Crazy rumor of the day: Google to buy Valve Software? — update: Valve's Doug Lombardi said it's false (via) #

Artemis Fowl author asked by Douglas Adams's widow to write new Hitchhiker's novel — a Slashdot user imagines the results #

Atari Modern Classics — related: TIGSource's bootleg demakes contest #

Summary of Pew Internet survey of teen gaming habits — a staggering 99% of boys and 94% of girls, and half of teens surveyed played a game yesterday; read the full report #

Fifty People, One Question — what do you wish would happen by the end of today? #

Soulja Boy reviews Braid — that's a sentence I never thought I'd write (via) #

Cabel Sasser tracks down Sonseed's full album — the 1980s Christian ska band is very real #

Portal: Prelude trailer, fan-made Portal prequel — coming soon; eight months in development with a new storyline, NPCs, and longer than the original (via) #

Google Audio Indexing — a dedicated site for their YouTube transcription experiments, hopefully soon expanding beyond political videos (via) #

Wild Beasts' music video using the Droste effect — extensive recursion; see more on Flickr #

Gruber debunks excuses for Apple's removal of the Podcaster app from App Store — idiotic policy that should make every iPhone developer question their participation #

Pakimono, bizarre Mac game about streaking — run the naked Japanese guy through Copenhagen and jump in front of tourist's photos (via) #

Ninja Cat — and the inevitable remix #

Meme Breaks 1.0, famous Internet memes in turntable-friendly format — Peanut Butter Jelly Time is the new Amen break #

Everymoment Now, charting election news coverage — from the developer of Buzztracker (via) #

Hip-hop songs that sampled video games — they mention ytcracker's N.E.S. from 2005, available as a free download #

David Foster Wallace, dead at 46 — sigh #

Every Filter — Dorothy applies every Photoshop filter, in order, to a photograph #

Joshua Schachter's Mechanical Turk experiment with behavioral economics — where else can you get 2,100 people to answer a question for a total $30 in three hours? #

Redrawing the Obama/McCain tax plan chart to scale — the original chart doesn't visualize the extent of the disparity #

The Big Picture on the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games — NBC's waiting until October to air the coverage, but they're posting highlights daily online #

Adam Kimmel's Claremont HD, downhill skateboard speedrun — absolutely insane, just watched it for the second time; Sippey has the route #

PleaseDressMe, the t-shirt search engine — been playing around with Gary Vaynerchuk's new startup and it's great; also, Gary's broadcasting live on UStream #

The Mountain Goats and Kaki King's "Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is in Another Castle" — wistful song sung from the perspective of Toad #

Anil Dash on September 11, Seven Years Later  #

When Algorithms Attack — how Googlebot, the Chicago Tribune's CMS, and a careless Bloomberg analyst killed United Airlines' stock #

Dopplr open-sources their "find and invite" feature — Rails plugin for locating your friends on other social networks #

Bioshock creator Ken Levine talks about growing up nerdy in the '70s — finding his tribe, losing it in Hollywood, and finding again in game design (via) #

EepyBird's Sticky Note Experiment — from the Mentos/Diet Coke guys, soon to be seen everywhere (via) #

Seth MacFarlane's AdSense Cartoons Now Available — new videos weekly, subscribe on Burger King's YouTube channel #

Hands-on demo video of the Plastic Logic Reader — cool stuff, but someone needs to take lessons from Apple #

OiNK admin charged with "conspiracy to defraud" — his bail date was extended five times; related: Elite Torrents admin sentenced to 18 months in jail #

TIGSource's brilliant Bootleg Demakes game dev competition — the entries remade famous games for retro systems; my other favorites are parodies of GTA, Burn the Rope, American McGee's Alice, Silent Hill, Bioshock, Legend of Zelda, and Shadow of the Colossus #

Heroes in Guitarland, NES-style remake of Guitar Hero — download the game from TIGSource #

Super 3D Portals 6, remaking Portal for the Atari 2600 — and yes, it actually runs on 2600 emulators #

Why do people participate in Mechanical Turk? — he asked the Turker community, by creating a HIT paying ten cents per answer #

Road Trip: Southwest USA — Penn & Teller's Desert Bus remade as a 1980s text adventure #

Sasha Frere-Jones on the use of laptops in live music — Gregg Gillis covers his laptop with saran wrap and reconstructs his mix nightly (via) #

Being a List of Songs Related to the Switching-On of the LHC — and, just to be sure, no and nope (via) #

Freestyle Rap Battle, Translated — here's the original #

Simon Carless announces FingerGaming, new iPhone gaming blog — promising site from the same group that runs GameSetWatch, Indiegames, and Gamasutra #

Schulze & Webb commercially releasing the Availabot — and it's "almost ready"! (via) #

World Names Profiler, find people with your last name globally — also shows the name's roots, top cities, and most common first names (via) #

Little Hands, documentary short vocalizes the daily conversation of deaf children — mesmerizing to watch; I liked the kids caught "whispering" on camera at 2:55 #

Atmosphir, collaborative 3D platform designer — announced at TC50 today, still in private beta; watch the demo for more #

MoreCowbell.dj, add cowbell to any MP3 — built on the lovely Echonest API; this Paul Simon remix is perfect (via) #

FlowingData announces winners of the Personal Visualization Project — see also: Daytum and Mycrocosm #

Adam Savage inhales sulphur hexafluoride — I'd never heard of the gas; more demonstrations on YouTube #

Google Turns 20, speculative fiction by Philipp Lenssen — blog posts from a parallel future world #

Audio Puzzler, game that creates timestamped audio transcripts — like Luis von Ahn's Games with a Purpose (via) #