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Crumbling school in Guangdong - 01/09/2009 09:14 AM

Guangdong province may be the "world's factory," prosperous and bustling (modulo a few toy-factory riots), but the development there is wildly uneven, as is evidenced by this shambolic school in Heyuan City: On December 25, 2008, the South.cn's Guangdong Development Forum carried a series of photos of the perilous conditions at the Jiutang Elementary School in Zijin County, Heyuan City, Guangdong Province. The school was called as the "most run-down school in Guangdong province." The person who made the post also divulged: "Jiutang Elementary School has witnessed 60 years of storms under which the helpless children attempt to learn. During the rainy season, the teacher and his students lived in fear. The relevant government departments paid no attention to them. Can the young flowers of the motherland be neglected this way?" In the same post, there were also photographs of the majestic buildings of the relevant government departments in Zijin county. This was a way for expressing the anger over the long-term negligence of the problems at the Jiutang Elementary School. This story about the bitter lives of these children was shocking. Within a few days, the photos became red-hot on the Internet. But many Chinese people clearly do not have knowledge about the uneven development within Guangdong province. Given the "aura of the number one province in terms of the economy," many netizens were skeptical about these photos who looked like as if they belong in western China. "Can there be places that are this impoverished in Guangdong province?" The Most Run-down School in Guangdong Province...

Dragon made of cake - 01/09/2009 08:50 AM

JD sez, "In the grand tradition of amazing edible sculpture comes this nerdy piece of jaw-dropping confectionery. It's holding a d20, and sitting on a white chocolate hoard. There's a lot of really amazing detail in this thing. Seriously. A dragon made of cake." Dragon cake (Thanks, JD!)...

Humorous homebrew Mario level - 01/09/2009 08:48 AM

Retro Sabotage (humorous homebrew levels for vintage video games) has produced a nice little 1985 Super Mario remix with a pretty good punchline. The makers have a little tool to customize the level and share it with your pals. Retro Sabotage - Super Mario Bros. (via Neatorama)...

HOWTO write in the age of distraction - 01/09/2009 08:44 AM

My latest Locus column, "Writing in the Age of Distraction" is up -- a grab-bag of practical tips for getting the writing done in the internet era. We know that our readers are distracted and sometimes even overwhelmed by the myriad distractions that lie one click away on the Internet, but of course writers face the same glorious problem: the delirious world of information and communication and community that lurks behind your screen, one alt-tab away from your word-processor. The single worst piece of writing advice I ever got was to stay away from the Internet because it would only waste my time and wouldn't help my writing. This advice was wrong creatively, professionally, artistically, and personally, but I know where the writer who doled it out was coming from. Every now and again, when I see a new website, game, or service, I sense the tug of an attention black hole: a time-sink that is just waiting to fill my every discretionary moment with distraction. As a co-parenting new father who writes at least a book per year, half-a-dozen columns a month, ten or more blog posts a day, plus assorted novellas and stories and speeches, I know just how short time can be and how dangerous distraction is. But the Internet has been very good to me. It's informed my creativity and aesthetics, it's benefited me professionally and personally, and for every moment it steals, it gives back a hundred delights. I'd no sooner give it up than I'd give up fiction or any other pleasurable vice. I think I've managed to balance things out through a few simple techniques that I've been refining for years. I still sometimes feel frazzled and info-whelmed, but that's rare. Most of the time, I'm on top of my workload and my muse Writing in the Age of Distraction...

Artist paints portraits of every grad in a found yearbook, then tracks them down - 01/09/2009 08:58 AM

In "The Altruist," artist Laurie Munn documents her adventure in found portraiture: working from a 1965 yearbook from Emerson High in Union City, New Jersey that she found in the trash, Munn painted portraits of all 220 members of the class of 65. Then she returned to the Emerson High and tracked down the subjects of her portraits to show them the great work -- discovering the heartbreaking story of the original yearbook on the way. It's a fabulous short feature, with humor, pathos, art and nostalgia all swirled up together in a mad project. The Altruist by Laurie Munn (Thanks, Marilyn!)...

Luscious romantic machinima video from Second Life - 01/09/2009 08:58 AM

Wagner James Au sez, "Here's the latest CC-licensed Second Life machinima from Lainy Voom, the UK artist who's 'Dumb Man' Boing Boing blogged last year. I wrote a short post on how she did some of the cooler visual effects. The air bubbles, for example, were achieved by attaching an invisible aquarium rock to the avatar's mouth and nose." Fall (Mini Project 3) (Thanks, James!)...

Little digital video camera - 01/09/2009 02:12 AM

This ittty bitty DV camera could be used where photography is not permitted by authorities. It's $147.00. # The Tiny DV Camera Recorder # Thumb size alloy housing # Manually and sound activated recording # Web camera for online video chat # Support AVI video format # Low illumination, high resolution image with 2000K pixels # High speed recording and quick light response # 30 frames per second for 640*480 video output # Built-in Li rechargeable battery lasting for 2 hours # Provide 2G Micro SD card and Support up to 8G memory card # Easy operation with LED indicator # Support USB 2.0 # Flexible installation with clip and bracket # Support JPEG picture format The Tiny DV Camera Recorder...

Web site to tilt-shift your photos - 01/08/2009 10:40 PM

TiltShiftMaker.com gives your photos that delightful tilt-shift look. (Above: From an original photo by Daveness_98) Tilt-shift miniature style photos are pictures of real-life scenes that are manipulated to look like model photographs. Now you can easily transform your existing digital camera photos into tilt-shift miniatures using tiltshiftmaker.com. (Thanks, Bevin!) Previously:Monster truck rally tilt shift video - Boing Boing Fake tilt shift photography tutorial - Boing Boing Flip camera tilt-shift visual experiments - Boing Boing Keith Loutit's time-lapse, tilt-shift films - Boing Boing Photographer takes photos of real scenes that look like miniature ... Cranford Rose Garden tilt-shift timelapse - Boing Boing Fake tilt-shift model airplane aerial photography - Boing Boing Tinselman uses fake tilt shift to make micro-Disneyland photos ... Fake tilt shift movie - Boing Boing More on tilt-shift photography - Boing Boing Fake tilt-shift model airplane aerial photography - Boing Boing Red Nose Studios art -- tilt-shifty fantastic illustration/photos ......

Recently at Boing Boing Gadgets... CES! - 01/08/2009 10:33 PM

Recently at Boing Boing Gadgets, we hit CES 2009! We commenced "reporting" (re: boozing) at CES Unleashed, where it became clear — even early into the conference — that the recession had hit CES hard. Never the less, Beschizza found a touching reason to be optimistic, and so, galvanized, we went into CES Day Two with high spirits. Live blogging was the order of the day on Day Two. Joel covered Ludacris and Monster Cable while Brownlee watched LG announce a Dick Tracy camera watch and declare life to be grim. Beschizza was there to write up Netgear's announcement of a deck-of-card-sized video streaming device. Then came Casio, Sharp and Toshiba, and Samsung... although all of the day's announcements had their thunder stolen by Sony's announcement of the sexy not-netbook, the Vaio P. Rob even got a chance to get a hands on. To finish off the day, Joel harassed some people in line at the Ballmer keynote. Today is Day 3, and the first day the CES showfloor is actually open. Beschizza rushed off early to cover Sir Howard Stringer's Sony keynote, and applauded the CEO for noting that the future is in open source. Meanwhile, Brownlee feasted upon omelettes courtesy of Dell. Joel puttered around the Las Vegas Convention Center, snapping shots of blinged out iPod boomboxes and television mounting kits for idiots. And Rob really wants this car. We're at CES for another couple of days, so make sure to keep up with our coverage over at Boing Boing Gadgets. It can only get even more random and profane as exhaustion sets in! Link...

Safety pin patterned necktie - 01/08/2009 10:19 PM

I dig Psycho Bunny's Safety Pin Tie. It's silk, handmade, and $110....

Ebook DRM provider goes dark, the books you paid for disappear - 01/08/2009 09:56 PM

Hudson sez, "Fictionwise used Overdrive to provide DRM encrypted ebooks to their customers and Overdrive has informed them that they will be shutdown on 30 January with no reason given. Since Fictionwise doesn't have the decryption keys, they are not able to provide new versions of the books to all customers." Fictionwise strives to maintain your purchases indefinitely, but our terms of service do not guarantee they will be available forever. Forever is a long time. We have control of our MultiFormat files and we have control of the Secure eReader format, so that gives us the ability to ensure we will continue to be able to deliver those formats to you. However, as noted above, other formats are delivered through third party aggregators. We do not have legal control of those third party servers. If those third party servers "go dark" for one reason or another, we have no way to continue delivering those files. And publishers wonder why their customers rip books off on #bookwarez sites rather than paying for them... OverDrive and the eReader Replacement File Program FAQ (Thanks, Hudson!)...

The Rap-Up boombox, Palm's last stand, and more from CES - 01/08/2009 09:50 PM

The Consumer Electronics Show carnage continues over at Boing Boing Gadgets. Above, Lasonic's Rap-Up boombox and Palm's "Hail Mary" smartphone. Boing Boing Gadgets @ CES...

Mysterious "roar" from outer space - 01/08/2009 09:49 PM

Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center says he and his colleagues have discovered a mysterious "booming noise" coming from space that's six times more powerful than all other space radio sources combined. For now, the origin of the signal remains a mystery. "We really don't know what it is,"said team member Michael Seiffert of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. And not only has it presented astronomers with a new puzzle, it is obscuring the sought-for signal from the earliest stars. Mystery Roar from Faraway Space Detected...

Electric Bath Duckie - 01/08/2009 09:47 PM

I’m not really sure what it means that the two people I showed this Electric Bath Duckie to both said it was a good gift idea, but I really like that on the back of the package it suggests: "Please make sure you have made the right decision." --Shawn (via Book of Joe) Electric Bath Duck — 'One use only' (Shawn Connally and Bruce Stewart are guest bloggers)...

"Europe Without Barriers" logo appear on barriers - 01/08/2009 09:39 PM

If this is real, it's my favorite photo so far this year. (Via Neatorama)...

Presidential aging photos - 01/08/2009 09:36 PM

CNN has a series of photos showing how the stress of being president takes a physical toll in the form of accelerated aging. Above, a guess at what Obama will look like after 4 years. The president ages twice as fast while in office, according to a theory advanced by Dr. Michael Roizen, a chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic. "The typical person who lives one year ages one year," he said. "The typical president ages two years for every year they are in office." (Via IssTumBul)...

Hoarder died in garbage labyrinth - 01/08/2009 08:57 PM

Gordon Stewart, 74, was found dead in his Buckinghamshire, England home inside a maze of tunnels he had burrowed through the garbage that packed his property. The hoarder apparently died of dehydration. (For a fascinating book about the world's most famous hoarders, the Collyer brothers, I highly recommend Franz Lidz's Ghosty Men.) From The Telegraph: The Thames Valley Police Specialist Search and Recovery team, who usually deals with underwater rescues or explorations of contaminated sites, used their cutting-edge equipment to navigate their way through the rubbish, locating his body in one the tunnels. The highly-trained team carry breathing apparatus, gas detectors, analysers and remote cameras, and wear protective clothing.... One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: "He was slightly eccentric, but very clever. He was just a collector. He came home with a load of cardboard boxes and lived in his own world." "Pensioner 'entomed in labyrinth of tunnels carved into rubbish'" (Thanks, Robert Pescovitz!) Previously:Documentary films about compulsive hoarders - Boing Boing Compulsive squalor: animal "collectors" and trash houses - Boing Boing...

Laughing gas, imagination, and suggestibility - 01/08/2009 08:41 PM

Scientists report that people who are high on nitrous oxide (laughing gas) have more vivid imaginations and are also more open to hypnotic-like suggestions. The researchers from the University College London were spurred to conduct their study based on reports from dentists that "patients under nitrous oxide sedation are particular suggestible. A number of investigators, they write in the journal Psychopharmacology, also "have noted the clinical advantages of using a hypnotic voice when administering nitrous oxide." One of the authors of the current study is psychologist Matt Whalley, who maintains the fascinating Hypnosis and Suggestion site. From Mind Hacks (image of 1839 laughing gas party from general-anesthesia.com): The researchers randomised patients at a dental surgery to either receive a nitrous oxide and oxygen mix, or just oxygen, with the patients not knowing which they were receiving. Two weeks later they were invited back and given which ever type of gas mix they hadn't already had. While inhaling each gas mix, the participants were asked to complete a measure of imaginative ability, rating the clarity and vividness of their visual imagery, as well as being given various suggestions - without the hypnotic induction - from the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale. This includes suggestions that your hands might move of their own accord, to suggested temporary paralysis, to a suggestion to experience hallucinated sounds - to name but a few. "Laughing gas increases imagination, suggestibility" (Mind Hacks), "Enhancement of suggestibility and imaginative ability with nitrous oxide" (Psychopharmacology)...

MS Paint your fave vidgame moments - 01/08/2009 07:31 PM

Over at Boing Boing Offworld, Brandon points us to a fantastic forum thread challenging you to MS Paint your favorite videogame moments. "MS Paint the Games of 2008"...

Artist Femke Hiemstra's new site - 01/08/2009 07:17 PM

Amsterdam-based artist Femke Hiemstra is one of my favorite pop surrealist artists. Her phantasmagorical fairy tales entrance me with their darkness, beauty, and curious flora and fauna. I have one small original drawing and hope to someday have another piece, particularly one of her mixed media works. Hiemstra has just launched a luscious new Web site, Femtasia. Previously:Travis Louie and Femke Himestra, new art show in Seattle - Boing Boing Femke Hiemstra's illustrations - Boing Boing UPDATE: Turns out, my old colleague Chris Friden created a card game using Femke Hiemstra's artwork! It's called FRED....

Two-headed calf (RIP) - 01/08/2009 07:00 PM

This two-headed calf was euthanized in King William's Town, South Africa last week. Born on a stock farm, the calf was only a day old and very weak. RIP, little mutant calf. From Daily Dispatch Online: “When it got here it was still conscious and breathing from both noses, but it was very weak and might not have survived another day,” Rademeyer said. Although both heads were conscious, the reaction from one of them was visibly slower than the other, she said. Both sets of eyes and tongues were moving... “These animals seldom survive.” Two-headed calf born in EC Previously:Two-headed Bearded Dragon - Boing Boing Blinky, the two-headed calf, RIP - Boing Boing Extra-special two-headed turtle - Boing Boing Two-headed fossil - Boing Boing Two-headed animal exhibit in St. Louis - Boing Boing Two-headed Cuban tortoise - Boing Boing Calf with two noses - Boing Boing Two-headed turtle - Boing Boing...

Sex doll bandit - 01/08/2009 06:58 PM

A Cairns, Australia gentleman burglarized three adult shops, stealing blow-up sex dolls called "Jungle Jane" and having sex with them in an alley. Police have collected evidence, including DNA. From Reuters: "It's totally bizarre. It's a real concern that someone like that is out on the street," said one of the owners of the adult sex shops in Cairns in northern Queensland state. "He has been taking the dolls out the back and blowing them up and using the dolls and leaving them in the alley," the owner, who gave the name of Vogue, told the Cairns Post newspaper. "Police seek blow-up doll sex bandit"...

House prices plummet in Detroit, Indianapolis, Cleveland - 01/08/2009 05:52 PM

One good thing about the gloomy economy -- more people can afford to buy a house. For example, for $500 you can buy this three bedroom bungalow (below) in Detroit. From Les Christie's story in CNN: The real estate market is so awful that buyers are now scooping up homes for as little as $1,000. There are 18 listings in Flint, Mich., for under $3,000, according to Realtor.com. There are 22 in Indianapolis, 46 in Cleveland and a whopping 709 in Detroit. All of these communities have been hit hard by foreclosures, and most of these homes are being sold by the lenders that repossessed them ... In Detroit for instance, Century 21 Villa owner Randy Eissa has a three-bedroom, one-bath bungalow of about 1,000 square feet listed at just $500. Radical cheap: $1,000 homes...

Hardest-to-understand EULA *ever* when you install WoW on GNU/Linux - 01/08/2009 05:41 PM

While installing World of Warcraft on my Ubuntu Linux laptop (using the WINE compatibility software), I found myself confronted by this license agreement. Ain't that a pickle? I wonder if I'm bound by the license terms now that I clicked "Agree"? Warcraft EULA under Ubuntu/WINE...

Group wants to own trademark on "awareness" of a rare disease - 01/08/2009 04:32 PM

Shawn sez, "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH)is a rare but serious medical condition that dramatically impacts the families of children born with it. Breath of Hope, Inc, a CDH association, recently filed a trademark request with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to own the rights to the phrase 'Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness.' If successful, their trademark would prevent other CDH support and research organizations from using the term Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness in their literature and in their fundraising efforts. Not only is it absurd to trademark awareness of a medical condition, but it's also disturbing that one organization would attempt to compete rather than cooperate with other organizations that serve the same families. A group of CDH organizations has started a petition as part of their efforts to prevent Breath of Hope from receiving their trademark." Petition Against Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness Trademark Ownership (Thanks, Shawn!)...

Boing Boing Gadgets at CES: Video Report, Day Two. - 01/09/2009 03:58 AM

(Flash embed above, downloadable MP4 version here.) In today's installment of Boing Boing Gadgets' video coverage from CES 2009 in Las Vegas: * Rob Beschizza reports from the Sony press conference. Sony Electronics president and COO Stan Glasgow unveiled new OLED and LCD TVs, "Webbie" social networking video cameras, and the P series "lifestyle devices." Rob got a hands-on demo of these 1.4 pound laptops, which retail for $900 and allow you to connect via WiFi, Bluetooth, or Verizon cellular broadband. * Joel harasses people waiting in line for the Ballmer keynote. What do people want from Microsoft? Verdict: most folks at the front of the line seemed most excited about their imminent proximity to His Ballmerhood. Many were in line with hopes of gleaning more info on Windows 7 features and release date, and one guy just wanted to see Ballmer "dance around and sweat and yell." Another dude wanted to hear Microsoft admit, at long last, that Bill Gates is a Communist. * Xeni, Rob, and Joel huddle on the floor and fight over whose mobile phone is dumber, and who is more of a shameless fanboy/girl of which manufacturer. * Xeni points out badly designed CES signage which might lead one to believe that attendees go about bashing babies in strollers. * Joel is not amused that one of his colleagues tweeted he'd be wandering around the convention dressed in a fursuit. People are talking. Join the discussion for this episode over at Boing Boing Gadgets. Previously: Boing Boing Gadgets at CES: Video Report, Day One Sponsor shout-out: Boing Boing Video coverage of CES 2009 is sponsored by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is intended to be a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside." Special thanks to Q-Burns Abstract Message for the background tracks in our CES episodes! Today: remixes of songs he produced with the lovely Lisa Shaw....

Facts versus the lie of "liberal, out-of-touch Hollywood" - 01/08/2009 07:38 PM

Screenwriter/show-runner John Rogers has had it with the right-wing myth that Hollywood keeps making anti-war movies that flop, proving how out of touch the Liberal Elite are with the will of the peeepul. So he's written a masterful takedown of this notion, looking at every war-related film in 2007/8 and calculating how profitable they were. Conclusion: Hollywood makes a modest number of films with anti-war messages, and most of them make a decent amount of money. Then he goes on to offer a compelling account of the process by which potentially risky "message" films get made by big, bottom-line oriented studios. The whole thing was prompted by a comment by John "Dirty Harry" Nolte, whose site offers this epithet to describe himself: "[a] right-wing, Tim Robbins-loathing blogger."Nolte posted, "Between narratives and documentaries I’ve counted 16 anti-Iraq war films over the last two years. All have flopped, miserably. More are on the way." As Rogers demonstrates, this is just not true, as a purely factual matter. Well, first off, for a trillion dollar industry dedicated to pushing anti-War movies on America, dedicating to this cause less than 5% of the last 300 movies kind of indicates our hearts aren't really into it. Not to mention the limited number of release theaters for most of the movies we discussed. FIFTEEN THEATERS for Redacted, for chrissake. Here's a quick clue -- when Hollywood wants to sell something, we make it as widely available as possible for purchase. Crazy, I know. What sort of marketing mumbo-jumbo is this? You'll note thay evil "Hollywood" kind of lay down on the oppression job, allowing An American Carol to be released in 1600+ theaters, and Proud American to be released in 750 theaters, and Expelled to be released in over 1000 theaters, the widest release of a documentary in history. As far as soul-crushing propaganda machines go, we are not getting the memos out, apparently. Big Hollywood and Why I Admire David Zucker...

HOWTO: Make an electrified steampunk Monopoly - 01/08/2009 10:43 AM

Instructables member Antibromide modded a "Vintage Edition" Monopoly set into an electrified steampunk version, wherein your pieces' movement around the board trigger electrical effects in four props in the center. Brava! I started with a special edition Monopoly board and added a Community Chest, a water tower (for the water company), a Ray Gun (for the Chance cards), a train (for the railroads), and street lights (for the electric company). I used reed switches and magnets for the triggers when you land on designated spots on the board. Electrified Monopoly - Steampunk Inspired (Thanks, Yehuda!)...

Bre Pettis's rapid prototyping talk, a tour-de-force presentation from 25C3 - 01/08/2009 08:31 AM

I've just finished watching the video of Bre Pettis's riveting presentation on Rapid Prototyping at 25C3, the annual Chaos Computer Congress in Berlin. Pettis is one of my favorite makers in the world, and this presentation covers every aspect of rapid prototyping, desktop fabbing, 3D printing (and whatever else you want to call it). From the technology underpinning it to the history of the form to the practicalities of clubbing together to buy expensive machinery to the philosophy, economics and emotional satisfaction of decentralized making, Pettis runs the whole gamut, with humor, humility, and a thoroughgoing knowledge of the subject. From automated knitting machines that go from "I'm cold" to "I have a scarf" in fifteen minutes to sugar-based 3D printers to papercraft CAD to laser cutters and robotic Dremel tools, Pettis paints a picture of a future where something can go from your head to the real world with the fluidity of a blog post. Prototype Your Life MP4, 437MB, Prototype Your Life MP4, 437MB (Coral Cache mirror) (via Bre Pettis)...

America limps along after Bush, by the numbers - 01/08/2009 07:16 AM

Salon's got a good, meaty, heavily linked and referenced roundup of the damage done to the US economy and body politic during the Bush administrations: How much poorer are we going to get before we start getting richer again? Here are some (scary, morbid, gruesome) clues. Expected shortfall of gross domestic product below normal growth path in 2009: $900 billion Decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average from its decade high to its value at the close of business, Jan. 7, 2009: 5,394.83, or 38.1 percent Number of manufacturing jobs lost since 2000: 3.78 million Increase in number of unemployed workers from 2001 to 2008: 4 million, a jump of 2.7 percent in the unemployment rate Real median household income according to the 2000 census, adjusted for inflation: $51,804 Real median household income as of August 2007: $50,233 Of course, the government didn't sit idly by while our financial future was disappearing down the drain. Instead, the feds have pumped in hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, hoping to juice lending and public spending. Cost of finance industry bailout: $350 billion, with another $350 pending congressional approval Cost of auto industry bailout: $17.4 billion, so far And even though there's widespread agreement among economists that the government needs to be spending a large sum of money on an economic stimulus package, it still won't look pretty on the public balance sheet. National debt: $10.6 trillion Amount of that debt owned by China: At least $800 billion W. and the damage done...