io9:

Like so many couples, the husband and wife in Timothy Reckart’s Oscar-nominated animated short Head Over Heels have drifted apart, not just emotionally, but gravitationally as well. They roam their flying house, one living on the ceiling, one living on the floor, each barely acknowledging the other’s existence. Then, one day, the husband tries to reconnect with his ceiling-dwelling wife, setting in motion a chain of events that radically alter their existence.

Have some tissues handy. Your eyes are going to leak.

Esquire:

Beer is made by way of science. So it makes sense that a beer’s vessel should be constructed through science, too. And it makes perfect sense that the top craft pale-ale seller in the nation Sierra Nevada, and cultish extreme-beer fiends Dogfish Head — two companies that have gone to great lengths to make science improve their brews — collaborated with German glassmakers Spiegelau to engineer a glass specifically for the drinking of IPAs.

Serious beer drinkers know the shape and style of glass you drink your beer from can affect the taste of the beer itself.

DudeFoods:

What if I were to make a grilled cheese sandwich that used this cheese in place of bread? A grilled cheese sandwich that was 100% cheese!

I like cheese more than any mouse but even I think this “sandwich” is a heart attack starter kit.

The University of Queensland:

The first Professor of Physics at the University of Queensland, Professor Thomas Parnell, began an experiment in 1927 to illustrate that everyday materials can exhibit quite surprising properties. The experiment demonstrates the fluidity and high viscosity of pitch, a derivative of tar once used for waterproofing boats. At room temperature pitch feels solid – even brittle – and can easily be shattered with a blow from a hammer. It’s quite amazing then, to see that pitch at room temperature is actually fluid!

You’ve heard the term “slower than molasses”? Apparently, pitch is even slower. (thanks to @JennS79 for the link)

Researchers say you’ll get drunk faster mixing alcohol with diet beverages.

Stuart Freeborn, the makeup artist behind the designs of Star Wars’ Yoda and Chewbacca, passed away at age 98.

Mental Floss:

Every country has place names that make you scratch your head and say, “What were they thinking?” So I looked up what they may have been thinking when these places in Canada got their names.

McSweeney’s recent “I am a social media community manager” had us chuckling.

Wired:

In 1947, Chuck Yeager strapped himself into the experimental Bell X-1 “bullet with wings” and broke the sound barrier 8 miles above the Mojave Desert in Southern California. Paul Larsen sees himself as following squarely in Yeager’s footsteps. To become the fastest sailor in the world, he’s going to have to break through the nautical equivalent of the sound barrier—the so-called 50-knot barrier (about 57 miles per hour).

“(The SailRocket Mark 2) is 50 percent plane, 50 percent boat,” Larsen explains. “If for some reason she lost the keel at speed,” Larsen explains, “than she really would be a plane, wouldn’t she?” The prototype version of SailRocket, Mark 1, actually did take off into the air, and Larsen survived what may be the most spectacular crash in sailing history.

I love sailing and sailboats but I don’t think there’s enough money in the world to get me into this fragile looking thing as it does 60 knots.

This is such a wonderfully weird video. It’s a pretty common thing to see on DVD – a blooper reel of actors messing up. What’s weird about it is that the bloopers are from the video game, L.A. Noire, and are motion captured.

Lifehacker:

For the extremely willpower-impaired (or the super-serious about exercise), this hack uses a FitBit activity tracker and a Belkin WeMo internet-controlled power outlet to make sure you exercise every day. If you don’t meet your daily activity goals, the system cuts the power to anything plugged into it, offering some serious incentive to get off the couch.

Charalampos, writing at Building Internet of Things came up with this idea as a way to combine the activity tracking capabilities of the FitBit with an severe punishment for not exercising. He chose his fridge as his “workout hostage,” so if he didn’t exercise, his food might spoil.

This is brilliant. We could hook it up to The Publisher’s Heineken fridge – he’d dropped 50lbs in 6 months.

Dell is going private in a $24 billion deal leveraged by the company’s founder and investment firm Silver Lake.

Wired:

If you’re not a hockey fan, you may not know the red light’s iconic flashing, spinning glow and horn sound that accompany every goal.

The Budweiser Red Light works by connecting to your Wi-Fi network. After configuring the device with an Android or iPhone app to tell it what teams you are rooting for, it sits sleeping in your rec room. When a game is on, it wakes up and starts listening over the network for a score. When the puck goes in the net, the light goes crazy.

“We are not joking: It’s real, it works and you can buy it,” says the Budweiser Canada homepage.

Yes, it’s real – and every Canadian wants one!

Normann Szkop:

The tulip has come to be a loved symbol of the Netherlands. Many tourists visit the country just to see the bright coloured flower and the astonishing view over the bulb fields. The season begins in March with crocuses, followed by the daffodil and the yellow narcissi.

This is a great photographic example of the idea of taking something we are familiar with and looking at it from different angle.

Monoprice is expanding its market from just cables and accessories to devices like monitors and action cams.

Nokia’s own blog stooped to a new low when it posted a review of a Nokia product.

An Asian air carrier is making sure parts of their economy class cabin are free of kids under 12 years of age.

AdAge has assembled all 2013 Super Bowl ads in one place.

A coalition of electronic privacy rights groups is asking the US government to back off efforts to limit consumer data privacy legislation proposed in the EU.

MSN News:

The Etch A Sketch is one of the best known toys of the Baby Boom generation. French inventor André Cassagnes stumbled upon the idea in the 1950s and the core technology of the toy remains today. Cassagnes died Jan. 16 at the age of 86.

The origins of Etch A Sketch go back to the late 1950s, when Cassagnes was installing a factory light switch plate covered with a translucent decal.

Along with the Lite-Brite, the Etch A Sketch was one of the first “fancy” toys we got as kids. I never could draw anything other than a few straight lines on it though.

CNET:

Citing CNET’s disqualification of the Dish product for the Best of Show competition, CEA is seeking a new partner to run its Best of CES awards program.

Karen Chupka, senior vice president, events and conferences for CEA said, “We are concerned the new review policy will have a negative impact on our brand should we continue the awards relationship as currently constructed.”

This move by the organizer of CES is unsurprising and further confirms that CBS’ decisions continue to hurt CNET’s journalistic integrity.

Mashable:

One of America’s busiest railroad stations, Grand Central Terminal in New York, turns 100 years old. The iconic structure, located in the heart of Manhattan, serves thousands of passengers every day and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world.

With sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook, it’s possibly to take a tour through the last century at Grand Central.

When I lived in Connecticut, I always loved going through Grand Central – the architecture, the art and the people watching were always a highlight of every visit.

Scientists have created a crystal compound that behaves like simple life forms.

Samsung has struck a strategic deal with graphics tablet maker Wacom to get Wacom’s digital stylus technoogy into more of Samsung’s smartphones and tablets.

Ars Technica:

in this article, the first in a five-part series covering online security, we’re going to talk a bit about keeping yourself (and your business) safe on the Web. Even if you know what lurks in the dark corners of the Internet, chances are you know someone you who doesn’t. Consider this guide and its follow-ups as a handy crash course for those unschooled in the nuances of online security.

You can never know too much about keeping yourself and your friends and family safe on the internet.