Geek culture

Comic book superheroes take on world hunger

Vanquishing a single supervillain suffering from severe chemical burns (the Joker, just to name one) and suffering from clear inadequacy issues is nothing for the superheroes of DC Comics when compared with real threats like drought, famine, and widespread hunger.

For the far less sexy but far more real battle with hunger in the Horn of Africa, DC's Justice League is doing a bit of crowdsourcing. DC Entertainment, home to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and a few other big brand name badasses, is matching donations to Mercy Corps, Save the Children, and the International Relief Project for their efforts providing relief on the ground in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

The worst drought in the area in the past 60 years is affecting 13 million people, with 250,000 threatened by possible starvation. As the Justice League points out in its appeal, the situation is so critical that the United Nations officially declared famine for the first time in 21 years. Makes a speeding, out-of-control train seem like a moderately difficult round of Sudoku.… Read more

Prescription Bottle Beer Holder cuddles cold ones

I have a certain affinity for tacky novelty gifts. I used to peruse comic book ads offering untold delights such as X-ray specs, hand buzzers, and fake vomit.

The Prescription Bottle Beer Holder from Gadgets and Gear would fit right in with those tasteless gags. It's bound to be a hot joke gift among both frat boys and medical professionals.… Read more

The sweet, sweet music of the wood-playing turntable

You have to admit there's at least a little resemblance between the ring-lined cross-section of a tree and an LP. So why shouldn't a tree's rings elicit beautiful music the way a record's can?

That might well have been the inspiration for Bartholomaus Traubeck's Years project, a record player that can read the rings of a tree and translate them into lovely piano melodies.

According to the Years Web site, "A tree's year rings are analyzed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process … Read more

Finally! The 'Star Wars Uncut' director's cut is here

For nearly three years, "Star Wars" fans everywhere have been coming up with their own takes on the beloved film's many famous scenes--15 seconds at a time.

This is "Star Wars Uncut," a project to remake George Lucas' 1977 classic, entirely from fan-made scenes. And while the in-progress results have been available all along for all to see, the project's developers had never publicly released their finished product. Until now.

Today, as Laughing Squid wrote, Casey Pugh, who conceived of the "Star Wars Uncut" project, finally released his director's cut of … Read more

SOPA song shows times a-changin'

The times have a-changed. This generation's Bob Dylans, Joan Baezes, and Ramblin' Jack Elliotts aren't gathering in locales like New York's legendary Washington Square Park to swap chords and licks. They're busily congregating in the gigantic public park that is the Internet, via social media.

And, as a recent video makes clear, YouTube, Facebook, and other such sites seem also to be taking the place of street corners or truck beds when it comes to providing a stage for budding protest singers and their songs.

Forest Gibson and Zachary Cohn's "The Day the LOLcats Died" (embedded below) is certainly not the first Internet protest song, or even the first anti-SOPA tune to wend its way across the Web. ("Firewall" and "SOPA Cabana" are but two other anti-antipiracy screeds that have come before--with "Cabana" even suggesting Dylan and his "Subterranean Homesick Blues" via handwritten lyrics on cards).

But the presentation and form of "LOLCats" call to mind, in a way these other tunes don't, the stereotypical image of the protest singer: a lone soul busily killing fascists with his or her acoustic machine.… Read more

The 404 976: Where we're making ghosts turn red (podcast)

Megaupload users (the legal kind) are upset with the FBI's decision to shut the site down yesterday before anyone had a chance to back up their files.

In response to the lawsuit, Anonymous hit back with several denial-of-service (DOS) attacks that brought down several government-run Web sites including those for the Department of Justice and the FBI, as well as Universal Music and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Today we're chatting about yesterday's Apple iBookstore announcement and what it'll mean for schools and the future of education. We'll also spend some time looking at the Megaupload arrests, and run through the top 10 questions kids ask that puzzle parents, like "Why is the sky blue?" and "How do airplanes stay in the air?"… Read more

Soon, we'll be wearing movies

Imagine: You're walking down the street at night. You turn a corner, and suddenly, coming your way, you see someone with "Avatar" playing on their jacket.

It's a futuristic notion, but according to the folks at open-source hardware maker Adafruit Industries, it's one that's just months away.

That's because Adafruit has just unveiled Flora, its brand-new Arduino and Arduino-compatible wearable electronics platform. Designed to give anyone the ability to craft a matrix of up to hundreds or someday, more than 1,000 small LED "pixels," Flora is meant to make it possible to easily craft custom wearable multi-LED pixel designs perfect for art events like Burning Man, or even the streets of whatever town you live in. … Read more

World's biggest NES controller and other giant tech in video

The world's largest video controller has been unveiled at London's Liverpool Street Station. The controller is an exact replica of an old NES joypad, scaled up 30 times in each dimension. Hit play on our video (above) to see the massive pad in gigantic action.

The working humungopad, which is 4 meters long and weighs 120 kilograms, was created by British engineering student Ben Allen and collaborators from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. It takes two people to play and has to be transported in a lorry.

"We built the controller to celebrate the 105th … Read more

Friday Poll: Concur with Woz's Android comments?

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak created a comment explosion over his recent remarks about certain advantages he sees with Android phones.

Woz isn't pitching his iPhone into the shrubbery, but he did talk to the Daily Beast about several Android features he feels trump the iPhone's offerings. GPS navigation, battery life, and voice commands all made the list.

The Android versus iPhone debate has been as emotional as the great over-versus-under toilet paper debate. Hearing an Apple icon praise the other side just stirs the pot up a little bit more.… Read more

Need a charge? Roll your suitcase

We've all been there, right? Your flight's delayed, your entertainment gadget of choice is running low on juice, and all the outlets are taken. So what's a weary, tech-deprived traveler to do? Go drum up some power with your rolling suitcase, of course!

Designer Jung Inyoung has come up with a pretty cool concept of a rolling suitcase that provides power to your devices using kinetic energy. … Read more