Blog
Photography: What If Girls Were Browsers? What if Guys Were Social Networks?
- The concept fashion photo shoot attempts to answer the question, "What would popular social networks or web browsers look like if they were human?" Read the restHow to make a NASA Orion crew vehicle paper model
- A fun project for kids, and for adults with a childlike curiosity about space. Read the restCCC website censored in the UK
-The Great Firewall of Cameron is supposed to block "extremist" websites, and somehow, the website of the respected, excellent Chaos Computer Club, one of Germany's foremost centers for technology research and political analysis, has been blocked.
Read the restFellowships available in security usability
-The Open Technology Fund and Simply Secure are offering fellowships to researchers who seek funding to work on usability in privacy and security technology.
Read the restStar Trek red shirted crewman dog toy
-The red shirts never get a break on Star Trek. Now you, and your dog, can play fetch with one.
Read the restMuseums and the future history of the information age
-Last spring, I gave the keynote address at the Museums and the Web conference in Florence, Italy, speaking in the glorious confines of the big room at the Palazzo Vecchio; the organizers were kind enough to put my talk online. It was very well-received at the time and lots of people have since asked where they could get it -- and here it is!
Play videoBuy your own TSA-surplus pornoscanner for $8K
-Remember when the TSA spent $113K on Rapiscan pornoscanners that turned out not to work? Now they're selling them off for $8,000.
Read the restwilcock
JOHN WILCOCK: The Day I Turned Down The Beatles
- An early opportunity at publishing the first American magazine on The Beatles is thwarted by a moment of bad judgement. From the John Wilcock comic (see previous installments here and here.) Read the restfiction
Launch
- Jane Harrison tells the story of man's voyage to Mars—and the dating troubles that ensue. Read the restHigh court rules that English/Welsh prisoners should be allowed to read books
-Tory justice secretary Chris Grayling enacted a ban on sending reading material for prisoners as a way of throwing red meat to his base, who bay for maximum cruelty to "bad people" -- but a high court judge agreed with English PEN and the John Howard society and struck down the ban.
Read the restIrish government retroactively legalizes GCHQ surveillance revealed in Snowden docs
-As reported by The Irish Times on Saturday, 6th December; "Foreign law enforcement agencies will be allowed to tap Irish phone calls and intercept emails under a statutory instrument signed into law by Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald."
Read the restJewelry made from fake food
-It's an idea whose time has come: combine the hyper-realistic plastic molded food you see out front of some Japanese and Korean restaurants with jewelry to make it look like you're wearing glistening, perfect meals.
Read the restSF Bay Area: Sunday December 7th, 2014's final Give Me Fiction prose reading show
-This Sunday, come down to Lost Weekend Video for the year's last Give Me Fiction, the prose reading series hosted by Ivan Hernandez.
Read the restNirvana and Smashing Pumpkins play Crisco Twister
-"In which Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic strips down to briefs and gets a full body Crisco massage from Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl, before playing slippery Twister with Smashing Pumpkins." (Thanks, Gil Kaufman!)
Play videoMassive Millennium Falcon rug
-It's 79" x 59", made from polyester, and runs $100 at Thinkgeek, where they guarantee that it will "instantly makes any room 1138% more awesome." (via Oh Gizmo)
Read the restMexican auto insurance for tourists
-
If you are driving from the United States of America into the United Mexican States, you need Mexican auto insurance. Regardless what you think, your USA based policy will not be accepted if you are involved in an accident in Mexico.
Read the restMan flies from London to Australia to meet toddler who shares his condition
-
1 in 50,000 people have Treacher-Collins syndrome. It affects in-utero facial bone and tissue development. Jono Lancaster, age 30, has it.
Read the rest
Adventure Time's BMO coffee mug
-I love this BMO coffee mug!
"Bow to your sensei." -- BMO
Read the restCat loves Slayer
- “This is my cat Buddy. I was watching Slayer perform from the Big 4 concert and caught this little guy chillin' and watching as well.” Play videoOrion spacecraft's sweet splashdown, as seen from the U.S. Navy recovery ship
-“NASA, the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin recovery crews aboard the USS Anchorage witnessed the Orion spacecraft as it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.”
Play videoRestaurant wants you to also tip its kitchen staff
-If other restaurants follow Alimento's lead, you'll soon start tipping the servers and the kitchen staff. Next time I dine at Alimento, I'll just fill in the TOTAL amount and then let the servers and kitchen staff fight it out.
Read the restAngela Merkel calls for end to net neutrality
-The German Chancellor -- whose party is closely aligned with the telcoms sector -- says she wants a two-tier Internet; on the "fast" Internet, carriers will be allowed to slow down access to services that haven't paid bribes for "premium" carriage; on the "regular" Internet, ISPs will just give you the data you ask for.
Read the rest
Interview with Queen
-Over at Cuepoint, Alan Light talks to Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen about their signature operatic rock sound, the band's chemistry, and the final days of Freddie Mercury.
Read the restThe big book of big of psychedelic fantasy posters
-
There's a new book out about Big O Posters, which grew out of the graphic design vision of Peter Ledeboer, the charismatic art director of the U.K.
Read the rest87 chokehold complaints filed against NYPD in 2014
-It may be a banned police maneuver, but it sure is popular. Analysis and infographic at Vocativ.
Discuss
Apple nuked rivals' songs from users' iPods, say lawyers in class-action suit
-From 2007-2009, Apple deleted music that some iPod users downloaded from competing music services without telling those users, say attorneys in a class-action antitrust suit against Apple.
Read the rest
The Eric Garner video you might not have seen is even more disturbing
-On MSNBC, Chris Hayes examines a portion of the Eric Garner video that has received less attention: the tense moments before he had a heart attack on the way to the hospital.
Play videoNASA's Orion launch a success: "There's your new spacecraft, America!"
- Xeni Jardin collects news, videos and images of the new Nasa launcher that will take humankind to Mars. Read the restSenator Ron Wyden introduces a bill banning FBI backdoors
-It's a legislative shot across the bow of the FBI, who are demanding back-doors in phones and other devices, claiming "children will die" unless our pocket supercomputers are designed to allow untrusted parties to secretly take them over.
Read the restAussie science chief touts "80% accuracy" for dowsers
- The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that the incoming chief of Australia’s leading scientific research agency suggests public money should be used to investigating dowsing and divining: "I’ve seen people do this with close to 80% accuracy, and I’ve no idea how they do it" DiscussRoad safety campaign donkey killed by car
-
The BBC reports that a foal who helped teach youngsters to drive safely in England's New Forest has been killed by a car.
DiscussWhy no one wants to hear from James Watson
-The co-recipient of the Nobel for revealing the double-helix structure of DNA is selling his medal because "no one really wants to admit" he exists -- but why is that?
Read the rest50 party horns in an exhaust pipe
- If you are dumb enough to try this at home, send us video. DiscussAT&T throttles "unlimited" data speeds during offpeak hours
- Jon Brodkin reports that the carrier, unable to force longtime unlimited-data plans onto metered contracts, instead slows their Internet use to a crawl. DiscussElectric eel are like living TASERs
-Vanderbilt University biologists studied how electric eels can zap their prey with 600 volts from even a few meters away. Turns out, the fish are like living TASERs.
Play videoHour documentary about the nature of reality
-From BBC One, an episode of Horizon exploring that good ol' mindfucking question "What is reality?"
Play videoTerminator Genisys trailer
-He'll be back.
Play videoGweek
LISTEN: Interview with Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror
- Gweek is brought to you by Crunchyroll, offering 1080p streaming anime with English subtitles. Try it free for a month by signing up at Crunchyroll.com/gweek Read the rest
What military gear did the Pentagon give to America's cops?
-Michael from Muckrock says, "After months of legal wrangling, MuckRock has finally received the complete list of military gear given to local police departments under the Pentagon's 1033 program, including bomb disposal robots, infrared gun sights, small aircraft and rocket launchers."
Read the restPerfect toilet-paper dispensing machine
-Helps ensure that you get precisely three squares per portion, by means of a GIANT CLEAVER ON A MOTORIZED ARM. (via Metafilter)
Play videoAT&T hates telcoms regulations, except when it insists on them
-The company that says that the gubmint should stay out of its business and let it destroy Net Neutrality also says the government should clobber Kansas towns with no broadband who have the audacity to run their own networks.
Read the restFeatures
Launch
Jane Harrison tells the story of man's voyage to Mars—and the dating troubles that ensue. Read the rest
Shopping in Harajuku, Tokyo
Having been to Tokyo three times previous to our recent vacation, I was excited to take my daughters to Harajuku, a popular teen shopping area in the city. By Mark Frauenfelder Read the rest
JOHN WILCOCK: The Day I Turned Down The Beatles
An early opportunity at publishing the first American magazine on The Beatles is thwarted by a moment of bad judgement. From the John Wilcock comic (see previous installments here and here.) Read the rest
NASA's Orion launch a success: "There's your new spacecraft, America!"
Xeni Jardin collects news, videos and images of the new Nasa launcher that will take humankind to Mars. Read the rest
LISTEN: Interview with Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror
Gweek is brought to you by Crunchyroll, offering 1080p streaming anime with English subtitles. Try it free for a month by signing up at Crunchyroll.com/gweek Read the rest
Amazon mails conveyor belt roller instead of gift
Glenn Fleishman reports that a goat dairy farmer was not expecting to receive a mysterious green cylinder. Read the rest
Brian Krebs's "Spam Nation"
In Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime-from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door, Brian Krebs offers a fascinating look at the mass-scale cybercrime that underpins the spam in your inbox and provides an inside peek at a violent fight among its principle players. Cory Doctorow reviews. Read the rest
The 10 best adventure novels from 1965
Joshua Glenn shows why 1965 was a very good year for science fiction, comic books, and spy novels. Read the rest
Go, Orion! NASA set to launch spacecraft on first step toward manned flights to Mars [Update: Delayed! Launched!]
Final preparations are under way for NASA's Dec. 4 launch of the Orion spacecraft. Not since the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011 has there been so much excitement around American space flight. Sawyer Rosenstein reports from Cape Canaveral. Read the rest
A look at the new Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide
Ethan Gilsdorf gets a sneak peak inside the definitive nerd Bible Read the rest
Survival Strategies for Purchasing a Soft Drink
Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Cap and his African American friend purchase soft drinks in very different worlds Read the rest
In Wayzata, Minnesota, a school spies on its students
Nathan Ringo writes that school administrators freaked out when he found ways around the district's flawed censorware--and when he warned his fellow students about the spyware and creepy small-print that came with their school iPads. Read the rest
An Introduction to Hand Saws
Steve Hoefer offers another tutorial in basic skills that everyone should know. Read the rest
Twitter takes aim at trolls—and promises more
Glenn Fleishman explains Twitter's blocking system and its freshly-fortified abuse-reporting tools. Read the rest
I Need A Beat, by LL Cool J
The recording debut of young LL Cool J starts off the infamous Def Jam label. A new Hip Hop Family Tree strip by Ed Piskor. Read the rest
Searching for Krampus
AL Cacophony reports on the christmas devils' growing popularity in America, and the old-worlders drafted in to help keep it real. Read the rest
One Year, $80 Billion, Enough is Enough
A message from The Innovation Movement [Advertiser] Read the rest
LISTEN: Native Jefferson shoes, Fit Flops and Bell Bullitt Motorcycle Helmet
This week, Mark, Xeni and Jason talk about their favorite wearables, Native Jefferson shoes, Fit Flops and the Bell Bullitt Motorcycle Helmet. Read the rest
Twitter
Facebook
Tumblr

