NPR:

Check out this video of Brooklyn-based songwriter-producer-artist extraordinaire Jonathan Dagan, better known as J.Viewz, playing a beautiful — and just plain awesome — cover of Massive Attack’s 1998 hit “Teardrop” on a variety of fruits and vegetables.

MIND. BLOWN. (thanks to Moeskido for the link!)

Ubuntu, the Linux implementation, will be available as a preview build for Nexus tablets starting this week.

The Lumio Illuminated Book:

The name Lumio is inspired by the idea of an illuminated book. The light turns on when you open the cover and turns off when it’s closed. Lumio illuminates when you need light and stows away compactly when unused, ideal for modern living.

I’m not a fan of Kickstarter projects but this is one I’d support if I had the money!

WiseGEEK:

Some foods have significantly more calories than others but what does the difference actually look like? When you consider that an entire plate of broccoli contains the same number of calories as a small spoonful of peanut butter, you might think twice the next time you decide what to eat.

As a guy on a diet, this is an interesting series of photographs.

Fortune has gathered the estimates of Apple analysts to figure out who’s on the mark and who’s completely in the woods.

The New York Times columnist at the center of a controversy over his review of Tesla’s Model S sedan responded following the Tesla CEO’s sharp-tongued blog post accusing him of malfeasance.

“Jane, you ignorant slut.”

Hard-hitting parliamentary coverage from Canada about concerns over a zombie invasion from America.

Tesla Motors’ CEO has gone on the offensive following a damning review of its new Model S sedan in the New York Times, and says the reviewer is lying.

CNET:

The magic of physics can turn the mundane into something marvelous. Mark French, a mechanical engineering professor at Purdue University, designed a supersonic air-powered ping-pong ball cannon.

A ping-pong ball reportedly blasts out of the special cannon at speeds equivalent to Mach 1.23 — nearly as fast as an F-16 fighter jet. As evidenced in the video below, the high-speed ball can put a clean hole through a plywood paddle, a VHS tape, and other objects.

How to make science cool – destroy stuff!

TreeHugger:

The recent death of John E Karlin of Bell Labs, the father of the push-button phone and other innovations, has sparked a lot of reminiscing about land line phones. According to the New York Times, Karlin was also “the most hated man in America” for killing the named exchanges (like Butterfield 8). However the story of how our phone numbers got to be the way they are is a much longer and more interesting one.

Fascinating story of the history of phone numbers.

Ten tips from Techhive on how to get the best battery life out of your mobile devices.

Co.Exist:

San Francisco’s Bay Bridge is the dollar store version of the famed Golden Gate Bridge. Before the Bay Bridge closes down this summer for final touches on the new, safer eastern span, the bridge is getting gussied up by artist Leo Villareal, who is individually programming 25,000 white LED lights to generate an endless series of sparkling patterns across the structure.

“Bay Lights”…will be the world’s largest light sculpture upon its completion in March.

The utilitarian Bay Bridge is the ugly stepchild of San Francisco bridges, always coming up short in comparison to the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. Hopefully this project isn’t just putting lipstick on a pig.

USAToday:

PepsiCo on Monday announced it is rolling out “a new way to do mornings” with Kickstart, a fruit-flavored Mountain Dew beverage.

“Our consumers told us they are looking for an alternative to traditional morning beverages – one that tastes great, includes real fruit juice and has just the right amount of kick to help them start their days,” said Greg Lyons, Mountain Dew’s vice president of marketing.

Kickstart has far less caffeine than energy drinks — 92 milligrams for a 16-ounce can. By comparison, a 16-ounce cup of Starbucks coffee has 330 milligrams of caffeine.

Does anyone really want a “morning beverage” that tastes like “Mountain Dew and fruit juice” that has even less caffeine than their coffee?

Gadling:

Chinese New Year is the one time of year when everyone returns to their home villages to see family members and it’s been called the largest annual human migration in the world.

Some Chinese who can’t get train or plane tickets find creative ways to get home for the holiday. China Daily reports that one adventurous soul took a scenic route home, using “48 buses, a ferry, a free ride and his own feet to carry him 660km to his home town.”

You think traveling around the US is hard at Thanksgiving? It’s a cakewalk compared to the insanity in China this time of year.

Laughing Squid:

In the Brazilian town of Santo Antônio da Platina, spiders known as Anelosimus eximius were shot by Erick Reis as they showered the sky. Marta Fischer, a local biologist, is quoted at G1 as saying (translated), “…They are usually in trees during the day and in the late afternoon and early evening construct a sort of sheet webs, each makes his and then they come together. The goal is to capture insects.” She also says this phenomenon is normal.

Normal? NORMAL!? There’s nothing “normal” about thousands of spiders just hanging around in the evening sky!