Luggable 75 lb "laptop" from 1968 (5)
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5 hours, 53 minutes
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Harry sez, "Computers weren't portable in 1968 (they tended to fill entire rooms), but even then, the yen for portable computing was there. In 1968, Computerworld reported on a carrying case that turned a Teletype machine into a 75-pound mobile terminal--wheels were optional." The Laptop, Circa 1968 (Thanks, Harry!)
Dead Gnomes: idiotically grinning ghastly garden gnomes (5)
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9 hours, 42 minutes
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Out of the Blue's "Dead Gnome" line features garden gnomes with pistols in their mouths, or holding up the dripping heads of decapitated brethren, industriously sawing their own hands off, hanging from a gibbet, grinning glassily at the arrow that's pierced their heads, and so on. It's the wet, happy grins that get me. Dead Gnome (Thanks, Alice!)
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Polina said:
hey MeeeeEEEeeeegs :DD
Reality show gives points to clerics for converting Atheists (11)
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12 hours, 3 minutes
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A new Turkish game-show asks clerics to convert atheists and awards prizes for the most conversions; I think the atheists should get points for resisting the pitch, too -- it's only fair (and the atheists should win supreme if the cleric loses faith altogether!). A new game show on Turkish television will pit a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, an imam and a Buddhist monk against one another in attempt to convert atheists to their ...
One-ton manta cyclonic feeding frenzy (13)
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12 hours, 33 minutes
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Marilyn sez, "Pretty cool photos from July National Geographic. These manta rays in the Maldives have a 12-ft-wingspan, and the photographer Thomas Peschak was right in among them during feeding frenzies to get these shots. I especially like the last one in this gallery, which shows them lining up one behind the other in chain feeding behavior before swirling into a spiral formation for cyclone feeding, a behavior rarely seen outside the Maldives." Feeding Frenzy ...
Wear patterns as information leakage from security keypads (9)
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16 hours, 49 minutes
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Bruce Schneier points out that keypad wear is a form of "information leakage": "There are 10,000 possible four-digit codes, but you only have to try 24 on these keypads. The first is most likely 1986 or 1968. The second is almost certainly 1234." Information Leakage from Keypads
Landmark buildings of the world as acrylic rings (3)
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17 hours, 53 minutes
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Etsy seller Plastique's got laser-cut acrylic rings boasting pointy world monuments. As knuckledusters, they create the possibility of growling, "Right, mate, you're geography," before you bust your opponent in the chops. world landmarks acrylic ring set (white) (via Neatorama)
HOWTO build a radio in a POW camp -- the real life King Rat (4)
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19 hours, 13 minutes
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This first-hand account of the construction of a clandestine shortwave radio by British POWs in a Japanese camp in Singapore really reminds me of James Clavell's magnificent novel King Rat, my all-time favorite war-novel, which revolves grippingly around the construction, discovery and consequences of a hidden shortwave in the Changi camp (both Clavell and Ronald "St Trinian's" Searle were interned in this camp). BJ: Can I just ask you - the components for the low ...
Massive bank fraud in massively multiplayer game EVE (14)
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19 hours, 41 minutes
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The chairman of the virtual bank in EVE Online, a space-trading/piracy game, absconded with billions of virtual credits, swapping them for $5,000 in cash to make a house payment. The embezzlement caused a run on the bank and has rocked the economy of EVE. The run on the bank has come to about 600 billion ISK, which has been withdrawn. However, we have a very big group of excellent supporters, who have deposited about 105 ...
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Drew said:
i'm always amazed at the wackiness in eve...
Compuserve shuts down (35)
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After 30 years, Compuserve is finally, totally, mostly dead (the email addresses still work). I was always a local BBS and GEnie guy, but there's no doubting the power and influence of Compuserve in introducing the idea of networked communications to a generation, and proving the business-case for commercial online activity: The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, was shut down this past week by its current owner, AOL. The service, which provided its ...
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Micah said:
My first ISP was shut down.
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Aaman Lamba said:
I know someone who still uses a Compuserve email address
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Evan Sims said:
My first ISP. wipes tear
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André said:
Velhos tempos.
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Jim said:
OMG... I had no idea CompuServe was still alive in any way. I was a CompuServe customer in the mid to late 80's for a while.
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mwsmedia said:
CompuServe was my first gateway to the Internet. Farewell, blocky UI, and thanks.
If woowoos ran the emergency room (17)
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20 hours, 2 minutes
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"Homeopathic A&E," a sketch from the British comedy show That Mitchell and Webb Look invites us to imagine an emergency room (A&E is British for Accidents and Emergencies, the UK equivalent of ER), as run by newage woo woos. That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E (via White Coat Underground)
djBC's Muppet mashups (10)
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20 hours, 12 minutes
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djBC, consistently my favorite mashup producer/creator (he's the guy behind the Beasties/Beatles remix "The Beastles"), has released an entire album of remixes of Muppet music! He sez, "In honor of my daughter's first birthday- and one month late- I'm rolling out 'Muppet Mashup.' Ten mashups, remixes, and covers of music from The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. With the legendary McSleazy (of MTV Mash and GYBO), Dunproofin, ATOM, Martinn, Uncanny Valley and yours truly, dj ...
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GG said:
how did I miss this, HEY AMY
Video of Walt Disney World's Obamabot (18)
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The Obamabot 3000 is ready to be unveiled at Walt Disney World's Hall of Presidents, along with the Mark II George Washingtron ("Now with real talking action!") and a Gettysburg-complete Lincolnbot. No word on whether the Obamabot will allow release of the photos of the waterbotting on Pleasure Island, a no-go zone for civilians for several years now. We're just sorting out our Christmas at Disney World plans -- our first WDW trip with the ...
Anti-paparazzi handbag (7)
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1 day, 14 hours
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This prototype handbag detects camera flashes and emits a powerful, obscuring strobe that is meant to confound paparazzi. Of course, if there were four paps shooting at once (as there usually seem to be!), it would just ruin one of the four shots. Last year on July 4, we were walking down the beach in Santa Monica and we saw a pap stop his car in traffic, jump out, run up to the passenger window ...
Logo for "Silence of the Chips" program to give off-switches to RFIDs (8)
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1 day, 19 hours
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Inspired by this European Digital Rights Initiative article on "The Silence of the Chips" (a proposal to redesign your radio-enabled ID cards so that you can control when they work and when they're switched off), Oneillkza created this CC-BY logo for the idea, and made a CafePress tee in case you wanted to add it to your sartorial repertoire. One of the most important action point is the launch of "a debate on the technical ...
Scientists tour the Creationism Museum (24)
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Tony sez, "Recently, a group of paleontologists were in town for the North American Paleontological Convention at the University of Cincinnati, and decided to take a field trip to the Creation Museum just across the river, in Kentucky. My aunt went to cover it for AFP, and I had the doubly good fortune of living just a stone's throw away, so I tagged along to see what these guys were up to. It was an ...
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Alon said:
I'd love to check this place out.
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RJO said:
This would have been a great share if it didn't include a picture of Ken Ham, Brian... The sight of that moron makes me ill :(
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sc said:
Next time I have the possibility of a layover in Cincinnati I'm going to try to get it to be 6 hours and go check this place out
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Shane said:
Ah Wes, remember when we were going to roadtrip here? Another missed opportunity.
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Natalie DeBruin said:
Professor Domning brings up a good point that's too often ignored, I think.
Statue of Liberty photoshopping contest (8)
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The photoshoppers at Worth1000 have found some remarkably fertile territory in today's contest, to remix the Statue of Liberty -- see, for example, Lady Liberty on the Launching Pad, BFF with Jesus of Rio, Yee-HAW!, Window Washer and Evil Monster. Cliche Hell 18 - Statue of Liberty
Deduct your Ponzi scheme losses (5)
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The IRS will let you deduct your losses from Ponzi scheme ripoffs. No word on whether losses due to the wire, the pigeon drop, advance payment or three card monte are allowable, but I'm gonna claim 'em anyway. The IRS has announced it will allow favorable ordinary loss treatment for investment theft losses. Basically, such losses occur when your money is never actually used for the intended purpose of acquiring investment assets. Instead, the money ...
French cops use racial profiling for stop and search (10)
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Chris sez, In France, there's no provision for monitoring ethnicity under the law. This is not an altogether bad thing, but it makes it impossible for anyone to get data about police 'ethnic profiling' [what us Brits call 'racial discrimination'] in the way that they treat members of visible minorities. With no official data to go on, and no official co-operation, French researchers surreptitiously staked out areas of heavy police presence, and then noted the ...
Life During Wartime video from Stop Making Sense (9)
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Robbie sez, "I have no other reason for sharing the link to this video of Life During Wartime than I can't stop watching it. It's from the Talking Heads concert film for _Stop Making Sense_, directed by Jonathan Demme. The music and choreography are mindblowing. My mind is blown right now." Mine too. This is the best concert movie I've ever seen, one of the greatest albums ever recorded, and the amazing thing is that ...
Elderly retired boxing champ beats six kinds of crap out of drunken burglar neighbour (35)
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A British hard-partying 24-year-old bartender got upset that his elderly neighbour called the cops over all the noise he was making, so he got drunk and broke into the 72-year-old's house, wielding some kind of Mall Ninja knife that incorporated brass knuckles. What he didn't know was that the neighbour was a retired boxing champ, and the older man beat the everloving crap out of the would-be assailant. The judge in the case sentenced the ...
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RapidEye said:
Retired old man - FTW!!!
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Maurice said:
Frakking awesome! That douche got everything he deserved.
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girlanachronism said:
YOU GOT KNOCKED THA FUGG OUT MAN!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzfY-aXGcBY
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wolfger said:
Woot!
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jhayes said:
Hero!
