Game of Thrones S3E8: Will you take this man?
It's a war for the seven kingdoms! It's a soap opera with romantic weddings and blood sacrifices!! It's the latest episode of Game of Thrones, and it's time to recap and discuss! When we last left Arya Stark, she'd gotten fed up with the fire-worshippin.....»»
Accused identity thief nailed by food-porn Instagram photo
Troy Maye was wanted for a string of identity thefts, but the IRS couldn't positively identify him. But after he passed a thumb-drive of stolen data to an IRS informant, investigators were able to pull his name off the drive's metadata. They used that to .....»»
NASA solar flare video with Lars Leonhard music
NASA released this stunning video of two powerful solar flares erupting off the upper left side of the sun earlier this month. The images come from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and from the ESA/NASA Solar Heliospheric Observatory. The music is .....»»
HOWTO make a "Swiss Army knife" key ring
I have an annoyingly bulky key ring. I frequently clip it to my belt like a janitor, but this DIY "Swiss Army Key Ring" seems like a nice alternative. However, it does mean giving up car remote fobs. Swiss Army Key Ring (Instructables) &n.....»»
Wonderful collection of zines 1984–93 donated to library
Josh Glenn has a great post with lots of photos of his collection of zines from 1984-1993, which he donated to University of Iowa Libraries. I hope they scan them soon! Recently, the University of Iowa Libraries acquired the Joshua Glenn Zine Collection &.....»»
Book review: information security for lawyers
On Slashdot, a reader called benrothke reviews a book called Locked Down: Information Security For Lawyers. This sounds like a vital book -- my experience of lawyers (and accountants, doctors and other professions that deal with sensitive information) is .....»»
Scotty Albrecht: new art show in Brooklyn with Damian Silver
Designer/woodworker/typographer Scotty Albrecht has a new show of wood and paper works opening at Brooklyn's Colab Projects this Saturday, May 25. The show, titled "Wood & Pulp," is a two person exhibition that pairs Albrecht with Damion Silver. Both arti.....»»
Video: museum home of Oddities" Ryan Matthew Cohn
The always-excellent Midnight Archive visits artist and Oddities host Ryan Matthew Cohn and his massive collection of skulls, shrunken heads, and other curiosities. Oddities' Ryan Cohn's apartment Mummies and Monkey Skulls &nbs.....»»
Utah wants to tax power consumed by the NSA"s massive, illegal data-processing facility
Remember the gigantic data-center that the NSA is building in Utah in order to (illegally) process the electronic communications of the whole world? Turns out that the state of Utah plans on taxing the titanic amounts of electricity it will consume at 6%......»»
Daft Punk: Does good music need to be good?
In the New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones on Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories": Daft Punk’s fourth studio album, “Random Access Memories,” is an attempt to make the kind of disco record that they sampled so heavily for “Discovery.” As such, it ser.....»»
When America issued dogtags to kids to help identify their nuke-blasted corpses
Matt Novak hits some highlights from Joanne Brown's 1988 Journal of American History paper A is for Atom, B is for Bomb (paywalled link), which discusses the weird, grim stuff that America contemplated at the height of the cold war, and worried about how .....»»
Guatemala: Archive of documents from Rios Montt genocide trial, overturned 10 days after guilty verdict
May 9, 2013: A public art project in Guatemala City, one block from the courth where Rios Montt was convicted on May 10. "Si hubo genocidio," the sign reads. "Yes, it was genocide." Photo: Xeni Jardin. As reported last night, the Constitutional Court of .....»»
Internet of Things and surveillance
Bruce Schneier's got smart things to say about surveillance in the age of the Internet of Things: In the longer term, the Internet of Things means ubiquitous surveillance. If an object "knows" you have purchased it, and communicates via either Wi-Fi or .....»»
Heartwarming: man leaves $1K tip to help waitress realize dream of visiting Italy
On the Casual Cynic Tumblr, a heart-warming story about a waitress who got a $1,000 tip from a diner she'd met for the first time that night, who wanted to help her realize her dream of visiting Italy, whence her family hailed. So my mom and I have been.....»»
Mat Ricardo"s London Varieties returns May 30
Mat Ricardo"s London Varieties returns May 30.....»»
Whatever happened to crack babies?
The wonderful Retro Report (which revisits popular news stories of the years gone by and follows up on their claims) has posted a great, 10-minute documentary on "crack babies," concluding that the promised crack baby epidemic of kids with gross deformiti.....»»
In defense of the selfie
Sam Kassé defends the selfie, blight of social networks: "I know most people hate selfies. They groan and complain about them, from the duck lips to the filters. Why, just the word “selfie” can induce legendary amounts of eyerolling. What people seem.....»»
Navy dolphins find antique torpedo
Two US Navy dolphins discovered an antique torpedo off the coast of San Diego, CA. The Howell torpedo is one of 50 produced, remarkable as it is the first locomotive torpedo developed and was fly-wheel powered. Surprisingly this marks the 24th recovered! .....»»
In-game hyperinflation
Here's a totally amazing and fascinating story about hyperinflation crashing the economy of Blizzard's massively multiplayer online RPG Diablo 3. Blizzard blew its economic strategy for Diablo 3 by making the "sinks" (places where gold is taken out of the.....»»
Read a moving account of surviving (and dying on) Mount St. Helens
At National Geographic, you can read Rowe Findley's 1981 account of surviving the Mount St. Helens eruption — and his deeply moving profiles of many of the people who did not. Includes this seminal quote from 83-year-old Harry R. Truman, who Findley.....»»