thepacketmaster writes "A previous Slashdot article I posted mentioned the possibility of Stephen Hawking coming to Canada. The Toronto Star now reports that he has accepted the position. Hawking will hold the title of distinguished research chair at the prestigious Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Spikenzie pointed out these excellent high-speed photos by Flickr member Fotoopa - beautiful stuff! - Waterfigures

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eldavojohn writes "A rare glimpse from Shell Oil of a giant squid brings to light the strange relationships some deep sea marine biologists have with drilling companies. The video of the squid (Magnapinna) is very rare as this creature remains largely a mystery to science. While some are concerned of a conflict of interest, biologists and big oil sure make for strange bedfellows. The video is from 200 miles off the coast of Houston, TX and about 4,000 feet down." Looking at this creature gives me the willies, frankly.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

eldavojohn writes "A rare glimpse from Shell Oil of a giant squid brings to light the strange relationships some deep sea marine biologists have with drilling companies. The video of the squid (Magnapinna) is very rare as this creature remains largely a mystery to science. While some are concerned of a conflict of interest, biologists and big oil sure make for strange bedfellows. The video is from 200 miles off the coast of Houston, TX and about 4,000 feet down." Looking at this creature gives me the willies, frankly.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Flickr user Gardenque created this exacting replica of a Korg MS-20 synthesizer in white. Elegant! - Paper Sculpture: In a Quiet Corner of Sussex [via Matrixsynth]

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pheede writes "SCOTUSblog brings us news that the FTC has appealed the recent circuit court decision regarding Rambus's deceptive conduct on the JEDEC standards committee, where they conveniently avoided telling anyone that they owned patents on the resulting standards. The FTC, which is proceeding on its own without help from the Justice Department, notes the circuit court's 'sweeping rules that would immunize' deceptive conduct by would-be monopolists 'in most circumstances.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

These vertical wall-hangable chess boards seem like a good idea. Imagine playing a game with someone over time via casual walk-by moves -

There are no time clocks when you play on a Straight Up Chess Board. This is a casual game. As you pass by the Straight Up Chess board, you make your move, mark it with the "last move" marker and continue on your way. Later, your opponent passes by, makes their move and marks it as "last move".

A normal board could likely be converted easily with the help of some acrylic and a frame. - Straight up chess [via Neatorama]

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Lucas123 writes "Micron demonstrated the culmination of numerous technology announcements this year with a solid state disk drive that is capable of 1GB/sec throughput with a PCIe slot. The SSD is based on Micron's 34nm technology and interleaving 64 NAND flash chips in parallel. While the techology, which is expected to ship over the next year, is currently aimed at high-end applications, a Micron executive said it's entirely possible that Micron's laptop and desktop SSDs could have similar performance in the near future by bypassing SATA interfaces."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Need to spice up your greenhouse? Start a Crash Bonsai garden!

CrashBonsai is the creation of John Rooney, an artist who is torn between the desire to create and destroy. Recently, he has been making bonsai plants, and combining them with model cars and trucks which he has creatively smashed and melted, to create "CrashBonsai," little living car crash sculptures.

via Zoomdoggle

My first car was a 72 Chevelle, just about exactly like the one above, except for the tail lights. In it, I learned the value of not braking in an icy parking lot with light poles. It wound up looking eerily similar to the photo at the top of this post, but mine was smashed on the passenger side front, and still driveable for about a year longer.

Have you created unconventional ornamental arrangement? Does the term Junk Yard mean the same to you as to most people? Add photos of your disaster recreations to the Make Flickr pool.

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seanpark writes "Who will President Elect Obama select for the recently established post of Copyright Czar? Biden has a longstanding relationship with Big Content, and he was partly responsible for the PRO-IP Act that created the position. The short list according to the article includes a few lobbyists (who would likely be disqualified by stringent ethical guidelines) and Lawrence Lessig, who was a technology adviser to the Obama Campaign."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Instructables has put together a list of suggestions for make-it-yourself gifts. I bet there's going to be a lot of handmade gifts this year. Great! A wonderful silver lining to leaner times.

I have a scarf that a friend knitted me for my last birthday. I was so touched that someone had taken that much time to make something just for me. It felt as though her affection for me was actually encoded in the scarf, in the many hours of knitting it. I think about this every time I grab it from the closet and put it on. I'm not sure any purchased item would communicate the friendly love and devotion, the true notion of "gift," the way this scarf does.

I'm hoping to make most of my gifts this year. In fact, my son and I are planning on doing one of the projects from The Best of Instructables and giving one to all of our family members. (I'm not going to say which one 'cause I don't want to spoil the surprise.)

Here are a few of the ideas for gifts that the Instructables team put together:

Make a Custom Lift-the-Flap Book for a Toddler

I provide childcare in my home for three toddlers and I've noticed that they really love board books with flaps that open. So for Christmas I made three customized lift-the-flap books for them. This instructable will explain how to make your own and give some tips on how to make the process a little easier.

Munny Speakers</a

Give your speakers some extra personality by making them out of a vinyl doll. Kid Robot makes the easily hackable Munny doll and I've been meaning to cut one up. The combined need for some new speakers created a happy union of doll and speaker.

We included this speaker project in The Best of Instructables and Instructables had them at their booth at Maker Faire Austin. They looked pretty cool online, they look A LOT cooler in person! Really unique and beautiful. Of course, this isn't a cheap project, but one the recipient will never forget.

Trendy note card gift set

Black and white is totally trendy right now, and what's hotter than adding a little "bling" to your life? So here's a super quick (only six steps!) note card design that you can make as a gift for that really hip gal in your life - or keep for yourself and use them as thank you's for all the not-so-hip gifts you'll be getting for Christmas!

There are so many amazing things you can do with paper products and crafting supplies. A trip to a Micheal's or places like PaperSource will give you all sorts of great ideas, for both presents and wrapping and packaging ideas. This Instructable shows just how easy and cheap it is make very swanky stationary with just a few special craft supplies and materials.

Photo cube - frameless, cheap and easy!

I made this as a birthday card for my sister, but it's also a great cheap way to display photos without having to buy a frame. It would also make a lovely personalized bauble or gift box.

You could also use these as gift boxes.

Audio Visual Art....FOTC Style
This guy made a LED back-lit, singing painting for his wife, as an homage to the Flight of the Conchords. You could obviously take the idea somewhere else entirely.

Gift Ideas

From the Maker Shed:
These are just some of the great ideas for homemade gifts. Instructables is a giant treasure-trove of ideas. And so is The Best of Instructables.

Best Of Instructables
Our Price: $34.99
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You Save $5.00!

Instructables.com has become one of the most popular magnets for makers and DIY enthusiasts of all stripes. Now, with more than 10,000 projects to choose from, the Instructables staff, editors of MAKE: Magazine, and the Instructables community itself have put together a collection of home, craft, food and technology how-to's from the site. The Best of Instructables Volume 1 includes plenty of clear, full-color photographs, complete step-by-step instructions, and tips, tricks, and new build techniques you won't find anywhere else.

Highlights from the book:

* 336 pages, 6-5/8 x 9-3/8, same dimensions as The Best of MAKE and MAKE magazine.
* Over 120 projects!
* Projects cover everything from food hacking and making home furnishings from junk to building robots and CNC milling machines. And in-between you'll find projects on arts, crafts, costume-making, tool tips, themed photo galleries, and tons more.
* There are also the results of the Community Choice contest winners (the best of Instructables as voted by its members) and links to their projects.
* There are key user comments from the site throughout, called User Notes, and even a section in the back for you to keep your own User Notes as you build the projects.

We tried to involve the Instructables community as much as possible in the creation of the book (we were in direct communication with several hundred authors!). We hope the results do this maker community proud. It was a thrill ride to be sure.

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Mark posted on Boing-Boing last year this article on Fake News that I wrote, which examined the retail numbers cited by the National Retail Federation about sales over Thanksgiving, and so-called Black Friday. I made the point that this news is fake news, coming from a press release generated by a retail trade organization and then spoon-fed to us by uncritical reporters. While the stories credit the source, the headlines give the impression that the retail industry wants, using numbers they provide. (Reporters like a story with specific numbers, no matter how contrived they are. Independent backup for the numbers is never provided.) There's every reason for NRF to present numbers that favor their view that consumers will be buying more. It's like asking the fox to count the eggs in the hen house and report on the health of the chickens.

This is the post-Thanksgiving weekend story last year, written almost whole-cloth from the NRF press release.

Blockbuster Black Friday Weekend Sees Sales Near $28 Billion
145 Million Shoppers Hit Stores and Internet, Up From 133 Million in '04

Washington, DC, November 27, 2005--The ceremonial kickoff to the holiday season began with a great deal of fanfare as 145 million shoppers flooded stores and the Internet hunting for popular electronics, clothing, and books. An NRF survey conducted by BIGresearch found that the average shopper spent $302.81 this weekend, bringing total weekend spending to $27.8 billion, an incredible 21.9 percent increase over last year's $22.8 billion.

A year later, the retail outlook is a little different with a little less fanfare. I wondered what the NRF website was saying in advance of Black Friday. Do they still want you to believe more people are going to come out and buy? The answer is "yes, but." Instead of "more than last year," the idea is "more than you think."

Here's the pre-Thanksgiving press release, which prepares us for a "big surprise", saying the Black Friday will have a silver lining.

Preliminary Black Friday Survey Suggests Lower Gas Prices, Pent-Up Demand Offer Silver Lining for Weekend Shopping

Washington, November 25, 2008 – As retailers prepare to open their doors at the crack of dawn this Friday, many could be in for a welcome surprise. According to a preliminary Black Friday shopping survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation, up to 128 million people will shop this Friday, Saturday or Sunday. According to the survey, 49 million people will definitely hit the stores while another 79 million are waiting to see the weekend deals before making any decisions. This number is down slightly from the 135 million people who said they would or may shop over Black Friday weekend last year.

I went to Google News, typed in "Black Friday Silver Lining" and a CNNMoney story popped up. A cut-and-paste specialist, I mean, reporter, Julianne Pepitone made this story for CNN:

Black Friday retailers hope for silver lining

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Black Friday shopping is expected to decline slightly, but pent-up demand and lower gas prices may provide a small silver lining for the suffering retail industry, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Up to 128 million people said they will shop on the Friday, Saturday, or Sunday after Thanksgiving, down from 135 million the previous year, according to a survey by National Retail Federation (NRF).

Seriously, CNN should just cite NRF as the author of the story.

Now, look at last year's story which cited 145 million shoppers. This year the number for last year is down to 135 million, which means they overestimated last year by ten million or this revised number allowed them to say that numbers would be "down slightly" when comparing it their equally fictional 128 million for this year.

Here's my favorite part of the fairly literal PR-to-news translation:

In fact, a full 49 million people said they would "definitely" head to stores, while 79 million said they would decide after seeing the weekend deals.

Imagine asking that many "full" people, "in fact", people full from Thanksgiving, saying "definitely." If this were an election story, and you had this kind of poll data, you wouldn't write that "up to 128 million" had made up their mind to vote. You'd write that two-thirds were undecided.

This is one of our Thanksgiving traditions - we have card stock and colored pencils out for people to make hand turkeys. Yep, just like you remember from grade school, you trace around your hand and fill in the features. Kids and adults both really enjoy themselves, and it's fun to see people get creative with it. I've also noticed that the grown-ups are often compelled to write their name, age, grade and teacher's name on the back. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

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Pickens writes "Video calling, long anticipated by science fiction, is filtering into everyday use, and two demographic groups not usually thought of as high-tech are among the earliest adopters — the nursery school set and their grandparents. According to the AARP, nearly half of American grandparents live more than 200 miles from at least one of their grandchildren, and about two-thirds of grandchildren see one set of grandparents only a few times a year, if that. Internet companies are also promoting video chat as an enhancement to standard IM and Internet phone services; for example, this month Google introduced bare-bones video capability in Gmail. Some veterans of the technology fear that the video cam has started to substitute, rather than supplement, actual time together. And no one quite knows what it means to a generation of 2-year-olds to have slightly pixelated versions of their grandparents as regular fixtures in their lives."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The 110208th dorkbot-nyc meeting will take place at 7pm on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at Location One in SoHo.

The meeting is free and open to the public. Please bring snacks to share.

We're always looking for (and playing) more dorkbot theme songs! Bring or email one and we'll play it at the meeting.

+++++++

Featuring the alkaline and perchlorated:

Fang-Yu Lin: Political Science 101
Political Science 101: A Crash Course in Civil Discourse on Political Blogs is a net art installation that constantly scans and monitors hundreds of political blogs for headlines, keywords and trends. The "learnings" are presented as slides that are generated in real-time, using textbook style charts and graphs. A hacked slide projector projects these virtual slides to the screen in a simulated classroom setting. Hence, the class is a study of blogs as a political medium, and an appraisal of its traits and uses.

Alicia Gibb: Bug Labs
Bug Labs is a new kind of technology company, enabling a new generation of engineers to tap their creativity and build any type of device they want, without having to solder, learn solid state electronics, or go to China. Bug Labs envisions a future where CE stands for Community Electronics, the term "mashups" applies equally to hardware as it does to Web services, and entrepreneurs can appeal to numerous markets by inventing "The Long Tail" of devices. We believe everybody is an inventor at heart, so we've developed a platform for users to create and forever modify their favorite gadget, allowing for ultimate customization and use.

Jeremy Rotsztain: Media Impressionism
Media Impressionism is just one possible term for the practice of remixing cinematic imagery using well known practices from painting (such as collage, pointillism, and action painting), but using software-based tools. In this dorkbotty presentation, I'll discuss a few of my recent video art and computational imaging projects and share my working process.

Check out last month's presentations here. Good, dorky stuff in the Big Apple!

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Michael Fraase tries to explain what I've tried real hard to explain for the last N years (where N might be as many as 15 believe it or not) that news, like any other business, is about the users.

I do this with programmers, with about as little success as with people in the news industry. People who write software invariably think the users' job is to give them "feedback" which they are free to do with as they please. Of course they are free to ignore the users, but eventually that results in the users (er ahem, drum roll please) ignoring them. If you want to keep their interest, you need to be interested in them.

I once went to a lunch at the University of California School of Journalism, where I mouthed off on this subject, more or less, and was greeted with a stunning idea -- it was largely considered unethical for a reporter or editor to know which sections of the paper were most read by users of the paper. If the reporter knew, the story goes, he or she might be influenced by peoples' interests in deciding what to write about.

To which I said (and say) loudly -- OY!

Or another way --> THERE'S THE BUG.

Fraase says I think like a programmer. I suppose. I didn't always. When I was younger I wasn't going to be a programmer. I became one out of necessity. I had ideas that expressed themselves in software, and I couldn't interest any "real" programmers in making the ideas real, so...

But all along I've been a glutton not just for feedback, but to know how the ideas I had would be used. I never create any software that I myself don't want or need, because I wouldn't know how to do it. My method of development depends on me being a user. So do I listen to the users? Yes. If I listen to myself, which I try to (it's harder than it might appear at first).

Listening is hard. But all people who create products for users must listen if they want to do well at making products. That includes doctors, bus drivers, mailmen, entrepreneurs, programmers, and yes, reporters and editors too. Because if you don't listen you might miss a corner-turn and end up going off a cliff, just like the news industry is doing. They see the cliff, they know they're headed for it, but they don't ask how to turn the car. They don't really want to know. I think sometimes what they want is to be missed when they lie dead in a crumpled car at the bottom of the cliff. But we don't want that to happen. Not because we love them, but because life without them is pretty hard to imagine. They should turn the corner, no matter how painful it is. But in order to do it, they're going to have to look out the front window and the mirrors and listen to the person in the passenger seat.

That's why it's not enough for the NY Times to have a Public Editor, they have to have the Public itself on the op-ed page. That should start on Monday. There's no reason to wait for that. The Times should have more branded blogs, given to people whose opinions they value. Want a list of 5000 such people? Make a list of the people the Times has quoted in the last year. I bet it's more like 50,000. At this point, the Times is still reputable enough and alive enough that they would want to be under the Times umbrella. Immediately you have a reason to survive for between 5000 or 50,000 people.

We can save one newspaper that way. One newspaper is infinitely better than zero. We can probably save a few magazines too. The key thing is to incentivize people to make them survive. Open the doors as wide as you can imagine, and let the world flood in. It should have happened slowly and carefully over a decade, I told you so back then but you didn't listen. Now you have to achieve what would have been accomplished in that period in the space of a few months. It isn't going to be easy or anything like pain free. But it can work. I'm sure of it.

Seth Godin: "The only reason to answer the phone when a customer calls is to make the customer happy."

Mac mini Apple pie - it doesn't get better than this folks.

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Today, the Boing Boing tv crew takes the day off for time with family, friends, and food. We revisit one of our favorite good-vibe animation episodes, a lovely video from Bill Barminski. Perhaps you missed it? Do watch now.

---

Butterflies, wah-wah pedals, and one-eyed yeti, ahoy! The Boing Boing tv crew is proud to return to the work of one of our favorite multi-media savants, Bill Barminski of Walter Robot Studios. The filmmaker, composer, illustrator and animator shares this new video work, a hypnotic flight of fancy for his music project, the Subatomic Nixons. Enjoy the "Hazy Day," and happy weekend, everyone. Special thanks to Barminski and Christopher Louie, and all of the Walter Robot team. Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring their work.

This post is an open thread for folks who'd like to share coverage, insight, or first-person accounts of the attacks in Mumbai.

Global Voices has special coverage of the ongoing events -- a very comprehensive feature with links is here, and Sameer has an update here.

Looking through coverage last night, I noticed some speculation about an email said to have been sent to news organizations in India identifying the attackers as "Deccan Mujahideen" -- specifically, there are reports that this email was traced back to an IP address in Russia. Apparently, some state officials in India are saying that this is one of the pieces of evidence that suggests foreign involvement, but I don't know enough to judge whether that's likely (and I haven't seen the email). The fact that email evidence and IP analysis are now part of the story is an interesting new development, though. 24 hours after the first attack, the identity of those responsible has not been confirmed, and the attacks appear to be ongoing.

Previously on Boing Boing: India: 80+ Reported Dead, 200+ injured in Bombay Terror Attacks

Wow, Terrie (previous MAKE webmaster) has a great write up on Hertitage turkeys! Warning the page has dead turkey, the source of turkey meat...

I like to support the efforts of farmers who are raising heritage breeds of animals. Heritage breeds of livestock are often in danger of becoming extinct, because industrial livestock breeds create a monoculture of animals. Industrial breeds were developed for size consistency or volume of production, but unfortunately many of these breeds are not as hardy and require antibiotics or other measures to sustain them long enough to reach the age of slaughter. Heritage breeds are often sturdier, healthier, and are well-suited for particular niches of climate or other factors which make them great for non-industrial farms. The increased biodiversity that results in having more heritage breeds leads to a great resiliency in the food system.

It’s shocking how different a heritage turkey can be from a commercial breed. Commercially bred turkeys can’t even mate themselves because their chests are so oversized to produce more breast meat…they all have to be artificially inseminated! (Yup, remember that episode of Dirty Jobs?!) Check out this Definition of a Heritage Turkey for more details.

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Every year, the National Institute on Media and the Family releases a report card which grades various aspects of the video game industry on how well they keep "inappropriate" games out of the hands of children. This year's report was largely positive, which is surprising given the history of strong criticism by the Institute. They acknowledged that gaming is becoming a much bigger part of family life than it was in the past, and they're making an effort to shift the focus onto the parents to keep their kids' gaming habits under control. The full report is available here (PDF), and Game Daily has an interview with Entertainment Software Alliance CEO Michael Gallagher which touches on some of the same issues.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Boing Boing buddy Danielle Spencer points us to the winners of the "Turkey-shaped Jell-O® Mold: 2008 Competition," which we've posted here on Boing Boing for several years. My favorite is the S'Mores Turkey, above, because I can imagine myself eating it and rather enjoying it. Danielle's lofty writeups make the list even more fun. Behold, her appreciation of "Bubby's Matzoh Turkey."

In this stunning mis-en-matzoh-ball-soup, we are brought back to the original site of sustenance: the womb. Floating, trussed, lulled in a warm bath of chicken broth, we experience the original state of undifferentiated oneness, of satiety. Grand Prize Winner [by popular election] for "Best Overall Turkey" By Satya K. & Frank H.

Below, another outstanding entry, showcased in video: Turkey Festorama From Nepal!, by Michael Daube and William Purcell.

Just posted! The first of our Holidays '08 compact camera group tests. We're starting with the budget group, which contains nine models in the sub-$150 range. So what can you expect to get if shopping on a tight budget? Are there really any differences between the various models? And are there any bargains to be had or hidden gems in the entry-level ranges? Check out the roundup after the link to get all the answers...

Here's part two of my Boing Boing Holiday Gift Guide -- wherein I list the bestselling items that have been reviewed here in the past twelve months. Today, it's fiction. Don't miss yesterday's Kids' stuff and stuff about kids post, too! (Note that some of these titles appeared on yesterday's kids' list -- I wasn't sure how to handle cross-referencing for items that qualified for more than one list, so I just duplicated them for people who wanted to dive straight into the fiction list -- say -- rather than picking through the kids' list too)

Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology
(John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly)
Post-Cyberpunk Anthology shows how sf has changed since the Mirroshades era
Original Boing Boing post

Halting State
(Charles Stross)
Halting State: Heist novel about an MMORPG
Original Boing Boing post

Interface
(Neal Stephenson)
Neal Stephenson's underappreciated masterpiece
Original Boing Boing post

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
(John Joseph Adams)
Anthology of apocalyptic fiction
Original Boing Boing post

Futures from Nature
(Henry Gee)
100 short-short sf stories from Nature Magazine
Original Boing Boing post

The SFWA European Hall of Fame: Sixteen Contemporary Masterpieces of Science Fiction from the Continent
(James Morrow and Kathryn Morrow)
A chance to read sf from outside of the Anglo Bubble
Original Boing Boing post

Little Brother
(Cory Doctorow)
My bestselling young adult novel about kids who hack for freedom
Original Boing Boing post

The Starry Rift
(Jonathan Strahan)
Science fiction anthology for teens
Original Boing Boing post

Steampunk
(Ann and Jeff VanderMeer)
Steampunk: the anthology
Original Boing Boing post

Distraction
(Bruce Sterling)
Bruce Sterling's visionary novel Distraction: still brilliant a decade later
Original Boing Boing post

The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel
(Michael Chabon)
Wonderful blend of hard-boiled and Yiddish ironies
Original Boing Boing post

Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales Of The Here And Now
(Cory Doctorow)
A six-edition series of comics adapted from my short stories by an incredibly talented crew of writers, artists, inkers and letterers
Original Boing Boing post

Goodnight Bush: A Parody
(Gan Golan, Erich Origen)
A Goodnight Moon satire for the electoral season
Original Boing Boing post

Saturn's Children
(Charles Stross)
Stross's robopervy tribute to the late late Heinlein
Original Boing Boing post

Crooked Little Vein: A Novel
(Warren Ellis)
Comic net-perv novel that would make Goatse blush
Original Boing Boing post

Random Acts of Senseless Violence
(Jack Womack)
Unflinching, engrossing, difficult coming-of-age story
Original Boing Boing post

Boy Proof
(Cecil Castellucci)
A compassionate young adult novel about a weird, smart, angry girl
Original Boing Boing post

Cycler
(Lauren McLaughlin)
Smart YA novel about sex and sexuality
Original Boing Boing post

Anathem
(Neal Stephenson)
A great story, set in an alternative reality where people take long-term thinking seriously
Original Boing Boing post

The Armageddon Rag
(George R.R. Martin)
Sex, death, blood and rock-n-roll
Original Boing Boing post

How to Ditch Your Fairy
(Justine Larbalestier)
Hilarious kids book about the problems with fairies
Original Boing Boing post

Nation
(Terry Pratchett)
Moving and sweet young adult novel about science, superstition and decency
Original Boing Boing post

The Graveyard Book
(Neil Gaiman)
Spooky, magical retelling of The Jungle Book in a graveyard
Original Boing Boing post

The Forever War
(Joe Haldeman)
Classic anti-war sf novel to be a Ridley Scott film!
Original Boing Boing post

Zoe's Tale
(John Scalzi)
Scalzi's smart-ass young-adult sf thriller
Original Boing Boing post

Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America
(Brian Francis Slattery)
A magical road-novel about America in collapse, Bradbury meets Kerouac
Original Boing Boing post

We have a lot to be thankful for this year--but most of all, we're thankful for our readers and community of makers who make MAKE what it is. Have a great holiday folks, and enjoy this Thanksgiving-themed post filled with projects and more for turkey time...

• Liquid Nitrogen ice cream? Fractal pecan pie? A recirculating gravy fountain? - Link.
• Make Video Podcast: Make Your Own Thanksgiving Turkey Out of Paper! - Link
• Hack the Paper Turkey - Link
• Make Your Own Turkey Plans! - Link
• Thanksgiving Turkey-Making Instructions - Link
• Hundreds of hand draw turkeys... - Link
• Interview with a turkey fryer - Link
• HOW TO - Harvest a turkey - Link
• Making a thermocouple (measure turkey temperature with a multimeter and calculator!) - Link.
• Thanksgiving calculator - Link.
• DIY Thanksgiving: How to fry a turkey, turkey fryer kits, safety and more... Link.

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Who said making a Trebuchet has to be an all day project? This version took less than 2 hours to build and the results are great. The tennis ball flew 30', which is fairly impressive. You should be able to get even better results some slight modifications.

The purpose of this project was to design and create a working model trebuchet - capable of launching tennis balls - and manufactured from scrap materials in as short a time as possible.

With that in mind, it's not going to be a beautiful, efficient or durable machine, but hopefully it will still work...

How to Make a Trebuchet in 2 hours

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Either Thanksgiving is a mad dash to get 18 different dishes ready, all at the same time (never works, something's always cold, something burned) or, you sit around wasting time until it's time to go to a dinner where you eat someone else's labor of love. This year, for me, it's the latter.

NakedJen has a wonderful tradition for Christmas Day, to spend the day at the movies, watching the new releases. Christmas is always a big day for new movies. In Santa Cruz, where we did it last year, a surprising number of people did it too. We saw Sweeney Todd, the stupid Tom Hanks movie about the politician who supposedly saved Afghanistan, and The Savages, which was, imho, by far, the best of the three. Sweeney starred two of my favorite actors, Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp (with a small part for Sacha Baron Cohen!) and directed by Tim Burton -- it should have been great, but I could hardly stay awake during the movie. This year I'm going to Salt Lake City to join NakedJen in my second NakedJen Film Festival.



BTW, when NJ writes about \"Dave" -- it's not me. I want to be clear about that. It's some other guy named Dave, who wasn't very nice to her.

See this is why NakedJen and I get on so well. She says everyone she knows hated Burn After Reading but she liked it. Well I have news for you -- I really liked it too. Yes it was stupid, but sometimes stupid is just the thing. The Coen Brothers rarely fail to entertain. I had a strong feeling about this movie, that it was the counterbalance to No Country For Old Men, which was very very very serious (and unprecedented for the Coens). The CIA Director and his report seemed to speak for us and for the Coens, asking WTF just happened? No one knows. (And you wouldn't believe it if I told you, and you wouldn't even care.) But as long as everyone who was involved is now dead, why should we care? Seems to me a perfect explanation for NCFOM.

Barence writes "To demonstrate just how misleading the latest (and now banned) iPhone television ad really is, PC Pro has recreated it using an iPhone 3G and a Wi-Fi connection — with laughable results. Apple was forced to pull the advert today after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) decided it exaggerated the speed of mobile browsing. 'In the 30-second clip the iPhone is shown loading a webpage, finding its current location in Google Maps, opening a PDF from an email and finally taking a phone call. The ASA concluded that the iPhone cannot do what was shown in the mere 29 seconds afforded in the advert, ruling that it was misleading.' Try it for yourself and you'll undoubtedly agree."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In case there's an interest in IRC for news around the Mumbai terrorism:

irc://irc.freenode.net/#mumbaiTerrorism

I'm already there.

jameswing writes "I am thinking of buying a UMPC, such as an Eeepc or a Wind for my son, and wanted to get input from Slashdot. He is almost 2 and really curious about our computers, and anything electronic. I want to foster this in him, without having him on my desktop or laptop. I also don't really like the idea of getting one of those cheap 'Learning Laptops' that have a tiny screen and are really limited. Does anybody have one that they use with their children? How sturdy is it? Will it stand up to a 2 year old? If not, what are good alternatives? What are your thoughts? Suggestions?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

What you see on Twitter, when:

1. People witness events that others are interested in; and

2. They're posting about it on Twitter; and

3. The interested people are reading their posts...

It certainly is news. Whether it's journalism or not isn't a very interesting discussion, to me.

To the user, both extremes, Twitter and the most vetted pro news, require skepticism. The reader triangulates.

See also: Mike Arrington, Mathew Ingram.

Barence writes "Fujitsu Siemens is offering its customers free laptop upgrades for life with its Lifebook4Life scheme. Customers buying a Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook will be offered a free upgrade three years after their original purchase, and every subsequent three years for the rest of their life — as long as they purchase an extended three-year warranty. Customers will have to hope inflation stays low, though: the value of each new notebook cannot exceed the value of the previous one, adjusted 10% for inflation. Fujitsu says the scheme is profitable, and a raft of small print ensures plenty of people will find they've excluded themselves from the scheme for all sorts of reasons."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Photograph by David Olsen

Down a lonely stretch of Sonoran desert highway south of Tucson, Ariz., lies the washboarded pull-off for Interstellar Light Applications. Visitors don't have to wait for the dust to settle to lay eyes on ILA's majestic moonlight collector, towering 6 stories high and 60 feet across, and weighing in at a healthy 25 tons.

Science enthusiast Richard Chapin conceived of the collector when a close friend was faced with a terminal illness. Chapin was intrigued by research on full-spectrum light therapy, which had been conducted mostly using artificial light sources.

Chapin wondered if the unique spectrum of moonlight might have been overlooked. The sublime lunar glow carries slightly different frequencies than sunlight, with more reds and yellows. It's no secret that moonlight is essential to a variety of life forms on Earth, but could it be used to aid the ailing?

Chapin collaborated with a crew of passionate engineers, telescope makers, and astronomers to design the collector. Comprised of 84 mirrored panels, each 4 feet by 8 feet, the "non-imaging optical array" is parabolic, hydraulic, and rotates 360

degrees with a mere 5hp motor. To weather the harsh desert conditions, the panels are made of a unique sandwich construction, with materials like aluminum honeycomb chosen for lightness, rigidity, and stability.

The collector is steered with amazing precision; the light can be focused on an area as small as 1mm or as large as 10 feet across. Due to the high volume of visitors, folks are allotted only a few minutes in its light, longer for those with serious illnesses.

Richard and his wife, Monica Chapin, are focused on promoting research and gaining scientific backing. They've worked with University of Arizona geoscien-tists who documented molecular changes in quartz crystals exposed to the collector for 45 minutes.

Believers abound, as witnessed by the exuberance of visitors and the testimonials on the ILA website. On any given full moon, folks from far and wide make the pilgrimage, hopeful that a solution could really be that simple, natural, and abundant.

>>Interstellar Light Applications: starlightuses.com

From the column Made on Earth - MAKE 15, page 21 - Goli Mohammadi.

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Aris is building an alternative to the usual black and white keys of music -

This is another project I just started working on. It is a keyboard/MIDI controler based on the harmonic table (like the c-thru music controler). This one is just switches which all connect to a midi core module (from ucapps.de) which translates the various keypresses to midi signals. There are 50 keys/notes and although I'm going to use letra-set rub-ons to write the notes onto the keys, you can make out which note is which from the blue keys. They are in pairs and one of each pair (the low/right) is an A (La for europeans) and the other is a C (Do). In the harmonic table layout that the C-thru axis uses (and others) , if you choose one button, the button above it is a fifth, the one to the top/right a minor third and the top/left a major third. (you can see c-thru's chord calculator here).

- Harmonic Table Keyboard

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Aris is building an alternative to the usual black and white keys of music -

This is another project I just started working on. It is a keyboard/MIDI controler based on the harmonic table (like the c-thru music controler). This one is just switches which all connect to a midi core module (from ucapps.de) which translates the various keypresses to midi signals. There are 50 keys/notes and although I'm going to use letra-set rub-ons to write the notes onto the keys, you can make out which note is which from the blue keys. They are in pairs and one of each pair (the low/right) is an A (La for europeans) and the other is a C (Do). In the harmonic table layout that the C-thru axis uses (and others) , if you choose one button, the button above it is a fifth, the one to the top/right a minor third and the top/left a major third. (you can see c-thru's chord calculator here).

- Harmonic Table Keyboard

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Bill Vorn's "Evil/Live 2" is an interesting sound and light installation based on the algorithm Game of Life where each light represents an individual in a simplified version of life's self-organization. The project was built using a matrix of 256 halogen lights (16 x 16) is hanging from the ceiling on an aluminum structure. Audio speakers are also fixed on the structure, just behind the lights. Another speaker is located behind the viewers, up on the wall. Check it out in person at the Electrohype festival in Malmo, Sweden.

Bill Vorn

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Yes - it's true. There is absolutely no item in existence that the Arduino microcontroller platform cannot enhance! Matt stepped up his Thanksgiving experience by adding a plethora of Arduino tech to his pre-cooked holiday centerpiece -

I'm always looking out for new ways to add more shields and components to my Arduino, and this felt like a natural (and festive) experiment, so I gave it a shot: it's an Arduino, Potentiometer (for user input), accelerometer (to know it's bearings), and compass (so the turkey's always facing due north), Lithium Backpack (for mobility of course), and TouchShield Stealth (for output) wired through a fairly large turkey :)

Now he can monitor vital Turkey orientation data with ease - and of course he outlined his process step-by-step - Introducing the 8-bit embedded TurkeyShield

More:

Arduino based turkey temperature probes

Arduino Duemilanove

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Yes - it's true. There is absolutely no item in existence that the Arduino microcontroller platform cannot enhance! Matt stepped up his Thanksgiving experience by adding a plethora of Arduino tech to his pre-cooked holiday centerpiece -

I'm always looking out for new ways to add more shields and components to my Arduino, and this felt like a natural (and festive) experiment, so I gave it a shot: it's an Arduino, Potentiometer (for user input), accelerometer (to know it's bearings), and compass (so the turkey's always facing due north), Lithium Backpack (for mobility of course), and TouchShield Stealth (for output) wired through a fairly large turkey :)

Now he can monitor vital Turkey orientation data with ease - and of course he outlined his process step-by-step - Introducing the 8-bit embedded TurkeyShield

More:

Arduino based turkey temperature probes

Arduino Duemilanove

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Photography by Sam Alvar

Bob Dylan was born in his hometown, but Duluth TankPodDrum's shell is a hollow, 6"-diameter, performance artist Tim Kaiser has a different musical 14"-tall stainless steel vessel that Kaiser scored for hero: Harry Partch (1901-1974), an underappreciated 70 cents at a salvage yard. In his home studio, he composer who invented new microtonal scales for used stove bolts to add a right angle fitting from a instruments he built himself. hot water heater, brass bells from a rotary phone, a

"He was a curmudgeon and a brilliant musician comb of rods from a toy piano, music box tines, bits who couldn't stand convention and created his of chrome, and rack handles. When Kaiser bangs on own," says Kaiser, who also coaxes foreign sounds the attachments with a mallet, the drum acts as a from far-fetched equipment made by hand. resonator. A pickup epoxied to the barrel's interior As a teenage musician, Kaiser discovered a new connects to an amp or, if Kaiser is playing, a modu-auditory universe at the University of Minnesota lation delay that echoes and fades not only the pitch and began assembling avant-garde noisemakers but also the frequency. to suit his sonic tastes. His technique? Scrap parts After Partch died, the American Composers Forum and a junior high school electronics class. inherited the rights to his work and released more Some 20 years later, Kaiser has made more than than 100 of his recordings on the Innova record label.

150 instruments, including a stenography key- "I've always dreamed of being on Innova," Kaiser says. board wired with the guts of a mini teaching piano, Dreams apparently come true. In June 2007, a green effect box with beehive lenses that loops Kaiser's latest solo album, Analog, was released on a 2-second delay, and an old espresso bin called -- you guessed it -- Innova.

TankPodDrum, fitted with all things pluckable and tappable. Kaiser takes commissions, but saves his favorites for his own live shows.

Watch and listen to Tim Kaiser: timkaiser.org

makezine.com/go/eriksub

From the column Made on Earth - MAKE 12, page 15 - Megan Mansell Williams.

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46-year-old Wu Yulu has only a basic school education but has managed to build himself 26 robots from scrap materials over the past 30 years. At first his creations were simple and could barely shuffle along by themselves. The robots got more complex as time passed, and eventually he built ones capable of climbing walls, serving water, lighting cigarettes, playing musical instruments and writing calligraphy. "When I was 11, one day I was sitting on the doorstep, and while watching villagers passing by I suddenly came up with the idea of building a machine that walks like a man," he told the Beijing Times.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This is a plotter-type printer that is powered by a LEGO NXT. The website has a bunch of pictures and some videos. There are even screen shots of the code, but that's about it. I hope there is more information posted soon.

A little More about the LEGO powered Bluetooth printer [Let's Make Robots]

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Yesterday, I blogged about the audiobook of the latest volume of Tony Benn's diaries, an inspiring look at the life of a passionate, brilliant retired politician who refused to accept the invasion of Iraq as necessary or inevitable.

Now iRoy reminds us that Benn isn't just Britain's longest-serving parliamentarian -- he's also an inventor, the creator of the "backbencher" ("a rucksack with stool attached") as well as a car-mounted easy-chair, a totally bad-ass pocket-protector, a briefcase that turns into a lectern, a magnetic map for logging your parking spot, and the "seat-case," a suitcase that turns into a chair.

Tony Benn's world of invention (Thanks, iRoy!)

AdSense optimization is a series of tactics to help you to improve Google AdSense performance on your blog site. One of the key issues you face when you decide to use AdSense is WHERE to place ads. Above the fold? At the Bottom? Left or Right column? The monetization power of your site depends on the choice you make. Photo credit: Inside AdSense To help you better understand WHERE to position your AdSense ads, The Inside AdSense team has released a series of three short videos, entitled "Optimisation Essentials", that can give you some good basic guidance on how to do ads placement, and how to increase your revenues with a rational design of your site. In summary, here is what they recommend:

a) Use big ads. b) Integrate your ads with the layout of your site. c) Place your ads where users are more likely to see them.

Here all the details: Intro by Daniele Bazzano

Optimisation Essentials (Part I - II - III)

Bigger Is Better - for AdSense Ad Units

Publishers often ask us what the best ad sizes are to include in their site's design, and we always point them to these three:

• 300x250 medium rectangle
• 728x90 leaderboard
• 160x600 skyscraper

These ad units have proven in the past to deliver better results for both publishers and advertisers. Advertisers favour these formats, and if you've receiving all ad types, you'll find that advertisers will specifically target your sites more often. If you position your ad units well, users will be more likely to see these ad formats and find an ad that they're interested in. When you're considering how to design your site, our testing has shown that displaying at least one of these ad formats on your page can increase your AdSense earnings potential. So remember, sometimes bigger is better!

Dress for Success - Impressing Your Audience

Over the years, we've seen some colorful ad unit designs. Some publishers design ad units that contrast with their site so that they stand out. Although this can work in some cases, we've found that ad units that match your site's design tend to perform better in terms of revenue and click-through-rate. Users are more likely to read ads when they're well integrated into your site. When you design your AdSense ads, keep these tips in mind:

• Use colours that either blend with or complement your site's colours. Make the ads a part of your site.
• Use lighter colours for borders, or no border at all.
• Try rotating colours or occasionally switching the location of your ads on the page.
• Save sets of frequently-used colours as a palette.

So give your ad design and colours some thought, and you'll notice the difference!

Position for Performance - Be Noticed

We've also made a heatmap to show you where the best placements are on a typical page. Great positions include:

• Above the fold of a page (the section of the page a user can see without scrolling)
• At the end of an article
• Aligned with content

But don't just take our word for it - every website is different. Make sure you use your judgment of how visitors interact with your pages to determine good ad placements. Position your ads so that they're visible, but be careful of intruding on the experience of your site's visitors. Most of all, think like a user and you'll be able to balance your website's content with a successful ad strategy.

Where Should I Place Google Ads On My Pages?

The best location for Google ads varies from page to page, depending on content. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when considering where to position your ads:

• What is the user trying to accomplish by visiting my site?
• What do they do when viewing a particular page?
• Where is their attention likely to be focused?
• How can I integrate ads into this area without getting in the users' way?
• How can I keep the page looking clean, uncluttered and inviting?

Certain locations tend to be more successful than others. This "heat map" illustrates the ideal placing on a sample page layout. The colors fade from dark orange (strongest performance) to light yellow (weakest performance). All other things being equal, ads located above the fold tend to perform better than those below the fold. Ads placed near rich content and navigational aids usually do well because users are focused on those areas of a page. While this heat map is useful as a positioning guideline, we strongly recommend putting your users first when deciding on ad location. Think about their behavior on different pages, and what will be most useful and visible to them. You'll find that the most optimal ad position isn't always what you expect on certain pages. For example, on pages where users are typically focused on reading an article, ads placed directly below the end of the editorial content tend to perform very well. It's almost as if users finish reading and ask themselves, "What can I do next?" Precisely targeted ads can answer that question for them.

Additional References

• AdSense Placement Optimization: User Behavior
• Improve AdSense Performance: Step-by-Step Video Guide From The AdSense Team
• Online Ad Management And Optimization: The Google Ad Manager Is Here to Optimize Advertising ROI
• Online Advertising Strategy - Ads Relevance Is The Key

Do you want to learn more about AdSense and other key strategies in professional web publishing? Check out POP, a new video blog site where Robin Good shares his expertise with "in-depth" video tutorials to help professional online publishers to monetize their sites.

Originally written by Mel Ann Chan for Inside AdSense and first published between November 3-18 as "Optimisation Essentials (Part I) - Optimisation Essentials (Part II) - Optimisation Essentials (Part III)"

This is a really interesting tear-apart of an X-Ray control panel. There are a lot of nice components that could easily be hacked into something new. What would you use those amazing rotary switches for?

One of the electricians at work gave me a bunch of circuit boards from decommissioned equipment this week. It's usually elevator stuff, so I hadn't paid much attention to it other than to note the pretty colored wires. Then I was taking it out of my trunk to put into a "process later" pile when I noticed the front. "X-Ray." 60kV tube voltage. "Fine focus." Whaaaa???

More about Take apart: X-Ray Control Panel

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We all need materials to make things with, right? Well here is a basic list of a lot of the materials that might be good for making or crafting projects. This list is not intended to be a final list, but rather a starter list. Sources for purchasing these materials were intentionally left out, because I think that most everything on the list can be pulled out of the waste stream and reused. If you have to buy it, do so sparingly so you can save up for the things you might actually need to purchase. If you see something missing, just add it into the comments. You might even see a material on the list that you haven't heard of or used before. Here it goes!

organic/pulp based
Tissue paper - Thin, not very structural, it can be taped or glued. It comes in lots of colors, and you can get it by saving up from all those bridal and baby showers you get invited to.
Newspaper - Every day another one shows up. Made of wood pulp and covered with ink, if you roll it, you can make tubes, or it could be folded or torn, or...
Printer paper - If you need a decent piece of paper, there is usually at least some of this stuff around. Maybe you have to go into the recycling bin looking for old memos, but there is more to be done with it than paper airplanes. You can also get designs that you print that have the fold marks right on them.
Magazine pages - The covers are heavier than the pages. Nice pictures, glossy paper.
File folders - Sometimes you can find them around with nice colors. The material is stiff, easily cut and can be taped, stapled or glued. Tab and slot designs work well.
Paperboard - Cereal boxes are a great source for this stiff, light cardboard. It seems like it is usually made of recycled paper and is gray or brown, short fibers.
Milk cartons - After you finish your cereal, save the milk carton, because you can make lots of great stuff with the water resistant cardboard that carried your cow juice.
Corrugated cardboard - Boxes, appliances, everything from amazon or ebay provide a ready supply.
Balsa - Light, soft and structural. Balsa gets used for lots of model making projects. Many model airplanes have been made of balsa, but the highest balsa adventure of all time has got to be Kon Tiki.

Plastics
Report covers - Going to a conference? Bring back some nice clear stuff. It measures about 11" x 17" when a report cover is flattened out.
Plastic sheet - This comes in a variety of thicknesses. Cheap plastic dropcloths, and all the way up to thick black landscape plastic or more.
Plastic jugs - Milk, water or apple cider jugs can be cut with a utility knife.
Salad containers - Use these clear containers to form clear sections of your constructions.
House wrap - Usually made of polyethelyne fiber, it comes in rolls for providing a vapor barrier before the siding goes on your house, this cuts nicely with scissors or a utility knife.
Boat wrap - When your neighbor sets sail in the spring, grab some of the white plastic they used to cover the boat you had to look at all winter. It is neat stuff, and is designed to shrink under heat. Nice and heavy duty, you can actually make yourself a boat of it.
Coroplast - You might know of a store going out of business that has just splashed the news all over town with their "Going....Going....Gone...." signs. When they close the doors, what are they going to do with all those signs? Coroplast is great stuff, structured like cardboard, but weather resistant. It can be scored, cut with a knife, on the bandsaw or with other cutters. You can fasten it with zip ties or tape it, or fold it like a cardboard box. Lots of potential here.
Soda bottles - Cut the top and bottom, slit the side and you have a decent piece of plastic. Suitable for making safety glasses with.

Foam
Take out trays and meat trays - If you cut off the curved parts, there will be some nice flat parts to make things with. You could try a hovercraft, but there are other things to be done after you finish the leftovers.
Packing foam - Some things like picture frames come packed with sheets of white foam. Usually, the packed stuff is made of lots of little foam balls stuck together. It is kind of messy to work with, but has a decent R value, and is kind of rigid.
Foam core board - Cut it with a sharp utility knife, glue it on the edge, paint it, spray adhesive coverings on it, nice to make architectural models from. You can probably find it in leftovers from presentations and science fairs.
Sheet insulation - This stuff is really fascinating. It is sold in building supply stores as an insulation material. Scraps can probably be found near newly constructed buildings. It usually comes in pink or blue and a range of thicknesses. It can be glued with wood or white glue, screwed together, drill it, cut it by scoring with a utility knife, table saw, jigsaw, bandsaw or with a hot wire if you want a nice clean edge. This is a great starter material for CNC tools like the shopbot or mill. It gives very little resistance to the tools, allowing you to build the technique and process before going to more expensive and less abundant materials.

Metals
Aluminum foil - It's in your kitchen, comes off your sandwich, conducts electricity, bends, folds and goes into the recycling bin when you are done.
Pie pan, turkey pan - Thicker and holds its' shape better than foil, pans can be cut with scissors, and if you want to try your hand at boatbuilding, you can even make a press fit mold for the hull.
Aluminum can - This can be cut with scissors once you get it started by piercing a can with a utility knife. Now that those huge, overly caffienated drinks are all the rage, cans can be turned into nice decent sections of aluminum. Sometimes you can incorporate the graphics into your design.
Tin can - Harder to cut, you will want to use aviators' snips to get this flat. It can be fastened with screws.
Flashing - Building suppliers sell flashing made of aluminum and copper. The copper is expensive, but really nice, and can be soldered. Aluminum comes in a zillion configurations, rolls, rectangles and more. You can also get larger sections of it as well, solid, or punched with holes and patterns.
Computer cases - Are you finally done with that 386? After you scrap out all the components, you will find some wonderful sheet steel. Usually the outside is beige, and the inside has a clear coat on it. 1/16 inch is pretty common. Fasten it with sheet metal screws or rivets. you can paint it or leave it beige. There is much to be done with steel.

So there is a semicomplete list of the materials you might want to be on the lookout for. What are your favorite materials to work with? Where do you get them? What is the best free source for materials? How much of these materials can you scrounge out of the recycling bucket? Post your suggestions in the comments and lets share the storage bin!

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Tilt-shift photography can be a really expensive undertaking. Then again you can simulate the effect in Photoshop, but it just isn't the same. This is a great project to make that will save you a lot of money compared to the commercial versions.

I know there are people out there who would love to experiment with a PC Shift lens, but the cost of purchasing one is generally prohibitive unless you plan to shoot professionally with the lens. (A nikon shift lens with tilt functions cost over $1000, BTW: The Nikon guys once took a look over this and said, "why would you do that to such a nice camera? We sell that lens you know." I know. That's the point).

More about DIY:Tilt-shift PC lens

From the pages of MAKE:

In MAKE 09 we show you how to make your own! Tilt-Shift Photography - page 144. Subscribers--read this article now in your digital edition or get MAKE 09 in the Maker store - Link.

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Ruach writes "The promise of medical lasers goes beyond clean incisions and eye surgery: Many believe that lasers should be used not just to create wounds but to mend them too. Abraham Katzir, a physicist at Tel Aviv University, has a system that may just do the trick and is proving successful in its first human trials."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Pilgrim's blog -- 1623.

[I may not here omite how, notwithstand all their great paines and industrie, and the great hops of a large cropp, the Lord seemed to blast, and take away the same, and to threaten further and more sore famine unto them, by a great drought which continued from the 3. weeke in May, till about the midle of July, without any raine, and with great heat (for the most parte), insomuch as the come begane to wither away, though it was set with fishe, the moysture wherof helped it much. Yet at length it begane to languish sore, and some of the drier grounds were partched like withered hay, part wherof was never recovered. Upon which they sett a parte a solemne day of humilliation, to seek the Lord by humble and fervente prayer, in this great distrese. And he was pleased to give them a gracious and speedy answer, both to thier owne and the Indeans admiration, that lived amongest them. For all the morning, and greatest part of the day, it was clear weather and very hotte, and not a cloud or any signe of raine I to be seen, yet toward evening it begane to overcast, and shortly after to raine, with shuch sweete and gentle showers, as gave them cause of rejoyceing, and blesing God. It came, without either wind, or thunder, or any violence, and by degreese in that abundance, as that the earth was thorowly wete and soked therwith. Which did so apparently revive and quicken the decayed come and other fruits, as was wonderfull to see, and made the Indeans astonished to behold; and afterwards the Lord sent them shuch seasonable showers, with enterchange of faire warme weather, as, through his blessing, caused a fruitfull and liberall harvest, to their no small comforte and rejoycing. For which mercie (in time conveniente) they also sett aparte a day of thanksgiveing. This being overslipt in its place, I thought meet here to inserte the same.]

Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford.

May your Thanksgiving bring "no small comforte and rejoycing."

Turn off TVs by just looking at them - By Mitch Altman....

“Hey, you mind turning that thing off?” Simple enough question, but I got tired of people looking at me like I’m from Mars. When a TV is on in the room, I can’t think. I just stare at the thing and drool.

So I invented TV-B-Gone, a key chain that stealthily turns off just about any television. When the TVs turn off, people turn on, engage in conversation, read, eat, and perform all sorts of human activities. Peace happens.

I recently teamed up with prolific kit maker Limor Fried to create a $20 kit version of the original TV-B-Gone key chain. This version works up to 40 yards away, and it’s totally hackable; the entire project is open source and documented at ladyada.net/make/tvbgone. Here’s how I built one into a baseball cap that lets me look at almost any TV, touch the top, and watch with glee as it shuts off.

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In a barn-burner of an interview, academic Bethany Klein of the University of Leeds discusses the fundamental broken-ness of the record industry and the growing acceptance of acts that license their work for commercials. Klein's just finished a book, As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising, which explores the subject in depth.

Major labels function with the assumption that 90 percent of artists they sign are going to fail — that should have been a red flag for everybody. I mean that’s a bizarre business model in any arena. But particularly in the cultural arena, the idea that the system through which culture is transmitted is dictated entirely by profit should concern us, because that’s going to narrow the types of culture that are transmitted. And then, on top of that, the alternative venues of distribution are stuck in the shadows of these major labels. So it’s not like there’s a viable alternative, necessarily, for artists who don’t fit into this very narrow range that can become the 10 percent that are profitable and popular.

ROCK STAR! (Brought to You by HUGE ADVERTISER!) (via Anil Dash)

Now here's a festive holiday crochet project: a hat shaped like a scrumptious pie! They will see you in the street and they will shout, "Delicious head, delicious head, delicious head!" but you will only smile to yourself and think, "Yes, and the zombies love me too, for my brains are wrapped in a tasty layer of pie."

Holiday Pie-rets (via Neatorama)

A disabled boy in a rural Ontario town may have to give up the miniature pony that he rides as part of his therapy and for his basic mobility. The family's neighbours (who border on a friggin' cow farm) have complained about the smell.

The boy can’t walk or crawl, and Emily is part of his therapy regime.

“When we take him off the pony he cries. Even if he’s tired he doesn’t want to leave her,’’ his mother, Antonia Spiteri, said today.

But at the end of July, the town notified the Spiteris the pony had to be removed due to the complaints...

‘‘The cows go right up to their property too. We thought, ‘You’re kidding – seven cows to one miniature pony?’ We were quite shocked by what we thought was a joke at first.”

Caledon bylaw enforcement manager Glenn Blakely said the Spiteris’ one-acre property is zoned as rural residential and is too small to house a miniature pony.

Town threatens to evict disabled boy’s pony (via Mighty God King)

Peter from the Free Software Foundation sez,

Starting this Black Friday and over the next 35 days leading up to the end of 2008, we want your help in promoting a consumer boycott of Digital Restrictions Management. Every day we'll be publishing your stories -- about a product, company, service, executive or politician that has has inflicted the nightmare of Digital Restrictions Management on you and our society, reminding us all why this holiday season we need an all-out boycott.

Day 1: MacBook

Now, nearly two years later, despite the success of DRM-free services like eMusic and with Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, Jamendo, Magnatune, 7Digital and lots of others all selling DRM-free music, customers of Apple's iTunes Music Store are still plagued by a catalogue of mostly DRM-encumbered music.

To make matters worse, Apple's newest hot products, the iPhone and iPod Touch, offer extra opportunities for DRM, wrapping applications, even those available at little or no cost, as well as movies and TV shows in yet more layers of DRM.

And now, once again, Apple have pushed their DRM agenda even further, with the release of the latest revision of their MacBook laptop computers. The new MacBooks contain a hardware chip that prevents certain types of display being used, in an effort to plug the analog hole. Devices such as the HDfury can get around this, but this adds greater cost and inconveinience to what should be a relatively simple procedure.

35 Days Against DRM — Economic Boycott of DRM This Gift Giving Season (Thanks, Peter!)

Loving this Big Ben/centaur woodcut tee. Big Bentaur T-Shirt (Thanks, Scott!)

Wondermark's holiday cards are convulsively funny -- so much so that it was hard to pick just one to feature here.

Wondermark Greeting Cards (Thanks, David!)

Braden Stadlman wrote in with a link to the Springatron 3000, a gigantic spring reverb made out of Slinky and cucumber:

This is basically a giant spring reverb made from 10 slinkys. I was trying to make the best sounding spring reverb possible, I think I achieved this but it is probably the most inconvenient spring reverb ever made. The reverb time (sustain) is so long that the springs need damping and I found that the best material for doing this is a slice of cucumber wedged under the end of each spring, other materials like foam or rubber tend to kill all the treble.

...Although it is very inconvenient as a reverb, it is very good for making horror sound effects by playing it with a violin bow.

This is just one of several DIY mechanical synths made by Nick of Nick's World of Synthesizers.

The Springatron 3000

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Today I was reminded of the TV series "The Name of the Game", which ran from 1968 to 1971. A bit unconventional for its time, the show was smart, cool, different. It aspired to be more like a movie, pre-HBO, than a regular TV series. Did I really have a man-crush on Tony Franciosa as Jeff Dillon and a more conventional crush on Susan St. James as Peggy Maxwell?

"The Name of the Game" had three different main characters who were featured in rotation -- Franciosa, Robert Stack and Gene Barry. The show was about a large magazine company, which published People magazine way before People existed. Imagine publishing being the subject of a ninety-minute drama. Somehow, "The Name of the Game" could have sparked the idea that publishing was an exciting way of life. (It's a good life, actually.)

I found this clip on YouTube but I wish I could find a whole episode to watch and see if it matches up to memory. I do like the music in this opening sequence.

jbrodkin writes "A talking Web, solar technology embedded in windows and cell phones, and the end of forgetting will all come in the next five years, IBM predicts in its third annual Next Five in Five list, detailing innovations that could change our lives in the next half-decade. The other predictions: We will all have digital shopping assistants and, separately, 'crystal balls' to predict our future health. If IBM is right, in five years we'll forget about keyboards and use our voices to surf the Web on solar-powered laptops. DNA profiles will predict our personal health risks, and we'll get automatic reminders to perform daily tasks, generated by digital recording and analysis of our conversations."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Florian Dussopt & Julie Girard designed this desk clock that's powered by one of my favorite early chemistry experiments: the Citrus Clock has zinc and copper electrodes under the lemon halves and through oxidation and electrolysis, powers the clock. I bet it makes your desk smell nice, too. Via Core77.

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I've had a browser open with a two part series from the site "e-consultancy" for the better part of a month, debating whether or not it's even worth going through this battle again -- but it seems worth it to clear up some serious misconceptions. The first article decries "digital socialism" and the second part goes after the "tyranny of the consumer." This, by itself, seems contradictory. The capitalist free market works thanks to the tyranny of the consumer. That is, the entire reason why the free market works is because consumers have power to move to a competitor -- and that keeps producers in-line. Complaining about consumers getting their way is a rejection of capitalism and the free market, not support for it.

The complaint about "socialism" is even more confusing. The writer confuses the fact that anyone can own a copy of a non-rivalrous, non-excludable good with "collective ownership." That's quite wrong. Socialism is, indeed, about collective ownership of a single good -- with multiple folks sharing ownership of a single scarce good. What people are talking about when they discuss digital content going free is not collective ownership, but how supply is infinite such that everyone can own their own copy. It's the opposite of socialism or collective ownership. It's very much about allowing personal property to thrive. The article also makes the odd (and incorrect) claim that those supporting such freeing up of digital content are, like "socialists" asking for government interference in the market. Amusingly, just a few paragraphs after making this claim, the writer goes through the history of intellectual property in the US, detailing exactly how intellectual property is government interference in the market.

It never ceases to amaze me that people claim that the free market economics we describe is somehow "socialist," when the system they support is a system of government-granted monopolies managed through a centralized government body. How is that possibly more capitalist than actually letting the free market come up with reasonable business models that don't rely on governments defining the winning business model?

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Schroeder from Peanuts, tripping on Beethoven, conjures up some lovely psychedelic visuals. (via Dose Nation)

This Latex Vac-Bed is a bondage restraint that connects to a household vacuum cleaner. It immobilizes the individual between two layers of 14 gauge latex rubber by sucking out the air between the "sheets." It's $640. From JT's Stockroom:

To use the Vac-Bed, place your bondage partner inside and check to see that they can breathe safely thru the breathing hole. (We recommend using a hollow gag so that there is no chance of the breathing hole slipping and restricting the flow of air.) Close the zipper that runs along the side of the Vac-Bed, and make sure that your bondage buddy is comfortable before attaching the vacuum cleaner to the connector at the bottom. The 1½” PVC connector will fit most household vacuum cleaners.

Latex Vac-Bed

The Carolina Chocolate Drops' rendition of a 1934 Memphis Jug Band song drives me kerrazzzy. Dig that kazoo playing! (Thanks, Marina Gorbis!)

Sean Ragan tells the maker's tale of how his friction-only mirror hanger came into being:

Sometimes I like to peruse the snooty design catalogs. On the one hand, while I'm sickened by the notion of anyone paying thousands of dollars for a chair, those "name" designers often have clever ideas that are easily liberated to create accessible DIY design. And that's the elaborate preamble I require to justify why I was once leafing through a book, published in early 2001, called The Dream Catalog: A revolutionary, new, illustrated directory of the most beautiful, stylish and amazing objects available on the Internet. It is exactly what it sounds like--porno for consumer whores. But among the pretentious affronts to decency I came across a simple wall mirror (unfortunately named "Hopi") that was suspended from a single peg in the wall by a rough manilla rope threaded back and forth through holes drilled in the glass. There were no knots in the rope, and the mirror had no frame. Just a piece of silvered glass, with holes, and a bit of rope threaded through them. The mirror was supported by friction against the rope alone. And lo, friends, I was charmed.

So for several years I had a to-do mouldering in one of my bottomless to-do piles: "Reproduce Hopi mirror on the cheap." I bought a mirror from the thrift store and took a hunk of manilla rope off the shelf. I liberated the mirror from its frame and, considerably later in the process than I probably should have, began to consider the problem of drilling holes in the glass. I learned how it could be done using brass tubing of an appropriate diameter mounted in a drill over a slurry of water and silicon carbide grit. And then real life intervened, as it often does, and the project stalled. All those bits are still in a box in a storage shed out back.

And so like but then this weekend I was helping a buddy run a garage sale, and emong the detritus I discovered a round mirror about 20" in diameter that was secured to a circular frame by screws through four holes drilled in the glass. So I plunked down $5 and took the thing apart, recovering the precious drilled glass and discarding the rest. I stopped at the hardware store on the way home that evening and bought 6' of 5/16" manilla rope for less than a buck. I had a spare coathook in the junk box. And it took about 5 minutes to thread the rope through the holes, mount the coathook on the wall, and hang up the mirror. Strike one long-time, albeit relatively minor, personal goal. And the moral is....oh I dunno. "Always be on the lookout for useful junk?" Or how about, "Learn to recogn/ize the potential value of every little feature of a found object?" Or maybe just, "If you can find a mirror with holes drilled in it you can hang it from a rope all groovy-like."

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Seriously, what is not to love about this video? Proper accents, a remote control car crashing into a concrete barrier at highway speed, lots of camera angles, slow mo replays, picking through the wreckage in the post-crash analysis. And then they do it again to a second car!

From 70 miles an hour to naught in one second, energy to move tons of concrete...The steel cage has certainly done its' job really well, you can still see the original shape...Its only when you come round the front that you see that Massive Impact.

The Smart Car sure is tiny, but it has a surprising ability to handle the impact of crashes.

Cars have significantly different safety design aspects to alter the way they protect passengers in an acident. Th older cars of the 80's and before, were largely made of steel, and had rigid frames. Modern automotive design has many softer features intended to shift the energy of impact away from the passengers. It is much easier to find out how a car will perform in an accident than in the past.

How well would your car stand up in an accident? Has your vehicle been designed with shock absorbing crumple zones? Do you know how to drive for maximum safety? How about that remote control action? Have you ever rigged up a car to be controllable through radio or other systems? Add your photos to the Make Flickr pool, and comment in with your tales of success/failure and adventure!

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When Google settled the lawsuit over its book scanning project, we noted with disappointment how this appeared to signal the end of Google's earlier position of fighting certain legal battles on principle. For a few years, Google's legal team had been taking up a variety of lawsuits purely on principle. In many cases it would have been cheaper and easier to settle, but Google had made clear that it saw those lawsuits as a way to define better law -- and that helped all of Silicon Valley (and, in many cases, the overall economy). Yet, in settling this lawsuit, it became clear that Google was no longer fighting lawsuits on principle, and, in fact would consider settling cases knowing that it actually made life more difficult for the rest of Silicon Valley.

Obviously, as a business concern, this is Google's right -- and some may even say that it's Google's responsibility to its shareholders to do such a thing. I would disagree, simply because, in the long term, by settling these lawsuits, rather than helping to establish what the law says, Google merely invites more lawsuits from more companies hoping to "settle up" as well. Plus, without the law being clear, it creates uncertainty and inefficiency in the market, and that's not good for anyone -- including Google.

Fred von Lohmann, over at the EFF, has written up an op-ed noting pretty much the same thing. The rest of Silicon Valley can no longer rely on Google to fight their legal battles for them -- and, we're all going to be worse off for it in the long run. Not that anyone ever should have expected Google to be the rest of the tech community's legal defender, but it certainly had been a welcome development -- which is apparently now over.

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Nearly everyone knows the pomegranate, although it's probably more common on the West Coast. Its unusually tangy seeds seem designed for mindless, time-passing enjoyment. Pick up a pomegranate and pick out seeds all day long.

Here's a young, budding pomegranate in my garden on a dewy morning. An unseen spider has been playing "connect-the-dots" with the fruit.

About a month later, it's ready to tear apart and eat. The seeds are delicious in salads and they're a good match with fuyu persimmons.

"The birthplace of the pomegranate was here in the Kopet Dag Mountains of Central Asia. And here is one of the last places on earth where wild pomegranates grow.” Barbara Baer heard Russian botanist, Dr. Gregory Levin, speak those words on a BBC broadcast in 2001. Barbara eventually tracked down Levin in Turkmenistan and got him to write a book she published called "Pomengranate Roads."

While we mostly find the "Wonderful" variety of pomegranate in stores and in nurseries but Levin had identified 1,117 different varieties -- with yellow, purple, even black seeds -- from twenty-seven countries on four continents. His story is one of dedication and persistence in the face of hardship -- to spend one's professional life collecting and studying with great seriousness this happy fruit.

coondoggie writes "As one of the massive flying seasons gets underway the government today took a step further in radically changing the way aircraft are tracked and moved around the country. Specifically the FAA gave the green light to deploy satellite tracking systems nationwide, replacing the current radar-based approach. The new, sometimes controversial system would let air traffic controllers track aircraft using a satellite network using a system known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), which is ten times more accurate than today's radar technology. ADS-B is part of the FAA's wide-reaching plan known as NextGen to revamp every component of the flight control system to meet future demands and avoid gridlock in the sky."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

coondoggie writes "As one of the massive flying seasons gets underway the government today took a step further in radically changing the way aircraft are tracked and moved around the country. Specifically the FAA gave the green light to deploy satellite tracking systems nationwide, replacing the current radar-based approach. The new, sometimes controversial system would let air traffic controllers track aircraft using a satellite network using a system known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), which is ten times more accurate than today's radar technology. ADS-B is part of the FAA's wide-reaching plan known as NextGen to revamp every component of the flight control system to meet future demands and avoid gridlock in the sky."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Robert Bruce Thompson (author of Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments) and Barbara Fritchman Thompson (co-author with Bob on Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders) are hard at work on a new book that is going to bring DIY CSI to your home or basement lab: Illustrated Guide to Forensics Investigations (coming from MAKE in 2009).

One of the tech reviewers on the book is Dennis Hilliard, Director of the Rhode Island State Crime Lab. I stopped by the lab recently, and Dennis treated me to a full tour of it. It's a really impressive facility. They provide forensics services to state and local police, and in some cases federal authorities.

Although I've been told that real forensics is not all that much like what you see on TV, it's actually not that far off. There are many computers, lots of test firings, and plenty of hands-on science.

There doesn't seem to be any of the soap opera-like drama you see on TV, and Dennis tells me that in much of the US, the scientists are not police officers. Because of this, the forensic scientists often work with police officers to teach them how to gather, preserve, and process evidence, and also a bit of the scientific method.

But the key difference is that unlike TVs, the computers don't do all the work. Instead, scientists use the computers to reduce uncertainty (always comparing the known to the unknown), and make the call themselves.

Flickr set: November 2008 visit to the RI State Crime Lab

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We've pointed out in the past that folks who don't want to understand the economics of scarce and infinite goods often falsely claim that the business model we suggest is all about selling lots of t-shirts. Or, more specifically, when they comment in a mocking fashion, it's usually something like "lotttttttttttttttttttttsssssssssssssssssss of t-shirts."

The truth is that the business models we've shown usually have little to nothing to do with t-shirts. There are tons of scarcities that have nothing to do with t-shirts, and often aren't even physical goods (another mistake people make is assuming that scarce means physical). Usually we're talking about things like access and attention as valuable scarce goods. However, perhaps we were being a bit too flip in ignoring t-shirts ourselves.

Clive Thompson has a short article over at Wired looking at "the t-shirt economy," noting that it's actually a pretty big business: on the order of $40 billion in branded or decorated apparel (by comparison, the worldwide market for recorded music was supposedly $31.8 billion in 2006), and some of that definitely comes from content providers who are providing content for free and making money selling t-shirts. I still don't think it's the greatest business model out there (despite what some of my critics like to claim I've said), but I have to admit I'm rather amused by the fact that the "t-shirt economy" is actually getting some attention.

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DIY Coffee Cup Bike Speaker from Robert Edwards on Vimeo.

Robert Edwards of co(act)lab built this clever amp/speaker inside a travel mug. Pop it into the bottle cage on your bike and you're ready to roll to the music.

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Stop us if you've heard this before: a company wants to sell people a box so they can pay to download movies. Sound familiar? That's because plenty of companies have tried it before -- all with little success. Consumers haven't shown much interest in buying service-specific hardware so they can buy movie downloads from a single provider for a number of reasons: poor selection of movies, the cost of downloads, the cost of the hardware, download times, and lack of portability to name a few. What's amazing is that so many companies keep lining up with their own efforts, without ever really fixing any of the problems, as if time will solve them. Now, it's Blockbuster's turn, as it's announced a $99 box that can access $2 movie downloads. Blockbuster says its service is different than all the failed ones before it because it has "more recent" movies. Netflix's streaming service has 12,000 films and TV shows -- less than 10 percent of its collection, thanks to Hollywood licensing schemes. Blockbuster has a whopping 2,000. But they're newer, they swear. So not only has Blockbuster failed to solve one of the problems of these services (narrow selection), they've exacerbated it and are calling it a feature. Now that sounds like the path to success.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Banquo writes "I have a friend who has a small datacenter (SQL/Mail/IIS/File Repository ... 5 or 10 servers) and he was saying that his boss wants to see some kind of 'visual display of changing metrics' — Net/server/sql stats with moving lines and graphs and pretty colors. Basically they want something to display on a big LCD panel that will give a tiny bit of 'Wow' factor to customer visits. Back in my datacenter days I saw a million packages to do this stuff, but I was always blessed with an IT budget for metrics/monitoring. Can anyone suggest a free/cheap package that will make pretty moving pictures, moving lines, graphs, etc. from server/net stats? There's no worry about actually using this for real data tracking or metrics purposes. He has a pretty robust log/alert/metrics setup, but command line is a little too dry for marketing purposes. I jokingly suggested he just use a looped flash animation but he actually does want stats that are coming from and reflect his environment. Anyone know of any cheap or free data center stats/metrics 'Eye Candy' software out there?" Better yet, can you think of any particularly interesting ways to display that sort of information?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

For those of you in Oregon, here's a dork-tastic event on December 7th:

DorkbotPDX brings you Collin Oldham, Shelly Farnham and Steve Davee

Come join us for an evening of geek meets art. The fine folks at AboutUs will be hosting us for this event, which takes place December 7th at 6PM. AboutUs is located at 107 SE Washington St, Suite 520. Feel free to bring snacks and drinks to share. Please spread the word!

Collin Oldham: The RT (radio trowel) and The Cellomobo

Collin spent the 2005-2006 academic year at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) where began to develop the electronic musical instruments he is presenting today.

The RT (radio trowel) uses a capacitive sensor array based on Max Mathew's radio baton to detect the position of the trowel on the playing surface. The trowel's movements control sound synthesis parameters, including filters which process live sound from a contact mic attached to the trowel.

The cellomobo is a computer music instrument that attempts to model the behavior of a bowed string. It gives haptic feedback to the bow at audio rate to simulate the stick-slip action of a bowed string. This feedback stream finds it way back into the audio stream, creating a unique hybrid of digital and analog synthesis.

Collin Oldham is a cellist who has performed around the world with such varied and luminous artists as Placido Domingo, Kiri Te Kanawa, Rosemary Clooney and Aretha Franklin. He's active as a session player, and has recorded with the Decemberists, Richmond Fontaine, and Elliott Smith, among many others.

Shelly Farnham: Dorkbot Dorkbot Dorkbot + Seattle

I am that rare combination of geek, artist, and scientist and when I first met Dorkbot Seattle I felt like I'd *finally* found my people -- where technology is artistic medium, science is art, and geeking out is just a whole lot of fun. My one complaint was that Seattle Dorkbots were not collaborating enough, and when I took over as Seattle's "Dork Overlord" it was my main mission -- to cultivate the creative geek community.

In this talk, I will review the best of Dorkbot Seattle's art, geekery, and science, and discuss how we have worked to increase cross-disciplinary collaboration through our meetings, workshops, and art shows.

Shelly Farnham received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at UW in 1999, after which she worked at Microsoft Research for seven years studying community technology. A few years ago she quit to join the start up world, and is now co-founder of Pathable (professional networking for events). In her "spare" time she paints, does collaborative installations, and instigates people to have more fun creating stuff.

Steve Davee: Not to kill a thought: The impact of language on curiosity, creativity and scientific inquiry.

This talk explores how easy it is, even with the best of intentions, to stifle creative thought and true learning when it comes to working with children in the areas of science, math and engineering. We will investigate examples of simple but powerful changes in language, with the intention of provoking the best of creative potential and shared inquiry.

Steve Davee is a math and science teacher at Opal Charter School and a Media Specialist for the Center for Children's Learning at the Portland Children's Museum. He is a recovering Biochemist with a background in physics and over 20 years of volunteer and work experience in education.

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