Chrono Trigger Meets Doctor Who [Video]

Bipedal daleks FTW! :)

Conception to Birth — Visualized [Science!]

Image-maker Alexander Tsiaras shares a powerful medical visualization, showing human development from conception to birth and beyond. (Some graphic images.)

[TED]

Tumblr “Censorship” Draws Users’ Attention to SOPA

As of right now, if you visit Tumblr you won’t find the typical stream of animated gifs, blog posts, and videos – but rather a page of big gray CENSOR bars. Tumblr is drawing attention to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which is being discussed today in a hearing in the U.S. House judiciary committee. This bill along with the PROTECT IP Act represent Congress’ current attempts to curb piracy in the United States.

On its face, the legislation would provide some power to combat the problem of foreign websites that house large amounts of copyrighted material by allowing them to be “blacklisted” through ISPs. Of course, the danger is that the law could potentially be even farther reaching than that. Tumblr certainly has reason to be concerned, as does YouTube and other user-generated content sites that contain copyrighted as well as original material. And as do the Internet companies who would have to follow potentially strict government regulations about what kind of websites and content they can support.

This video from Fight For the Future is a fairly good explanation of what many people are scared could happen.

Though various advocacy groups and websites have been covering this issue a lot in the past week especially, the move by Tumblr to force some awareness on the part of its users is a big attention-getting move. (Though do note that all you need do to get back to your regularly scheduled tumbling is to click on the link – you don’t have to take any further action.)

Edit: Mozilla and Reddit are doing it too.

Losers: A Short Film About Bullying

As with a lot of you I’m sure, I was bullied when I was younger, mainly because I was… different. I was shy, had trouble interacting with others who were not of my “kind”, and was generally not that good with girls and playing most sports. Translation: I was a big nerd. So when I stumbled on that video last evening, I knew I had to share it with you guys… because you know… it reminded me of my past.

We’ve been hearing more and more about bullying in the media in recent years, but I’m wondering, does all that coverage actually help? Is bullying still as big of a problem as it was back in the 80s when I was in high school?

But you know what they say: It gets better… and it’s true.

[Everynone]

A King Among Bean Bag Chairs: The Sumo Sultan

A few weeks ago, my friends over at SUMO asked if they could send me one of their urban lounge bean bag chairs for review. After going through their site, my choice stopped on the Sumo Sultan, a really big (and luxurious!) bean bag chair weighing at around 50 pounds and measuring 54″ X 54″ X 42″.

The Sultan came in a huge box, with its removable raspberry red corduroy cover sitting in a seperate bag in the box. Unlike lots of other bean bag chairs, the fact that this one has a removable cover is really convenient; it makes washing it as easy as 1-2-3. After slipping the cover on, the first thing I did was to lay down my little Stormtrooper on it.

He certainly got bigger since I posted this picture of him sitting in a bucket back in February! I doubt he’d still fit in the thing now. In any case, as you can see, the Sultan is HUGE (and very comfy), and with its fabric and color choices available in many options, will look great in most settings. The chair will also never go flat, thanks to the fact that it is filled with standard furniture foam.

Since we got the chair, the kids have been constantly fighting over who will get to sit on it after school, but they finally got over their dissagreament and have decided that sitting on the thing at the same time was better than not using it at all (as decided by my wife and I).

The Sultan is big enough to accomodate 2 adults (if you don’t mind getting intimate) and is easily moldable for maximum comfort. Be sure to visit Sumolounge’s website to check out all the awesome products their store has to offer!