So, any hoity toity art critic come up with a name for this whole hyper-prolific craze yet? Millions of unique shapes, hundreds of hoboes, a skull a day, and now a portrait of every single New Yorker. This whole art meme of mass-produced hand-made is kind of fascinating and sad at the same time.

Were it not the the artiness of the product, this could be the manliest chair ever created. Real marketing angle squandered for art...

Boing Boing is not written for you, DBARAK. Its editors write about things that they themselves find interesting. Neither is Boing Boing a "news" site. Something that may have been posted before could be posted again if it seems of interest. The day that BB becomes about so called "news" is the day I stop reading.

Ontopic, that is one shmexy shoecycle.

Yea, I can confirm that this happens in southern Louisiana. I've only seen it at camp outs though. They would string up a bag just like in the picture. I asked them why and was told it kept mosquitoes, horseflies and deerflies away.
"Right. Good luck with that, I'm gonna be over here, bathing in Deep Woods Cutter."

Here's one I came up with on my own, that could use some scientific inquiry.
Shaved legs = less ticks and chiggers.
I forget if it helped or made it worse. Been a while since I went camping.

@88

quote:
'I believe its called forced "sarcasm".'

Fixed.

I categorize this away in my my mind, right next to all of Hitler's paintings, and Kim Jong Il's musicals. Curious hobbies of dead or aging psychopaths.

I like the fact that its called an "open ended action game." My first thought was "like GTA3 but..."

I also enjoyed the listing of iconic toys and games leading up to something I'd never heard of (although its criminal that this never caught on, looks like a blast.)

@#31 For me, the problem with agnosticism is that many treat the god question as a true or false question. Either there is a god or there isn't. But the question does not take into account the fact that our idea of god may be an outright wrong assumption. Why god and not goddesses? Why god and not various demigods and demons? Why god and not "the force?" The possible "yes" answers are only limited by what the human mind can imagine but the physical evidence for any of these have been conspicuously missing.

In all likelyhood, the idea of god that we're fence sitting is nothing like what the actual "god" element of the universe is like. At best, the idea of god has been a placeholder for the mysteries of the world around us that we have yet to solve. IE lighting coming from Zeus.

I'll admit that there might be aspects of the universe we live in that will always be beyond our comprehension, but those aspects would still be of the universe and not metaphysical in nature. I'm not about to call whatever it is "god."

@#7 ah yes, and I assume you've met "true" occult engineers. (Which, by the way, sounds like a job a dead person would hold in the "BeetleJuice" afterlife.)

@Crunchbird: so Chuck Close is sterile? Speaking of which, a Close portrait would be really cool, in a meta sort of way.

Wait, you mean ziplocs actually aren't witchery?

@ #4 Ok, sure only the rich will have access at first. Thats a given with any new technology. Cars, Aviation, Television, Computers, Cell phones... Eventually, all these technologies (including rejuv if it turns out to be feasible) become available to nearly everyone given enough time.

The other problem, overpopulation, is not really a problem. Just look at Japan, overcrowded maybe, but I'm a firm believer in the fact that people can adjust to any situation given the enough motivation. As for food and resources... Well, lets just hope for that magic button that sci-fi writers love so much and hope for the best.

All that said, if Aubrey succeeds, count me in!

That was delightful!

Notice the superfluous quotation marks for Europe.

(I would love to live in Björk someday.)

I believe the persona was mostly act. But the talent was all real. Apparently he was a walking encyclopedia on early 20th century popular music. Really, one of the great unappreciated artists of history.

Progress is progress. For those cringing, it could be worse. They could have referenced "wiki."
Hm. Wikisecurity?
Wikiocracy?

Wuffie was my favorite part of that book (also, my favorite of your novels btw). But I was wondering, Cory, didn't the main character in "Eastern Standard Tribe" makes a reference to Wuffie? Was that an inside joke or implication that EST is a sort of prequel to Down and Out?

Who knows. Maybe this is the start of Wuffie entering the public consciousness. How would you feel about being listed along side of Asimov as a Sci-Fi writer who somewhat accurately predicted the technological norms of tomorrow?

As cool and science-fiction-y the headline sounds, the first thing I thought of was a quote by Patton Oswalt:

"Hey we just made cancer contagious and airborne! You're welcome, we're science!"

@#10: thats interesting, but doesn't domestication generally take several generations? And even in domestication, you still have instances of dogs biting people, horses kicking, etc. But replace a dogs jaws with that of a 2 meter reptile and suddenly an accident equals amputation. Plus we are dealing with reptilian brain, not mammal. That makes a difference as well.

@ Casimirn #16, ignore the obligatory Buzzkill Patrol. IMO passion and creativity are in and cynicism is out.

at #3: Wood veneer is the new "houndstooth." It goes away for a few years, shunned for being old timey or kitch-y, and then later re-embraced for the same reasons.

Post is missing the "If You Don't Like Something, Change It" tag.

Ah see, there IS a dire problem that this bowl solves. Many of you can't see it, because obviously you tend eat breakfast like a grown person should: in one go. I, though, am a procrastinator. And I'm notorious for ignoring my food for several minutes doing something else. By the time I get back, my cornflakes are soggier than Cap'n Ahab's socks. And thats... just... not... right.

Oh, and was anyone else disappointed that this was not an article about see-thru cross-sectioned cereal bowls?

I don't think religion will lead society to doom as some chicken-little progressives fret. As long as there is a strong counterpart in the intellectual, scientific community and a well-informed counter-culture society will be fine.

HOWEVER! While there are people who are religious and genuinely good people, Religion, itself, brings nothing new to the scientific table, offers no advances in human rights, resists cultural change and so on. It is not so much something that could bring about the collapse of society (in that it is already a side effect of society) so much that it is a hinderence on the ongoing movement to improve the human condition.

Definitely a push in the right direction. In a few more years and incarnations (not to mention quality competition products), I'm betting on HTML and wi-fi, maybe even color and pictures if we're being optimistic. Having google and wikipedia on my very own handheld e-book would be almost* a dream come true.

*For perfection it must come with words "Don't Panic" engraved in large friendly letters on the back and automatic narration courtesy Stephen Fry's voice.

This positively reeks of awesome and bears strong premonition of much win yet to come.

aeiou11235, the myth is that schizophrenia caused the artist to paint images that were subsequently more and more abstracted. That was why they are arranged in that order, to show how his schizophrenia affected his painting over time. If these paintings were not created in this order then the article in the book and its argument that schizophrenia causes a "normal" painter to become an abstract painter holds absolutely no merit.

I had forgotten about these images. I had seen them in my high school psychology book, and can remember being fascinated by them.

In a perfect world (which could either be in 15 years or never), Clowes would be part of the curriculum.

When I was thirteen, the best English teacher I ever had, pointed me towards Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse 5." It was short, lewd, and science fiction. Nothing what I thought a "real" book would be. It blew my mind and changed the way I thought about novels. Who would have believed it would be remotely appropriate for young adults when it was first published?

Wow. Its the ultimate existential "put up or or shut up." I never wanted to do one of those death clock things because I kinda think they're creepy. I never thought about viewing it as a way to focus more purpose into someone's life.

Even Tarantino's weaker efforts are vastly more entertaining than most movies. I love that he's completely self indulgent with his films. I guess 3d porn is a logical step for him, but he's been known to off-handily mention ideas that entertain him but do not alway come to fruition.

Heh, Tripod mystified me when I first discovered the internet. I wanted my website to be classy, though. No horrible scrolling backgrounds for me thank you. Nope, my summer days passed as I wrestled with tables. Thick bordered tables with custom colors to make them look like picture frames. Went nice with the puke green flat background and bold, red, courier font.

Oh and a scrolling marquis site tag line, set up to display a new nugget of wisdom every time the page reloaded.

Nice one paper, scary in execution.

Sounds like these ASBO's take public disturbance fines one step further into public and government sanctioned ostracization. I know some kids are just messed up and probably should be punished. But this is downright Orwellian. If these can be applied to anything that isn't technically a crime but just "annoying" and "not nice," then the system is broken by default, and will be abused.

I'm reminded of the recent Achewood, where Lyle is court ordered to inform all his neighbors within a five block radius that he is a (registered) asshole.