Only he is an emanicipated thinker...

So last night I learned that the 1956 scifi classic Forbidden Planet (you know, the one with Robby the Robot) is a reimagining of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Makes me wonder what else I've been missing.

Do you think frickin' laser beam weapons (aka directed energy) are strictly scifi? Think again.

Clyfford Still, Untitled, 1964, collection of the Dallas Museum of Art

User experience (aka UX). Many people use the term. Few understand what it means. So here's a Venn diagram illustrating the UX disciplines.

Using a byproduct called spent grain, Alaskan Brewing Co. has reduced their energy usage by 60% while continuing to produce award-winning beers.

Search for the best GIFs on the web using Giphy.

Back in the year 775 the earth was irradiated by a two-second gamma ray burst resulting from the collision of two black holes between 3,000 and 12,000 light years away. (When you read the article it's hard to miss the blatant, comical error.)

After I put Stiffy the Cat on my Facebook page (just do a Google image search for Stiffy the cat - it should be the first result) someone sent me procatinator.

A visual guide to espresso drinks.

When the components of a system interact, behaviors may result that aren't found in the individual components. This is called emergence.

There's a lot going on here - an interactive, 360 video of a helicopter flight over four erupting volcanoes.

Or this 360 photo from the top of the Burj Kahlifa.

Bacon. Cotton. Candy.

In this review of a book on Duke Ellington, he's quoted as saying "You can't write music right unless you know how the man that'll play it plays poker."

Unless you remember dialup forget about this incredibly detailed graphic that illustrates and explains a modem handshake.

Science shows us that some spiders have large enough brains and small enough bodies that their brains extend into their legs, giving a modicum of credence to the observation that men think with their third leg.

Science answers the unasked question: Why is the penis shaped like that? (Don't laugh - it's from Scientific American. Hint to answer: "semen displacement theory." Hmm, that's probably too strong of a hint.) 

What's old is new again. NASA is learning from, refurbishing, and firing the Saturn V's F-1 engines (i.e. Apollo moon rocket) and hoping lessons learned can be applied to the new SLS.

Are you really concerned about how many hours of daylight you'll have? Then fret no more: Daylight Hours Explorer.

Submarine Map 2013 - source

How well do you know vim? Like do you know these 100 vim commands every programmer should know? (For example, what does gggUG do?)

Tweetping - a map-based website for monitoring Twitter in real time. (Very cool to watch.)

Grilled cheese guacomole and bacon bruschetta. Am I kidding myself or would this be awful?

That prankster Ahmadinejad has been sniffin' too much airplane glue if he thinks we believe his oversized toy is actually Iran's Qaher-313 stealth fighter.

This nice periodic table of spices is one thing, but at the link you'll see how you can make and stock a real one to hang on your kitchen wall.

I knew it! And science has now proved it! All things being equal, the express checkout line isn't faster.

Tales and photos of clandestine visits to Vandenberg's ICBM sites.

In Egypt, diarrhea is cause by dirty breasts. Dirty, dirty breasts.

Teh interwebs was made for stuff like this: a collection of vintage bottle caps.

Endurance test: how long can you listen to this demonstration of DJ tricks called turntablism?

From the Things I Didn't Think You Could See deparment, this page purports to show photographs of Revolutionary War veterans.

How did I end up with two completely different maps of undersea cables this week?

Say it ain't so - scientific genius is extinct.

Stardust: a short bit of astronomy pr0n.

...who is not afraid to write foolish things. ~Anton Chekhov