NBC Dateline reporter busted at hacker conference
To Catch a Reporter. NBC Dateline producer Michelle Madigan tries to go undercover at the DefCon 14 security convention – and bites off more than she can chew.
Having been alerted to her presence days before the event, DefCon staff baits the trap with a fake “Spot the Fed” contest. Once she is seated, DefCon organizer Jeff Moss suggests they play “Spot the Undercover Reporter” instead. Knowing the gig’s up, Madigan bolts – and a comical parking lot chase ensues.
(Not a good week for Dateline NBC – its producers are being sued for bribing local law-enforcement officials to help them arrange their stings.)
Spot the fed is an awesome game. I was to DefCon 7 back in the day, was a hell of a good time, I was there actually with a group of friends, one of them being a fed. Back then the feds had a sense of humor about it, they took pride in the t shirt they got if they were spotted (“I’m a Fed”). Now though, with Bush Jr. in charge… yah, probably not as many feds with a sense of humor
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Alienshift
“Alienshifter is the one who takes the Oath in order to uphold and defend Humanity and their Rights in any contact with Alien or Extraterrestrial beings in addition to represent the Earth in contact and communication with Star Visitors from all other Planets or in the Council of the Worlds and Federation of Planets.” Alienshift is an eclectic conspiracy site, exploring such subjects as islamic ufology, the pole shift of 2012, Edgar Cayce, sufism, Akhenaton as well as the more expected fare, UFO videos, Nostradamus and the bible code. That is only the tip of the iceberg. Lots and lots of youtube videos grace the site of this New Hope for Humanity.
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HOWTO make a giant, insane match
Billy, an intern at Instructables, made this gigantic match out of 15,000 match-heads, 30 ping pong balls, and a 96-inch long piece of 4×4 lumber. The ignition sequence — lovingly documented in a series of videos on the Instructables page — is a joyous conflagration.
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Animated Alan Watts
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and their pals animated several audio recordings of Alan Watts, an iconic philosopher and writer who turned scores of people on to Zen Buddhism.
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“real-world white sharks with GPS units attached to their fins”
In the Sharkrunners game , players control their ships, but the sharks are controlled by real-world white sharks with GPS units attached to their fins (…) every shark that players encounter corresponds to a real shark in the real world.
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Live Hot Puppet Chat
Are you Lonely? Curious? Depraved? Do you have questions that are just too risqué for AskMe? Live Hot Puppet Chat has got your answer. Yeah baby! Now you can experience sizzling raw, uh, pleasures.
[NSFW]
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Masters of Science Fiction: Buried at Birth on ABC?
I watch virtually no television but this NPR review for the debut episode of Masters of Science Fiction (ABC) had me intrigued. (A similar review in the NY Times). ABC is being accused of burying this show with the timing of its introduction (and time slot). As for me, I’m still thinking about the debut episode, three hours later.
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There are two guards: one always speaks the truth, the other gouges the eyes out of people who ask tricky questions.
All men are liars. Start with the follow-up to this much-discussed article.
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Butte, Montana’s least favorite son: Evel Knievel
What does it feel like to crash? “What the hell do you think it feels like? Christ almighty. It hurts.” Evel Knievel was the original Jackass and now he’s living out his days like most elderly retirees in Florida: tired, cranky and on oxygen.
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Nightmares of the electric sheep
The first armed robots have hit the streets of Iraq and are now hunting evil-doers with high-powered M249 machine guns. The robots are called SWORDS, which stands for “Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System”. Army focus groups apparently preferred this acronym over the more obvious PUBE (Predatory Unmanned Battle Engine). The robots are currently being piloted through the streets of Bagdad using remote control. According to an interview on CNET with Chief Army Scientist Thomas Killion however, the army soon plans to make the killing machines fully automatic.
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The 52 Most Influential Photographs
52 Influential Photographs: From the oldest survivng photograph, to images of revolution, misery, beauty and humility.
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TED of the Web
100 Sites TED thinks you need to know about TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is an annual conference held in Monterey, California and recently, semi-annually in other cities around the world. TED describes itself as a “group of remarkable people that gather to exchange ideas of incalculable value”. These are the sites that it thinks you should know about.
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Potter Puppet Pals
Potter Puppet Pals. More: Ron’s computer , Oh noes, Bothering Snape, 4-potions class, The cute villian, The Gay Party, The Budget Wand of Doom. Even more.
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Lets have a Tea Party!!
Here’s an article on How to make your own kombucha tea.
Kombucha is on its way to being the new “it” drink. This fermented tea is so popular that several brands are available at upscale grocery stores, and its Wikipedia entry has tripled in length since I first checked. I’ve heard the tea’s culture — which looks like a rubbery pancake — called a “mother,” “mushroom,” “starter,” and most accurately, a “scoby” (‘symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts’).
Whatever it is, kombucha is entering a renaissance after millennia of use in China and centuries in Eastern Europe, from whence all good fermented things come. Its loyal following claims health benefits of all ilk, citing vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and probiotic microorganisms present in the tea. I just like it because it tastes good (like a sweet-sour sparkling apple cider).
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Skull-a-Day: A new mixed media skull every day
Skull-A-Day is a project to create a new and cool skull every day, using a variety of materials. The creativity on display is hot — I love the styro cup skull and the nail skull!
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Ctrl C
Top 10 Clipboard Tricks: One of the greatest features the point and click interface brought to personal computers is the clipboard – that invisible, temporary shelf you use more times per day than Google. If you think the clipboard is only about Ctrl+C, you’re missing out. Several utilities can turbocharge your clipboard and track, transfer and reformat the clipboard to your heart’s content…
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Wrath of the Lich King
Well, it’s official. After numerous rumors, leaks, and even someone with a sharp eye for trademark searches, it was revealed this morning with the first entrants to BlizzCon in Anaheim, California that the next World of Warcraft expansion will be called Wrath of the Lich King, complete with new areas to explore, new hairstyles and character customizations, level 80, and the first new class to be introduced to the game since it opened.
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Fortress of Solitude
The gypsum crystals in the Cave of Crystals at the Naica mine in Chihuahua, Mexico, are some of the largest and most spectacular in the world. [Last link is a .wmv]
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Putting their bandwidth where their mouth is
Good Copy Bad Copy is “a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture,” featuring Danger Mouse, Lawrence Lessig, Dan Glickman of the MPAA and others. The film’s creators are releasing it free of charge, via Bittorrent.
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Helmets, NOW!
Meet the star-nosed mole. Capable of smelling underwater as well as the usual digging, it looks like some kind of bizarre mole–illithid hybrid and is the world’s fastest eater.
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We all live in a makeshift submarine…
A detective from the New York Department Intelligence Division noticed a strange-looking submarine in the vicinity of the at the cruise ship terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The submarine’s design appears to be similar to that of Bushnell’s Turtle, the first submarine used in battle.
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They’re Back From the Dead
These five companies were flatlining until they made bold management decisions. Business Week tells you how they did it.
- Nintendo: The Wii dared to market to families and non-gamers
- Audi: Banked on engineering and prowess and didn’t get distracted
- Hewlett-Packard: Started marketing the PC as a lifestyle, not a product
- Burberry: Increased brand prestige by cancelling cheaper lines
- Citibank: Sold itself as a “neighborhood bank” with global reach
RobDurdle.com 
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