I can't stand cables unspooled all over my bag. EZOPower's 3' retractable microUSB cable has become my go to cheap-ish cable that hasn't broken.

Cables in the $1.99 range break on me in 2-3 uses. $20 for a retractable cable seems crazy, this $9 delivered EZOPower cable has been working for me, for months. — Read the rest

Erik Söderberg's "Fractal Experience," a series exploring the relationships between geometry, nature and the human being. — Read the rest

In 2012, a winning combination of lobbying and street protests killed ACTA, a secretive, Internet-punishing copyright treaty. Now, protesters are being water cannoned in Brussels as they fight ACTA's successor, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. It seems like the lesson that the powerful took away from ACTA wasn't to conduct trade negotiations with transparency and public feedback — instead, they're ruthlessly crushing all protest in the hopes of keeping it from growing.

James Losey writes, "After the defeat of SOPA and PIPA in the United States attention turned to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Europe. Like SOPA and PIPA, ACTA raised concerns that excessive measure to enforce copyright online would limit freedom of expression online. — Read the rest

Hunter Loftis's Javascript-based fractal terrain generator produces absolutely gorgeous landscapes (reload for more) in just 130 lines. It's accompanied by a great explanation that reveals the sweet, underlying elegance of the process.

Stan McCoy is the assistant US Trade Representative who oversaw the creation of the disastrous, far-reaching copyright provisions in ACTA and the Trans Pacific Partnership. He's left the Obama administration for a high-paid job at the MPAA, which represents companies that stood to reap massive profits and permanent control over Internet governance and innovation thanks to his efforts while in government. — Read the rest

Nullify your coffee with Musicians With Guns's Overstepping Artifacts. Musicians With Guns is a project by a Ricardo Montalban; see Astroblast for more of the same.

One year ago today

Cover for new edition of Orwell's 1984 is brilliant: Love this cover art for the new Penguin edition of 1984.

Five years ago today

Mandelbrot the fractal teddy-bear: He was brought into this world a few weeks ago by Captain Mouse as a gift for her brother. — Read the rest

[UPDATE 6 January 20014: Unrecommended! See video of how Mark cut the cable with a pair of scissors.]

You ran into the store for one minute, came back out and your bike was gone! Or your skis, or motorcycle helmet. — Read the rest

Widespread, global protests killed ACTA, the secretive, over-reaching "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement," which imposed brutal copyright rules on its signatories. But now, the Canadian Conservatives have introduced Bill C-8, which turns ACTA's provisions into Canadian law, and they're fast-tracking it through with little debate or public input. — Read the rest

Mad Men's Vincent Kartheiser hired designer Funn Roberts to create a bed that retracts into the rafters of his compact home when it's not in use. I wish they showed the mechanism in more detail — I can't tell if it's using counterweights or motors or some other means to make hoisting the bed easier. — Read the rest

Here's a mesmerizing gallery of "Fabrege Fractals" created by Tom Beddard, whose site also features a 2011 video of Fabrege-inspired fractal landscapes that must be seen to be believed. They're all made with Fractal Lab, a WebGL-based renderer Beddard created. — Read the rest

As delightful and intuitive as it is, the creator explains how it works. [Pishtaco]

Remember ACTA, the terrifying, secret SOPA-on-steroids copyright treaty that the US government tried to ram down the world's throat? Well, it's back, only this time it's called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and it's limited (for now) to the Pacific Rim. The TPP negotiators are meeting (in secret, natch) in Peru to twirl their mustaches and cackle, and EFF has posted a great infographic summing up their nefarious plan (see the whole thing after the jump):

The TPP is likely to export some of the worst features of U.S.

Several years ago, I found the Pilot Vanishing Point fountain pen. It is a well-balanced and well-sealing writing instrument that has never let me down. A truly modern take on a the classic fountain design.

Do you remember ACTA? It was a broad, Internet-destroying copyright treaty, negotiated with unprecedented secrecy (even Congress and the European Parliament were not allowed to know what was going on in the negotiations — though CEOs of beer and fertilizer companies were kept apprised on a running basis). — Read the rest

A three-dimensional, modular origami fractal has taken form for the first time in the history of the world—and perhaps the universe—at the USC Libraries in Los Angeles.

Mick Minogue mood this fantastic carved-wood bacta tank scene from The Empire Strikes Back. Una Mullaly commissioned it for her partner, Sarah, who had suffered a running injury. "Sarah loves peanut butter so I made the tank from an old peanut butter jar and the rest from what was at hand In the studio," Minogue writes. — Read the rest

On the FractalForums message boards, a user called LhoghoNurbs has posted this wonderful contest-entry for a notional set of fractal cutlery. In a subsequent post, LhoghoNurbs explains that all the image manipulation was done in the GIMP, without any 3D modelling software. — Read the rest

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the son of ACTA, a secretive copyright and trade treaty being negotiated by the Pacific Rim nations, including the USA and Canada. As with ACTA, the secretive negotiation process means that the treaty's provisions represent an extremist corporate agenda where due process, privacy and free expression are tossed out the window in favor of streamlined copyright enforcement. — Read the rest