Welcome to Dystopia

What with wars and rumors of war, civil unrest, an ever-greedier moneyed class, cutbacks in social services, global warming, unresponsive and self-serving governments, and so on ad infinitum, it may be time to get used to living in a (more) dystopian world.  So here goes.

First, let's define dystopia:

A dystopia is a community or society, usually fictional, that is in some important way undesirable or frightening. It is the opposite of a utopia. Such societies appear in many works of fiction, particularly in stories set in a speculative future. Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. Elements of dystopias may vary from environmental to political and social issues. Dystopian societies have culminated in a broad series of sub-genres of fiction and are often used to raise real-world issues regarding society, environment, politics, religion, psychology, spirituality, or technology that may become present in the future. For this reason, dystopias have taken the form of a multitude of speculations, such as pollution, poverty, societal collapse, political repression, or totalitarianism.

To get the idea across, here is an image from deviantART's, Dystopian Society section.  Below is a meme by shadow9020:

Suzanne Collins Hunger Games depicted a truly dystopian society, where citizens didn't have a chance -- or so it seemed.  Here's an official trailer.

Then there's the mayhem of Mad Max; this trailer was posted by madmaxmoviesTV.

If you find this topic interesting, there's an extensive Dystopian Society reading list at goodreads.

Red pill or blue pill?

-- Marge

Found humor for Friday

There's no theme today and just one political comment via cartoon, because I wanted to see what I could find on the web.

From U.S. News, Secret Service Scandal division, here's a cartoon by Chan Lowe with a classic Mae West line:

This Fiat commercial is somewhat funny (in my view) but mostly a comment on time passing and technology and lifestyles evolving.  It was posted by Carjam TV.

This Pro-Line commercial, posted by Needler13, has a lot of slapstick, but I bet it will have you chortling. 

The video below plays on blonde ditziness -- my apologies to women everywhere and especially natural blondes.  What I like about it is the facial expressions.  This iPod shuffle ad was posted by AdvertisingFun2012.

Here's a meme posted by vloper at Cheezburger, Animal Capshunz:

So?

-- Marge 

DIY Rube Goldberg machine

My son and I used to play Mouse Trap, a game by Hasbro that is based on the concept of a Rube Goldberg machine.  (Good news, the game is available on Amazon, and elsewhere!) Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist whose name has been immortalized by generations of tinkerers.  The site wikiHow has tips on how to build one.  When you get your skills up, you can enter contest(s) with specific challenges at rubegoldberg.com.

For samples of Rube Goldberg machines, take a look at the site Cool Material, "10 Brilliant Rube Goldberg machines."  Here are some of my favorites.

In my eyes the best of all time is OK Go's video for "This Too Shall Pass."

Mythbusters did a Rube Goldberg machine for Christmas one year.  I picked up two versions -- the first one has poor video quality, but Adam Savage's description of how the machine works is as good as watching the machine in action; and the second one has good video quality but isn't nearly as entertaining.  Mythbusters is aired and licensed by the Discovery Channel.

****

Here's one made with pieces like Mega Bloks by Hasbro in an animation by Ron Schon:

There was even an interactive Google Doodle of a Rube Goldberg, this video of it from rustybrick's library.  Unfortunately it doesn't work here; it does work on my playlist.

Remember to wear your safety glasses.

-- Marge

All of Omni Magazine available online and free

+George Greene recently posted a link to Giant Freakin Robot in which David Wharton, the Managing Editor, announced:

The age of the internet has been rough on traditional printed publications. Even major magazines such as People and Time have occasionally struggled as they adapted to the digital age that has more and more people absorbing most of their content digitally. While that ongoing transition has seen the demise of many smaller publications, the magazines that have adapted well, like Wired, are better than ever. There’s another nice perk of the online era when it comes to the magazine world: you can preserve publications and make them available to more people with a scanner and some patience. Case in point: the entire run of Omni magazine is online and readable for free.

Omni magazine was an outstanding publication.   According to the Wikipedia article --

Omni was founded by Kathy Keeton and her long-time collaborator and future husband Bob Guccione, the publisher of Penthouse magazine. The initial concept came from Keeton, who wanted a magazine "that explored all realms of science and the paranormal, that delved into all corners of the unknown and projected some of those discoveries into fiction."

So, where can you find this now-free publication?  Try the Internet Archive.  Click on the "All items (most recently added first)" link at the bottom of the article about Omni to see the issues available.  Once you select an issue, there are several options for viewing it.  One that works well for me is saving it as a PDF.  Just in case you didn't know, you can download Adobe Reader for free.

The ads can be almost as interesting as the articles ;)

-- Marge

Friday cartoons: Congress loves the NRA

Congress also loves the health-care-industrial complex, which has spent $5.36 billion lobbying since 1998, compared to the defense and aerospace industries at $1.53 billion and oil and gas interests at $1.3 billion (Steven Brill, "Bitter Pill," Time Magazine, March 4, 2013).  But today we looking at the love affair between Congress and the NRA, which spent $2.98 million in 2012 on lobbying, $2.90 in 2011, and has spent $1.45+ million on contributions (OpenSecrets.org).  If you estimate an average of $2 million per year, the NRA has spent $2.8 billion on lobbying from 1998 through 2012.

So, without more ado, let's have a rueful laugh on the U.S. Congress.

From political humor at About.com by Pat Bagley (slow connection):

From TheWeek by David Horsey:

Also from TheWeek by Chan Lowe:

From U.S. News (political cartoons, April 19, 2013) by Walt Handelsman:

From Creators.com by Steve Benson:

The almighty dollar still rules.

-- Marge

DIY with magnetic putty, aerogels, and innovative science materials

If you'd like to play with some of the intriguing materials featured in recent videos, such as this one posted by Scott Lawson,

here are some sources.  You might even find a Mother's Day gift or two that Mother would like if she's a geek -- or likes tea.

Aaron's Crazy Putty World has many types of putty, magnetic included, and features tips for handling putties, the science behind them and simple to-do's.  At Perpetual Kid (love the name and idea), where the byline is "entertain your inner child," there's some of Aaron's putty, called "Strange Attractor Magnetic Thinking Putty."  The version offered is deep black with subtle green sparkles.  There are also some delightful Mother's Day gifts, including the [Rubber Ducky] Floating Tea Infuser:

All kinds of information can be found about aerogels at Aerogel.org.  If  you want to buy aerogels, try BuyAerogel.

While Educational Innovations is a site featuring "Teachers serving teachers," you don't have to be a teacher to buy there.  Take a look at the wide variety of science-related toys.  And don't forget Mom; gifts are featured on the Gifts for Geeks page.

In closing, here's a video about liquid metal under the influence of magnet(s), offered as an art project and uploaded by NosferatuArucards kanal:

If I were to specialize in anything, it would be materials science, a continually amazing trip into the world around us.

-- Marge

OK, what the heck is cosplay?

The other day I came across an unfamiliar word -- cosplay.  Wikipedia defines it as

short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants wear costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea from a work of fiction. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture centered on role play. A broader use of the term cosplay applies to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context.

There is a wide array of websites dedicated to cosplay, as well as Google+ communities.  Many photos can be found by searching on "cosplay."  Here are a couple that I particularly like.

Here's one posted by +Antony Jackson:

And this one was posted by +Laura Manach:

Since cosplay appears to be strongly related to anime and manga, here are examples of each.  Although the two appear to be alike, you can see some differences, such as subject matter, tone and drawing techniques.

An anime video posted by GMV AMV:

MANGAentertainment posted this trailer for Redline:

Off topic, while I was poking about YouTube I came across this CGI short film -- "Rising" by Mikros Siggraph Computer Animation Festival 2012 (not exactly sure whether Mikros is the creator or the venue).  It was posted by TheCGBros, a well-done channel with lots of 3D content.

-- Marge

Friday: Funniest Political Memes

Today, while looking for a topic, these political memes at About.com popped up, published under the heading Funniest Political Memes Ever. They are funny.  Daniel Kurtzman is the political humor guide at About.  Unfortunately, I couldn't identify the creator of each meme, but in some cases the image identifies its source. 

******

******

******

******

******

And t-t-that's all, Folks.

--Marge

DIY publishing

If you google "diy publishing book," it looks like everyone in the world wants to help you do it -- for a fee.  That aside, more and more authors are electing to self-publish.  The story quoted below -- about author Theresa Ragan -- is from an article in Huffington Post and explains why authors choose to self-publish.

 For nineteen years she was mostly a stay-at-home mom raising four children -- all the while penning romance novels. But she got nowhere with a few agents and was turned down over a hundred times by publishers. Although she knew about self-publishing she dismissed it as a vanity club. In 2010, while surfing the web for a job to help pay the bills, she stumbled on an article by a successful self-published author which prompted her to give it a shot ("what do I have to lose?"). She hooked up with CreateSpace, the self-publishing arm of Amazon.com and self -published her first book in March 2011 in both paperback and e-book formats. Within the first two months she was stunned by the sale of over two thousand copies -- and the sales continued to rise. To date, she has self-published four romance and two thriller novels with sales exceeding three hundred and fifty thousand copies. Theresa expects to cross the million dollar mark in royalties by March 2013. And the good news doesn't stop there. Several top-line publishers are pursuing her.Thomas and Mercer, Amazon's "traditional" mystery and thriller line, will now republish her two thrillers. In my interview with Theresa Ragan on August 21, 2012, she said that prior to venturing into self-publishing, "I would have gratefully signed with any traditional publisher with no advance and a six percent royalty." Lucky for Theresa that all the publishers passed on her.

This article in Forbes reports on the first self-published no.1 best seller, Wait for You by J. Lynn.  It also gives some pointers on how to sell your book successfully, that is, make money at it.

Many of the guides available about self-publishing cost -- sometimes in the hundreds of dollars.  But you can find good information for free on all aspects of writing at Authonomy.  It's interesting to note that Amazon's CreateSpace offers all the information on self-publishing.  Nook has also entered the market for self-publishing e-books with NOOK Press.

An intriguing and informative approach to writing could be something like Wattpad, where you can "Discover a World of Unlimited Stories."  At this site you can --

Find your audience on Wattpad! Write one chapter at a time, or share your full novel. Introduce us to great characters; explore new genres, entertain us and make us laugh... or cry.

Similar sites are Figment, WritersCafe,  weBook, and FictionPress.

-- Marge

Google doodles and more

Woohoo! Today's my birthday and I opened my browser to this  --

While I know it's a feature of Google+ membership that is programmed by Google staff, it still gives me a warm fuzzy.  As a thank-you, I rounded up some of what I think are the best Google Doodles. You can find them on my playlist at YouTube.  Here are two of them.

First is the Google balls interactive animation, published on September 7, 2010, and uploaded by rustybrick.  This animation features Java and HTML5.

For more HTML5 effects, try Aynilists, "All you need is lists." On the "10 Awesome HTML5 Effect Demos" page you will find HTML5 Canvas Liquid Particles by spielzeugz.de (definitely a page to have fun with).  Then there's the HTML5 Canvas and Audio Experiment by 9elements.  If you accidentally click and get the oversized messages, just reload the page.

Then there was Google's interactive guitar, celebrating Les Paul's 96th Birthday.   You could actually play a song on it.  This video was uploaded by paradigma.

At Google's "Web Audio API Demos," there is a link to plink by DinahMoe.  All of the demos here require Chrome, the plink demo is worth the extra effort (it's another of those can't-stop-playing experiences, so beware).  At Mozilla Labs Demoparty, the Demo Gallery, you can also find a number of interesting submissions, among them "dx - drum effect" by Egon Elbre.  At Egon's site you can play with a javascript sound effect generator.

-- Marge

April Fools' pranks 2013

Now that the air has cleared, and the infamous day is over, here are some of the "15 Best April Fools Pranks From Around The Web 2013." They were identified by We Know Memes, a meme generator.   Here goes --

Google's latest product:

A treasure hunt in San Francisco from Google Maps:

Twitter's new service(s):

Deviant Art's DeviantHeart:

Reddit's new acquisition:

If you notice, one of Reddit's comments cites BBC's 2012 April Fools' prank as a favorite.  Since the article is no longer available at BBC (because it never existed there), here's Gothamist's update on it.  The original article is titled "The Earth has exploded, killing everyone."

What would Grandma say?

-- Marge

The Oatmeal

Recently I read an article about the web-comic The Oatmeal.  Three things I found most interesting:  Matthew Inman, the creator, realizes income in the 6 figures from this web-comic,  his following numbers in the millions, and he uses his standing in the web community to fund worthy projects.  Oh, and he very slickly handled a company that stole his content.  Matthew talks about the magazine article in his blog, The State of the Oatmeal, February 2013 edition.  Here's his picture from the article.

About the stealing content episode, here's a quote from the magazine article:

Part of the challenge of creating content online is maintaining credit for the work. Web comics are shared freely, thrown in with the endless stream of images people post on social networks. It can be great marketing, but comics often appear without any link to the source. "I'm not going to try to police everyone," Inman says. "The Internet's changed how intellectual property works, and you just have to learn to let it go."

But not always. In 2011, Inman accused the aggregation site FunnyJunk of posting hundreds of his comics without attribution. The images soon disappeared, but Inman received a letter from the site's lawyer requesting $20,000 in damages for defamation. In a lengthy response on the Oatmeal, Inman said he was going to raise $20,000, send FunnyJunk a photo of the money and a drawing of FunnyJunk's owner's mother "seducing a Kodiak bear," and then give the cash to the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society. "Operation Bear Love Good, Cancer Bad," as he called it, raised more than $200,000 through the crowdfunding charity site Indiegogo. Inman sent the photo, FunnyJunk dropped its legal claims, and Oatmeal fans proved their willingness to throw around thousands of dollars just to make a point.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2135114,00.html#ixzz2PEio5Xm4

 Note: If you don't subscribe to Time, you won't able to access the article.

A while back Matthew published the comic "Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived."  In case you didn't know, a whole subculture is also centered on Nikola Tesla, as noted in the Wikipedia article on him:

...His work and reputed inventions are also at the center of many conspiracy theories and have also been used to support various pseudosciences, UFO theories and New Age occultism.

After learning about a group trying to preserve Tesla's abandoned lab in New York, Matthew mounted a campaign to help raise money. He raised $1 million dollars in less than 2 weeks. 

Matthew has moved on to other projects, check his blog for info.  Currently he's trying to secure a space at the San Diego Comicon, July 12th - 15th.

-- Marge