Bic's Universal Typeface Project averages user-submitted handwriting samples to generate the most generic English language handwriting font in the world. (via Smithsonian)

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/FuIbeSlssKA/the-average-of-the-worlds-ha.html

One year ago today US vs. Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning: defense rests, Manning won't testify, Wikileaks gets respect: Xen traveled to Ft.

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http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/6dBumIkwfgw/blogging-history-manning-defe.html

"Lego Evolution" (Thanks, Lux!)

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/-Nnse_y39DI/evolution-in-lego.html

His daughter will be a fine mother, but conservative Bill Cassidy is a fool of a father.

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/XVe-Hp5uS7E/abstinence-only-politicians.html

Ed Forchion, aka "The New Jersey Weedman" and his friend Daniel Price, who both have medical marijuana licenses, attempted to go to Washington D.C.

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http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/b0nG8QnBSmQ/medical-marijuana-patient-bust.html

On the day the new Georgia Safe Carry Protection Act went into effect, an argument between two men in a convenience store led to a near-showdown involving a drawn firearm and one arrest.

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http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/52OWMPP2PNI/welcome-to-the-new-wild-west.html

Rudy Rucker published two new books this week, Transreal Trilogy and All The Visions.

Transreal Trilogy includes three of his “transreal” novels, that is, SF about his own life: (1) the growing-up-novel Secret of Life, (2) the beyond-infinity White Light, and (3) the scary-funny-futurological Saucer Wisdom.

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http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/M5_rxEgTwM8/my-favorite-rudy-rucker-novels.html

If you discover an island covered in guano -- old poop -- an 1856 Federal law that's still on the books obliges the US of A to defend your claim to it. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/EWAFEPdSFRY/uncle-sam-will-defend-your-sta.html

Photographer Ron Risman runs timelapse video workshops and the results are transcendent. Here's his latest, called "Dark Skies of Utah." Ron said to me:

"Dark Skies of Utah" was captured by eleven photographers last month in Utah during a 5-day Timelapse workshop.

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http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/EhvtofGHvqM/beautiful-timelapse-of-moab-u.html

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- a pro-establishment, rock-ribbed bastion of pro-market thinking -- has released a report predicting a collapse in global economic growth rates, a rise in feudal wealth disparity, collapsing tax revenue and huge, migrating bands of migrant laborers roaming from country to country, seeking crumbs of work. They prescribe "flexible" workforces, austerity, and mass privatization. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/dybgNGxjUhQ/oecd-predicts-collapse-of-capi.html

Digging a well is a TON of hard work, but the four men in this video make it look easy and even kind of fun. In one day they dig four meters down, break up a bunch of rocks at the bottom, haul it all out and brick up a really nice well. Their coordination and determination is mesmerizing.

Hand digging a well in Mexico

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/81qV0tDouKw/watch-these-guys-hand-dig-a-we.html

Breaking smallpox news this afternoon: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just announced that National Institutes of Health staff have discovered vials containing smallpox "sitting in a laboratory storage room in Bethesda." The vials were labeled “variola,” which is “the severe and most common form of smallpox” according to CDC.

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http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/7ksH43NXn2M/smallpox-vials-just-hanging-ou.html

Link: sanger.dk.

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ov_SvGrnQqc/internet-oldie-but-goodie-san.html

When people who don't agree to bug themselves with devices that snitch on their habits and foibles to insurers are charged huge premiums for their "choice," is it really a choice at all? Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/jYlGnfaJuOU/insurance-companies-create-the.html

Jerktech is the very apt epithet for the class of "disruptive" startups that sell things that don't belong to them, like parking spots and restaurant reservations, simply raising the prices of them and making access to public resources a factor of your disposable income. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/2UQWmg_7qzY/jerktech-silicon-valleys-mo.html

This amazing Calvin and Hobbes embroidery (embiggen) was a birthday gift from Laura Hatrich to her son; Hatrich sells on Etsy under the name Tiny Scissors and there are some tremendous pieces there. (via IO9)

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http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/40WUrkjIehw/hand-stitched-calvin-and-hobbe.html

From the wonderful Camels and Friends channel [Video Link]

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/vQgNMfie7Fo/cat-vs-balloon.html

Laurin D"opfner's Verschleif is a perfect companion piece to Keith Skretch's video of wood being filmed one sanded-off layer at a time. If Skretch's video is art, D"opfner's feels like science. [via Kottke]

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/7sgbB8pI-Yk/time-lapse-video-of-all-sorts.html

Keith Skretch combined Ennio Morricone, a sander, a camera, and infinite patience to create this incredible video.

To create this strata-cut animation, I planed down a block of wood one layer at a time, photographing it at each pass. The painstaking process revealed a hidden life and motion in the seemingly static grain of the wood, even as the wood itself was reduced to a mound of sawdust.

Yep, it's called "Waves of Grain."

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/_y6omrZDPt4/time-lapse-video-of-wood-being.html

The long out-of-print Blade Runner Sketchbook (1982) of beautiful production drawings is available for purchase for around $300 or free viewing here. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/7H0mtaKiypc/blade-runner-production-drawin.html