Asian small-clawed otter paws fly across the keyboard as part of their zoo enrichment. The otters are given the choice to play the keyboard or just sit back and enjoy the show—engaging their sight, touch, and hearing senses — via Youtube
The concept of repurposing a wine bottle into a container garden watering device
has been around for a while. I was intrigued at first, because I love to see glass in the garden, and the idea seemed practical as well as pretty. However, after trying several different methods and contraptions I gave up, until recently. After thinking it through, I made a trip to the hardware store with a very specific idea in mind: use copper tubing to make a wine bottle funnel
— via Hometalk
A local New Hampshire police department agreed Thursday to pay a woman who was arrested and charged with wiretapping $57,000 to settle her civil rights lawsuit. The deal comes a week after a federal appeals court ruled that the public has a First Amendment
right to film cops.
The plaintiff in the case, Carla Gericke, was arrested on wiretapping allegations in 2010 for filming her friend being pulled over by the Weare Police Department during a late-night traffic stop. Although Gericke was never brought to trial, she sued, alleging that her arrest constituted retaliatory prosecution in breach of her constitutional rights. The department, without admitting wrongdoing, settled Thursday in a move that the woman’s attorney speculated would deter future police retaliation
.
Unfortunately, sometimes, the only thing that changes entrenched behaviors is if it becomes too costly to continue those behaviours,
attorney Seth Hipple said. This settlement helps to make it clear that government agencies that choose to retaliate against videographers will pay for their retaliation in dollars and cents. We are confident that this settlement will help to make arrests of videographers a thing of the past.
The First US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (PDF) in Gericke’s case last week that she was exercising a clearly established First Amendment right when she attempted to film the traffic stop in the absence of a police order to stop filming or leave the area
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
In May of 2009, the Twitter account of Frank Furter posted three tweets. That was all.
So, come up to the lab,
— Frank Furter (@DrFNFurter) 8 May 2009
and see what’s on the slab!
— Frank Furter (@DrFNFurter) 8 May 2009
I see you shiver with antici …
— Frank Furter (@DrFNFurter) 8 May 2009
That was all, that is, for five years until another tweet appeared this month.
… pation.
— Frank Furter (@DrFNFurter) 8 May 2014
Five years. Five years that account has lain dormant, in order to complete a joke about the famous pause in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Good job, Dr Frank-N-Furter — via Neatorama
Sniffing the Fluffy Dog and Sod Off, originally uploaded by Red Wolf
This baby fox cub was caught up in a cricket net. Luckily for him the Wildlife Aid animal rescue team came to set him free — via Youtube
For the first time in more than 20 years, Australia’s much-loved kids’ science program, the Curiosity Show, has partnered with Kellogg Australia to create a new episode all in the name of educating Aussie parents and their children about breakfast nutrition — via Youtube
The world’s second largest mobile phone company, Vodafone, says at least six unnamed governments can use its phone system to monitor customers whenever they want.
The company’s Disclosure Report says most governments need legal notices
to access its networks, but there are six nations — which is says it cannot name for legal reasons — that have direct access.
It says in those countries authorities have inserted their own equipment into the network or have diverted all data through government systems so they can permanently access customers’ communications.
In a small number of countries the law dictates that specific agencies and authorities must have direct access to an operator’s network, bypassing any form of operational control over lawful interception on the part of the operator,
the company said.
It added that in Albania, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Qatar, Romania, South Africa and Turkey it could not disclose any information related to wiretapping or interception — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Serpentine Bench and Serpentine Bench Tile Detail, originally uploaded by Red Wolf
We’ve been selling Magnetic Thinking Putty for years and have always been astounded by the burning questions we’ve received for this ever-popular item. So, we decided to do some experimentation utilising a 100-pound ball of Magnetic Thinking Putty and a ridiculously strong magnet — via Youtube
Zecc Architecten transformed a water tower situated in the De Weerribben-Wieden National Park, Sint Jansklooster, The Netherlands into a watchtower with a 360 degree view of De Wieden — via ArchDaily
A litter of cute dhole puppies make their debut at Howletts Wild Animal Park, near Canterbury — via Youtube
LegoKraken08, originally uploaded by Jack McKeen.
A rare collection of first edition comic books featuring inconic heroes Superman, Batman and Flash are to be auctioned in the US.
Kentucky insurance executive John Wise decided it was time to sell the collection he’s been accumulating over three decades, revisiting a childhood pastime that he picked up again in the 1980s after he became established in his career.
I think it’s a good timing for the market, and good timing for me at age 62,
” said Wise. It’s not like I’m not going to take them with me.
The comic books sold for as little as 10 cents when they were published, many in the late 1930s and 1940s.
He is auctioning about 175 comics individually, and online bidders have already committed about a half-million dollars to the auction, which ends Tuesday — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Bernard Doc
Neeson, singer-songwriter for veteran Australian rock band The Angels, has died aged 67.
Neeson, who had been suffering from a brain tumour, died in his sleep this morning.
It is with deep sadness and regret that the family of Angels singer/songwriter Bernard
a statement from his family said — via redwolf.newsvine.comDoc
Neeson — loving father, family member and friend to so many – announce he has passed away in his sleep at 7.15am,
Owl Turd Comix by Shenanigansen — via Wil Wheaton
Most people know John Oliver for his work on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show — but at the end of April, he got his own program: the satirical weekly Last Week Tonight.
In the episode which just aired on HBO, there was an entire segment devoted to our own Tony Abbott. Cue: the national cringe. Abbott is introduced as a hard-lined right wing Prime Minister, who rose to power promising to be pro-business and religiously anti-immigration. Literally: religiously anti-immigration.
With a quote from Abbott to prove it — Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it is not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia,
Abbott says — the narrator skewers the hypocrisy of a national leader who claims immigration to be against Jesus’ way, even though he was himself born in London.
What is it about Tony Dumb-Dumb that’s led to his current approval rating of 30%?
he asks. Could it be that he’s personally insulted everyone else in the country, from women to gays to anyone remotely Irish to elderly cancer-ridden phone sex workers?
And it only ramps up from there — via Junkee
Most people in the UK may not have realised it, but every time they backed up an MP3 or made a copy of a CD or DVD for personal use, they were breaking the law.
Starting today this is no longer the case for the disabled, thanks to a revision of copyright law that just went into effect. Disabled citizens can now copy and publish copyrighted material if there’s no commercial alternative available.
Disabled people and disability groups can now make accessible copies of copyright material (eg music, film, books) when no commercial alternative exists,
the Government announced today.
Previously the Government also said that all private copying for personal use would be legal starting in June, but this has apparently been delayed pending Parliament approval.
However, following a thorough inspection of local copyright legislation the UK Government has already committed to change current laws in favor of consumers — via redwolf.newsvine.com
UNSW researchers are a step closer to proving whether explosives — rather than water — can be used to extinguish an out-of-control bushfire.
Dr Graham Doig, of the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, is conducting the research, which extends a long-standing technique used to put out oil well fires.
The process is not dissimilar to blowing out a candle: it relies on a blast of air to knock a flame off its fuel source.
Doig travelled to the Energetic Materials Research Testing Center — a high-explosives and bomb test site in a remote part of New Mexico — in January this year to scale up tests he originally conducted at UNSW’s heat transfer and aerodynamics laboratory.
The New Mexico tests used a four-metre steel blast tube — which contained a cardboard cylinder wrapped in detonation cord — to produce a concentrated shockwave and rush of air. This was directed at a metre-high flame fuelled by a propane burner.
The sudden change in pressure across the shockwave, and then the impulse of the airflow behind it pushed the flame straight off the fuel source. As soon as the flame doesn’t have access to fuel any more, it stops burning.
Doig hopes the concept can now be scaled up to fight out-of-control forest and bushfires burning in remote parts of the world — via Youtube
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