White trash video addiction: Bargain Barn

bargainbarn.jpg "You buy it, you like it!" Bargain Barn was a public access cable show in Shawnee, Oklahoma in the mid-1990s—a sort of QVC for hillbillies, a televised flea market where one might pick up stray drill bits, chickens, or stained and ripped pillows. As WFMU notes, it's a damn crime YouTube shows only one upload of this gem. The host/barker, whose face we seldom see, is selling nothing but absolute crap. He himself admits most of the junk is "broked," "tore up," or "needs to be warshed a few times." I think my favorite moment in the clip above is 8:35, when we get to the Style Studs ("It don't have no Style Studs in it! I'd call that a pig in a poke, m'self.") I could watch this for hours.

(Thanks, Mikael Jorgensen!)

More on Alexander McQueen's final collection (and tweets): Angels and Demons

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Snip from Wall Street Journal article on the last collection of Alexander McQueen.

Twice in the weeks leading up to his Feb. 11 death, Mr. McQueen messaged on Twitter, 'Hells angels [sic] and prolific demons.' What seemed a non sequitur now appears to be a reference to the collection he was working on, imprinted with the angels of Sandro Botticelli and the demons of Hieronymus Bosch.
He had finished some 16 looks, about half of what the collection would typically include, at the time of his death.

His Twitter account has been taken offline, but a Google Cache exists. The final tweet: "De sade, Marie A- god rest there souls." [sic]

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(thanks, Kelly Sparks)

BristleBots and LED throwie art at Crash Space


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Look at Todbot's BristleBots go! He held a workshop at Crash Space in Culver City, CA last night and showed people how to make them. (I'm sorry I didn't announce it in advance!)

BristleBots and LED throwie art at Crash Space

"America is not a democracy. It's a Chuck-tatorship. (...) We'd go down the line and he'd say, 'He's honest. He's honest. He's corrupted.' And I'd walk up to him and I'd say, 'You're fired." If he didn't move immediately, I would choke him unconscious and lay him over to the side there."— Mr. Chuck Norris, who, as Rachel Maddow reminds us, turns 70 today.

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EV Gray and the "fuelless engine" Fascination car

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I, too, am very, very anxious for the day to come when I can purchase a Fascination car with an EV Gray fuelless engine.

The Fascination Car was the brain child of Paul M. Lewis, of the Highway Aircraft Corporation. It was developed with a standard engine, but he wanted to power it with ANYTHING that didn't burn gasoline. He was in negotiations with Ed Gray for a while to use the EMA Engine, but that fell through. He then approached Josef Papp for his plasma engine. Ultimately, neither the engines or the car were ever produced.

EV Gray and the Fascination Car (Via PCL Link Dump)

A man was stabbed with a meat thermometer in a movie theater in LA after complaining to a woman about talking on her cell phone during a Saturday night screening of Shutter Island.

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Kitty cosplay

Widespread support for toilets that separate crap from urine

People in seven European countries have expressed willingness to try "NoMix" toilets that keep crap and urine separate, allowing for more efficient waste processing and less seepage of urine-born pharmaceuticals into the water supply. The study was conducted with 2700 people in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark, with 80 percent supporting the toilets. Even higher numbers were willing to use urine as fertilizer.

The article doesn't discuss infrastructural issues, though: would you need a second black-water sewer for the yellow gold?

NoMix toilets get thumbs-up in 7 European countries

Woman imitates Michael Jackson after brushing her teeth

In this weird video, a French comedienne transforms herself into Michael Jackson with just some mascara, lipstick, and scotch tape.

GDC Gallery: How The Indie Fund Could Change Game Dev Destiny

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Like UK studio Introversion's indie-rallying clarion call at the 2006 Independent Games Festival, the announcement of an indie-led investment strategy -- simply called the Indie Fund -- could be the next watershed moment for the future of independent gaming.

Organized by a consortium of indie devs that've seen breakout success (like World of Goo creators 2D Boy and Braid developer Jon Blow), the fund aims to maintain control of the funding cycle -- keeping it out of the hands of publishers and traditional investors alike -- and keep indies in charge of their own destiny.

Opening the 2010 Independent Games Summit, 2D Boy co-founder Ron Carmel took to the stage to explain why the fund was needed, with Braid artist David Hellman illustrating the strange over-complex steamwork behemoth of traditional business models that no longer serve the indies best: the full hi-res gallery continues below.

Little Billy's Letters to famous and infamous people

Little Billy's Letters Cover In the 1990s Bill Geerhart was an unemployed, not-so aspiring screenwriter in his 30s. To pass the time, he channeled his inner child, 10-year-old Billy, and started writing letters to famous and infamous people and institutions. These letters, written in pencil on elementary school ruled paper, asked funny but relevant questions to politicians, serial killers, movie stars, lobbyists, CEOs, and celebrity lawyers.

Geerhart saved copies of his letters and the replies he got back. This week, Harper Collins published them in a book called Little Billy's Letters: An Incorrigible Inner Child's Correspondence with the Famous, Infamous, and Just Plain Bewildered. The publisher gave us permission to run some of our favorites. Enjoy!

Buy Little Billy's Letters on Amazon | Visit Harper Collins site for Little Billy's Letters

The National Hobo Association believes that "unlike tramps or bums, the hoboes are usually very resourceful, self reliant and appreciative people."

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Did Charley Patton play that way?

Jimmy Guterman (website, blog, twitter) writes, edits, and produces things.

copyright Blues ImagesOver the past seven years, I've had the outlandishly talented country blues singer and guitarist Charley Patton looking over me. (Don't know Charley Patton? Hear him here and then buy what may be the greatest CD box set ever.) For many years, a photo of Patton was as hard to come by as a pic of Robert Johnson, and -- as with Johnson -- the legitimacy of the image has been challenged. For our purposes today, let's assume that this is Patton.

I draw your attention to his left hand, how it is posed over the frets like crab legs. Patton's style has always felt a bit eccentric compared to other country blues purveyors, and I wonder whether he might have fingered the frets in an unusual way, too. Now I know there are plenty of other guitarists from the 1920s and 1930s who have posed in similar ways, but I wonder: does this photo reveal something about Patton's style. I know there are a lot of guitarists here (hey, the guy who let me in here builds 'em), so I'm eager to hear any theories, no matter how dubious. And to learn more about the fellow in the photograph, see R. Crumb's comix history of Patton.

(The Patton pic above belongs to Blues Images.)

Art of film title sequences

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Art of the Title Sequence celebrates the world's greatest film/TV title sequences, those oft-experimental opening moments of a movie or TV show that really set the mood of what's to come. I've always been intrigued by this art form and it's fun to watch examples from around the globe. The site also features interviews with more than a dozen masters of the media. Art of the Title was mentioned in a New York Times article today about the South by Southwest Film Awards new Title Design Competition. Winners will be announced at the festival next week. According to the NYT, "The modern approach to film titles crystallized, more or less, in 1955 with “The Man With the Golden Arm.” It opened with a kind of jazz ballet in which dancing white lines, over music by Elmer Bernstein, eventually tightened into the contorted arm of a drug addict.



From the NYT:

The sequence was designed by Saul Bass, who tossed aside a more mechanical approach that had largely prevailed in Hollywood to create story-telling openings for films like “Psycho,” “North by Northwest” and, later, “Goodfellas” and “The Age of Innocence.”

(Among the entries at South by Southwest, “Cigarette Girl,” an independent film about a world in which smoking restrictions have murderous consequences, is one that recalls the Bass oeuvre: guns, cigarettes and people flicker between the real and the abstract, over a cool-toned soundtrack.)

Before his death in 1996, Bass had been nominated for Oscars three times, winning once, for his short films. But his work on the titles fell through the cracks of a film industry awards system that has given far more recognition to directors

"New Honor for the Designs That Get Movies Moving" (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)

The band OK Go, blogged many a time here for their wonderful music videos and savvy take on the state of the music biz, is launching its own record label. From okgo.com: The band has left the EMI family of corporations to form their own enterprise, a homemade upstart called Paracadute."

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The Clash, Blondie, and Cobain sneakers from Converse

 Images Z 1 0 4 1045898-P-Multiview As part of Converse's "Music Collection," they've issued a variety of Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers themed around The Clash, Blondie, Metallica, and Kurt Cobain. To be fair, they really should have made Cobain-branded Converse One Stars as those were the shoes he was wearing at his death. Now, I do dig The Clash sneakers seen here. But I am aware that Nike selling sneakers co-branded with the name/art of an iconic punk band is... problematic. That said, somebody from The Clash's camp (and Cobain's) had to approve these.
Converse Music Collection

Google maps goes bike-tacular, just in time for spring

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"Bicycle" is now an option for mode of transport in Google maps. Ostensibly, the directions given will help you avoid particularly nasty car traffic and particularly disheartening elevation changes, though Treehugger found some kinks in that when they tried to plot a route across San Francisco. There's not enough uphill slogs in Minneapolis (and I don't know St. Paul well enough) to get you a real solid second opinion from the Twin Cities. But it was smart enough to not send theoretical me biking straight up the feels-like-45-degree incline of 14th street when asked for directions to the University of Kansas journalism school (see above).

It also shows dedicated bike trails and bike lanes, to help plan the trip.

How's this work for your hometown?

Sex, technology, and diabetes

Jimmy Guterman (website, blog, twitter) writes, edits, and produces things.

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"A $6,000 insulin pump with an on-board computer chip is not alluring. Neither is the white mesh adhesive patch on my naked abdomen or the length of nylon tubing that connects the patch to the pump. There is only illness, and there is no way to make that sexy. After several years as a medical device wearer, I know."
Those are the opening sentences of "Tethered to the Body," an essay the writer and teacher Jane Kokernak wrote about her adjustment to wearing an insulin pump and its affect on her sense of sexual self. It connects disability and sexuality in novel and moving ways (it also introduced me to the term "disability erotica"). The essay, which originally appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, has been reprinted in A Sweet Life, a site for the "healthy diabetic." The story is close to me for many reasons. I'm diabetic, too, although I am not insulin-dependent, and, more important, Jane is my wife, so the sex she's talking about in the essay is with, well, me. You may wish to consider my recommendation with that in mind, but I guarantee you that this will be the only piece you ever read in which the two tags are "Insulin Pump" and "Sex."

Man marries body pillow girlfriend in Korea

article-1268130775880-08A44469000005DC-332310_636x513.jpg The UK Metro is reporting on a wedding ceremony held for a 28-year old Korean man and his full-sized body pillow girlfriend. The pillow cover supposedly has an image of a character named Fate Testarossa from the anime series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.

The story is reminiscent of a New York Times Magazine piece I wrote last year; the Metro article also mentions a story we originally posted on Boing Boing in November about a guy who married a character in his Nintendo DS dating sim.

EU Parliament votes 663-13 against ACTA's enforcement measures

The European Parliament resoundingly voted against the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), in a resounding 663 to 13 tally. The parliamentarians defied the EU executive and threatened to take the issue to the European Court of Justice if the EU doesn't reject ACTA's provisions on disconnection for infringement and other enforcement provisions.

A strong majority of MEPs (663 against and 13 in favour) today voted against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), arguing that it flouts agreed EU laws on counterfeiting and piracy online.

In addition, the Parliament's decision today states that MEPs will go to the Court of Justice if the EU does not reject ACTA rules, including cutting off users from the Internet "gradually" if caught stealing content.

Though MEPs cannot participate in the ACTA talks, without the consent of the European Parliament, EU negotiators will have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a compromise.

Parliament threatens court action on anti-piracy treaty

The international war over exit signs

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The sign on the left is familiar to Americans, but other countries think it is a horrible design, preferring the green running man on the right or a variation of it. Julia Turner of Slate has an in-depth article on the 25-year international fight over exit signs. It's one of a terrific six-part series about sign history and design.

Fans of Ota's running man point to two key advantages: It's a pictogram, and it's green. The sign's wordlessness means it can be understood even by people who don't speak the local language. And the green color, they argue, just makes sense. Green is the color of safety, a color that means go the world over. Red, on the other hand, most often means danger, alert, halt, please don't touch. Why confuse panicked evacuees with a sign that means right this way in a color that means stop? International designers tend to think our system is illogical and consider our rejection of the running man to be as dumb as our refusal to adopt that other sensible international norm, the metric system.

Are the running-man advocates right? This battle over the exit sign has been brewing for 25 years now, and the little green guy is slowly making inroads in the States. But to understand whether he should triumph, we must first understand America's skepticism toward pictograms and symbols, which have long been more popular in the rest of the world than they are here.

The Big Red Word vs. the Little Green Man: The international war over exit signs

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LibDem rank-and-file make emergency motion for net freedom

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After last week's disastrous news that two LibDem Lords had introduced a web-censorship amendment to the Labour Digital Economy Bill, a group of LibDems have pulled together a pro-net-freedom emergency motion that's being taken to this weekend's party conference in Birmingham. If you're a LibDem or know LibDems headed to the conference this weekend, please urge support for this motion: help the LibDems get on the right side of the net-freedom debate! We condemn a) web-blocking and disconnecting internet ... more

Why medical research isn't as useful to you as it could be

LA Times health blog: Only 32% of medication studies compare the drug in question to already available treatments, rather than just placebo. And only 11% compared the drugs to non-pharma based treatments, like surgery or lifestyle changes. For evidence-based medicine (let alone cheaper healthcare) to work, stuff like this has gotta get fixed. (Via Steve Silberman)... more

Corey Haim, 1971-2010

Corey Haim, star of "The Lost Boys," is dead at 38. [AP]... more

Watch a dissertation defense...LIVE

Do you like prairie voles? Are you curious about the process of earning a Ph.D.? Possibly just a touch of both? Then tune in today, starting at 10 central, for what Science magazine's Science Careers Blog is calling the first live-streamed dissertation defense (at least, that they've ever heard of). The adventurous academic is Danielle Lee of the University of Missouri, St. Louis. The dissertation is entitled: An Investigation of Behavioral Syndromes and Individual Differences in Exploratory Behavior of ... more

Girl appears on TV show to identify Star Wars figurines with her mouth

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This kleige maidel* appeared on a German TV show where she demonstrated her remarkable talent for identifying Star Wars minifigs by putting them in her mouth. The blindfold is what makes this. And the minifigs. Oh, and the waistcoat. Kinderwette Star Wars (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) *Not actually German. Almost Yiddish. Previously:Star Wars retold by someone who hasn't seen it Giant Star Wars pool toys and kites Star Wars/A-Team intro mashup Star Wars burlesque show (yes, even Jabba's in here) ... more

Robots dance the Nutcracker Suite

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Jenise sez, "I work for Kiva Systems, a small robotics company in Woburn, MA, and the bots are amazingly fun to watch. A few years ago, one of our interns shot this video of the bots dancing to the Nutcracker Suite, and I thought it would tickle your ample sense of whimsy." Ample whimsy: tickled. (Aside: Whenever I hear the Nutcracker Suite, my stupid brain insists on supplying the lyrics from the "Smurfberry Crunch" breakfast cereal ad: "Smurfberry Crunch is fun to eat/A Smurfy fruity breakfast treat... more

Amy Rigby, "Balls" (Greatest Song of All Time of the Day)

When she's not dropping everything to catch up on Twin Peaks, transatlantic troubadour Amy Rigby sings, writes, and performs some of the funniest and some of the most heartbreaking songs you've ever heard. Sometimes she does both in the same number. "Balls" is an all-out rock'n'roll barnburner that captures the frustration and excitement of desire with anger and several great punch lines. It's nasty, it's welcoming. It's as confusing and wonderful and awful as your life. Did I mention the slide guitar? Did ... more

Most adulterous professions

Swatch

A survey of the 1.9 million accounts on AshleyMadison.com, a dating site for people looking to cheat on their spouses, rounds up the most common occupations among the would-be infidelitous: For Women: 1. Teachers 2. Stay-at-home Moms 3. Nurses 4. Administrative Assistants 5. Real Estate Agents For Men: 1. Physicians 2. Police Officers 3. Lawyers 4. Real Estate Agents 5. Engineers Who Cheats? Docs and Stay at Home Moms! (via MeFi) (Image: The Seventh Commandment, a Creative Commons Attribution ph... more

Christopher Barazak and Karen Joy Fowler readings in Seattle

Leslie Howle sez, "NW MediaArts is a non-profit organization inviting award-winning speculative fiction writers to Seattle to teach a one-day writers workshop, read at the University Book Store, and speak at schools and libraries. Workshops take place at Richard Hugo House. March 12 - Christopher Barazak, author of 'The Love We Share Without Knowing,' which was shortlisted for the Tiptree Award last year, reads at University Book Store on 3/12 and teaches a workshop on 3/14. Workshop space is still open... more

Looking back at the dotcom boom, ten years later

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Wired claims that this is the tenth anniversary of the dotcom boom, and in honor of that auspicious overheated bubble, they've put together a long, Web 0.96b layout depicting the most hubristicly hubristic predictions and hype of that golden age. I moved to San Francisco in 1999, and remember the feverish absurdity of it all -- and how hard it was not to feel like all these people must know something if they were pouring all this money and energy into all the odd and improbable ideas (a recurring theme... more

Cast-art depicting broken-bone X-rays — 10:21 Tuesday — 10 comments

Movie funded by asking for pocket change on Twitter: "At Home By Myself... With You" — 10:15 Tuesday — 2 comments

Best jobs in America infographic — 10:02 Tuesday — 42 comments

Turn a quarter of Detroit into "semi-rural" farms? — 09:49 Tuesday — 53 comments

Alexander McQueen's final collection — 07:31 Tuesday — 9 comments

Dalai Lama Has a Posse — 06:39 Tuesday — 4 comments

Bad paintings of Barack Obama — 04:22 Tuesday — 12 comments

Picturetweeting bathroom scale — 04:13 Tuesday — 11 comments

Adam Savage: my Blade Runner gun — 04:00 Tuesday — 39 comments

Sex.com for sale — 03:27 Tuesday — 7 comments

Glenn Beck advertiser sells "survival seeds" for apocalyptic agriculture — 03:15 Tuesday — 65 comments

Chilean earthquake so strong, it moved an entire city 10 feet — 03:05 Tuesday — 5 comments

Study says US doctors in hospitals only wash their hands about 30% of the time — 02:46 Tuesday — 31 comments

Wired Reread: AT&T's "strap-on telephone" — 02:33 Tuesday — 14 comments

Totally righteous "Cove" dudes reported to have caught LA sushi joint selling illegal whale meat — 02:20 Tuesday — 33 comments

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