The Latest from Boing Boing

Edison's prefab, permutable fireproof concrete houses Posted: 30 Apr 2009 01:33 AM PDT For months now, the Story Spieler podcast (which features readings of public domain texts from Gutenberg Project as well as some CC licensed works) has been working through a 1910 book called Edison, His Life and Inventions by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin, a glowing biography of Edison. I've always thought of Edison as a kind of jerk and a plagiarist who took credit for his juniors' inventions (a narrative familiar to fans of Tesla), but there's some really remarkable stuff in here. Most recently, the podcast included the chapter on Portland cement, and a remarkable account of a prefab, three-storey concrete house that Edison invented, which could be erected for $1200 (as opposed to $30,000 for a comparable cut-stone house). The house-moulds could be varied and permutated so that each house came out differently, and the houses were intended to form industrial suburbs around factories, so that working people could own their own homes. Edison's conception of the workingman's ideal house has been a broad one from the very start. He was not content merely to provide a roomy, moderately priced house that should be fireproof, waterproof, and vermin-proof, and practically indestructible, but has been solicitous to get away from the idea of a plain "packing-box" type. He has also provided for ornamentation of a high class in designing the details of the structure. As he expressed it: "We will give the workingman and his family ornamentation in their house. They deserve it, and besides, it costs no more after the pattern is made to give decorative effects than it would to make everything plain." The plans have provided for a type of house that would cost not far from $30,000 if built of cut stone. He gave to Messrs. Mann & McNaillie, architects, New York, his idea of the type of house he wanted. On receiving these plans he changed them considerably, and built a model. After making many more changes in this while in the pattern shop, he produced a house satisfactory to himself. This one-family house has a floor plan twenty-five by thirty feet, and is three stories high. The first floor is divided off into two large rooms--parlor and living-room--and the upper floors contain four large bedrooms, a roomy bath-room, and wide halls. The front porch extends eight feet, and the back porch three feet. A cellar seven and a half feet high extends under the whole house, and will contain the boiler, wash-tubs, and coal-bunker. It is intended that the house shall be built on lots forty by sixty feet, giving a lawn and a small garden. It is contemplated that these houses shall be built in industrial communities, where they can be put up in groups of several hundred. If erected in this manner, and by an operator buying his materials in large quantities, Edison believes that these houses can be erected complete, including heating apparatus and plumbing, for $1200 each. This figure would also rest on the basis of using in the mixture the gravel excavated on the site. Comment has been made by persons of artistic taste on the monotony of a cluster of houses exactly alike in appearance, but this criticism has been anticipated, and the molds are so made as to be capable of permutations of arrangement. Thus it will be possible to introduce almost endless changes in the style of house by variation of the same set of molds. EDISON PORTLAND CEMENT (via Story Spieler podcast) (Image: The Thomas Edison Papers)

Wiimote cufflinks Posted: 29 Apr 2009 10:34 PM PDT Treasures like these sterling silver Wiimote cufflinks make me wish that t-shirts could somehow be adorned with French cuffs. Alas, I already own about six sets of cool cufflinks, and I wear French cuffs about once a year, if that. Wiimote Cufflinks (via Craft)

Chunky crapgadget used to conduct the US census (kind of) Posted: 29 Apr 2009 10:26 PM PDT Ethan Zuckerman grilled the census worker who came to his door about the giant, clunky, dysfunctional PDA the US government uses to conduct its census with. It's a crapgadget par excellence. The device she had strapped to her hand was a Harris HTC, which looks either like the ugliest cellphone you've ever seen, or a Palm Pilot designed by the US government. We scrolled through bad, inaccurate maps of the area, which looked like they'd been dumped from an early version of MapQuest, wondering how the ridgeline behind my house had magically been transformed into a navigable road, and talked about the device... They're not making a whole lot of friends with this new device. Last year, the Government Accountability Office added the 2010 Census to a list of high-risk programs. Basically, it sounds like requirements changed several times, and Harris ended up very late to market, with a somewhat buggy device. This freaked people out, and the Census quickly announced that they wouldn't actually be using the devices - they'd use them just to conduct the first stage of the census, checking addresses, while the actual census (conducted door to door, of people who hadn't sent in the forms themselves) would take place using clipboards and paper. In other words, the relatively lame device my friendly enumerator was carrying, which cost $600 million, doesn't actually work well enough to use for its intended purpose, is still being used in the field, perhaps so that it can be readied for 2020? Anyone believe that we'll be able to do better than a half-pound, paperback-book sized plastic brick within ten years? If US government contractors had designed the iPhone

Ward off pig-death with soaps shaped like baby-hands Posted: 29 Apr 2009 10:23 PM PDT Now that the Coughing Pig Death has finally legitimized your compulsive handwashing tendencies, there's no better time to revisit Etsy seller Foliage's line of hand-soaps shaped like tiny disembodied baby-hands: "You will get at least 10 hands (at least/about 100 grams of soap). This soap is made from goat's milk and vegetable glycerin with a light scent. Your hands come packaged in a pretty bag...all ready for gifting to a friend with dirty paws!" handsoap set (via Bioephemerma) Previously: Hand soap shaped like baby hands - Boing Boing

Land of books: 1938 notional map Posted: 29 Apr 2009 10:10 PM PDT The Bucherland map from Alphons Woelfle (1938) depicts an imaginary and lovely land of books: "The Land consists of about half a dozen distinct territories, most of which are explicitly named: Leserrepublik (Reader's Republic), Vereinigte Buchhandelsstaaten (United States of Booksellers), Recensentia (a realm for Reviewers), Makulaturia (Waste Paper Land), and Poesia (Poetry). The capital of the US of B is the city of Officina (Latin for workshop, and the origin of our 'office'; the name seems remarkably unremarkable. Possibly there is an old reference or a German word-joke here we're not getting)." 373 - A Map of the Land of Books (Thanks, Marilyn!) Can't see the video? Click here

Solitary confinement is torture: psych expert Posted: 29 Apr 2009 10:08 PM PDT Wired Science interviews UCSC's Craig Haney, a psychologist who's an expert on long-term solitary confinement, and concludes that solitary confinement is unequivocally torture. It makes people go insane. And 25,000 Americans are in long-term solitary in the US penal system. First let me note that solitary confinement has historically been a part of torture protocols. It was well-documented in South Africa. It's been used to torture prisoners of war. There are a couple reasons why solitary confinement is typically used. One is that it's a very painful experience. People experience isolation panic. They have a difficult time psychologically coping with the experience of being completely alone. In addition, solitary confinement imposes conditions of social and perceptual stimulus deprivation. Often it's the deprivation of activity, the deprivation of cognitive stimulation, that some people find to be painful and frightening. Some of them lose their grasp of their identity. Who we are, and how we function in the world around us, is very much nested in our relation to other people. Over a long period of time, solitary confinement undermines one's sense of self. It undermines your ability to register and regulate emotion. The appropriateness of what you're thinking and feeling is difficult to index, because we're so dependent on contact with others for that feedback. And for some people, it becomes a struggle to maintain sanity. That leads to the other reason why solitary is so often a part of torture protocols. When people's sense of themselves is placed in jeopardy, they are more malleable and easily manipulated. In a certain sense, solitary confinement is thought to enhance the effectiveness of other torture techniques. Solitary Confinement: The Invisible Torture

Hand-cranked phone charger in a hollow log Posted: 29 Apr 2009 10:02 PM PDT This hand-cranked cell-phone charger mounted in a hollowed-out log was apparently discovered in Chechen fighters' encampment. Some of the components -- the pull-string, presumably -- are said to come from toy cars. Chechen fighter's homebrew phone-charger (via Red Ferret)

The Strange World of your Dreams, 1950s comic book by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon Posted: 29 Apr 2009 04:30 PM PDT "We will buy your dreams!" About 30 years ago my friend loaned me couple of copies of Simon and Kirby's early 1950s The Strange World of Your Dreams. I hate it when people tell me their dreams, but Kirby and Simon were able to convert reader-submitted dreams into great comic book stories. Download issues 1-4 here. (Via Beware, There's A Crosseyed Cyclops In My Basement!!!) Can't see the video? Click here

GAMA-GO Flagship Store Opening Party Posted: 29 Apr 2009 04:08 PM PDT < On Saturday, May 2nd, from 12noon to 5pm our friends at GAMA-GO will be celebrating the opening of the GAMA-GO flagship store in San Francisco at 335 8th Street (cross street is Folsom). Greg Long says: Indeed, we will delightfully lavish free gifts and effervescent carbonated beverages upon you. No promises, but there's probably gonna be booze. Of note, we're giving away a specially-designed-and-limitedly-produced t-shirt to the first 100 customers. The multi-talented Wednesday Kirwan designed this tee and it's frickkin' awesome. GAMA-GO Flagship Store Opening Party

Julie Wolfson in Japan Posted: 29 Apr 2009 04:45 PM PDT My friend Julie Wolfson is in Japan, and is sharing some of her photos. This is from a pet store in Roppongi, where the puppy cubicles face the street. UPDATE: Boing Boing reader Goemon has an interesting comment about this place. He says: That pet store runs a scam with the hostesses in the area: The hostess walks by with her "john" and coos about how cute a puppy is. The john is convinced to buy her the puppy/fashion accessory/sex token. After leaving her john later that night, the hostess returns the puppy to the pet store to get her cut of the sale. And the cycle continues.

Color e-ink on the way Posted: 29 Apr 2009 02:37 PM PDT Will the next Kindle have a color display? Gamma Dynamics has announced a new electrofluidic reflective display (devloped at the Novel Devices Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati) that uses colored pigments. Voltage is used to electromechanically pull the pigment out of the reservoir and spread it as a film directly behind the viewing substrate. As a result, the display takes on color and brightness similar to that of conventional pigments printed on paper. When voltage is removed liquid surface tension causes the pigment dispersion to rapidly recoil into the reservoir. The lennas above compare electrofluidic and electrophoretic displays used in ebooks. Gamma Dynamics' electrofluidic color display technology

49 Minutes of Out-of-this-World Entertainment Posted: 29 Apr 2009 01:40 PM 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. So the best way I've found to bribe myself into exercising regularly is to use the time on the elliptical machine for watching TV shows I otherwise don't have time to catch. Like Nova. For the last couple of days, I've been getting in some sweaty installments of a really fabulous episode called Astrospies---about a U.S. outer-space military spying program so secret, not even the guys recruited for it knew what the hell was going on during their training. Not only does this show feature some great spy-vs-spy back and forth---as Russia and the U.S. vie to be the first country to put secret astronauts on a secret space station, taking secret photos of other countries, secretly---but the story also has some smaller details that are equally (if not more) fascinating than the usual Cold War stuff. For instance, in order for the program, code-named MOL (for Manned Orbiting Laboratory), to take detailed pictures of Russian military installations, the research team had to develop a telescoping camera technology so ahead-of-its-time, that the same basic set-up is still used in modern equipment, including the Hubble Space Telescope. Also amazing: The MOL program was responsible for recruiting Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., the man who would have been America's first African-American astronaut. Instead, his tragic death ended up marking the beginning of the end for the program. I highly recommend watching this if you get a chance.

BB Video: Top Chair? Joel Reviews The Herman Miller Embody and Steelcase Leap Posted: 29 Apr 2009 01:29 PM PDT (MP4 Download). Boing Boing Gadgets' Joel Johnson says, Two chairs enter...two chairs leave. In fact, I'm sitting my fat ass on one of the two chairs we reviewed right now: the Herman Miller Embody, a fine chair that only wobbles a little after running it into a wall. But I'm only sitting on it because I had to take the other chair, the Steelcase Leap, downstairs to do some more shooting for this video. So which chair should you buy? Honestly, they're both so much better than a typical office chair it's difficult to pick, but if I were paying real money and not just begging review samples off of the manufacturers, I'd be hard pressed to pay nearly twice as much for the Embody, even if it is fantastically weird in looks. (Especially in the showcase cream-and-orange livery.) Also, for the record, yes, this is the very best Clarkson impression I can do. And yes, it disturbed me that it isn't that different from how I normally talk in these things. Discuss this video in the very busy thread over at BB Gadgets. And Xeni back again with a personal plug: if you fancy buying a new office chair, and the ones featured in this review are too rich for your wallet, ping Mar over at ambiencedore.com for recommendations on cheaper alternatives, designed with ergonomic support in mind. 800-840-3488, or mar at ambiencedore dot com. RSS feed for new episodes 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. Can't see the video? Click here

Ecstatic epilepsy seizures Posted: 29 Apr 2009 01:08 PM PDT Mind Hacks wrote about a 2003 study from Epilepsy and Behavior about ecstatic seizures. Patient 1 The first seizure occurred during a concert when he was a teenager. He remembers perceiving short moments of an indefinable feeling. Such episodes recurred and a few months later evolved into a GTC [generalized tonic–clonic seizure]. He characterizes these sensations as “a trance of pleasure.” “It is like an emotional wave striking me again and again. I feel compelled to obey a sort of phenomenon. These sensations are outside the spectrum of what I ever have experienced outside a seizure.” He also describes cold shivering, increased muscle tension, and a delicious taste, and he swallows repeatedly. He enjoys the sensations and is absorbed in them in a way that he can barely hear when spoken to. When in a particular, relaxed mood, he can sometimes induce seizures by “opening up mentally” and contracting muscles. He denies any religious aspects of the symptoms. “It’s the phenomenon, the feeling, the fit taking control.” It lasts a few minutes and afterward he is tired with difficulties expressing himself for about 1 hour. They also ran this quote from Dostoyevsky, who said the following about his own epilepsy seizures: "I would experience such joy as would be inconceivable in ordinary life - such joy that no one else could have any notion of. I would feel the most complete harmony in myself and in the whole world and this feeling was so strong and sweet that for a few seconds of such bliss I would give ten or more years of my life, even my whole life perhaps." A trance of pleasure

Quick Vacation Planning Guide Posted: 29 Apr 2009 01:14 PM 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. Where will you "get away from it all" this summer? Personally, I'm going to the Bay Area Maker Faire at the end of May. But if you still need ideas, my book, Be Amazing, contains a few interesting--if somewhat impractical--holiday suggestions. All Aboard for Antarctica! Get Away From: Stupid people. Without any permanent residents, the folks you're most likely to encounter are the 4,000-odd scientists who live in the continent's research stations. Also Left Behind: Your clock. Antarctica lacks a standard time zone system. Instead, the various researchers use their home country's time, the time on the nearest land mass, or Greenwich Mean Time. In Antarctica, it's always 5 o'clock somewhere. Visit the Beautiful Demilitarized Zone! Get Away From: Civilians. The Demilitarized Zone is a 2.5-mile-wide demarcation line separating North and South Korea. Other than tourists (and the very small populations living in dueling North/South propaganda villages), the only people around are soldiers. Don't Forget: Your sense of adventure. After all, the DMZ is home to the World's Most Dangerous Golf Course---a single par 3 hole, where the "rough" is actually a live minefield. Zdravstvuj From the 101st Kilometer! That Means: "Hello" in Russian. For some reason it's not as common in the American vocabulary as "Do Svidanya" (Rough translation: "Goodbye, Mr. Bond"). Get Away From: All the "good" communists. Back during the heyday of the Soviet Union, dissidents (both actual and otherwise) were shipped off to the gulag prison camps in Siberia. The lucky few who survived that ordeal returned home to find they couldn't actually return home. To keep former political prisoners culturally silent, Soviet law stipulated that they weren't allowed to settle in cities. Instead, they had to live at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) away---leading to the creation of 101st kilometer towns where nearly every resident was a "reformed" subversive.

Vote For BB Video TODAY In The Webby "People's Voice" Awards or the Cat Gets It Posted: 29 Apr 2009 12:03 PM PDT Kittens. Look at him there, the one on the left is Phillip. Until now, he was having a whale of a time. Vote for Boing Boing Video (formerly Boing Boing TV) today in the Webby "People's Voice" Awards, or Phillip gets it. Yes, that's right, this is shameless self-whoring, taken to the proverbial "whole 'nother level," fueled with the power of kittens. Tomorrow's the last day to vote, so I am not messing around. Here is how it works. (1) Mouse on over to The Webby People's Voice voting site. (2) Click "Online Film & Video." (3) You will be prompted to register in order to vote. This is a pain in the ass, but it's part of their system for accurately counting votes. (4) Boing Boing Video is nominated here in three Online Film & Video categories: TECHNOLOGY, VARIETY, and BEST HOST. (5) Do the right thing, and the cat lives. OK, seriously, there are a lot of great video projects nominated in the People's Voice awards this year, and here's the truth: indie web video is hard work, long long hours, tougher than ever in this economy, doesn't pay well, and I see a lot of dedicated, talented colleagues listed there who are also deserving of your votes. People get excited about this stuff because it makes up for all the late nights in dark studios, subsisting on Red Bull and stale Chex Mix, and it's like the whole world giving your project a friendly pat on the back. So, serious voice here, even if you don't vote for Boing Boing Video, vote for one of the indie web video projects you see here -- it's what Phillip would want. Previously: Boing Boing Video Nominated for Multiple Webby Awards. Hey, Vote for Us! (Special thanks to BB Video hosting partner Episodic, and to everyone at DECA. Thanks for the kitteh pix, R. Stevens.). #shamelesswhoring Can't see the video? Click here

Unicorn Art Car, Free to Loving Home (Craigslist Sign of the Times) Posted: 29 Apr 2009 12:42 PM PDT BB pal Shawn Connally from MAKE passes this along. free art car- runs and drives (berkeley) Reply to: sale-xkzje-1138966083@craigslist.org Date: 2009-04-24, 7:41PM PDT im giving away my beloved art car. its a 93 civic, originally was white. its covered in unicorns, my favorite animal. i took ever one i collected over the past 20 years and covered my car. sadly i need it gone, i have moved on. i cant be seen with it in my new corporate carreer it drives but not well, has about 200,000 miles on it. come take it away tonight. huxley @ (914) 502-2625. Update: Andy in New Jersey says it's a hoax. If you Google that phone number... http://www.google.com/q=(914)+502-2625 there seem to be lots of strange hits, the most useful talks about pranking some radio show. BTW, areacode 914 is in Westchester County, NY. And while it's possible that someone from NY has moved to Berkeley, or is visiting, in light of the hits above, I still think something else is going on.

Time-lapse video of mural painting by Phil Lumbang Posted: 29 Apr 2009 09:26 AM PDT My fellow Backwards Beekeepers Club member Russell Bates says, Phil Lumbang is a local graphic designer who works for Obey Giant. He's also an outdoor artist, and he's been painting a series of friendly/polite bears all over the Eastside. Amy came up with the great idea of asking him to paint the giant wall in front of our house, and he was excited about the opportunity. Phil attacked the wall on Saturday, and the results are spectacular. I documented the whole process, including an interview, time-lapse footage of Phil painting the mural, and some of his other work in the neighborhood. You can see the video at my blog: http://www.porkfist.com

Mister Jalopy: "$upport Independent Business and Reject the Fakers" Posted: 29 Apr 2009 03:14 PM PDT Mister Jalopy wrote the following at Dinosaurs and Robots. I've reposted it here in its entirety. A few years ago, I wrote: Everything you love, everything meaningful with depth and history, all passionate authentic experiences will be appropriated, mishandled, watered down, cheapened, repackaged, marketed and sold to the people you hate. Punk rock was profoundly important to me. The power, the rage and the message. It was authenticity incarnate. A clarity and directness with a political message that was overpowering. As big corporations watched, they started to smell money. They circled and studied. And they aped the aesthetics, but we knew it was fake. Now, I hear The Clash or The Stranglers or The Undertones and I am still amazed. The corporate fakers faded away and the real deal survives. I believe that punk rock experience is core to the values of a generation. DIY is not a marketing term or a cliche, we know we can do it. We can create it ourselves and form businesses that reflect our personal passions. The Maker Movement, the rise of crafting, the slow food movement - they share a commonality of power through engagement. We, as individuals, are personally awesome and we want to collaborate. Jenny Hart is no stranger to D+R readers as she is our longest running perma-guest blogger. She has inspired us with her work and the passion of her business Sublime Stitching. For me, selfishly, the greatest benefit of starting D+R has been the gracious contributions of my co-hosts. To see what inspires them, what moves them to create. All too infrequently, I fail to recognize how important my co-hosts contributions are to me personally. Thank you. As corporations take notice, just as punk rock was diluted to the point of simple aesthetics, the fakers are trying to establish credibility. Besides so brazenly copying Jenny Hart's designs, Urban Threads has disingenuously positioned themselves as an indie company built by a single individual. A little whois and Google mapping show that Urban Threads is not a charming home run business, but rather an offshoot of a long established machine embroidery business called Embroidery Library. Is Embroidery Library a giant faceless corporation? No, I don't think so. Seems to be a smallish, long established company that has been cranking out machine embroidery patterns for years. Like the rest of us with independent businesses, I am certain they have stretched their budgets, wondered how to grow and hoped they could compete on a national scale. If it were a major corporation, it would be easier to understand as they operate behind an opacity of scale and lawyers, but how in the whole wide bing-bong world would a smallish company think it would be a good idea to copy Jenny's patterns? Embroidery instructions have existed for hundreds of years, so why would Urban Threads chose to re-word Sublime's instructions? To butcher Jenny's quotes and represent them as their own? That is not a very punk rock thing to do. Urban Threads has so brazenly ripped off Sublime Stitching that I can't help but wonder if Jenny Hart is the only artist that has been ripped off. Please, take a moment to look at the Urban Threads catalog of designs and see if you recognize any other chicanery. Let us know, we will pass it along. Supporting independent businesses means $upporting independent businesses. I bought Sublime Stitching patterns today. I ordered Chinese Acrobats, Handmade Nation (because I like Faythe's movie so much), Garden Variety (because I like bugs) and Zombies and Monsters (because I started one of these at Maker Faire Austin and gave it away before it was done.) Today, send our friends at Sublime Stitching a note of support. And, while you are at it, drop a note to Urban Threads and tell them where to stick it. Hey big companies! Don't rip us off! We want to work with you! Contact us! We value your experience! Let's make this huge! We all win when we collaborate! Rip us off and a thousand blogs will descend on you! $upport Independent Business and Reject the Fakers

Art Made From Guitar Effects Pedals: "Cypher" Posted: 29 Apr 2009 08:38 AM PDT Scott Matthews, whose family runs the guitar effects tech company Electro-Harmonix, featured in this previous Boing Boing Video episode, blogs: Robin Rose is a long-established painter specializing in 'encaustic' works, but back in 1979 he played guitar and synth for new-wave/punk band Urban Verbs (Warner) and regularly performed at clubs like CBGB here in NYC. For Robin's new exhibit, titled "Cypher" (April 7-May 17, American University Museum, Washington DC, info/pics), he changes gears and revisits those roots. "Ascendant" captures the skyward joy that comes when you catch a good groove. And Scott shares an extra footnote by email for fans of the band Joy Division: Via email, Robin (the artist) shared this with me: "One of the inspirations for the foot pedal piece was Ian Curtis from the English 1980's band Joy Division. The Urban Verbs were supposed to play with Joy Division in Toronto, Ian killed himself and thus the show was canceled. I always thought that was a tipping point for my band. Ian Curtis wrote a song called 'Isolation'." Previously: BB Video: Inside Electro-Harmonix, guitar pedal engineers Can't see the video? Click here

Penguin science fiction covers past and present Posted: 29 Apr 2009 08:45 AM PDT The Art of Penguin SF is a beautiful thumbnail gallery of the covers of every (?) science fiction novel published by Penguin UK, starting with the 1935 edition of Butler's Erewhon. I grew up on these, and just seeing them there makes me want to tile my bathroom with them. The Art of Penguin Science Fiction (via Warren Ellis)

Video profile of cigar box guitar maker, Mark Vickroid Posted: 29 Apr 2009 08:29 AM PDT Bill Streeter says: Here is a video profile I made about a cigarbox guitar maker here in St. Louis. Mark Vickroid makes wonderful homemade guitars out of old cigarboxes. Some of them even have an amp built in. I went to his house to see how he made them and talk to him about how he got started. He's pretty funny -- and if you check the sidebar links you will see a related video of him performing. Mr. Vickroids Cigarbox Guitars Previously: Steve Lodefink's first cigar box guitar - Boing Boing Shane Speal plays Guitar Rag played on cigar box guitar - Boing Boing Shelley Rickey plays "Tonight, You Belong to Me" on her handmade ... The Clubhouse Strummer - Boing Boing

Recently on Offworld Posted: 29 Apr 2009 09:03 AM PDT Right, please pardon the potential puerility and let's just savor the innocence of that screenshot above for one moment because, for better or worse, that's probably never going to happen in the history of videogames again. It's one of the new options in the latest patch to Noby Noby Boy, as seen in a guide to the huge range of new musical selections and comes -- it's worth pointing out -- one screen after being able to switch on the prelude to Bach's Cello Suite No. 1. Elsewhere on Offworld we took a look at a huge range of good things on their way: creatively killing zombies in Dead Rising 2, the slick sterility of turn-based sock-em fighting in Toribash, the newly updated planar-platforming of Infinite Ammo's Paper Moon, prosecutorial courtroom drama on the DS with Miles Edgeworth, and rolling up katamari in HD with the PS3 remake of the PS2 original in Katamari Forever. We also watched the wonderfully 8-bit RPG inspired music video from the now defunct Black Comets, and listened to more hacked-up hardware shoegaze from Tree Wave, saw an indie developer quit his mainstream dev job via a playable Super Mario game, saw the star of Braid coming to Super Meat Boy, and, finally, listened to a remake of Nine Inch Nails' The Perfect Drug done by way of Dr. Mario, which even Trent Reznor himself has said made his life complete.

Doug Rushkoff interviewed by Richard Metzger: Dangerous Minds Posted: 29 Apr 2009 08:37 AM PDT Former BB guestblogger Richard Metzger interviews author and BB pal Doug Rushkoff, in this five-part video on YouTube. They cover a lot of territory in this conversation -- and if you dug Richard's posts here on the blog, you'll dig what they cover here. Much of this is terrain explored in Rushkoff's new book, Life Incorporated: How the World Became a Corporation and How To Take It Back. Here's a blurb from the book introduction: Unquestionably but seemingly inexplicably, we have come to live in a world where the market has insinuated itself into every area of our lives. From erection to conception, school admission to finding a spouse, there are products and professionals to fill in where family and community have failed us. Commercials entreat us to think and care for ourselves, but to do so by choosing a corporation through which to exercise all this autonomy. Sometimes it feels as if there's just not enough air in the room. People who used to know better now condemn Wikipedia for refusing to accept ads on their site - as if there were no justifiable reason to do anything if not for the money. At a moment's notice, any dinner party can turn into a stock promotion, a "networking" event, or an impromptu consult - "let me pick your brain." Brands strive be cults, while religions strive to become brands. Corporatism tells the story of how we got here, how this value system now perpetuates itself and, most importantly, how we can reconnect with the real and get ourselves out of this mess. The book reveals how the propaganda state attempted in 1930's Europe finally did reach fruition here in the United States, just as early 20th Century American industrialists always hoped. Transcending conspiracies, politics, and even blame, the book argues that while the preconditions for corporatism were established as long as ago as the renaissance, it could not be fully realized until even its most ardent supporters had, themselves, been removed from the total equation. Richard Metzger's DANGEROUS MINDS: Doug Rushkoff interview (video). Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 (YouTube)

Bettie Page Art Show in LA, curated by Lenora Claire Posted: 29 Apr 2009 08:14 AM PDT Yes, Dorothy, it is true: the image at the top of this post is none other than the Queen of All Media, the controversialicious Perez Hilton, in drag as Bettie Page (photographer: Austin Young). Click on this link, if you dare, and ye shall see false bewbs exposed in the full, uncropped image (NSFW). The lovely Lenora Claire, whose talent and bodacious curves were introduced to us by recent guestblogger Richard Metzger, shares word of an art show opening this weekend in LA in appreciation of the late Bettie Page. The image above is part of that show. Lenora tells Boing Boing: For me and for many women (and a few men) I know, our discovery of Bettie Page during our adolescence shaped our beauty aesthetic, as the black-banged beauty was our first introduction to the world of corsetry, sky high heels, and other important elements of our sometimes painful personal style. Over the years my tastes (and cup size) have evolved, but it's been joy to watch Bettie rise from counterculture cutie to full blown legend. After the nationwide success of my Golden Gals Gone Wild show which featured erotic art based on the Golden Girls and was featured on everything from NPR to National Enquirer, I knew I needed a follow up with some serious knockout appeal. I'm thrilled to present Bettie Page: Heaven Bound which opens with a gala opening reception Saturday, May 2nd at the World of Wonder gallery in Hollywood and runs until May 29th. The show features over 20 years of Bettie-inspired work including stunning new watercolor images by the queen of pin-up Olivia (who I still can't believe I had the opportunity to pose for let alone work so closely with on the dream project) as well as Bunny Yeager who shot many of Bettie's most iconic images; Austin Young who shot beautiful images of myself and of celebs including Perez Hilton, Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira, and Jane Weidlin from the GoGo's as Bettie; Colin Christian who just completely blows my mind; and a slew of other artists I'm so proud to present. Since Bettie wasn't a traditional gal and neither am I, the opening night reception will feature a spanking machine complete with costumed cuties dressed as Nurse Betties to help you after your turn on our weapon of ass destruction, a photobooth by PoliteinPublic.com, celebrity guests such as Dita who will be attending but not performing, as well as Bettie's actual high heels on display and other exciting surprises. Hope to see you all there. Below, Lenora spanking herself dressed as Bettie Page. (Thanks, Richard Metzger!) Previously: R.I.P. Bettie Page - Boing Boing Bettie Page in LA Times - Boing Boing Lenora Claire's new "doNUTS" web series - Boing Boing Can't see the video? Click here

A Train-Wreck of Privilege Posted: 29 Apr 2009 08:14 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. This is generally off from the sort of thing I normally post, but I am completely fascinated by the recent work of German-born photographer Anna Skladmann. "Little Adults" is a series of portraits, featuring the uncomfortably made-up and dead-eyed children of Russian elites. It's like everything that's creepy about those baby beauty pageants, but with (generally) better taste. Which, somehow, manages to make it even more creepy. Skladmann says: The series explores what it feels like to be a privileged child living in Russia, a country where its radical history and social hierarchy still rules their daily lives. It is the exploration of the recently growing society of the "Nouveau-Riche", in which children have been raised to become the "Elite" and to behave like little adults. These portraits express a tension between the natural character and the stereotype of appearance, and how that co-exists in the world of children." You really must go check out this entire series. It will haunt you. Tip o' the hat to Sami at Ty.rannosaur.us.

The Doctor Will Sue You Now: the missing chapter of Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science" about the selling of vitamin therapy instead of anti-virals to AIDS patients in South Africa Posted: 29 Apr 2009 10:13 AM PDT The Guardian's Dr Ben Goldacre has published a free ebook to accompany his recent book Bad Science, an expose on the junk science that infects policy and health in the UK. The ebook, "The Doctor Will Sue You Now," contains a chapter that Goldacre had to cut from the printed edition, because its subject, a vitamin salesman named Matthias Rath, tied Goldacre up in £500,000 worth of litigation over its contents. What did Goldacre write about Rath? He told the story of how Rath took out full page adverts promoting vitamin pills as the answer to the Aids epidemic, and deriding antiretroviral medication as a murderous conspiracy by the pharmaceutical industry. He ran clinics reflecting these ideas, and an illegal clinical trial, and he brought these ideas to the right place: South Africa was headed by an "HIV-denialist" government - introduced to these ideas by a man who would later become Rath's employee - who shunned medical treatments in a move that Oxford Journals' African Affairs estimates cost over 340,000 lives. Rath is feted by alternative therapy advocates around the world, and used the not-inconsiderable wealth he amassed selling these vitamins to sue Goldacre and The Guardian when they criticized his work. The Doctor Will Sue You Now is Creative Commons licensed and freely redistributable. ˜The answer to the AIDS epidemic is here," he proclaimed. Anti-retroviral drugs were poisonous, and a conspiracy to kill patients and make money. "Stop AIDS Genocide by the Drugs Cartel said one headline. "Why should South Africans continue to be poisoned with AZT? There is a natural answer to AIDS." The answer came in the form of vitamin pills. "Multivitamin treatment is more effective than any toxic AIDS drug. Multivitamins cut the risk of developing AIDS in half." Rath's company ran clinics reflecting these ideas, and in 2005 he decided to run a trial of his vitamins in a township near Cape Town called Khayelitsha, giving his own formulation, VitaCell, to people with advanced AIDS. In 2008 this trial was declared illegal by the Cape High Court of South Africa. Although Rath says that none of his participants had been on anti-retroviral drugs, some relatives have given statements saying that they were, and were actively told to stop using them. Tragically,Matthias Rath had taken these ideas to exactly the right place. Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa at the time, was well known as an "AIDS dissident", and to international horror, while people died at the rate of one every two minutes in his country, he gave credence and support to the claims of a small band of campaigners who variously claim that AIDS does not exist, that it is not caused by HIV, that anti-retroviral medication does more harm than good, and so on. Matthias Rath - steal this chapter Bad Science (Thanks, Dave!)

Transparency isn't enough Posted: 29 Apr 2009 05:33 AM PDT My latest Guardian column, "Transparency means nothing without justice," is up. I wrote this before the G20 debacle (it was delayed due to an administrative problem at the Guardian), but all the points are just as relevant to the G20's climate camp as they are to last summer's version of it. And here's where transparency breaks down. We've known about all this since last August - seven months and more. It was on national news. It was on the web. Anyone who cared about the issue knew everything they needed to know about it. And everyone had the opportunity to find out about it: remember, it was included in national news broadcasts, covered in the major papers - it was everywhere. And yet ... nothing much has happened in the intervening eight months. Simply knowing that the police misbehaved does nothing to bring them to account. Transparency means nothing unless it is accompanied by the rule of law. It means nothing unless it is set in a system of good and responsible government, of oversight of authority that expeditiously and effectively handles citizen complaints. Transparency means nothing without justice. Transparency means nothing without justice

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