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Apparently marijuana plants used to grow uninhibited in empty lots and abandoned factories in Brooklyn and Queens. Some was harvested by “bold” farmers, but most of it was destroyed by the sanitation department.

“In the summer of 1951, sanitation workers dug up and incinerated 41,000 pounds of marijuana from 274 lots around the city. Queens produced the largest crop, at 17,445 pounds, while Brooklyn was a close second, with 17,200 pounds.” (CarollGardens)

Note that it was the sanitation department trying to clean up the city, and not the DEA out to bust criminals. The ’50s was a different world, all right.

Score one for transparency. Over the next two years, Georgia Tech researchers will use $1 million from Google’s pocket to develop

‘simple tools to detect Internet throttling, government censorship, and other “transparency” problems.’ (arstechnica)

These tools are essential for true net neutrality, and have yet to be developed. Once again, Google proves their worth by anticipating what people want and stepping in to provide it. Kind of hard to hate even a multi-billion dollar corporation when their projects have transparency and freedom as their goals.

This reflects my own experience with Twitter. Over the past few months I’ve got all the best news, commentary, analysis, links, and jokes from one simple source:

“And if you do it right, you almost don’t have to visit any other website, or even watch much TV. If you do it right, the best stuff, from the most brilliant minds, comes right to you.” (MG)

Jon Stewart returns from vacation as poignant and funny as ever. Watch a clip from last night’s Daily Show episode here (via Newser). Some jokes worth quoting:

“When we left, the world’s two biggest trouble spots were Wisconsin and the set of Two and a Half Men.”
“Odyssey Dawn? You really named a combat operation after a Yes album?!”
“Is that what you get a war for it’s anniversary? Another war?”

In custody since last Tuesday, two photographers, the Beirut bureau chief, and a videographer, were released today. They were announced found a few days ago, shortly after the Gadhafi’s government declared a cease fire and then went back on their word.

UPDATE: An article was posted at the NYT in which the 4 journalists give an account of their experiences over the past week.

“I was yelling to the driver, ‘Keep driving! Don’t stop! Don’t stop!’ ” Mr. Hicks recalled in a telephone interview from the hotel where he and the three others were recuperating. “I knew that the consequences of being stopped would be very bad.”

The recognition and recovery of six stolen icons in London reveals more of what may be the underground workings of a black market in stolen antiquities. Police in Athens are particularly concerned with “150 stolen icons” of religious significance that went missing from Epirus, in northwestern Greece. An online list of the stolen icons has helped authorities to recover the stolen pieces, but they admit there may be much more to the story. Who stole the pieces? How did they leave the country without proper permits? Most of them are still out there somewhere, waiting to be recovered.

If your sky was cloudy last night or you fell asleep early (we know how hard you work! achem), or for whatever reason you missed the biggest, brightest moon since 1993, Space has an article explaining the phenomenon:

‘The “supermoon” phenomenon occurred because the moon was in its full phase and just 50 minutes past perigee – the point of its orbit that brings it closer to Earth.’ (Space.com)

The moon was bright and clear enough here in western Germany to cast shadows at midnight, but I haven’t got the right lens to capture even a moon that bright. The image above was taken in Somerset, England (via Newser).

The Foo Fighters join ranks with Kings of Leon and Slash in refusing to to have their songs coopted by Glee. Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters’s frontman, says,

“And then the guy who created Glee is so offended that we’re not, like, begging to be on his f—ing show… f— that guy for thinking anybody and everybody should want to do Glee.” (THR)

Ryan Murphy, creator of Glee, seems to take these snubs very personally. Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Ryan. Grown-up rock stars just don’t think your show is that cool.

Christopher Poole, the founder of 4Chan, gave a interesting speech about online identity at SXSW, which is contradictory to the plans Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook would like to see for the future.

“Zuckerberg’s totally wrong on anonymity being total cowardice. Anonymity is authenticity. It allows you to share in a completely unvarnished, raw way.”

Read the rest of the article here.

In 1961, Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov was stationed in the Antarctic as part of the sixth Soviet Antarctic expedition. The expedition’s task was to overwinter in a newly built polar base. With two months of winter left, and no possible contact with the outside world, Rogozov realized that he had appendicitis. Also, that he was the only one around that could do the operation.

This is it . . . I have to think through the only possible way out: to operate on myself . . . It’s almost impossible . . . but I can’t just fold my arms and give up.

The full case study at the British Medical Journal includes a chronology of the nightmarish situation, an account of the surgery itself, and Rogozov’s modest outlook on the auto-appendectomy that saved his life. Read the full 2009 case study here.