PepsiCo, in an attempt to appear hip, hired Tyler, the Creator to direct a series of Mountain Dew commercials. Tyler, the Creator took advantage of this opportunity to make an ad that was so over-the-top racist that it would have to be pulled. It's a triple win for Tyler, the Creator, who ends up getting (1) a ton of money, (2) lots of publicity, and (3) street cred for punking the befuddled suits at PepsiCo.

In a statement to AdWeek, a Pepsi representative said, "We understand how this video could be perceived by some as offensive, and we apologize to those who were offended. We have removed the video from all Mountain Dew channels and have been informed that Tyler is removing it from his channels as well."

The ad is the third in a series of ads directed by rapper Tyler, the Creator, who is black. The first depicts the goat (named Felicia) assaulting the woman, a waitress at a restaurant that has run out of Mountain Dew. The second shows the goat fleeing from police.

PepsiCo pulls Mountain Dew ad deemed racist and misogynistic

I once read that people who litter not only have little respect for the world around them, but that they also have little respect for themselves. I believe it. So is it any wonder that Walmart -- which is owned by a handful of the richest people on Earth yet shows little respect for employees, shoppers, communities, and taxpayers -- would have litter strewn, filthy stores?

Rob Cockerham says:

I wrote an article, with a bunch of photos, which illustrates the very sad state of Walmart stores in Sacramento. It's widely known, but I thought it might be a good idea to document the current state of my local stores and call out the billionaire owners to do a better job with their properties.

I got thrown out after 330 pictures.

…

Officer Perez from the Elk Grove police department approached me and said that he had been summoned because someone was "taking pictures of women." Two more officers arrived on the scene and asked to look through my photos, which I allowed. I was asked if I lived in Elk Grove or was just visiting.

I believe the officer took this photo as she attempted to view the photos. She clicked through them. "They are just pictures of trash."

I explained that I was taking photos for this article I was writing called "Get Your Shit Together Walmart", wherein I would document the state of Walmart stores and ask their league of billionaire owners to meet the community standards of cleanliness in their stores. They were not impressed.

"I'm sure your house isn't clean all the time," one officer suggested, defending Walmart.

"True, but I don't invite people over when it is a mess," wasn't my actual reply.

Officer Perez told me that taking photos was against the rules at Walmart and told me that I would have to leave Walmart and not return.

Photos of filthy Walmart stores

Two recent papers about heart disease from the Cleveland Clinic are making the rounds. The studies report that red meat and eggs cause heart disease because our gut bacteria converts carnitine and choline into Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a heart disease trigger.

At Huffington Post, Chris Kresser has questions about the papers:

[W]hile at first glance the papers from Dr. Hazen's group might appear to be the final nail in the coffin for the omnivorous among us, a closer inspection of their data reveals some troubling questions. First, a study back in 1999 found that seafood generates much higher levels of TMAO than red meat, eggs, or any of the other 46 foods tested. One species of fish, halibut, produced 107 times as much TMAO as beef, and 53 times as much TMAO as eggs. If high TMAO levels cause cardiovascular disease, and eating fish increases TMAO more than any other food, we'd expect to see high rates of heart disease in people who eat the most fish. Yet that is the opposite of what research shows. In fact, some studies have found eating more fish (particularly cold-water, fatty fish like salmon) reduces the risk of heart attack by a greater margin than statin drugs!

In fact, whole grains could play a role in elevating TMAO levels:

In their second paper, Dr. Hazen's team raises the possibility that the foods we eat aren't the primary driving force behind our TMAO levels, because most people are able to excrete excess TMAO that accumulates in the blood via the urine. This suggests that something else may be to blame for high TMAO. What could that be? One possibility, which the researchers themselves demonstrated in the first paper, is that differences in our gut bacteria could account for the higher TMAO levels observed in some people. They showed that those with greater amounts of a type of bacteria called Prevotella in their gut generated more TMAO after eating carnitine. And what might lead to a higher concentration of Prevotella in the gut? Ironically, previous research has shown that the people who eat large amounts of whole grains are the most likely to fit this pattern. This would suggest that a diet high in whole grains -- and not red meat or eggs -- could increase the risk of heart disease by elevating TMAO in the blood.

Red Meat and Eggs on Trial Again, But Jury Is Still Out

Last month I had a conversation with Dale Grover (co-founder of Maker Works in Ann Arbor, Michigan -- read his profile at Make) about the late author Nevil Shute. Shute is best known for the novel On the Beach (about a dying Earth after a global nuclear war) but we discussed a lesser-known novel of Shute's called Trustee from the Toolroom, which I read five or six years ago and absolutely loved.

Trustee from the Toolroom is a tremendously compelling and well-plotted adventure story from 1960 about a mild-mannered English columnist for a hobbyist magazine called Miniature Mechanic who is duty bound to recover a container of valuable jewels from his dead brother's wrecked yacht in the South Pacific. (Fun fact from Wikipedia: "Trustee from the Toolroom was voted #27 on the Modern Library Readers' list of the top 100 novels. The top ten in that poll, though, included four works by Ayn Rand and three by L. Ron Hubbard -- according to David Ebershoff, Modern Library's publishing director, 'the voting population [was] skewed.'")

During our chat, Dale told me he's read a bunch of Shute's other books, and he was kind enough to email me the next day with mini-reviews of them. I asked Dale if I could run his email on Boing Boing and he said OK. Here's what he wrote:

You have started with what I think is Nevil Shute's best book, but there are some really, really good ones:

A Town Like Alice No engineering, but a wonderful story about an English woman caught up in the Japanese invasion in Malaysia, then her transformation of a village and town later. It was made into a really well done mini series. (And a so-so version later on. Go for the long one, 6 hours but worth it.)

Slide Rule Shute's autobiography. You knew he started out in aviation engineering? One of his first jobs was helping to design one of a pair of airships for the British government. (He went on to found an aviation company, and later in life he had a home machine shop and made model engines.)

No Highway Another engineering one. A "boffin" (nerd) in aviation R&D has to act in the real world on his scientific beliefs. Was made into a great movie (was available on YouTube in its entirety at one point, but I don't see it now), and soon after a great radio drama (should be available online), both starring Marlene Dietrich and Jimmie Stewart. All are highly recommended!

The Far Country A sweet story (Shute had a romantic side), plus Shute was not happy about what was happening politically in England, and saw Australia (where he eventually moved) as offering the opportunities no longer possible in England.

Round the Bend Aviation mechanic starts a religion -- Engine maintenance as soulcraft. Set in the mideast post WWII.

The Chequerboard, Pastoral, Landfall, In the Wet -- all worth reading. And On the Beach is possibly his most well-known book for the powerful image of the results of a world-wide nuclear war. (It was made into a major movie, but I have not seen it.) It is not an upbeat story, though. Movie has some differences from the book that Shute did not like.

Shute's well-known trip to Australia by small plane is captured in Flight of Fancy by James Riddell. Bali is where Riddell lost his heart. There's some advantage in reading it after reading some of the books that came out of this flight -- A Town Like Alice, Round the Bend, The Chequerboard, In the Wet. (Aha -- that's where that scene came from.) It's on the outside looking in on Shute. Widely available used for about $15.

Be sure to poke around on the website for the Nevil Shute Norway Foundation. They do loan out books and movies (I donated my copy of the mini-series of A Town Like Alice). And every few years they have an international gathering. Next one is in NZ, I think.

My glib description of Tom Gauld's cartoons would be "a science fiction Edward Gorey." It's unfair though, because there's is only a superficial stylistic resemblance between the two writer/illustrators.

To read a Tom Gauld cartoon or illustrated book (see my reviews of The Gigantic Robot and Goliath) is to be entertained, but also to be affected on a deeper level, where timeless truths about the human condition wait for talents such as Gauld to tap a line into them and provide lesser mortals like me with a chance to taste them.

Gauld's new book, You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack came out yesterday, and it consists of single panels that explore the passage of time, absurdism, and most of the 7 Deadly Sins, all presented with a sense of graceful whimsy that makes his work such a delight to read. Below, a sampling of You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack.

Read the rest

Joe Sandor is looking for $13k on Kickstarter to fund his Pirate Pancake griddle project. It's a beaut. (I wrote about Joe's successful cast iron crepe pan Kickstarter last year).

Pirate Pancake griddle project

Make a screwdriver car key for that Gone in 60 Seconds feeling.

The Dick Van Dyke Show is one of my all time favorites (remember the great Twilight Zone-esque walnut episode?), and this 1963 photo from Look magazine makes me happy. Shorpy has a high-res version.

My friend James Gurney is the creator of Dinotopia, and he is a sketching fanatic. When I had lunch with him at Bob's Big Boy in Burbank a couple of years ago, he and his wife (also an artist) stayed at the restaurant after the meal to sketch street scenes. He just posted this excellent short video with a sketch he made of some men at the Santa Monica pier.

In 1981 I drew a portrait of two guys on the Santa Monica pier, then asked them to describe themselves into a tape recorder. For the first time, their faces and voices are brought together in a talking portrait.

Talking Portrait: 17th Street Locos

What are these? Even after reading the description, I'm not sure. But they are awfully cute. I'm adding these images to my swipe file for times when I need creative inspiration.
DIFFA + Interface

"[Henry] Gribbohm says he attended a Manchester carnival run by New Hampshire-based Fiesta Shows and wanted to win an Xbox Kinect at a game called Tubs of Fun where contestants toss balls into a tub. When he practiced he says it was easy, but something changed when he started playing for the prize and the balls kept popping out." -- CBS Boston

Read this comment at the Art of Manliness about crooked carnival games and crooked game operators.

UPDATE: I replaced the original video with Cowicide's "Thus Spake the Chimp with a Stick" version.

Daniel Richter makes an appearance at 0:57. (Via Unique Daily)

UPDATE: Rob made the movie poster. Can't wait for the summer premiere!

If you're not familiar with the story of the original Mars Attack trading cards from 1962, they were of a set of bubblegum cards with lurid paintings that told the story of a horrific invasion of Earth by hideous-looking Martians with giant exposed brains and rictus leers. When parents discovered the gruesome, violent, and sexually suggestive images on the cards, Topps was forced to pull them off the shelves, making them instant collectors' items (here's my post about an excellent Mars Attacks book that came out last year, and here's my Mars Attacks wall art with Jane posing next to it for scale).

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its most infamous product, Topps is busting out the stops with an all-new Mars Attack trading cards series (coming out this October), and I'm happy to report that the art is excellent! Last month I posted this cool painting by the 88-year-old pulp magazine legend Earl Norem, and a representative from Topps contacted me and asked if I'd like to run an exclusive sneak preview of the card art on Boing Boing. "Of course!" I said. Moments later, he sent me the following images, which include Norem's stunning concept sketches. Enjoy!

Read the rest

In this episode of Gweek, I talked to the terrific crime writer Duane Swierczynski. Duane has a new book out today, called Point & Shoot. It's the third and final novel in his Charlie Hardie series (see my review here). Next week, Dark Horse is releasing X #1, written by Duane. We talked about his novels, non-fiction work, and comic book writing (See my review of his comic book series, Bloodshot). We also geeked out on our favorite crime writers, and I added several authors to my list of books I want to read before I die.

RSS | On iTunes | Download Episode | Listen on Stitcher

What we talked about in this episode:

Fun & Games

Hell & Gone

Point & Shoot

The Wheel Man

The Blonde

Frauds, Scams, and Cons

Thanks to Soundcloud for hosting Gweek!

Have at it. My top score is 11 because I can't type.