Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

TokyoFlash Broke Watch: telling time with shattered, animated stained glass

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 02:58 AM PDT

The TokyoFlash folks have a new crazy-ass watch out, the Broke, which tells time by displaying an animation of a shattered piece of stained glass. The bright screen must be pretty battery-intensive because they've added USB recharging, which is pretty nifty.
Reading the time couldn't be easier. Touch the button and a shattering animation will light up the display. The outer ring of blocks represent hours in the same position as hours on a clock face. The inner ring of blocks represents five minute intervals in the same position as minutes on a clock face. Four single minutes are shown in the center.
Kisai Broke USB charging LED watch
Previously:


Panoramic view of a 19th century Belgian reservoir

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 01:34 AM PDT

This is an eerie and cool panorama of a 19th century Belgian reservoir, temporarily drained for maintenance: "The tank is normally filled with water and therefore inaccessible. Built in 1877, it collects the water collected by galleries "draining" of the Bois de la Cambre and the Foret de Soignes. Its storage capacity reached 18,000 m³."

The water tank of Etterbeek / Le Reservoire d'eau d'Etterbeek (Thanks, Jeffrey!)

Previously:


Ghana Think Talk: the world majority solves the first world's problems

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 11:47 PM PDT


Christopher sez,
The Ghana ThinkTank is solving the First World's problems, one by one.

Founded in 2006, the Ghana ThinkTank is a worldwide network of think tanks creating strategies to resolve local problems in the "developed" world. The network began with think tanks from Ghana, Cuba and El Salvador, and has since expanded to include Serbia, Mexico and Ethiopia. In their most recent project, they sent problems collected in Wales to think tanks in Ghana, Mexico, Serbia, Iran, and a group of incarcerated girls in the U.S. Prison system.

These think tanks analyze the problems and propose solutions, which they put into action back in the community where the problems originated -- whether those solutions seem impractical or brilliant.

By applying a typical process of community development against the grain, traditional power-roles are inverted, places are exchanged, and stereotypes clash with reality as disconnected cultures work together in detached but physical ways.

This project is an attempt to transpose parts of one culture into another, exploring the friction caused by solutions that are generated in one context and applied elsewhere, and revealing the hidden assumptions that govern cross-cultural interactions.

The Ghana ThinkTank (Thanks, Christopher!)
Previously:


Considering cities as "dense meshes of active, communicating public objects"

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 10:57 PM PDT

Here's ubiquitous computing dude and smart guy Adam Greenfield talking about treating cities as "software under development." It's a provocative and exciting essay:
Provided that, we can treat the things we encounter in urban environments as system resources, rather than a mute collection of disarticulated buildings, vehicles, sewers and sidewalks. One prospect that seems fairly straightforward is letting these resources report on their own status. Information about failures would propagate not merely to other objects on the network but reach you and me as well, in terms we can relate to, via the provisions we've made for issue-tracking.

And because our own human senses are still so much better at spotting emergent situations than their machinic counterparts, and will probably be for quite some time yet to come, there's no reason to leave this all up to automation. The interface would have to be thoughtfully and carefully designed to account for the inevitable bored teenagers, drunks, and randomly questing fingers of four-year-olds, but what I have in mind is something like, "Tap here to report a problem with this bus shelter."

In order for anything like this scheme to work, public objects would need to have a few core qualities, qualities I've often described as making them "addressable, queryable, and even potentially scriptable." What does this mean?

Frameworks for citizen responsiveness, enhanced: Toward a read/write urbanism (via Beyond the Beyond)
Previously:


Reading from FOR THE WIN - YA science fiction novel about gold farming

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 10:48 PM PDT

My next young adult novel, For the Win, is out on May 11 in the US, UK and Canada. It's a kind of novel-length version of my story Anda's Game, about the drive to unionize gold-farmers who toil in video-games.

I've just read an excerpt from the book in my podcast -- a scene in which a wildcat strike breaks out in an Internet Cafe in Guangzhou.

MP3 Link

Podcast feed

Another Science Fiction: space race ads on tour

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 10:52 PM PDT


Rick Prelinger sez, "My spouse Megan Prelinger is about to take to the road with her show of paleofuturistic ads from the early, go-go years of the space race. While the images are fascinating in print, they're even more provocative when projected, revealing the gap (and sometimes uncanny resemblance) between the fanciful and actual futures of space exploration. I can't wait to see them on the big screen at DC's National Air & Space Museum, LA's Griffith Observatory and a host of other venues in Portland, Seattle and NYC. Her tour kicks off at San Francisco's Booksmith this coming Tuesday, May 4 with a slide show, reading and release party for her new book Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957-1962."

I have a copy of this on my desk and it is spectacular. Megan and Rick stopped by my office a couple months ago and I got to hear Megan talk about the subject matter and was totally mindblown. This tour is highly recommended.

Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957 - 1962

Images from the book

Previously:


Peter Watts won't go to jail

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 10:37 PM PDT

The absurd and awful saga of sf writer Dr Peter Watts's adventures with the US border are finally at a close, and the news is moderately good. For those of you who missed it the first time around: Peter is a Canadian marine biologist and sf writer. He helped a friend relocate to the US, and, while driving back, found that US customs officers had opened his trunk and begun to search his car while he was in it, without saying anything. Peter had never encountered a US search on his way out of America, let alone a completely unannounced one. So he got out of his car and said something like, "Hey, what's going on?" The customs officers ordered him to get back into his car and he said something like, "But what's going on?"

That's when they beat him to the slushy ground, gassed him with pepper spray and charged him with a felony ("obstruction"). He was held in wet clothes in an unheated cell overnight during a snowstorm, then released and told to come back for his trial, where he would face up to two years in prison for his crime.

At the trial, the guards gave ridiculous, self-contradictory testimony (they said Peter had fought them), and the videos showed that Peter's side of the story was the correct one. He got out of his car, asked a simple question, then failed to instantly obey the barked order of the customs officer. This failure to be instantly obedient is apparently all the statute required, and Peter was found guilty. His jurors subsequently found their way onto his blog and apologized, but said that the judge instructed them that they had to find guilty if Peter had been anything less than instantaneously and wholeheartedly cooperative.

Then came the sentencing recommendation. The prosecutor, after making noises about a suspended sentence, came back with a recommended six-month sentence.

That was where things stood yesterday, when Peter drove to Port Huron for his sentencing. But the judge saw some reason and suspended Peter's sentence.

Whew.

Peter Watts is free (Thanks to everyone who sent in this great news)

Previously:


A gallery of stunning Hubble images from new book

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 04:24 PM PDT

These images are featured in the stunning new book Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time by Edward J. Weiler, published by Abrams in collaboration with NASA. All images: Courtesy NASA. Click images for enlargement.

89979 Hubble Stsci 2004 27

Hubble's survey of planetary nebulae reveals surprisingly intricate, glowing patterns spun into space by aging stars: pinwheels, lawn sprinkler-style jets, elegant goblet shapes, and even some that look like a rocket engine's exhaust. These nebulae record the complex processes that happen in the final stages of a Sun-like star's evolution when it burns out and collapses to a white dwarf star. This is the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), one of the first to be discovered. Credit: Hubble Heritage Team


89979 Hubble Stsci 1995 44A


Eerie, dramatic pictures from the Hubble show newborn stars emerging from dense, compact pockets of interstellar gas called evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) that lie in the Eagle Nebula, a nearby star-forming region 7,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens. The columns--dubbed "elephant trunks"--protrude from the wall of a vast cloud of molecular hydrogen like stalagmites rising above the floor of a cavern. Inside the gaseous towers, which are light-years long, the interstellar gas is dense enough to collapse under its own weight, forming young stars that continue to grow as they accumulate more and more mass from their surroundings. Credit: Jeff Hester (Arizona State University)


89979 Hubble Hs 2009 25 I Full Tif


A 3-light-year-long pillar in the Carina Nebula photographed in visible light is bathed in the glow of light from hot, massive stars. Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of changed particles) from these stars are sculpting the pillar and causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of gas and dust can be seen flowing off the top of the structure. The fledgling stars inside the pillar cannot be seen because they are hidden by gas and dust. Although the stars themselves are invisible, one of them is providing evidence of its existence: Thin puffs of material can be seen traveling to the left and to the right of a dark notch in the center of the pillar. The matter is part of a jet produced by a young star. Farther away, on the left, the jet is visible as a grouping of small, wispy clouds. The jet's total length is about 10 light-years.


89979 Hubble Stsci 2003 28


The Sombrero Galaxy (M104) is a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by the thick dust lanes that make up its spiral structure. As seen from Earth, the galaxy is titled nearly edge on: We view it from just 6 degrees north of its equatorial plane. At a relatively bright magnitude of +8, M104 is just beyond the limit of naked-eye visibility and is easily seen through small telescopes. The Sombrero lies at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies and is one of the most massive objects in that group, equivalent to 800 billion suns. The galaxy is 50,000 light-years across and is 28 million light-years from the Earth.


Hubble 46 Full



This is the sharpest image taken of the merging Antennae galaxies. During the course of collision, billions of stars are formed. The brightest and most compact of these star-birth regions are called super star clusters. The two spiral galaxies started their interaction a few hundred million years ago, making the Antennae galaxies one of the nearest and youngest examples of a pair of colliding galaxies. Nearly half of the faint objects in the Antennae image are young clusters containing tens of thousands of stars. The orange blobs to the left and right of center are the two cores of the original galaxies and consist mainly of old stars crisscrossed by filaments of dust, which appear brown in the image. The two galaxies are dotted with brilliant blue star-forming regions surrounded by glowing hydrogen gas, appearing in the image in pink.



Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time by Edward J. Weiler

TSA applesauce "assault" case thrown out

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 03:35 PM PDT


A 58-year-old woman who was arrested, strip-searched, and handcuffed last year for grabbing her cooler (filled with applesauce and yogurt for her 93-year-old mother) from a Burbank airport TSA employee finally had her case thrown out.

From CBS:

Prosecutors charged Nadine Kay Hays, 58, who was traveling to Nashville with her mother, with the battery charge after the reported fight with the Transportation Security Administration agent last April. The agent claimed that Hays made a fist and struck her on the hand during the tussle.

Hays denied striking the agent, arguing that she merely brought down her hand to keep agents from taking away her 93-year-old mother's apple sauce, cheese and milk, which were inside a cooler.

"I am not going to plead guilty to something I didn't do. I'm a person of character," Hays, whose mother died last month, said. "I end up reliving this disaster every spare moment of my life. You just flash back and you see these scenes over and over."

I watched the video (blue cooler is in lower left of video above), but it's hard to see any hitting going on.

Woman Accused Of Hitting TSA Agent Over Applesauce

Parody of Cookie Diet brainstorm

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 03:16 PM PDT

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Adam of AdamThinks.com wrote this make-believe account of the thinking behind Dr. Siegals's Cookie Diet ($60 for a box of seven 4.6 ounce bags of cookies, or $30 per pound).

Siegal: How about cookies that make you lose weight?

Johnson: That's crazy.  Sell me on it.

Siegal: We'll call it Cookie Diet.  It'll just be a box of cookies, but on the front we'll put a picture of my uncle in a white coat to imply that it's medically proven to make you lose weight.

Johnson: I love it.  But what happens when people realize the cookies don't work?

Siegal: That's easy,  we just charge an outrageous amount of money, that way we only need to sell one box per person.

Cookie Diet

Modern dance inspired by science

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 06:22 PM PDT

There's a couple of very cool things going on with this dance routine. First off, it's based on the principles of fluid dynamics—physical laws that predict the movement of liquids and gases.*

Second, the dance you're watching was recorded live. That means all the nifty "70s Sesame Street"-style tracer effects on dancer Hope Goldman's body, and the visual elements tracked to her movements, weren't added in later. Instead, Goldman and visual artist/programmer Andrew Moffat used "infrared lighting and a custom-modded, $40 webcam along with custom software running on the GPU."

This dance was Goldman's master's thesis for her program at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Great work!

*Awesome fact that I always forget isn't necessarily common knowledge: The gases that make up Earth's atmosphere and the air you breathe are fluidsbehave like liquids. So fluid dynamics doesn't just affect things like oil running through a pipeline—it also governs how hot air from your furnace flows through your house, and how weather patterns move around the globe. (Screwed up the wording there at first, with my layperson's tendency to get "fluid" and "liquid" mixed up. Sorry about that.)

(Via Ferris Jabr)

Fantasy card game for med students

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 04:00 PM PDT

StaphylococcusAureusSbeastie.jpg

The Healing Blade is a card game—based on games like Magic and Pokemon—that's meant to teach future doctors to match a specific bacterial disease to the antibiotic best suited to treating it. Both drugs and diseases are illustrated as mythical creatures, wizards, elves, etc. The card illustration above is for Staphylococcus aureus

It's not too hard to connect strategy games and medicine, co-inventor Dr. Arun Matthews told American Medical News.

"I was struck upon the complexity and yet innate nature of gaming within the choice I would make for putting some of my sick patients on particular antibiotics," he said. "Essentially, in a similar way, when you are playing a complex multi-tiered video game, we are making similar choices by obtaining data from our cultures [and] making risk-management decisions."

IBM nanotechnologists create smallest 3D map of Earth

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 02:55 PM PDT

Files Imagecache Article Image Large Articles 3D-Map
IBM researchers used a new nanopatterning technique to create the "world' smallest" 3D map of the Earth. Approximately 1000 of them would fit on a single grain of salt. Separately, they also carved out a 25-nanometer tall model of the Matterhorn. A nanometer, of course, is one-billionth of a meter, so that's a 1:5 billion scale nano-mountain.



From IBM Research:
The core component of the new technique, which was developed by a team of IBM scientists, is a tiny, very sharp silicon tip measuring 500 nanometers in length and only a few nanometers at its apex...

The tip, similar to the kind used in atomic force microscopes, is attached to a bendable cantilever that controllably scans the surface of the substrate material with the accuracy of one nanometer—a millionth of a millimeter. By applying heat and force, the nano-sized tip can remove substrate material based on predefined patterns, thus operating like a "nanomilling" machine with ultra-high precision.

"IBM Research Creates World's Smallest 3D Map; Brings Low-Cost, Ease of Use to Creation of Nanoscale Objects"

What one Muslim guy thinks of South Park death threat/Mohammed controversy

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 02:28 PM PDT

"I am a Muslim and I am a fan of South Park. To make those terms mutually exclusive is polarizing and frankly, unproductive. Aasif Mandvi over at the Daily Show summarized my sentiment exactly when he said last night, 'Yes, it [the depiction] would make me uncomfortable and I can understand people being upset about it...but here's whats more upsetting. Someone, in the name of a faith that I believe in, threatening another person for doing it.'"—Kalsoom, at the Changing Up Pakistan blog (via Bassam Tariq).

Apollo 11 launch revisited in slow-mo HD glory

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 02:23 PM PDT

apollo11.jpg

Above: HD footage of the first 30 seconds of the Apollo 11 launch slowed down and analyzed as an 8-minute video.

Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8

(Mark Gray on Vimeo, via George Ruiz)

Police seize Gizmodo editor's gadgets

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 02:47 PM PDT

Police seized Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's computers. Understandable, given that Gizmodo bought a prototype cellphone which may have been stolen! The obvious assumption is that they believe Chen may have been party to a crime, but it's also true that the police's priorities are not those of Apple. The raid could be aimed mostly at learning the identity of the original thief. Stepping beyond the particulars here, however skeevy they may be, this could spell trouble in blogland: a source can't know what a journalist might do that authorities could use as a pretext to search, and a journalist can't know what a source might have done that could be used as pretext to search, either. Gizmodo's lawyer, Gaby Darbyshire, suggests that the relevant journalistic shield laws should prevail.

Swiss police foil plot to bomb IBM atomic/nanotech research facility

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 02:20 PM PDT

Police in Switzerland have arrested two men and a woman accused of planning to bomb an IBM research facility near Zurich. Two suspects were Italian, one Swiss. A spokesperson said the arrests occured on April 15 in a town roughly 6 miles south of Zurich. IBM has a lab in the area that conducts research into atomic and nano-scale structures for enhancing electronic products. During a traffic stop, the suspects were found to be in possession of explosives and a letter detailing a planned attack on an international company. NYT, MSNBC, WRS.

Earth from Mars

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 05:14 PM PDT

youarehere.jpg

Above: the first image ever taken of Earth from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon. Photographed by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit one hour before sunrise on the 63rd Martian day, or sol, of its mission. (March 8, 2004).

Earth From Mars (flickr / NASA)

US Senator wants FTC to regulate privacy on Facebook, other social networks

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 01:54 PM PDT

schumer.jpg Like many of us, US Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) was none too pleased about Facebook's recent changes to how user data is shared with third-party companies (and made searchable online).

But the senator announced today that he believes social network privacy is a task for the Federal Trade Commission to tackle with Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and all other online social networking services:

A press release from Schumer's office announced that he has written to the FTC to ask that the agency "examine the privacy disclosures of social-networking sites to ensure they are not misleading or fail to fully disclose the extent to which they share information...(and) provide guidelines for use of private information and prohibit access without user permission."
More at CNET, and here's the press release from Schumer's office. Snip:
These recent changes by Facebook fundamentally change the relationship between the user and the social networking site. Previously, users had the ability to determine what information they chose to share and what information they wanted to keep private. Recent policy changes are fundamentally changing that relationship and there is little guidance on what social networking sites can and cannot do and what disclosures are necessary to consumers.

Under new policies, users must go through a complicated and confusing opt-out process to keep private information from being shared with third party websites. Additionally, Facebook has also created a new system whereby 'interests' listed by users on their personal profiles are automatically aggregated and shared as massive web pages. Users used to have the ability to keep this information private if they chose. These new common interest pages are a gold mine of marketing data that could use by used for spam and potentially scammers, intent on peddling their wares.

Previously:


US Supreme Court to rule on state law banning violent video games

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 01:36 PM PDT

The United States Supreme Court agreed today to rule on the constitutionality of a California state law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. "The Court accepted for review an appeal by the state of California, urging the Court to adopt a new constitutional standard that would enable states to ban such games for those under age 18. The case is Schwarzenegger v. Video Software Dealers Association (08-1448)."

EDGE thinks big on the big ash cloud

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 12:58 PM PDT

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"What do the psychologists have to say about the way the decision-makers have acted? What have the behavioral economists learned from this? I am interested in hearing from the earth and atmospheric scientists, the aeronautical engineers, the physicists. What can science bring to the table?" John Brockman rounds up big ideas about the big ash cloud in a special EDGE.org feature.

Arizona's "papers please" law inspires frijoles-swastikas

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 05:20 PM PDT

beanstika.jpg

ARIZONA, ÜBER ALLES: A recently-passed law in Arizona that requires brown people to present papers when asked by gestapo officers inspired a group of vandals/protesters to "smear refried beans in the shape of swastikas on the state Capitol's windows." Watch video here. (jpeg via Towleroad)

Craig Newmark on "whuffie," news, and power

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 12:34 PM PDT

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is thinking out loud about "whuffie," a concept he picked up from fellow Boinger Cory Doctorow's books. Snip:
[P]ower and influence will shift dramatically to the people and groups with the best reputations and largest networks. The power and influence landscape in 2020 will look very different from now.

I feel this applies to media, and that the media landscape at that point will reflect those flows of power and influence. Among news organizations, the successful survivors will be the ones that build a culture of trust, largely by checking facts, and not tolerating disinformation. The good news is that we already see the first signs.

regarding "Trust, Factchecking, and the News Media Landscape To Come

(cnewmark.com)

What data does Facebook publish about you?

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 02:53 PM PDT

Find out what personal data Facebook publishes about people by entering their Facebook username here: zesty.ca/facebook. Background here. Related: another privacy hole has been discovered which apparently leaks information about events you plan to attend to people outside your "friend" network, regardless of your privacy settings. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling delete-y. (via EFF)

M.I.A.: "Born Free"

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 06:24 PM PDT

mia.jpg

miath.jpg W.O.W. A shocker of a video for M.I.A.'s new single "Born Free" is out. The track will be included on her forthcoming Neet/Interscope release. Here's a tracklist for the yet-untitled album.

Watch video on Vimeo (not worksafe, and not for kids: nudity/sex/violence). Directed by Romain Gavras, full credits here. A live version is here. You can listen to the track here.

The song is a thrilling, aggressive, hardcore electric anthem and heavily samples "Ghost Rider" by Suicide (ca. 1977, buy MP3 here). As my friend Clayton wonders aloud, perhaps the lyrics "America America is killing its youth" in the Suicide song influenced the visuals in the M.I.A. video.

At the risk of spoiling the video for first-timers (and making too much light of the themes of racism and militarism it addresses), I will say only three words: global ginger jihad.

(Via M.I.A. on Twitter; also spotted on Dangerous Minds & LA Times on Friday, and everywhere else by this morning).

Pat Metheny's Orchestrion robot jazz

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 11:45 AM PDT



Youth Radio's Charlie Foster says, "I saw an amazing concert Saturday night in Berkeley, where Pat Metheny jammed out with an orchestra of robots – playing pianos, vibraphones, a bass, a weird bouncing guitar machine and every kind of percussion instrument – all controlled by his guitar through solenoid triggers. It was insane steampunk and beautiful jazz."

Short documentary about Beat artist Barbitol Bob Branaman

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 11:34 AM PDT


Patrick Rosenkranz, author of a great history of underground comics called Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution, says: "Just posted a feature on Beat poet and painter Barbitol Bob Branaman on Youtube. Let's see how long it stays on before they censor it."

Beat Generation poet, painter, and film producer Bob Branaman continues to make avant garde art today. Branaman joined the Beatniks in San Francisco in the 1950s, part of the Kansas Vortex, which included Charles Plymell and Michael McClure, and soon made his name as a hep cat. He outlived many of his bohemian contemporaries, despite his bad habits. In Spring 2010 he had a show of his paintings at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles.

Local news item

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 10:44 AM PDT

Blood glucose meter attaches to Nintendo DS

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 09:21 AM PDT

Screen Shot 2010-04-26 At 9.19.37 Am Bayer introduced a blood glucose meter called the Didget, which connects to the Nintendo DS "to help kids manage their diabetes by positively reinforcing consistent blood glucose testing habits and awarding points that kids can use to unlock new game levels and customize their gaming experience. It comes with Knock 'Em Downs: World's Fair that includes a full length adventure game and mini game arcade."

Bayer Didget

SF writers make up monsters for a kids' writing program

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 08:45 AM PDT

Matt sez, "Hey, I just worked with an absolute horde of great science fiction/fantasy writers to come up with a bestiary of imaginary beasts for Wofford's Shared Worlds program. It's a two week camp for young people with an interest in pursuing sci fi/fantasy writing. The kids are going to actually illustrate the creatures this summer."

Here's the one I wrote for Matt, inspired by Rudy Rucker's awesome novel Spaceland:

The Hyperman exists in four spatial dimensions. When it protrudes into ours, you see it as a series of slices (imagine that you are sticking your face through a sheet of paper, being observed by a two-dimensional flat person drawn on the page) -- the tip of the nose, the bridge, the face, the head, the back of the head.

The Hyperman can go from anywhere to anywhere by taking strides through four-space. If it brings a three-dimensional object, say, a book, into the fourth dimension and rotates it on the 4D axis, it comes back into three-space with all the type backwards. If it does this with a piece of cake, it comes back with all its sugars reversed, so that you can eat it without gaining weight (but you might get explosive diarrhea).

If you want to learn more about what a 4D person is like, read Rudy Rucker's Spaceland.

Other contributors include Michael Bishop, Elizabeth Bear, Ed Greenwood, Toby Buckell, Jay Lake, Nancy Kress and Kathe Koja. SHARED WORLDS Presents... A Fantastic Bestiary (Thanks, Matt!)
Previously:


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