The Winchester Mystery House is San Jose, CA's legendary tourist attraction, built by Sarah Winchester, widow of the heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, who believed that she was haunted… Read the rest of the article: Winchester Mystery House gets permit for overnight stays and on-site booze

If you are outraged by American spies getting a free pass from their political masters (and you really should be), remember that this is an age-old tradition. Matt Stoller revisits… Read the rest of the article: Congress was giving spies a pass back in 1975, too

There are a lot of covers of Frozen's themesong "Let it Go" on Youtube — enough to seriously freak out the loony Christian right — but Brian Hull beats 'em… Read the rest of the article: Incredible Disney impersonator sings "Let it Go" in the voices of many characters

One year ago today Grotesque portraits from Christian Rex van Minnen: I love the crammed-together, rammed-together higgeldy piggeldy of insectoid body parts, high fashion, and toons. Five years ago today… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: Grotesque portraits; AIG ripoff gets worse; Boing Boing wins Weblog of the Year at SXSW's Bloggies

Turns out that the claims made by British spies about Youtube granting them the power to censor Youtube videos that they didn't like (but weren't illegal) were bullshit. The "super-flagger"… Read the rest of the article: British spies lied about getting super-censorship powers over Youtube

Glasgow's Popculturepencils makes custom pencils that come in threesomes which spell out fannish messages, For example: "He's dead Jim," "Beam me up Scotty" and "Live long and prosper." Or: "Sedagive?"… Read the rest of the article: Pop culture pencils

Hampton, Florida is a town so corrupt that it offends the Florida Legislature, a body with a notoriously high tolerance for sleaze. With fewer than 500 inhabitants, Hampton's major source… Read the rest of the article: Florida set to delete Hampton, a town with a questing, rent-seeking, corrupt wang

Jeswin proposes that Facebook has failed, explaining that the more you use Facebook, the worse it gets. He describes a login screen with 30 stories on it, four of which… Read the rest of the article: Peak Facebook

One year ago today Large format Adrian Tomine prints: One of Mark's favorite illustrators, Adrian Tomine, has started offering prints of his work, including these two sublime New Yorker covers.… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: Adrian Tomine prints; AIG gets $170B bailout, pays huge bonuses; Exley and Pariser MoveOn keynote from SXSW

Math-doodling manic talking charming vlogger Vi Hart has updated her classic anti-Pi rant with a new poop-on-Pi video called "Happy Pi Day? NOPE," in which she explains why we should… Read the rest of the article: Vi Hart's updated poop-on-Pi video

A group of Hong Kong engineers are kickstarting a Bluetooth speaker/LED lightbulb that draws power through the lightsocket called "Airbulb." Eric writes, "AirBulb has dimmable, bi-colored LED lighting and superb… Read the rest of the article: Kickstarting Airbulb: programmable Bluetooth speakers/LED lightbulbs

The day after a Snowden leak revealed that the NSA builds fake versions of Facebook and uses them to seed malicious software in attacks intended to hijack "millions" of computers,… Read the rest of the article: Zuckerberg phones Obama to complain about NSA spying

When Tony Benn was a Member of Parliament, he would go around with homemade plaques celebrating heroes of democracy, such as suffragette* Emily Wilding Davison, and illegally screw them to… Read the rest of the article: Tony Benn, secret mounter of illegal Parliamentary plaques

I was in Berlin for the day yesterday to speak at a World Consumer Rights Day, and before I headed back to the airport, I dropped in at Werkhaus, a… Read the rest of the article: Werkhaus: flat-pack housewares and accessories skinned with photos of scuffed, worn-in real-world stuff

Tony Benn, a veteran left wing Labour MP who renounced his title in order to become a parliamentarian, has died at home at the age of 88. Benn was a… Read the rest of the article: RIP, Tony Benn

Zack sez, "Submitted for your approval — Bif Bang Pow! has a new line of action figures inspired by the classic TV series done in the scale and style of… Read the rest of the article: New old-timey Twilight Zone action figures announced

One year ago today In case you missed: Bradley Manning has a voice: The Freedom of the Press Foundation this week released surreptitiously recorded audio leaked from the Bradley Manning… Read the rest of the article: This Day in Blogging History: Bradley Manning has a voice; DIY funerals; Ian McDonald's Hearts, Hands and Voices

Tomorrow, 3/14, is Pi Day in the USA (it will not be Pi Day in the rest of the world until the Martian Emperor subjugates us all to his sinister… Read the rest of the article: Eggbot design: Pi Egg for Pi Day

The FBI has turned over a redacted set of documents from its investigative archives related to Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, a notorious strong-man whose antics have cost the… Read the rest of the article: FBI recommended felony counts against Joe Arpaio's cronies

The Raymond Scott estate turned over 50 years' worth of the composer's archives to three DJs — The Bran Flakes, The Evolution Control Committee, and Go Home Productions. The archives… Read the rest of the article: DJs plunder Raymond Scott's archives and remix rarities: Raymond Scott Rewired!