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 | Verizon to Offer Samsung’s GALAXY Tab 31/08/2553 18:21  
BGR has proof that Verizon will begin selling Samsung’s GALAXY Tab in the coming days. The photo above shows the tablet listed in its inventory, so one can assume it will be available through store outlets at launch (it’s set to debut September 2nd). Rumor also has it that Verizon will also be stocking a [...] |
| XBMC Dharma Beta Release Debuts a New Add-on System 31/08/2553 18:21 
If you’re a fan of XBMC, you’re gonna love the new Dharma Beta release. The XBMC developers have been hard at work at rebuilding the platform to optimize its core functionality and its extensions (full list of milestones). According to XMBC, the new release rolls out a new add-on system that will separate playback components, [...] |
| Roku HD-XR Drops to $99.99, Will Gain 1080p Support 31/08/2553 18:21 
Wow, Roku today gave everyone reason to like its line of players again. The company has dropped the price of its HD and HD-XR models by $30 and the SD unit by $20. So now you can pick up the SD for $59.99 (currently out of stock), the HD for $69.99, and the HD-XR for [...] |
| Survey and comparison of fantasy novel cover art, 2008/9 31/08/2553 18:19 Every year, Orbit Bookss summer intern conducts a survey of fantasy novel cover-art for the year. This year, Orbit is releasing the data as a series, with commentary. Fascinating stuff: We have concrete evidence that the big three fantasy cover clichรฉs ("castles", "glowy magic", and "swords") are in decline. The 50% reduction in castles can only mean one thing. The Chart of Fantasy Art, 2009 (via Making Light) Time-lapse of book-cover design Race and book covers: why is there a white girl on the cover of ... Good Show Sir: "only the worst Sci-Fi/Fantasy book covers" - Boing ... Jacket design for Mark's new book! Pelican book cover design Comic book covers redrawn Best book covers of 2008 Ugly and Bizarre book covers...
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| Which ebook sellers will allow publishers and writers to opt out of DRM? 31/08/2553 18:19 My August Publishers Weekly column reports in on my experiment to see which of the major ebook stores would carry my books without DRM, and with a text disclaimer at the beginning that released readers from the crazy, abusive license agreements that most of these stores demand as a condition of purchase. Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo were all happy to carry my books without DRM, and on terms that gave you the same rights you got when buying paper editions. Sony and Apple refused to carry my books without DRM -- even though my publisher and I both asked them to. The upshot is that you can now buy electronic editions of my books in the Kindle, Nook and Kobo stores in DRM-free, EULA-free editions! In May, I cornered Macmillan CEO John Sargent and CTO Fritz Foy at the Macmillan BEA party. As the publishers of my books with Tor, I asked them if theyd be willing to try offering my e-books to all the major online booksellers--Amazons Kindle store, Apples iPad store, Barnes & Nobles Nook store, Sonys e-book store, and Kobo--as DRM-free products with the following text inserted at the beginning of the file: "If the seller of this electronic version has imposed contractual or technical restrictions on it such that you have difficulty reformatting or converting this book for use on another device or in another program, please visit http://craphound.com for alternate, open format versions, authorized by the copyright holder for this work, Cory Doctorow. While Cory Doctorow cannot release you from any contractual or other legal obligations to anyone else that you may have agreed to when purchasing this version, you have his blessing to do anything that is consistent with applicable copyright laws in your jurisdiction." As I explained to John and Fritz, although all my books are available as downloads for free, I often hear from readers who want to buy them, either because it is a simple way to compensate me (I also maintain a public list of schools and libraries whove solicited copies of my books so that grateful e-book readers can purchase and send a print copy to one of them, thus repaying my favor and doing a good deed at the same time) or because they like the no-hassle option of tapping on their device to buy a book. I am more than happy to offer my otherwise free books for sale in any vendors store, of course, but only if the vendors agree to carry them on terms I feel I can stand behind as an entrepreneur, as an artist, and as a moral actor. Doctorows First Law O'Reilly drops ebook DRM, sees 104% increase in sales Ebook DRM provider goes dark, the books you paid for disappear ... David Pogue tries DRM-free ebooks, sells more books than with DRM ... Lame DRM company announces ebook DRM DRM-free, free-as-in-beer Dutch Little Brother ebook DRM-free Kindle books: are they any free-er? Protect your copyrights, boycott DRM-locked platforms Help Kym crack the obsolete DRM on her ebooks...
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| Home entertainment center predictions, 1959 31/08/2553 18:19 Heres a vision of an "electronic home library" from a 1959 edition of Closer Than We Think, a futuristic newspaper strip drawn by Arthur Radebaugh: "Some unusual inventions for home entertainment and education will be yours in the future, such as the television recorder that RCAs David Sarnoff described recently. With this device, when a worthwhile program comes over the air while you are away from home, or even while youre watching it, youll be able to preserve both the picture and sound on tape for replaying at any time. Westinghouses Gwilym Price expects such tapes to reproduce shows in three dimensions and color on screens as shallow as a picture." Electronic Home Library (1959) (via Neatorama)...
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| Steampunk ray-gun sex-toys 31/08/2553 18:19 Lady Clankingtons Cabinet of Carnal Curiosities sells steampunk raygun vibrators for sexy steampunk bedroom fun. You can play stern neo-Victorian explorer and naughty morlock, or any variation that tickles your fancy. Lady Clankingtons Cabinet of Carnal Curiosities! (via JWZ) Robert Rankins badass homemade raygun Raygun: WTF 2000 Trumpet junk raygun Pew Pew $6 raygun tee Sci-fi: a Jesusfish raygun parody Oobject Top Ray Gun Collection Gadgets Mindbogglingly cool toy raygun Wetas new cheaper, delightful, detailed plastic rayguns...
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| Charlie Brooker on the "Ground Zero Mosque" 31/08/2553 18:19 Writing in the Guardian, Charlie Brooker contemplates the mystery of the American myth of a "Ground Zero Mosque": The planned "ultra-mosque" will be a staggering 5,600ft tall - more than five times higher than the tallest building on Earth - and will be capped with an immense dome of highly-polished solid gold, carefully positioned to bounce sunlight directly toward the pavement, where it will blind pedestrians and fry small dogs. The main structure will be delimited by 600 minarets, each shaped like an upraised middle finger, and housing a powerful amplifier: when synchronised, their combined sonic might will be capable of relaying the muezzins call to prayer at such deafening volume, it will be clearly audible in the Afghan mountains, where thousands of terrorists are poised to celebrate by running around with scarves over their faces, firing AK-47s into the sky and yelling whatever the foreign word for "victory" is. Ground Zero mosque? The reality is less provocative (via Wonderland) Dick Cavett on the Ground Zero Mosque Anti-Defamation League joins bigots in opposing Manhattan mosque ... The "30 Mosques" guys visit "The Ground Zero Mosque" "All y'all dumb motherf***ers don't even know my opinion on shit ... Fareed Zakaria returns ADL award as protest over Ground Zero ......
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| Even Monsters Need Haircuts: kids book full of great monsters 31/08/2553 18:19 Matthew McElligotts Even Monsters Need Haircuts is a cute picture book about a boy who sneaks into his fathers barbershop every full moon and gives haircuts to all the neighborhood monsters. Its full of sight gags -- barbering a gorgon while wearing a blindfold; cutting Frankensteins monsters hair with a clipper thats plugged into one of his neck bolts -- and complex pictures filled with tons of interesting monsters with extra limbs, eyes, heads, etc, to talk about with your kids. I brought a copy along on the summer family holiday and it quickly became the favorite of my two-and-a-half year old daughter and three-and-a-half year old nephew, who demanded to hear it read until theyd memorized it. The grownups in the cottage liked the scene where the monsters all help the boy clean up the barbershop at the end of the night, and we made reference to it every time we tried to get the kids to clean up their toys (it worked pretty well!). Even Monsters Need Haircuts SF writers make up monsters for a kids writing program Kids monster drawings in 1970 comic book 24 stuffed monsters based on kids art Monster Kid Home Movies: DVD of monster movies made by kids from ... Results of kids monster drawing contest at Guardian Melvin Monster, Volume 1: classic monster comics from Little ... Post cereal: food fit for a monster...
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| My Melbourne schedule: Melbourne Writers Festival and World Science Fiction Convention 31/08/2553 18:19 Ive just done the online checkin for my flight to Australia tomorrow for the Melbourne Writers Festival and the World Science Fiction Convention (also in Melbourne), so now seems like a good time to publish my schedule of appearances for the week that Im there: Melbourne Writers Festival: Lecture, 1800h, Thursday, September 2, RMIT Capitol Theatre: Big Ideas: Copyright versus Creativity (Note: the seminar announced for Sept 1 has been rescheduled; Ill post here when I have the final info) World Science Fiction Convention: Border crossing: YA authors writing for adults and vice versa (Thursday, Sept 2, 1500h, Room 212) Making a living: Professional writing for speculative fiction authors (Friday, Sept 3, 1200h, Room 219) Copyright in the 21st Century (Saturday, Sept 4, 1000h, Room 203) To market: How to sell your short stories (Saturday, Sept 4, 1100h, Room P3) Did the future just arrive?: The e-book and the publishing industry (Saturday, Sept 4, 1300h, Room P3) The writer and the audience: Online interaction and public personae (Saturday, Sept 4, 1500h Room 204) Reading (Sunday, Sept 5, 1000h) Kaffeeklatsch (Sunday, Sept 5, 1100h) The future of short fiction (Monday, Sept 5, 1100h, Room 203 Dirty feed (Monday, Sept 5, 1200h, Room 210)...
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| Cary Ann Hearst and the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir: dirty, thumpy, countrified tunes 31/08/2553 18:19 My recent family holiday involved a fair bit of driving, and my wife and I both tried out a lot of new (to us) music on one another, with two (very similar) artists emerging as clear favorites: Cary Ann Hearst has enjoyed a lot of recent public interest as a result of the use of her single Hells Bells in an episode of True Blood. Alice and I both really dug this song -- a rocking, mean, countrified song that showcases Hearsts Joan-Jett-meets-Dolly-Parton-with-a-flanger vocals. But we got the most play out of Shovels and Rope, an album she recorded with Michael Trent. Shovels and Rope is filled with sloppy slide guitar, tub-thumping percussion, and more of Hearsts snakebite-mean vocals, though there are a few tracks that are straight-ahead lovelorn C&W tunes that might have stepped off the stage at the Grand Ole Opry. These country tunes are serviceable and even sweet, but we thought they felt almost like a formality, as though Hearst was saying, "Im not just some psychobilly, I know country, I can do country, I do the strange stuff I do because I choose to, not because I must." Meanwhile, the grittier numbers are damned inspired, especially a cover of Charlie Featherss I Cant Hardly Stand It, which tops all the other versions Ive heard, including the one The Cramps recorded. I bought The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choirs Ten Thousand on a whim at Brill, a wonderful coffee shop and record store in Londons Exmouth Market, near my office (I almost never go wrong buying random stuff off the shelves at Brill). Like Shovels and Rope, Ten Thousand features a lot of stompy, open-strings slide guitar, loose percussion, thunderous railroad rhythms and growling vocals that are filled with portent. Im biased towards uptempo music, so I love tracks like You Got it Wrong. The overall album has some of Jeff Healeys roadhouse feel, but with a lot more countrification than Healey generally slipped in. It made a great counterpoint to the Hearst/Trent album, and we played them on shuffle together for most of the trip....
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| Aeropress: fast, portable, cheap, easy, delicious espresso 31/08/2553 18:19 When I decided to take a month off life and hide out at a cottage, I knew I wanted to rough it, but I wasnt about to give up on my morning espresso. So, thinking of Marks beloved Aeropress machine, I picked one up. I found mine on the shelves at the genuinely excellent Crema coffee-shop in Toronto, and had them grind a couple pounds of each of their espresso roasts for me to try (this coffee went so fast that we ended up sending relations who were joining us later on detours to Crema -- we eventually killed something like 10 pounds of espresso, and Ive brought home a couple pounds to enjoy in London). The verdict? I give it an A, and on a good day, an A . Its a very simple design: a plastic sleeve with a hollow plastic plunger that is tipped with a tight-fitting rubber tip. You screw a mesh lid onto the sleeve, insert a paper filter (these are reusable, but theyre also tiny and cheap, and you get 350 of them with your Aeropress), and pile dry espresso grounds on top of the filter, and rest the whole thing on a sturdy cup or mug. Then you add a measured amount of 175°F water, stir for 10 seconds, and gently but forcefully depress the plunger. The espresso that emerged was uniformly delicious -- sweet, dark, and without a hint of bitterness. The theory behind the Aeropress is that you can get a better shot of espresso if you extract your coffee quickly, and at low temperatures. In order to do that, you need to really get the water into contact with the fine-ground coffee (hence the stirring step), so that you get a nice shot even without a lot of heat or time. This is not without its drawbacks: I never managed to get any crema onto any of my shots (looking at Aeropress message boards, I can see Im not alone). Also, the shots that the Aeropress delivered were really short -- I found myself increasing the amount of water about one third above their recommended levels. Finally, the business of getting your water to 175 Fahrenheit is very fiddly (I used a $6 meat thermometer from Canadian Tire and clipped it to the mouth of the electric kettle). Whats more, the Aeropress comes with a couple of largely useless accessories (a funnel and a stand for the filters), but omits the absolutely vital thermometer, which seems ill-considered. But the disadvantages are vastly outweighed by the advantages. As I said, the coffee is great (everyone who visited us or vice versa got a shot or two, most asked for seconds). The cleanup is really simple: the piston scours the sleeve clean of all grounds and oils, so all it wants is a rinse at the tip when youre done. And the setup is compact, portable, and requires no electricity (though you need some means of heating water). We combined it with a microwaved milk frothed with a little battery-powered whizzer, which was no substitute for properly frothed milk, but beat most chain-store milky espresso drinks hands down. At $30, the device is a very cheap way of making espresso, and despite the thermometer fiddling, I found it much easier to use than my traditional steam-driven machine in my kitchen. If youre trying it out, pay close attention to the instruction not to press too hard on the piston: just push in an inch or two, wait while the water permeates the grounds, then push the rest of the way in. Ive put my Aeropress in my permanent travel kit. AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker with Bonus 350 Micro Filters Funny espresso rant Rooibos tea made with espresso machine Reg Barber custom espresso tamper Search for the ultimate espresso: a video with Kyle of ... Espresso crema shots Espresso drinks composition infographic Homebrew espresso machine Presso Mechanical Espresso Maker Nearly Worth Buying...
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| Shiners Glimpses back in print, free download: brilliant, haunted rock-n-roll novel 31/08/2553 18:19 Wonderful news: Lewis Shiners classic, World Fantasy Award-wining novel Glimpses is back in print for the first time since 2001, and Lew has released it as a a free PDF download to commemorate the re-release. The new edition is handsome and beautifully typeset. Glimpses is one of my favorite novels of all time; a haunting and sweet story about an alienated, lonely stereo repairman who discovers that he can slip into parallel dimensions in which the great, never-recorded rock albums (lost Beatles, Beach Boys, Hendrix, etc) may yet be made, and can bring recordings of the music back on his reel-to-reel. Its a rare novel that can capture the raw energy of rock and roll, but Glimpses has this and a tense, thrilling story besides. The free download is part of a larger project that Shiner calls The Fiction Liberation Front, through which he is gradually releasing his entire backlist. The reprint is from Subterranean Press, who have also just brought back Lews debut novel Frontera, as well as much of Lews earlier titles. Glimpses Lewis Shiner putting his novels online for free Lewis Shiners short fiction online for free...
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| Wendys Country Market: hidden foodies delight in the Thousand Islands 31/08/2553 18:19 One of the high points of my vacation was a stop in at Wendys Country Market, off a dirt road north of Kingston, Ontario, in Morton (off highway 15). Wendy is apparently something of a legend among local foodies and farmers alike: known as a place where farmers get a much better deal than they would ever see from the big wholesalers, and, as a consequence, where some of Ontarios best produce ends up (much of it grown in Wendys own farm). Wendy supplies some of the best restaurants in the province, and also operates a mobile market that drives around the region, selling ultra-fresh meat, produce, and prepared foods. Everything I tried at Wendys was incredible (oh, the cheese!), but top marks go to the "campfire ice cream," which has actual flecks of fire-burned marshmellow skin in it, and tastes like nothing youve ever tried before. I could seriously eat ten pots of this stuff. Wendy tells me that the ice-cream is made by Slickers in Bloomfield, Prince Edward County, Ontario, which sounds like its worth a visit on its own. If youre a Torontonian, Ottawan, or Kingstonian driving through the Thousand Islands region this Labour Day, stop in at Wendys. You wont regret it. Also: save some campfire ice-cream for the rest of us, OK? Wendys (Thanks, Jennifer and David!)...
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| Pirate Bay documentary raising money on Kickstarter 31/08/2553 18:19 The Pirate Bay - Away From Keyboard is a documentary on the founding of The Pirate Bay raising money on Kickstarter. I kicked in some money after hearing about it from Peter "brokep" Sunde. The filmmakers have been shooting for two years and are looking for $25,000 to finish the film (theyre over $22K as I type this): "This campaign starts exactly one month before the Court of Appeal hearings start in The Pirate Bay trial in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2009 the founders of The Pirate Bay were convicted to 1 year in jail and to pay damages of around 4 million dollars for having assisted in making copyrighted content available. The precedent in the Pirate Bay case will have consequences for the future of the internet. We will cover the upcoming trial closely." TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay - Away From Keyboard (Thanks, Cowicide, via Submitterator!) Pirate Bays VPN goes public: Ipredator Pirate Bay accused does remote sysadmin from courtroom during ... Pirate Bay trial in Stockholm: Day 1 Flattr: new micropayments system from Pirate Bay co-founder Peter ... Pirate Bay trial in Stockholm: Day 3, the King Kong defense ... Steal This Film: Pirate Bay Trial edition Pirate Bay to sell to private company, go legit (?) (!) Unscientific poll on The Pirate Bay sentence -- UPDATED...
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| Homebrew 1/10 scale Cray-1 supercomputer 31/08/2553 18:19 Chris Fenton has knocked together a "1/10-scale, binary-compatible, cycle-accurate Cray-1" as part of an ongoing "computational necromancy" project: "Whats the point of owning a Cray-1 if it doesnt *look* like a Cray-1?? Unfortunately, the square-shaped FPGA board isnt conducive to actually making it the traditional "C" shape, but I think it turned out pretty cool anyway. My friend Pat was nice enough to let me use his CNC milling machine to cut out the base pieces (and help with assembly). Its a combination of MDF, balsa wood and pine. There was also a healthy dose of blood, sweat and tears (and gorilla glue) involved." Homebrew Cray-1A (Thanks, Chris, via Submitterator) Cray should make a gaming computer for the rest of us - Boing ... Seymour Cray liked to tunnel under his house, too The eBayed employee gifts of Cray Research Ten beautiful computers Cray computer for sale in San Francisco...
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| Torontos improv singing puppet busker 31/08/2553 18:19 Last week in Toronto, I happened upon a delightful busker hidden inside a puppet theater that advertised "Improv Song on Demand." As Alice and I stood before it, a puppet emerged and offered us a song. Alice asked for a song about Star Trek and got this gem: Then I asked for a song about busking with puppets while improvising music. What followed was sheer genius. Unfortunately, I was sheer stupid, and managed to press the wrong button on my camera, so no video exists. For an encore, I asked for a song about Bill C-32, Canadas forthcoming copyright bill, which the puppeteer handily knocked off: Some googling today brought up more info on the performer: Alexander Winfield is a puppeteer who took up busking as an alternative to crappy part time jobs. Gabourey Sidibe's mom, Alice Tan Ridley, is a NYC subway busker ... Dead Plants: kick-ass shoutin' hillbilly blues busker music from ... Boba Fett accordion-busks the Zelda theme on a NYC subway platform ... Street pianos head to NYC Chicken-suited street musician plays "What is Love" on Melodica ... Copyright protected physical space...
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| Back To School Art Competition: De-CGI something and win prizes from HP/AMD 31/08/2553 18:19 HP has offered three splendid "Back To School" machines to give away to Boing Boing readers: First prize is an HP dv6 15.6" laptop with an AMD Phenom Quad Core Processor Second prize is an HPE Elite 210f desktop computer with an AMD Phenom Quad Core processor. Third prize is an HP 2509 monitor. The competition theme is De-CGI. Take something that is characteristically computerized and render it with natural media. For example, the pixelated layout of an old-school video game represented as bottletops, or a mandelbrot fractal drawn with crayons. Be imaginative! You retain the copyright in your entries. Only legal residents of the U.S. aged 18 and above, who notify us in the comments thread below of their entry, can win the prizes. Read the contest rules. Youve got until midnight next Monday to get your entries in!...
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| Question: How long would your Ph.D. have taken if everything worked? 31/08/2553 18:19 When I meet other scientist types, this can be one of the most interesting questions to throw out there. We can use mine as an example. I did my grad studies in Microbiology and Immunology, but basically I was doing biochemistry type work (cancer research with a lot of molecular stuff). It took me just over five years to finish this sucker which is pretty typical in North America. Of course, when I take a critical look at my thesis and calculate: "What if this thesis literally shows all of my work, because everything I did, worked? What if I had magic fingers throughout my research and never had a failed experiment!?" Using this rubric, I calculate that my Ph.D. in biochemistry/molecular biology type work couldve taken about, DUM-DUM-DUM... Note that this figure also includes the 3 months needed to write the damn thesis itself! This means that technically my thesis is reflective of only 3 months of successful experiments: or as I like to think of it -- four and a half years of failed experiments! This, of course, is how the scientific method works. Its slow, very slow. Most of the time, your marvelous ideas and experiments dont work out, and even if they do, theres almost always someone smarter than you telling you whats wrong with it. Even though it may not seem like it (especially when you read the headlines in newspapers and watch the stories on televisions), the reality is that scientists go about their discoveries in very very gradual increments. Those doing the science know this already, but sometimes, I get the impression that this reality is lost to other folks. Im assuming others in research have experienced this, but a classic example, are the many bright high school students coming to a lab, outlining a brilliant science fair project, and then telling you that they only have 6 weeks to do it, and oh-by-the-way "I can only come in after school on mondays, wednesdays, and thursdays!" Of course, this is when you tell them, that the experiments theyre suggesting might actually take the better part of a decade, and probably a few dollars here and there. Anyway, Im also curious to see what other numbers people will come up with and especially in other fields, science or otherwise. So ask yourself: How long would your Ph.D. have taken if everything worked?...
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| Neglected organisms haiku 31/08/2553 18:19 A couple years ago The Science Creative Quarterly started asking for phylogenetic haiku: or poetry of the 5-7-5 form that focused on a specific organism. We actually have hundreds of submissions, but havent had a chance to sit down and present them all as a single collection (one day, well get to this, one day). Anyway, its quite striking how in haiku land, its the "un-cute" that gets the most representation. This is awesome to me, as usually in the world of media, its the cute and cuddly that tends to win the limelight (dolphins, pandas, baby seals, anyone?). So in an effort to continue this trend, why not an open thread where you have a chance to compose a haiku on an organism youre pretty sure has never had the privilege of being set to poetry. The goal here, of course, is that if you google your organisms name as well as the keyword "haiku," it will be this post that will sit on the number one spot. Anyway, Ill start: Look! Bryozoa! Like the Borg, but cellular. Small, strange, and pretty....
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| Pirate Bay t-shirts 31/08/2553 18:19 Support the Pirate Bay by purchasing this excellent Kopimi/Piratbyrรฅn t-shirt. Bytelove sells them for $22 and donates all the profits to Piratbyrรฅn the Pirate Bay. Pirate Bay t-shirts...
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| Sink made out of recycled tires 31/08/2553 18:19 Minarcs RUBBISH sink is made out of recycled tires -- it just won an award from Architect Magazine: "The rubber from the tires is melted down and cleansed of debris, and the tiny inherent metal fibers that give a tire its road resistance are then formed into a sheet. This sheet is stretched over a base frame--made of wood, metal, or any other material out of which bathroom furniture can be fashioned--and anchored down by the drain collar. This creates a shallow-sloped surface for water to be siphoned away, but not a clunky profile; in fact, the material used is so minimal that, the manufacturer claims, the sinks use less than one pound of rubber. Two options are available, the most basic being the 1/8-inch-thick sheet of rubber adhered directly to the cabinet underneath. The other is a framed option, in which the sheet of rubber is sandwiched between two sheets of aluminum around the edges. The firm is in the process of developing two standard sizes for commercial distribution: a single sink at 36 inches wide and a double basin measuring 5 feet across." Award: RUBBiSH (Recycled Rubber Sinks) (via Core 77) NYC manhole cover doormats made from recycled tires Horse swing made from recycled aeroplane tyre...
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| US government opens Fredric "Seduction of the Innocent" Werthams files 31/08/2553 18:19 The Library of Congress has just opened up 222 boxes worth of files and papers on Fredric Wertham, the scaremonger whose book Seduction of the Innocent led to widespread bans, burnings and censorship of American comic books. Wertham wasnt just a nutcase pro-censorship crusader: he was also (paradoxically), a civil rights pioneer who worked for racially integrated education in America (he also appeared in defense of Ethel Rosenberg, later executed for spying for the USSR). Among the items in the Librarys colยญlection of Werthams papers is a selection of comics he deemed offensive, with notations he wrote inside. His copy of "Kid Colt, Outlaw" (1967) includes a note that of the 111 pictures, 69 were scenes of violence. An issue of "Justice League of America" (1966) includes markings calling attention to the sounds of violence like "thudd," "whapp" and "poww." In addition, Werthams papers include patient drawings and his analyยญsis of those sketches. He writes of a young patient: "This case demonstrates the confusion created by comic books between fanยญtasy and reality ... cruelty in childrens play especially directed against girls." Wertham testified six times under oath on the harmfulness of comic books, including providยญing testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. Though the committees final report did not blame comics for crime, it recomยญmended that the comics industry tone down its content voluntarily, thus resulting in the Comics Code Authority. Papers of Comic-Book Villain Open at Library (via /.)...
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| Another severed foot found on Vancouver/Washington coast 31/08/2553 18:19 Vintage plastic foot charms, via The Girl Cant Help It Yet another human foot was found on a beach along the coastal waterway near Vancouver, BC and Washington state. This is the ninth mystery foot to turn up in the region in three years. From the Vancouver Sun: The detached right foot — likely belonging to a woman or child, based on the size — washed up on Whidbey Island Friday just before 11:30 a.m., according to Det. Ed Wallace of the Island County Sheriffs office. Because of the islands position in the Strait of Georgia, its not unusual for bodies, torsos, legs and arms to wash ashore, he said. "Ninth human foot found washed up on West Coast" Previous severed foot action on BB......
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| Excerpt from Mashed Up: Configurable Culture 31/08/2553 18:19 Aram Sinnreich sez, "Truthdig.com just published an excerpt from my new book, Mashed Up: Music, Technology & the Rise of Configurable Culture. The book is about how the legal, ethical and aesthetic battles over mash-up culture and sample-based music prefigure larger arguments over the shape of society in the networked age. It also argues that some of the answers that DJs have found might point the way towards a new social structure for the 21st century. This particular excerpt is about the blurring line between artist and audience, and the legal and political implications of the newly gray area in between." The biggest myth of all is the Romantic notion that artists somehow create their work uniquely and from scratch, that paintings and sculptures and songs emerge fully-formed from their fertile minds like Athena sprang from Zeus. Running a close second is the myth that only a handful of us possess the raw talent - or the genius - to be an artist. According to this myth, the vast majority of us may be able to appreciate art to some degree, but we will never have what it takes to make it. The third myth is that an artists success (posthumous though it may be) is proof positive of his worthiness, that the marketplace for art and music functions as some kind of aesthetic meritocracy. Of course, these myths fly in the face of our everyday experience. We know rationally that Picassos cubism looks a lot like Braques, and that Michael Jackson sounds a lot like James Brown at 45 RPM. We doodle and sing and dance our way through our days, improvising and embellishing the mundane aspects of our existence with countless unheralded acts of creativity. And we all know that American Idol and its ilk are total B.S. (very entertaining B.S., of course!). Each of us can number among our acquaintance wonderful singers, dancers, painters or writers whose creations rival or outstrip those of their famous counterparts, just as each of us knows at least one beauty who puts the faces on the covers of glossy magazines to shame. Ive admired Arams work since we taught together at USC. Ive read part of a prepub of this book (its adapted from Arams PhD thesis) and its fascinating stuff. Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture (Truthdig) Mashed Up: Music, Technology & the Rise of Configurable Culture (Amazon) (Thanks, Aram!)...
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| Your cremated ashes made into vinyl records 31/08/2553 18:19 Via the Submitterator, Im informed that Rest In Vinyl offers to press your cremated remains into vinyl records with your choice of audio. The price is ยฃ2000 for 30 discs. Custom artwork, backing tracks, and "bespook" music is extra. Vinyl records made from cremated ashes...
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| Exclusive free BB event in Los Angeles: screening of Catfish documentary (NO MORE TIX) 31/08/2553 18:18 UPDATE: ALL 250 SEATS ARE TAKEN. SEE YOU THERE! BE SURE TO COME EARLY TO GET A SEAT AS HAVING A TICKET IS NOT A GUARANTEE OF ADMISSION. Hey Los Angeles Boing Boing readers! You are invited to a free and exclusive screening for the documentary Catfish, which was a sensation at Sundance. I saw it last month and was enthralled. It also has generated plenty of controversy, so the audience Q&A with the producer, director after the screening ought to be interesting! In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariels brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue. Its screening at the Landmark Theatre on Pico (link below has details) After the screening, I will moderate a Q&A panel with the Catfish filmmakers Ariel Schulman, Henry Joost and Nev Schulman, who will share their experience of making the film and will answer questions about the events that transpired within the movie. I recommend that you dont watch the trailer if you can help it. Its better to watch Catfish with no idea of what its about. Seats are limited! NO MORE SEATS! Reserve tickets here....
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| Others weigh in on new Blackwing pencil 31/08/2553 18:18 Photo by Michael Leddy Im not the only person to have received a pre-production version of the Blackwing pencil made by California Cedar. So did several other Faber Eberhard Blackwing 602 enthusiasts, and many of them have already commented about them on their blogs. Michael Leddy of Orange Crate Art said, "Writing with the new Blackwing is a pleasure," but believes (as I do) "the visual appeal of this pencil is likely to be as important to potential customers as the quality of the lead." Sean of The Blackwing Pages (yes, an entire blog devoted to the Blackwing 602) said the lead is "incredibly smooth, and certainly worthy of the Blackwing name," and that the pencils distinctive ferrule "is an improvement on the old design insofar how it is attached to the pencil; it feels very solid." As to the white eraser, he is "on the fence ... it may be too much of a departure" from the original (and admittedly lousy) pink eraser. For a good introduction to the original Blackwing 602, read Pencil Talks article. Dont miss the photos of Eberhard Fabers other pencils (near the bottom of the article) with their achingly beautiful typefaces and colors....
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| Super Mario cardies 31/08/2553 18:18 I love these official, licensed lumpy Super Mario cardigans, though at $400 a pop, I probably wont be wearing one this winter. ใปใผๆ—ฅๅใคใใคๆ–ฐ่ - ๆฐ—ใฎๆ—ฉใใตใณใฟใฎใๅบ—: (via Craft) Stop-motion Super Mario made out of sticky notes Super Mario Crossover: the 8-bit retro mashup game A not so super Mario cart Tuper Tario Tros: Super Mario meets Tetris Super Mario Bros theme performed by an RC car on a row of liquid ... Super Mario on a Arduino-controlled 8x8 pixelboard Super Mario fingernails Super Mario cupcakes...
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