Get Cynical

From Boing Boing:

Last week a number of computers were stolen from our office in Vancouver, BC. One of those computers was a shared iMac with Flickrbooth, an app that automatically uploads photo booth shots to our flickr account, installed on it. Just this morning a friend called to tell us that there are photos of whoever has the computer now in our flickr stream! Obviously the guy didn’t know he was uploading images of himself and his awesome tattoos.

Be sure to read the comments on the Flickr page.

Update:

From the Vancouver Sun:

A man who attained instant infamy by unwittingly using a stolen computer to upload a shirtless self-portrait to the Internet has turned the machine over to police in Victoria.
The tattooed man, whose photo has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times around the world and who suddenly found himself famous from Iceland to Brazil, walked into the Victoria police station with the stolen machine at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, said gt. Colin Brown.
The man also contacted Global BC on Tuesday, telling the station he did not know the computer was stolen and that he had bought it from a friend who had bought it from someone else.
At Flickr.com – a popular website where the photo surfaced on Monday – people were viewing the photo at a rate of about 90 hits per minute. By late Tuesday, it had been viewed more than 217,000 times.
“It’s pretty much worldwide. It’s kind of hit everyone’s radar,” said Dane Brown, manager of Workspace.
“This is all I’ve dealt with for the last two days, is calls and e-mails about this,” he added.
In Victoria, Brown would not give the tattooed man’s name.
“He wouldn’t say anything,” he told The Vancouver Sun in an interview. “He came in with his lawyer.”
Brown said the man was “known to police.” He added that while no charges were laid on Tuesday, the matter is “certainly under investigation.”
Brown said the man’s lawyer apparently saw the shirtless picture in a Victoria newspaper Tuesday and alerted his client.

(via A Welsh View)

From Vote756.com:

On September 15th, 2007, Marc Ecko bought Barry Bonds’ 756th homerun ball at auction. For the next eight days, Marc engaged the country in a public debate over the ball’s fate….

The public chose to send the ball to the Hall of Fame with an asterisk, as a constant reminder of this unforgettable moment in sports history and popular culture.

Want!

Imagine having the boss over for dinner, asking if he’d like some pepper on his salad, then whipping out one of these little droids. You’ll surely get that promotion you’ve been clamoring for.

Just twist R2’s head, and out comes fresh-ground pepper. The mills come in both R2-D2 (white/blue) and RD-Q5 (black) versions, although I wish that the white one was salt, and the black one was pepper. All I need now is a C-3PO oil and vinegar dispenser and I’ll be good to go.

Again, any complaints about a transparent insect filling up on the blood of a bat should be directed to PVC.

Direct your complaints to PVC for this one.

From The Tech:

In recognition of the release of Halo 3, a highly anticipated video game by Microsoft and Bungie, MIT hackers adorned the John P. Harvard statue, in Harvard Yard, with a Spartan helmet. The back of the helmet, which is worn by the protagonist of the game, Master Chief, was labeled with “Master Chief in Training.” The statue was decorated with an assault rifle (bullet count of 2E), as well as a Beaver emblem on the right shoulder.

And here is what the statue normally looks like.

Well, picture it without the purple lei.

From Wikipedia:

The bigger fool theory or greater fool theory (also called survivor investing) is the belief held by one who makes a questionable investment, with the assumption that they will be able to sell it later to “a bigger fool”; in other words, buying something not because you believe that it is worth the price, but rather because you believe that you will be able to sell it to some one else for an even higher price.

It might be on some occasions a valid method of making money in the stock market — however, the market participants eventually realize that the price level is too outrageous and the speculative bubble pops. The bigger fool theory relies on market optimism concerning a particular stock, an industry, or the market as a whole.

From Wikipedia:

Ferdinand Cheval who was born in 1836 and died on 19th August, 1924, was a French postman who spent 33 years of his life building an “Ideal Palace” (French Palais idéal) which is regarded as an extraordinary example of naïve art architecture.

Cheval began the building in April 1879. He claimed that he had tripped on a stone and was inspired by its shape. He returned to the same spot the next day and started collecting stones.

For the next 33 years, during his daily mail route, Cheval carried stones from his delivery rounds and at home used them to build his Palais idéal, the Ideal Palace. First he carried the stones in his pockets, then a basket and eventually a wheelbarrow. He often worked at night in the light of an oil lamp. Locals regarded him as a village idiot.

More pictures of the Palais idéal can be found here and the official site is here.

Today’s theme, dead 1980s comedians.