Heading up to Barnes & Noble now, might post an update after the event.

In most states, if you are stopped for a minor traffic violation, you have the right to give the officer a "bond card' (e.g. a AAA membership card) or even post a cash bond, instead of surrendering your license in lieu of posting a bond.

That said, few city cops will ask if you'd like to exercise this option, they just assume you are okay with handing over your license and "driving on the ticket".

You have to ask them.

There are a number of Chicago-area pedestrian crossings where if you don't "Push Button For Walk Signal", you never get a WALK sign.

The best zebra crossing signal system I've seen was Amsterdam's, unfortunately the cyclists don't obey them.

I seem to recall that a small green LED in the center of the button would light up when pushed, which definitely cut down repeat pressing. And all pedestrian crossings I found, in the city center and even in the industrial outskirts, had loud "CLICK...CLICK" audio cues for the blind.

In the states, Target has for several years carried "Wine Cubes" made by Trinchero Family Estates (Napa). There are several US vineyards packaging very drinkable red wines in bota boxes.

As mentioned by "Not a Doktor", box wines are great if you are following doctor's orders and drinking a glass a day; once opened the box will keep for 4+ weeks.

I agree, they don't look like real knives.
I'm not knocking the price (£25) but I do feel TC Studio could have used real knife hilts instead of a single piece of solid polyurethane plus a bit of steel to hold it to the wall.

IMHO, Anthony Chrisp's "Dart Coat Hooks" are a fraction of the price, and better executed.

I visited Phillipe a couple of years ago, THE FRENCH DIP was disappointing for guys used to real Chicago-style Italian beef sandwiches
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_beef

I for one appreciate BB's posts endorsing luxury consumer goods, kinda like a geekier version of Luxist -- I like these posts better than some of the more politicized content that shows up here.

After looking through the Gamo-Go website, I somewhat agree with TNH/Moderator, looking at the custom lining, buttons, and it's a limited edition of 360, not a massive production run of thousands.

I buy expensive clothes, for example a hoodie at double the cost of the BB/GG (http://www.tadgear.com/x-treme%20gear/apparel%20main/merino_stealth_coat.htm), however the price tag is explicable based on materials (merino wool) and construction details (zipper garages!).

As mentioned by ridestowe, other than 'style', what explains the $120 price tag on the Gama-Go hoodie?

When I recently had a batch of patches produced I saw that some embroiders offered GITD thread.

I inquired about using this for highlights on my design, and was told that for the glow thread to be effective, it should be used to cover a relatively large, solid area.

Still, this is a great price, particularly if you're using the thread for something other than embroidery .

Anybody have specific part numbers for RFID readers that will read these cards? I call bogus on the $8 price tag.

As shown in the video, you have to get really up close and personal with the card before data can be read.

I have one of these cards, and cursory examination doesn't reveal the location of the chip. I tried putting it in the microwave for 6 seconds, and only succeeded in crazing the foil hologram.

I've been accumulating parts to assemble something along the same lines for cat amusement, based on the mechanism from one of those cheap "USB missile launcher" toys and fuzzy catnip balls as ammo.

Biggest problem will be convincing the cats to reload it instead of letting their slaves do the work.

I thought of the baseball cap IR approach a couple of years ago. Tried it out with a bunch of cheap LEDs, and couldn't get enough light to wash out facial features.

Maybe it would work better if you wore makeup that is highly reflective in short wavelengths?

Alternately, just get one of these (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4791) baseball cap clip-on illuminators and swap out the LEDs for IR LEDs.

Anybody cares that much about some random stranger's hair style, has something seriously wrong in their brain chemistry.

If your hair is clean, not harboring arthropods and not teased so high that it obstructs the view, then it's nobody's business but your own.

"It's amazing how humans get so worked up about non-conformity and differences."
I guess some people just need an excuse to feel self-important, and blogging about "evil" haircuts seems to float this dude's boat.

Anybody else notice that the photic sneeze reflex seems to go away with age?

Never seen any correlation with migraines.

The 30% number is entirely believable, I do know prevalence is low enough many people don't believe it exists.

This stuff would go great with my "I'm only wearing black until they make something darker" shirt!!!!

Once they productize the material, it'll put my "#000000" black-on-black T-shirt to shame.

Yes, it is "reusable".

If $11 seems steep, Edmund Scientific sells "Magnetic viewing paper" in 20mmx50mm pieces for two bucks each:
http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3082237

The larger and more expensive Grand Illusions "Magnetic Field Paper" in the article apparently constrains the iron within cells. I'm not sure how much difference this makes?

I seem to recall a similar item with which you could clearly see the magnetic domains making up the tracks and data on a credit card's stripe, but I don't know whether ES or GI's products is sensitive enough to work for this?

VMOS is correct, amazon.co.uk has it in stock, slightly cheaper, ignoring the extra shipping costs to get it to the states (I've successfully ordered from amazon.co.uk to the USA in the past).

Plus the edition VMOS links to includes an extra which I didn't receive, the "30-page Dalek / Grallifreyan codebook". The packaging has no indication that there should be a code book.

Further research on Amazon.com reveals three different versions -- a "torch" with blue LEDs and no sound effects or accessories, the UV version I have, and the cheaper/better UV version with the code book.

Also available is the Master's "Laser Screwdriver":
http://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Master-Laser-Screwdriver/dp/B000TCWWPA

I bought a similar item from ThinkGeek about a month ago, price was a dollar more.

I think it's the same product, though the LED is not blue but UV.

Also, there is a sound effect when the light is activated, and the package includes "psychic paper" and two different pen nibs -- one regular, one visible only under UV light.

...is this Google's ingenious way of getting free mechanical turks to accurately label the images on the web?

Yes, exactly.

One suggestion would be a "continue with this partner" button where if you are in the zone, you can keep going

Allowing any pair of users to have more than a single session together would defeat many of the "protections" in this system, allow people to collaborate to generate inaccurate labels.

Great, so now everybody but the geek wearing the shirt will know what the local signal strength is. Might as well put the display on the back of the shirt, it'd be just as useless to me.

There are keychain sized 802.11b hotspot scanners which show the SSID and open/closed status, so it's not that much of a stretch to think such a feature could be added to the next generation of this shirt.

I've heard the same complaints from POs here in Chicago -- professional courtesy is mostly alive and well.

Still, every once in a while you get an overzealous meter maid who chooses to ignore the "code of honor" and tickets a car with a police hat band hanging off the rearview mirror.

Nobody has to go to disneyland. Nobody has to go to this particular pub.

I'll start to worry when this starts showing up at all theme parks, at every place with a liquor license.

Even if the test isn't mandated by law, that doesn't mean it won't become nearly universal, just like pre-employment drug screen in the USA is all but universal among Fortune 1000 employers, and according to the American Management Association, nearly 100 percent of Fortune 500 companies conduct pre-employment and random drug tests on employees.

@Drewstarr
"The COOP is actually one of the few IRS recognized Cooperatives that still exist in the US (unrelated to agriculture, that is)."

I'm an officer in another of the few IRS recognized Cooperatives, and I can tell you that they would prefer that we not exist.

Are the statistics down again?

When I click on the link, I get an empty page.