<script type="text/javascript">

  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-31515977-1']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();

</script>

Giant panda insemination more fascinating than you might guess

Earlier this week, the Smithsonian National Zoo live-tweeted their most recent attempt to knock up a giant panda. You can read the whole thing at Storify. And, seriously people, you should read it. I originally intended to just post a short link to this, almost as a joke, but it turns out that the process of inseminating a giant panda is actually really interesting.

Tips and tricks for being a better scientist

Astrobetter: It's like Lifehacker, but for astronomers. Although, frankly, I think a lot of the tips and tricks would apply just as well to other branches of science. Learn how to talk about your research without rambling. Add QR codes to your posters. Improve your peer reviewing skills. (Via a really neat conversation about science communication tools happening now at Science Online New York City. #sonyc) — Maggie

How To: Assemble a large hadron collider

One of my favorite parts about going on tours of laboratories are the signs and jokes that scientists post on office doors and lab walls. This gem comes from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The obvious question: How do you transport an infinite number of protons home from IKEA? Does that fit on the little cardboard roof rack?

The diversity of particle accelerators

             
Today, I got to tour several particle accelerator research labs at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, including an inside look at a working accelerator, something I'd never seen up close before. Suffice to say, it was awesome, and I will be posting more on that here after I'm able to do a few more interviews.

Kinetic, electrified junkbots from Nemo Gould

video link click here

Kinetic junkbot sculptor Nemo Gould has completed two new, wonderful pieces. First, the Cycloptopus:

Cycloptopus is a fearsome hybrid of two of my favorite monsters, one real, one mythical. This creature is particularly dangerous because of its irritability. You’d be irritable too if you were powered by an open flame and your body was made of wood.
Materials: Radio cabinets, rocking chairs, fake fireplace, decorative clock elements, cabinet knobs, wall paper, chair parts, lamp parts, wheel hub, motors, LEDs

Privacy icons similar to Creative Commons icons

Jabberwocky writes, "Privacy policies are complicated, and we believe that you should know what's happening with your data when you use a service. In order to help, we've created a set of icons which cover the core components of any policy. We are a group of Yale students taking Control, Privacy, and Technology, and this is our final project. In an ideal world, every website would include these icons."

Webcam at Abbey Road crossing

Live Webcam of tourists and the drivers who hate them at the famed Abbey Road crossing. Abbey Road Studios - Crossing Webcam (via @chris_carter_)

STOR, the store that tried to copy IKEA

Asymco's Horace Dediu and Dirk Schmidt, quoting Clayton Christensen: "The company has been slowly rolling its stores out across the world for [close to 50] years; and yet nobody has copied IKEA."
It's just a throwaway line in an excellent comparison of Apple and Ikea's retail operations, but does anyone remember Stor? From the NYT:

Fun skill patches offered by Adafruit

Phil Torrone of Adafruit sent me a bag full of maker skill patches. When my 9-year-old daughter came home from school today, her eyes popped out like a Tex Avery wolf. I told her she could have them all, but she has to earn them! I'll work with her to help her earn the LED patch first.

Our View of Earth From Space Is in Danger

The Terra satellite was launched in 1999 as the flagship of NASA’s Earth science missions. The satellite provides data on trends in global carbon monoxide and other pollutants as well as monitoring the atmosphere, land, ice, and oceans. The image above shows the extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil slick (the grey galaxy-shaped spot) in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. (NASA Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen)

Earth-observing satellites have completely changed our understanding of our planet and ourselves. But the ability of U.S. scientists to track tornadoes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and climate change from space is now in a steep decline.
“The nation’s Earth observing capability from space is beginning to wane as older missions fail and are not replaced,” according to a new National Research Council report, released May 2 as an update to a 2007 decadal report on Earth-observing capabilities.
While roughly 22 satellite or satellite systems run by NASA, NOAA, and the USGS are currently in orbit, that number could drop to only six by 2020. Of the 18 missions recommended in the original 2007 report, only two have specific launch dates.
This is a dire situation, considering that the U.S. relies on this network of satellites for weather forecasting, climate change data, and important geologic and oceanographic information – not to mention the thousands of amazing pictures of our home planet. Weather-related damage from wildfires, flooding, tornadoes, and heat waves resulted in nearly 600 fatalities and cost the economy approximately $50 billion in 2011, but this number would have been even greater without satellite observations.
Many factors have contributed to this situation, including delays, launch failures, and changes in mission design and scope. But the primary reason is a lack of funding.
The original 2007 report had hoped the Earth-observing program would receive roughly $2 billion per year, the same as it got in 2002. But because of ongoing federal austerity, the budget in 2007 was instead $1.3 billion and it has never risen above $1.5 billion since. While $2 billion may seem a steep price, John McQuaid at Forbes points out that it is “less than dozens of tertiary Defense Department tech programs, or the cost of one super-secret giant NSA data-processing center.”
Earth-observing satellites have hundreds of uses. They are used to monitor groundwater for agriculture, assess forest timber productivity, observe sea level rise, provide an overview of air pollution, and have even helped predict weather conditions that contributed to military operations in the Middle East.
Here, Wired takes a look at the current fleet of Earth observing satellites and shows how each has given us a better understanding of our world.

Google Calls for Mistrial After Jury Says Android Stole From Java

A jury has ruled that Google infringed on Oracle’s copyrights in building a new version of the Java platform for its Android mobile operating system, but it was unable to reach a decision on whether this infringement was acceptable under the law.

Collector’s Edition

Simulating Mars in Austria

Space researchers are playing Mars on Earth in the giant ice caves at Vienna's Dachstein mountain. Many more amazing photographs at the Austiran Space Forum's Dachstein Mars Simulation blog.
"Performing Mars" (BLDGBLOG)
"Icy caves setting for Mars mission tests" (Stuff)

Shocking new photos from BP disaster unearthed by Greenpeace

Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones writes about a trove of new photographs documenting the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which released nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico two years ago.

Scorching legal response from Dajaz1.com to the unsealed US gov't docs on the illegal, sleazy seizure of its domain name

Mel from Dajaz1.com -- the hiphop blog that was seized for a year by the US government on the basis of a false and unsubstantiated copyright claim from the RIAA -- has posted the site's lawyer's memo, officially calling out the US government for its illegal participation in the RIAA's sloppy shakedown. Fenwick and West's Andrew P Bridges doesn't mince words, either:

Full-scale Space Shuttle model from 1975

This is a

Safety pin with 4GB flash storage

Concept for a much-needed safety pin with flash storage. The preliminary sketches are interesting.

Pin your data close to your heart with the Bulavkus USB flash drive

Whimsical playhouse built by former Disney artist

Former Disney artist Arthur Millican Jr., maker of "exciting fairy house manors" built this excellent storybook style playhouse from found materials. It reminds me of the "witch's house" on Carmelita street here in Los Angeles.
If the storybook style appeals to you, here's a book about it that I like: Storybook Style: America's Whimsical Homes of the Twenties.
Whimsical Playhouse (Via Lloyd's Blog)

Trip report: My Little Pony Project with customized ponies by Mark Mothersbaugh and others

On Saturday I went to the My Little Pony Project event at Toy Art Gallery on Melrose, and it was very fun! Check out the art gallery. Many well-known and pop surrealist artists painted large-scale ponies, and they were put on display.

Revolving bookcase/room divider

The UnWaste Bookcase was jointly created by Ben Milbourne, Leyla Acaroglu and David Waterworth to act as a loft apartment room-divider that could be opened and spun completely around, depending on the needs of the residents. It's a very clever solution:

Margie Profet: a controversial scientist who went missing

Margie Profet did not have a Ph.D. In fact, she didn't even have a bachelor's degree in evolutionary biology, the field that most of her work revolved around. But she won a McArthur Genius grant and presented some really interesting theories on the body's defenses against cancer and poisonous substances that might turn out to be correct. And then she disappeared.