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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/10/muppet-at-the-wheel.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”421″ height=”305″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /Yes, the photo above is real: It is Animal—from The Muppets—driving a British Audi while speeding through a German road. The famous pink drummer is driving the police there absolutely crazy, because he keeps doing it again and again. Or better said, the real driver is, using a low-tech approach to take advantage of a weak point of the radar cameras. I don’t know about you, but this image makes me laugh out loud. The German police, however, wasn’t amused when they explained to the press how the whole joke worked and how they couldn’t fine the driver because of it:/p blockquote pThe number plate is not enough [to catch and fine the driver]. We need clear evidence of who is driving the vehicle too. But because this is a British vehicle we can never get a decent picture [because he radar cameras are designed to take photos of the passengers in the left seat, not the right]. The driver has obviously worked this out because he has placed a large puppet in the passenger seat./p pThis may be an example of the famous British sense of humour but it is still dangerous driving. The driver has been caught on camera on several occasions and the puppet is on the passenger seat every time. We suspect he positions the toy deliberately before accelerating past the camera./p /blockquote pI don’t know why are they making a big deal of this, quite honestly. At least Animal is not actually driving. [a href="http://arbroath.blogspot.com/2008/10/german-police-seek-speeding-british.html"Nothing do to with Arbroath/a via a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/27/german-traffic-cops.html"Boing Boing/a]/p br style=”clear: both;”/
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pDon’t want to see political posts on Lifehacker? Use our a href=”http://lifehacker.com/tag/not:politics/not:election/”politics and election-free/a tag (here’s a href=”http://lifehacker.com/tag/not:politics/not:election/index.xml”the feed/a) to survive through November 4th. Same technique works if you don’t want to see a href=”http://lifehacker.com/344188/get-only-the-posts-you-want-from-lifehackers-site-feeds”Windows only posts, iPhone posts, and Google Chrome posts/a, too./p br style=”clear: both;”/
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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/time_off_work_for_voting_by_state.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”494″ height=”286″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /br Voting isn’t just your civic duty mdash; it’s also a great excuse to leave work early or arrive fashionably late. Most states require employers to give time off to employees in order to punch a ballot if work hours overlap significantly with polling station hours. Some states even mandate that you get paid during that time. Check out this state-by-state breakdown to see if you qualify for a little quality time away from the office to exercise your right as a citizen. We promise to look the other way if you vote by absentee ballot and take the free time anyway. emPhoto by a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/hjl/61380665/”Ho John Lee/a./em/p div class=”related”a href=”http://employmentlawpost.com/theword/2008/10/15/time-off-to-vote-for-employees-a-state-by-state-survey-2/”Time Off to Vote for Employees — A State by State Survey/a [The Employment Law Post]/div br style=”clear: both;”/
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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/mucommander_file_browser_sftp_image_view.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”494″ height=”218″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /Windows/Mac/Linux: If you’re not a fan of your system’s tools for managing files on your computer, check out MuCommander. The free, open source download will run on nearly any operating system, including Windows, Mac OS X and your favorite flavor of Linux, and in 21 different languages. Drag and drop between two panes visually, or hack away in the command shell. It also supports most network file transfer protocols, such as FTP, and will even let you browse the contents of archives like ZIP and disk images like ISO without having to uncompress or mount them, respectively. Pictured is an image file viewed directly from an SFTP server mdash; handy! MuCommander is a free download for all platforms./p div class=”related”a href=”http://www.mucommander.com/”MuCommander/a [via a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/24/mucommander-is-a-powerful-cross-platform-file-manager/"Download Squad/a]/div br style=”clear: both;”/
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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/laptop-safety.png” width=”305″ height=”226″ align=”right” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ align=”right” /Tech blogger Chris Pirillo offers 10 practical tips for keeping your notebook safe on the road. His tips run the gamut from the very simple (pad your case) to the more technical (set a BIOS password), so it’s a great checklist to rundown to make sure you’re doing everything you can. In general the post covers broad tips for keeping your laptop safe, but if theft protection is more specifically your concern, check out our guide to a href=”http://lifehacker.com/5044029/how-to-set-up-a-laptop-security-system”setting up a laptop security system/a. div class=”related”a href=”http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/10/23/10-tips-to-keep-your-notebook-safe-when-traveling/”10 Tips to Keep Your Notebook Safe when Traveling/a [Chris Pirillo via a href="http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/1417"Of Zen and Computing/a]/div/p br style=”clear: both;”/
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Remember Sequoia Capital, the once-boisterous Google backer which has turned gloomy of late? It turns out that Sequoia’s prepare-for-the-worst message wasn’t meant for everyone. In September, Sequoia raised $1.7 billion in two new funds from its limited partners, including the $929.5 million U.S. Growth Fund. It alone accounted for 11 percent of the $8.1 billion venture capitalists raised in the third quarter. But that money is going into new startups.

Venture capital firms raise separate funds over time. Typically, investments in the same startup come from the same fund; VCs don’t invest all of a fund at once, reserving some money in the original fund for these follow-up financings.

So the new fund is a separate pool of money from the one Sequoia will use to fund its current portfolio — the companies whose CEOs were recently summoned by Sequoia to a summit meeting to hear all about the need to cut costs and become self-sustaining. This advice was the complete opposite of what Sequoia was telling CEOs earlier this year, which was to grow at all costs and emulate Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis, who freely admits his company isn’t worrying about revenues.

What Sequoia really should have been telling its startups: We told you to spend what you have, as aggressively as possible. Now we have money, and you don’t. That’s your problem.

You’re standing around the water cooler chatting with your co-workers, and someone makes a racist (sexist, homophobic, or otherwise stereotype-based) joke. What do you do? Call him or her out on it and risk your work relationship? Don’t say a thing (and imply that it’s ok)? Over at the Brazen Careerist blog, race and culture consultant Carmen Van Kerckhove says:

My recommendation? Play dumb. Put on a bewildered expression, act as if you don’t understand the joke, and ask your co-worker to explain it to you. He will not be able to explain why the joke is funny without evoking a racist stereotype. You can then question the veracity of this stereotype, thus pointing out the racism of the joke, without being confrontational and without humiliating your co-worker. Racist jokes rely on an unspoken, shared knowledge of racist stereotypes. Without the stereotypes, there is no humor.

Everyone’s been in this uncomfortable situation before. How have you dealt with it? Tell us your advice in the comments, then hit the link below to see the rest of Van Kerckhove’s beyond-diversity-training tips on race at work.

The Simple Dollar personal finance weblog offers a five-step checklist for safely and responsibly building your credit history so you can secure good loans and insurance rates in the future. College students have returned to campus, which means the credit card signup vultures are out in full force handing out cards to anyone with a backpack. The Simple Dollar post examines how FICO scores are calculated and what you can do as a new credit card carrier to stay debt-free while building your credit score. A simple suggestion for newcomers: Just make sure you don’t charge more than you can pay off without carrying over any balance from month to month. If you’re a credit history pro, share your advice in the comments. On the other hand, if you’ve got a card you just want to get rid of, check out how and when you should cancel a credit card. Photo by szlea.

Trust a campus reporter to get to the heart of the underloved MIT student body. The Tech’s Christine Yu explains sex in a language those who need it most can relate to in a moment of crisis: introductory math and physics. You don’t need to have gotten off or awkward in Cambridge’s most notorious sub-basements to find a grain of truth in her advice.

Problem: You wake up in bed with someone, and you have no recollection of the night before — including his/her name.
Solution: Go with Michael or Elizabeth! According to admissions statistics, those have been the most popular names for the last 2 years

Problem: She goes dry.
Solution: Do not just keep thrusting, didn’t you learn about friction in physics class?

Problem: You left your iTunes on shuffle and Zelda music came on.
Solution: Do not stop kissing, and ask the girl, “how far do you want to go?” “Err, we can go to base 3.14,” is probably how you should respond.

Problem: You haven’t had sex in months or you’ve never had sex.
Solution: Join the club. I haven’t had sex in months.

See, Paul? Bedroom success for MIT students hasn’t changed since your own college days!

(Nerd sex illustrated by Randall Munroe/xkcd.com)