tech@vedella

Why, look, a space-themed lorem ipsum generator. (via @brainpicker)

By Mike Estee. Here's a PDF. (thanks, @nicoles).

SplashData, a company that makes password management tools, has released a roundup of 2011's "25 worst passwords," gleaned from password-dumps posted by "hackers" (presumably, sources like the Lulzsec Sony password files). I can't locate the actual study and its methodology (are these passwords "worst" because they're the most common, or because they contain the least [...]

Harvard physicist Lisa Randall, author of the mind-bending 2006 book

Wired.com's Quinn Norton has been tirelessly covering the Occupy movement from the front lines in cities throughout the US. In New York, it's a very good idea to have a press pass when you're doing that, if you'd like to avoid being beaten or arrested—and, you know, who wouldn't? Earlier, Elizabeth Spiers at the NYO [...]

Some parents are complaining that the You & Me Interactive Play & Giggle Triplet Dolls are foul-mouthed. Do the dolls, sold at Toys "R" Us, sound like they're saying "You crazy bitch"? Or is it just another fun example of audio pareidolia? "'Cursing' Baby Doll Upsets Parents" (HuffPo)  More from Evil Elmo - Boing Boing [...]

University of California, Berkeley poetry professor and former US poet laureate Robert Hass writes in the New York Times, on what transpired when he wandered down to the Occupy with his wife, to see for himself if reports of police brutality against student protesters were really true: [UC Berkeley] is also the place where students [...]

An Occupy-flavoured gathering of the tribes is underway in London, as Occupiers from across the country converge on London, where an abandoned building belonging to UBS has been liberated for a symposium where they're planning the nation's future. The fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, 70, became the latest high-profile supporter to address protesters on Saturday, on [...]

Geekboy Press does a pretty good line of cute tees featuring great illustrations inspired by science fiction. Geekboy Press

Mad clockmaker Roger Wood just sent these images of his latest creations around to his mailing list -- a sweet, simple assemblage raygun. Klockwerks

Here's a 1962 LA Times ad for Disneyland's Swiss Family Robinson, now (tragically) rebranded as "Tarzan's Treehouse" (though a version with the original livery lives on at Walt Disney World, Florida). I've always felt like the treehouse was one of the world's great pieces of home-decor-porn (better, even, than the Monsanto House of the Future [...]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy MSNBC's "Up with Chris Hayes" broke the story today of a memo by Washington D.C. lobbyists to the American Bankers Association on how to go about discrediting the Occupy Wall Street movement, which is evidently perceived as a powerful threat to the interests [...]

Image: Cory Doctorow. The OWS library on Nov. 14, one day before NYPD destroyed it. Brooklynites, do you have books to contribute to a new "People's Library"? Maria Popova [you should follow her on Twitter] writes, Hey Xeni, thanks to your BoingBoing piece on the #OWS library, my friend Liz Danzico (@bobulate) and I are [...]

Waseda University's Kabe Lab exhibited Jukusui-kun, a robotic bear, at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo earlier this month. Jukusui-kun is a medical appliance intended for people who have sleep apnea, a sleep disorder typified by loud snoring, which can have grave health effects on its sufferers. Jukusui-kun is a plush bear that you use [...]

WMxdesign's GOP Clown College Flickr set is a collection of prominent Republicans and Republican commentators in clown makeup. GOP Clown College (via Kottke)

My daughter, Poesy, is coming up on four years old and she's starting to enjoy rolling dice and counting the pips, so we figured it was time to start thinking about board games. My wife, being the games professional in the family, asked on Twitter for recommendations and did a monster roundup of what all [...]

Actors pose with gym equipment on what the Guinness World Records bills as the world's largest 3D painting, at Canary Wharf in London November this week. British artist Joe Hill's creation measures in excess of 1120 square meters, or 12,000 square feet. Guinness says it breaks records for the longest and largest surface area 3D [...]

[Video Link, by terrydatiger, and Video Link 2, by jamiehall1516]. At the University of California at Davis this afternoon, police tore down down the tents of students inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, and arrested those who stood in their way. Others peacefully demanded that police release the arrested. In the video above, you [...]

Oh boy. Here we go again.

Papers, please. "A German manager with Mercedes-Benz is free after being arrested for not having a driver's license with him under Alabama's new law targeting illegal immigrants." What makes this different from the many other similar incidents in Alabama involving brown people? The f-word in that sentence.