Troy Smith, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, was charged with assault and battery charges after allegedly using a 4 foot long ball python as a weapon. The victim is Jeff… Read the rest of the article: Snake used as "weapon"

Classic Gojira clips cut to the Blue Oyster Cult anthem. Hope YouTube doesn't yank it for copyright issues any time soon, because it's making my day. Last night's South Park… Read the rest of the article: Nothing like Godzilla to cheer you up on Tax Day

Pixel master JACKAL, who at very least we know is aware of Roger Dean, shows off his album cover for Disasterpeace's still-unreleased chiptune album Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar.

Once upon a time, there were slaughterhouses on the island of Manhattan. But, even in the 1870s it wasn't easy to move a herd of cattle through New York City,… Read the rest of the article: Cool underground NYC discovery

Remember Eyjafjallajökull? Iceland's "lazy" volcano that was the site of wacky wiener roasts and beautiful photos featuring the Northern Lights? In that last post, reader Nash Rambler predicted that Eyjafjallajökull… Read the rest of the article: Icelandic volcano no longer slacking off

JK Rowling has written a stirring Times editorial rebutting the UK Conservative party's new kinder, gentler face. The Tories are trying to shake their reputation as the "nasty party," and… Read the rest of the article: JK Rowling on Britain's Conservative "nasty" Party

The MPAA and RIAA have submitted their master plan for enforcing copyright to the new Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Richard Esguerra points out, it's… Read the rest of the article: Big Content's dystopian wish-list for the US gov't: spyware, censorship, physical searches and SWAT teams

Good morning from Oxford, England! I'm at the Skoll World Forum on social entrepreneurship — a gathering of people who are using business and technology to solve social, environmental, and… Read the rest of the article: I'm at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford

Update: The search for truth goes on: yesterday morning, I blogged a study from the Cornucopia Institute on the use of the neurotoxin hexane in production of soyburgers, which sparked… Read the rest of the article: Neurotoxic soyburgers story came from pro-meat/anti-vegetarian group — UPDATED

Mike Pusateri sez, "This week is the NAB Conference and I saw this steampunk style VTR controller on the show floor. I thought you might get a kick out of… Read the rest of the article: Steampunk VTR controller

Allegra sez, "Issue #7 of SteamPunk Magazine is now available for order and (as always) free download via the SteamPunk Magazine website. With fiction about hot air balloons and airships… Read the rest of the article: Steampunk Magazine #7: airships, hot air balloons, Alice, politics and steam!

LibDem supporters in the UK have started a Facebook group to coordinate action among LibDem supporters who might vote "strategically" for another party in the upcoming election. In the UK… Read the rest of the article: UK minority party supporters coordinate strategic votes through Facebook

Danny O'Brien from the Committee to Protect Journalists sez, "The Kyrgyz government used anti-piracy heavies (including a guy who is president of 'Kyrgyz Association for Defense of Intellectual Property Rights'… Read the rest of the article: Anti-piracy enforcers claiming to represent Microsoft used to shut down dissident media in former USSR

"Hate Man," a homeless fellow who lives on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue, wears cast-off women's clothing, and eats out of garbage cans (because "It's free [and it] makes your immune system… Read the rest of the article: Former NYT reporter sleeps on street, eats out of garbage cans

"We are using other sounds such as gunfire, the noise of the vehicles and birds to link up our programmes and news." —Abdulahi Yasin Jama, of Tusmo radio in Somalia,… Read the rest of the article: Radio stations in Somalia prohibited from playing music by totally lame Islamist insurgents

Space Weather reports that one of the largest solar prominences in years erupted from the sun's northwestern limb yesterday, April 13. "The massive plasma-filled structure rose up and burst during… Read the rest of the article: Space Weather: big solar prominence, blow to Earth's magnetic field tomorrow

Joel Johnson has a terrific feature up over at Gizmodo about Lance Blair, and his diesel-powered wheelchair-accessible 4×4 adventure truck known as "Wheelchair Accessible Van for Expeditions," or "WAVE." Lance… Read the rest of the article: Disabled Explorers

Worth revisiting: a gallery of images extoling the longness of Long Cat. (via @seanbonner)

Paramount Pictures will sell 500-gig Seagate drives loaded with the 2009 movie "Star Trek" (and the option to load 20 other films) for $100. According to reports, that promotional pricing… Read the rest of the article: Paramount Pictures sells DRM-tastic hard drives pre-loaded with movies, crippleware

"With the city's infrastructure having collapsed long ago–or perhaps having never been built in the first place–there are no works of public sanitation, no sewers, no licensed doctors, no reliable… Read the rest of the article: Feral cities