I wanted to share this little ditty with my fellow Brainiacs. Science blog Cognitive Daily has a great post with video of a magic paper dragon. A nifty little optical illusion. Check it out:

The dragon is a product of ThinkFun (formerly Binary Arts), which has a variety of toys and optical illusions.

A few years ago I fell into writing for the internet. Not just blogs. I sometimes do freelance work for a company that uses the internet to create interactive fictions. These are elaborate serials that tell their stories over weeks, using web sites and emails, phone calls, video clips, even payphones. So when I read a Newsweek story about a website called MarryOurDaughter, I admit, my first thought was, This is brilliant.

MarryOurDaughter (the website is intermittently down, perhaps more overwhelmed than even the usual slashdot) is ostensibly a site where people who wish their daughters to marry can post a photo, a profile, and a price.

Ashley R. Age 15, Location: Midwest, Bride Price: $37,500

Ashlee is into sports, clothes, jewelry and current pop music. She is a typical teenage girl except that she is impatient to get on with her life, which she sees as having a husband and raising kids. She tells us none of the boys her own age are interesting to her because they “are still little kids” and she is looking for an adult to start a life with. Read More »