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- WorldWideWeb: 18 years in the public domain
- Badger attack!
- HOWTO Make a Portal Sentry Turret egg-cup
- Anonymous dumps huge torrent of Chamber of Commerce docs
- RIP, Joanna Russ
- Cool Tools Quick Fix Contest
- PR stunts of the literary greats
- Troubletwisters: Garth Nix and Sean Williams' action-packed new kids' fantasy
| WorldWideWeb: 18 years in the public domain Posted: 30 Apr 2011 06:07 PM PDT  Eighteen years ago today, CERN released the source code of WorldWideWeb -- the first Web browser and editor -- into the public domain. Tim Berners-Lee has some screen shots of the browser at his CERN page. CERN's intention in this is to further compatibility, common practices and standards in networking and computer supported collaboration.WorldWideWeb (Wikipedia, via Imaginary Foundation)
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| Posted: 30 Apr 2011 01:06 PM PDT |
| HOWTO Make a Portal Sentry Turret egg-cup Posted: 29 Apr 2011 11:38 PM PDT  If you enjoyed markt022002's Portal Easter Egg, you'll love Supernewby's "Make your own Portal Sentry Turret Egg Cup" Instructable: Make your own Portal Sentry Turret Egg Cup (via Craft) |
| Anonymous dumps huge torrent of Chamber of Commerce docs Posted: 30 Apr 2011 11:13 AM PDT SDZion sez, "Anonymous has released a 1.2GB document dump consisting of thousands of documents. The torrent mostly contains information regarding the US Chamber of Commerce, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), over which the Koch brothers are said to exercise considerable influence."   |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2011 11:25 PM PDT Legendary feminist science fiction author Joanna Russ died yesterday after a series of strokes. She was 74. Russ was the author of The Female Man and many other science fiction classics. Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden remember Russ in their own way; Patrick with a long quote from The Female Man; Teresa with this lovely remembrance of the time she spent with her: You can learn more about Russ and her contribution to the field and to feminist thought in On Joanna Russ, the scholarly volume edited by Farah Mendelsohn. |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2011 11:20 AM PDT When things break down it's not likely you'll have the tools needed to make a perfect fix. That's why for this week's contest we are looking for quick fixes. These aren't meant to be perfect, but rather stop-gaps that will let you get by until you have the resources needed for a longer term solution. We want you to send us your tools, tips, and accumulated know-how that allow for quick fixes when things break down. For this contest we have a special prize pack graciously contributed by Jane ni Dhulchaointigh, inventor of the quick-fix wonder-material Sugru. The winner of the Quick Fix Contest will receive three Smart Hacks Super Packs of Sugru, and a special Maker themed T-Shirt. Runner up will receive their own Sugru Super Pack. Be sure to check out Sugru's gallery of uses for inspiration. There is no limit to how many tools, tips, and quick fixes you can submit, but remember to keep the following five parts in mind: 1) a succinct description of what the tool/tip/fix is, Submissions will be accepted until Wednesday, May 11th. This time the author of the most publishable tool/tip/fix will receive three Sugru Super Packs (or, if they'd like somethin else they can choose what they'd like from the Prize Pool). For inspiration, here are some previously reviewed Quick Fix Cool Tools: -- Oliver Hulland, Editor, Cool Tools   |
| PR stunts of the literary greats Posted: 29 Apr 2011 11:34 PM PDT Tony Perrottet's "How Writers Build the Brand" for the New York Times Sunday Book Review is a fascinating look at the ways that great writers through the ages have sought to present themselves to the public through the press, from Stendhal's admitted "shamelesness [and] out-and-out charlatanism" to Hemingway's carefully staged hyper-macho photo ops. Even Herodotus did a self-funded book-tour in 440BC that climaxed with a recitation of "Histories" to the Olympic Games. It goes on and on. Whitman astroturfed anonymous reviews of his own books; Nabokov asked photo editors to "feature him as a lepidopterist prancing about the forests in cap, shorts and long socks" and Virginia Woolf had British Vogue's fashion editor take her on a fashion remake in the boutiques of Paris. How Writers Build the Brand (via The Awl) (Image: Ernest_Hemingway_on_safari,_1934, Wikimedia Commons/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.) |
| Troubletwisters: Garth Nix and Sean Williams' action-packed new kids' fantasy Posted: 02 Mar 2011 10:06 PM PST  Troubletwisters is the first volume in a collaborative series from Australian YA superstars Garth Nix and Sean Williams, and it's as marvellous as its pedigree suggests. The titular troubletwisters are a pair of adolescent twins who find themselves moving from their family home the city to the remote town of Portland, where they are to live with their mysterious Grandma X. On arrival, young Jaide and Jack quickly discover that their father's family isn't quite like any other, and that the stern and weird Grandma X may or may not be looking out for their best interests. There's magic afoot, and it's the wild, untamed magic that threatens to devour them. From what Jack and Jaide can gather, their family expects them to come into some powers of their own, through a series of tests and trials, but they can't be sure whether the tribulations they face while exploring Portland are trials set by their grandmother or attacks from some force working against them (and Grandma X isn't saying, but it's pretty clear that she's not being entirely forthright with them -- would clouds of cockroaches really swarm the twins and nearly drag them to the ground just because they'd used some kind of perfumed soap?). Though the device of young magicians coming into their powers is a timeworn one, Nix and Williams are the kind of clever, fleet-of-foot YA writers who can make it really dance. The story kept me guessing right up to the end, and the progression of imaginative gross and grisly confrontations between the twins and their magical enemies are sure to delight and fascinate both older and younger readers. And though the story does arrive at a conclusion, it's also clearly not the end of Jaide and Jack's tale: it's a damned promising start to a great new series. |
Lucky for him they aren't honey badgers. (Via 
We got into the habit of going grocery shopping together because she had two things I didn't: a car, and a back injury that made it impossible for her to lift anything heavier than a medium zucchini. We'd go shopping after work, then go to her house and put her groceries away, then sit down at the kitchen table and talk until Patrick phoned to ask where the hell I was. I'd tell him we were nearly finished putting the groceries away, and Joanna would drive me home. 
Such pioneering gestures pale, however, before the promotional stunts of the 19th century. In "Crescendo of the Virtuoso: Spectacle, Skill, and Self-Promotion in Paris During the Age of Revolution," the historian Paul Metzner notes that new technology led to an explosion in the number of newspapers in Paris, creating an array of publicity options. In "Lost Illusions," Balzac observes that it was standard practice in Paris to bribe editors and critics with cash and lavish dinners to secure review space, while the city was plastered with loud posters advertising new releases. In 1887, Guy de Maupassant sent up a hot-air balloon over the Seine with the name of his latest short story, "Le Horla," painted on its side. In 1884, Maurice Barrès hired men to wear sandwich boards promoting his literary review, Les Taches d'Encre. In 1932, Colette created her own line of cosmetics sold through a Paris store. (This first venture into literary name-licensing was, tragically, a flop). 
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