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Things To Say When You’re Losing a Technical Argument

posted by mikl-em on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

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Pigdog Journal

The Pigdog Journal article “Things to Say When You’re Losing a Technical Argument” by Mr. Bad and Crackmonkey is one of my ten favorites bits of online humor of all time. I can’t even tell you how many times over the years I’ve searched for, dug up and emailed this to yet another geek who had somehow missed its warm, flurpy embrace over the years.

Please be warned and take into account: I am a nerd.

Why is this good comedy? Well for one thing, it improves on the usual suspense-building reverse countdown, ala David Letterman’s top ten lists. This list counts up, starting with #1, the very best answer of all, because why wait for the good stuff? A refreshing approach.

And it doesn’t just go to 11, this list hits a full 70 places. On TV you’d never get beyond 10, given attention spans, on the net we are free to scroll and scroll as long as the joke can keep its laugh on.

Okay, honestly, I love this, but unless you are both a geek AND moreover tending toward geeky nostalgia, it’s 2001 vintage tech-humor might not float your boat.

But with no more ado… here are the first 7 of Things to Say When You’re Losing a Technical Argument:

  1. That won’t scale.
  2. That’s been proven to be O(N^2) and we need a solution that’s O(NlogN)
  3. There are, of course, various export limitations on that technology.
  4. The syntax is idiosyncratic.
  5. Trying to build a team behind that technology would be a staffing nightmare.
  6. That can’t be generalized to a cross-platform build.
  7. Unfortunately, the license would contaminate our product.

…. [click for more]

See, some of it is dated now, you don’t get many FORTH jokes these days; but I think it still comes off pretty well if yr geeky enough to be inclined to this stuff.

Pigdog Journal has been around for 10 years now, but is fairly inactive at the moment. As noted elsewhere, Pigdog’s many authors included Paul Addis aka CyberSatan an old friend of mine who has recently become infamous.

This piece was co-authored by “Mr. Bad” who wrote these lists for a few years on Pigdog (this one is by far the funniest example I’ve read).

Spock Mountain Research Labs

Nowadays you can find Mr. Bad writing for the Spock Science Monitor an organ of Spock Mountain Research Labs which is an independent news sheet published on-site at Burning Man each year. You’ll find archived Spock Science Monitor Issues here.

Spock Science Monitor from 2007

photo via Spock Mountain Research Labs

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filed under: Geek

Toneshared, Electronic Artists’ Take On Mobile Phone Tones

posted by mikl-em on Sunday, August 10th, 2008

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Toneshared

Toneshared is a repository of short audio clips suitable for your cellphone, made available for free by an impressive lineup of electronic music composers.

Drawing mostly from glitch, IDM and ambient artists (familiar names here include Vladislav Delay, Pole, alva noto and Atom Heart) there’s much to explore here as alternatives to your phone’s default sounds.

A few of my favorites are diminutive tunes from Andrew Liles, Andreas Tilliander, erikm, and Bernd Friedmann.

For something extreme, check out noise artist Francisco Lopez’s Broad Band Grindcore for the loudest ring-tone you’ve ever heard. Vancouver ambient artist Loscil’s tracks are gorgeous 20-second samples of his work (he has a full free album here).

Notable exceptions to the electronica norm are Experimental Dental School (ex-Bay Area, now Portland) who do their signature carnival robot rock and Califone (of Chicago/LA, my certified favorite-band-in-the-world: a dust & pixel hybrid like the boots made from the Blade Runner rattlesnake) offering up a moody tonal piece.

The clips range from 2 seconds to a little over a minute. So they also function as a short sampler introduction to a pretty interesting stable of artists. It should be noted these are all mp3s with no DRM and all are completely free to download.

The site seems to be a project of a Polish record label and Polish music festival (audiotong and Unsound respectively). It’s a fun browse and maybe a good excuse to finally give everyone in your phone book their own individual tune.

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filed under: Music

Paris Hilton’s Presidential Campaign Video

posted by mikl-em on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

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A recent John McCain ad featuring Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton has caused some controversy about its calling that pair and Barack Obama the nation’s top celebrities–not least of which from Paris’ Mom who along with her husband had already maxed out their donation to McCain’s campaign.

But revenge can be sweet and gotten whilst also acquiring a tan, as Miss Hilton proves in this Funny or Die video.

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filed under: Humor, Politics, Video

San Francisco Summer Film Nights: Movies All Around Town

posted by mikl-em on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

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Butch_Cassidy_400

Unionsquarefrommacys_500

This Saturday, August 9th, the 2008 Film Night in the Park series will be showing the classic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in downtown San Francisco’s Union Square Park.

From May to October this fantastic series shows films in 3 parks all around San Francisco (and in several other cities around the Bay Area). After Saturday’s show, there are three SF showings in 2008: Il Postino, O Brother Where Art Thou and Vertigo in Washington Square, Dolores and Union Square parks respectively.

There’s something extra special about seeing a great movie in a location that is featured in classic films, and Union Square appears not only in Vertigo but also features prominently in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation. The series is produced by a great organization called The San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, who also support the city’s historic theaters, with support from Macy’s and other sponsors.

And this series is only one of many this summer that offer San Franciscans an alternative to the run-of-the-mill Hollywood blockbusters. Scott posted about last month’s Brainwash Festival and there are several other independent-minded film fests that offer options on SF’s chilly summer nights, so here’s a quick round up, starting with a couple other outdoor options.

Dolores Park Movie Night is an unrelated, grassroots movie night in the park. They do a movie a month and this time it’s Jaws 3 in 3D on August 14, at 8:30 P.M in, naturally, Dolores Park.

MissionDoloresMovie_screen-big

The Zeitgeist bar’s beer garden is home to “ZIFF” The Zeigeist International Film Festival now in its 10th year. The final showing of this festival of short films is on the night of Monday, August 11th. It features 15 films from all over the US and places as far-flung as Finland and Australia. Running times range from 2-12 minutes. 25 beers are on tap. You do the math.

Zeitgeist International Film Festival

On to the indoor festivals. The 28th Annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has a little less than a week to go–but that still encompasses 80+ showings in 6 venues across 4 cities (SF, Berkeley, Palo Alto and San Rafael) plus the closing night party at the Castro Theater.

28th Annual Jewish Film Festival

Treading similar ground to the Zeitgeist, SF Shorts runs this week only August 6th to 9th at two historic SF movie theaters: The Victoria Theatre and The Red Vic and kicks off with an opening night party. Films featured are all under 30 minutes long.

SF Shorts

Finally, a Fest of a different feather is the Lebowski Fest which features only one movie–the Coen Brothers classic film about bowling and white russians The Big Lebowski. This celebration has occured at various times in various cities since 2002, but early September will mark the first time it happens in San Francisco. And LFSF looks to be a blast! It features Extra Action Marching Band, The Dead Hensons & Meshugga Beach Party. Followed by, of course, a screening of the The Big Lebowski itself.
Lebowski Fest

See Previously: The 14th Annual Brainwash Drive-In/Bike-In/Walk-In Movie Festival


Union Square photo from Wikipedia
Dolores Park image from Dolores Park Movie Night
ZIFF image from Overcookedcinema.com
SF Jewish Film Festival poster design by Eric Heiman & Adam Brodsley/Volume Inc
Lebowski Fest poster by Bill Green

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filed under: Events, Film, San Francisco

Strange 2008 Anti-Drug Website, Plus Flashbacks

posted by mikl-em on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

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A Parent's Guide to the Teen Brain

A Parent's Guide to the Teen Brain

Just when you thought that weird Anti-Drug PSAs were a thing of the 70’s…

Tonight I encountered the above banner ad (I split the animation into 2 images). And yes, although the guy above looks like he’s out of the 1970’s this is a current ad.

But wait “Teen Brain Guide”? That seemed kinda odd. So I clicked through. And it only got weirder.

Normal Teenage Attitude

The site is by Partnership for a Drug-Free America which I had at least heard of before. So I hoped it would start to make more sense. No such luck.

It’s really an odd site, confusing as to even what the point is. It talks about some odd ways your kid may be behaving but then seem to say these may NOT indicate your child is on drugs.

The site claims to have “the science in a nutshell” that explains all of this wacky mysterious behavior. Awesome!! Cuz it was getting confusing.

But if you want said nut-encased info, the link they offer you leads to a registration form:

A Parent's Guide to the Teen Brain

Hey now! That’s a tactic that porn sites (so I hear) or other folks trying to sell something or get my personal information use. It’s weird to bump into on a site that’s supposed to be providing a vital public health service. Why won’t they just tell me? Isn’t it in everybody’s interest for parents to better understand their kids? What gives?

And there’s the video, shown on the right above, of a doctor talking to parents and children about drugs. This also hints at science without ever actually offering up any. And when the medical professional appears in front of an issue of Teen Brain Times… it kinda undercuts the credibility. I half expect the credit to read Dr. Troy McClure, University of Springfield.

Oh, and I forgot to note that the form is accompanied by an option to receive the latest information and new parenting tools from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Which is checked by default, so you’d be opted-in to the PDFA tool-of-the-month club.

Weird? Is it just me?

They use a relatively interesting art style (kinda like old Mad Magazine meets Maurice Sendak with a little Rug Rats thrown in), so that at least comes off well.

But wasn’t there supposed to be some brain science here somewhere? I guess if I registered they’d fulfill the promise to help me: Gain insights into teen brain development and apply your new knowledge of normal teenage behavior to real life. Sweet. What’s “real life”?

And what does this have to do with Mr Tinted-shades in the banner ad and how a job in computing makes you a grownup??!! I mean I know that one’s not true.

If you are brave enough to actually click through (I’m not… paranoid??) and get details of the post-registration experience, feel free to let us all know in the comments.

I just think it’s creepy. And there’s more, I found another PDFA site that’s even hipper than this one, check out the with-it lingo, you squares:

Got 5 minutes? It really could rock your world! Okay, that’s likely over the top, but it certainly can answer your questions and benefit every aspect of your relationship with your teen — and their health!

You’ll find that “straight” talk at Decoder: Breaking down teen culture, substance abuse, and parenting. Breaking it down!! In the good way, I suppose.

Turns out that the Partnership for a Drug-Free America are the fine folks responsible for the This is Your Brain on Drugs ad from the 80’s. It was 21 years ago, and thereby hangs a series of flashbacks, starting with the original commercial…

Then in 1998 Rachael Leigh Cook updated the egg-fryingpan relationship:

Today the PDFA, understanding the importance of their place in pop culture, have a page dedicated to the history of their egg-as-brain metaphor, it includes this priceless tidbit about how sound design leads to appreciation:

When the original idea for the “Fried Egg” spot was presented to the Partnership’s Creative Review Committee, it received mix reviews. It wasn’t until the voiceover and “sizzle” sound effects were added that it came to life and was truly appreciated!

Truly. And the Fried Egg spot was just one ally amongst the coalition of media mobilized to fight “The War on Drugs“. It was and is a war that lends itself nicely to a highlight reel, so below are key clips from the battlefield.

Nancy Reagan famously chaired the Just Say No campaign. On the Reagan Foundation page they refer to it as “Mrs. Reagan’s Crusade“. Here’s the iconic ad from that campaign:

Then of course there was RAD (Rock Against Drugs–get it?). This campaign dates back to that bizarre and troubling time in our nation’s history when MTV showed music videos. Thank goodness that’s over, huh?

The RAD stable of spokes-rockers leaned rather heavily on the Metal stars, so here are two prime examples.

Gene Simmons “You believe that crap?” is, in my opinion, the best anti-drug message ever. Because it’s cool. Which may be the wrong reason. But I have to say that, looking back now, it has remained damn cool which is more than we can say for Gene himself these days:

Vince Neil “I’m on top of everything I do…”, I bet you are Vince:

As a bonus, for anyone who is absolutely hooked on drug PSAs at this point, here’s a pretty funny round up of the Top 11 funniest nostalgic drug PSAs. Somehow he doesn’t include the Gene Simmons one, but there are a lot of other great ones.

See Previously:

- 1970 Anti-Drug PSA by Hanna-Barbera
- Spiders on Drugs

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filed under: Advertising, Drugs, Television

Rhino Beetle Mania

posted by mikl-em on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

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From Reuters comes this short report on a beetle-wrestling tourney where kids coach (like Burgess Meredith for these bugs) and prod the insect gladiators onward. The Don King of the beetle brawl chimes in that this event is great for kids, getting them out of video games cuz “Rhino Beetles are so analog”. Cute huh? Standard News of the weird material, right? End of story?

As usual, scratch the surface and find there’s much more here than fits the soundbyte.

Firstly the Rhino Beetle (and more specifically the Asian variant, aka Kabutomushi, spoken of here) is the strongest creature based on proportional strength on the planet (sorry, Ant Man).

A little less feel good than the Reuters story is this video (also narrated by a British female, though thankfully in a more modulated voice), a mini nature documentary on the real world sumo habits of the creature. This fighting thing is all about mating, of course.

And secondly, turns out this Beetle Battle meme is already full-on rampant in Japanese pop culture appearing in anime, toy, video / collectible card game, even robot kit forms as well. So this analog version actually follows the heels of multiple media.

Beetle Machine

Though not always noted as such, Bombshell of the Transformers is a Rhino Beetle.

Bombshell-g1

There was even a Fox Kids TV show called Big Bad Beetleborgs so beetle-mania is not strictly Nippon-centric, though that show was made by recycling footage from a Japanese show.

Big Bad Beetleborgs

If that weren’t already too much there’s a frickin crazy Japanese Bug Fights website with all manner of little creatures going intensely um bug-o a bug-o there are 30 of these up now, including the below featuring our friend the rhino beetle

In fact insect fighting is a whole huge world unto itself.

See Previously:

- Beautiful Larva Candy, Hand Made by Komatsuya in Japan

- Green Porno, Films by Isabella Rossellini on the Sex Life of Insects

- Millimeters Matter, Tossing Tiny Pies at Insects

images from ToyboxDX, Wikipedia, toyarchive.com

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filed under: Games, Insects, Japan, Science, Weird

Dada Comes to Berkeley — Shotgun Players Take Ubu to the Park

posted by mikl-em on Thursday, July 31st, 2008

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Shotgun Players' Ubu Roi poster by R Black

Berkeley’s Shotgun Players are staging Ubu Roi the classic work of proto-dadaism. Performances will be in John Hinkel Park in Berkeley.

The show opens this Saturday and runs until mid-September, it’s a free show in the park but donations are encouraged (just like the SF Mime Troupe). It’s a rare opportunity to see a first rate production of one of the great strange theatrical works of all time. And it’s the perfect thing for an election year!

Ridiculous! Raucous! Irreverent! Absurd!

Shotgun Players invite you to jeer at the candidates, throw some rotten cabbages and stand up for what you really believe in at John Hinkel Park - starting this weekend!

Saturdays and Sundays at 4pm
August 2nd - September 14th

Bring a picnic! Or belly up to the concessions stand for a Shotgun snack.

JOHN HINKEL PARK (Southampton Ave. off The Arlington in North Berkeley)

FREE ADMISSION with Campaign contributions to Shotgun Players strongly encouraged!

FEATURING:
Dave Garrett, Ryan O’Donnell, Carla Pantoja, Gary Grossman, Sung Min Park, Casi Maggio, Marlon Deleon, Megan Guzman, Raechel Lockhardt, Alf Pollard & Jordan Winer

This is show four of an impressive 6-show year for the Shotgun Players including Beowulf (by Banana Bag & Bodice which earned Best Theatrical Production of the Year) and the upcoming Vera Wilde (with Sean Owens as Oscar Wilde). And if the on-stage work weren’t enough, Shotgun’s guest poster designer is artist R Black, that’s his work above.

Ubu Roi is a play by Alfred Jarry which pre-dated and influenced Dada (as well as Surrealism). It debuted in 1896 (when he was only 23 years old) and was, by any considered Dadaist’s terms, a mind-blowingly raging success…

Alfred Jarry, Ubu Roi (Program for Ubu Roi), 1896

To quote from Wikipedia….

Ubu Roi’s savage humor and monstrous absurdity, unlike anything thus far performed in French theater, seemed unlikely to ever actually be performed on stage. However, impetuous theater director Aurélien-Marie Lugné-Poe took the risk, producing the play at his Théâtre de l’Oeuvre.

On opening night (10 December 1896), with traditionalists and the avant-garde in the audience, King Ubu (played by Firmin Gémier) stepped forward and intoned the opening word, “Merdre!” (”Shittr!”). A quarter of an hour of pandemonium ensued: outraged cries, booing, and whistling by the offended parties, countered by cheers and applause by the more forward-thinking contingent. Such interruptions continued through the evening. At the time, only the dress rehearsal and opening night performance were held, and the play was not revived until 1907.

Alfred Jarry died that same year–1907, less than a decade into the 20th Century–at the ripe age of 34 from complications related to his sincere love for ether and absinthe.

He was remembered and his spirit carried on by friends who would become great and ground-breaking writers and artists in their own right including Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, and Pablo Picasso.

Jarry also invented “Pataphysics” which he described as the science of imaginary solutions. His other literary works include Caesar Antichrist and Le Surmâle (The Supermale) which is known as the first cyborg sex novel. A film based on The Supermale will show later this year at YBCA in San Francisco.

Ubu Roi essay and full script

poster art by R Black

image #1 from the original program for Ubu Roi

image #2 from Wikipedia

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filed under: Art, Theater

Multi-Generational Star Trek Stars at Comic-Con, Plus Riker Sings!

posted by mikl-em on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

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Wil Wheaton + Sock

So first off, I guess it was Wil Wheaton’s birthday on Tuesday (he’s so shy about it). He’s a square 36 years old–Happy Birthday!

In case there was any question that Star Trek (including Wheaton’s The Next Generation) continues to hold sway over all of geekdom, the following pix from last week’s Comic-con convention should clear that up. There seems to have been good representation across its many incarnations (6 series and 726 episodes in all).

Since I couldn’t make it to San Diego this year, I am instead window-surfing as it were, watching everybody else’s geeky good time via Flickr. Yes, I’m jealous of Eddie. Here’s a sampling of Trekkie treats I’ve found…

Looks like Geordi has gone jazz on us…

Levar Burton

Tuvok and Chekov talk about their shared consonants…

Tuvoc and Chekov

But keep in mind, not everyone in a starfleet outfit is legit–I don’t
think any of these 3 have actually ever been on the bridge of a starship:

comicon 2008 2 077

Ditto on this lineup, they’re packin’ Razrs not Communicators (and definitely not Tricorders)

Star Trek

Wheaton himself shares this clip of Riker (aka number 1 aka Jonathan Frakes) favoring a presumably late-night crowd with a rendition of Ain’t Misbehavin’

photos by chiquitadequeso, Timmy Farol, viciouswargoose, fathom216, Jason Mouratides

video by R. Stevens

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filed under: Geek, People, Television

The Commercials of Errol Morris

posted by mikl-em on Monday, July 28th, 2008

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“FlamZ” Miller High Life commercial by Errol Morris

“King Kong” Miller High Life commercial by Errol Morris

“Hackers” Cisco commercial by Errol Morris

So everybody knows Errol Morris, right? The guy who directed A Thin Blue Line? Who won a 2004 Best Documentary Oscar for The Fog of War and whose most recent film is Standard Operating Procedure (2008)?

What is lesser known about this ground-breaking documentary director is that he is a prolific creator of ads for everything from Adidas to Volkswagon. These ads are for both intellectual / savvy faves (PBS and MoveOn.org) as well as very very corporate clients (Nike and Citibank). Many of these ads can be seen on a gallery on his site.

There are well over 200 ads up on the site including about 50 for Citibank and no less than 80 for Miller High Life.

Of course the two ad campaigns that he may be best known for are the Apple “Switch” campaign and the 2004 MoveOn.org political adsa fascinating New Yorker article covers these ads and the history of presidential tv advertising–where ordinary citizens talked about switching from Bush to John Kerry.

Examples below show a couple Apple Switch-ers of note…

“Mark Frauenfelder” Apple commercial by Errol Morris

“DJ Qbert” Apple commercial by Errol Morris

Unfortunately ads on Morris’ site are not set up as embedable, so there are some ads I can’t find elsewhere, and you’ll just have to click through to see the creepy Cisco VPN commercial with an anonymous taxidermy collector, or
the cartwheeling rooftop wedding party drunk on Southern Comfort (or the weird Soco ad in a Bomb Shelter (or the senior citizen dance party (or the strip poker one))) (”Southern Comfort: between friends” is the tagline but why not just say “booze breaks the ice”?), or the Adidas ad about a guy eating a lot.

Here are a few more great Miller High Life (the Champagne of Beers) ads that I couldn’t resist sharing….

“Grandma” Miller High Life commercial by Errol Morris

“Fish Flavor” Miller High Life commercial by Errol Morris

“Casanova” Miller High Life commercial by Errol Morris

And finally a 50’s High Life commercial, just for contrast…

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filed under: Advertising, Film, Video

Mark Twain: Original Prankster

posted by mikl-em on Sunday, July 27th, 2008

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Mark Twain on Wikipedia

It’s important to remember the great culture-jammers of the past. And Mark Twain is definitely on the short list. With roots in San Francisco (well, transplanted roots, like most of us), a couple a.k.a.’s (Samuel Clemens plus at least two others), and significant time spent in Nevada, he qualifies as a proto of Co-Conspirators of Laughing Squid like the BLF, Negativland, Craig Baldwin, and Reverend Billy.

For a few years in the 1860’s, Mark Twain wrote for Virginia City, Nevada’s Territorial Enterprise newspaper. Twain’s pieces typically covered local matters and sometimes turned more from fact to fancy.

The most famous of his more mischievous efforts of this time is undoubtedly the below account of a mummified corpse, completely made up, who is captured for all eternity in mid nose-thumb. That last detail was so subtly conveyed in Twain’s article below that it failed as a punch line, and the item was subsequently picked up by papers across the country and reported as news.

Mark Twain’s Amazing Hoax that Deceived the World

PETRIFIED MAN

A petrified man was found some time ago in the mountains south of Gravelly Ford. Every limb and feature of the stony mummy was perfect, not even excepting the left leg, which has evidently been a wooden one during the lifetime of the owner - which lifetime, by the way, came to a close about a century ago, in the opinion of a savan who has examined the defunct.

The body was in a sitting posture, and leaning against a huge mass of croppings; the attitude was pensive, the right thumb resting against the side of the nose; the left thumb partially supported the chin, the fore-finger pressing the inner corner of the left eye and drawing it partly open; the right eye was closed, and the fingers of the right hand spread apart.

This strange freak of nature created a profound sensation in the vicinity, and our informant states that by request, Justice Sewell or Sowell, of Humboldt City, at once proceeded to the spot and held an inquest on the body. The verdict of the jury was that “deceased came to his death from protracted exposure,” etc. The people of the neighborhood volunteered to bury the poor unfortunate, and were even anxious to do so; but it was discovered, when they attempted to remove him, that the water which had dripped upon him for ages from the crag above, had coursed down his back and deposited a limestone sediment under him which had glued him to the bed rock upon which he sat, as with a cement of adamant, and Judge S. refused to allow the charitable citizens to blast him from his position. The opinion expressed by his Honor that such a course would be little less than sacrilege, was eminently just and proper. Everybody goes to see the stone man, as many as three hundred having visited the hardened creature during the past five or six weeks.

[reprinted in The Works of Mark Twain; Early Tales & Sketches, Vol. 1 1851-1864, (Univ. of California Press, 1979), p. 159.]

It turns out the motivation for this piece was largely to mock the above-mentioned Judge Sewell–to whom Twain later dutifully sent every re-printing of it that he could find. Here is Twain’s full recounting of the story and its impact from 1882.

Another prank-in-print from Twain of the same era involved a man murdering his family and himself due to his failed investments. This item sparked quite a bit of outrage, especially from papers that had reprinted the story.

The Museum of Hoaxes has these items and other newspaper pranks of contemporary vintage.

And by the way, it seems that Twain is innocent of authoring that generally accurate SF cliche the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco–at least according to our local paper. Here’s Twain’s Obit from nearly 100 years ago from an older SF paper The Call.

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filed under: Humor, Pranks

The 48 Hour Film Project 2008 in San Francisco

posted by mikl-em on Monday, July 21st, 2008

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48 Hour Filmmaker: San Francisco 2008

Forget American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, the new contest that matters is between small teams taking on the challenge to write, shoot and produce a short film within a 2-day period in The 48 Hour Film Project 2008. Contests are going on around the country with an eventual world champion to be crowned later this year.

In SF the shooting, acting and editing is all done (this past weekend) and it’s all down to showing the finished products. That happens on 4 nights over the next week at the Roxie Theater on Tuesday-Thursday July 22-24 plus Monday, July 28th.

By the way, on Tuesday night the lineup includes some of the usual suspects from The Dark Room in their own short subject silent film.

See 48-hour film fest films online and get tickets for the SF showings here.

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filed under: Events, Film, San Francisco

Neal Stephenson’s Latest Novel Invokes The Long Now

posted by mikl-em on Monday, July 21st, 2008

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Anathem

Today The Long Now Foundation announced it will be hosting the launch party for Neal Stephenson’s new novel Anathem in San Francisco this fall. The event is scheduled for the 9th of September 02008 (see here for more on 5-digit dates. The venue has not yet been announced, but there is a webpage and a mailing list about the event.

Here’s an excerpt from the Long Now blog post by the Foundation’s director, Alexander Rose:

I recently finished reading the review copy that Neal sent. The book pulled me in immediately, and I ended up reading the nearly 1000-page tome in just a few days. Set in a genre bending alt-future-retro world where mechani-punk technology meets space opera in a blend of the best of Snow Crash and The Baroque Cycle.

The Long Now Foundation will be hosting the book launch event in San Francisco on the evening of September 9th. The evening will include a reading by Stephenson, Q&A with Danny Hillis, and a small concert of the original music inspired by the book. Signed copies of the book will also be available.

Anathem’s story features a society of long-term thinkers. This is consistent with the Long Now’s mission to “foster long-term thinking”. While the novel is not based literally on the Long Now’s work there is a direct connection. The inspiration for the novel stems from a request that Long Now founder Danny Hillis made in 01999 of Stephenson and several others, to share their ideas for what a Millennium Clock would look like. These early sketches and ideas from Neal and others are on the Long Now site. Years later, Neal picked up these notes again and they started him on the road to this novel.

Neal Stephenson’s novels include the groudbreaking Snowcrash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon and his most recent work the 3-book project The Baroque Cycle– the last installment of which System of the World was released in 2005. He is a charter member of the Long Now Foundation.

Anathem is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

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filed under: Books, Technology

The Real Tuesday Weld Comes to San Francisco

posted by mikl-em on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

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The Real Tuesday Weld plays this Wednesday (07/16/2008) at Café Du Nord.

Years ago, at the late lamented Ideas in Animation series run by Nik & Nancy Phelps, the above animated music video “Bathtime In Clerkenwell” was shown. Needless to say it made a huge impression.

Nik is an internationally-known scorer of animations, who records with Tom Waits amongst others, and was featured in Laughing Squid’s Tentacle Sessions. The “Ideas” series brought animations from around the world to the Bay Area, where Nik & the Sprocket Ensemble performed live beside them. There was always a very high quality of work presented, but still this one short (which Nik does not play on) really stood out.

A second video by the same combination of musical artist and animator was shown later in the series, and I was dying to learn more about it. The music was by The Real Tuesday Weld –what a strange name, is it man, woman or band?–while the visuals were created by Aleksey Budovsky, born in Russia and emigrated to New York; a prodigious talent of only 27-years old at the time.

Details were spotty 6 years ago now, but turns out that Stephen Coates is the driving force behind the music. Coates seems to also be known as The Clerkenwell Kid and he’s been steadily releasing albums and growing in noteriety. Now he’s on a US tour, and this week he’ll be in San Francisco to play that great former speakeasy Café Du Nord with a sizable band; it should be a great show.

From the bio on the Du Nord website:

Originally inspired by a dream of British 1930s crooner Al Bowlly and American actress Tuesday Weld, Stephen Coates began to create music to try to recreate the sounds he heard in his childhood home - ‘the crackling of radios playing swing and easy listening in some distant room.’ As The Real Tuesday Weld, Coates doesn’t hesitate to put those sounds to subversive use much like some of his most illustrious forebears and influences—such as Serge Gainsbourg and Ennio Morricone.

Coates has a real appreciation for animation and most of his videos feature great retro-animations like these which match very well with the style he’s created and calls “antique beat”.

The next clip actually features Nik Phelps on horns, it’s based on the classic tune “Brazil” and is called “(return I will to old) Brazil”. Nik & Nancy nowadays live in Belgium. They keep in touch with us old co-conspirators via tantalizing blogposts.

Here’s another Coates/Budovsky collaboration “Terminally Ambivalent Over You”:

More of the band’s videos here

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filed under: Animation, Music, Video

The Wide World of Weird Speakers

posted by mikl-em on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

guest post by mikl-em

Freakin weird speaker

A friend and I at work started talking about weird speakers, so… here’s the results of a couple hours of surfing and gawking.

First let’s start with the affordable, I noticed these on a Korean site, but actually Scott has covered them before:

giant earbuds.

To paraphrase Monty Python: These are the biggest earbuds you’ll ever see! They cost like $50. Let’s move quickly on…

Then there’s iPond. Yes, of course, it’s a “portable aquarium-speaker”. What else?

iPond...

Best line: “The iPod speaker that comes with built-in tuna“. Somehow Scott hadn’t blogged this before, I am incredibly grateful.

The Ice Cream Sundae speakers will run you $1250 per pair–sweet deal!

SG Custom Sound

From SG Custom Sound who carry a bunch of wild designs. Now let’s go waaay upmarket…

The Nautilus from B&W runs $60K and it’s Cephalopodonous so it gets points for that!

bw_nautilus_6

The Muon speakers from KEF were designed by Ross Lovegrove, are made of aluminum, weigh 253 pounds, and are 7′ tall–see Engadget for more details.

??030

They had an incredible launch event for these at the Milan Furniture Fair 2007–check the video. They cost $140K and they only made 100 pairs. For some reason I can’t find any of those pairs for sale on eBay at the moment. :((

And last to mention are the Grand Enigma, a one-of-a-kind set by Kharma, which cost $1,000,000. I won’t even show you a picture cuz they are bigger than they are pretty. And you can’t have them anyway.

Poking around on this theme I found several pages dedicated to cataloging Weird Speakers, enjoy:

See Previously: 500 XL, Desktop Speakers in the Shape of Giant iPod Earbuds

photos by (in order) old valve mic, tnarik, My Friend., SG Custom Sound, X Ge and kaitlin_lo

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filed under: Audio, Design, Electronics

The Long Now Foundation Presents Mechanicrawl

posted by mikl-em on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

guest post by mikl-em

The Mechanicrawl Event

The Long Now Foundation presents Mechanicrawl, an exploration of mechanical marvels which takes place this Saturday, July 12th in San Francisco.

Here a video of The Long Now Foundation’s Alexander Rose introducing Mechanicrawl.

This Saturday a very special event in San Francisco ties together several of SF’s most storied attractions,