tech@vedella

On October 17, 1814 at the Meux family brewery in Tottenham Court, London, a massive vat of beer cracked open, spilling 3,500 barrels of beer and killing eight people. Smithsonian's Food & Think blog sums up the "London Beer Flood" … Continue reading →

JC Penny was called out for selling this t-shirt, emblazoned with the words "I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me." What a positive, empowering message for girls aged 7-16, apparently the target … Continue reading →

Kevin Kelly interviewed the two grad students at Cornell Creative Machines Lab who posted that amazing video of Cleverbot-driven avatars having a conversation. You've probably seen the viral video of the AI bots arguing with each other. Almost the first … Continue reading →

For The Economist, Glenn Fleishman wrote an item about our comment policies, which are strict as fuck. (Disclosure: Glenn also writes for BB occasionally) Beschizza approvingly cites an essay published in July by Anil Dash, the first employee of blog-software … Continue reading →

In Hamilton County, Tennessee, a gentleman noticed that his Cadillac was smoking so he pulled into a gas station. He lifted the hood to reveal flames on the engine which in turn caught the adjacent gas pump on fire. Fortunately, … Continue reading →

In Seattle, Marlow Harris and JoDavid curated a rather curious and delightful Paint-by-Number art exhibition for the 2011 Bumbershoot Arts Festival. More than 40 artists altered vintage (and completed) paint-by-number paintings for the show. Bill Blair painted massive paint-by-number backdrops … Continue reading →

Over at Collectors Weekly, BB pal Ben Marks lays out the fascinating history of barbed wire through the eyes of those who collect the stuff. Yes, there are barbed wire collectors. From Collectors Weekly: This legacy is of keen interest … Continue reading →

Enjoy this report by the BBC's Tomorrow's World into the new phenomenon of desk toys for bored modern executives. At the weekends, he polishes his flowers with aerosols. Video Link [BBC]

David Benqué's Infinite Adventure Machine creates random folk-tales, and is itself an adventure in what he describes as an unsolved computer science problem: automatic story generation. Tales and myths; the core narratives of human culture, have been transmitted for generations … Continue reading →

Sony's HMZ-T1 is a head-mounted 3D headset, to be released later this year in Japan. Two 1280x720 OLED displays, each just 7/10 of an inch across, create a virtual 750" screen. Perceived 20m from the viewer, it "corresponds to the … Continue reading →

I know it doesn't look like much, but see that "1.44" off to the right? That means they are high density floppies. First Look Inside Security Unit [WSJ. Photos: Edu Bayer]

Illustration: Sean Gladwell, Shutterstock. See more like this. A schoolteacher who bought a stolen laptop from one of her students ($60, with a scraped-off serial number) is suing the makers of LoJack, the pre-installed software used by investigators to recover … Continue reading →

Wacom's Inkling is a pen that draws both on paper and on-screen, tracking the artist's linework with 1024 levels of sensitivity. At $200, it's barely even expensive! The Inkling will be in stores by mid-September. Inkling [Wacom]

Officials of the Catholic church in Ireland object to a new law that mandates the reporting of child abuse. From the BBC: The Irish Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald said that priests who are given admissions of child abuse during the … Continue reading →

The multi-talented maker Nick Britsky made this cool crafting table for his multi-talented crafter girlfriend, Lish Dorset. How-to: Custom crafting table

[Video Link] From Laughing Squid: "To announce the grand opening of Westfield Stratford City, which will soon be “the largest urban shopping centre in Europe”, Westfield created this fun short film, 100 YEARS / STYLE / EAST LONDON. The film, … Continue reading →

Are you looking for cool science news and thoughts on Google+? Check out this spreadsheet, which collects a bunch of scientists, science writers, and other related people into one place. You can even circle them en-masse! (Thanks Chris Robinson!)

As part of a cool project in blogging on Google+ ("plogging"), Nature editor Noah Gray writes about a recent experiment that found that specific neurons in the human amygdala respond instantly to images of animals. These responses were stronger and … Continue reading →

Last year, when I posted here about the history of the lighthouse at Devil's Island, Wisconsin, several of you noticed the island's extensive network of sea caves, carved into the sandstone cliffs by splashing waves and moving water. This year, … Continue reading →

While nationally, only about 20% of Americans smoke, 80% of schizophrenic Americans smoke. That's interesting, but it's not the most interesting part. Apparently, there's some evidence that those people with schizophrenia are using tobacco as a form of self medication. … Continue reading →