One reason why I’m looking forward to ubiquitous deployment of Google Glasses and similar technologies: it will be interesting to see how the surveillance state reacts when you *can’t tell* who’s recording and who isn’t.

The Verge: DC police allegedly steal citizen’s cellphone, one day after receiving explicit orders not to

I’m normally entirely behind regulations coming down from the CPSC, but I can’t quite agree on this one. Shouldn’t the federal government have a “but it’s so fucking cool” exception?

More to the point, I disagree with the idea that the product should be outlawed for everyone because some parents shoot for retroactive Darwin awards by giving neodymium magnets to their offspring.

Farewell, Buckyballs: Consumer Agency Files Suit Against Magnetic Toys

Note to self: doesn’t matter if you’re senile by 2030, you’re going to get lost at Homecoming for your 40th Reunion regardless.

One of my favorite high school memories is Adam Sherr doing a 2 AM happy dance around the 7-11 where he worked, when they installed the multiflavor Slurpee machine. I presume that the latest technology will require a field trip to 34th and Lancaster.

7-Eleven introduces mashed potato vending machine

Confirmed: Fleshlight Developing an iPad Case You Can Have Sex With

Oh, dear Christ.

Bacon Alaska: 29,113 calories, 1.5 kilograms of fat. Approximately 12 servings.

Would love to know if this was filmed before or after the earthquake.

How to measure the Earth in 200 BC, and how to measure the speed of light with a whale oil lamp.

18 minutes of fireworks, set off in 15 seconds. Holy crap.

For Independence Day, a Ted ED: Why Do We Vote on Tuesday?

New candidate for worst lede in a PR email arrived today:

Humans everywhere have been waiting to get their hands on the world’s first [product] made just for them.

Who was your prior target market? Goldfish?

Want to drive 15.3 million pixels on your MacBook Retina display? No problem.

Courtesy of MacRumors, a 15-inch Retina display MacBook running at native 2880×1800 resolution. (As opposed to the 1920×1200 which is the highest res supported in the OS.)

From The Big Picture.

Well, a poker injury, anyway, which is as close to organized sports as I get. Was playing at Ballys at 4 AM and suddenly a hand muscle I didn’t know I had went apeshit for a half-hour. Bent my index finger at an angle that I can’t reach by choice, and wouldn’t move back. It was kinda freaky.

In retrospect, I’ll chalk it up to four straight hours of chip-shuffling after a long break from the tables. Or maybe it’s because I’ve had insomnia for the last 69 hours, excepting a three-hour power nap.

Nah, couldn’t be. That’s barely over 80% of my lifetime record.

Apropos to my Facebook retweet that the number of stop-and-frisks of black men in NYC exceeds the black male population of NYC, more news:

[Giancarlo] Esposito was stopped and frisked by New York police while walking out of a theater where he was rehearsing a play. After several frantic minutes – with him and officers screaming, and their guns drawn – they realized they had the wrong guy. Their suspect had a hoodie, and Esposito was wearing a suit.

Show of hands: how many people think that this could happen to Bryan Cranston?

Shorter Ezra Klein:

[W]hen you read things like “some economists say Greece’s departure from the euro will not be as much of a shock as the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, which provoked a global financial crisis,” it’s a reminder that 2012 isn’t just about framing speeches, or a debate about the country’s future. The president and the Congress might be called on within a couple of weeks or months to protect the U.S. economy from a Lehman-like event, the aftermath of which will not wait for the next president to settle in.

Which is why the second scariest sentence I read today is “Senate Republicans will block all of President Barack Obama’s high-level judicial nominees until after the election.”

Whole article well worth reading. And reminds me that a) I’m still waiting for the It’s Even Worse Than It Looks meme to be treated with anything like seriousness in political discussion, and b) that the media is as much to blame as anyone else for the trivia that’s dominating the 2012 political cycle.

So if anyone else has been told by Adam Sherr that they absolutely must play Where’s My Water, it’s this week’s freebie app at Starbucks. I snagged some extra codes, first come, first served.

Ben & Jerry’s has invented a combination lock for ice cream pints.

Next up: carbon fiber pint containers.