tech@vedella

[video link] US-based Egyptian blogger, speaker, and journalist Mona Eltahawy was released today after spending 12 hours detained by Egyptian security forces in Cairo. According to her tweets, she was arrested by riot police while observing the ongoing protests in Tahrir Square, where thousands of Egyptian citizens are calling for the military junta SCAF to [...]

This is what a turkey looks like after it has been stuffed with cubed, toasted Twinkie cake and glazed with a mixture of Twinkie filling and honey. Chow's Joyce Slayton did this, following a recipe in a 2006 Twinkie cookbook. She describes the smell as "like a turkey being roasted in a cupcake-scented Yankee Candle." [...]

Watch My Life as a Turkey on PBS. See more from NATURE. Video Link 2. (thanks, Andrea James!)

And as we do every year, let us bow our heads as Uncle Bill recites A Thanksgiving Prayer.

"Americans are expected to fork over some $45 billion to retailers this holiday season. But what if instead of hitting the stores this Black Friday, we put our money to a different use? One that is more in the spirit of Thanksgiving. What if we gave back instead?" Here's an infographic that shows what's possible, [...]

Kansas high school student Emma Sullivan took a field trip to see Governor Sam Brownback speak. She didn't like what he had to say, and tweeted about what she wished she could do: "just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot." Clearly, this kind of insubordination could not [...]

Before you put your bird in the oven, spare a moment for Tante Mary's "Just Put the Fucking Turkey in the Oven," a frank, 8-minute discussion of turkey, which includes the fact that making turkey taste good is less related to the bird, and more to the gravy, cranberries, and the all-important wine. "It's just [...]

The European Court of Justice has issued a ruling that it is illegal for EU nations to spy on users with national censorship firewalls used to block entire websites accused of violating copyright. The Court held that blocking whole sites invades user privacy and restricts access to legitimate content and is an undue burden on [...]

.thingy {background-color:#222;padding:3px;color:#eee;text-align:right;font-size:12px;} Jaideep Varma is an author, filmmaker and cricket fanatic working in India. Avi Solomon Tell us a bit about yourself. Jaideep Varma I was in advertising for 12 years as a copywriter, then gave it up in 2000 to be a full-time writer. I published a novel, Local, in 2005. I directed a [...]

Attentive readers will recall Congress's reclassification of pizza as a vegetable for the purpose of mandated healthy school lunches. Jonathan Mann's composed a jaunty ditty to correct the record. Pizza Is A Vegetable (1056) (Thanks, Jonathan!)

Talking Heads Chronology is a $21 DVD that chronicles footage of the band from every stage of its life to 1983, including rare footage of their performances at CBGBs in the early days of their act. Talking Heads is, of course, the band that put out the greatest concert movie of all time, along with [...]

Marilyn sez, "University of Guelph student Christopher Charles worked on a project with scientists in Cambodia three summers ago. They were trying to persuade women in poor villages to put chunks of iron in their cooking pots in order to lower the risk of anemia, but the women weren't interested. Then Charles hit upon the [...]

As an unrepentant bacon junkie (and saver of bacon grease to cook everything else I eat), I appreciate this water bottle, which we sell in the Boing Boing shop. Bacon squeezins water bottle

This clip from the BBC's Frozen Planet is one of the most amazing things you will ever see. "Brinicle" is a clever portmanteau for an icy finger of death that forms naturally in the very cold seawater one finds around Earth's poles. A crust of sea ice can form on top of this water, and [...]

The casual and close-range use of pepper spray on nonviolent protesters: It's not just morally bankrupt, it's also not evidence based! Judy Stone is a doctor, infectious disease specialist, and the author of a book on how to properly conduct clinical research. She's got a guest post on Scientific American blog network looking at the [...]

Carsten Turner writes in, with a call for entries for the 2012 Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, running Feb. 10-20 in Somerville, MA. "Film-makers can submit projects to withoutabox. Winners will selected for Best Feature and Best Short. This year, two new categories have been established, too Steampunk Feature & Short. Each winning entry will [...]

Of the many absurdities that have become conventions in computer role-playing games, the nigh-unlimited inventory--packed with items that are not visible[1] on your character's person--is my favorite. Trained as we are to see every last scrap of leather as a potential Chekov's Gun, the results in otherwise realistic sandbox games can get ... ridiculous. Nintendo [...]

Etsy seller brookish7 makes these pizza-slice sleeping bags (with veggie pillows) to order, at $300 a slice. Slice of Pizza Sleeping Bag w/ Veggie Pillows Deposit (via Neatorama)

Photographer and Boing Boing reader Timothy Krause shares the photos and videos above and below in this post, and says, Here are some videos of police violence and beatings that occurred around 5:15 at Baruch College, CUNY, in response to an Occupy CUNY OWS protest about tuition hikes, unfair labor practices targeted toward adjunct and [...]

College student bloggers from across the United States are currently competing to win a $10,000 scholarship. You can vote for the winner. And you should consider voting for David Shiffman, one of the ocean science bloggers who writes for Southern Fried Science. If he wins, he has pledged to adopt a satellite-tagged shark in the [...]