tech@vedella

Pro Publica: "U.S. authorities are building a politically explosive case that Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, finances itself through a vast drug-smuggling network that links a Lebanese bank, a violent Mexican cartel and U.S. cocaine users."

Occupy Oakland demonstrators sit on top of a trailer truck outside the Port of Oakland during the Occupy movements' attempts to shut down West Coast ports in Oakland, California on Monday, December 12, 2011. OWS activists trying to shut down West Coast ports on Monday managed to close several terminals and encountered forceful responses from [...]

[Video Link] Billionaire Microsoft founder Paul Allen has teamed up with spaceflight pioneer Burt Rutan and Elon Musk's SpaceX to develop Stratolaunch, new launch system with “a gross weight of more than 1.2 million pounds and a wingspan greater than the length of a football field, making it the largest air launch system ever developed”. [...]

[Video Link] "Trailer for upcoming documentary filmed at the world's only sloth orphanage in Costa Rica."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower called it "the most fantastic thing you ever saw." Are you going to argue with the man who foretold the takeover of the USA by the military industrial complex? President Eisenhower's Partio Kitchen/BBQ Cart

[Video Link] Yes, I know: Cato = Charles Koch, but the Cato Institute's position on drug prohibition is quite sane. "Ever since the War on Drugs, everything has hit the fan," says Romesh Bhattacharji, former Narcotics Commissioner of India. Rather than continue the unnecessary and costly drug war, Bhattacharji advises the United States to simply [...]

Now available on eBay: The naked archaeologists calendar you may or may not have been waiting for. Via Kristina Killgrove

On Friday morning, I'll get 10 minutes to talk to astronaut Rex Walheim about the astronaut recruiting process—how candidates are chosen, who should apply, what happens to you at different levels of the process ... all that good stuff. Ten minutes ain't much. I'm normally tearing through an interview if I can get it done [...]

Pickin' & Trimmin' is a 2008 documentary about The Barbershop in Drexel, North Carolina. It's an authentic old-timey American barber shop, and on the weekends bluegrass musicians gather to jam in the back room. I'd like to get my hair cut there. If I had hair. Director Matt Morris has posted it on Vimeo. "Pickin' [...]

[Video Link] Carla and I saw We Need to Talk About Kevin on Friday at Cinefamily in LA. It's an intense, beautifully shot movie about the relationship between a mother and her bad seed son.

[Video Link] I wonder if she is using open tuning. It sounds like it. In any case, I love the sound and the technique! UPDATE: (Meara O'Reilly posted this video in 2010!)

My dad told me about this a couple of months ago. Now I always adjust my car's sideview mirrors this way. From Car & Driver via Lifehacker.

Tom Rielly says: I wanted to share a very personal project with you that I've been working on for the past four years. It's a full-length documentary about the young man I mentor, William Kamkwamba. We've already won several awards for the film in progress, including the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival grant. We are in [...]

High priestess of soul Nina Simone sings "O-o-h Child," originally played by the Five Stairsteps. The tune can be found on Simone's lovely 1971 LP "Here Comes the Sun," featuring covers of Dylan, Paul Anka, and, of course, the Beatles. "Here Comes The Sun" was just reissued on 180 gram vinyl by 4 Men With [...]

Dustin Hostetler (aka UPSO) says: Last year David posted a music video I made for my best friend Joel Roberts (aka goLab). For the past 10 or so years, he has been working on a cover record of the Beach Boy's "Pet Sounds" called "Pet Zounds." It's now on iTunes. I think it's pretty astounding, [...]

Tiffiny from American Censorship writes, I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit: http://americancensorship.org/posts/4299/uncensor People are pretty angry about two web censorship bills [...]

This fascinating video, "Booked for Safekeeping," was a featured selection at my local San Francisco video store, Four Star Video. It's a 1960 film to train New Orleans police in how to reasonably and humanely deal with mentally ill individuals, severely intellectually challenged people, and those suffering from dementia. The director was George C. Stoney, [...]

Vaurora sez, "Wikipedia has 9% women editors, open source software a mere 2% women. You can change these numbers by donating to the Ada Initiative and getting a pendant with a portrait of Countess Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer. The Ada Initiative is the world's only non-profit dedicated entirely to increasing women in open [...]

MIT Media Lab researchers have developed a camera that can capture images at one trillion frames per second. The system enables scientists to create super slow-motion video of light itself as it travels back and forth inside a two liter bottle. Check out the video above, particularly the magic at 1:49. The technology has applications [...]