Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

SPIDER surgical instrument looks like a proto-bush-robot

Posted: 23 Oct 2010 01:17 AM PDT

The TransEnterix SPIDER Surgical System is a laporoscopic surgical instrument that allows for easy tool-swapping without withdrawing the device from the patient. It also happens to look like a distant ancestor to Moravec's bush robot.

Flexible Laparoscopy With The Spider System Is Characterized By:

# Triangulation achieved via single site access
# True left and true right instrumentation
# Flexible, articulating instruments
# A single-operator platform
# An open platform with multiple working channels

TransEnterix SPIDER Surgical System Gets CE Mark



Old film rejection slip: "All scenes of an unpleasant nature should be eliminated"

Posted: 23 Oct 2010 01:12 AM PDT


This undated form rejection from Essanay Film Manufacturing Company (which was in existence from 1907-1925) is a sweet little snapshot into the mores of the time -- and the bits that haven't changed since. According to the Old Hollywood Tumblr, "[Essnay is] mostly remembered today for its series of Charlie Chaplin films."

Rejection slip, Essanay Film Manufacturing Company (via Neatorama)



Baby in a watermelon eating a watermelon

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 09:05 PM PDT

Video Link. Consider it a cute-chaser with which to wash away the entire week.
(thanks, George Strompolos).

The New York Times Torture Euphemism Generator!

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 07:51 PM PDT

Reading the NYT's stories about the Iraq War logs, I was struck by how it could get through such gruesome descriptions — fingers chopped off, chemicals splashed on prisoners — without using the word 'torture.' For some reason the word is unavailable when it is literally meaningful, yet is readily tossed around for laughs in contexts where it means nothing at all. It turns out the NYT has a reputation for studiously avoiding the word, to the point of using bizarre bureaucratic alternatives. It must be awfully hard work inventing these things. So I thought I'd help out by putting together a torture euphemism generator that the New York Times' reporters can use to help avoid the T-word in their thumb removal and acid bath coverage.

Click the "new headline" link to get a new one! (It won't refresh the ads or anything.)

Van Gogh's Ear cat toy

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 07:49 PM PDT

Images Products Detail Van Goghs Ear What the hell is that, you ask? Why, it's Van Gogh's Ear. Specifically, it's a Van Gogh's Ear organic catnip cat toy. Seriously. It's for sale at The Modern Dog, a Venice, California pet boutique owned by my dear friends Guy Miracle and Lance Castro. Also available in a similarly strange vein is a catnip toy emblazoned with, er, Michael Jackson's face. You can also get them for $8 and $9, respectively, from the Modern Dog's online shop.

WSJ: Myspace.com and Myspace apps leak user data

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 03:56 PM PDT

The Wall Street Journal reports that MySpace.com and some popular MySpace applications transmit data to outside advertising companies that could be used to identify users.

Wikileaks hacked by "very skilled hackers" ahead of Iraq War Logs release

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 03:51 PM PDT

Wikileaks releases nearly 400,000 new secret Iraq docs, with help from news orgs

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 04:14 PM PDT


IMAGE: Each death noted in the Iraq war logs released today by Wikileaks is mapped with Google Maps, by the Guardian.

Wikileaks has just published The Iraq War Logs, described as "the largest classified military leak in history."

The 391,832 reports document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout. The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 'civilians'; 23,984 'enemy' (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 'host nation' (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 'friendly' (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths.That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period.

The Guardian is among the first news orgs to publish analysis, and leads with the statement that the files show how the US turned a blind eye to torture in Iraq, and "expose serial abuse of detainees, 15,000 previously unknown deaths, and a full toll of Iraq's five years of carnage."

The archive is alleged to have been sourced from Pfc. Bradley Manning, the same US army intelligence analyst who is believed to have also leaked a smaller cache of 90,000 logs chronicling incidents in the Afghan war. According to the Guardian's early analysis, the new logs detail how:

• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.

• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

Guardian's full coverage here, with an infographic mapping every death here.

As of 1:46pm PT, Al Jazeera's coverage is live online and on-air. Here is their inforgraphic/data-mapping effort. A statement regarding redactions ends with an indication of which other news orgs were granted early access by Assange: "But working alongside the New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, and the UK's Channel 4 TV, Al Jazeera is clear that releasing the Iraq files - despite their secret nature - is vital to the public interest."

In a tweet posted around 145pm PT today, @wikileaks (presumably Julian Assange) wrote, "Al Jazeera have broken our embargo by 30 minutes. We release everyone from their Iraq War Logs embargoes."

So, which other news organizations had embargoed access to the documents? Again, from @wikileaks: "TBIJ, IBC, Guardian, Spiegel, NYT, Le Monde, Al Jazeera, Chan4, SVT, CNN, BBC and more in the next few hours. We maximise impact."


Update, 2:05pm PT: The New York Times coverage is now live in multiple parts. An A-1 placement story is due in Saturday's paper edition, and a profile of Assange is due out over the weekend as well. From the NYT overview:

A close analysis of the 391,832 documents helps illuminate several important aspects of this war:

¶ The deaths of Iraqi civilians -- at the hands mainly of other Iraqis, but also of the American military -- appear to be greater than the numbers made public by the United States during the Bush administration.

¶ While the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Americans, particularly at the Abu Ghraib prison, shocked the American public and much of the world, the documents paint an even more lurid picture of abuse by America's Iraqi allies -- a brutality from which the Americans at times averted their eyes.


¶ Iran's military, more than has been generally understood, intervened aggressively in support of Shiite combatants, offering weapons, training and sanctuary and in a few instances directly engaging American troops.


¶ The war in Iraq spawned a reliance on private contractors on a scale not well recognized at the time and previously unknown in American wars. The documents describe an outsourcing of combat and other duties once performed by soldiers that grew and spread to Afghanistan to the point that there are more contractors there than soldiers. [An article on this topic is scheduled to appear in The New York Times on Sunday.]


Update, 2:08pm PT: Le Monde's infographic and full coverage is now live.


Update, 215pm PT: Swedish television network SVT's data visualization effort goes live.


Update, 220pm PT: The "Bureau of Investigative Journalism", aka iraqwarlogs.com, goes live with their treatment. Is this just an alternate url maintained by Wikileaks? Unclear.


Update, 230pm PT: BBC items are going up now. Blog coverage at the BBC about Pentagon reaction here. And Der Spiegel's infographic package is now up, here. Notably, nothing of substance is up yet at CNN, Fox News, Washington Post, or Wired; all were presumably left out of early access by Wikileaks.


Update, 3:10pm PT: In a press release pre-dated for tomorrow, Amnesty International demands that the US investigate how much military commanders knew of torture documented in the leaked secret documents.



Update, 3:17pm PT: CNN publishes an "exclusive interview" with Assange, in which the Wikileaks founder says the leaks contain "compelling evidence of war crimes" committed by U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi government forces.

Update, 414pm PT: Wired News analysis is here.







Crazy jihad troll who threatened Matt & Trey from South Park is so totally busted

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 03:12 PM PDT

A 20-year old guy named Zachary Adam Chesser pled guilty on Wednesday to three federal charges: communicating threats against South Park's writers, soliciting violent jihadists to desensitize law enforcement, and attempting to provide material support to Al-Shabaab, an organization designated by the US as a terrorist group.

Chesser is so busted. He faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison when sentenced on February 25, 2011. He was born Jewish, and converted in his teens to an extremist strain of Islam, adopting the name Abu Talhah al-Amrikee.

Above, from left to right, his high school yearbook photo; a pic in the school paper about his mad breakdancing skills, and Chesser transformed into Abu Talhah al-Amrikee: a violent fundamentalist who will likely spend the next three decades in prison.

Chesser also admitted that in May 2010, he posted to a jihadist website the personal contact information of individuals who had joined the "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" group on Facebook, with the prompting that this is, "Just a place to start."

Chesser also pleaded guilty to soliciting others to desensitize law enforcement by placing suspicious-looking but innocent packages in public places. Chesser explained through a posting online that once law enforcement was desensitized, a real explosive could be used. Chesser ended the posting with the words, "Boom! No more kuffar." According to court documents, "kuffar" means unbeliever, or disbeliever.

(...) Chesser admitted that he promoted online what he called "Open Source Jihad," where he would direct jihadists through his online forums to information on the Internet that they could use to elude capture and death while maintaining relevance and striking capability. This included linking to the entire security screening manual used by the Transportation Security Administration and hundreds of books that contained information on the construction of antiaircraft missiles, and tactics, techniques and weapons for targeting aircraft such as jet airplanes and helicopters.

Read the Department of Justice press release:

Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Providing Material Support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Encouraging Violent Jihadists to Kill U.s. Citizens.


Seriously! He won awards as a breakdancer in high school! Maybe the poppin' and lockin' was what led him down this sad path.

Pumpkin Pi

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 01:35 PM PDT

"Pumpkin π," carved and photographed by Alex Gleeson. Click to embiggen.
(thanks, Renny!)

The Rudy Coby Experiment at The El Rey Theatre on 10/23/10

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 12:53 PM PDT

201010221227 The amazing magician Rudy Coby is performing at the El Rey Theatre in LA on Saturday 10/23/10. I've seen him do his wildly inventive show at the Magic Castle and at Dr. Sketchy's and he is outstanding.

He's also producing an event that will run for a week at The Magic Castle from Oct. 25 through Oct. 31, called Mr. Dead's Underground.

Tickets here.

Hakuba Camera Neck Strap

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 01:52 PM PDT

CM Capture 5.jpg

Most compact digital cameras come with a lousy wrist strap. I say "lousy" because they often lack a slider to fit them to your wrist (which makes them more prone to fall off). And in any case you can't put them around your neck, which is often a better choice if you need both of your hands when you're out and about.

That's why I've replaced those straps on my compact cameras with this Hakuba neck strap. I first found one about six years ago when I nearly smashed my Nikon CoolPix 880 on rocks while on a hike with my newly wedded wife in the Virgin Islands.

The strap is thick nylon which feels sturdy around your neck. Wearing the camera around your neck gives you both hands free to hold onto rocks or your spouse (hey, we were newlyweds then!). It also has a slider so that you can turn it into a wrist strap (albeit a long one) when you don't want to look like a dork with a camera around your neck, and it has a quick release for when you need to quickly detach it from the strap.

There are other straps that might be OK, but I like the durability of the Hakuba strap.

-- Ben Rothfeld

Hakuba Digital Camera Neck Strap $6

Available from B&H Comment on this at Cool Tools. Or, submit a tool!

The Candy Hierarchy

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 12:16 PM PDT

candyhierarchy2008.jpg With Halloween approaching, I thought it would be amusing to write a bit about candy, or more specifically, a system that aims to rank it. In this case, the rubric would be according to "emotional zeal" or something more jargony sounding like "joy induction." Anyway, this hierarchy is the work of a friend and colleague, Ben Cohen. Ben is an environmental historian over at the University of Virginia, but in a previous life, he and I use to write on a blog together. This partnership happened because of our backgrounds publishing science humour (see Ben's clip list here), so in some respects, this "Candy Hierarchy" is just another creative juncture. However, since I'm loving how you can get immediate feedback from the Boing Boing community, I'm also thinking that we could use this opportunity to throw a little kickass "peer review" into the ranking. Kickass because: (1) I know some people are going to be deeply offended by the rankings; (2) the rankings were last updated in 2008, and are therefore long overdue for some revision; and (3) well, isn't peer review just kickass anyway? Oh yeah - the graphic is new (just made it today): hopefully if you play in the comments, some of us can use it one day as a slide for an interesting discussion on the scientific method - yes? Anyway, read on...
THE CANDY HIERARCHY

Discussion:
The research team is seeking further "peer review" as we prepare to submit grant proposals to the NIH, NSF, CDC, FDA, and MTV. The recession clearly put a dent in hierarchy-producing momentum (see previous versions 2006 | 2007 | 2008), this being another indication of the relationship between scientific productivity and economic pressures, as well as the relationship between eating large volumes of candy and participants "getting all bloated and lethargic."

We place a high value on the peer review process, as past attempts had produced noteworthy relevations, including establishment of reference samples, hereafter termed index candies, as well as the discovery of the importance of caramel in defining the upper tiers.

In particular, we hope that some of the new potential advances in the hierarchy will be due to evaluating context setting. For example, rarely in practice do eaters eat just one piece of candy. Evidence indicates that, in general, eaters throw multiple pieces of Halloween candy down their gullets. (When so much is being eaten, research shows the Pelican-gullet-eating-fish imagery is apt.) It thus matters which are eaten earlier and which later. Some tests, for example, indicate that "you can only consume so many premier grade chocolate based candies before you need the zip or zing of a Spree or a Smarty to 'cleanse the pallet'." We also realize that results are predominantly based on North American palates, but hope that the forthcoming discussion will begin to shed light on global preferences.

Enough preamble, then. To wit, the Candy Hierarchy (circa 2008):

TOP TIER1
(caramel, chewy, oh my classy)
Caramellos --- Milky Way --- Snickers --- Rolos2 --- Twix

POST-TERTIARY
(not surprisingly, exclusively chocolate-based)
Hershey's Kissables --- Peanut M&M's --- Regular M&Ms --- Junior Mints --- Reese's Peanut Butter Cups --- Three Musketeers --- regular old Hershey Bars -- Reggie Jackson Bar

SECOND TIER
(also exclusively chocolate, after fending off a few intruders)
Kit-Kat --- Nestle Crunch --- Mounds --- Tootsie Rolls --- Whoppers3 --- Dark Chocolate Hershey Bars --- Fair Trade Chocolate --- Butterfinger --- Pay Day --- Baby Ruth

THIRD TIER
(the chewy range or, in some circles, the Upper Chewy or Upper Devonian)
Milk Duds --- Benzedrine -- Jolly Ranchers (if a good flavor) --- 100 Grand Bar
Almond Joy --- Candy Corn?4 --- Starburst

BOTTOM TIER
(the Lower Chewy and Gummy-Based, also the Middle Crunchy Tart Layer)
Dots --- Lollipops --- Nerds --- Runts --- Trail Mix ---Swedish Fish --- Mary Janes --- Gummy Bears straight up --- White Bread --- Licorice -- Anything from Brach's5 --- Hard Candy --- Spree --- Bubble Gum --- Including the Chiclets (but not the erasers) --- Black Jacks --- LemonHeads --- LaffyTaffy --- Good N' Plenty --- Jolly Ranchers (if a bad flavor)6 --- Bottle Caps --- Smarties --- "those odd marshmallow circus peanut things" -- gum from baseball cards

Tier so low it does not register on our equipment7
Healthy Fruit --- Pencils --- Lapel Pins --- Extra Strength Tylenol --- "anonymous brown globs that come in black and orange wrappers" --- Now'n'Laters --- Hugs (actual physical hugs) --- Whole Wheat anything

- - -

1. Note that may candies still await placement: York Peppermint Patties, Luna Bars, Reese's Pieces, residue from old paint cans, and Skittles, among others.

2. These may be rolled to a friend.

3. Whoppers blow.

4. Still no unanimous decision on the placement of Candy Corn, which as of 2006 remained unclassified, but as of 2007 had been tentatively placed in the Upper Chewy/Upper Devonian. 2008: no sighting.

5. Unless it's something caramel, pronounced "caramel."

6. Remains an outlier, since it is in no way "chewy." Further studies have not resolved this inconsistency.

7. Yet some would be just as well to be left off. Bit-o-Honey, for example, might be called a lower tier member, but why bother? It says to your trick-or-treaters, "Here, I don't care, just take this." The lesson of Bit-o-Honey is: you lose. Goo Goo clusters, too. You're making a social statement--"I hate you and everything you represent"--when you give these out.

"Should Be Legalized" Eminem - Love The Way You Lie parody

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 12:01 PM PDT


The polls on Prop 19 to legalize pot in California show likely voters to be split down the middle (with a edge toward keeping it illegal). It would be a shame if this chance to end marijuana prohibition is, er, wasted.

"Should Be Legalized" Eminem - Love The Way You Lie Parody

Smigly Cartoon: noise

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 11:46 AM PDT


Allen Mezquida writes, animates, and plays the music for his great cartoons, about a sensitive sad sack named Smigly.

See more Smiglys here.

Google shelters profits overseas to keep corporate tax rate at 2.4 percent

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 11:31 AM PDT

According to this Bloomberg News piece, Google maintains a complex international financial structure to send most of its overseas profits to tax havens and keep its corporate rate at 2.4%. (Note: I don't use Gmail, G-phone, or Google Docs, but if this were offered as a [legal] cloud service... hell yeah.)

Crocodiles on planes prove greater threat than Muslims

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 11:34 AM PDT

A crocodile stored in a sports bag as carry-on escaped and killed 20 people, passengers and crew, on a flight within the Democratic Republic of Congo. The plane ended up crashing into a house. According to a (human) survivor, "The crocodile survived the blast [before] getting cut up with a machete." More: ABC, Fox, AOL.

New Keith Morris video: "I Don't Belong"

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 11:19 AM PDT


After you enjoy this fantastic Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks) video of "I Don't Belong," you can show your love by purchasing his "throbble head" figure.

201010221114 This figure capturing Keith in full-on live mode is limited to 1000 numbered units, stands at 7 inches tall, and is made of super strong polyresin.

While the figure is labeled a Throbblehead, it's actually Keith's arm that does all the movement, aggressively pointing towards his mind.

Displayed in a window box, Keith is accurately sculpted right down to the dreads, Vans, and "fuck you" stare.


Keith Morris Throbblehead Figure

US Air Force Academy: We are ready for The Witches (The Gays, not so much)

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 11:08 AM PDT

Noah Shachtman reports on changes at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where Evangelical Christianity was once so dominant that 55 complaints were filed in 4 years alleging discrimination against non-Christians. But...

Today, the Academy is boasting of its thriving pagan community -- and its friendliness towards spell-casters. In a press release issued Thursday, the Academy features Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier (pictured), "the lay leader for the Academy's Earth-Centered Spirituality community, which includes Wiccans and Pagans from various traditions." (It's part of a larger effort by the school to promote an image of tolerance.)

During an inter-faith discussion group, the release notes, one cadet asked Longcrier "whether Wiccans or Pagans practiced 'black magic.'"

Sergeant Longcrier responded by citing the Wiccan credo, or Rede: "An it harm none, do what ye will." That would seem to preclude harmful spellcraft. However, the Rede "would not apply to a battlefield," according to the Academy release.

For more on the new, pagan-friendly Air Force, and how earth magick can heal you from "pizza poisoning," go read Noah's piece with the best headline of the week: "Air Force Academy Now Welcomes Spell-Casters."

Chris Berens new dreamlike paintings on photo paper

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 10:40 AM PDT

Ieageb5Umeq Tlisohhig9I Aaaaaaaaeia Oszqxxyiqku S1600 Microcosmos
Amsterdam painter Chris Berens has a show of new work opening today at Seattle's Roq La Rue Gallery. Above, "Microcosmos," (mixed media on panel, 20" x 20"). Below, "Leap" (mixed media on panel, 18" x 18"). Berens's dreamy images have a decidedly Photoshop feel, but they are not digital. (I can tell by the paint drops?) Indeed, he prefers ink on photo paper to oil on canvas. All of the work is also viewable online. From Roq La Rue:
Ieageb5Umeq Tlsvcn-Ihii Aaaaaaaaegy Ttrnr8Tkebg S1600 Leap His work features a fantastical mélange of exotic creatures and 18th century imagery, floating in buttermilk colored clouds, lush verdant countrysides, or silvery sea blues. Photo realistic, totem-like animals and distorted childlike people float like dreams through blurry surrealistic European city scapes or drift on stormy seas on decrepit ships in a soft focus haze, shimmering as if in a fevered dream. It is almost shocking to look at, but in the gentlest of ways. Beyond the wondrous imagery there is another startling and unusual aspect to Chris' work, in which the smooth, translucent look of the his medium of choice (all works are created with drawing ink, bistre, graphite, parquet lacquer, alkyd coating varnish on inkjet photo paper that is then mounted on wooden panels and adhered with bookbinder's glue) is contrasted with fact that the paintings are patch-worked together, in pieces ranging from 1 to 3 inches across. Each section has been been painted numerous times and layered over each other and each segment flows seamlessly into each other, creating a cohesive image...

This new series of works, entitled "Leeuwenhart" ("Lion Heart") take a turn from his last body of work which depicted icicle-like skyscrapers and NY cityscapes that sparkled like diamonds, to more of a lush, fairytale world of forests, rolling green hills, and ancient looking villages. And while the usual assortment of magical animal spirits show up in all the works, another character makes an appearance, Chris' new daughter Emma Leeuwenhart Berens.

Chris Berens "Leeuwenhart"

Erik Davis on American hoodoo

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 10:22 AM PDT

Wp-Content Uploads 2010 10 Oilfronts
In Erik Davis's latest Pop Arcana column, he looks into American hoodoo and the The Lucky Mojo Curio Co. Occult Shop Catalogue, your one-stop-shop for sachet powders, bottle spells, Cast Off Evil Oil, Money Stay With Me Bath Crystals, and the like. From Erik's essay:
Castoffevilbc Digging into these pages, one discovers that Lucky Mojo is not New Age nor Neopagan after all, nor does it represent the current of Caribbean religious syncretism that gives us the urban botanicas that in some ways the site recalls. No, Lucky Mojo's magical current is closer to home than any of these, and yet almost invisible.

That current is hoodoo, although according to Catherine Yronwode, the brilliant and indefatigable woman behind Lucky Mojo, the tradition has many regional names — rootwork, conjure, witchcraft — and for many people remains nameless, as in "that stuff my great aunt did." Though essentially African-American, hoodoo should not be confused with voodoo or other Caribbean transformations of African spirit possession cults. (If anything, it most resembles Jamaican traditions of obeah, or "science.") Though hoodoo encompasses a variety of oracular and healing practices, its core moves rely on botanical materials and ordinary household products like soaps and toilet waters, and largely aims for this-worldly results: lottery numbers, love, protection from (or vengeance against) the boss. This pragmatism is also echoed in the tradition's intensely polyglot syncretism, which fuses African magical styles with streams of, among other things, Cherokee earth ways, Santeria, German folklore, Jewish sorcery, and the popular magic of Scots-Irish immigrants.

In his necessary history Occult America, Mitch Horowitz declares hoodoo "America's first boundary-free faith."

"Hoodoo You Know"

LIFE magazine on "LSD Art," 1966

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 10:16 AM PDT

Images Images Lsdart Images Images Lsdartttttt
From the LIFE magazine September 9, 1966 cover story about psychedelic art:
"Amid throbbing lights, dizzying designs, swirling smells, swelling sounds, the world of art is 'turning on.' It is getting hooked on psychedelic art, the latest, liveliest movement to seethe up from the underground."
More LIFE images from that story and the 1960s psychedelic culture

The cartoons of Abner Dean

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 10:12 AM PDT

201010221006

"Abner Dean (1910  – 1982), born Abner Epstein, was an American cartoonist who was the nephew of sculptor Jacob Epstein. In allegorical or surrealist situations, Dean often depicted extremes of human behavior amid grim, decaying urban settings or barren landscapes. His artwork prompted Clifton Fadiman to comment, 'His pictures are trick mirrors in which we catch sight of those absurd fragments of ourselves that we never see in the smooth glass of habit.'"

What Things Do, Jordan Crane's wonderful online comics site, has large reproductions from Abner Dean's brilliant 1947 book, What Am I Doing Here?

The last mystery of the blues: were Robert Johnson's recordings sped up?

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 12:56 PM PDT

Last time I was here, I speculated on how country blues genius Charley Patton held his guitar. Indeed, I'm a huge fan of pre-war country blues and that led me into an interesting (but failed) project a little while month back. I don't do much magazine work these days (except for the one that pays my mortgage, of course), but I had an idea for a magazine article that wasn't right for HBR. It went a little like this: Robert Johnson Complete Box Set Robert Johnson isn't merely the best-known and most popular blues singer ever; he's the performer through whom millions of people have been introduced to the form. For most people who hear Robert Johnson the first time, it's the voice that grabs them. High-pitched, on the edge, filled with authority, lust, and fear, that voice inspired everyone from Eric Clapton and Keith Richards to generations of lesser performers and enthusiasts. There's only one problem: that voice might be a fraud.

Much of Johnson's life is semi-known and extrapolated (including his tragic death at the age of 27 in 1938), but his recordings and the thick shadow they cast on all blues that followed them were the part everyone could agree on. No more. A group of diehard blues fans are claiming that Johnson's recordings (he was recorded twice; once in San Antonio in 1936, again in Dallas the following year) were sped up as much as 20 percent for release. That speed increase is not enough to rename his signature album Alvin and the Chipmunks Sing the Blues, but it does make one wonder whether one of the most important American musicians of the century is known to us only via some sort of falsifying technical manipulation. The theory, which may have started in Japanese collector circles (it goes back at least to 2002; I'm still hunting for the original source) and has been taken up by several people in the UK, most notably John Gibbens, a poet and musician who has researched the matter and produced alternate versions of the recordings in which he slows down the existing recordings roughly 20 percent. We still hear those amazing words and that tough, doomed voice, but we hear a dramatically different Robert Johnson: his voice sounds more like the masters who preceded him (Charlie Patton, Son House) and his guitar playing, while still intricate (Johnny Shines, another outstanding bluesman who travelled with Johnson for a time, once claimed Johnson used a bizarre seven-string guitar), is more deliberate and dour. He sounds older, nastier, as if the hellhound on his trail that he sang about had caught up to him already. He sounds, in essence, like a different man. Speeding up the recordings, if it happened, changes how we hear blues and rock history. If Gibbens is right, this would change the way we hear and understand the blues. Johnson's raw, on-the-edge voice? Fake. The wild guitar runs that made thousands of aspiring guitarists' fingers bleed? Ditto.

Theories abound on why these manipulations might have occurred: It was an equipment failure, perhaps. Some say the recordings had to be sped up to fit on 78-rpm records, which, at the time, had a maximum playing time of three minutes. Others contend it was a conscious decision to make the songs more commercial.

Think of the article as CSI: Delta Blues. There's no question that it's possible the recordings were sped up. The performances sound credible at both speeds. The question is whether they were and, if so, how. I'll talk to people who know how records were made in the 1930s (indeed, a few of the people who made them are still with us and I have begun consulting with them) and I will work with original equipment to figure out how it happened (if it happened). I'll take the reader with me as I experiment with a wide variety digital recording and manipulation technologies (both those I can use on my MacBook and those that necessitate a full-fledged recording studio) and learn from the many people who have devoted their lives to blues research to discover more, go deeper, and find the answer. I intend to solve this mystery once and for all, through both audio forensics and old fashioned journalism; this will be a mix of the cutting-edge and the hand-made. Regardless of whether the sped-up theory is true, this is a deep, broad story about how we hear things, how technology, memory, and culture change the way we hear things. Have we, at last, found the first authentic way to listen to the most authentic of American musicians? Or are people just trying to find a new excuse for not being able to play the guy's breakneck guitar parts?

That was the pitch. I developed the article with an enormously helpful editor, but the magazine passed on it, in part because it wasn't clear where the story would take me. So before I submitted it elsewhere, I figured I'd do some more research. If I knew for sure that the recordings were altered, I'd have a much stronger pitch. If not ... well, I might not have a story. Good to know that before I promised something to an editor.

It was hilarious how quickly the theory fell apart. A quick listen to the recordings of the Light Crust Doughboys, who recorded the same weekend as Johnson in Dallas, reveal no such speed weirdness. And there were some mild fluctuations in tempo that are easily heard in the existing recordings: the version of "Hellhound on My Trail" that came out originally was the off-tune one. Even more damning to the theory, Johnson recorded two versions of "Crossroads," released the faster one, and there's hardly any change in the tone of his voice between takes. Something similar happened with "Stop Breaking Down Blues." There's also the problem that no one who heard Johnson play in real life ever suggested the recordings were sped-up. Johnny Shines told Pete Welding, more than 40 years ago, "most of the time [Johnson] sang in a high-pitched voice."

I've got plenty more evidence (Elijah Wald has published a conclusive summary of his own research), but I won't bore you with it. Just because it sounds possible doesn't mean it happened. So why does this theory still float around the Interweb? Because we want a mystery. Like many people who learned about Robert Johnson, I did so as a teenager, a time when boys are particularly susceptible to mythmaking; all that talk of selling his soul to some supernatural entity or another makes the music sound more enticing when you're 14 and looking for a way in. But as we learned more about Johnson from some dogged researchers and developed a more nuanced view of his music and his life, the romantic accoutrements fell off. He was a smart, ambitious man with diverse tastes and extraordinary talents who didn't want to be a sharecropper. The records are amazing, without ridiculous stories that seek to claim a different Johnson for a new generation. That should be enough. The songs still sound great even when someone with a theory plays 'em at the wrong speed. Well, that just shows how great Robert Johnson still is.

Timothy Leary's 90th birthday today

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 10:28 AM PDT

Images Magellanslog104 Learyharvard-2
Images Tim-Carla-Mark-1 Images Learypesco-1-Tm
Happy birthday, Tim! We miss you!

Top left, a track from "Timothy Leary: You Can Be Anyone This Time Around" (1970) with Stephen Stills (guitar), John Sebastian (guitar), Buddy Miles (drums), and Jimi Hendrix (bass).

Above, Tim with bOING bOING founders Carla Sinclair and Mark Frauenfelder in 1995; and with me in 1991.

Sears reaches out to neglected Zombie-American demographic

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 09:52 AM PDT

Retailer Sears is focusing a new e-commerce campaign on the underserved needs of the growing Zombie-American community. Site is available in English or Zombian.

sears.com/Zombies

(thanks, Seth Rosner!)

Year's Best Tech Writing 2010

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 08:53 AM PDT

Julian Dibbell sez, "Did you know there are only 62 shopping days left till Christmas? Yeah, me neither. Good thing Yale University Press has us totally covered on the stocking-stuffer front with THE BEST TECHNOLOGY WRITING 2010, right? Loaded with instant classics no tech-writing connoisseur's bookshelf should be without for even one more agonizing day: Clay Shirky's 'Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable,' Kevin Kelly's 'Technophilia,' Steve Silberman's 'The Placebo Problem,' Jill Lepore's 'Baby Food' (on breast-pump technology through the ages), @AstroMike's tweet from space. Plus my own Deep Thoughts on technology, writing, technology writing, et cetera, served up piping hot in the handsome introduction."

The Best Technology Writing 2010 (Thanks, Julian!)



Amazing footage of next generation prosthetic arm

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 08:46 AM PDT

Someday, when your estranged father cuts off your hand with a laser knife, the only long-lasting impairments you'll have to deal with will be the psychological ones.

In this clip from his new TV show on Planet Green about nifty inventions working their way from the lab to the real world, Dean "Segway" Kamen shows off the Luke Hand—a prosthetic arm that wearers can use like a real arm; controlling it with joysticks in their shoes, and getting feedback about how hard their grip is from a small, vibrating motor. It's a big deal, because it provides a level of small motor skills that hasn't previously been available in prosthetic limbs. Users can pick up objects as small as a chocolate covered coffee bean, or peel a banana without squishing it.

The next step, Kamen says, is a prosthetic that's controlled entirely by the mind, just like a real limb would be. Cool stuff!

HOWTO make a trashcan Stormtrooper helmet

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 08:10 AM PDT


Jason made this nifty trashcan Stormtrooper helmet: "I made this for a helmet for a school event. I had a student that said that he could lend me his costume but at the last minute realised that he no longer had it. In a mad panic I had to create my own. I stumbled upon a little white rubbish bin near my office and it looked kinda head size. The rest was pure inspiration."

Make your own Stormtrooper helmet (Thanks, Jason!)



Author: 4chan bootlegging led to big sales increase

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 08:09 AM PDT

Legend has it that piracy harms legitimate sales, but the truth is often otherwise. Underground, Steve Lieber's brilliant graphic novel, was recently bootlegged in full at 4chan. Lieber, instead of backtracing the culprits, jumped into the thread and started chatting with his new fans. Later, he posted about the effect the piracy had on his sales. Want to know how big a deal 4chan is? According to Leiber's numbers, the only articles to create clear sales increases of the book were Boing Boing's own review, which wiped out Amazon's inventory, and the 4chan thread. See if you can guess which generated more. [Underground. Submitted by PaulR]
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