Tesco threatens journalist with arrest for writing down prices

A Guardian journalist who was researching prices at a Tesco supermarket was threatened with arrest for writing down prices as he walked around. The security guard who questioned him claimed that it was illegal to write down prices at Tesco's. The manager later allowed as how it wasn't illegal, merely against store policy.

Of course, Tesco can set any policy it wants for its premises (provided those policies don't violate other laws, such as laws regarding discriminating on the basis of disability, race or sex). But Tesco's customers can also ask pointed questions about those policies, such as, "If Tesco's prices are so great, why are they afraid of having people know what they are?" In this case, Tesco's had priced its bulk water so that it was more expensive than individual bottles -- just the sort of thing you might want a pad and paper handy to work out before you gave them your money.

And, of course, it's legal to do anything inside a Tesco that would be legal on the street outside, and Tesco's only remedy for violations of its policies is to ask you to leave.

"It's illegal to write things down and you can't take any photographs, either. If you want to check the prices, take the item to the till and pay for it there. The price will be on the receipt," he said, pointing me to the exit...

If we on Guardian Money bought every item available in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons or Asda every day, we would be able to check prices, and see if that bottle of wine, or those washing powder tablets, really are half price. But we can't, and trading standards officers don't have the resources to, either. Spot checks are about the best we can do.

But even that, it appears, is unacceptable to the likes of Tesco. Next time I'll wander round the store speaking the prices into my mobile phone. It's got a record function. Note to Tesco company policy writer: ban customers from speaking into their phones.

Now it's illegal to write down prices in a Tesco supermarket (Thanks, @sicckid1972!)

(Image: Tesco, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from loopzilla's photostream)

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TSA to stop groping children

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Launch of a honey bartering business

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Loog guitar kits – cool 3-string instruments

Last year I wrote about Rafael Atijas' Kickstarter campaign to start a 3-string guitar kit company called Loog Guitars. Rafael was seeking $15,000, but ended up getting over $65,000.

I'm happy to report that he launched the company and is selling guitar kits. He sent me one, and it took me about 20 minutes to put together. Like I said, it's a 3-string guitar, just like many cigar box guitars, and uses open tuning, which makes it easy to play. The natural wood finish is beautiful, and the materials are very high quality. I love it the way it looks.

A complete kit costs $185, and you can buy interchangeable bodies for $99 each.

(In the upcoming issue of MAKE (Vol 28) Rafael wrote an article about starting the company.)

Loog Guitars

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Mexico drops charges in Veracruz “Twitter Terorrism” case

One day after three dozen bodies were found dumped on a busy Veracruz street, authorities in the same Mexican state released a man and a woman and dropped terrorism charges that they faced for tweeting rumors about nonexistent drug cartel attacks.

Good news for the accused, but bad news came today for future users of social media in Mexico:

Criticism of the terrorism case led the Veracruz state legislature to pass a law Tuesday creating the charge of disturbing the peace to cover the situation purportedly created by the pair. But state Interior Secretary Gerardo Buganza told Milenio Television on Wednesday that Gilberto Martinez and Maria de Jesus Bravo would not have to face the new charge.

Defense lawyer Claribel Guevara welcomed their release and praised the support they received from free speech advocates and others.

"Far from scaring people (to stay away from tweeting), it has shown there is great unity among users of social networks," Guevara said. "We all won because this is a victory for freedom of expression."

More in Spanish at El Universal and at CNN en Español.

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Texas: Bastrop Fires

Helpful tents with water, food and clothing are installed by the highway, in parking lots and prefabricated buildings. People just pour in with stuff to give, and we did that too. It feels normal.

Insurance companies and lawyers are also very present with their advice and offers. The patrol cars of Texas Rangers block small roads and prowl for looters. The scene looks American. My American friend comments; there is some harsh eerie justice that Texas, the petroleum state, is so stricken by wildfires. George Bush's war for oil still grinds on as his native soil is parched by global warming.

This is the true Texan stoic mentality, I am told; we hear no laments and see not a tear; just people waiting for the wind to turn, for the rain to fall.

As we walk the burned areas, as we crunch the crisp black grass, sometimes glimpsing burned cars and houses behind the police barricades, we notice that many trees have their crowns still intact. Sometimes the places of the worst distress have a weird beauty. A spinning ash devil swirls across the highway and blows off into the blackened woods, like some supernatural power. I manage to photograph it.

Six days after the first wildfires in a state park in Bastrop, smoke photographed from the orbiting Space Station has reached the Gulf of Mexico. Things have calmed, but nobody dares say that the fire season is over. There is no rain and no end to the drought predicted, while the sun glares fiercely and the temperatures rise yet again, here in our stricken part of the world.

Some call us "rubbernecks" because we choose to personally witness this vast public disaster. As we crunch over the cinders in our boots and hats, sipping bottled water and taking notes, people often kindly offer us help. Fires, wars and earthquakes don't merely strike the rescue professionals, for disaster is part of the world that we experience. My own experience of disaster tells me that Texas will never be the same after this. This huge disaster is not nearly over yet, and four years of the last six have had bad droughts. This is the modern Texas, and to avoid it would be living a lie.

Almost 1400 houses have burned around Bastrop, two dead people. In the past week 179 fires burned over 170,686 acres. President Barack Obama on Friday night declared that a major disaster exists in central Texas. Those are facts, figures and official declarations, but we also have our own eyes.

I survived a war once, mostly through spreading and reading online information. Sometimes I got hate mail for doing that; it was called meddling in domestic issues, or using improper language, or comforting enemies, or mostly it was ignored, because nobody in my shattered region knew what email was.

Now I can see Facebook and other social media seething with this activity. Just people, saying what they see in their own lives:

"My son saw some pictures that somebody has on FB and it showed the front of his property of KC Drive intact!!! He doesn't know when the pictures were taken or who took them. Is anyone aware of pictures of this type????"

"We are just off 290, 3 miles on Austin side of D.S. We have two spare bedrooms in our home, each with dedicated bathrooms, on 2 acres. We'd be pleased to take in a family who has lost their home in the recent fires."

If we lose our property, homes cities and even our lives, we still have solidarity in tragedy. Adversity bares the human condition, and if there is hope, it is not because we are told that we should have hope, but because there is some human being who is hopeful.

Web | Twitter

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US: Georgia denies clemency for Troy Davis, execution imminent in hotly debated death row case

From the Guardian, via RichardDawkins.net:

One of the most hotly contested death row cases in recent years looks set to go ahead with the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia on Wednesday.

He lost a final plea for clemency despite overwhelming evidence indicating his conviction for murder is unreliable.

Snip from related coverage in the New York Times:

“He has had ample time to prove his innocence, and he is not innocent,” said Mr. MacPhail’s widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris.

But as a friend notes, the justice system in the United States is supposed to require proof of guilt, not innocence.

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1994 Bill Gibson interview talks ebooks, net balkanization, online radicalism

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Patriotic advertising: selling with war

Sociological Images has a nice gallery up called "United We Buy," showcasing the use of war and patriotism in advertising from WWII up to the present day. That's some weird-ass WD-40.

United We Buy: Using Patriotism and War to Sell Products

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UK free and open source art exhibit

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Gweek 017: All Nighter cartoonist David Hahn

Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps and other neat stuff.

This week I interviewed David Hahn, creator of of the comic book, All Nighter, published by Image Comics. David has also drawn for Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse.

The episode closes with another song by The Hokum Scorchers, a duo consisting of artist Amy Crehore and guitar maker Lou Reimuller. The song is called “I got your Ice Cold NuGrape," and it’s on the album Yanna’s Donut.

Download Gweek 017 as an MP3 | Subscribe to Gweek via iTunes | Subscribe via RSS | Download single episodes of Gweek as MP3s

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Netflix “Qwikster” has a Twitter problem. A thuggish, weed-loving, Twitter problem.

Over the weekend and after an ill-received price hike, beleaguered Netflix CEO Reed Hastings pulled a dramatic mea culpa. In a post on the official Netflix blog, he announced that the company will split streaming and DVD services, and launch a new company to handle the latter (plus games): Qwikster.

But, oops! The @Qwikster Twitter handle appears to be controlled by a young stoner. Or at least, for now. Imagine all the 420 this young feller could buy with a Netflix payout to take over the handle!

http://www.ranker.com/list/the-very-best-of-the-_qwikster-twitter-feed/ariel-kana.

UPDATE: After a long absence, Qwikster speaks!

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Unidentified teenage boy emerges from forest

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OnStar vows to track your movements forever, even if you cancel the service

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Breaking Brule

Trivia: Actual Tim & Eric vs. Breaking Bad connection? Bob Odenkirk, ya dummy! Now why didn't you think of that?

[Shoop: XJ]

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Hydraulic typewriter mixes cocktails out of the letters you type

Morskoiboy created an hydraulic typewriter that mixes cocktails -- the typewriter keys inject different liquids into a big LCD-like display, which then decants them into a waiting beaker.

So, if you’re interested, let me explain this contraption and the mechanism that makes it work. At the top of the machine there is a slot into which a bottle with alcohol, water, or even milk can be screwed. The essence of the art here lies in the ability of the syrups or liqueurs to tint the neutral color of the liquid. In the picture below you can see the connector itself and the regulator (which is actually an IV Rate Flow Regulator I picked up in a drugstore), which opens or closes off the air flow into the bottle and thus acts as an on/off switch. Once it enters the machine, the liquid spreads across the fourteen tubules.

Now I can literally taste the flavor of my words! (Thanks, Sergey!)

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HOWTO make a Buster Keaton hat

Carl sez, "Buster Keaton wore his unique porkpie hats throughout his long career, but what most fans don't know is he was a maker, he made his hats out of 'normal' hats. Here's how he did it."

I think this is my favorite video of the day.

How to make a BUSTER KEATON HAT

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How to make an Atari Punk Console

Collin Cunningham of MAKE shows how to make the popular Atari Punk Console music synthesizer. Visit the link for a schematic.

Collin's Lab: Atari Punk Console

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Epigenetics: Maybe not that big of a deal, after all, says study

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Skulllolly: memento mori confection

David Sykes's Skulllolly series are sculptural confections that serve as mementos mori.

Skulllolly (via Super Punch)

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BillGuard: We are Smarter than Me

Over at Credit.com, I took a look at a new web service called BillGuard that scans your credit card statements for bogus transactions.

What do you do when you notice an unusual transaction on your credit card? If you’re like most people, you call the credit card company to complain. If you’re really worked up about it you might also post a rant on one of those bitch board web sites where people complain about fraudulent or otherwise sneaky credit card charges.

But those sites don’t really do much good, other than let you blow off some steam. The parties responsible for double charges, unauthorized recurring subscription charges, hidden fees, fraudulent charges, unauthorized charges, and “accidental” charges merrily move on to other hapless victims for fleecing.

And many victims don’t even realize they’ve been ripped off, because credit card statements are often confusing to read. According to one company, “the average consumer loses over $300 a year to unwanted charges they’re not even aware of.” The name of the company is BillGuard, and it has come up with a way to solve the problem of dodgy credit card charges by harvesting the wisdom of the crowd. It calls its free service a “people powered, anti-virus for bills.”

Read the rest

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Jarritos, the classic Mexican soda brand, crosses the border (and invades Boing Boing)

I recently noticed that Jarritos became a sponsor on Boing Boing (you may well be seeing their ads here as you read this post). This is awesome! And tonight, I spotted this New York Times feature about how the 61-year-old Mexican soda pop company is going through a sort of marketing makeover, which I suppose advertising on Boing Boing is part of. In addition to ads on sites like ours, they're also doing branded street art (see the photo below for one mural in Los Angeles).

I think it's cool that this archetypal "ethnic" brand from Mexico is making new inroads here in the US. As with so-called "Mexican Coke"*, Jarritos is made with granulated natural sugar. All the big soda brands in the US are high-fructose corn syrup instead. There's some debate over the health differences between sugar and HFCS, but soda aficionados argue there's a big flavor difference. I agree.

Jarritos makes a cola flavor, too. My two favorite flavors in their line: hibiscus and guava. Also tamarindo! Almost forgot the tangy tamarindo.

Disclosure: nobody asked me to do this post, I just think the story, and the product, are neat.

* Not the kind the narcos sell, kids!

(Image: Piña Refresco, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works (2.0) image from brianauer's photostream)

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AT-AT Walker made of pancakes

Jim, the resident genius at Jim's Pancakes, has made an AT-AT Walker OUT OF PANCAKES! PANCAKES!

Total time to create it was about 15 minutes, mostly because it took a while to get the legs “crispy” enough to hold up the body. From there, I placed the parts back on the griddle and used more pancake batter as “glue”. If you let the parts sit on low heat for long enough, the batter eventually cooks through and makes a nice strong connection.

And hey, lookit that, Jim's got a book coming out on making pancake art!

Star Wars Pancakes! (via Craft)

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The southern lights from space

Astronaut Ron Garan takes photos in space and posts them to Google+. This photo was taken yesterday, aboard the ISS, and shows the Southern Lights.

Real-time astronaut photos may be my favorite benefit of social media networks.

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MetaMaus by Art Spiegelman — book trailer

[Video Link] A very good short book trailer that's really a short documentary in which Art Spiegelman reflects on his masterpiece, Maus. I can't wait for this new book, called MetaMaus.

In METAMAUS, Spiegelman employs prose, drawings, documents, and photographs to trace the intersecting paths of history, family, and comics that led to the creation, twenty-five years ago, of MAUS, his Pulitzer Prize winning comic book about the Holocaust.

Pantheon Books will publish MetaMaus on October 4th. In the meantime, view additional material from the book and bonus DVD on Art Spiegelman's Facebook page: Facebook.com/ArtSpiegelman

MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus (Via Potrzebie)

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Vintage gag ads

There's a proper treasure-trove of great old gag ads linked off this Vintage Ads group post, but get a load of that bow-tie (and get a load of that awesome type design and color scheme!)

A LAFF RIOT

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Shain Erin’s dolls for sale on etsy

Shain Erin is an artist who makes adorable dolls that any child would love to snuggle with. You can buy them in Shain's etsy store.

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Russian oligarch sucker-punches rival billionaire on talk show

In this clip from Russian TV, oligarch billionaire Alexander Lebedev sucker-punches another billionaire, Sergei Polonsky, hitting him twice.

Clad in very tight grey jeans, Lebedev showed a glimpse of his past as a KGB agent as he launched two blows at the former property developer Sergei Polonsky during a television debate on the financial crisis. Polonsky, once ranked Russia's 40th richest man, had said he wanted to "stick one in the mouth" of Lebedev. In the clip posted on the NTV channel's website, Polonsky was sent tumbling to the floor and Lebedev then stood over him in a crouched fighting stance.

The newspaper baron said later that he had been reacting to Polonsky's threatening manner. The colourful proprietor was quoted as saying: "In a critical situation, there is no choice. I see no reason to be hit with the first shot. I neutralised him."

Alexander Lebedev in Russian TV punch-up

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“Porpicide”: Bottlenose-dolphin-on-porpoise violence

A dead female harbor porpoise that washed ashore in August at San Francisco's Fort Funston showed "evidence of a sadistic attack." Marine biologists believe this was a clear case of "porpicide," the deliberate killing of a harbor porpoise by a bottlenose dolphin.

(Image: These are not the actual dolphins referenced in the story. Photo, Three in a Row, a s CC-licensed image from diorama_sky's photostream, shared in the BB Flickr Pool.)

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Work begins on Babbage’s Analytical Engine

Work has gotten underway on Plan 28, a project to create Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, the never-built successor to the Difference Engine. The Analytical Engine was to have been a general purpose computer, and Ada Lovelace designed the first-ever programming language to run on it. Many factors led to its never being completed -- the state of the art in precision engineering in Babbage's day, finance woes, and so forth. John Graham-Cumming, who founded the project, is also the author of The Geek Atlas, a fantastic book.

This has required building relationships with a number of bodies. I recently announced that the project had been accepted into the portfolio of projects handled by the Computer Conservation Society. They will provide expert advice as needed.

The other vital body to work with is The Science Museum in London. Doron and I have been working with The Science Museum team at many levels to ensure that the project is known about and that we would be able to get access to Babbage's plans and notebooks to perform the vital academic study of the Analytical Engine as Babbage imagined it. The first step to doing that research was to digitize the entire Babbage archive. Digitization greatly facilitates research as these precious documents can be viewed conveniently from around the world.

I am pleased to be able to say that The Science Museum agreed that digitization was vital and undertook this project. The work on digitization started on Monday, September 12 and early in October Doron and I will have access to the digitized versions of Babbage's plans and notebooks for study. This great first step on Plan 28 is, finally, underway. We are very, very grateful to The Science Museum and all we have worked with there for their support and for having undertaken this vital work that will benefit not only Plan 28 but all those who wish to study Charles Babbage's work wherever they are.

Plan 28: Analytical Engine project gets underway (Thanks, John!)

(Image: AnalyticalMachine_Babbage_London, Wikimedia Commons/Bruno Barral, CC-BY-SA-2.5.)

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Barely Feral: a porn site for cats by cats

"Barely Feral answers the question: what if there was a porn site designed by cats for cats?" Tumblr, Twitter.

(via @choire / @annetaylor; photo in this post by Flickr user Dawn Frasca)

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New Daniel Pinkwater novel being serialized online in weekly chapters

Zack sez, "The author of such surreal delights as LIZARD MUSIC and THE HOBOKEN CHICKEN EMERGENCY has gone to the web to premiere his latest work before it heads to hard-copy. Daniel Pinkwater's BUSHMAN LIVES will update with a new chapter every Monday, with the first already online. So far, it involves a giant gorilla and a sacred order of hall monitors. Pure Pinkwater."

Just in case it's escaped your notice, I happen to think that Pinkwater is one of the greatest novelists alive, and I credit him with a large part of my sanity and outlook.

I must have been asleep for an hour or two. I woke up sensing there was someone in my room.

“Geets?”

“Ook Ook, Bushman lives,” Geets Hildebrand said.

“Ook,” I said. I switched the light on.

Geets was sitting cross-legged next to my bed. He had done this before. Sometimes I would wake in the morning and there he would be, sleeping on the rug. I could never get him to tell me how he got in–how he got into a building with a doorman, into a locked elevator area, into our locked apartment, and into my locked bedroom. Had he slipped past the doorman, and picked three locks? Had my father, who disliked and mistrusted all my friends, let him in and for some reason agreed not to say anything about it? It was a mystery.

“Drink to Bushman,” Geets said. He pulled four bottles of Guinness out of his jacket, and two bananas. This was our ritual. We would drink to Bushman the Gorilla at the Lincoln Park Zoo, and eat bananas, which actually went quite well with the thick, bitter Guinness.

Bushman Lives | A novel by Daniel Pinkwater (Thanks, Zack!)

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Toothless man arrested for eating raw meat at Walmart

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Habibi: graphic novel is blends Islamic legend, science fiction dystopia, love and loss

Craig Thompson's new graphic novel Habibi is an enormous and genre-busting graphic novel that blends Islamic mysticism, slave/liberation narratives and post-apocalyptic science fiction, creating a story that is erotic, grotesque, and profoundly moving.

Habibi is set in an atemporal Middle Eastern country that seems at times to be caught in classical times, but whose landscape is dotted with derelict jeeps, poisoned water awash in rotting consumer goods and other elements from out of time. Dodola, a child bride, is captured by slavers who murder her older husband, a scribe who had reared her on the stories, sutras and legends he was paid to calligraph. On the run, she rescues a younger slave boy, Zam, and the two become refugees together. They find a new home in the desert, a strangely out of place wrecked ship amid the sands, which they make into a snug home. Dodola raises Zam as her son, and to feed them both, she must prostitute herself to the caravans that pass by their hiding place.

When violence comes again -- when Dodala is enslaved to a capricious sultan's harem -- Zam is on his own, and is also soon in trouble. The story veers into Scheherazade territory as Dodola tries to charm the sultan into releasing her, but with the dark threat that usually lurks in the background in Scheherazade brought to the foreground. Zam is battered by life and circumstance, mutilated and enslaved, and still the two pine for each other.

Habibi is told in a dreamlike, non-linear, dense style, with asides for swirling Islamic legends, the theory and practice of magic squares, the hidden meanings in Arabic calligraphy, jumping from time to time and place to place, giving the book a deep, mythic resonance. The tale is epic and often horrific, but so well told that it grips you right through it's 670-odd pages.

I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this, and I expect I'll be thinking about it for a long, long time.

Habibi

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Boing Boing, Crowdfunding, and Tomorrow’s Congressional Testimony

A couple of days ago, Pesco blogged the news that Obama's jobs plan includes the idea of legalizing crowdfunded securities.  I think this is terrific news, and I am proud that I had the opportunity to do a bit of volunteer work for the White House on this issue earlier this summer -- and it all started (and has continued) thanks to BoingBoing!

In late 2009 I learned from Boing Boing counsel Rob Rader that there was no de minimis dollar cutoff below which securities are not regulated.  As a Boing Boing guestblogger soon afterward, I pitched the idea of crowdfunding a campaign to make low-value crowdfunded securities legal. Several BoingBoing readers were interested, which was encouraging, so I collaborated with Jenny Kassan of the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) and Danae Ringelmann of IndieGoGo to crowdfund the legal work (by SELC interns Aroma Sharma and Kathleen Kenney) behind a petition that the SEC posted as File No. 4-605 (PDF) on July 1 last year.  After I blogged the finished petition on Boing Boing, it began gathering support on the SEC's website.  Meanwhile, I also started a Change Crowdfunding Law blog, to chronicle the campaign. I learned later that entrepreneur Sherwood "Woodie" Neiss had been running a campaign called Startup Exemption promoting the same kind of proposal, so I emailed him to make the connection and offer my support. Then, a few months ago, Woodie and I were contacted by White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP, the office that announced the crowdfunding exemption possibility).  They had been following our efforts, and wondered if Woodie and I could write a 2-page brief on current crowdfunding exemption proposals. Woodie and I bounced revisions back and forth via Google Docs while I was on vacation, and he sent it to OSTP. Soon afterwards they told us that the brief was very helpful -- so I was hoping during the run-up to Obama's jobs speech, which promised bipartisan new ideas, that a crowdfunding exemption would be part of the plan. Elsewhere in Washington, Woodie has been meeting with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his staff.  Issa chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government reform, and he has been interested in crowdfunding's economic potential for a while -- in a letter to SEC Chair Mary Schapiro from February, he asked about new capital formation strategies such as crowdfunding, and in her response letter, Schapiro said that the SEC was looking into it (citing the SELC petition). Last May, Woodie was set to testify in front of Oversight in favor of a crowdfunding exemption, but was bumped from the microphone last-minute.  Tomorrow morning, however, Woodie is testifying for sure at a hearing entitled 'Crowdfunding: Connecting Investors And Job Creators.'  I'm pleased but not surprised that the idea of a crowdfunding exemption is appealing to both Democratic and Republican elected officials in Washington.

I hope C-SPAN decides to cover this hearing, which I believe is real history in the making.  I've learned that the C-SPAN editors only decide the night before what hearings they will cover the following day, so if you want to help, please call C-SPAN's main number (202-737-3220) this afternoon and suggest that they cover Oversight's Crowdfunding hearing, which runs from 9:30am to 11:30am in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

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Talk Like a Pirate. A *Somalian* Pirate.

Today, September 19, is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. But "avast ye hearties" and "arrrrr" aren't representative of the language you'd most likely hear if your boat were overtaken by actual, modern-day working pirates now. At Wired.com, the Danger Room blog offers a more accurate contemporary take: How to Talk Like a Somalian Pirate.

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Mexico: Narco-pets, exotic animals owned by captured drug lords, are flooding zoos

"As Mexican authorities capture a growing number of drug gang leaders, many of their pets are being driven from their gilded cages into more modest housing in the country's zoos. That's proving to be overwhelming for some institutions."

Associated Press video on YouTube: Narco-pets Overwhelm Mexico's Zoos.

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The Amish Bernie Madoff?

Amish have been popping up in the news as of late. Here's a story by Christopher Maag of Credit.com:

An Amish man who promised guaranteed investment returns to thousands of Amish families actually lost half the money, and covered up the losses using a Ponzi scheme that ran for more than a decade, according to a lawsuit filed this week in federal court.

The man, Monroe L. Beachy, 77, allegedly raised $33 million from 2,698 Amish families, nonprofit groups and businesses. He lost $16.8 million of it, but used money from new investors to continue paying dividends to existing ones.

The Amish Bernie Madoff?

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NFL adopts TSA-style full body pat-downs for fans at stadiums

The NFL plans to have fans at stadiums patted down, TSA-style, as a new security measure.

Under the new "enhanced" pat-down procedures, the NFL wants all 32 clubs to search fans from the ankles to the knees as well as the waist up. Previously, security guards only patted down fans from the waist up while looking for booze, weapons or other banned items.

Full story at USA Today

(via Quinn Norton).

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Song-a-day man commemorates 1,000th song with album, video

Jonathan sez, "I've been writing a song and posting it on YouTube every day since January 1, 2009. On September 28, 2011, I will be commemorating my 1000th song by releasing an album. The first single and video from the album is 'Are You A Real Person,' about a friend request I received from an attractive girl who looked vaguely familiar. The video for the song, directed by Albert Birney, combines live action, animation, and family portraits Albert found on the side of the road. The goal was to convey the unsettling experience of wondering whether a pretty face online is a real person you know -- or a spambot."

Jonathan Mann - Are You A Real Person? (official HD) (Thanks, Jonathan!)

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European Freedom Not Fear demonstration in Brussels this Saturday

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WikiLeaks fundraiser auction includes “Julian Assange’s Prison Coffee, Signed and Fingerprinted.”

Wikileaks has a history of colorful fundraising stunts. Assange's latest: an eBay auction of various and sundry memorabilia, including "Julian Assange's Prison Coffee, Signed and Fingerprinted."

Scarce item of memorabilia from Julian Assange's time in prison. Julian Assange spent ten days in prison in Decmber 2010. When he left to go under house arrest in Norfolk he smuggled out this, one of three sachets of coffee. This rare item has been signed on one side: 'Julian A, Prison coffee, smuggled out of Wandsworth Prison by me on Dec 17 2010'. On the other side of the sachet Julian has inked a fingerprint. The sachet is unopened and is being sold to raise money for WikiLeaks.

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Guatemala: pig born with humanoid face

[Video Link]. A quick YouTube browse shows many videos of similar phenomena throughout the world, but I choose to view this as a sign that the gods are unhappy with the grim results of this week's presidential elections in Guatemala. (via @baratunde)

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Darth Vader “NOOOOO!” inserted into other classic movies

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TSA workers trafficked Oxycontin for cash while defending America from terrorists

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Life of a freelance illustrator

Bart Aalbers, a terrifically talented and funny illustrator from Rotterdam explains what the pitch process is like for a freelancer. I'd say he got it exactly right.

Check out these videos he makes about his life.

Pitches Can Be Bitches

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Swimming robot powered by rechargable batteries: Panasonic “Evolta”

Panasonic's "Evolta" swim robot, powered by the company's Evolta rechargeable batteries, is demonstrated at a pool during a news conference in Tokyo September 15, 2011. The company said three types of Evolta robots, developed to swim, bike and run, will challenge to complete an ironman triathlon course in Hawaii, a total of about 230km, within one week or 168 hours from October 24, 2011, powered by three AA-size rechargeable Evolta batteries, the company said. (REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao)

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Wilco invites fans to make videos of their home towns, to be projected on tour while band plays

[Video Link]

The great American alt-country-rock-whatever band Wilco, whom I love dearly, invites their fans to shoot video of the cities they're touring in. Some of the resulting videos "may be projected behind the band during the show in your town," says Wilco, "So break out your camera and show us what your city looks like to you."

More guidance:

When you're shooting, keep the important stuff and movement to the top 1/3rd of the frame - this is where the projections will be most visible on our stage set. Please check the Vimeo page for more details and guidelines. Have fun & we can't wait to see what you come up with!

VIDEO ABOVE: "Born Alone" from Wilco's upcoming album "The Whole Love," out September 27, 2011 on dBpm Records (and alternately offered in 180gm vinyl!). Directed by Mark Greenberg. This album RULES.

(thanks, Mikael Jorgensen!)

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The Man with the Golden Sun: Video about solar efficiency

My husband sent me this video, a truly inspired entry in Environment Minnesota's solar power video contest. The contest is meant to promote solar energy in Minnesota—a goal that makes a bit more sense than you might think. Minnesota can't really rely on solar, and solar alone, to meet its energy needs, but it does have the potential to replace some of the dirty coal the state currently uses. And here's the cool thing you'll learn in the video: This is partly possible because solar panels actually convert sun to electricity more efficiently here than they do in the really hot climates we usually associate with solar power. It's an interesting lesson, and a clever video, made by a team of more than 50, led by husband and wife Steve and Lisa Fait.

Of course, there's a flip side to this, once you get past the pro-Minnesota message. This video also serves as a handy reminder that solar panels do not convert all the energy they absorb into electricity. The most efficient solar cells available to buy today can only harness about 21% of the energy they absorb. And that's in the lab, as individual cells. When you gang cells together into panels and expose them to real-world conditions, like high temperatures, you lose some more of that efficiency. In fact, part of the reason solar power is so expensive today (in general, it's the most expensive form of energy available, although that does vary a lot by location) is because of that low conversion efficiency. In order to produce a set amount of electricity, you're forced to buy more solar panels than you otherwise would have to if the panels could convert sun to electricity more efficiently.

Video Link

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HOWTO track down a con-artist

Ken, a former "fed" (of some description) on the group blog Popehat, received a "toner-scam" (a scam whereby someone sends you an invoice for a service you never ordered or received in the hopes that you'll pay it without noticing) solicitation in the mail at his business. This pissed him off, so he decided to track down the scammers and document, in lavish detail, the process by which he ran them to ground. The series of posts is up to part four now, and it's fascinating reading.

For some reason, this one seriously pisses me off. Maybe its because the fraud is so blatant. Maybe it’s because the weasel-worded disclaimer designed to give them a defense to fraud claims is so perfunctory and lame. Maybe it’s because after I sent an email to the scammer’s lawyer, the scammer himself called me and tried to run a con on me. Like I’m a fucking rube.

So. I’ve decided to dedicate some time and money to investigating this scam and the people and companies responsible for it. I’ve also decided to write about the investigation, and use it as an opportunity to discuss con man culture and how anyone with an internet connection, a few bucks, and some time can investigate an attempted scam — or, preferably, conduct due diligence on a suspected scammer before they can even try to con you.

I’m going to discuss using Google, using PACER (which allows access to federal court records), using state court records, and taking effective action against scammers.

Anatomy of a Scam Investigation: Chapter One

Anatomy of a Scam Investigation: Chapter Two

Anatomy of A Scam Investigation, Chapter Three

Anatomy of A Scam Investigation, Chapter Four

(via MeFi)

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Optimized for instability

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FBI to look closely, very very closely indeed, at hacked Scarlett Johansson nude photos

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Virgin America to launch new in-flight entertainment tech (Boing Boing is in the mix)

Virgin America, the airline that offers Boing Boing Video as an in-flight TV channel, is today announcing a re-vamp of its in-flight entertainment system scheduled to go live in late 2012. This makes the airline the first US partner for a new Lufthansa Systems technology, to be presented on a new platform (and their current in-flight entertainment system is already, in my opinion, the coolest of any US airline).

Abby Lunardini of Virgin America tells me, "The most distinguishing feature will be that it will allow guests to both access entertainment via the seatback and plug in via their own personal electronics to the system (and they can even download content pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight)."

A personal disclosure: I previewed some of this with Virgin America execs some months ago, while decisions were still being made and technology options still being evaluated. They're doing back-end testing now on the #nerdbird aircraft, pictured above. Looks promising, and I'm proud that Boing Boing Video will remain part of the mix (on channel 10! Watch us next time you fly!).

Official announcement pasted below.

VIRGIN AMERICA AND LUFTHANSA SYSTEMS TAKE IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT TO NEW HEIGHTS: AIRLINE TO LAUNCH NEXT GENERATION RED™ IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT PLATFORM IN 2012 Plans Unveiled for New Hybrid Technology Platform, Offering Both Seatback Content and Connectivity via Personal Electronic Devices

Carrier to Upgrade Award-Winning Red Platform, Testing Now Underway on First Aircraft – an Airbus A320 Named #nerdbird

San Francisco – September 13, 2011 – Virgin America today announces the selection of Lufthansa Systems’ BoardConnect platform, as the technology partner for the hotly anticipated next iteration of the airline’s Red™ in-flight entertainment system. At the 2011 Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) Expo in Seattle today, Virgin America and Lufthansa Systems unveil their cooperation to develop the new platform – which will be the first of its kind in the domestic skies. Slated for launch in late 2012 and now under development, the new Red platform will offer an entirely new approach to in-flight entertainment, with hybrid technology that will give travelers a variety of ways to play, interact, connect and be entertained at 35,000 feet – similar to the multi-faceted consumer technologies they have access to in their lives on the ground. Virgin America is the first U.S. carrier to use the innovative technology foundation developed by airline IT specialist Lufthansa Systems.

BoardConnect is a cost-efficient, easy-to-install system which replaces complex legacy in-flight entertainment solutions via an onboard WiFi network. It will allow Virgin America to build a next iteration of Red that offers the best of both worlds: a larger, high-definition touch-screen seatback monitor with full WiFi connectivity and a breadth of curated content unrivalled in the skies, along with the ability for flyers to use their own personal electronic devices to connect to the system pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight. This month, Virgin America launches back-end testing of the new platform on its first aircraft, a new Airbus A320 aptly named: #nerdbird.

“The idea behind Red has always been to reinvent the flight experience, by offering travelers more options, more control, more content and more interactivity. Even though we believe that Red has raised the bar and is still head and shoulders above anything else in the U.S. skies, we’re not the kind of Company that rests on our laurels,” said David Cush, President and CEO of Virgin America. “Our focus on innovation is a core part of our business model and guest offering, and BoardConnect will allow us to not only leap even further ahead of the airline pack, but also pace the larger consumer trends in mobile technology. We now have the architecture we need to design a dynamic entertainment experience that is the next logical iteration of Red.”

Although back-end testing of the new system by the technical experts at Virgin America and Lufthansa Systems is already underway on one aircraft (N841VA – #nerdbird), the airline plans to roll out the new Red platform for guests starting in late 2012. Virgin America remains one of the fastest growing U.S. airlines, with its current 40 aircraft A320 Family fleet projected to grow to 57 aircraft by mid-2013. Although further design details and functionality for the new system are still under development, the new Red platform will be entirely interactive, connective and entertaining – with content and services offered both via the seatback system and guests’ personal electronic devices. The new Red platform will offer travelers an unmatched range of media and connectivity choices via the seatback, as well as the option to connect their personal electronic devices to the system. The system will reflect Virgin America’s focus on innovation and the brand’s entertainment roots, with an unrivalled selection of dynamic media and a fully connected and social experience.

“We’re pleased to announce that an airline known for its unique design, inventiveness and the quality of its entertainment experience will be the launch partner for BoardConnect. BoardConnect opens a new world of opportunities for airlines and their passengers. It is a perfect example for how Lufthansa Systems as a technology leader in airline IT provides innovative solutions which help their customers in many ways to set new standards in passenger service, lower their cost and stay ahead of their competition,” said Stefan Hansen, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Systems. “BoardConnect gives airlines an unprecedented degree of flexibility to develop new entertainment applications as well as to create new sources of ancillary revenue.”

Most current IFE solutions are complex and hard-wired, making them expensive to purchase and install, difficult to maintain and often inflexible in use. Instead of connecting every single seat to the content server through several miles of cables, BoardConnect requires just a few access points. The move by some domestic U.S. carriers to eschew any seatback entertainment at all and explore wireless options tied only to personal electronic devices is inherently limiting. BoardConnect will bridge that gap and will offer travelers and airlines multiple hybrid options – with more scalable bandwidth. Virgin America was the first carrier to offer fleetwide WiFi as of May 2009. The airline plans to continue this service and regularly sees up to one-third of guests on flights logged on.

“Just offering a larger WiFi pipe with no seatback entertainment, as some of our competitors are doing, is limiting and the opposite of what Virgin America guests actually want. Our travelers want connectivity yes, but they also want access to more media content and services that will improve their trip. We were the first airline to offer WiFi fleetwide as of May 2009, yet we’ve seen use of Red only grow since then. We want to give our travelers more options instead of fewer, including the ability to multi-task across platforms – just as they do in their lives on the ground. Offering both connectivity to personal devices and accessible dynamic content will allow us to deliver the best of both worlds,” added Cush.

From even before its 2007 launch, Virgin America has harnessed innovation from its headquarters in Silicon Valley to create a new standard of service. The airline is known for tech-forward and design-driven features like touch-screen personal seatback entertainment, power outlets at every seat, new aircraft with mood-lit cabins and fleetwide WiFi. The airline regularly surveys its guests on its next amenities and has worked with Silicon Valley business leaders and consumer tech experts (who also happen to be frequent flyers) on the design of the next iteration of Red.

In the 2010 APEX awards, the airline’s current Red entertainment platform took top honors for “Best Overall Passenger Experience,” “Best In-Flight Entertainment in the Americas” and “Best In-Flight Connectivity and Communications.” The system also was named the “Best Single Achievement in In-Flight Entertainment” in 2009. Virgin America currently offers guests their own touch-screen seatback monitor that is 25 percent larger than the average domestic coach in-flight entertainment screen. The current Red platform offers touch-screen and remote control interactivity and a wealth of interactive content and options, including;

“Watch”: Live satellite TV, cached specialty channels, 35+ on-demand films and premium TV like HBO;

“Kid’s Play”: With content, games and even parental control settings;

“Play”: Multiple videogames navigated by a Qwerty keyboard handset;

“Talk”: A seat-to-seat chat feature inside the aircraft, so guests can chat with someone in a nearby seat; “Journey”: Interactive Google Maps that zoom at eight levels and track the aircraft in-flight;

“Eat”: A first-of-its-kind on-demand menu that allows guests to order what they want, when they want it during a flight;

“Shop”: An on-demand shopping and a Make a Difference section;

“Listen”: A 3,000 MP3 library and platform to create playlists in-flight and an on-demand music video library. The carrier continues to invest in the current Red system, most recently debuting features such as an “open tab,” enhanced terrain view Google Maps and a digital Shop platform in July 2010.

With topnotch service, beautiful design and a host of high-tech amenities, Virgin America has swept the travel industry best-in-class awards for the quality of its service since its 2007 launch, including “Best Domestic Airline” in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 and “Best Domestic Airline” in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2008, 2009 and 2010 Readers’ Choice Awards.

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Trailer Tuesday: Pretty Poison (1968)

[Video Link] Carla and I saw this in London in 1984 at an Anthony Perkins triple-feature (along with The Trial and another Perkins movie I can't recall). Pretty Poison was our favorite of the three.

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Star Trek vs. Star Wars according to Captain Kirk

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Understanding Makers, a conversation with Anil Dash & Dale Dougherty

In "Recognizing The Maker Movement," a 25-minute video in honor of the World Maker Faire in Queens this weekend, Anil Dash and Dale Dougherty talk about the significance of the Maker movement, its history, and what it means for American politics, civic engagement and society. It's a fascinating and insightful conversation, and got me thinking hard this morning.

Recognizing The Maker Movement

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Conflicts of interest: Arrington, Techcrunch, and the New York Times

Steve Myers at Poynter has a detailed piece on disclosing potential conflicts of interest, and says the New York Times shouldn’t throw stones at Michael Arrington and TechCrunch.

I'd like to take this opportunity to disclose that Boing Boing invests in three businesses, and three only: Acme Kitten Manufacturing, Conglomerated Steampunk Industries, and Joe-Bob's House of Discount LSD.

UPDATE: Someone reminded me about our legacy holdings in Amalgamated Unicorns, Incorporated. I regret the omission.

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Romero Studios treehouses

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Zahra’s Paradise: graphic novel about Iranian uprising is a story and a history

Zahra's Paradise, a new book from FirstSecond, collects in one volume the serialized (and brilliant) webcomic, written by two pseudonymous Iranian dissidents. It's the gripping story of a Medhi, a young man kidnapped by Iran's secret police during the election-season demonstrations of 2009, and it is a heart-rending tale of loss, hope, technology, revolution, politics, bravery and resilience. Told form the point of view of Medhi's blogger brother (who has previously been arrested for publishing political material), it features an in-the-round look at the power and limits of technology to effect revolution. Its cast includes bloggers, secret policemen, brave copy-shop/Internet cafe owners, influence peddlers, disgraced bourgeois, broken prisoners and a family devastated by loss.

And while Zahra's Paradise is an informative (if fictionalized) account of the Iranian election uprising and a vivid condemnation of the stern, joyless Khomeniest version of Islam, it is also a fantastic story, a graphic novel that races to its conclusion. The webcomic was serialized in 12 languages (including Farsi and Arabic) and the print edition is available in a dozen countries from today.

Zahra's Paradise

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Big Bang infographic

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Greenpeace celebrates all the corporate overlords they’ve upset over their 40 years

Brian from Greenpeace sez, "Greenpeace is 40 years old today, and one of the ad agencies we've worked with over the years made this for us. The agency asked to remain anonymous, so as not to lose any clients that might think they're represented here. Awww. We're truly touched."

40 years (Thanks, Brian!)

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PeePoo bags render sacks of shit safe for shantytowns

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Lord of the Rings bluegrass: “Ballad of Helm’s Deep”

Kevin sez, "The Fellowship of the Strings finally recorded their hot new single, The Ballad of Helm's Deep! We think the Boing Boing crowd would definitely get a kick out of our music, and of course we've included the lyrics and guitar chords if anyone would like to learn it."

They're no Lords of the Rhymes, but that's still some fine, filky, nerdy fingerpickin'. The Ballad of Helm's Deep

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Way cool ancient, gigantic crocodile

This counts as a unicorn chaser, of sorts, for that depressing space travel post of mine.

That big mandible in the picture above belongs to Acherontisuchus guajiraensis, a recently identified species of ancient crocodile, living in what is now Colombia. A. guajiraensis would have been 20 feet long.

Most of the articles out on this find are focusing on the fact that the giant crocodile shared a habitat, and would have competed for food, with Titanoboa—a giant snake that could grow up to 50 feet long. Please make a note: If you invent a time machine, I would like to travel with you. But not to Paleocene South America, OK?

But anthropologist Greg Laden points out something else that's pretty cool about this crocodile: It has some implications for the way we think about evolution.

The most significant part of this find with respect to evolutionary theory is this: When we see a diversity of animals living at the same time, and one form (living or reconstructed) seems to be the basal, primitive, less specialized one, it is easy to assume that this is most like the ancestor to all the other forms. In other words, a generalized form gives rise to many different species, some or many of which are specialize. However, the reconstruction of dyrosaurid evolution prompted by this find suggests that a diversity of specialized forms could arise from a prior also-specialized form. This, of course, could relate to the fact that the dyrosaurids diversified after the K-T boundary extinction event, probably in a world with many empty niches previous occupied by other crocodiles that were wiped out during that event.

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Jedi Kittens with Light Sabers

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Glow t-shirts you drawn on with UV penlights

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Crónicas de Héroes: positive actions by everyday citizens in México

If you see something (awesome), say something. Crónicas de Héroes is a mapping project to document and pay tribute to the honorable actions of normal people in cities like Juarez and Monterrey, held captive by a worsening climate of terror and intimidation. "Positivism" as a tool to crack the lock of fear. (via ejival)

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$160 treadmill desk

Our friend, Sarah Milstein, made a treadmill desk for $160.

Ever since learning about treadmill desks a couple of years ago from this New York Times story, I've been eager to try one. Because while I like walking, I always find it hard to carve out time for exercise. A tread-desk, it seemed, might magically solve my exercise scheduling prob. Except the appealing versions start at $4,400.

I kept hearing, though, that you could cobble one together for next to nothing. You just have to score a used treadmill and build some sort of desk on or above it. So when facing a lot of time working from home this summer, I decided to revisit the idea. Here's how I did it.

The DIY Treadmill Desk

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Arkansas town plagued with series of “toe-sucking” creeps

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss: exclusive preview

Titan Books gave me permission to present samples from the new art book, The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss. It's available in a standard edition for $21.14, and a special edition for $75 that comes in a slipcase with an alternate cover, an extra 8-page cover gallery and a signed Chris Foss print in an envelope.

Foss’s groundbreaking and distinctive science ?ction art revolutionized paperback covers in the 1970s and 80s.  Dramatically raising the bar for realism and invention, his trademark battle-weary spacecraft, dramatic alien landscapes and crumbling brutalist architecture irrevocably changed the aesthetic of science ?ction art and cinema.

Featuring work for books by Isaac Asimov, E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith, Arthur C. Clarke, A. E. Van Vogt and Philip K. Dick, and ?lm design for Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick, this volume brings together many rare and classic images that have never been seen or reprinted before. The ?rst comprehensive retrospective of Chris Foss’s SF career.

All images © Chris Foss courtesy ChrisFossArt.com

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Broadband data ad from 1963

Phil Are Go! has unearthed this 1963 advertisement for "broadband" data services from Western Union: "So, by 1963, business guys who were rich enough to have those little egg cups could transmit pictures, charts, stock data and stuff over the phone lines. Who knew? Well, the internet knew. It's just jarring to see the word "broadband" appearing in print as early as the sixties. I tried to find some numbers on what qualified as broadband back then, but couldn't find anything. Shazbot."

I don't know what 1963 considered "broadband" either, but I'm guessing 300 baud?

Western Union - Broadband 1963 style.

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Celebrating Star Trek’s 45th anniversary with USS Enterprise crew character sugar cookies

Bakingdom has a cute photo gallery and how-to on the occasion of Star Trek's 45th TV anniversary: Star Trek Sugar Cookies.

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How not to keep your wire-cutters from being stolen

If you want to keep your wire-cutters from being stolen, attaching them to something heavy might work -- but not if you attach them with wire.

My boss was tired of our wire cutters getting stolen. I'm not sure this will solve it (via Schneier)

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VooDoo Kings Flamethrower: Hot Rod snapshots (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)

Photo: Definitely not a Prius. From a lovely photo set contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr pool by reader Greg Lynch, who explains:

Jalopy Fest is a Traditional Hot Rod and Custom Car Show held at Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Il. For 2011 it was September 10th & 11th! 72 & older Customs and 64 & older Hotrods.

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