Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

See you next week at EuroPython in Birmingham!

Posted: 23 Jun 2009 01:15 AM PDT

I'm one of the keynoters at next week's EuroPython convention in Birmingham, England -- looks like a hell of a show, with further keynotes by Bruce Eckel and Professor Sir Tony Hoare and a whack of great talks and tutorials.
Being a Community Conference means that EuroPython is run entirely by volunteers, that means us the participants. Many of the things that have to be done to run a successful conference can be carried out remotely, and every year Pythonistas from all over Europe help...

EuroPython aims to provide inspirational talks and a friendly atmosphere, designed to help people build contacts and learn from each other's experiences. EuroPython 2009 offers a talks programme oriented around the following themes:

* Python Language (featuring Python 3, Python implementations (IronPython/Jython/PyPy) and Python packaging)
* Python in Action (Python projects and deployments in government, industry and beyond)
* Mobile Computing (Python in mobile and embedded devices)
* Large Scale Python (Python in research, distributed computing, scientific computing)
* Web Programming (Python on the Web: Zope 3, Django and everything else)
* Database Programming (object-relational mappers and data management techniques)
* User Interfaces (across or beyond the Web, the desktop and the device)
* Games (featuring pygame, pyglet and other game-making technologies)

EuroPython : a Python Conference

Paul Krassner profile

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 11:21 PM PDT

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John Rogers of AP profiled 77-year-old Paul Krassner, co-founder of the Yippies and publisher of The Realist, the newsletter that was a big influence on bOING bOING.

He was once a child music prodigy and in the decades since, Paul Krassner has been everything from political satirist to author, editor, anarchist and an advocate for both peace and pornography.

But the title he may favor is one he found buried in his FBI file.

"To classify Krassner as a social rebel is far too cute," a letter in the file said in response to a favorable magazine interview with the co-founder of the Yippie Party, the group that notoriously disrupted the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. "He's a nut, a raving, unconfined nut."

So Krassner titled his autobiography "Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut."

"I figured I might as well make use of it," says the author, smiling broadly as he sits in the living room of his modest tract home in this sandy, sagebrush-dotted corner of the Mojave Desert on a scorchingly hot morning.

Paul has a new book coming out, called Who's to Say What's Obscene: Politics, Culture and Comedy in America Today. Yippie founder Paul Krassner still testing limits

Gypsophilia's "Sa-ba-da-OW!" -- fantastic album of angular, sweet, nostlagic jazz from indie Halifax band

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 10:35 PM PDT


Halifax "angular jazz" musicians Gypsophilia have just released their new album, "Sa-ba-da-OW!" and it's fabulous, a jazz-era sound that has plenty of straight-ahead melody in addition to some really weird, interesting side-jaunts. The band is known for throwing beautiful, decadent debauchery parties in 1930s style in Halifax, and the music carries over that party mood. Be sure to check out the title track for something really special.

Sa-ba-da-OW!

The crap they built where the beautiful old train stations were

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 10:33 PM PDT



Jebediah sez, "This is a tour of impressive American train stations that were demolished in recent decades -- with photos of the original buildings are "after" pictures showing what's at the various sites today. It's a strange contrast in most cases between the grandeur of the train station and shabby replacement structure. In some cases it's just a parking lot. The most famous example, of course, is NYC's old Penn Station. But there are many other notable cases, including Memphis's amazing station that was replaced with a bunker of a postal facility surrounded by barbed wire."

Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (Thanks, Jebediah!)

Production stills from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 10:28 PM PDT


Hell yeah: production stills from Tim Burton's lush-looking Alice in Wonderland adaptations!

Update: New Images From Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland! (via Tor.com)

HOWTO communicate in repressive regimes

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 10:25 PM PDT

Patrick sez, "Unlike most of us, it looks like @PatrickMeier knows what he's talking about. He should, considering he's doing a PhD at Harvard on 'The Impact of the Information Revolution on Authoritarian Rule and Social Resistance: From Information Revolution to iRevolution?' Patrick has an excellent guide on How To Communicate Securely in Repressive Environments. He keeps it up to date based on his studies and input from readers, and will provide a more detailed guide on request (my guess is that not all requests will be handled equally). If you're a Farsi speaker, please translate it and email me, I will post it (or maybe Patrick will want to post it next to the original)."
Mobile Phones

* Purchase your mobile phone far from where you live. Buy lower-end, simple phones that do not allow third-party applications to be installed. Higher-end ones with more functionalities carry more risk. Use cash to purchase your phone and SIM card. Avoid town centers and find small or second-hand shops as these are unlikely to have security cameras. Do not give your real details if asked; many shops do not ask for proof of ID.

* Use multiple SIM cards and multiple phones and only use pay-as-you go options; they are more expensive but required for anonymity.

* Remove the batteries from your phone if you do not want to be geo-located and keep the SIM card out of the phone when not in use and store in separate places.Use your phone while in a moving vehicle to reduces probability of geo-location.

* Never say anything that may incriminate you in any way.

How To Communicate Securely in Repressive Environments
Previously:


Father's day photo-shoot ends with cops pointing guns, photographer face down on tarmac

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 10:21 PM PDT

A reader writes: "A photographer for Dallas' local alternative weekly was handcuffed and detained while photographing an old B24 Liberator (with permission, mind you) on father's day." (He wandered slightly ahead of the unmarked permitted zone, cops drew guns and rousted him):
Waiting for the plane to take off, I was surprised by the Addison police. An officer unholstered his gun, then handcuffed and held me until Homeland Security cleared my name.

I was not arrested, but according to Officer Pierce, I did break federal law and a report would be sent to Homeland Security. I will be hearing from them. I apologized to every one involved. The pilot told me the airport was shut down for a short while.

But according to one of the crew, they had ID'd me as one of theirs, and the tower knew and tried to call it off. But once the wheels were set in motion, it could not be stopped. The pilots were pretty much cool and laughed at me and were even willing to escort me to take more shots. One old-timer gruffed under his breath, "It's the U.S.A., not U.S.S.R. -- I didn't fight to protect this shit." One even offered me his seat on a ride.

How a Heartwarming, Kick-Ass Father's Day Photo Shoot Ended Up Face Down in Handcuffs on the Addison Airport Tarmac

Katamari music remix -- Offworld

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 10:17 PM PDT

Over on Offworld, our Brandon's got exciting news about a remix of the music from the Katamari games, some of the coolest, most infectious video-game music ever recorded.

Kicking off a series of official posts for Sony's PlayStation blog on Namco's upcoming PS3 'tribute' release Katamari Forever, producer Kazuhito Udetsu relays a message from longtime series (and Noby Noby Boy) sound designer Yuu Miyake, who explains the process of collaborating with various Japanese acts to remix classic Katamari tracks.

Saying he wanted a split between 'organic' and 'electric' sounds, Miyake highlights oft-blogged NES-samplers YMCK and the chiptune swing of their "A Crimson Rose and a Gin Tonic" remix. Unfortunately, we don't get the whole track, but we do get enough to hear that it's going to be another must-buy collection.

Listen: YMCK remix classic Katamari for PS3's Katamari Forever

Discuss this on Boing Boing Offworld

Previously:


Flowcharting the gay marriage debate

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 10:14 PM PDT

National Hollerin' Contest in Spivey's Corner, NC

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 08:26 PM PDT

Joshua Foer is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Joshua is a freelance science journalist and the co-founder of the Atlas Obscura: A Compendium of the World's Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica, with Dylan Thuras.

Hollerin.jpgLooking back at a few of my posts here on Boing Boing from the last couple days (the Chappe optical telegraph, the whistling language of La Gomera), I noticed that long-distance communication has been one of the major themes. Coincidentally, this past Saturday was the 41st annual National Hollerin' Contest in Spivey's Corner, North Carolina (population 49).

Hollerin' (no "g" at the end, just an apostrophe) is an ancient tradition native to the lowlands of eastern North Carolina, which needs to be distinguished from the other vocal pursuits to which it bears some superficial resemblance, including hollering, yodeling, hog calling, whooping, and hooting.In an age before telephones, the distinctive cries, which resemble something between an opera aria and a braying donkey, were the primary form of long-distance communication between North Carolina farms. With enough practice--and stamina--a good holler could be a true lifeline. You might holler first thing in the morning to let your neighbors know you were awake. You'd holler if you got lost, holler if you were celebrating, holler if dinner was ready, holler if you just wanted say, "What's up?!" There was a vocabulary of shrieks for every occasion, as well as a host of religious songs with throaty hollerin' translations.

The first time I competed in the National Hollerin' Contest, I was passing through Spivey's Corner on a road trip with a friend. We thought the idea was to stand up and yell something ridiculous at a ridiculously high volume. Somehow we seemed to miss the fact that several thousand people had gathered to watch the event and only twelve (mostly elderly) men had signed up to compete. We were the only ones from out of state.

I walked onto the stage and yelled the most random word I could think of, "GINGIVITIS!!" and then proceeded to bellow out an impromptu oration on the importance of dental hygiene. My friend and I felt certain we were shoe-ins for the title. But if the crowd's measured silence and disdainful glances weren't proof enough of how badly our performance had gone over, a full account of the disaster was given in the next morning's local newspaper. The lede began, "When it comes to hollerin', the amateurs are easier to spot than a Yankee at a pig pickin'."

A few years later, feeling guilty about my performance, I returned to Spivey's Corner for the 37th annual hollerin' contest to compete again, and offer the town an apology. This time, I enlisted Larry Jackson, one of the greatest hollerers in the history of hollerin', to teach me about the tradition and give me instruction in the ancient art. To make a long a story short I ended up finishing second.

To get a sense of what hollerin' is all about, check out this video of my mentor Larry Jackson from the 2007 contest:

Clear, aka the "TSA fast pass," shuts down

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 08:11 PM PDT

Clear, Steve Brill's second baby turkey (the first being "Brill's Content") flops:
flyclear.png[Clear] rolled out with great fanfare July 18, 2005, in Orlando. Travelers initially paid $99 a year for a card that was supposed to target those who posed a minimum security risk, and give them a special line that would process them through airport security more quickly.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was slow to release the program from the pilot phase, finally giving the green light to roll out the program in January 2007. The program hit a snag after TSA halted the use of GE SRT kiosks designed to serve as a shoe scanner and explosives detection system, blunting one of the program's key benefits - allowing passengers to keep on shoes and jackets, and keep laptop computers in their bags.

If you were foolish enough to sign up for the service, or receive it for free as a conference amenity or executive perk (I know some good folks who did), now might be a good time to review Clear's data privacy policy (PDF Link). Oh wait, that's right...

Clear Shuts Down Registered Traveler Lanes (aviationweek.com, via Dan Gillmor)

Related: Clear Airport Security Program Closes Abruptly; Will Flo Take Over?

Previously:


Twitter in 1935

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 04:51 PM PDT

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From Modern Mechanix, a Twitter-like machine from 1935, that looks like a prop from the movie Brazil.

Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public

To aid persons who wish to make or cancel appointments or inform friends of their whereabouts, a robot message carrier has been introduced in London, England.

Known as the "notificator," the new machine is installed in streets, stores, railroad stations or other public places where individuals may leave messages for friends.

The user walks up on a small platform in front of the machine, writes a brief message on a continuous strip of paper and drops a coin in the slot. The inscription moves up behind a glass panel where it remains in public view for at least two hours so that the person for whom it is intended may have sufficient time to observe the note at the appointed place. The machine is similar in appearance to a candy-vending device.

Twitter in 1935 (Via Maikelnai's Blog)

Recently on Boing Boing Video...

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 04:38 PM PDT


Omega Recoil, Mad Electro-Makers Who Craft Giant Tesla coils (Download MP4 / YouTube)
We peek inside the electrified world of Omega Recoil, a group of engineers and "makers" who craft giant Tesla Coils, and stage humorous and thrilling performances with those large electrical devices.


Miles O'Brien: Space + Aviation Update (Download MP4 / YouTube).

Boing Boing Video guest correspondent Miles O'Brien updates on the Space Shuttle, new information about the recent Air France crash, and confirmation that geese were responsible for the emergency conditions that led to the "miracle on the Hudson" emergency plane landing.

Where to Find Boing Boing Video: 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. (Special thanks to Boing Boing's video hosting partner Episodic).

Sponsor shout-out: This week's Boing Boing Video episodes are brought to you in part by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "will influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside."

Iran: What went wrong in the elections

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 04:13 PM PDT

A concise, step-by-step analysis from the BBC on what may have gone wrong, technically, politically, and procedurally, in the Iran elections. Snip from one section:
[T]here was a 10-fold increase in the number of mobile polling stations - ballot boxes transported from place to place by agents of the interior ministry, which is run by a close ally of Mr Ahmadinejad. "One third of the ballot boxes were mobile," says Mehdi Khalaji, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "They were out of the control of the local authorities and the representatives of the candidates, and nobody knows what they have done to them".

Polling day saw a record turnout and Iranians queued for hours to cast their ballot in an election which all agreed was critical to the future direction of their country.

"Early on polling day, the SMS network was shut down, that made me worried about what was going to happen," says Tehran journalist Ali Pahlavan.

Suspicions behind Iran poll doubts (Thanks, Antinous!)

Previously:


Meatcard contest -- recreate Frazetta paintings using live people

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 07:04 PM PDT

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The Meatcard Challenge: If you do a good job of recreating one of three Frazetta paintings using live people you could win a slab of beef jerky with your business card laser-cut on it.

RULES

* Your image must be a photograph of actual, live people, not a drawing, illustration, or diorama. Recreating the painting with action figures does not count.

* Do not halfass the photo. If there is a dinosaur in the painting, there had better be something awesomely dinosaur-y in your picture. Not a stuffed animal, or your cat. Unless your cat is six feet tall and has a wicked gleam in its eye. We will be judging on creativity, ingenuity, and attitude.

* No photoshopping. No shooping whatsoever. We have shooped the whoop many times, and we will be able to tell.

* Judging is gender-agnostic. That's a man in the bikini holding the knife? Fine! We will judge based on whether he's successfully achieving the Fierce Frazetta Stance. Gender doesn't matter in the contest, but attitude and costume does.

* One winning photo, one alpha-tester slot. If your photo wins, you get one alpha-test slot, with one 4"x11" slab of jerky resulting. (Otherwise, one photo with 15 people in it could take up all the slots.)

* Pictures do not need to be work-safe, fully clothed, partially clothed, tasteful, appropriate, or attractive. They must be creative, ingenious, and make us glad we did this instead of just doing it "first come, first served."

I can't wait to see the contest entries!

Meatcard Challenge

Wood iPod

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 03:48 PM PDT

Woodpoddd Check out this DIY wood-encased iPod Mini over at BB Gadgets!


Iran: More on the life and death of Neda Agha-Soltan

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 03:46 PM PDT

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An amazing piece by Borzou Daragahi, in Tehran, from today's LA Times on the life and death of Neda Agha-Soltan (shown above in a family photo). Her death, documented on cellphone video and spread online, has become a potent spiritual emblem for the popular uprising in Iran.
The first word came from abroad. An aunt in the United States called her Saturday in a panic. "Don't go out into the streets, Golshad," she told her. "They're killing people."

The relative proceeded to describe a video, airing on exile television channels that are jammed in Iran, in which a young woman is shown bleeding to death as her companion calls out, "Neda! Neda!"

A dark premonition swept over Golshad, who asked that her real name not be published. She began calling the cellphone and home number of her friend Neda Agha-Soltan who had gone to the chaotic demonstration with a group of friends, but Neda didn't answer.

At midnight, as the city continued to smolder, Golshad drove to the Agha-Soltan residence in the eastern Tehran Pars section of the capital. As she heard the cries and wails and praising of God reverberating from the house, she crumpled, knowing that her worst fears were true. "Neda! Neda!" the 25-year-old cried out. "What will I do?"

Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, was shot dead Saturday evening near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators who allege rampant vote-count fraud in the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The jittery cellphone video footage of her bleeding on the street has turned "Neda" into an international symbol of the protest movement that ignited in the aftermath of the June 12 voting. To those who knew and loved Neda, she was far more than an icon. She was a daughter, sister and friend, a music and travel lover, a beautiful young woman in the prime of her life.

Family, friends mourn Iranian woman whose death was caught on video (via @eecue)

Previously:


Donny and Marie do Star Wars

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 03:44 PM PDT



Donny and Marie's 1977 send-up of Star Wars. Can you dig it? I knew that you could. More information here. (Thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Air cannons to prevent hail storms

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 01:11 PM PDT

Hail-Cannon

Photo from Eggers Hail Cannons.

Hail cannons look cool and make loud booming noises, even though some people say they don't prevent hail. Maybe we should run an article in MAKE on how to make one for recreational purposes?

From Nacken:

This weekend we went to the Roero wine area and after a loooong lunch we sat with friends outside and looked fearfully at the looming, darker growing clouds.

When suddenly we heard a loud boom in the distance. Followed by more booms closer by … and within minutes it sounded like we were in the middle of a WW1 battlefield. Listen to the sound (while enjoying the lovely hill side panorama) in the ... video.

The Mysterious Air Cannons of Roero (solved)

Cross-Stitch him off, Keyboard Cat.

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 01:04 PM PDT

Philly's Homegrown Saint

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 12:54 PM PDT

Dylan Thuras is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Dylan is a travel blogger and the co-founder of the Atlas Obscura: A Compendium of the World's Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica, with Joshua Foer.

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If you can't make it to any of the amazing European relics listed below, (compiled by the always awesome Sacred Destinations, which also has a great section on largest Sacred sites in the world) there is Saint on display right here in the states, in Philadelphia the location of our upcoming Atlas tour

Upon his canonization, Saint John Neumann was exhumed and placed on display for worship. First they removed some bones and cut them into small pieces to be set in very small, glass-covered containers - one of which is set in the wooden cross that the priest uses to bless the congregation during devotions. His body was then clothed with Bishop's robes and his face covered in a smooth, white mask mimicking his features. To the side of the Shrine is a small museum dedicated to the life and death of St. John Neumann. This includes old photographs, sculptures, books, jewelry, coffins and especially haunting instruments of self mortification. Behind the alter is St. John Neumann's personal collection of hundreds of relics from saints. These include teeth, bones, skulls and other miscellaneous and fairly unidentifiable bits and pieces.

More on the Shrine of Saint John Neuman on the Atlas, and a link to the Atlas's growing collection of relics.

Mining email traffic for bad omens

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 12:06 PM PDT

Researchers examined Enron email logs during the 18 months before the shit really hit the fan. Amazingly, just analyzing the number of emails and their paths, without peeking at the content, hinted at the crisis to come. Of course, hindsight is everything. Still, the stiudy, by computer scientists at the Florida Institute of Technology, is provocative. From New Scientist:
After US energy giant Enron collapsed in December 2001, federal investigators obtained records of emails sent by around 150 senior staff during the company's final 18 months. The logs, which record 517,000 emails sent to around 15,000 employees, provide a rare insight into how communication within an organisation changes during stressful times...

(Rolando) Menezes says he expected communication networks to change during moments of crisis. Yet the researchers found that the biggest changes actually happened around a month before. For example, the number of active email cliques, defined as groups in which every member has had direct email contact with every other member, jumped from 100 to almost 800 around a month before the December 2001 collapse. Messages were also increasingly exchanged within these groups and not shared with other employees.

Menezes thinks he and (Ben) Collingsworth may have identified a characteristic change that occurs as stress builds within a company: employees start talking directly to people they feel comfortable with, and stop sharing information more widely.
"Email patterns can predict impending doom"

Excavator buries itself

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 12:48 PM PDT

Images Blog 2009 06 Digger1
You might remember Glue Society, the Australian artist/pranksters who created a melted ice cream truck, among other fun works. Their latest installation, "300 Tonnes," reminds me how difficult it is to really bury yourself in sand at the beach. More at Hi-Fructose. Glue Society's '300 Tonnes'

Previously:


Auto-Tune the News #5: lettuce regulation. American blessings.

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 11:40 AM PDT


The latest version of Auto Tune the news has a great beat and you can dance to it.

Previously:


Weegee speaks on an old LP

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 11:39 AM PDT

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Artist Laura Levine was recently picking through 15,000 LPs she purchased for her Phoenicia, New York antique shop The Mystery Spot. She came across this treasure, Famous Photographers Tell How. It features advice from Henri-Carter Bresson, Bert Stern, Tana Hoban, Arhur Rothstein, and, my fave, incredible 1940s crime photographer Weegee, of Naked City (1945) fame. Levine and Ted Barron kindly posted select MP3s from the LP at the Boogie Woogie Flu blog. Choice Weegee quotes:
Gbj0Mpn5Xya Sjmgi5Fvcqi Aaaaaaaacqq H6Kyfrx7Y I S400 01 Weegee Genius-Of-Camera "Now the easiest kind of a job was a murder, because the stiff would be laying on the ground. He couldn't get up and walk away and get tempermental and he would be good for at least two hours."

"I will walk many times with friends down the street and they'll say 'Hey, Weegee. Here's a drunk or two drunks laying on the gutter' I take one quick look at that and say 'They lack character.' So, even a drunk must be a masterpiece!"
Weegee Speaks

Dead people on display

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 11:09 AM PDT

Italy Assisi-Santa-Chiara-Pictures Slides Img 5569C
Not to jump into the territory that our prestigious guests Josh and Dylan cover so well at Atlas Obscura, but a friend just pointed me to Sacred Destinations' guide to "The Dead On Display." It's a fine survey of mummy museums, long-dead saints and their body parts, and, er, Jeremy Bentham and Lenin. Above, the body of St. Clare (d. 1253) in Assisi, Italy. Of course, for even more on this matter I heartily recommend Anneli Rufus's classic book Magnificent Corpses: Searching Through Europe for St. Peter's Head, St. Claire's Heart, St. Stephen's Hand, and Other Saints' Relics. From Sacred Destinations:
Incorrupt Saints on Display

* St. Andrew Bobola
 Church of St. Andrew Bobola, Warsaw, Poland
Died in 1657, discovered incorrupt 1697.

* St. Bernadette Soubirous
 Convent of St. Gildard, Nevers, France
The visionary of Lourdes, died 1879. Surely the most beautiful corpse you'll ever see (with some help from wax).

* Mother Cabriani> Mother Cabrini High School Chapel, New York City, USA
Italian-born nun, died in Chicago 1917.

* St. Catherine Labouré
 Chapel, Rue du Bac, Paris, France
A Mary visionary, exhumed after 56 years.

* St. Catherine of Bologna Died 1463, has been on display in an upright position for over 500 years.
The Dead On Display (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!)

Rushkoff on Apple fanboy rage at Steve Jobs for having the audacity to have had a liver transplant

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 11:03 AM PDT

"Life, Inc." author and former BB guestblogger Doug Rushkoff has a piece up on Daily Beast about the fanboy fallout over recent news of Steve Jobs' liver transplant:
Feel better Steve, but what about me? I mean, I know cancer surgery is no picnic, but what does the possibility that you'll reject your new liver mean for my Apple share price? Or my iTunes collection? Should I be converting it all to MP3? I just got a friggin' iPhone - what if you leave us before my five-year contract with AT&T ends? I made a commitment...How about you?

Sorry, but that's the emotional current underlying nearly all of the coverage I'm seeing about the Apple founder's just-revealed liver transplant operation in Tennessee for his metastasized neuroendocrine tumor. It's not what I expected from the Apple community, but perhaps it does serve as the most accurate expression of where the once-renegade personal-computer company has ended up.

To buy an Apple product is to bet on the longevity of the closed system to which we've committed ourselves. And that system is embodied--through marketing as much as talent--by Steve Jobs.

"He said all he needed was a little rest!" one commenter on the Fortune magazine Web site complained. "This is bullshit." On Bloomberg, all the talk is about share price, Apple's chronically cryptic and delayed press releases on Jobs' health, and whether this deputy Tim Cook is capable of taking the helm. Such "me-first" sensibilities don't fit with the highly humanized, creative individuals celebrated in Apple's early commercials--but rather the cultish consumers and shareholders that those commercials, and the products, actually succeeded in generating.

Apple's Army of Whiners

Previously:


Philip K. Dick, fictionalized

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 10:52 AM PDT

Total Dick-Head's David Gill gives us the following review of Christopher Miller's novel A Cardboard Universe: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank. Of course, Dank is a simulacra-of-sorts of pulp science fiction pioneer Philip K. Dick. Gill writes:
400000000000000156063 S4 As a Philip K Dick scholar, I found it positively Dickian reading Christopher Miller's new genre-bender A Cardboard Universe: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K Dank. As the title suggests, the book is set up like a reader's guide to the fictional oeuvre of 300-pound eccentric science fiction writer Phoebus K Dank, with entries on Dank's most famous novels and short stories, along with anecdotes and biographical info provided by Dank's live-in literary specialist William Boswell and rival scholar and anti-Dankian critic Owen Hirt. I'd always wanted to write just such a guide to Philip K Dick's 55 novels. In fact, I'd been toying seriously with the idea for the last year or so. Looking down at this book in my hands was like that moment in every Philip K Dick novel when the Universe reveals itself as sentient by delivering some sort of demented synchronicity that points out a particularly painful personal failure. Miller's novel is the Spinal Tap of my life.

But Miller's Cardboard Universe is more than just a fictional guide to a non-existent eccentric's writings, it's a high-concept postmodern wang-dangler that puts dramatic irony in the box with Schrödinger's cat, resulting in a kaleidoscopic fractal of mis-mashed identity, parallel dimensional weirdness, laugh-out-loud surrealism, and good old fashioned head-bashing violence.

The book may not be for the more thin-skinned of Dick's devotees as it clearly starts with a kind of cruel caricature of PKD: a socially awkward, eccentric, and agoraphobic writer. But the book does not rely on this fun-house reflection of Dick for laughs. Instead, Miller uses his formidable powers of imagination to create a wholly new character, a cross between Phil Dick, Inspector Clouseau, and Reverend Jim Ignatowski, the cab driver on Taxi.

This book could be bad, horrible, awful, a high-concept idea that falls flat. What redeems it, as I've hinted already, is Miller's enviable powers of imagination. He assails the reader with rapid-fire brilliance - half a dozen ideas I would love to have had, all condensed into short summaries of Dank's fictional output: 'Abrutophobia,' a short story about the debilitating fear of anything sudden and a man's subsequent usage of a drug to counteract the fear ('Gradual') which leads him to discover that his wife is really an avocado-shaped monster with eyes set on long dangling stalks. In the fictive novel Sadiators, future duelers attempt to convince each other to commit suicide during a timed match. In my personal favorite non-existent novel, The Salt Factory, salt made from human tears becomes a highly-prized commodity and as one firm struggles to keep their employees weeping constantly through a patchwork of sad movies, depressing music, and talking about their feelings, another firm moves to corner the market by using onions to produce (vastly inferior) tears.

Maybe The Cardboard Universe appeals to me because I know so much about Philip K Dick. I laughed out loud at the article titles in The Journal of Dank Studies: "Bonk!: The Head Injury as Epiphany in the Later Fiction of Dank" (think Bob Arctor's important head bonk in Dick's A Scanner Darkly), "No Vaccine: Dank's Subversive Fictions as Filter-Passing Viruses" (I've personally witnessed academic flame wars waged over Frederick Jameson's postmodern notion of the text as 'Rhizome' ), and my personal favorite: "Keeping It Up: A Feminist Reading of Dank" (written by a man, of course).

While some of the anecdotes about Dank are clearly based on Dick's life, the time is out of joint - so to speak. Dank was born in 1952 (Dick in 1928). In The Cardboard Universe, '2-3-74' does not refer to Dick's 'mystical experiences' with a pink light in 1974, but rather to Dank's transcendent joy upon the publishing of his first book. Dank has a long series of failed relationships with women, even starting a punk rock band to impress the nubile-and-uninterested Pandora Landor in 1998. The final and most marked difference is that Dick died in 1982 after a series of strokes, while Dank is brutally murdered in 2006.

Whether this book will appeal to non-Dick-heads remains to be seen. But, ultimately, I think Miller's work does stand on its own and my wife, who is pretty sick of hearing about Philip K Dick, laughed at many of the book's entries when I read them out loud to her. What's more, the book comes alive, confounds your expectations, and astounds you with Miller's high-octane imagination, rivaling brilliant genre-benders like Italo Calvino's If On A Winter's Night, A Traveler and Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire.
A Cardboard Universe: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K Dank
Previously:


The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 10:49 AM PDT


26-year-old Derek Paravicini doesn't know left from right and had trouble counting to 10. He was born blind and lives in a home for autistic people. Despite his mental and physical disabilities, he is a wonderful pianist.

The entire documentary about Paravicini is on YouTube.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

(Via Microsiervos)

Psychology Today interviews John Hodgman

Posted: 22 Jun 2009 10:16 AM PDT

Matthew Hutson interviewed John Hodgman about humor for Psychology Today.
200906221013 Your delivery is famously dry. Do you ever crack yourself up?

I find it to be comedically unethical to laugh at your own jokes on stage. But I probably feel so strongly because it happens pretty frequently lately, and I am ashamed. My deadpan needs re-deadening (see my new book, on the various historical styles of deadpan).

But the reverse is true when writing. I generally only like a joke of my own if I make myself laugh when I write it. If my brain can fool myself into a surprised chuckle, even when I am the one who wrote the joke, my guess is that it can also fool you.

That said, it may be that those are just the weird, unconscious, half-literal "inside jokes" that only my brain and I get. For example: "Stun Gravy" gets me every time. But do you know what it means? NO ONE DOES.

Psychology Today interviews John Hodgman

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