Welcome to this year’s Boing Boing Gift Guide, a piling-high of our most loved stuff from 2012 and beyond. There are books, comics, games, gadgets and much else besides: click the categories at the top to filter what you’re most interested in—and add your suggestions and links in the comments.
Update (830am ET): Local Colorado news provider 9News.com has a live stream of coverage that's more informative and watchable than what the US cable news networks are doing.
At least 12 have been killed, and at least 38 are confirmed wounded, according to Colorado law enforcement. Victims include a 3-month-old baby. The shooter, according to eyewitnesses speaking to local TV news reports, ran in to the theater, lit a "gas can," shot into the ceiling, then into the crowd.
President Obama, Vice President Biden, and the First Lady have cancelled presidential campaign activities today. Obama: "This is a day of prayer and reflection for the victims."
A suspect is in custody: James Holmes, a 24yo white male who is said to have been wearing a gas mask, a bulletproof vest. According to law enforcement, at least four types of guns were used in the shooting, including an "AK-type" assault rifle, a shotgun, and two handguns. The suspect also used a canister of what is presumed to have been tear gas.
I can’t get this odd feeling out of my chest. This empty, almost sickening feeling won’t go away. I noticed this feeling when I was in the Eaton Center in Toronto just seconds before someone opened fire in the food court. An odd feeling which led me to go outside and unknowingly out of harm‘s way. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around how a weird feeling saved me from being in the middle of a deadly shooting.
Her final tweet is below, sent last night just before the massacre.
These wonderful floppy disk pillows are available from ShanaLogic, sellers of more than 1,000 amazing items created by 100 artists from around the world! Products in the shop are 100% made & designed by artists and small indie businesses! Take 10% off your entire order with the discount code BOINGY, or get free shipping on all orders over $75 to the USA and Canada. ShanaLogic: Shop indie. Pass it on!
Though we’re delighted to have our own online toystore up this holiday season, there are a thousand things we could recommend from elsewhere. Cutting it down to a couple of hundred, for our fourth annual gift guide, wasn’t easy; this year was a fantastic one for books, games, gadgets and much else besides. From stocking stuffers to silly cars, take yer pick.
BB: How did you find yourself, as a little kid, at the El Cortez Hotel in '78?
CANDACE: When I was 8, my father took me to my first Comic-Con. I believe it was still called San Diego's West Coast Comic-Con at that time. He was not an overt comic junkie although he liked SciFi well enough, but I was, having been captivated by the Pini's ElfQuest comics, introduced to me by a boy, of course. Wendy Pini was there. I still have my original Warp Graphics versions, plus two or more of each of the graphic novels, that I now share with my 5 year old.