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Stross and Doctorow on the road: the Rapture of the Nerds tour in Lexington, Brooklyn, Brookline, Rochester Ant-Man might be in theaters as soon as 2014 Butter-knife money-clip Science T-shirt is blunt, to the point Cancer and music "that makes me want to live"—Brian Mansfield Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, The Cold Crush Brothers India's in the dark, are we next? HD video from the RX100 Why aren't you turning potatoes into cash RIGHT NOW? vN: a science fiction novel about robots, perverts, power and privilege Twitter does something really, really, really stupid - will they fix it? Free at last (to talk in a very limited and constrained way about NSA crimes) Where was God? No transgender cartoon torsos please, we're Facebook Notes from DEFCON and DEFCON Kids William Shatner and Wil Wheaton welcome NASA's Curiosity rover to Mars (video) Young Tom Waits's shtick presages Heath Ledger's Joker Teacup lined with teeth Carved wooden tennies Enthralling Books: Johnny Got His Gun Medal Count Defining the Reality Hackers Gentlemen's garter ad, 1924 Chris Marker, director of La jetée, RIP Update: There will be a third Hobbit movie released in 2014 How to get expelled from the Olympics Stross and Doctorow on the road: the Rapture of the Nerds tour in Lexington, Brooklyn, Brookline, Rochester
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 31, 2012 12:48 pm Charlie Stross and I are hitting the road this September 5-9 for a mini, post-Burning Man, post-WorldCon book-tour for our collaborative comic novel of the Singularity called Rapture of the Nerds. We're coming to Lexington, KY; Brooklyn, NY (a stop at MakerBot's BotCave, where there will be a very special surprise!), Brookline, MA, and Rochester, ...
Read in browser Ant-Man might be in theaters as soon as 2014
By Jamie Frevele on Jul 31, 2012 12:33 pm For some reason, and despite the test footage Edgar Wright presented at Comic Con, it still feels (to me, at least) like Ant-Man is still only rumored to be happening. But that feeling is finally shifting now that it's possible that the movie might start shooting as soon as Thor 2: The Dark World is ...
Read in browser Butter-knife money-clip
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 31, 2012 12:20 pm Last night at dinner in San Francisco (I'm in town to give a Long Now talk tonight), our waiter noticed that I was wearing a ring made from an ornate spoon handle and produced his home-made money-clip, which he'd fashioned from an antique butter-knife he found at a pawn shop. He said he'd used a ...
Read in browser Science T-shirt is blunt, to the point
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jul 31, 2012 11:27 am Have I mentioned how much I absolutely love geneticist (and occasional BoingBoing contributor) David Ng? The fact that he designs awesome T-shirts while procrastinating just seals the deal. You can buy this T-shirt
Read in browser Cancer and music "that makes me want to live"—Brian Mansfield
By Xeni Jardin on Jul 31, 2012 11:24 am USA Today's Nashville music critic Brian Mansfield was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 48. In a beautiful piece at USA Today, he describes a kind of "cancer honeymoon" just after his diagnosis in which he felt hopeful and eager to make changes in his life. That ended abruptly when further information about his disease ...
Read in browser Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, The Cold Crush Brothers
By Ed Piskor on Jul 31, 2012 11:19 am 
Read in browser India's in the dark, are we next?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Jul 31, 2012 10:52 am 670 million people—roughly half of India's population—has been without electricity for two days, following a massive blackout. The United States has a much more modern grid, but only nine years ago a blackout in the Northeast of this country cut power to 45 million. How does a huge blackout like that happen? What are we ...
Read in browser HD video from the RX100
By Rob Beschizza on Jul 31, 2012 10:29 am Sorry if you're getting sick of everyone raving about Sony's RX100, but this thing--the size of a deck of cards!--really is the dog's bollocks. With Canon about to hit town with an APS-C mirrorless, I reckon low-end Micro 4/3 models (and Sony's own sub-$1k NEXes) are done.
Read in browser Why aren't you turning potatoes into cash RIGHT NOW?
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 31, 2012 09:57 am Potato chips, how my mouth just drips, Crunch, crunch, I don't want no lunch, All I want is potato chips. No matter where it is, You'll always find a bag around, You can be at a bar or a picnic, Even a baseball ground. Jazzaroonie! Okay, some more job opportunities.
Read in browser vN: a science fiction novel about robots, perverts, power and privilege
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 31, 2012 09:00 am vN, Madeline Ashby's debut novel, drops today. I'm an immense fan of Ashby's work (I actually published her first story) and vN did not disappoint. The novel is set in a medium-term future where a race of self-replicating robots ("von Neumanns" or vNs for short) have been engineered to act as servile helpmeets by an ...
Read in browser Twitter does something really, really, really stupid - will they fix it?
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 31, 2012 01:27 am You've heard by now that Twitter suspended Guy Adams, a journalist from the UK paper The Independent after Adams posted the email address of an NBC exec and urged his followers to send in email complaining about the network's (shamefully bad) handling of its Olympics broadcasts. Dan Gillmor in the Guardian has some context about ...
Read in browser Free at last (to talk in a very limited and constrained way about NSA crimes)
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 31, 2012 01:15 am Hey, hooray, senators are finally legally allowed to mention the fact that the NSA has been breaking the law and spying on Americans! Freedom!
Read in browser Where was God?
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 31, 2012 01:12 am God here. I thought I would take the time to personally explain my absence in the Aurora shootings. While I was at it, I thought I would also explain my absence during every murder, massacre and crime that has ever taken place in World history, and in every war, in every famine, drought and flood. ...
Read in browser No transgender cartoon torsos please, we're Facebook
By Rob Beschizza on Jul 30, 2012 09:43 pm Wendy Pini, creator of a decadent sci-fi version of Edgar Allan Poe's Masque of the Red Death, learned the hard way that one does not simply post paintings of blue-skinned hermaphrodite event planners with indeterminately-gendered breasts to Facebook. [Lez Get Real]
Read in browser Notes from DEFCON and DEFCON Kids
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 30, 2012 08:22 pm I've been posting lightly around here for the past week, as I've been at DEFCON, where I gave a speech. I brought my whole family -- wife, daughter, and parents -- and the kid got to do some lockpicking workshops at DEFCON Kids, the astoundingly bad-ass kids' computer literacy program run alongside the main event. ...
Read in browser William Shatner and Wil Wheaton welcome NASA's Curiosity rover to Mars (video)
By Xeni Jardin on Jul 30, 2012 07:26 pm Check out these cool videos William Shatner and Wil Wheaton hosted for NASA, explaining how the Curiosity rover will, science willing, land on the surface of Mars on 1:31 a.m. EDT, Aug. 6.
Read in browser Young Tom Waits's shtick presages Heath Ledger's Joker
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 30, 2012 06:04 pm This 1979 clip of a young Tom Waits being interviewed on Australian TV by Don Lane demonstrates just how similar Waits's shtick (especially back in those days) resembled Heath Ledger's Joker character. Scroll to about 1:40 for the fun. Tom Waits interview by Don Lane, Australia 1979 with Paradise Alley clip! (via Kottke)
Read in browser Teacup lined with teeth
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 30, 2012 05:00 pm Artist and Shapeways user Lily X Su designed this 3D printed ceramic teacup whose lip is lined with human teeth. Of her work, Su writes, The ultimate challenge in my opinion is to create something that makes sense but can't be explained. I believe that the subconscious outsmarts logic. I create objects that may not ...
Read in browser Carved wooden tennies
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 30, 2012 03:55 pm Artist Brent Owens produces wonderful carved sculptures, including this carved pair of wooden tennis shoes from 2009. Carved Works - Brent Owens (via Craft)
Read in browser Enthralling Books: Johnny Got His Gun
By Paul Krassner on Jul 30, 2012 03:30 pm This is one in a series of essays about enthralling books. I asked my friends and colleagues to recommend a book that took over their life. I told them the book didn't have to be a literary masterpiece. The only thing that mattered was that the book captivated them and carried them into the world ...
Read in browser Medal Count
By Rob Beschizza on Jul 30, 2012 03:16 pm Attention sports-hating patriots! Here you can have just the stats. [medalcount.com]
Read in browser Defining the Reality Hackers
By David Pescovitz on Jul 30, 2012 02:51 pm In the cyberdelic lineage of RU Sirius's publishing efforts, the 1980s 'zine High Frontiers morphed into Reality Hackers which eventually evolved into the massively-influential Mondo 2000. The transition from a "psychedelic magazine with a tech gloss" to a "tech magazine with a psychedelic gloss" was spurred primarily by its editors' growing interest in cyberpunk, virtual ...
Read in browser Gentlemen's garter ad, 1924
By Cory Doctorow on Jul 30, 2012 01:51 pm In 1924, an ad in the Boston Globe reminded the lads to pull up their socks. How did your garters look this morning? (Oct, 1924)
Read in browser Chris Marker, director of La jetée, RIP
By David Pescovitz on Jul 30, 2012 01:36 pm Chris Marker, the French artist, writer, and film director, has died at age 91. Marker is best known for his incredible 1962 science fiction featurette La jetée which was the direct inspiration for Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys (1995). La jetée is a film poem consisting almost entirely of still photographs that tells the story of ...
Read in browser Update: There will be a third Hobbit movie released in 2014
By Jamie Frevele on Jul 30, 2012 01:02 pm Remember that time I said there might be a third Hobbit movie, but not to get excited? Well, feel free to get excited: Peter Jackson has confirmed that the summer of 2014 will see the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Trilogy. (That title, by the way, is not confirmed.) Says Jackson: "[W]ithout further ado ...
Read in browser How to get expelled from the Olympics
By Rob Beschizza on Jul 30, 2012 01:00 pm Je les tous Defonce Coréens, allez vous tous Bruler, bande de trisos "I'll smash the Koreans, you'll burn, you band of mongoloids." — Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella, on Twitter, earlier today. Morgenella is on his way home. Swiss Olympic Team Expels Player for Racist Tweet [AP]
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