The Latest from Boing Boing

Bruce Sterling's "White Fungus" -- architecture fiction for rising seas and the econopocalypse Posted: 17 Apr 2009 11:17 PM PDT In White Fungus, an "architecture fiction" published in the first issue of Beyond magazine, Bruce Sterlng marries the sardonic and the hopeful in a gripping, hilarious story about how every aspect of civic life from schools to tomato-farming will be reformed after ecotastrophe and econopocalypse destroy our present way of life. Logically, industrial farmers should move into places like White Fungus and industrially farm the lawns. Derelict buildings should be gutted and trans formed into hydroponic racks. White Fungus was, in fact, an old agricultural region: it was ancient farmland with tarmac on top of it. So: rip up the parking lots. Plant them. Naturally, no one in White Fungus wanted this logical solution. Farming was harsh, dull, boring, patient work, and no one was going to pay the locals to farm. So, by the standards of the past, our survival was impossible. The solution was making the defeat of our hunger look like fun. People gardened in five-minute intervals, by meshing webcams with handsets. A tomato vine ready to pick sent someone an SMS. Game-playing gardeners cashed in their points at local market stalls and restaurants. This scheme was an 'architecture of participation'. Since the local restaurants were devoid of health and employee regulations, they were easy to start and maintain.Every thing was visible on the Net. We used ingenious rating systems. White Fungus (PDF) (Thanks, Patadave!)

Canadian Members of Parliament voting records (finally) online Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:59 PM PDT Tavish sez, "After a push from the NDP, the Canadian government's put voting records of every Canadian MP online." It's about time, but what a lame execution: "To view an MP's record, head to the website and click on the Members of Parliament link to find your member of the House of Commons. Your MP's site will will have a tab for votes that takes you to a list showing whether they voted yea, nea, or didn't vote at all on any given bill." It's time for some civic-minded Canadian hackers to slurp out all that data and reformat in a way that gives you real insight into what your elected representative is up to and how she compares to all the other politicos on the Hill. MP voting records go online (Thanks, Tavish!)

Jokes from the Cultural Revolution Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:56 PM PDT Here are some of the jokes that flourished (underground) in China during the Cultural Revolution, a period of incredible hardship and human rights abuses. They're collected by Guo Qitao, a professor of Chinese history at UC Irvine. Wang Hongwen went to see Marshal Zhu De, requesting him to hand over power. "You may take over, but only if you can make this egg stand upright," Zhu said, while handling him an egg. After trying for several days, Wang was still unable to make it stand, so he went to see Deng Xiaoping for help. "This is easy," said Deng, and he forcefully smashed the egg down into the table. "Ai ya, it broke!" Wang exclaimed. "Chairman Mao has said, 'nothing can stand without destruction,'" said Deng, "look, isn't the egg standing upright now?" Translator's notes: The phrase "nothing can stand without destruction" was a revolutionary slogan that encouraged destruction of old, feudal things. Jokes from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) (Part One)

Harvester: a concept design for a Lorax-terrifying tree-extractor Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:59 PM PDT Niko Kugler & Georg Heitzmann's concept design for "The Harvester" is a Lorax-terrifying device that can pick up felled trees in a forest and extract them without harming nearby growth. The HARVESTER (via Dvice) Can't see the video? Click here

Laser cutter motors play Super Mario theme Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:51 PM PDT Jed from HackLab wrote code that tunes the motors on a laser cutter so that it plays music -- here it is playing the Super Mario theme. This is slightly too perfect, leading me to wonder if it's not just some video of a laser cutter with a flanged-out version of the theme cut into the soundtrack. But hell, I want to believe. lazzor music! (via Geekologie)

Swedish Pirate Party membership surges after Pirate Bay verdict Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:48 PM PDT Yesterday's Swedish court ruling sentencing the Pirate Bay defendants to a year in prison caused membership in Sweden's Pirate Party to swell, attracting 3,000 members in seven hours. Its membership now sits at around 18,000, which makes it a respectable size in Swedish politics. - The tough sentence on Pirate Bay clearly shows that Piratpartiet needed, "says Rick Falk Vinge, party for Piratpartiet. We needed to secure the future knowledge society.We needed to protect the free and open society, and we needed to assure that the future of culture in people's hands instead of in the hands of blodtöstiga media companies who want to bring culture lovers in prison. Internet boil, Piratpartiet now has more members than FP (via /.) Previously: Pirate Bay defendants found guilty, sentenced to jail - Boing Boing Pirate Bay trial in Stockholm: Day 1 - Boing Boing

Google Book Search settlement gives Google a virtual monopoly over literature Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:44 PM PDT Writing on O'Reilly Radar, preeminent legal scholar Pamela Samuelson cuts through the distractions associated with the Google Book Search/Authors Guild settlement and goes right to the heart of the matter: Google, in acceding to the Authors Guild's requests, have attained a legal near-monopoly on searching and distributing the majority of books ever published. The Authors Guild -- which represents a measly 8000 writers -- brought a class action against Google on behalf of all literary copyright holders, even the authors of the millions of "orphan works" whose rightsholders can't be located. Once that class was certified, whatever deal Google struck with the class became binding on every work of literature ever produced. The odds are that this feat won't ever be repeated, which means that Google is the only company in the world that will have a clean, legal way of offering all these books in search results. The Authors Guild and the American Association of Publishers (who took part in the settlement) totally missed the real risk of Google Book Search: they were worried about some notional income from advertising that they might miss out on. But the real risk is that Google could end up as the sole source of ultimate power in book discovery, distribution and sales. As the only legal place where all books can be searched, Google gets enormous market power: the structure of their search algorithm can make bestsellers or banish books to obscurity. The leverage they attain over publishing and authors through this settlement is incalculable. I like Google. I worry about the privacy implications of some of their technology, and I wish they had more spine when it came to censoring search results in China, but I think they make incredibly awesome search tools and every person I know who works at Google is a class-A mensch and a certified smart person (a rare combination). But no one, not Google, not Santa Claus, should have this kind of leverage over the entire world of literature. It's abominable. No one benefits when markets consolidate into a single monopoly gatekeeper -- not even the gatekeeper, who is apt to lose its edge without competition to keep it sharp. The publishers I spoke to about this were incredibly smug about it. Because the settlement gives them the power to keep new releases out of Google, they feel like they can use this to keep the company honest. This is wrong. New releases are the majority of the publishers' business, but they're not the majority of the market for books -- and they're only successful because of all the context created by the entire history of literature. If the publishers offer a sweetheart deal on searching new results to Yahoo, but can't give Yahoo access to the orphan works and other catalog items to which Google alone has easy legal access, Yahoo's search tool will never compete with Google's. To understand why, imagine if Yahoo tried to compete with Google by offering a search engine that only indexed the last 30 days' worth of web-pages: it's true that most of the stuff I read on the web was written in the past 30 days, but the 40-50% of stuff I that wasn't is often enormously important to me. In that world, I would have to flick constantly between searching Yahoo and Google to make sure I wasn't missing stuff -- and very quickly, I'd just default to Google. By design or by accident, Google got the most reactionary elements in publishing to anoint Google the Eternal God-Emperor of Literature. Thanks a lot, Authors Guild -- with friends like you, who needs piracy? The proposed settlement agreement would give Google a monopoly on the largest digital library of books in the world. It and BRR, which will also be a monopoly, will have considerable freedom to set prices and terms and conditions for Book Search's commercial services. BRR is unlikely to complain that the price is too high, the digital rights management technology is too restrictive, or the terms are too onerous. Google will also be the only service lawfully able to sell orphan books and monetize them through subscriptions. BRR will get 63 per cent of these revenues which it will pay out to authors and publishers registered with it, even as to books in which they hold no rights. (Some unclaimed orphan book funds may go to charities that promote literacy.) No author whose books are in the corpus can get paid by the BRR unless he/she has registered with it. Virtually the only way that Amazon.com, Microsoft, Yahoo!, or the Open Content Alliance could get a comparably broad license as the settlement would give Google would be by starting its own project to scan books. The scanner might then be sued for copyright infringement, as Google was. It would be very costly and very risky to litigate a fair use claim to final judgment given how high copyright damages can be (up to $150,000 per infringed work). Chances are also slim that the plaintiffs in such a lawsuit would be willing or able to settle on equivalent or even similar terms. Legally Speaking: The Dead Souls of the Google Booksearch Settlement Can't see the video? Click here

Wired publishes documents detailing the FBI's spyware Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:25 PM PDT Wired's Kevin Poulsen has pried loose details about the FBI's homebrew spyware, used in criminal investigations. The document is redacted almost to the point of uselessness, but there are some interesting nuggets. Paul Ohm, who used to work in the FBI department responsible for the spyware, notes, Page one may be the most interesting page. Someone at CCIPS, my old unit, cautions that "While the technique is of indisputable value in certain kinds of cases, we are seeing indications that it is being used needlessly by some agencies, unnecessarily raising difficult legal questions (and a risk of suppression) without any countervailing benefit," ... On page 152, the FBI's Cryptographic and Electronic Analysis Unit (CEAU) "advised Pittsburgh that they could assist with a wireless hack to obtain a file tree, but not the hard drive content." This is fascinating on several levels. First, what wireless hack? The spyware techniques described in Poulsen's reporting are deployed when a target is unlocatable, and the FBI tricks him or her into clicking a link. How does wireless enter the picture? Don't you need to be physically proximate to your target to hack them wirelessly? Second, why could CEAU "assist . . . to obtain a file tree, but not the hard drive content." That smells like a legal constraint, not a technical one. Maybe some lawyer was making distinctions based on probable cause? Documents: FBI Spyware Has Been Snaring Extortionists, Hackers for Years Get Your FBI Spyware Documents Here

Gorilla-viewing glasses prevent eye-contact Posted: 17 Apr 2009 11:00 PM PDT The Rotterdam Zoo is giving away cardboard glasses that make it appear that you're looking off to one side; these are gorilla-viewing glasses, meant to avoid incidents in which gorillas attack visitors for making eye contact with them. The glasses' introduction follows an attack on a woman by an escaped gorilla; the specs are sponsored by a local health-insurance company. No Eye-Contact Glasses (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Genesis P-Orridge's copyright pants Posted: 17 Apr 2009 04:25 PM PDT Here is a 1972 photo of industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge wearing "Copyright Breeches," made for him by Cosey Fanni Tutti. Both P-Orridge and Tutti are members of the highly-influential art damage music group Throbbing Gristle, who have just begun their first United States tour since 1981.

Ted "Lurch" Cassidy performs "The Lurch" Posted: 17 Apr 2009 03:30 PM PDT Watch The Addams Family's Lurch on Shivaree perform "The Lurch." I've never heard of the song until today, and for good reason, I suppose -- the song stinks! But dig that crazy Shivaree logo!

Pancake breakfast (including nature films about bears) in Machine Project's indoor forest, Sunday, April 19th, 20 Posted: 17 Apr 2009 03:10 PM PDT Machine Project, my favorite gallery/workshop in Los Angeles, is holding a pancake breakfast in the beautiful forest it created in its front room. Pancake breakfast! Sunday, April 19th, 2009 11am - 2pm Please join us in the Forest for $3 short stacks from the Kwong Dynasty Pancake Cart, maple syrup, and nature films about bears. RSVP not required, this event is open to the public. Pancake breakfast in Machine Project's indoor forest

Battlestar Galactica Raptor for sale, used Posted: 17 Apr 2009 02:26 PM PDT This used Raptor from Battlestar Galactica could be yours for the right price. And that's more than the $28,000 highest bid on eBay, which still didn't meet the reserve price. Now, NBC/Universal is going to sell it in a "live" auction along with a slew of other props from the show. And yes, a Viper is also available. Mode details over at h +. "Buy a Raptor Fighter Ship used in Battlestar Galactica!" Can't see the video? Click here

The friends of LA Phil's myspace page Posted: 17 Apr 2009 01:21 PM PDT Meet the friends of the LA Phil on MySpace -- 702 people named Phil, Phyl, and Phill. (Great music stream, too! Every time I hear Night on Bald Mountain I think of my Shown'N Tell and the When Giants Walked the Earth Picturesound Program. I would play it over and over again when I was six years old.)

Nemo Gould new sculptures added to portfolio Posted: 17 Apr 2009 11:16 AM PDT Our friend Nemo Gould has several new sculptures on display, including this menacing Boogeyman. Can't see the video? Click here

Shotgun shell shot glasses Posted: 17 Apr 2009 11:06 AM PDT Over at BB Gadgets, Joel has the details on these delightful 12 Gauge Shot Glasses.

Double dose Unicorn Chaser Posted: 17 Apr 2009 04:21 PM PDT For those who needed to cleanse their palates of fir tree needles and penis tips.

TV news about man with Fir tree growing in his lung Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:58 AM PDT Here is a TV news story about Artyom Sidorkin, the Russian gentleman who recently had a two-inch live Fir tree removed from his lung where it had taken root. For more on his story, see "The diagnosis? Fir on the lung" in The Guardian. (via Morbid Anatomy) Can't see the video? Click here

Can scavenger died wealthy Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:45 AM PDT "Tin-Can" Curt Degerman, a well-know aluminum can scavenger in the Swedish town of Skellefteå, was apparently a multi-millionaire when he died last year. He was apparently very thrift and also a shrewd investor. From Sweden's The Local: "He went to the library every day because he didn't buy newspapers. There he read [Swedish business daily] Dagens Industri," a cousin (of Degerman told the Expressen newspaper). "He knew stocks inside and out." And Tin-Can Curt used that investing know-how to turn the modest deposits he collected from returning empty cans into mutual funds worth more than 8 million kronor. In addition, he had purchased 124 gold bars currently valued at 2.6 million kronor and had nearly 47,000 kronor in the bank. Tin-Can Curt also owned his own home, which was found to have 3,000 kronor in loose change, bringing the total value of his estate to 12,005,877 kronor. "Eccentric Swede turned empty cans into gold" (via Fortean Times!)

Man bites off tip of own penis Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:38 AM PDT Damiene Iriarte, 26, was picked up naked behind a building in Brooklyn with a bleeding penis. Apparently he had bit off the tip of his own member. Iriarte is a convicted pedophile. "How he did it? Limber, I guess. Not the work of a sane mind," a police source told the New York Daily News. "Sex offender found nude, self-mutilated; bit tip of own penis off: cops"

Notes From the Underground Posted: 17 Apr 2009 11:04 AM PDT Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine. Hi, my name is Maggie, and I am a gigantic dork about subways. I didn't realize this until I was 21, when I lived in NYC for three months on a summer internship and quickly found myself doing things like reading the collected works of subway historian Stan Fischler and spending my whole commute with my nose pressed up against the door windows at the front of the train. (Which is awesome fun, by the way. If you've never done this, you are missing out on a free adventure AND a great opportunity to look ridiculous in public.) For some reason, above-ground trains don't seem to do it for me. I tried joining Minneapolis' historic streetcar club (Demographics: Over 60, mostly men. The couple meetings I went to featured some great discussions on urological health), but couldn't get as excited about it. But streetcar preservation's loss is your gain. Today, I present to you the three things you must know about the New York City subway system. 1. The Place to Visit The New York City Transit Museum is far more fascinating than its name suggests. Descend into this abandoned subway platform in Brooklyn Heights for some first-class history lessons: Like the fabulous tale of the workers who were caught in a cave-in during construction of a tunnel under the East River; sucked up through the river bed by the resulting vacuum; thrown high into the air on a geyser of water---and lived to tell about it! 2. The Man to Know Alfred Ely Beach is my imaginary boyfriend and a legendary badass. In the late 1860s, Beach put together the first proposal for a subway system in New York City, based on pneumatic train cars. He pitched his idea to the City as was promptly denied, either because famously corrupt mayor "Boss" Tweed reportedly had a financial stake in the trolley, streetcar and elevated railway industry, or because some politically connected landowners didn't want anyone digging under their property. Either way, Beach decided to fight city hall--in secret. He rented out a basement, hired some discrete labor and dug out a block-long tunnel under Broadway, using the cover of darkness to keep things on the down-low. Word did get out eventually that something was going on, but the details didn't come out until shortly before Beach unveiled his swank underground digs to the public. Opened in February 1870, Beach's Broadway Underground Railway featured gurgling fountains, a velvet-seated train car, and (by some accounts) a fish tank. Rides were .25 cents a head (about $3.60 or so today). It was spectacular, but the success didn't last. Beach never convinced the state legislature to let him build a full-scale system. By the time he died in 1896, the BUR had been sealed up and forgotten. That is, until the early years of the 20th century, when subway construction workers basically tunneled right into it. According to legend, they found the opulent platform largely intact, but the wooden car was rotting. Most likely, Beach's BUR tunnel ended up becoming part of the old City Hall subway station....which leads me to.... 3. The Secret to Enjoy I picked this tip up from Stan Fischler's books. So the original City Hall station has been closed since the 1940s. There are some good pictures online that will give you an idea of what an amazing piece of architecture this station was. We're talking chandeliers, beautiful arched ceilings, intricate tile work...the whole nine yards. Most of the time, this is closed to the public. But there is supposedly a way you can sneak a peek. Following Fischler's instructions, you take the Lexington Ave. #6 local southbound to the end of the line and (if the conductor will let you) stay on the train as it does a loop past the old City Hall station to turn itself around. During the loop, you can see the City Hall station out the train windows. I should note that I never managed to successfully pull this off. I was in New York in the summer of 2002, and (unsurprisingly) convincing subway workers to let you have a little leeway wasn't so easy at the time. But there seem to be people who've done it recently, so you should try it. And, if it works, let me know. I would love to be jealous of you. BTW, there's more on Alfred Ely Beach in Be Amazing. Photo is courtesy Brett Day

Cactus Dome looks like the top part of the USS Enterprise, but the true purpose is a bummer Posted: 17 Apr 2009 09:39 AM PDT Robyn Miller uncovered this intriguing photo and asked his readers to imagine what it might be: "the secret lair of Jame Bond's nemesis? Better yet... evidence of a crashed spaceship!" But actually, it's a $239 million dome that covers the radiocative waste from nuclear explosion tests in the Bikini and Rongelap atolls. "The dome covers the 30-foot deep, 350-foot wide crater created by the May 5, 1958, Cactus test." Cactus Dome

Michael Jackson face appears in Muhammed Ali video: hoax or pareidolia? Posted: 17 Apr 2009 09:17 AM PDT Forgetomori posted this video of the George Foreman and Muhammad Ali fight from 1974. He notes that during one second of the video (between 5:45 and 5:46) something that looks like the head of Michael Jackson, circa 2000, appears. It could be a hoax, a bizarre face added digitally and recently to the scene, as what we assume would be the black hair around the face is actually transparent. On the other hand, there are some things that interact with the image – passing both in front and behind the “face” – which suggest that it was not such a bad editing job. And also suggest that perhaps it’s not a hoax, but pareidolia. Even if I have no idea of what could have looked like a face with glowing eyes. Certainly the height of that face is not right, it’s at the height of everyone else’s waists. Perhaps a bag? I don’t know. If you don't want to wait for the video to load, visit Forgetomori's blog, where he has an animated GIF of the relevant section. Michael Jackson face appears in Muhammed Ali video: hoax or pareidolia?

John "Game of Life" Conway: particles have the same kind of free will that people have Posted: 17 Apr 2009 09:08 AM PDT Kevin Kelly linked to a paper "co-authored by mathematician John Conway, inventor of a cellular automata demonstration known as the Game of Life, [who] argues that you can't explain the spin or decay of particles by randomness, nor are they determined, so free will is the only option left." From the paper (The Strong Free Will Theorem): Some readers may object to our use of the term “free will” to describe the indeterminism of particle responses. Our provocative ascription of free will to elementary particles is deliberate, since our theorem asserts that if experimenters have a certain freedom, then particles have exactly the same kind of freedom. Indeed, it is natural to suppose that this latter freedom is the ultimate explanation of our own. Particles Have Free Will Can't see the video? Click here

BB Exclusive: John Waters on the Origins of Teabagging. Posted: 17 Apr 2009 10:08 AM PDT There's been a lot of talk of "teabagging" lately. Conservative anti-tax advocates in the United States have been organizing "tea party" protests, fashioned after the colonial-era protests of British rule. In doing so, they and the right-wing TV punditards who cheer these spectacles on for ratings have ranted about "teabagging," and the desire to "teabag Barack Obama" and such, without apparent knowledge of the word's more common street use. More recently, news anchors and bloggers have giggled knowingly over that sexual reference, but nobody has acknowledged how the word first entered popular American slang. I'll tell you how. John Waters. Here is the email exchange: XENI: Dear Mister John Waters: We at Boing Boing are devoted fans of your work, and we consider you one of the greatest heroes of the "happy mutant" culture we celebrate. Where does the term "teabagging" come from? Is it true that the term was first popularized, or originated, in one of your films? Also, what is the deal with right wing nutbags (if you'll pardon that term, too) appropriating a perfectly good term for a sex act in such an offensive manner? Your humble devotée, -- Xeni. JOHN WATERS: "Teabagging" is by my definition the act of dragging your testicles across your partner's forehead. In the UK it is dipping your testicles in your partner's mouth. I didn't invent the term or the act but DID introduce it to film in my movie "Pecker." "Teabagging" was a popular dance step that male go-go boys did to their customers for tips at The Atlantis, a now defunct bar in Baltimore. Hope this helps. -- John Waters * Yes, this is an actual transcription of an email exchange between Boing Boing and John Waters. Below, the clip from his movie "Pecker" that started it all. (YouTube Link). Mr. Waters' work in sculpture and photography is currently the subject of an exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles: REAR PROJECTION. Snip from show description. "Rear projection" is a movie term for the process whereby a foreground action is combined with a background scene filmed earlier to give the impression the actors are on location when they are, in fact, working inside a studio. In Waters' latest work, this artificial and outdated visual effect is embraced, attacked and taken to extremes. Glorifying the struggle, humiliation, and wild excitement of a life in show business, Waters uses an insider's bag of film tricks and trade lingo to celebrate the excess of the movie industry. Rewriting and redirecting existing film imagery snapped off the TV screen, he assaults, elevates, subtitles, and startlingly alters these one time classic, respected, even honored movies to attain a new kind of equality: a cult film that only needs one viewer - John Waters himself. And finally: below, a rare John Waters short praising the merits of smoking in movie theaters. (Special thanks to Mr. Johnny Knoxville and the incredible Richard Metzger, who you really ought to be following on Twitter instead of Ashton Kutcher or CNNBRK.)

Zoondoggle's Gurn-a-Thon: send in a digital photo of your best silly face Posted: 17 Apr 2009 08:30 AM PDT Jake at Zoomdoggle (above) invites you to make a silly face and submit the photo for his Gurn-a-Thon. Welcome to the first annual Zoomdoggle Gurn-a-Thon. What’s a gurn? I hear you cry. A gurn, or gurning is the ancient English art of pulling very silly faces. Usually through a giant horse shoe. I’m not making this up. From Wikipedia: “Gurning contests are a rural English tradition. They are thought to have originated in 1297 at the Egremont Crab Fair” I don’t have a horseshoe but I do have a face and a digital camera - and so, dear reader, do you. QUICK: Make a Face (the Zoomdoggle Gurn-a-Thon)

Maker Shed sale Posted: 17 Apr 2009 08:19 AM PDT Maker Shed is having a huge clearance sale right now on kits. For instance, the Blubberbot, an inflatable autonomous robot kit (shown here), is selling for $49.95 (regular price is $99.99). The cool telekinetic pen magic trick, regularly $14.99, is $5. And the Bare Bones Arduino Board Kit (a full-featured Arduino clone), regularly $19.99, is selling for $12.50. (Disclosure: I am editor-in-chief of MAKE magazine.) Maker Shed April Blowout Clearance Sale

BB Video: "OMAR / HOT PURSUIT / SEARCH," a PSST! Animated Short Posted: 17 Apr 2009 08:21 AM PDT Download MP4 here. YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video. Today we present another animated short from the PSST! 3 Film series -- OMAR / HOT PURSUIT / SEARCH. Like the previous shorts we've featured from PSST! project, this one's the result of a collaboration between three teams of animators. Those teams worked together to express a single story with a uniquely animated and separately produced beginning, middle, and end. OMAR: A Victorian-sepia-dream in which a child fishes for kite-creatures in the sky, and is lifted on an incredible aerial adventure. HOT PURSUIT: A Google Maps bad guy car chase drama interlude, with cops and robbers. SEARCH: A child creates the magical superflat universe of which he dreams. The first segment in today's episode was directed by Doug Purver, the second part by Honest, the third by Cole Gorst, Brian Smith, and Vincent Aricco. About the PSST! 3 project, curator Bran Dougherty-Johnson tells Boing Boing, The main creative challenge is really self-initiated. It's to create original and inspired work on no budget and in collaboration with other teams. That in itself is a challenge, but the reward is unfettered creativity and self-expression with no restraints. You can see in the films that the artists involved took this idea to heart. Art is a form of reality creation. With PSST! we are opening a space for Motion Graphic Design and Animation to do something other than commercials and endtags, to build community and to create our own work. Previously: Gödel ????? Film School," excerpt from the PSST! 3 Animation Project "Legends of Exos," Excerpt from PSST! Animation Project BB Video: David O'Reilly, "Please Say Something" preview (animation) BBtv: David O'Reilly Vectorpunk Animation (featuring Xeni) (Special thanks to Boing Boing Video's hosting and publishing provider Episodic.)

Photographer Shawn Mortensen has died. Posted: 17 Apr 2009 03:29 PM PDT More about his work and his life here. Shawn's hearty career as a photojournalist and artist took him around the world several times over, unselfishly spreading his endless supply of good vibes as he went. Particularly renowned for his portraits of musicians, artists, and entertainers, Shawn photographed a stunning array of pop culture demigods in his 20+ year career including Keith Haring, Tupac, Henry Rollins, James Brown, The Notorious BIG, Bjork, Jun Takahashi, Leo Fitzpatrick, Christopher Wool, Mark Gonzales, Ed Ruscha, Vivienne Westwood, The Bad Brains, Dash Snow, Grandmaster Flash, Neil Young, MIA, John Lee Hooker, Nigo, Sofia Coppola, Agnes B., Sonic Youth, The Beastie Boys, Keith Richards, Chloe Sevigny, The Foo Fighters, Everlast, Kraftwerk, Wu Tang Clan, and The Sex Pistols, to name but a few. (Thanks, Richard Metzger)

Some Practical Advice for Your Weekend Posted: 17 Apr 2009 08:21 AM PDT Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine. Like many great tomes of history, Be Amazing is largely meant to be read as allegory. You (hopefully) can't inject the gooey center of yourself into your neighbor and take over his brain, but you can take the story of the sacculina as a parable showing you how mooching should be done.There are, however, a few entries that offer more immediate, real-world-useful information. This is one of them. How to Crawl out of Quicksand Bad Idea: Trust the Movies Do this, and you're liable to end up thinking that quicksand is something that only happens in the jungle or the desert, and that the average patch has no discernible bottom. But quicksand, as it turns out, isn't some Lovecraftian entity come to devour human souls. It's really just your average run-of-the-mill sand and clay that's been saturated with water, usually from an underground spring. Technically, you don't even need sand--any old find-grained soil will do. According to the United States Geological Survey, quicksand can pop up just about anywhere. It could be waiting for you, right now, out in the backyard. On the plus side, though, that stuff about it being bottomless is also bunk. Most patches of quicksand would barely reach reach up to your waist, let alone be deep enough to cover your head. So before you start screaming for help, it might be a good idea to just try standing up. Unless, you know, you like being made fun of by emergency response crews. Good Idea: Know Your Physics Getting unstuck from quicksand is really a Vulcan-esque endeavor, requiring rationality, intelligence and emotional distance. Unfortunately, the most common response to sinking thigh-deep into what previously appeared to be solid ground is to freak out like Captain Kirk at an intergalactic bikini contest. You must stay cool. This information should help. In 2005, researchers from the University of Amsterdam announced the results of their research on quicksand. According to their report in Nature, the human body is actually much less dense than quicksand. Meaning that, under normal circumstances, a person in quicksand should really just bob around like buoy on the ocean. No heroic effort required. Problems only set in when you struggle, which stirs up the sand and water mixture, making it more liquid and you more likely to sink. But, while surviving the pit is easy, getting out is another story. Because quicksand is so viscous, it's difficult for air to penetrate it. Thus, when you move your arm or leg, air can't fill the spot where you once were and a partial vacuum forms. This makes it extremely difficult to pull yourself out of quicksand, even if you are moving slowly and deliberately. In fact, one of the true dangers of quicksand is exhaustion. Even removing one leg from the muck might make a lone hiker too tired to get back to camp and could open them up to attacks from wild animals or the perils of bad weather. Quicksand: It's a good reason to do things with friends. I would rescue Michael Rogalski, provider of images, from quicksand anytime.

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