Brilliant people are much more likely to fail under pressure than average people [Business Insider, Amazon.com]

Romney mistreating a dog or Obama eating a dog: Which is worse? [CNET]

Security vs. liberty. Is more security worth less liberty in every case? [Bruce Schneier @ TED Talk]

Constitutionalism: Another god that failed [Butler Shaeffer @ Lewrockwell.com]

The blast chiller. It does exactly what it sounds like: cool things down quickly, using fast-moving cold air. [Popular Science]

Lyrics to the Samurai Jack theme song. [Movie Catcher]

Whatever

* Teenagers are now using 3-D printing technology to fabricate brass knuckles says Popular Science. This does not surprise me. Me and my buds used to make dope pipes, bongs, brass knuckles, shivs, and pipe bombs, and other instruments of mayhem with the skills we learned in shop class back in the day too.

* I had thought BloggingHeadsTV was dead but apparently this is not so. I never liked to watch/listen to that site very much myself. It was like C-Span without the depth and Crossfire without the passion. I had understood that BHTv went on "permanent hiatus" when founder Bob Wright was hired as a regular blogger over at the Atlantic and so I took it off of my favorites list. Sure didn't miss it much, either.

* You can now lock down your computer so others can't use it when you aren't around by using an encrypted flash drive as an on/off key.

* Religious and political websites have more malware and other bad shit infesting them than do most porn sites says a report by the computer security firm Symantec.

Novelist Neal Stephenson sure does have a high opinion of his influence on the future of technology

That's what Stephenson told a lecture hall full of fan boys at MIT the other day. That it was him and other sci-fi writers who have been retarding technological progress with his writing. I doubt it though. The sad truth is that venture capital and government funding for technology research is and always has been, quite scarce, and is largely awarded in politically motivated fashion.