The stairs going up to the attic room of a Victorian row house in London have been fitted with books that line each riser and wrap around the edges. As someone who lives in small places with lots of books (and no matter what I do, no matter how ruthless I am, I always seem to have lots more books that I have room for) this kind of thing is sheer aspirational porn for me. The flat occupies part of the shared top floor of an existing Victorian mans
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MediaSentry, a company that provides "investigative services" to the RIAA, has redesigned its site to remove references to its services in support of litigation. The move comes after the Massachusetts State Police told MediaSentry that it was illegal to investigate of Boston University students without a license. The updated version of the MediaSentry site has no reference to litigation or prosecution, which seems odd for a company making what ap
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More news on the Draft Lessig front: a couple days ago, I posted here about the movement to draft Larry Lessig to run for Congress to fill Tom Lantos's recently vacated seat. Now, Larry's put up a "Lessig08" site with a video that explains the nature of his "anti-corruption" campaign to reform government to reduce the perverting effect of money on public policy. The site does not say that Larry will run for Congress, but it does invite you to sho
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Here's a fantastic take-off on the Barak Obama Yes We Can video, in which McCain sings "bomb bomb bomb Iran," and says that we're going to be in Iran for 100 years, while singing Americans look on in abject terror. Link...

The Bush Administration has put forth new rules demanding that visitors to the US from Europe need to apply for "approval" to land, days in advance of purchasing their tickets. Airlines will also be required to provide information on travellers' families, and to allow US Air Marshals to fly on any flight that will pass over or land on US soil. The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush adminis
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Got some extra network cable lying around? (who doesn't?) Why not try your hand at some Cat-5 macrame and make a handsome high-tech plant-hammock out of it? Since I was cleaning anyway, I took the time to straighten up a few other areas, including some potted plants and cabling. When finished, I had a left-over mint plant, and forty-some feet of damaged Ethernet cable. Since I had plenty of other things to do, and didn't particularly want to do t
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The Indonesian state railway is installing paint-sprayers to douse "roof riders" who ride atop the trains into Jakarta -- Indonesia lacks a cheap and reliable way to get into and out of the city, and many commute illegally on the roof (the Jakarta Post says more than 50 roof riders have been killed in the past two years). After several failed attempts to discourage roof riders over years, the state owned railway company PT Kereta Api will from ne
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Boy, does today's XKCD ever resonate with me -- every year, my New Year's resolution is "stop arguing with strangers on the Internet" and every year, I break it within days. Link...

Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels over the years: this new installation from street artist Asbestos, spotted on Brick Lane in London last Sunday. I really like the way this shot turned out. Link...

Reuters - The director and producers of a documentary about Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where convicted war criminals are among the 2.5 million venerated souls, have received multiple death threats from right-wing groups that want to prevent the movie's local release.

AP - Kirstie Alley and Jenny Craig may have gone their separate ways, but the one-time "Fat Actress" isn't giving up on the weight loss industry.

There are a lot of tools that allow you to easily create podcasts on the go with your mobile phone. Utterz, BlogTalkRadio, TalkShoe, and even several random free conference calling utilities qualify.  Few of them, however, allow you to accomplish that task without at least a modicum of account setup first. As several folks have [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "CinchCast: Podcasting Made Even Easier", url: "http://mashable.com/2008/02/19/cinchcas

Despite v7n’s sub-culture appeal, the folks behind the large webmaster community are giving it all up. For about $400,000. v7n is up for sale on Sitepoint, with a starting bid of $400,000 and a buy-it-now price of $500,000. Take even a quick glance at v7n’s homepage and you’ll see right away the [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Web Developer Forum v7n is Up for Sale", url: "http://mashable.com/2008/02/19/v7n-for-sale/" });

Orangutag isn’t a site for monkeys, but for couch potatoes. It’s a niche RSS tool that gives you updates on television programs you’d like to keep track of. Now, if you love a show enough, you are likely aware of the basics about a television show, but Orangutag brings more information to give [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Orangutag Is For Couch Potatoes, Not Monkeys", url: "http://mashable.com/2008/02/19/orangutag/" });

VideoEgg is launching what it calls the ?AdFrames Brand Response Network,? (available here) a new option for video advertising that moves away from charging by CPM (a price per thousand impressions) and instead determining rates based on how users respond to ads. Here?s how VideoEgg defines engagement: ?Engagement doesn?t begin until a user rolls over [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "VideoEgg Introduces ?Pay for Engagement? Model to Video Adve
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A court denies singer Britney Spears' latest bid to regain the right to visit her two children.

A $20 billion deal to combine Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. was in "serious jeopardy" late Tuesday

Celebrity gossip, famous birthdays and other tidbits, compiled from Seattle Times news services.