The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Douglas Coupland's depressing next ten years
• Highly recommended: New Ted Chiang novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects"
• Classic films as pornos photoshopping contest
• Photo series: woman at the shooting gallery, 1937-2008
• Mickey Mouse discovers that Donald Duck/Glenn Beck mashup is a gubmint conspiracy
• Found photo: odd gentleman and family, 1860s Sussex
• Google, you can drive my car?
• Grotesque dolls
• Richard Dawkins on Bill Maher
• Odd case of 19yo Scientology defector arrested upon escape for "hard drive theft"
• Reverend Billy and Church of Stop Shopping hit the Dutch Theater Bigtime
• Republican congressional candidate and Tea Party fave revealed as Nazi cosplayer
• Happy Birthday, John Lennon
• Carmex packaging redesign will save the planet
• Airplane, minus all the jokes
• TV LogoMania!
• How the Left Hemisphere Colonized Reality

Douglas Coupland's depressing next ten years Posted: 09 Oct 2010 11:23 PM PDT Douglas Coupland's "Radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years," from this weekend's Globe and Mail is a thought-provoking (and somewhat depressing) exercise in linear predictions based on peak oil, rampant financialist malfeasance and climate change: 1) It's going to get worse No silver linings and no lemonade. The elevator only goes down. The bright note is that the elevator will, at some point, stop. 2) The future isn't going to feel futuristic It's simply going to feel weird and out-of-control-ish, the way it does now, because too many things are changing too quickly. The reason the future feels odd is because of its unpredictability. If the future didn't feel weirdly unexpected, then something would be wrong. 3) The future is going to happen no matter what we do. The future will feel even faster than it does now The next sets of triumphing technologies are going to happen, no matter who invents them or where or how. Not that technology alone dictates the future, but in the end it always leaves its mark. The only unknown factor is the pace at which new technologies will appear. This technological determinism, with its sense of constantly awaiting a new era-changing technology every day, is one of the hallmarks of the next decade... 6) The middle class is over. It's not coming back Remember travel agents? Remember how they just kind of vanished one day? That's where all the other jobs that once made us middle-class are going - to that same, magical, class-killing, job-sucking wormhole into which travel-agency jobs vanished, never to return. However, this won't stop people from self-identifying as middle-class, and as the years pass we'll be entering a replay of the antebellum South, when people defined themselves by the social status of their ancestors three generations back. Enjoy the new monoclass! A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years (Thanks, , via Submitterator) Douglas Coupland models his life & books on net-rumors about him ... Coupland's JPod: the Anti-Microserfs

Highly recommended: New Ted Chiang novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" Posted: 09 Oct 2010 11:11 PM PDT Subterranean Press has Ted Chiang's latest novella, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects," a sweet, sad story about virtual pets and the lives they lead online. Ted Chiang is one of the greatest writers working in science fiction today, we're lucky to have him. Blue Gamma has a customer liaison whose job is to read the forums, but Derek sometimes follows the forums on his own, after work. Sometimes customers talk about the digients' facial expressions, but even when they don't, Derek enjoys reading the anecdotes. FROM: Zoe Armstrong You won't believe what my Natasha did today! We were at the playground, and another digient hurt himself when he fell and was crying. Natasha gave him a hug to make him feel better, and I praised her to high heaven. Next thing I know, she pushes over another digient to make him cry, hugs him, and looks to me for praise! Fiction: The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (Thanks, Avisolo, via Submitterator!) Ted Chiang on Writing Ted Chiang's Hugo nominated story Exhalation free download - Boing ... Ted Chiang's story Exhalation -- free podcast Podcast of Ted Chiang's THE MERCHANT AND THE ALCHEMIST'S GATE ... Ted Chiang short story in StarShipSofa's Aural Delights podcast ... Short-story collection of the decade if not the century Ted Chiang is a brilliant

Classic films as pornos photoshopping contest Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:55 PM PDT Last week's Something Awful Photoshop Phriday theme was "Porn Versions of Classic Films." Amid some fairly predictable fare was this science fiction gem, from "Whoflungpoop." Porn Versions of Classic Films! (via Super Punch) Vintage ads from fictional futures photoshopping contest Montage of magic "photo enhancement" in cop shows and movies ... Christmas goes to the movies photoshopping contest Armored animals photoshopping contest Monsters-in-fine-art photoshopping contest

Photo series: woman at the shooting gallery, 1937-2008 Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:51 PM PDT Here is an annual photo series of Ria van Dijk, a Dutch woman, staring down the scope of a rifle at her local fair's shooting gallery. The series commences in 1937, when she was 15, and runs through to 2008, when she is 88 (there are no pictures between 1939 and 1945, of course). in almost every picture #7 (via Neatorama) Photo series of baby dressed up as ruthless dictators Photo series peeping toms in Japan, circa 1970 Giant, baroque factory photo-series Moment of zen: Arm-wrestling photo series Photo series: A Gallon of Milk in an hour? Bubbles of fashion sail over Paris, 1963

Mickey Mouse discovers that Donald Duck/Glenn Beck mashup is a gubmint conspiracy Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:41 PM PDT ikat381 sez, "This week, Glenn Beck Responded to Jonathan McIntosh's Donald Duck remix with accusations that the video is a government funded attack. I took this crazy response and remixed it to Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse Discovers the Government Cartoon Conspiracy Against Glenn Beck (Thanks, ikat381!) Glenn Beck's gold-investment scam/scheme: an explanatory ... Glenn Beck swipes his kooky conspiracy theories from kooky ... Glenn Beck's website gives him something to cry about Fox's Glenn Beck says Obama is building concentration camps for ... Haiku sent to Glenn Beck Glenn Beck advertiser sells "survival seeds" for apocalyptic ... When Donald Duck met Glenn Beck CNN's Glenn Beck replacement wingnut possibly more gross than ...

Found photo: odd gentleman and family, 1860s Sussex Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:38 PM PDT Josh sez, "Steerforth collects and blogs about discarded books, diaries and photos from his work in Sussex, England. His latest find is an album of photos from the 1860s.The first photo appears to be of Frankenstein's monster and his family." Almost Lost Forever (Thanks, Josh!) Old photo of mother disguised as a chair Wal-Mart: you can't scan century-old photos of your ancestors ... Old timey Halloween photos Photoblog devoted to century-old piccies Shorpy.com, the 100-year-old photo blog

Google, you can drive my car? Posted: 09 Oct 2010 08:44 PM PDT "Google has been working in secret but in plain view on vehicles that can drive themselves, using artificial-intelligence software that can sense anything near the car and mimic the decisions made by a human driver." Read John Markoff's New York Times piece, with video and diagrams explaining how the robocars drive themselves. Brad Templeton of the EFF has some related observations. (link and BB post headline nicked from @markoff/@NYTjamescobb, more via @MattCutts)

Grotesque dolls Posted: 09 Oct 2010 01:27 PM PDT Sculptor Shain Erin makes beautiful, grotesque, haunting dolls, poppets and fetishes (some are for sale on Etsy. Shane Erin (via Neatorama)

Richard Dawkins on Bill Maher Posted: 09 Oct 2010 08:23 PM PDT Evolutionary biologist and notorious propagator of common sense Richard Dawkins, whom we hope to welcome to Boing Boing sometime soon as a guestblogger, appeared on Bill Maher's HBO program last night. Dr. Dawkins has a terrific new book out, well worth a read if you don't yet have a copy: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. Video of the Maher clip is embedded above (Nope, pulled from YouTube after copyright complaint by HBO). The nifty "We Are All Africans" shirt Dawkins presented to Maher is available here. Video: YouTube link (sorry, already yanked), and Alternate video link here, and a third source here, while they last. Too bad HBO insists on building user-hating flashblob websites, and won't release timely clips like this on their own when there's such huge demand.

Odd case of 19yo Scientology defector arrested upon escape for "hard drive theft" Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:47 AM PDT Liz Ohanesian of the LA Weekly tells us, "One of our news bloggers, Dennis Romero, has been covering the case of Daniel Montalvo, a young man who defected from Scientology and was then arrested by LA Sheriff's Department. It's a strange and intriguing case." More so because the arrest is now believed to have been made over allegations the 19-year-old Montalvo stole multiple hard drives from the Church.

Reverend Billy and Church of Stop Shopping hit the Dutch Theater Bigtime Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:42 AM PDT Many Boing Boing readers will be familiar with the anti-capitalist art-provocateur antics of Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping. He's today the subject of a New York Times profile, after a theater group in the Netherlands paid him $25,000 to adapt his persona and some of his songs for Dutch Broadway. The NYT piece has an incorrect link for Amsterdam's Stardust theater company, by the way: here's the correct one.

Republican congressional candidate and Tea Party fave revealed as Nazi cosplayer Posted: 09 Oct 2010 10:30 AM PDT Rich Iott, Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio's 9th District, and Tea Party favorite, is apparently also a Nazi cosplayer.

Happy Birthday, John Lennon Posted: 09 Oct 2010 09:28 AM PDT Imagine peace. Drew Friedman illustration

Carmex packaging redesign will save the planet Posted: 09 Oct 2010 09:28 AM PDT Carmex, the crack cocaine of lip balm products, announced a new packaging design that uses 20% less plastic. It's now evident how stingy Carmex is with their semi-liquid gold, too. If they haven't changed the tooling yet, I would like to suggest a superior design: In the meantime, I think I'll order glass jars of the stuff directly from Carma Labs: For those of you diehard jarheads who are longing for the opal glass jars of days gone by (we stopped shipping those in 1996), you can still order those directly from Carma Labs. The minimum order is 12 jars ($24; includes shipping). If you are interested, please call 1-414-421-7707. Carmex Jar Goes Green (Via Doobybrain)

Airplane, minus all the jokes Posted: 09 Oct 2010 09:45 AM PDT Airplane: A Melodrama. More like this at electronicsunset.org. Of course, many have pointed out that Airplane without the lulz is Zero Hour, the movie upon which Airplane is said to have been based. (Submitterated by RoloD, thanks also apelad)

TV LogoMania! Posted: 06 Oct 2010 11:10 AM PDT This particularly hideous website is nonetheless a gold mine for designers and old TV heads, claiming to have every television logo ever made. Scrolling through is at once an education in the evolution of screen logo design, a non-linear tour through television history, and a strangely satisfying stimulation of visual memory circuits.

How the Left Hemisphere Colonized Reality Posted: 06 Oct 2010 11:07 AM PDT If we are to believe the latest conclusions of Tony Wright (speaking above in a National Geographic documentary) the left brain hemisphere has not simply dominated a more passive right; rather, over time, it has changed our neurochemistry and neural structures to support its own ascent. In his new book, Left in the Dark, Wright argues that "humanity is suffering from species-wide brain damage" and this damage is the "root cause of our obvious insanity." According to current thinking cerebral dominance is the product of adaptive selection and has resulted in one side of our brain (the left) acquiring specialist abilities such as speech and rational or conceptual thinking. With these 'advanced' skills the left hemisphere has come to dominate our thinking, behaviour and psychology. In effect our mind and sense of self or who we think we are is primarily a product of the left side of our brain. Of course the conclusion that our left hemisphere has specialised and advanced abilities is, by definition, a conclusion reached by our left hemisphere! Lets suppose just for a minute that our left hemisphere is a hormonally retarded, structurally damaged, perceptually limited and psychologically deluded version of our right hemisphere and its rise to dominance was driven by fear and the need to maintain a sense of control due to its increasing damage. In effect cerebral dominance is a symptom of a neurodegenerative condition rather than an advanced adaptive trait. On the one hand, this feels a bit like a rehashing of decades-old complaints about left-brain, dominator culture memes wiping out the goddess herself. But at least these are grounded in accepted science. If anything, it's a left-brain-argued case against the left brain.

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