Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
Upcoming Appearances • October 19, 2011 in Washington, DC: Speaking at "What will turn us on in 2030?", a conference on energy futures.
• March 29-31, 2012 at York College of Pennsylvania: Writer in residence
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
Matthew Plummer-Fernandez's "Glitch Reality II" is a 3D-printed tea set made by harvesting mismatched pieces from charity shops, scanning them in with a 3D scanner, "roughly repairing the digital mesh files," and then 3D printing them, "to create an instance of this tea-set data that inherits the glitches from the analogue-to-digital-to-analogue translation."
I've always loved "matching" sets made by modding found objects (I've got a longstanding plan to collect a set of mismatched silverware, then making it match by powder-coating all the handles), and the use of a 3D printer in the process makes it easier than ever to accomplish the effect.
My latest book, Made by Hand, in paperback on Oct. 25
Cartoonist Ethan Persoff pointed me to the first 8-page installment of his outstanding new online comic book (which he drew with Scott Marshall) about the 1960s underground publisher John Wilcock.
It features Billy Graham, Marilyn Monroe, others. Future installments will include the rise and fall of Warhol's Factory, Norman Mailer and the Village Voice, Lenny Bruce's first weekend in New York, other good history. A lot of politics and drug using, as well.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
On Sunday morning, Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones, whose secret identity has been revealed as 23-year-old Benjamin John Francis Fodor, was arrested for allegedly pepper spraying a group of people. Don't-miss-footage of the scene is above. From Reuters:
According to a police report, the group were walking to their car, "dancing and having a good time," when Fodor "came up from behind and pepper-sprayed the group."
Two men in the group chased Fodor, and police called to the scene "separated the involved parties," the report said. Fodor was booked into the King County Jail on four counts of assault and was released on $3,800 bail on Sunday afternoon.
Fodor has since sent out Twitter messages saying he was back on patrol and proclaiming himself innocent of wrongdoing.
"I WOULD NEVER ASSAULT OR HURT ANOTHER PERSON IF THEY WERE NOT CAUSING HARM TO ANOTHER HUMAN BEING," he wrote in one tweet.
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
Brian Krebs continues his excellent investigative series on the inner workings of online ripoffs, today with a deep look at underground freight-forwarders, so-called "Drops for stuff." These services use patsies recruited on Craigslist through a "work at home" scam to receive goods bought with stolen credit card numbers and forward them on to crooks.
A typical drop will receive and reship between two and four packages per day. The packages arrive with prepaid shipping labels that are paid for with stolen credit card numbers, or with hijacked online accounts at FedEx and the US Postal Service. Drops are responsible for inspecting and verifying the contents of shipments, attaching the correct shipping label to each package, and sending them off via the appropriate shipping company.
One drops operation, dropforrent.net, allows “clients” to “rent” drops who have signed up for reshipping jobs. “Managers,” those who facilitate drop recruitment scams, can earn money by purchasing merchandise that the reshipping operation can quickly resell. Most reshipping operations seek consumer electronics that can be easily sold for cash, including laptop computers, cameras, smart phones and parts for sports cars. Dropforrent.com pays managers and clients 30 percent of the value of laptops from ACER, HP, Toshiba, Dell, Compaq and Samsung, for example, and more than 40 percent of the retail price for Apple, Sony, VAIO, Canon and Nikon products.
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
So Hyun Woo creates amazing, weird steel-welded beloved fantasy creatures from classic children's literature, often toting large and impressive armaments. Many appeared in a show called "Cruel Fairy Tales 3" at the Song Eun Art Space in Seoul.
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
Love this old ad for Zenith's early remote control, the "Flash Matic," which let you "shut off long, annoying commercials while picture remains on screen!" (a process that was eventually known as "muting"). I grew up with a Zenith TV that had the next generation of remotes, a little box with a cunning series of ultrasonic tuning-forks inside it that were struck by tiny hammers controlled by pushbuttons on the remote's face; we used to try to trick the receiver by jingling keys, sneezing, and rolling squeaky-wheeled coffee-tables around to get it to change the channel or up the volume.
This ad (and the other one that accompanies it at the link) are quite explicit about the primary use of remotes being to switch off ads -- call them the pop-up blocker of their day. It's no wonder that major rightsholder groups objected to remote controls when they were introduced, it's easy to imagine the forebear of today's NAB lobbyists explaining that the mute button was a form of theft, the Boston Strangler of the TV industry.
My latest book, Made by Hand, in paperback on Oct. 25
[Video Link] Open Culture posted a Candid Camera prank about group pressure in the uncomfortable confines of an elevator. Philip Zimbardo, who conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971, wrote about this gag on his website:
One of the most popular scenarios in the long history of Alan Funt’s ingenious Candid Camera programs is “Face The Rear.” An elevator is rigged so that after an unsuspecting person enters, four Candid Camera staff enter, and one by one they all face the rear. The doors close and then reopen; now revealing that the passenger had conformed and is now also facing the rear. Doors close and reopen, and everyone is facing sideways, and then face the other way. We laugh that these people are manipulated like puppets on invisible strings, but this scenario makes us aware of the number of situations in which we mindlessly follow the dictates of group norms and situational forces.
★
"To put it very simply, the experiments show that when people think they are drinking alcohol, they behave according to their cultural beliefs about the behavioural effects of alcohol." — Anthropologist Kate Fox, writing for the BBC. (Via Ed Yong)— Maggie
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
Photographer NK Guy has posted his annual "Burning Cam" set of photos from Burning Man. This was my first year attending the festival in Black Rock City (my wife and I went as a mutual fortieth birthday present), and so it's the first time I can say with any authority whether Guy's photos capture the spirit of the thing. I really think they do. Burning Man surprised me -- I expected something very good, but marred by ideological chiding over the "ten principles" the event lives by, and I expected something somewhat spartan, thanks to the logistical challenges associated with bringing everything you need into and out of a remote desert. But Burning Man was decadent, lavish, laid back, and friendly without being creepy. Guy's photos bring out that lavishness, that sense of an end-of-the world party with fantastic people who've gone all out for a final hurrah (that repeats every year). We're planning to return next year, because having gone once, I feel like I must try it again.
Name: Charon
Caption: Peter Hudson has been building three dimensional zoetrope sculptures at Burning Man for years.
His works have involved rotating mechanisms with a series of sculptures mounted on them. When viewed with a pulsing stroboscopic light the statues come to life, flickering and juddering eerily.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the FBI has made an arrest in its investigation of celebrity phone-hacking in Hollywood. As every heterosexual male of fapping age on the internet knows, nude snapshots of Johansson made their way online not long ago. The FBI wants to plug that leak. Plug it hard.
The break comes several weeks after reports that the cellphone accounts of Scarlett Johansson and other stars had been breached.
The FBI did not name the victims in the investigation, dubbed Operation Hackerazzi. Officials scheduled a news conference later Wednesday morning to release additional information.
Scarlett Johansson poses for photographers on the catwalk before the Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2012 women's collection during Milan Fashion Week September 25, 2011. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini
Upcoming Appearances • October 19, 2011 in Washington, DC: Speaking at "What will turn us on in 2030?", a conference on energy futures.
• March 29-31, 2012 at York College of Pennsylvania: Writer in residence
Richard Wiseman found a cow that may have a vase on its face. Or ... maybe ... it has two faces on its face. Is your mind blown yet?
My latest book, Made by Hand, in paperback on Oct. 25
A man's $750,000 Ferrari was stolen. It was recovered, and while the government was holding it as evidence an FBI agent and a federal prosecutor took it for a joyride. They totaled it. The owner's insurance company sued. The judge threw out the case, citing "a law making the government immune to lawsuits when property is in custody of law enforcement."
Upcoming Appearances • October 19, 2011 in Washington, DC: Speaking at "What will turn us on in 2030?", a conference on energy futures.
• March 29-31, 2012 at York College of Pennsylvania: Writer in residence
Solyndra, a would-be solar energy manufacturer that went belly up, has been in the news a lot lately because, before the company failed, the United States government gave it a sweet financing deal.
While there are some good questions to be asked about the way the financing for Solyndra was handled, the failure of this one company shouldn't really be extrapolated into a referendum on government loans for energy projects (which have otherwise been pretty successful) or the potential of solar energy. But that's not really the interesting part to me, anyway.
On roofs that didn't line up with the sun's path across the sky, the cylindrical nature of the solar module allowed owners to get more power off the roof by capturing diffuse or reflected light. The panels did not require heavy racks that anchored deep in the roof for support but rather lay flat and spaced out to allow wind to flow through them, allowing them to withstand gusts up to 210 kilometers per hour as demonstrated during a test installation in Florida that survived a tropical storm. That also allowed more of the panels to fit on any given roof.
But Solyndra was always a dicey technology proposition: Take a temperamental semiconducting film that must be perfectly applied at high speed and pair it with a shape that is both hard to manufacture and ship. Voilà: a cylindrical solar cell that could either be a game-changer or a money-loser.
Why did it end up as the latter? Mainly, because the biggest way Solyndra had been trying to compete with silicon solar panels was on cost. And the cost of those panels has fallen farther, faster, than people expected. So while Solyndra failed, Biello says, the reason it failed is actually a really good sign for the future of solar energy.
Upcoming Appearances • October 19, 2011 in Washington, DC: Speaking at "What will turn us on in 2030?", a conference on energy futures.
• March 29-31, 2012 at York College of Pennsylvania: Writer in residence
Every animal has its own parasites to worry about, but canivorous reptiles and amphibians have to deal with particularly gruesome ones. They can become infected with small, worm-like creatures called pentastomes that live inside their lungs, where they suck blood from ruptured blood vessels. Reptiles pick up the parasite when they eat infected prey.
Pentastomes are true escape artists. Once they realize they’ve entered a reptile stomach, they use their sharp hooks to claw themselves a way to the victim’s lungs. In an experiment where pentastomes were implanted in a gecko’s stomach, the parasites invaded the lungs in as little as four hours.
Upcoming Appearances • October 19, 2011 in Washington, DC: Speaking at "What will turn us on in 2030?", a conference on energy futures.
• March 29-31, 2012 at York College of Pennsylvania: Writer in residence
Richard Feynman, God of Perfect Analogies, explains why it's not a failure or a scandal when scientists adapt and change their understanding of the world. This is a really important point, applicable in a lot of public debates over science, especially those focused on evolution and climate change. Science isn't about writing things on tablets of stone. It's about taking a theory and constantly digging deeper into it—adding layers of nuance, finding stuff that doesn't make sense, and using both to build a more complete picture. Even if the big idea is right, the details will change. That's how science is supposed to work.
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
Pablo Defendini writes, "Caribbean-born sf author Tobias Buckell is crowdfunding The Apocalypse Ocean, the fourth installment in his Xenowealth series (Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose, which I pitch to prospective readers as 'Rastas fighting zombies—in space!'), using Kickstarter. I love these books, so I asked him if he wanted some artwork for the project. He said yes, and we quickly worked out a funding scheme where I'd provide cover art, a map, a poster, and a few other goodies, depending on the levels of funding. Aside from wanting to see this book come into the world as a reader, I'm really excited to work with Tobias—it's something we've been discussing for a while—and the way he's structured the funding is pretty cool: in addition to ebook and hardcover editions, depending on your level of funding, you can get to see the book as its being written, as well as engage with Toby as he's writing, or get characters, planets, or starships named after you. It will be a fun, fun project all around."
Toby is a top-notch sf writer and Xenowealth is really brilliant work -- see my review of Sly Mongoose, a novel of "exciting space opera, space-rastas, neo-Aztecs, and alien zombie hiveminds."
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
FirstSecond's new Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists is one of those rare parental treasures: a picture book that kids and parents can really enjoy together. Editor Chris Duffy invited some of the greatest names in comic illustration to choose their favorite Mother Goose classics and illustrate them to their taste.
The result is an absolute delight from the first page to the last. How can you not love a book that includes Jules Feiffer's "Girls and Boys Come Out to Play"; Lucy Knisley's "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" (a fantastic rock-n-roll reinterpretation of the original); Richard Thompson's "There Was An Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket"; Gahan Wilson's (!) "Itsy-Bitsy Spider"; Mike Mignola's "Solomon Grundy"; Jaime Hernandez's "Jack and Jill"; Jordan Crane's "Old Mother Hubbard"; Vera Bosgol's "There Was a Little Girl"; Gilbert Hernandez's "Humpty Dumpty" and Gene Yang's "Pat-a-Cake"?
That's nothing like a comprehensive list, by the way -- the table of contents for this set my mouth watering as soon as I saw it, and the live-fire bedtime exercise has been an unqualified success. My three year old is all over this like fudge on sundaes.
FirstSecond were kind enough to let me include a selection of opening pages from the book -- click through below to get a preview!
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
Jamie writes in about Pioneer One, "A drama series with a sci-fi bent, made independently and distributed online. It gained some notoriety for being the first 'TV show' to be distributed through BitTorrent via VODO.net and has thus far been funded entirely by donations from its viewers. If you're looking for breakneck action and glitzy Hollywood polish, you probably won't be into this show. This is truly 'guerrilla television,' kind of a new phenomenon made possible by the web. But there is a story being told here that will reward a viewer who invests in it. 5 full-length episodes have been released, with the finale of the first season to come by December."
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
When It's Gone It's Gone, an online one-of-a-kind store, is selling this Royal Navy ejector seat that's been fitted with legs for use as an office desk-chair. Not sure what the ergonomics are like (I assume that a pilot's seat has to be at least moderately comfy, though!), and as for price, it's a strictly "make an offer" affair.
Our Martin Baker Mk6 ejector seat for sale, originally used in a Royal Navy Buccaneer, has been fitted with a stainless steel frame, transforming it into the unique seat it is today! Complete with original 'chutes, harness and eject handles, the seat is guaranteed to turn heads in the office or look great at home!
The Mk.6MSB was fitted to the Buccaneer jet used by both RAF and Royal Navy. This seat in particular was fitted to XV157 which flew first with the Royal Navy from '66, including operating from the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle (where its was coded 107/E) and RAF squadrons from '69. XV157 was sadly scrapped in '91, at which point this seat was removed and converted to a training seat.
The ejector seat has been kept in its original authentic condition to preserve its' history; parts are original to the chair, including straps, parachute, seat cushion and handles. Paintwork has been kept as the original. Rockets are present - including pitch rockets - minus cartridge and propellant.
A doorman looks out the entrance to a Park Avenue building as members of the Occupy Wall Street walk past in protest through the upper east side of New York October 11, 2011. The Occupy Wall Street movement took protests to the New York homes of super-wealthy executives on Tuesday as rallies against economic inequality were planned this week for over 50 U.S. college campuses and in several cities around the world. Police response in New York City is expanding. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)
Over the past week, I've been tuning in to various live video streams from cities around the US on OccupyStream. An excellent resource for "live television by the people," from protests all over. When the police in Boston cracked down on demonstrators last night, arresting more than a hundred, all of the action was live-streamed here.
Video Link: "Occupy Boston 10/10/2011: Police show their presence at new campsite."
Hundreds of "Occupy Boston" protesters were arrested last night, as police moved in on demonstrators who refused to leave a park. From the Boston Globe:
At 1:20 a.m., the first riot police officers lined up on Atlantic Avenue. Minutes later, dozens of sheriff vans and police wagons arrived and over 200 officers in uniforms and riot gear surrounded the Greenway. Police Superintendent William Evans and Commissioner Edward F. Davis watched from across the street. Evans gave the crowd two minutes to disperse from the park, warning that they would be locked up if they did not comply.
The crowd of protesters, energized by the sudden appearance of the Boston and Transit police officers, chanted, ‘‘The people united will never be defeated,’’ “This is a peaceful protest,” and “the whole world is watching.’’
About 10 minutes later, the first officers entered the park and surrounded the group. Evans, using a loudspeaker, gave one more warning and then each protester was individually put on his or her stomach, cable-tied, and dragged off as others tore down tents and arrested and detained people on the fringe of the park.
And now, the review roll call: Mossberg, Gruber, Pogue, Chen, Siegler, Jaroslovsky, Snell, Nguyen, Dalrymple, Topolsky, Fry. Boing Boing did not have access to a loaner review unit, but I am eager to try out the improved video and photo capabilities. I plan to buy one and report back with sample footage soon.
[Video Link] Evan van der Spuy, a mountain biker with Team Jeep South Africa, is thrown from his bike in this video during a cross-country race by a Red Hartebeest buck. His teammate Travis Walker shot the video from his bicycle on a GoPro Hero Camera (those things are awesome). Buck Norris! Mr. van der Spuy is lucky not to have been more seriously injured. I can't believe he just gets right up afterewards.
A congressional subpoena directed to Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to be issued soon, according to CBS News, and will order him to hand over documents to lawmakers showing when he became aware of "Fast and Furious," a "gunwalking" operation that supplied guns to Mexican drug cartels. Snip from CBS:
CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports the the subpoena will come from the House Oversight Committee, led by Republican Darrell Issa. It will ask for communications among senior Justice Department officials related to Fast and Furious and "gunwalking." The subpoena will list those officials, says Attkisson - more than a dozen of them - by name.
In Fast and Furious, the ATF allegedly allowed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. The idea was to see where the weapons ended up, and take down a cartel. But the guns have been found at many crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., including the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.
High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF's Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.
Photo, Los Angeles Times: The arsenal uncovered by police in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which included weapons from the ATF's ill-fated "Fast and Furious" operation. Note the highly classy "Scarface"-dollar-bill poster above the bookshelf, a favorite motif among gangsters worldwide.
(Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir speaks to the media at the Mideast Peace Conference in Annapolis, November 27, 2007. REUTERS/Jason Reed)
This alleged Iranian terror plot the FBI reported today is really quite something. It reads like any one of the 419 scams in my spam folder meets an episode of 24 or Breaking Bad meets yellowcake and the run-up to the Iraq war. Is this real life, or some Bay of Pigs pre-election-year hallucination?
The criminal complaint alleges that, from the spring of 2011 to October 2011, Arbabsiar and his Iran-based co-conspirators, including Shakuri of the Qods Force, have been plotting the murder of the Saudi Ambassador to the United States. In furtherance of this conspiracy, Arbabsiar allegedly met on a number of occasions in Mexico with a DEA confidential source (CS-1) who has posed as an associate of a violent international drug trafficking cartel. According to the complaint, Arbabsiar arranged to hire CS-1 and CS-1’s purported accomplices to murder the Ambassador, and Shakuri and other Iran-based co-conspirators were aware of and approved the plan. With Shakuri’s approval, Arbabsiar has allegedly caused approximately $100,000 to be wired into a bank account in the United States as a down payment to CS-1 for the anticipated killing of the Ambassador, which was to take place in the United States.
★Danger Room reports: "Officials at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada knew for two weeks about a virus infecting the drone “cockpits” there. But they kept the information about the infection to themselves — leaving the unit that’s supposed to serve as the Air Force’s cybersecurity specialists in the dark. The network defenders at the 24th Air Force learned of the virus by reading about it in Danger Room." — Xeni
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
Lowering the Bar, a legal humor blog, has a look at bank robbers who stop for lunch at nearby restaurants. Most recently, there was Henry Elmer, who allegedly robbed a Wells Fargo in Yuma, AZ, then strolled to a pizza joint in the same mini-mall and ordered a beer and a pizza. The local police station was also in the mini-mall, which is how the cops arrived in less than ten minutes -- before he'd gotten a chance to eat his pizza. Even better was Lee Harris, accused of a 2003 San Francisco Citibank robbery followed by a fish and red wine lunch at the nearby Le Central Bistro, where he dived into the bathroom to effect a wardrobe change from his desert camous and into an all-black number with a black lady's hat. He got to eat half his lunch before the police arrived. Also, he is alleged to have shouted "I'm the silver wolf! God bless" as he left the bank.
Anyway, the Silver Wolf was not finished by any means. He, too, visited a nearby restaurant for lunch, although he did at least put two or three blocks between him and the bank. Employees at Le Central Bistro, obviously a French restaurant, took note of him entering because he was wearing desert camouflage fatigues and carrying a bulging duffel bag. (Dress is typically casual in San Francisco, but not that casual.)
Harris ordered smoked salmon and a glass of red wine - again coming under suspicion - and then went to the bathroom. He emerged wearing a black turtleneck, black sunglasses and a woman's black hat. I actually am not sure whether this would draw any attention in San Francisco, but it didn't matter because employees had already called 911. In addition to the unusual wine pairing, there was apparently lots of police activity in the area, and so that plus the costume changes seems to have triggered the call.
I've written about the talented cartoonist Lucy Knisley before. Here she is giving a presentation about one of my favorite types of comics, the autobiographical travelogue.
Life is the Story(Via Drawn)
My latest book, Made by Hand, in paperback on Oct. 25
This Saturday (October 15) at 5pm, legendary rock club Maxwell's in Hoboken will open its Kirby Enthusiasm art show in its front room. More than 30 visual artists have contributed work paying tribute to "The King of Comics."
At 7pm, in the back room, the Kirby Enthusiasm rock show will start, with WEEP (featuring the Venture Brothers' Doc Hammer), WJ & The Sweet Sacrifice and (formed for this occasion) The Boom Tubes!
If you're at New York Comic Con, Maxwell's is easy to get to from the Javits Center - take a ferry at 39th Street across the Hudson to Hoboken North and walk a few blocks to 1039 Washington St.
The art is awesome - the music is gonna rock - Kirby Enthusiasm!
Here's my contribution to the show: A 24x24" painting of Carroll Baker starring in the reel-to-reel tape audiobook, Flower, Daughter of Googam.
There might be a 12x12 print for sale at the show, which is based on the Illustrator preliminary drawing I made. I'll find out if it is available for sale online.
My latest book, Made by Hand, in paperback on Oct. 25
My friends Joshua Glenn and Mark Kingwell wrote a gem of a book called The Wage Slave's Glossary, which was designed and edited by the great cartoonist Seth. They've kindly permitted me to run a few entries from their very entertaining little book.
The Wage Slave’s Glossary (Biblioasis) criticizes and analyzes what the Lowell Mill Girls were the first to name wage slavery. Joshua Glenn’s glossary of over 200 terms interrogates not only office jargon (from Bandwidth to Telecommuting) but labor-related slang and workplace terminology (from After-Dinner Man to Workbrickle) used to naturalize wage slavery from the dawn of industrial capitalism to the present day. Mark Kingwell’s philosophical Introduction criticizes the “work idea” itself, and its corollaries — including bureaucracy and bullshit.
My latest book, Made by Hand, in paperback on Oct. 25
Our friends at House Industries designed the logo for the QDrive, some kind of "radiation pressure imbalance" drive for space travel. I don't understand it, but it looks nifty!
The QDrive is a resonating cavity with design features that redirect the radiation pressure exerted in the cavity to create a radiation pressure imbalance on the cavity. This differential in radiation pressure generates an unbalanced force that creates thrust. The cavity is accelerated without use of propellant. Don't believe it? Study the theory. Replicate our numerical models. Review our experimental results. And draw your own conclusions.
I was hoping to see a video of this thing bolted on a vehicle, but I couldn't find one on the site. If you are a physicist and have something to say about the QDrive, please post in the comments.
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
This small gallery of "original" superhero costumes have a nice tactility to them, looking like they've been crafted from naturally occurring fibers, a far cry from the seamless, shiny lycra aesthetic of contemporary superhero getups.
It’s National Coming Out Day and to celebrate, here is John Waters - a man who knew he was gay as a child, from the moment he saw Elvis Presley on television - explaining in his inimitable style, what he thinks about coming out, and why people have rarely asked him about his sexuality, because “They were afraid to hear the answer.”
Upcoming appearances
* Oct 13-15, NYC: New York Comic-Con
* Oct 26, Torino: VIEW conference
* Nov 8, Berlin: evening reading (TBD)
* Nov 9, Munich: evening reading livestreamed in cooperation with www.lovelybooks.de (TBD)
Etsy seller Melangerienyc makes custom Viewmaster reel wedding invitations, which are nicely packaged with a lot of associated printed matter. Not cheap ($3450 for 100!), but they sure are purdy.
Of those who remember, some reveal our secret history through unusual media such as fashionable tumblogs and private filesharing forums. By sharing elements of an intricate and rigorous symbology drawn from the lost decade, this cabal works quietly to prepare us to learn the truth and its astonishing consequences. — Rob
Matthew Plummer-Fernandez's "Glitch Reality II" is a 3D-printed tea set made by harvesting mismatched pieces from charity shops, scanning them in with a 3D scanner, "roughly repairing the digital mesh files," and then 3D printing them, "to create an instance of this tea-set data that inherits the glitches from the analogue-to-digital-to-analogue translation."
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Photographer NK Guy has posted his annual "Burning Cam" set of photos from Burning Man. This was my first year attending the festival in Black Rock City (my wife and I went as a mutual fortieth birthday present), and so it's the first time I can say with any authority whether Guy's photos capture the spirit of the thing. I really think they do. Burning Man surprised me -- I expected something very good, but marred by ideological chiding over the "ten principles" the event lives by, and I expected something somewhat spartan, thanks to the logistical challenges associated with bringing everything you need into and out of a remote desert. But Burning Man was decadent, lavish, laid back, and friendly without being creepy. Guy's photos bring out that lavishness, that sense of an end-of-the world party with fantastic people who've gone all out for a final hurrah (that repeats every year). We're planning to return next year, because having gone once, I feel like I must try it again.
A man's $750,000 Ferrari was stolen. It was recovered, and while the government was holding it as evidence an FBI agent and a federal prosecutor took it for a joyride. They totaled it. The owner's insurance company sued. The judge threw out the case, citing "a law making the government immune to lawsuits when property is in custody of law enforcement."
FirstSecond's new 
