I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

  • s2redux

    Can we thus assume that you finally got your bloomers back from United?

  • https://twitter.com/#!/laurakeet laurakeet

    I loved these things when I was a kid! Got them at the gift shop of the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, I think.

  • hungryjoe

    Here’s a vaguely similar thing we saw a lot in China:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7o9_546L3U

  • Steve White

    I got my three years olds these several years ago in Chinatown. Endlessly cool and surprisingly durable.

  • http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

    That brings me back! My aunt got me one when I was a kid. They’re fascinating.

  • http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

    There was one left at the Amazon link, so I grabbed it. At least I thought I did: We’re sorry. Some items became unavailable after you added them to your shopping cart. Click here to return to the product detail page and try another seller.

  • http://twitter.com/TimmoWarner Timmo Warner

    Sometimes I can put them on my shirt? When? When?!

  • GlenBlank

    I have one of those sitting about two feet from my keyboard in a pencil jar.  It was a favorite among the acolytes of the Church of the Holy Toy, a religion I accidentally invented after-hours at the old LHC RenFaire in Agoura.

    I once had a strolling magician aboard an Amtrak train from Santa Barbara to LA invite me to the Magic Castle after I gave him the one I had at the time, which I’d demonstrated as a response to his sleight-of-hand. (Lost his card, though, and couldn’t recall his name, so I never got to take him up on it.)

    • BunnyShank

       DOH!!!! (it really hurts to read that)

  • http://www.fatjerry.com Dimmer

    “I once had a strolling magician aboard an Amtrak train … invite me to the Magic Castle after I gave him … one”

    Two innuendos in one sentence. Prizes! Maybe even three if you count the “Magic Castle”.

    • pKp

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Castle
      Being invited there is kind of a big deal.

      • GlenBlank

        It’s true, it is – fortunately, I was invited to the Castle on several subsequent occasions by other people – which somewhat lessened the sting of misplacing the first invitation. :-)

    • GlenBlank

      What can I say?  ”Innuendo and out the other” – that’s me. :-)

  • blueelm

    Oh wow. I had several of these as a child. I never knew how they worked and was not the sort of kid to strike or shake a toy. So I would just kind of open them a little and then shut them back thinking “wow, these things are too easy to break.”