Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Cars on shopping carts, 12-hour coffee, rat-eating plants, and so much more!

Posted: 12 Aug 2009 03:31 AM PDT

fresh greens image
Each week we're bringing you some of our favorite posts from our friends over at TreeHugger. Enjoy!

Creative Ways to Steal German Cash for Clunker Cars
Cash for Clunkers in Germany is successful...too successful. German thieves have stolen over 50,000 of the clunkers turned in for cash, often putting them right back onto German roads!

How To Keep a Laptop Running for 10 Years
Trevor's Powerook Pismo turned 10 years old, and he dishes on how in the world he's managed to keep the ancient hunk of metal running efficiently...and fast enough that you don't want to throw it out the window every time you try to open a new program.

Getting Wired Without Electricity: The Hourglass Coffee Maker
There is no end to the caffeinated concoctions you can whip up with this cool hourglass coffee maker. It's not for your average cuppa joe - no, this is for a special kind of brew.

Awesome Inventions from the James Dyson Awards
Feast your eyes on these killer inventions submitted to the awards. It's prototypes galore.

Giant Rat-Eating Plant Discovered in the Philippines
Speaking of feasting...this incredible, newly discovered carnivorous plant is big enough to catch rats and other small animals in its pitcher of death. Fascinating in that wonderfully morbid, sci-fi way.

Profiteering torture teachers modeled US techniques after those of Chinese Communists

Posted: 12 Aug 2009 12:50 AM PDT

mitchelljess.jpgIn today's New York Times, an article about psychologists Bruce Jessen (L) and Jim Mitchell (R) -- two military retirees with no Al Qaeda expertise, foreign language skills, or experience in conducting interrogations. Their lack of experience didn't stop them from pawning themselves off as top architects of America's "war on terror." They sold their psychological credentials and familiarity with the brutal tactics used decades ago by Chinese Communists to the CIA, which in turn paid them millions of dollars as contractors.

The NYT story details how Mitchell and Jessen directed the torture and interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, who was at the time described as "Al Qaeda's No. 3."

In late July 2002, Dr. Jessen joined [Dr. Mitchell] in Thailand. On Aug. 1, the Justice Department completed a formal legal opinion authorizing the SERE methods, and the psychologists turned up the pressure. Over about two weeks, Mr. Zubaydah was confined in a box, slammed into the wall and waterboarded 83 times.

The brutal treatment stopped only after Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen themselves decided that Mr. Zubaydah had no more information to give up. Higher-ups from headquarters arrived and watched one more waterboarding before agreeing that the treatment could stop, according to a Justice Department legal opinion.

The torture biz worked out pretty well for these guys. Million dollar homes, $1,000-2,000 per person per day from the CIA, even spinoff startups -- one bizarrely named "Wizard Shop." As one person familiar with their pay arrangements told Vanity Fair in 2007, "Taxpayers [were] paying at least half a million dollars a year for these two knuckleheads to do voodoo." More from today's NYT story:
Dr. Mitchell could keep working outside the C.I.A. as well. At the Ritz-Carlton in Maui in October 2003, he was featured at a high-priced seminar for corporations on how to behave if kidnapped. He created new companies, called Wizard Shop, later renamed Mind Science, and What If. His first company, Knowledge Works, was certified by the American Psychological Association in 2004 as a sponsor of continuing professional education. (A.P.A. dropped the certification last year.)
2 U.S. Architects of Harsh Tactics in 9/11's Wake (Scott Shane / NYT)

Related research: "Educing Information,"a 2006 report by top interrogation experts that examined which methods work in interrogations. The report effectively debunks Mitchell and Jessen's credentials and torture techniques. PDF of report, and FAS.org post about the document.

Related news items:
* Waterboarding, Interrogations: The CIA's $1,000 a Day Specialists (ABC News)
* Rorschach and Awe (Vanity Fair)
* The CIA's torture teachers (Salon)
* Senate probe focuses on Spokane men (Spokesman Review / WA)
* The Story of Mitchell Jessen & Associates: How a Team of Psychologists in Spokane, WA, Helped Develop the CIA's Torture Techniques (Democracy Now)

(Images courtesy ABC News)

The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Atomic Radiation

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 09:37 PM PDT

Adablog Wp-Content Uploads 2009 08 Guide Adafruit Industries spotted this fantastic book from 1964. There's one available on ABE.com for $7, but probably not for long.


Today at Boing Boing Gadgets

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 08:24 PM PDT

todayat811.png Today at Boing Boing Gadgets... * Watch a cute French TV commercial that turns a Mac into a spaceship; * SOS signs from Internet addiction camps in China; * More on old-timey iPhone horns; * A Disney-themed netbook; * The future of bicycles; * A ceramic kitchen radio; * A new file format made by music labels; * A review of a rugged iPhone case; * iPhone playing cards; * A new long-lasting battery from Sony. Good night!

Slideshow of distorted celebrity faces

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 03:45 PM PDT

Another misshapen frozen treat

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 01:45 PM PDT

BB Video: Xeni with Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt of The Mighty Boosh (pt 1)

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 02:25 PM PDT

(Download / Watch on YouTube)

Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, co-creators, writers, and stars of the hit "psychedelic comedy" series The Mighty Boosh, stopped to talk with Boing Boing Video during a recent US tour.

Their show has been aptly described as "a Sid and Marty Krofft production engineered by Frank Zappa [with] fantastic plots, genre parody, warped songcraft and quick-witted off-road conversations." Barratt and Fielding crafted a weird, playful universe with odd characters -- a talking gorilla, a stoned shaman, a tentacled and disembodied hot pink head -- that quickly converts viewers into obsessed fans.

The Boosh gang were in the states to promote the US release of a three-season DVD set. They drew crazed costumed throngs of fans at Comic-Con and signing appearances, and played to packed houses in New York and Los Angeles. The US television network Adult Swim recently begain airing episodes.

In this interview, Noel and Julian speak about their crazed trufans (who craft outlandish, wonderfully nerdy costumes), why reviewers always think hallucinogenic drugs are involved in the show's creation -- and the guys kick things off with a Boing Boing crimp. What's a crimp? Watch and enjoy.

Previously:

(Special thanks to Mark Kleiman and Stefanie Fletcher for their generous support of this Boing Boing Video interview series.)

Dan Clowes interviewed by Mike Sacks: "Sylvester P. Smythe is the most unappealing character of all time"

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 01:23 PM PDT

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Here's a great interview with Eightball's Dan Clowes that didn't make it into Mike Sacks' book, Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers On Their Craft.

Q: Were you even a fan of Cracked?

A: No one was ever a fan of Cracked.

Growing up, my friends − okay, "friend" − and I used to think of Cracked as a stopgap. We would buy Mad every month, but about two weeks later we would get anxious for new material. We would tell ourselves, Okay, we are not going to buy Cracked. Never again! And we'd hold out for a while, but then as the month dragged on it just became, Okay, fuck it. I guess I'll buy Cracked.

Q: It was like comedy methadone.

A: Right. Then you'd bring it home, and immediately you'd remember, Oh yeah, I hate Cracked. I don't understand any of the jokes, and [Cracked mascot] Sylvester P. Smythe is the most unappealing character of all time.

Shown above, Dan Clowes cover for DC's Bizarro Comics, which was rejected. I thought it was fitting for this rejected interview.

Dan Clowes interviewed by Mike Sacks

Dara O’Briain on homeopathy from Derren Brown Blog

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 01:47 PM PDT


Great stand-up bit about homeopathy, new age "thinking," and other follies. (Salty language ahoy) (Via Derren Brown)

Abjection Sustained: Dery visits Museo Storico Nazionale dell'Arte Sanitaria

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 12:41 PM PDT

Headdisplay

Mark Dery is guest blogger du jour until August 17. He is the author of Culture Jamming, Flame Wars, Escape Velocity, and The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium. He's at work on The Pathological Sublime, a philosophical investigation into the paradox of horrible beauty and the politics of "just looking."

Unloved, underfunded, and more or less untended, the Museo Storico Nazionale dell'Arte Sanitaria---"National Museum of Healthcare," in your correspondent's me-talk-pretty-someday Italian---is, like so many of Italy's obscure museological gems, a study in abjection.

The Museo is housed in a 17th-century building, in the middle of a complex that some claim constitutes the oldest hospital in Europe: the Ospedale di Santo Spirito, erected in around 1198 by Pope Innocenzo III on the site of the Borgo Sassia, a hotel-cum-hospital for pilgrims to the nearby Holy City. "Its historic memory as an institution, recorded on its walls in frescoes ranging from the 15th to the 18th century, goes back to the 13th," writes Milton Gendel in his article "Rome's Unknown Museum Of The Holy Ghost" (PDF). But "the history of the hospital and hospitality on the site is at least five hundred years older than that," he notes. "Nero's grandmother, Agrippina, owned a suburban villa here on the right bank of the Tiber, and it was on this land that her son Gaius, known as Caligula, built his circus. In Nero's reign, St. Peter was crucified head down in the middle of the race track, having been condemned for proselityzing the Christian religion, which was held to be an anti-state activity before the Emperor Constantine, three centuries later, was himself converted." (Somewhere, Sam Harris heaves a sigh of regret for All That Might Have Been...)

During the 15th century, the hospital accepted unwanted babies via a revolving drum built into a wall, which enabled mothers to make ATM-style deposits anonymously by pushing their babies through, then yanking a bellpull, which alerted nuns on the other side. The foundlings were reared as wards of the hospital. "If the consigner did not care to remain unknown a receipt was given," writes Gendel. Either way, "the child was tattooed on the right foot with the double-armed cross of Santo Spirito."

Images Manfredini-Model The Museo is of interest to us because of the Sala Flajani, whose heart is the anatomical collection of the physician Giuseppe Flaiani (1741-1808). A musty salon whose four walls are lined with antique cabinets, it contains dried anatomical preparations; the odd---and I do mean odd---fetus swimming in preservative, its features blurred by decay; a collection of stones removed from the livers, kidneys, and bladders of Santo Spirito patients during the 19th century (collect them all!); and some wax anatomical models executed in the late 1700's by the sculptor Giovanni Battista Manfredini in collaboration with the anatomist Carlo Mondini. (Mondini is best known for his research on the anatomy of the eye and on the causes of deafness; he identified the congenital deformation of the inner ear known as Mondini's dysplasia. But what endears him to me is his 1777 discovery of the location of eel ovaries, "which for centuries had been sought after in vain," according to an 1879 U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries report. Who knew?) Manfredini is renowned---okay, renowned among medical historians and connoisseurs of the irretrievably weird---for his terracotta obstetric models, a set of which are installed in the Museo Universitario di Storia Naturale e della Strumentazione Scientifica in Modena, Italy. With expressions familiar from the iconography of Catholic kitsch, yet posed salaciously, like anatomical strippers---one model peels back her flesh to expose her gravid womb---Manfredini's women inspire a kind of semiotic indigestion. And that, as Martha would say, is A Good Thing.

We orbit the room, taking in the dessicated fetus, a mummified Alien Gray, old beyond imagining yet so young it never saw its first birthday. A time traveller frozen in the wind tunnel of years, it leans into the oncoming days.

Dessicated Fetus

We stare at a jaunty trio of malformed doll skeletons sharing a joke: one is talking his arms off, living up to the Italian stereotype, while his death's-headed friend grins broadly, as all gaping skulls do.

Jaunty Trio Of Malformed Doll Skeletons

We look pityingly at a pair of pickled foetuses clinging to each other in a bottle of formalin, the Romulus and Remus of the carnival midway.

Pair Of Pickled Foetuses

A full-sized wax model of a man stops us dead in our tracks, his body unzipped from his upper lip all the way to his groin, the flaps of flesh peeled back for our edification. But he has the last laugh, waggling his tongue obscenely, eyes closed, savoring the moment.

Man With Tongue

Weirdest of all is a display of two crudely sculpted clay heads, fitted with false teeth and glass eyes. They'd look more at home on a Santería altar than here, in the inner sanctum of an 18th-century medical museum. Beside them lolls what appears to be a skinned, inexpertly stuffed human infant, head propped pensively on its hand.

Weird Display 1-1

The Sala Flajani is Jame Gumb's idea of a garage sale. A cabinet of wonders curated by Joe Coleman. The waiting room for Disney's Haunted Mansion, as reimagined by Julia Kristeva. Or all, or none, of the above. Perhaps Babelfish puts it best, with that crackbrained, syntactically fractured robot wisdom that sometimes manages, by dumb machine luck, to eff the ineffable. Translating the museum's webpage, it describes the Sala Flajani as housing "a merciless sample of birth deformity or morbid. These preparations anatomo-pathological...include skulls of fetuses and small skeletons, some of which macrocephaly and a two-man. In addition to this overview of deformities in wood shelving in the purest pink empire is gathering a collection of wax."

And what macrocephalic two-man, anywhere in our purest pink empire, can argue with that?

Museo Storico Nazionale dell'Arte Sanitaria
Lungotevere in Sassia, 3 (Ospedale S. Spirito) 00193 Roma
Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday - 09:00-12:00
Admission: Free.
Informazioni e prenotazioni:
Tel 06.6787864 - Fax 06.6991453
Trasporti:
Autobus: fermata Piazza Pia - Castel Sant'Angelo,
Linee 40 e 62 fermata Lungotevere in Sassia - S. Spirito,
Linee 46, 62, 644, 98, 870, 881, 916
Metro: Linea A fermata Cipro Musei Vaticani

There appears to be a book about the museum---in Italian only, regrettably.

Photo above of Terracotta obstetric model by Giovanni Battista Manfredini. Copyright Museo Universitario di Storia Naturale e della Strumentazione Scientifica, Modena, Italy; all rights reserved. Reproduced under Fair Use provision of copyright law.

NYC skateboarding legend Andy Kessler has died.

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 05:32 PM PDT

kessler.jpg

Glen E. Friedman, a photographer who chronicled the birth of skate culture, shares sad news:

If skateboarding was a town, this guy was its mayor. Andy Kessler, one of the good ones, died yesterday apparently of an allergic reaction from a wasp sting that led to a heart attack. This was a great dude, NO ONE could say anything wrong about this dude.

He was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, skater in New York City, holding it down, real since the 70's. Andy will be seriously missed by many including myself. Obituaries and discussion threads: ESPN, bulldogskates, newyorksurf, bulldogskates 2.

Above, a portrait of Kessler around 1976 or 1977 which Glen says was among the skater's favorite. If you know the name of the photog, please share in the comments and I'll amend the post. Photo credit, via a commenter in this thread: "KESS cuttin' it off the lip at the 9' marker, the Deathbowl in Riverdale, 1978. (Photo by Marc André Edmonds)"

Another striking portrait, skating the streets of Manhattan, here.

After the jump: a 2007 video interview. Kessler immediately strikes you as a gentle, thoughtful person -- who could shred like nobody.

Previously:


Mexican drug cartels sold stolen oil to US

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 10:37 AM PDT

Oil refineries in the United States purchased millions of Amercan pesos' worth of oil that drug cartel operatives stole from Mexican government pipelines, then smuggled over the border. I am going to presume that this contraband was transported in a method that did not involve swallowing plastic baggies full of light sweet crude, or shoving oil globs up one's bum. Here is a brief snip from an AP item:
Criminals -- mostly drug gangs -- tap remote pipelines, sometimes building pipelines of their own, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil each year, the Mexican oil monopoly said. At least one U.S. oil executive has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in such a deal. On Tuesday, the U.S. Homeland Security department is scheduled to return $2.4 million to Mexico's tax administration, the first batch of money seized during a binational investigation into smuggled oil that authorities expect to lead to more arrests and seizures.
Read the full story here: AP NewsBreak: US bought oil stolen from Mexico (Associated Press via Google, via Jack Shafer)

Is this spot on Google Earth a clandestine Burmese nuke facility?

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 10:28 AM PDT

The oppressive regime that controls Burma/Myanmar is in the news this week after yesterday's sentencing of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kui over bogus "internal security" crimes. This related item: amateur online spooks using Google Earth have noticed an unexplained formation in the Burmese jungle which some believe may be linked to the state's clandestine nuclear program. Upshot: it's probably not, but that leaves wide room for other possibilities. Please post your most colorful conspiracy theories in the comments.
burmanuke.jpgThe main facility, which measures 82 by 84 metres, can been seen on satellite images published on both Google Earth and Google Maps Earth is showing a mysterious building in Burma's jungle that some commentators think may be linked to activity by Burma's regime to develop their own nuclear weapons like North Korea.

It features a pitched, blue corrugated roof, which, at first glance, makes it look like an over-sized swimming pool. The large industrial complex is located in a rural area of central Burma, east of Mandalay near the town of Pin Oo Lwin.

That's the same zone in which defectors recently told two Australian researchers that the Burmese army had been building a nuclear research and engineering centre with support from North Korea and Russia.

Mysterious Burmese facility revealed on Google Earth (Sydney Morning Herald / Australia)

Previously:


Twitpocalypse: "Open Source Twitter" proposed as antidote to Twitter's DDOS vulnerability

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 12:08 PM PDT

identica_home.jpg

Twitter and Facebook were paralyzed this past week by DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks. As I understand it, those attacks are still ongoing. In this Wired Epicenter blog post by Eliot Van Buskirk, open source advocates propose that the only real solution to this vulnerability is to engage in another DDOS: "distributed delivery of service." As Bittorent is to filesharing, the thinking goes, so would an open microblogging network be to 140-character thought-blips.

“The total failure of Twitter during the DDoS attacks highlights the fact that, with Twitter, we're relying on a single service for mass communication of this type,” said open microblogging supporter and Ektron CTO Bill Cava. “Most everyone understands it's ridiculous to expect one service to provide email support to the world. The same is true for micro messaging. The reality is, it can’t and won’t continue this way for too much longer.”

The OpenMicroBlogging standard already exists -- it’s just that Twitter’s not playing along, possibly because it could lose market share if the open standard succeeds before it manages to monetize its service. One platform that adheres to the Open MicroBlogging (OMB) standard is Laconi.ca, an open-source Twitter-style network launched by Status.net on July 2 of last year (others include OpenMicroBlogger and Google’s Jaiku).

Laconi.ca, which seems to have gained more traction than the other two OMB platforms, forms the backbone of Identi.ca — an open-source Twitter clone with features Twitter lacks (image uploading, trackbacks, native video playback, OpenID) that lets you post updates to its own network as well as Twitter and Facebook. Status.net will soon add the ability to follow Twitter and Facebook feeds using the corresponding APIs, so users will soon be able to make Identi.ca their default short messaging communications hub -- even if those services won’t use the open standard.

Open Source 'Twitter' Could Fend Off the Next Twitpocalypse (wired.com Epicenter blog, thanks, Matt Katz)

Previously:


Drew Friedman print of Don Knotts as Barney Fife

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 09:33 AM PDT

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In his latest art print Drew Friedman perfectly captures Deputy Barney Fife's look of smug authority, right down to the chin dimples.

Don Knotts portrayed high-strung Mayberry Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife in the 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show. Fife was a quixotic smalltown crime-stopper projecting a veneer of situational command that didn't fool anyone (including his acting peers, who accorded him four Emmy Awards for the role). The Museum of Broadcast Communications described Fife as "self-important, romantic, and nearly always wrong. While Barney was forever frustrated that Mayberry was too small for the delusional ideas he had of himself, viewers got the sense that he couldn't have survived anywhere else."
Drew Friedman print of Don Knotts as Barney Fife

Field guide to the hypomanic personality

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 09:20 AM PDT

John Gartner, assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School profiles the three Emanuel brothers (White House chief of staff Rahm, Endeavor talent agency founder Ari, and head of bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Zeke) as classic examples of hypomanics.
[Rahm] Emanuel displays many characteristics of a hypomanic temperament. This mildly manic disposition—which is not a mental illness—comes with assets that could propel someone to the top of his field: immense energy, drive, confidence, creativity, and infectious enthusiasm. I have found through interviews and historical accounts that hypomania has animated many leaders, from Alexander Hamilton and Andrew Carnegie to Emanuel's former boss Bill Clinton.

But it also carries a cluster of liabilities: overconfidence, irritability, and especially impulsivity that often pitches the hypomanic into hostility. Drives are heightened and impulse control is weakened, making the hypomanic brain like a Porsche with no brakes. In keeping with his hypomanic temperament, Emanuel doesn't need much sleep and he can't stay still. "He's like a shark that always has to keep moving or he dies," says John Lapp, who worked for Emanuel. And, like Clinton, Emanuel is highly creative, not least because his hyperkinetic mind can't stop generating ideas. "He's an idea machine," Sabato says.

There's something very American about an over-the-top personality running the White House staff

Hedy Lamarr: '30s film diva, mobile phone tech pioneer, anti-Nazi gadget inventor.

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 12:21 PM PDT

Snip from an essay by artist Michaela Melián on Hedy Lemarr, the Austrian-born American scientist and actress who was once described as the most beautiful woman in the world by MGM's Louis B. Mayer. Art Fag City Editor Paddy Johnson says, "Not only was she the first actress to simulate an orgasm onscreen in 1933, but her frequency-switching device (now known as frequency hopping) developed with partner George Antheil, is the technology upon with cell phones are built."

Melián assembled this online essay for Art Fag City's annual IMG MGMT which, in which artists are invited to curate image essays on the blog. She also wrote a score to accompany the old school style slide show, which is embedded in the post.

Image above: Michaela Melián, Frequency Hopping, 2008, C-print, watercolor, thread, 35 x 28 cm.

Snip:

hedy1.jpgIn her ex-husband's Salzburg villa, the immigrant had seen plans for remote controlled torpedoes, which were never built because the radio controls proved to be too unreliable. After the outbreak of the Second World War, she worked on practical ideas to effectively fight the Hitler regime. At a party in Hollywood, Lamarr met George Antheil, an avant-garde composer who also wrote film scores. While playing the piano with the composer, the actress suddenly has an important idea for her torpedo control system. Antheil sets up the system on 88 frequencies, as this number corresponds to the number of keys on a piano. To construct it, he employs something similar to the player piano sheet music that he used in his Ballet Mécanique.

In December 1940, the frequency-switching device developed by Lamarr and Antheil was sent to the National Inventors' Council. A patent was awarded on August 11, 1942. The two inventors leave it to the American military to figure out how to use the device. Lamarr's and Antheil's Secret Communication System disappears into the U.S. Army's filing cabinets.

Finally, in 1962, as the Cuba crisis brews the technology now known as frequency hopping is put to use. Its purpose is not to control torpedoes, but to allow for safe communications among blockading ships - whereupon the principles behind the patent become part of fundamental U.S. military communications technology. Today, this technology is not only the foundation for the U.S. military's satellite defense system, but also used widely in the private sector, particularly for cordless and mobile telephones.

IMG MGMT: Life As A Woman, Hedy Lamarr (Art Fag City)

Retractable fifth wheel for tight parking spots

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 09:07 AM PDT

Richard sez, "This ingenious hacker from Egypt put a fifth wheel, mounted perpendicular to the other four, on the back of his beater car. The wheel can be raised or lowered, depending on if he is parking or driving. The purpose is so that he can get in and out of the very tightest parking spaces. Probably better than having two brawny men lift the car into place!"

egyptian invention (Thanks, Richard!)

Adobe: Once you license software in France, you can only use it in French

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 09:03 AM PDT

Kirk sez, "I'm submitting this because it's a blatant example of a stupid licensing policy and limits to software related to licenses. My son wants to use Adobe CS4 - that I bought as an education version - in English, but we live in France, and the serial number they sent after registration only lets him use the software in French..."

Adobe's Stupid Licensing System (Thanks, Kirk!)

Punk-era dance genius Michael Clark, "Nijinsky with a mohawk," returns.

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 09:20 AM PDT

In the wake of dance legend Merce Cunningham's passing, BB pal Richard Metzger says he's happy to learn that "punk" ballet dancer and choreographer, Michael Clark has been creating new work. Metzger points to some amazing archival video of Clark's work from the '80s, including the embed above, choreography to accompany music from the UK band The Fall. Snip:

I followed Michael Clark's career closely in the 1980s and early 90s and was always curious about what had happened to him. Back then, Clark seemed touched by the gods. His angular, asymmetrical, yet bizarrely graceful form of movement caused a sensation in the dance world. On a trip to London I caught an astonishing performance of I am Curious, Orange, his ballet conceived around the music of The Fall, who played live while Clark and his company danced. I was completely and utterly floored. It was one of the best things I've ever seen. I thought Clark was a genius. Nijinksy with a mohawk.
HAIL THE NEW PURITAN: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL CLARK (Dangerous Minds)

Showdown at the 4chan corral: Doug Rushkoff

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 08:50 AM PDT

Doug Rushkoff's latest piece for the Daily Beast is something of a post-mortem on the recent Anonymous vs. AT&T internet battle, with a dash of cultural anthropology and spaghetti western for good measure. Snip:

When AT&T recently blocked access to a hugely popular hackers' Web site, 4chan.org, many of us Internet old-timers froze in place. It was like one of those bad Westerns, when an arrogant newcomer sits down in the saloon, and then insults the baddest, most trigger-happy gunslinger in the county. People move to the side of the room, climb under tables, and wait for the shots to fly.

The 4Chan community--a diehard, if ever-changing assortment of the Net's most-desperate, most-anonymous, and most-wanted, well, punks--smelled censorship, top-down control, and an evil corporation trying to keep down the world's last squat for hackers. They went batshit. The site's founder posted a note telling his minion's to write and complain to AT&T, and the dog whistle having been heard, a posse called "Project AT&T," quickly formed, dedicated to revenge.

It turns out AT&T was really just trying to protect the site, and its own servers, from a typical "denial of service" attack. (Hackers create a feedback loop of pings and requests that overloads the target Web site.) AT&T's solution--to move 4Chan to a new IP address--was crude but ultimately effective. Project AT&T called a temporary truce, the bar piano started playing again, and the world went back to normal.

But the whole episode reminded me that, in spite of the Web's seemingly secure and consumer-friendly facade, there is still some Wild West left out there. And 4Chan is the OK Corral. So like a middle-aged Australian businessman going on walkabout, I decided to spend a couple of weeks embedded in this famously depraved, raucously fertile community.

The Web's Dirtiest Site (Daily Beast)

Doug's new book: Life, Inc.

Previously:


Recently on Offworld: spinning & sleuthing in Spider, web-based meta-gaming, AI-controlled Mario

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 07:14 AM PDT

porch_hang.jpg It seems as though as the App Store game entries grows exponentially, our true, heartfelt suggestions have dropped off inversely, but recently on Offworld we made one of our strongest, most unreserved recommendations yet with Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, the debut game from the former Thief/Splinter Cell devs at Tiger Style. It's a game that works brilliantly on two levels: first, as an intuitive action game that sees you finger-flicking/spinning webs to catch the insect inhabitants of the long-abandoned titular manor, but second, and just as wonderfully, unraveling the secret narrative that's running underneath, just under your nose if you're careful enough to look -- it's instantly become one of our top 3 iPhone games of all time. Elsewhere, we took a look at two of the best meta-games to come to the web in recent months, with the one level exploration of, er, This is the Only Level and the self-purchased enhancements of Upgrade Complete, and listened to both a wonderfully diverse Songs to Frag By videogame mixtape, and the live house/trance styling of PixelJunk Eden director Baiyon. Finally, we saw the first dazzling entry in the AI-controlled Mario contest, made our own Noby Boy catnip toy, saw LucasArts/Double Fine dev Tim Schafer reveal his hidden Rubik's talent, and our 'one shot's for the day: the geographical secrets of Left 4 Dead and the amazingly ugly excesses of the women of Leisure Suit Larry.

Visualizing a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 07:26 AM PDT


Here's a neat little data-visualization of the possible outcomes in an old Choose-Your-Own-Adventure message, in which life was nasty, brutish and short.
Michael Niggel took a look at Journey Under the Sea, and mapped out all possible paths. It turns out that death and unfavorable endings are in fact much more likely than the rest.
Choose Your Own Adventure - Most Likely You'll Die

PDF of chart

(via Waxy)

Anti-health-care loon says Stephen Hawking wouldn't stand a chance under British health care system

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 07:33 AM PDT

From Dispatches From the Culture Wars' "Dumbass Quote of the Day" file, an anti-health-care op-ed that says that Stephen Hawking wouldn't get any health care in the UK because our "socialist" system doesn't value the lives of disabled people. As Culture Wars notes, "Stephen Hawking was born and raised in the UK and has lived there all his life. He teaches at Cambridge. That's in the UK. This ranks up there with the French not having a word for entrepreneur."
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.
How House Bill Runs Over Grandma (via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)

Stephenson's Orth-speak Hugo acceptance speech

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 11:23 AM PDT


As promised, here's the Ur text of Neal Stephenson's acceptance speech for the Hugo Award for Anathem, snapped at the pre-award reception before we both discovered that our books had been beaten by Gaiman's kick-ass Graveyard Book. The translation into the fictional language was done by Jeremy Bornstein. (Click through for high-rez)

Neal Stephenson's Anathem acceptance speech in Urth, never delivered, Huge Reception, Anticipation, WorldCon, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.JPG

Previously:


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