Cory Doctorow at 5:50 pm •
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ProPublica has produced a video showing, point-by-point all the ways that US government officials, all the way up to Obama, have told blatant lies about the details and extent of NSA spying.
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Cory Doctorow at 2:45 pm •
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I'm profiled in today's Wall Street Journal, where they asked me about the tools I use to be productive, safe and happy on the road and at home.
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Cory Doctorow at 1:50 pm •
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The Iranian government has released photos of a machine that amputates thieves fingers using the state media agency. The photos show a blindfolded man having his finger amputated, though he displays no visible distress. The Telegraph speculates that he might be drugged.
According to the INSA news service, the prisoner used to demonstrate the brutal contraption had been convicted of theft and adultery by a court in Shiraz last Wednesday.
A series of pictures show three masked officials, clad entirely in black, holding the man's right hand in a vice while one turns a wheel operating the guillotine in the manner of a rotary saw.
In none of the four closely cropped images does the bearded prisoner's expression register pain, suggesting that he may have been drugged.
Iran unveils finger amputating machine for use on thieves [Phoebe Greenwood/Telegraph]
(via Skepchick)
Cory Doctorow at 12:45 pm •
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In an amazing coincidence, Colorado lawmakers ended up with license plates that didn't show up on speed cameras, meaning that they got to get away with thousands of dollars' worth of moving violations without ever paying fines. The DPW won't try to collect on the fines, because that would be hard.
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Rob Beschizza at 9:13 am •
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I keep running into these posters here in Pittsburgh. The design was created by Queer & Brown in Steeltown.
For those that asked, the posters and t-shirts are not for sale. We reject the white supremacist capitalist system that entices us to profit from a black person’s tragic death. We have made a hi-res copy of the image available for non-commercial use. That means you should never see this image for sale. Get the image and read our full response here. Team Q&B**"
Rob Beschizza at 8:46 am •
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Terry's Chocolate Orange is among Britain's finest confectionaries. The very concept of a
life-size chocolate orange is so compelling that I didn't think twice about trying out a generic copy spotted at a local craft store.
In the matter of Ovation's Milk Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Break-A-Part chocolate orange, however, I was gravely mistaken. It looked, smelled, and tasted just like the scented candles shelved unsettlingly nearby.
Four unicode turds out of five.
Cory Doctorow at 8:36 am •
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Jamie "JWZ" Zawinski and the DNA Lounge are crowdfunding a "parklet" -- a tiny park inside a former parking-space -- out front of the DNA Lounge in San Francisco's SOMA. The DNA is a treasure, and Zawinski's plans for the parklet are ambitious and represent a significant improvement to Eleventh Street. They need $10K.
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Cory Doctorow at 6:19 am •
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One year ago today
Make a backyard control panel with your kids: This project is perfect for cleaning out junk drawers and miscellaneous tools and hardware.
Five years ago today
3D fan-illustration for Printcrime: Greg Elmensdorp was inspired by my story Printcrime (a short-short story I wrote for Nature Magazine) to created this blue-red 3D illustration.
Ten years ago today
Stross on mini-PCs: . Tiny, cheap, fanless PCs with trailing-edge processors -- only 1GHz -- are nevertheless a really amazingly cool idea, especially when you start thinking in terms of turning them into personal video recorders (running things like FreeVo) or in-car GPS navigation systems.
Cory Doctorow at 8:00 pm •
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A dead WalMart in McAllen, Texas has been remodelled as a library, making it the largest single-floor library in the USA. It's award-winning design makes excellent use of all that space -- two football fields' worth -- and includes an acoustically separated teen space.
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Cory Doctorow at 6:47 pm •
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This amazing Cthulhu pie may have originated on a message board (cached copy) with a user called Bear Bibeault, or maybe not. Do you know?
Cory Doctorow at 6:04 pm •
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Fred Kahl, a Coney Island performer and magician, is kickstarting a project to put a 3D scanning/printing studio and a 3D printed miniature Coney Island at Coney Island's Luna Park. He's developed a cheap 3D scanner based on a Kinekt, and will release the full plans to Thingiverse once he's fully funded. He's looking for $15K (he's already crested $10K), and $25 gets you scanned in his NY studio ($60 gets you scanned and printed).
A 3D Scanning Portrait Studio based in America's Playground- Coney Island, NY
(Thanks, Fred!)
Cory Doctorow at 4:38 pm •
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A fresh set of Snowden leaks show that the UK spy agency GCHQ turned spying into a profit centre for Britain's telcos, who received huge cash payouts in exchange for turning over their customers' private communications and developing spyware to infect customers' computers in order to extract more data.
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Cory Doctorow at 4:12 pm •
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The Evil Mad Scientists were presented with a challenge: inscribe one of Cliff Stoll's hand-blown Klein bottles, an object of surpassing beauty and odd topology. They modified an Eggbot plotter to etch the surface of a Klein bottle with a diamond engraver attachment.
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Cory Doctorow at 3:00 pm •
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Jason McKittrick is selling a set of "Mythos Magnets" based on the Cthulhu stories, with bronze or silver finish. There's only 100 sets in the run, and they're $25 for a set of four.
MYTHOS MAGNETS
(Thanks, Jason!)
Cory Doctorow at 2:05 pm •
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Sculptor Nemo Gould sez, "I just finished up a new large scale kinetic sculpture made from found materials called Armed and Dangerous. It is a giant, mulit-armed, multi-faced, dual-zombie-powered, mercury-activated, electro-mechanical monster!"
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