A collection of the random cool-in-my-opinion stuff I’ve been accumulating lately:

~A super-cool girl doing science and making things! (Also, check out this nifty site for kits to make things yourself!)

~Want to read more about YA and MG science fiction? Then check out the Intergalactic Academy! It’s a new site but they’ve already posted some great reviews and other stuff. I am always thrilled to see scifi getting more attention, so I am very excited to see a site like this out there!

~I’ve been doing some poking around on the subject of human interaction with technology as I brainstorm a new book idea, and I’ve found a couple of really fascinating podcasts on the topic.

First, from RadioLab (and if you haven’t checked out their other shows, do — they find some amazing stuff to talk about!): Talking to Machines. Learn about chatbots that fool people into thinking they are human. And chatbots that people know are not human, but still spill their deepest secrets too. And hear about an experiment with Barbi, Furbee, and Gerbi.

And then, from Being: Alive Enough, which I found so fascinating I had to check out the book by the author interviewed in the show: Alone Together by Sherry Turkle. This explored not just human-robot interactions, but how we use social media, etc.

~Lastly, here’s a cool photo of the day: The Milky Way over the Himalayas!

(Found via Bad Astronomy)