NYT writer and BB pal John Schwartz test-flew a jetpack with its inventor Glenn Martin, at a Wisconsin air show today. It looks really fun. To rise off the ground… Read the rest of the article: Jetpack reviewed. Verdict: undeniably awesome.

The US Department of State's Countermeasures Directorate launched a new public exhibition titled ""Listening In: Electronic Eavesdropping in the Cold War Era." Scientific American posted a slideshow of the exhibition… Read the rest of the article: US State Department's surveillance tech exhibit

Pendarvis Harshaw of the incredible Youth Radio organization produced an NPR "What's The New What?" piece about how, for some young people, "sex without a condom is the new engagement… Read the rest of the article: Youth Radio: Condomless sex is new "engagement ring"?

It turns out the spikes below the surface of the water at Green Lake Boating Center in Seattle weren't put there by sadists, as originally thought. Patti says: "We were… Read the rest of the article: Spikes in Seattle pond not malicious

Boing Boing tv guest correspondent Todd Lappin (R) and cameraninja Eddie Codel (L) trek to the Long Now Foundation's first-ever Mechanicrawl event, and bring back tales of early analog computing,… Read the rest of the article: BBtv: Multi-millenial Mechanical clocks – Long Now "Mechanicrawl" pt. 1

Becky sez, "FishNChip blog couldn't work out if this podcast with Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom, a top British civil servant and the Brown government's technology czar, was a joke or not.… Read the rest of the article: UK tech-czar's ridiculous, fatuous podcast interview — hilarious gag interview

Mike sez, "The University of Nottingham has decided that its students and staff have 'no "right"' to possess terrorism-related materials for the purposes of research, such as al-Qaeda training manuals… Read the rest of the article: Uni of Nottingham: Grad students researching terrorism aren't allowed to look at terrorist documents on US anti-terror gov't sites

underground bands marimba ponies daily mail picnic zac and sara ed's guide to metal album covers galore air official other music Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and… Read the rest of the article: Web Zen: video killed the radio zen

Daniel sez, "A mass-surveillance law has almost been passed in the Swedish parliament (it has been passed but needs to be fully granted). We are seeing a huge opposition about… Read the rest of the article: Swedish radio cops caught in warrantless surveillance scandal

Roy Trumbull has performed an excellent reading of my short story The Super Man and the Bugout — a story about Superman as a Jewish boy raised in Toronto's suburbs… Read the rest of the article: Super Man and the Bugout reading: what if Superman had been a nice Jewish boy from Toronto

Todd Lappin says: Photographer Troy Paiva has a new book out, and it's chock full of superb nighttime photos taken at abandoned military bases, aircraft boneyards, auto junkyards, and other… Read the rest of the article: Book: Night Visions: The Art of Urban Exploration

Gord says: It's on the CBC's website, so it must be… (dun dun duuuun)… T R U E ! ! !" Two Ontario women say they saw what might have… Read the rest of the article: Sasquatch sighting in Northern Ontario

Today was an amazing day out at Mojave Spaceport. Burt Rutan, Sir Richard Branson, and a bevy of space celebs (including Dr. Buzz Aldrin) gathered for the launch of Virgin… Read the rest of the article: All about "Eve": Virgin Galactic mothership unveiled.

I enjoy Radley Balko's articles in Reason about threats to civil liberties. Today in his FOXNews.com column, Balko presents a list of 11 questions he'd like to ask Barack Obama.… Read the rest of the article: Radley Balko: A Few Questions for Barack Obama

In a brilliant pair of videos, , Prof. James Duane of the Regent University School of Law and Officer George Bruch of the Virginia Beach Police Department present a forceful… Read the rest of the article: Law prof and cop agree: never ever ever ever ever ever ever talk to the cops about a crime, even if you're innocent

Canadian rockers The Craft Economy — whom we blogged last year when they stapled their CC-licensed CDs to telephone poles — have done it again. Only this time, the CDs… Read the rest of the article: Candian band staples CC-licensed CDs to phone-poles with anti-Canadian-DMCA messages

Jeff Simmermon posted this 1980s ad for a substance called Cube Lube, "an incredible lubricant specially formulated for the cube and other mind-boggling puzzles that move." Cube Lube (And I… Read the rest of the article: Lubricant for Rubik's Cube

Here is a terrific auditory illusion called a Shepard scale. Listen to the video, then replay it. Again. And again. And again. From Wikipedia: A Shepard tone, named after Roger… Read the rest of the article: Amazing auditory illusion

The gentleman seen here, Keith Walendowski, 56, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, got so angry with his lawnmower that he shot it. He's now been charged with a felony for possession of… Read the rest of the article: Man shoots lawnmower

I wonder what made the police officer choose this particular bicyclist to knock to the ground at a critical mass rally in NYC on July 25? Although a judge ruled… Read the rest of the article: Critical Mass bicyclist knocked over by NYPD