Use Protection Against ID Thieves


Considering the frightening “statistics”:http://idtheft.about.com/od/dataandstat1/a/ID_Theft_Stats.htm regarding ID theft, it is extremely important knowing how to protect yourself and to act accordingly if you do become a victim. The “ITRC”:http://idtheftcenter.org/index.shtml is your best on-line tool with information on “new scams”:http://idtheftcenter.org/alerts.shtml that are happening, “prevention tips”:http://idtheftcenter.org/preventiontips.shtml, “victim guides”:http://idtheftcenter.org/vguides.shtml, and way more. Try taking the “ID theft test”:http://idtheftcenter.org/idthefttest.shtml before you peruse the site so you know in what areas to focus. There’s a lot of information to go through so it’s best to look sooner than later.

Guerrilla Benches in London


The “Space Hijackers”:http://www.spacehijackers.org./html/welcome.html, self-described as “Trouble with an anti-capital ‘T’, have been part of a sustained “Guerrilla Benching”:http://www.spacehijackers.org./html/projects/guerrillabench/guerrilla.html campaign in the borough of Camden in London. Apparently the Borough Council has been removing benches and the people, at least according to this lot, are not going to take that sitting down.
Photo credit to the Space Hijackers and story via “Time Out”:http://www.timeout.com/london/features/1975/12.html#articleAfterMpu

YouTube speed painter

Artistic talents are something I’ve always envied, and this guy is no exception to that. His name is Nico Di Mattia from Cordoba, Argentina and his channel, “NEXX”:http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=macpulenta, is the 78th most subscribed-to channel on YouTube. I can see why. The videos produced by this Argentinian are gorgeous, sped-up renditions of his own art being created with Photoshop. It really is cool to see every stage of the work, from experimenting with textures to simply re-drawing individual lines. Check out this video of his portrait of Scarlet Johannson being drawn:

The RIAA? Not in MY Democratic Party.

“Boing Boing”:http://www.boingboing.net today posted an extremely disappointing article revealing that one of the people heading up public affairs and relations for the Democratic National Convention in Denver will be Jenni Engebretsen, the Director of Communications for the Recording Industry Association of America. For me, as a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party, this link to the RIAA, an organization made famous by glorified bullying and deceptive legal practices, makes me much more cautious to support the party.
From Boing Boing: “The liberal blogosophere is united on many fronts — not just disliking US foreign policy. We also hate the RIAA — for suing our friends, for lobbying for laws that suspend due process rights of the accused (the RIAA’s favorite law, the DMCA, was used by Diebold to suppress information about failures in its voting machines), and for demanding the right to “pretext” (commit wire fraud) in order to catch “pirates.””
Read the full article “here”:http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/12/dnc_appoints_riaa_sh.html, and more quotes from her “here”:http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/12/riaa_shills_greatest.html. Don’t like the news? Contact the DNC “here”:http://www.democrats.org/contact.html.

Ever wanted to know how to power your moon colony?

My good friend Mike McCambridge (second from the right in the picture below), a senior at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, has been working with several peers on an amazing senior capstone project: designing a power plant that takes advantage of the moon’s particular thermodynamic characteristics in order to generate power.

The basic idea involves using a large, reflective panel to collect solar energy, heating a fluid to great temperatures, and transmitting the heated fluid to power a turbine. The group traveled to Huntsville, Alabama to speak with scientists at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and trade ideas about the particulars of such a system.
Read more about this project “here”:http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=590355. It is amazing what brilliant projects and ideas can be generated even by undergraduate research.

Audio Books at the Right Price


If you’re always on-the-go, a devout book lover, or just plain lazy, “librivox.org”:http://librivox.org has many free and legal audio books available for your literary delight. Their catalog is a growing collection of published books with expired copyrights read by volunteers from around the world. I’ve already listened to _Alice and Wonderland_ and, despite the occasional faint dog barking in the background, their books are of decent quality. There’s finally a faster and easier way to get free literature without late fees and actually having to read.

Zero Tolerance = No Fun


If you’re in the mood to get really angry or even to poke fun at the tough stance schools are taking nowadays, check out these “examples”:http://zerointelligence.net of zero tolerance gone wrong. Check out “this story”:http://zerointelligence.net/archives/000category/world-japan/ where a Japanese student was given a box cutter and a paper so he could write an apology letter in blood for falling asleep class. Don’t worry though, the teacher was only suspended for few days and you can bet that kid never slept in class ever again. Yikes!

A Friendster for the Family Pet

http://www.dogster.com/, without any butt sniffing whatsoever. All Fido needs is your e-mail address (unless he has his own) and your typing skills and he’ll be all ready. My personal favorites include "Doggie Diaries":http://www.dogster.com/diary/dcentral.php, "Dogster Videos":http://www.dogster.com/video/, and on a more serious note, an adoptable dogs search engine. Cat lover? Click "here":http://www.catster.com/.