I use our @TangoEchoZine feed for the news items and oddities that we come across in our travels. Since our focus is on original content, we don’t republish posts about these finds. Instead, they go on our Twitter Newswire.

This was the week of April 12, 2010, in the Tango Echo News:

A Transparent Car Factory, A Death Metal Louis Armstrong, the death of Peter Steele, and a #RockBlock. Read on for the details.

Data security is always a concern when getting rid of an old computer. Gocke and I have come up with a new method to guarantee your privacy. I think it’s a real money making scheme. Watch and learn.

As always, you can see the rest of the Dispatch From the TE Labs videos here on Tango Echo, under the tag telabs

Today marks the 34th anniversary of Phil Ochs’ death, and while his musical impact has influenced some of today’s songwriters, such as Eddie Vedder and Billy Bragg, his voice is becoming quieter and his memory forgotten.

During the 1960s, and up into the mid 1970s, singer/songwriter, Phil Ochs, filled the American folk music scene with reflections upon race issues, workers’ rights, the atrocities of war, and host of other timely topics. But what set Ochs’ aside from other songwriters of this era—including Dylan—was the consistency of his message in his music: never did a record contain silly songs or nonsense lyrics.

Photo by Sweejak on Flickr

From my kitchen window I noticed the fresh sprouts from last years plants growing in very quickly. I decided to take a closer look, and what started out as a quick trim, turned out to be a whole weeding affair. I sure did get hay fever, but I also got the itch for transforming my garden.


Here are my favorite handmade finds for decorating your garden this planting season.

In every major sport’s championship game, there are two teams. After one is victorious, they can be seen frolicking around the field/arena, adorned in brand new t-shirts saying they are the “2010 Champions” of whatever. How did they get these shirts so fast? How did these t-shirt manufacturers know who would win?!

Obviously, there’s another version of that t-shirt out there that is quietly being destroyed in the opposing team’s locker room, stating the exact opposite; that they had been the victors. But sadly, these will never see the light of day.

Were someone to find and wear of these shirts, yes; you could argue that they are a real fan, pretending that their team pulled it out, and in a sense, almost changing history, because really, who’s going to remember what happened in that particular championship a few years down the line? But there’s a sick sense of delusion that comes with claiming you were victorious when you so decidedly were not.

Chase Sapphire is America’s lying t-shirt.

Photo by Miss Loisy on Flickr