Nostalgic Elation — the Super Mario Crossover

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/1958201/Nostalgic-Elation-mdash-the-Super-Mario-Crossover?art_pos=4

"Sure, they're stepping all over proprietary rights and copyright, but something must be said about the amount of bliss-filled nostalgia inside Exploding Rabbit's Super Mario Crossover. If the plumbers never really did it for you, you can now kill those goombas as Link, Mega Man, Samus, Simon Belmont, or Contra's Bill. Goodbye jumping and spitting; hello slicing, whipping, and shooting. Is this one of the early firsts in the new genre of video game mashups?"

 I ignored this the first couple times I saw it because I thought it was just playing Mario with a different character sprites.  But you actually play as the chacter.  So as link you kill goombas with your sword and boomerang.  It's pretty great, I just wish it was a ROM and not flash.

Interview

Bill Nye

http://www.billnye.com/branding-the-bat

EPIC HOA parking boot battle

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f7/epic-hoa-parking-boot-battle-572540/

Tracking Promises

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/

Interesting site.  Tracks political promises and rates if they were broken or kept.  Also tracks statements for truthiness.  It is ultimately owned by The Poynter Institute.  Various warnings apply about bias, trusting a single source, and that two promises are not equal in importance.  That being said it is a pretty good site, and I particularly like the pants on fire section.

Atheist given ASBO for leaflets mocking Jesus

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7624578/Atheist-given-Asbo-for-leaflets-mocking-Jesus.html

Harry Taylor, 59, left home made posters at Liverpool John Lennon Airport three times in November and December 2008.
The self-styled philosopher denied three counts of causing religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress but was convicted in less than an hour by a unanimous jury.
...
Taylor's Anti-Social Behaviour Order bans him from carrying religiously offensive material in a public place.
He was sentenced to six months in jail suspended for two years, ordered to perform 100 hours' of unpaid work and pay £250 costs.

The Wrong Man

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/04/the-wrong-man/8019/

On the day al-Qaeda struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with hijacked jetliners, Hatfill was recovering from nasal surgery in his apartment outside the gates of Fort Detrick, Maryland, where USAMRIID is housed. We’re at war, he remembers thinking as he watched the news that day—but he had no idea that it was a war in which he himself would soon become collateral damage, as the FBI came to regard him as a homegrown bioterrorist, likely responsible for some of the most unsettling multiple murders in recent American history. His story provides a cautionary tale about how federal authorities, fueled by the general panic over terrorism, embraced conjecture and coincidence as evidence, and blindly pursued one suspect while the real anthrax killer roamed free for more than six years. Hatfill’s experience is also the wrenching saga of how an American citizen who saw himself as a patriot came to be vilified and presumed guilty, as his country turned against him.
...
Hatfill was fired from SAIC. The official explanation given was that he had failed to maintain a necessary security clearance; the real reason, he believes, was that the government wanted him fired. He immediately landed the associate directorship of a fledgling Louisiana State University program designed to train firefighters and other emergency personnel to respond to terrorist acts and natural disasters, a job that would have matched the $150,000 annual salary he’d been getting at SAIC. But after Justice Department officials learned of Hatfill’s employment, they told LSU to “immediately cease and desist” from using Hatfill on any federally funded program. He was let go before his first day. Other prospective employment fell through. No one would return his calls. One job vanished after Hatfill emerged from a meeting with prospective employers to find FBI agents videotaping them. His savings dwindling, he moved in with Boo. 
 ...
Virtually everywhere Hatfill went, the FBI went too, often right behind him—a deliberately harassing tactic called “bumper locking.” Hatfill believes that local authorities joined in tormenting him at the behest of the Justice Department. Coming home from dinner one Friday night, he was pulled over by a Washington, D.C., police officer who issued him a warning for failing to signal a lane change. Three blocks later, another cop stopped him, again for not using his turn signal. The officer asked if he’d been drinking. Hatfill said he’d had one Bloody Mary. He was ordered out of his car. “Not unless you’re going to arrest me,” Hatfill says he responded indignantly. The officer obliged. Hatfill spent the weekend in jail and would later be ordered to attend a four-day alcohol counseling program. The police, he says, refused to administer a blood-alcohol test that would have proved he wasn’t drunk. 

Seattle Hacker Catches Cops Who Hid Arrest Tapes

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/22/2031222/Seattle-Hacker-Catches-Cops-Who-Hid-Arrest-Tapes?art_pos=1

"In 2008, the Seattle Police illegally arrested security consultant Eric Rachner for refusing to show ID. After Rachner filed a formal complaint, he was prosecuted for obstructing, and the police claimed that videos of the arrest were unavailable — until Rachner's research uncovered proof that the police had the videos all along." It's an interesting story of how he figured out how the system in use by Seattle police automatically tracks deletion, copying, or other uses of the recorded stream.

Steve Jobs Recommends Android For Fans of Porn

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/04/21/1635206/Steve-Jobs-Recommends-Android-For-Fans-of-Porn?art_pos=13

"After being asked about the App Store's recent ban on 'sexy apps,' Steve Jobs responded, 'We do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone. You know, there's a porn store for Android, you can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That's a place we don't want to go, so we're not going to go there.' Apps such as Playboy's and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition are still available on the App Store, however, as they come from 'more reputable companies.'"

Extremists Warn South Park Creators Over Muhammad In a Bear Suit

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/21/1455217/Extremists-Warn-South-Park-Creators-Over-Muhammad-In-a-Bear-Suit?art_pos=16

"A radical Islamic website is warning the creators of South Park that they could face violent retribution for depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode broadcast on Comedy Central last week. RevolutionMuslim.com posted the warning following the 200th episode of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park."

True Tales of Tech Hoarding

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/04/21/1359249/True-Tales-of-Tech-Hoarding

"Recently some member of my household forced me to watch several episodes of A&E's Hoarders. This led to several *ahem* discussions about hoarding tendencies and the closet of cables, wires, boxes and parts in my basement. But I'm not doing bad compared to some of these tech hoarders. My favorite is the guy using a stack of 9 VA rack machines as an end table."