http://lonelysandwich.com/post/38527410/why-me

Why indeed. This is one of the most elegantly written blog posts I've ever seen, on any subject. It certainly is persuasive and sends little chills up my spine.

Gadget in Japanese public restrooms masks sounds

Japundit shot a video of a gadget called "The Magical Water Princess," which is installed in women's public restrooms to mask sounds of using the toilet. [A] device called Oto-hime ... makes a chirping sound when ladies use the toilet, because Japanese women hate the idea of anyone being able to hear any sounds they make while they go. Before the device was introduced in the 1980s, it seems that female patrons in restraunts would flush the toilet multiple times to mask the sounds, which wasted an incredible amount of water...

Here's a video of how they work. Just wave your hand over the button and the sound of water will come out of the device, allowing you to do whatever you need to do with without nervousness of people listening to the sounds you make. Link

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/303914343/gadget-in-japanese-p.html

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Terror in NYC after toad venom love drug kills man

Health officials in New York are cautioning people to avoid a "street aphrodisiac" made from the excretions of a poisonous toad, after a man consumed the illegal concoction and died. The city's poison control center issued the warning Friday after receiving a hospital report that a 35-year-old man who ingested the hard, brown substance died earlier this month. The product is sold under names including Piedra, Love Stone, Jamaican Stone, Black Stone and Chinese Rock at sex shops and neighborhood stores. It is banned by the Food and Drug Administration.

City health officials said the victim, whose identity was not released, was admitted to the hospital complaining of chest and abdominal pain. He died two days later. Health officials said the hardened resin, made with venom from toads of the Bufo genus, contains chemicals that can disrupt heart rhythms.Link to AP item, more on a NYT blog here.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/298837776/terror-in-nyc-after.html

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Scott Adams writes about his great cat

Dilbert.com - The Official Dilbert Website with Scott Adams' color strips, Dilbert animation, mashups and more!

My cats are great, too.  I know your cat is also the greatest cat on earth.

Too many of my cats have gone before us to the Great Litterbox. None of them, alas, was as much of a tribal elder as Scott’s Sarah. I have to find out what he’s feeding her and who her vet is.

This one's for you, Cherubino. And you, Elie. And you, Figaro, Katarina, and Priscilla. And you, Clarissa and Princess Dory. And for you, Miss Kitty, and you, Spit and Taffy. And for you, Mac and Zamorna. I'll try to put together a photo tribute soon.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Getting baked before shooting AKs at the Taliban: a bad idea.

Wired defense technology blogger Noah Shachtman says, Smoking weed can improve your performance in all sorts of activities -- from playing reggae music to watching Battlestar Galactica to writing blog posts.

If you're an already ill-trained, semi-motivated soldier in the Afghan Army, however, spliffs are a particularly poor way to prepare for battle, as this little clip illustrates.. Link to post, which includes more happy fun stoner warfare video goodness. Hey, how do you say, "Duuuuuude... what?" in Pashto? Your answers welcomed in the comments.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/277798848/getting-baked-before.html

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Why we're powerless to resist grazing on endless web data

Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal writes that recent research shows that a brain rewards itself with a squirt of natural opiates when it comes across new information that requires interpretation. That's why, he concludes, people stay on the Web for long periods of time. What is it about a Web site that might make it literally irresistible? Clues are offered by research conducted by Irving Biederman, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, who is interested in the evolutionary and biological basis of the human need for information.

Dr. Biederman first showed a collection of photographs to volunteer test subjects, and found they said they preferred certain kinds of pictures (monkeys in a tree or a group of houses along a river) over others (an empty parking lot or a pile of old paint cans).

The preferred pictures had certain common features, including a good vantage on a landscape and an element of mystery. In one way or another, said Dr. Biederman, they all presented new information that somehow needed to be interpreted.

When he hooked up volunteers to a brain-scanning machine, the preferred pictures were shown to generate much more brain activity than the unpreferred shots. While researchers don't yet know what exactly these brain scans signify, a likely possibility involves increased production of the brain's pleasure-enhancing neurotransmitters called opioids.
Link

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/250380263/why-were-powerless-t.html

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Hairstylist shoots complaining customer

Lauren Newton, 28, of Washington, Pennsylvania, was getting her haircut at her stylist's home on Thursday when she complained about the way it looked. So the hairstylist shot her. Newton is apparently doing OK while the hairstylist, Monique Reed, is in jail on charges of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. From the Associated Press: Lauren Newton, 28, was getting her hair cut Thursday at the home of Monique Reed when the two began to argue about the style, police said. "She (Reed) went to the bedroom, got a gun, fired a shot in the ceiling," Police Chief James Blyth said. Newton, who was trying to flee with her sister, was then shot in the lower back, he said. Link (via Fortean Times)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/248992993/hairstylist-shoots-c.html

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