Adiegirl

Does a blizzard of baby announcements have you feeling particularly skeptical of the notion of childrearing? Then you will probably enjoy this (fake) commercial for a groundbreaking new pharmaceutical development: Not Having Kids.

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Are you tired of your friends and relatives (mainly relatives) cluttering up your facebook feed with clickbait headlines from Upworthy that insist your heart will stop when you see a particular image of flowers or that your mind will be blown when you hear the third word that a toddler had to say to a mean teacher? Well, there's help. You can't make your aunt Ginny stop posting (she just has to do what she has to do, my friend), but you can install Downworthy, a newly created chrome plugin whose designer is working on turning those maddeningly positive headlines into sarcastic and cynical one-liners that may fit better with the dark and stormy world-view that these same headlines may have created by sheer virtue of their existence.

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credit: saltthesnail

Ben writes, "Overdrive, which is one of the main suppliers of downloadable audiobooks to public libraries, announced that it is retiring its DRM-encrusted .WMA formats and pushing everything to DRM-free .mp3s."

This is a big deal. Audiobooks are the last holdouts for DRM in audio, and one company, Audible, controls the vast majority of the market and insists upon DRM in all of its catalog (even when authors and publishers object). Itunes, Audible's major sales channel, also insists on DRM in audiobooks (even where Audible can be convinced to drop it). Audiobooks can cost a lot of money, and are very cumbersome to convert to free/open formats without using illegal circumvention tools. To stay on the right side of the law, you have to burn your audiobooks to many discs (sometimes dozens), then re-rip them, enduring breaks that come mid-word; or you have to play the audio out of your computer's analog audio outputs and redigitize them, which can take days (literally) and results in sound-quality loss.

Overdrive going DRM-free for libraries is a massive shift in this market, and marks a turning point in the relationship between the publishers/creators and the technology companies that act as conduits and retail channels for their work. It's especially great that libraries are getting a break, as they have been royally screwed on electronic books and audiobooks up until now.

This is in response to user preferences, widespread compatibility of MP3 across all listening devices and the fact that the vast majority of our extensive audiobook collection is already in MP3 format. This includes the audiobook collections from Hachette, Penguin Group, Random House (Books on Tape and Listening Library), HarperCollins, AudioGo, Blackstone, Tantor Media and dozens of others. Our publisher relations team is working closely with the very few remaining publishers who require WMA to seek permission to sell their titles in MP3 for library and school lending.

We will soon be communicating the discontinuance of WMA sales, and then at a future date, we will announce when MP3 files will be the only supported format through OverDrive platforms. For libraries and schools that currently have WMA audiobook files in their collection, we will be working with the publishers of those titles to gain permissions to update your inventory to MP3. In the event that some titles are unavailable, an alternate solution will be offered to make up for the lost titles. Be on the lookout for announcements on our blog and from your Collection Development Specialist for a timeline of this process.

OverDrive announces plan for audiobooks to be solely available in MP3 format [Heather Tunstall/Overdrive]

(Thanks, Ben!)

(Image: DRM PNG 900 2, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from listentomyvoice's photostream)

Now you don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars or wait weeks to get custom-molded earphones. Decibullz earphones use nontoxic thermoplastic molds that you can fit at home. You can also buy just the molds if you already have earphones.

• Link
• Price: $39++

More Awesome Stuff for You to Click On:

Skunk Juice Earphones
Meze 11 Classics Earphones
Elroy Bluetooth Earbuds
iSport Immersion Headphones
Wrap’It Headphone Organizer

Inspired by her nephew's stories of bad food at the mess hall when he was on deployment in Afghanistan, retired photographer Jody Anderson created a recipe-book of meals that could be prepared using a coffee-maker (soldiers were allowed to have coffee-makers in their rooms), and posted some online. Coffee-makers are quick to clean, and the different stages of the coffee-maker give you different, simultaneous, cooking options (grilling, poaching and steaming). All useful stuff for frequent travellers: beats the old "cooking salmon in three thicknesses of foil using the ironing-board and iron" technique.

As Anderson describes it, the design of a traditional coffee maker gives you three basic cooking techniques:

1. Steam: The basket at the top is a great place to steam vegetables. You can throw in broccoli, cauliflower or any vegetable that cooks in about the same time as those.

2. Poach: The carafe at the bottom serves as a simple vessel for poaching fish and chicken. You can also use it to hard-boil eggs or make couscous and oatmeal.

3. Grill: This technique is a bit more advanced — and time-consuming. But if you're really itching for a grilled cheese sandwich or a cinnamon bun in a motel room, the coffee maker's burner can serve as a miniature grill.

Coffee Maker Cooking: Brew Up Your Next Dinner [Michaeleen Doucleff/The Salt]

(via Consumerist)

(Photo: Morgan Walker/NPR)

Ever found yourself curious about how sand fleas have sex? Marlene Thielecke, Ph.D. student at Berlin’s Charité University Medicine, sure has! Upon discovering a flea living in her foot, Thielecke - instead of reacting with the appropriate terror response –  decided to study the creature, in the hopes it might help science.

Part of Thielecke’s job at the University is to study the prevention tungiasis infection in Madagascar, which is often transmitted by Tunga penetrans - more commonly known as the sand or chigger flea. Disgusting little creatures that they are, sand flea females usually burrow into warm-blooded hosts (like you!), where it then breathes, defecates, and lays eggs. Unfortunately for humans, this infestation is painful, itchy, and often becomes infected; weirdly, it also encourages other sand fleas to get all up in there, meaning many people are infected with dozens at a time.

Oh, and there’s no cure for sand fleas other than physically digging them out of your own skin.

We tell you all this because we just want you to be sure you know what Thielecke was getting herself into when she decided to let the sand flea in her own foot live for the sake of science. She took regular photos and videos of the flea, and noticed that it was neither laying eggs nor dying. After two months, Thielecke finally decided she was “uneasy” about the experiment (since it was itchy and painful and meant she couldn’t really walk anymore) and took it out.

The great thing about Thielecke’s disgusting experiment is that she was able to determine that the flea most likely has sex when the females are already living inside their hosts. Cozy! Since Thielecke was never exposed to further fleas (“One was enough,” she said), her little buddy was never able to become fertilized, and thus lived in an extended “waiting state.”

Though this might not help Thielecke’s tungiasis research, it is apparently useful for doctors to know travellers returning home with a flea might have one that can live for much longer than expected. It was also important in recording that Thielecke has gigantic, crazy research-balls, and should be given an award.

(via Science, image via Stefan Marks)

• This guy discovered a new species of tick up his own nose
• Which is better and less parasite-y, fresh or frozen food?
• For $10, you can make your smartphone into a microscope

Children love to tear bugs limb from limb. Eventually, however, the rush of sadism gives way to the pity one has for the lifeless form crumbled beneath their hands. The fragility of life, the small plane between being and nothingness has been revealed to the young individual and they turn to the heavens and reflect on the next few decades of struggling to accept their demise... Or they forget all that and strap on an electrode and control the insect's body through a cell phone App.

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(via Pinterest)

A growing collection of improper pipetting technique as depicted in movies, television, etc. For anyone who's spent time in a wet lab, thatsnothowyoupipette.tumblr.com will put a smile on your face.

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Here's a costume idea that's more horrifying than an a decapitated Twerking Miley Cirus who can't stop twerking. Plus, all you need is an adorable floral dress and the desire for your very own HBO show!

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For our 80th Session, our host is Derek Harrison, who writes online at It’s Not Just the Alcohol Talking. His topic for this session asks bloggers to weigh in on the question that pundits and business analysts have been asking and answering frequently in recent months, Is Craft Beer a Bubble?

It’s a good time to be in the craft beer industry. The big brewers are watching their market share get chipped away by the purveyors of well-made lagers and ales. Craft breweries are popping up like weeds.

This growth begs the question: is craft beer a bubble? Many in the industry are starting to wonder when, and more importantly how, the growth is going to stop. Is craft beer going to reach equilibrium and stabilize, or is the bubble just going to keep growing until it bursts?

So on Friday, October 4, let us know where you stand on the bursting bubble hypothesis. Is the bubble precarious and ready to pop any second or as solid as a glass ball?

Physicist Richard Feynman was particularly famous for his lectures, which were known for being an engaging and accessible introduction to a number of scientific topics. Now Volume One of The Feynman Lectures is available in its entirety online.

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British biologist/comedian Simon Watt is teaming up with the National Science + Engineering Competition to bring attention to endangered species that are not magnificent, cute, or even plain. In fact, they are downright ugly. The Ugly Animal Preservation Society is a campaign to aid conservation efforts for these creatures. Watt has recruited other scientists, comedians, and science comedians for a series of live shows and videos to promote the conservation of the proboscis monkey, the blowfish, the Titicaca 'scrotum' water frog, the greater short-horned lizard, the dromedary jumping slug, the flightless dung beetle, and other ugly animals. Vote for your favorite ugly animal to become the campaign's mascot at the shows or at YouTube.

The Ugly Animal Preservation Society is dedicated to raising the profile of some of Mother Nature’s more aesthetically challenged children.  The panda gets too much attention.

Our society needs a mascot, one to rival the cute and cuddly emblems of many charities and organisations. And so I have gathered a terrific line up of comedians who will each champion a different ugly endangered species and at the end of the evening the audience shall vote for what will become our society’s symbol.

Link -via Treehugger

(Image credit: Simon Watt)

The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset gives gamers a more immersive experience, so vision is covered as far as Vr goes, but what about movement? That’s what Virtuix’s Omni treadmill is hoping to provide. Another piece of the Vr puzzle.
(...)
Original Story Virtuix Omni Gaming Treadmill Now Available For Pre-Order

© Geeky Gadgets, 2013. | Permalink | Unauthorized duplication and or distribution of our content is strictly forbidden © Geeky Gadgets, 2013

The post Virtuix Omni Gaming Treadmill Now Available For Pre-Order appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

Elvis' favorite sandwich was always one filled with bacon, peanut butter and banana, but really, who wants to deal with all that boring bread? Thanks to Dude Foods, we now have a much more pure version to enjoy. Plus, it's low-carb and gluten free, so it's a perfect diet snack, something the late king would have appreciated.

Link Via Foodbeast

Lightsaber Earrings – You’ll be the most attractive Jedi in the whole galaxy.

I don't know how to break this to you gently, so I'm just going to come out and say it: there are taste receptors on every pair of testicles. To be more specific, there are taste receptors for the flavors of sweet and umami ("pleasant savory taste") sitting atop the undercarriage of the male anatomy. So don't even bother dropping a Sour Patch Kid down there, because it won't do anything.

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TED-Ed has offered short, entertaining takes on a wide variety of actual science in its brief existence, and we’ve been consistently delighted by the program’s cartoon explanations of everything from the Big Bang to dinosaur feathers. Over the weekend, though, TED-Ed expanded its purview and blew our minds with seven great videos exploring how common comic book superpowers — real classics like flight, super speed, and super strength — would operate in the real world. The disappointing answer? Not very well, as the offering on super strength demonstrates here.

While the physics lesson on super strength may be no huge revelation to seasoned comic book nerds — most of whom will recognize it as “pretty much exactly how Gwen Stacy died” — the whole series is pretty excellent, and will make you feel a lot better about the fact that you don’t have superpowers. After all, you’d probably just accidentally kill a loved one with them. You can take a look at our sibling site’s favorite example of the series over at The Mary Sue and watch all seven episodes on the TED-Ed YouTube channel. Now here’s hoping we can get TED-Ed to take a look at the physics of Star Trek next.

(via TED-Ed)

Meanwhile in related links

• The evolution of feathers is pretty amazing
• The science behind the zombie apocalypse is, no doubt, pretty grim
• Without TED-Ed, we would never have known of the ancient Japanese art of fish printing

When Moones set about brainstorming for a live session music video to promote their latest EP, Ollie Kristian had a genius idea: Record their single “Better Energy” over and over again, but have each member of the band drink four beers each between every take. The result is a multi-angle masterpiece of drunkenness that uses over 10,000 YouTube annotations to allow you total control over the band’s blood alcohol level at any given moment of the song. Man, if only actually getting drunk were that easy — think of the money we’d all save!

The actual video clocks in at over an hour and 16 minutes of footage and uses cleverly inserted annotations — along with beer bottles stacked on the wall — to measure time. Amazingly, they only manage to knock over a microphone stand over the course of fiming, though they do start to get very flowy with their movements as things progress. As one YouTube commenter put it, “80 beers is like Aerosmith on no beers.”

And in case you’re too lazy to actually click buttons, here’s a split screen comparison of No Beers vs. 80 Beers (that’s 16 per band member):

The band has also released a great behind the scenes video, and the single is available on Soundcloud. You can pay what you want for the full EP or download each track individually for free. Given how much they must have spent on alcohol alone, it’d probably help them out to throw in at least a couple of bucks.

(via The Daily Dot)

Meanwhile in related links

• They hold their booze a lot better than Superman does
• Let’s hope none of them tried to drive home themselves
• Not without one of these quick acting anti-drunk pills, at least

When it first started making the rounds earlier this year it was known as "Fuck Me In The Ass Because I Love Jesus."

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Sándor Seuntjens posted this video of a version of the Batman theme song sung by actual bats.

How is that possible? Well, according to Seuntjens’ You Tube listing:

Bats produce sounds that are not audible to human ears. First these ultrasounds were digitally reduced to frequencies that are audible. Then the different batsounds were assigned different keys on a keyboard. On this keyboard – the only real Bat-Organ – Ulrich Seidel played the Batman Theme (Neal Hefti, 1966). The video clip was compiled by Sándor Seuntjens using footage from Batman (film, 1966), Batman (animated television series, 1992-95), and National Geographic (natgeowild.com).

So cool. I love nerds. Only we would do something like this.

Check out the video after the break.

(via Boing Boing)

An enterprising Hacker News user has built a Raspberry Pi server that's entirely run on solar power, along with instructions on how you can, too.

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