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A directory of wonderful sounds Portal 2 DLC: Perpetual Testing Initiative trailer Where electricity comes from Gallery of cute lunches that Heather makes for her son Ezra's cardboard pinball machine Great moments in pedantry: Raptor vs. raptor Band and label president had no idea copyright trolls were suing on their behalf Groovy green-haired embroidery artist of the 1930s, Constance Howard Beautiful photos from the Hubble Space Telescope How to: Read science news Car-full of kids sing Bohemian Rhapsody on the school-run Utilitarianism's darkly comical pitfalls Gone to Amerikay: masterful, heart-tugging Irish immigrant graphic novel Blogging '76 ShopBot Sober Is My New Drunk, by Paul Carr UK Border Authority orders Heathrow to suppress evidence of massive customs queues Hyperlocal news manifesto Just Do It environmental outlaw activist documentary screening, free online for May Day Data versus diabetes Dog hunts wolf (video) Two fine young ladies cosplaying "Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt" anime (photo) Sad Schlitz Beer Clown is Sad (vintage ad) To do in LA: Stanley Donwood show at Subliminal Projects East London residents warned of surface-to-air missiles sited on their roofs for the Olympics 75p/h on the high seas (tipping optional) A directory of wonderful sounds
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2012 12:50 pm Carnegie Mellon University's Auditory Lab has a huge collection of high-quality audio recordings of random sounds—from a marble dropped onto sheet metal, to bubble wrap being popped, to crumpling newspaper, to the sound of a sponge being squeezed out over empty tupperware. I trust you all will come up with fun uses for this stuff. ...
Read in browser Portal 2 DLC: Perpetual Testing Initiative trailer
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 30, 2012 12:37 pm [Video Link] A terrific trailer for Portal 2 DLC: Perpetual Testing Initiative, coming May 2, 2012. (Via What the Christ)
Read in browser Where electricity comes from
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2012 12:35 pm Electricity is generated at power plants. You know that already. But to really understand how it gets to your house—and why you can count on it getting there reliably—you have to understand that our electric system is more complicated than it looks. The electric grid isn't just about you and your connection to a power ...
Read in browser Gallery of cute lunches that Heather makes for her son
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 30, 2012 12:12 pm Heather Sitarzewski says: I decided during this past summer that I wanted to make a fun bento every day for my son's lunches this school year. I dug around online for a bit to see ideas and found some very fun sites that have recipes and tutorials for how to manipulate food into shapes and ...
Read in browser Ezra's cardboard pinball machine
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 30, 2012 12:03 pm [Video Link] Young Ezra saw Nirvan Mullick's Caine's Arcade video and was inspired to make this neat cardboard pinball machine, using Makedo cardboard fasteners. Ezra's cardboard pinball machine
Read in browser Great moments in pedantry: Raptor vs. raptor
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2012 12:02 pm Events like this make an excellent case study for palaeozoologist Darren Naish's argument that we need to find a new nickname for dromaeosaurids—one that is not already being used by a significantly less terrifying class of animals. "Hey everybody, let's go to the Spring Raptor Release!" is kind of the "Let's eat, Grandma!" of species ...
Read in browser Band and label president had no idea copyright trolls were suing on their behalf
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 30, 2012 11:59 am The heavy metal band All Shall Perish and the president of their label, Nuclear Blast, were horrified to discover that a copyright troll called World Digital Rights had filed a suit against 180 music fans accused of sharing an ASP album online. The band and the label's president said that they had no knowledge a ...
Read in browser Groovy green-haired embroidery artist of the 1930s, Constance Howard
By Mark Frauenfelder on Apr 30, 2012 11:55 am Jenny Hart, proprietor of Sublime Stitching, likes to collect books about embroidery. In this recent essay on her blog, Jenny writes about Constance Howard, one of her favorite embroiderers. Jenny has long been a fan of Howard and her books, because Howard was ahead of her time when it came to artful embroidery, and also ...
Read in browser Beautiful photos from the Hubble Space Telescope
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2012 11:48 am At the Brain Pickings blog, Maria Popova has some amazing images, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope during its 22 years of operation. I love this one. It's such a great reminder of the time scales of space—the remnants of things that happened 1000 years ago are still moving through the cosmos, even while humans ...
Read in browser How to: Read science news
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on Apr 30, 2012 11:22 am How you read matters as much as what you read. That's because nothing is written in a vacuum. Every news story or blog post has a perspective behind it, a perspective that shapes what you are told and how that information is conveyed. This is not, necessarily, a bad thing. Having a perspective doesn't mean ...
Read in browser Car-full of kids sing Bohemian Rhapsody on the school-run
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 30, 2012 10:51 am Southlandification and his brood perform a high-Wayne's-World orthodox Bohemian Rhapsody ceremony every day on the way to school: It has become a morning habit to sing Bohemian Rhapsody on the way to school in the morning. Depending on traffic, we can usually start the song as we pull out of the driveway, and pull into ...
Read in browser Utilitarianism's darkly comical pitfalls
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 30, 2012 10:00 am A characteristically great Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal installment explores the hidden pitfalls of extreme utilitarianism. I just re-read Starship Troopers and was once again struck by Heinlein's strange idea of a scientifically provable "moral philosophy" that puts every human situation to the test of being expressed in symbolic logic to weigh its validity. We created ...
Read in browser Gone to Amerikay: masterful, heart-tugging Irish immigrant graphic novel
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 30, 2012 09:23 am Gone to Amerikay is a masterfully told tear-jerker of a graphic novel that tells the stories of multiple generations of Irish immigrants to New York, skilfully braided together. There's a storyline from 1870, the tale of Ciara O'Dwyer and her baby daughter who arrive in the Five Points slum ahead of Ciara's husband, who is ...
Read in browser Blogging '76
By Rob Beschizza on Apr 30, 2012 09:08 am Stephen Thompson's nonfiction project—publishing his 1976 high school journal as a blog and book—soon attracted the attention of a novelty book publisher. But he is instead kickstarting it, to ensure the right tone is kept: "my blog surprised me by really reaching out to a lot of people around the world who could relate, and ...
Read in browser ShopBot
By Cool Tools on Apr 30, 2012 09:01 am The ShopBot is a low-cost CNC, or computer controlled router. Think of it as a large-scale milling machine. It is great for small-scale production runs of machine parts in wood or metal. A friend of mine used his ShopBot to cut the gears and mechanism (other than the chime) for a full-scale replica of a ...
Read in browser Sober Is My New Drunk, by Paul Carr
By John Biggs on Apr 30, 2012 08:38 am Sometimes enough is enough, and memoirist Paul Carr exemplifies this maxim. His previous books - Bringing Nothing To The Party and The Upgrade - were tales told from the bottom of a champagne glass. The first book, a rollicking story about how Carr started and destroyed an Internet business, was punctuated by drunken antics that ...
Read in browser UK Border Authority orders Heathrow to suppress evidence of massive customs queues
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 30, 2012 01:20 am The UK Border Authority has ordered Heathrow Airport's management to stop handing out leaflets apologising for the gigantic customs queues at its terminals and advising them to contact UKBA to complain. UKBA has also ordered the airport to stop passengers from documenting these queues with photographs. I came into Heathrow T5 on April 13, and ...
Read in browser Hyperlocal news manifesto
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 29, 2012 09:04 pm Ned Berke, editor of the Sheepshead Bites site -- which provides comprehensive local news for the neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay -- has a great manifesto about the delights and rewards of making hyperlocal news. I believe local journalism, local government and local economies are the linchpins of a vibrant, healthy nation. For decades, as conglomerates ...
Read in browser Just Do It environmental outlaw activist documentary screening, free online for May Day
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 29, 2012 07:10 pm Emily sez, Just Do It - a tale of modern-day outlaws is an exciting new documentary which takes you behind the scenes of the secret world of environmental direct action in the UK. Granted unprecedented access to film, director Emily James embedded herself inside a group of nonviolent UK activists as they shut down airports, ...
Read in browser Data versus diabetes
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 29, 2012 05:06 pm My friend Dan Hon was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. The news shook him. He resolved to do something about it. Being a geek, he decided to measure and quantify the health factors (weight, body fat, activity, blood sugar) that contribute to diabetes. He's lost 30 lbs since the new year, and has gotten pretty ...
Read in browser Dog hunts wolf (video)
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 29, 2012 04:05 pm [Video Link] Stay with it. "Rasta the Vizsla slowly stalks down a wolf on a golf course. This is real time, not slowed down." From YouTuber LifeIsQuick. (thanks, Joe Sabia!)
Read in browser Two fine young ladies cosplaying "Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt" anime (photo)
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 29, 2012 04:01 pm These women are fans of the Japanese television series "Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt" (which, by the way, is coming soon to the US on DVD). Photographed at the Vancouver Fan Expo #7, April 2012, by Jazman. He has more wonderful shots in this Flickr set. (via BB Flickr Pool)
Read in browser Sad Schlitz Beer Clown is Sad (vintage ad)
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 29, 2012 03:50 pm Image Link. From the excellent Flickr collection of MewDeep (lots of '60s-'70s ad scans), via BB Flickr Pool.
Read in browser To do in LA: Stanley Donwood show at Subliminal Projects
By Xeni Jardin on Apr 29, 2012 03:31 pm Artist Stanley Donwood, whose work you may know through the many Radiohead album covers and inserts he's done in collaboration with the band, has an exhibition at Shepard Fairey's Subliminal Projects gallery: Lost Angeles. Up through May 26, 2012.
Read in browser East London residents warned of surface-to-air missiles sited on their roofs for the Olympics
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 29, 2012 03:00 pm Residents of a gated community in east London got Ministry of Defence leaflets through their doors advising them that their roofs might be commandeered for surface-to-air missiles during the London Olympics this summer. The MoD assured them that the missiles on their roof "will only be authorised for active use following specific orders from the ...
Read in browser 75p/h on the high seas (tipping optional)
By Cory Doctorow on Apr 29, 2012 01:47 pm What's worse than making 75p/h working on a cruise ship owned by Carnival? Having your employers withhold your tips unless you hit performance targets. "Yes, the minimum wage is more than we pay, but this is a global industry, our businesses have to remain competitive."
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