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[techieguy]

Burning steel wool, a tripod, and a long exposure shot. That, and a canvas as haunting as the aurora borealis, are all it took for Tommy Eliassen to create this indelible ode to fire and light. [Telegraph UK; Image credit: Tommy Eliassen/solent]

Source: A Burning Ring of Fire [Image Cache]

[techieguy]

Pennant is the most beautifistastic way to re-live past baseball seasons. There's so much baseball information presented in such a g-g-g-gorgeous way that I'm crying tears of joy, rainbows and Willie Mays.
What is it?

Pennant, $5, iPad. It's the history of baseball in numbers but waay prettier than you'd expect. And as baseball is such a numbers based game, it's a legitimately thorough history of America's past time. Think of the box scores baseball purists cherish so much and then think of great design and then mash it together.

Source: Pennant for iPad [Video]

[techieguy]

This is the Jackling House—exactly how Steve Jobs has wanted it to look since he bought it in 1984, the year of the Macintosh launch. Demolished. Destroyed. Blown to smithereens.

Exclusive Shots of Steve Jobs' Demolished House

We hired a plane to see the destruction from the air. Below is a video and some photos of the construction site—please excuse the shaky camera, but it was extremely windy, and the airplane was moving around like crazy.

Source: Exclusive Shots of Steve Jobs' Demolished House [Video]

[techieguy]

Had I been a student at one of these Anaheim schools in California, I would've been forced to wear a GPS device, too. In fact, if YOU skipped out of school more than four times a year, you would've joined me in the GPS Breakfast Club as well.

Around 75 seventh and eight graders in Anaheim have become the first kids in California to be followed using GPS, after concerns that their truancy could lead to prosecution. The tab is getting picked up by the state of California, after previous trials in Baltimore and San Antonio saw attendance amongst skiving kids rise from 77 per cent to 95 per cent after the program finished.

Source: Middle Schools Are Tracking Kids With GPS Now [GPS]

[techieguy]

So Watson just pwned humanity, setting a milestone in the history of artificial intelligence. But this trouncing gives us—as we lick our wounds, cry foul, or demand a rematch—the opportunity to ask afresh what it means to be human.

At least as far back as Socrates and Plato, Homo sapiens has been fascinated with the question of what makes it special and unique. In antiquity, this took the form of obsessively comparing humans against other animals. In the twenty-first century, it's machines we keep anxiously measuring ourselves against. Each new step ahead for AI, it seems, has whittled down the gap. But what has been so fascinating about these milestones, over the past six or seven decades, is the order in which they've come.

Source: The Human Victory [Artificial Intelligence]

[techieguy]

This morning, we decided we think axes are awesome. Beautiful, functionally perfected, and, yes, great for elegantly chopping the crap out of things. Below, a roundup of our favorite old school cutting contraptions.

Source: Gizmodo Loves Axes [Desired]

[techieguy]

Spiders are often portrayed as malicious, bloodthirsty creatures looking for anything with a pulse to sink its fangs into—especially us humans. Look no further than movies like Arachnophobia, Arachnid or even Eight Legged Freaks. Even Peter Parker was the victim of a random spider bite. But the truth is, spiders don't really bite. I mean, sure they bite, but only if you really provoke them to do so.

Source: Spiders Won't Bite [Factoids]

[techieguy]

All the Best Lego Sets for 2011Star Wars! Ninjas! Pirates! Aliens! Race cars! Mummies! Castles! Dragons! All made off delicious bricks. Hot off the magical Lego Factory in Billund, Denmark, here are all the Lego sets for the year 2011 in one epic roundup.

There are a couple more secret models, but we will show those to you at a later date.

First, following the success of the previous series, there are more new minifigs sold in separate packaging. I'm not a fan of the minifigs with facial expressions—I still prefer the iconic old school ones, with smiley faces—but some of these are neat.

Source: All the Best Lego Sets for 2011 [Lego]

[techieguy]

It's a weird time to buy an Apple product. By that I mean it's a terrible time to buy an Apple product. At least, if you want to own the latest and most amazingest with the least amount of heartbreak. That's the story for three of Apple's biggest products: iPhone 4, iPad and now, the MacBook Pro.

Source: It's a Dangerous Time to Buy Apple Products [Apple]

[techieguy]

There are plenty of apps that tell you how to mix drinks, but none that do it quite as stylishly as What Cocktail?

What is it?

What Cocktail?, $2, iPhone. A handsome app that lets you tap in a few variables—what mood you're in; what hemisphere you're in—and spits out a drink suggestion. Then it gives you directions on how to make one. That way, the app's to blame for your hangover, not you.

Source: What Cocktail? for iPhone [Video]