Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Battle of The Billboards in LA: Giant Boozy Ladyparts are OK, Criticizing Insurance Companies Ain't.

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 07:40 PM PDT

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In LA's Koreatown district, two dueling billboards over on Wilshire Boulevard. Two enter, one leaves. Guess which?

At left, Consumer Watchdog's ad, arguing that you can't trust Mercury Insurance. Yup, you guessed it -- THAT billboard was dismantled last week when the subject of the ad issued lawyergrams.

At right, the Absolut vagina Mango ad, which still flaps proudly in the Southern California breeze:

"If you drive three to four blocks east of where ours was," said Jamie Court, "there's a huge Absolut Mango ad, and it's really not a mango." Court said he was alerted by his wife, who happened upon it while driving and made the following observation: "There's a five-story vagina on a building."
So, happy mutants, lesson learned: You may or may not be able to trust Mercury Insurance, but you can trust humongous hoo-hahs.

Read: LA Times via MSNBC. Images from Consumer Watchdog; howunoriginal.com.

Boing Boing's September 11, 2001 archives.

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 08:17 PM PDT

Very early that morning, as the smoke was rising, Boing Boing re-blogged this eyewitness account by Teresa Nielsen Hayden:
I just climbed back down from my Brooklyn rooftop. An airplane has flown into the World Trade Towers. There's thick black smoke billowing out of several floors of both towers. Let me pause for a moment to say with all the lucidity I can muster that it is the strangest sight I have ever seen in my life.

I can hear the sirens of multiple emergency vehicles, 360 degrees around. There were people on other rooftops in my neighborhood, some of them talking on their cellphones. Down in the street below me a workman was shouting in some language other than English for the rest of his work crew to come out of the house they're renovating and see what's happening. I couldn't make out a word of it, but there was no mistaking the sense.

Patrick called from the office. He says from where I'm standing I can't see the big hole in the side of one tower.

And Cory wrote:
The Internet's major news sites have been shut down by a massive flood of traffic as everyone in the world calls and emails everyone else in the world to tell them the news. God, this feels so apocalyptic. Five people have just called me to tell me about this, and more -- all flights in the US have been grounded, the Pentagon's been hit, the flights were hijacked commercial airliners... Holy crap.
And Mark linked to this prescient piece by Dan Gillmor:
What happened on Tuesday was an act of war. The American government and military should and will respond in kind. If law enforcement and national security agencies declare war on the American people in the process, they will give the terrorists a gift. The despicable people who planned this will triumph if we add to the damage.
On 9/11, Boing Boing linked to this, from John Perry Barlow:
Control freaks will dine on this day for the rest of our lives. Within a few hours, we will see beginning the most vigorous efforts to end what remains of freedom in America. Those of who are willing to sacrifice a little - largely illusory - safety in order to maintain our faith in the original ideals of America will have to fight for those ideals just as vigorously.
Boing Boing: September 11, 2001.

A dozen Warhol paintings worth millions stolen from Los Angeles home

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 05:03 PM PDT

This just in: a multimillion dollar collection of Warhol works, some twelve paintings including the Athletes series, have gone missing from the Los Angeles home of art collector Richard L. Weisman.
muhammad_300x300.jpgA $1-million reward has been offered by an anonymous source for information leading to the recovery of the paintings. Weisman, who was friends with Warhol, commissioned the silk-screen paintings in the late 1970s - a time when Warhol produced hundreds of pieces of work for wealthy patrons able to pay the roughly $25,000 he charged for portraits.


Space Shuttle scheduled to land near LA this evening, big sonic boom expected

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 08:17 PM PDT

Untitled.jpgUpdate, 5:55pm PDT: Heard just now on Mission Control audio: "Home! (...) Welcome home Discovery, after a successful mission, stepping up science to a new level on the International Space Station." A beautiful touchdown at 5:53pm PDT, and damn tootin' we heard (and felt) the twin booms here in LA.

Southern California BB readers, here's your evening forecast: breezy with a chance of BEWMMMM! Expect a large sonic boom between 530-555pm PDT this evening if you're in one of the colored areas in the map embedded at left (click to see large size).

That's when the Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to land at Edwards Air Force Base out in Mojave, instead of KSC in Florida (due to sketchy weather back east). Snip from LA Times item:

The so-called "deorbit burn" is scheduled to begin at 4:47 p.m. PDT for a 5:53 p.m. landing at Edwards in the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles, according to details published on NASA's website. The second opportunity for leaving orbit will come at 6:23 p.m., ending with a landing at 7:28 p.m.
The mission to deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station lasted 2 weeks and spanned 5.7 million miles. More: LA Times, NASA "Landing Blog."

Wooo! The deorbit burn is beginning as I type this blog post. Snip:

Discovery's orbital maneuvering system engines are firing now. This two-minute, 35-second deorbit burn will slow the orbiter's forward speed by about 267 feet per second, enough to begin its descent through the atmosphere.
Previously:

Update: Sonic boom + unsuspecting dog = the video below (via @caseymckinnon via @georgeruiz).



9/11/2009

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 08:17 PM PDT

From a 2001 story in New York magazine written a couple of weeks after the attacks, by David Carr:

# Everyone who comes after will never understand.
Not a new brand of New York provincialism but a cold fact. This is the place where the world seemed to end in a single morning. That day, as it was experienced here, was not televised.

# The jumpers will always be with us.
Faced with the most horrible of all human choices, the kind of riddle that grade-school children use to torture each other, many leaped rather than burn. And as the debris falling from the top anthropomorphized into human beings, people watching understood that for the time being, we were all beyond help. "I don't remember faces, just bodies jumping out," says Alexandra Rethore, a second-year analyst at Lehman Brothers. "And the girl next to me was hysterical. She kept saying, 'They're catching them, right?' I said, 'Yeah, they're catching them. Let's go.' " It was a noble act, a message to loved ones: "I'm gone but not lost. I'm still here. Find me."

18 Truths About the New New York (New York, 10-2001)

Worth reading today:
A Fortress City That Didn't Come to Be (NYT, 09-2009)
What Would 9-11 Be Like in the Age of Social Media? (LA Weekly, 09-2009)

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Picture 14.jpg

Previously:


Cheerful bear headed robot lifts people who need assistance

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 02:39 PM PDT

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Meet RIBA, the robot nurse bear.

The cheery-looking machine has long, multi-jointed arms embedded with an array of tactile sensors that help it optimize the lifting and carrying of humans. For safety purposes, RIBA's entire body is covered in a soft skin molded from an advanced lightweight urethane foam developed by TRI. The soft skin is designed to ensure the comfort of patients while they are being carried. In addition, the arm joints yield slightly under pressure -- much like human arms do -- further increasing the level of comfort and safety.

The robotic bear can also recognize faces and voices, as well as respond to spoken commands. Using visual and audio data from its surroundings, RIBA can identify co-workers, determine the position of those nearby, and respond flexibly to changes in the immediate environment. The motors operate silently, and a set of omni-directional wheels allow the robot to navigate tight spaces inside hospitals and nursing facilities.

Video and more photos at link. RIBA robot nurse bear

Lynchian version of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 02:19 PM PDT


It's too easy to describe anything that's kinda creepy as being "Lynchian," but I can't think of a more apt term for this old Scopitone video that Spike Priggen of Bedazzled sent me. It's the Freddy Bee 4 performing "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." Excuse me while I go in the corner to quake.

SF writers Nalo Hopkinson & Michael Kurland read at SF in SF event this Saturday!

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 01:33 PM PDT

Rina sez,
SF in SF & Tachyon Publications present Nalo Hopkinson & Michael Kurland

Saturday, September 12
Doors and cash bar open at 6:00 PM

Authors read at 7PM; followed by Q & A moderated by Terry Bisson, and schmoozing and booksigning will be in the lounge afterwards

$5 suggested donation goes straight to Variety Childrens' Charity - drop it in the donation box, or buy a beer!

The Variety Preview Room Theatre
The Hobart Bldg. 1st Floor - entrance between Quiznos and Citibank
582 Market Street at 2nd & Montgomery
San Francisco
Phone night of event - 415-572-1015
Questions? email sfinsfevents@gmail.com

I've never heard Michael read, but Nalo is an astounding performer of her own work (daughter of an actor, runs in the family). It doesn't hurt that her work is so goddamned good.

September Reading: Michael Kurland & Nalo Hopkinson

Poe archive from UT Austin goes online

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 01:30 PM PDT

Lori sez, "UT Austin's Ransom Center has digitized their Edgar Allan Poe collection, and it's pretty cool. I especially like the copies of his books, with his notes in them."

Oh, there's tons of Poe treasure here. I'm in hog heaven.

The digital collection incorporates images of all Poe manuscripts and letters at the Ransom Center with a selection of related archival materials, two books by Poe annotated by the author, sheet music based on his poems, and portraits from the Ransom Center collections. Poe's manuscripts and letters are linked to transcriptions on the website of the Poe Society of Baltimore.
The Edgar Allan Poe Digital Collection (Thanks, Lori!)

A visit to a store called Mr. Stuff in Los Angeles

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 01:26 PM PDT

P1060562 Dr-Laura-Doll

(Click images to make them bigger)

MAKE's marvelous editorial assistant, Laura Cochrane, told me about her recent visit to a discount surplus store called Mr. Stuff. I asked her to write a short piece about it.

A couple of weeks ago, I flew down to LA to visit my friend Alex. His mom recommended that we go to Brent's deli in Northridge for breakfast one day. We did, and it was delicious.

After breakfast while walking back to the car, my eye caught on a store called Mr. Stuff. The sign was punctuated by a caricature of a regular-looking guy in jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt, with a cape and eye mask on. The sign promised: "All Kinds of Stuff!"

"We have to go in!" I announced. Alex -- a friend that kindly indulges all my random whims -- followed. The store lived up to its name: Mr. Stuff is filled with bizarre, random inventory, each object more ridiculous and hilarious than the last. I loved it! Of course thrift stores are pretty good for this sort of experience, but I'm partial to these closeout, just-fell-off-the-truck outlets.

Among Mr. Stuff's treasure trove: Extra short screwdrivers and hammers, pots of fake dirt and moss (presumably for fake plants), talking Dr. Laura and Dennis Miller dolls, Colgate brand soap (?), blonde tape measures (with drawings of feet on them), unidentifiable Japanese hygiene products, scented canned oxygen, lots of tools, dusty TVs, $10 jeans, a mug that says "Ring bell for more coffee" (that had a bike bell attached to the handle), a mug that says "I have a crush on you!" (A mug seems like the wrong vehicle to convey that message), a wide selection of bolt cutters, machine oil (it must have been poured from a bulk container into many small containers because each label was hand-written), and lots of dishes that look like they had lead in them.

To me there's something fascinating about surplus, unwanted products. Mr. Stuff will definitely be on my itinerary the next time I visit LA!

Sidenote: Mr. Stuff's tagline, "All Kinds of Stuff!" must have been where John Kricfalusi got the name for his blog. John likes getting names from things he comes across in the San Fernando Valley. He got the name for his George Liquor character from a liquor store called George Liquor, which amused him to no end.

New book on conspiracies and Shermer's skeptical take on the topic

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 12:36 PM PDT

In Scientific American, skeptic Michael Shermer presents his take on why people believe in conspiracies, even the most unlikely ones. Shermer raves about a new book on the subject by Arthur Goldwag, titled "Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more." I find secret societies and cults to be immensely fascinating, so I'm looking forward to reading this book. And while much of Shermer's skeptical view makes sense to me, I think it's often more fun to imagine that some ultraweird and occult conspiracies do exist. From Scientific American:
Ebooks Cover Remote Id115 978-0-307-4566 9780307456663But as former Nixon aide G. Gordon Liddy once told me (and he should know!), the problem with government conspiracies is that bureaucrats are incompetent and people can't keep their mouths shut. Complex conspiracies are difficult to pull off, and so many people want their quarter hour of fame that even the Men in Black couldn't squelch the squealers from spilling the beans. So there's a good chance that the more elaborate a conspiracy theory is, and the more people that would need to be involved, the less likely it is true.

Why do people believe in highly improbable conspiracies? In previous columns I have provided partial answers, citing patternicity (the tendency to find meaningful patterns in random noise) and agenticity (the bent to believe the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents). Conspiracy theories connect the dots of random events into meaningful patterns and then infuse those patterns with intentional agency. Add to those propensities the confirmation bias (which seeks and finds confirmatory evidence for what we already believe) and the hindsight bias (which tailors after-the-fact explanations to what we already know happened), and we have the foundation for conspiratorial cognition.

Examples of these processes can be found in journalist Arthur Goldwag's marvelous new book, Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies (Vintage, 2009), which covers everything from the Freemasons, the Illuminati and the Bilderberg Group to black helicopters and the New World Order. "When something momentous happens, everything leading up to and away from the event seems momentous, too. Even the most trivial detail seems to glow with significance," Goldwag explains, noting the JFK assassination as a prime example...
Buy "Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more" (Amazon)

"Why People Believe in Conspiracies" (SciAm)

Six-year-old girl chauffeured stoned mom

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 12:10 PM PDT

Lakisha Hogue of Coatesville, PA was too stoned to drive so she had her 6-year-old daughter take over. Hogue is now in jail. From NBCPhiladelphia.com:
The woman... was sitting in the passenger seat, laughing, when a patrol officer pulled her over, said police. Hogue told the Officer (Robert) Keetch that she was teaching her daughter how to drive.

"Mom made me drive because she was sleepy," the girl told police.

Then police say the aunt asked her niece, "Was your mom smoking that stinky stuff again?" The girl replied "yes," say police.
6-Year-Old Drives After Mom Smokes "That Stinky Stuff" (via Fortean Times)

Bach canon played as a moebius strip

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 12:05 PM PDT


This video of Canon 1 à 2 from J. S. Bach's Musical Offering (1747) being turned into a Moebius strip, then played in two directions at the same time would have been good to watch and listen to while I was reading the mind-bending Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid many years ago. (via cgr 2.0)

New book about cult magazines does great job of recounting history of bOING bOING

Posted: 04 Sep 2009 11:54 AM PDT


Luis Ortiz sent me a copy of his new book, Cult Magazines: A to Z: A Compendium of Culturally Obsessive & Curiously Expressive Publications, which he co-edited with Earl Kemp. It's a remarkable history of special interest magazines from the 1920s to the 1990s, arranged alphabetically.

As you might imagine, "special interest" mainly means magazines with photos of unclothed women, and this category is well represented here, but there are also lots of lovingly-written entries on magazines about science fiction, adventure, the occult, detective stories, music, comics, humor, and movies.

The entry on bOING bOING, the zine, is very accurate. I have no idea where they got these details, but they included things I'd completely forgotten about, and things I didn't think I'd ever told anyone before. (The only bit that's incorrect is that our last issue was 15, not 16.) Luis kindly gave me permission to run bOING bOING's entry here:

BOING BOING

The zeitgeist of the 1980s through 1990s was full of people attempting to meld computers, technology, sex, literature, and art. The science fiction sub-genre cyberpunk was one offshoot of this mating, and it served as the hot core of many new magazines. Mondo 2000, Black Ice (from England), N6, Nonstop, SF Eye, Future Sex, and bOING bOING were all 'zines that shared much of the same mindset, and some of the same writers.

In 1988, Mark Frauenfelder and his then-girlfriend (now wife) Carla Sinclair, began putting together a fanzine full of fun technology, freaky comics, Silicon Alley gutter-curb culture, cyber-science fiction culture, and all manner of posthuman irreverent things. Frauenfelder, while working as a mechanical engineer, had discovered Factsheet 5, a review for do-it-yourself magazines, and was inspired to create his own zine. He used a dot matrix printer and the copier at his office to publish the first 32-page issue of bOING bOING, which included an interview with Robert Anton Wilson, a piece on brain machines by Sinclair, and comics by Frauenfelder. The couple sent copies to Factsheet 5, and the review there brought the 'zine to the attention of Ubiquity Distributors in New York City. Soon Fine Print and Dessert Moon distributors, who were all looking to get into the zine boom of the early 1990s, picked it up.

Paul Di Filippo's "Ribofunk" ran in the second issue, along with work by Gareth Branwyn who joined the editorial staff. By the fifth issue, the self-styled "neurozine" began running color covers, and carried ever-changing mottos: "The perpetual novelty brain jack" or "The brain mutator for higher primates." It didn't take long for bOING bOING to find its audience (a group made up of alternative comics fans, first generation cyberpunks, and computer geeks), and the magazine was soon selling over ten thousand copies an issue, even though it is quite probable that none of its readers could describe the magazine to non-readers. A sort of editorial/manifesto appeared in the eighth issue: "How can our paranoid one-maze monkey brains integrate new structures and patterns? Where is the hard reset button on our nervous systems that'll allow us to flavor our thinking with new epistemological spices? One of bOING bOING's purposes is to explore metanoia (the ability to simultaneously incorporate multiple tunnel realities) and discover some of the countless ways to achieve this fun state."

bOING bOING was put together by geeks for geeks. Frauenfelder was also the magazine's main illustrator, and utilized a cartoony style that appeared cribbed from the spare 50s television cartoons of Gene Deitch. The writers included a mulligan stew of science fiction authors and tech-heads like Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, Richard Kadrey, John Shirley, Charles Platt, and Rudy Rucker. Circulation reached 17,500 by the 16th issue [should be the 15th issue -- Mark], but the bankruptcy of Fine Print Distributors left Frauenfelder and Sinclair in the hole for $30,000. The distribution aspect had always been on shaky ground and when another distributor collapsed Frauenfelder and Sinclair attempted to sell the magazine directly to readers with mixed results. In the magazine's last year, the couple were working on books and internet projects that would eventually replace bOING bOING. Frauenfelder was an editor at Wired from 1993-1998 and founding editor of Wired online. bOING bOING was a website for a while, before turning into the popular web blog it is today. In an interview, Sinclair said, "bOING bOING always comes back."

Cult Magazines: A to Z: A Compendium of Culturally Obsessive & Curiously Expressive Publications

Core77's survival guide for designers

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 11:48 AM PDT

Core77 Hack2Work

Allan Chochinov of Core77 let me know about this fun and useful online survival guide for designers called HACK2WORK: Essential Tips for the Design Professional.

Filled with hundreds of tips, tricks, lifehacks and advice for practicing designers, the feature covers everything from office supplies to office snacks, from essential books to essential software, and from intellectual property and design research to conferences, working with the press, and creative hiring.

Here's a partial list of some of the items you'll find:

+ How to Make Your Client's Logo Bigger Without Making Their Logo Bigger, by Michael Bierut

+ Why Does the Firm Own Everything I Do? Intellectual Property & You, by Katy Frankel

+ How to Get Invited to Speak at a Design Conference, by Alissa Walker

+ Check Please: How to Learn About Your Clients From Their Table Manners, by Liz Danzico

+ On Being T-Shaped, by Tim Brown

+ 19 Books Every Design Professional Should Own, by Andy Polaine

+ The Definitive DIY Guide for Professional Designers, by Christy Canida

+ Core77's Guide to Unconventional Office Plants, by Lisa Smith

+ 5 Keys to Successful Design Research, by Steve Portigal

+ How to Pitch Me, by Linda Tischler

HACK2WORK: Essential Tips for the Design Professional

MAKE's Halloween contest

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 11:43 AM PDT


Becky Stern of Make Online says:

It's here, folks, the biggest DIY Halloween contest there is! This year's contest is sponsored by Microchip, and together we've got rad prizes to give to the best in microcontroller Halloween projects. Light up costumes, creepy decorations, candy-launching robots, we just can't get enough of Halloween; it's our all-time favorite holiday.
Above: a cute Mechamo Crab hack.

Make: Halloween Contest 2009!

Photos of NYC in the 1940s

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 11:39 AM PDT


Ben Cosgrove says:

Here's a LIFE gallery of remarkable shots from NYC in its Golden Age, the 1940s, in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson first sailing up the river that bears his name, past the island that would be Manhattan. The Forties' art, music, sports, finance, technology -- what a time it was.

Urban legends about the Smithsonian

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 11:23 AM PDT

The Smithsonian Institution was established in 1846, and since then numerous weird urban legends have emerged about the buildings, the collection, and the organization's research efforts. Smithsonian Mangazine posted a fun collection of the myths and the realities. Here are two of my favorites:
Myth #4: The Smithsonian discovered Egyptian ruins in the Grand Canyon.
Fact: It didn't.
Backstory: On April 5, 1909, the Arizona Gazette ran the following headline: "Explorations in Grand Canyon; Mysteries of Immense Rich Cavern Being Brought to Light; Jordan Is Enthused; Remarkable Find Indicates Ancient People Migrated from Orient." The article includes testimony of one G. E. Kincaid who says that he, traveling solo down the Green and Colorado Rivers, discovered proof of an ancient civilization—possibly of Egyptian origin. The story also asserts that a Smithsonian archaeologist named S. A. Jordan returned with Kincaid to investigate the site. However, the Arizona Gazette appears to have been the only newspaper ever to have published the story. No records can confirm the existence of either Kincaid or Jordan.

Myth #5: Betsy Ross stitched the Star-Spangled Banner.
Fact: Mary Pickersgill stitched the flag that inspired the National Anthem.
Backstory: The making of the first standard of the United States is popularly attributed to Betsy Ross, a professional flagmaker who has become a national folk hero. The legend stems from Ross' grandson, William J. Canby, who, in 1870, wrote down a story a relative had told him in 1857­—well after Ross' death. The account goes that in spring 1776, George Washington approached Ross with a rough sketch of a flag and asked her to make a national standard. With the United States preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary, the story about the birth of the national flag captured imaginations. There is, however, no documentation that links Ross with making the first flag, and the events described in Canby's account take place a year before the passage of the Flag Act—the legislation that dictates the style and substance of the national flag. Visitors to the National Museum of American History sometimes ask if the Star Spangled Banner—currently on display after extensive conservation efforts—is an example of Ross's work. That flag was stitched by Mary Pickersgill and flew over Fort McHenry during the 1814 Battle of Baltimore, inspiring Francis Scott Key to pen the poem that became our National Anthem.
Urban Legends About the Smithsonian

Attention artists, inventors, and small biz entrepreneurs: apply for a GO Ingenuity Fellowship

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 10:50 AM PDT

Diana Alexander, director of operations for the GO Campaign says:
Gia LogoGO Campaign is a US nonprofit dedicated to bettering the lives of orphans and vulnerable children throughout the world. We believe education and vocational training can be inspiring and life-changing. The GO Ingenuity Award has been established to encourage the sharing of innovation and invention with marginalized youth eager for a better future.

GO Campaign announced they will award a maximum of five GO Ingenuity Awards (GIA) to artists, inventors, and small business entrepreneurs to stimulate the next generation of "makers" and turn makers into role models and sources of inspiration for children in their community.

Up to five GIAs will be awarded in amounts ranging from $500 to $2,500 each to selected applicants who are eager to share their skills with marginalized youth in developing countries in ways that educate and inspire youth to harness their own ingenuity.

The one-year, one-time fellowship grants emphasize the sharing of innovative artistry and technology in informal, hands-on learning workshops with youth. Complete Guidelines and Application available at www.gocampaign.org/gia. Application deadline: December 1, 2009



Hang out with artists at Baby Tattooville, October 2 -4, 2009

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 10:37 AM PDT

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I'm excited to be going to Baby Tattooville this year (as a member of the press) and hang out with a lot of my favorite artists. If you want to attend, hurry and sign up, as only nine slots remain.

Baby Tattooville is an unlike-anything-you've-ever-heard-of-before art extravaganza. It's like a high-roller's cross between a lively art fair, a down-to-earth studio visit with famous artists, and a 'round-the-clock private party... with lots of jaw-dropping gifts for the lucky few who are adventurous enough to attend.

The event takes place early next month (October 2-4, 2009) at the spectacular Mission Inn Hotel and Spa in Riverside, California. This year's artist lineup includes James Gurney, Michael Hussar, Audrey Kawasaki, Travis Louie, Elizabeth McGrath, Miss Mindy, Johnny KMNDZ Rodriguez, KRK Ryden, Greg "Craola" Simkins, Yoskay Yamamoto and a number of surprise guests (big surprise guests).

In order to insure that attendees are able to interact directly with their favorite artists, a total of only 45 tickets are offered for sale. As mentioned above, only 9 tickets remain available as of today.

The retail price is $2500 for an individual ticket, or $3000 for a two-person ticket (the two people must occupy the same hotel room and will receive one gift bag between them). The retail price includes 2 nights hotel accommodations, several meals (including a spectacular Sunday Brunch), access to a weekend's worth of social and creative interaction with all of the attending artists, and an unbelievable assortment of original art, limited edition prints and collectible merchandise. Go to babytattooville.com to learn more and register.

In addition to everything mentioned above, you will find yourself with an unparalleled networking opportunity since you will be spending a fun and stimulating weekend with top artists, other industry professionals and media insiders.

Spend the Weekend with Your Favorite Artists and Get Lots of Exclusive Stuff

Story about Wal-Mart founder's treatment of his employees

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 10:19 AM PDT

The American Prospect reviewed a couple of books about Wal-Mart, and included this charming anecdote about Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton
Around the time that the young Sam Walton opened his first stores, John Kennedy redeemed a presidential campaign promise by persuading Congress to extend the minimum wage to retail workers, who had until then not been covered by the law. Congress granted an exclusion, however, to small businesses with annual sales beneath $1 million -- a figure that in 1965 it lowered to $250,000.

Walton was furious. The mechanization of agriculture had finally reached the backwaters of the Ozark Plateau, where he was opening one store after another. The men and women who had formerly worked on small farms suddenly found themselves redundant, and he could scoop them up for a song, as little as 50 cents an hour. Now the goddamn federal government was telling him he had to pay his workers the $1.15 hourly minimum. Walton's response was to divide up his stores into individual companies whose revenues did not exceed the $250,000 threshold. Eventually, though, a federal court ruled that this was simply a scheme to avoid paying the minimum wage, and he was ordered to pay his workers the accumulated sums he owed them, plus a double-time penalty thrown in for good measure.

Wal-Mart cut the checks, but Walton also summoned the employees at a major cluster of his stores to a meeting. "I'll fire anyone who cashes the check," he told them.

The "values" of Wal-Mart, the largest private-sector employer in the U.S., are shaping our national economy -- and that's a very bad thing. (Via WashPost)

Patriotic donut holes and cakes commemorating 9/11

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 09:38 AM PDT

200909110937

Cake wrecks has a gallery of cakes with 9/11 themes.

Hairy type

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 09:34 AM PDT

Images Uploads 2009 09 Hairy3 1
Chris Davenport used the free "digital sketchbook" NodeBox to make the hairy text above. NodeBox is an easy way to create 2D graphics with Python. Davenport posted the code, titled Hair Peace, for others to play with too. From Creative Review:
"Nodebox is really accessible and very easy to pick up and fiddle with, it's aimed mainly at designers like myself who don't have vast programming experience," (Davenport) continues. "I managed to do it in a day after never using Python before. It's all well documented on the Nodebox site and there's a community that helps with problems...
Hairy Type (Creative Review)
Hair Peace (CPD-Work)

Possible solution for Derren Brown's lottery trick

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 09:34 AM PDT


Earlier this week, UK mentalist Derren Brown predicted the winning lottery numbers on live television -- watch it here. It was a neat trick, and people are still trying to figure it out.

The video above offers a plausible explanation of how he did it. Later today, Brown is going on TV to show how he really did it.

Wrecking Ball: your Friday upbeat jangly great pop song

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 08:41 AM PDT

Holy cats am I ever enjoying listening to Mother Mother's song "Wrecking Ball" (off their O My Heart CD) today. It's the kind of song that makes me want to get out of my seat and bounce around the room, then sit down and write something UP.

Wrecking Ball - Mother Mother

Mother Mother's site
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