Bobbie Johnson writes,
New crowdfunded science and tech publisher MATTER launches today
Earlier this year Boing Boing wrote about a Kickstarter project to produce serious, in-depth, long-form online journalism. Today, after months of work, we're launching with the publication of our first story, "Do No Harm" – an 8,000 report that uncovers a network of people suffering from a fringe condition known as Body Integrity Identity Disorder. People who suffer from BIID are at war with their own bodies – specifically one or more of their limbs, which they feel utterly disconnected from in a way that most of us would struggle to understand.
But the feelings that BIID triggers are so powerful that sufferers are often driven to relieve their pain in the most drastic way – by self-amputation or, in some cases, paying a sympathetic surgeon to cut off the affected limb.
Our reporter, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy, unearthed a network of sufferers in America who travel to Asia for off-the-books operations — and even travelled with one patient as he went to get the most extreme therapy imaginable.
MATTER's stories are available to buy and read through our website or as part of Amazon's Kindle Singles program, for $0.99 — and anyone purchasing on our site gets a DRM-free ebook as part of the deal (or sign up to receive one story each month and we give you loads of extra goodies like audiobook downloads!)
(Thanks, Bobbie!)
(Image: Brian Lee)
