Amazingly, a lot of people I know haven't even heard of SOPA or PIPA. Now, every English-reading person with an internet connection will finally have those two four-letter acronyms emblazoned in their minds. For the entire day today, Wikipedia's English-language site will be in total blackout in protest against the proposed legislation in the United States. And that's not all. MoveOn, Reddit, BoingBoing, Mozilla, WordPress, TwitPic and other popular websites are down today in protest.
So, I got this email today from Groupon claiming today is Earth's 400 birthday. Groupon is known for their humor, but how (and why) did they pick today as Earth's 400th birthday?
Besides Wikipedia and teachers (in that order), textbooks are the go-to source of information during our school years. Today, we take a look at what happens when the people writing these voluminous tomes get attacked by a sudden bout of ennui.
Here's a simple and easy addition to your own Jacob's Ladder. If you don't have one, here's how to make a Jacob's ladder.
DIAPSID 61 points (11 points without the bingo) Definition: a reptile with two pairs of temporal openings in the skull [n]
Luckily for Los Angeles residents, Southern California's most populated county is chock full of amazing Chinese food. Granted it's a far drive for many—the best restaurants are in Alhambra and Monterey Park, which fall within the far eastern realm of the county—but regardless, I've found more amazing Chinese restaurants in L.A. than New York City.
MBAQANGA 72 points (22 points without the bingo) Definition: a South African dance music [n]
REREMICE 62 points (12 points without the bingo) Definition: bats (flying mammals) [n/pl.]
FRONDEUR 62 points (12 points without the bingo) Definition: a rebel [n]
Web-spying technologies like FaceNiff, Firesheep and Newstweek are out there showing the world just how easy it is to see what you're doing online, but they're amateurish in comparison to what real hackers could do to you if they catch you browsing unsecured websites.
Google's hard at work beefing up their new Google+ social network, and while they continue to improve new features like Circles and Hangouts, they haven't lost track of their other online features already widely in use. If you're already a part of the Google+ project (currently closed to invites right now), you've probably noticed the changes in Picasa Web, but Gmail has been getting some great updates as well—and you don't have to be in the Google+ network to use them.
Illustrator Lisa Hanawalt innovates the typical gossip rag by rendering wicked rumors of Devil Wears Prada villain Anna Wintour as clever cartoon drawings. Though akin to political cartoons, the result is more US Magazine (if US was prettier to look at). As usual, Wintour is depicted as soulless (and to think, she supposedly bedded Bob Marley!).
Have an old-school tabula recta lying around? No? Then just print out the chart below. Nothing ensures better password security than this centuries-old cipher technique. Here's how it works, via Wikipedia:
We've seen several examples of light graffiti on WonderHowTo (1, 2, 3), but this one is truly eerily beautiful. Australian photographer Denis Smith pushes the envelope with his project Ball of Light.
That's right, cars aren't the only mode of transportation worth customizing. Dekochari, the Japanese art of pimping your bicycle:
Talk about yankee ingenuity... zany Japanese inventor, Dr. Nakamats, has lead a life propelled by curiosity and inventiveness. Nakamats boasts that he has Thomas Edison beat by a mile (compare Edison's measly 1,093 patents to Nakamats' 3,357).
From Wikipedia, "Falconry is is a sport which involves the use of trained raptors (birds of prey) to hunt or pursue game for humans."
Wikipedia's definition of dice stacking: "Dice stacking is a performance art, akin to juggling or sleight-of-hand, in which the performer scoops dice off a flat surface with a dice cup and then sets the cup down while moving it in a pattern that stacks the dice into a vertical column via centripetal force and inertia."
In my opinion, Isaac Newton is definitely the number two astronomer, right below Galileo Galilei. His discoveries were very important to uncovering the secrets of space, and he deserves to be remembered.
Ivy League schools aren't just places for people to row and sip their drinks out of glasses normal people would never use (i.e. snifters). They also the place for trolling on a grand scale. Just take a look at these Trolls de la Resistance!
Leather Goddesses of Phobos
MACHZOR 73 points (23 points without the bingo) Definition: mahzor; a Jewish prayer book [n]
Chicken hypnotism is pretty mind boggling. We were enthralled when young Ciaran hypnotized a chicken with his infectious little boy charm (and more importantly, the gentle back-and-forth sway of his arms). There are a wealth of videos on YouTube depicting the process—a bonafide practice tried and true among both farmers and scientists. So, what is the why and how-to behind the art of fowl hypnosis?
Chris Haney, one of the creators of the Trivial Pursuit board game, died Monday, May 31st. But what does Chris Haney and Trivial Pursuit have to do with SCRABBLE?
BPA: Why Plastic Ain't Good For You BPA or Bisphenol A is in many of the products we use. Everything from Ziploc bags to shower curtains, we are exposed to BPA all the time.
In our media-enriched world, past and present, SCRABBLE has made a name for itself, whether deliberately, subconsciously, or influentially. You may have a read a book that had the popular word game within a chapter, watched a movie that showed your favorite characters bringing out the SCRABBLE board, or even listened to a rap about this word or that word. SCRABBLE is everywhere, even if you don't realize it.
Last time, we looked at archaic cryptography, so you should have a basic understanding of some of the concepts and terminology you'll need. Now, we'll discuss one of the most important advances in computer security in the 20th century—public key cryptography.
I'm starting a series on the top astronomers, with probably about eleven astronomers that I will be covering overall. So, let's start out from the top, with the top most important astronomer. In my opinion, Galileo Galilei is the top astronomer.
Mediocre free Flash game websites are all too common. Many of them thrive off peddling the same few popular games to fans who have slim cause to pick one over the other. They thrive off the indifference of casual gamers and an environment that does not have to stand out to survive, only appeal to the lowest common gaming denominator with tower defense clones and brightly colored Peggle knockoffs. In that context, what Nitrome is doing seems downright commendable.
You're walking down the street, minding your own business. Then you see it—a large, bright fireball in the near distance. A tremendous heat wave speeds towards you at one thousand miles an hour, and before you can think, before you can even blink, the extremely heated wind pushes right through you. Your skin melts, your eyes liquefy—your face disappears into the wind. Before you know it, your pancreas collide with what’s left of the person next to you, your duodenum is dissolving faster than ...
We don't often get super excited about upcoming flicks over at thesubstream.com, especially during the long, hot & more-often-than-not disappointing stretch of cinematic cruelty that summer has become. We've been hurt before. We've been buoyed up on cresting glorious waves of hype and what-ifs and heady nostalgia only to be sent hurling like a fat guy from Ohio on vacation down onto the cruel, razor sharp Jar-Jar Binks reef.
A look at Aquaria Last week I made a post about the Humble Indie Bundle (http://www.wolfire.com/humble). It's a small online charaty drive where you could buy five indie games for any price you wanted.
Did you know it only took five weeks to make FarmVille? That it currently has over 80,000,000 users? That FarmVille farmers outnumber real farmers in the United States by a ration of 80 to 1?
Maybe your kids are using iPhone/iPad too much, as a parent, you want to know what they are having to deal with to help guide them through of that. Here is the tutorial on how you can parental control your kids on iPhone/iPad. You are able to monitor as well as take control of their devices. Kids’ activities on iPhone/iPad like SMS, chats, web browsing will be recorded and you can check them remotely with e-mail without getting access to the devices. OK, here comes the steps: Step 1:
Have you ever been in the situation where someone whose taste in books you respect and generally agree with recommends a book that you have seen from time to time and you’ve always thought it looked just “Meh” and then you finally read War Dances which is by the same author and it’s amazing and funny and sad and you think, why didn’t I read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, like, three years ago? No? Is that just me?
Professionally and academically speaking, I am a computer scientist, but I also enjoy lock picking as a hobby, so I thought I would share what knowledge I have with this. Before we start doing anything, first we need to understand the fundamentals of how locks work and then acquire and familiarize ourselves with basic lock-picking tools.
Some of you might be using Tor to host hidden services, and some of you might not even know what hidden services are. If the latter's you, do not miss this article. Why? Because you can host your websites and services on the I2P darknet. It's safe and secure—it's anonymous.
The most recent viral video on YouTube is just that. A viral video. After seeing all the hype and 'support' that the 'movement' is getting, I want to tell you that this is a misleading video and somewhat of a propaganda campaign. These are strong accusations against such a 'humanitarian' cause, but I'm here to show you why.
