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The Phart Chart (photos and art from the Mercury's Flickr pool) just got a wee bit phartier. For decades readers have been able to turn to the Funpage at the back of the Mercury's newsprint edition and tickle their eyes with photos and art pulled from our reader-fueled Flickr pool. But that got boring, so I started started turning those mundane images into animated gifs to post on Blogtown. The only problem was that the average newsprint reader couldn't see the animated version until they got to a computer. Those days are gone thanks to the QR code.

See why after the jump >>>

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If you're like me and you refused to buy a smartphone (I'm content with my "dumbphone" thank-you-very-much), you probably don't know how a QR code works. A QR code is basically a hyperlink you can click with your smartphone to take you to a website. You just need to download a free QR code reader for your smart phone and these ugly barcode thingies will make sense.

The newsprint edition of the Phart Chart now has a QR code. So you can see the animated gif no matter where you are. Maybe that's good, maybe that's bad, I don't care, it's just the way it is.

You Blogtownies probably don't even pick the newsprint edition up, but if you did, what other parts of the print addition should have QR codes? Some things seem obvious like movie times, mp3s of bands we review, naked pictures of Ann Romano—but is there anything else? Let me know in the comments below.