[Sponsor] Three new Limited Edition Mondaine Giant Watches of Switzerland were introduced at Watchismo this week. Check out the perfectly minimal raw steel and anthracite dial follow-ups to the popular 'Giant' collection use the instantly recognizable Swiss Railways clock dial, emulating a time-honored design present in every Swiss train station. The distinct Mondaine design is so easy to read that it serves its purpose at any size, but there is something majestic about these larger, domed-dial giants.
25,000% increase in website traffic leads to 0.048% increase in e-book sales Spoiler: Indie after-the-zombies movie Congress's vocabulary falls a full grade level in seven years NYPD officer threatens man with rape in cellphone video BitTorrent Inc. sues BitTorrent Marketing GmbH Miles O'Brien on SpaceX Launch: "Space for the Rest of Us" SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon launch succeeds: first commercial company ever to send spacecraft to ISS Blood of the Gipper Pro-tip: don't fire workers for complaining about the piss bucket Judge invalidates Kodak patent Pastor proposes 100 mile fence to house homosexuals Parents panic after putting child in laundromat washer Petition to "require free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research." All-in-one slipcased edition of Sandman 8-bit Radiohead Mysterious beach rocks explode in woman's pocket Earth Ponds Commodore 64 keytar weilded by rollerskating hacker Furniture made by pouring molten aluminum over wood Do not taunt happy fun alligator Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, Grandmaster Flash's First Record Making a spider-lamp out of 8 cheap Ikea anglepoise knockoffs Mucca Pazza's video for "Boss Taurus" 15-year-old blow-dart sniper arrested in Brooklyn Why lavatory ashtrays are mandatory on nonsmoking flights Disneyland's tiki bar has its own tiki mugs Year of the Beasts: young adult comics/prose story of the summer when it all changed How to: Collect 6,000-year-old swamp mud Four people dead on Mt. Everest, one still missing Crappy parking app design fiction 25,000% increase in website traffic leads to 0.048% increase in e-book sales
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 22, 2012 01:00 pm Cartoonist Lars Martinson submitted the first installment of the Kameoka Diaries to Reddit. As a result, his website, which gets about 100 visitors a day, had 48,342 visitors in a single day. He thought he might sell a couple hundred more ebooks than usual because of the new influx of visitors. That was a gross ...
Read in browser Spoiler: Indie after-the-zombies movie
By Cory Doctorow on May 22, 2012 12:53 pm Spoiler is an independently produced 17-minute horror/science fiction movie that illuminates the kinds of cold equations that have to be solved in pandemic outbreaks. In this case, it's the story of the coroners who keep the zombie plague under control after it's been beaten back. It's a good twist on the traditional zombie movie, and ...
Read in browser Congress's vocabulary falls a full grade level in seven years
By Cory Doctorow on May 22, 2012 12:53 pm Nicko from the Sunlight Foundation sez, The U.S. Congress speaks at nearly a full grade level lower than it did seven years ago, according to a new Sunlight Foundation analysis. Using the CapitolWords.org website -- which features the most popular words and phrases in the Congressional Record since 1996 -- Sunlight reviewed the vocabulary and ...
Read in browser NYPD officer threatens man with rape in cellphone video
By Xeni Jardin on May 22, 2012 12:52 pm In this cellphone video, NYPD sergeant Lesly Charles threatens a group of men with his gun and threatens to rape them, while simultaneously condoning their criminal behavior of "hustling." The New York Post first published this video, recorded and shared by one of the young men and shared under anonymity. "I have the long d--k. ...
Read in browser BitTorrent Inc. sues BitTorrent Marketing GmbH
By Rob Beschizza on May 22, 2012 12:50 pm Legally, it's a run of the mill trademark dispute; discussion threads around the net, however, reveal it as a Rorschach test separating lovers of situational irony from sarcastic morons. [Threat Level]
Read in browser Miles O'Brien on SpaceX Launch: "Space for the Rest of Us"
By Xeni Jardin on May 22, 2012 12:42 pm At the PBS Newshour site, an analysis of what today's historic SpaceX launch means for the future of space flight, by veteran space journalist Miles O'Brien. Space is hard and unforgiving and there is still a lot of challenging work ahead for the SpaceX Dragon team. I would not pop the champagne corks just yet. ...
Read in browser SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon launch succeeds: first commercial company ever to send spacecraft to ISS
By Xeni Jardin on May 22, 2012 12:32 pm The Falcon 9 rocket's engines ignite on the SpaceX launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, May 22, 2012. Photo: SpaceX Before dawn today at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft to orbit. The mission makes SpaceX the first commercial space flight ...
Read in browser Blood of the Gipper
By Jason Weisberger on May 22, 2012 12:24 pm The San Jose Mercury news reports that a vial of 40th US President Ronald Reagan's blood is up for auction. Reputedly, the blood was taken from a lab in Maryland, with permission, after the infamous 1981 assassination attempt. This doesn't sit well with the people managing Reagan's foundation: The plan has provoked an angry response ...
Read in browser Pro-tip: don't fire workers for complaining about the piss bucket
By Rob Beschizza on May 22, 2012 12:22 pm "Two workers who claimed they were forced to urinate in a bucket have been awarded $332,000 after a jury found they were fired for complaining to Oregon regulators about the lack of an onsite toilet." [The Oregonian]
Read in browser Judge invalidates Kodak patent
By Rob Beschizza on May 22, 2012 12:16 pm Kodak's Hail Mary business plan isn't working out. [NYT]
Read in browser Pastor proposes 100 mile fence to house homosexuals
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 22, 2012 12:03 pm [Video Link] "I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers. Build a great, big, large fence -- 50 or 100 mile long -- put all the lesbians in there, drop some food down. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they ...
Read in browser Parents panic after putting child in laundromat washer
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 22, 2012 11:57 am [Video Link] These parents thought it would be fun to give junior a short ride in a washer at the laundromat. But the door had an auto lock and panic ensued.
Read in browser Petition to "require free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research."
By Cory Doctorow on May 22, 2012 11:43 am Here's a worthy petition on the WhiteHouse.Gov site: Require free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research. We believe in the power of the Internet to foster innovation, research, and education. Requiring the published results of taxpayer-funded research to be posted on the Internet in human and machine readable form ...
Read in browser All-in-one slipcased edition of Sandman
By Cory Doctorow on May 22, 2012 11:37 am Here's some lovely news: DC is bringing out an all-ten-volumes-in-one-slipcase edition of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Gaiman writes, "I'm thrilled. You have no idea how long I've been asking DC to do one of these. (Er, about 16 years.)" The all-ten-volumes-in-one-slipcase-edition of SANDMAN Amazon pre-order page (via Wil Wheaton)
Read in browser 8-bit Radiohead
By Rob Beschizza on May 22, 2012 11:34 am Quinton Sung created full-album chiptune covers of Radiohead's OK Computer and Kid A. [via Pitchfork, Killscreen, Waxy]
Read in browser Mysterious beach rocks explode in woman's pocket
By Rob Beschizza on May 22, 2012 11:19 am Otherwise unremarkable rocks, collected on a California beach, began spewing fire, acrid smoke and an oily residue. Leaving some in a pocket sent one woman to hospital and rendered her home a temporarily uninhabitable hazmat site. The rocks, described as a smooth orange colored one and a smaller green one, have been sent to a ...
Read in browser Earth Ponds
By Cool Tools on May 22, 2012 11:09 am Ponds can be used for swimming, wildlife magnets, irrigation, iceskating, fire protection, water gardening, landscaping, and fishing. You can build your own pond in your backyard, farm, or wherever. Tim Matson is the established guru of building ponds with an earth-seal, rather than with a plastic or concrete lining. For 30 years he's been creating, ...
Read in browser Commodore 64 keytar weilded by rollerskating hacker
By Cory Doctorow on May 22, 2012 11:06 am Legendary hardware hacker Jeri Ellsworth (world's most awesome C64 hacker and all round happy mutant), entertained attendees at the Maker Faire with her brilliant Commodore 64 bass keytar, which she played while wearing rollerskates. Ellsworth noted via Twitter that it uses the SID chip and is based on an FPGA - a re-implementation of the ...
Read in browser Furniture made by pouring molten aluminum over wood
By Rob Beschizza on May 22, 2012 11:01 am Hilla Shamia creates beautiful, weird furniture by placing logs inside molds and filling them with molten aluminum: "The negative factor of burnt wood is transformed into aesthetic and emotional value by preservation of the natural form of the tree trunk, within explicit boundaries. The general, squared form intensifies the artificial feeling, and at the same ...
Read in browser Do not taunt happy fun alligator
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 22, 2012 10:57 am [Video Link] Gator doesn't take kindly to having a towel placed over its head and being straddled by a bipedal mammal. (Via Arbroath)
Read in browser Brain Rot: Hip Hop Family Tree, Grandmaster Flash's First Record
By Ed Piskor on May 22, 2012 10:51 am Read the rest of the Hip Hop Family Tree comics!
Read in browser Making a spider-lamp out of 8 cheap Ikea anglepoise knockoffs
By Cory Doctorow on May 22, 2012 10:43 am Budapest designer Petra Nikoletti bought eight Ikea Forsa lamps and a salad bowl and had a locksmith precision fit them into a "spider lamp": "I bought 8 Ikea FORSÅ table lamp, and only used the arms and the heads. A custom-made cylinder is holding them and a Blanda Blank Serving Bowl (20 cm, painted black) ...
Read in browser Mucca Pazza's video for "Boss Taurus"
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 22, 2012 10:40 am [Video Link] Mucca Pazza says: "from our new full-length album, Safety Fifth, available on CD and 12" vinyl from Electric Cowbell Records on June 12, 2012." (Via Filled with Chocolate Pudding!)
Read in browser 15-year-old blow-dart sniper arrested in Brooklyn
By Mark Frauenfelder on May 22, 2012 10:34 am "Suddenly, I felt like a punch in my thigh. I saw a needle in my leg and the second time in my stomach," said one of three people who were shot by a blow-dart sniper on Sunday. One 15-year-old boy was arrested yesterday, and police are on the lookout for his alleged accomplice, also 15. ...
Read in browser Why lavatory ashtrays are mandatory on nonsmoking flights
By Cory Doctorow on May 22, 2012 10:13 am Matt Simmons, who writes the Standalone Sysadmin blog, has been wondering why there are ashtrays in airplane toilets, even though you aren't allowed to smoke anywhere on or near an airplane, and you haven't been allowed to do so for quite some time. It turns out that airplane toilet ashtrays are mandatory: "Regardless of whether ...
Read in browser Disneyland's tiki bar has its own tiki mugs
By Cory Doctorow on May 22, 2012 10:10 am Trader Sam's, the (fab) Trader Vic's knockoff tiki bar at the Disneyland Hotel, has rolled out its own line of souvenir tiki mugs, which are reminiscent of the old Trader Vic's mugs, but with rather good designs that are all their own. New Tiki mugs are Trader Sam's Barrel Mug, with Shipwreck on the Rocks ...
Read in browser Year of the Beasts: young adult comics/prose story of the summer when it all changed
By Cory Doctorow on May 22, 2012 08:49 am Cecil Castellucci -- indie-rock star, young adult author, and all round cool-ass polymath -- has joined forces with illustrator Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole) to produce The Year of the Beasts, an extraordinary hybrid of young adult novel and graphic novel. Beasts is the story of Tessa and her younger sister Lulu, townie girls in ...
Read in browser How to: Collect 6,000-year-old swamp mud
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 22, 2012 08:30 am Photo:Eric Niller I spent last weekend in the Harvard Forest, participating in hands-on science experiments as part of the Marine Biological Laboratory's science journalism fellowship. The goal was to give us an inside look at what, exactly, scientists actually do. When you're reading a peer-reviewed scientific research paper, where did all that data come from? ...
Read in browser Four people dead on Mt. Everest, one still missing
By Maggie Koerth-Baker on May 22, 2012 07:31 am A long line of climbers follow each other up Mt. Everest. Image: Ralf Dujmovits. 1996 was the deadliest year in the history of modern climbing on Mt. Everest. In one May weekend, eight people died when they were caught on the mountain in a storm. Over the course of the year, the death toll climbed ...
Read in browser Crappy parking app design fiction
By Cory Doctorow on May 22, 2012 01:38 am The Village presents a video design fiction (?) for "Parking Douche," an app that lets you photograph the number plates of crappily parked cars in your neighborhood (in Russia) and submit them to a database. The app then buys hyper-geo-targeted ads that block the text on the websites being read by people in the same ...
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