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Geeky game-pixel handbag
-Thinkgeek's $50 Pixelle Sprite Bag is a purse decorated with awesome, repeating 8-bit game-sprites. Comes in black with grey trim or white with tan and hot pink trim. (Thanks, Alice!)
DiscussBlog
Seeker's Quest Necklace from our sponsor Shana Logic!
- Our dear sponsor Shana Logic says, "You'll love wearing this beautiful handmade necklace that pays homage to your favorite wizardly sport!" The Seeker's Quest Necklace features a golden snitch with stunning silver wings hanging on a silver chain. Read the rest
Stir Wars: The Force Awokens
-I'll be here all week. Try the veal.
Read the restGweek
LISTEN: Dr. Monkey's Retro Scans
- Our guest this week is Steve Denton, AKA Dr. Monkey. Steve is an internet scourge, sometime writer, full time smart aleck, and an unrepentant gadfly in the ointment of life. Read the restBeautiful, easy animations of equations
-Max writes, "I made a small 'web-thing' that renders a 100x100 square of colored pixels based on an equation input by the user.
Read the restHarvard's crowdsourcing a century of astronomical logbook transcription
-Simon writes, "I recently got a chance to interview and profile the people behind a collaboration between Smithsonian and the Harvard College Observatory who are crowdsourcing the transcription of logbooks for thousands of photographic plates. It's a massive undertaking that will give scientists access to a hundred years of astronomical data."
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SF Bay Area: Henson Alternative's PUPPET UP! Uncensored
-This November I'll be seeing Henson Alternative's PUPPET UP! Uncensored at the SFSketchfest. This is a fantastic, improvised puppet show from "the grown-ups wing of the Jim Henson Company."
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Elvie - pelvic floor kegel exercise tracker
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Elvie is a kegel exercise tracker for woman. The company is taking pre-orders for $95.
The pelvic floor is a powerful little set of muscles that sits like a hammock between your tailbone and pubic bone.
Play video
WATCH It's Our Future: why the TPP should matter to you
-Meghan from Openmedia.ca sez, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a massive international trade agreement that includes 12 countries and covers almost 40% of global GDP.
Play video
Brianna Wu explains why #gamergate death-threats won't scare her into backing down
-Frank Wu writes, "Brianna Wu, game developer behind Revolution 60, has been the epicenter of the #gamergate controversy recently. In this interview, she explains why, despite constant harassment and death threats, she stands up for the rights of women in technology."
Read the restSpace Buckets: DIY indoor gardening units
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A "space bucket" enthusiast named Agustin let me know about a DIY community that grows chives, basil, dill, peppers, cherry tomatoes, and cannabis in stacked 5 gallon plastic buckets equipped with lighting and ventilation systems. The photo gallery of builds is impressive.
Discuss
WATCH: 1980 interview with John Lydon and Keith Levene
-"The Sex Pistols was going to be the absolute end of rock and roll, which I thought it was. Unfortunately the majority of the public, being the senile animals that they are, got that wrong."
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LISTEN: demo versions from Clash's London Calling
- The Clash will always be my favorite band. So it is nice to listen to these early drafts of the songs on London Calling. Open Culture has a bunch of them, including songs that never made it on the double LP, like "Heart and Mind" (above). Play video
Music: "Carnival Time," Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolias
-Updated to Handa Wanda as the Carnival Time video was set to not play here. You may play Carnival Time here.
Play videoWoman arrested on drug charges
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"A woman was arrested in Ocala, Florida, on Saturday after police say they found marijuana and prescription drugs in her car. "
DiscussRestaurant wine priced at "thirty-seven fifty" = $3,750
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"A New Jersey businessman ordered a bottle of wine [Screaming Eagle Oakville] he was told cost "thirty-seven fifty" for the table, and wound up learning a valuable lesson in sales when he found out that the actual cost was $3,750."
Image: @DistrictWino
Discuss
WATCH: suspicious roadblock
-This video reminds me of the time I was driving with my friends from Boulder to Las Vegas. I was 18 years old. It was about 3am and we were in the desert, a couple of hours from Vegas.
Play videoSecret Headquarters swag: esoteric gifts for comics nerds
-From Secret Headquarters, east LA's amazing, wonderful comics emporium: "For the past 9 years, we have been making comic related t-shirts and other apparel, and with the holiday season steadily approaching, these would make some killer gifts for niche comic fans."
SHQ Cobra Shirt 100% Cotton - Hand printed in Atwater Village Imagery inspired the classic World's Deadliest Fighting Secrets mail order "instructional booklet"!
Read the restA history of functional toy cameras
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Written by pop-culture authors Buzz Poole and Christopher D. Salyers (who is also a toy camera collector), Camera Crazy is an attractively photographed collection of functioning toy cameras, which were popularized in the 1960s when the plastic 120 film “Diana” hit the market for only $1 a pop.
Read the restWeirdo video genius Liam Lynch goes to space: The Adventures of The Sweet Electric
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Liam Lynch, the eccentric composer and genius web video auteur behind Lynchland, has created a trippy new series following android rock group "The Sweet Electric."
Read the restCrowdfunding a documentary on Joybubbles, blind hacker and phone phreaker
- Kickstarting a film about Joe Engressia, Jr. (1949-2007), a blind telephone hacker who legally changed his name to Joybubbles after declaring himself "the age of five forever." Read the restWatch: NASA webcast of 3 International Space Station crew members returning to Earth
- Three ISS crew members are scheduled to depart the orbiting laboratory this Sunday, November 9 after spending almost six months aboard. Read the rest
Squirrel caught orange-handed in post-Halloween pumpkin binge
- Photographer unknown. [HT: Heather Beschizza] Read the rest
Irish teacher rejected due to their "alcoholism nature"
- A 26-year-old teacher from County Kerry was turned down for a job in South Korea because of "the alcholism nature of your kind", reports the BBC: "This reply was a first." DiscussSoul-crushing office-speak spreads
-James Gingell leans in to note that management jargon has evolved into an everyday workplace dialect full of bullshit like "deliverables," "upskill," "learnings," "drill-down," "value-add," "moving forward," "enablers and barriers," and "quick wins."
He wonders: perhaps this pidgin terminology is filling a legitimate language vacuum?
Read the restIronic spirit animals
-The rhetorical device of spirit animals is nothing new, writes Megan Garber, and a concept that comes most directly from Native American spirituality.
Read the restRetro-computing and grieving
-Paul Ford has written a haunting, beautiful essay about his voyage into the emulation of extinct, obsolete computers and the way that this has allowed him to come to grips with the death of an older friend and father figure, who helped him through a very difficult period of adolescence through their shared love of computers.
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Billy Corgan, cat lover
-Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan sure loves cats! (PAWS Chicago Magazine, thanks Gil!)
Read the restbooks
Neil Gaiman: How I learned to stop worrying and love the duplicator machines
- To celebrate the release of my new book, Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age, I've invited some of my favorite creators and thinkers to write about their philosophy on the arts and the Internet. Today, Neil Gaiman, author of the just-published Hansel and Gretel (with Lorenzo Mattotti), has granted kind permission to reproduce his introduction to Information Doesn't Want to Be Free. -Cory Read the rest
Eye of the Beholder on Commodore 64
-Taking 16-bit games of the 1990s and remaking them to run on the 8-bit hardware of the 1980s is a niche activity, for sure.
Read the rest
Planet formation around HL Tau, 450 light years from Earth
-"In a vast disc of dust and gas, dark rings are clearly visible," reports the BBC's Jonathan Webb. "Gaps in the cloud, swept clear by brand new planets in orbit.
Read the restWATCH: incredible dark-sky timelapse of Moab Utah
- Over the past decade I have visited the Moab, Utah area seven times and have fallen in love with the entire southern Utah landscape. I created this video love letter to let Moab know how much I appreciate the beauty of her landscape and the dark skies above. By Ron Risman Read the restmusic
We listen to sad music to feel nostalgic
- If sadness is an unpleasant emotion, then why are we at times so drawn to sad music? By Dan Ruderman Read the rest
EMERGENCY! Protest FCC sellout on net neutrality across the USA!
-Evan from Fight for the Future writes, "Internet users! It's time to get angry and get active. The FCC just leaked their net neutrality proposal -- and it's TERRIBLE.
Read the restWelcome to Night Vale scouting badges
-For girls: Radiation Immunity; Surviving in Nature; Controlling Plants With Minds; Advanced Knife Fighting Techniques; for boys: Invisibility.
DiscussPennsylvania passes a "Gag Mumia" law to silence prisoner's voices
-The "Revictimization Relief Act" allows suits against offenders whose "conduct...perpetuates the continuing effect of the crime on the victim," but the fact that it was aimed at silencing jailed activist Mumia Abu-Jamal was never made a secret -- the governor signed it into law saying that it "was inspired by the excesses and pious hypocrisy of one particular killer."
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$100K life-size T-Rex skeleton replica
-It's 40' long from nose to tail, is composed of 190 bones, is billed as "museum grade" and comes with an assembly crew that will stage it in any "anatomically possible" pose.
Read the restBrazil's amazing, underground hot-air balloon subculture
-An exquisitely researched and endlessly fascinating long article tells the history of Brazil's centuries-old baloeiro craft, whereby painstakingly handmade paper balloons are lofted trailing ladders of pyrotechnics and long banners, powered by melted-down candle-stubs from churches and graveyards, cheered on by sometimes violent gangs who labor over them for months before releasing them.
Read the restWeb site helps you split almost anything fairly
-Carnegie Mellon researchers have built Spliddit, a web site which gives users "provably fair" ways to divide things of value.
Dividing a cake using the “I cut, you choose” method is the classic example used to illustrate envy-free approaches.
Read the restMonty is the new Grumpy Cat: Internet decides cat with facial abnormality is cuteness hero
- The newly-minted internet star was born without a nasal bridge, and this physical difference inspires fascination and empathy in humans. Read the restThe Wow! Signal
-In August 1977 a radio telescope in Ohio received a signal that bore all the hallmarks of an extraterrestrial intelligence, leading astronomer Jerry Ehman to write "Wow!" in the margin of a printout.
Read the restGenius GIF: Coffee o'clock
- Perfectly depicted. Read the rest
WATCH: Tour the International Space Station with NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman
- Astronaut Reid Wiseman takes us from the very back of the International Space Station to the front at 18,000 miles per hour. Play videoTo do in DC, Nov. 7: A digital security conference for journalists, bloggers
- The event will focus on how news organizations and reporters can use technology and encryption to better protect their sources in the post-Snowden age. Read the restFeatures
Neil Gaiman: How I learned to stop worrying and love the duplicator machines
To celebrate the release of my new book, Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age, I've invited some of my favorite creators and thinkers to write about their philosophy on the arts and the Internet. Today, Neil Gaiman, author of the just-published Hansel and Gretel (with Lorenzo Mattotti), has granted kind permission to reproduce his introduction to Information Doesn't Want to Be Free. -Cory Read the rest
LISTEN: Dr. Monkey's Retro Scans
Our guest this week is Steve Denton, AKA Dr. Monkey. Steve is an internet scourge, sometime writer, full time smart aleck, and an unrepentant gadfly in the ointment of life. Read the rest
We listen to sad music to feel nostalgic
If sadness is an unpleasant emotion, then why are we at times so drawn to sad music? By Dan Ruderman Read the rest
WATCH: incredible dark-sky timelapse of Moab Utah
Over the past decade I have visited the Moab, Utah area seven times and have fallen in love with the entire southern Utah landscape. I created this video love letter to let Moab know how much I appreciate the beauty of her landscape and the dark skies above. By Ron Risman Read the rest
Amanda Palmer: why fans choose to pay artists they love
To celebrate the release of my new book, Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age, I've invited some of my favorite creators and thinkers to write about their philosophy on the arts and the Internet. Today, Amanda Palmer, author of the just-published Art of Asking, has granted kind permission to reproduce her introduction to Information Doesn't Want to Be Free. -Cory Read the rest
StoryShift is a new storytelling medium. Why hasn’t it caught on?
James Renner on the modern answer to classic Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks Read the rest
Cube Quest
Imagine Crossbows and Catapults—but with meaningful rules rather than excuses for a demolition session. Jon Seagull reviews Cube Quest. Read the rest
Christie and Cuomo's Guide to Ebola
Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Governors Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo explain how to tell if someone is possessed by the Ebola. Read the rest
Krs-One was a Teenage Drug Courier pt. 2
A Hip Hop Family Tree strip by Ed Piskor. Read the rest
Molly Crabapple's 15 rules for creative success in the Internet age
To celebrate the release of my new book, Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age, I've invited some of my favorite creators and thinkers to write about their philosophy on the arts and the Internet. Today, Molly Crabapple presents her 15 iron laws of creativity. -Cory Doctorow Read the rest
Kindle Original vs Kindle Voyage
Jason Weisberger finally upgraded. Did seven years make much difference? The answer will probably not surprise you, but the details might. Read the rest
Scanning your negatives will bring your memories into the digital age: here's how
Your old film photos need an upgrade. Enjoy Dean Putney's guide on how to get the best quality from your boxes of negatives as painlessly as possible. Read the rest
The couple that quit renting to live in a tiny house
Billy Ulmer traveled all over the country interviewing people about why they were drawn to designing, building and living in dwellings smaller than the average American greatroom. Meet Chris and Malissa Tack. Read the rest
You knew it was crap, but you bought it anyway. This is why.
David McRaney explores the sunk cost fallacy, a strangely twisted bit of logic that seems to pop into the human mind once a person has experienced the pain of loss or the ickiness of waste on his or her way toward a concrete goal. It’s illogical, irrational, unreasonable - and as a perfectly normal human being, you act under its influence all the time. Read the rest
Why we must explore space
Michael Franti on why we must not give up on the final frontier. Read the rest
The Spirit was by far the best movie of 2008. Deal with it.
Zach Spound explains why everyone was wrong on the internet. Read the rest
Why I wrote fiction about a Rob Ford-inspired mad mayor who settles grudges with knife fights
David Nickle is a horror writer and a working journalist who covered Toronto City Hall during the Rob Ford years, an era in which the two professions effectively merged. Here, Nickle explains the events that led to his new short story collection Knife Fight and Other Struggles, which includes a tale of a larger-than-life mayor who settles interpersonal friction with, well, knife-fights. Read the rest
Your brain loves rewards—whether you like it or not
Why do we insist on "just one more level"? Nir Eyal explains in his book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. Read the rest