Bakka-Phoenix, Toronto's wonderful, venerable science fiction bookstore (and my former employer!) is moving from its Queen Street West location. Manager Chris Szego sez, "Tuesday evening, October 26th, we're going to… Read the rest of the article: Bakka-Phoenix, Toronto's science fiction bookstore, is moving

Pidg sez, "Harvard University Press have released author Marcus Boon's new book, In Praise of Copying, under a Creative Commons license – and decided to release the full text as… Read the rest of the article: In Praise of Copying, CC-licensed book from Harvard Uni Press

Noah from the Skull-a-Day project sez, " I thought you would enjoy this video I made for my new project, League of Space Pirates. It's a track from our recently… Read the rest of the article: Music video made from re-cut public domain science fiction B-movie

The TransEnterix SPIDER Surgical System is a laporoscopic surgical instrument that allows for easy tool-swapping without withdrawing the device from the patient. It also happens to look like a distant… Read the rest of the article: SPIDER surgical instrument looks like a proto-bush-robot

This undated form rejection from Essanay Film Manufacturing Company (which was in existence from 1907-1925) is a sweet little snapshot into the mores of the time — and the bits… Read the rest of the article: Old film rejection slip: "All scenes of an unpleasant nature should be eliminated"

Julian Dibbell sez, "Did you know there are only 62 shopping days left till Christmas? Yeah, me neither. Good thing Yale University Press has us totally covered on the stocking-stuffer… Read the rest of the article: Year's Best Tech Writing 2010

Jason made this nifty trashcan Stormtrooper helmet: "I made this for a helmet for a school event. I had a student that said that he could lend me his costume… Read the rest of the article: HOWTO make a trashcan Stormtrooper helmet

Sixohsix sez, "Via @kellyoxford's tumblr, this profanity-laden rant from an extremely unhappy Canadian cable subscriber went viral via cassette tape and entertained junior-high-schoolers for years. Warning: LOTS of swearing." Be… Read the rest of the article: Vintage, profanity-laced cable complaint that was hand-to-handed on cassette tape through the Canadian school system [NSFW]

Packaging design site The Dieline presents us with a selection of beautiful packaging for old transistor radios, including these transistor radio sunglasses. Vintage Packaging: Transistor Radios, Part II Vintage kids'… Read the rest of the article: Vintage transistor radio packaging

Jordan Schwartz made this dandy Haunted Mansion inspired ghost coach out of Lego, complete with spectral custom minifigs! It's also meant to evoke Johnny Depp's "Sleepy Hollow." Ghost Coach (via… Read the rest of the article: Haunted Mansion ghost hearse made from Lego

This zombie shirt has an upside-down zombie face screened on the inside — pull the back of the shirt over your head and voila, instant topless zombie! Turn Into A… Read the rest of the article: T-shirt turns into a zombie

Here's a cute hard-drive-based junkbot design. It's only CGI, but it'd make a dandy sculpture (or, for that matter, a fun character animation). Artist: George Guo. hard disk robot (via… Read the rest of the article: Hard drive junkbot

This live hairy Shanghai crab vending machine keeps the crabs at 5° C, at which temperature the poor crustaceans go into hibernation. If you give it some money and it… Read the rest of the article: Live crab vending machine

Nemo Gould's kinetic sculpture, "Nowhere Fast," is a moving meditation on self abuse: "Not the intentional kind mind you, but the unwitting variety. Our poor hero pedals diligently at his… Read the rest of the article: Self-abusing kinetic sculpture

Want to give your pot pies a bit of a Hallowe'eny touch? Just add tentacles! "First position the tentacles. Pick them up by the wide end and drape them by… Read the rest of the article: Tentacle pot pie!

Bunnie "Chumby" Huang, whose Hacking the Xbox is a reverse-engineer's bible, has been asked to testify at the trial of Anaheim's Matthew Crippen, who faces three years in prison for… Read the rest of the article: Terrified feds try to bar Bunnie Huang from testifying at Xbox jailbreaking trial

Steve Silberman sez, "A forensic entomologist — who calculates the time of death in murder cases by studying the presence of insects and larvae near (or in) the corpse —… Read the rest of the article: Maggot paintings used to interest kids in forensic entomology

In this Motherboard.tv episode, artist Jamie O'Shea from Substitute Materials shows how you can build a telegraph from materials that were readily available 50,000 years ago: "It's the ultimate salvagepunk… Read the rest of the article: Building a telegraph out of stone-age materials

The Geek Calendar is a cavalcade of British nerdery, posed saucily, month after month, with proceeds going to English libel reform. It's part of the response to the chiropractic association's… Read the rest of the article: Geek Calendar: nerd-a-month pinups in support of English libel law reform

Mentalist/magician Derren Brown's new memoir, Confessions of a Conjuror, is a very odd sort of book. Technically, it's a kind of autobiography, but what it really is is a kind… Read the rest of the article: Derren Brown's Confessions of a Conjuror: funny memoir is also a meditation on attention, theatrics and psychology