Crossposted from my twitter/lj. Was shooting for 100 but I get bored easily. Still I'd read the shit out of most of these just based on the titles.

1. Lazer-Guts Kicks A Can.

2. The Deadly Minds of Science.

3. A Murder of Murdermen Vol 14 The Death Crisis

4. Used Bread Vol 3 1969 - 1981

5. The Complete Adventures of Tijuana Boy.

6. A Life of Crime During Wartime.

7. Broken Wave.

8. Scavenger the Ravager Book 3: A Path At New Misery.

9. The Royal Boiler.

10. Indian Astronaut Vol 1: Destination, Super Spice Bazzaro.

11. Shake Baby 9.

12. Serious Business, A Compendium of All-American Laughs.

13. Krakenstein 23.

14. Bushido-Bot 66

15. At Cannon and Snug Harbor.

16. Ghost Power!

17. 404 AD

18. Noiromancer

19. Frank MF: Censorship Sucks.

20. Gunfighter Monk.

21. Tom Mushrooms 57

22. The Astonishing English Speaking Lad.

23. Car Order Eater Vol 17.

24. Western War Three.

25. Prometheus Karloff, Steath Police.

26. Leecher.

27. Noble Savage Vol 6 1.

28. Illegal Mathematics.

29. Helen Ahoy Vol 2.

It was past midnight in the Midwest. I was eleven years old and had snuck out of bed to watch the sexy chatline ads. Sexy women with inexcusably large hair clad in lingerie twirling phone cords suggestively -- I didn't know what they were suggesting or what they wanted to talk about, but I knew that I was interested in looking at them. Kneeling near the altar of blinking images, I flicked through the channels looking for the ads and I caught WHAT AM I DOING IN NEW JERSEY, George Carlin's 6th HBO special.

I sat eye-wreckingly close to the TV with my hand on the volume knob to drop the volume during the raucous laughter and applause, I clutched a pillow tightly in front of my mouth to muffle my own laughter enraptured by the cadence of Carlin's delivery.

There were very few constants in my life, George Carlin was one of them.

George Carlin was more than just a comedian. To me, he was an explainer, a teacher and an entertainer. He influenced me to appreciate language, to think critically about everything and most importantly -- never take anything seriously.

So thank you, Mr. Carlin. You changed my life and helped make me the man I am today.

Click thru for my critique.

In order for the apocalypse to be considered and labeled apocalyptic, a survivor is required. A survivor immediately moves the apocalypse into the post-apocalypse realm and a sense of new normalcy eventually follows. Society rebuilds until the next apocalypse trods on by. This, is the apocalyptic cycle.

The idea of the scalable apocalypse has stuck with me as of late, the personal apocalypse, if you will. Predicated on the notion that the apocalypse means "end of life as it is known". The personal apocalypse focuses on the individual or a small group's world being destroyed, this could be a simple as a car accident leaving someone paralyzed, swarms of military-grade robotic insect-assassins being programed to eliminate a family of probable terroristic hooman-fleshbugs or planes being driven into skyscrapers?

9/11 is an example of the apocalyptic cycle, the world as America knew it ended that day. Rome fell and a way of life was gone. The survivors of Hiroshima thought the world was ending. These were apocalyptic events, for some entire worlds were shattered. But the world moves on, to the next minor apocalypse, mini cycles swirling within a larger cycle. Events coalesce and the eventual global apocalypse comes and goes, the survivors struggle for the right to live until the heat death of the universe.

There won't be a single defining event known as the capital-A apocalypse. It'll be small event cycles within larger cycles and the larger cycles colliding into one another like teenagers trying to figure out fucking.

Test.

"The system will employ the dual indoor-and-sunlight displays, which was pioneered by former OLPC CTO Mary Lou Jepsen. The design will provide a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat, two-screen continuous surface for use in tablet mode. "Younger children will be able to use simple keyboards to get going, and older children will be able to switch between keyboards customized for applications as well as for multiple languages," the press release reads. The device will also reduce power consumption to 1 watt."


I'm salivating at the idea of getting some digital comics or ebooks running on one of these.

"Negroponte ended his speech by announcing that the Give 1, Get 1 program, which allows consumers to give one laptop to a child in the developing world and get a low-cost laptop for themselves, will start up again in August or September 2008."

LINK

"In an echo of Jurassic Park, DNA from an extinct animal has been re-activated in the laboratory for the first time.

Scientists took genetic material from the Tasmanian tiger - officially declared extinct 70 years ago - and inserted it into mouse embryos where it played a role in developing cartilage and future bone." LINK

Great. Now I'm going to have to worry about Tasmanian Tiger Mice running rampant? Thanks science, you incredible dick.

Also, I am willing to bet great sums of the cash-money that Tasmanian Tiger: Re-activated will be the title of an upcoming Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie. Possibly starring Casper Van Dien.

WIRED has two stories up today regarding the sensationally titled, Myspace Suicide Case. The first is about the indictment of the woman accused.


"...Drew and her co-conspirators violated MySpace's terms of service, which require registrants to provide truthful registration information and refrain from soliciting personal information from anyone under 18 or using information obtained from MySpace services to harass or harm other people, among other terms." LINK 1

The second scratches the surface of possible ramifications of this dramatic reinterpretation of an anti-hacking law. Long story short, if you violate a TOS (Terms of Service -- you know those long, abusive user agreements that you've never, ever read?) you could be a potential felon. There some great insight from Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (EFF)

LINK 2

The Delaware Academy for Public Safety and Security is now the the first high school dedicated to preparing students to act on the front lines of the War Against Macbook Airs, Brown People and Freethinkers.

"Curriculum choices for students, who are to be called Cadets, range from SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) through prison guard, water rescue, paramedic, fireman, professional demolition and emergency response operator, according to a Board statement."

Homeland Security High -- truly the world is weirder than anything we could ever imagine.

LINK