Scrabble Bingo of the Day: MIASMIC [adj] Miasmic is an adjective for miasm (or miasma), which means a noxious vapor—"bad air" harmful to health. The word miasma comes from the ancient Greek word for pollution. And the concept of bad air also gave rise to the name malaria, from old Italian "mala" (bad) "aria" (air).
I have to admit that I am an environmentalist wacko. That may sound strange, considering my life is tied up in PVC, which is considered one of the most poisonous materials on earth... but it's true. I love this planet, and I want it to be inhabitable for as long as the sun is in this phase of its life.
Hungarian developer Nemesys Games is best known for making the lighthearted Fortix series, a pair of casual tower defense variants available on Steam. For their latest project, they've decided to expand their horizons, going beyond downloadable sawbuck games. It's called Rocket Bullet Storm, a chaotic old-school shmup similar to the surprising number of others to come out in the last year. The difference is that this one is huge—30 feet tall—and consumes 250 square meters of floorspace, which...
The term glitch always seemed best suited for computer programs, video games and electronic equipment, where a slight irregularity in the device or system would create a temporary malfunction with annoying, sometimes even amazing unexpected results. Only the effect was never really considered artistic—until now.
Browsing and displaying your music library on the iPad is a cinch with Apple's iPod app. But by no means would it be considered exciting. Thankfully, there's another option for sorting and playing your iTunes library. It's a unique iPad-only application for those of us who want something more visually stimulating, something otherworldly—something galactic.
Apple's iPhone is considered one of the best smartphones in the world. Many cell phone makers have tried to take down the juggernaut, with some Android-based devices coming close, but in order to become an actual iPhone killer, something revolutionary needs to happen in the mobile world. And Human Media Lab (HML) may be the ones to make it happen.
If one asks where origami originated from most people will answer "Japan". But is this really the right answer?
I already have a link for this wonderful website in the "Useful Links" box (underneath the description of Green Beauty's mantra on the right), but I wanted to link this to you guys again because it's just that important a resource.
Type: Purist photography, no visual or graphic art manipulation Theme: Photo of the Day
The Writers at io9.com have been running through a fantastic series of blog posts, in which they're teaching their readers about the history of great 80s sci-fi and fantasy. Because so much of this is right up my alley, I though I'd aggregate their aggregations, so to speak, and write a little retrospective of my own.
National Geographic is holding their annual Photo Contest, in the categories of People, Places and Nature. If you're interested in participating, check out the guidelines now. Time is running out- all submissions must be in by November 30th.
From time to time you may come across crochet instructions telling you to have the "right side of the work facing you." Right side means, the side facing out after your project is finished.
This is a follow up to my last post on watching games in 3D. My main concern (because apparently I'm something of a technical snob, since no one else I went with considered it an issue), was that I perceived a lack of definition for a theater presentation.
A British prisoner was recently caught with a tattoo gun rigged from a Sony Playstation. The crafty D.I.Y.er broke down the Playstation and attached the console motor to a finely sharpened ballpoint pen.
David Wang of the iPhone Dev Team has achieved what is considered quite a jaw-dropping hacking feat. Yesterday Wang posted a video of Google's Android operating system up and running on an iPhone. Via CNET:
Are you hungry? One of the great things about Los Angeles is the abundance of food. I'm not just talking about restaurants. You need to get out of your car, and walk around your neighborhood. You could make a great meal just from what you find out on the streets. It's free, and most of it's organic. Just be sure to wash any dirt off of your treasure before you bite.
of guys and their potato guns....errr...ummmm..., may prove him right. Can't a guy just enjoy hairspray, vegetables, and a big huge boom?
Uproxx recently posted a guide to making popular YouTube video, and I have to say, I'm not surprised that the models of success include web culture faves such as babies, cats and zit popping.
Night People: A Bad Vibes Label Profile
Mad Science is looking for more hackers, makers, and DIYers to participate in our community madness. If you've recently designed or made a project, we want to see it! Share with the other Mad Scientists out there by posting up a how-to of your pet project on our community corkboard, or even just a few cool, inspiring photos of the build.
Cell phone jammers, a DIY endeavor for the darker crowd. I'm pretty sure we've all considered having one at some point: whether the obnoxiously loud woman next to you is announcing private bedroom stories to a crowd on the subway, or your kids are grounded from using the phone (and consequently snagged a hidden prepaid phone), sometimes having a cell phone jammer comes in handy.
This is the first of a multi-part series on steganography techniques. Steganography, the art of hiding things in plain sight, has existed for a long time, and in many forms. When you manipulate the alphabet to have your own cipher and decipher, this is considered steganography.
HEXEREI n pl. -S witchcraft 67 points (17 points without the bingo)
VERONICA n pl. -S a handkerchief bearing the image of Christ's face 63 points (13 points without the bingo)
To most gamers, video games are largely devoid of place. In the post-arcade era, the only real world locations most associate with video games are GameStop and the couch. But there's so much more to them than that!
Electronic Arts is the biggest game publisher in the world, and have been for years. And yet, their only successful internally developed games nowadays are the EA Sports mega-franchises like Madden. Most of their success has stemmed from their ability to buy other companies on their way up, squeeze the creativity out of them, and then sell them to someone else or just let them go. This week they made their largest acquisition ever when they purchased PopCap Games for $750 million upfront—as m...
They've been at it for a few years now, but the crazy group of amateur rocket scientists who call themselves Copenhagen Suborbitals have triumphed over adversity, successfully launching their DIY rocket nearly 2 miles into the sky last Friday. The privately funded, non-profit aims to one day send human beings into suborbital space on the cheap, without the need of government budgets and administration.
Angry Birds might be the most visible video game franchise in the world today. It has sold 100 million units, as many as all the Sims games put together. It has been incorporated into board games, birthday cakes, and Israeli sketch comedy shows. And yet, this piece of seeming mass-media whoredom is an indie game. Wha?
BEST PICTURE, ACTRESS, DIRECTOR, FILM EDITING, CINEMATOGRAPHY: I would go to the ballet all the time if it was this cool!
In the dojo, what ISN’T said is often as important as what IS said. To most of us who’ve been raised in the USA, the reticence we encounter in the dojo can be off-putting. American society is very “content” oriented. Our legal contracts, for instance, run for pages and pages. Everything needs to be spelled out. In “context-oriented” societies there is far less reliance on such a literal approach. Much more importance is placed on the relationship between the two parties entering into an agree...
ZERO WASTE. Yes, You read that right. This kitchen of the future aims to have zero waste. Ekokook the kitchen concept out of design company Faltazi gives us hope for a greener future. How is this possible you ask when in most homes 85 or 90 percent of a family's trash is generated in the vicinity of the kitchen? Ekokooks kitchen system is divided up into disposing and storing your waste in three mechanized sectioned systems Solid Waste, Liquid Waste and Organic Waste. Solid Waste- The solid w...
International Pet Travel: Taking Your Pet Animal to a Foreign Country If you are taking a pet to another country (permanently or for a visit), contact that country's consulate or embassy for information about any requirements that you must meet. A list of consulates can be found at Foreign Consular Offices in the United States
Diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any bulk material. It's also considered incredibly beautiful and a symbol of live. Here we take a look at how they stack up against their virtual counterparts.
It seems that Obesity in children is due to many causes however genetic cause is still the most important factor at all.
Other than something you can place on the floor as an ironic reference to a bygone era when a banana peel fall was considered to be the height of comedic gold, banana peels have many weirdly useful applications for your beauty regimen, the maintenance of your leather couch, the health of your backyard garden, and more.
Though it may seem like sacrilege for some to use butter for something other than to flavor your food with delicious buttery goodness, butter has many other surprisingly practical uses, like keeping your hard cheeses mold-free or helping you swallow your pills.
Elisa Strozyk's wooden textiles fold and drape in beautiful forms. Incredible how a hard material combined with a simple, pieced construction can take on both sculptural and fluid qualities. Truly innovative.
Pen Spinning lives in a similar world of the unassuming arts of Cup Stacking and Dice Stacking. All three performing arts truly require a great deal of practice and skill.
Dirk Auer has set a new world record…for insanity. This past July, the adrenaline junkie raced down the rickety, wooden Mammoth roller coaster at 56mph, in his specially made inline skates. Auer made it through the entire length of the roller coaster (2820 feet) in just over a minute.
Sure, unrolling toilet paper and tearing it from the roll is not difficult. But if Lego Mindstorms can do it for you, why not?
