May 2010

Today is Towel Day, the day on which hoopy froods everywhere carry a towel to honor Douglas Adams, the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The very talented Marky of Parody Pictures has a number of fun Towel Day desktop wallpapers.

The first computer I ever owned was one I had built myself, from colored beads and little tin cans. I'd found the instructions in an article in Scientific American by the great Martin Gardner, who passed away last week at the age of 95. Watch a documentary about this remarkable man.

David Letterman's Late Show is showcasing close-up magic all this week. The first magician to appear was Jason Randal, on Monday. See below for links to the other performers.

• Tuesday 5/18: John Carney
• Wednesday 5/19: Johnny Ace Palmer
• Thursday 5/20: Steve Cohen
• Friday 5/21: Michael Ammar

Pick up a phone now and call 1-800-ASPARAGUS! Yes, it's an asparagus commercial as only Garrison Keillor can do it…

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The Geek Alphabet lists the ABCs the way they were meant to be listed.

via Neatogeek

Here's one…

Read the rest.

(via The Great Geek Manual)

Born of Hope, a non-commerical film made by fans of The Lord of the Rings, is a testament to the power of Tolkien's myth.

This hour long original drama is set in the time before the War of the Ring and tells the story of the Dúnedain, the Rangers of the North, before the return of the King. Inspired by only a couple of paragraphs written by Tolkien in the appendices of the Lord of the Rings we follow Arathorn and Gilraen, the parents of Aragorn, from their first meeting through a turbulent time in their people's history.

Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" has been released, and Danny Piccirillo has a massive post-install guide for the new OS.

(via OMG! Ubuntu!)

"The Ifth of Oofth" [PDF] is a very strange science fiction story by mainstream novelist Walter Tevis, who wrote the stories that became the films The Hustler and The Color of Money.

The thing, upon examination, appeared simple: a more or less cross-shaped construction of several dozen one-inch cubes, half of them of thin, transparent plastic, the other half made of thin little sheets of aluminum. Each cube seemed to be hinged to two others very cunningly and the arrangement of them all was somewhat confusing.

Finally, I said, "How many cubes?" I had tried to count them, but kept getting lost.

"Sixty-four," he said. "I think."

"You think?"

"Well—" He seemed embarrassed. "At least I made sixty-four cubes, thirty-two of each kind; but somehow I haven’t been able to count them since. They seem to… get lost, or shift around, or something."

"Oh?" I was becoming interested. "May I pick it up?"

"Certainly," he said, and I took the affair, which was surprisingly lightweight, in my hands and began folding the cubes around on their hinges. I noticed then that some were open on one side and that certain others would fit into these if their hinging arrangements would allow them to.

I began folding them absently and said, "You could count them by marking them one at a time. With a crayon, for instance."

"As a matter of fact," he admitted, blushing again, "I tried that. Didn’t seem to work out. When I finished, I found I had marked six cubes with the number one and on none of them could I find a two or three, although there were two fours, one of them written in reverse and in green." He hesitated. "I had used a red marking pencil." I saw him shudder slightly as he said it, although his voice had been casual-sounding enough. "I rubbed the numbers off with a damp cloth and didn’t… try it again."

(via MetaFilter)

The Free Technology for Teachers blog does just what it says on the tin: it's a listing of free software, useful web resources, lesson plans, and hardware hints for teachers. Here's a little taste, a list of the most popular posts for April:

1. 12 Resources All Social Studies Teachers Should Try
2. Tagxedo – Word Clouds With Style
3. Interesting Ways to Use Wallwisher in the Classroom
4. 10 Sources of Educational Science Games
5. Google Docs Adds Very Useful New Features
6. Wolfram Alpha for Educators – Free Lesson Plans
7. Wiki Mind Map – Visual Webs of Wikipedia Entries
8. Ning Ends Free Networks – Try These Alternatives
9. 10 Resources for Teaching and Learning About WWII
10. 8 Wonders of the Solar System – Interactive Tour

Before he was Data, he was Bob…

An email is circulating that claims that telemarketers will soon start calling cell phone numbers, and that everyone should rush over to the National Do Not Call Registry and add their cell numbers. Well, you can do that if you like, but Snopes.com reminds us that it ain't necessarily so.