more things change, the more they remain the same...

Lincoln's idiot bodyguard got drunk in the same bar as John Wilkes Booth the night of the assassination

By Cory Doctorow at 8:55 am Monday, Apr 23 • 36 Comments • Share

Marilyn sez, "With all this brouhaha about Secret Service agents misbehaving in Cartagena, I remembered this story in Smithsonian magazine two years ago about the unreliable presidential bodyguard who was supposed to be protecting Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater the night he got shot. The story is by Paul Martin (my former boss), who is researching unknown people who've changed the course of U.S. history. His first volume, on forgotten heroes, is just out, and he's working on the forgotten villains, which will no doubt include this one.

I have a chronic need for this (get it? chronic?)

The Orange County Register is reporting that medical marijuana can now be legally dispensed through a fully automated vending machine called the Autospense. The promotional video shows how easily this dispensary machine works with a medical marijuana card, a thumbprint scan and payment. AutoSpense’s founder, Joe DeRobbio of Dispense Labs, is quoted as saying “What goes in, what comes out, it’s documented and there’s no way to subvert that.” The Dispensary Store in Santa Ana, California is the first place to host one of these machines

spooky