lost and found: the Scream!

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Munch's The Scream

Munch ado about something: Edvard Munch’s The Scream, one of the most popular paintings of the 19th Century, has been recaptured from its kidnappers relatively unharmed, along with The Madonna, another Muncherpiece. The Guardian has the full report:

“The pictures came into our hands this afternoon after a successful police action,” said Iver Stensrud, head of the police investigation.

There had been a £163,000 reward for the recovery of the paintings, which were both completed in 1891 and are now owned by the city of Oslo. Mr Stensrud said no reward had been paid.

He refused to discuss the methods or details of the search and said it was not possible for the news media, or the public, to see the paintings immediately.

“All that remains is an expert examination to confirm with 100% certainty, that these are the original paintings. We believe these are the originals,” Mr Stensrud said. “I saw the paintings myself today, and there [was] far from the damage that could have been feared.” …

The court did not identify the armed men who entered the museum and threatened employees with their weapons. However, Judge Arne Lyng sentenced Petter Tharaldsen, 34, to eight years in prison, Bjoern Hoen, 37, to seven, and Petter Rosenvinge, 38, to four years for their part in the robbery…

The Scream, depicting a tortured soul, is arguably Norway‘s greatest cultural treasure. It is widely recognised around the world and enjoys cult status with students. A chain of pubs in the UK which is popular with students uses the image on the signs hanging outside its premises.

comment o’ the day: Graydon Carter on 9/12

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Graydon Carter, Editor in Chief, Vanity Fair 

Graydon Carter’s Letter from the Editor was particularly good in this month’s Vanity Fair. In it, he said this:

“We have a president who continues to argue theWhat We've Lost, by Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair fine points of what is, or is not, torture. (Remember those balmy, simpler days of our youth when we had a president who quibbled over what is, or is not, sex?). And on this, the fifth anniversary of 9/11, perhaps it’s time to review the administration’s assertion that that was the day the world changed. It really wasn’t; 9/12 was. That was the day the neocons in the White House began using this devastating attack on American soil to further their own dreams of taking over Iraq. That was the day the world began its downward spiral. That was the day the administration began plotting to remove a dictator over there and to create one here.”

pickle lamp: 120 volts and a dill

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Some days BoingBoing is just on; other days it’s eighteen posts about the project to equip yaks in the Gobi Desert with iPods and four on Disney’s Haunted Mansion. This is one of the former, thank god.

Here is the story of the famous Pickle Lamp:

HOWTO make a glowing pickle-lamp 
You can make a glowing pickle-lamp by jamming power-boards into either end of a pickle that’s resting atop a non-conducting surface and then plugging it in. No idea whether this will burn your house down, but it may be worth it. Link (via Digg)

One of the commentors gives a link to the inevitable YouTube:

Although there was another video I preferred, only it had, like, this girl’s voice? in the background? that spoke in questions?

Honestly, does no one understand that production values are SO IMPORTANT?

NYT article censored by NYT: Details Emerge in British Terror Case

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Boingboing reports on the self-censorship that the NYT has engaged in and why:

NYT ad tech blocks UK web visitors from terror plot article
The NYT website is using geo-targeting ad technology to block UK visitors from accessing a news article about the investigation surrounding the alleged UK airline terror plot. The technological self-censorship is an attempt to comply with UK law. The Times’ Tom Zeller explains how the block works and why it’s in place here. Snip from MSNBC article:

“We had clear legal advice that publication in the U.K. might run afoul of their law,” Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty said Tuesday. “It’s a country that doesn’t have the First Amendment, but it does have the free press. We felt we should respect their country’s law.”Visitors who click on a link to the article, published Monday, instead got a notice explaining that British law “prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial.” The blocked article reveals evidence authorities have in the alleged plot to use liquid explosives to down U.S. airliners over the Atlantic.

Link to MSNBC coverage, here’s an item on Foreign Policy blog, Link to Guardian UK coverage. Here’s what web visitors identified as UK-based will see:

“On advice of legal counsel, this article is unavailable to readers of nytimes.com in Britain. This arises from the requirement in British law that prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial.”

And, of course, a visitor to the raincoaster blog will see instead the article itself, after the jump. Continue reading →

cartoon o’ the day: blogdogs

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Blog Dogs. On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog, particularly if you use Photoshop on your profile pic