geekosystem

If you're a student between the ages of 13 and 18 with an interest in science, then grab your lab coat and get to work. Google is taking submissions for their third annual Google Science Fair as of today. They've partnered up with CERN, LEGO, National Geographic, and Scientific American to offer some truly amazing prizes that include scholarships, an expedition to the Galapagos, and a week shadowing a particle physicist at Fermilab.

Hey, remember that bit in Portal 2 where evil computer and show-stealer GLaDOS gets turned into a potato-powered science fair project? Well, now you can relieve the experience of running around while being berated by an inert tuber with a blinking light stuck to it with the PotatOS from ThinkGeek. Happy days are here again!

In Austin? Want an 8' tall reggae banana? (Craigs) Biologists grow replacement sphincters in mice (Science Fair USA Today) Why Chrome needs Firefox (Slashdot) Chinese authorities shutter 22 Apple stores (Reuters) Airbags for cellphones (Engadget) Geektastic license plates (Dorkly) Apple deleted a galaxy in Lion's default desktop wallpaper (Boing Boing) (title pic via reddit)

 

Gawker claims to have infiltrated Anonymous' uppermost echelons (Gawker) Netflix announces House of Cards buy (Netflix Blog) Rebecca Black unplugged (TDW) What causes New Mexico's summer shark swarms? (io9) ICANN authorizes .xxx domains (xbiz) Get psyched for tomorrow's Supermoon (TMS) Science fair photos, 1942-2011 (MeFi) (title pic via DPaF)

Google holding mega-science fair (GeekDad) Microsoft gunning for Apple's App Store trademark (Ars) Six fad films that missed the boat (Flavorwire) $50 genome coming by 2014? (John Hawks) Calvin & Hobbes/Fight Club theory broken down in video form (GorillaMask) Jay Rosen breaks down the different types of Tweet (435digital) Confessions of a Disney World cast member (Boing Boing) (title pic via Reddit)

Our friends at Styleite tip us off to the alarming redesign underway at UrbanOutfitters.com, now crowned with the logo you see up top. Compare to classic Microsoft Word text-styling feature Microsoft WordArt, friend to children making science fair projects everywhere. Looks like style #3 and style #8 got together and decided to call it a day. (UrbanOutfitters.com via Styleite)

The year was 1991. Metallica's Black Album had just been released, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was dominating the box office, and the children's TV network Nickelodeon aired the first episodes of three animated series -- Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, and Doug -- collectively called "Nicktoons." Rugrats proved to be quite successful. The adventures of the show's inexplicably loquacious infants spanned nine seasons, launched two spinoffs and three feature films. Likewise, Ren and Stimpy's often crude and outlandish toilet humor helped cement its status as a cult classic for adults and children alike. But the third show, Doug, didn't manage to make quite as big a mark on the hallowed halls of animation history.