Real-Life Nerds: Protecting Public Data from Big Brother

Zoë Schlanger spent the day with a group of nerds who gathered at the University of Pennsylvania's Van Pelt Library on the Saturday before President Trump's inauguration day. Archivists, hackers, scientists, programmers, and librarians scraped data from government databases run by the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other government sites threatened with deletion, alteration, or removal from the public domain by the incoming administration.

Some members of the group sent spiders to crawl web pages and send the contents to the Internet Archive (archive.org). Others worked through data sets looking for ways to download the information without breaking it and preserve it at DataRefuge.org. Librarians established a chain of provenance to ensure the data could be trusted if future researchers needed to rely upon it.

By the end of the day, they had everything from data on Ice core samples, coastal ocean current velocities, EPA air quality sensor data, the Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility data, the Department of Transportation’s Hazmat accidents database, and EPA rules violations.

Was this a political action? A Quixotic task? Hacktivist preservation of vital data? Perhaps it was all of these things, and perhaps it was unnecessary. But considering the evidence--the Trump administration’s EPA transition team has admitted their intent to remove climate data from the agency’s website, incoming EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has sued the EPA multiple times to repeal air pollution regulations, and all White House website mentions of climate change were scrubbed at noon on the day Trump took office--perhaps it was a day well spent.

Read more about this diverse team of data preservationists in Zoë Schlanger's Wired article "Rogue Scientists Race to Save Climate Data from Trump"

Nerd Q&A: Why Are Smart People So Quiet?

I've heard the phrase "still waters run deep" too many times to count, so I think most people (and I include myself in that group) consider intelligence and silence directly connected.

Before I go on, I need to get the obligatory disclaimer out of the way: not all smart people are quiet.

But this is still a fair question that has a lot going on behind it.

Nerdy and Geeky Gifts Guide - Winter 2016 Edition

Whether you’re into Christmas, Hanukkah, Hogswatch or some other holiday, December is a big month for gift giving, and you need to do right by your nerdy friends. Sure, you could spring for a Loot Crate subscription, copies of Pokémon Sun and Moon, or an NES Classic (if you can find one), but those are the gifts you’ll find on any lame “Top 7 Geek Gifts” list thrown together by a news outlet with nary a nerd or geek on their staff.

You’re here because you want to show that you’ve dug deeper than Buzzfeed and the Toronto Star. You're here because you want to show you care!

So, here it is. The extra thoughtful Nerdy and Geeky Gifts Guide for 2016. Winter Edition!

Nerd Q&A: Arcades of the Future

Chris Ainsworth - TRON

What will arcades look like in the future?

This is a really cool question.

Judging by the fact that stand-alone arcades are nearly extinct--apart from a few high profile places that manage to stay alive to host tournament play, or are run by collectors with deep enough pockets to operate at a loss--I don’t think arcades will ever be as prominent as they were pre-1990s. So I imagine there will be some arcades that cater to nostalgic game players and tournament players, there will be digital gambling, and there will be arcades connected to establishments that offer additional services like cart racing and children’s entertainment.

What does this mean for the types of games in arcades? I think you’ll see arcades specialize, much like they already have, into a few groups: nostalgia, cutting edge adult, gambling, and heavy-duty child entertainment.

Types of arcades likely to survive into the future:

Build Your Own Death Star Christmas Tree Topper

Craineum's Death Star Super Laser

Do you wish you could have the awesome Hallmark Death Star topping your Christmas tree, but don't want to pay the 200% markup that eBay price gougers are charging?

Here's your chance to show the world how nerds handle scalpers!

Just head on over to Instructables where Craineum gives you step by step instructions to build your own Death Star.

Tree topper. Not--you know--a real Death Star.

Hoist your middle finger at Hallmark because Craineum's design not only lights up and plays sounds, but it includes a fiber optic super laser, motion sensor triggered sound effects, and it plays more than two pieces of music. If you're creative, you can make it do even more.