The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Guestbook from the Merril Collection, Toronto's science fiction reference library
• Inadvertent Tetris in everyday life
• World's tiniest open source violin
• Everyone on TV reads the same newspaper
• Fish oil and snake oil
• Edan's psych-hip-hop Echo Party
• Get a discount to the Humanity+ Summit
• Hallmark recalls "Black Holes" birthday card after racism claim
• Zuckerberg's "Facebook Illuminati" hoodie, deconstructed
• BP's spill plan: they knew where it would go, that ecology would never recover, "No toxicity studies" on dispersants
• Ultra slo-mo videos from Make Faire
• Coming this fall: 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die
• Giveaway: Made by Hand unabridged audiobook
• SpaceX Falcon 9 succeeds in historic launch
• Oil spill: Spreading the problem-solving around
• Source code released for Humble Indie Bundle games
• Birds drenched in oil from BP spill: photo gallery
• BP Goatse
• South Carolina lawmaker can't tell Sikhs from Arabs, hates both
• Toxoplasma (cat-poo parasite) hypnotizes rats by making them horny for cat pee
• Lingerie ad features woman in burqa (maybe NSFW)
• Tomorrow is Dead Duck Day
• TedxOilSpill on Washington, DC on June 19
• Weaponized Flying Zebra Chaser
• "We Are The World" viral parody from Israelis who support military's stance on flotilla fiasco
• Graffitti'd Singapore train: a first? Certainly a rarity.
• 2 Robot Tees in a Tin in Boing Boing Bazaar
• How to use your baby as a mop
• Effinger's WHEN GRAVITY FAILS: super-noir cyberpunk Middle East
• Parappa dev NanaOn-Sha creating charity iPhone game WINtA

Guestbook from the Merril Collection, Toronto's science fiction reference library Posted: 05 Jun 2010 02:48 AM PDT More scenes from a book-tour: last night I wrapped up this leg of the tour (I'll be back in the US at the end of June for American Library Association and Copynight in DC, as well as an appearance at Red Emma's, co-sponsored by Baltimore Node). The final stop was my hometown, Toronto, at the Merril Collection, the largest public science fiction reference collection in the world (it was stupendous, with a huge crowd of friends old and new). Which brings me to this photo. The Merril has a beautiful guestbook with signatures from the members of the public and the science fiction luminaries who visited over the years. When we visited it as a class in 1983 (a transformational event in my life), we all signed the guestbook. Last night, I had a long peruse through the book (lingering over the signatures from the likes of Theodore Sturgeon!) and found this page, with the names of all my school-chums from grade 7. Also note the signature from "Timmy" Wu, who now goes by Tim Wu, and is the excellent writer and thinker who (among other things), came up with the term "Net Neutrality." The guestbook is nearly full after several decades, and about to be replaced with a new, equally lovely hand-made number. If you're in Toronto, be sure to visit the Merril and ask to see it (as well as the rest of the wonderful collection). They also archive all my manuscripts (along with many other writers'), along with lots of other really fascinating material. Merril Collection guestbook page, my 1983 visit, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.JPG

Inadvertent Tetris in everyday life Posted: 05 Jun 2010 02:17 AM PDT "Tetris Tetris everywhere" is a Flickr set by L-Plate Big Cheese, documenting everyday objects that appear to be caught in the midst of a heavy round of tetrising. Tetris Tetris everywhere (via Kottke) (Image: Tetris Billboard | Vietnam, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from jesuspresley's photostream) First-person Tetris: the whole screen rotates with the block Boing ... High-resolution Tetris Hi-rez Tetris after two weeks - 3D Tetris in Flash - Boing Boing Homemade Tetris blanket Boing Boing Help a gamer find an elusive Tetris knockoff. - Boing Boing Hatetris: the meanest Tetris clone you've ever played - Boing Boing Tuper Tario Tros: Super Mario meets Tetris Boing Boing

World's tiniest open source violin Posted: 05 Jun 2010 02:13 AM PDT Inspired by this XKCD strip, MaskedRetriever created a model for "the world's tinest open source violin," which you can use to offer mock sympathy to people who didn't listen when you warned them of the dangers of proprietary software and who've now been bitten on the ass by it. Erik fabbed it and it's playing even now. Speaking of which: recently, a librarian friend was telling me that her collection had gotten an extra staffer that they'd been begging for for more than 20 years, but that they weren't allowed to teach this new person anything about cataloguing. That's because their site license for their proprietary cataloging software requires that they pay for another seat for every person in the department who is qualified to catalog, and they can't afford another seat. Tiny Open Violin by Erik (via Make)

Everyone on TV reads the same newspaper Posted: 05 Jun 2010 02:07 AM PDT Everybody on TV and in movies reads the same newspaper, it seems. And they've been reading that standard newspaper prop for decades. At a guess: paranoid studio lawyers don't want to use real newspapers because they think that they might get a copyright complaint from the paper (despite this incidental use being clearly fair use), so they insist that set-dressers all use the same prop that's fully rights-cleared. Katus Crossoverek (újság) (via Waxy)

Fish oil and snake oil Posted: 05 Jun 2010 02:00 AM PDT Writing in The Guardian, Ben "Bad Science" Goldacre debunks a story published in sister paper The Observer about the supposed benefits of fish oil. Not only were the study and its results badly misreported (it wasn't even a study on fish-oil, but rather on Omega-3 fatty acids), but it constitutes part of a larger pattern of bad reporting that ultimately benefits dietary supplement vendors who make insane, unsubstantiated claims about their products' benefits. If this had been a trial to detect whether omega-3 improves performance, it would be laughably small: a dozen children in each group. While small studies aren't entirely useless, as amateurs often claim, you do have a very small number of observations to work from, so your study is much more prone to error from the simple play of chance. A study with 11 children in each arm could conceivably detect an effect, but only if the fish oil caused a gigantic and unambiguous improvement in all the children who got it, and none on placebo improved. This paper showed no difference in performance at all. Since it was a brain imaging study, not a trial, they only report the results of children's actual performance on the attention task in passing, in a single paragraph, but they are clear: "there were no significant group differences in percentage correct, commission errors, discriminability, or reaction time"... And oddly enough, someone has finally now conducted a proper trial of fish oils pills in mainstream children, to see if they work: a well-conducted, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, in 450 children aged 8-10 years old from a mainstream school population. It was published in full this year (http://qurl.com/fish), and they found no improvement. Show me the news headlines about that paper. Fish oil in the Observer: the return of a $2bn friend (Image: Fish oil caps, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from spcummings's photostream) Bad Science Begets Ridiculous Results Bad Science versus the piracy scare story Corrupted Science: the history, cause, effect and state of bad ... What's wrong with evolutionary psychology? Bad science fact on a Happy Meal bag BBC shredded on bad science in WiFi scare report More bad science on kids' food packages Which supplements really work? An interactive guide to evidence ... The danger of science denialism

Edan's psych-hip-hop Echo Party Posted: 04 Jun 2010 08:53 PM PDT I'm digging this acid-drenched hip-hop cut-up video from Edan, the producer/DJ behind 2005's much-loved Beauty and the Beat. It's a chunk of "Echo Party," a half-hour track made from warped and tweaked samples of Traffic Entertainment Group's classic catalog of hip hop, funk, disco, and soul. The vinyl is limited to 1,000 copies, each with a hand-stamped cover. A CD version is also available from Amazon and other outlets. (via Dose Nation)

Get a discount to the Humanity+ Summit Posted: 04 Jun 2010 06:28 PM PDT Rebecca says: Humanity+ , a non-profit focused on education about the potential for human enhancement via technology, is hosting the second H+ Summit at Harvard University's Science Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Saturday and Sunday, June 12 and 13, 2010, in cooperation with the Harvard College Future Society. The focus of 2010's H+ Summit is on the "Rise of the Citizen Scientist" and the conference is bringing together 60 renowned speakers who will explore the potential of technology to modify your body, mind, life, and world. They will be addressing questions like, "What will it mean to be a human in this next phase of technological development?" and "How can we prepare now for coming changes?" A few of the Summit's featured speakers include Ray Kurzweil, noted futurist, Stephen Wolfram, creator of Wolfram|Alpha, and Andrew Hessel, an outspoken advocate and champion of DNA technology. These visionaries, and other speakers, will provide an early look at the trends and technologies that attendees will be writing, speaking and communicating in the coming decades. "The H+ Summit at Harvard is a crash course in how to accurately anticipate an accelerating future based on exponentially growing information technologies," said Ray Kurzweil. "I look forward to sharing ideas on disruptive change and also discussing my upcoming book, How the Mind Works and How to Build One." H+ has kindly extended a discount code for readers of Boing Boing. When you register, use the following code -- FRIENDSOFBOINGBOING. Here's a link to a video stream of the H+ Summit.

Hallmark recalls "Black Holes" birthday card after racism claim Posted: 04 Jun 2010 05:30 PM PDT There's an illustrious history of people who hear what they want to hear when it comes to the cheap sound chips in toys. But this time it's gone orbital! A space-themed Hoops and Yoyo card--containing a low-quality sample of the phrase "Black Holes"--is intentionally racist, the NAACP told ABC News: "Whores, not holes. The 'r' is in there ... It sounds like a group of children laughing and joking about blackness, again." [ABC]

Zuckerberg's "Facebook Illuminati" hoodie, deconstructed Posted: 04 Jun 2010 03:33 PM PDT Using press photos of the Facebook CEO wearing his now-infamous mystery garment, the intrepid reporters at SF Weekly have cobbled together this graphic of Mark Zuckerberg's "illuminati hoodie," in which he sweated profusely this week during an embarassing interview at tech conference All Things D. What does it all mean?

BP's spill plan: they knew where it would go, that ecology would never recover, "No toxicity studies" on dispersants Posted: 04 Jun 2010 03:14 PM PDT Karen Dalton Beninato at neworleans.com writes, I have obtained a copy of the almost-600-page BP Regional Oil Spill Response Plan for the Gulf of Mexico as of June, 2009, thanks to an insider. Some material has been redacted, but these are the three main takeaways from an initial read. The name of the well has been redacted, but if it's not Deepwater Horizon, then there's another rig still out there pumping oil and aimed at Plaquemines Parish. The three big takeaways, excerpted from Beninato's blog post: 1) In the worst case discharge scenario (on chart below), an oil leak was expected to come ashore with highest probability in Plaquemines Parish within 30 days 2) Spokespersons were advised never to assure the public that an ecosystem would be back to normal after the worst case scenario, which we are now living through. 3) Corexit oil dispersant toxicity has not been tested on ecosystems, according to the Oil Spill Response Plan. "Ecotoxilogical effects: No toxicity studies have been conducted on this product." Link to 583-page, 17 megabyte PDF (publicintelligence.net)

Ultra slo-mo videos from Make Faire Posted: 04 Jun 2010 02:57 PM PDT 3ric Johansen emailed me about this terrific video he made with Nathan Pegram using Intellectual Ventures' Phantom camera at Maker Faire 2010. We conducted some pure hackery in order to make these videos. The first key part was having a "Nanoflash SDI recorder". This standalone recorder can do real-time compression of 1080p content onto compact flash. In order to film and export video at a fast rate, we needed some other method than our typical "wait 15 minutes for gigabit ethernet" process. So we wired up this recorder to the Phantom, along with a linksys WRT54G access point running rogue firmware. The rogue firmware (which runs linux) enables us to make custom web applications which run on the access point. We built a [very simple] cgi which controlled one of the LEDs on the front of the AP. We then did more of our 'hotel soldering' to wire up this LED to the nanoflash recorder. Tada! We now have software control of this standalone recorder. Besides being useful for doing live demos, this mod/hack will enable us to take highspeed video and export it at a very fast speed. We still need to build an application which will sync the playback from the Phantom with the recording on the Nanoflash. Music: "Raise Riddim" by I.D. & Baobinga

Coming this fall: 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die Posted: 04 Jun 2010 02:47 PM PDT Rizzoli publishing imprint Universe has officially announced the October release of 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die -- the latest in their series of essential books, albums, paintings, foods and beers -- of which yours truly contributed about a whopping 1% of that total. The book was edited by my former Edge Magazine editor Tony Mott, and contains contributions by a handful of my favorite writers, so even though I haven't yet got a galley-glimpse of the finished product, I can just about guarantee it's going to be a good one. The book's already up for pre-order at Amazon, and, should you make your way chronologically through its list, probably will indeed just about last you all of your remaining years. 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die [Rizzoli/Universe]

Giveaway: Made by Hand unabridged audiobook Posted: 04 Jun 2010 02:36 PM PDT Because Made by Hand is my first-person account of my successes and failures at becoming a do-it-yourselfer, it's weird for me to listen to someone else read the audiobook. Fortunately Kirby Heyborne (who also read Cory's Little Brother) has a much better voice than mine (which sounds like Mickey Mouse on Thorazine). Buy Made By Hand audiobook | Listen to an MP3 sample of Made by Hand If you would like a copy the Made by Hand audiobook, add a comment here with a story about something you made yourself (along with a link to a photo or a video, if possible). The deadline is June 10, 10pm Pacific time. I'll pick my favorite story and send the author the audiobook (which comes on 6 CDs).

SpaceX Falcon 9 succeeds in historic launch Posted: 04 Jun 2010 02:35 PM PDT The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket today lifted off from Cape Canaveral in an historic launch test. CNN: Paid for by the money and dreams of a millionaire, the rocket serves as a symbol of the future and could carry astronauts and cargo to the international space station. This commercial venture by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, carries a mockup of its space capsule, called Dragon. PayPal co-founder Elon Musk is the CEO of the company. NASA hopes companies such as SpaceX can take over transportation to the international space station. The company was founded by PayPal co-founder and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk. More coverage: Wired News, CNET, Reuters, New York Times. (Thanks, Charles) Fourth time lucky for SpaceX Gadgets SpaceX Falcon 1 craft launch live online (as in, now) Profile of Paypal and SpaceX cofounder and Tesla Motors Chairman ... SpaceX's third failure sends Doohan's ashes into the Pacific ... Peter Diamandis makes the case for private space: WSJ op-ed Boing ... Unfulfilled space funeral for "Scotty": words from his son ... Why not go back to the moon?

Oil spill: Spreading the problem-solving around Posted: 04 Jun 2010 01:54 PM PDT In a move that probably should have happened sooner, but I'm frankly glad is happening at all, the newly established Interagency Alternative Technology Assessment Program has put out an open call for white papers describing alternative (Read: Anything we haven't tried already) solutions for the oil spill—everything from damage assessment and restoration to wellhead control. I think this is great news and I'm hoping that some of you have the technical expertise to have new ideas or improved ideas that could help. Time for Makers to be big damn heroes. That said, if you have an idea and you don't have a background in this kind of engineering, talk to somebody who does before you call the number in the link above. Reaching out to a bigger brain trust is a good thing, but we don't want to bog this program down with purely speculative concepts at a time when it needs to be moving with a quickness.

Source code released for Humble Indie Bundle games Posted: 04 Jun 2010 01:13 PM PDT After making their million dollars in the charity-driven Humble Indie Bundle, all four of the indie game developers that promised to release their source code have prepped and released that source. Bundle organizers Wolfire have the relevant download info for all four of the games, at the following links: their own Lugaru HD, Cryptic Sea's Gish, Frictional's Penumbra and Bit Blot's surprise addition, Aquaria. The Humble Indie Bundle [Wolfire] Humble Indie Bundle hits $1m, goes open-source, gets 4 day ... Humble Indie Bundle adds Samorost 2, teases source code release ... World of Goo, Aquaria devs announce pay-anything charity game ... Linux users twice as generous as Windows users

Birds drenched in oil from BP spill: photo gallery Posted: 04 Jun 2010 01:15 PM PDT In the Boston Globe's "Big Picture" this week: A series of heartbreaking images by AP Photographer Charlie Riedel of seabirds caught in the oil slick on a beach on Louisiana's East Grand Terre Island. This is just the beginning of the destruction, and of the suffering and death for all manner of living things in the region. F*ck you, BP.

BP Goatse Posted: 04 Jun 2010 01:06 PM PDT (thanks, Eric Spiegelman)

South Carolina lawmaker can't tell Sikhs from Arabs, hates both Posted: 04 Jun 2010 12:37 PM PDT Americans: you thought Arizona was racist-xenophobe happy-fun-land? Check out South Carolina. (via Dan Gillmor)

Toxoplasma (cat-poo parasite) hypnotizes rats by making them horny for cat pee Posted: 04 Jun 2010 12:21 PM PDT (VIDEO: Edge.org) Tobias has a creepy-fun blog post up today about Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that causes rats to become attracted to cats, which can adversely affect the development of a baby within a pregnant women's body. The post digs into Stanford scientist Dr. Robert Sopalsky's research around how "toxo" changes human behavior, but this snippet about how it "hijacks the sexual reward pathway" in rats' minds is pure gold. Once in the rat, Toxo's goal is to then be eaten by a cat so it can be fruitful and multiply, but as I mentioned, this can only take place in the cat's gut. Toxo's goal is to get the rat eaten by a cat. Toxo could get the desired effect through a whole sort of seemingly obvious ways; e.g., Make the rat hard to run so it is easier for a cat to catch it. Instead it takes a far more interesting approach: Toxo generates cysts in the brain of the rat. These cysts take over the fear center of the brain, but specifically the fear of predators. Common fear sources for rodents (e.g., bright lights, open spaces, etc.) still operate perfectly well in an infected rat, but now they are no longer afraid of cat piss. That alone would be cool enough, but Toxo takes it one step further. When Toxo is going about futzing with the fear center of the brain it also goes into the sexual excitement part of the brain. It hijacks the incoming Fear of Cat Piss™ and instead diverts the signal to the Barry White™ center of the brain. "Somehow, this damn parasite knows how to make cat urine smell sexually arousing to rodents, and they go and check it out. Totally amazing." - Dr. Sapolsky The rat is now sexually attracted to cat piss! (This is a fetish that gets you eaten by your predator and rats clearly do not have any safe words with cats.) Now, this part blew my non-rat mind: Sapolsky says motorcyclists have a high probability of being infected with Toxo. Read the post to unpack that part. Guided by Parasites: Toxoplasma Modified Humans More about Sapolsky's research on Edge.org. Mood-altering cat parasites make women friendly and men into jerks ... Documentary about crazy cat ladies Being a Parasite Vector Isn't All Puppies and Unicorns Toilet train your cat

Lingerie ad features woman in burqa (maybe NSFW) Posted: 04 Jun 2010 11:20 AM PDT Joi Ito turned me onto this provocative TV commercial for online lingerie shop Liaison Dangereuse.

Tomorrow is Dead Duck Day Posted: 04 Jun 2010 11:15 AM PDT First, there was that duck penis video and the related news that duck life is so full of rape that female ducks have evolved corkscrew vaginas replete with dead ends. Now this. Marc Abrahams of the IgNobel awards wrote today to inform me that tomorrow is Dead Duck Day, an annual event celebrated at the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. What, pray tell, does Dead Duck Day celebrate? Marc says: It's the anniversary of the first known observation of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. I seriously can't even look at ducks anymore. Anyway, this observation won museum curator Kees Moeliker an IgNobel back in 2003. Since then, he's commemorated the sacrifice made by the poor duck in question with what is variously described as a memorial service or re-enactment (?!)—followed by an all-duck dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. Have a great weekend, everybody. Ducks: Basically the John Wayne Gacy of the animal kingdom. Image courtesy Flickr user hvargas, via CC

TedxOilSpill on Washington, DC on June 19 Posted: 04 Jun 2010 11:00 AM PDT If you're in Washington DC on June 19, don't miss TedxOilSpill — an event dedicated to the gulf oil spill.

Weaponized Flying Zebra Chaser Posted: 04 Jun 2010 11:50 AM PDT Artist unknown "Ride of the Valkyries." Artist: Korintic. Larger size here. (via Sean Bonner)

"We Are The World" viral parody from Israelis who support military's stance on flotilla fiasco Posted: 04 Jun 2010 10:42 AM PDT The Awl points to this "We Are The World" internet video parody from Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick and friends who support the Israeli government's stance on the flotilla fiasco. Even setting politics aside, it is to squirm. Flotilla Choir presents: We Con the World (YouTube, via The Awl) Related updates: CNN reports that autopsies confirm all 9 activists who died in the raid were shot to death, one by "extremely close-range gunshot" to the head. A Canadian activist who survived maintains the activists were unarmed, and were fired upon by "machine-guns on the helicopter." And in the New York Times, details about American "subplots" in the flotilla story, including the story of one US citizen who was shot to death. A new group of activists is again testing the Israeli blockade: their ships carrying aid are due to arrive Saturday morning local time. Their ship is The Rachel Corrie. Oof, that's gonna end well. The "flotilla video": Israeli troops storm boat with aid supplies ... God Hates the World, by Westboro Baptist Church

Graffitti'd Singapore train: a first? Certainly a rarity. Posted: 04 Jun 2010 09:57 AM PDT In Singapore, tagging and street art are crimes punishable by caning, or worse. My friend Sean Bonner is living and working there for a while, and came across news that—gasp!—someone tagged a train. From the video description: "SMRT car number 1048 departing Kembangan (Westbound) for Joo Koon was deliberately vandalized by inconsiderate people. It has since been remove." More at Singapore Metblogs.

2 Robot Tees in a Tin in Boing Boing Bazaar Posted: 04 Jun 2010 09:45 AM PDT The Chop Shop store in the Makers Market / Boing Boing Bazaar is selling two of their popular robot tees in a tin box for $40. It comes with 1 adult sized weRobot tee (men or women). and 1 children's weRobot sized tee. Since spring of 2008 Chop Shop has been specializing in what we call "collection" tees which feature various icons of celebrity in silhouette. The best-known of these is "weRobot" which features 51 well-known icons of fictional robots and was thankfully introduced to the world via boingboing. Since that design we have completed three series of tshirt designs including science fiction, horror/fantasy and 3 generations of popular music. Over 400 icons featured on 9 tshirt designs and several print pieces. In addition to the iconic tees, we also have some very popular traditional illustrated designs. Several designs created by Chop Shop, as well as some by guest artists whose work we had come to admire. Chop Shop is the sister company of The Chopping Block, Inc. A design studio located in New York City since 1997 whose clients have included Adobe, Rachael Ray, They Might Be Giants, Turner Classic Movies, Sony Classic Pictures, Nickelodeon and so many others. 2 Robot Tees in a Tin in Boing Boing Bazaar

How to use your baby as a mop Posted: 04 Jun 2010 09:59 AM PDT I don't know if this is a real product, but using your crawling baby as a floor mop is an interesting idea.

Effinger's WHEN GRAVITY FAILS: super-noir cyberpunk Middle East Posted: 04 Jun 2010 09:27 AM PDT Continuing with her excellent series of critical essays on classic works of science fiction for Tor.com, Jo Walton takes on one of my favorite novels: George Alec Effinger's super-hard-boiled, Middle Eastern cyberpunk novel When Gravity Fails. Effinger was the second real sf writer I ever met (the first being Edward Llewellyn, who came and spoke at the D&D day-camp I attended when I was 11 or 12); I was a gofer an the Ad Astra science fiction convention where he was guest of honor. He was so incredibly gracious and generous to the star-struck 15 year old who brought him his water and made sure he knew where the green room was that I immediately ran out and read all his books; the one that floored me was Gravity. Walton, it seems, agrees: Effinger's writing on the word and sentence level is just beautiful, the voice is perfect, and remains so all the way through, and the way he wraps the theme around there is what he does in the whole book. This was a book that couldn't have happened without cyberpunk, but which itself isn't cyberpunk. There are no hackers here, and almost no computers--though it feels reasonable for the Budayeen that there wouldn't be. Holoporn, yes, drugs to get you up or down, prostitutes of all genders and some in between, personality modules of anything from salesmen to serial killers via sex kittens, but no computers. The street is what comes from cyberpunk, and perhaps the neural wiring, a little. But what Effinger does with it, making it a North African street that really feels like something out of the future of another culture, is entirely his own. Effinger said the Budayeen was based on the French Quarter of New Orleans, where he lived, as much as it was based on anywhere, but it has the feel of a real place, grimy and edgy and run down and full of the wrong sort of bars. "Not much changes on the street, only the faces." George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails (Walton, Tor.com) When Gravity Fails (Amazon) RIP, George Alec Effinger Jo Walton on THE SPACE MERCHANTS Ha'penny, haunting thriller about an alternate British Reich ... Jo Walton on Heinlein's STARMAN JONES Jack Womack's underappreciated masterpiece, "Random Acts of ...

Parappa dev NanaOn-Sha creating charity iPhone game WINtA Posted: 04 Jun 2010 08:29 AM PDT OneBigGame -- the charity-focused games publisher you will hopefully recall as being behind Zoe Mode's excellent music puzzler Chime -- has just announced the next release in their ongoing fund-raising catalog. This time it's WINtA, a new iPhone game designed by NanaOn-Sha's Masaya Matsuura -- the developer responsible for foundational music games Parappa the Rapper, UmJammer Lammy and Vib Ribbon -- with the help of Dutch developers Triangle Studios. Descriptions of the game itself are vague, for now: OneBigGame says that it "combines elements of pattern recognition challenges with the natural tendency of humans to tap along with music and words", but at top is video of an early prototype of the game from last year's GameCity festival that should give you a better idea of what to expect. As usual, all proceeds from sales of the game will be going to charities like Save the Children and Starlight when the game is released on the App Store later this summer.

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