[Video Link] It seems like every decade or so a science fiction novel comes out that sends a lightning bolt through my nervous system: To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971). Neuromancer (1984). Snow Crash (1992). Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003). — Read the rest

Bay Area "yarn bomber" Streetcolor improved boring bike racks outside the Berkeley Public Library with 80 feet of knitted fun. "Yarnbombing the Berkeley Public Library" (Thanks, Greg Long!)

1971: German Moog maestros and library musicians Heribert Thusek and Horst Ackermann, of Dracula's Music Cabinet fame (seriously!), were commissioned to make a science fiction-themed album. The result is Science Fiction Dance Party. For a taste of the psy-fi sound, check out the track "Just Walking On The Moon" below. — Read the rest

Wikileaks drops US cables related to Japan. Release and coverage was coordinated with Asahi, which reports: "Despite the pledges and formal studies of the Democratic Party of Japan, Japanese government officials were never committed to relocating the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma outside of Okinawa Prefecture." — Read the rest

A child's doll sits among the ruins of homes badly damaged in April 27's deadly tornados in Tuscaloosa, Alabama May 2, 2011. Federal officials have vowed urgent support for a region devastated by the deadliest U.S. natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina, even as they acknowledged recovery would not be quick or easy. — Read the rest

The Wall Street Journal reports that naturist getaways, feeling the hit from America's ongoing economic downturn, are aggressively marketing to younger newbie nudists. Tactics include "music festivals like Nudepalooza and Nudestock." (via Dr. Ruth)

Business Insider: "The military team that killed Osama Bin Laden is an elite special forces group unofficially called Seal Team 6. Officially, the team's name is classified and not available to the public, technically there is no team 6."

The LA Weekly reports that AIM Healthcare, the "porn valley" clinic that tests sex performers for sexually transmitted diseases, has shut down and filed for bankruptcy. "We were told a privacy lawsuit challenging AIM's handling of patient records was the last straw for the clinic that was taken private and reopened in February following a December shutdown at the hands of state and county health officials."

CNET: "Recently-released WikiLeaks documents show that detained al Qaeda members have predicted nuclear reprisals if Osama bin Laden were captured or killed."

CNN International interviewed Sohaib Athar, the man in Abottabad, Pakistan, who unwittingly live-tweeted the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. Watch video here.

Our friends at the Webby Awards have announced the nominees and winners for the 15th (!) annual Webbys. As always, it's a great mix of sites you know and love, and probably quite a few you've never heard of before. Special congratulations to longtime BB pal Scott Beale and Laughing Squid for winning the People's Voice award for the best cultural blog! — Read the rest

[Video Link] Soon you will be able to tongue wrestle with an avatar of Lara Croft being controlled by the Genioglossus muscle of 55-year-old electric engineer named Spencer.

Robotic "Tongue" Lets You French Kiss Over The Internet — Read the rest

Early reports from the White House on the details of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden are now confirmed to have been partly inaccurate.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, in a briefing to reporters taking place as I type this post, has confirmed that bin Laden was not armed, as initially stated. — Read the rest

A Federal judge in Illinois has once again rebuffed a copyright troll's request for easy court orders to allow him to connect IP addresses with people. The judge said that open wireless networks and other factors make the connection between IP addresses and defendants difficult, and that making it easy to connect people and IPs would invite extortionate legal claims. — Read the rest

CIA chief Leon Panetta give his first interview since commanding the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden. He tells TIME they feared Pakistan would undermine the operation, and tells reporter Massimo Calabresi, "It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission: They might alert the targets." — Read the rest

By pixelfucks.com.
(thanks, Dean Putney, via Canv.as)

(Via Mostly Forbidden Zone)

Core77's David I. Seliger has a nice retrospective on the design of American firefighter helmets from the 1731 helmets designed by Jacobus Turk for the Fire Department of New York to the contemporary thermoplastic models. These modern helmets, Seliger says, have plenty of room for improvement, and "Redesigning the fire helmet – both a marketable product and a symbol deeply ingrained in American culture – to satisfy firefighters' physical, mental, and emotional needs could be the industrial design challenge of a lifetime." — Read the rest

YouTube user emnullfuenf is experimenting with making custom, 3D printable Han-in-Carbonite models using a Kinect:

This is an experiment with Kinect and Processing. People in front of it are posing like Han Solo and get frozen in 3D. We are already exporting the 3D models for 3D printing.

Scientific American is calling it "oobleck." My mom just called it "goop." Really, this mixture of cornstarch and water is a non-Newtonian fluid—not quite a liquid, not quite a solid, lots of fun to futz around with.

I'm sure that a lot of you are familiar with goop (and probably have your own name for it, too). — Read the rest