Record store rep threatens Prince over free CD giveaway June 30, 2007
Cory Doctorow:
Mike sez, “Prince is giving away a free CD in a national British newspaper, The Mail. The music retail industry executives are viewing this as an attack and are threatening to ‘retaliate’. ‘The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behavior like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday,’ said Entertainment Retailers Association spokesman Paul Quirk. Mr Quirk also said it would be ‘an insult’ to record stores. Obviously the music industry views anything that doesn’t result in a sale to be subversive or unfair. I say it’s Prince’s music and he can bloody well give it away if he wants to.”
(Thanks Mike!)
China’s humanitarian efforts in Africa
Cory Doctorow:
The Christian Science Monitor has a long article on Chinese humanitarian efforts in Africa, including joining the UN Blue Helmets, creating debt relief and financial aid, and other efforts. The Monitor devotes some space to pondering the Chinese motives in Africa: colonialist? Charitable? Strategic?
China is such an enigma, capable engendering such massive change. Watching it work around the world is mind-expanding.
“The Chinese interest in Africa … their coming into our markets is the best thing that could have happened to us,” says small-business contractor Amare Kifle, during a recent meeting with a Chinese investor in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. “We are tired of the condescending American style. True, the American government and American companies have done and do a lot here, but I always feel like they think they are doing us a favor … telling us how to do things and punishing us when we do it our own way.“These Chinese are different,” he says. “They are about the bottom line and allow us to sort out our side of the business as we see fit. I want to have a business partner and do business. I don’t want to have a philosophical debate about Africa’s future.”…
“China is the most self-conscious rising power in history and is desperate to be seen as a benign force as well as to learn from the mistakes of the existing major powers and previous rising powers,” says Andrew Small, a Brussels-based China expert at the German Marshall Fund, a public policy think tank. “It sees its modern national story as anticolonial – about surpassing the “century of humiliation” at the hands of the colonial powers – and still thinks of itself, in many ways, as a part of the developing world.”
(via Thoof)
Google to HMOs: pay us and we’ll defuse “Sicko”
Cory Doctorow:
Google’s “Health Advertising Team” is trying to sell the health industry on buying ads to be shown opposite searches for “Sicko.” The idea is to counter Michael Moore’s amazing, enraging, must-see indictment of the health industry’s grip on American society by running ads over search results for Sicko.
Another approach would be to reform the practices that Moore criticises in the film — for example, refusing to pay for an insured individual’s surgery because she didn’t mention a 15-year-old yeast infection on her application; denying MRIs to patients with brain tumors; and paying medical directors bonuses for denying claims.
But why make your customers healthier — at shareholder expense — when you can just give money to Google to FUD and astroturf the issue?
The healthcare industry is no stranger to negative press. A drug may be a blockbuster one day and tolled as a public health concern the next. News reporters may focus on Pharma’s annual sales and its executives’ salaries while failing to share R&D costs. Or, as is often common, the media may use an isolated, heartbreaking, or sensationalist story to paint a picture of healthcare as a whole. With all the coverage, it’s a shame no one focuses on the industry’s numerous prescription programs, charity services, and philanthropy efforts.Many of our clients face these issues; companies come to us hoping we can help them better manage their reputations through “Get the Facts†or issue management campaigns. Your brand or corporate site may already have these informational assets, but can users easily find them?
We can place text ads, video ads, and rich media ads in paid search results or in relevant websites within our ever-expanding content network. Whatever the problem, Google can act as a platform for educating the public and promoting your message. We help you connect your company’s assets while helping users find the information they seek.
I watched Sicko for the second time last night (I downloaded it a couple weeks ago via The Pirate Bay, with Moore’s blessing, then went to see it in a cinema with a crowd), and it was incredibly moving. This is the kind of movie that can change the world — no matter how much money the HMOs throw at FUD.
(via Google Blogoscoped)
See also: Moore’s “Sicko” leaks onto P2P
Kyle Baker reimagines Plastic Man by way of MAD, Eisner and Animaniacs
Cory Doctorow:
Kyle Baker’s reworking of the stretched-out DC hero Plastic Man combines the best of MAD Magazine, Tex Avery cartoons, political satire, and balls-out Animaniacs-style mayhem.
Kyle Baker is one of the most versatile comics creators working in the business today. My gateway to his work was his side-splitting Why I Hate Saturn, a decidedly adult graphic novel. Since then, I’ve sampled his histories of slave revolts, family comedy collections, and many other works with wildly varying artistic and narrative styles.
In the Plastic Man books, Baker invokes the maddest, wildest spit-takes of comic and cartoon history, with silly plotlines that had me spraying water out my nose — Plastic Man and his FBI girlfriend borrow Superman’s time-machine to take Abraham Lincoln (who turns out to be John Wilkes Booth in clever disguise) back in time, end up bringing a dinosaur to civil-war America, where the maddened saurian squishes a Klan rally — and that’s just the set-up.
The artwork owes a debt to MAD’s Sergio Argones and Will Eisner, by way of the Incredibles’ stylish palette, dipping into Tex Avery for the spit-takes. Every layout has hidden gags for the attentive reader. This is what underwear pervert funnybooks should be like: self-reflective, over-the-top, and political.
Vol 1: Plastic Man: On the Lam,
Vol 2: Plastic Man: Rubber Bandits
See also:
Graphic novel history of Nat Turner’s slave revolt
Kyle “Why I Hate Saturn” Baker’s new collection
First iPhone vivisection now online
Xeni Jardin:
From the looks of this teardown, the bulk of iPhone’s slender innards is the battery. Shown here: “The screen we’re pulling away is a somewhat translucent surface, behind it is the touch screen surface itself.” Link to “Apple’s iPhone Dissected: We did it, so you don’t have to,” at Anandtech.com.
Previously on BoingBoing:
Wikify the problem of ending corruption
Cory Doctorow:
Earlier this month, I wrote about Larry Lessig’s announcement that he was switching his focus to fighting corruption. Larry has just left on his annual month-long Internet fast/family retreat (of all his inspirational examples, this might be the most inspirational), but he’s left a wiki up for his friends and fellow travellers to start wikifying the problem of overturning institutional corruption.
When I talked to Larry about this move, he blue-skyed a neat little idea that’s stuck with me: what if lawmakers were required to abstain from votes over issues in which they had a financial interest? For example, if you take money from the health industry, you can’t vote on health-related issues. I serve on a bunch of boards, some for-profit and some non-profit, and it’s standard that board members abstain from voting on governance issues in which they have a conflict of interest. It’s just common sense — so why not apply it to Congress?
Jesusphone: He is Risen
Xeni Jardin:
I’m in a cafe in Los Angeles right now with Sean Bonner, kicking the tires on the iPhone we just brought back from the Apple store at the Grove. It lives up to the hype. Or, in two words: totally sweet.
(All photos in this post: Sean Bonner. Link to Flickr set.)
Both of us were skeptical about the lack of a conventional keyboard, but so far, it’s awesome. Sean’s tapping out a bunch of Twitters and emails, single-fingeredly, and sailing through. iPhone does a remarkable job of sniffing out what you meant to type if you goof a little — more so than any other mobile interface I’ve used. It’ll take some getting used to, and it’s not the same as a conventional keyboard. But it does not suck at all. I can imagine typing two-thumbed pretty soon.
(above: Greg Joswiak from Apple, with Jonathan, the first guy in line at the Apple store at LA’s Grove mall.)
This cafe where we are right now has an open WiFi network, so data speed as we’re testing this for the first time is nice and fast. Automatically connects if the network is open.
When you connect to the AT&T Edge network, it’s pokier than some of the higher-speed mobile networks. More like dial-up. Still — faster than what you may be used to on any number of US smartphones. Wherever there’s WiFi you can connect to, there’s a lot of speed. And eventually, the provided speed from AT&T will be faster as better services roll out.
Some of the first things that make us go “ajskdfgjhdfhakjomg”:
(1) The web browser (Sean: “even the little javascript crawl at the top of Metroblogging.com works great.”)
(2) The pinch (Xeni: it’s super intuitive. I wish I could do this on every electronic device I own. I wish Apple would release a tablet with this on it.”)
(3) Thumb typing (Sean: “Dude I can’t believe it actually works.”)
(4) It syncs beautifully with the Mac (Xeni: “All my personal data synced from the Macbook to the iPhone in a minute or two — more than 6,000 contacts, several gigs of songs, podcasts, audiobooks, and video, and a dense calendar.”)
(5) Activation went fine, even in the epic crunch time, proving naysayer reports wrong. (Xeni: “worked without a hitch, wait for server response at end of process was only a couple minutes, whole thing was stupid easy.”)
(6) Orientation awareness (Sean: “It’s so fucking sexy. It works THREE ways.”)
(7) It just works, with no “stupid” getting in your way. (our pal Michael Baffico just arrived here at the cafe to check out the iPhone: “I’ve had it 7 minutes and I’ve already figured out how to play music, check stocks, browse the web, make calls, and a bunch of other stuff, with nobody showing me anything — all in the time it would normally take me to load one shitty page on my Treo.”).
(8) Holy crap, the Google Maps with real-time traffic data? Fine, no GPS in this first-gen iPhone, but this feature is incredible.
We’re IMming with my pal Wayne in NYC, a former Apple employee from ages of yore. He says,
Apple now has a DUTY to export this interface to their entire product line. Today’s iPhone naysayers probably don’t appreciate the significance of the UI shift that happened today. The computer industry may once again — at the hands of apple — never be the same again. The interface reminds me of the scene in the film Minority Report where the pre-crimes unit staff were manipulating and viewing multimedia data using direct gestures. I feel like we’re getting a taste of that kind of direct interface control today with the iPhone.
Also, I’ve never been in and out of an Apple Store so quickly before, the queue time aside (only 1 hour wait — totally reasonable considering) the time spent in the store was organized despite the excitement and the transaction itself may have been faster than any other visit.
Agreed. The crush at the Grove was incredible, lines for four blocks or more, but the process was very smooth when the countdown to 6pm ended. Apple employees lined up on either side like it was a military procession or catwalk, and applauded as each line-waiter entered.
Some of the gotchas I may resent more when the newlywed buzz wears off: no unlocking the carrier. No IM, GPS, or video capture. No third-party apps, no viewing Flash (for instance, many internet videos) inside the browser. A fantastic, iChat-like SMS interface, coupled with wack pricing from AT&T for which there’s no alternative.
Okay, this is a first-generation product with room to grow. But the pluses here are overwhelming: in all, it’s a stunning leap forward. The interface makes all the other mobile devices I have around the office look dumpy and half-functional; the sleek form factor makes my other smartphones look morbidly obese. I want to throw them into a blender and hit “puree.”
I may be high on launch fumes right now, but this feels like just about the coolest device I’ve ever owned.
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Previously on BoingBoing:
Report from Haunted Mansion castmember for a day winner
Cory Doctorow:
Disney park superfan Ricky Brigante (he of the Inside the Magic podcast) won a slot in the Disney Dream Job Experience contest, and got the incredible opportunity to work at the Disneyland Haunted Mansion for a day. Seriously, I would kill for this.
He produced a great write-up of the experience, with links to video, pics, and a long narrative describing his experience.
He also has this link to a site specializing in photos of top-s33kr1t piccies of the backstage mechanisms at Disneyland. Control-room porn at its finest!
Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Cast Members occasionally have a chance to perform what are called magical moments. These are moments in which the guest experience is enhanced by Cast Members performing in ways that are not regularly seen. The ghost dog walking is one such magical moment. Inside the Mansion, there are two others, both taking place in the changing portrait hallway.The first was a pair of feather dusters that Mansion Cast Members use up and down the portrait hallway, dusting the walls, portraits, and most importantly, the chains and bat stanchions along the sides of the room.
This proved to be one of the most fun moments of the entire weekend. Guests regularly rest their hands on the stanchions or run their hands along the metal chains. Allison told me that her favorite bit is to walk up to the guests and give them a sinister look, making it clear that you want them to stop touching the chains and stanchions. I took her recommendation and once they got the message, I would quickly dust whatever areas they had touched. I got a lot of laughs with this routine.
(Thanks, Ricky!)
See also: Video tryouts for a job at Disney’s Haunted Mansion
Print your business-card on a peanut
Cory Doctorow:
Japan leads the world on bad-ass novelty business-cards, so it’s no surprise that they’ve got access to CO2 lasers that print your contact details on peanut shells.
Taberu Me cards are created using Arigatou’s high-grade CO2 laser engraver nicknamed “Shiawase-kun,†which can etch up to 700 characters per second on hard organic materials like beans, nuts, rice and pasta and which has been optimized to print clean-looking logos, names and telephone numbers on the irregular surfaces of peanut shells.
See also:
Business-card punch-out cutlery
Business card that sprouts
Business-card converts to set of lockpicks
Cutlery made out of potato starch
Cutlery with wrenches on the end
Anti-terror cutlery for airline security theater
Moo Cards: Stunning kid-sized custom biz-cards with Flickr pix
Giant graffiti typography
David Pescovitz:
These giant olde timey letters painted on shop shutters in the East End of London are reportedly the work of a graffiti artist named Eine. (The layout seen here is mine.) Flickr user Dave Gorman collected them all. Link (via Juxtapoz)