Remember Bunnie Huang's fully open laptop? Bunnie and Sean "xobs" Cross prototyped a machine he called the "Novena" in which every component, down to the BIOS, was fully documented, licensed… Read the rest of the article: Crowdfunding Novena, the fully open/transparent laptop project

One year ago today Cory's HOW I WORK interview: What apps/software/tools can't you live without? Ubuntu and the suite of GNU tools in any robust Unix system. A good text… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: How I Work; Welsh terror cops think jazz musician is a terrorist; Remix Everyone in Silico

If I could, I'd live in loungewear: pajamas, bathrobes, etc. If there's one thing that makes a terry bathrobe even more comfy, it's a hood. And if there's one thing… Read the rest of the article: Captain America bathrobe with hood/mask

Last week, the FBI arrested Robert James Talbot Jr., 38, of Katy, Texas. Talbot was the self-styled head of the American Insurgent Movement, which openly plotted to massacre Moslems at… Read the rest of the article: White, right-wing terrorist busted…and hardly a peep

Here's voice-actor Jim "Winnie the Pooh" Cummings doing Darth Vader's lines from Star Wars in the voice of Winnie, and other key characters as Darkwing Duck and his other best-known… Read the rest of the article: Winnie the Pooh does Darth Vader

Andrew sez, "The fight for the Open Web and Net Neutrality won a big one today after the EU Parliament voted to approve EU Parliamentarian Marietje Schaacke's proposal to codify… Read the rest of the article: Open net gets a huge boost in the EU: net neutrality and no roaming fees

Christopher E Smith is the white father of a black, biracial son, and it is through his son's experience of being black in America that he has learned just how… Read the rest of the article: Stop-and-frisk as the most visible element of deep, violent official American racism

Game on? Or game over? [PDF], a brief research report from the U Washington Information School, summarizes some of the findings from the TASCHA report on computer skills acquisition. This… Read the rest of the article: When it comes to learning computers, play is seriously important

Here's some good news: the next Lauren Beukes novel, Broken Monsters, is up for pre-order, and we've got a taste of the cover and the synopsis: "Detective Gabriella Versado has… Read the rest of the article: Cover and summary for Lauren Beukes's next horror novel

I am cleaning out my family home in New York. Evicted. (police intelligence seems to have played a role.). — David Graeber (@davidgraeber) April 2, 2014 There is a pattern… Read the rest of the article: David "Debt" Graeber evicted, implicates NYPD intelligence, claims revenge-harassment for OWS participation

For the past two months, my daughter's and my main bedtime reading has been The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, a modern folktale written by Charles de Lint and illustrated by… Read the rest of the article: Cats of Tanglewood Forest: illustrated modern folktale from Charles de Lint and Charles Vess

Writing in the Financial Times, Tim Harford (The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, Adapt, etc) offers a nuanced, but ultimately damning critique of Big Data and its promises. Harford's point is… Read the rest of the article: Big Data has big problems

Writing in Scientific American, Ashutosh Jogalekar bemoans the famously terrible state of the House Committee on Science, a farcical body stuffed with climate deniers and young Earth creationists. At a… Read the rest of the article: House Science Committee: a parliament of Creationists, Climate Deniers (and dunces)

One year ago today Deus Ex Arca: apocalyptic, absurdist science fiction about a box that does anything and everything: A beautifully told, absurdist science fiction story about a terrible, wonderful… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: Deus Ex Arca; London cops beating up G20 protesters; Reuters email-an-article-TOS

Nicholas sends us, "A crowd funding campaign to create a short film adaptation of Poe's 'The Tell Tale Heart' set on space station orbiting a mysterious planet. The short, ORBIT,… Read the rest of the article: Crowdfunding a science fiction short film adapted from Poe's Tell-Tale Heart

The wonderful, talented Wil Wheaton has landed a weekly show with SyFy, called the Wil Wheaton project: "a weekly roundup of the things I love on television and on the… Read the rest of the article: The Wil Wheaton Project: Talk Soup for Geeks

David writes, "Award-winning photographer Seth Kushner is renowned for his photography book of portraits of comic book writers and artists (Leaping Tall Buildings). Seth Kushner spent much of his 20s… Read the rest of the article: Kickstarting SCHMUCK: a comics memoir of "trying to date NYC"

When Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was caught lying about smoking crack (and after months of smearing people who accused him of doing so as liars), he busted out the most… Read the rest of the article: Rob Ford excuses, uttered by a child

My new Guardian column is "Why it is not possible to regulate robots," which discusses where and how robots can be regulated, and whether there is any sensible ground for… Read the rest of the article: Why I don't believe in robots

Paul Roustan is an incredible body-painter who produces brilliant optical illusions. In this video, he shows how he's painted a model to blend seamlessly into this image of a pandora… Read the rest of the article: There's a painted woman in this moth