LINKS: really cool optical illusion, new Kids In The Hall, prohibition destroys parks, FBI technology war concerns, and idiocy in the name of intellectual “property”

REALLY COOL OPTICAL ILLUSIONS!: This one is really really cool! It’s an example of how your brain sees whatever color it wants to see, based on its surroundings, rather than the color that is actually there. A Flash version is included, which turns the illusion on and off, so you can verify it’s real. Awesome; this one is skeptic-proof! (tags: OpticalIllusions eyeCandy).

COMEDY: NEVER BEFORE SEEN Kids In The Hall sketch (2m40s) Need I say more? If anyone figures out how to download this, please tell me. HT Vicky. (tags: shows) Read on for the other 2 stories.

WAR ON DRUGS: Cocaine prohibition destroys national parks. Yet another unintended side-effect of the war on drugs. (tags: WarOnDrugs environment)

TECHNOLOGY WAR: China counterfitting major networking hardware has the FBI’s concern – Cisco is perhaps the #1 name in networking. The FBI damn well better be concerned. I hate to embrace such technologies, but networking equipment on secure networks probably needs some sort of firmware DRM / Trusted Computing / game-console-like protection against modification. If XboxLive can permanently ban an Xbox 360 because you upgraded your fan, then the FBI can certainly prevent counterfeit hardware from being used in a secure facility. (tags: TechnologyWar Cisco China FBI)

COPYRIGHT: Anti-piracy mafiaa shuts down educational documentary bittorrent tracker — because someone, somewhere, once made a documentary with the same name as a movie – “The Eye” And of course their pathetic paranoid webhost compiled with the big mean bully corporations. 150,000 members put off. 4-year-old no-ratio public bittorrent tracker containing educational material. (tags: corporations copyright GeekPolitics bittorrent DMCA)