Boing Boing

Life before plastic

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:00:37 PDT

Stewart Brand sums up Susan Freinkel's Long Now talk: "What Common Objects Used to Be Made Of," a history of the world before plastic:

“Bakelite was invented in 1907 to replace the beetle excretion called shellac (“It took 16,000 beetles six months to make a pound of shellac.”), and was first used to insulate eletrical wiring. Soon there were sturdy Bakelite radios, telephones, ashtrays, and a thousand other things. The technology democratized consumption, because mass production made former luxury items cheap and attractive. The 1920s and ‘30s were a golden age of plastic innovation, with companies like Dow Chemical, DuPont, and I. G. Farben creating hundreds of new varieties of plastic for thrilled consumers. Cellophane became a cult. Nylons became a cult. A plastics trade show in 1946 had 87,000 members of the public lining up to view the wonders. New fabrics came along—Orlon and Dacron—as colorful as the deluge of plastic toys—Barbie, the Frisbee, Hula hoops, and Silly Putty.
“Looking for new markets, the marketers discovered disposability—disposable cups for drink vending machines, disposable diapers (“Said to be responsible for the baby boom“), Bic lighters, soda bottles, medical syringes, and the infinite market of packaging. Americans consume 300 pounds of plastic a year. The variety of plastics we use are a problem for recycling, because they have to be sorted by hand. They all biodegrade eventually, but at varying rates. New bio-based polymers like “corn plastic” and “plant bottles” have less of a carbon footprint, but they biodegrade poorly. Meanwhile, thanks to the efficiencies of fracking, the price of natural gas feedstock is plummeting, and so is the price of plastic manufacture.

What Common Objects Used to Be Made Of

(Image: Plastic Power, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from fxtreme's photostream)

What the hell is going on in Quebec?

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:48:55 PDT

Quebec is in the throes of mass protests. A prolonged student strike over tuition hikes triggered a law placing broad restrictions on the freedom to protest, and giving the police the power to arbitrarily declare even "approved" protests to be illegal. Over 500 were arrested in a single Montreal protest, after a prolonged and totally unjustifiable kettling incident. Kate McDonnell of the Montreal City Weblog was on that march, and she's graciously written us a piece on the experience:

Downtown Montreal midday Tuesday, thousands upon thousands of people poured into Place des Festivals and the surrounding areas to begin a march. Montrealers march more readily than most Canadians, but this was a special day – the 100th day of the student strike against the tuition increase ordained by the Quebec government under Jean Charest.
Charest has been premier of Quebec since 2003. A Conservative at the federal level, he jumped for the chance when the Quebec Liberal Party needed a new leader. He has nudged the party steadily rightward ever since. In recent years his government has been rocked by multiple charges of corruption and collusion, but it was the party's planned increase in university tuition fees that sparked the real furor in Quebec.
Early 2011, Charest announced his intention to end a tuition freeze with an increase of $325 per year until a university year (two terms) ends up costing $3,793 in 2017. Sporadic protests were held, but the demo of February 17, 2012 was the beginning of daily protests, mostly in the evenings, most peaceful but with occasional outbreaks by "casseurs" breaking windows, throwing rocks and bottles at police, painting things red.
Concerns about access to education were foremost: yes, Quebec still has some of the lowest tuition fees around, but Quebec taxes are very high, a fact that's tolerated because Quebecers have nearly European expectations for collective health care, education and other services. Statistics show that fewer Quebecers progress to higher education than other Canadians, probably the legacy of a time when the Catholic Church dominated the culture (a hegemony that only ended with the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s). Pundits are in disagreement whether rising tuition rates will lower university attendance.
The most recent ratcheting of tension was last week's passage of a new law, Bill 78, the loi spéciale which limits freedom of assembly, protest, or picketing on or near university grounds, or anywhere in Quebec without prior police approval. A more vaguely worded part of the bill would criminalize the act of encouraging people to demonstrate.

At the same time, Montreal adopted a new bylaw banning face coverings at demonstrations – a prohibition the mayor had attempted before but had not been able to squeeze past freedom-of-expression rules. This time the bylaw passed like butter – but it was Bill 78 that put the public's back up. Newspapers printed legal opinions that it would never withstand a rights challenge. Protesters announced immediate intention to flout the new law. Websites tauntingly demanded arrest for civil disobedience.
Tuesday's march was technically illegal from the top, because the marchers immediately broke the new rule about sticking to a route previously vetted by police. Most wore some red, as the photo shows, but it was striking how tuition wasn't the issue on the minds of the crowd: Charest's dereliction of duty and disgust with his government was the theme of the day. The presence of many people older than the usual student age was also an indicator that this is no longer simply a student revolt. Charest's failure to resolve the tuition issue by bringing in a "loi matraque" (bludgeon law), was mocked and derided with chants and signs.
This "illegal" segment of the march circulated peacefully through the heart of Montreal's downtown and business district, passing by the gates of McGill University, the headquarters of SNC-Lavalin, federal government buildings, Hydro-Quebec. There was a festival ambiance with drumming and intermittent chanting: La loi spéciale, on s'en câlisse!
The march made its way to Lafontaine Park – the goal of the initial route submitted to police – but the crowd pushed along through the park and was clearly going to keep going even as the rain started in earnest. Evening demos have started around 8:30 every day for a month, and this demonstration looked set to meld directly into it.
Later, after dark, while most of the demo remained peaceful, the usual incidents of police charges, cat-and-mouse chases and arrests that have accompanied the night demonstrations for a month came back into play. By the end of the night, 100 demonstrators had been arrested.
Now a new kind of protest has popped up: the cacerolazo or casserole demo. This is a very old grassroots form of protest, also known as rough music, the charivari – in which people come out of their homes banging on pots and pans to make a racket. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, people all over town were banging away on metal bowls and pots in their back alleys, on major street corners, coalescing into marches that moved noisily through the neighbourhoods.
Wednesday night's downtown demo was estimated at 3000 people and was peaceful but, based on Bill 78's ban against any demo not cleared with police, it was declared illegal and 400 people were rounded up and arrested.
As I write, 1:30 a.m. Friday, the Thursday evening demo that arose from a combination of the "traditional" downtown march and the neighbourhood casserole protests, is winding down peacefully. It's a lovely warm night in Montreal.
There's both a feeling that this is the end of a régime, and a tacit understanding that something drastic may happen to end the demonstrations before June 8 – Grand Prix weekend, the biggest tourism event of the year and the beginning of the city's summer festival season. As I write, news media are saying talks will reopen between the government and the student leaders early next week if both sides can clear away conditions that would make talks futile.

Poland's future of copyright

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:19 PDT

The Modern Poland Foundation held a future of copyright contest, which invited short stories about copyright's future. They've published the winners in a free ebook.

Penn Jillette's rant against Obama's drug policy

Mark Frauenfelder — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:25:47 PDT

[Video Link] Penn's excellent rant against Obama's ruinous drug policy that keeps 750,000 non-violent people in prison. He points out that if Obama had been imprisoned for his admitted drug use, his life would suck right now. And yet, Obama supports a policy that make good people's lives suck, wastes billions of dollars, and nurtures a police state.

Stalking the Paparazzi

Mark Frauenfelder — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:10:56 PDT

[Video Link] A young celebrity lives four houses away from us, and our street is often filled with paparazzi. Two days ago, the cops came twice to deal with these jackasses. Vice made a video about them, called "Stalking the Paparazzi." (NSFW language)

Every Heath Ledger scene in Dark Knight

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:00:02 PDT

The Cussing Channel has produced a Dark Knight Joker supercut, featuring all the on-camera Heath Ledger scenes. It rather stopped me in my tracks -- Ledger really put in an astounding performance, something that is underlined three times in red by ten straight minutes of Ledger doing his thing.

Rules: Just The Joker, just the on-camera dialogue. Now, there are many shots in this film over the Joker's shoulder, with the focus on the character he's talking to... those lines didn't make it... only the clips where the Joker is the focus of the shot (otherwise this becomes a 30-minute affair).

The Dark Knight - Just The Joker (Thanks, Phillip!)

Chris Ware interview

Mark Frauenfelder — Fri, 25 May 2012 10:59:33 PDT

[Video Link] An interview with Jimmy Corrigan creator, Chris Ware. (Via Drawn & Quarterly)

80-year-old skydiving first-timer falls out of tandem harness

Mark Frauenfelder — Fri, 25 May 2012 10:52:40 PDT

[Video Link] She obviously didn't want to jump. I wonder if the skydiving company charged extra for the extra thrill. (Via Geekolgie)

Sugar ad: your diet is depriving your kids of vital sugar!

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 25 May 2012 09:59:55 PDT

Here's an undated ad from "Sugar Information, Inc" (our old friends), warning mothers that if they include their kids in their sugar-free, dieting lifestyles, they will be depriving the poor kiddlees of vital sugar and exposing them to "exhaustion." Obviously, this was before the cancer scares and other stuff about artificial sweeteners, because surely that's the major reason to keep your kids away from artificial sweeteners. I love the fact that they recommend sugar for dieters, too: "gives you the va-va-voom you need for all those exercises!"

Sugar!

The modded musical Game Boys of Blip Festival

Dean Putney — Fri, 25 May 2012 09:27:28 PDT

I'm at Blip Festival in New York this weekend checking out all the bleeps and bloops people are making. Blip Festival itself starts tonight, but last night NY Pulsewave had an open mic night and I decided to grab a few of the artists to photograph their instruments: mostly custom modified Game Boys. I've included a few highlights here, and the full set is on my Flickr.

Pictured above is Andrew Gould's (AKA andaruGO) GBM1 Game Boy Classic. It's a great example of the two most popular mods: He's got a custom backlit screen that helps him see the music in the dark, and a wiring modification called Prosound which bypasses the standard headphone jack and wires directly into the device's audio chip for better quality sound. He's using the LSDJ cartridge, pretty much the standard for the Game Boy Classic performers. There's also a custom blue screen protector he received as a gift from an internet friend. View the gallery here.

Sign a petition for a "guilt-free Eurovision" -- keep the pressure up on Azerbaijan

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 25 May 2012 09:02:48 PDT

Robert sez, "Azerbaijan is hosting the final of this Saturday's Eurovision song contest. Amidst the absurdity and kitsch, human rights groups are worried that Azerbaijan's autocratic government will use the occasion to airbrush its appalling treatment of journalists and activists. Index on Censorship is asking Boing Boing readers to make the President of Azerbaijan face the music during #Eurovision, by signing a petition demanding he end the persecution of writers and artists who speak truth to power."

My father was born in a refugee camp in Azerbaijan -- to Russian/Polish/Belarusian parents -- and I've always felt a distant kinship to the place, enough so that I take this sort of thing more personally than I would if it were in another post-Soviet Asian dictatorship. I signed.

The Eurovision Song Contest is a guilty pleasure for millions across Europe. But this year the competition has a dark side – it’s being hosted by Azerbaijan, a country whose people face violence, prison and persecution for exercising their right to free speech. On 18 April, Idrak Abbasov, an investigative reporter who won the Guardian/Index Award, was beaten unconscious by private security guards while the police looked on.
Other journalists have been attacked, abducted and tortured. In November 2011, writer Rafiq Tagi was attacked outside his home and later died. No one has been brought to justice for his murder. In fact, in the last seven years, there have been no arrests or prosecutions related to violence against journalists.
But it’s not just journalists – musicians, gay rights campaigners and political activists are also under attack.

Raise your voice for free speech in Azerbaijan (Thanks, Robert!)

Giant, monstrous cake

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 25 May 2012 08:54:44 PDT

Here's Paul Joachim's 80 oz. monster cake from 2007, as featured on Evil Cakes:

Made for a halloween party, this cake came out quite scary and realistic! I used 4 deliciously moist chocolate cakes along with a TON of ganache, 80 ounces of chocolate and 8 cups of heavy cream to be exact ;) The engineering on this wasn’t easy considering how thin the neck is. It really held up well! The head is a 3 layer cake. There are NO dowels, NO rice krispies for this cake.

80 Ounces of Chocolate Monster Cake

Fox sues Dish over commercial skipping, claims copyright infringement

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:43:05 PDT

Dish Networks, the satellite TV provider, is being sued by Fox over its "AutoHop" feature, which automatically skips commercials. Fox alleges copyright infringement, which is a repeat of the claims over ReplayTV, which was bankrupted in similar lawsuits in the last decade. The networks claimed then that the whole program, including the commercials, were a single copyrighted work, and that by automatically enabling the skipping of certain sections, the device manufacturers were making derivative works. It's a really dumb theory of copyright and it's hard to imagine that it would hold up in court -- and if it did, it would mean that, for example, allowing screen-in-screen, or changing aspect ratios, or even custom color balances or audio mixes were also copyright violations, and that these violations took place when the feature was enabled by the manufacturer (who would therefore be liable) and not when the customer turned them on.

A more likely claim from Fox is breach of contract -- it's easy to believe that Fox put a "no skipping the commercials" line in their deal with Dish (and if they didn't, you can bet they will). Moreover, the DRM used in satellite receivers is controlled by the big rightsholders, and the license agreement for that DRM (much of which is a secret) allows them to demand arbitrary control over features in devices that can decode it.

Here's more from the LA Times and Meg James and Joe Flint:

Fox filed its copyright violation and breach-of-contract suit against Dish on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Dish filed its suit in U.S. District Court in New York.
"The suit asks for a declaratory judgment that the AutoHop feature does not infringe any copyrights that could be claimed by the major networks, and that Dish, while providing the AutoHop feature, remains in compliance with its agreements with the networks," the Englewood, Colo., company said in a statement.
While consumers with digital video recorders can fast-forward through commercials of recorded shows, Dish's AutoHop takes it a step further. The screen goes black when a commercial break appears. A few seconds later, the program returns. The service can't be used on live programming, such as a sporting event, even after it has been recorded.
With more than 14 million subscribers, Dish Network Corp.'s new technology may threaten the networks' ability to continue to charge premiums for their commercial time.

Fox sues Dish over ad-blocking feature; Dish fires back (via /.)

Pulitzer winner Jennifer Egan tweets a science fiction story for the New Yorker

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 25 May 2012 06:42:27 PDT

Tor.com reports on Pulitzer Winning novelist Jennifer Egan's latest project: a tweeted science fiction story in the New Yorker's fiction feed:

This is part of the launch of the forthcoming first-ever science fiction issue of The New Yorker. The installment will appear starting tonight between 8pm-9pm EST, and will last for ten nights. The entirety of “Black Box” will appear in the next issue of The New Yorker, which will release this coming Monday. The story involves a character from A Visit from the Goon Squad and will be a kind of spy narrative.

Twitter Story to Launch The New Yorker’s Science Fiction Issue

NYC lawyer loses $100K suit over healthclub that stopped supplying yogurt and cereal

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 25 May 2012 06:00:45 PDT

Richard Katz, a NYC lawyer, has lost his breach-of-contract lawsuit against a pricey healthclub that changed its breakfast menu. Katz was a member of The Setai Wall Street Club and Spa, and he was upset when the yogurt and cereal normally provided by the club was discontinued. He sent a series of upset emails to the club's manager, who cancelled his membership. Katz sued, citing damages in excess of $100,000, and an additional $5,000 in damages for an alleged libel from the manager, who wrote an email in response and is alleged to have shown it to a third party. Lowering the Bar has more:

To me, the great thing about this email is not that a lawyer got furious over somebody failing to dish up the yogurt and cereal. It's that even in the grip of this fury, he still wrote "two (2) weeks." Why do people do this? Maybe it made sense when things were written in longhand, but now that we have email and printers and whatnot there is generally not much controversy over what "two" is supposed to mean. If you haven't picked up this habit yet, don't...
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ellen Coin dismissed the case this week, according to the New York Daily News. While there seems to have been no written opinion, according to the manager's attorney the judge told Katz at the hearing that "he should be ashamed of himself" for filing the suit. That's hearsay, but the judge did order Katz to pay $440 in costs, which suggests what she thought of the case. The manager's attorney praised the decision for throwing out a case that was "embarrassing to the profession."

Lawyer's Defective-Breakfast Suit Dismissed

(Image: Yogurt freak, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from dan4th's photostream)

Mondrian PC

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 25 May 2012 04:56:52 PDT

Jeffrey Stephenson made a beautiful Mondrian PC enclosure.

Mondrian is a fanless mini-ITX case design made from wood and hand-cut acrylic tiles. Fresh air is drawn into the case after passing through the exposed heatsink finning. An 80mm CPU fan is mounted under the heatsink and acts as a combo CPU/case fan.

Specific inspirations (including the famous Yves Saint Laurent dress) and a build report at the above link!

Why your camera's GPS won't work in China (maybe)

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:00:54 PDT

If you've got a major-brand camera with a built-in GPS, don't plan on taking any geotagged photos in China. Chinese law prohibits mapmaking without a license, and most of the large camera manufacturers have complied with this regulation by quietly slipping a censorship function into the GPS -- when you take a picture, the camera checks to see if it's presently in China, and if it is, it throws away its GPS data, rather than embedding it in the photo's metadata. On Ogle Earth, Stefan Geens looks at how several different manufacturers handle this weirdness -- how they phrase it in their manuals, and what their cameras do when they run up against this limitation. It's a fascinating look at the interface between consumer electronics, user interface, and the edicts of totalitarian regimes. In some Nikon cameras, for example, the GPS does work, but all its measurements are shifted about 500m to the west (!).

Why does all this matter? Wherever local laws prohibit the sale or use of a personal electronics device able to perform a certain function, manufacturers have traditionally chosen not to sell the offending device in that particular jurisdiction, or — if the market is tempting enough — to sell a crippled model made especially for that jurisdiction.
For example, Nokia chose not to sell the N95 phone in Egypt when the sale of GPS-enabled devices there was illegal before 2009, whereas Apple opted to make and sell a special GPS-less iPhone 3G for that market. Early models of the Chinese iPhone 3GS lacked wifi, while the Chinese iPhone 4/4S has firmware restrictions on its Google Maps app.
The risk to consumers in freer countries is that personal electronics brands might be tempted to simplify their manufacturing processes by building just one device for the global market, catering to the lowest common denominator of freedom — especially if the more restrictive legal jurisdictions contain some of the most attractive markets, such as mainland China.
Still, in the absence of more information from Panasonic, Leica, FujiFilm, Nikon and Samsung, I can’t decisively say whether this is the business logic behind their decision to cripple the GPS in their cameras. And yet uncrippled GPS cameras from Sony and others are freely available for sale in China, for example on Taobao, China’s eBay...

Why do Panasonic, Leica, FujiFilm, Samsung and Nikon censor their GPS cameras? (Thanks, Jeffrey!)

Illuminated manuscript cookies

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:00:56 PDT

Anniina ("Scholar, Writer, Mother, Dreamer. Editor of Luminarium, an online library for English Literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance") produced these delicious-looking and awfully lovely illuminated initial cookies:

I wanted to share with you some Medieval manuscript cookies I made for my friend and colleague, Risa Bear, creator of Renascence Editions. I chose historiated initials from several manuscripts, printed them on edible paper with edible ink, attached them to square cookies and gave them gold edges. Who says love of literature and art can't fill a belly?!

Medieval Illuminated Initial Cookies (via Making Light)

Hedgehog stuck in can

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:01:38 PDT

"A hedgehog is recovering in an RSPCA hospital after being found by the side of a road with its head wedged in an empty carrot tin." [BBC]

Nevada Ghosts: photos from an early A-bomb test

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:45:53 PDT

Ben Cosgrove of Life says:

As the prospect of nuclear weapons testing by nations like North Korea and Iran once again makes headlines, LIFE.com presents rare and (mostly) unpublished pictures from the Nevada desert by photographer Loomis Dean shortly after a 1955 atomic bomb test.

These are not "political" pictures. They are, instead, eerily beautiful, unsettling photographs made at the height of the Cold War, when the destructive power of any atomic blast was jaw-droppingly huge, but positively miniscule compared to today's truly terrifying thermonuclear weapons. In short, these pictures from more than half a century ago serve as a quiet reminder of just how insane the very notion of nuclear warfare really is.

Nevada Ghosts: photos from an early A-bomb test

Historical proto-Al Jaffee hides trenchant commentary in design of US Dollar Bill

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:38:50 PDT

The other day I noticed that on the back of the one dollar bill, there is a phrase: The Great Seal of the United States. It is split into two circles. When you fold the dollar so that the two half circles meet exactly, a new phrase is revealed.

The Great Seal of the United States (Thanks, Terry!)

Batteries Not Included - a collection of vintage toy commercials

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:37:35 PDT

From Archive.org's wonderful Classic TV archive, an hour long video of old toy commercials.

Batteries Not Included

Ambiguous "true-false" answer

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:57:32 PDT

I hope this was a clever student's attempt to answer a question that he or she didn't know the answer to. (Via Bit & Pieces)

Why New America Foundation's president quit Facebook

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:54:16 PDT

James Losey from the New America Foundation writes, "I wanted to share New America Foundation's president Steve Coll's reasoning as to why he is leaving the Facebook. He analyzes a range of concerns including privacy concerns, a chaotic IPO, questionable corporate-governance system, mixed with a lack of user rights. "

I established a Facebook account in 2008. My motivation was ignoble: I wanted to distribute my journalism more widely. I have acquired since then just over four thousand 'friends'--in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, the Middle East, and of course, closer to home. I have discovered the appeal of Facebook's community--for example, the extraordinary emotional support that swells in virtual space when people come together online around a friend's illness or life celebrations.
Through its bedrock appeals to friendship, community, public identity, and activism--and its commercial exploitation of these values--Facebook is an unprecedented synthesis of corporate and public spaces. The corporation's social contract with users is ambitious, yet neither its governance system nor its young ruler seem trustworthy. Then came this month's initial public offering of stock--a chaotic and revealing event--which promises to put the whole enterprise under even greater pressure.

I quit FB a few years back. I felt like it took a lot more from me than it gave me.

Leaving Facebookistan (Thanks, James!)

Movie made from Getty's still image collection

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:47:37 PDT

[Video Link] Getty Images hired BBDO Brazil to produce a short movie made entirely of still images from its collection.

(Via This is Colossal)

Anderson Cooper quizzes supporter of pastor who proposes concentration camps for gay people

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:35:47 PDT

[Video Link] This is as entertaining as it is disconcerting.

Solar-powered airplane "Solar Impulse" attempts transcontinental flight

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:33:39 PDT

Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

A Solar Impulse aircraft takes off at Payerne airport May 24, 2012, piloted by André Borschberg. The Solar Impulse HB-SIA prototype aircraft, which has 12,000 solar cells built into its jumbo-jet-sized wings (about 200 feet long), attempted its first intercontinental flight from Switzerland to Morocco with a few days for a technical stop and a change of pilot in Madrid. This flight will act as a final rehearsal for the 2014 round-the-world flight.

The project website is here. More coverage: NPR, Telegraph, AP, more photos and video at MSNBC, AFP, and video from Reuters.

Follow Solar Impulse on Twitter, and pilot André Borschberg is tweeting from the skies.

Flying along big wall of clouds. beautiful and impressiv but will climb higher #solarimpulse
— André Borschberg (@Andreborschberg) May 24, 2012

Starting the climb to make the big jump over the pyrenees #solarimpulse
— André Borschberg (@Andreborschberg) May 24, 2012

Live video feed below.

Blindside, a new "3D audio-only adventure game" for iOS

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:17:42 PDT

Last October, I blogged about a Kickstarter to create "a video game with no graphics, played entirely using audio." The game is Blindside, and it's finished! Now available through the App Store for iPhone4/iPad2+. The project was inspired by co-creator Aaron Rasmussen's temporary blindness as a result of an explosion in high school chemistry.

BlindSide is an audio adventure game, set in a fully-immersive 3d world you’ll never see. Put on headphones, hold your iPhone, and face the direction you want to go. Listen as the world rotates around you and explore the darkness.
You play as Case, an assistant professor who wakes up blind, to find his city destroyed and mysterious creatures devouring people. Will you and your girlfriend be able to find your way without sight? How will you escape? Run for your life, save the girl, and uncover the mystery of the apocalypse--all in the dark!

Blindside.

(thanks, Joe Sabia!)

Chair made from Funk & Wagnall's

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:00:45 PDT

Sculptor Jim Rosenau's "Reading Chair" is a 6" high piece made from volumes from an old Funk & Wagnall's and some blunt pencils. It's the perfect chair for a bookish gnome. I've featured Jim's work here before.

Reading Chair (via Bookshelf)

Bronx Parkour: Jose The Amazing (a photo essay)

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:35:31 PDT

Photo: Chris Arnade

Chris Arnade is a photographer based in New York City. I've blogged his urban photography before. Check out these fantastic shots of young men in Hunts Point Bronx, doing crazy gravity-defying freestyle jumps. Below: more photos, and the story behind those photos, from Chris.—XJ

Photo: Chris Arnade

JOSE THE AMAZING
CHRIS ARNADE

Last year I was in a desolate part of Hunts Point, talking to a friend. A group of about ten teenagers came down the street, loud, filled with energy, and seemingly marauding (kicking over cones, jumping on and over stationary cars, etc). I have never had a problem in my twenty years in New York City, but that does not mean I don't stay aware. As they passed, out of the corner of my eye I spotted Jose, do a back flip over a hydrant. Amazed, I yelled out to him. He and his friends, who were also warily eyeing me and my friend, thinking we were cops, were planning to run away, but his friend Henry had a sprained ankle, so they stood their ground.

Since then I have come to grow very fond of Jose and his friends, and have done two proper photo shoots. Big fans of Parkour, Hip-hop, and Anime, they are fighting against an area where the pressures of poverty, drugs, and limited opportunity weigh heavily.

Photo: Chris Arnade

For me it's another lesson in expectations. All of my accumulated baggage from popular culture signaled for me to get away from these kids and their bad intentions, all theirs told them to get away from the cop who would treat them unfairly. Neither of us did that, and because of that I certainly have learned a bit more about the Bronx.

Groups of teenagers have thrown rocks at me from a distance (I just spread my arms and say "Give me your best shot, you arm aint that good." So far that's worked). I understand what the combination of boredom, energy, and hormones can do. Hell, I threw rocks at things when I was that age.

—Chris Arnade, 2012.

Photo: Chris Arnade

More from Hunts Point here: Hunts Point
More of Jose here: Jose the amazing

Photo: Chris Arnade