"VESSEL is a very ambitious scifi / horror short in the vein of Alien, The Thing and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. VESSEL features a blend of old school, practical creature effects and slick, modern day VFX. The story focuses on Liberty Airlines' Flight 298 and its passengers. Shortly after takeoff, the passengers encounter an otherworldly force and are thrown into a fight for their lives!"

Amazingly well-done.

"Ever notice how people texting at night have that eerie blue glow?

Or wake up ready to write down the Next Great Idea, and get blinded by your computer screen?

During the day, computer screens look good—they're designed to look like the sun. But, at 9PM, 10PM, or 3AM, you probably shouldn't be looking at the sun.

F.lux fixes this: it makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

It's even possible that you're staying up too late because of your computer. You could use f.lux because it makes you sleep better, or you could just use it just because it makes your computer look better."

"It's not inevitable or even desirable that we form a belief one way or the other."

"Men educated in [the critical habit of thought] … are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain." —William Graham Sumner, 1906

"Having beliefs grants no one privileged status. Nor is there any special reason for the acquisition of beliefs to be a particular goal. When scientists construct theories, for example, the aim isn't for people to form beliefs about them being true, it is to account for available data with a model that has the greatest explanatory and predictive power."

"Demanding that people have only these two options is a symptom of flawed, black and white thinking. Non-belief either way is often confused with 'agnosticism'. But agnosticism is not about belief or non-belief. Agnosticism concerns knowledge, not belief. An agnostic is someone who holds the belief that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of a proposed phenomenon."

ag•nos•tic : from a- (without) and gnosis (knowledge)

"It is perfectly possible to hold this view while believing there is a God, believing there is none, or having no belief either way. Agnosticism isn't some middle-ground between believing X and not-X. It is an independent category, compatible with belief or non-belief."

"…but one doesn't have to believe no gods exist to recognize and expose theistic claims as indefensible."

"Those who can't approach discussion with a basic level of intelligence and maturity shouldn't expect to be taken seriously."

"…in the marketplace of ideas, when you want to move people from their default lack of belief to towards your belief, it's you, not they, who has to provide justification. If you want people to believe that any gods exist, the burden of proof is on you, not those simply skeptical of your claim."

"Now that we've learned how to destroy all life on our planet, we can no longer afford to indulge in the comforts and rationalizations of magical thinking."

"While I’ve had many different jobs and challenges over my 18-year career, they’ve all been in one industry: technology. It has duly fulfilled three critical needs in my life: a passion, a hobby, and a career. Over time and combined with life experience, I also found that technology gifted me the ability to continually self-actualize and to become drastically more efficient. Or so I thought."

"Dan Savage gave a speech to a national convention of high school journalists in which he criticized Christians' use of the Bible to excuse mistreatment and discrimination aimed at gays. This spurred a walkout by a small group of Christian students who were in attendance, followed by a frenzy of accusations that he was "bullying" them."

The maryrology (and hypocrisy) of the world's religiosity is truly astounding.

Super-searchable reference documentation for a variety of programming languages.

"Stretching from the sunrise to sunset, this 360 degree image was captured by Greek photographer Chris Kotsiopoloulos in Sounio, Greece.

It took him a painstaking 30 hours and hundreds of images to create the amazing time-spanning panorama."

"Some email clients perform operations when reading an email, which give away information about the reader, to the sender of the message. If you enter your email address below, this application will send you a specially crafted email, which uses a variety of techniques, to attempt to send information back to this server when read. It will then display the results for you."

"Bad traffic, a malfunctioning computer, incompentent coworkers and a sore back all made me a seething cauldron of rage. But more importantly for this story, it had been over forty-eight hours since I'd last taken a dump."

"This is a short tribute to my AeroPress. Two years ago, one was given to me, and it changed everything.

For a little more than $20, this marvel of science will produce arguably the best cup of coffee you've ever made in your home. It makes no sense."

A kinetic typography music video for Jonathan Coulton's "Shop Vac".

A quick-disconnect sling system for photographers.

"The ultimate dream of flight - soaring through the air, with total freedom in all three dimensions, not within a heavy and complicated machine but with only one's body and sensations - a dream everybody had at least once in their life.

JETMAN made it real."

Building better worlds.

"THE recent remark by Mitt Romney’s senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom that upon clinching the Republican nomination Mr. Romney could change his political views “like an Etch A Sketch” has already become notorious. The comment seemed all too apt, an apparent admission by a campaign insider of two widely held suspicions about Mitt Romney: that he is a) utterly devoid of any ideological convictions and b) filled with aluminum powder.

The imagery may have been unfortunate, but Mr. Fehrnstrom’s impulse to analogize is understandable. Metaphors like these, inexact as they are, are the only way the layman can begin to grasp the strange phantom world that underpins the very fabric of not only the Romney campaign but also of Mitt Romney in general. For we have entered the age of quantum politics; and Mitt Romney is the first quantum politician."

"It has been many years since commercial flying was a glamorous experience, especially for those squashed in economy class. But the experience changed for the worse after the attacks on America on September 11th 2001. The exact nature of the weapons used by the terrorists to take control of the four planes will probably never be known, but their effectiveness jolted governments into much closer consideration of their airport-security procedures.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was established two months later to improve security across America's transport systems: luggage screening was widely increased; cockpit doors were strengthened; and passengers were refused entry to the flight deck. In the years since, authorities have responded to further attempted attacks by adding new layers of security. Thanks to Richard Reid's mid-flight efforts to detonate a bomb in his shoe in late 2001, many passengers now have to remove their shoes when passing through security so they can be separately scanned. The arrest in August 2006 of a group of would-be bombers intending to blow up planes using liquid explosives led to the banning of liquids, aerosols and gels of any significant size from hand luggage. And Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's December 2009 effort to blast a hole in a plane using explosives hidden in his underwear led indirectly to the roll out of full-body scanning machines at numerous airports.

Much has been done, and much money has been spent. So this debate is considering whether the changes made to security have actually made the situation worse—that they annoy passengers is not really in question. Are we less safe now than we were before 9/11? Many regular flyers will have their own stories of indignities suffered at the hands of airport-security staff; and the media revels in tales of the young, the old and the infirm being taken aside for intimate and humiliating searches for banned items. What sensible end does this serve, ask the critics. The whole apparatus of security at airports is sometimes derided as theatre, designed to give the appearance of security, while actually distracting attention and funding from other ways of keeping bombs and bad people off planes. Perhaps more money should be spent on intelligence gathering to try to ensure would-be terrorists don't even make it to the airport, or get jobs in sensitive roles. However, there has been no successful attack on a plane since 9/11, so perhaps we should be ready to give credit to the procedures now in place. They are responses to real threats, many of which the public will never know about, and they require passengers to suffer minor hassles for the good of all. Surveys show that passengers will accept more inconvenience if it makes them feel safer, and airport security does this.

Bruce Schneier, a security expert, is tasked with defending the motion. He says that neither the TSA nor its foreign counterparts have foiled a single terrorist plot in ten years, and that the security procedures put in place since 9/11 are not sufficient to stop well-financed, well-organised terrorists. He condemns developments in airport security as backward looking and overly specific, and argues for a return to the style of security in place before the 9/11 attacks, with money spent instead on investigation and emergency response.

He is opposed by Kip Hawley, who was the head of the TSA between July 2005 and January 2009. Mr Hawley defends the outfit, and says the ten years of safe flying it has overseen show that its methods are indeed working. He admits that the cost to passengers of increases in airport security has been great, but says these procedures are much more adaptable than their forebears, and that a programme made up of multiple layers of security, such as is being developed now, stands a greater chance of success.

Over the next ten days our guests will present further arguments and, I hope, answer the points made by their opponents. But the result of this debate rests in your hands: do not be afraid to vote immediately, as you can change your mind at any time. And once you have cast your vote, please add your voice to the debate and explain your decision. This debate may be American in tone—that is where the 9/11 attacks took place; that is where our debaters are from—but I would ask those of you familiar with airport security in other countries to take part with gusto, and make your experiences and opinions known."

"I have been debating former TSA Administrator Kip Hawley on the Economist website. I didn't bother reposting my opening statement and rebuttal, because -- even though I thought I did a really good job with them -- they were largely things I've said before. In my closing statement, I talked about specific harms post-9/11 airport security has caused. This is mostly new, so here it is, British spelling and punctuation and all."

It would be unsurprising if this is why Schneier was disinvited from testifying before Congress on this topic. He is right about all of this, and he knows it; the TSA is wrong, and they know it.

This is one of Schneier's best posts in recent history, and is very much required reading.

"In this tutorial created for philipbloom.net, Eve talks you through simple to advanced lighting setups that are easy to achieve and produce beautiful results. She explains simply, how to get the most from your existing lights and some quick tips to create a really impressive shot."

"Photographer/Director Chase Jarvis shares his workflow and backup for every image he shoots, stills and video alike. This in-depth look includes all the steps from capture to archive and gives you a method to ensure that you’ll never lose a single image."

Great presentation of a rather well-thought-out DAM/backup strategy. Plenty of holes in the architecture and lots of room for improvement, but far better than many attempts to solve this problem, especially with such large data sets awkward/ornery software.

In speech, our legal system very intelligently grants protection to parody as transformative, and beneficial to a proper and balanced civil discourse. The fact is, in these days when a replicator is not just something making tea for Picard on Star Trek, but a growing reality, we need a similar legal protection for this exact kind of transformative augmentation in the physical world.

"Because the world is not flat.

The tentsile range offers unique sheltered accommodation in any environment. Ground conditions can limit the use of certain locations but now; whether you are looking for a more versatile camping solution or an urban garden treehouse that avoids planning restrictions, with tentsile the sky really is the only limit.

tentsile combines the comfort and versatility of a hammock with the usable space and security of a tent. The ultra portable structure uniquely employs tension forces to provide separation from wildlife, including insects, snakes and other predators but also from sand storms, earth tremors, cold or wet ground, debris or contamination."

"StarStaX is a fast multi-platform image stacking and blending software, which is developed primarily for Star Trail Photography."

Self-hosted and managed-hosted tools to deploy mobile apps in an ad-hoc method for development and testing purposes.

An in-depth book about Git, available online for free and in print.

"A Polyglot Database Client for Mac OS X."

Extensible with plugins for other DBs not supported by default.

Insane workout sans-equipment.

Brilliantly simple explanation of a Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

"A complete from scratch recreation of Super Mario Bros. with a focus on perfectly imitating the feel the 1985 classic gave us. Then give Mario a portal gun, add puzzle game mechanics from Portal and there you go. And if that wasn't crazy enough, play 4-player coop, with everyone having their own Portal gun!"

A brilliant dubbing of an infomercial for a completely ridiculous product that probably doesn't actually work. But hey, it has rubber feet!

"Over the past few years I’ve probably encountered dozens of terrible, kitschy animated interpretations of Edvard Munch’s The Scream or Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, but this interactive version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night seems to be something wholly different and wonderful. Greek digital artist Petros Vrellis used openFrameworks to convert the post-impressionist painting into an interactive artwork, where touch-sensitive gestures change the direction of the wind, sprout new buildings, and create ambient background tones. I bet if Van Gogh rolled over in his grave to look at this, it might make him smile a bit."

Twitter thread about identification schema, postal addresses, and how all this stuff sucks and is totally being done wrong.

Ingredients

• 350g - Chopped Dried Soft Prunes
• 250g - Raisins
• 25g - Currants
• 175ml - Honey
• 125ml - Tia Maria or similar favourite
• 2 Oranges - Zest & Juiced (I use less, 2 can make it soggy & too orangey)
• 1 teaspoon - Mixed Spice
• 2 tablespoons - Good Quality Cocoa
• 175g - Softened Unsalted Butter
• 175g - Dark Muscovado Sugar
• 3 - Free-Range Eggs, Beaten
• 150g - Plain flour
• 75g - Ground Almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon - Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon - Baking Soda

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Preparation

• Try a square tin, it's easier to cut the slices.

• 300 Degrees F/ 150 Degrees C for around 2 hours.

• You can slightly alter the flavour elements of this recipe, it's quite forgiving, just keep the quantities about the same to avoid issues.

• To protect the top of the cake from burning even further, you can insert a disk of greaseproof paper in the top, make it a little larger than the tin, snip it a cm or so around the edges, and it will happily hover above the cake - as long as your oven is not too hot and you don't forget the cake's in the oven, this shouldn't be necessary.

• Heat the mixture until it reaches a very gentle boil (remember lots of delicate ingredients in there), stirring the mixture as the butter melts. Let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes; remove the saucepan from the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

• After around 30 minutes, the mixture will have cooled a little, now add the eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and baking soda, mix well with a wooden spoon or spatula until the ingredients have combined.

• Then carefully pour the fruitcake mixture into the lined cake tin. Transfer the cake tin to the oven and bake for around 2 hours, or until the top of the cake is firm. If you insert a sharp knife into the middle of the cake whilst it's warm, depending on how wet you made the mixture, with more or less orange juice, the knife will not come away clean like usual; so it does require some nerve the first time you make it to say, 'Yes, it's cooked' ;-)

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Decoration

Mix a super thick white/ royal icing, so that it doesn't want to run at all, thickly paste all over the top then slightly scrape it down the sides, not all the way, and if you get it right it looks a little like icicles on the side of a house. Then roll out some marzipan, cut out small & large stars, paint them gold if you like (cake shop item), and attach as you like, bending over the edge of the cake too. It gives you the classic taste, but looks really fun & modern.

Randal Schwartz presents "Introduction to Git", presented on January 5th, 2012 for the monthly UUASC-LA meeting.

Like the "nerd merit badges" but more vast and awesome.

"By fetishizing novelty we devalue work that is derivative, collaborative, or interpretive. But more often than not, innovation is an emergent quality that arises from combining what is already at hand rather than from creating something original."

The cat is his copilot.

Interesting and different take on the whole "address book" thing. Menubar applet with natural language pseudo-command-line interactions, rather than a visually large book-like app.

"Join us for a panel of leading technology policy experts who will discuss the implications of proposed "rogue website" legislation for entrepreneurship, free speech, Internet governance, and holders of copyrights and trademarks. TechFreedom's Berin Szoka will deliver opening remarks at this event, which marks the one-year anniversary of TechFreedom's launch."

The entire panel is worth a watch, but the truly important foundational stuff starts at about thirteen minutes in, where Dan Kaminsky explains what DNS is, why DNSSEC matters, and how the likes of PIPA, SOPA, and any other legislation allowing for or forcing of DNS forgery will deeply hobble the basic functioning and continued safety and utility of the Internet at larger.