The present issues of The Economist and Adbusters have eerily similar covers depicting a collage of world leaders with big white sans-serif titles superimposed over them. Funny thing, given how… Read the rest of the article: Adbusters and the Economist have the same covers

The greatest geek TV show of all time has made its third episode available for download, and the third episode is even funnier than the first two. Yesterday I blogged… Read the rest of the article: Episode 3 of The IT Crowd is available for download

This $500 acrylic table resembles a giant Rubik's Cube — at $500 a throw, though, I'd expect it to actually work as a giant Rubik's Cube. Link (Thanks, Spitback!)

Bruce Schneier reports on the reputed practice of "check-washing" wherein fraudsters use solvents to take the ink off checks and then re-address them and change the sums on them: If… Read the rest of the article: Check-washing: erasing the ink on checks and changing them

A former Mexico City helicopter pilot has posted a stunning gallery of his aerial photos of the city and environs. Most interesting are the houses, which range from dire slums… Read the rest of the article: Helicopter shots of Mexico City neighborhoods — stunning and unreal

The Interactive Weaver Tartan Generator automatically generates tartan patterns based on your color selections. Choose your colors, their order and the number of threads per color and they'll draw the… Read the rest of the article: Create a tartan, have it instantiated and shipped to your door

Inspired by a recently posted mosaic of Web 2.0 company logos, Thomas Hawk has created a mosaic of all the favicons (small icons that appear in the location bar of… Read the rest of the article: Mosaic of favicons from around the Web

A book for writers tackles the tricky issue of writing characters of other racial backgrounds, sex, or sexual orientation. Last month, I blogged about Pam Noles's wonderful essay about the… Read the rest of the article: HOWTO write characters of different races, sexes, ages, etc

An enterprising hacker has created a working "difference engine" — a mechanical calculator first attempted in 19th Century by Charles Babbage — out of legos. The difference engine was immortalized… Read the rest of the article: Difference Engine mechanical computer made from legos

Adam Curry's Podshow Music Network has substantially revised its terms of use in response to concerns raised about the restrictiveness of its old terms. Podshow Music is a clearinghouse that… Read the rest of the article: Podshow music's terms have improved, but still not safe enough

The creator of Father Ted has produced a new sitcom about sysdamins for Britain's Channel 4 called "The IT Crowd," and the first two episodes had me howling with laughter.… Read the rest of the article: The IT Crowd — the geek comedy I've been waiting for all my life

Kelly Link is the best short-fiction writer working in science fiction and fantasy today, and her new collection, Magic for Beginners, proves it. The book came out some months ago,… Read the rest of the article: Kelly Link's "Magic for Beginners" – knockout short story collection

On The Long Tail blog, Chris has posted a great, crunchy, stats-rich piece on the death of the Hollywood blockbuster. According to Chris's research, the proportion of Hollywood's money coming… Read the rest of the article: Blockbuster films are doomed

Lambda Legal, a queer-rights group, has sent a letter to the lawyers at Blizzard asking them to stop discriminating against gay players. World of Warcraft's moderators have been shutting down… Read the rest of the article: Ban on gay-friendly guilds attracts queer-rights group warning

During WWII, soldiers sent "V-mail" ("victory mail") home in the form of letters that were opened, photographed onto microfilm, flown to the US and printed out, re-addressed and delivered. This… Read the rest of the article: V-mail: microfilm airmail from WWII

The wily thrifters at the Imaginary World site made a major score with this two-volume scrapbook of gum wrappers spanning three decades of the gum-packager's art: One of the more… Read the rest of the article: Three decades of gum-wrappers in scrapbooks

If your computer was infected with spyware or rootkits when you tried to play a Sony BMG CD on it, Sony owes you money, music and an uninstaller, per the… Read the rest of the article: Settlement details for people infected by Sony DRM CDs

Mary Sue Coleman, the President of the University of Michigan, gave an unbelievably wonderful speech about Google Book Search to the American Association of Publishers, who are suing Google for… Read the rest of the article: UMichigan Prez to American Publishers: Save Google Book Search!

Correction to an earlier post: Rudy Rucker has moved his signing at San Francsico's Booksmith from Feb 21 to Mar 7. Link (Thanks, Emily!)

A man who tripped over his shoelace and broke three Qing vases arrayed near a staircase in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England has been asked not to come back… Read the rest of the article: Man who shattered museum vases asked not to come back