geek holidays

Tomorrow Is Dress Up Like Steve Jobs Day

September 8, 2011 by noemi

Here’s one for those of you (oh, that includes yours truly) who have this thing for weird holidays and those who think that everything Steve Jobs touches turns to gold. I don’t know, but there is something about celebrating silly and unofficial holidays. Some may find it ridiculous, but I think that a little ridiculousness in life is necessary every once in a while. [Read more…]

Have Your Book, and Eat It Too!

April 1, 2011 by noemi

Have you ever read a book that was so good that you wanted to actually eat it? Probably not, but if there are such things as edible underwear, why can’t we have edible books? I have no idea if that ever occurred to the founders of The International Edible Book Festival, but the event is held in various parts of the world – Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, United States of America, Romania, Russia, Singapore, and Sweden – on the first of April, or thereabouts.

Everyone may be busy thinking of April Fools’ jokes and hoaxes, but unbeknownst to many April 1 is also Edible Book Day. The idea was born to commemorate the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), who became really famous for his book . The festival is attributed to Judith A. Hoffberg and Béatrice Coron, who thought of holding an event where books that can be – literally – eaten are made, displayed, and of course, devoured.

Anyone can hold his own Edible Book Festival, as long as the following rules are followed: ((Books2eat))

The event must be held on April 1st (or close to that date)
All edible books must be “bookish” through the integration of text, literary inspiration or, quite simply, the form.
Organizations or individual participants must register with the festival’s organization (go to Registration) and see to it that the event is immortalized on the international festival website.

Check out these fun edible books that have been created in the past years.

If that isn’t enough to entice you to hold your own Edible Book Festival…

Why Pi Is Wrong

March 15, 2011 by noemi

I am going out on a limb here and throw a challenge to hardcore Pi lovers out there. It feels weird, to be honest, as I have made it a point to “celebrate” Pi Day ever since I heard about it. In fact, yesterday, I joined countless other people around the world in making a toast to 3.1415…

One day after International Pi Day, however, I discovered a video by Vi Hart, who is a self-proclaimed anti-Pi person. So why is Pi wrong? Allow Vi to explain it all to you – with a nice looking raspberry (I think) pie to boot.

Indeed, every math student who had to struggle with all those formulas might agree with Vi. I have to be honest and say that I love how Vi neatly illustrates how Pi makes things confusing. Still, I am not about to abandon the idea of celebrating Pi every year. If, however, you want an alternative to Pi, check out The Tau Manifesto.

Via Vi Hart