Saturday, March 28, 2009

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

SuperTouch art blog, Cheryl Dunn art show and Redneck Sushi

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 10:24 PM PDT

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

Jamie O'Shea, for ten years editor of the genre-defining visionary arts magazine, Juxtapoz, probably the largest circulated art monthly in the world --I mean, hey, they sell it at Whole Foods-- is now an internationally known creative director and the editor of a new online blog called SuperTouch. SuperTouch is great --kind of a nice hybrid of PAPER magazine style party pics/gossip and the artistic fare seen in O'Shea's former mag, a cool mix. I was happy to see a post there about my pal Cheryl Dunn's "Spit and Peanut Shells: American Pictures" show at The Country Club gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cheryl's wicked cool and her website is one of my favorite artist's sites. If you are in Cincinnati, check her show out.

cheryldunnwErg5h.jpg
And finally, this is redneck sushi: rednecksss.jpg

Rings made from crayons

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 09:42 PM PDT


These Crayon Rings from Timothy Liles are lovely and would be fun to draw with, though at $50 for 10, they're probably too expensive to give to the kids. If you had a ring mold, though, you and the tots could have a fun afternoon melting down the crayolas, pouring them, and making your own set.

Crayon Rings (via Geisha Asobi)

Daniel Pinkwater's new novel The Yggyssey online -- MIGHTY IS MY W00T!

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 09:27 PM PDT

O frabjous day! Daniel Pinkwater has put most of the text of his news kids' book The Yggyssey: How Iggy Wondered What Happened to All the Ghosts, Found Out Where They Went, and Went There online, along with audio of him reading the first chapter.

Pinkwater may be my single most favorite writer in the entire world -- he's certainly the writer who had the biggest impact on me, through novels like "Alan Medelsohn, the Boy From Mars," collected in his 5 Novels omnibus. Mr Pinkwater, if you're reading this, I owe you one. I owe you several.

And I can't wait to read this book!

When I got home from school, my room was full of ghosts..._again!_ They were being invisible, but I could feel the cold spots in the air.

"Did I speak to you ectoplasms about this, or did I not?" I asked the empty room.

Silence. The ghosts were dummying up.

"Rudolph Valentino! I can smell your lousy cigar!"

There was a faint smell of cigar smoke, the trademark of the ghostly Valentino, so I knew he was among them. And my bedspread was rumpled. Probably they were sitting on my bed, playing cards.

"Look, you spectres--this is a young girl's bedroom, not a club! Why do you have to hang out here all the time? You have an eight-story hotel to haunt. There's a complete apartment reserved for your personal use. Why don't you stay there? It's the nicest one in the whole building."

The Yggyssey: How Iggy Wondered What Happened to All the Ghosts, Found Out Where They Went, and Went There

The Yggyssey

MP3 link to Pinkwater reading chapter one

(via Neil Gaiman)



Reuben Margolin's kinetic wave sculptures

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 09:12 PM PDT



Kinetic artist Reuben Margolin was featured on a recent episode of MAKE: television. He uses salvaged wood, metal, cardboard, and other recycled materials to create massive mechanical wave sculptures. Absolutely incredible work.

Preposterous AIG TV Commercials Found!

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 07:51 PM PDT

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

Try this shit on for size: Next, the inevitable remix! Thanks Russ Gooberman!

Fake Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 07:25 PM PDT

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger

Have you ever been walking around a 99 Cents store and seen a bottle of cheap cologne with a sticker on the box that reads: "If you like "Calvin" you'll love "Kevin!"? Apparently the same sort of thing applied to crooner/goofball double acts in the 1950s. Ladies and gentlemen, meet ersatz Martin and Lewis, Sammy Petrillo and 'Duke' Mitchell. sammyandduke1-11111dgjkl.jpg There is not very much information about these guys online, but these four links, to the Wikipedia entries for Sammy Petrillo, Duke Mitchell, an interview with Sammy Petrillo, and an interview with "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla" director Herman Cohen are probably all you'll need. Thanks Tara McGinley!

Boing Boing Video + Offworld Live @GDC: Keita Takahashi on Noby Noby, Konami's Hideo Kojima, Jane McGonigal, Games + Music, and more!

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 10:53 AM PDT

gdc09header.jpg

Today is the final day of Boing Boing Video's live coverage of the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, with  Killscreen TV + Offworld. We're streaming live video around the clock on our new Ustream channel. Tune in for conversations in our BBV@GDC studio with hosts including Matty Kirsch from Killscreen TV and Xeni from Boing Boing, visits from fellow Boing Boing bloggers, and the following special guests today, Friday March 27, 2009, the final day of GDC:

* Keita Takahashi, creator of Katamari Damacy, talking about his most recent game, Noby Noby Boy (note: previously recorded on-site at GDC)
* A planned interview nearby with Hideo Kojima, CEO of Konami. He's the creator of the recently released Metal Gear Solid Touch game for the iPod touch and iPhone (it's currently available on the Apple App Store). He's doing a talk at 3pm at the San Francisco Apple Store, if you're in SF, you should try to go!
* In-studio visit by game developer and researcher Jane McGonigal, whose amazing GDC talk Cory blogged about here.
* Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music, talking about music and video games, and hopefully demoing some music-making gizmos!
* Vlad Micu, "Videogame Visionary" from the Netherlands
* Alice Taylor, game researcher, blogger, and developer, of Wonderland and Channel 4
* Tracy Fullerton of the USC Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab

For BB Video + Offworld's complete video and blog coverage of GDC09, visit offworld.com/gdc09.

Chat room after the jump, or you can hop directly to our Ustream page to view chat + video stream side by side.


(Special thanks to our live stream host Ustream TV, to Wayneco Heavy Industries, and to our transportation provider at Virgin America. Video Crew members in the house this week: Jolon Bankey, Wes Varghese, Derek Bledsoe, Xeni Jardin, and Killscreen TV's Matty Kirsch and Allison Kingsley).




Open Rights Group benefit with me and Charlie Stross in London, May 1

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 03:51 PM PDT

Charlie Stross and I are doing a benefit talk for the Open Rights Group on May 1 in London, entitled "Resisting the all-seeing eye." Hope to see you there -- Stross is a ball, and ORG is a damned worthy cause, especially in this era of ubiquitous surveillance.

From technologies like PGP and Tor to the arguments that will convince people - friends and family as well as media and politicians - to watch out for their digital rights, this event is your anti-surveillance 101.

Cory Doctorow - science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist - and Charlie Stross - science fiction writer and former programmer and pharmacist - will share how and why to control your data. The event will be moderated by Ian Brown - academic, activist and Blogzilla.

The entry price is either joining Open Rights Group - by handing door staff a completed form (link to PDF) - or making a one-off £10 donation on the door. Please register for tickets here. Drinks will be available, as is The Three Kings - a local pub - to continue the debate.

What: Doctorow and Stross: Resisting the all-seeing eye
When: 1830, Friday 1 May 2009
Where: Crypt on the Green, St James Church, Clerkenwell, Clerkenwell Close, London, EC1R 0EA - Map

Event - Doctorow and Stross: Resisting the all-seeing eye

Game-design lessons from Disneyland

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 11:48 AM PDT


Today at the Game Developers' Conference in San Francisco, I saw an outstanding talk on the lessons for level design to be had in the design of Disneyland. It was presented by Scott Rogers, Creative Manager at THQ in Los Angeles, who taught himself level design for Pac Man World by thinking about the experiences he'd had on many visits to Disneyland. The talk was full of lively insights and fun facts about both Disneyland and game-lore, and Rogers was a great presenter. I took copious (for me) notes and photos of most of the slides and I've just put them online (Rogers says he'll put the slides up in better form shortly, I'll link to them when he does).
* Walt invented lots of "moving people around" tricks that are useful in level design e.g. weenies (landmarks that draw guests towards certain locations)
   * Good navigational points for open worlds like GTA
   * Provides "picture spots" to stop and think, "Wow this is cool" -- Athens coming into sight in God of War

* How Weenies Work
    * First weenie is the castle -- you walk down linear Main St, and as you reach the hub, more weenies open up, the fronts of the lands, prompting the player/guest to choose where to go
    * As you go further, more weenies open up, the rivers, treehouse, Matterhorn, Space Mtn -- peeking over the horizon, giving a tantalizing glimpse

* Enhancing Weenies:
    * Draw players towards goals geographically and visually
    * Change altitude to enhance drama/scale
    * Make player backtrack/change direction to give more information
    * Switchbacks can do this
    * See ratchet and clank games
Notes from the talk

Slides from the talk

Scott Rogers' homepage

Nathan Wolfe, "Hunting for the Next Killer Virus" - TED video

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 10:01 AM PDT


From the TED archive, a new video:
Virus hunter Nathan Wolfe is outwitting the next pandemic by staying two steps ahead: discovering new, deadly viruses where they first emerge -- passing from animals to humans among poor subsistence hunters in Africa -- before they claim millions of lives.

Armed with blood samples, high-tech tools and a small army of fieldworkers, Nathan Wolfe hopes to re-invent pandemic control -- and reveal hidden secrets of the planet's dominant lifeform: the virus.

TED Talks: Nathan Wolfe (thanks, Jason Wishnow)

Man sentenced for vacuum sex

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 09:39 AM PDT

Jason Leroy Savage will go to prison for 90 days for having sex with a vacuum at a car wash in Thomas Township, Detroit. From the Associated Press:
(He) must also submit to drug testing.

The 29-year-old from Michigan, was sentenced Wednesday at Saginaw County Circuit Court. Savage pleaded no contest to indecent exposure last month.
Man caught in vacuum sex act gets 90 days

Cabinet of Curiosities of Bonnier de la Mosson

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 09:14 AM PDT

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Morbid Anatomy's Joanna Ebenstein visited the Cabinet of Curiosities of Bonnier de la Mosson, a magnificent 18th century collection of marvelous natural wonders now installed in a library attached to Paris's Museum of Natural History. The actual cabinets themselves are absolutely incredible! From Morbid Anatomy:
 3010 3387624735 0424E41234 O This collection is discussed at length by Celeste Olalquiaga in a piece entitled Object Lesson / Transitional Object which ran in a 2005 issue of Cabinet magazine. Here is an excerpt from that piece, which discusses the original cabinet of Bonnier de la Mosson at great length:

Hidden away in the endless folds of Paris's Jardin des Plantes, the Cabinet Bonnier de la Mosson stands as a unique manifestation of the intersection between aesthetics and science. Dating back to 1735, this luxurious cabinet, amassed and exhibited thanks to a family fortune based on the procurement of regional taxes, has the rare quality of combining the atmospheric mise-en-scène of the preceding Wunderkammern with the organizational intent of the later cabinets, producing an original blend of system and fantasy. Considered by many the richest and most imaginative French cabinet of the early eighteenth century, this curiosity cabinet was housed in the hôtel particulier, as the city residences of aristocrats and royalty were known, of Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson (1702-1744), located in the now extinct rue des Dominiques...
Cabinet of Curiosities of Bonnier de la Mosson

Web Zen: Zoo Zen Revisited

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 07:57 AM PDT

Artistic and scientific anatomical models from Anatomy Tools

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 06:34 AM PDT



Yesterday, I blogged about the photos I'd caught of some beautifully detailed artist's anatomical models on sale in the dealer's room at the Game Developers' Conference in San Francisco. I ended up going back later in the day to buy one of the models (they brought their "slightly irregular" stock to the show and are selling it at half off), and I got to talking with the staff about their wares.

It turns out that they're on something of a holy mission to introduce high quality, affordable artistically rendered anatomical models to the fields of science, art and medicine, replacing the standard, multi-thousand-dollar, low-quality anatomical models with sub-$500 versions that are much better rendered and easier to grasp.

But these are more than teaching aids or artist's reference -- they're absolutely drop-dead gorgeous sculptures, created by a Bay Area artist called Andrew Cawrse. The more I look at the model sitting here on my desk, the more enthralled I am with it, and the more clever grace-notes I spot in the various cutaways that make clear a thousand myriad elements of anatomy (and I had to laugh to discover that the cross-sectioned penis is attached by a magnet, so it can be removed by customers who aren't allowed to show penises in their workplaces).

Freedom of Teach/Anatomy Tools

Artist paints herself having sex with each president of the USA

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 06:19 AM PDT

Artist Justine Lai's new project is a set of oil paintings of her having sex with every president of the USA, in order.
In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents. A power lies in rendering these patriarchal figures the possible object of shame, ridicule and desire, but it is a power that is constantly negotiated.

I approach the spectacle of sex and politics with a certain playfulness. It would be easy to let the images slide into territory that's strictly pornographic—the lurid and hardcore, the predictably "controversial." One could also imagine a series preoccupied with wearing its "Fuck the Man" symbolism on its sleeve. But I wish to move beyond these things and make something playful and tender and maybe a little ambiguous, but exuberantly so. This, I feel, is the most humanizing act I can do.

NOTES ON JOIN OR DIE (Thanks, Frank W!)

Wil Wheaton teaches his son to slay dragons

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 11:46 AM PDT

Wil Wheaton is leading a kitchen-table game of Dungeons and Dragons with his teenaged son and some of his son's friends, and documenting the campaign in his blog. This is absolutely charming, a heartwarming tale of our proud geek heritage being passed down through the generations.

D&D was the first thing to capture my attention as thoroughly as reading had. I remember just falling head over heels for it -- the miniatures, the painting, the storytelling, the dice, the paraphernalia, the social circle. It was all I could think about for years. I haunted the downtown D&D stores like The Four Horsemen and Mr Gameway's Arc (which had a full-scale replica of the bridge of the Enterprise on the top level!), and hoarded graph-paper like it was going out of style. Reading this brings it all back to me.

As John Rogers notes, "They are, in the end, about a father sitting down at a kitchen table, for hours, teaching and telling stories with his son."

He looked up at Nolan and their other friend. "If I get behind her, I can get out of reach of her claws, and I do all kinds of cool stuff when I'm flanking someone."

Yeah, this kid is really into being a rogue.

They agreed that he could go for it. I decided that this was incredibly difficult: DC 20.

"Make an athletics check," I said. Then, "are you sure you want to do this?"

But the die was out of his hand. It rolled across the table in front of him and landed at the edge of the map: 19.

"What's your athletics bonus?" I said.

"Plus 1," he said.

"Well, I can't believe you pulled it off, but you did it."

"YES!" He said, with a major fist pump.

"Let's see if the Dragon hits you, as you leap away," I said. She rolled a four.

"As you crouch down to leap away, she looks down at you and snorts contemptuously. She slashes at you with her left claw, but when it snaps closed, you've already lept through her grasp! You lock your hands around the neck of this statue, and spin around it, tucking your feet in and avoiding the wyrmling's bite. You let go of the statue, somersault in the air, and land on your feet behind her."

"That was so cool," Nolan said.

His friend and I both nodded. I realized that I was having a lot of fun visualizing the action in my head, and describing it to them all as evocatively as possible.

and so the campaign begins... (Part I)

and so the campaign begins... (Part II)

and so the campaign begins... (Part III)

and so the campaign begins... (Part IV)

a few thoughts and lessons learned from behind the dm screen

New York Times warns that new financial rules could "wreak havoc" -- 1999

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 06:03 AM PDT

From the 11/5/99 New York Times: "CONGRESS PASSES WIDE-RANGING BILL EASING BANK LAWS By STEPHEN LABATON":
''Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century,'' Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said. ''This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy.''

The decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 provoked dire warnings from a handful of dissenters that the deregulation of Wall Street would someday wreak havoc on the nation's financial system

CONGRESS PASSES WIDE-RANGING BILL EASING BANK LAWS (11/5/99)

Classic Gutenberg project books read aloud by Roy Trumbull

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 05:56 AM PDT

Roy Trumbull, a talented reader, is working his way through the best of Project Gutenberg's texts, reading them aloud in a podcast called "Story Spieler." He's got a lot of classic science fiction, Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary" and lots more. Roy read some of my work aloud and did a fantastic job with it, and I'm really enjoying listening to his work on these stories, too. It's a great way to mine the past for some of the great and forgotten works of literature.

Story Spieler Podcast

Podcast feed



Printing a ukelele on a laser-cutter

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 05:49 AM PDT

The folks at NYC Resistor laser-cut this sweet little flying-V ukelele, designed with open source tools. It's just a half-size prototype. but there's some there there for sure.
2) With the help from a kind friend, I got this file into the proper format for printing, stuck a sheet of 1/8″ x 24″ x 12″ plywood into the laser, and then hit the "GO" button. Just before you hit that button, you are required to shout "FIRE THE LAZZZZOR", just so people know, well, that something magic is about to happen.

3) After about twenty minutes of laazzzoor (which costs me $20… $1 per minute of laser use), out came the piece of wood, from which I could easily pop out the various parts of my new uku. From there, some simple wood glue and human hand pressure produced the outcome seen below.

Open-Source Ukulele Proto Uno Lazzzzored FTW! (Thanks, Nathan!)

Plush anatomical knee

Posted: 27 Mar 2009 05:29 AM PDT


Becky Stern has followed up her plush model of her damaged femur with a complete, anatomically correct plush knee. Go Becky! She adds, "I used elastic to give the ligaments realistic stretch, and even gave it the capability to dislocate, just like my real knee. Built using anatomical models and the pictures my doctor took from inside my knee during surgery as references."

Plush Knee (Thanks, Becky!)



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