Ginjer Buchanan, one of science fiction's longest-serving and most influential editors, is retiring from Ace/Roc, after a 30-year career. I've had many occasions to work with Ginjer over the years… Read the rest of the article: SF editor Ginjer Buchanan retiring

One year ago today Conan and copyright, by Crom! Exhaustively researched article on the copyright status of the Conan stories. Five years ago today What were arcades like, Grandpa? When… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: Conan and copyright; What were arcades like; Gingerbread Kama Sutra

A number of friendly, charity-minded social clubs have sprung up in Disney fandom. They dress in disnefied versions of biker wear, gather together in Disneyland, help people out, and keep… Read the rest of the article: Disneyland's un-gangs

Boeing has sought regulatory approval from the FCC for a tamper-resistant phone intended to self-destruct if its case is opened. The phone, called "Black," runs Android, and is intended for… Read the rest of the article: Boeing's self-destructing, tamper-resistant spookphone: the Black

A stunning new Snowden leak reveals that the UK spy agency GCHQ harvested images and text from millions of Yahoo video chats, including chats in which one or both of… Read the rest of the article: GCHQ spied on millions of Yahoo video chats, harvested sexual images of chatters, compared itself to "Tom Cruise in Minority Report"

I love reading with my daughter, Poesy, who has just turned six. We agree on almost all of her favorites, and re-reading them is one of our best-loved activities, and… Read the rest of the article: Guest review: my daughter reviews Ariol

Timeholes, a two-minute, CC-licensed science fiction movie by Ben Mallaby, explores the future of obnoxious behavior and drunkenness in a world where time-travel is a given. (via JWZ)

The Deadpool pencil cup is a delightfully silly and gross bit of office-candy, in which the wisecracking, unkillable merc from the pages of Marvel comics is presented for your gleeful… Read the rest of the article: Deadpool pencil-jar

In 1979, William S Burroughs delivered a series of lectures on creative writing (though he insisted that he was teaching creative reading — that is, analyzing the writing process by… Read the rest of the article: Learn to write with William S Burroughs

In this video, a young musician called Li-Jin Lee performs the Super Mario theme (complete with eerily accurate SFX on a Sheng, an ancient Chinese reed instrument) at the National… Read the rest of the article: Super Mario Brothers music performed on a Sheng

Order has been restored. — Naoki Hiroshima (@N) February 25, 2014 A long-overdue, happy ending to the saga of @N, the $50,000 username that was extorted out of Naoki Hiroshima… Read the rest of the article: Twitter restores @N to Naoki Hiroshima

Marko Rakar writes, "Croatian journalist and editor Oleg Mastruko visited more than 47 countries in the past 10 years and made a number of postapocalyptic pictures in deserted places. Pictures… Read the rest of the article: Crowdfunding Without People: a photobook of deserted places

One year ago today Terrific new biography of Li'l Abner creator Al Capp: At the height of his career, his groundbreaking comic strip, Li'l Abner, reached ninety million readers. Five… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: Al Capp biography, Wil Wheaton v Authors' Guild v Kindle

Sasha writes, "The MIT Civic Media Codesign Studio is organizing, hosting, participating in, and supporting several Countersurveillance DiscoTechs this weekend. A DiscoTech (Discovering Technology event) is a workshop/faire style event… Read the rest of the article: DiscoTech events: discover anti-surveillance technology

The Copyright Alert System — a "voluntary" system of disconnection threats sent to alleged file-sharers, created by entertainment companies and the large US ISPs — has just celebrated its first… Read the rest of the article: America's copyright threat letters turn one year old, but no one will say how they're doing

In Now, the latest XKCD cartoon, Randall Munroe provides a handy, continuously updated way to visualize the current time all over the world. I happen to know that Munroe is… Read the rest of the article: Now: XKCD helps you visualize the time of day all over the world

Meg Favreau writes, "I thought you guys might be interested in this column I've been writing for the last year-ish — I scour old cookbooks for once-popular recipes that have… Read the rest of the article: Forgotten Foods: reviving weird old food and figuring out what should be brought back

David Weinberger's 2012 book Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room… Read the rest of the article: Weinberger's "Too Big to Know" in paperback

Nerf's Rebelle Heartbreaker Bow (part of the wider Rebelle line of action toys marketed to girls) gets pretty high marks from its owners, and promises a dart-range of 75 feet.… Read the rest of the article: Nerf Rebelle: girl-marketed action toys that are cool and work well

The Chicago Police Department has ramped up the use of its "predictive analysis" system to identify people it believes are likely to commit crimes. These people, who are placed on… Read the rest of the article: Chicago PD's Big Data: using pseudoscience to justify racial profiling