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) #

Rock Paper Shotgun on the Spore anti-DRM activism on Amazon — for better or worse, it's an effective protest; my aunt bought a copy as a gift, but is returning it today because of DRM fears #

John McCain gets BarackRoll'd — or: what happens when you speak in front of alternating blue and green screens (via) #

Craigslist Missed Connections, Visualized — also, maps by hair color, age, and by exact location; from the very talented Dorothy of Cat & Girl (via) #

Bloons Tower Defense 3 — Friday afternoon Flash fun (via) #

Viddler's 15 Seconds, short videos twittered — records from your webcam, then tweets the link and note #

Bre Pettis's pilot on history hacking coming to History Channel on September 26 — set your DVR, he hacks historical inventions using stuff in his closet #

Microsoft debuts new Vista ad with Gates and Seinfeld — aside from Bill's mugshot, a rambling and unfunny ad (via) #

Jason Scott on Phil Lapsley's upcoming book on the history of phone phreaking — wonderful goodies within, including the YIPL/TAP FBI files and readable guides to filing FOIAs and reading FBI files #

Metallica thrilled new album leaked online a week early — "happy days" #

PDF Format's 8-bit cover of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" — see also: Julia Nunes' uke cover, and even more (via) #

John McCain and Tina Fey's LIFE cover photo from September 2004 — yes, it's totally real #

Tomorrow Museum on Elitism in the 2008 Elections — I've been reading way too much about the elections, but this resonated with me #

Unplug Your Friends, Meetup.com's viral video about "screen addiction" — beautifully made #

Amazon's Mechanical Turk used for fraudulent activity — I've noticed the search engine spam myself #

The American People — time to revisit Greg's project, extracting mentions of the cliched phrase from the news #

The Reemvoweler — came in handy trying to read the modified comments in this Boing Boing thread #

New Yorker's candid profile of Alec Baldwin — Kottke left off an underrated favorite of mine, Prelude to a Kiss #

"about:internets" Easter egg in Google Chrome — don't clog the tubes! (via) #

Wired documenting the development of a feature article in real-time — emails, pitches, assignment, design, editing, and production for a Charlie Kaufman profile in November's issue (via) #

Aether, thoughtful art game from Gish artist — solve each planet's unique puzzle (via) #

Picasa adds facial recognition for tagging photos — watch the demo for an example #

Google leaks details on Google Chrome, new open-source browser — with a comic book drawn by Scott McCloud #

Adam Savage's "Obsession with the Dodo Bird" from the Last HOPE — great talk about geek obsession and DIY; he built a dodo and a Maltese Falcon! (via) #

GameSetWatch's roundup of NVScene's demoscene contest — second the recommendation on ASD's Midnight Run; here's the video cap of the real-time demo #

Bush covers REM's "The End of the World As We Know It" — don't know how I missed this mashup from Rx, creator of the Sunday Bloody Sunday remix #

Koyaanisqatsi, 1982 film about urban life, technology, and nature — full-length in 420p; the spliced-in Hulu ads break the mood a bit, but worth watching (via) #

First public release of Gazelle, open-source software for BitTorrent communities — brave move, opening up what.cd to potential attacks #

McCain's prickly TIME interview — I'd recommend listening to the MP3, which is different from the transcript, and in some ways much more painful #

WolfenFlickr 3D, mashing up Wolfenstein with Flickr's Javascript API — browse your photos in 3D, hit ctrl-click to view photos in high-res; more on the project (via) #

John McCain's POW Bros. — like Mario, he should only be able to use it three times before it disappears #

Net mob searches for iPhone girl's identity — the "human flesh search engine" tracked her down to the fifth floor of a FoxConn building in Shenzhen #

Roz Savage, on 95th day of solo trans-Pacific row, approaches Hawaii — she's been blogging and podcasting the whole trip #

Bubble flow chart of things to say during sex — "Thanks... for that." (via) #

Larry Lessig on McCain's technology policy — he argues McCain's taking a strong stance against Internet growth in the US #

The inspiration behind Guns n' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" — great origin story (via) #

Introducing the Chinese to fortune cookies — from the full article, "they always think it's contamination of some sort" (via) #

iPhone password useless; allows full access to contacts, email, and web — not mentioned: you can dial any number with the "Emergency Call" button #

YouTube on letting copyright holders make money from infringing videos — they're automatically detecting cam video; only 10% of detected videos are blocked by the rights-holder #

Scott Campbell's 8-bit Showdowns — see also: great showdowns from the movies, and its sequel (via) #