Forget about electronic ink. This month Opium Magazine’s cover is showing a story that is not there now, but will reveal itself over a thousand years, word for word, thanks to a specially-formulated ink.

His creator, American conceptual artist Jonathon Keats wrote the story and came up with the idea. Nobody knows what the 1,000-year story will tell—or if the paper will actually last that long—but his concept is cool:

The story is an antidote to instant gratification. Who cares what’s actually written?

Well, I do now. The longest tale ever starts on May 21 in your nearest news stand carrying fancy-schmancy magazines. [Opium Magazine-Thanks Jonathon]

In our original post, we speculated that using a gun stock for shooting a camera seemed like a good way for a photographer to get shot. And we wondered how common these stocks could be. Duran wrote back with a short, informed response, but I was able to twist his arm into telling us a bit more.

Pointing a long lens mounted on a stock is indeed a recipe for getting shot if you’re not careful. In fact in training at Fort McCoy, Wi., I was “shot” by Soldiers on practice missions.

I was not where they expected me to be… i.e. mixed in with the opposition who happened to be shooting at them at the time. Thus, I was “shot” at with blanks during the training even though I was in uniform. They *saw* what they assumed was a rifle in an area where bad guys were shooting at them..

This, of course, is why we train. Even as military media, we need to train in realistic conditions. It was a learning event for both myself and the Soldiers in training.

At Kajaki Dam in Afghanistan, I was there to get some on the ground coverage for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Afghan National Army. The Afghan National Army troops there are “spot on” as the Brits say and the dam has great strategic importance. There are lots of bad guys.
I took my Bushhawk stock along for the ride out to Kajaki. The stock is of limited use as in remote regions such as this, the local population has never seen a DSLR so they limited trust when you’re pointing a long lens at them. In operations where we were going patrols or at night with night vision I’d use it a lot. However, when going where the bad guys are, there is little worry as I was with some of the best Soldiers in the world.

Okay, so why risk losing your life. Good question. Lemme see if I can figure it out.

Ok. It is an extremely stable platform to shoot pictures with (i.e. that’s why rifles are designed that way). It is very natural and comfortable which results in good images. When using long lenses, holding the camera steady is damn important.

Plus, you can sling the camera stock while walking. This is very important when trying to keep up with Soldiers that are in *much* better shape than you (lost 9 kilos during the tour). Although I’m a Reservist, there’s only one standard… so I have to keep up with Olympic-grade athletes when on Active duty.

Monopods work very well but are a pain in the arse when on the move. You have to open them, then close them when you’re going to roll out. Which happens unexpectedly at times :)

Handholding with two hands is about the only way and how most of the world gets it done. I would not advise *any* media in a war zone to use a stock. In my case, I’m a member of the armed forces and I’m with the guys with the guns. We used to joke about it in that the Taliban would wonder if we bought some some secret weapon since we were the only Americans at Kajaki. Either way, the bad guys would shoot at me anyway on any patrols with little regard if I had a camera or a rifle.

My main thing was not to make the local population feel threatened…
I have to say that there is something inherently fun about shooting a camera like a rifle. It is really more fun than I should admit. I found myself grinning every time I used the darn thing.

I guess there’s just something obsessive with me and rifle stocks for cameras. I actually designed one in drafting class in high-school but it wasn’t until this last tour that I ponied up the cheese to buy one. It’s just a lot of fun.

- Jeff Duran

or Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Duran one weekend a month, two weeks a year (unless called to go to far away places and meet new people… and take their picture).

A special thanks to Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Duran for writing in and sharing his experiences. You can see more of his photos here and here.

The Tag Junior pal is built for kids as young as two years old. The cute little guy is picked up and held on any page of a Tag Junior book, which it then reads aloud, emitting fun sound effects and music too, all using infrared cameras to follow along, and embedded memory to hold the book data. Parents also can download audio for each book in the Tag Junior library, and manage the MP3s and photo files using a Mac or PC.

The Tag Junior library will include titles such as Curious George: Colour Fun, Disney Pooh Loves To… and Dora the Explorer: 1-2-3 Dora!. The whole system will be available later this summer. Heh, and to think the highlight of my childhood was staring in front of the old boobtube watching Reading Rainbow.

[Leapfrog at Gizmodo]

Like Giz reader Brian, who had this sweet post-xmas story to tell us about his dad:

I went back to MI to my parent’s place this year for Christmas. My dad’s gift this year was a new 10 mega pixel digital camera with all the bells and whistles.

While helping him figure out his new gadget I thought it would be fun to put pictures on the nice Kodak digital photo frame that I gave them for Christmas last year. So I ask my dad, “where is your digital frame”? Imagine my confusion when he points the frame out to me. See attached files.

God bless them. Reminds me of my beloved mother-in-law, who refers to her MacBook as “the television”.

Do you have any funny stories with your parents or grandparents you would like to share? Send them our way. [Thanks Brian]

“Like grandpa has,” she explains.
“Oh, an iPhone!” I realise, pulling my own iPhone out for her to confirm.
“Yes, like that one. But in white.”

It was an interesting revelation, especially when I later found out that my sister uses a pink RAZR. Note to self: get sis a better phone next Christmas and never trust my niece again.