Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

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The Latest from Boing Boing

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Ideo on the future of the book

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 11:36 PM PDT

IDEO's Future of the Book video shows three different concepts for near-future books. I confess that I found this somewhat disappointing, given IDEO's exemplary track record for innovative thinking. These concepts all seem rather tame to me -- a book that has links to critical reviews, for example -- the sort of thing you might find in the feature-list for a tablet today. I also found the suggestion that a book could overcome bias by having links to objecting points of view to be pretty thin; there is always editorializing -- even if it's just the editorial implicit in deciding what other materials to contrast.

There's also not much attention to the economics of publishing here -- adding extensive, ongoing curatorial marginalia to a book after publication could be free, if all this stuff was picked by algorithms from RSS feeds, for example. But IDEO's vision highlights something that appears to be picked by hand, and I'm not sure who they think will be doing this, and who will pay for them to do it.

Meanwhile, there's not much attention to present-day novel forms of narrative -- MMORPGs and ARGs (the former being not very narrative at all, the latter being very narrative but extremely expensive), for example. There's nothing half so exciting as present-day experiments such as the Mongoliad. There's nothing about physical objects that might accompany these virtual books -- nothing about the Google/Espresso print-on-demand experiments; nothing about high-end art-book remakes from networked communities like Etsy.

In short, it feels more like the kind of thing you'd get if Time's business reporter put in a couple calls to the tablet vendors and a couple of corporate futurists and built from there. There's nothing here that excites, nothing that projects much past the present-day, and nothing that has that "out-of-the-box" frisson I get from the best of IDEO's designs and provocations.

IDEO's Future of the Book



Tamil child star dances with Transfomer

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 11:19 PM PDT

Evercookie: a tracking browser cookie you can't delete

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 11:15 PM PDT

Samy Kamkar, an open source developer whose motto is "think bad, do good" has released an API called "evercookie." Evercookie sets a nigh-undeletable tracking cookie in your browser, storing the information in eight separate ways; if you try to delete it but leave even one copy of the data around, it will repopulate itself using that last shred. Evercookies can even spread between browsers on the same system. The point of the project is to show that browsers are lagging behind privacy-invaders when it comes to cookie management, and to spur the organizations that publish browsers into creating better tools for privacy management.
"I hope evercookie simply demonstrates to people what types of methods are being employed to track them and to decide whether or not they want to prevent those methods," he said. "evercookie took less than a day to create for me as a security hobbyist, so I can only imagine the technology that funded developers are producing."

Kamkar says he doesn't actually use evercookie to track people--it exists largely as a proof of concept, and he's not using technologies that are particularly bleeding edge in the developer world.

"None of these are new techniques," he told Ars, "but an API like this is awesome at raising awareness."

Of course, the mere fact that evercookie exists (and exists as an open source project that anyone can use) means that there will be some evil Web developers who make use of it, but that's almost the point. We're supposed to be scared.

Kamkar sees his project as a kind of litmus test to see whether people really are up to protecting themselves from being tracked by persistent cookies that anyone could implement, but he also understands that the "average" Internet user is hardly aware of traditional cookies, much less Flash cookies and beyond. Deleting the data from all eight (or more) storage mechanisms can be a pretty daunting task even for the relatively experienced surfer.

Zombie cookie wars: evil tracking API meant to "raise awareness"

(Image: Peanut Butter Cookies, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from veganfeast's photostream)



Netflix pays actors to pretend to be customers and talk to press at Canadian launch

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 11:04 PM PDT

Netflix has had to apologize after it was revealed that the "enthusiastic customers" talking to the press at its Canadian launch were actors hired for the occasion, reciting lines from a prepared script. It's funny how bizarre a corporate culture this move implies, a board-room full of people inhabiting a reality-distortion bubble nodding enthusiastically to one another, saying, "Yeah, sure, sure, no one will ever find out that they're all actors. It'll be great. Really, really great!"
As a news conference was kicking off to announce Netflix's service -- which uses the Internet to stream unlimited access to thousands of movies and TV shows for $7.99 a month -- extras were asked to spill into the street and encouraged to "play types, for example, mothers, film buffs, tech geeks, couch potatoes etc."

"Extras are to behave as members of the public, out and about enjoying their day-to-day life, who happen upon a street event for Netflix and stop by to check it out," reads an information sheet handed out to extras.

"Extras are to look really excited, particularly if asked by media to do any interviews about the prospect of Netflix in Canada."

Netflix apologizes for using actors to meet press at Canadian launch (via Engadget)



William Gibson talks writing-craft

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 10:58 PM PDT

Here's a really meaty, interesting interview with William Gibson, talking about his new novel -- but also talking about what makes narrative tick, why inserting artifacts into the story makes books better, what happens when characters go rogue, and whether there's such a thing as good fashion.
Someone said that if a fourteen-year-old boy writes a novel, it's got to be set in a post-apocalyptic world, because a fourteen-year-old boy doesn't know anything about how the world works (laughs). But if you smash the shit out of it, it's easy to depict, and he can do a rather convincing job of depicting how people would behave in it.

I think I was in somewhat that position when I began to write. I didn't have the confidence to depict more complex emotional characterization. Some people have unkindly assumed that this is characteristic of much genre SF and fantasy anyway. So it could have something to do with science fiction having been my native literary culture. But as I've gone along, with quite a bit of effort, I think I've been able to widen that bandwidth a little.

Milgrim is a good example. But Milgrim was a strange character for me in terms of his arrival. It's unusual for me to be able to remember the advent of a character, because I think that they often arrive when I'm not actually writing. I'll be doing something else, and somehow the beginning of a character will be there, and because I'm not writing I don't take note of it. I sort of shove it aside, and later it drifts back.

Maximus Clarke talks with William Gibson about his "speculative novels of last Wednesday" (via Making Light)

(Image: William Gibson, the 'cyberpunk' father, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from fredarmitage's photostream)



Delicate porcelain handguns

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 10:52 PM PDT


Artist Yvonne Schultz makes these sweet little Walther PPK and P99 handguns out of delicate porcelain, with a variety of floral patterns: "The fragile weapon, hand-painted in the style of classic tableware motifs, liesnext to your coffee and cake, asking to be picked up. Its coolness andcomfortable grip increase the qualms of the user, leaving him in a quandary between the pleasure of luxury and violence." Porcelain Pistol (Thanks, Simio, via Submitterator!)



Shell Research: as delicious as rocks slathered in crude

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 10:48 PM PDT


For reasons I am at a loss to explain, someone at Shell Research once believed that their mission could be made attractive to the public if it was summarized in this advert featuring a slimy petroleum salad.

Shell Research



No One Likes M. Night Shyamalan

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 06:34 PM PDT


This is mean, but it sure is funny. No One Likes M. Night Shyamalan (Via James Gunn)



Two cool urban homesteading events coming up in Southern California

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 05:38 PM PDT

201009221735

Rachel Vourlas says:

For decades, Henry Huntington's San Marino property was a working ranch; pushing boundaries with the first commercial avocado grove in California, the ranch also supported itself with acres of orange groves and grape vineyards.  Drawing on this agricultural history, the Huntington Library looks to the future once again with its newest project, the Ranch.  Through the Ranch, an experimental urban agriculture station, the institution aims to become a leader in sustainable urban agriculture education and research in the Los Angeles area.  Visitors will be exposed to myriad systems, techniques, and plant varieties adapted to the conditions in Southern California.  To celebrate and introduce the Ranch, two days of events will bring together leading thinkers and practitioners from a variety of fields.

Bringing Home the Ranch: Urban Agriculture in Southern California, Friday, November 12 8:30am-8:00pm
Combining talks presenting a range of perspectives with a student poster session and Ranch tour, this one-day symposium brings together academics and professionals interested in the future of urban agriculture. Gary Nabhan, world-renowned ethnobotanist, ecologist, writer, and grower of heritage food crops, will be the keynote speaker.

 Growing Home: Agriculture in the City, Saturday, November 13 8:30am-5:30pm
In celebration of all that's home grown, is a day of talks, tours and demonstrations by local experts on topics from nurturing soil to keeping chickens to growing organic flowers and produce.  Rosalind Creasy, edible landscaping pioneer, is the keynote speaker.  Other presenters from: Silverlake Farms, Homegrown Evolution, Food not Lawns, Ecoworkshops.com, Full Circle Gardens, Farm Lab, Backwards Beekeepers, Fallen Fruit, Sustainable Habitats, Master Gardeners, and Little Flower Candy Company.

Read an article about the Huntington Gardens' Ranch (PDF)

All your texts are belong to carrier

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 04:53 PM PDT

T-Mobile asserted in court today that it has the right to censor messages sent over its network. [Wired]

Mattel introduces new Journalism Barbie

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 10:12 PM PDT

Barbie® I Can Be...™ News Anchor Doll, just $12.99, available this holiday season. They're not kidding about the choking hazard, either.

(via Amanda Hess, thanks SB!)

Erik Otto video

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 03:12 PM PDT

Coinciding with his art shows in San Francisco last month, Bay Area painter, illustrator, and graphic designer Erik Otto and his friend Colin Day created a video about the theme of the mixed media exhibitions, titled "Tomorrow is Never Promised."



Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot -- a Boing Boing exclusive preview

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 03:07 PM PDT

Edward & John Harrison kindly provided us with a preview of their remarkable photo book about the large 3D mascots that stand outside stores in Japan. It's called Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot.
201009221457 The Japanese have long been infatuated with the three-dimensional characters used to represent products, companies, civic organizations, towns and just about anything else you can imagine. Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot examines this fascinating cultural history, documenting the evolution of the character statues that are ubiquitous throughout the country today. 

The mascot trend began during the Edo period with the pot-bellied raccoon-dog Tanuki. These ceramic statues were first used as good luck charms (and they are still used as such today) but starting in the 19th century a noodle shop appropriated the character in an effort to create a link between Tanuki's fortuitous status and bowls of soup. It worked, and since then confectioners, pharmaceutical companies, television networks, food companies, police forces and fire departments have all created mascots. 

The mascots represent a brand or a certain shop but they also exist as stand-alone characters that people adore. Idle Idol's photographs and written explanations vivify these unique mascots that are artful, audacious and wholly Japanese!

01.Sato-Chan+Satoko-Chan
1. Sato-chan & Satoko-chan サトちゃん サト子ちゃん

Two of the most commonly found mascots in Japan are Sato-chan (left) and his sister Satoko-chan (right). They are the mascots for Sato Pharmaceuticals and are modelled on an Indian elephant which are known to live long lives (presumably the drugs will help customers achieve this too). Sato-chan first started appearing outside pharmacies in the 1960's so he's an early example of this form of advertising. Mark spotted a version from the 1970's in the Showa museum in Takayama. To see more photos and find out where a museum dedicated to the pair is, click here.



02.Satoko-Chan



2. Satoko-chan サト子ちゃん

Satoko-chan can be seen in a variety of different costumes which change depending on the season and preference of the pharmacy owner. She can be found dressed in a Santa suit at Christmas time, a Hawaiian shirt during the summer and a kimono at festival time. Other characters like Peko-chan and Colonel Sanders are often dressed up too.


03.Pyon-Chan-1



3. Pyon-chan ピョンちゃん

Pyon-chan is the mascot for another pharmaceutical company, this time SSP Corporation (Science and Society Pharmacuticals). Created in 1952 he only received a name in 1963 after the company held a competition to choose him one. The winning entry is a common name for pet rabbits as "pyon" is the onomatopoeia for the sound rabbits (and frogs) make when they hop. Pyon-chan is modeled on the hare in the legend "The White Hare of Inaba," which comes from the Kojiki, one of Japan's oldest books. The story sees the hare skinned alive by sharks and then tricked by deities who suggest bathing in seawater to alleviate his pain, but the hare ends up in even more agony.


04.Masumasu-Kun-1



4. Masumasu-kun ますますくん

Masumasu-kun is found in post offices all over Japan where he promotes an investment trust fund. Masumasu means "more and more" and the kanji for masu means a wooden measuring box. The mascot represents making more and more money and keeping it safe in a box. He's portrayed as being curious, thrifty and very neat.


05.Sawayaka Oyaji-1



5. Sawayaka Oyaji さわやか親父

Sawayaka Oyaji or the "Fresh Old Man," proudly greets customers to the discount store called Japan. Modelled on the company president Kanji Kirima I admire the bold and unflattering design. Around his neck is a sash that reads, "If you're in need come to Japan".



06.Daruma Daijin-1




6. Daruma Daijin だるま大臣

A chain of kushikatsu restaurants in Osaka called Daruma has a mascot based on the owner who stands outside each one of its restaurants. Kushikatsu is mostly meat on sticks coated in bread and egg. In the restaurants you usually sit at a counter and have a container of communal sauce. The sophisticated mascot has bulging eyes and a chin which extends outwards. The constant scowl is there for a reason as he often shouts "Sosu no nidozuke kinshiyade" (DON'T DOUBLE DIP) from a speaker on his chest.



07.Higuchi-San



7. Higuchi-san ヒグチさん

The final and perhaps my favourite boss mascot is modelled on Higuchi Toshio the founder of Higuchi Pharmacy. In an early commercial Higuchi-san rides an elephant and declares his goal of opening 1,327 stores. I've no idea why he chose that particualar number but unfortunately he's still yet to reach his target, I suspect its because not all his stores have this awesome awesome mascot.


08.Sukare-Chan




8. Sukare-chan スカレーちゃん

Sukare-chan is the mascot for Yokosuka Navy Curry and stands outside the Yokosuka train station and in other places throughout the city. When Japan opened its doors to trade in the Meiji era the first ships came to the port of Yokosuka, the city adopted the curry brought by British sailors and created a Japanese version. His name comes from a combination of Suka from "Yokosuka" and kare from "curry."


09.Pipo-Kun




9. Pipo-kun ピーポくん

Outside the police museum in Ginza stands Pipo-kun the mascot for the Tokyo police force. The first two sounds pi and po come from the English words people and police. He has big ears to hear people in trouble, an antennae to catch quick movement and according to his website big eyes to watch every corner of society. To see more of Pipo-kun click here.



10.Pompa-Kun



10. Pompa-kun ポンパ君

The colourful pelican promoted Hitachi's color television called Pompa, released in 1968 and touted for how quickly it turned on. The name comes from Hitachi's slogan: "press the switch--pom--and it turns on--pa". Hitachi had a steam train called Hitachi Pompago, which had Pompa-kun on the front, it traveled around Japan for eight months showcasing the new television.



11.Kappa



11. Kappa 河童

In Japanese folklore, kappa, or river children, are sprites thought to live in marshes and rivers. Legends say that kappa are mischievous, eat cucumbers and children, but are often very polite. Kappa appear in various forms on Kappabashi-dori, a street otherwise known as kitchen town. The street and surrounding area have hundreds of specialist shops that supply restaurant owners with everything they need from pots, pans, uniforms and cash tills to store-front mascots and plastic food. It was named after a prominent merchant called Kihachi Kappaya who, legend has it, had the help of many kappa in building an embankment and bridge. Not far from the street is the only temple in Japan to honor the creatures and one which claims to have a mummified hand of a kappa. With its strong association to kappa, the street adopted the creatures as its mascot.



12.Sento-Kun



12. Sento-kun せんとくん

Sento-kun is the official mascot created for the 1300th anniversary of the city of Nara, celebrated in 2010. Sento can be translated as "moving the capital," which is what happened when Nara replaced Fujiwara-kyo as Japan's capital. Sento-kun combines the image of a young Buddha with deer antlers. The mascot celebrates Nara's Buddhist history and the deer who roam the city. In February 2008, Sento-Kun was unveiled to the public and immediately drew criticism. Some religious groups thought Sento-kun was insulting to Buddhists and local citizens expressed anger at the amount of public money spent on the mascot. The biggest concern, however, was that the character simply wasn't cute enough. In response, local residents campaigned for a new mascot and set up a contest where the public voted for their favourite. Find out more on the mascot rivalry in Nara here.


13.Vic




13. VIC

I don't know the official name of this mascot and he doesn't appear in Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot book but he's one of my favorites. He can be found in Kichijoji on top of a video and electronics shop. The retro video camera, his worrying expression and the fact he's only wearing a small pair of red pants make him one of the most unusual mascots I've discovered in Japan.


Find out about more mascots | look inside | buy on Amazon

Global map of air pollution

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 02:43 PM PDT

Image: NASA's satellite-derived map of air pollution, throughout planet earth, between 2001-2006. Specifically, the "warmer" areas of the color map (yellow, orange, red) indicate higher densities of problematic particles known as fine particulate matter, or PM2.5. These are 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, roughly 1/10 the width of a strand of human hair. They're small enough to sneak past your body's defenses, and lodge inside your lungs.

Click for large size.

Credit: Dalhousie University, Aaron van Donkelaar.

A short movie about Die Antwoord, in their native habitat

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 03:42 PM PDT

Learning from Allen Ginsberg - video by Reason TV

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 02:15 PM PDT


Reason.tv has a short video about Allen Ginsberg: "a champion of gay rights, free speech, nonviolence, and drug legalization."

Beat-icon Allen Ginsberg is getting a resurgence of attention, 13 years after his death at the age of 70. A movie based on the story behind Ginsberg's signature poem, "Howl," opens this Friday. It stars James Franco as the young poet embroiled in a 1957 obscenity trial over the poem, which ended in a landmark win for free speech. The movie is already garnering praise for animated sequences (made partially in Thailand) that put images to Howl's words. Director Rob Epstein noted that Ginsberg, a fan of Eastern religions, "would appreciate us outsourcing to a Buddhist country."

And an exhibition of Ginsberg's photography, "Beat Memories," played to enthusiastic crowds all summer at Washington-D.C.'s National Gallery of Art. Ginsberg had both a unique eye and unique access to a generation of literary heroes, snapping classic portraits like Jack Kerouac smoking on a fire escape and William Burroughs standing next to a sphinx at the Museum of Natural History.

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie looks at why Ginsberg -— a champion of gay rights, free speech, nonviolence, and drug legalization -— still has a lot to teach us.

Learning from Allen Ginsberg



Narco news: Santa Muerte, Blog Del Narco on the radio, a torture house discovered

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 02:17 PM PDT

Above and below, photographs by National Geographic photographer Saul Schwarz, from Alma Guillermoprieto's story about the phenomenon of Santa Muerte in Mexico.

A BB feature about Blog Del Narco by fellow Boing Boing guestblogger Raul Gutierrez was the subject of a segment on the brand-new KPCC radio show hosted by Madeleine Brand (former host of NPR's "Day to Day," to which one Boinger also contributed).

You can listen to Brand's interview with Gutierrez here (or: direct MP3 link).

Also of note, related to both Los Angeles radio journalism and the drug cartels in Mexico: Warren Olney's "To the Point" program on KCRW devoted the entire show today to all things narco, and about the "¿Que Quieren De Nosotros?" editorial mentioned here earlier this week. Details on the show here: "Another High Water Mark for Drug Violence in Mexico" (or, direct MP3 link here.)


In related news, Blog Del Narco today reports of the Mexican army's discovery of a "security building" in Morelos, Mexico, which contained a wide assortment of instruments of torture and execution. The site is presumed to belong to Cártel del Pacífico Sur (CPS). Don't be afraid to click on the link, there are no gory photos there (though there are throughout the rest of the blog). Here's a robo-translation. "The house was a mess and smelly..."


More on "Santa Muerte" and the bandit saint of "Jesus Malverde:" Blog Del Narco, Frontline, a scholarly essay bu Jungwon Park from the University of Pittsburgh, and a feature on JINN/Pacific News Service.



How to spy on your terrorist neighbor

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 02:08 PM PDT

Does your next door neighbor purchase heapin' helpin's of fertilizer from Home Depot? Is he growing an epic beard? He may be more than an annoying hipster experimenting with urban homesteading. No, no—it could be worse. He could be a terrorist. Danger Room highlights a pamphlet "prepared by federal law enforcement to help you navigate the uncertainties of an age of homegrown terrorism," which you can download here. Snip:

Be on the lookout, warn the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Counterterrorism Center, for such 'indicators of possible terrorist activity' as "behavior that could indicate participation in surveillance of potential targets," "travel or interest in traveling overseas to attend violent extremist institutions or paramilitary camps," or checking out "websites and reading materials that advocate violence and then initiating action in support of this activity." See something? Say something!
Doc of the Day: Feds' Guide To Snitching on Your Terrorist Neighbor (Wired Danger Room)

Bonus: In the screengrab detail shown below, note the obligatory Altoids tin hack...

Handy Google tool for determining when countries block access to Google

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 11:23 AM PDT

Google recently introduced this dashboard that shows when countries block access to Google services. "By showing outages, this tool visualizes disruptions in the free flow of information, whether it's a government blocking information or a cable being cut." (via Matt Cutts)

Top UK spies revealed as wankers

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 11:08 AM PDT

The UK spy agency MI6 experimented with using semen as invisible ink; presumably because this fluid was readily available to several of their field agents on a few moments' notice. The agent in charge of the project? Mansfield Cumming. This and other revelations appear in MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949, to be published this week.
A member of staff close to "C", Frank Stagg, said that he would never forget his bosses' delight when the Deputy Chief Censor said one day that one of his staff had found out that "semen would not react to iodine vapour".

Stagg noted that "we thought we had solved a great problem".

However, the discovery also led to some further problems, with the agent who had identified the novel use having to be moved from his department after becoming the butt of jokes.

MI6 'used bodily fluids as invisible ink' (via Super Punch)

(Image: Invisible ink, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from superfantastic's photostream)



Goofy futurist lumber-company ad from 1979

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 11:01 AM PDT


Though the actual text of this Sept, 1979 Scientific American advert for the Champion International Corporation is pretty tepid, the illustration and headline, "The Future is coming. Are you ready?" are pure goofy futurist gold.

The Future is coming. Are you ready? (Sep, 1979)



Al Jazeera report on US drones patrolling Mexico border

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 02:09 PM PDT

Al Jazeera has a feature out about the unmanned aerial drones now patrolling every mile of the border between the US and Mexico. A previous, related Boing Boing post is here. These are the same craft the American military is using in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the sense that we're entering a new era of "homeland militarization" is growing.

Custom sneakers by Chinese artists

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 10:38 AM PDT

Wp-Content Uploads 2010 09 Elephant-@-Neochaedge-2 Wp-Content Uploads 2010 09 Elephant-@-Neochaedge-1-4
Chinese creative culture site Edge invited streetwear designers to customize Pointer sneakers. Above are Elephant's zipper-laden creation. "inspiring customized POINTER shoe designs from EDGE Creative Collective members ELEPHANT, NINI SUM, HUANG CHENG, & RUBBERPIXY" (Thanks, Lyn Jeffery!)

After the jump, a a time-lapse showing Huang Cheng painting his glow-in-the-dark kicks.




Fly trap made from vinegar and dish soap

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 10:34 AM PDT

Vinegar-Flytrap

In Cool Tools, Oliver Hulland explains how he kills fruit flies with a bowl of apple cider vinegar and dish soap.

Fruit flies can materialize in even the most spotless kitchens. Until recently, I had no idea that they could be dealt with in a safe, effective, and cheap manner using apple cider vinegar and dish soap.

By simply pouring apple cider vinegar into an open cup or bowl and adding a drop or two of dish detergent you can easily make an incredibly effective trap for ridding your kitchen of fruit flies. Place it near your fruit bowl or trash can and within a day you will have nipped the problem in the bud.

Cool Tools

Dosing fish with LSD, from a 1964 issue of Sports Illustrated

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 11:13 AM PDT

Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream. In the 1960s, aquatic biologist Howard Loeb dosed fish with LSD to see if the psychedelic could revolutionize angling and commercial fishing. The idea was that tripping fish would surface, making them easy to catch by fishers pruning lakes of undesirable species. Sports Illustrated wrote about Loeb in 1964:
Albums Lsd-Blotter-Circa-1980S Lsd Blotter Fish An imaginative ex-paratrooper who has been in fish biology for 16 of his 42 years, Loeb often comes up with the unusual, working on what he calls "the fun stuff—the thing that nobody knows anything about." He devised the electric pond-shocker that conservation workers use to obtain fish samples. He has worked on selective poison baits for carp, a trash fish that has ruined many game-fish waters in New York and other states, and is assisting an associate. Bill Kelly, in working on long-lasting dyes for marking trout. Several years ago Dr. Harold A. Abramson, Director of Psychiatric Research at South Oaks Psychiatric Hospital in Amityville, N.Y., chanced to read of Loeb's work on carp poisons, and he offered a suggestion: use LSD-25, a hallucinogenic drug derived from d-lysergic acid, originally found in the ergot fungus that grows on rye...

If LSD could work on carp and other fish, the opportunities were unlimited for conservation authorities and sportsmen. For example, a pond loaded with carp poses problems. If any of the standard chemicals, such as rotenone, are used, all the fish, both carp and game fish, usually die, aquatic insects suffer and the poison sometimes lingers for months, preventing the restocking of game fish. But if a chemical could cause all the fish to surface for several hours without killing them, then the undesirable fish could be picked out and the game fish left to prosper. Again, a surfacing chemical would enable biologists to take a highly accurate fish census of a body of water without harming a fin. A low-flying plane could photograph a treated body of water, and biologists, interpreting the pictures, could get a count of species and populations.

"A Dreamy New Era For Fish" (via Dose Nation)

(Image from Blotterart.net)

Bart Nagel's a/symmetry photos

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 09:53 AM PDT

Nagelasym1 Nagelhairrr Rusnagel-1
Oft-imitated but unclonable photographer Bart Nagel posted examples of his ongoing "a/symmetry" portrait series. I hope on my next visit to Bart's studio he'll reveal the deep-seated secrets hidden by my misaligned ears and screwy smile! Bart writes:
Life is coded in the face; experience is expressed through variation in the features. Dissecting and mirroring a person's face can reveal interesting luggage -- even left baggage.

For this series, subjects are photographed in the studio with a symmetrical lighting configuration. They attempt to keep their heads plumb, level, and square. Later, in Photoshop, the frame is duplicated and flipped horizontally: the left side of the face is matched to the copied left side, and the right side to the right. Three options are then presented, including the unaltered original. Often, distinctly different personalities are revealed -- a skeptic, perhaps, and an optimist; an introvert and his evil doppelgänger; a moonshiner and a drifter.

"a/symmetry" by Bart Nagel

It's finally summertime, on Titan

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 09:47 AM PDT

As BB pal Todd Lappin tweets: "After seven earth-years of winter, summer has finally arrived on Titan. The view of Saturn must be lovely."

Here's the official news release from JPL, with loads of gorgeous images from the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Image above: A false-color image of clouds dissapearing over Titan's north pole, and other clouds appearing in the southern regions.

Rare video of Iggy Pop inventing stage-diving and smearing peanut butter on his chest

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 09:39 AM PDT

"As far as I am aware, the sole "live" footage that exists of the Stooges comes from the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival of 1970 (AKA Midsummer Rock Festival). Appearing on a bill with Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper, Mountain and Traffic, the group performs "T.V. Eye" and "1970" as Iggy leaps into the crowd--probably inventing crowd-surfing in the process--smearing peanut butter all over his chest. It's one of the most primal and primitive rock and roll moments of all time..."—Richard Metzger, on Dangerous Minds. Watch the video here.

Doggies doing escalators incorrectly are hilarious, cute

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 09:36 AM PDT

Dear doggies on escalators: you're doin' it wrong. Video 1, Video 2. (thanks, Tara McGinley)

Strange things people have eaten

Posted: 22 Sep 2010 09:24 AM PDT

Following up on the recent story about a man with a pea plant growing in his lung, Fortean Times posted a selection of ten strange items that folks have intentionally eaten. I've posted previously about pica -- a rare psychological disorder that causes an appetite for soil, coal, paper, or other traditionally non-food items -- and these are some really unusual examples of odd ingestions, not all of which are pica-related. From FT:
Xraytummy Coins
"He likes eating coins", explained a French surgeon at Cholet General Hospital, after treating a 62-year-old patient who, in 2002, was found to have swallowed 350 coins, an assortment of necklaces and several needles. The ingested mass, weighing 5.5kg (the equivalent of a bowling ball), was so heavy that it had pushed the man's stomach between his hips. The man suffered from pica, a word derived from the Latin for magpie to describe a compulsion to eat unusual objects.

Engagement ring
When 28-year-old Simon Hooper saw a £1,750 engagement ring he wanted for his long-term girlfriend but couldn't afford, he swallowed it whilst the jeweller's back was turned. Dorchester police were unable to fathom the location of the ring until they ran a metal detector over his stomach. He was placed in a cell until nature – despite Hooper's determined efforts to the contrary – took its course three days later.

"He Ate WHAT? The 10 strangest things anyone's ever eaten"
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