First synthetic cell created — subject of an embargoed Science story and cover of the new Economist #

Google releases BigQuery and Prediction API — I feel bad for Directed Edge #

Typekit and Google announce open-source collaboration — see Google's free font directory and the new Font API and WebFont Loader #

HTML 5 Zombo.com — view source for an explanation on how it was made #

CBS threatens 48 Hr. Magazine over trademark — they claim confusion with 48 Hours, the news show #

Google open-sources VP8 video codec — Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Flash will all support it #

Girl Talk's Feed the Animals sample visualizer — using my sample list, HTML5 audio, and iTunes web service #

Newzbin closes down — keep in mind, they only indexed metadata for Usenet binaries, not hosting files #

Alex Payne leaves Twitter for BankSimple — I love the idea, just signed up #

Ronnie James Dio, dead at 67 — watching this in his memory #

Why Peter Serafinowicz pirates movies, including his own — great essay from a tech-savvy artist #

Gink — not just another social networking site (via) #

SNL's Timecrowave, meals from the future — also: Great Day digital short #

4chan's moot raises $625k for stealth startup — "reimagine what an image board should be today using the current technologies available" #

50 Greatest Samples in Hip-Hop History — I could listen to these source cuts all day #

Drunk History of Frederick Douglass — with Will Ferrell, Don Cheadle and Zooey Deschanel #

Valve's Portal recruitment video — can't wait for Portal 2 this winter, with luck #

Shaun Inman's study of the Super Mario 3 camera behavior — and how he applied it to his new game #

Greyson Chance performs on the Ellen show — the star-maker machinery works fast these days #

NYT's chart of Facebook privacy settings — privacy policy's longer than the US Constitution; also, the evolution of Facebook privacy #

Panic loads Apple //e Grandaddy music video source using an iPad — feels like WALL-E connecting to EVE #

Ben Folds covers Elliot Smith's "Say Yes" — my favorite of the A.V. Undercover project so far #

Steam for Mac released — and Portal's free for Mac and PC until May 24th! #

Sixth-grader covers "Paparazzi" — move over, Bieber (via) #

Twitter follower hack discovered by Turkish heavy metal fan — "accept pwns" #

Samorost 2 added to the Humble Indie Bundle — pay what you like, get six amazing indie games for Mac, Windows and Linux, including Gish, Aquaria and World of Goo #

Conan O'Brien at Google — special appearance by Andy Richter #

Creepy Robots — "It's only a matter of time before one of these kills somebody." #

Tasman Richardson, "The Game" — more from the artist; I love his Atari series and I Stole the Soul of Rock n' Roll (via) #

View to Corrupt — related: temporary.cc and Nobodaddy (now offline) #

Get Out of There! — added to the Supercuts master list (via) #

Coney Island's last arcade burns in suspicious fire — older photos on Flickr; related: Last Summer at Coney Island documentary #

Non-Latin TLDs go live — Domainr now supports all three #

Disneyland tests talking Mickey Mouse — and testing the uncanny valley, along with it #

Hue Shift — brilliantly simple and frustrating game mechanic, reminds me of Flywrench (via) #

The Paywall — ITP thesis exploring alternative firewalls (via) #

Google Chrome's slow-motion speed tests — the making-of is as interesting as the finished product #

Star Wars Pregnancy Announcement  #

If Mario Was Designed in 2010 — related: Auntie Pixelante's dissection of level 1-1 #

Jason Scott researches the story of Computer Beach Party — a truly awful comedy from 1987; unofficial trailer and a clip (note the error at 3:00) #

Tim & Eric, Paul Rudd's Computer — "Computer, load up Celery Man." #

GameSetWatch on Pitch to Pixel, an album of jazz-inspired chiptunes — he talks about the inspiration for each track on his blog #

Fanedit.org's most famous fan edits of all-time — like Greasemonkey for movies, removing fan irritations like Rose in Titanic, Kirk in Star Trek Generations, and the plot of the Matrix sequels #

Sean Young's Super-8 footage on the set of David Lynch's Dune — fans made new edits of the film, pulling from the theatrical and extended releases #

Face.com opens free facial recognition APIs — try it in the sandbox (via) #

xkcd's Color Survey Results — most popular colors unique to women, "dusty teal" and "blush pink"; for men, "penis" and "gay" #

Joel Johnson interviews 48 Hour Magazine's all-star team — the theme will be announced on May 7, 3,400 people have already signed up #

Inc. Magazine's cover story on Tim O'Reilly — one of the most inspiring and thoughtful people I've ever met #

Keyboard Matt — the creators of Where the Hell Is Matt and Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat merge memes #

Sketch Processing — web-based IDE using Processing.js and Bespin (via) #