Review of The Year’s Best Science Fiction #24
SF Signal has a review of The Year’s Best Science Fiction #24, edited by Gardner Dozois, up.
The Wave of the Future
The succinctly-named Piss-Screen is a pressure-sensitive inlay for urinals which allows you (and by “you” they mean “men”) to play a game with your pee.
It seems to actually be an unusually elaborate “don’t drink and drive” advertisement, since the screens are installed in Frankfurt bars, you crash if your reaction time is too slow, and after the crash you’re admonished to take a cab with the message, “Too pissed to drive? Take a Taxi instead! Call: [number].” However, men being men, I can sort of see this catching on. I can only hope that the home version doesn’t go on the market until Shadowboy is grown and out of the house.
(via BoingBoing)
Eat your vegetables …
… or your vegetables eat you.
Our Blogiversary
It’s our birthday. Our first one. We didn’t say anything earlier, because, well, we didn’t want to make you feel like you had to find a cute e-greeting card to send us.
As of today, we’ve been blogging a whole year. Go, us!
(Also, thanks to Chip’s tendency toward OCD, we’ve had a post every single weekday this year. We’ve only missed posting six times in the entire year. Time to up the lithium dosage.)
She Branded Me with Science
For something a little more original than “Mom,” check out this collection of science-related tattoos. (There’s even a squid!)
Quick! To Woot!
This most awesome “Squidbucket” shirt is only available for this price today!
Many thanks to Myst for turning us on to this lovely!
Fortunately, for those who are don’t obsessively check this blog for new content every 15 minutes,* if you miss today’s squid you can always pick it up at a slightly higher price in their Second Chance Archive. (Check out some of the other shirts in there too; I’m rather taken with the “condiments in space” one.)
*Or, y’know, haven’t subscribed to our rss feed.
Space Hotel to Open in 2012
A hotel called “Galactic Suites” is slated to open as early as 2012. Travelers will use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod-room walls and will be able to see the sun rise 15 times a day. All for a mere $4 million.
SF Signal also lists 6 Secrets of the Space Hotel:
- If you get caught stealing the towels, they toss you out the airlock.
- Thanks to a cross-promotional brainstorm, coffee for the the Continental breakfast is provided by Starbucks.
- The shuttle bus ride back to Earth costs $6 billion dollars.
- In space, no one can hear you watch in-room pr0n.
- The hotel restaurant serves Soylent Green.
- The robotic concierge provides room service, if you know what I mean.
Too Bad They’re Mildly Evil
The Google guys definitely have a sense of humor. Check out these Google Easter Eggs:
Interesting Body Mod
Thomas Martel is a “big guy,” and he has trouble using the increasingly-small user interfaces on devices like his new iPhone. So he did what any complete nutjob reasonable person would do and had surgery to make his thumbs thinner. The procedure involved shaving down his thumb bones, carefully altering the muscles, and modifying the fingernails.
This may well be the vanguard of an entirely new branch of plastic surgery, but I’m disturbed by the quote from his surgeon:
We’re turning plastic surgery from something that people use in service of vanity, to a real tool for improving workplace efficiency.
Um.
So in addition to needing a degree from a prestigious college, the ambitious workers of the future will need to list their workplace-friendly body mods on their resumes.
Link (via BoingBoing)