Sad news today in the mint world. Velamints' creator, Dolf Angrogen, passed away at 82.

RIP Mint Creator Angrogen. It has finally died.

Velamints Creator Dies at 82.

Yesterday, the conservative website The Daily Caller, the online home of Tucker Carlson and his bowties, was hacked and had its banner ads replaced by advertisements for hardcore pornography. Instead of ad copy for various corporations or anti-Democratic interest groups, The Daily Caller's ads invited readers to click through for "BRUTALLY HARDCORE ACTION!" and "INCREDIBLY NASTY SEX!"
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But the ads have since been removed, and now it's time for the Caller get even—by giving away a handgun to whoever can track down the hacker who inundated the site with the porn. The Caller is in the middle of a weekly series of giving away 9-millimeter pistols to its gun-loving readers, and this week's contest is now a one-off special: Find the hacker and win the gun, an FMK 9C1 manufactured in California.

The FMK 9C1 is a semi-automatic pistol that takes between 10 and 14 rounds. It also comes with the Bill of Rights engraved on its casing. And The Daily Caller will give it to you if you can track down that pesky, porny hacker.

Find a Hacker, Win a Gun: DCist

TrainReqSucks wasn't done. He e-mailed Chaney a fake topless shot of Selena Gomez, the perky Disney star, and said he was going to sell it as real. In it, Gomez was standing in front of a door, her hand resting on a bureau, an exotic medallion hanging between her too-ample breasts. Chaney found it "creepy" and told the guy off. This only raised TrainReqSucks's ire. "You really need to cover your ass better, 'cause they're all over you," TrainReqSucks replied. "There's heat on you."

Chris Chaney Hacker Profile - Scarlett Johansson Nude Photo Scandal: Newsmakers: GQ

“After my shift at JcPenny, I would anxiously unstrap the various audio recorders and pinhole cameras inside my car in the parking lot. When the audio recorder jammed, or the video signal encountered interference and recorded only snow, I would feel my identy pivot on these failed results. In those moments I felt a crisis of identity. Was I really an artist, working in social intervention while critiquing the aesthetics and economic models of portraiture, or was I a minimum wage worker at an ailing suburban mall?”

An Artist Goes Undercover at a JC Penney Portrait Studio

Dr. Mario Macgyver

British boiler engineer Tal Golesworthy fixed his own heart. Why? He has Marfan syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that often leads to a weakened aorta. The typical treatment for a dilated aorta involves a rough and invasive surgery, as well as a lifetime of anticoagulation therapy. Not surprisingly, that sounded unappealing to Tal. And his experience with pipes gave him an idea: when a pipe bulges, plumbers wrap it with tape. Why not wrap the aorta with something to support it?

The Audacity of Self-Repair: How A Boiler Engineer Repaired His Own Heart | iFixit

Step aside, DNA—new synthetic compounds called XNAs can also store and copy genetic information, a new study says.

And, in a "big advancement," these artificial compounds can also be made to evolve in the lab, according to study co-author John Chaput of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. (See "Evolution vs. Intelligent Design: 6 Bones of Contention.")

Nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA are composed of four bases—A, G, C, and T. Attached to the bases are sugars and phosphates. (Get a genetics overview.)

First, researchers made XNA building blocks to six different genetic systems by replacing the natural sugar component of DNA with one of six different polymers, synthetic chemical compounds.

The team—led by Vitor Pinheiro of the U.K.'s Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology—then evolved enzymes, called polymerases, that can make XNA from DNA, and others that can change XNA back into DNA.

Synthetic DNA Created, Evolves on Its Own

Art from people who aren't artists, randomly culled from a wealth of video game-related patents.

Context-Free Patent Art

A nurse has recorded the most common regrets of the dying, and among the top ones is 'I wish I hadn't worked so hard'.

Top five regrets of the dying | Life and style | guardian.co.uk

Host Adam Savage of Mythbusters tells how Visa, Mastercard, and Discover had the Discovery Channel put the kibosh on an episode that would have revealed just how “trackable and hackable” the RFID chips found in many credit cards are. It’s a telling example of how corporate advertisers serve as the gatekeepers of mainstream media/entertainment:

Mythbusters Banned From Discussing RFID By Visa And Mastercard | Disinformation

Interest groups that support this bill gave 8.1 times as much as interest groups that oppose this bill

Stop Online Piracy Act - Vote: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. | Total Campaign Contributions | MapLight - Money and Politics