Even after a 25-year animation career, I can still remember the exact moment that I decided to become a professional animator: It was at an all-night movie marathon of Ralph Bakshi films. While watching Bakshi’s Heavy Traffic (his 2nd feature release, but his first true auteur film) I was thunderstruck by its gritty honesty. The film served up top-quality character animation supporting a fiercely street-level aesthetic. To an impressionable teenaged animation fan raised solely on a diet of classic Disney features, this film was a revelation. Here were characters as richly textured as any of the street smart hustlers inhabiting the stories of Taxi Driver or Midnight Cowboy. I was elated! I now had a vision that it was possible to create “underground” animation in the vein of R. Crumb and so many of my underground comix heroes. I decided that night to move to L.A. and fashion a career in the animation business.I did eventually move to Hollywood, where I got trained in classic animation techniques by Disney old-timers. I used those precious lessons to great success in the era of burgeoning digital animation in the 1990s and beyond. I was there the FIRST time VR stuttered to life in the mid 90s, only to have its plug pulled for lack of technical viability. Fast-forward past 24k-baud modems, the first PDAs, internet 1.0, handheld gaming systems, theme park rides -- I have created content for all of them. But I have never been as creatively (or technically) challenged as when I set about trying to create the first completely hand-drawn VR cartoon. It immediately took me back to that midnight theater in Pennsylvania where I got my first jolt of creative inspiration. I was determined to reinvent myself (again) in the medium of 360-degree 2D stereoscopic VR animation (say THAT 10 tens as fast as you can!).This series tells the story of how I put together a crack team of animation and video professionals with no previous VR production experience and how, together, we figured out a successful path for pushing hand-drawn animation into a whole new world.On a sleepy Sunday morning about 18 months ago, I was surprised to discover that a flat, unassembled Google “Cardboard” viewer had arrived with my New York Times. Watching the Times’ VR content through the Cardboard viewer transported me out of my kitchen and deep into the full immersion world of 360 video. In a flash I saw my phone in a wholly different light. It was now able to be my window into an alternative cartoon world which I could manufacture and, more importantly, inhabit. It stirred in me those old feelings of awestruck inspiration.The first thing I did the next day was to call up one of my favorite clients: TED Ed. I had been directing animated shorts for this pioneering group of online educators for the previous three years. I hoped to convey to my Executive Producer that the timing was right for TED Ed to create a pioneering short in 360 animated video for the Cardboard platform. I was hoping that they’d trust me enough to forgive any initial stumbles as we collectively felt our way through the inky darkness that is inherent in any new medium. My pitch was well-rehearsed and the idea got approved quickly. So now I was presented with my first great challenge: Having sold the concept to my client, how exactly should I go about actually producing the piece? I mean literally–which combination of off-the-shelf software programs to use and how many team members would it require?While I was pondering these tech hurdles, TED Ed was asking me for ideas about which teaching topic should be the short’s main concern. Luckily I had some ideas here. It was my impression that, because I was going to be drawing every pixel on the screen, I didn’t want to have the subject matter include vast cityscapes or sprawling vistas (I came to do an about-face on this thinking later). I came up with three possible environments from which to cull a topic: immersed in the ocean, inside the body, or inside a prehistoric cave. For each of these topics I was thinking that the environmental “walls” would necessarily be abstract, amorphous, and still constrict the subject matter. I felt secure that if I gave myself the parameters of a singular closed environment, I’d be able to create a world that made sense in 360-degrees. To my delight TED Ed liked my favorite idea the best and we decided to pursue the history of Stone Age cave painting. The irony was not lost on me that we’d be teaching about mankind’s oldest known attempts at creative expression while utilizing perhaps the brand-newest method of presenting this information: virtual reality.Below is the first concept painting that I presented to TED Ed to help them visualize the world inside the cave. On the strength of this flat panoramic painting, they “green-lit” the projectNow the real work began in earnest. I needed to find a production team that was doing something (even distantly) related to hand-drawn animation in VR. I felt that if that team already had some basic VR experience, then adjusting the workflow to accommodate 2D animation wouldn’t be such a big deal. Just swap assets, right? In reality this turned out to be an extremely difficult problem to solve. It took multiple tries with multiple creative teams until we got even close to cracking that nut.In the next installment I’ll reveal all of the fits and starts the production ran into as we attempted to push traditional animation into a wholly new and different medium. Here’s a hint: We were approaching the problem completely ass-backwards!Stay tuned to our next installment: “The Frustrating Truth About Being an ‘Early Adopter’”.

If your photographic aesthetic lends itself more towards intimate detail over sweeping, dramatic landscapes, a Blips Smartphone Lens Kit gives your device a semi-permanent macro camera attachment. It’s being offered in the Boing Boing Store now for $24.99.Since your phone is designed with human-scale photographs in mind, it’s basically impossible to focus on small, close-up objects without some kind of optical enhancement. To give your miniature subjects a staggering boost in detail and clarity, this kit includes two stick-on lenses: a macro with a 10mm focal distance, and a macro plus with double the magnification. These transparent dollops are supported by strips of aluminum, and includes extra multi-use adhesive tape to swap between devices without damaging your lenses.And to get the most out of your temporary mods, the Blips app unlocks special camera capabilities, and is available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. You can get a Blips Smartphone Lens Kit here for $24.99.

President Donald Trump says the United States will apply new, additional sanctions on North Korea.(more…)

Rumored for some time, Google's purchase of a significant chunk of handset-maker HTC was announced today. The WSJ:

Sean Spicer, newly ennobled by Hollywood as a well-meaning funnyman briefly forced to play the buffoonish Goebbels to President Trump, is already having trouble staying in character.

The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said this week that hackers accessed the SEC's corporate disclosure database and likely profited by trading on that stolen insider information.(more…)

CinemaScore is basically an influential exit poll at movie theatres. Despite over 30 years of scores, only 19 films currently hold the dubious distinction of getting an F. Vulture's Kevin Lincoln found a few patterns. (more…)

"Do you remember... the 21st night of September?"This September 21st, and every September 21st, will never be forgotten by my dear friend-in-kitsch, Allee Willis. If you aren't aware, Allee co-wrote the song "September" for Earth, Wind, & Fire. When it quickly climbed to the top of the charts at its release, it forever changed the course of her life for the better.A few years ago, she shared a funny story about the song's "Ba-de-ya" lyrics with NPR:

Model and former basketball player Ekaterina Lisina of Russia boasts the Guinness World Record for World's Longest Legs (female). The 29-year-old stands a total of 6'8.77" and her legs each measure 52 inches (the left one is a tad longer).(more…)

The five traditional senses are tied to visible sense organs, but depending on the definition, humans possess dozens of senses, including thermoception (temperature), proprioception (bodily spatial relations), nociception (pain), equilibrioception (balance), and mechanoreception (vibration). (more…)

With scissors and a little glue, Elmer Padilla turns flip-flops into cool action figures on the streets of Manila. Adrian Soriano Bernabe snapped these lovely photos of Elmer at work. (more…)

If you're looking for an over-the-top '80s "party dance band" with all the bells and whistles (and little red track short-shorts), FlashPants is the one for you. I just learned of them from their explosive, perfect-score appearance on The Gong Show, but seems they've been doing their thing for a while now. They claim to be the "most booked band in California," playing at over 200 gigs a year.For their win on The Gong Show, they took home a check for $2000.17 and a glorious trophy:Previously: Watch this Jewish surf band rock the new 'Gong Show'

During his tenure as Donald Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort offered private briefings on the status of the US Presidential election to Kremlin-connected Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, the Washington Post reports.Via the Washington Post:

A couple of days ago I mentioned the the MoYu YJ Lingpo 2 x 2 x 2 Speed Cube. I still haven't solved it, but I wanted to make a quick video to show how smooth it is. The little cubes rotate around a plastic sphere, and are connected by springs. It's practically impossible to jam it, unlike every other Rubik's Cube I've used. I thought it would be a snap to solve, having only 8 cubes (compared to the 27 26 cubes of a regular Rubik's cube) but it turns out I'm even dumber than I thought. I'm not giving up!

It's not just Warren Buffett and his Republican lieutenant Charlie Munger who favor single payer and view the US health insurance industry as a drag on national competitiveness and a needless expense on the bottom line: it's also companies like Walmart, Boeing, and GE, who have stopped paying insurers, buying services for their employees directly from hospitals and health-care providers. (more…)

Obama's cabinet secretaries flew commercial or took the train, with a few, rare exceptions that were approved at the highest level, but Trump's aptly named Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price sure loves to charter private jets and bill them to the US government. (more…)

Tamilok is a kind of worm that eats dead mangrove tree wood. It is considered a delicacy that tastes like slightly sweet oysters.

A recent study published in the scientific journal The Auk: Ornithological Advances claims a competitive social environment may cause certain species of ducks to grow even bigger penises.Researchers studied two species of ducks placed in environments where there were fewer females and more males, along with ducks housed in male-female pair bonds, according to Phys.org.Lesser Scaup ducks that were housed with several males were said to have grown longer penises. Ruddy Ducks, who are already well-endowed to begin with — placed in the same predicament — would grow their penises faster than pair-bonded ones, but also might “offset” their sexual development to not interfere with other males.What the study really reveals is that there’s a sizeable job market for measuring duck wangs.Via Phys.org:

Featuring the artwork of Juan Ortiz, these TOS coffee mugs are just wonderful.I'm pretty sure I'll have them all shortly.Star Trek The Ultimate Computer (Juan Ortiz Art) Sci-Fi TV Television Show Porcelain Boxed Gift Coffee (Tea, Cocoa) 11 Oz. Mug via AmazonStar Trek Space Seed (Juan Ortiz Art) Sci-Fi TV Television Show Porcelain Gift Coffee (Tea, Cocoa) 11 Oz. Mug via Amazon

A Singapore baggage handler somehow managed to make airports even worse after switching baggage tags during multiple flights to send them to different locations.The handler is being charged with 286 counts of mischief for tampering with bags from flights on Singapore Airlines, Silk Air, and Lufthansa, according to the BBC.Such alleged shenanigans could cost the handler a year in jail or multiple fines.Image: Billy Hathorn

This week on Maker Update, a giant AT-AT made from foam board, the Goliath CNC robot, embossing your notebook, affordable addressable LED strip, a software update for your knitting machine, and World Maker Faire. This week’s Cool Tool is an Individually Addressable LED Strip Light.Also, check out Cool Tools new YouTube channel of tool reviews!

I'm honored to be included on a free panel discussion next Thursday, 9/28, at Caltech about the cultural influence of the Voyager Golden Record, the enchanting phonograph record launched into space on the twin Voyager spacecraft 40 years ago. (I co-produced the first vinyl release of the Golden Record with my friends Tim Daly and Lawrence Azerrad.) I'm incredibly excited to share the stage with the following inspiring individuals:

This ad from Taiwan is just fantastic.

At a Buckeye, Arizona park, police officer David Grossman observed 14-year-old Connor Leibel moving his hands rigidly in front of his face, sniffing a piece of yarn, and making other unfamiliar movements. The officer thought the boy was intoxicated, held him on the ground, and handcuffed him. Leibel was simply self-stimulating, "stimming," a very common behavior among autistic people. On the just-released body cam video, you can hear Leibel trying to calm himself by saying “I’m O.K., I’m O.K." even as he sustains cuts and bruises from being pinned to the ground. Over at the New York Times, BB pal Steve Silberman, author of the absolutely essential book Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, writes about why this kind of horrible thing happens, how it could have been much worse, and what can be done to prevent it:

You can pick up a wide variety of software development skills with this Learn to Code 2017 Bundle. It’s available now in the Boing Boing Store for a pay-what-you-want arrangement — just beat the average purchase price to lock in a healthy discount for this collection of professional tech courses.To get you up to speed on modern web development, you’ll get access to beginner resources for learning basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Once you’ve got a handle on the fundamentals of front-end, you can get familiar with advanced tools like Angular and Ruby on Rails to help you build robust full-stack applications. This bundle also features a dedicated section for iOS development if mobile apps are your true calling.Here’s the full course list:

How healthy are kids' meals from the big fast-food chains? If you're not sure, just ask Panera's founder and CEO Ron Shaich.(more…)

Theodore Kaczynski killed 3 and injured 23 more in a bombing campaign inspired by the erosion of human freedom and dignity under modern technology. The Chicago Tribune's Steve Chapman writes that the latest iPhone proves him right: "it’s an excellent illustration of something that has long gone unrecognized: The Unabomber had a point."

"“Who is Responsible for the Crime Wave?” “Reporters Cover Up Evidence of Immigration Crime Wave” “One New Immigrant for Every Two U.S. Births” “One Foreigner Enters by Stealth for Every One Who Is Legally Admitted, Immigration Men Say” (more…)

Sculptor Marc Fornes sets algorithmic parameters, then generates large self-supported sculptures based on the results. The work has an oltherworldly quality. (more…)

Japan's many summer fireworks festivals have inspired enthusiasts who specialize in photographing hanabi (literally "flower-fires"), and Keisuke is emerging as an Instagram favorite thanks to works like these. (more…)

Oh gosh, parenthood is so hard sometimes. I'm a mom to a nearly-teen daughter and I teach her that she should do the right thing as much as humanly possible. This often mean explaining why I can do certain things as an adult that she shouldn't do as a child.I'm pro-cannabis all the way. I've worked in the industry, have a current medical card, and am publicly vocal about it. I don't, however, want my kid using it until she's older and her brain is finished developing. So, I don't use in front of her. That's my line. We've definitely had some interesting conversations about the subject though.That's why this video by the Cut caught my eye. It features several parents telling their children that they use cannabis. The kid's reactions range from curious to downright judgmental.The world certainly is changing, isn't it? A video like this couldn't have existed even just a few years ago.

I'm convinced that there is nothing more heartwarming on the internet right now than this video of a blind cat hugging a phone.In the video, an orange tabby named Namik is shown pulling a phone close and hugging it gently. Why? Because his favorite pianist is playing, that's why.The man playing is Sarper Duman of Istanbul, a cat rescuer who shares his music online for other animal lovers.It seems a fan sent him the video, which Sarper then posted on his Instagram feed. Watch:https://www.instagram.com/p/BYzQXpjgZ46/?taken-by=sarperduman(reddit)

FOLLOW @RubenBolling on the Twitters and a Face Book.JOIN Tom the Dancing Bug's subscription club, the INNER HIVE, for exclusive early access to comics, extra comics, extra words and such. People love it.GET Ruben Bolling’s new hit book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures, beloved by young and old alike. (”Filled with wild twists and funny dialogue” -Publishers Weekly) Book One here. Book Two here.More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

Kristjan Gottfried and Michelle Hurtig were first the waiting list for Vancouver's Marina Housing Co-operative, a nonprofit when the volunteer co-chair of the admissions board told them that their new home couldn't be confirmed until they found out the sex of their unborn baby. When they found out they were having a girl, they were refused a place to live. (more…)

Walt Disney shows off a ride in production, "Pirates of the Caribbean" to Miss Disneyland-Tencennial.It is amazing to see my favorite ride at Disneyland at this point in its life. During my first visit, my grandmother lost her wig on the second sharp waterfall drop. My father had to fish it out. Cemented my love of that ride forever.Sadly, Walt seems a little condescending.

Wow. One of Alabama's Senate candidates, Roy Moore, refers to Native Americans as "reds" and Asians as "yellows." He is competing with – and leading – Sen. Luther Strange in the GOP Senate runoff next week.In a speech on Sunday, he said, "We were torn apart in the Civil War — brother against brother, North against South, party against party. What changed?Now we got blacks and whites fighting, reds and yellows fighting, Democrats and Republicans fighting, men and women fighting. What’s going to unite us? What’s going to bring us back together? A president? A Congress? No. It’s going to be God.”Oh shit. This is the same crackpot who told CNN last week that 9/11 was probably God's way of punishing non-believers.According to The Hill:

I just bought this 150-pack of 10-inch cable zip-ties for $6.36 on Amazon. The deal lasts a few more hours.

A dead body sat in a pickup truck for eight months in a parking lot at the Kansas City International Airport before someone discovered it. 53-year-old Randy Potter disappeared January 17, and had parked at the airport that same day. When his family contacted the airport police to report their missing relative and to see if his truck was still in the parking lot, the police said if it was, they would find it. Astonishingly, they somehow missed it.It wasn't until someone reported a bad odor that the body was spotted inside the truck. Apparently, according to police, Potter had committed suicide, but no other details were released.According to Time:

A fifth-grade South Carolina teacher is on administrative leave after asking students to visualize themselves as KKK members and then ponder the justifications of their treatment toward African Americans.A man who identified himself as an uncle of one of the students posted the assignment to Facebook on Thursday, according to USA Today. "You are there...You are a member of the KKK. Why do you think your treatment of African-Americans is justified?,” one of the assignment’s questions asks.A statement from the school district for Oak Pointe Elementary said it is making sure such an assignment will “never be used again.”Image: Originally published by the Toronto Star. Unknown author.

Before Equifax changed its name in 1976 -- in the midst of a Congressional investigation and a national scandal -- it was the Retail Credit Company, founded in Atlanta in 1899. (more…)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, founded by Elizabeth Warren prior to her career as a senator, has entered into an unprecedented settlement with National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts, the largest holder of student debt in the country. (more…)

"It's okay to feel good about things here but there's no sense running down the street telling people about it at the top of your voice Minnesotans prefer to express their positive feelings through the use of negatives because it naturally levels things out.From the 1993 TPT video "How To Talk Minnesotan" by Howard Mohr. He also wrote a book with the same name.[via Kottke]

Amazon's Fire tablets have replaced Apple iPads around our house. This new 10" tablet will be mine.My daughter has broken many very expensive Apple tablets. I switched her over to an Amazon Fire that only cost $50 and she loved it. I tried one and never looked back.Due to my heavy use of Apple OS X for a lot of my day-to-day work, Android doesn't integrate quite as well as I'd like -- but for entertainment, which is mostly what I look to a tablet for, these Amazon devices are perfect. I have all the toys I want, and almost none of the distractions that'd take me away from watching, reading or playing.I am sure if I put the effort in to making Android work well with my interconnected OSX tools all would be well, but I don't want it. I find the screens Amazon chooses to be beautiful, and Amazon Prime video is incredibly easy to access. Netflix and Hulu are also right there for me, when I want them.This new unit sports a 1.8/1.4 GHZ quad-core processor and 2 GB RAM. It'll be interesting to see how it benchmarks against the Apple iPad Pro, for far, far less money.I await eagerly. I ordered red.All-New Fire HD 10 Tablet with Alexa Hands-Free, 10.1" 1080p Full HD Display, 32 GB

Researchers at the Computer Vision Laboratory, The University of Nottingham have posted an online demo of their 3D Face Reconstruction from a Single Image paper.

Surprisingly, not all headphones were designed with workouts in mind. Delicate electronics can be vulnerable to rain and sweat, and tiny wireless earbuds will go flying with the slightest movement. If you’re looking for personal audio that can stand up to the elements without sacrificing modern features, the TREBLAB XR500 Wireless Sports Earbuds check the right boxes.https://www.youtube.com/embed/qBC0-urymX4These earbuds make a perfect outdoor companion. With IPX7 water resistance, you can keep the music playing during a downpour. They include 3 sizes of silicone tips and foam ear hooks to provide a perfectly snug fit during vigorous activity. On the hardware side, they have excellent battery life with up to 9 hours of playback time, and feature active noise cancellation to prevent background distractions from leaking through. To avoid the hassle of constantly re-pairing, these can be synced with multiple devices at once.For durability and excellent sound quality at an affordable price, the TREBLAB XR500 Earbuds are hard to beat. You can pick up a pair in the Boing Boing Store for $36.99.

This gentleman took umbrage at a car and decided to teach it a lesson by hitting it as it barreled down the freeway. It didn't go as planned.

FAIR surveyed the discussion of Nazi protesters in the month since the Charlottesville demonstration in America's six top broadsheet newspapers ("Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, LA Times, San Jose Mercury News and Washington Post") and found "virtually equal amounts of condemnation of fascists and anti-fascist protesters." (more…)

Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed nine black worshipers at a church in Charleston, made a show of defiance at his trial and waltzed into the hoped-for martyrdom of a death sentence. But his bravado has run out, reports The Post and Courier.

Behold the Small Buildings of Tokyo, as found by John Einarsen. Kyoto Journal's Instagram page is a wonder; I want to live in all of these places simultaneously. There's a book, but you'll have to order it in Yen. [via]

A sex doll rental service in China has shut its doors, at least for the time being, after the novel offering proved controversial. People who want to have sex with a lifeless rubbery replica of a schoolgirl, Wonder Woman, maid, nurse or athlete will have to buy their own.