What do 小, 森, and 虫 stand for? Well, your kid better learn or she'll be toast under the next superpower's fire-breathing reign. This picture book by Wired illustrator Christoph Niemann gives smart children — and ambitious parents — a head start by cleverly embedding basic Chinese characters in images throughout the story. The plot is simple: Searching for her missing bulging-eyed dragon with the help of a mysterious green witch, little girl Lin journeys over the Great Wall and across a river, learning lessons along the way about family, friendship — and penmanship.
This search site lightens the data overload by filtering and grouping results into several distinct interfaces. Looking up Zooey Deschanel's band? You'll get 16 possible paths for "She & Him," including MP3 view (with a list of streaming audio you can play), album view (cover art and related musicians), plus specialized lenses for images, news, and more.
It's no secret that we worship regularly at the Church of J. J. Abrams. But the Lost creator's latest offering this fall on Fox, with a squinty-sexy Australian actress named Anna Torv as an FBI investigator thrown into a twisted X-Files-minus-aliens potboiler, has us feeling the spirit even more than usual. First episode? A loony genius and his bitter son aid Torv's character in repelling an attack of flesh-melting toxins while a conspiracy of corporate weasels looms. Tell it, brother J. J.!
Photo: Courtesy Mark Ben Holzberg/Fox
"Think happy thoughts," sings Muno the friendly one-eyed, red-knobbed monster. And with season two of the sleeper hit TV series Yo Gabba Gabba! (returning September 22 on Nick Jr.), we're doing just that. The music-filled, creature-featured show is for kids — they say! — but highly addictive to anyone with a weakness for the Ramones (the show title comes from their 1977 tune "Pinhead"), Devo (frontman Mark Mothersbaugh does the "Mark's Magic Pictures" drawing lesson), Intellivision (8-bit graphics pop up between segments), and robots (they're everywhere).
They were supposed to be here by now. Mecha-men and girlie bots, benevolent or malevolent, beer swilling and laser-beam shooting. Instead, all we have are Google, annoying customer service phone trees, and the Roomba. The age of robots has arrived, but they've been denied the corporality they (and we) were promised when the word was first coined in the 1920s. A sort of Madame Tussauds for automatons, this exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art gives the mythical tin men their sexy back, showing bots made of Styrofoam, cast iron, TV screens, and aluminum — some endowed, all embodied. Because we dreamed of androids and all we got were electric, intangible sheep.
Remember the classic arcade game where you shook maracas up, down, and all around to the beat of Latin hits like "Macarena"? Of course not: Samba de Amigo was a cult classic at best. This Wii version should prove more popular. Though not as precise as the original maracas, the Wiimotes do replicate the feel. Multiplayer mode means you can look foolish with a friend. Just remember to shake it — don't break it.
Last February, Wired contributor Mathew Honan launched a Web site with nothing on it but a rotation of amusing, wistful one-liners about a certain presidential candidate. Overnight, a Mad Libs-style meme was born. The result? Barack Obama is your new fat book deal — and it's damn funny.
Still scrawling with the same old Ticonderoga Twos? Go to Pencilthings.com and sign up. For $72 a year, it'll ship you a selection of two or three implements a month. Upgrade to the limited edition membership for a few bucks more and your care package will contain an extra stick — something vintage and/or otherwise difficult to obtain. Beats the hell out of a magazine subscription (except, you know, this one).
- Some other (blank)-of-the-month clubs we'd love to subscribe to: explosive, toothbrush, ridiculous R. Kelly song, sunglasses, ringtone, designer puppy, thumb drive, iPhone cozy, graduate degree.
We can't be the only ones whose first response to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless was to smack the stereo, assuming some part somewhere must be skipping, warped, or broken. How else to explain those noises? Then, out of the swirling guitar haze — sweet melodies! After a 16-year absence, the enigmatic MBV returns to the US, headlining All Tomorrow's Parties New York — a three-day fest (with sets by Tortoise and Thurston Moore) that kicks off September 19.
Ever been tempted to have your palm or your cards read? If you answered "Never!" then you're the target audience for this weekly podcast, produced by the New England Skeptical Society. Neurologist Steven Novella and his team (including blogger Rebecca Watson, aka the Skepchick) debunk news stories, creationism, pseudoscience, and pretty much any attempt to pass off faith as fact. Featuring interviews with celebrity disbelievers like Walter Isaacson, Simon Singh, and Bill Nye, it's a welcome relief for anyone who occasionally wonders whether they're the last logical person left in the galaxy. (Statistically impossible, but still ...)
