Sunday, March 8, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Saturday Morning Watchmen
Saturday Morning Watchmen: "
Happy Harry made a terrific 'reanimation' of The Watchmen as if it was a Saturday morning cartoon. (Follow the link and click 'Watch This Movie!') Saturday Morning Watchmen (Thanks, Joel Johnson!)
Previously:
(Via Boing Boing.)
Pizza joint gives staff t-shirts with the text of 1-star Yelp reviews
Pizza joint gives staff t-shirts with the text of 1-star Yelp reviews: "At San Francisco's Pizzeria Delfina, they know how to own their pain. Rather than wringing their hands over Internet sourpusses who give them one-star Yelp ratings, they've printed up tees with excerpts from the most scathing reviews ('This place sucks') and given them to the staff to wear.
Instead of simply bitching about Yelp, they've made Yelp their bitch and taken quotes from one-star reviews posted on Yelp about the pizzeria and made them into T-shirts for their staff to wear. (They also have one that simply says, 'This place sucks,' a quote from yet another typically eloquent and insightful Yelp review.)
The Yelp Tee: Almost More Brilliant Than Pizzeria Delfina's Pizza
(via Consumerist)
(Via Boing Boing.)
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The Nano Forest
![nanoedenbis3_x530[1].jpg](http://gadgets.boingboing.net/gimages/nanoedenbis3_x530[1]-thumb-520x346.jpg)
This strange forest of carbon nanotubes evokes a tile-based Japanese RPG game based on the art of Jim Woodring, played on a television set from the 1950s. It is the work of John Hart, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan.
Source [Technology Review via next nature]
(Via Boing Boing Gadgets.)
Why TV Lost: a merry jig on the gogglebox's grave
Why TV Lost: a merry jig on the gogglebox's grave: "Paul Graham's 'Why TV Lost' is a sweet little schadenfreude bomb lobbed at the telly people, half neener-neener and half keen analysis and every word of it is lovable:
About twenty years ago people noticed computers and TV were on a collision course and started to speculate about what they'd produce when they converged. We now know the answer: computers...
The somewhat more surprising force was one specific type of innovation: social applications. The average teenage kid has a pretty much infinite capacity for talking to their friends. But they can't physically be with them all the time. When I was in high school the solution was the telephone. Now it's social networks, multiplayer games, and various messaging applications. The way you reach them all is through a computer. [3] Which means every teenage kid (a) wants a computer with an Internet connection, (b) has an incentive to figure out how to use it, and (c) spends countless hours in front of it...
After decades of running an IV drip right into their audience, people in the entertainment business had understandably come to think of them as rather passive. They thought they'd be able to dictate the way shows reached audiences. But they underestimated the force of their desire to connect with one another.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal described how TV networks were trying to add more live shows, partly as a way to make viewers watch TV synchronously instead of watching recorded shows when it suited them. Instead of delivering what viewers want, they're trying to force them to change their habits to suit the networks' obsolete business model. That never works unless you have a monopoly or cartel to enforce it, and even then it only works temporarily.
Why TV Lost
(via Negatendo)
(Via Boing Boing.)
Monday, March 2, 2009
The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers
The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers: "
Fantagraphics has just released an anthology of one of the wackiest comic book artists and writers ever, Boody Rogers. His feverishly surreal comics from the 1940s paved the way for the underground artists of the 1960s. When I read these stories, filled with crazy-looking beasts and absurd situations, the thing that stuck out in my mind was how much fun Rogers must have had while drawing them.
You've met Fletcher Hanks
. Now meet Boody Rogers! Fans of Boody Rogers' Golden age comic-book stories span generations of cartoonists, from Robert Williams to Art Spiegelman to Johnny Ryan. Spiegelman printed Rogers' work in RAW magazine and recently it also appeared in the anthology book Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries (Abrams). Here at last is a single book - Boody: The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers - devoted to this cult comics hero, collecting Roger's best Sparky Watts , Babe and Dudley stories, as well as much more. This beautifully designed tome also has tons of vintage photos and unpublished art (including art from the first modern newsstand comic book that Rogers did in 1935). It all begins with a career spanning fun and fascinating interview with the late Rogers, by editor Craig Yoe (Arf).
Boody: The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers
(Via Boing Boing.)
Pi Day ice-cube trays
Pi Day ice-cube trays: "
Marylin sez, 'Pi Day's coming up March 14 and here's an ice tray to impress your friends and colleagues at your Pi Day party.'
Pi Symbol Ice Cube Trays
(Thanks, Marylin!)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Vicodin earrings
Becky Stern had some leftover Vicodin tablets from her recent knee operation, so naturally she fashioned them into a pair of Vicodin earrings.
As I posted earlier, Becky also created an embroidered replica of her knee MRI. I really like the way she turned this otherwise painful and time-sucking event into an opportunity to create some cool works of art.
Previously:
- HOWTO knit a skeleton cardigan - Boing Boing
- Copper bandaid - Boing Boing
- Boing Boing: Down Home Archives
- Worlds creepiest ski mask - Boing Boing
- Steampunk sewing machine - Boing Boing
- Boing Boing: January 4, 2009 - January 10, 2009 Archives
- Boing Boing
- Boing Boing: March 2, 2008 - March 8, 2008 Archives
- Portraits of CAPTCHAs in acrylic - Boing Boing
(Via Boing Boing.)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Skinless skin-tight cycling outfit
Skinless skin-tight cycling outfit: "
Tomek Pietek created this anatomical cycling gear -- not sure if it ever went into production or just existed as a portfolio piece, but it's sure striking. Finally, a good use for elasticated athletic wear!
Muscle - Skin suit
(via Street Anatomy)
(Via Boing Boing.)
Tourists reenacting the cover of Abbey Road -- timelapse video
Tourists reenacting the cover of Abbey Road -- timelapse video: "
'Garble Arch' is a short timelapse film of tourists at the Abbey Road zebra crossing reenacting the iconic cover of the Beatles album. London's full of spots like these, where tourism and the needs of locals to get their life underway collide; my favorite are the luxury flats that line the route of the (absolutely excellent) Jack the Ripper tours of east London. All summer long, as they dine with their windows flung open to catch the evening breeze, out-of-work actors stand beneath them with groups of tourists, propounding the grisly deaths that Jack the Ripper wrought on this very spot, lovingly describing the slaughter as they try to get some supper down.
Blame Ringo - Garble Arch (A Day in the Life of Abbey Road)
(via Kottke)
(Via Boing Boing.)
Neil Gaiman waxes sensible on Kindle Audiobooks and the redonkulous Author's Guild
Neil Gaiman waxes sensible on Kindle Audiobooks and the redonkulous Author's Guild: "For those of you who are outraged (as I am) to discover that the Authors' Guild believes that a piece of software that can read an ebook aloud infringes copyright by 'performing' the work as an audiobook, here's Neil Gaiman being unbelievably sensible on the subject.
When you buy a book, you're also buying the right to read it aloud, have it read to you by anyone, read it to your children on long car trips, record yourself reading it and send that to your girlfriend etc. This is the same kind of thing, only without the ability to do the voices properly, and no-one's going to confuse it with an audiobook. And that any authors' societies or publishers who are thinking of spending money on fighting a fundamentally pointless legal case would be much better off taking that money and advertising and promoting what audio books are and what's good about them with it.
What he said, but with no-severance layoffs for anyone who is blowing potential marketing dollars for audiobooks on pursuing this fool's errand. The Authors' Guild is hell-bent on convincing the world that ripping off authors is OK, because we're a bunch of greedy jerks like the record industry.
Previously:
- Authors Guild: 'text-to-speech' software violates copyright ...
- Authors Guild v Google: opt-out is evil, except when we do it ...
- Authors Guild v Google: opt-out is evil, except when we do it ...
- Authors Guild sues Google over print program - Boing Boing
- Tell the Authors Guild what you think of used books - Boing Boing
- Writers, publishers and board members of Authors Guide speak out ...
(Via Boing Boing.)
1,234,567,890 Seconds Since Unix Time Began
1,234,567,890 Seconds Since Unix Time Began: "os2man was one of many readers to let us know that later on today, at 23:31:30 UTC (30 seconds after this story went live), the number of seconds since January 1st 1970 will be exactly 1234567890. January 1st, 1970 marks the start of the clock for the Unix operating system and many other operating systems. Here is a list of celebrations of the moment around the world.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
(Via Clippings.)
Monday, February 9, 2009
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
a must read or listen
Anathem by Neal Stephenson: "Let's take a trip through time, space, and the history of human thought. The journey starts with the observations and suppositions of ancient philosophers, gains both credence and clarity through the development of the rules of logic, and eventually leads all the way to modern theories of everything, including the possible existence of not one but multiple universes and realities. That's the goal here and it succeeds better than any work of fiction with such ambitions has a right to."
(Via SF Site.)
Name this Insect
Mary, any idea>
(Charles Platt is a guest blogger)
No doubt some BB reader can name this far-fetched creature, which I found pinned to some styrofoam in a display case at the Butterfly Museum in Boca Raton, Florida. Picture yourself camping somewhere in the wilderness and seeing one of these six-inch weirdos zooming into your tent. I have to wonder why such a thing should evolve the way it did, especially with that weird extra pair of wings, like the canard on one of Burt Rutan’s composite airplanes.
The museum is a fun place to visit, allowing you to walk through giant cages full of freshly hatched butterflies. Watching people trying to photograph them is highly entertaining, since butterflies move chaotically while flying and then, as soon as they land, most of them close their wings.
It was much easier to take pictures of the insects that were dead.
(Via Boing Boing.)
Colorado Man Robs Store with Klingon Bat'leth
Colorado Man Robs Store with Klingon Bat'leth: "
Ed Note: Boingboing's current guest blogger Gareth Branwyn writes on technology, pop and fringe culture. He is currently a Contributing Editor at Maker Media. Recent projects have included co-creating The Maker's Notebook and editing The Best of MAKE and The Best of Instructables collections.
According to a Denver local news report, and reported on io9, a man wielding a Klingon Bat'leth (Sword of Honor), has robbed two 7-Elevens. Kahless must be so proud.
[Via Bonnie Burton's Twitter feed]
(Via Boing Boing.)
Ziggy Stardust remix album
Ziggy Stardust remix album: "
Mashup genius dj BC sez, 'Bowie's classic glam album, remixed, mashed-up and spaced-out. With bootleg mixes and mashups from myself, ATOM, A plus D (Bootie), World Famous Audio Hacker, and ToToM. Videos from VJ Brewski and AJ 'Hatperson' Mazur. (You may remember AJ as the genius behind the now legendary 'Cooking By The Book' video.) Art by the very talented Shana B.
This record has been in the works since 'Wu Orleans' but the arrival of my daughter and some 'official' releases distracted me, and drove me to seek help completing it. And I am glad I did. A+D's MGMT mashup and ATOM's 'Star Man' remix are nothing short of genius.'
ZIGGY STARDUST REMIXED
(Thanks, dj BC!)
(Via Boing Boing.)
