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boingboing_feed 
Fermilab just got a new Awesome Magnet, a 50'-wide jobbie that can't be tilted by more than a few degrees without suffering irreparable harm. It's in New York, though, and Fermilab is outside of Chicago, and this presents a logistical problem with a complicated solution:
The Muon g-2 ring, an electromagnet made of steel and aluminum, begins its 3,200-mile trek from New York in early June. From there, it will sail by barge down the East Coast, around Florida's tip into the Gulf of Mexico, then up the Mississippi River until it arrives in Illinois.
Once on land, the electromagnet will be driven at night in a specially designed truck at no more than 10 mph until it reaches Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
The high-tech transport is all in service of a plan to use Fermilab's powerful beam to send muons, a rare kind of particle that lasts just 2.2 millionths of a second, into the circular electromagnet, according to experiment spokesman Lee Roberts, who works at Fermilab. Once in the ring, muons "wobble," or tilt like a top.
Huge magnet set for delicate voyage to Fermilab [Alexa Aguilar/Chicago Tribune]
(via /.) 
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such_heightsdaringfireball_feedTim Bray:
But people, and there are a lot of them, who are saying “Glass is doomed because it’s dorky-looking/privacy-invasive/anti-soci
al” are pretty well wrong; it’s more complex than that.
oursinStill working my way through the stories in Conservation of Shadows.
Have just started Jo Anderton's Suited the sequel to Debris, about which I was a bit ambivalent, but interested enough to give this a go.
What I've just read
My weekend Christie was Murder in Mesopotamia, of which I thought the conclusion was really a bit farfetched for reasons I have to describe as SPOILER.
Waiting for my flight and on the plane, and in the passport control queue from hell, I got through the two latest short stories by Barbara Hambly downloaded from her website, Sylvia Engdahl's Defender of the Flame, two odd comic dystopian novels by Madelaine Duke, Claret, Sandwiches and Sin (1964) and This Business of Bomfog (1967), and Tansey Rayner Roberts, Splashdance Silver (1998 reissued 2013).
The Hambly stories were well up to standard. The Engdahl was interesting, but really, the characters are all terribly flat. The two novels by Duke: CS&S was an interesting idea somewhat unsatisfactorily developed, and I'm still trying to work out what the point of TBOB was. I think even comic dystopias should have more plot in their worldbuilding. The Rayner Roberts was probably not the best choice - apparently it was her first published novel and I have possibly read slightly too many humourous subversions of standard fantasy narratives.
Also, several essays for a competition, about which I may expatiate further and perhaps under lock...
And what next
As per usual, no idea.
boingboing_feed
A Brazilian ad agency has built a campaign for Domino's "Pizza" that uses a heat-sensitive coating on rented DVDs; when the disc is played, the heat from the player heats up the coating and causes it to emit a pizza-like odor; the coating also changes appearance and becomes a picture of a pizza with an ad for Domino's.
In partnership with 10 video rental stores in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the brand used rented DVDs as media. About 10 discs each of 10 different new release titles such as Argo, 007, Dread And Dark Knight were stamped with thermal ink and flavored varnish, both sensitive to the heat.
While people were watching the movie, the heat of the DVD player affected the disc. When the movie ended and they ejected the disc, they smelled pizza. They also saw pizza: the discs were printed to look like mini pies, and carried the message: "Did you enjoy the movie? The next one will be even better with a hot and delicious Domino's Pizza."
A DVD That Smells Like Domino's Pizza 
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perletwo posting in scans_daily
daringfireball_feedMicrosoft still loves their product comparison checklists.
Update: And there’s a TV ad too. It’s cute in a playing-for-second-place way. Microsoft is pitching Windows 8 tablets as the natural rival for the iPad; implicit in this is the dismissal of Android tablets from the equation. The message isn’t “Buy a Windows tablet instead of an iPad” so much as “If you want something other than an iPad, you should buy a Windows tablet.” Are iPad users, en masse, clamoring for multiple apps sharing the screen side-by-side? For PowerPoint? No. This is pitched at people who don’t like the iPad. That’s a play for second place, because most people do like the iPad.
Funny how the tables have turned since the “I’m a Mac / I’m a PC” days.
a_softer_world_feed
facebook 
reddit boingboing_feed
Ben Marks, our pal at Collectors Weekly, says, "We just published an article on Zoe Mozert, Pearl Frush, and Joyce Ballantyne, who created some of the most memorable pin-up art in the 1940 and '50s. While most people today associate pin-up art with male artists like Alberto Vargas, George Petty, and Gil Elvgren, the contributions of these women are every bit as important, and their work every bit as good. For her article, associate editor Lisa Hix interviewed a number of authorities on pin-up art, from art dealer and author Louis K. Meisel to Marianne Ohl Phillips, who got to know both Mozert and Ballantyne before they died.
“You find mistakes in the male paintings,” Phillips told me. “Elvgren’s got a famous painting where she’s got two left feet, and there are just these things that don’t fit every once in a while. The women never made those mistakes. I think they looked in the mirror a lot and they got things more right. The men tended to make the breasts larger, and they made the legs longer. The women tended to paint very proportionate women, more of a 36-26-36 look, whereas men would make them a little top-heavy.”
Three female artists who shaped the American Pin-Up
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boingboing_feedSF/thriller writer Iain Banks has weighed in to quash a rumor that he only wrote his amazing SF novels to pay the bills because the (also amazing) high-brow literary thrillers didn't bring in enough:
I wish I did have the time to reply to everybody individually but I don’t. I think I’ll only comment on any of the posts if there’s something factually wrong mentioned in them, and so far the only point I can remember is one where an ex-neighbour of ours recalled (in an otherwise entirely kind and welcome comment) me telling him, years ago, that my SF novels effectively subsidised the mainstream works. I think he’s just misremembered, as this has never been the case. Until the last few years or so, when the SF novels started to achieve something approaching parity in sales, the mainstream always out-sold the SF – on average, if my memory isn’t letting me down, by a ratio of about three or four to one. I think a lot of people have assumed that the SF was the trashy but high-selling stuff I had to churn out in order to keep a roof over my head while I wrote the important, serious, non-genre literary novels. Never been the case, and I can’t imagine that I’d have lied about this sort of thing, least of all as some sort of joke. The SF novels have always mattered deeply to me – the Culture series in particular – and while it might not be what people want to hear (academics especially), the mainstream subsidised the SF, not the other way round. And… rant over.
Banks is dying of cancer, and it's an awful shame.
20 May Update from Iain (via IO9) 
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rav_freepatterntest_feed
NOTICE: Testers are subject to the group rules, policies posted in the “Announcements” thread, and should read the FAQ page. Agreeing to test constitutes acceptance of these rules and policies.
Introductory Note(s): This is a pattern I created that has not been published yet and I need it tested for errors and size issues. Please use required yarn, or if you want to use different yarn in a similar weight, just let me know. Comes in size Newborn, 0-3 months, 3-6 months, and 6-12 months.
Other craft(s) required, if any: No
Target Number of Testers: 6 (two per size)
Approximate Hours to Complete: 2-4
Deadline: June 5, 2013
Is the deadline flexible? Yes
Tools: US size crochet hooks size H/8/5.00MM and J/10/6.00MM
Materials: 210-260 yards Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice yarn
Difficulty: Intermediate; Stitches used - Fsc, BLO, sl st, sc, hdc, dc, htr, tr, picot
Pattern format(s): .pdf
Pattern Style: abbreviated
Inexperienced testers accepted? Yes
Inexperienced crafters accepted? No
Digital photo of FO required? Yes
Testing needs: Post in forum any corrections, comments, suggestions, as well as fit for specific sizes (so please try it on a baby in the age range that you chose and let me know if the sizing is correct). Please post a photo of finished project on forum to confirm completion of test.
Testers:
Designer’s Notes:
Corrections:
katecyberghostface posting in scans_daily
akodo_rokku in scans_daily - Young Avengers #5inkstone - the first post after I come back from vacation and it's about this. god, why.kaberett - -kaberett - help help i don't know how to worldboingboing_feed - HOWTO move an immensely delicate 50'-wide circular electromagnetsuch_heights - (no subject)daringfireball_feed - Tim Bray on Glassoursin - Weds reading roundupboingboing_feed - Promotional DVDs smell like pizza when playedperletwo in scans_daily - Teen Titans #20 - "Only Begotten" -daringfireball_feed - Windows vs. iPad: Compare Tabletsdaringfireball_feed - ‘Don’t Say GIF’cyberghostface in scans_daily - Superior Spider-Man #10recessional - I know this has been said before. I just have to say it again.a_softer_world_feed - A Softer Worldboingboing_feed - Three female artists who shaped the American Pin-Upboingboing_feed - Iain Banks doesn't write sf for the moneyrav_freepatterntest_feed - OPEN - CRCT: Ruffled Petti Romperkate - Traveling tips: An FYI about room service in the U.S.cyberghostface in scans_daily - "The Thousand"