If you've ever tried to sell something on eBay/craigslist and been flooded with idiotic scams you know how this guys felt. He tried to sell a Mac Power Book, and after getting contacted by a "buyer" in London he did some scheming and sent him a taped up 3-ring binder with keys glued on.

The counter-scam? He insured it for $2200 so the guy would have to pay 27% the duty in order to accept delivery.

The store is a bit long but worth the read.

List of the top 6 "accidents" that lead to modern day video games. There's some good research in this article that is definitely required for a high nerd-cred score.

A geological statistician in Canada figured out algorithm flaws in the 'random' way scratcher lotto tickets are designed. Spending as little as a few hours (sometimes up to a day) with a few scratched-off tickets, this guy was able to spot correlations between the visible and hidden parts of the tickets. This allows you to tell which will be winners and which will be losers with a statistically higher average than just guessing.

The guy proved it on a few games in Canada and in the states. But the scratcher games are designed by private companies; when he contacted them they did not want to acknowledge the issue. Doesn't mean the problems does exist!

There have been a few studies of lotto winnings that showed that a very few people have won the bulk of the money. The lotto may also provide a way to launder dirty money with a fairly high rate of return.

Nice examples that people took using long exposure methods. Some of them look very surreal.

Those familiar with the affronted feathered vertebrates might be pleased to learn they have made peace with the nasty swine that they have been locked in battle with for these many long days. Or have they...

(Embedded in extended)

An anti-Google privacy group bought some jumbo-tron time in Time Square to show this really creepy video. Their goal is to have legislation create a 'do not track me' list to allow people to opt-out of data tracking/mining.

I don't know, should we fear what Google knows?

A nice collection of user-submitted pictures that never should have been taken. The guy also made a book of of these pics that is available for those who want a hard-copy of what not to do when taking pictures.

More hand-selected pic's in extended.

I don't know if this will actually work but I guess it's worth a shot, right? Someone came up with the idea to use a SQL injection type hack against image/text recognition camera systems used for speed and red-light cameras. If the syntax is correct and the input data not filtered properly, it's possible to actually hack the system running this database query and alter it in some fashion.

Wouldn't want to be the guinea pig on this, but it would be interesting if it worked!

I can't decide if this is funny or sad, so I will let you folks be the judge.

Lady calls in to Leo Laporte's "The Tech Guy" asking why her 'linksys' WiFi stopped working.

Video in extended.

Short (10 minute) video that explains what happened with the financial markets and how things went bust. This guy did a really good job of outlining what happened in fairly simple terms, identifying each step along the way and why it happened.

Skit from the Jimmy Kimmel show with Sesame Street over-censored. Maybe I just have a dirty mind but I thought it was hilarious. Video embedded in extended also.

This guy is awesome. He and a girl pretended to be a pimp and a prostitute and walked into two ACORN offices seeking tax help. For what, you may be asking? To setup a brothel with underage girls from El Salvador. In both cases the ACORN employees showed them how to lie on their taxes to hide the illegal income and even call the underage girls dependents. The one in DC is even better because the guy said he wanted to filter the illegal income into campaign money for him to run for congress. He said no one else will help him because it's illegal but this lady explains how he can do it without being caught.

You can follow the link or the videos are embedded in extended.

I'm amazed that this is an organization that gets federal funding when it is obvious that at least 2 of their offices actively participate in illegal activity.

Watch out all you Prius drivers out there, there's a new electric beast on the roads. This guy spent 6 weeks retrofiting an '81 El Camino with a 100% electric system. When asked why an El Camino and not a lighter car (as a fellow tank...err El Camino owner I wondered this myself), he replied:
“The Civic would have a bit more range, but which would you rather drive?”

The total cost of 30k included the cost of the car and 18k for batteries.

Interesting graphical comparison between the images used in ads and what you actually get in reality, done for a number of fast food items (Big Mac, Whopper, Nachos Bell Grande, etc.). Some of these actually look somewhat similar in real life but others are way off. Kinda makes you want to claim false advertising.

Interesting blog about hackers (mostly just DIY stuff, not like Conficker) linking together and maintaining shared common areas. Kind of a cool concept, like a permanent LAN party. Anyone interested?

Their main site is down so I couldn't look to see if there were any in SD but sounds like it would be fun.

Apple was just sued by the parent of a kid who said his iPod Touch was off in his pocked during school when it 'popped' and caught fire. It was supposedly hot enough to burn his pants, melt his underwear, and send him to the hospital for 2nd degree burns.

Who knows whether this has merits or not, but they stupidly included 10 people from the Mac retail store that sold the product to the mom. I don't know if the had to include them for legal reasons (to complete the liability chain possibly?) but it sounds like kind of a stretch to me. Do people who sell something really have a responsibility to test and ensure that the product is not defective?

The actual allocution of Madoff detailing how he conducted the world's largest Ponzi scheme for almost 20 years (since the early 90's). He could be sentenced for up to 150 years in prison for various charges including multiple counts of fraud (securities, mail, wire), money laundering, and perjury.

With yet another parallel to the New Deal, a new 'American Recovery and Reinvestment Act' logo has been unveiled and will start being pasted everywhere. Nothing like more propaganda to soak into everyone's brains.

Located in Stockholm below 100ft of bedrock this data center used to be a nuclear bunker. Now it boasts simulated night and day, a full greenhouse, German submarine engines for backup electricity, and triple physical redundant connections to the internet backbone in the EU.

More details in extended but check out the link for more pictures.

Who knows if its true, but supposedly this girl text'ed her dad after losing her virginity on a school trip. I'm sure it was an awkward conversation when she got home.

3 girls who worked at KFC found out a new way to get fired from their jobs by taking a bath in the dish-washing sink (more like a tub). Why they wanted to take do that is beyond me, seems pretty stupid.

Plus, stupid things are always better when they photo or video document it and put it on the web for everyone to see.

Some interesting things listed. If you notice about half-way through there's Gobi, which as some may know is something I know a little about :)

These two are pretty trippy, this is the first time I've seen something like this. Check it out.