High Definite/Links

The tale of how Marc Jacobs turned graffiti into product.

Read it at The New York Observer. | Via

Aziz Ansari couldn’t make this shit up.

The 5 Ballsiest Casino Cheats of All Time – [Cracked]

Pick A Movie, Remove One Letter, Give A Brief Description – [Reddit]

Pollo 13 – The gripping true story of a Spanish chicken stranded in space and NASA’s unrelenting effort to bring him safely home.

Drug Doubles: What Actors Actually Toke, Smoke and Snort on Camera – [Wired]

Movie sets are drug-free environments, at least in theory. Even if an actor is playing a tie-dye-wearing burnout whose best friend is a honey-bear bong, puffing the real thing is strictly verboten. (We’ll refrain from speculating about what happens in the trailer.)

So what do actors actually toke—or snort or shoot or huff—on camera? That depends upon their characters’ drug of choice.

Billion Dollar New Mexico Ghost Town To Be Prototype “Smart City” – [Geekosystem]

We all want self-driving cars, smart traffic systems, and more awesomely automated things of all kinds. Of course, before we can really use or implement any of these things, we have to test them. A lot. The more useful and awesome automation is going to be, the more dangerous it might be if it goes wrong. Google has already had some issues finding a way to legally test their self-driving cars. Fortunately, there will soon be a place for all that. The city of Hobbs in New Mexico is going to be the site of a billion dollar ghost town, where automation can run its course without risking the lives of any citizens.

Reddit Users Surprise Terminally Ill Man With Random Acts of Kindness – [Mashable]

Scott Widak and his family recently received the greatest gift anyone in their situation could receive — a viral act of encouragement and kindness from complete strangers. Widak, 47, has Down syndrome and is terminally ill with liver disease. After frequently checking in and out of the hospital, Widak is now at home with his 85-year-old mother, who’s helping with his in-home hospice care.

To cope with such a challenging situation, Widak’s nephew, Sean O’Connor, turned to the Reddit community to see if anyone would be interested in sending a letter to his uncle.

“One of my uncle’s favorite things to do is open mail, and I thought that if he got a lot of mail it would cheer him up,” says O’Connor.

Following the post, Widak received hundreds of letters from all over the world, including the United States, Sweden, Finland, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and Mexico. According to O’Connor, there is still mail coming in.

Did You Know? Kodak Park Had A Nuclear Reactor – [Democrat & Chronicle]

For more than 30 years, Kodak Park was home to a little-known underground labyrinth containing a small nuclear research reactor, one of the few of its kind in the world. It wasn’t a power plant, and carried no risk of explosion. Nothing ever leaked. Eastman Kodak Co. officials say the research device was perfectly safe.

Still, the reactor was locked down, remotely surveilled and tightly regulated — mainly because it contained 3½ pounds of highly enriched uranium. That’s the material that nuclear bombs are made of. Terrorists covet it.

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14 Photographs That Shatter Your Image of Famous People – [Cracked]

Top 10 Secret Places To Hook Up In Disney World – [How About We]

Rare Double Agent Disrupted Bombing Plot, U.S. Says – [NY Times]

The suicide bomber dispatched by the Yemen branch of Al Qaeda last month to blow up a United States-bound airliner was actually an intelligence agent for Saudi Arabia who infiltrated the terrorist group and volunteered for the mission, American and foreign officials said Tuesday.

In an extraordinary intelligence coup, the double agent left Yemen last month, traveling by way of the United Arab Emirates, and delivered both the innovative bomb designed for his aviation attack and inside information on the group’s leaders, locations, methods and plans to the Central Intelligence Agency, Saudi intelligence and allied foreign intelligence agencies.

Related: The Hunt Is On For Whoever Leaked The Story

The Maturation of the Billionaire Boy-Man – [NY Mag]

As Facebook embarks on its IPO “road show,” the question of just how good Zuckerberg is will trail it: His control of the company is such that a bet on the company’s stock is a bet on him. Investors will be wagering on an entrepreneur who’s committed himself to getting better and better as a leader. But they’ll also be betting on one whose commitment to his long-term vision is so deep that he just might drive Wall Street crazy.

Coroner: Valium, Alcohol Killed Painter Kinkade – [ABC News]

Artist Thomas Kinkade died from an accidental overdose of alcohol and prescription tranquilizers, but his heart had grown so enlarged he had been vulnerable to a fatal heart attack at any point, according to a detailed autopsy report released Tuesday.

The self-described “Painter of Light” died on April 6 of an acute combination of ethanol and Diazepam intoxication, or in common terms, of alcohol and the tranquilizer marketed as Valium, the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office said.

The Damage to NYC in The Avengers Would Cost $160 Billion to Repair – [Gizmodo]

Kinetic Analysis Corporation, a leading disaster cost prediction firm based in the US, undertook some modelling for The Hollywood Reporter. They calculated that the physical damage alone would cost $60-70 billion, with economic and cleanup ramifications adding $90 billion. Which gives a total of around $160 billion, and that’s to say nothing of the loss of lives. By way of comparison, Hurricane Katrina cost $90 billion, and the tsunami in Japan last year $122 billion.

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Jess Bachman runs through the numbers of the Wu-Tang Clan’s discography in a 3-part infographic at Visual.ly.

Part 1: The Rise | Part 2: The Fragmentation | Part 3: The Decline

The New York Times tells the tale of Hyman “Big Hy” Strachman, 92, who (with the help of military chaplains) has sent hundreds of thousands of pirated movies to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan at a great personal expense.

“Big Hy” — his handle among many loyal customers — would almost certainly be cast as Hollywood Enemy No. 1 but for a few details. He is actually Hyman Strachman, a 92-year-old, 5-foot-5 World War II veteran trying to stay busy after the death of his wife. And he has sent every one of his copied DVDs, almost 4,000 boxes of them to date, free to American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s not the right thing to do, but I did it,” Mr. Strachman said, acknowledging that his actions violated copyright law.

Howard Gantman, a spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America, said he did not believe its member studios were aware of Mr. Strachman’s operation. His sole comment dripped with the difficulty of going after a 92-year-old widower supporting the troops.

“We are grateful that the entertainment we produce can bring some enjoyment to them while they are away from home,” Mr. Gantman said.

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How Samuel L. Jackson Became His Own Genre

While designing the interior of a new penthouse on top of a 1970′s colonial building in Guadalajara, Mexico, Hernandez Silva Arquitectos decided to turn an unused elevator shaft into a bathroom with a shit-inducing view.

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A well-dressed mob protests the opening of Abercrombie & Fitch stores on London’s Savile Row.

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Finally.

@PicturelessPins | Via