The Latest from Boing Boing

Scott Westerfeld's ass-kicking, bestselling YA novel UGLIES as a free, DRM-free download
Van Halen had good reason to ban brown M&Ms in their concert rider.
Alaska: Geeks dwell here, too, it's not all Palin and mush-dog races.
Radiohead Song in memory of Harry Patch, WWI survivor and pacifist.
Time for obscure Finnish acid house performed with hacked synths!
Digital Open tech innovation expo for global youth: 10 more days to submit projects!
Remixing Nancy comics
Seaweed on beaches in France produce deadly fumes
Bike seat sports a beard of bees
Michelangelo's The Torment of St. Anthony
TED Talk: Elaine Morgan says we evolved from aquatic apes
Recently on Offworld: lusty zombies galore, new game from Braid dev, AI controlled Mario

Scott Westerfeld's ass-kicking, bestselling YA novel UGLIES as a free, DRM-free download

Posted: 06 Aug 2009 03:41 AM PDT

Scott Westerfeld writes in with the astounding news that his publisher, Simon and Shuster, have agreed to distribute his bestselling novel Uglies as a free, DRM-free PDF. The series has sold more than a million copies, and it's one of my favorite YA series of all time.

Here's my original review of the series:

Uglies is the story of a dystopian world where children are raised by the state and subjected to mandatory cosmetic surgery at 16, wherein they are rendered physically "perfect" on the basis that symmetrical, statistically average people with giant eyes are charismatic, convincing, and are afforded advantages by their peers; in the twisted logic of the Westerfeld's state, imposing this surgery on all creates an egalitarian basis for society. No one is heeded merely because she is beautiful; no idea is disregarded because it originates with someone who is ugly.
The novels tell the story of Tally Youngblood, a 16-year-old small-time rebel who becomes embroiled in a scheme to avoid the surgery, leading to her exile and eventual encounters with outsiders, secret police, and the gradual, sinister unravelling of the dark secret of the compassionate society.
The Uglies books are the perfect parables of adolescent life, where adult-imposed milestones, rituals, and divide-and-rule tactics amp children's natural adolescent insecurities into a full-blown, decade-long psychosis. They're the kind of book I loved reading at 15 or 16: damned fine science fiction and damned fine yarns. Having read the first two, I can barely wait for the third, Specials, due out in May 06.

Uglies Download (Thanks, Scott!)

Previously:

Van Halen had good reason to ban brown M&Ms in their concert rider.

Posted: 05 Aug 2009 04:49 PM PDT

Spotted via Andrew Baron's tweetstream, this fascinating -- no, really! -- snopes article on why Van Halen had that line in their concert rider about ABSOLUTELY NO BROWN M&Ms EVER.

Punch line: the true reason behind this had to do with technology, engineering, and safety issues. But I can kind of hear David Lee Roth delivering the lines in his over-the-top screamy-voice when I read his quotes. Actually, I can hear David Lee Roth's voice when I read the rider.

Snopes.com: Van Halen Brown M&Ms. The actual 1982 rider was first published online at smokinggun.com in 2008.

Video below: "Jamie's Cryin," from David Lee Roth's bluegrass cover album of VH hits, remixed by a fan in a homebrew video with (why not?) a Popeye cartoon. You can buy the record here if you are so inclined: Strummin' With The Devil: Bluegrass Tribute to Van Halen.

Alaska: Geeks dwell here, too, it's not all Palin and mush-dog races.

Posted: 05 Aug 2009 04:33 PM PDT

Pat Race of Alaska Robotics, whose "Buy Back Alaska" video was featured here a couple years ago, has created a new video about crushing absurdity of national economics. It's embedded above, and I think it's sweet and funny in a homey, dorky, "I made this!" way.

From the land of Sarah Palin, meth shacks, and aerial elk-massacres, he emails Boing Boing:

Alaska Robotics is Pat Race, Aaron Suring, Lou Logan, Sarah Asper-Smith, and whoever else falls into our cast of friends and family. We live in Juneau where we make short films, draw comics, and eat halibut. We organize screenings of locally made short films twice a year and also work to bring filmmakers, animators and writers north to teach workshops.
If you're interested, there are a bunch of other films on our site, I like these ones: Socks, The Big Joke, Butterfly Kisses, Town vs. Valley, Nipple Fire, High Five.

Previously:

Boing Boing: Proposal to buy back corrupt Alaskan legislators

Radiohead Song in memory of Harry Patch, WWI survivor and pacifist.

Posted: 05 Aug 2009 04:12 PM PDT

War is a calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings"--Harry Patch

Richard Metzger writes,

Beautiful, somber new Radiohead single available for download on their website.

Titled Harry Patch (In Memory Of), the song is a tribute to the oldest surviving Tommy who fought in World War I. Harry Patch was 111 years old when he died on July 25th, 2009. He fought in one of the grimmest battles of the war, the Battle of Passchendaele, where over 325,000 Allied casualties occurred and over, 260,000 Germans. The 99 day battle from July 31st 1917 to November 6th 1917, saw an average of 3,000 British troops killed, wounded, or captured daily. (By contrast, in Iraq, 3,650 US troops have died and approximately 26,000 have been wounded).

More over at Metzger's blog, including a statement by Thom Yorke. Beautiful.

Above, embedded, one of the last (if not the last) interviews with Mr. Patch before he died last month. All proceeds from the track will be donated to the Royal British Legion.

Time for obscure Finnish acid house performed with hacked synths!

Posted: 05 Aug 2009 04:09 PM PDT

Matti Laakso tells Boing Boing,

The Acid Symphony Orchestra just published their first video on Vimeo. In a nutshell: 10 early 80's synths (Roland TB-303s - the defining sound of early techno and acid) played manually by Finlands top techno performers, orchestrated by the granddaddy of Nordic techno scene, Jori Hulkkonen.
The hardware required some serious hacking (this is pre-MIDI gear), courtesy of the Society for Experimental Electronics - a Finnish hacker/maker group.
Their first performance was at UMF (Uuden Musiikin Festivaali, or Festival for New Music) in Turku, Finland in 2007, and they toured Europe over the next two years. A festival documentary is on YouTube (in 3 parts).

Video here.

Previously:

Digital Open tech innovation expo for global youth: 10 more days to submit projects!

Posted: 05 Aug 2009 03:45 PM PDT

Boing Boing and Boing Boing Video are partnering with Institute for the Future and Sun to support the Digital Open, in which youth around the world are invited to submit technology projects "that will change the world--or even just make life a little easier or more fun."

The final deadline for submissions is August 15, 2009, but projects posted before the deadline will benefit significantly from feedback from the Digital Open community. We are giving away more than $15,000 worth of very cool prizes including laptops, video cameras, recycled billboard backpacks, solar-powered gear and more. We've already received 49 projects from eight countries: Argentina, Canada, India, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, the UK and the US!

More online: digitalopen.org

Remixing Nancy comics

Posted: 05 Aug 2009 03:43 PM PDT

The artist Gary Lee-Nova likes to recombine newspaper comic book strips. "Uncanny Old Gags" is an anagram for "Nancy and Sluggo."

Uncanny Old Gags Series - Gary Lee-Nova

Seaweed on beaches in France produce deadly fumes

Posted: 05 Aug 2009 03:22 PM PDT

Because of farm fertilizer runoff, the seaweed in coastal waters in Brittany is growing like a monster. Scientists warn that as the seaweed rots, it forms white crust that traps hydrogen sulphide gas. When the crust breaks, it can poison people.

Alain Menesguen, director of research at the French Institute for Sea Research and Exploitation, said: "This is a very toxic gas, which smells like rotten eggs. It attacks the respiratory system and can kill a man or an animal in minutes." Some scientists believe that a build-up of hydrogen sulphide in the atmosphere wiped out the dinosaurs 300 million years ago.

Fumes from rotting seaweed on France's northern beaches could kill

Previously:

Bike seat sports a beard of bees

Posted: 05 Aug 2009 01:57 PM PDT

Mister Jalopy says: "Not a great picture, but I was leery of getting any closer. A swarm of bees have decided to create a hive under one of the bicycles in the long line of faded champions at Coco's Variety."

What can he do about this?

UPDATE: Amy Seidenwurm came and got 'em. Thanks, Amy!

Michelangelo's The Torment of St. Anthony

Posted: 05 Aug 2009 10:50 AM PDT

Michelangelo's first known painting is The Torment of St. Anthony, which is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through September 7, 2009.

He was 12 or 13 years old when he painted it, which goes to show you that the kinds of things that intrigue 12 year old boys haven't changed much in the last 500 years.

NY Times slide show with details of Michelangelo's The Torment of St. Anthony

TED Talk: Elaine Morgan says we evolved from aquatic apes

Posted: 05 Aug 2009 09:41 AM PDT

I'm delighted by Elaine Morgan's hypothesis that humans evolved from aquatic apes.

Elaine Morgan is a tenacious proponent of the aquatic ape hypothesis: the idea that humans evolved from primate ancestors who dwelt in watery habitats. Hear her spirited defense of the idea -- and her theory on why mainstream science doesn't take it seriously.

TED Talk: Elaine Morgan says we evolved from aquatic apes