http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/i7F9KkZaMKI/matt-webb-on-the-rol.html

Here's my friend and neighbour Matt Webb (part of the Schulze and Webb design consultancy) addressing Copenhagen's Reboot conference on what the role of a designer was and is in the 21st century. It's a great Webbrant, thought-provoking, learned, wide-ranging, weird and great.

Reboot (via Warren Ellis)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/cUOOv64Xa1k/cheap-trick-releases.html

As you might imagine, finding a manufacturer today for the 8-track version of Cheap Trick's The Latest wasn't easy. "There was a lot of looking under rocks," admits Frey, who finally found a small plant in Dallas, Tex., for the retro-fit. "They're expensive to make, and they don't make very many at a time," he says of the cartridge which will sell to the public for something close to $30.

The new album, issued on Cheap Trick's own label, is comprised of 12 songs broken into four sets of three songs each - suites that unfortunately don't fit nicely into the four 10-minute programs of standard 8-tracks, but which may be available at some point as a three-for-the-price-of-one deal on iTunes. As Frey explains the discount, "We're kind of more worried about being ignored than being ripped off."

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/fPpUK4u9bdw/threadless-tees-in-c.html

Threadcakes Gallery! :: Threadcakes: A Threadless Cake

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/sleCNI2gpiY/airplane-toilet-gobb.html

Behold the awesome suction power of the airplane toilet, capable of slurping up an entire roll of toilet paper in one go. Don't clog the tank, though, or chunks of shit-ice will start to fall off the undercarriage, killing people with icy B.M.s (pun courtesy of Mr Spider Robinson).

The Airplane Toilet Paper Experiment (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/019725.html

Crazy dude with shades to woman chatting with friend: You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna blow you, suck you, fuck the two of you bitches hard, you know why? Cause I'm a faggot!
Women: (blank stare)
Crazy dude with shades: Then I can kill you, too. (maniacal laughter)
Women: (continue their jovial conversation)

--F Train

Overheard by: Craig

DNA Lounge update, wherein the kiosks are on the chopping block.

http://feeds.we-make-money-not-art.com/~r/wmmna/~3/o_byQKYbsog/regine

http://del.icio.us/regine#2009-07-04

• Common Flowers, treating the genetic manipulation as common - Neural.it :: media culture, hacktivism
  The controversial gesture, in the very spirit of the best "bio art" movement, addresses the abyss of bio manipulation and bioethical aspects. Both of them are just exposed and hacked, proving once more that (as Yukiko Shikata notes), natural codes have a lot in common with software, and so personally re-writing and releasing information becomes a powerful and challenging statement.
• Improvised prison escape tools | Beyond The Beyond
  Inmates have got lots of time on their hands. What better way to make use of this resource than doing handicrafts? Creativity pays, especially when it facilitates escape. These examples bear witness to man’s love of freedom.
• Daryl Peveto « The New Breed of Documentary Photographers
  . In the United States, large communities exist which have turned their backs on the idea of settling down, opting for a nomadic life. One such community is Slab City, located on the Salton Sea in southern California.
• For Once, the Yes Men Say No | CommonDreams.org
  The Yes Men, co-directors of the new award-winning documentary film The Yes Men Fix the World, have decided to withdraw their film from the Jerusalem International Film Festival, in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign:
• La occidentalización y el aislamiento, claves de la mala salud de los aborígenes | elmundo.es salud
  Cuatrocientos millones de indígenas sufren unas pésimas condiciones de salud. Y no viven en África. Afincados en Australia, Canadá o EEUU, padecen estas y otras enfermedades. Así lo indica un estudio publicado en 'The Lancet'.
• America to remove HIV visa ban after Briton's protest | World news | The Observer
  He sent a powerful statement to be read out in his place. The message accused the US of having an HIV policy rooted in fear and said it had no right to call itself a world leader in the fight against the disease.
• Six months after Israel's bloody war with Hamas, Peter Beaumont goes back to Gaza | World news | The Observer
  In the immediate aftermath of Israel's bloody three-week war with Hamas in January, Peter Beaumont travelled to Gaza and met the Palestinians devasted by the death of their families and the destruction of their neighbourhoods. Six months later he returns to find they are still waiting - to rebuild both their homes and their lives

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/019724.html

Stressed fashionista to BFF: Do you know where I can get a decent elliptical machine for $600 for my apartment?
BFF: No. Have you tried Craigslist?
Stressed fashionista: Already tried Craigslist...maybe I just need a punching bag.
BFF: I know those are on Craigslist. Look under "personals" for "sub m looking for dominant f."

--57th St & 6th Ave

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July. Rob and I celebrated by going for a walk in Riverside Park. The weather was nearly perfect. We chose not to fight the crowds to see the fireworks and now, at 1:20 am we are still able to listen to them as various neighbors continue to blow things up.

No, no. Don’t mind us. We were awake anyway.

Comments? -- Link.

http://coilhouse.net/2009/07/04/back-in-the-summer-of-69/

http://coilhouse.net/?p=8586

Jimi Hendrix performs “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York, 1969. You can hear the bombs, screams and ear-splitting jetfire of Vietnam in that guitar.

At first, I just figured I’d take a minute to mark the occasion of this country’s birth with the above clip of Hendrix’s string/mind/soul-bending rendition of the U.S. National Anthem.  It’s been almost exactly 40 years since the footage was shot at Woodstock, during late summer, in the astoundingly eventful year of 1969.

Then I got to thinking a bit more about 1969. Egads, what a dense historical American nerve cluster! Over the course of those twelve months, one seriously heavy, snaking cultural current swept humanity in some exhilarating and alarming directions. Countless aspects of life as we now know it were irrevocably changed, and it all basically happened overnight.

In a piece written recently for USA Today, cultural anthropologist Jeremy Wallach called 1969 “the apotheosis and decline of the counterculture” and Rob Kirkpatrick, author of 1969: The Year Everything Changed said: “I don’t think it’s even debatable. There’s an America before ‘69, and an America after ‘69.”

To give me and mah feller ‘Merkins something to chew on today besides corn on the cob, here’s a list of just a few of the country’s more momentous occurrences, circa 1969:

The whole world watched, breathless, as the lunar module Eagle landed and Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon.  Dr. Denton Cooley successfully implanted the first temporary artificial heart in Texas. Four months after Woodstock, the infamously violent, miserable Altamont Free Concert was held at the Altamont Speedway in northern California, ostensibly bringing an end to the idealistic sixties. In NYC, the Stonewall riots kicked off the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.  Members of the Manson Family cult committed the Tate/LaBianca murders, horrifying Los Angeles and goading a prurient media circus. The first message was sent over ARPANET between UCLA and Stanford.  L. Ron Hubbard had his organization’s name officially changed to The Church of Scientology, and they started litigating. Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autobiography and the Thoth Tarot Deck were both republished, and Kenneth Anger shot his lesser known –but deeply resonant– film Invocation of My Demon Brother. Barred from reentering the states to hold their planned New York City “Bed-In”, John Lennon and Yoko Ono relocated the event to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Quebec, where they recorded “Give Peace a Chance”.  Everybody got nekkid in the Broadway muscial production, Hair…

Read the rest of Back in the Summer of ‘69

Post tags: Culture, Events, Film, Music, Politics, Revolutionary, Technology, Testing your faith, War

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/2009/07/sunday-secrets.html

http://www.365tomorrows.com/07/05/the-end/

Author : Todd Hammrich

I never thought I’d live to see The End. In fact, the way I figured it, no one should see The End, I mean, that’s why it’s called The End, there is nothing after that, and certainly no one to see it. And yet, here I was. Floating gently in the shuttle. Watching the Earth float by in the view port. And I had seen it happen.

Being an astronaut was every young boys dream, and I had always been a dreamer. I trained and worked my way through courses, evaluations and simulators until my dream came true. There was much to do in space. There was quite a bit of it and we were trained to take it all.

My first mission was to help in construction of a small research station and I’ll never forget the excitement I felt at the prospect of being launched into space. The day of the launch passed like a dream. The final checkup with the doctors, the meeting with the mission director and the small medicine bottle given to me before take-off, all of it was a blur. The pill was standard procedure in case of malfunction or serious accident and every astronaut gladly accepted the small dose of reality for a bit of their dream. After four days in space I returned successful and my career was off.

As World War III broke out my missions became even more critical. Whoever could conquer space would win the day, as the War for Earth would effectively end. On my third war mission, a communications satellite repair, I witnessed it. The End. It happened without warning. I was in the shuttle while my partners worked on the satellite when the missile struck. I don’t know whether they knew we were there, or if they even cared, but the satellite was destroyed. The shuttle drifted away, atmospheric containment lost in several areas. Luckily the command area was sealed off and pressure contained. I was still alive.

Out the view port I watched it unfold like a horror story or nightmare. My dream had saved me, but the non-dreamers below were doomed. Streaks of fire filled the globe from horizon to horizon. Missiles streaked from every country in the world. One by one the cities darkened until there was no light left.

I had enough air to see it all. No one answered the radio. Maybe no one was left. I saw the world die. I saw The End. There was no more lights on that large barren rock below. It didn’t matter anymore though. I smiled as I watched the world. An empty pill bottle floated gently beside me. Maybe it hadn’t been The End, either way, mine was coming soon.

In the beginning God said Let There Be Light. We came forth unto the world and were not satisfied. We looked outward to space and we tried to take it. Man was not satisfied with what he was given and Man said Let There Be Darkness and we were no more.

The End.

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/019723.html

Old Asian man: They don't have it.
Old Asian woman: It not problem. We go to Trader Joe tomorrow.
Old Asian man: We go where?
Old Asian woman: Trader Joe. You'll see. They have it.

--Trader Joe's

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090704.html

This starry night sky sparkles above the Black Hills