Auburn University researchers analyzed a slew of carbonated soft drink brands to measure the actual caffeine content. They report their data on more than 100 beverages in the current issue of the Journal of Food Science. The table below is excerpted from a summary of the research published by Science News. From the Science News article: Although colas have a reputation for their nerve-jolting caffeine, citrus-flavored drinks actually offered substantially more of the stimulant. Diet and regular colas typically delivered ...

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Five years ago, Dave Winer made a "long bet" with New York Times executive Martin Nisenholtz: "In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times' Web site." Five years later, Rogers Cadenhead has done the math and concludes that blogs are edging out the Times (but that other mainstream media outlets are beating both of them -- thanks to the NYT having squandered ...

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* Above left: phonecam snapshots of protests in Amdo, Tibet, over the weekend; at right, phonecam video of the same. * According to Shanghaiist (and now, mainstream news outlets), YouTube was blocked in China over the weekend, likely because of content related to the flood of pro-Tibetan-sovereignty protests in Tibet and elsewhere: International news channels such as CNN and BBC are also getting routinely blacked out. While we think this is a really poor way to deal with all the ...

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Warner Music has announced that it will begin to sell non-DRM'ed MP3 music files on Amazon, making it the third (of four) major labels to sign up for DRM-free distribution of their music, Universal and EMI being the other two. Only Sony BMG have held out -- and that's the same label that gave us the infamous Sony Rootkit, a dangerous hacker-tool that Sony infected millions of PCs with in a failed bid to prevent copying of its music. Warner ...

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Our favorite federal administration, the TSA, has just launched a blog, called Evolution of Security. It kicks off with a cheerful message from Kip Hawley. I applaud his reason for launching the blog: One of my major goals of 2008 is to get TSA and passengers back on the same side, working together. We need your help to get the checkpoint to be a better environment for us to do our security job and for you to get through quickly ...

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Saxtor says "The URL is to a PDF of the front page of the 12/14/2007 Lewiston Tribune (Idaho). Above the fold appeared a photograph of Michael Millhouse, painting a sign on the window of a business. But below the fold, he appeared again, in a still taken from a convenience store where a wallet containing $600 was lifted. Due to his size, and the fact that he was wearing the same clothes, he was easily identified and caught." Link to ...

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This circa 1880 anti-masturbation device is currently up for auction on eBay. The starting bid is $1500. From the auction listing: EXTREMELY RARE ANTI MASTURBATION DEVICE DATING FROM c1880. THE COPPER SHAPED DEVICE WAS ATTACHED TO A BELT AND WORN BY BOYS AS A MEANS OF PREVENTING NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS. VERY MUCH AN INDICATION OF SOCIETIES VIEWS ON ONANISM IN THE 19TH CENTURY. THIS IS THE FIRST EXAMPLE WE HAVE OFFERED FOR SALE IN 24 YEARS. THE CONDITION IS EXCELLENT 3 ...

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Robbo sez, ThinkFilm is releasing Alex Gibney's documentary "Taxi To The Dark Side" and submitted a poster for MPAA approval which featured a photo of two soldiers leading away a handcuffed and hooded man. The MPAA rejected it as being "not suitable for audiences of all ages". The hypocrisy of this, in the face of posters for horror/slasher flicks like "Saw" and "Hostel", is astounding. Censorship pure and simple. The photo used in the proposed poster is derived from an ...

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Mark Frauenfelder : Representative Bob Allen , a Republican in the Florida House of Representatives, blamed the weather and his fear of black men for offering $20 to perform oral sex on a man in a public park. The man turned out to be an undercover police officer, who promptly arrested Allen. 365gay has more on what happened : Titusville Officer Danny Kavanaugh who was on plainclothes duty says he observed Allen entering the washroom twice. Kavanaugh said he was ...

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Overseers of the 1500-year-old Shaolin Monastery in Beijing, where Buddhist practice and martial arts have long been one, are demanding a public apology from some internet dude who claimed online that a Japanese ninja once whupped the asses of the kung fu monks of Shaolin in a showdown. Oh snap, Grasshopper! The affront is said to have taken place in the "Iron Blood Bulletin Board Community." If the ninja propagandist refuses to apologize, the wushu masters say they may sue ...

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This annual report (for a Croatian food company) ships wrapped in foil, and needs to be baked in an oven in order to make the thermal-reactive ink illustrations show up. Croatian creative agency Bruketa & Zinić have designed an annual report for food company Podravka that has to be baked in an oven before it can be read. Called Well Done, the report features blank pages printed with thermo-reactive ink that, after being wrapped in foil and cooked for 25 ...

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Boing Boing reader Michael Amor Righi says, Today I was arrested by the Brooklyn, Ohio police department. It all started when I refused to show my receipt to the loss prevention employee at Circuit City, and it ended when a police officer arrested me for refusing to provide my driver's license. There are two interesting stories in one which I thought would be of interest to Boing Boing readers. The first involves the loss prevention employee physically preventing my egress ...

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Mark Frauenfelder : Bob says: I don't even know where to start describing this story [from a 1995 edition of the New York Times Magazine ]. It's completely insane. It involves nude photos of George Bush, Sally Quinn, Miss Manners, Hillary Rodham, Bob Woodward, Brandon Tartikoff, and Meryl Streep, among thousands of others. But not just nude photos of these people. Photos of them with metal pins glued to their spines. Taken during their freshman orientation, at the direction of ...

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Xeni Jardin: Yesterday I blogged about the case of Oiwan Lam, a well-known blogger in Hong Kong (Links: 1, 2, 3, 4) who's facing the possibility of a year in jail or a $HK 400,000 fine for having linked to an image deemed offensive by authorities. That image (a non-pornographic, artistic nude) was shot and published by none other than Jake Appelbaum, whose work has been blogged here on BoingBoing many times. Cropped detail of the offending image shown above, ...

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Apparently, this is real. Species: Promachoteuthis sulcus. According to the Tree of Life Web project, the single specimen is 25 mm and was captured at a depth of nearly 2000 meters in the south Atlantic Ocean off Tristan Da Cunha. Link Previously on BB: • The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss Link...

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Xeni Jardin : The Great Happiness Space - Tale of an Osaka Love Thief (2006) is a documentary on the lives of "host club" workers in Japan -- sharp-dressed, good-looking 20something guys who are paid to make women feel loved. No, not to perform sex acts, but to feel cared for. My friend Eduardo Sciammarella , who spends a lot of time in Japan and recently pointed me to the film, says: "People look for love and will pay anything ...

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We're excited to share something new with you today -- Boing Boing tv. The idea is simple. Explore the same kind of stuff we've been obsessing about since Boing Boing began nearly 20 years ago, only explore it now in daily video. Five days a week, and short: under 5 minutes each. Here is episode 1: Video Link. For the first few weeks, much of what you'll see will be produced in-studio, but we also plan to do stuff out ...

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(Click thumbnail for enlargement) Keith says: I'm a regular Boing Boing reader. Here's something that's kinda strange, maybe you can help. Here's a link to a picture of my tongue. Perhaps other Boing Boing readers can help me out. I've had these things hanging under my tongue all my life. Only recently have they been bothering me. I've been accidentally biting them and/or getting them caught on my lower teeth. It hurts a lot when this happens. Nobody else I ...

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Nicholas from Miro says, This is pretty unbelievable--- there was an FCC hearing about Net Neutrality in Harvard yesterday where we had a booth. Comcast was PAYING PEOPLE TO FILL UP SEATS AND CHEER FOR THEM. Tons of folks, including reporters, got turned away. For people that still have a hard time wrapping their heads around what net neutrality is, this about sums up what's happening. And it's well documented. Our very own Dean Jansen was there, check out this ...

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David Pescovitz : Daniel Whelan and his son Andrew were spending their Saturday as usual, walking around Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, with their metal detector, when the device's beep led to an incredible discovery. The two had stumbled upon a hoard of Viking treasure dating back to the 10th century. The stash, containing silver coins, jewelry, and a gilt silver vessel, came from Afghanistan, Ireland, Russia, and many other places the Viking traveled. From the BBC News: The pair, from ...

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