Today at Flavorpill, we met the unluckiest person ever. We took a look at presidents and their cars. We watched the highest shallow dive. We saw the world through the eyes of a hula hoop. We learned how scientists reconstruct speech from brain activity. We tried sewing survival-style. We drooled over the new Mondo Drive poster. We reunited with LeVar Burton. We discovered new extreme sports we’d never heard of. We voted for our favorite sci-fi band. We read an amusing analysis of the Thomas Kinkade calendar for February. We wondered about these odd baby mittens. And finally, we found out why Neil Young hates MP3. His Argument? “Steve Jobs was a digital pioneer, but when he went home, he listened to vinyl.”

Reading Rainbow, the book-centric PBS children’s series, has reached the end of its 26-year run, NPR reports. We remember it best as the show various babysitters parked us in front of during our formative years, but we do love to read, so maybe its message sank in.  We weep for host LeVar Burton and his legion of fans, even though we have to admit that we didn’t know the show was still on the air.  Blame it on the recession…oh yeah, and George W. Bush’s education policy.  Because the show stresses why kids should love reading rather than how to read, it’s not in line with the Bush administration’s focus on phonics and spelling. So basically, George W. Bush killed Reading Rainbow.  After the jump, a guided tour through some timeless Reading Rainbow clips. Read More »