Philip N Howard wonders if there are any countries that have, on balanced, suffered as a result of the coming of the Internet — say, because improved networks created so… Read the rest of the article: Internet penetration is never correlated with increasing power to dictators, and is often correlated with increased freedom

If you're booking a multi-city trip by air, you should really price it out as a series of one-way flights, rather than as a single ticket. As Mike Masnick discovered,… Read the rest of the article: Book multi-city itineraries as one-ways and save

A fertilizer plant in West, Texas caught fire and exploded last night. According to one eyewitness, "Every house within about four blocks is blown apart." The small town is north… Read the rest of the article: Massive fertilizer plant explosion in West, TX

Soma of the Brooklyn Brainery created TODOCAT, a to-do list manager based on the elegant cat meme. I fucking hate cat memes, but I love to-do lists. I love this… Read the rest of the article: TODOCAT: a cat-meme-based to-do-list manager

Michael Weinberg from Public Knowledge sez "Last week, Rep. Steve Israel introduced a bill designed to regulate firearms that cannot be found by metal detectors. The bill makes a passing… Read the rest of the article: Rep Steve Israel trying to score points with 3D printed gun hysteria

Brian sez, "Fasten your seatbelts for a trip back in time, to 1992, when a tiny little startup called Coconut heard, in August 1992, that a new magazine was brewing,… Read the rest of the article: Wired Magazine's 1992 media kit

Here's a great tutorial for making your own glittery superhero paper bracelets out of toilet-paper rolls. The trick is to use blue painter's tape backing to keep the cardboard intact… Read the rest of the article: HOWTO make Wonder Woman bracelets out of toilet paper rolls

Did the children's book "Goodnight Moon" help put you to sleep as a little kid? Not anymore.

Dave sez, "THE ZIPPER CLUB is a comic focusing on survivors of childhood congenital heart defects, written by a survivor of such a condition himself. It's on Indie-GO-Go in hopes… Read the rest of the article: Zipper Club: fundraising a comic for kids with congenital heart defects

Rep. Rogers says #CISPA opponents are probably 14-year-olds in a basement. Tell him how wrong he is by tweeting to @repmikerogers. — EFF (@EFF) April 16, 2013 CISPA is the… Read the rest of the article: CISPA: Congress wants to create unlimited Internet spying powers – KILL THIS BILL! KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Last month, I blogged a review of the kids' instructional comic book Welcome to Your Awesome Robot: Welcome to Your Awesome Robot is a fantastic book for maker-kids and their… Read the rest of the article: Welcome to your Awesome Robot: instructional robot-making comic now out in the US

Skit-B Pinball built this custom Duck Hunt pinball machine by modding a 1962 'Williams Valiant' table and hybridizing it with a PC to provide sound effects and other nifties.

Are you a lawyer in Ohio? If so, your pro-bono services are urgently needed to defeat a trollish, bullying legal action from Med Express, a company that sells refurb medical… Read the rest of the article: Med Express uses broken Ohio law to silence critics who say true things

Andy Baio's "The New Prohibition" is a speech given at a Creative Mornings/Portland event, expanding on his must-read "No Copyright Intended" post.

Bruce Schneier's terrific Atlantic essay on the Boston Marathon bombings is a must-read. As he points out, the terrorists win only if we let this sort of thing scare us.… Read the rest of the article: Don't let the Boston Marathon bombing terrorize you, or the bombers win

I have no idea if FDRL's "Maple Set" knives are practical or even useful, but they are extremely beautiful. With this project we wanted to explore an alternative emotion to… Read the rest of the article: Wooden chef's knives

Thearn released a free/open program for detecting and monitoring your pulse using your webcam. The code is on github for you to download, play with and modify. If this stuff… Read the rest of the article: Detect your pulse with your webcam

Tim Wu sez, "I wrote something quick in the New Yorker about America's big blind spot when it comes to big business — if its not a monopoly, its no… Read the rest of the article: American oligopolies are the new monopolies

YOU is the second novel from Austin Grossman, whose 2008 debut Soon I Will be Invincible marked him out as a talent to watch. Now, with his second novel, he… Read the rest of the article: Austin Grossman's YOU: brilliant novel plumbs the heroic and mystical depths of gaming and simulation

If you're looking for loved ones in Boston and can't get through to them, try Google's Person Finder, a service designed to help produce good information in the wake of… Read the rest of the article: Get information on loved ones in Boston with Google's emergency Person Finder