Floating crystals and glowing lights are a match made in heaven. This project combines a wide variety of skills and tools into one lovely project. Make a gorgeous hanging lamp with sparkly beads, glowing crystals, live edge wood and of course, lots of NeoPixels.
My chandelier is unique, and designed to show my personal style. Since you, dear reader, have your very own unique style, this tutorial will focus on giving you the tools to design and create your own one-of-a-kind bespoke hanging lamp. This tutorial will provide source files and ideas, and give guidance on how the electronics fit together.
The Northern lights could be visible across 15 U.S. States this weekend. Active geomagnetic conditions may push auroras farther south than usual, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Space shares the details.
Earth is currently being buffeted by high-speed solar wind, which is putting pressure on our planet’s magnetic field and fueling the storm — excellent news for anyone hoping to catch a glimpse of the northern lights.
While space weather forecasters are currently predicting minor G1 geomagnetic storm conditions over the next few days, things can change quickly. Just days ago, a surprise G3 storm on May 28 triggered auroras in 17 U.S. States and even as far south as Italy. That G3 storm had originally been forecast to only reach G1 levels.
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This week showcased a new legal playbook in America: skirt your tax obligations by millions of dollars to fund a lavish lifestyle, plead guilty and, instead of going to prison, have your mom raise money for the president to get pardoned.
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Donald Trump insisted that Emil Bove, his newest judicial nominee, is “respected by everyone.” All things considered, “everyone” was the wrong choice of words.
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Tired of tangled cables? This 3D printable modular drawer system is designed to bring order to your chaos – with style!
Each drawer unit measures 130 x 130 x 236 mm and is designed with Dovetail-style connectors so you can seamlessly snap together as many modules as you need. The drawers slide out completely, but thanks to the built-in stop block, they won’t fall out unless you want them to.
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
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The Kremlin on Monday pushed back at President Donald Trump’s comments that dubbed his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, "crazy," mulling whether the American leader was suffering from "emotional overload."
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If you live anywhere near New York City, you may well have journeyed to the New York Botanical Garden for their Holiday Train Show. As much of a New York Christmas tradition as the tree at Rockefeller Center and the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center, the Holiday Train Show features over 25 model trains chugging along a half-mile of track. The trains roll past more than 200 scaled models of New York landmarks, including the Brooklyn Bridge and Yankee Stadium. Speaking from experience, we can tell you that the trip to the Bronx for the train show is well worth it.
Benn Jordan would likely agree. He’s made a short video on sound generators and synthesizers from the 1960s that “delivered audio signals on the line used to propel electric trains.” In other words, the tools allow model train enthusiasts to make their model trains sound like real-life trains. Jordan repurposes these gadgets to turn toy trains into full on synthesized music generators. Here’s more from Benn Jordan!
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Where do #APAHM live in NYC? The answer is everywhere! There are dozens of countries that make up this diverse group and they live in every neighborhood across NYC. This post from NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shows where a few groups are concentrated.
May is #AANHPIHeritageMonth. Though often described as a single group, Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) in NYC represent more than 48 unique countries. These maps show the largest API ancestry groups in NYC.
Map of NYC showing pockets for various countries, compiled from video on NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Facebook page
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You’re George Lucas. Not George Lucas now, after he amassed an entertainment empire and then sold his entertainment empire to another entertainment empire. You’re George Lucas of the 1970s, shooting a movie that nobody understands, dealing with sandstorms in Tunisia, stressed beyond all measure — and you run out of Jawas. You just don’t have enough small humans to wear a hood and look through glowy eyes and search for droids to scavenge. What do you do? You ask your producer, Gary Kurtz, to suit up his kids. And you can do the same, with this recently updated learn guide from Maker master Becky Stern. Here’s more from the Adafruit Learninig System:
Create glowing eyes for your costume! This project is ideal for any character with glowing eyes, like the Black Mage from Final Fantasy, Jawa from Star Wars, or Orko from He-Man. Two NeoPixel Jewels can appear any color or animating pattern, and they are driven by a GEMMA microcontroller powered by a 500mAh lipoly battery in a 3D printed pocket.
This guide was written for the ‘original’ Gemma board, but can be done with either the original or M0 Gemma. We recommend the Gemma M0 as it is easier to use and is more compatible with modern computers!
Make your own 3D printed Santari Khri Lightsaberusing 3D-mon’s really cool design as shared on Thingiverse.
This is a digital 3D model of a lightsaber from Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. The design faithfully replicates the look and feel of the lightsabers in the game. The coolest part? It’s part of a complete collection of all 19 lightsabers from the game, and each part is separate and fully interchangeable.
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Welcome, intrepid creators and enthusiasts of the extraordinary, to this illuminating tutorial on crafting your very own LED top hat. In this journey, we shall delve into the harmonious blend of Victorian elegance and modern marvels, weaving together the vibrant glow of Progress with the timeless charm of Style.
Imagine, furthermore, a hat that not only dazzles with light but also dances to the rhythm of sound and responds to your commands through the marvel of WiFi control. Prepare to embark on a splendid voyage into the heart of innovation, where tradition meets the future in a dance of light and shadow. Check out the guide from Erin St. Blaine!
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
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A straight forward practical build from 406JEM using HUZZAH for monitoring/watering a flower garden. Via Instructables:
This is just some instruction for a little water controller flow controller I built from a Huzzah to monitor the moisture content in my flowerbed and water accordingly. The code is pretty basic and the physical build is fairly minimal using the Adafruit Huzzah and a HD-38 Soil Moisture Sensor module to keep track of things and make decision and to make things happen I made use of a relay, 12 volt battery and a motorized ball valve. I wanted to power the thing from one source so I just used the 12v battery and a 5v stepdown converter. I also put the built circuit into a decent waterproof enclosure ’cause water…
Below is a set of instructions containing code for the Arduino ide, instructions to flash the build, a component list and the build itself.
Build it, place it in a location you’d like to log, and then monitor it from anywhere in the world using our Internet-of-Things platform – Adafruit IO.
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The Python for Microcontrollers Newsletter is the place for the latest news involving Python on hardware (microcontrollers AND single board computers like Raspberry Pi).
This ad-free, spam-free weekly email is filled with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Python information (and more) that you may have missed, all in one place!
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YouTuber Nico Rahardian Tangara used a Pi Zero 2W and a Camera Module to bring an old Canon 514XL-S camera back to life. Now instead of capturing memories with a phone, Nico can bust out this old camera with new tech.
Since the original camera was non-functional, Nico had a clean slate. He gutted most of the internals but kept the parts that give the camera its soul. He kept the lens, the trigger, and those tactile old-school switches. Inside, he installed a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W and the latest Camera Module 3. That combo brings a surprising amount of punch, letting this 1970s-era body deliver crisp digital video, all while keeping the shooting experience charmingly lo-fi.
Of course, Nico shared some result of his Super 8 mod, and it’s wonderfully nostalgic and warm. There’s something magical about using a camera that looks decades old but functions like a modern rig. Nico’s mod bridges the analog-digital gap in a way that’s not just functional, but poetic.
Take a look at Nico’s video below, and make sure to follow him on his website and YouTube for more of his work and modifications.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
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Sen. Jean Shaheen, D-N.H., sent a letter urging the administration to require that special government employees, like Elon Musk, at the Department of Government Efficiency sign a certification that says they agree not to use any governmental data for personal gain.
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Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
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Charlie Sykes says that despite Musk's announcement that he will do 'a lot less' political spending, the billionaire's influence in Washington remains.
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Biden insiders may have covered up his declining health, but Americans who care about democracy face the fight of their lives with Trump in the White House.
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Maya Wiley says Trump is creating a culture of fear by going after powerful figures like James Comey, hoping the rest of the country will fall in line.
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Trump's Secret Service has launched an investigation into former FBI director James Comey, following a social media post that by measures of the law is protected free speech.
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MSNBC Medical Contributor and Former Obama White House Policy Director Doctor, Kavita Patel, talks with our panel about former President Biden’s “aggressive” form of prostate cancer.
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Any list of the greatest movies ever made worldwide would feature far more movies from Japan than any other country. That is a provocative, unfounded statement totally dependent on personal taste. But it’s also a true fact, scientifically. Not really. Still, for a country that small, Japan has a disproportionate number of filmmakers considered masters. But how about science fiction books? There’s plenty of manga and anime and yes, science fiction films, but where does the archipelago nation sit when it comes to science fiction novels? Here’s more from the Science Fiction Writers of America:
Hyakuoku no hiru to senoku no yoru (Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights) by Ryu Mitsuse (1967)
An epic, cosmic adventure in the manner of Arthur C. Clarke, covering the evolution of humanity, the lives of Plato, Christ, and the Buddha, a future technodystopia, and the very heat death of the universe itself. For pure “sensawunda,” it gets no better. Haikasoru will be releasing this book in its first English translation in November 2011. Longtime US SF readers may remember Ryu Mitsuse’s “The Sunset, 2217 A.D.,” which appeared in Frederik Pohl’s Best Science Fiction for 1972.
The shortlist for the annual Arthur C. Clarke Award has been announced. The award celebrates the best science fiction novel published in the UK. Locus shares the list and ceremony details.
The winner will be announced on June 25, 2025 and receives an engraved bookend and £2,025 in prize money. The 2025 judges are Dolly Garland and Gene Rowe for the British Science Fiction Association, Nic Clarke and John Coxon for the Science Fiction Foundation, and Glyn Morgan for the SCI-FI-LONDON film festival. Andrew M. Butler represented the Clarke Award directors as non-voting Chair of the Judges.
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President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The cancer has metastasized to the bone, according to the former president's personal office.
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"Make no mistake. This is an intentional act of terrorism." Akil Davis, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, provided an update during a press conference on the ongoing investigation into the Palm Springs car explosion that left one person dead and five others injured.
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At least one person is dead after a car exploded in Palm Springs, California, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said. The identity and involvement of the deceased person in the explosion is not yet clear.
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petersem shares how to make your own digital poster. The app can be used for Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, and Readarr. Check out the details on GitHub.
*Displays movies, shows, music poster for what is currently playing.
*Displays random (on-demand) titles from multiple Plex libraries.
*Displays custom pictures, background art, and themes
*Shows coming soon titles from Sonarr (or Season premieres).
*Shows coming soon titles from Radarr.
*Shows coming soon books from Readarr.
*Optionally plays TV and Movies themes, if available
*A playing progress bar (green for direct play and red for transcoding)
*Various metadata displayed, such as run time, content rating, studio, etc.
*Move the mouse cursor to the bottom footer of the page to hide it
*Background artwork option for improved landscape view (when available)
*Automatically scales for most display sizes and orientation.
*’Sleep timer’ disables the display during set hours.
*Trivia Quiz (multiple selectable topics)
*Support LED Matrix displays running Awtrix software
*Display custom web pages as slides (if web page compatible) – EXPERIMENTAL!
*Rotate display -90° (for running on display devices, like Firesticks, which do not support portait rotation)
*Post API (at ‘/api/sleep’) to toggle sleep mode. (Pass in header ‘psw: your *Posterr password’)
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Katwala and Professor Masahiko Inami of the University of Tokyo discuss the potential future of wearable robotics, via WIRED
Do you ever feel like you could use an extra hand (or 4?). Advancements in wearable robotics may make that a reality. One wearable arm-suit being developed by the University of Tokyo gives major Doc Ock vibes. The device is actually inspired by puppetry and is controlled by a mini version of the arms.
WIRED Editor Amit Katwala traveled far and wide for a hands-on look at the future of robotic artificial limbs. Watch as he puts a wearable set of arms inspired by traditional Japanese puppetry through the paces with Dr. Masahiko Inami University at the of Tokyo. Can Amit intuitively manipulate his newly added arms to pick up objects or write with a marker? Then, we visit with Dani Clode and Tamar Makin at the University of Cambridge to get a grip on the technology behind a 3D-printed sixth digit designed to give you two working thumbs one one hand. Will these robotic augmentations be the path to superhuman performance?
Dani Clode Design / www.daniclodedesign.com / instagram: @dani_clode
The Plasticity Lab / www.plasticity-lab.com / @plasticity-lab.bsky.social
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, part of Cambridge University: Instagram:@mrccbu / @cambridgeuniversity
You can build one of these trainable robotic arms because Adafruit sells the crucial analog feedback servos that make this technology possible.
3D printing allows anyone to make robotic parts. We will be printing an arm and gripper for this project, but you could swap out the servos in an existing robotic arm also.
We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on the Blog!
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Born May 19, 1925, Malcolm X would have been 100 years old this year! Celebrations, discussions and more are happening across the country in his memory. Check out the events below and look for some in your area.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order that claims to force Big Medicine to lower prescription drug prices paid by Americans to the prices paid by other countries.
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A typical Japan workday at a KIRAKUYA, a local Japanese second-hand hardware tool store tucked away in the quiet neighborhood of Ichikawa, Chiba.
Since 1948, this low-key shop has been a trusted go-to for local construction workers and Do-it-Yourself enthusiasts alike as it’s filled from floor to ceiling with every tool imaginable.
The video starts the morning with Imazono san opening the store and sharing his daily work activities at the hardware store. As part of his morning routine, he cleans up around the shop. In Japan, it’s common practice for businesses to keep the street in front of their store neat and tidy, even if it’s a public road. It’s about more than just cleanliness; it reflects a deep-rooted cultural value of community responsibility and pride in one’s surroundings.
See the video below and the store website is here.
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In some of his first public remarks since being elevated to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV denounced the jailing of journalists and the use of the media to pit people against one another.
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Looks like a 90 day “break” … “The US and China agreed to drastically roll back tariffs on each other’s goods for an initial 90 days, de-escalating a punishing trade war and buoying global markets. By May 14, the US will temporarily lower its overall tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, while China will cut its levies on American imports from 125% to 10%.“ Stay tuned on social, here, and our weekly segment tariff talk, things are changing fast! NYTimes & CNN.
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The correct answer to the question “What is the funniest science fiction book?” is Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. But what is the second funniest science fiction book? Or the third? Are there any other funny science fiction books? The answer is yes. And here are a bunch, from Epic Reads:
Two words: space pirates. As in, the 17-year-old protagonist, Ana, was raised by them. She also has a best friend who’s an android called D09. And don’t forget about Jax, a pilot with the driest wit in the galaxy. This [Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston] has it all. Really.
Seventeen-year-old Ana is a scoundrel by nurture and an outlaw by nature. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09—one of the last remaining illegal Metals—has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him.
Hamas said it will release dual U.S. and Israeli citizen, Edan Alexander, in an agreement with the U.S. Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, confirmed the agreement to NBC News.
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If you know us, you know we luuuuuv I2C as a near-universal interface for sensors, GPIO expanders, OLEDs, and other various devices under our Stemma QT family. But we still bump into some UART devices here and there—GNSS/GPS units, MP3 playback chips, fingerprint sensors, LIDARs, and more.
These can be annoying if you only have one UART port-or none at all! So we put together this SC16IS74x breakout. It can use either the SC16IS740 or SC16IS741 chips-both essentially the same for our purpose: providing a bidirectional UART with flow control. Address jumpers on the back allow you to select up to four devices on one I2C bus—and there’s even native Linux kernel drivers.
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Congresswoman LaMonica McIver and Congressman Robert Menendez tell MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin, Catherine Rampell and Antonia Hylton what they saw outside of the New Jersey ICE detention center where Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested.
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Mexico has sued Google for adopting the name “Gulf of America” for users of Google Maps in the United States, President Claudia Sheinbaum said, making good on an earlier threat to take legal action against the tech company over the name change.
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More than any decision he authored, Souter’s legacy was how he surprised legal conservatives, galvanizing a movement to prevent the nomination of federal jurists like him.
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A memory card storage case, capable of holding eighteen memory cards (TF cards); featuring a secure locking mechanism, the lid fits snugly after closing, requiring slight pressure to open; excellent sealing
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
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With the FIFA World Cup drawing closer, Trump officials on Tuesday touted the United States’ role as a host country — but not without issuing warnings to visitors in line with the administration’s anti-immigration agenda.
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The Python for Microcontrollers Newsletter is the place for the latest news involving Python on hardware (microcontrollers AND single board computers like Raspberry Pi).
This ad-free, spam-free weekly email is filled with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Python information (and more) that you may have missed, all in one place!
You get a summary of all the software, events, projects, and the latest hardware worldwide once a week, no ads! You can cancel anytime.
Here is a handy measurement data display to help you see in real time the load flowing into your devices as they charge via USB-C. You’ll have immediate readings of voltages, amps, and watts along with their peaks.
This Tootsie Roll-sized power meter has a small OLED display (18mm x 10mm) that shows off voltage, watts, amps, and mAh and instantly reads the numbers for testing devices, such as chargers, cables, and devicess. It comes packed with a few nice extras, such as showing the ambient temperature (press the button on the back) and calculating the cumulative Watt-hours and milliAmp-hours over a running time. Basically, it’s an all-in-one power management solution that doesn’t require any calculation or data logging on your part.
We use it to help analyze our USB PD projects, and also to do rough power measurements on circuits when we don’t want to haul out our power supply – or to do it on the go!
With the successful launch of the TLV320DAC3100, we can do two things: keep jamming on Fruit Jam, and whip up a new breakout for its sister chip, the TLV320AIC3100 .
This one features stereo microphone inputs instead of two mix-in analog inputs and a DOUT pin. Technically, it has three mic inputs—one is differential/route-able, and we’re connecting that to the headphone jack since most headsets have an electret mic these days.
This chip is a really nice all-in-one I²S codec: perfect when you want stereo inputs, stereo headphone out, and mono speaker out. Honestly, we’re exploring whether it could be a viable replacement for the now-super-discontinued WM8960, especially since it can be configured not to require an external MCLK.
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Do you remember the first time you understood the nature of a Venus flytrap? The very first time you heard that there lives, on this planet, a plant that with teeth and a mouth that eats animals. When you’re a kid, plants are tall and magestic like redwood trees or yucchy like broccoli or benign like the grass you’re suppored to mow. Plants are not, in any way, supposed to have a mouth and teeth and be able to eat living creatures. When you’re a kid, the first time you see a Venus flytrap slowly close its glistening jaws on a squirming ant seems might have felt like an encounter with an alien creature. As it turns out, the botanical worls is rich soil for speculative fiction. Here’s a review of Plants in Science Fiction by Octavia Cade at Strange Horizons:
Let’s start with creepy plants (“Botanical Tentacles in the Chthulucene” by Shelley Saguaro), because creepy plants are awesome and because there’s never any getting away from bloody Lovecraft, it seems, so let’s get shot of him first. Saguaro points out that “Tentacles are most often attributes of animal species, from giant squids and octopuses to microscopic flagellates and ciliates” (p. 56). Transplanting this animal imagery onto plants, then, gives a monstrous hybrid of a creature, one neither fully plant or animal, a creature defined by its boundary-crossing nature. Looking closely at plant tentacles in the works of H. P. Lovecraft, John Wyndham, and John Boyd, Saguaro comments that these “(frightened) men” (p. 73) were looking to navigate a world that increasingly did not centre them. While plant tentacles can represent the threat of a hybrid other, however—and it’s no coincidence that these creatures are often sourced from regions that white men such as the authors were trying to colonise—they can also be interpreted as a “liberating multi-species” flowering that encourages more diverse relationships and ways of living.
This year's Met Gala theme features Black dandyism, the subversive and sharp looks of Black menswear that has its roots in the Atlantic diaspora. Historian Shelby Ivey Christie joins Rev. Al Sharpton to discuss how the style reclaimed and empowered Black fashion — and why this theme feels so necessary amid Trump's attacks on Black institutions.
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Back in December, engineers at Northwestern University successfully demonstrated quantum teleportation over a fiber optic cable already carrying Internet traffic. Check out the study published in Optica.
Only limited by the speed of light, quantum teleportation enables a new, ultra-fast, secure way to share information between distant network users, wherein direct transmission is not necessary. The process works by harnessing quantum entanglement, a technique in which two particles are linked, regardless of the distance between them. Instead of particles physically traveling to deliver information, entangled particles exchange information over great distances — without physically carrying it.
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NASA shares how astronomers used the Chandra X-ray Observatory and radio telescopes to explain a fracture in a huge cosmic “bone” in the Milky Way galaxy.
The bone appears to have been struck by a fast-moving, rapidly spinning neutron star, or pulsar. Neutron stars are the densest known stars and form from the collapse and explosion of massive stars. They often receive a powerful kick from these explosions, sending them away from the explosion’s location at high speeds.
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President Trump signed an executive order to halt federal funding for broadcasters NPR and PBS, accusing them of spreading “woke propaganda”. Meanwhile, former Vice President Harris gave her first major speech since the 2024 election. Former Communications Director for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Michael Hardaway, and former Press Secretary to former House Speaker John Boehner, Brendan Buck, join Alex Witt to break down these topics and more.
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The public domain is filled with celestial treasures, even in the most unexpected ways. boing boing shares how we always looked up.
“Flowers of the Sky” is a stunning collection of celestial art throughout the ages from the Public Domain Review. The artwork in this collection covers nearly a millennium of illustrations (chronologically) depicting comets, meteors, meteorites, and shooting stars. The earliest work in the collection is a shooting star, drawn in what looks to be pen and ink, from 1493. The latest is a surrealistic painting of space with a skull and large heads floating in the sky from 1910.
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President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act has faced intense preliminary litigation in courts around the country, leading to rulings such as the Supreme Court’s insistence that people potentially subject to the act must receive due process.
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. But we still bump into some 
.
