You can guess where. Wired has a gallery of gadgets from the history of espionage, including this CIA-issue escape kit from the 1960s.

Link via Nerdcore | Photo: International Spy Museum

Shelley Jackson is publishing her short story "Skin" in a unique format -- tattooed on human skin. For several years, she's been recruiting volunteers to get one word each of the 2,095-word short story tattooed on their bodies. Each word is written in a classic book font in black text.

It's a transcendent activity for the author and the participants, as Jackson expresses in an interesting stipulation presented at the end of the volunteer agreement:

From this time on, participants will be known as "words". They are not understood as carriers or agents of the words they bear, but as their embodiments. As a result, injuries to the printed text, such as dermabrasion, laser surgery, tattoo cover work or the loss of body parts, will not be considered to alter the work. Only the death of words effaces them from the text. As words die the story will change; when the last word dies the story will also have died. The author will make every effort to attend the funerals of her words.

Link via Geekosystem | Image: YouTube user zzpiercedgirlxx

We've had some marvelously funny and inventive submissions to our contest imagining life trapped inside the NeatoShop warehouse while surrounded zombies. Neatoramanauts were challenged to think of creative uses for the contents of the warehouse as survival tools and weapons. Here are the three runners-up, each of whom wins a free t-shirt of his choice:

You may have thought that the gritty urban drama The Wire is a purely modern invention, but it's actually a presentation of a serialized Victorian novel written by Horatio Bucklesby Ogden. At least, that's what Sean Michael Robinson of The Hooded Utilitarian presents in a lengthy essay, excerpted here:

The Wire began syndication in 1846, and was published in 60 installments over the course of six years. Each installment was 30 pages, featuring covers and illustrations by Baxter “Bubz” Black, and selling for one shilling each. After the final installment, The Wire became available in a five volume set, departing from the traditional three.

Bucklesby Ogden himself has most often been compared to Charles Dickens. Both began as journalists, and then branched out with works such as Pickwick Papers and The Corner. While Dickens found popularity and eventual fame in his successive work, Ogden took a darker path.[...]

The serial format did The Wire no favors at the time of its publication. Though critics lauded it, the general public found the initial installments slow and difficult to get into, while later installments required intimate knowledge of all the pieces which had come before. To consume this story in small bits doled out over an extended time is to view a pointillist painting by looking at the dots.

Robinson draws distinctions between The Wire and the contemporary works of Charles Dickens.

Link via Geekosystem | Image: The Hooded Utilitarian

(Video Link)

Miklós Zrínyi of Semmelweiss University in Budapest invented a flexible magnetic substance. By controlling the magnetic forces around objects made from this gel, one can move it around as needed. There are numerous potential applications:

Soft magnetic materials like this one could be used for artificial muscles in robots, or to replace rigid machine components, such as valves. Other teams are also working on making robots more flexible: an electroactive polymer was recently used to create a motor that rotates, without any gears or ratchets. A chemical gel that can walk like a caterpillar could also be used as a component of future robots.

Link via Popular Science

Ew, you spilled it all over the couch! Etsy seller diffractionfiber made this throw pillow and felt spill mark. She was inspired by Chicagoans' affinity for the condiment:

One of the first life lessons I learned after moving to Chicago was that it was blasphemous to use ketchup on your hot dog. "Real" Chicagoans use Mustard I was told. (And sometimes a array of veggies resembling a salad perched upon that hot dog, but I digress.) Then was informed if I really wanted ketchup I'd have to put it on myself, because the guy behind the counter flat out refused. Welcome to the Windy City!

Link via Flavorwire

Tobias Megerle asked woodcarvers from Mumbai who use traditional forms to try their hands at making skateboards. He explained:

“The very first time I drove past I was magically attracted to the carved wooden objects in Mahim, all the open workshops, the woodcarvers sitting on the floor with their traditional tools, working on their items, the whole atmosphere," says Megerle.

"As an artist I wa driven to do something with these woodcarvers and their work. I visited the workshops several times to study their craft and always thought to myself: 'Wonderful, but a bit dowdy, a bit frumpy.' All the nice ornamented chairs, divan beds, frames and what else I know not... some in the typical colonial style.

"After a series of thoughts I hit upon the object to be combined with the traditional woodwork -- the good old skateboard. In Mumbai -- though almost completely unknown -- the skateboard is, in many places, more than just a piece of sports equipment. It's an entire lifestyle that's created around it, a unique music style, special clothes, whole skater-parks.

You can see eight more photos of the results at the link. An exhibition of the skateboards opens tomorrow at The Loft, a gallery in Mumbai.

Link via NotCot | Gallery Website | Photo: The Loft

New York Times theater critic Mel Gussow died six years ago, but that didn't stop him from writing his paper's obituary for Elizabeth Taylor, who died earlier this week. Of course, newspapers keep obituaries ready, on file, for famous people. But I think that outliving your obituary writer is a special accomplishment.

Link via The Agitator | Photo: 20th Century Fox

Scott Bedford upcycled a fork into an egg cup. At the link, he provides humorously-illustrated instructions for doing the same. You'll need a claw hammer or a vise. He writes:

The most important thing is the shape of the base, you don’t want an egg holder prone to tipping over – if you follow the plan I have provided you should be all right.

Link via Boing Boing

The Spanish design firm Kawamura-Ganjavian came up with this toothbrush design, which may be really handy to airline travelers:

The ingenious feature is the handle, which works like a cross between a syringe and a deodorant stick. Fill it up with toothpaste, then when you're ready to brush, twist the bottom a few notches and toothpaste squeezes out the bristles. A bonus: The clear plastic handle indicates precisely how much toothpaste you've got in there, so the TSA won't fritter away your time -- and everyone else's -- investigating whether you tried to sneak in a few extra ounces.

Obviously, the design is super convenient for travelers, but it's also something of a boon to the environment. Think how much waste people could avoid by not buying those all mini toothpaste tubes they use once or twice, then throw away.

Link via DVICE | Photo: Kawamura-Ganjavian

It's not always practical for the President of the United States to go back to Air Force One to have private conversations without fear of eavesdropping. So the White House sets up a high-tech tent that permits him/her to talk with others securely. Such temporary structures are called Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities or SCIFs:

This can mean creating a self sufficient pod with its own air supply, says Phil Lago, who is one of the founders of Command Consulting Group, a company which provides SCIFs to government agencies.

"We have to make sure that any kind of emissions don't get out. That could be from your laptop, your radio, your telephone," he explains.

Rather than a ring of steel around a secure complex, he likens it to a "ring of electronic waves" which prevents signals from getting in and out of the tent. The only signal which can get out is the encrypted communications, which are made through a secure and encrypted phone line, which sends conversations through a satellite, he says.[...]

The tent itself is windowless and is made from a secret material which is designed to keep emissions in and listening devices out.

Only those specially authorised can go inside a SCIF, with entry usually requiring a combination of pin numbers, access badges and biometric data.

The perimeters of the tent might be controlled by guards, but there would also be people monitoring outside to see if any data gets out. "You have a line of defence for everything," says Mr Lago.

Link via Kottke

Frakkin' laxatives, how do they work? It turns out, as this old French-language ad explains, they summon elves. It's magic. You can't explain that.

via Copyranter

Artist Joshua Ben-Longo, who we've previously featured for his monster-skin rug, has created this adorable deceased dog. The corpse has ruptured and spewed out fuzzy little parasites. Isn't it just adorable? Link via Super Punch

(Video Link)

Sure, you can make a name for yourself in the underground bloodsport of Pokémon fighting. But all you're doing is hurting those innocent Pokémon and making yourself less of a human being. Stand up for Poké-rights, not Poké-fights.

via Nerd Bastards

You ever feel a need for a little boost? Punch the underside of this wall-mounted box made by Instructables user Bruno Pasquini. It spits quarters (with appropriate sound effects) out of the top, just like the coin boxes in Super Mario Bros. You can watch a video of it working at the link.

Link via Make | Maker's Personal Website