist islands, eluding a world in decay. If you don't want to be with them, you will have to do without them.

Etsy seller almostfamous is selling these delightful original paintings of Harold and Maude. They're acrylic on canvas and $370.

Harold: I like you, Maude. Maude: I like you, Harold.

Harold and Maude paintings (Thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Along with those Doors shoes, the 100th anniversary Converse hi-tops line includes this Black Sabbath commemorative edition. And here's why the subject line is so clever. I guess the Gonzo ones never happened. (Thanks, Richard Metzger!)

Annalee Newitz from the science fiction blog io9 says,

We did a study (with related analytical chart!) of how many zombie movies got released every year since 1910, created a line graph of them, and correlated spikes in zombie movie production with social unrest. It was actually quite eerie, because wars and social upheavals always seem to be followed by a giant leap in numbers of zombie movies in theaters. Coincidence? You be the judge!

War and Social Upheaval Causes Spikes in Zombie Movies (io9)

Researchers from Goldsmiths College in the UK have attempted to build a "haunted" room. When people say homes are haunted, they often describe strange smells, odd dizziness spells, and other unusual physical phenomena. Ghostbusters frequently associate those experiences with anomalous electromagnetic fields (EMF) and infrasound. To test out the reported connection, Chris French and colleagues in the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit built a room outfitted with EMF and infrasound generators. Then they sent test subjects into the "haunted room" and analyzed their reactions. Greg Taylor at The Daily Grail has more on The Haunt Project. From The Daily Grail:

Unfortunately, although most participants reported some unusual sensations, there seemed to be no correlation between feelings of being haunted and the presence of EMF/infrasound (or lack of, as the case may be). Despite such a kick-ass experimental setup, it would seem the unusual sensations were probably just a result of suggestion, with participants expecting to feel something after being told pre-experiment. The only significant predictor of unusual experiences in 'the haunt' was the temporal lobe lability of the participant. French and his team see this as simply being most likely due to the the psychological profile of these people (increased suggestibility, belief in paranormal events, seeing stimuli in noise). What would be nice to see considered is whether the causation runs the other way (yes, I am a trouble-maker)...

The "Haunt" Project

Previously on BB:
• Researchers build "haunted" room

Kathe Koja is two of the finest writers I've ever read. Two, because she's had two careers: first as they doyenne of a lurid and literary horror subgenre they called "splatterpunk," a literary movement that she defined with books like The Cipher, which combined intensely poetic language and lavish grotesqueries.

Then there's the other Koja, the young adult writer whose debut YA, Straydog, showed us a very different kind of writer, whittled down to the bone, spare and simple like watching Astaire dance, books of deep alienation and hard redemption that made me remember exactly what it had been like to be a kid on the outside.

Kathe's a friend of mine, and I once lamented to her the loss of that first writer, the lavish and poetic Koja, and she said that she didn't really miss it, didn't plan on bringing those old splatterpunk books back into print (I immediately bought a second set of them used and carefully hoarded them). She then went on to describe the manifold rewards of writing for younger audiences, describing an experience so intense and rewarding that I ended up writing a young adult novel myself: Little Brother.

I've just finished reading Kathe's latest: Headlong, and now, it seems, Kathe Koja is just one writer again, a superb amalgam of the two Kojas I love to read so much.

Headlong is the story of Lily, a privileged girl at an exclusive prep school where she is a multigenerational legacy whose past and future are both utterly circumscribed by the expectations around her.

It is a good life, but it is not good to her. Lily isn't right for the life and the life isn't good for her, and she's trapped by it until Hazel arrives at her school. Hazel is an orphan, raised in New York by her brother who is now a successful photographer. Hazel is planning on flunking out of the school within a year, and her wildness opens something in Lily.

All this is told with many changes in time and point of view, and with the poetry that I remember from the first incarnation of Kathe Koja, but perfectly, perfectly synthesized with the second coming of Koja, spare and severe. These two voices, combined so well, become a laser for slicing open Koja's characters and revealing their souls in a series of explosive little scenes and sentences, each more evocative than the last.

You won't find a truer account of the oppressive weight of expectation and the liberating power of breaking free, rushing headlong into the dark and denying the safe and the known, nor of the intensity of adolescent friendship. Koja is one of the treasures of fiction, and of young adult fiction especially, and if you haven't read her, you really should.

Headlong

See also:
* Kids' lit renaissance, don't miss Koja!
* Going Under: moving kids' novel

The ladies and gentleman at Westboro Baptist Church -- who enjoy disrupting memorial services for soldiers killed in battle with their hateful homophobic tantrums -- seem unhappy about this dada-style "God Hates Signs" counter protest campaign. (Photo by Burstein)

God Hates Signs Protest of The Westboro Baptist Church

Marina Bychkova is an artist whose medium are dolls. Her work is absolutely stunning. Bychkova's lovely figures remind me of a Mark Ryden or Lori Earley painting brought into the 3D realm. Seen here is "Bride of Frankenstein" (2008, 13.5" tall). From the doll description:

I like to challenge conventional imagery of known literary characters, and provide an alternative view of how they might have looked. The reason my Bride is blonde, is to contrast the iconic image of the movie's version, and also to play on the idea of the body's low Melanin levels. I imagine that when she was alive she was bright and vibrant with dark eyes and raven hair, but the postmortem trauma to her body and the mechanical process of reanimating her corpse had changed its molecular composition. I think that being blasted with several thousand volts of electricity would contribute to that also. The metal helmet is her life support and what keeps her dead brain artificially alive by pumping oxygen into it and zapping it with small amounts of electricity to maintain its basic functions. It acts like a pump and a defibrillator.

The Enchanted Doll (Thanks, Kirsten Anderson!)

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Marina Bychkova "Mermaid Song" doll
• Marina Bychkova incredible dolls

Back in August, I posted about Gama-Go and Ningyoushi's development of a new Big Yeti designer toy. The Giant Yeti has finally been birthed and it is a big un'. The 9.5" high beast features posable arms and a light-up torch to guide him through the icy darkness of Nepal or your bedroom. For the next week, each Yeti figure ships with a free Yeti Ice Cave t-shirt.
Big Vinyl Yeti at Gama-Go (Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman loves the Big Yeti too!)

Previously on BB:
• Giant Yeti (real, not a hoax!)

John Swansburg, Associate Editor, Slate.com says: [I wrote about] the truly bizarre new HSBC ad running on TV (and on YouTube). Have you seen it? It's the one that features a violent confrontation between police and environmental protesters who protecting trees marked for clearing. But then it turns into a love story between one of the protesters and a logger -- complete with a soundtrack by Joanna Newsom, of all people. And this is all by way of selling the services of an international banking conglomerate. Very weird.

Anyway, thought the ad might be something BoingBoing readers would have seen and scratched their heads over. Here's my analysis:

HSBC's Bizarre Lumberjack Ad

Errol Morris created a series of interviews of Republicans and independents who are voting for Obama. He also wrote about long history of "real people" political ads for the NYT.

If you’re not going to put words in people’s mouths, if you’re really listening to what they have to say, you’re going to learn something. Admittedly, the evidence is anecdotal. I haven’t selected these people through some kind of statistical sampling. These people are self-selected. They wrote in and said that they were registered Republicans, Independents or switch-voters who were planning to vote for Obama. People in the middle. And I was interested in talking to them on film about why they were making the switch from voting for a Republican to voting for a Democrat. Was it linked with policy? With the personality of the candidate?

This time — as opposed to 2004 — the content of the interviews has been qualitatively different. The people I interviewed have embraced Obama. They are voting for a candidate, not against a candidate. Lissa Lucas, for example, tells the story of voting for someone for the first time in her life. There is a feeling of hopefulness. There is this optimism, even though the situation in the country is arguably much worse than four years ago. A failing economy. The continuing war in Iraq. A crumbling infrastructure. But there is the core belief that if we pull together, we can save the country.

Republicans and independents who are voting for Obama

Yesterday, Cory reviewed Emmanuel Guibert's graphic novel Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope. In the comments, J Meyers pointed to this video of Guibert's interesting drawing technique.

Our guest blogger John Hodgman is too modest to pimp this, but there's a live chat session going on right now with him over at the Washington Post: John Hodgman Discusses 'More Information Than You Require' (WaPo). Snip:

New Orleans: What is the force of a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick?

John Hodgman: The force of a single roundhouse kick from Chuck Norris=one American Chuck.

In England, however, they use the old Imperial Chuck, which is the equivalents to 1.34 American Chucks.

That is all.

I AM AWAITING word from Patrick Borelli to see if there is any high quality video of Grand Master Priest, breakdancer, Mason, available for posting here.

IN THE MEANTIME, here are some answers to your questions from the comments.

RE: MAJORD AND MADFIST'S DISCUSSION about the attainability of the 33rd Degree within Freemasonry, in this case you should consider the messenger before you blame the popper/locker. My conversation with Grand Master Priest regarding his Craft was brief, and I may have gotten some details wrong. I also think he may be somewhat older than he appears in the photograph, because breakdance and Masonry, in combination, make you immortal.

RE: ANONYMOUS, the answer is YES. The man I met is certainly the "Grand Master Priest" who is on staff at the Mystical Grand Masters School of Popping. But I must have gotten the name wrong somehow. The masked man in the video certainly has the moves. But according to his bio at the MGMSOP, that man was born in ancient Lemuria. So I cannot say for sure if that is also the man I met in Philadelphia.

[VIDEO; note, lyrics are explicit]

I WILL PROVIDE more information as it comes to me, as he really was a lovely and amazing person.

That is all.

...over on O'Reilly Radar blog is one of the more extensive and thoughtful analyses of what this presidential candidate's policies mean for those of us who make our living in technology. Snip from the introduction:

[W]e need a president who can harness the best and brightest our country has to offer, a president who is conversant with, and comfortable with, the power of technology to assist in solving these problems, a president who is good at listening, studying, and devising solutions based on the best insight available, rather than on narrow ideology. We need a president who can forge consensus, not just among the partisans in our own fractured democracy but around the world. We need a president who can inspire our citizens and our global partners to forgo narrow self interest and embrace the possibilities that we can achieve if we work together to build a better future.

I believe Barack Obama is that president. He is a man of intelligence, but also a man whose character and temperament seem suited to the problems of our age: unflappable, optimistic even in the face of adversity, willing to speak the truth about subjects that have long been taboo (I'm thinking of his speech on race, and his speech on fatherhood) and with unscripted reactions that show his fundamental decency (I'm thinking of his reaction to those who wanted to make a campaign issue of Sarah Palin's daughter's unplanned pregnancy.)

Because this is a tech blog, not a political blog, though, I primarily want to address the subject of why members of the technical community should join me in supporting Barack Obama. (The New York Times has made a compelling case based on the broader issues, as has Colin Powell.) I outline four principal reasons:

1. Connected, Transparent Government
2. The Financial Crisis
3. Climate Change
4. Net Neutrality

I will also discuss some important additional considerations, personal and political, that I hope Radar readers who don't want to see politics in these pages, will forgive.

Why I Support Barack Obama (O'Reilly Radar)

(Popular Mechanics editor-in-chief, Jim Meigs (left) and inventor Dean Kamen.)

Andrew Moseman says: Dean Kamen is famous for inventing the AutoSyringe, the portable dialysis machine, the iBOT self-balancing wheelchair, and, of course, the Segway human transporter. But he is most passionate when talking about his nonprofit organization, FIRST, which tries to get kids excited about science and technology by having them build 120-pound robots to slug it out on a rough-and-tumble field of play. "We're not competing with science fairs, we're competing with Britney Spears and Shaquille O'Neal" for the attention of teenagers, Kamen said. The FIRST game changes every year—in 2008, teams raced 40-in. balls around a track. Kamen spoke with Popular Mechanics editor-in-chief Jim Meigs and an audience of journalists and FIRST competitors at the magazine's headquarters, in New York City's Hearst Tower. Kamen's core message: American culture needs a geek overhaul.

What do you think is the most important science and technology issue to be addressed by the next president? What's the biggest issue he should take on?

Is it energy? Genomics? Is it bird flu? Is it the polar caps—are they really melting? Is it terrorism? You pick the crisis du jour: The answer to all these issues is going to be an educated, competent global society. This country ought to lead the world, for lots of reasons. And we ought to help the rest of the world get educated, because if they are educated, their impact on the environment is actually way less. If they are educated, they'll have better ideas than killing each other or killing you and me.

The next president should recognize the power of technology. Technology is how we create wealth, how we cure diseases, how we'll build an environment that's sustainable and also gives people the capacity to pull more out of this world and still leave it better than when they found it. You know, people always talk about rights in this country—I wish we had a bill of responsibilities. So I think the president has to stop thinking of the crisis du jour and say, "In this race between education and catastrophe, we need education to win." The next president better make sure that all kids are part of the solution, not part of the problem. And with 50 percent of the kids in the 20 largest school districts in the country not graduating high school, they're part of the problem. This is unsustainable. It has to change.

Read the rest here:

Dean Kamen on education

Ari Kuschnir of m ss ng p eces, an independent video producer who collaborated with Boing Boing tv on one of our favorite episodes ever, has produced this short spot about a working class guy from Michigan who sees the world differently than "Joe the (faux) Plumber." Watch: Dave The Fisherman (YouTube)