By Cory Doctorow at 5:53 pm Sunday, May 13
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The incomparably rhythmic bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn, who was the soul of Booker T's rhythm section and the heart of the Blues Brothers' band, is dead. He died on tour with Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, also of the Blues Brothers, in Japan. He was 70.
His friend and fellow musician Steve Cropper, who was on the same tour, said Dunn had died in his sleep.
"Today I lost my best friend," Cropper wrote on his Facebook page. "The World has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live".
Miho Harasawa, a spokeswoman for Tokyo Blue Note, the last venue Dunn played, confirmed he died alone early Sunday. She had no further details.
Booker T bassist Donald Dunn dies in Tokyo aged 70
By Cory Doctorow at 2:42 pm Sunday, May 13
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Cards Against Humanity is the perennially sold out, CC-licensed card-game that turns madlibs into an anti-social exercise. They're sold out, but you can put your name down for future runs and expansion packs, or download and print a set.
To start the game, each player draws ten White Cards.
One randomly chosen player begins as the Card Czar and plays a Black Card. The Card Czar reads the question or fill-in-the-blank phrase on the Black Card out loud.
Everyone else answers the question or fills in the blank by passing one White Card, face down, to the Card Czar.
The Card Czar shuffles all of the answers and shares each card combination with the group. For full effect, the Card Czar should usually re-read the Black Card before presenting each answer. The Card Czar then picks a favorite, and whoever played that answer keeps the Black Card as one Awesome Point.
After the round, a new player becomes the Card Czar, and everyone draws back up to ten White Cards.
Cards Against Humanity
(via Wil Wheaton)
By Cory Doctorow at 2:00 pm Sunday, May 13
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Another Vintage Ads gem for Mother's Day: this bit of corporate futurism from the energy sector.
Mother's Day
By Cory Doctorow at 12:34 pm Sunday, May 13
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For $110, Etsy seller JamesBit will custom-paint a Zelda-themed faux fire to size for display in your decorative fireplace.
Zelda Fireplace Art
(via Wil Wheaton)
By Cory Doctorow at 10:49 am Sunday, May 13
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Oh that scamp. Poor Mom. Check out that beatific expression.
Mother's Day
By Cory Doctorow at 6:00 am Sunday, May 13
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A nice piece today from Bob Basset, the genius Ukrainian steampunk fetish mask-makers: "Rider."
"Rider" Art leather mask
By Cory Doctorow at 11:58 am Saturday, May 12
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Here's science fiction grand master Jack Williamson ruminating on what the future once meant, when he started working in the field, including a reading of an early essay on the future he wrote in the 1920s or 1930s:
Spectacular graphics open a show about how the future was created. SF Grandmaster Jack Williamson tells the space-age dreams of a boy in Portales, New Mexico in the 1930's.
This is also the first part of a larger tribute to Science Fiction's Grand Masters presented at the 2000 SFWA Nebula banquet at the installation of Brian Aldiss. Languishing on my shelves for almost ten years, this video has been patiently waiting to give you pleasure. There are fully 20 Grand Masters, 1 author Emeritus and five future Grand Masters (?) featured in the second part of this program.
The Possible Future
(Thanks, Paul!)
By Xeni Jardin at 10:58 am Saturday, May 12
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Photo contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr pool by MightyWomble.
By Xeni Jardin at 10:51 am Saturday, May 12
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Just look at it. Contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by BB reader Laser Bread, who explains:.
My kids were grumpy at breakfast this morning, so I had this idea to make a quick banana peel trucker hat for the banana to wear using the peel of the banana. This cheered them up and it made the banana look relatively hip.
How to make:
1 or 2 bananas. One to make the hat, one to model the hat. This could also be made using one banana. Carve the shape of the hat using an x-acto knife. Leave one of the banana peel sides longer, to make the rim of the hat. Most bananas come with a little sticker. Use this sticker to serve as the logo on the hat, if you want your hat to have a logo.
Simple project, takes about 5 minutes yet the memories will last a lifetime.
By Cory Doctorow at 8:55 am Saturday, May 12
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Here's Kitt and his delightful progeny cleverly disguised as a tauntaun and Han Solo on the frozen ice-world of Hoth: "His tauntaun even had removable guts to warm your hands with."
Happy House Warming, Kitt!
(via Super Punch)
By Rob Beschizza at 7:16 am Saturday, May 12
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Nancy Schaar at the Times Reporter:
A 62-year-old Carrollton area man was found unconscious and unresponsive Thursday morning during an intense search overnight by Carroll County sheriff deputies, an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper and the patrol’s airplane. [Sheriff] Williams said he attempted to use the man’s cell phone signal to locate him, but the man was behind on his phone bill and the Verizon operator refused to connect the signal unless the sheriff’s department agreed to pay the overdue bill. After some disagreement, Williams agreed to pay $20 on the phone bill in order to find the man.
Though this case is from a while ago—operators are now made available to assist emergency services—it got me thinking about what makes carriers and telcos such horrible companies to deal with once you're a customer. It's because accepting a long term cellular contract is a lot like going a couple of grand in debt.
As a result, their corporate culture gravitates toward that of a collection agency. It's inevitable, even if they try to avoid it, because that's the economic bottom line of the customer-facing part of their business. If an operator is actually having to talk to you, you must be a deadbeat or some other kind of problem.
Verizon, when asked by police to find a cellphone, suffered from a perverse blind spot: it could not see beyond the fact that the cellphone's owner owed it money.
Unconscious Carroll man found after 11-hour search [Times Reporter via Reddit]
Laura sez, "Podcast nominations are open until June 1, 2012 for
the Seventh Annual Parsec Awards which recognize excellence in speculative fiction podcasting. The awards were founded in 2005 by New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman, podcasting guru and author Mur Lafferty, and Farpoint Media founder Michael Mennenga. Given each year at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia, the awards recognize those whose works mark the pinnacle of this form of new media and give hours of entertainment to their audience. This year there are 17 categories recognizing stories, full cast productions, audio dramas, videos, content creation, fan and newscasts, fact behind the fiction casts, new podcasters, music, and more."
— Cory
Interactive fiction is a thriving genre, but its commercial heyday is long gone. Here's Leigh Alexander on how Kickstarter could usher in text adventures' long-overdue renaissance: "There's more than just nostalgia contributing to a potential revival for interactive stories. A broader gaming audience means appetites for game forms we might have once called "casual" in another time -- and furthermore, the popularity of tablets and e-readers means there's a real appetite for game forms that take advantage of
a culture now habituated to reading on luminous screens in ways prior generations were widely not. [Gamasutra]
— Rob
By Cory Doctorow at 9:07 pm Friday, May 11
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Harry Clarke's 1919 illustrations for Poe's "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" are absolutely wonderful, some of the best Poe interpretations this diehard Poefan has seen. 50Watts has them at super-hi-rez, too. Looks like you can buy a 2008 facsimile edition for about $26.
Harry Clarke, Illustrations for E. A. Poe
(via How to Be a Retronaut)
By Cory Doctorow at 8:00 pm Friday, May 11
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Mike Schropp's "BioComputer" is a PC casemod that actually grows wheatgrass, using waste-heat from the computer to provide a hospitable hothouse environment. He's posted detailed build-logs from the project, and plans more ambitious horticulture.
I can’t exactly recall when the idea came to me, but at some point I started wanting to use the heat from a computer as a way to warm the soil and help with germination/growth. I’m about as far from a botanist as it comes, I did some reading online and became pretty interested in the effects of soil temperature on germination/growth. I read different studies and papers from various universities. It was not too long into that process that I became hooked on the idea of using computer heat as a way to control the soil temperature of some sort of living plant life.
As the idea developed further I started looking into wheatgrass as a plant option. There is something clean and natural about the look and idea of a piece of grass growing in my basement. I thought the look would alter the space a little bit and add a bit of color along with something more than just metals and plastics. After reading enough studies and papers on the effects of soil temperature and germination with wheatgrass I felt like I had a good enough handle on the basics to tackle this.
Bio Computer
(via Neatorama)
