Coding with Fountain Pens

One Laptop Per Child is an effort to produce a $100 laptop that can be distributed en masse to the school children of the world.  The first pass attempt at the hardware was going for $200, featured a 400 MHz CPU, flash for storage and wifi. And it’s powered by winding. That’s great, but the […]

This has to be the coolest picture NASA has produced in awhile.  It’s a shot from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of the Phoenix lander descending toward the surface under it’s parachute.  The original image that was released was a close-up, but apparently Phoenix was floating past this picturesque crater at the time.  Live mission status can […]

I have a problem with this saying.  I think it’s good and healthy to have a posture of skepticism when encountering any argument, especially one that is not backed up by evidence.  You could say this evidence is essentially data.  Data itself can easily be very unwieldy, and statistics is a tool with which a […]

I’ve long had a poor opinion of the plastic clamshell packaging encasing many products, especially electronic gizmos.  Considerable technique is required with the scissors to avoid major injury, and indeed the packaging has been blamed for 6400 emergency room visits in 2004. Seth Godin approaches the packaging from a slightly different angle, highlighting how ridiculous […]

This is what my wife was saying half-way through Das Boot.

Mario Batali describes how to sauce your pasta properly in this video.  Summary: you’re using too much sauce.  You’re still using too much sauce.

The Library of Congress has a Flickr stream up that updates as they scan images from their archives.  There’s a lot of interesting content available.  This photo of ‘Auto-Polo’ reminds me of Whirlyball, except significantly more dangerous.  I see they have a pro account.

Truly new thinking always has to break through a barrier of skepticism before gaining wider adoption.  I’m sure this is true of Urban Farms, an idea that at first blush sounds slightly crazy, but may have real benefits.  It seems that in a world of increasing transportation costs, producing food right in an urban center […]

I may start a regular feature on Mr. Fusion, and today’s story is a piece in Wired discussing transforming garbage into jet fuel.  It sounds a little more limited that Doc’s banana peel and beer can approach, and “5000 degree plasma arcs” would seem to rule this out for installation on your stainless steel sports […]