WATCHISMO TIME MACHINES - Timing is everything...
Joker cereal Beautiful photo of a volcanic eruption TOM THE DANCING BUG: Super-Fun-Pak Comix, Featuring Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Adventures, and MORE!! Inside the world's quietest room Students protesting tuition hikes pepper-sprayed by police in Santa Monica, CA TSA screener assaults airline pilot Why is Claude Shannon's Master's thesis behind a paywall Apps for Kids 016: Plug and the Paddywhacks Apps for Kids 016: Plug and the Paddywhacks Step Gently Out: kid's poem illustrated with gorgeous macro-photo portraits of backyard bugs Documentary about 1970s northern California Star Trek conventions SEXY-SYNTHESIZER's electronic remix of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" is my new jam Gallery of 1970s science fiction costumes Louis Vuitton carport Megaupload servers in limbo Man bought sketch by young Warhol for $5 DIY toy truck and oil lamp from Uganda Voice of Yakko Warner performs "Yakko's World" Oaksterdam 'Cannabis' University raided by DEA Killer bears, and the humans who track them down True Chinese factory horror stories Mike Daisey might have told, had he not been such a lying liar Linux Tycoon game simulates making your own Linux distro Stormtrooper Easter egg Game death Black Marine veteran, 68, shot dead by police after wearable medical alert gadget went off in error Leisure Suit Larry reboot kickstarted Sworcery on Steam On the history of books bound in human flesh Documentary about psychedelic chemists Alex and Ann Shulgin Joker cereal
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 04, 2012 11:56 am Sean Hartter has designed this notional Joker-brand cereal box. He notes that his FB friends quipped, "Why So Cereal", "You wanna see a Trix?" and "Whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you eat more delicious cereal"! Spend some times poking around on Hartter's site. He's very good at this sort of thing. JOKER BRAND CEREAL ...
Read in browser Beautiful photo of a volcanic eruption
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 04, 2012 11:55 am Volcano Tungurahua in Ecuador erupts about every 90 years—it's a schedule the mountain has kept for 1300 years. This photo was taken by Patrick Taschler in 2006. (Via Astronomy Photo of the Day and Alexandra Witze)
Read in browser TOM THE DANCING BUG: Super-Fun-Pak Comix, Featuring Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Adventures, and MORE!!
By Ruben Bolling on Apr 04, 2012 11:50 am That does it! You are NOT ALLOWED to visit the Tom the Dancing Bug website! What's that? Okay, young man/woman! You're ALSO not allowed to follow Ruben Bolling on TWITTER! Any more back-talk? I didn't think so.
Read in browser Inside the world's quietest room
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 04, 2012 11:49 am Anechoic chambers are pretty damn awesome. Basically, they're rooms designed to be sound-proofed against outside noise, while, inside, sound is prevented from bouncing off the walls. There's no echo. There's a number of ways you can build this, but one system at the University of Salford in England, is actually a room within a room, ...
Read in browser Students protesting tuition hikes pepper-sprayed by police in Santa Monica, CA
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 04, 2012 11:20 am (video: Jenna Chandler, Santa Monica Patch) Last night at Santa Monica College (about 20 blocks from the beach here in Los Angeles, CA), police pepper-sprayed some thirty students in a crowd of about 150 protesters. The students want affordable education. They gathered during a meeting of the college's board of trustees to voice opposition to ...
Read in browser TSA screener assaults airline pilot
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 04, 2012 11:01 am A TSA screener threw hot coffee over an airline pilot who asked her to stop using foul language in uniform. He was uninjured; the screener was charged with assault. [Daily Mail]
Read in browser Why is Claude Shannon's Master's thesis behind a paywall
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 04, 2012 10:18 am Hanan sez, "'A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits' by Claude Shannon can be viewed but cannot be printed. It's behind an MIT paywall. This thesis from 1937 predicted moderns digital circuitry. Why can't we print and read it at our convenience?" Update: Lew Pitcher found a different copy, also on MIT's servers, that ...
Read in browser Apps for Kids 016: Plug and the Paddywhacks
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 04, 2012 10:00 am Plug and the Paddywhacks. We also mentioned that we reviewed Toca Kitchen in Apps for Kids 004. Don't forget to be part of our "Listener Email" segment. If you would like to have us read your favorite game or gadget recommendation on the air, or if you have a question you'd like us to answer ...
Read in browser Apps for Kids 016: Plug and the Paddywhacks
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 04, 2012 10:00 am Plug and the Paddywhacks. We also mentioned that we reviewed Toca Kitchen in Apps for Kids 004. Don't forget to be part of our "Listener Email" segment. If you would like to have us read your favorite game or gadget recommendation on the air, or if you have a question you'd like us to answer ...
Read in browser Step Gently Out: kid's poem illustrated with gorgeous macro-photo portraits of backyard bugs
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 04, 2012 05:43 am Step Gently Out is children's picture book in which poet Helen Frost's verse accompanies the incredible garden insect photographs of artist/photographer Rick Lieder. I've written here many times about Rick's Bugdreams photos, and they never fail to impress and move me. Lieder's photographic portraits of bugs are all the sweeter for his method, which is ...
Read in browser Documentary about 1970s northern California Star Trek conventions
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 04, 2012 01:23 am Apropos yesterday's post about 1970s science fiction convention costumes, Strephon Taylor sez, "I just saw your post on the 1970's science fiction costumes. I made a documentary on the early northern California Star Trek conventions called "Back to Space-Con", it has a ton of costume footage, I think you will dig it. We have some ...
Read in browser SEXY-SYNTHESIZER's electronic remix of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" is my new jam
By Dean Putney on Apr 03, 2012 10:08 pm I've got chills. Listen to it on SoundCloud. Update: W.T. Snacks pointed me to their cover of the Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love, which he used for a spaztastic birthday party invite last year. There's a whole album of this powerfully awesome stuff on Amazon.
Read in browser Gallery of 1970s science fiction costumes
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 03, 2012 08:47 pm On IO9, Ron Miller has published a selection from his collection of photos of 1970s cosplayers, dating from a costuming epoch where nudity was a lot more common than it is today. Among the clothed pictures (not reproduced here) is one shot of Elfquest co-creator Wendy Pini as one of her own elves. One thing ...
Read in browser Louis Vuitton carport
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 03, 2012 08:21 pm Rusty Blazenhoff spotted a fashionable carport in Arizona. Today's ironic kitch is tomorrow's deranged legal threat from Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton! [Laughing Squid]
Read in browser Megaupload servers in limbo
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 03, 2012 07:58 pm Nate Anderson on the dilemma faced by Carpathia Hosting, in whose possession are a large number of expensive servers that cannot be released to new customers, but which no-one is paying for. [Ars Technica]
Read in browser Man bought sketch by young Warhol for $5
By David Pescovitz on Apr 03, 2012 07:00 pm In 2010, Andy Fields bought a $5 stash of paintings at a garage sale. When he later took one of the frames apart, he found the above sketch. Turns out, it's likely an Andy Warhol original that the Pop star drew when he was just nine or 10 years old. Fields told reporters that he ...
Read in browser DIY toy truck and oil lamp from Uganda
By David Pescovitz on Apr 03, 2012 06:43 pm Mike Lin of Fenix International, developers of cheap electricity solutions for off-grid use, just returned from Uganda where he picked up these excellent items at local markets. Kids make the toy trucks out of wire and the oil lamps are recycled bug repellent cans. Click image to see it larger.
Read in browser Voice of Yakko Warner performs "Yakko's World"
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 03, 2012 06:32 pm Here's a 2005 video of Rob Paulsen, who was the voice of Yakko Warner on the amazing Animaniacs cartoon, performing "Yakko's World," a fiendishly difficult and delightful Gilbert & Sullivanesque recital of the nations of the world set to the tune of the "Mexican Hat Dance." The song is from a 1993 episode of the ...
Read in browser Oaksterdam 'Cannabis' University raided by DEA
By Jason Weisberger on Apr 03, 2012 04:35 pm Oaksterdam University, America's "first cannabis college" was raided by the DEA yesterday, as well as the apartment of its founder Richard Lee. While the government has been fairly quiet about the reasons behind the raids, a local medical marijuana dispensary operator believes it has been done punitively. From the SF Chronicle: It was Lee, after ...
Read in browser Killer bears, and the humans who track them down
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 03, 2012 04:27 pm Freelance journalist Jessica Grose has a fascinating "long read" in Slate this week (and I'm not kidding about the long part, 8,000 words!) about Bear True Crimes: wild bears in and around Yellowstone National Park who, for one reason or another, attack humans. Why does this happen? What's it like for the humans who survive? ...
Read in browser True Chinese factory horror stories Mike Daisey might have told, had he not been such a lying liar
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 03, 2012 04:04 pm At the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, India-based journalist Adam Matthews writes about the rising labor movement in China. Below, a snip from his most recent piece on the phenomenon of "bloody factories" in China, which he argues is a far greater problem than Foxconn. Matthews interviews a labor advocate and self-taught "barefoot lawyer" for ...
Read in browser Linux Tycoon game simulates making your own Linux distro
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 03, 2012 04:00 pm Lunduke has created Linux Tycoon, a $4 sim-game that simulates making your own GNU/Linux distribution. It looks like rather a lot of fun, actually: So what exactly do you do in a Linux Distro Building game? So glad you asked! Here's some examples of the thrilling challenges you'll find in Linux Tycoon: * Analyzing and ...
Read in browser Stormtrooper Easter egg
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 03, 2012 03:03 pm Nicola sez, "I made this for my husband last weekend and he mentioned in passing that he thought I should send it in to you. I created it using a CraftRobo Pro cutter/ plotter, a stencil I made in illustrator and some sticky backed plastic and then painted over it with matt acrylic paint. Tidying ...
Read in browser Game death
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 03, 2012 02:53 pm Douglas Edric Stanley on death in games: "The 'game over' screen provides some sort of closure to the game and proposes — albeit post facto — a redefinition of the initiating act of the game: 'I want to play' has now been translated within the gameworld into 'I want to live'." [Creative Applications]
Read in browser Black Marine veteran, 68, shot dead by police after wearable medical alert gadget went off in error
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 03, 2012 02:51 pm The Trayvon Martin story remains in national headlines this week, but little media attention has been paid to a similarly troubling case: that of Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., a 68-year-old Marine vet killed in his home last November by police officers in White Plains, NY. The officers were responding to a false alarm accidentally triggered by ...
Read in browser Leisure Suit Larry reboot kickstarted
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 03, 2012 02:34 pm Al Lowe is kickstarting a new Leisure Suit Larry adventure game. Your fond memories of the 80s originals were recently ruined by awful 3D sequels which didn't involve him—or the original Sierra development team re-assembled for this new project. In an interview by Kill Screen's Rob Dubbin published today, Lowe talks comedy, misandry, and, of ...
Read in browser Sworcery on Steam
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 03, 2012 02:23 pm Sword & Sworcery, the beautiful hit adventure game for iPad, is coming to Windows PCs. Previously: the soundtrack; Less Talk, More Rock.
Read in browser On the history of books bound in human flesh
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 03, 2012 02:15 pm From "the chirurgeon's apprentice," a fascinating and squick-inducing blog/website devoted to chronicling "the horrors of pre-anaesthetic surgery," an entry about the history of books bound in tanned human skin. Snip from details about the image shown above: And then there were books which claimed to be made from the human flesh but were, in fact, ...
Read in browser Documentary about psychedelic chemists Alex and Ann Shulgin
By David Pescovitz on Apr 03, 2012 01:41 pm Dirty Pictures is a documentary about maverick chemist Alexander 'Sasha' Shulgin and his wife Ann Shulgin, heroes of psychedelic culture who for more than forty years have independently synthesized and studied hundreds of psychoactive compounds, from MDMA to 2C-B to a variety of tryptamines, in their home laboratory. You can watch the entire documentary above ...
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