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    Bonsai Kittens Vs Chunk 666

    jp | DIY, Musings, Networks, distribution, Reviews, Sustainability, imagery | Thursday, 22 August 2002

    kitten chunk
    A wrestling match of sorts this week – in the dragon’s lair. Slink yourself past the feline beasties roaming outside and witness the fitness indoors. BonsaiKitten.com, preservers of the long lost art of housepet body modification, take on crazed bicycle welders – Chunk 666.

    (( PS. this was my most commented article when it was over @ the now defunct octapod.org/jeanpoole. Seemed like someone must have forwarded this URL to a teenage Christian mailing list, judging by the flock of mortified kitten-lovers it attracted.. ))

    Strength
    A bonsai plant achieves its miniature yet mature form through a long and delicate process of trimming during the formative years of the tree. While it is not possible to trim a kitten, oriental artists are also expert in the modification of animal forms. Both foot-binding and head-binding can miniaturize the feet and shape the head into attractive yet sturdy shapes. This technique is also the principle behind the well-known corset, and part of the Bonsai Kitten’s strength.

    Chunk 666 are a bicycle club, working to hasten the heat death of the universe. They believe in the use of muscle-powered steeds which augment the physiology of their riders. Why bicycles with long extended choppers? “We ride these things because we have no choice. We ride them because life is short and should be painful as well. We ride them because we have a message to bring to the people: ‘Clear the streets! Return to your homes!’ “

    Constitution
    By physically constraining the growth of a developing living thing, it can be directed to take the shape of the vessel that constrains it. A quick browse of BK shows these kitties must be made of the right stuff. Hard to compete with the chunkers though:

    “After the imminent Apocalypse, gasoline and bullets will be rare. Those who already ride bicycles and shoot bb guns and slingshots today will easily dominate the huddled masses tomorrow. The laws of physics will change as well. Bicycles that are ridable now will be unridable in the future, while our apparently foolish machines lay waste to the world.”

    Dexterity
    At only a few weeks of age, a kitten’s bones have not yet hardened and become osseous. They are extremely soft and springy. The flexibility of the kitten’s skeleton means the bones can be gently warped at this early age, and molded into any desired shape. Bonsai Kitten place their kittens into a rigid vessel soon after birth, allowing the young cat to grow out its formative time entirely within a small glass jar.

    Sez chunk: Driving a car is similar to pushing buttons on a microwave oven, and the Magic Fingers effect of a motorcycle does not prevent its rider from growing an expansive belly. Chunk nullifies this effect by crafting cycles which induce a state of intoxication in their pilots. Each decimeter of length added to a chopper fork induces the equivalent effect of one standard can of earth beer, drunk within half a minute, on its pilot. Versatile, but the kitties score here.

    Intelligence
    Transcend housepets with the same mundane shape as all other members of its species. Put your Bonsai Kitten smart cap on and a world of variation awaits you, limited only by your own imagination.

    The chunkers provide remarkably innovative solutions to the problem of human-machine interaction. Along with stupendous bike-forks, they’ve also amassed a range of ass-killing banana seats, wheelie bars, visual and sonic distractors designed for sensual-info overload.

    Wisdom
    The Oriental art of miniature sculpture can produce marvellous beauty. Particularly wise, are this site’s well considered practices for dealing with the jarred kitten’s air, food and waste removal.

    Non-organically-powered vehicles tend to induce boredom in the people who are steering them. Much wiser to ride with Chunk. What’s it like? One cannot truly experience the experience without sitting one’s ass on a bike, taking off, and crashing.

    Charisma
    The kitten essentially grows into the shape of the vessel! Once the cat is fully developed, it is removed (or the vessel broken to remove it!), producing the lovable, furry pet you’ve always wanted, but it remains in the shape you’ve always dreamed of! Talk about charismatic bonus points!

    How could you not be charmed by the ‘Flaming Bikes of Death’? By choppers so long you can almost fit your bike across a whole intersection?

    As MrT said: “I’m talented and flexible. I could play Hamlet, even though I look like King Kong.” With talent like BonsaiKittens & Chunk 666, the only true winner is wrestling.

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    Steel Citi_Antix

    Peeps b.gettin their freek on in Newcastle again soon, with the return of the good ship Electrofringe, sailing thru from Oct 2-7 alongside the National young writers fest & the Sound Summit. Will be interviewing a few of the guest artists over the next few weeks, butt for now, tis snapshot time – sneek peeks @ soma tha sailors u might be playing with soon.

    The Light Surgeons
    Hailing from the UK, this crew investigates the spaces that lie somewhere in between music and
    cinema, aiming at times for what they call ‘live documentary’. Theres a few stylin vidi-yos on their
    site, but apparently their live combinings of turntables & digital sound games, mixed with projected
    films, video maniuplation and slides, are an even more sublime eoncunter.
    chek: www.thelightsurgeons.co.uk

    Johnny DeKron
    Straight outta the place where they used to have a big long wall in between the East and West,
    J-DeK gets under the pixel bonnet frequently for better access to real-time vid-yo manipulation. And
    doncha know, this Berlin boy’ll b.presenting some workshops and performances as well as his new
    vidi-yo software during what is known to some as Oktoberfest in Newcastle, ja.
    Bitte, bitte: www.thisserver.de/dekron

    Space Invader Man
    Maybe the world would be different if this boy had become infatuated with Pac�man instead, but as it
    is, there are walls and surfaces in cities scattered all over the globe bearing the work of this unusually
    inspired artist. The game of course, involves applying tiled pixelated space invader mosaics in weird
    urban areas and extensively documenting these transitions from the screen to the street, on the
    following, funny head-scratcher: www.space-invaders.com

    Patch Invaders
    Prepare for audio and visual abductions – by modular-code benders such as Spanky, tha effervescent
    Cindii duo, and Neurospikey Alex. Their extended, open, hands-on workshop on patching software
    will focus on sharing Patches, concepts & ideas, talking to fellow patchers, extending the patching
    community and working on techniques of communication between different patching paradigms.
    Peeps are encouraged to bring patches & computers and a gig will be involved later somehow. Hey,
    u know u wanna : www.4trak.net/patch

    Sound Summit Peeps
    More workshops, gigs and gallavanting amongst Newcastle’s thriving business district with all yr
    favourite buddies u haven#t seen in agessssssssss: neotropic (ninja tune uk), sage francis (anticon),
    kevin blechdom (tigerbeat6), manitoba, mitchell akiyama, battery operated & identification ( all from
    canada), dj luv (ninja tune uk), kog soundsystem (nz) and funkarmor (killer japan).

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    Cloner 2.0 (software review )

    jp | Musings, Networks, distribution, Reviews, Software, Sustainability | Friday, 02 August 2002

    Gotta love the internet. Earlier in the week, Clonaid’s South Korea office announced they’d made a Korean woman pregnant with an embryo clone. A few short emails later, they’d agreed to let me download a review copy of their revolutionary medical software Cloner 2.0 ( available for mac and PC at www.clonaid.com ).

    What is Human Cloning?
    Human cloning is a type of genetic engineering, but is not the same as true genetic manipulation. In human cloning, the aim is to duplicate the genes of an existing person so that an identical set is inside a human egg. The result is intended to be a cloned twin, perhaps of a dead child. Genetic engineering in its fullest form would result in the child produced having unique genes – as a result of laboratory interference, and therefore the child will not be an identikit twin.

    Getting Started:
    At the time of testing, Cloner v2.0 can only duplicate males. The procedure is fairly simple. Using an advanced South Korean set of algorithms and at least a 40XCD reader, this software allows the user to deposit a sperm sample on a CD, which is then inserted into the CD player for the computer. The software analyses this sample, and then, left to render overnight ( on a g3 / 333 mhz machine ), provides a customised set of genetic information related to the person sampled.

    A cable internet connection is then preferred ( don’t want any errors during a transmission like this), but even using a 56k modem, I was able to match up my information with the Clonaid Online Database over a matter of hours. During this process, the software cross-matched my information with their Genomic Sequence Writer technology, and produced a template ready for ‘printing’. For a fee ( yet to be decided on ), future users will be able to have Clonaid duplicate their genes, insert these into a human egg and courier mail to their home.

    Features:
    Cloner v2.0 has a simple, very intuitive interface which requires little knowledge of medicine or advanced science. Given the complex tasks at hand, the software performs very well on mid-range computers, though a good CD reading speed is essential. Browsing through the menu columns revealed a wide variety of variables and plug-ins, though with nothing as simple as ‘height’ or ‘skin-colour’ available. Future releases promise easier adjustable and capacities to draw on genetic information from other species.

    Cloner v2.0 & the Human Genome Project

    Not to be confused with the Dog Genome Project ( http://mendel.berkeley.edu/dog.html ), the Human Genome Project is the race by biotechnology firms around the world to map out the entire set of human genes. Cloner v2.0 connects to this database, and future versions will potentially be able to draw on features from different races around the world to customise your clone.

    What You’ll Need:
    $US 2500
    Mac: g3/333 min, g4/500 preferred, 256mb ram
    PC: Pentium II 600mhz or any intel clone, 256 mb ram.
    A suitable genetic profile. ( a small percentage of tests so far are incompatible for reproduction )

    Pros: – Incredible value, compared to IVF programs and black market cloning. – Farmers of headless foetuses will love Cloner 2.0’s abilities to quickly and easily make ‘spare parts and organs’ clones.

    Cons: – Can only duplicate males so far. – Could be used to try and develop a super-race of ‘perfect’ humans.

    Further reading:
    The Centre for Bioethics and Human DignityHuman Cloning Foundation
    Human Cloning, The How to Page

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